lynxreign | Nov. 29th, 2003

emmalyon is currently feeling ill and standing in the kitchen, watching water come to a boil. That’s not my idea of fun, but to each their own, I suppose.

Just a brief mention: my uncle is a complete ass and my brother likes to make sure he doesn’t go a full week without pissing me off. Makes moving to MA look better and better. That’s likely the plan after

inochinoakari moves to Australia.

OK, a story from my friend Pete that he’s given me permission to recount here. Pete is married to Keiko and their son is Matthew, he’s just turned one. Keiko was drawing a bath for herself and Matthew. Matthew was already naked and Keiko started to get undressed for the bath. While she was getting ready, Matt ran into the living room, naked, squatted down and pooped in 5 places on the rug. Keiko came into the living room to find this and started cleaning up. While she was doing this, Matt grabbed her cell phone and dropped it in the tub. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Last weekend, I went over Pete’s with Emmalyon and

dhio to tear the wooden floor out of the basement. The house is around 70 years old and has a concrete floor in the basement with a wooden floor on top that rises around 1” from the floor. Over the years it has been there, water has leaked from the tub above into the basement, rotting parts of the floor so Pete decided to rip it out and replace it with a floor that is around ½” high, adding to the headroom.

First we ripped the crappy linoleum off the top and then I started ripping floorboards up with the gorilla bar I’d purchased for the occasion. A gorilla bar is a crowbar with a flatter hook, with a name like that how could I resist? The rotten wood came up easily and the air was soon full of dust, linoleum, wood, rust and caterpillar eggs. Fortunately, Pete had masks though I declined to wear one. I did wear the goggles though.

We got around half the floor up and I was exhausted and drenched in sweat. Keiko, Pete and dhio carried much of the destroyed floor upstairs as I started tearing up the section under the spill sink. Beneath the spill sink was several layers of wood. Only the top one was solid. Underneath, the wood had all rotted to the point of mulch. After we swept that away, we came upon our greatest shock: no concrete.

Beneath the sink, the concrete had been chopped away and the hole was filled with dirt. We aren’t sure what to do with that section. We may dig up the dirt and pour some new concrete. This would also be good for under the center wall in the basement which was apparently built on top of the floor we’re ripping out. We’d pour concrete in molds under the wall to get it the correct height.

Dhio said she had fun, Emmalyon painted the walls in the other room and breathing fresh air was never such fun as when we were done. I terrified Meiu (the crazy cat) by making the floor under him rise up as he was walking on it. After that, he wouldn’t leave the window. The best part: we go again tomorrow. As Emmalyon isn’t feeling well I don’t know if she’ll go, but I’m going.

rtrockel may show up after work if he isn’t too exhausted. I borrowed the battery-powered rotary-saw I bought for my brother to make it easier to remove the non-rotted section of floor.

I’ll let you know how it goes this time.