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Thanks. It's really the damnest thing. And get this.....

I'm working in that tight area under the stairs. It's the code-required ceiling light in there. But after the fact, I built an in-wall shelf from the other side for behind the bar that makes it REALLLLLY tight to get to this light. As I'm working, I knock my screw driver off the top of the inside top of the shelf. It hits me, hits the step ladder AND THEN DISAPPEARS! I looked EVERYWHERE. I even pulled the top off the sump pit in case it managed to find it's way in there, even though I never heard a splash. I STILL haven't found it.

But, on the plus side, the sump pump has been working great since I switched over to the new style float. I hear it running a LOT more than before. The water level never gets above about 1/3, MAYBE 1/2. It used to stay full all the time.

No, I won't have that probelm for at least another month!

Thanks for the good thoughts! So far (as of 4:45pm EST), so good. It started raining last night around 8:00 and hasn't stopped since. It seems to be a steady rain, not a deluge like the last two times I flooded. The Federal Government in DC closed today, so I've been home keeping any eye on the pump. It's been running about every 10 minutes, but doesn't get more than half full. The wind is definitely picking up. The rain doens't seem any harder; it just appears to be wind driven. I THINK I'm good as long as we don't get the deluge. There is not a spare sump pump, hand pump, drill pump or pump of ANY kind to be had!

As of 3:30pm (EST). it looks like the Fed is closed again tomorrow. I haven't wasted my day at home...update to follow.

OK, so I'm forced to be off today and I haven't wasted it.

Over the weekend, in amongst the 15 other things we had to do, I managed to feed the power for that dead switchbox from the storage room where I can easily tie into a live light circuit. I KNOW where I left the line for the fixture from the switchbox. I just wanted to at least get it that far given the time I had. I picked up TWO 12' sets of fiberglass pull rods. The run to where the light is is 17' from the storage area. So I thought I'd cut the hole (for a 4" recessed old work fixture) and I'd have room to get my hand in up there and grap the wire. Then I could use that hole to help feed it across to the wall where the switchbox is. Theoretically, I should be able to do it with one hole. MAYBE two, if I need to reach into the wall to help feed it down. Best case, no patching, worst case one hole to patch. AND repaint.

So....I know there is an I-beam running from the storage room and ends on one of the support posts. So I should have a clear chase along the beam and then only another 3' to where I'm pretty sure I left the wire from the switch for the fixture.

Here, from an old pic, you can see the support post on the left, and right about in the center of the pic (third "stud" in), is the wire I left up there after drywall that comes from the switchbox and connects to the fixture. THAT'S the one I'm looking for.


So I buy a 4" drywall hole saw and start cutting where I'm pretty sure the wire is. and MISSED IT BY that MUCH.


Notice the "stud in the way. Wrong side of the "stud." So I drill ANOTHER hole on what had better be the other side.

Here's the beam from the storage area and the starting point. I give it a test without the wire attached. tt goes a good 14' and hangs up. I noodle it around and in it goes! I actually find the end of it in the first hole among all the other wires. I attach the wire and start pulling. No go. All I can figure is that I got the empty rod in through the middle of that big bundle and there's not enough room for the wire to go through, too. So I pull it back an try from the hole, guiding the rod OVER the bundle and since it's only about 3', I find the beam and make it all the way back to the storage area. I throw the excess over the beam to where I'll tie in.


End of day one, I have the wire from the fixture back to the storage area. I reach up in thesecond hole and Voila! THERE is the wire from the switch.


All in all, about 45 minutes. It took me longer to write up!

Day TWO (today. On my forced day off.)

So now I have to fish the wire over to the wall where the switchbox is. About 4' and then down to the box. That wall is the side of the bumpout hat has the water main shutoff and the water lines I ran for the wet bar. If I can get from the hole to inside that wall, I'm golden. Easier said than done.

I hook up two of the rods (so I don't loose an end) and I keep hitting something solid. I'm afraid it's either the concrete foundation or a floor joist (which runs perpendicular to the direction I'm trying to go). I start poking around with the other rods trying to figure out if there's away I can get to the area under the stairs and then go through the wall. No dice. I pull all the rods back out and take them apart...I'm about to give up. On whim, I take a 4' length, feed in through the hole and push it all the way up into the hole and I FIND A WAY THROUGH! I pull the rod back, attach the wire and I can get through again. so now I have to wiggle in ther to connect a second length so I don't loose it. MAnage to do that. NOw I have to go to the access panel and try to hook it t o pull it down. Here's the access panel I had to work through.


I had a bunch of insulation in there so I can't see up and I can't quite reach over to the right to where the switchbox is mounted on the wall. I take a 4' rod with teh hook attachment and just start reaching up there. Now I know why they call it FISHING for wires. Eventually I hooked something and saw the rod sticking out the hole move. I had it! now, I just had to hope the rod would bend enough to make it down to where I could reach it. Once I got it down a bit, I had to use a flashlght and a mirror to see what was going on. Once I had the wire hooked (and not the rod), I started feeding it slack from the hole and was able to grab it. Then I untied it from the rod and pulled the rod back through the hole. From there, it was pretty easy to go in through the switchbox re-attach the wire to the rod and pull it through the switchbox.


