View allAll Photos Tagged crawlspaces
With the construction ending FINALLY, and Carolyn finishing up the painting, she realized the crawlspace was a mess and so she decided to get our spare cables organized. The clear plastic comfortor bgas, with zippers, are the absolute best thing to store large collections of cables in. Medium collections store best in large ziplock bags. Cable types are sorted into labeled bags. It was crazy, but it was worth it because it was much easier to find everything after it was all organized. And it was surprising how many cables we'd pulled from the crawlspace within the next 6 months -- a few of these bags hung out upstairs near the end of 2007, due to the ever-changing setup with our new upstairs hangout area.
Carolyn.
cleaning, sorting.
Crocs, cables, plastic bag, wires.
Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 22, 2007.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
dirt, flood, floor, ground, mud, rocks, water.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
When people talk nostalgically about the importance of family, it is difficult to explain the set of conditions that I grew up with. Even when they hear stories of my early years they tend to insert the concept of their own father or the generic Gestalt of fatherhood. Even my closest friends have difficulty imaging how bizarre things were. My friend of 45 years, Kevin Madden, reveres my father to this day and speaks glowingly of him when the subject comes up. I loved my father in many ways but living with him was impossible. He was a lot of fun to be around under the right conditions, particularly when I got older and out from under his roof, but he was woefully remiss in his duties as a father and a husband, which made my life a lot more difficult than it might have been and robbed me of the luxury of naiveté and the irresponsibility of childhood. There comes a time at a very early age when saddled with an irresponsible father that you have to come to terms that your father is not a hero in the John Wayne mold or the wise Solomonic figure played by Robert Young in the television program Father Knows Best. It tends to distort ones vision of humanity at much too early of an age.
By the time I was eighteen years old, I had long been disabused of any notion that my father, Alexander Liddle Macfeat Jr., was operating within the normal standards of societal behavior or even within the law. He was impossible to pin down on any subject and what explanations he did give were deliberately vague with the obvious intent to deceive. Various vehicles and items would inexplicably appear at the house only to disappear soon afterwards. After a while it made no sense to question him about anything since getting a straight answer out of him was like trying to capture helium in a bucket.
He was on the other hand quite handsome, over six feet tall with gray hair that was combed straight back, slim but strong and he had a wonderful and spontaneous sense of humor that made him entertaining and charming. Although he was thoroughly irresponsible as a father he was generous in social settings. He was a particular favorite with women, often married, that kept him in a certain amount of trouble his entire life. As a very young boy I remember being told by a friend of his, Hal Robeson, that my father was a "man's man," which at the time made absolutely no sense to me. Despite Hal's analysis of the situation, Alexander would have to be considered a ladies man, perhaps a bit too successful with them considering his own marital status throughout much of his life.
At the beginning of the summer I was nineteen and out of work, which unusual for me because I had been working every summer since my early teens. My father's drinking, gambling and womanizing often took precedence over providing for the family. I worked at an early age to ensure that I wasn't adversely affected by his unrepentant hedonism beyond having the utilities shut off and the house occasionally being put up for Sheriff's Sale. The majority of time in my last few years of living in the family home I was living there on my own. My parents would stop by to check in on occasion and stay there from time to time. I moved out of New Jersey as soon as was possible and was living in an apartment near the school I was attending, Philadelphia College of Art.
I got a call from my father asking if I would be interested in helping him move a couple of air conditioners. He was generous as far as paying for a days work so I jumped at the chance. I didn't ask why he could possibly need two window units, since he was living in his girlfriend Doris' house which had central air conditioning and his answer would have inevitably been incomprehensible anyway.
I took the 8:00 train to New Jersey and my father picked me up in his Ford pick up truck at the High Speed Line station closest to his house. We drove a short way and pulled into the large gravel parking lot of the local police station. I began to suspect something was suspicious given my father's aversion to the police and the fact that I knew that he was having an affair with the young and attractive girlfriend of the chief of this town's police. The chief was my father's age but neither young nor attractive. He was at least 350 pounds and lived with his mother his whole life. I suppose his girlfriend loved a man in a uniform or with power or some other perk because it wasn't for his looks or personality, which was downright surly.
