Wow, I had Spotify running at a lower bit rate and didn’t notice it… I thought I had a speaker issue! I just set the bit rate and everything sounds better now. Getting back into the hobby now that I have a dedicated listening room in the house. Working on getting a roon server running and am getting an appointment for a consultation with John and Audio Connection and see if I can trade some things in for newer equipment. I really want a 275 in the system and a new CD transport.
Car issues
My car has been in the shop for a few days with a DPF issue. I am not sure if it has something to do with the emissions “Fix” VW preformed on the car but I have a feeling it does…. DPF is part of the emissions system and it’s one of the new parts that was swapped on the car. Hopefully I will hear back soon with good news. I have a deposit in for a 2020 Golf R so once that comes in I will have a second car I can use when the TDI breaks down.
I finally got the listening room painted and ready to go. I moved all my audio gear down and set it all up on new audio racks. I plan to upgrade my speakers soon as well as trade in some of my old gear for new. Everything is starting to show it’s age so it’s about time to refresh it all with new. I will post some pictures once I am finished… the thing that really makes it cool are the LiFX tiles I installed on the walls… without a woman saying no I can do some really neat stuff around the house! The tiles morph colors or respond to the music. If you can sneak them by your wife or significant other I would suggest them!
Having the fireplace guy over soon to give me a quote on a J0tul wood stove insert in the living room! I am really looking forward to getting that work done. I really like having a nice fire. Probably not going to be installed this season but it will be something I will do over the summer. I think I will have a new mantel installed as well as I don’t think the one I have will work well with the insert. Anyway I will write more later.
Spark!
New find out of Sweden… EBM and what sounds like some analog synth!
Pandora’s box
Starting working on my new listening room on the first floor. It has a door down to the basement which had tons of chipping paint. I decided to tackle this first… Bad move! Just like the title it opened the box and I am no stripping the entire door. Probably going to be the only thing I get done house wise today. I am taking it down to the wood so it’s slow going. Tomorrow should be a more productive day hopefully. I want to have this room done by January because I will be installing the new stove here.
I am being careful about the lead paint, I have a hepa filter in my shop vac, I have a resperstor and I set up a box fan with a merv13 filter to catch anything that might get airborne. I am not sanding so that helps as well… All heat gun work and scraper.
Goal next year is to finish up the rest of the house and then move on to the garage.
Tile
Don’t bother getting a tile. After a year they are garbage because you can’t replace the battery. I’m going to try and replace my battery because I have nothing to lose. I don’t see how you can design a $30+ device and not include some way to replace the battery. Seems like a money grab for the replacement as well as being bad for the environment.
One ton down one to go
I moved 1 ton of pellets today and have another one in the garage to move tomorrow. I had to make space for the second one as I had no idea of volume.
I think I have someone lined up to buy my BMW as well. I am thinking about selling it and getting something new. I have a deposit down on the 8th Gen Golf R but I still have eyes on a Model S or a E450 only time will tell. Anyway, time to watch some TV as my back is killing me after today. Not going to Crossfit until at least Thursday this week!
Spring cleaning in December!
I have the week off so I started to clean out the garage and basement today. I am about 85% done with the garage but have about as much garbage as I feel comfortable throwing out in one shot. Once it goes out on Friday I will bag up the rest for next week. Patricia and I had way to much stuff and now I am pairing down my stuff and tossing hers. Not going to let it get so bad in the future. The basement was crazy, I think once I rebuild the garage things will be better because the yard tools and equipment can be placed there.
I will be getting my pellets today which is the reason for cleaning up in the first place. I want the pellets in the garage so if I can’t manage to get them all in today they don’t get wet. I also have no idea what 2 pallets look like so it might be huge and not fit in the basement. My goal for today is get at least one ton into the basement.
The rest of the week is going to be painting and cleaning. The house feels totally different now, much cleaner and alot bigger. I also decided I want to get a wood insert for the living room over the summer. I have a chimney guy coming over to quote me for the work. I will be going with a J0tul insert because my local store recommends them and I will have them survice it… Not to mention they are nice.
Apart from that nothing else is going on with me. I’ll post a picture of the pellets once they arrive.
Wood heat!
After much thought I decided to get a pellet stove for the house! It gets installed early next month. I have been wanting a wood stove for awhile and this seems a perfect fit. It’s direct vent so I don’t need to reline the chimney and its 100% automatic! It can feed, light and extinguish itself all with a thermostat on the wall. It should be big enough to heat the whole house so I’m hoping that I save money on fuel oil. From my calculations I should have a break even on it in 2 years which is excellent.
I am rushing to get the room it’s going into fixed up before the install as well as making room in the basement for 2 tons of pellets… I ordered 2 pallets of them with 50 bags. Mixed it up as well… got one pallet of hardwood and one of softwood. Unlike wood softwood is more expensive and puts out more heat in pellet form… go figure. Want to compare the two and see what works and heats best. If its really close I will just go with the cheaper hard wood pellets and call it a day. I will update more once its installed and running… might even post a pict or two!
Klayton
If you like Industrial music and electronic music with exceptional high quality production check out all of Klayton’s works! This guy is a master. Check out his analog synth… That thing is to die for!
Clean with steam!
Been cleaning with a steam cleaner and man does it ever work well. I also like the lack of cleaning products! No more poisoning myself getting things clean. Only thing that I see spoiling the party is hard water. Now that I am officially the house cleaner I want to use tools that make this work easier and quicker. I am waiting on some bathroom brushes that attach to a drill… Should make the tub cleaning faster! Been slowly getting everything cleaned up and in shape.