House Ghost

 

I have a house ghost.

Ok, that sounds very domestic. 

Basically I have a very shy ghost. I have 'felt' them not so much as a presence but when I do something stupid and they are questioning their after-life choices mostly when I startle myself and ugly scream. There have been a few times when I think they tried to help so I wouldn't scare the crap out of myself. but other then that? 

Now, normally I would be worried about carbon monoxide poisoning or other such out side influence, but fortunately thoughs things are soundly crossed off the list.

First, I have an old boiler but because my basement has all the drafts and part of it is open to the outside (my porch was not done properly) there is no build up of carbon monoxide. After I fix the draft problems? Well, that is one of the concerns in getting the drafts fixed.

Second, when I hear papers fall of the tables down stairs they are always right back in their place. When the mice move things they stay moved and well... Mice leave 'calling cards'. So many calling cards. The mice chase sound boxes have been working so far. 

Third, the ghost learned not to push the test button on the fire/carbon monoxide detector in the basement. The basement detector is the only one within arms reach as the other 2 are 8-10 up on the ceilings in their respective rooms. A 2am wakeup call with the test message blaring in the house was not fun and in the time it would take someone to run from the basement into my room there was suddenly the presence of someone clinging to my back like a scared cat, with the addition of 'i'msorry' & panic. 

That was the only big thing and while the ghost still moves a few things there hasn't been anything else. 

Besides, ghosts are much better then mice or rats or chipmunks or squirrels living in the walls.

Small business fail with no support

I have been talking about this for years. But I started writing this post on 5-1-2021.

 

Such a surprise (please note the sarcasm) that the unstable endless growth method for small businesses and startups... is failing. This is such a surprise.

No, no it's not. there is so much bad info out there pushing micro and small businesses to grow Grow GROW with nothing but then sell!

I literally got into an argument a few years ago at a lecture class thing that I paid for about this very problem. That nothing was actually helping or explaining how to do the business, it was only You Need To Grow!!!eleventy1!

This was the same lecture class thing were the gatekeeping useless guy was rude to people, told them to spend money on things they didn't need to and I explained everything he wouldn't after the lecture class.

This is why small business are failing, they are being given bad advise.

5-22-2021

Ah hahahahahahahahaha!

I hate being right.

If you can't afford to offer competitive pay & benifits then you can't afford to be in business. THIS INCLUDES SOLE PROPRIOTERS!!

Broken images in old posts

 

Just an update on the broken images from the older posts. They were cross posted from instagram when that was still allowed and then they changes it so that old instagram posts stop showing after so long.

This means I would have to manually fix them.

More then likely I will be deleting the post because I do not know how long that could take to fix.

At some point I might be switching to a Pillowfort account but atm that is far far down the line.

Plaster and Lath

 

Plaster and Lath. It would make a good name for a metal band because of how much I want to bang my head into a wall while working with it.

I need to get my photos sorted out to post but I didn't wait long enugh for the first coat to harden and... it pulled enough to crack.

The other thing we found is That I did put enugh plaster & presure to have it oooze out the back to lock it in place. On the rest of the wall I'm starting to think it was a lazy replacment from back then because their didn't. But a few other walls do have the ooze or keys. 

Which explaing all the poping and cracking if you look at the wall wrong.

So much work.

Also I started this blog post on 10-19-2020 and it is now 1-12-2021 as I'm finishing it. I have updates!

The normal easy to get plaster? I will work for a pretty good sized area if you are trying to get the look with a lot of work. Because normal plaster shrinks horribly and it shrinks fast. This is even with the 'protective coating' on the wooden lath.

And yes, you really do need to coat the wooden lath with something. Because my wooden lath had already been nailed back in place and I was on a deadline I painted a cement & plaster bonding agent on it. It was super helpful but because I couldn't get the back? it still dried out the plaster faster then just air alone.

Yes doing this during a very dry fall season also didn't help.

The good news is I didn't put up the lath for the first floor gap. I will be doing that section with the traditional plaster once I find the ingredients for it. It will be easier then the constant shrinkage and cracks with the normal plaster. It will also be sturdier.

The bad news is that the section I did on the second floor in the bathroom is in the best condition.

I am eventually going to pull down all the plaster in the bathroom and put drywall up onto the lath. There was a section don like that already which is why I am thinking about it. I wasn't able to properly examine the room before because of various bits of things and being under the gun to work in the plumbers window for appointments. Now that I have had plenty of time to poke around? It's the best solluton for that room.

The unfortunate catch would be that I would have to have the plumber come back and take the sink off the wall and then put it back up and move the base of the sink to it's new spot 1/2 inch out. Again. The joy of vintage pedestal sinks.

I also found in the bathroom that the original plaster is gone and there are 2 different ages of new & newer plaster. The top half is older and properly finished. The lower half is newer and just the scratch coat. In between them is this weird strip of plaster board that don't understand.

I'll probably get around to this in 2022 or when ever I can find a new & real electrician.

As a reminder, all posts show up on my Patreon two weeks earlier for $1+ supporters. Then two weeks later they will show up here on the blog. More support means more posts! And more experiments!