Category: FYI

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Minor Victories — I’ll Take ’em Whenever I Can

So, three lil rough spots in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway re-flooring project. Just conquered one of ’em–a transition from the living room to the dining room. I had attempted to match up a couple of partial pieces to link up well with the flooring coming down the hallway, and though they seemed to fit nicely, glued to the laminate planks coming out of the living room, once the hallway pieces moved into the dining room, a wee crack opened up due to a less than 1/32-inch difference in floor height. I tried ameliorating that and ended up exacerbating the problem to slightly over 1/32-inch, so backed off that.

Filled it and stained the fill. Hoped for the best, but was never satisfied. When my Wonder Woman asked if there were a transition piece I could put in that was similar to what I used transitioning between the laminate and some tiling in the kitchen, but with a lower profile, I was stumped. . . until I began digging around in a storage area under the laundry room where I had various pieces of scrap molding and found a 3/4-inch wide, very low profile piece of oak molding. “Hmmm,, I bethought meself, “if I stained this juuust right. . .”

And yeh, some nice, dark walnut stain, nicely wiped to yield a lighter walnut appearance then “varnished” with a satin polyurethane, applied to the eensy-weensy crack with a (transparent and stainable when dried) “30-year” caulk/sealer, and my, that looks nice!

On to the other minor “Oopsies,” now, then baseboards and other trim (particularly doors) changed out, new paint all around (yes, I do have drop cloths and painter’s tape, TYVM ? ), and a few other detail touches (NOW can I install the crown molding? Hmmm? *heh*), and this part of our live-in renos will be finished. Mostly. . . ‘cos the bedrooms haven’t been “re-floored” yet (though that will entail mostly just cleanup after removing the carpeting, since the oak flooring underneath it–as much as I have been able to see so far, at least–seems to be in excellent condition).

Having some real fun, now. ?

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“Selfies”

The “selfie” phenomenon generally gives me a rash. Nevertheless, here’s my most recent self-portrait. Methinks it doest have a certain je ne sais quoi, non?

Now, off to apply some Budreaux’s Butt Paste for the rash. . .

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Ongoing Projects

Flooring–including both new laminate and tiling, along with grouting and sealing the tile–is finished (well, almost entirely; a very few minor details remain) here at Third World County™ Central. . . except for installing new baseboard and matching trim for doors. *heh* As soon as I have made the new baseboard and trim from raw lumber, that can go in as well. THEN, it’s onto finishing the kitchen remodeling. I’ve had some new ideas about that I needed to think through, but I think I have that pretty well finalized, now. More storage, more usable counter space, better flow: I think I’m going to have some fun with that.

Pictures? Eventually. I may even have a couple of the old counter top, cabinets, etc. (Yeh, replacing some cabinets is gonna be fun, too.)

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What Is Godly Faith?

Godly faith–faith that is pleasing to God–is not some “woo-woo,” irrational feeling or blind leap, but something much more substantial. A blogpost is not the place for an exhaustive discussion of godly faith, but there is a bit of “news” for most folks via a little exercise.

In a sense that is similar to the trust I have in my wife because she has consistently demonstrated her character, we learn by the evidence of God’s faithfulness in our experience with Him that he is trustworthy.

We also know that God is pleased when we obey what He has already revealed to us we are to do, things like showing others the Way to Him, being truthful, kind, thankful for our blessings (yes, even when in the middle of our troubles), etc.

So, try substituting “trusting obedience” for “faith” in Hebrews 11.

“Now [trusting obedience] is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

“For by [trusting obedience] the elders obtained a good report.

“Through [trusting obedience] we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

“By [trusting obedience] Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

“By [trusting obedience] Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God,” etc.

While “trusting obedience” does not completely cover _all_ the sense that Paul’s use of “pistis” implies here, it is valid, IMO, and certainly expands on the typical understanding most folks ascribe to the term.

So, when Paul said (2 Corinthians 5:7), “We walk by faith, not by sight,” it seems to me he was saying “We walk by trusting obedience, not by what we see, or by what is obvious to our senses or reasoning, or feelings, but by relying on His Word and by trusting what God has already said and done in our lives.”

Of course, all that is simply speaking of an aspect of our faith. The NT also contains the phrase “`o pistis [tou] christou” (see Galatians 2:16, for example) a phrase variously translated (according to personal preference?) “faith in Christ” or “the faith of Christ.” The “tou” leans my thinking strongly toward “the faith of Christ,” but even then, one must ask oneself if “tou” is genitive or dative in these cases. . .

But rather than get into the weeds about that lil grammatical issue (which does not substantially affect the following), let’s just ask, What would it mean to speak about being saved (or, in the words of Gal 2:16, justified) by “the faith of Christ” rather than (or as well as?) our faith in Christ?

Questions:

  1. Whose faith is likely to be pure and effective?
  2. By whose faith was expiation made for our sin and therefore justifies us before God?
  3. Whose faithfulness effects and sustains our sanctification?

Perhaps it would be easier to grasp the idea that “We are saved by the faith of Christ” to retranslate “pistis” in this case as “faithfulness,” and restate it as “We are saved by the faithfulness of Christ.”

Continue thinking about that while I toddle off to bed. . .

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Slow Boat from China

So, ordered an external enclosure for a laptop optical drive from an Amazon retailer knowing full well it would come by “slow boat from China,” since it wasn’t a critical piece of equipment and not needed tout de suite. Eventually, it arrived. Again, no problems with the six week delivery time, since I ordered it with an expectation that delivery would be glacially slow.

