ramblings of a wandering nerdan aimless amble on a winding road

Well as I head into work on what is the earliest train I’ve ever caught (504am) I find my mind already working at full speed.

Work has been so full on over the past month as we finalise the Notes 8.5.1 package which along with renovations consumes every waking minute. Sametime 8.5 is killing me and with my nuts on the chopping board I’m really hoping the cutover from 7.5.1 to 8.5 goes smoothly.

But that’s enough about work. I’ve had my cousin around doing the plumbing for the new bathroom. He’s done a brilliant job and this weekend my list is short but important. Floors walls and bath hob.

The floor will be interesting. It involves compressed cement sheeting which is heavy so to make it a one man job it will mean cutting it up into smaller chunks which means dust.

But what’s a little dust in a house covered in it ….

That’s this afternoon. Tomorrow is the wall which I’m hoping isn’t too much trouble with the nail gun followed on Sunday by the hob. And somewhere in between is going and buying the shower rail and light.

Before and after shots on their way!

Construction of the shed continues and completions is earmarked for this weekend. More to come….

Today began with a 25 minute wait at 6:30 for coffee. It ended with half a dozen(ish) coopers pale ales and the footy on the radio.

Somewhere inbetween was the upgrade of 60 lotus domino servers to nd851, more silver insulation and the dragging of bloody heavy compressed fiber cement sheeting to the new bathroom!

Make sense? I thought not.

After finishing work at 11:30 we headed off to stratco to pick up the shed roofing (go pies! – still listening to footy!). After realizing that 765mm coverage meant about 820mm wide we SQUEEZED it into the falcon, then we were home and insulating again. Unfortunately Kate was going out so we didn’t get much done but I took the opportunity to put the flooring down in the bathroom.

More beer and more dragging and now I find myself relaxing on $600 worth of cement sheeting in the very very unfinished bathroom!

Stay tuned. In tomorrows episode we put the rest of the cladding and roof on. Fingers crossed all that will be left is the door and windows!

There are photos but that means moving so I’ll post them later and by later I mean tomorrow.

JT-out

Well thought I would check out the wordpress iPhone app while I was having a coffee break. Neat. Not sure where the photo is going to end up.

Progress is good which is a little surprising, since i was up past 1am and back up again at 7:30 doing uni. But after finishing that at 11 it was all systems go!

Bearers are in, joists are currently going on. Tomorrow morning the old study (new bathroom) floor will be pulled up and the yellowtounge redeployed to the shed. Then it’s framing time!

Stay tuned.

PS: infinitely more satisfying than sitting at a desk!

Well on Sunday I set about digging and laying the footings. There were only 12 so I gave myself 4 hrs. 8hrs later, and under floodlights, it was completed…. Almost. Some bastard had put a 75mm stirrup in the 90mm box so I ended up one short.

The digging was easy, the leveling out, not so easy. But with Kates help, we got it all level, got a number of beers down and was mighty satisified come 8pm.

Here are some pictures …

Well after much contemplation and.. well procrastination, the renovations have returned to top gear. And since there is no holiday on the horizon, I’ve decided to use the blog as a renovation journal. If nothing else, the next time I renovate I’ll be able to come back here and work out what to do better.

While some progress was made last year, with the attic going in and the house being re-plastered, there is a new sense of urgency. The plans for the full-blown renovation are being finalised by the architect, a real estate agent was in last week to make sure we weren’t over-capitalising (we’re not) and we’ve spent the best part of the last four weeks finalising the bathroom colours and fitouts.

The most progress was made yesterday when we found the basin, toilet AND feature tile all within the space of about 2 hours. And I think what got us over the line was the people we spoke to yesterday were all exceptionally helpful. Some weekends you can spend 8 hours talking to idiots and other weekends you can spend 20 minutes talking to great people. Yesterday was the latter. Which was great timing because we’ve been incredibly frustrated and concerned with lack of momentum.

The timber order is going in this week for both the new wall in the Bathroom and the shed plus flooring, colorbond (for the shed roof) and doors. With a long weekend next weekend I’m hoping to get the bulk of the shed built. And once the shed is done, the bathroom can commence.

Hopefully by the time the bathroom is finished, we would have submitted the plans to council for the extension and we can almost start that immediately.

Stay tuned for photos.

Well apparently our holiday wasn’t ready to finish just yet.

After a hassle free flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco, we killed 6hrs at the airport and then boarded the plane on time. We left the terminal and started our taxi. During the taxi, we stopped for about 15 minutes and then the captain announced we had a fuel pump problem so we headed back to the terminal.

Half an hour later they served drinks and said we didn’t have enough time to server dinner. Great we thought, not too long a delay. Then 30 minutes after that they said dinner would be served in 40 minutes. Bugger!

So dinner came and went. They turned the electrics off and emptied all the water. Then filled it back up and turned the power back on. Kate was asleep at this stage. They then announced we’d be leaving in 40 minutes (this was 4hrs into the problem) so I started drifting off. I was woken by the PA system and promptly did up my seatbelt expecting that was the ‘get ready for takeoff’ announcement.

Kate looked at me and said what the hell are you doing. I said getting ready for take off. She called me an idiot. 20 minutes later we left the plane and headed for the Hyatt. It was 12:30AM when we arrived at the hyatt. We were about the 3rd busload of people and it took us over an hour to check in. There were another 4 busloads of people behind us.

