Really A Lot Of Rain

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So it turns out that the surprise storm on Monday wasn’t just unusual because of the date, it was remarkable in the volume of rain which came with it.  It’s not completely unheard of for there to be some sprinkles of rain this time of year, it’s just very unusual.  This storm however came with about a quarter inch of rain in Auburn, and nearly an inch and a quarter up by Nevada City.  That’s a fairly decent storm even for the rainy season, which around here is November through March.  For it to rain that much on September 2nd is probably a record.

 

Rainfall AMA 9-4-13 Rainfall NCAP 9-4-13

Some Barn Progress Followed By Rain

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Despite having a three day weekend this weekend, I didn’t get much work done on the barn.  The forecast for Saturday was hot, so I stayed home and cleaned house instead of doing carpentry.  On Sunday I got another second floor wall erected, which was great but I didn’t take any pictures to show you guys.  Sorry.  🙁

Today it rained, I wasn’t expecting that.  Consequently I didn’t get any carpentry done at all.  The day wasn’t a complete loss however, because I discovered this sign stapled to a pole off of Lime Kiln Road.  I’m going to call the guy and see how much he would charge me for 200 feet of 10 foot wide driveway.

I might have found my driveway guy

I might have found my driveway guy

Just in case you were wondering, the rain shouldn’t have an adverse impact on my barn.  Wood is wet when it’s in the tree, and it should dry out okay over the upcoming week which is forecast to be sunny and warm.  If we were having days and days of cold drizzle such that the site never dried out then I might have problems with rot or mildew, but in late California summer weather it shouldn’t be an issue.

My Phone Is Broken

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I dropped my phone and smashed up the display last week.  It continued to work, but the glass was cracked into a million pieces.  All the pieces stayed together okay and it kept working, but it was definitely plenty broken.

This isn't the Droid you're looking for

This isn’t the Droid you’re looking for

On the Motorola Razr, the screen, touch digitizer, and front glass are all one assembly.  The glass is bonded to the front of the display panel with adhesive across the entire surface instead of just around the edges like it is done on some older phones. As a result you can’t just replace the glass when it breaks.  Or can you?  There are some YouTube videos and internet blogs suggesting that you can actually use a heat gun to soften the adhesive, remove the broken glass and then put a new piece of glass back onto the phone.  So I thought I would try that.

It doesn’t work.  The heat doesn’t really soften the adhesive very much at all, and the shards of glass are very difficult to remove.  When you use enough heat to actually have an effect on the adhesive then it damages the display panel and the light guide for the LEDs that illuminate the four buttons along the bottom of the phone.  So basically that didn’t work at all, and this morning I dropped my phone off at Cell Phone Repair on Camden avenue to have them replace the screen and digitizer.

I will say this, it’s quite a neat piece of engineering.  The light guide that I mentioned is fantastically miniaturized.  It is the same technique that they use in display backlights, but made into a tiny and ultra-thin example just for the four touch buttons.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture of it.  The display itself is fun to play with once it’s no longer attached to the phone.  It still responds perfectly to touch control, and it looks normal except for the purplish splotch in the corner from the heat.  Removed from the phone it’s only about a sixteenth of an inch thick with very small margins.  It feels like using some kind of sci-fi future phone.

The streaks you see on the display panel in the images below aren’t cracks, they are the adhesive I mentioned before.  I didn’t bother cleaning it all off when it became clear that I was going to have to have the whole screen and digitizer module replaced anyway.

Phone Open

Phone Open Detail

Two Walls On 2

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I got another second floor gable wall put up today.

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It was very heavy, especially with the 4×12 window header installed. I still don’t have any wall jacks, but I did order some by mail. UPS is supposed to deliver them on Monday so I should be able to use them for the long walls next weekend. I expect to build the north wall tomorrow and lift it next weekend. It should be simple to frame and sheathe; there are no openings. Just full sheets of plywood and precut studs.

Fall Is Coming

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This fell on me while I was sweeping the second floor today.

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Looks like Fall is letting me know that it is on the way here. I’d better get that roof on!

The days are noticeably shorter now than they were when I started the project. The sun set at 7:46 today and it’s getting about ten minutes earlier every week. Back in June I didn’t even have to start cleaning up until about 8:30; now it’s dark by then. I feel like I should be harvesting the corn, or filling the hayloft or something.

A Healthy Salad

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Nothing here but lettuce. These aren’t the dogs you’re looking for.

I went over to the café to get myself a nice healthy salad for lunch today.  See how well that worked out?

I Might Live Here

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I got a signed contract back from the seller today.  It’s looking increasingly as though this might be my house.  The contract is go, the inspections are go, the loan is go.  There are only a couple of things left which can still go wrong.

House with a lawn

House with a lawn

I found this picture on Zillow from a previous sale of the same house, probably in 2008.  It has to have been a while ago as you can see there is a nice-looking lawn and some flowers, all of which are now dead.  There are some interior pictures as well which are clearly staged.

Home Inspection Ready

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My home inspector was pretty quick, he got his report out same day!

This is the image from the first page of the report, taken this morning. The place is looking a bit bedraggled with the dead lawn. I see sprinklers and grass seed in my future.

The chimney inspection was pretty good. He found some issues, which I expected, but overall the chimney is in decent shape; it’s not about to fall down or anything. So that’s good news.

About the only thing which will prevent me from buying the house at this point is if the foundation cracks turn out to be a disaster. My home inspector thinks they can be fixed up with epoxy injection, which is a fairly common repair for older foundations. I’m getting a bid from a foundation company for the fix.

There is one other thing which could be an issue: I’m still not technically in contract. The bank which owns the property has confirmed verbally that they are accepting my offer, but I don’t have a signed purchase contract yet. I don’t have any reason to believe it’s anything more sinister that bureaucratic delay, but until they sign I can’t say with legal certainty that I’ve gotten the place.

2nd Floor Walls Started

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I got the first of the second floor walls up this past weekend, and another one partially framed.

2nd Floor Wall

 

I only put on partial sheathing to save weight because I didn’t use any mechanical aids to lift the short wall. I just strong-armed it into the vertical position by hand. I’ll have to rig something up for the opposite wall, which will be heavier with the header installed. The two long walls will also need something like that.

There are a few different wall jack systems which you can get for about a grand. They are all basically just come-along winches and a hollow pole, although there’s a cheaper version that uses a 2×4 as the lift pole. I’ll try to rig up basically the same thing using the blocks that I lifted the glu-lam beams with, they worked better than I expected for the beam lift and I already have them so the price is right.