Thumb and Hammer Blog

Among the most reviled design elements today is the horrendous popcorn textured ceiling.  So why did we choose to have this texture applied to our living room ceiling at a time when most people are removing it from theirs?  First of all, there was already a stucco texture applied to the ceiling that was not very uniform.  A few cracks had developed and had been fixed and patched, but the repair did not blend well with the original.  Other repair was needed.   We could have completely replaced the ceiling or simply covered the existing ceiling with new drywall but applying new popcorn was the most economical solution.  After an hour of prep and less than half an hour of actual spraying, the ceiling was finished. For better or worse, it does fit in with the style and age of our house so it does not look out of place as…

It was a long wait.  The contractors had put our project on hiatus back in June, promising to return at a later date to finish up the last few details.  They did return once, to install the front picture window, but they didn’t do any of the other work, assuring us that they would indeed return “after the holiday.”  The “holiday” to which they referred was Labour Day.  Well, weeks turned to months and needless to say, our frustration began to build.  We understood that they were very busy, but at the same time, we wanted the work on our house to be finished.  After repeated calls to our project manager, and repeated promises that the contractors would contact us plus repeated verbal assurances that they would be out to our house “within the week” (three weeks in a row), they finally returned yesterday.
In a flurry of activity, they…

Our desktop computer is dead.  We aren’t sure if the motherboard got zorched by a power surge, or if it stopped working for another reason.  The bottom line is that it stopped working.  And our main hard drive was messed up as well.  The last time we did any significant backup was a couple of years ago, so you can imagine our panic.  Our pictures, documents and other files were all at risk.  Fortunately, the computer tech was able to recover our files, but there was nothing he could do for the computer.
I am typing this entry on our new laptop.  I am trying to restore our files and install the programs that we use the most while getting used to a new operating system.  Plus I have two weeks’ worth of work that has piled up (and continues to pile up) in the meantime.  Ain’t technology great?!
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It may have taken over three months, but I eventually got around to finishing the structured wiring in the master bedroom. A this blistering pace, the stair railing may get painted sometime within the next decade.
Where has my ambition gone? Why am I so pathetic? How do I get my motivation back?

It is one of those unwritten laws.  If an air conditioner is going to die, it will be on the hottest day of the year.  And, for added insult, any heat wave will end the day after the air conditioner is fixed.  On Monday, the temperature in the house approached 90 degrees and we became human sweat stains.  Tuesday, the repairman came out.  After $100 for the service call, a two minute diagnosis (”There’s your problem there….”) and $120 for a replacement part, plus applicable taxes of course, cool air was again flowing through our house.

My wife seems pleased with the progress, but I am not.  I had planned to get our master bedroom put back together last weekend but I ran out of time.  I planned to get our bedroom back together yesterday but I ran out of time.  Our bedroom is still not back together.  The curtains and blinds are up.  At least now we have privacy.  And the clutter is gone, sort of.  Well, “gone” isn’t the right word.  “Moved to the hallway” is probably more accurate.  I did manage to get the audio tower together, but not the bookshelf.  And there is still the matter of wiring up the QuickPorts so we can have our phone and television in the bedroom.  Oh, yeah, and there is all that clutter in the hallway to take care of now.

As I write this, my wife is whisking her parents home.  Actually, it’s a ten hour drive– a pretty long whisk– so that may not be the best term.  At any rate, I am left alone with our dog after spending the last two months with two additional people and two additional dogs in our house.  And as I sit here contemplating what I am going to do for the next couple of days, I am struck by one recurring thought:  “Holy crap, it’s quiet in here!”
We have been in a holding pattern for the last two months.  The contractors moved on to another project, intending to return here at some point to finish grouting the kitchen backsplash and install the front window.  Apparently, they decided to wait until after our house guests left.  That gave me two months to get our house in order.  Sufficient time for most…