Staining complete

On to the varnish!

What I've been up to

The massive bookcase is closing in on final. I don't think I would choose this design again.

The workshop


The Bookcase - it's eight feet tall by four feet wide by 11 inches deep.

Life in the age of table saws

Current finger count: 10

After much delay, my vaunted "Secret society" style bookshelves begin today.

And on yet another note, it's snowing in Atlanta again - if this keeps up, everyone should expect some cool photography as the city panics and wrecks their cars.

Toil and trouble

Since the internet was down most of the day, I decide to do some more stuff around the house. I take advantage of a short break in the rainfall to apply some quick drying concrete to some areas between the driveway and the foundation. I find that it really does dry in 10 minutes or less. Happily I'm able to finish before then. That does not seem to solve all of my basement moisture problem.

Since it started raining shortly after the cement was dry, I opt to install outlets in the basement. For some reason, all but one of the junction boxes do not match the descriptions in any of my wiring books. The ones that does does not seem to be connected to the circuit box in any findable way. Being a coward when it comes to live electricity, I opt not to install the outlet in that box.

Happily, while looking for further junction boxes, I come across a working outlet set up to the furnace! I count the day a win.

Freedom house and the basement of adventure!

As those of you who know me in the flesh have been told endless times, I'm still doing lots of work around the new house. My current mania is leveling out the floors (I'm almost done) via the use of a system of jacks.

On Saturday I was installing a new jack and was tilling the dirt floor of the basement to create a level spot for the jack. I came across what could have been a bone, and then the shovel struck a hard surface. I decided to dig out whatever it was while saying to myself "Please don't be a body, please don't be a body". Did I mention that my basement bears a strong resemblance to the basement in Silence of the Lambs?

Happily it was only a lump of old concrete with nothing underneath. Later it occurred to me that if it were a body the police would have to dig out the entire basement to look for more, which would save me the trouble of doing it later.

Last night I was adjusting one of the jacks (the initial setup by a previous owner was done poorly) when the ladder turned on a piece of soft ground and I fell off the thing. The support jack I was adjusting then had no support and fell on my neck as I lay on the ground. Happily it didn't land that hard and I'm just a little sore.

And that's what I've been doing lately.

The sounds of silence

While I've been thrilled with the new place so far, one thing that's been amiss the the fact that the State Patrol (headquartered behind my back yard, about 200 yards away) has run a generator every minute of every day since I moved in. The generator was not running when I looked at the house.

For the first time it has stopped. The silence and the other noises are kind of eerie.

For a historical trivia, the Georgia State Patrol building used to be the local Confederate widows home for Atlanta. The Atlanta Time Machine has a photo.

Top of the world

Or the roof anyway. Somehow I managed to buy a house withe 2 fireplaces and 0 ways to close the flue. Another task for the pile I suppose. For those keeping score at home, I still have not climbed the tree that overhangs the house (it's the one in the shot)

A weird thing in my neighborhood

So, I take a different route home from running a quick errand in the new neighborhood, and I discover that there is a numbered, named, and unpaved road in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Really strange...

Amazing

I was moving some stuff down to the basement/crawlspace, and I found a bag of actual coal down there. It must date back to the 20s or 30s, which would probably make it the first owner's.

Unhappy real estate news

While I have decided to rent out my condo, seeing the headline Atlanta condo glut hits "danger zone" was decidedly unwelcome.

Sorry for the light blogging

Work has continued at it's hellish pace and I've been unpacking every other moment. And i found out yesterday that my soon to be excavated (by me) basement is almost entirely red clay.

The move is complete

I've even got the packing about 3/4 of the way done. Photos of the new place to come soon. The new place is wonderful.

The house is mine

The closing went as planned. Ormewood Park here I come!

It recently made Creative Loafing's Best of Atlanta as the up and coming neighborhood. More details and pictures to come.

The funniest thing I've read today

While getting my credit report in advance of the new mortgage

Should you wish to contact TransUnion, you may do so

Wow! Why do they feel it's necessary to put that there?

Now I find out...

After complaining for years about how I have nothing in common with my neighbors, today I find out that one of my neighbor's loves to talk politics and is a fellow Ron Paul supporter. Pesky lopsided timing...

To hunt the house you have to think like a house

I went out with Jim (the Realtor) for the first time today and found a couple good prospects, one of which I really liked. We also discovered that there is a ton of crap in East Atlanta, including what seemed like an operational crackhouse for sale. The term "No disclosure" is a big one on property listings.

A handy link for househunters

It seems that one can search country property records online, Dekalb County (Georgia) is here.