After numerous attempts to try and photograph the inside one of the rooms, I?ve given up. So, here?s a picture of the outside of the room. As you?ll notice, there is drywall from floor to ceiling . . . on one side anyway. Along with that is some nice itchy fiberglass insulation and a bunch of wire patiently waiting to be stuffed inside that box. Let?s see . . . I also committed to spend $4,600 on windows for the third floor. Via some sort of chemical imbalance in my brain, it didn?t even phase me. Must be the drugs. So with the shot clock now reading less then one week for parts of the third floor to be completed, it looks like it may actually get there. If I put in a good session tomorrow, that bedroom should be largely complete.

I ran around this evening taking pictures of things. Yeah, they didn?t turn out. I realized this when my back was against one wall, and I was attempting to capture the shear volume of a room, but to no avail. As a twist of irony, I stretched the tape measure out over the cavernous expanse. It read 21 feet, 6 inches. Yet, on my camera, the room looked like a closet.

So, I?m issuing a call for camera recommendations. My Kodak DX3900 has served me well, but it just isn?t cutting it anymore. Flat out, it just doesn?t work inside. So if anyone has had any good luck with a reasonably priced camera, let me know. I?d like to restore the photographic nature of the site, but with most of the work being directed inside at closed spaces, pictures of a piece of drywall with screws in it is not too exciting.

I went out on the lake with Ed earlier today (Sunday). The camera was along, so I put together a little photo gallery. Check it out: Research With Ed 2

Unfortunately, it became to dark for my dorky camera to take pictures, so I have a single shot of the third floor taken earlier this afternoon. It is sort of an aerial view ? looking down from the roof hatch which is some 14 feet above the actual floor. In the picture is our drywall prep table, the non-existent door to my room (although one of the doors is there, just not hung yet), the chop saw and a bunch of other crap sitting in my room. Regrettably, this picture doesn?t show the progress gained today. Text will have to do until tomorrow. The east central bedroom on this floor is about 70% completed. Believe it or not, it has been going quite well (faster then I thought anyway).

Ok, well record lows again up here tonight (in the lower 40?s) so I?m going to go sit by the fire for the next 12 hours.

I?m already beginning to feel the crunch. There is an absurd amount of work to be done before school resumes (and people move back in). Although work on the third floor is progressing much faster than my worst case scenario predicted, it is still an enormous time sink. The window contractor is coming on Tuesday to take measurements and stuff but all the contractors are so busy up here it will likely take until mid-August to get the windows completely installed. Luckily though, that won?t slow down the drywall or the insulation process. I really wish I could find my camera so I can post pictures of the progress so those who can?t sit and watch the webcam all day can see what is going on as well. Ok, back to work. The web cam is on again: link.

Since the third floor was a steamy 87 degrees with 80% humidity, I went to Fahrenheit 9/11 this evening. [Caution, I?m going to use some naughty words here]. Quite simply, if even 10% of that was true (which I?m inclined to believe all of it) then anyone who votes for Bush in November is a fucking moron. Perhaps I should align myself before we go much further. I?d say I?m more democrat than republican but more independent than democrat. In another, less convoluted way, I?d say that I hate corrupt politicians, the stupid laws they make, the companies that back them and the flock of sheep that stand behind them.

Anyway, I didn?t go in to the movie with any sort of political ambitions. The movie seemed to piss off a lot of the people I vehemently disagree with (right wing religious types), so I figured what the hell, throw some more gas on the fire. On top of that, I was talking politics with my neighbor (who is a militant republican) this afternoon when the power was out and unfortunately, if there are many more like her, me thinks we be fucked. Although she couldn?t quite put her finger on, I think she expects the government to pass laws to make the world safe for her children and that we will the ?War on Terror?. If you think about it, how does one win the War on Terror? Simple kill all the terrorists. But who are the terrorists? You know, THOSE people. And so it continues . . . on and on. So far as I can figure it, the only way to win the War on Terror is to kill EVERYONE. That way we?re all safe from each other.

Anyway, long story short, if you want to vote for Bush, please do the Universe a favor and go see this movie. As I said before, even if only 10% is true, you?ll still kick yourself in the ass for supporting this guy. You may also want to check out some of the reviews on imdb as they likely tell a better story then I do (it is still hot as hell up here).

So there is this product called ?Great Stuff?. It is this magical bulletproof expanding spray foam insulation that I?m using to plug up the ridge vent. I committed a bit of a home improvement felony and didn?t read enough the can to figure out how to use the stuff and not get messed up. I stopped at waterproof. Yeah, shouldn?t have done that. So now I have a fraction of an inch of this crap permanently bonded to my hands. I tried to wash it off, but that only made it worse so I just took my loses and stuffed my hands in some sawdust. That dried the stuff up but man does it hurt like hell washing my face. If I could find my camera, I would take a picture for sure. But don?t worry gentle reader, I have several days before it all comes off so there may yet be a picture of this tragedy.

Webcam is online again: click here Eric did bring up a good point though - charter ensures that my ip does float around quite a bit. Solution is in the making.

Anyway, for today, I’d like to finish all the wiring the 3rd floor. I have to figure out what my overall lighting plan is and then execute it. In the meantime though, I have to connect a bunch of outlets together and maybe through up some more drywall.

What a day. 57 of you tuned in to see what was going on over the span of the day. Hopefully you weren?t disappointed. I?m sure that when I was using that skill saw left-handed I had a monopoly on the scariest web cam on the internet. All told another 224 sq ft of dry wall is up and secured. I also opted to insulate the interior walls for sound proofing so that took some time as well. However, after eight hours of sweating, its time for some dinner and some brew. Tune back in tomorrow around noon.

Web cam = off

Well, I’m going to give it a shot running this off my home connection (2mb cable). So the link to the webcam is here: http://24.213.26.121:8080 The camer is sitting on top of my monitor, looking north on the 3rd floor. There won’t much action for a couple of hours since I have some stuff to do in town. But after that, watch out. So, go ahead and try to connect.