It’s now 2:20AM and I’m guessing there are still another busload or two of people waiting to check in.

What makes this even more frustrating is the plane leaves early tomorrow which will only stretch our two hour wait at Auckland to a 6hr wait assuming we can get the first flight out.

Not what I had imagined from an ‘extended’ holiday.

Air Newzealand seems cursed for us. Last time we flew home from San Francisco with them their inflight entertainment system was broken. 13hrs of nothingness. At least that time, 13hrs of nothing got us home. 13hrs of nothing this time around got us minus 4 miles.

Well it’s only 24 short hours till we head to the airport for the long trip home. We’ve done most of what we wanted to do and anything we haven’t can always be done next time. Vegas is magical and I’m confident there will always be a next time. I don’t think we’ll stay 7 days again but I can certainly see this as a 3 or 4 day stop-over to anywhere in the US.

So I think we’ll sneak in a few more drinks, some more table time at the Bellagio and then return refreshed and relaxed.

Well after 7 days and 1200miles we (I – Kate was hungover) successfully returned to the car to Treasure Island. Although TI is literally across the road, I can see it as I type this, returning it was no easy feat. I had to return the car full. I had two options when I booked, one was to have a free tank of gas (petrol) and the other was a GPS. The GPS was a no-brainer and how hard can it be to return a car full?

Harder than you’d imagine.

Before I made the decision to fill-her-up, I read my rental agreement and found it was $8USD a gallon if they have to fill it up. This was an unattractive option as it’s only $2.65USD a gallon in Las Vegas. Return it full I’d have to do.

I sleepily asked the valet where the gas station was and he told me. I of course didn’t take any of the directions. So with no idea of where I was going and my trusty navigator fast asleep in the hotel room I set off. They say men can only do one thing and this was highlighted by the fact that I was concentrating so hard on staying on the right side of the road, I was neglecting to note where I was going.

So as turn-offs came and went I found myself on the way to lostville. The one thing I had on my side was the fact that I wasn’t turning, I was just driving straight. So after what seemed like an eternity I came to a gas station. I have no idea if it was the one the valet suggested or not, but it was a gas station. So I pulled in and filled up and through logic (and ease of use) concluded right was the way to go. So right I went and I just started driving towards the casinos.

And in no time, I was back on the strip with the Venetian on my right and TI on my left. I pulled into the TI turn off and drove slowly up the long driveway. Where was I supposed to go? Left right, left right, left right. I chose left. Of course it was supposed to be right so after literally 10 minutes trying to get the hell out of where I currently was, I made it to the TI carpark.

I walked around TI until I found the rental return place. Returned the vehicle and headed back to the Venetian. I was FREE!

If we look back at the trip here are some useful and not so useful facts.

We rented the car from Driveaway holidays in Australia. These guys are just a 3rd party but they charge in AUD and have all the big partners. Alamo, Budget, Avis, Dollar and who knows who else. Booking through them was a breeze and by booking through them, you can really help yourself out because you’ll be able to find a location convenient for you. If you were trying to find a good location through each independent website, it’d take you forever!

Even with the convenience and AUD charging, they were still cheaper than booking direct. Not sure how that works but it did! So would I use them again? Definitely. Total cost was just over $600AUD for 7 days. Sounds like a lot but that was a good car with GPS and unlimited miles.

Petrol is cheap here although they seem to think it’s expensive. I was paying about $45AUD a tank.

We drove around 1200miles.

You have to pre-pay petrol in the US no matter what time of day it is. Don’t bother sticking your Credit Card in a bowser unless you have a PIN. It doesn’t work.

Get a GPS.

Driving on the wrong side of the road is pretty easy although a little terrifying. Always better if you have a passenger so they can keep you on the right side of the road while you avoid hitting things.

The freeways/highways are great in terms of getting you around but in a lot of cases are poor quality.

If there is a polici-man on the side of the road, get in the other lane. Apparently they don’t like you passing too close.

That’s about it. Now that we’ve given it a go, we’ll definitely do another driving holiday in the US.

Internet access is $10 a day in Vegas so this is the first time I’ve been on and I dare say this will too be brief.

The major points since leaving the Grand Canyon;

• Hoover Dam – Awesome. How’d they manage to build it with the technology of the day is beyond me.
• Day One Ambush in Vegas resulted in us getting $10 Blueman tickets BUT we ended up doing a TIMESHARE presentation. Go figure (more on that later – I blame Kate entirely, and funnily enough she blames me entirely…)
• Day Two WAS the timeshare. We rescued the day though by drunkenly wandering the shopping malls and Casinos of the Strip. You haven’t had a shopping experience until you’ve done it with a beer in your hand! (Or a half a yard of MAJITOS!)
• Day Three was the recovery from the above drunken shopping trip experience and was also the returning of the hire car. It was such relief to get it back safely.
• Day Four (wow it’s already day four!) is today (Kate’s birthday) and we have breakfast arriving any minute – hence the brief post – and then we’re heading down to the other end of the strip where I think I’ll do the NewYork NewYork rollercoaster then we’re back here for Cher tonight.

We have the Blueman group on Friday and somewhere in there we’ve got more drinking and gambling to squeeze in. Oh, and some relaxing. Relaxing is important because when we get back, we have a house to paint, doors to install and bucketloads of plaster dust to find and eradicate.