We pulled up to the back of the police station and knocked at the back door. It was answered by the man that used to do yard work for my father, Bobby Davis. Bobby was the maintenance man at the station and was a small guy but wiry, with forearms like Popeye the Sailor Man. He also had an enormous set of ears that stuck far off his head and was missing teeth. My father addressed Bobby because I couldn't understand a goddamn word that he said. He had a wicked speech impediment, but somehow Al understood him which used to astonish me. Despite all of his handicaps, Bobby was having an affair with my father's rather plump next door neighbor, he used to slip over there when her husband went to work. Bobby and my father had a brief conversation and then he led us to an office with Chief of Police painted on the wooden door. The building was old and large and had previously been used as an elementary school. On the other side of the room were two of the largest window unit air conditioners I had ever seen, before or after. The windows in this place were gigantic. It seemed highly unlikely that the chief was giving my father anything since he had plenty of reason not to like him let alone give him two enormous, brand new air conditioners but I was there already so I had little choice but to proceed with the project. We humped the air conditioners out of the windows and struggled to get them into my father's truck, they were incredibly heavy. Once the truck was loaded my dad said goodbye to Bobby and we started out of the parking lot. We got halfway across the lot when a police cruiser pulled in and started heading toward the building. I just happened to glance over at my father and saw a look of panic on his face, confirming my worst case scenario. It was now clearly apparent that we just stole the two new air conditioners from the police.
By the time the officer got into the building we were long gone. My father drove away past his house and kept going until we got to a large forest of scrub pines called the Pine Barrens. After an initial period of fear induced quietude, we began arguing about why he would involve me in this stupid crime without telling me that we were stealing from the police and he was telling me to shut the fuck up. Advance notice would have queered the deal. He knew I would have never agreed to it so he didn't ask. After a long drive we eventually pulled into the parking lot of a bar way back in the woods and pulled the truck behind it. We entered by the front door and once my eyes acclimated to the unnatural dark I saw that the entire clientele of the establishment was black. It was a low rent bar in what must have been an all African-American rural community. The bar went dead quiet with the dozen or so patron's eyes focused entirely on us. Earlier I noticed my father going in the glove compartment for his pistol so I knew we were not completely defenseless should this situation go South on us. My father was a pretty big guy and could be imposing and I was in good shape and bearded in an approximation of Kris Kristofferson's biker character in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, one of my favorite Sam Peckinpah movies starring Warren Oates. My father was an inveterate alcoholic and in need of his morning drink so we ordered a couple of beers. The bartender was slow to serve us in an act of defiance to let us know that we weren't welcome. It was tense and I had been in panic mode for the better part of an hour and was beginning to be accustomed to feeling threatened. That coupled with my father's ability to charm a room and his willingness to buy the entire bar drinks began to defuse any animosity. In the course of an hour several of the patrons had taken to my father and we actually settled in to having a good time and getting drunk. It seemed inappropriate to continue arguing with my father under the circumstances, our solidarity was essential. There are no local police in much of the Pine Barrens so there was no danger of some cop with nothing to do all day poking his head in the place. The Pine Barrens were patrolled by the New Jersey State Police. In 1974 the force was almost entirely white. It was inconceivable that they would rush into this particular establishment if they got a call that it was being robbed let alone out of curiosity. Some of the earliest controversy over racial profiling began with the New Jersey State Police and at the time they had a reputation for being cold, intimidating and somewhat less than enlightened.
Since my father had not prepared for this caper by bringing a tarp to at least cover the gigantic swag in the open bed of his truck, we had both lunch and dinner in the joint while waiting for nightfall. As the sun started to set we said out goodbyes and began the long drive back to my father's house at the excruciating pace of obeying the speed limit to avoid giving any excuse to stop us for a moving violation. We finally arrived at Doris' house. Al drove across the immaculately manicured front lawn, much to Doris' chagrin, which was compounded by my father arriving home many hours late and the two of us stinking drunk. We had to unload the air conditioners, which seemed a lot heavier after a long day of fear and drunkenness, and we hauled them into the crawlspace underneath the house. The ceiling of the basement was much too cramped for either of us to stand up in it so the degree of difficulty of stashing the air conditioners down there was increased geometrically, as if our inebriated state wasn't enough of a challenge. Doris berated my father for a few minutes, which seemed reasonable all things considered and he proceeded to drunk-drive me back to the railroad station. I received $50 for the days work and he triumphantly called me the next day to let me know that the window units were already gone from the premises. I could hear Bobby Davis bitching in the background, which Al explained to me about what a pain in the ass extricating the air conditions from the shallow crawl space. At least they weren't drunk when they took them out of there. The only motive I could see for my father stealing the air conditioners from the chief's office other than a meager financial reward was to make the chief of police, his 350 pound rival for the affection of the chief's own girlfriend spend the summer drenched in sweat while at work. I can imagine that the local municipal government would be slow to replace two brand new air conditioners after the police suffered the indignity of being robbed on their own premises. Bobby Davis lost his job as the maintenance man since he never heard nor saw the thieves but my father increased the amount of yard work for Bobby to do, including fixing the tire tracks on the front lawn. I doubt that losing the job put Bobby out much since working for my father put him close to his paramour, the next door neighbor.
