As# Clown of a man

As# Clown of a man, originally uploaded by donutboyroy.

Mountaineers are always free! But not always free to leave the program right before a bowl game! Coach Rod has decided to leave to head to Michigan, a great program up where it is ass cold. Money talks as we all know, with a 500k increase in salary per year, how can you say no?

But I am still a bitter mountaineer fan, backing my team through it all. I just wish that coach would have stayed through the season instead of being such an ass clown and kicking us while we are down.

Here's to you Rich! Now your paycheck will be as large as your ego but not near as big as the pride of the WV faithful!

The people who bought our house in Seattle are Bloggin!

www.drewandholly.blogspot.com

Drew sent me some snail mail today that had his blog link in it. They are currently working on the kitchen right now. Complete GUT!





that is how it was when we bought it. The only thing that we did was to put in the appliances. Drew has taken the next step.

By the numbers

by the numbers, originally uploaded by donutboyroy.

Organic Sheets from Target- 250 thread count - $40
Lindt 70% and 85% chocolate bars- 2 for $4.00
Superbad DVD - rented for $1.00
Dog Fish Head - Old School Barley Wine 2007- $13

In first place- you got it! The beer. A nice 15% or so Barley WIne with nice sweetness to it without the over powering dark thickness. I am going to stash 2 of the 4 away in the basement and pull them out next Christmas ( that is what the directions on the bottle tell you to do btw)

2nd - The sheets. For $40 we might be on to something. They are a little hard right now but after a few washings I have high hopes for these.

3rd- 70% cocoa bar. Nice flavor, not too sweet but sweet enough to count as candy. I don't know why I bought the 85% I don't like that stuff. Must have been the 2 for $4.00 tag!

Finally - Superbad coming in 9th place. 9th place you ask? Yeah 9th. I had to put the 5 times I stabbed myself with a spoon last night before superbad. Honestly- Just say the F word 100 times in a row, think about the geeks in your highschool that were true geeks, and pour bleach into your eyes and nose and you will have the same feeling as if you just watched superbad.

Today (Sunday) it is warm and sunny here in NC. I climbed up the Magnolia as high as I could to get some of our nice red LED lights up. I guess tonight we will see how they look.

Nothing beats a Grady

Nothing beats a Grady, originally uploaded by donutboyroy.

Things around here have been rather slow for the DIY. Sure we have plenty of things to do, and no it isn't summer paddling season. We really have no excuse other than we keep finding things to do. Things like---Fishing!

It was a great weekend to get out again with Brian on the Grady. Sure it's december and it was cold as a witches #^& but we had the desire to catch some fish. The water was a bit rough, while they called for 2-4 it was more like 4-6 with the occasional 8 footer just for giggles.

We were able to catch a good mess of black bass (good fried up southern style!) and I was fortunate enough to land a 22lb grouper and a 16in black bass at the same time!

But now it's tuesday, the tree is half decorated, and the leaves from the worlds largest oak tree are 1/2 fallen. It won't be a 'chill' weekend at all. Shopping, painting, and maybe some plumbing if I am lucky.

we went to the beach this weekend

my chest hurts a lil bit.

Lesson 128- Don't assume anything about hot peppers

This is sorta like the reason why I don't do electric work at my house








GOT MILK? Like a Keg of it ?

Paint up! Furniture In! Tile Sealed!

medicine cabinet,
originally uploaded by donutboyroy.

Now all I have to do is get the glass people in. Set the toilet and get the sinks in. Oh yeah I have a couple of coats of poly to do on the countertop. Yesterday we applied a coat of systemthree epoxy on the mahogany top. It looks FREAKIN awesome!!!

We got our three coats up on the walls. The furniture moved up and ..... I think we drank a couple of pilsners.

GO SOX! GO Oldstonehouse!

DIY assistant of the year

DIY assistant of the year, originally uploaded by donutboyroy.

This year award goes to grand-daddy Bill Maunz! Bill Maunz is also in the running for father-in-law of the year for 2007!

Seriously- Bill has been to Raleigh 3 or 4 times in the past couple of months and without his assistance we could not be as far along on the project. He has put down some tile, painted some walls, moved some furniture and never complained one bit. Thanks BILL!

Oh that is the top that we are putting on the vanity.

Tile is sealed-

A couple of coats of sealant and some yard work make for a great sunday. It was such a relief to put that damn tile saw down in the basement!

