You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2009.
On Tuesday, the plasma TV arrived. By ordering it over the Internet, I got a really good price, probably saving a couple hundred dollars because of the discount price, free shipping and no sales tax. The fact that Best Buy doesn’t carry the 46″ model that I wanted made it a no brainer. The shipper called to let me know the time frame he would deliver it so that was fantastic. Set up was easy since I placed it on a TV stand. I bought some HDMI cables from Monoprice. They were only a few dollars, an order of magnitude less than what you would have to pay for Monster cable and the like, and just as good. While there’s still quite a bit of unpacking to do, now that the TV is set up, it really is starting to feel like my man cave. Okay, more like me and my kids’ cave. I’m not so deluded to think that I have any control here.
With the basement remodel virtually complete, we began the move in. Wednesday evening, we had a neighbor kid help me bring the two sofas from the living room down into the basement. The love seat was a tight fit which meant that the larger sofa would be nearly impossible to get down there. After one abortive attempt we took a different route and were able to squeeze it through one doorway. We had to remove the hand rail from the basement stairway. This was no easy task either as one screw got stripped and another just would not come out. Brute force worked but we’ll ask the remodelers to reinstall it for the final inspection. The large sofa also got a pretty good rip in it when the back snagged onto the door frame. I taped it over but we’ll need to get it repaired some day. Of course, I also dropped the love seat on my right foot. I am now really hobbling. I may be taking ibuprofen for the remainder of my days.
On Thursday Karen had the Pod delivered
and in the afternoon, she and two neighbor kids she hired unloaded everything that we had stored in it. The boxes and furniture filled a good portion of the basement.
I spent most of the weekend unpacking and setting up the basement. Things are moving along. We expect the new living room sofas to arrive early this week and the flat panel TV should be delivered by Tuesday.
This past week I was reading the book Lean Thinking by Jones and Womack. In it they described a company, Wiremold, that has successfully adopted lean manufacturing techniques. It so happens that one of the products that Wiremold makes hide cords and cables for home theaters. Since I wanted to hide and protect the cables for the speaker system I was setting up in the basement, I went to Home Depot to purchase some channels and couplings. The CordMate Cord Channel was easy to cut with a hacksaw and all the speaker cable easily fit. It took a little pressure to snap them shut but it all worked fine. The adhesive backing made application to the wall very easy and the ivory color matched well with the color of the walls.
I also bought a Wiremold Corduct Overfloor Cord Protector for the cable cord in the bedroom. This should help prevent the kids from tripping over the cord and hurting themselves.
Today the electrical work in the house was completed. The electrician came and installed the sconces in the basement. Thanks to Karen’s brother Eric’s suggestion, he took the sconces that we had in the living room and installed them in the basement. They were new sconces that were UL-listed so he could install them and they would pass inspection. He placed two of the sconces in the living area and one in the landing at the top of the basement stairs.
We’ll use the old sconces for the living room. They were the original scones in the living room and match the light fixture in the dining room.
The electrician also rewired our garage and installed security lights by the garage door and by our back door.
Finally, a carpenter came to install the knobs on the bedroom closet doors and the drawers of the bathroom vanity.
The electrical inspection is scheduled for this Wednesday and the final inspection will take place later in the week.