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
board, dirt, flood, floor, ground, mud, pipe, rocks, water.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
dirt, flood, floor, ground, mud, rocks, water.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
This thing looks really fucking important. How concerned should we be?
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
pipe, rust, spider egg, spider webs.
close-up.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
STUDIO CITY - A man performing a heater repair in the crawlspace beneath a two story home was able to escape with minor injury, when an accidental fire erupted on December 12, 2013. Los Angeles Firefighters had the flames extinguished in less than twenty minutes. © Photo by Juan Guerra
LAFD.ORG | Blog | Facebook | Twitter @LAFD @LAFDtalk | Reddit
STUDIO CITY - A man performing a heater repair in the crawlspace beneath a two story home was able to escape with minor injury, when an accidental fire erupted on December 12, 2013. Los Angeles Firefighters had the flames extinguished in less than twenty minutes. © Photo by Juan Guerra
LAFD.ORG | Blog | Facebook | Twitter @LAFD @LAFDtalk | Reddit
We ordered the plans from a design firm in Oregon, and then modified them using a New Jersey architect.
The big changes were going from a crawlspace to a full basement, and converting the first floor to a multilevel floor plan that followed the slope we built it on. So, the 15x15 kitchen was 1 foot higher than the dining room and den, while the 20x20 living room was a foot lower than the dining room, with the garage a good 5 feet lower than on the original plan. Not to mention the changes brother Bill, Shorty (my dad), and I made as we hammered, bolted and screwed it all together.
I hired licensed contractors to dig the hole, pour the foundation, lay the block, and run the wires and pipes, cause we didn't have proper licensing and/or equipment for that. And, I also hired contractors to do the insulation and sheetrock work, cause no one in their right mind wants to breath dust and/or fiberglass particles all day (not to mention all the other places fiberglass seems to get into).
We enjoyed our creation for 30 somethin' years before we decided to save 30K a year (between property & state income taxes alone, not to mention the crazy cost of car insurance and so many other things like food and electricity), and move to Florida where our annual property taxes were less than what we paid for one month in New Jersey, and of course there's no income tax in Florida. Though I have to say, that there's no shortage of pesky alligators, bugs and snakes in Florida! Not to mention, how hot and muggy it can get in the summer!
Here's the source of the flooding.
BACKSTORY: Right on the heels of our leaking crawlspace flood that cost $400 to fix, we ended up with yet another flood: A leaking sink that cost over $650 to repair. Turns out, there was a pipe behind the wall that had rusted through. (This wouldn't be the last flood this year, either.)
plumber.
hole, rust, rusty pipe.
downstairs, Claire and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 3, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
Parts layout on the roof. I've moved the mounting bracket from the old motor, left, to the new motor, right. The fan and the hardware tray are in the upper right part of the frame.
STUDIO CITY - A man performing a heater repair in the crawlspace beneath a two story home was able to escape with minor injury, when an accidental fire erupted on December 12, 2013. Los Angeles Firefighters had the flames extinguished in less than twenty minutes. © Photo by Juan Guerra
LAFD.ORG | Blog | Facebook | Twitter @LAFD @LAFDtalk | Reddit
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
dirt, flood, floor, ground, mud, pipe, rocks, wall, water.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
board, dirt, flood, floor, ground, mud, pipe, rocks, rust, wall, water.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
board, flood, pipe, rust, water.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
An obvious source of damage to this asbestos magnesia pipe insulation, but appears to be a recurring problem.
here's another shot, facing NW. I kinda wanted a west-facing house, but the ideal west-facing lot had already been taken, and I doubt I could have fit this exact house on the lot, just as well as this lot is supposed to be next to a greenspace in the center of the neighborhood.
Another Crawlspace box, this one from 1982 and featuring the Money Machine Game, which was also featured on other General Mills boxes at the time. I remember this premium well as I saved a Money Machine game piece for a long time but eventually lost it. Series 79.