We are calling the glass people this week to come over and take measurements. That should be very exciting to get done. Throw in some furniture, a couple of pieces of plumbing and we are done....oh and paint too.


F-ing blogger won't take posts from my mac today...just like last month and the month before...so check out flickr over on the right if you wanna see what I am up to


DAMN GOOGLE!

Low Temps...Thai Food....Sam Adams?

First off- The temp here in Raleigh has finally started to fall. We are now waking up to the 50's vs. 70's. LOVE IT! Today's high was 80 and the air was not sticky at all. It looks like we finally made it through the summer.

The final push on grout happened today. I will try to get some pictures this week after all of the clean up is done. Right now we are just so tired that we can't push any harder.

And on a final note...Sam Adams Beer. Yep good ol sam adams has pulled a fast one.This here Hallertau Imperial Pilsner is AWESOME. How awesome...well it made it into my top 10 beers of all times.

10 PBR in a freakin can
9 Golden Monkey, Victory PA
8 Black Gold, Imperial Stout, Full Sail, Hood River freakin OR-E-GUN
7 Decedent IPA, Ska Brewery CO
6 Hercules IPA, Great Divide Brewery, CO
5 Otter Summer, Otter Creek VT
4 Imperial Pilsner, Sam Adams
3 Manny's Pale Ale WA
2 Homoerectus, Walking Man Brewery WA
1 Notorious IPA, Rock Bottom Brewery Seattle WA. My buddy brews it and I can't get enough!





If you get a chance to get your hands on a 4 pack of this sam adams....DO IT !

Road Trip to Grandmas

It't that time of year again, the time when our house is a wreck, our laundry piles up, and our gear stays sorta soggy. It's gauley Season. So to prepare for our weekly pilgrimage to WV we made our rounds to the south to see some friends and family. And of course, what trip would be complete without catching a cold? Not this one. That is the reason I am at home blogging at noon on a wed.

Meat fest was fun again. We were not able to complete the Bocce tournament due to a Mime misplacing one of the yellow balls. I know if she had one more margaritta she would have found it. Lots and lots of food and great friends. We are getting way older cause our beverage cooler was just as full at nights end as it was in the begining. It's the time ya share with good folks that you love. I don't even think we touched the shine. Probably all for the better.

Going on 2 years now here in NC.

We closed on this stone house just about 2 years ago. Really just 2 years? WOW! All of the things that we have done in 2 years.
Central AC. New Plumbing. New Electric. New Kitchen. Redid the floors. Reseed the backyard. New Laundry closet. Removed all of the wallpaper upstairs. New drywall upstairs. complete gut of the master bathroom and lots of tile in it's place. 3 new closets in dead attic space.....and 1 healthy baby boy. Busy bees.

Now what I miss
Snowboarding being just an hour away in my truck.
.

Clean and clear whitewater

The water here in NC is nice....warm....but not clean.



Our Friends-





Safeco Field-


Hood River-



The views-

Tile is done! Legs Hurt!

Finally! The tile for the master bath is up and down! With the help of my favorite father-in-law we were able to get the rest of the tile in the bathroom layed. While we have not moved to grout, we are super excited to get to the point that we can. I estimate that we layed almost 200 square feet of tile in 4 days. Don't leave replies if you are some master tilesman and say that is nothing! Nothing is what you got payed to do our bathroom, cause we did it ourselves!

So we have the flat white hex tiles on the floor. Subway tile with squares for the shower walls, and flat white squares for the shower floor. Now we are getting ready to grout, get Adam in to hook up the exhaust, and get the glass folks in to measure for our gigantic shower enclosure. Will this be the largest shower on the block? 7 ft by 4 ft...probably.



I have posted the pictures over on flickr since Blogger isn't digging my mac tonight!

Country Roads Take Her Home-

Found in a hollow in wv...adopted by two young kids....and loved as a family member for 7.5 years. Rest in Peace girl. You had a great life, a full life, many friends and many many miles on those paws.

Cheney predicts the future. If you have not seen this...WATCH IT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I

Wrap it up...bring em home. If this doesn't get that W sticker off your car then there is a serious problem.

What made the tile job easier?

while we are by NO MEANS tile pros....I would say that we are some serious DIY'ers and that we do know when a project has kicked our ass. I am not going to go step by step on how to tile, but I will describe some of the things that made it easiers.

1. The 4 beam laser level. Plumb? Square? Level? YEP! This thing ( see the red line in the picture) allowed us to see if the tile were sliding, or not on the level.

