new year

Yup, another year down, but man was it a busy one. Don't worry I won't recap the whole year here, just the last few days.

I've been trying to wrap up some of the finishing details on the house this week, and actually doing some bike work in the shop. On the house front, I finished up the bathroom fixtures, they're all in place and plumbed. I sure hope that's the last pedestal sink I ever have to plumb though. My inspector had warned me that they're a pain, but you never really realize how bad they are until you do one. All the plumbing lined have to hide in the pedestal, which is only open on the backside. That means you get to try and make all the connections without being able to see them, and with them inside a 5" diameter cylinder where you hands really weren't meant to go. Hooking up the supply lines weren't too bad, but the drain line was tough, it barely fit, which meant my hands don't fit! But after a couple hours I managed to get it.

I've got one crucial step left though before it can be fully functional. The main drain stack for the bathroom still has the plug in it for pressure testing. That means going up on the roof to cut off the cap them glue in a new mesh cover. And while I love snow, we just got about 6" this week, and it's wet and slippery, so trips up on the roof are out for a few days.

I finished up a few more odds and ends today as well. I put the last finishing cut on the breakfast bar countertop, which meant I could finally install that cabinet and counter permanently. While I was at it, I finally put the last mounting screws in the remaining kitchen countertops and screwed the dishwasher in place (I never quite got around to that back in March when we did the kitchen!).

To everyone who's been over to our garage since we installed the garage door, you've seen my high-tech garage door opener control system: Touching two bare wires together on the opener... Well, I finally fixed that today too, put in a real opener switch mounted to the wall and everything! I also put in a sensor that tells us if the door is open or closed when we're upstairs. I never even though about the fact that we have to go downstairs and through the shop just to know if the door is closed, it's kinda a big hassle when you're as lazy as me. So now we have a little indicator upstairs and a door control, so no more trips downstairs before going to bed!

Thursday I managed to get two repairs done in the shop for a couple of customers that had unique circumstances and needed these repairs done while they waited. One was a customer driving up from Rochester for a singlespeed conversion, the other was a guy leaving the country on bike tour in 5 days and he needed some canti bosses moved before he left.
I've been working on getting my new tube mitering machine up and running too. I got all the electrical controls mounted and wired up. After quite a few phone calls to my brother it does work, but I figured out that the auxiliary contactor isn't working right so it won't stay running. I think I just need to get a new one and everything will be running. The plus side is I finally really learned and understand how the starter and contactor system works. I spec these out at work fairly often but I hadn't actually wired one or known how the internals work.

well, it's about time to head out for some new years partying, so adios folks, talk at you next year!

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