Painting

I've been working away on the bathroom. Wiring for the radiant heating, taping and mudding the drywall, wet sanding and more mud, etc. Doing a smooth coat instead of texture (recommended for bathrooms and kitchens, because it's easier to keep clean) is a lot less forgiving of irregularities.

We spent a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with Katarina's mom up in the mountains where she lives, so not much got done last week. I got back to things today, and primed the ceiling and walls. Priming is my least favorite painting, because it's hard to see what you're doing, with white primer on white drywall compound. But it's very important, particularly in a high humidity environment like a bathroom, so it must be done.

Green Enough?

An interesting article over at Rolling Stone, a discussion with James Lovelock, the guy who came up with the Gaia concept (the earth as a single 'organism' that adjusts and regulates itself over time) as well as a number of brilliant things like the Electron Capture Detector (ECD) that helped figure out the hole in the ozone. He thinks the effects of global warming will be worse and come sooner than most of the current predictions, to the point of most of the current 'green' movement stuff being irrelevant in the long term.

He's the first to admit he might be wrong, but part of me fears he's at least partly right, or closer to right than most, even if it's not quite as dire as "The Day After Tomorrow" (or as dire and silly as "Waterworld", though Dennis Hopper is definitely fun to watch in that.) Some of Lovelock's critics are upset because they're afraid it will cause some people to give up and do nothing about global warming. There are already enough people who are quite willing, nay eager, to dismiss global warming and the whole green movement as some left-wing conspiracy.

So what are we to do? Do the best we can, I guess. And pray that's enough.

Happy All Hallows' Eve

I came across these gory but excellent costumes via houseblogs.net that some DIY's put together for a party. What's really scary is the article in the Wall Street Journal that inspired the costumes. In fairness to the people referenced in the article, not all of them were at alcohol-involved events. This blogger, for example, had her picture used out of context and was lied to by the WSJ reporter.

I would never want to use a Sawzall, for example, after drinking. They're dangerous enough sober, because of the "all" part combined with the "sawz" part. And heaven help you if you've got an inexperienced and tipsy friend wielding one at a demolition party. Beer is good ("Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin), but alcohol plus power tools or house demolition sounds like a plain ol' bad idea.

Curiosity and Cats

The other day I when I was putting up drywall, I left the room for a few minutes. I came back to see Star peering down at me, meowing plaintively. True to form ("Wuss in Boots"), she'd climbed up the ladder and into the dining room ceiling below the bedroom loft, but was then afraid to come down. If you've ever tried to pick up a cat that doesn't want to be picked up, you know how difficult it can be. Put the cat into a small enclosed space so you can only approach the cat from the front, and the danger from claws goes up significantly. After puzzling over it for a moment, I finally climbed up the ladder, let her climb onto my shoulders, and then climbed down. So no cats (or me) were harmed in the making of this picture.

It's Alive!

Well, OK, it's not. But the lift is very handy for putting drywall on ceilings. Lately I've been putting drywall and backer board in the new bathroom. I also put some drywall up in the entry hall (it's had drywall on the ceiling, but been bare studs and insulation in the walls forever), and after using up my 1/2" drywall supply moved on to part of the dining room ceiling. It's funny how much more like a 'room' the bathroom looks with drywall on the walls instead of just bare studs and insulation.

I've got a line on the radiant heating system for the bathroom. Katarina is quite excited about it. It should be pretty easy to install. Lay it on the subfloor, bury it in thinset, et voilà -- ready to lay tile over it. It's relatively expensive since we're doing a small area (12 sq. ft.), so the thermostat/controller is going to cost more than the wire grid. But I think it'll be well worth it, especially once we get solar panels for some of our electrical needs.