Garage Near Completion, and New Basement Plans

One down...one more car to go! I just got one half of our garage cleared out so I can put one car away. I still have some more to do with the other side, but most of the boxes and stuff there is going down in the basement next weekend. My ESM is going to be gone then to visit her parents for a few days, and I plan to use the time to move stuff around and get the garage together for the winter.

The house is coming along pretty well. With the garage in shape for winter, now all we have left is the bedrooms, my office and ESM's art studio. *grin* Oh, and the basement! Can't forget the basement!

Speaking of which, I have a couple of ideas together for the basement remodel. Nothing is firm yet, but the demo is going to happen as soon as the weather gets cold and we have no yard work to do. Should only take a weekend or two to get the old stuff out. Anyone that wants to help, and get free passes to the home theater I'm planning to build, speak up! *lol*

A Short Geek Diversion

This weekend, we took a break from working on the house, and went to one of my all-time favorite annual events here on the Eastern Slope of Colorado. The three-day high-end audio extravaganza known as Rocky Mountain Audiofest.

This is the largest consumer audio show in the country, and one of the best if you believe all the press this show has gotten over the last six years. They basically take over a high-rise hotel in the Denver Technological Center, clear the furniture out of over 180 guest rooms, and the exhibitors then set up all their gear in the rooms. This allows anyone who pays the ticket price ($10 per person for one day, but multi-day passes are available) to come through and hear some audio systems that most of us will never have the money to afford!

I have gone every year since the show came into being in 2003. And I always have a good time! And yes, my Everlasting SoulMate goes with me occasionally. She likes music, but tends to spend more time in the audio recordings room, pawing through vinyl and CDs.

One of the things I really enjoy about the show, besides looking at all the gear, is you can bring your own music and most exhibitors will allow you to listen to a song or two on their gear. There is something about hearing a pristine vintage recording of Tito Puente’s “El Cayuco” coming out of one set of speakers and amps that together cost more than a Cadillac CTS-V. *evil grin*

Now, I know some of you are thinking, “How come they charge so much? Is the gear really that much better?” In a word, yes. However, there is a caveat to that. You must be one of those people whose ears work differently than most to even think about paying that much for audio gear. Accomplished musicians know what I’m talking about. Most of us can listen to, and appreciate, the music we like. But, some folks can process much more information contained within the music and hear small nuances that others cannot. This show is full of this kind of gear that those folks would appreciate.

Now, before some of you all get huffy with me, I’m NOT an audio-snob! I’m not one of these boorish, elitist, nose-in-the-air snobs who walk around the show with a bundle of old jazz vinyl under their arms (“because digital music is sooo over-rated”), who won’t listen to anything without tubes in it (“Oh, digital electronics take so much away from the music!”), and would never even look at something that costs less than my car (“If it isn’t expensive, how can it be any good?”).

I do appreciate the value of good vinyl LPs. I have them. I listen to them. There are certain vintage recordings that will NEVER be released in a digital format, so the only way to hear them in on vinyl. My dad has a whole stack of those in his collection. But, I also understand that digital music is very, very good these days, and the convenience and overall ruggedness compared to an LP is much higher.

I am a geek audiophile. I appreciate not only the musical qualities and audio nuances of esoteric gear, but the technological innovation going on as well. I like to see a piece of equipment doing things in a new way, something that no one had thought of before. And, I appreciate the design aesthetics of the gear too. Follow the link above to the RMAF site and check out the pictures to see what I’m on about.

I have a somewhat eclectic taste in music. I like a LOT of different stuff. I have most everything in my personal collection, from classical symphonic and jazz music to oldies from the fifties to some of the hardest heavy-metal/thrash around. And I listen to it all, depending on my mood. Witness my taste by what I took to the show in my CD holder:

• Michael Aggson – Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (A good friend of mine who writes and records his own music, and is an accomplished guitarist)
• Herb Alpert – Definitive Hits
• Andy McKee – Dreamcatcher
• Andy McKee & Don Ross – The Thing That Came From Somewhere
• SouND MiNDS – Jazzorros (An uncle of mine played in this band as the keyboardist)
• Men of Steel – Live: Men of Steel (Steel-string acoustic guitar music by four of the best players, Dan Crary, Don Ross, Beppe Gambetta and Tony McManus)
• Chuck Mangione – 20^th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
• Various Artists – Windham Hill Records Sampler ’82
• Phil Keaggy – Acoustic Sketches
• Shaw-Blades – Influence (Tommy Shaw from Styx and Jack Blades from Night Ranger)

Obviously, I don’t take really wild stuff to the show. Some people’s tastes are not as broad as mine, and Metallica or Green Day just aren’t heard very much at the show. You tend to hear a lot of jazz, new-age, some classical, and just a smattering of rock.

There are always new companies at the show, and I enjoy seeing what is new this year. However, I also make sure to stop by a few rooms of those who have some of my favorite gear. YG Acoustics has made appearances at the last several shows, and believe me, if I could afford it I would have a pair of their floor-standing Anat Reference II’s. They have some of the cleanest, most accurate sound I have ever heard. Awesome.

