On Monday, I managed to slap together the first of the framing for the outer walls. That was also the first day of client meetings, and we had a lot of material to cover.
Yesterday was the last day of meetings, so I did manage to get home and continue with framing the walls.
I made a bit of progress, getting one section of wall complete. The long weekend has started, though, and I’m hoping to get through the rest. There’s a lot riding on all of this being done by the first week of August, so there’s a lot of pressure for me get cracking…
Month: June 2007
The new K2 ain't much better…
To add to my existing woes, I thought I might be “smart” and update to the new K2 to try and fix some of the issues that the new WordPress brought down upon me.
At least the annoying bug with the WordPress widgets was fixed. But now:
My sidebars are horribly screwed upI’ve had to remove the archives list because I can’t get the SmartArchives plugin to work with K2’s widgets- The Archives list is by month+year combination, instead of the block design I had previously
My list of pages appears on EVERY page, and not broken down per section (it used to be that only the Photos pages would appear in Photos)I’ve had to find another plugin called Subpage Listing that puts a simple comment in the page posts to provide a list of the subpages per page. It ain’t perfect, but it’s a start…
This just serves me right for not checking first to see what the update would do before I did it.
Ugh.
WordPress 2.2.1 broke my site!
Nurtz.
This doesn’t happen often, and until now hasn’t happened at all. But the most recent upgrade of WordPress has officially broken my site. My biggest problem is that I’m using the K2 package, which doesn’t work properly with WP 2.2.1, which introduces “real” widgets.
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Another case of really bad customer service
You’ve heard me rant about both [[Calgary Transit sucks|Calgary Transit]] and [[Air Canada sucks|Air Canada]]. They have their cases of really missing the ball on serving their audience.
As much as I complain about them, they’ve got nothing on this case of just screwing someone over.
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Basement floorplan, version 3
[photopress:Basement_Floor_Plan3.gif,thumb,pp_image]
Here’s what’s different:
- Office and mechanical rooms swapped (this was done because the boiler can’t vent up a chimney — too low-temperature, so the condensation from the exhaust would completely rust the thing out; on the bright side, we get to use the void upstairs because of the change)
- The previously compact tub is now a walk-in shower (custom-built, of course) and a bit of rearrangement in the bathroom, with doors relocated
- Windows added to the right-side wall (though because I can’t find an installer, they’ll have to wait until a subsequent renovation phase; there’ll eventually be a third window where the stairs currently are)
This is what we’re now going on, and the plates to handle the outer and load-bearing walls are now in place.
Plates in, first framing up
So last night I was in quite the rush to get home and get back to working in the basement. I’m trying to make the most use of time possible to try and get everything into place before the floor heating pipes are laid — that’s literally when everything else needs to be out of the basement.
I have a funny feeling that I’m going to have a few more nights like last night for the next month or more.
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Finally we get to rebuilding
I’ve finally managed to add something to the basement rather than just take it away. (That’s adding something myself, I should add — the plumbers have already beaten me to the punch of adding something.)
But first I had to remove a lot more junk. Thankfully, the last of it, too.
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The building supplies arrive
On Saturday, I scooted around doing a number of errands. One of them was ordering in the materials I need to frame and insulate the basement. Part of this is in preparation for the heated floor, part of this is to actually make the basement liveable.
Rona delivered the bundle yesterday while I was at work (Alex was at home, thankfully, since Rona kind of screwed up the delivery by forgetting one roll of vapour barrier and the toilet), in a huge bunch that they very nicely placed on the front lawn. But it couldn’t stay there.
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Funniest. Commercial. Ever.
Well, at least this year. If you’ve ever worked in an office, you’ll enjoy this.
Bud Light Swear Jar.
The plumbing begins in the basement
When I got home yesterday, we had a brand-new visitor at the house: a giant yellow refuse bin from Rubbish Express. This is to haul away all the leftovers pulled from the basement in the process of preparing it for overhaul.
