And the Geo installation continues...

Great Lakes was here again today, to plumb the humidifier to get its supply from the hot water heater, as well as add an outlet to power it. They also replaced that bad valve that wouldn't close for the 2nd stage of heat/cool.

The list of things to be completed is smaller (but is taking quite a long time to complete!):
- Consolidate humidistat with new digital unit
- Complete the control wiring

Just look at the dates between these posts! MARCH 27 until today?!?!? Nearly a MONTH!

Added the humidifier

Today they finished up a few more items, and added the humidifier.



Seems the items that need to be finished up are:

• 1 piece of pipe insulation
  
• move the humidifier source from the cold water supply to the warm off the hot water heater
  
• reconnect the control lines for the cutoff control unit
  
• install our back ordered thermostat
  
• tell me why the "small" water output valve is always open, even when the unit is off
  

Now the plumbing

The new unit appears plumbed, and the output plenum is on.



I turned on the unit and the entire family was surprised at just how quite it runs, compared to the old one. It is going to be WAY to quite in the house now!

Out with the old, in with the new!

Well, we've decided to proceed with our Geo-Thermal replacement; the supplier we chose is Great Lakes Plumbing and Heating of Indian River.

Here is day One of the furnace update:

Out with the old:


In with the new:

Easter Sunday

After a nice dinner with the family and when Dawn went off to work, I finished up the "business side" of the downstairs bathroom.

It has been a while since this side has been this clean or useful.



On the vanity side of the bathroom, I've got the old pipe removed and replaced the drywall to get it on it's way to completion. This shows a couple layers of mud on board, and will be ready for some paint "soon"!

Working on Ubuntu setup

A couple weeks ago my brother and sister-in-law gave me an older computer, on which I wanted to set up a home-based web server.

So far, I've managed to get Ubuntu 7.04 "the Feisty Fawn" installed, got vsFTP server running, signed up for a DynDns domain name (WayneRossIs.BoldlyGoingNoWhere.org), set up ddclient to keep that DNS pointed at my current cable-modem's IP address, and now I'm on to setting up a web server.

I am still stumbling on how to get the users I want to have access to my machine. So far, I can sign in within my house and have it work the way I want, but if I go over the cable modem/router the actual file transfer and directory listings don't go through. I poked ports 20 & 21 through my LinkSys, but there seems to be something more that I need to do...

I found a helpful Tutorial here for setting up Apache 2. Didn't take too much effort, and it was up and running a simple set of static web pages in just a few minutes! See the results here!

Following that, I set up SAMBA following this detailed guide, and that was good to go!

Getting things buttoned back up

The utility room is completed now:


Got the drywall back above the toilet. Just have to put the paneling back after I get a white piece of panel seam.

Dishwasher fixed, need new Furnace!

Got the dishwasher put together last night after getting the correct $12 part locally. The girls will be happy to have an easier time of washing the dishes!



The furnace man came today, confirmed the freon leak is in the coaxial coil, leaking into the water system. As the furnace is 15 years old, they suggest the only alternative is to replace the whole furnace (which they'll be happy to do for $8700).

AAAARRRRGGGG!!!!!

Now it's the dishwasher!

At 3am today the dishwasher broke. When it began the discharge cycle, it started making a humongous racket.

We have a Maytag MDB7100AWQ, serial 24135498YZ. The handle of a pot prevented the bottom rotating arm from spinning, and I think it ground some plastic nubs off the bottom side of the Discharge Housing Assembly.

Under this Housing:


I found a flat disc that looks like it is to act as a slip-clutch with tabs on the bottom of the impeller:


What I'm wondering about, is this really a problem (and the shortened tabs mean I need to buy a new part) or is this by design and I need to look for the source of my grinding noise elsewhere?


When I assemble the unit without the flat disc and run the drain cycle, it is rather quite, so I really think this is the problem. Might be I need one of these:

Back to work on the utility room

Since more pressing things seem to have settled down, I've got to get back to fixing up the utility room.

Taurus engine swap - completed!

Well, Adam finished up "our" project today.

To help the engine exchange project along, I spent $400 on insulation at Home Depot and put that up the day before Christmas. We were then able to heat the garage enough to actually be comfortable while working.

