I am prepared for indigestion.
Today the guy does the long-awaited fence estimate.
by CJ | Mar 7, 2014 | Journal | 27 comments
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*sending virtual Maalox*
one certainly hopes they get it entered into their system…..get the right materials, and do the job properly.
Good luck this time.
Well, it’s ouchy, but doable. We are going to go with it.
Confession:
A week or so ago, I was in the mood to reread Merchanter’s Luck, but too lazy to find where it should be. Worse, I think it’s in a specific place with Finity’s End, Chanur, etc.
So…using the flimsy excuse that my PB copy is from around when it was first released, and is now quite yellowed, even the cover, I reasoned (rationalized) I’d get another copy. … Never mind that quite probably, it would be the same print run. …
The price used was unspeakably low, and so I clicked and the package was on its way. I got it and set it on my headboard where the other To Read Now books and a notebook and sketchbook sit. Yes, it’s a crowded headboard.
I opened it at lunchtime today. It was shipped with a large paperback (Devil to the Belt) (though I have both novels in old PB).
Imagine my surprise to find the copy of Merchanter’s Luck is not a paperback, but hardbound, a Book Club Edition, it says, handsome book jacket, though the jacket’s slightly worn, with art by R. Courtney. The book itself is nearly pristine, with one tiny scuff along the binding’s lower spine. Otherwise flawless. And inside, ah, nice oldstyle type, handsome and printed in what’s now old but quality, with all that goes with that old offset or letterpress method. All the things that make a book lover or designer’s pulse pick up a bit if he or she is in just the right mood. Well, I was.
Rationalization? This was a wonderful thing, far better than any rationalization. Most pleased, ma’am, thanks.
Of note: The cover on the paperback has always been a favorite. A smart and lovely Reilly spacer lass in silver flash with green and black for her ship, pacing crouched, expecting trouble and ready for it, with a ship’s dark interior to add to the suspense. Perfect.
The only oddity is, neither cover shows Sandor Kreja. — I like the HB cover but prefer the PB cover. I remember other fine illustrations in the HB cover’s style from around that time, late 70’s and early 80’s, when the hardware was a thing.
I long for the day when an ebook, cover art and all, matches the beauty of a well done HB or PB.
This means we have to go downtown and get a permit. The Epson printer, of course, ignored the ‘print from cartridge 2’ command and printed on our check stock in cartridge 1. Because our accounting software only recognizes cartridge 1—we have it set up this way. Now we’ve got a run of checks that are printed with the address of the computer recycling people and the permit to build a fence document didn’t even show up, because, fortunately, cartridge 1 was out of checks.
Head/desk.
I got a call on Wednesday from my electrical contractor, who had been ignoring me for a couple of weeks until I got in touch with his boss. He will be sending a crew out to my house on Monday morning to upgrade my electrical panel from 100 amps to 200 amps, and to wire up and hook up my hot tub. I’ve already got the permits (I needed two permits – one for electrical and one for the hot tub), and most of the materials they’ll need. That cuts the cost of the upgrade to mostly labor.
I spent part of the afternoon trying to rotate that monster on the back deck, because the motor was on the wrong side from the wall. Judicious use of Archimedes’s first- and second-class levers and some old-fashioned pushing got it where I wanted it. Then I ran some water into it to clean out the condensation and other debris that has managed to sneak under the cover. Maybe by next Wednesday or so, I’ll have it up and ready for the first soak……I’ve been waiting for this for almost 10 months…it’s about time!
Be careful shoving that thing around!
All in place, I managed to get it done with nothing more than a small scratch on my left little finger – I don’t even recall how. Kept me awake part of the night, kept bumping it.
No more moving it.
