A long needed update on the way

My camera was lost, and has been found. I have some pictures of the back room progress (kitchen) which was framed out, and is ready for drywall (hopefully today). Also buying a drywall lift today, yes! More tools!

On a funny and almost dreadful note, I stepped on one of these the other day, something I thought only happens in the movies:

That hoe almost messed me up bigtime, but it wacked my shoulder instead of my face, wew. But thats ok, I have medical and dental now!

I assure you, I'll have pictures of progress on the first level, and my table saw I proudly acquired within the next day.

Thinking of the house, and food

Im sitting at work right now thinking of the projects ahead of me (securing furring strips to the brick wall and getting sheetrock up to finish the first floor), but I haven't posted any new blog entrys, because well, I feel blogs suck without pictures, and my camera is missing, again. But basically 80% of the first floor is drywalled and taped.


Im starving at work, sitting in an office is the pits sometimes, and my stomach always feels like an endless pit, or maybe its a tapeworm from that crappy fried wonton last week?


If you know anything about me, I love pizza like most people, but I really enjoy making it as well. Being all about tools, this gadget is a must have! So females, go buy your handyman man one of these, make some pizza and have fun. And, if you DON'T have a handyman, buy me one and we'll make some pizza. I can just imagine a hard day of work, a hard night of partying, making some pizza while drunk, and cutting that pizza with this while making circular saw noises. This thing is so sweet!

Island or dining table

If anyone can vote, I'd appreciate it!

Here is the layout if you are not familiar: Walk in front door, go straight to the back, thats where the kitchen is. Its a 13x15 room (just walls, no cabinets yet). I can either put a island in, and keep it very contemporary and modern, or put a table in and no island. I'm not planning on having a dining room, but there is another room on the first floor that can be used as a dining room down the road (when I no longer need a roommate in there). Concerned with what is most practical and for best resale value.

Going for either a gloss white modern kitchen, maybe some black.

Have an island or table for small kitchen/no dinning room
	Island
	Table
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To buy or not to buy

I have a new tool lined up! Of course Im excited, but Im trying to rationalize the purchase. Partly due to funds. Do I reallyyyyy need it, or is this just something I want. I am a recovering tool addict that used to go out on whims and buy stuff, especially shit I didn't need one bit, but they all proved useful in the end. Ie - Stud welder, mig welder, 2 air compressors, those are the bigger items but the list goes on.

For $100 after my 10% off coupon and with a stand, I suppose its worth it.


Im sure with a full renovation underway it will be good when I have to do flooring, kitchen cabinets, casings, filler strips, cutting 2x4s longways, in fact it would have saved me a $30 door when cutting it to size rather than using the circular saw which I NOW know the base of it was bent. This led to trying to cut the end of the door down 5 times and wondering why it wasn't square.

At the same time I think I want the 4 piece Ryobi Lithium tool kit more (drill, sawzall, circular, flashlight) for $200 marked down from $300. I should have bought this from the get go.

PSEG

Don't mind the totally random picture of a ultra cute puppy that reminds me of my baby girl.

Anyway, PSEG = Public Service Enterprise Group = Piece of Shit eating goats.

You guys are impossible, and everyone knows it. This is a monopoly! My acronym makes no sense except the PS, please ignore the goat part or fill it in with something that makes sense. I couldn't get it to flow.


BRING ME MY GAS!

Venting

While this may be the first post of venting you've seen on here, I assure you it isn't the first, nor the last. In fact this is the most passive venting I've done so far. Usually venting involves either a hissy fit and wanting to go home to a stable, non dust filled environment, or drinking whatever Natty lights or Steel Reserves I can scavenge, or cursing and sitting atop a ladder (it seems to lift my spirits when I sit up there).

If you are in a similar situation or ever have been in a similar situation (read - working on a old, decrepit house) you know that one thing leads to another, and everything depends on something else. That "something else" is usually something not in your control, albeit you can sometimes make it in your control if you want to take 5 steps back (not 2).

So this was the situation yesterday:


In the picture I attempted to box out where the heating/cooling duct goes, and unfortunately it had to be dropped down like that. The joists go perpendicular to the furring strips, and we decided not to rip down the whole ceiling to fix this. The real problem (besides using Microsoft paint with its super pixelated lines, and in-ability to "undo" anything past one step, which yields the big white mistake of a text box) is that corner of the room is way off in terms of being level. The other half of the duplex is to the left in the picture and im sure has to do with the sagging.

The problem -
I get to work on the house 3-4 hours a day after work. My mind is usually clustered with crap, I can never think straight. Then take some electric that needs to be done, heating and cooling that needs to be done, additional framing, and sheetrock, a dash of planning ahead and rushing, put it in the bowl, whip it up, and you get a lot of incoordination. I know this can be easily solved, but there are reasons things are being done like this.

The duct went up before we could level that out. It didnt look to bad so we threw up the sheetrock. Then we realized the overhead light ideally had to be moved from the center of the kitchen to the left side where the table would be. The sheetrock was up anyway and I don't want to deal with 5/8ths above my head anymore than I have to. So the dilema is to take it down (I can't even tell you how often stuff like this happens) or keep going and hope for the best. My lack of experience here doesn't help, but I do know I want to keep moving ahead.

Too bad, Im going to keep on going on.

Quite a steal

To be honest, this house was a good deal, for obvious reasons. And the way the economy is, I'm still looking for some good deals, and thats when I stumbled upon this. My room has an existing fireplace in it, but it almost certainly needs to be relined. That is probably big bucks I don't have now, so I found this alternative. Thanks Lowes for 50% off seasonal heating. I scored this for $125




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Thats probably not how it will look exactly, but there will be similar colors, maybe some black granite tile, cedar, Im still browsing, and if anyone has recommendations, please don't hold back. What do females like in terms of fireplaces?!