Pictures as we went along:
Wednesday, the day after Christmas had the car up:


And the engine out:


Friday:
Upon the recommendation of my mechanic, a new water pump was installed ("easier now than later in the car"):


Getting ready to go in:


Really late Friday night:
Back on the subframe, connected to the transmission:


This is the point that I left it so I could travel to da U.P. to do more Christmas visiting (with MOST of my kids in tow!)

Adam called Sunday morning 8am while I was at the farm to let me hear the car start, as he just finished a marathon session of getting the engine reconnected!


Here is the bad engine, sitting on a trailer just before I took it to the local high school to be used in experiments:

On the way to California...

When leaving Huston, TX for Ontario, California, I boarded the plane in the second group of passengers (First Class first, then Elite).

Sat in 8D (an aisle) until everyone was boarded and situated. It looked like the seat between me and the gal in the window seat was going to be unoccupied. Then the stewardess came up to me with a boarding pass with my name on it, asking “is this you?” I said yes and she went back up front. It took me a minute to see what was different about that pass – it was for 5E – First Class!

Once I figured that out, I moved my butt up front. That was so cool! It was nice to have the bigger seat, food and free drinks while watching the in-flight movie during the 3+ hour flight!

Travel, travel, travel!

I went to St. Louis before Thanksgiving, Columbia, South Carolina a week later, and now have tickets for Ontario, California!

I went through the effort of creating a Google map of "all the job sites I've been to", but have only really accurate records for the last 3 years. Before that are several that were "in a fog", so I have yet to figure out when I went to each.

Anyway, I've create that and here is a link which should always hold the most up-to date version:
Wayne's Google map

In getting ready to go, I went and got a replacement 3L engine for my Taurus from St. Ignace. So, now have even more to keep me busy over Christmas!

Went to Traverse City last night with Dawn and the girls to see the Nutcracker at Interlochen. Ate dinner with "my Tom" at the mall and caught up a bit with him.

And the journey for transportation continues

I've acquired a 1992 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX, thinking it can replace (at least for a few months) the lack of a Taurus.


It took some effort to get it running, as it had been sitting for quite some months. My diagnosis skills are severely lacking. In narrowing down the problem (and in general, the 95,000 miles indicate a tune-up is in order) I've put new plugs, air filter and fuel filter on board. I also added Sea Foam and 5 gallons of fresh premium gas to the 3/8 tank that has been sitting for almost a year.

Basically, it'll crank over just fine (as long as I keep feeding it with the battery charger!) but fires intermittently. While I had the fuel filter loose, I verified the pump delivers plenty of fuel.

Taking a plug out, I could see I get spark. It almost seemed like the intensity of the spark varied (brightness), though the interval was consistent while cranking it over.

The issue seems to be fuel, but yet appears I have fuel to the engine.

While I was replacing plugs, a plastic spark plug retainer broke, so I made a replacement (left) that looks better than the old brittle one (right):

Then, the washing machine!

Yesterday Beckie came to me with "the washing machine keeps running". It wouldn't discharge.

Tonight I tore it apart and found a sock in the pump. Guess that makes it awful hard to get the water out of the machine!

Still trying to figure out what to do about the Taurus. It's still at Browns, where they want $523 to get it out of hawk, but "oh, yeah, you need a new engine! Please add $1900 to your bill, and we'll take care of it!" It blue books for $2100! Give me a break!

Test drove a Corolla over the weekend. Nice ride. Nice price, too!

Now I'm driving Adam's Crown Vic. That's something!

Woods weekend

Left the Taurus back at Browns for more repair, as it is still not right.

Rented an Enterprise car for the weekend, so I could go up north while Dawn stayed home to work.

This weekend found my brother, my buddy Jim and I helping my Dad clear some trees in preparation for his 0.86 mile light line installation. We managed to clear all but 0.25 miles, leaving enough work for another day, I guess! We delivered the proceeds from our harvest to Jim's yard so he can feed his outdoor wood burner.

"Taurus" day

Put the Taurus in to Browns Wednesday night so they could tell me why the oil light is on steady all the time. Diagnosis: bad switch. They want $110 total to repair.