Total time about two hours. And lots of reaching in to insulation, so arms are a little scratcy, but it's DONE. Now I just have to patch that hole and wire everything up.

OK, I actually made some progress this weekend!

I cut and stapled the fabric to the wall across from the bar.



Then I built the small frame for the end of that wall that defines the little bunmpout wher the sliding door is.



Here's the small panel installed.



And I patched and painted the extra hole I cut for the light over the bar. I took this picture after one coat. As far as I can tell, after the second coat, you can't see the patch at all.



Hopefully, next weekend and over Thanksgiving weekend I can get the molding cut, painted and installed. And MAYBE clean up the actuall bar a little.

Thanks. That's the plan. The paint is a great match to the fabric. The pics don't always show it, but this one did. The yellow trim will set it off nicely, just like in the theater area.

It's now been SEVEN, count 'em SEVEN, years on this build. Seven years ago, I was framing the third wall.

Didn't get as much done this past weekend as I had hoped. It took 3 hours to install that can light above bar. Last weekend I installed the dimmer switch and THOUGHT I had everything ready to go. Should have been a 15 job to wire the can and push it up in the ceiling. So I take my circuit tester to check the wire and I get nothing. I turn the switch on. I get nothing. I turn the dimmer all the way up. I get nothing. I turn off the circuit and I get nothing (whihc I guess is a good thing.) Then I realize the tester isn't working.

I go to HD and buy another one. I get the cheap $10 one. Apparently, it is a LOT more sensitive. I turn the circuit back on and I get readings EVERYWHERE. I turn off the switch and I STILL a get a reading at the light. So I turn off the circuit, and remove the switch. I get the continuity tester. I hook up the lighted end to the light and the battery end to the box and I get continuity. But it's a weird reading. SO I sart testing all the other wires and I start getting a solid reading from two different wires inside the box!. How can I have continuity from TWO wires inside the box? So I go back to where I tied in the new power line and undo all of that wiring. I hook up the test to that one and go back to test again.

After 3 or 4 more rounds of testing and really weird results, what I figured out is that power back to the breaker box will give a continuity reading WITHOUT the lighetd end attached to anything. I also figured out that I had the wrong wire labeld and attached to the dimmer as going up to the light can. Once I found all the right wires, I got everything wired back up correctly. Only took 3 hours.

That was Saturday. On Sunday, my son got me tickets to the Redskins/Eagles game for my birthday. NOT quite the Dream Seats in the End Zone....two rows behind them. Here was my view of the game.....

and...

OK, there actually WAS a game.....

Heck, I'll be out of date by the time I finish.

The L/R front speakers are Axiom M60s (bought last year), the center is an Axiom VP150 (a couple years old, bought used) surrounds are Q8s (again, a couple years old; bought used) the sub is an SVS 34" Sonotube with 325w bash amp (AGAIN, a couple years old; bought used). I don't think any of THAT will be out of date EVER.

The amp I will use, which right now is hooked up in the living room to my 65" Mits DLP, is a Denon 3806, which is PROBABLY out of date, but I have to hook it up in basement first. And THEN decide if I want to upgrade.

The projector is a Panny 4K which IS out of date, but so far I don't see the need to upgrade. Especially since it came with a free replacement lamp. I still love it. I would consider an upgrade after I burn the second lamp. Or I guess I could try to sell it with a brand new lamp when the first one burns out and get the Panny 8K for it's 3D (or by then maybe the Panny 15K for it's hologram technology!) .

BR players...so far I've been using the cheap ones and I do have a SONY 3D player hooked up to the Mits. I'll be upgrading that once I get the Denon down there and am ready to do some calibrations.

Keep in mind, the theater area, except for some lighting around the proscenium and attaching the baseboards, is done, so we watch something down there with the temp equipment almost every weekend. I'm still working on the rest of the bar area and the hallways into the room.

In Dimension X, time compresses as it moves through space.

Shamless bump to say no real progress.

A couple of weekends ago while watching a movie, I kept hearing water dripping. After the movie, I realized it was coming from the mechanical room. The whole house humidifer was leaking and the water was dripping onto a scrap piece of ductwork I had lying in there and it was making a pinging sound when the water hit the metal. So I shut down the humidifier and ordered parts. It's a Skuttle, which no one local seems ot carry, so I had to order.

ANYWAY, the wall I have been TRYING to finish (2" frame and fabric) is the back wall that contains the access to the humidifier. So now it doesn' make sense to finish the wall until I fix the humidifier. I get the parts early last week, go down there on Saturday, pull everything part, and what do you know, I ordered the WRONG parts! I thought I had a Model 2000, it's a 2002. So I re-order parts.

To make the 2" frames (the top part of the wall has to be removable for acces to the humidifier) I decide to use the 5/4 x 4 finger jointed pine (which as it turns is actually 5/4 x 3.5"!) and rip to the 2". I bought a couple of 10 footers (least waste using that length) at Lowes and ripped them down for the bottom frame, but as the weather is getting colder I figured I could go to the local lumber yard and have them rip the rest of them for the top part. NO.....they won't rip them and they only had 8 and 16 footers which would waste a LOT. So I had to go back to Lowes and rip them myself. And there they still sit, while I'm waiting to fix the humidifier.

And with the Holiday coming up, we'll be out of town, so nothing likely to get done until Jan.