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
board, flood, floor, grate, wall, water, wire.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
board, dirt, flood, floor, ground, mud, rocks, wall, water.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
Maybe someone was weeping in 1907, they made the mistake of imagining a future fading too soon. We all make our mark on memories, bound to be a part of someone else's history. I learn through pieces of the past slowly sifting down, stories in signatures and scattered surnames of long-lost strangers. Ronald Morse and George Gordon wrote their initials on a beam in the crawlspace, 1948 – the year they painted the church. They were members of families who went here for decades, with the Armstrongs, Newcombes, Mannings, and Zwickers too. Countless weddings were held within these walls, and the last was the Vrooms in 1992. I wonder if Carl and Angela know their significance, a happily ever after to close the last chapter. I've never seen any pictures of this church in her heyday, and I'm beginning to believe that none exist. Maybe this is the closest I'll get to a latter-day portrait, of a classy old lady cloaked in mist, and what some preacher might have called treasures of the snow. I know your time is short, so I've promised to visit every chance I get.
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
board, dirt, flood, floor, ground, mud, rocks, spider cricket bugs, wall, water.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blogat clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
Something I've been working on the past 8 months. When I started this was all bare drywall, unless you could the ~200lb of tar and gravel dropped onto the top of the sheetrock by the roofers.
STUDIO CITY - A man performing a heater repair in the crawlspace beneath a two story home was able to escape with minor injury, when an accidental fire erupted on December 12, 2013. Los Angeles Firefighters had the flames extinguished in less than twenty minutes. © Photo by Juan Guerra
LAFD.ORG | Blog | Facebook | Twitter @LAFD @LAFDtalk | Reddit
STUDIO CITY - A man performing a heater repair in the crawlspace beneath a two story home was able to escape with minor injury, when an accidental fire erupted on December 12, 2013. Los Angeles Firefighters had the flames extinguished in less than twenty minutes. © Photo by Juan Guerra
LAFD.ORG | Blog | Facebook | Twitter @LAFD @LAFDtalk | Reddit
A Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats box from 1976 with a Magic Marker offer. Dig the Pop Tarts toaster dude. Spike's Crawlspace.
Abandoned schoolhouse shoot. This toy cash register one of many broken and dirty toys scattered around the building. My friend and I ran once we realized there was someone living in the crawlspace.
www.all-builders.com.au/Blog/profitable-home-maintenance-...
Home maintenance is a green exercise, but additionally can also preserve the capital value of your property.The essential elements of home maintenance should be followed routinely. Proper home maintenance, not only saves you money, but helps the environment. The waste produced from your neglected house, is filling up the landfills when this could be prevented, by following simple home maintenance procedures.Prevention of damage is far cheaper then repairing damage.Here is a basic list: 1. Here's something that's simple and easy to do, but most homeowners try to avoid. Fix anything that is damaged or broken, non functioning. 2. Turn your air conditioner and heating system on, and make sure that it is working properly. This would require listening for any strange noises and to check the return air filter to see if it's dirty, clean or replace the air filters on a monthly or bimonthly basis, depending on usage. 3. If your home has an attic or crawlspace, grab a flashligh
t, poke your head inside the access hole and give these areas a quick visual inspection. This should be done every six months or at the minimum, annually. 4. Check your washers for any corrosion around the water pipes and the condition of the hoses as they have a habit of exploding at the most inconvenient time, and is a very common occurrence and can be the cause of thousands of dollars of damage.5. Check dryer vents. Make sure the dryer vents are clear and not blocked with lint. To check this, simply turned the dryer on, placing your hand over the dryer vent which will be located on the outside of your house to make sure that air is coming out. If there isn't any air coming out, you will need to clean out the dryer duct venting pipes. Similarly check your range hood ducting. Do the filters need cleaning, is there a good airflow throughout the ducting. 6. Make sure your lawn sprinklers are working properly. Simply turn the sprinkler system on and make sure that ever
y sprinkler is watering in the right direction and working properly. If your sprinklers are spraying excess water onto your home, driveway or sidewalk, you should consider changing the sprinkler heads or lowering the water pressure on each individual sprinkler.For winter time in cold climates you may need to blow out the water to save pipe bursting from freezing stagnant water left in the pipes.7. Clean and inspect your kitchen appliances. This should be done on a monthly basis. Keeping kitchen appliances clean and properly maintained isn't only good home maintenance, its good hygiene and keeps the cockroach/rodent population down. 8. Make sure all electrical outlets and switches are operating properly on an annual basis. Look for any discolouring around the electrical switches or outlets. This could be the sign of electrical damage and should be repaired as soon as possible, to prevent possibility of shorts, which could have disastrous results. 9. Inspect the exterior of
your home. You will be looking for any water, termite or mould damage. If you have timber fascias checked the corners to see if they are opening up. Check for any signs of water penetration and deal with these pronto as this can be a costly repair if left unattended. 10. Your roof should be checked, on an annual basis at the minimum. You will be looking for any loose, damaged or broken tiles, to prevent roof leaks from damaging your home's interior. Metal roofs check the flashing are in good shape and not showing signs of rust. Any lead flashing need to be inspected for signs of deterioration.. 11. Make sure that your doors and windows open and close easily and with little effort. Sometimes a little bit of graphite or grease can prolong the life of your windows and doors. If these elements of our would and are of a paint finish, you need to keep right on top of any paint peels or blistering otherwise a much bigger bill will be waiting to you. 12. Get a yearl
y inspection done of your home, even by a professional builder and work out your maintenance program over the next months or years to suit your budget and set asides meshing in with job urgency. This home inspection exercise, can save you money and the environment, so quit procrastinating and get on top of your investment. Being proactive is much more efficient than being retroactive when it comes to home maintenance.
