Out with the old...
Jun. 24th, 2002 04:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikProgress is being made on the Dumpster front. It arrived Saturday, and following shortly thereafter was much welcomed help in the form of my sister and bro-in-law. We hucked out the bulk of the badstuff in the garage, a handful of big items from the backyard and various things that were previously scattered amongst the interior of the house. We even got enough things moved that we could relocate Shawn's nice little couch from the garage (where it was getting crap piled upon it) to the empty bedroom, where it's safe from feline wrath behind a closed door. I kept worrying I'd tear or grease-stain his furniture while working on my bikes, so I feel better now that it's in a more protected locale.
With help from a borrowed set of furniture dollies we extracted the extremely oversized (and ugly as all heck) workbench that had been left by a prior roomate, now 5 years gone. It's currently sitting in front of the dumpster with a "FREE WORKBENCH" sign on it, but we doubt there'll be any takers. If it lasts until the final day of the dumpster's presence it'll get chopped apart and thrown atop the pile. We were all plenty tired by now so we called an end to Saturday by going to watch Lilo and Stitch -- a thoroughly enjoyable movie. A lot got done for one day, but it was only 1/3 or less of what we're hoping to get done before the dumpster goes away. It's here until Friday, unless we want to pay more than we already have for it.
Sunday started by completing a prior commitment. I spent a few short hours up in Menlo Park helping a friend (and prior boss) fix a few niggling problems with his network that his own IT people couldn't figure out. He likes to sneak me in on the weekends for that kind of thing as it's often the only way he gets network changes done. Said ex-bossman is also the best photographer I know, and an impromptu shoot happened... but that's a story for later. At this point I was supposed to come home and finish off the backyard cleanup, and then make good headway into the house itself. Instead I ended up once more at Sears, followed shortly thereafer by Home Depot.
Into the van went a new proper metal-topped workbench (with shelves and drawers), wall-mountable powerstrips, tilt-bin storage kits, pegboard goodies and other organizer-bits. I'll guiltily admit to a few tools ending up in the checkout bag as well, the desire to fill in the empty slots in the toolbox having become pretty strong. I think I've replaced all the missing pieces now, but I'm sure I'll find more I need later. Home Depot had the overhead shop-lights and a few more storage bins of the type I wanted. Sean (not Shawn) who'd been tagging with me was highly amused by all this. He knows how to derail me when necessary, and his teasing got me out of those stores before I'd acquired even more. I like him for that; he's a rather strong factor in my own personal 'checks an balances' system.
The remainder of Sunday was spent building the benches and various bits, and installing the new wiring. The southern wall of my garage now has, below the existing pegboard, a workbench, tons of new pegs, mounted bins and carriers, the rolly toolbox, a 15-outlet long-strip, and two shoplights. Floor swept and junk removed, it actually looks like a respectible work-area now, much to my satisfaction. I'll take a pic tomorrow for the curious. I really should have taken one of the absolute disaster area that the garage used to be, for comparison. The northern wall has a set of metal-wire racks upon which sit all of the landlord's paint cache and the large table-top tools (where they can be pulled out as needed and used at the workbench). The floor is clean and there's so much more room it's still amazing. I can wheel the new shop-chair between both bikes in a figure-eight and not bump anything. There's enough light to see, and when I need a tool I can actually find it. However... the day was completely used up by this, and almost no actual cleaning occurred outside of the garage.
The day resulted in an odd mix of grumpy and satisfied moods. I really enjoy my 'new' garage and I didn't spend all that much to acquire it. But... I now have a very full workweek ahead of me and I may not finish emptying the rest of the housejunk before Friday. I'll probably just bite the bullet and keep the dumpster over next weekend and try for another full Saturday of cleaning again, but this would mean putting off the trip to the parents yet one more week. I'll see how much I can actually motivate and get done during the weeknights. I plan to spend some of it helping![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
revar pull all the old boxes from the above-garage area to sort through and pitch as needed -- boxes that haven't been touched in 4+ years. All the Burning Man stuff is up there in playa-coated truck boxes and they too need going through. Once we're down to the Must Keep level, we'll stuff it all up ther and out of the way It will probably remain there until we move or the next Big Dumpster Event comes, whichever happens first.
The neighbor-kids love us all the more now. They eagerly swiped up the super-soakers, games, smaller RC toys and other things in our "we do not need this anymore" pile. We've only had one blatant dumpster-diving adult so far, which we discouraged due to liability issues. The neighbors have been pretty respectful this time and haven't thrown their own garbage into it. Last time we hadn't had the dumpster for two days before finding copious quantities of material show up that didn't come from our house.