2. Wet Tile Saw. - What a dream this machine is. This puppy plundge cuts, bevel cuts, and slides like ichiro stealing 2nd base. Knowing the Kerf of the diamond blade and getting use to how thick it cuts will allow you to make a tighter set.

3. The thin-set paddle mixer bit. Whatever you want to call it. I didn't spring for the$$$$ one but this thing made mixing the thin set a breeze. Be sure to clean it off after every mix or else you will hate yourself at the end of the day. It does take a drill with some guts so don't expect to hook this thing up to anything labeled Ryobi or Skil. Well you can if you want to go out and buy a new unit.
4. Help. A couple of helpers go a long way. Sandy's dad came up from SC and Sandy really threw down on some tile. I hope to get the shower floor layed this week. Anything to get me inside and out of the 100 degree heat with 200% humidity. THanks Bill!

Make sure it's level. Measure 5 times...cut twice ( cut long, then trim it up!)....rubber hammer those things in that nasty mud! Keep your eye on the entire thing. Step back...look....and don't be afraid to adjust.

Master bathroom shower gets tile!

Too tired to write much.

We got both walls of the shower tiled. No grout, but tile is up. Grout, floor, get the glass up....enjoy.

What's the freakin hold up?

(what keeps us busy)

somewhere upstairs, amongst the kayaking and backpacking gear, beind on or two solid white doors is a freakin mess. A mess of tools, insulation, screws, fans, drop cords....all things that we used while we remodeled the upstairs. But there is one room. The master bath that holds it all. For 3 months now the upstairs has been ignored. It's time to get on it.

Next week I will finish hanging the hardy board so that Mark can come and pour the shower floor. From there it is all tile. Boxes of tile await me. Floor tile, showertile, backsplash tile...oh joy! I am not really looking forward to it, but damn, it's time to get it done.

Antioch College to Close in 2008!?

Be Ashamed to die until you have won some good for humanity! Horace Mann, founder of my great college in the middle of Ohio.

It was announced yesterday that Antioch College will close the doors in July of 2008. SHIT! I knew it was a downward spiral when they closed up Maples, but this is just too much. Antioch is everything that I am, it made me who I am, it is in my blood.

More Info on it
http://technorati.com/posts/tag/antioch+college?page=2


I am going to be calling for a large kick ass festival next year for all alumni and family. We have to send this place out in style.

Dream Job over New Dream being lived-

5 years ago, as a underpaid teacher, I worked as a raft guide in my hometown of WV. It was my 6 season, and I was really just working to make ends meet through the summer. Sandy was in grad school and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. I met someone in my raft who forever changed my life. A recruiter for the number 1 powertool company in the world. We hit it off, I interviewed, got the job....Moved to Seattle.

Life started to turn. They paid to move us out west, we were excited to be going somewhere new, ready to start a new life. It just couldn't be any better. A dream job of doing field work and marketing for a powertool company. Driving a big truck, free gas, working with young people, no office...yeah it was good. Seattle was good. Awesome food, awesome scenery, rivers, beer, music, and friends. for 3 years we lived out in the PNW working and playing. I went from being a teacher, which is what I went to school to do, to being a sales rep. Not really a job that many would say " damn I want that job" but just about 90% of all guys out there wanted my job. It was a good job.

Our dreams started to shift back to the east coast. My dad was getting ready to retire and most importantly we were thinking about starting a family. Sandy took a job over here in NC and I had that difficult phone call to make to the tool company. They took care of me. They created a position for me here in Raleigh NC. I took the lateral, and we moved east. That is when this stonehouse project started.

But that family conversation didn't come about for an entire year while here in NC. But when it did come up, we were just ready. This past April it all came to be. Along with that was reality of working too much. The company that I loved to work for was turning. I was working too much, stretched too thin and no end in sight. I had to leave. I knew that I was going to need more time with my son and wife. That priorities had changed, changed for the best. It's just awesome! I start a new sales job next week for a local distributor. Still in sales, still for a great company, just a little bit different.

Spring Cleaning......AKA Nesting?

So nothing is really happening here at the cave....OH wait, scratch that! Today I did cut down 2 large and out of control Holly bushes (MONSTERS!) and what a difference it makes to our curb appeal. Most importantly the view from the porch is awesome!!!
I finally cleared out all of the tools and trim molding that was on the porch and now we can sit out there, drink our sweet tea, eat our grits and hollar "HOWDY"

Here are a couple of pictures of our weekend. The ones of Kelsey are some of my favorite shots that I have taken so far with the Xti. The other is 1 case of homebrew that was capped today. I took a little advice from my buddy Josh who makes my favorite IPA in the freakin world and did some hop adding to the bottles. Cross your fingers and if you see Josh tell him I am coming for his title as brewmaster

Some DIY projects involve a nice beverage.

