118 Henry Street

The Xmas theme this year turned out to be “practical technology” with most of the gifts we gave and received. Internet use of our mobile phones had been rising all year and it was an easy transition for Carole to use a tablet device she got as an anniversary gift.

 

Carole keeping warm with her Fire

DeShawn went 21st century AND growing up in a big way, getting his first mobile phone and a tablet device.

Kitted out with tech

Your author remains a bit of a luddite with his old fashioned desktop computer and single mobile device/phone. But, with a new stereo system and phone mount in the car, at least his music can follow him down the road (not to mention GPS navigation, hands free calling, etc.).

Mobile…yeah!

Turns out that plaster is a very good attenuator of wireless network signal. So, to support our growing tech needs at 118 Henry Street, we installed an array of wireless access points thru the house to insure complete and thorough irradiation. One access point is downstairs in the living room, one in DeShawn’s bedroom upstairs and one in the new sewing room.

Thus, the errata to the network diagram

See you next year!

“We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin auld lang syne.”

– “Auld Lang Syne” by Robert Burns

Very eventful, somewhat historic, weekend…

My sons, Ben and Will, came to town to help move DeShawn upstairs to the west bedroom. Also, DeShawn had his first swim meet with his new team.

We’re gonna skip all the sentimental “kids to adults” stuff (Ben is 27 and Will is 30), and get right to some photographic evidence of change.

Little boy afraid to move upstairs by himself

Fearless pre-teen slept thru the thunderstorm first night in his new bedroom

2006 and earlier

The kid wanted his computer and TV on the same screen

When the West Bedroom was originally completed and time to move DeShawn upstairs into his planned space, he was afraid to go. He didn’t like the idea of being alone on the second floor, and the way the closet doors opened into the attic stoked his fears. So we decorated the bedroom as a study and gave him time to grow up a little. During the interim, we built out the closet so it wasn’t so foreboding.

The scared little boy of 2006 has grown into the fearless “tweener” of 2010 and wants to take his anointed place in the “best” room of the house.

In the Zen physics of old house living, any move upstairs must also involve a corresponding move downstairs. Ergo, the current series of mini-projects.

With DeShawn’s leave of the Master Bedroom, Carole and I can move our bedroom into the final space. With our bedroom moved from the Front Study, all the computers/bookshelves/etcetera (some of which currently reside in the West Bedroom) can move into their final space.

As part of the downstairs part of the move, we decided to get Carole’s workspace out of the East Bedroom and into it’s final space. The East Bedroom is, at this point in our narrative, the most “undone” and primitive of all the rooms of the house. Right now, it’s mostly a storage area having had little but de-construction work done on it. Carole has a small, open floor area to do her projects and the whole room is really too dusty for any cloth or sewing.

Appending Carole’s work area move to the “Move DeShawn’s Bedroom” project adds the restoration of the kitchen back wall to the task list.

More or less, here is what needs to be done in each of the affected rooms:

West Bedroom (no big deal)

1. Finish putting sash locks on the windows
2. Make the cable TV jack live
3. Install some window blinds

Front Study (couple of days under the house)

1. Re-wire approx. 1/3 of the old knob & tube electrical circuits of the 1st floor
2. Terminate wall jacks on the network lines ran with Howard’s help

Electrical circuit 2, to be more specific

Kitchen/Addition (opening the box on kitchen restoration)

1. Restore the back kitchen wall
2. Some electrical re-wiring for new fridge and dryer placement
3. Rough out plumbing for the washer
4. Rough out dryer vent
5. Modify gas line to existing heat stove to target for cook stove

Image redux from Part 2

Master Bedroom (too much to do with this project)

1. Way too much!
2. Some cleaning

And, yes, in case you were wondering, we are doing all of this work ourselves.