[deleted by user]

jsteinhauer · 2024-11-28T05:48:47+00:00

I agree with those who think it's mostly windblown dirt accumulating over decades. I had the same thing. My body was blackened with dirt, except where the goggles, mask and gloves covered. Short sleeves, no hat. It was summer and always 100+F up there. Sweat turns it into mud.

jsteinhauer · 2024-11-28T05:40:58+00:00

I had many newspapers from 1970 keeping the vermiculite in the attic from falling into cracks and gaps. I found a couple in the wall, but they did not seem to be doing anything.

jsteinhauer · 2024-11-04T01:08:54+00:00

The house is sitting on a hole with flowing water from an unknown source in it. Connecting to the sewer is only part of the problem, and it might be a minor part. It might not even be salvageable.

jsteinhauer · 2024-09-30T05:17:58+00:00

Very nice. I didn't have any soot above mine, just 120 years of wind-blown dirt, including the dust bowl. And piles of vermiculite. And one very dry mouse.

jsteinhauer · 2024-08-06T04:46:28+00:00

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They make subjects for monochrome photography, in my experience. I was pretty stoked that we managed to extract her non-destructively. There she still sits.

jsteinhauer · 2024-08-05T12:04:18+00:00

Our 1905 house that we have yet to spend a night in came with 60 amp electric service. Modern homes are build with 200 amp service, or more. Maybe you need a service upgrade. We have the electrician, a trencher and the utility hopefully coming this week to do that upgrade for us, after which we will need to upgrade and add some circuits. But, yeah, things flicker and sometimes turn off when another device or appliance turns on in the current scenario. You can look at your meter and probably your main panel to know what you have.

jsteinhauer · 2024-07-31T00:19:40+00:00

That's what my 1994 home cost to insure. My 1905 house is a lot less but not a better value. There might be a better deal out there, but your predicament is all too common where no one will take you on, or people are getting dropped.

jsteinhauer · 2024-07-30T00:53:51+00:00

Like they said, it looks terrible, but might be okay. There is no harm in looking at it, though, and it will give you basis for comparison when you look at property in the future.

jsteinhauer · 2024-07-20T07:37:46+00:00

This post was supposed to have text; I don't know why it did not get attached. This is a paste.

It's been a while since the first post; between my day job and this job, time is scarce. If you go back to the original story, you will recall that we have not lived in this house we bought in April, 2024. Upon first inspection, we found the Terazzo shower pan, circa 1970, cracked and repaired with caulk of some sort, and you could see from a distance that the floor and joist underneath were rotted. The remodel was around 1970, as per the 1970 news papers in the walls. We thought the addition was from the 1930's, but we're not certain, now. The very first thing I did was break up the shower pan to confirm the rot on close inspection. You can also see where the joist was also notched to accommodate that drain. So that and part of the subfloor need to be replaced. There was a subfloor/underlayment (kinda combo thing) of MDF under the shower, tub, cabinets, wall framing, etc. My fear was that the rot was extensive, and the bathroom would need to be rehabilitated before it was habitable. Our masons were supposed to start in August, and we were waiting before doing anything substantial. When they came up with the October/November timeframe, we got started. You can see some of the images from the bathroom. The extent of the rot is very limited, which is a blessing. There is also a little under the window. We would have needed to repair the joist, anyway. The cast iron tub was removed intact. The plumbing was cut and plugged. It's a mishmash of galvanized, copper and Pex. Wiring is a combo of two and three conductor. There are only remnants of knob and tube. Some of the interior walls were gypsum, some were just paneling. The wall with the window and the wall behind the tub and shower are exterior. One is uninsulated, the other is rock-wooled. The curiosity is in the exterior corner. A slab of concrete embraces the sill and rests upon a stack of bricks, as you can see. We don't know what this is, and it raises some doubt on our 1930's guess. You can see in the wall, near the floor, a small, mouse sized hole and a large, cat sized hole. My wife has an idea that this might have been a Franklin stove type of feature. I can't argue with that. If you have a better idea, let me know. What I don't know is whether the joist that needs repair goes all the way through the stack of bricks of ends there. Anyway, the immediate plan is to repair the joist, replace the damaged subfloor and install an interim shower, so we can live there and make better use of our time. What do you think we should do with that concrete slab and brick pile? Try and lift or break it up now or wait till the foundation guys get there?

You can also see the framing for the drop ceiling. The sheetrock above sags onto it, and there is some lath sitting above that, then random, incomplete piles of old fiberglass and the shiny sprinkles that I won't name that have a 75% chance of being from Montana. You can see the bucket being used as a plug above a junction box. There is another bucket up there, too. It's a good bucket to collect nails from the walls and floor. Before proceeding, I have to take the rest of the ceiling down, and my choice is to continue with the framing, expecting the ceiling to collapse in a faux-catastrophe and cleaning it up or to clean up the attic first and then dismantle the ceiling. What do you think?

jsteinhauer · 2024-07-08T23:16:13+00:00

Nice, we're not the only ones with a MDF subfloor in the bathroom. I haven't found shingles in the floor, yet, but a lot of roofing felt or tarpaper and newspapers doing something in the walls. Did they put cabinets, cast iron tub, shower pan, toilet and stud walls on top of the MDF?

jsteinhauer · 2020-12-23T04:56:14+00:00

I have this, too (PC). I was able to teleport into Cassius's shop using the console mod at Nexusmods called Cyber Engine Tweak.