We bought a new house in the ‘burbs almost 12 years ago and of course being new construction, there weren’t any fences, just wall-to-wall neighbours. Once the sod was established, we started looking at fences. Which means getting in touch with all these new neighbours you don’t know and trying to come to some sort of consensus about who wants what. In the end, 12 homes in a row wanted in on the fencing, but the one on the very end wanted all the upgrades. White cedar, larger posts, fancy lattice along the top… and since everyone shared all 3 sides of their fence with 3 other houses, it meant we all had to agree, and she wouldn’t budge. I swear I had indigestion for a week after learning what our share cost, and that was with splitting the cost with the neighbours who adjoined our lot. Hopefully, they will build you a fence that will last a hundred years (or at least a good 20 or so). 🙂
Tyranny by the minority. I’ll bet if you went ahead and built the fence to the way the other 10 (plus you) wanted, and had gone through the city, she wouldn’t have had a thing to say, especially if the fence was on your side of the property line. I think all 11 homeowners should have gathered at her front door and told her, “No”. But, real estate law is really idiotic sometimes, based IIRC on “king’s law”, and it only takes one person to screw over everyone else.
I bought a new construction home in Virginia Beach in 1991, got along well with every neighbor, except one. He wanted to extend the fence, which was mine, BTW, from his house over to mine and give his kids a few more square feet of play space. Since I was paying the taxes on this property, and after a certain number of years, he would have “taken ownership”, the answer was “No”. Relations got really frosty after that until they moved out. He’s still on my list, he borrowed one of my automotive tools, and never returned it before they moved – I hope it blew up on him.
Actually, he wouldn’t have gotten ownership. What you are talking about is adverse possession, which requires “notorious and hostile” possession of the land. What you would have given him is a permissive easement (he asked, you allowed), which you could revoke at any time by telling him “no”. Since it’s not hostile, the law is on your side and he can’t gain possession. Stanford actually uses this to maintain possession of some land… there are streets running through it, and every so often they block the streets for a day, just to remind people (and the government) that these are permissive easements, and something that can be revoked.
Adverse possession is nowhere near as easy as people make it sound!
When I was much, much younger, the men got together and built fences around three of the yards. They made the concrete blocks, including curved ones for one section of wall. It’s been more than 40 years, and the walls are still there, although the tinted (to match the houses) poured-concrete caps have faded. All the other neighbors along those walls – which was half the block – got a back wall of concrete blocks, not actually on their property.
Neighbors are funny that way. Since our house was the last one built in the subdivision and the 3 neighbors put up fences first, we have 3 different styles. Doesn’t bother me, except that newest-neighbor’s fence is falling apart, and his plans to replace it 2 years ago never happened. With his 3 little dogs and our 1 large one (and a new puppy sometime in May) there’s danger of escapage. I may need to bite the bullet and replace it myself.
We have a rather flimsy chain-link fence from Sears, little more than glorified wire, around our property. Several decades of hedge (not all ours) have grown in and around it, and I doubt it could easily be removed. The side with the least intergrowth is the one facing the neighbor who frequently allows trash to migrate into our yard, and upgrading the fence is probably not on their to-do list, although they have propped boards against it. Le sigh.
They say good fences make good neighbours… I think it is equally true that falling-down fences make for poorer neighbour relations. 😉
Being the endmost house on the corner, we have the brunt of the wind. Dogear cedar plank with wooden posts set in a foot of concrete is just not optimum. The wind hits that and the wood rots in the spring moisture, and it’s going to fail. What we’re getting is vinyl that looks like stonework on both sides, has super-deep posts, and that has sound insulation: we live right on an arterial, and those of you who have visited us know it’s a constant noise.
^interesting, I’ve never heard of a fence like that.
Around here we see a lot of “Good Neighbor” fences. Essentially like a normal board fence where one side is smooth and the other has the stringers, but they alternate the boards on one side and the other. Both sides see some stringers. It appears solid seen squarely on, but at an angle there’s the 1.5″ space at the edge of each board occupied by the stringers. But it lets the wind through, so they don’t blow down.
It’s typical up here. Kind of like a flat stockade, with planks dogeared (rounded at the corners) and made of cedar. The problem is largely wet ground. What we’re going with is vinyl with deep non-wood posts. We get to disassemble the current fence, then figure how to maintain some vestige of privacy and security during the three days it takes for the new posts to set.
We went to Home Depot today to order fence—and turns out the guy we need to talk to only works weekdays. Sigh.