But.

It was neither as described in the product description nor as pictured on the product display. It was missing the ONE essential element that allows using a laptop optical drive as an external, portable drive: an interface card. The card was neither built into the enclosure nor flopping around loose in the box. I had a plastic box, a couple of short USB cables, and a faceplate. Useless, except perhaps for target practice.

Corresponded with the seller. Seller wanted pictures of what was missing from the box. Yes, that is indeed what was stated.

*head-desk*

After several emails back and forth (and a complete unboxing sequence sent, along with copies of the text and pictures from the product page for comparison), the company offered to “make me whole” by refunding all but $0.44 of what I paid them for the trash they sent me to dispose of for them.

*sigh*

But at least they didn’t ask me to send their trash back to them.

Still, one strike and the seller is OUT. I’ll never buy from this seller again. Seller “TOOGOO”? “Disrecommended”

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Amateur Flooring Project. . .

. . .is proceeding at a snail’s pace.

But, overall, that’s a Good Thing. For example, lifting two layers of vinyl flooring in the kitchen, at the garage door entrance, uncovered. . . rotting particle board. Particle board?!? Yep. And it seems to be original to the house, which is around 45 years old. Fortunately, as I began removing it, I discovered that the rot

a.) only extended about one foot into the kitchen from the garage
b.) did NOT include rot of the sill plate on the structural wall
c.) did not extend to the one inch (nominal; really ~3/4-inch) wooden boards that were the subfloor.

Well, as everyone knows, particle board is crap, and unsuitable for virtually ALL construction, but I wasn’t about to begin tearing up all the entire kitchen floor, once I got back to still solid particle board.

So, what to do? It looked like all the rot had been confined to directly un front of the door entering the kitchen from the garage, so, in fitting with my original thoughts for that entry, I

1. Cleaned a 2’x4′ area in front of that door, all the way down to the solid, unaffected (real) wood subfloor;
2. Caulked all cracks with “40-year” paintable caulk;
3. Painted the subfloor with Drylock™ where it had once been covered with tar paper (likely what prevented the rot from proceeding to the subfloor);
4. Put down “hardy board” backer board;
5. Laid and grouted ceramic tile, bringing the level back up to juuuuust barely over the level of the current floor+2 layers of vinyl.

That will, I think, adequately protect the subfloor from any insult, and provide very little transition downward for the laminate I am finishing up installing in the kitchen. BTW, the laminate is very water and moisture-resistant, but I am gluing the joints with a waterproof glue designed for laminate flooring, as an added precaution. A 2’x7′ area in front of the kitchen sink and dishwasher will not be getting laminate flooring but a fairly thick adhesive vinyl tile that is designed to be grouted. (I’ve already used the same vinyl tile for the front entry, and it has performed like a champ there, with heavy traffic for several months.) Same treatment in front of the French door exit/entry from dining area to deck.

After this flooring is down, since the bedrooms on this floor will only need carpet and staples removed, and some cleanup, minor restoration, I’ll then be able to start on replacing all the trim. Oh, yeh, I think I mentioned a month or two ago that the bedrooms have some nice oak flooring under the carpet. *smh* Means we have more laminate that we need for this floor. Hmmm, the laundry/pantry is begging for a reno (could be a half bath/cleaning supplies pantry), and the garage needs to be emptied for a conversion to laundry room/pantry/workshop. Laminate flooring used those places?

*huh* Will STILL be some left over. Probably enough to do the deck, once it is fully enclosed, eh? 🙂

Oh, and methinks my Wonder Woman wants new cabinets in the kitchen, too. And the master bath needs an update, and. . . 🙂

I’ll never have time to die. Especially since my amateur “handyman” approach is slow, largely from excessive creativity (or so I tell myself *heh*).

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Tightwaddery2

Ab out a year ago, I found a belt exactly like the one pictured here ($16) for a buck at a local “fell off the back of the truck store (closeouts, returns, salvage, etc.). I liked the fact that it was extremely adjustable, and since I needed a belt at the time (intentional weight loss, pants falling down, broken buckle on old black belt I had used for years–had LOTS of additional holes punched in the leather, anyway), I purchased it.

After a few months, the part indicated with the arrow broke. Unlike the rest of the belt buckle, it was just cheap pot metal. #gagamaggot

Today, I finally decided to either fix the thing or toss it. So, I used a twist tie to emulate the functionality of the part that broke–a part which worked together with a spring-operated tongue on the buckle to grip notches in the belt.

It works, but that’s about all I can say for it. Still, “it works” is enough for me to once again wear the thing with a pair of pants I bought “too small” which now fall down if I do not wear either a belt of suspenders (or both *heh*)

So, Tightwaddery2, ;cos cheap buy of an item I needed and cheap fix of same item, broken.

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One Can Only Hope. . .

I have searched and searched (OK, occasionally and lackadaisically *heh*) for the source of the comment, “Let hope be not dismayed,” and found references that almost but do not match the lil five word sentence. It popped into my head and out of my mouth one day when someone said, “I hope you have a nice day,” but from whence I know not. Nevertheless, when hope is all one has, “let hope be not dismayed” is a worthy hope to pile on top of that hope, eh?

(Ps 69:6; Rom 8:24-25)