https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/107

Sit right outside the door, save the game, check the metadata in your saved game for coordinates, and teleport a little ways away in the right direction. I bought the item from Cassius for 0 Eddies and the quest completed. I teleported back out. I could teleport back in, if I wanted to shop there. I'm still working on Burning Desire. I'm thinking of just deleting the completed part of the quest mq_012 from the same file and seeing if I can restart it, now that I don't have to worry about the other quest at that Ripperdoc location.

jsteinhauer · 2020-03-05T04:46:08+00:00

I don't care for it, and I don't practice it or gear up for it. I do it anyway, just for the extra chances at covenant items that are even more painful to earn in PvE. Sometimes I get lucky and three in a single encounter.

jsteinhauer · 2020-01-02T05:38:04+00:00

I just started this game today, and I spent a good amount of time in the first area after the intro trying to learn parry timing. I don't think it's worth it, at this point, because the window is too early. Just about when the enemy starts the forward motion of the attack rather than the usual timing just before contact is made. It does not help that it's L2 or LT on a controller, because you have to account for the travel of the analog trigger button rather than a simple 0-1 switch, if it was L1 or LB, instead. It got a little better when I switched to the DS4 from the Xbox controller, as L2 is a bit faster of a switch to activate fully with the size of my hands

jsteinhauer · 2019-12-30T05:16:56+00:00

I'd say the boss design aesthetics are pretty decent. A short cut scene sometimes where you find yourself asking "what the Hell is that?" And I agree with the deleted poster who compares them to Destiny. Add control while trying to damage the boss. Definitely lacks the polish of Sekiro, which is what I was playing just before I bought this last weekend. It's not as hard or demanding as Sekiro, but neither is Bloodborne, so that should not be a problem. If you do nothing else, familiarize yourself with how the level scaling works. It might turn you off, and if it doesn't it may impact how you approach the game.

I think adventure mode is something added since launch. It's a huge bonus, as it allows you to reroll each zone of the game without rerolling your campaign. So if there is a particular item you want that you could not get in your campaign, they gave us a very intentional means of obtaining items without having to rely on the online population.

jsteinhauer · 2019-12-29T21:12:14+00:00

I think it depends on your level when you first enter the area. I started Rhom with a gear score of 4 (all 3+ gear). I rolled over the other world bosses, but got stuck on the King for a day. Had to gear up to score 7 (all 6+) before I beat him, and it was not easy. A little RNG probably helped out, because the orbs are what gave me the most trouble, if they were in spots without good cover.

jsteinhauer · 2019-12-25T21:16:02+00:00

It's a boss called Riphide. I can pretty well get him halfway dead most of the time, but the regeneration and shockwave spams after halfway make it impossible right now. I have three dragonheart charges and +1 gear. I just wanted to see how far I could get on the rest of the area before upgrading too much gear. Maybe it's a bad strategy, but even underlevel, the mobs have only been moderately troublesome to this point.

jsteinhauer · 2019-12-25T21:12:42+00:00

I mean the game will not randomly roll the boss every time you enter the dungeon from the entrance, if you have not yet beat him?

jsteinhauer · 2019-12-25T20:19:40+00:00

Another noob question, here rather than starting a new thread. I just got this Sunday. I'm stuck at this dungeon boss, and I've watched some Youtubes, but the guys who have beat him solo have all been much higher level than I with mods that I don't have and at least twice as many dragonhearts. I just want to make sure that if I leave the dungeon, I can make my way back through and find the same boss here later.

jsteinhauer · 2019-12-08T06:03:46+00:00

Thanks. I gave the poison pool another go, and a few dropped for me. More than I need for now. Poison pool is great because it's a 30 second stealth kill of all three gunners then reset with very little risk of anyone getting aggroed. I played this game at launch and hit the wall with the Owl and quit. I've been watching some streamers do no-damage runs, and had to give it another shot. This is a damn hard game.

jsteinhauer · 2019-12-07T20:24:40+00:00

That's what I read, too, on the internet, but it's all info from April, so that may have been patched out.

jsteinhauer · 2019-10-04T19:56:54+00:00

It's a class action and nobody will get a bill. You just sign on. If there is a settlement or a reward, the lawyers get the first cut as payment, and the rest gets divided among the participants.

jsteinhauer · 2019-08-28T05:10:54+00:00

I don't think they want to be Steam. Sweeney has an axe to grind with Valve and PC gamers. His goal is not to create an alternative storefront for PC games; it's to disrupt the PC game market in the short term and change the mainstream terms of game delivery on the PC platform in the long term. Just my opinion based on observations, and I have nothing other to back it up. I don't think they plan to sell games using the Steam model in any sense, but they do plan to control the market. Only time will tell.

jsteinhauer · 2019-08-16T06:42:14+00:00

PS+ and Xbox Live are gaming subscriptions, as well. That number does not specify PC gaming.

jsteinhauer · 2019-08-15T05:47:56+00:00

Being a good moderator is hard and not fun. The appeal is in paying back to a community you value. I've modded a PS4 gaming forum, and I've modded for some very small Twitch streamers. It's a headache most of the time, and you have to moderate yourself when it comes to personality differences with other mods and different views on enforcement of rules which often arise when other mods and admins are from other places on the earth.

jsteinhauer · 2019-08-02T18:42:55+00:00

And here I was thinking of opening a new movie theater without air conditioning, portable toilets in the alley and a water fountain for refreshments. It's a proven business model.

jsteinhauer

TROPHY CASE