RE-Cycle: "A Young Man's Game" or "Mixed Blessings"

Monday, February 9, 2015

"A Young Man's Game" or "Mixed Blessings"

NOW I remember why I was not too disappointed with having to leave my vocation of construction/remodeling! Back in '08, during the economic down turn (recession), all work in the construction industry dried up. Left a LOT of us, with no future, wondering if we would ever EAT again! Were it not for Angi and I brainstorming one day, trying to figure out what we could sell, just so we could buy food for dinner one evening, we may NEVER have discovered "RE-Cycle" lurking within the confines of our dilapidated, cluttered garage. Now, seven years later, I couldn't imagine ever doing anything else! And with GOOD reason! Construction IS a young mans game! It's not so much the painting (although my eyes are NOT what they used to be, and amidst the clutter of the house yesterday, several hands-on, took a few minuets to find a pair of Daddy's glasses just so he could cut the trim in the kitchen!) it was my BRILLIANT (denote sarcasm) idea, that in a desire to hide the wires for the surround sound, we would run them through the attic. There is an access cover plate just above where the TV sits, that turned out to hide the old cable pick up. Perfect place to run the wire up. SOOOO, with Kaleb acting as message relay, and Elijah feeding me wires, I climbed up into the crawl space.
woof.
The ONLY way to access the attic is in the boys room, through the AC air handler hatch. IN short, FIRST I have to snake my body between the drain line, and electrical junction boxes (which I JUST now realized...I NEVER shut off the breaker!?) , then over the main duct work junction box, into two feet of crawl space, between the trusses, then a tuck and roll under another truss and OVER the OLD duct work, that never got taken out, into the main body of the crawl space. This area was about 6'X4'X2'. Luckily, this was where the feed was! But THAT was about the ONLY bright spot in the whole ordeal! The front two speakers were not too bad, although with all the blown insulation put over the old insulation, finding a one inch hole, even with Elijah's help on the ground, was a bear. No, it was when we got to the BACK speakers, I had REAL fun! See, the main room is actually what was originally the back of the house, until they renovated the Florida room into an additional living space, so the down pitch of the roof line ends about three inches after the holes we put for the back speakers! In effect, I had to do a belly lay IN the insulation and make a long stretch to feed the wire down! That was for the right rear! The left rear was BEHIND ALL the cluster of duct work!!! Too make matters worse, it was after the right rear, we realized we were out of wire, and had to take a break until someone could run and get more. SO, at this point, I started in with painting the kitchen. Our landlord came out Friday and Saturday and replaced all the cabinetry, counter tops and sink in the kitchen, thereby giving us an excuse to get rid of more yellow walls! Angi hit Lowes yesterday and found a gorgeous color that really ties everything together. Works great with the new counter tops and works real well with the green motif we seem to be headed towards. And what I really like is the khaki green she chose gives the whole thing a seventyish kitch! PLUS, she got aged copper pulls for the drawers and cabinetry! VERY nice choice! I'll have pics tomorrow, as I do paint and construction NOT so much clean up! I left that for Elijah to earn his room and board!
Once the first coat was on the wall, Kaleb got back with the new spool of wire, and with a sigh of resignation, I climbed back up!
UGH!
SO, back into the left rear corner, with 8 inches of space above to slither over the ducts, to crawl the remaining eight feet to the hole, I went! For a brief moment there, with the last wire fed and my feet still stuck between the duct work and the rows and rows of roof tile nails, arms outstretch, I thought I may be stuck for good, and the rest of the family would have to seal me in the attic, right me off, and if friends came over and heard rustling above them they would just have to write it off as squirrels, and use a LOT of air freshener to mask the smell of my rotting corpse!
oooo. TOO descriptive?
Sorry.
But, as you now realize, I made it out alive, and with the help of a LOT of Advil, I hope to make it another productive day!
Speaking of production! Managed to put out three newbies with a fourth in my rack, stripped and cleaned and ready for assembly! I want to thank all the folks for paying us a visit yesterday, as we sent three more to new homes! I really LOVE the dad who came in to buy his son a gag gift for his birthday! He's really giving him his first mini bike, but he wanted to present him with a REALLY girly bike and left with the REALLY pink one! Tassels and all! Hope the kid doesn't get TOO mad when he see's it, throws a fit, and screws up the REAL gift giving!
Oh and Angi got me BIG time yesterday! She often time sends me cute, funny or inspirational quotes she picks up on line. All the ones you see hanging around the shop have been from her. Yesterday she sent me a PERFECT one...that I didn't even REALIZE was a Firefly quote! Now, I have watched that series a Bajillion times, and can pretty much recite, line by line as I watch, but for SOME reason THIS one TOTALLY escaped me! Show's you how much mush my brain has become!

It's from the final scene of "Serenity" when Mal is describing piloting to River Tam.
I'm an idiot!
OKEY DOKEY!
I best get a move on, LOT'S to do today!!