xliii [s]

Jon came down for the weekend. Naturally, this meant hot pot, Settlers, and diving. The hot pot was good, but needed chilies. Settlers was fun, Connie/Jessica beat Jon, Erik, and Jes/me. The dive was significantly different from Maui, but it was good to get underwater.


Games, friends, sake, and pocky.



In what is fast becoming a tradition, the Super Bowl was watched at Player's in Kearny Mesa.


Papa Smith, me, Jon, Mike, Kristen, B, Tee, Z.


Kristen gave the best interview of the evening, all of the Steelers fans came across as illiterate.

Squeezing in [s]

Tonight I snagged a 60" mirror for my 59" wide bathroom. No big deal, I've always said that drywall is for suckers.





There's some stuff to be done. Pictured above: thermostat, non-kitchen cabinet knobs, caulk for seams, wire nuts and wire strippers for copious electricals, finishing nails for door trim and base boards, doorbell chime to be hidden somewhere because they're all really ugly, garage door opener to get wired onto the bike.





I like the configuration with the soft couch facing the fireplace and the futon and coffee table in the kitchen area.

Wintry activities [s]

San Diego was too cold so I flew north. Virgin is a pretty sweet airline. I played Doom all the way up, no credit card required. On the subject of video games I'm considering this one for the chilly January nights.

The North Bay is the same as I left it. It has an xr now so I took a quick tour of the empty lots near the new property. Apparently Tuesday nights are for the Petaluma poker tournament. I managed 10th out of 60-ish and payout of fifteen duckets. Jon and I grabbed Mark on the way out as he flipped quad kings.

Touches of civility [s]

The rest of the blinds went up in a few short minutes - the difference being that they mounted inside a sill. That left enough time to put a few base boards down. I threw a few videos up for comparison.




They're not too far from the, er 'simulation'.

Today:
>>>> why is he jsamo?
>>>> he's suppose to be tsamo@...

>>> I think maybe he used to go by
>>> James back in high school. 'Ty' is a
>>> pretty silly name, so it makes sense.

>> don't make me go on the rant about
>> how some dumbass probably thought
>> that, upon seeing my name, ty is not
>> a real name and thus used my middle
>> initial. [friend]. well thanks a lot uno,
>> looks like i ranted anyway.
>> since we're on this subject, how come
>> you're not uno.d.ritchie@... isn't
>> there like some precedent for false
>> identification here? and the "d" is
>> for dumberson.

> haha ! dumberson.. haha!


I framed my door.


Upstairs west bedroom.




Upstairs south bedroom with a couple base boards.

Getting there [s]

The 'rents came down this weekend. Mom bought me the taxadermed animal I wanted so badly.



Cement board, tile saw, sealer...



The media room has a long way to go. But Justin's gaming chair has found a good home.



The chandelier aglow.



Upstairs bathroom preparations. Copper green on the studs, plywood on the studs, roofing felt on the plywood, cement board on the felt, tile on the cement board.



For this one I'm going with some 16x24 travertine pieces. The lighter color is key for not making the tub look freakishly out of place.

The end is nigh [i]

Floors are in for the dining room, living room, and entryway. Now to find me a bearskin rug and moose head.



The floors went together pretty quickly and easily. The most significant time was spent aligning the first row of boards, as they would determine the orientation of the entire floor. Then it was a matter of tapping and nailing them together.

It went pretty fast yesterday with me picking and setting the planks, then Jon nailing them and sinking the finishing screws. Then today Curt helped out and we got the rest done.

A fine weekend [s]

I tried the other angle and Jon found a football. And then a 2x4. The conflict started with sponges and quickly escalated.







Victors of poker were Jon and Rob.



Quoted:
Floors and beer? I happen to be an expert at one of those. Tune in this weekend to find out which.
I do what I can. And in the least biased manner possible.

Please tell me Renault will bring these to the States.



It's quite eccentric, but from the company that marketed the original mr v6 in a hatch the Megane could be a sharp touring car.

Entryway floor [s]

Turning the corner gracefully on the hallway floor proved challenging. So we knocked off the entryway area pretty quick (two or three hours). It went well with Jon on the nail gun, Curt on precision sawing, and Connie and Krista picking planks. The ledge into the living room is being obstacular, the remaining gap is just larger than the width of the nosing.



But yeah, it's nice.

Floors [s]

The flooring has begun. I don't have any shots other than the following:



However, rest assured Jon and Dave have it down to a science. The hallway leading to the master bedroom is done. We'll probably cover a lot of ground tomorrow, so to speak.

Bobby mowed down the remaining junipers, I sealed and tested the shower, and everyone plus Connie finished the fireplace.



And we managed to squeeze in some cards/Chop Stix/boba...



... and a little pool shenanigans.

Piecing it together [s]

A door.


A solar tube - seen at night.


A wood beam, now shown to be wood.


Someday, a fireplace.


Jon on the texture gun.

Living room [i]

So I'm pretty happy with the resolution to my previous indecision.





Thanks to Jessica for pointing out the rectangular patch indicating that there was, at some point, an infestation of ceiling cats.