DanLog the ramblings of Daniel Pettit

Since I failed to take full notice of the required tools necessary to assemble my mother new bicycle, I wasn’t able to do it on Christmas. Today I finished the job. I have a funny feeling she likes her new bicycle.

Went to Swiss Wire this morning to make some printer setup changes and found out that they have added a new member to the swiss wire family.

Just too cute.

Drove out to my sister’s house in Rancho Santa Margarita this afternoon to hook up her new computer. The clouds and mountains were rather interesting looking today.

Took the opportunity to have a big “mansion” as a set all to ourselves. It has been many years since I’ve done any “studio” photos. As usual everything takes longer than planned but we managed to get several wardrobe changes in and covered a good portion of the original plan.

After loading up the truck someone left the passenger door open as we went inside to let the halogens cool off enough to load them. Well sure enough that 15 minutes of having the interior lights on in the truck were enough to drain the battery it must be bad or I have a charging problem. I Called mom but neither she or Robbie had any jumper cables, not to mention I didn’t have any myself. AAA to the rescue about 30 minutes later we got a jump and were on our way. Stopped by Panda Express around 7:45pm but they were already closed as was Chipotle, good old McDonalds was open til 8pm so that was dinner.

More Photos

Yesterday, I addressed the difficiencies in the subfloor and I sank two deck screws per board per joist crossing ( around 300 screws ) to solidly attach the subfloor to the joists. That elliminated 90% of the squeaks. A new tool was used for this, a SENCO DuraSpin™ DS300 Collated Screwdriver Attachment this with a Dewalt screwgun creates the best thing since sliced bread. From a standing position you can sink the screws, the tool automatically feeds the next screw. So it is just a matter of pressing down on the tool and then moving to the next insertion point. You can easily sink 20 screws a minute. Try that crawing around on your knees loading each screw. Today I installed a layer of 3/4″ t & g ( tounge and groove ) plywood ( sturdi-floor ). I ran liquid nails for subfloors along the perimeter and along the joists, layed down the plywood and screwed it down with deck screws into the joists. This floor is not going to creak or go anywhere now. Before I installed the plywood, I set up my trusty laser to prject the locations of the joists. I marked each opposing wall where the joists lined up. Once I had the plywood down, I lined up my laser line with my marks on the wall and had a dead on “chalk” line to screw down the plywood to the joists. My new Dura Spin screw driving tool made short work of driving another 250 or so 2.5″ deck screws.

I completed the sub-floor repairs today.

I had to rip out several boards to get to the floor joists. A couple joists were not cut long enough so they apparently over time kind of rotated up from a flush position against the beam and made a high spot on the floor. I had to sand off the high spots and try to level things out a bit. The level of the hallway is quite lower. I don’t plan on rebuilding the whole second story so I’ll just try to even out the height differences where I can.

I also installed some brackets so the joists are solidly attached to the support beam.

I’d don’t think this is the kind of wood floor Lauren had in mind.

Driving home with our Friday night pizza I spotted a mattress on Balboa Blvd. I quickly pulled over to the side of the street and got my camera ready. I was a couple blocks away at this point so I had to really twist myself out the window to get the angle on the shot and to my surprise these two girls had appeared and they were adding to the mattress display. Imagine the timing. Well I fired off series of photos as the girls for some strange reason proceeded to setup the bed on the sidewalk. I was sure I had at least one “keeper” and was on my way. Pizza will only wait so long. It was only afterward that I wonderned just why were they setting up the bed. I wonder if I’d stayed longer I would have gotten a show?? Did they lose a bet. I’m sure I’ll never know but I do have a new holiday card and a unique photo for my 901st submission to StreetMattress.com

Today was the official first day of the upstairs hardwood floor installation. I have some serious high spots and uneven sub-floor near the master bedroom door, so I just took a sneak peak of the area today.

And no project is complete without some new equipment, here is my new automatic nail and staple remover.