Five more days of dumpster-filling to go... then it's time to evaluate housecleaning services and get one started. I can see the hints of a Clean House when I wander around the garage, and it has definately helped improve my mood. I'm almost excited to think about the rest looking (and staying) clean. It's been way too long since that was a reality.
With help from a borrowed set of furniture dollies we extracted the extremely oversized (and ugly as all heck) workbench that had been left by a prior roomate, now 5 years gone. It's currently sitting in front of the dumpster with a "FREE WORKBENCH" sign on it, but we doubt there'll be any takers. If it lasts until the final day of the dumpster's presence it'll get chopped apart and thrown atop the pile. We were all plenty tired by now so we called an end to Saturday by going to watch Lilo and Stitch -- a thoroughly enjoyable movie. A lot got done for one day, but it was only 1/3 or less of what we're hoping to get done before the dumpster goes away. It's here until Friday, unless we want to pay more than we already have for it.
Sunday started by completing a prior commitment. I spent a few short hours up in Menlo Park helping a friend (and prior boss) fix a few niggling problems with his network that his own IT people couldn't figure out. He likes to sneak me in on the weekends for that kind of thing as it's often the only way he gets network changes done. Said ex-bossman is also the best photographer I know, and an impromptu shoot happened... but that's a story for later. At this point I was supposed to come home and finish off the backyard cleanup, and then make good headway into the house itself. Instead I ended up once more at Sears, followed shortly thereafer by Home Depot.
Into the van went a new proper metal-topped workbench (with shelves and drawers), wall-mountable powerstrips, tilt-bin storage kits, pegboard goodies and other organizer-bits. I'll guiltily admit to a few tools ending up in the checkout bag as well, the desire to fill in the empty slots in the toolbox having become pretty strong. I think I've replaced all the missing pieces now, but I'm sure I'll find more I need later. Home Depot had the overhead shop-lights and a few more storage bins of the type I wanted. Sean (not Shawn) who'd been tagging with me was highly amused by all this. He knows how to derail me when necessary, and his teasing got me out of those stores before I'd acquired even more. I like him for that; he's a rather strong factor in my own personal 'checks an balances' system.
The remainder of Sunday was spent building the benches and various bits, and installing the new wiring. The southern wall of my garage now has, below the existing pegboard, a workbench, tons of new pegs, mounted bins and carriers, the rolly toolbox, a 15-outlet long-strip, and two shoplights. Floor swept and junk removed, it actually looks like a respectible work-area now, much to my satisfaction. I'll take a pic tomorrow for the curious. I really should have taken one of the absolute disaster area that the garage used to be, for comparison. The northern wall has a set of metal-wire racks upon which sit all of the landlord's paint cache and the large table-top tools (where they can be pulled out as needed and used at the workbench). The floor is clean and there's so much more room it's still amazing. I can wheel the new shop-chair between both bikes in a figure-eight and not bump anything. There's enough light to see, and when I need a tool I can actually find it. However... the day was completely used up by this, and almost no actual cleaning occurred outside of the garage.
The day resulted in an odd mix of grumpy and satisfied moods. I really enjoy my 'new' garage and I didn't spend all that much to acquire it. But... I now have a very full workweek ahead of me and I may not finish emptying the rest of the housejunk before Friday. I'll probably just bite the bullet and keep the dumpster over next weekend and try for another full Saturday of cleaning again, but this would mean putting off the trip to the parents yet one more week. I'll see how much I can actually motivate and get done during the weeknights. I plan to spend some of it helping
revar pull all the old boxes from the above-garage area to sort through and pitch as needed -- boxes that haven't been touched in 4+ years. All the Burning Man stuff is up there in playa-coated truck boxes and they too need going through. Once we're down to the Must Keep level, we'll stuff it all up ther and out of the way It will probably remain there until we move or the next Big Dumpster Event comes, whichever happens first.The neighbor-kids love us all the more now. They eagerly swiped up the super-soakers, games, smaller RC toys and other things in our "we do not need this anymore" pile. We've only had one blatant dumpster-diving adult so far, which we discouraged due to liability issues. The neighbors have been pretty respectful this time and haven't thrown their own garbage into it. Last time we hadn't had the dumpster for two days before finding copious quantities of material show up that didn't come from our house.
Five more days of dumpster-filling to go... then it's time to evaluate housecleaning services and get one started. I can see the hints of a Clean House when I wander around the garage, and it has definately helped improve my mood. I'm almost excited to think about the rest looking (and staying) clean. It's been way too long since that was a reality.
