well, we survived another outing to Detroit, although it was iffy at times. ok, not really. Detroit isn't really as bad as people make it out to be (esp. now that it is all cleaned up for the Super Bowl). it does have its moments though. if you're in the market for a neat, old burned-out or abandoned house, it's your city. that place is a house-fixer-upper's dream (or nightmare depending on how you look at it).
we had a great time there though. as usual, we went to the auto show. the highlight was of course the new Corvette Z06. saweeeeeet! we saw it at the show (i sat in it ... niceeee) and at theRenaissance Center(where we ate lunch - see picture). the next coolest car was the concept for the new Camaro. very nicely executed by the folks at GM (way to be Ben). apart from cars, we saw famous people too! aren't we cool!? at the Ren-Center, we arrived just as some event was ending where country stars Big & Rich performed and Cal Ripken Jr. (famous baseball player),Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR star), and Ron Fellows (Corvette Racing driver) were signing autographs (we were too hungry to wait).
Besides the show, we did the usual touring around Detroit with master-Detroit-tour-guide Ben. we found out he knows more about the city than people who have lived there their whole lives :-) we visited the John K. King Used and Rare Books store which was really cool. and to the Plymouth Ice Spectacular, which wasn't quite as spectacular as advertised (and some of the sculptures broke in the sun). Ben also gave us a neat tour of his office/building at GM. we also ate lots of good food ... thai, deep-dish pizza, good breakfast, etc.
we spent friday evening with our friends Dan & Julie (i met Julie at Purdue). we had dinner and had a good time catching up on what was going on with each other. i think we scared them a bit with tales of our Grand Canyon trip! it was fun hanging out with them, we only wish we got to do it more often than once a year.
sunday we visited Genesis church with Ben, Dan & Julie, and our friends Steve & Alyssa. also a good time and a neat church.
since then, been caught up with other things so nothing really new at the house. we hope to knock a few things off the list this saturday though. ok, i think that sentence counts as "house related" to make this post legal for a blog about our house. i also think i went a bit crazy with the links on this post. maybe?
sorry, i did it again. i've been meaning to post more, we've just been busy with random things (out of town, friends in town, etc.) and haven't done all that much with the house lately (post-Colts/Bears loss depression). we've downshifted a bit, i guess you'd say. but, some things have been done since i last posted. for some reason it seems harder to post now when i'm here all night compared to going back to the apartment after working here. i think there is a greater laziness factor involved somewhere.
well, i got started refinishing the stairs. it's going to be a slow process, slower than anticipated anway. the treads are really aged and have some sort of deep grooves in them. i don't plan on sanding the grooves out, it would take too long, but trying to make it look nice will take some time. also, when the previous owners did the last painting of the walls/ceiling around there, they did it to their usual quality standard -- (crap) -- and dripped and splashed all over the stairs. getting that paint off takes some time. i'll be using a mix of 50, 60, and 120-grit sandpaper to accomplish the task on a combo of two sanders. first, a Porter Cable 333K 5" random orbit sander ... for the majority of the sanding. for edges and corners, i'll be using a Black & Decker FS540K 1/4 sheet palm sander (a nice Christmas present from Lydia that i work with -- company gift exchange). i got a better quality filter for the shop vac to use while sanding to hopefully limit the carryover to the rest of the house. i think it helped the suction power also ... watch out, you'll lose your arm in there (i accidentally sucked up a 1" wood chisel all the way through the hose -- and that's not a light tool). i'll be staining them the same stain as the floors (leftovers). instead of polyurethane though, i think i will use shellac (leftover from sealing in potential urine remnants in subfloors). it's kind of an old-fashioned product, but really is still one of the best wood sealers there is (and cures much faster than poly, so we won't have to crawl in through the windows or anything to get around the stairs while they dry -- unlike a certain brother of mine who shall remain nameless ... well, he has a name, it might start with "D" and end in "ave" - i only wish i was there to have watched that -- makes me very glad we had the option of doing most of the hardwoods before we were moved in). i'm sure they'll look different than the floors (different wood species, different finish), but i think it will look nice when done. i hope to knock a chunk of that out in 2 saturdays (we'll be making our annual Detroit visit this weekend -- visiting my friend Ben and going to the auto show).
