Update Update

[scottw]

yet another scum-filled and wadded-up piece of silver plated brass converted back into a 6/4 CC tuba to be played in a major symphony orchestra concert next week...

...and two more Sellmansberger mouthpieces take the place of two big gold blobs.

Life is good!

[bearphonium]

I won a prize at a conference raffle that has initiated a huge remodeling project on the part of my spouse. Anyone know how to install laminate flooring, repair split baseboard trim or install a 40" LCD TV? (The TV is the prize that started all this.) And as we are now updating our "home entertainment", what is new on the audio front? (As an info piece, my stereo unit still has a cassette tape player... )

[Donn]

I can't claim any experience at all with laminate flooring, but just reading about it ... I might prefer to carpet my floor with old newspapers, than install that stuff in my house. At least check on the formaldehyde factor with the specific product you're going to use, but aside from that I'm prejudiced against a large number of common building materials, like gypsum wallboard for example, so take my opinion with a grain of salt or something. But unlike interior walls, where it sometimes may seem there's no practical alternative, there are plenty of good alternatives in flooring materials.

[bloke]

That laminate flooring, reportedly, adds $0.00 to the value of a house. Gypsum wall board...OK...It's sandwiched with cardboard, and sealed away with paint...but what sort of paint? My walls are (nearly 100%) "natural" (wood), but are sealed with...what...?? How long before paint/stain/varnish fumes subside? How friggin' nasty-@$$ is any carpet? How much longer would I live were I to stay outdoors all the time...??...or in a hole dug into the side of a hill...??

bloke "no answers here"

[PMeuph]

I just finished the last of 7 convocation ceremonies this week playing tuba with a band. The money I made pretty much paid for the Conn 12J I recently purchased.

[bloke]

I just got me new office set up...with enhanced internet security...

[KiltieTuba]

I just got me new office set up...with enhanced internet security...

Chair doesn't look to comfortable... does it come with more lower back support?

[Donn]

Gypsum wall board...OK...It's sandwiched with cardboard, and sealed away with paint...but what sort of paint? My walls are (nearly 100%) "natural" (wood), but are sealed with...what...?? How long before paint/stain/varnish fumes subside? How friggin' nasty-@$$ is any carpet? How much longer would I live were I to stay outdoors all the time...??...or in a hole dug into the side of a hill...??

My beef with these materials isn't mainly about health issues. Though I wouldn't be surprised.

But honestly, it's mainly just that it's trash. It's a material with no inherent value. I mean it has the functional virtue that it holds its shape under moderate stress and it doesn't burn, but it's ugly the day it comes out of the factory and has nowhere to go but down from there. We build our houses out of scabby 2x4s, glass wool insulation, cover it up with gypsum wallboard and then, for looks, paint it all with latex paint. (Asphalt shingles and chipboard siding on the outside, of course, plus more paint.) Then eventually it's off to the landfill with it all. "Houses made of ticky-tack."

We are lucky to have fir floors, and in probably over a century of hard use they've got scratches and dents galore, but since the beauty of this material isn't merely superficial, a scratch doesn't destroy it. In what was evidently some kind of utility room ages ago, when I removed the later carpet and paint, and sanded the wood and sealed it with a good penetrating finish, the scarred and stained old fir is even more beautiful.

[bort]

I quit my job (today was my last day).

[schlepporello]

I quit my job (today was my last day).

After the week I had, I honestly wish I could say the same.

[KiltieTuba]

I quit my job (today was my last day).

I'm likely to finally get a job, though not in repair...

[bort]

Good to hear! A repair opportunity will come along soon enough though!

As for me, I have 1 week off, then I'll start my new job. Time to party!