Ok, another short geek moment. I stopped by the room of Obad Imports. They are a small company in Canada selling, amongst other things, KingRex class-T amplifiers. These are some of the most interesting devices to come around in a long time. They are an inexpensive (by high-end standards) digital amp, that sounds for all the world like a $10,000+ single-ended valve tube amp. The music produced is wonderful! I have been reading about them online, but this was my first chance to listen to one of them with my own ears. I will be getting one soon!

This year, my time at the show was a little shorter than normal. The hotel, with almost 200 rooms full of amps and audio gear, had a major power failure, complete with fire alarm and a full evacuation of the building! That’s the first time I’ve seen that at the show! *grin*

Anyhow, I did have a good time as always, came home with a few new SACDs to listen to and a whole bag full of swag. If you get a chance in early October, and love audio gear like I do…make plans to come out to Colorado and attend RMAF. You definitely won’t be disappointed. And, who knows, maybe you’ll see me there!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

My one remaining grandparent, my dad’s dad, just turned ninety. That’s right, 9-0! And he’s still in pretty good shape for being almost a century old. His mind isn’t as sharp as it once was, and he isn’t quite so fast on has feet anymore, but he’s still the loveable grandfather I remember from my youth. He actually had his party the day after our housewarming (see the earlier post). We went and had a good time with the whole extended family and a lot of his friends who are still around.

My aunt, who has dedicated a good portion of her life to doing genealogy for our family, had several poster-sized boards made up for the birthday party with pictures chronicling his life all the way back to when he was a boy. What wonderful images and memories! We asked for copies of a few, and I’ll post them when I get them.

Here are the men of our family, posing outside my house during our housewarming party. That’s me, my dad, my grandfather and my one uncle (left to right).

Happy Birthday Grandpa Bert!

Time Flies When You're Unpacking

Wow, it’s been three weeks since I posted! Where did the time go?

Well, I’ll tell you! *grin*

We spent the first two weeks preparing for our open-house/housewarming party. We decided even before we moved that we wanted to do an open-house to show off the new digs, and we wanted to do it very soon after we moved. Now I know what you’re saying, “That sounds like a lot of work for just after moving!” Well, it is. But, I had an ulterior motive. If we had to get the main living areas ready for a party, they would get finished! See, without the proper motivation, it would have taken us six months in our busy lives to get it done. This way, it only took one!

The party itself was, unfortunately, not quite as well-attended as we first thought it would be. One of Everlasting SoulMate’s friends had their family come down with flu. We’re not sure if it was piggy flu, but they were in NO shape to come. And we had a couple of other families that didn’t make it at the last-minute for other reasons. So, we’ve had plenty of leftovers to eat over the last week.

Follow the link here to a few shots from before and during the party.

This last week, we’ve been cleaning up from the party *grin* and taking a well-deserved rest. Before the party, we painted several rooms (including the kitchen, which was a job and a half!), did a ton of electrical work to replace switches and outlets and make sure the downstairs was up to snuff, finished hanging pictures and decorating the main living area, did yard-work and outside cleaning, etc. But, the place really looks like it’s coming together!

Oh, BTW, the jelly-making hasn’t happened yet. ESM got the juice made, but then the party prep started in earnest and she hasn’t gotten back to it. We have plenty more grapes to work with though.

Now begins the work on the garage (so we can get our cars under cover before the snow flies) and upstairs in the bedrooms, studio and office.

As If We Needed ANOTHER Project!

My sister did a post on her blog on Sept. 3rd that coincidentally went right along with something the ESM and I have been discussing in earnest. Preserving food.

I have a lot of the same memories of my grandmother that my sister talks about. She was a pretty fair cook, but she cooked for a farm family. I would think you would become good either in self-defense or just by sheer volume/repetition. But along with her cooking, she could preserve and can most anything you could come up with, and dehydrating was also no mystery to this woman. Most of my memories of the farm are intertwined with the wonderful smells that came from that kitchen most every day.

I remember our family always had a freezer and pantry full of the canned goods that came from the farm. Strawberry jam and raspberry jelly, green beans and such. The one that stands out for me was her wonderful tomato juice! That was such a messy process, but yielded such scrumptious results! Chili made with my grandmother's home-canned tomato juice...has...no...equal.

Fast-forward about thirty years and I'm about to embark on an endeavor that would make my grandmother proud. In self-defense, we're going to make homemade grape jelly. Why, you ask? Because I have a whole Nipsey Russell* of grapes growing on the arbor in my new backyard!

They are table grapes we were told by the original owner, and there are both red and green seedless varieties. There is no way we can eat them all before they get overripe, as there is probably a good twenty to thirty pounds of them! So we decided jelly or juice would be the best thing to do. After a little game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock to decide, jelly won (Spock vaporizes rock, BTW). But that means we need a canning outfit to help us put up our jelly.