House crisis! Our crawlspace was flooding, and leaking into other rooms. We finally were able to fix it by having a handyman come and fill in a big crack in our foundation. (Claire had bought cement for us to do this ourselves about a year ago, but we never got around to it.) ....... But in the meanwhile, we needed to document the extent of things. Plus, Claire has never even seen this part of the house. It's very hard to get into. Carolyn has to climb up on top of the utility room sink, and generally be boosted by Claire, and then shimmy in. You can't even kneel in this crawlspace. It's a literal crawl space.
board, wall.
wet.
crawlspace, Claire Sawyer and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
August 2, 2018.
... Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress dot com
trudging along
i lost the race
tired of this
long winding
chase ..at
crawlspace
my legs weak
not in pace
the lift broke
down 5 floors
i walk up down
the staircase
gasping for
breath
white faced
the residents
all broke
miserly
the lift wont
replace
dreams
displaced
my adopted
city as my
karmic bhoomi
i embraced
mumbai now
my children
grand childrens
birthplace
a path
towards
the grave
i trace
hope died
in its sleep
someplace
my destiny
crushed
under the
cosmic
wheelbase
through
pictures
deleted
dreams
i retrace
poetizing
passion
pathos
in the
market
place
#firozeshakir
#beggarpoet
Model: Kelly Sparks
Body Painting/FX: Matt Huntley
Lighting: 580exII with Ray Ringflash high camera left pointed down towards body, second 580exII on camera right snooted at tattoo, and 3rd gel'd 580exII speedlite behind subject pointed upwards on rafters. All triggered by PocketWizards.
Poor wussy institutionalized Lemonjello already wants back in. LEARN TO NOT BE SUCH A WUSS, pussy. Meanwhile, Oranjello wants to go into the back yard.
You can see the window that fell out on the ground, underneath our telephone box.
Lemonjello the cat, Oranjello the cat, brick wall, broken window, foundation crack, kudzu, peeling paint, telephone box.
back yard, side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
June 19, 2010.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: We staged some photos to re-create The Great Cat Escape Of 2010. Lemonjello, the inferior cat, is superior in a select few ways: And one of those is warning Clint that something is up. When Oranjello was trapped in the crawlspace, Lemonjello literally meowed and led Clint, 5 feet at a time, to the door of the crawlspace.
This other morning, he meowed with similar alarm and tone -- a meow that is even worse than his normal annoying whiny meows. He led me to the living room, where I immediately felt the heat coming in from the missing pane. It fell 4 feet, but did not break (SLACK!). Being a cat-related endeavor, it fell to Carolyn to deal with the consequences. It was all of $3 to fix.
Yes, this window is in terrible condition, as is the sill. It looked especially worse when we put new siding on the house (the rest of our house had looked like that). I don't really see a point in upkeeping them (Repair? Yes. Upkeep? No.) since they really need to be replaced with 2-pane energy efficient windows anyway. It could definitely use a fresh coat of paint. In the interim, we simply put pillows over the hole. This kept the cats in and the heat out. Fortunately, they never go too far when they get out... But right before fixing it, we decided to take some pictures of the unique situation!