And it’s getting worse.
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Yoshirolla Kilomantra mayhem
Okay, I know, I’m probably doing something I said I wouldn’t be doing. But I have to admit, this is already pretty cool.
When I [[Yoshirolla Kilomantra|put out my first post]] a couple of days ago, I shot to the top of a list of one for “Yoshirolla Kilomantra“. Google indexed my site right away, and I appeared on the other SERPs pretty quickly. Cool, but in the grand scheme of things, really dull — what fun is a competition of one?
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Clearing out the basement
The first contractors arrive tomorrow, so we’ve been in a push to get the basement ready for them. So far, we’ve managed to remove all the inner walls, lights (except two in the ceiling), carpet, some of the floor tiles, and all outer wall coverings, studs and insulation.
It’s creating quite the mess.
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My favourite cooking show
Some years ago, and I honestly don’t know how many now, I started watching cooking shows. I’d like to think that, largely, they’re the reason (sometimes to blame) for my cooking ability.
Yes, Virginia, you can learn something from TV.
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Yoshirolla Kilomantra
We’re running a contest here at Critical Mass, to see who can rank the highest for our chosen keywords: Yoshirolla kilomantra.
Since I’m a judge, I’m not going to compete heavily. I’m just going to set a bar that I expect people to leap over.
And Jim, please don’t screw up our results. 😛
Now I really want a Mac
Damn you, Apple! You’re making me want to upgrade my system, and that’s just incompatible with my bank account!
Especially when [[I need a new watch|I still want to get a Rolex]].
Continue reading “Now I really want a Mac”
Dim sum with the newlyweds
There was a wedding over the weekend. But we didn’t go to it. Disappointed, but admittedly it wasn’t within our direct social circle, so I can complain in any way.
So first, congratulations to both Geoff and Deanna. And I’ll leave all the “Ho” jokes to others…
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Sod laying party
I’ve been to a variety of parties over the years, spanning many themes and genres. But I have to admit, I’ve never been to a sod-laying party before.
I gotta say, it wasn’t half bad.
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Flying the Zip Line at Canada Olympic Park
(Updated with videos!)
Team building is one of the important things you have to do when you have a group of significant size. Especially when they’re of different specializations and tend not to intermingle regularly.
That is what brought us to Canada Olympic Park (COP) this afternoon to experience a truly unique feeling. Basically, screaming death at 100 km/h. (It was supposed to be golf, but the killer rainstorm we had earlier this week washed us out.)
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How interactive marketing fails because of technical architecture
Interactive marketing is a branch of advertising that aims to involve people directly in marketing materials, providing an avenue for engagement that’s just not possible with print, radio, or television advertisements.
In most cases, “interactive marketing” means “websites”. Interactive television (iTV) is also emerging, though in limited markets at this point. But the issues are similar, if not the same:
How you build something is just as important as how you designed it.
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Mozart on roller skates
Some of you might have already seen the Audi commercial. Pretty neat.
Even neater, when it comes right down to it, is the guy who thought of this in the first place. (I’m not certain, but I think he’s also in the Audi commercial at the beginning.)
Watch him play Mozart on roller skates. This is creative thinking! (Although the making of the Audi commercial is pretty cool, too.)
Why Prince Harry should be king
There are just some downright strange things that you can come across in the news sometimes.
Like this, for example: Prince Harry visits Calgary cowboy bar
I nearly fell off my chair when I read that.
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Creative writing challenge
Last night seemed to be one filled with sequels to previous dreams I’d had. Very odd.
In one of them though, I was in an English class being taught by John Houseman. (Don’t ask, most of my dreams make no sense at all.)
His challenge, which I now pose to you: Write a sentence without using any letters with vertical elements. (Hey, he wanted a full 2,000 word essay!)
When home renovations go bad!
Not every renovation goes exactly as planned. Sometimes, you have the little curveballs that make an otherwise simple fix into a veritable nightmare.
I hit one of those last night.
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