I have been looking at several kits online, and I think I've narrowed it to this one. It has all the stuff (as I remember), seems reasonably priced and will work with our flat-top stove. I think we may look a couple of other places locally before ordering, but this gives me a good idea what we should pay for a similar kit, or for the individual pieces. It's been a long time since I've even seen this done, but between ESM and myself, I am confident we will prevail. *grin* We'll keep y'all posted on how well we do.

So wish us luck in our journey, and if you have advice, I would welcome it.

--Sundown, Out

* - So, you didn't know Nipsey Russell was a measure of volume, huh? Neither did I, until a good friend of mine used that phrase in my presence many years ago. I liked it so much I immediately added it to my lexicon and continue to use it to this day. It is roughly equivalent to a "metric buttload."

Kitchen Before and After

As promised, here is a Picasa album with before and after shots of the kitchen.

The first two are before, and the second two are after. There are several things you can't really see from the photos that we've been working on.

The water line going to the fridge needed to be redone, as it was too short to allow the fridge to roll out far enough to clean behind it. So, I redid all the copper tubing all the way into the basement to the shut-off valve. And, I replaced the water filter in the fridge. I don't think it had ever been changed since the fridge was new! Yuck!

Since we had all the outlet and switch covers off to paint, I decided to go ahead and replace all the old, funky light switches and outlets with new Decora-style units. I also changed out one standard outlet next to the sink with a GFCI one. I got lucky and the outlet on the other side of the sink was inline with the GFCI, so with one unit I am protecting both outlets. Very nice.

As my Everlasting SoulMate and I were working on the electrical paraphenalia swaps, I did pull a bonehead move. And, I'm big enough to admit it! I was careful and shut off all the power to the outlets and lights, but forgot the one for the disposal. And, unfortunately, ESM got into that switch and found out the hard way. It was totally an accident! And yes, I did take her out for ice cream afterwards to say I'm sorry! Sorry honey!

Anyway, other than some light decorating (pictures, knick-knacks, etc.) the kitchen is done for now. And, we're pretty happy with it! Now, on to other projects! *grin*

--Sundown, Out

Moved in? Yes. Finished? No.

Wow, a week has gone by. I'm not sure where it went. Let's see...

I went back to work after two months off. Ok, to be fair, it only FELT like two months. It was, in reality, only five days. In going back to work, I had to start getting used to my new commute. The rental house was only seven minutes from where I worked, now I'm about thirty minutes away. I can hear you asking all the way from here...why did you move farther away?!? Well, where we were living was "too expensive." We could not afford any of the houses there, and still continue to get by on my salary. So, we had to move to a part of town that we could afford, and that meant a longer commute. But, as you know from things I have said, we got a bigger house out of the deal, and my wife has a somewhat shorter drive to school as well. So, I'll deal with the longer commute. In a weird way, the more time spent on the road gives me more time to decompress and "shift gears" from working-mode to husband-mode.

Speaking of school, my Everlasting SoulMate started back to school in earnest this week. She goes three days a week now, and is taking evening classes. I don't see her until after 9pm on school-nights. So, she's been spending her days working on unpacking and organizing the kitchen. She's about got it together, and we just finished painting the walls this weekend. It looks pretty good. When we get it mostly back together after our painting-party, I'll post some before and after shots.

I've been working on getting the technological side of the move taken care of. We got our satellite TV installed the day after we moved in, but I just got our Internet connection back on Wednesday. So, I have been busy getting the network, servers and our workstations back up and running. As you can see, I was successful, but not without a few interesting moments. I'll do a geek post in the near future about the network legerdemain I had to do.

The kittehs are pretty much settled in. Treelo generally hangs out close by when we're home, but I never know where I will find her when I come home. She has several spots she likes to sleep in. Hubbard is enjoying the upstairs. ESM posted a letter from Hubbard on her blog the other day, detailing his experiences in the new house. Definitely check it out here.

We have a new nickname for the house. You've all heard of "Happy Acres" I'm sure. Well, this is "Half-Vast Acres". Say it fast and without a pause on the hyphen, and you'll get the full meaning.

As we've been living here, we are slowly discovering all the crap that was done in a rather half-hearted fashion. Now, I'm certainly not the end-all and be-all of home renovation and maintenance, but I am pretty sure you should shim up and level kitchen cabinets as you put them in, and not try to fix anything that doesn't fit by filling the gaps with caulk, and certainly not use an interior door in an exterior door location. That's just a small sample of things we have found.

To be fair, this is not a huge slam on the gentleman who lived here before us. He was a pretty nice guy, but he had lived here a long time and was used to things being the way they were. A new set of eyes will generally see those things that have been ignored, and I'm going to try my best to fix most of them. They won't all get done tomorrow, certainly, but most will be fixed in time.

I just realized I had not posted any shots of the new house, so here's one of the front. And, now that all things tech are working again, I hope to post more often.

Later Days,

--Sundown , Out.