When we first moved to NC statelaw mandated that ABV in beer could not be greater than I believe 6. Soon after they changed that to 15% So then the great people of NC, even Dook fans, could enjoy some of the great IPAs and Barleywines that before the could not. Well now they can enjoy em, but they have to pay out the freakin nose for them. And it doesn't seem to be the Hoppy beers that are popular here, which are the ones I love. So I started a new DIY project yesterday ....

I love me some insulation!

And some closets too! One thing about this big ol cave is that the closets were pretty small. Well the downstairs closets anyway. We haven't really spent much time upstairs, well until the day after turkey day when we decided to remodel it all. So we went and made three more closets. 12ft long, 9 foot long and then one really funky shaped one that might just hold all of our kayaking and backpacking gear. Probably just the kayaking gear, but we will see.

So what have we been doing? Well I have spent the last couple of weekends insulating the closets and attic space of this joint! I did pink stuff for my closets, but we blew in the cellulose stuff for the attic. I have to say that blow-in stuff was a breeze. I was able to blow in 17 bags of that stuff in just 1.5 hours. And does it work? Well last night the temp was 60 when I went to bed and 58 when I woke up. Only 2 degrees drop over night...with no heat on and the downstairs door closed. Oh yeah it was 25 outside last night. Yeah for insulation!

Nothing much is happening here for a little bit. I will keep everyone posted.......:)

Roomba...Test 1

So Sandy and I needed to take Kelsey (the d o double g) for a little W. What a great time to test the Roomba ( it hasn't been named yet, but soon will be). We blocked of the dining room and kitchen area to let it run for 30 minutes on the max clean setting. The results?

And right now you are thinking, "oh my lord, these two kids live like animals, in pure filth!" Now just back that tumble bus up. We do not. But we do have a dog who thinks that shedding is sorta like love. Just give and give and give. Let everyone, and every square inch of the house know.

All and all, we are pretty satisfied with the results. Not too shabby for 30 minutes of work that we didn't have to do, and a nice walk around the block. Ahhhhhhhhhh Robots.

Roooooooooooooomba? Will it work?

So last week during an amazing wootoff (www.woot.com) I had the opportunity to pick up our first robot. The roomba sage is now a member of our household. A robot vacume that will wonder around our first floor sucking up kelsey's left behind fur. It has it's own charging station, some sort of inviso wall to place between a door jam or opening to keep it from leaving the area. Tomorrow will be the first day of it being on the job. (Well I ran it for about 10 minutes and it was freakin cool!) I will post the results tomorrow.

DIY'ers You Make the Call!? Blow-in Insulation

Alright DIY'ers......It's time for you make the call! Well not really but the 30 something men and some 30 something women will remember the days of monday night football....


Any suggestions or tips for doing my own attic blow-in insulation? Come on.....I know you have them. Cough them up!

Spring in Raleigh NC

Spring really sneaks up on you here in Raleigh. It seems like you go from keeping an eye on the gas bill to BAM! windows open, cordless lawnmower plugged in, bulbs popping up, and pollen making my black pick-up look like it has some alien dandruff sprinkled all over it. It really was like someone just flipped a switch and made the dark beers go away, bringing us lighter flavors and colors. I just love it! Here is a the view from our front porch this afternoon-

This weekend we went down to Columbia SC for a little family get together. It is really awesome to be able to load up the truck, hit the road and be with family in 4 hours or less. No matter how much I end up missing the left coast, there will always be something about being so close to home.

This afternoon I was able to slap a couple of coats of paint up on the laundry closet doors. The best part about that was that I got to do it out on the front porch. Blue sky, a nice pint of pyramid hef and some modest mouse rocking out the house. LOVE IT! It could always be worse right ? YES it could be! (Please read the final paragraph)

I am going to try to get the rest of the base boards primed and painted this week as well as get the insulation blower thingy reserved for a fun filled weekend of attic work. I know that those posts will be bitchin!

Special Paint Job

Paint----Floors----Lights!

Blogger is just Pis&ing me off. Here are the pics!

There are more pictures over >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> On Flickr