We went to the flooring place to get flooring samples—Lumber Liquidators—and we did like what they have. Better quality than what we saw at Home Depot, in most things. That’s for later. Fence comes first.
We also stopped by one of our good local wineries, and have a tip for you: Jane calls the current Latah Creek Chardonnay the best she’s ever had, and I’d tend to support her in that. It’s very good. So is their merlot. Washington wines (Latah, Martinez) really good: I also like Hogue, a very oakey Chardonnay, not to everyone’s taste, but I like it. Both Jane and I like dry, though Jane also likes some sweet ones, that I just can’t go. De gustibus non disputandum est—people should never argue what they taste…
Try Voignier–Chardonnay-like. TJ’s will have it: some Argentinian, some from other places; I particularly recommend “Honey Moon”. It’s $5/bottle down here. (For Cabernet, try “Velvet Moon”. Same $.)
My neighbor got a bug to replace our common fence. Six feet tall cinder block, concrete-filled. I’m scared to actually measure it and estimate its weight. At least if the San Andreas fault goes, the whole massive thing will fall towards….Wait! What?
The attention of the writer’s admirers is drawn to
http://rolanni.livejournal.com/908132.html
for a topical allusion.
Good authors stand together.
I am now approaching frustration myself. It seems that when the store delivered the spa to my house, there was an important item missing from the spa. The information packet, which would include the owner’s manual, the user guide, and warranty information, etc., was not included. I asked the store, they said it was on the inside of the cabinet next to the pump. I’ve looked in there 4 or 5 times, and it is not there. Now, I know that I didn’t get one, and when I asked the store for a manual, they provided me with an emergency reproduction of the owner’s manual. Now, in preparing for tomorrow’s big event, I perused the manual to familiarize myself with the controls. There are controls on the top of the spa next to the control panel that are not shown on the brochure, and are not addressed in the owner’s manual. In fact, the owner’s manual says to refer to the User Guide for further information about controls. This spa, while I got it on sale, is still a major investment, and its retail value is over $6,000. Anything that expensive should have the information packet with it, and if not on engraved parchment paper, at least, it should be in a format that is available to the owner. There is no link to the manufacturer that I can find, just distributors. I’m going to look again and if I can’t find it, there will be much anguish inflicted upon certain parties who should have known better.
I’m with you, Joe. It’s one thing if you can find it online via the model number, but sheesh!
Nothing online. Even the manufacturer doesn’t list my model any more. Maybe I was looking in the wrong spot. I’ve also sent a query to the city for dissolved minerals in our water, especially calcium, but I also use that report to condition the water for making beer.
good luck, Joe.
I got an email from the dealer, they’re mailing me a complete package. It should be here probably tomorrow or Wednesday.
The hot tub is hooked up, it’s working, and the water was 40 degrees when I filled it at 2:30 this afternoon. 6-1/2 hours later, it was probably up to 100 degrees F, and when I lifted the cover to check, there were vapor curls coming off the surface. It took the electricians about 6 hours and I had to make 2 trips to Lowe’s to get the right circuit breakers. The building inspector made them put in an interground connection system, and I have to remove an outlet on the outside wall of the house because it’s within 6 feet of the tub. Easy to do, I just need to remove the face plate, pull out the outlet, snip off the wires, insulate them and put a blank face plate on in its place and have the inspector look at it and sign it off.
Tomorrow, I’ve been told I can use the tub after I get the pH balanced. Hooray! Almost 10 – 1/2 months after it was delivered……
Yesterday, I was cleaning it up and preparing the tub surface for the water by wiping on a protectant, like Armor-All, and the single mom next door was out on her patio. I started talking with her and told her they would be hooking said hot tub up on Monday. She said it would be nice to have that, especially on cool evenings. Then I said, “If you want, you are welcome to come over and use it, too.” I think that took her aback a bit, but I told her it seats 3 comfortably, and it’s more than enough for one person, so if two people can enjoy it as easily as one person, well, why not ask her. If you suspect ulterior motives, don’t look at my wings, and my halo, well, I just had it a couple of days ago, I don’t know where I put it now……..