last night, i added to the home theater, sort of. we have really odd power fluctuations here ... we have since we bought the place. after the electric service upgrade, my brother (Jim) put a voltmeter to the line and was able to watch considerable spikes and surges. i have had Cinergy out to look at it 3 times, but still no resolution. the last time, they installed a recording voltmeter for several days to see if they can figure out what is going on. it is frustrating, but i feel they are making a real attempt to solve it. i plan to call tomorrow to see what they have found. apart from the annoying light flickerings every 15 mins or so, the real problem is that those sudden peaks and valleys are really rough on electronics. they won't damage it per-say, but they will degrade their output and lessen their life over time. so, the addition was a nice power conditioner, the APC H15. this slick unit provides isolated noise filtering (improve performance), high level surge protection (no more lightning worries) and automatic voltage regulation (boosts power during valleys, trims power during peaks). Monster Power (and others) makes many power conditioning units, but their only voltage regulating product costs around $2000 (wayyyyy too much ... overpriced, like everything they make/sell). for the APC unit, i spent about 10% of that through a great internet special. i'm sure some of the filters and such aren't as good and i know that it isn't regulating voltage to as precise of levels, but for the price i couldn't beat it. and i know that APC knows a thing or two about power management. plus, thanks to my mad fantasy football skills this year ... i guess you could say it was free :-) (the rest of my "skills" will go toward the future tool fund i think).
the other completed items weren't as interesting (they didn't involve power tools or electronics, as much anyway). i installed some wireless doorbells and two smoke detectors (still need to get one for the basement though, dunno why i forgot that). we put a shade on the front door and have the office mostly organized. we got the old apartment cleaned and the rest of our stuff out of there also, so that part of our life is over. our friend Aaron picked up the leftover carpeting to use in his basement, so the mudroom was reorganized to better use the space. i also finally got the ductwork fixed (for now) at the sunroom. we were up north helping Jim's family move the other weekend, so i had him pick up the needed 90 at his supply house. while putting it in, i realized the piece of ductwork prior to the 90 was in much worse shape than i thought (surface rust was deeper than thought), so i put the 90 in sort of temporarily (foil tape, no screws) until i replace the other piece (low priority, when i'm bored some day ... maybe in 3 years). we also got the spare bedroom cleaned-up/organized and are working the carpet padding remants out with the trash. we also had our recycling bin delivered, so we can finally be good stewards of re-usable products.
well, i think that's it for today. i'm not sure what the next project will be ... but i'll try to keep this more up to date.
PS: if anyone in the central Indiana area would have a home for one or two nice dogs, please check out my friend Pervis's blog. he is leaving for the Peace Corps before long and needs to find homes for these guys.
times. ok, not really. Detroit isn't really as bad as people make it out to be (esp. now that it is all cleaned up for the Super Bowl). it does have its moments though. if you're in the market for a neat, old burned-out or abandoned house, it's your city. that place is a house-fixer-upper's dream (or nightmare depending on how you look at it).
saweeeeeet! we saw it at the show (i 
sat in it ... niceeee) and at the
Renaissance Center (where we ate lunch - see picture). the next coolest car was the concept for the new Camaro. very nicely executed by the folks at GM (way to be Ben). apart from cars, we saw famous people too! aren't we cool!? at the Ren-Center, we arrived just as some event was ending where country stars Big & Rich performed and Cal Ripken Jr. (famous baseball player), Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR star), and Ron Fellows (Corvette Racing driver) were signing autographs (we were too hungry to wait). 
guide Ben. we found out he knows more about the city than people who have lived there their whole lives :-) we visited the John K. King Used and Rare Books store which was really cool. and to the 