Showing two levels (all the levels will be colour coded, these are white and red) and the ventilation shaft/maintenance crawlspace in between.
Pic by Spott. Not a pretty photo but one with a story: Kami's no good, terrible, horrible very bad day...
This old kittygirl of mine is going on 15 years of age and has recently been treated for many health issues... after many expen$ive trips to the vet and hospitalizations we have figured out what's wrong and set up a treatment plan for her, but she's been stressed out about it, with many good reasons - pills and prodding don't go down well with cats... Then, last week, plumbers were in my unit for two days to replace aging hot water pipes. I kept all the cats locked in a big room with me while they were knocking holes in the walls and chopping and soldering... and kept the cupboards under the sinks (where the holes were) closed and blocked after... BUT. On Monday when the workman came back to repair the holes they gave me no notice of entry and no time to secure the cats. (I asked the guy to wait while I put the cats in another room, but he was ESL and followed me into the unit immediately. I should have insisted he wait outside, but...) While I got the two boy cats safely into a bedroom, Kami was running around in a panic because of the strange man in the unit... of course he went straight into the kitchen, opened the cupboard and started setting up his stuff to fix the hole in the wall therein... when he went to the hole in the bathroom to do the same thing there, Kami saw the open kitchen cupboard and ran straight into it, and then the hole, to hide. Scramble, thump: trying to track her down, as I come around the corner into the kitchen, all I see is her tail tip as it disappears.
PANIC.
Of course she wouldn't come out when called or tempted with food: she was terrified.
Neither the workman nor I were small enough to fit through the cupboard crawlspace with protruding pipes to even be able to peep into the hole where she was... I tried to reach in with a light and mirror on a stick but couldn't even tell the size or dimensions of the hole, whether it went straight down or just sideways, if she was trapped, had fallen down a level, whatever. There was not a peep out of her, of course, so we couldn't tell where she was or what she was doing. THEN the thundering moron tried to tell me that she _wasn't_ in the hole, because he had a job to do and wanted to block it up... "Probably she is just hiding somewhere else in the house," he suggested.
"No, she's in the hole," I said. "I saw her go in."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. You're going to have to come back another day."
"I have my job to do, I have to fix it. She is not in the hole."
"I'm sure she's in the hole, and you're not going to block up the wall with my cat in it!" I flared, ready to punch the dumb bastard in the knob if so much as tried it.
"Well what do you want me to do then?"
"Pray," I said. (Yes, pray. Pray my pet of 15 years isn't hurt or you and your pissant contracting company and the building management will be on the receiving end of a lawsuit that will make me look like a crazy cat lady forever.)
He backed off and went to repair the bathroom. I eventually made him leave, but she still wouldn't come out no matter what temptations I tried. So I called the only person I could think of who would be able to help. My paramedic friend, Spott the Loonie, came to the rescue! Tall & thin Spott was able to wriggle into the crawlspace far enough to stick his head in the hole and spot Kami between the walls of the apartment complex. Luckily there were no "down" holes big enough that she could have fallen into (big sigh of relief there)... she had gone about 8 feet sideways in the 6 inch wide inner wall gap and was squeezed face-first into an inner divider wall. The tiny space was full of spray concrete dust and fibreglass insulation and Spott got a faceful trying to see her. She wasn't moving or responding however... until he stuck my camera in and tried using the flash to get a pic of the space. The flash muffed up on protruding obstacles and dust, so finally he used the headlamp to get the image you see above of poor Kami. At least with that I could see where she was and stop freaking out.
Once we determined she wasn't in immediate danger, we left a light at the mouth of the hole and put some treats out... and waited for hours. She didn't emerge until we went out to rent some power tools! (Fearing she was stuck, I was willing to cut a hole in the wall at the other end to extract her.) She got out under her own power and was OK, although dusty and confused! I blocked the hole again and stayed home all the next day, waiting for the dipshit to come back and fix it. The apartment management will have to give me written notice of entry next time or I will have to press charges... not just because of the negligence here (imagine if I hadn't been home and all this happened?) but because this is actually the third time at this location I have had workmen coming into the place without permission and endangering my pets. (The first time, fire system installers entered while I was at work, and I came home to find my 10 month old kitten unconscious on the floor just inside the door.) Kami is okay now but I am still f'n steamed...
191/365 Spent the day hitting the few last punch list items so we can get our deck inspected. This included some electricity and a new lock for our crawl space. Lots of other tasky things done today as well. Love summer Friday's off.