I take the Taurus back, pay $37.50 for diagnosis then $7.95 at Fochman's for a switch and spent Thursday evening swapping it out. While I had the switch out, rolled the engine over and saw the pump eject oil out the hole, so it is doing some kind of work.

As it is not an actual Ford part, the wire connection is incorrect, so a pair of snippers and an eyelet fix that issue.

Start it, and the oil light is no longer lit!

Now, what to think about it sounding like a sewing machine for the last 20 miles or so?!?!

It's connected!

Well, for better or worse, I got the septic hooked up!

I was having trouble towards the end, trying to get pipes connected by pushing on two sides of the same wall. Got Beckie and Rach to help, but it was still difficult.

The redirected pipe,

across the back of the toilet,

through the utility room and outside.


For those who've seen the downstairs bath in the last couple of years, you'll be surprised to know the shower really is white!

However, the thing I learned is that doing it yourself is not always a way to save money. Sometimes, things happen:


Now, I just have to figure out how to route the basement system to vent:

Back to work!

Last weekend was great weather to roll up the pool. As Rach and I discussed during that process, we don't think it will find the light of day next year. So much work into putting it up and putting away, and I think it was used 3 or 4 times all summer!

Well, I finally got back to my other project: connecting the sewer system.
I have to go through the bathroom:

And the utility room to get out of the house:


I've got the stud work done, and rerouted the water supply for the toilet. Now I have to actually install the sewer pipe to complete the system. I know someone will be happy when that happens!!!

Then off to rafting!

I didn't need to write much of anything about my return from Sweden (which was pretty much uneventful). Of course, homecoming was a bit drawn out, as Dawn was on her way to work as my plane landed in Pellston. So we didn't actually see each other until the next morning.

However, two days after returning, I headed out for a bit of fun with a couple of school buddies (Tom & Jim) for a bit of White Water Rafting in West Virginia. We had signed up for a two day trip with Class VI River Runners (a top-notch outfit!). The big draw there is the Gauley River, where the Army Corps of Engineers maintains the level of a man-made lake behind the Summersville Dam by dropping the lake level over the 6 weeks starting in September. This causes the river to rise during the day, creating awesome White Water as well as lowering the level behind the dam to be prepared for next spring's winter melt.

I've gone two times before with my brother, and was disappointed when Gerald couldn't join us this time out.

Only had a few digital camera pictures from the trip, though a disposable camera was used on the river itself.

Day One:
We figured out the world is pretty small. We drove from Northern Michigan to raft with a group of 42 other people. Two of them were put in the same boat as us (Sarah & Jeff). Turns out Sarah was from da U.P. (Brimley), though they now live in Ann Arbor.

Our guide (Reid) was certainly able to put us where he wanted to during the entire voyage! We were thankful to have such a nice guy at the helm.

Couple shots off the river that day at two of the Class V's:


Thought about purchasing the first picture, as it is a pretty good shot of what looks like a bunch of guys getting dumped out of the boat. Jeff was worried that his slamming into me was a problem, but the best part of the story is that we all stayed in!

After lunch, we found "the jumping rock". The way the raft approaches, you can decide to get out, walk a bit over 100 feet following the river, then you have to jump. It is about 18' from where you stand to the top of the water, and is pretty freaky to stand there, looking down. If anyone knows Tom and his issue with heights, you'll know it was pretty difficult to get him to jump! This picture does not do the height justice, as it simply looks like Jim is stepping into the water.


At camp:


The view on the other side of the river from camp (at the "Canyon Doors"):


Day two:
First thing, Reid took us to a 'surf hole', where the eddies and current cause the upstream water to fold under and actually draws some of the downstream water upstream with it. Reid placed our raft into the center of that, and we rode it longer than any other raft in our group. It had to be over 3 minutes! In fact, I think Reid was getting worried he'd be able to pull us out of there. It was really something to see the water roiling over the front of the raft (as well as Tom & Sarah!). It was awesome!


Once we got off the river after the second day, we visited the famous span over the New River. It was getting late in the day, so the sun was directly behind the subject. I was surprised how some of the images came out on my digital camera, and have to share them:



On our way home Tom was saying how things could be different "next time", which is encouraging to me that the weekend was enjoyed by all, certainly worth repeating!