September 2024

At my mom's old office, me and my dad spent two hours removing :

- The server
- The arduino
- The thermistors
- The cameras
- The stereo system in the garage

Then, we spent 45 minutes disassembling the ugly desk around the server.

Yesterday, we gave the keys to the new owner.

We looked at everything to make sure we did not forget anything. I took a lot of pictures.

In the previous days, we moved the contents of the office to our house.

Now we have like three houses in one. (Our stuff, the office stuff and my sister's stuff).

Our basement is almost full.

We almost have those pathways you see in hoarded houses. (But ours are wider).

It's too dry.

I use wet wipes and put them in the trash (because they can't be flushed).

The tenant we had in our basement apartment is gone and we are cleaning it.

My mom plans to use the space as her office.

We started a dehumidifier. (The space smelled bad and had surface mold on the walls)

While cleaning the bathroom, my dad noticed a leak under the sink.

Tightening the hardware underneath did not fix it.

So we replaced the p-trap with a new one.

Before, during and after :

I believe that the body can work fine with the "point of view" gone and its memory would remember stuff when it's back.

It means that it would not be impossible that we all share a single "point of view" that would either continuously jump from body to body or be attached to all bodies at the same time.

Plus there's the big question of why I feel my point of view to be inside my body when there is no real separation between my skin and the air.

To me, the brain is not the center. There is no center. But then, why/how do I feel my "point of view" to be inside my body ?

You're not going to be replaced by AI as long as people who need intelligence use people over machines.

My mom's office in the basement apartment is almost ready.

We're just missing the drapes to separate the junk from the workspace.

I took the server that used to be in my mom's office in a different house and reinstalled it in the basement apartment to record the outside temperature. (It used to record the temperature of the heating system and also allow us to access the two cameras through my website)

The modem and Wi-Fi router are to the right of the server.

(My mom has her own landline and internet access)

I put the server on top of the washing machine we're not currently using.

The arduino and thermistor are in front of the window.

I wanted the internet access in the basement apartment to be accessible from the second floor.

The only cable that reaches the second floor is an old Cat3 cable that goes from the electrical panel at one end of the house to the second floor.

The basement apartment is at the other end.

I had a wireless bridge that I was using to access an IP camera in the treehouse outside.

I no longer need that camera.

So I installed the bridge to link the basement apartment to the electrical panel.

One end is next to the server. The other is on top of the water heater next to the panel.

Then it goes through the Cat3 cable to a little router I installed on the second floor.

It works great.

We tried to install a curtain rod in the basement apartment.

Unfortunately, after making all our measurements, the screws hit metal.

I'm guessing it's the ventilation duct that is behind the wall.

Tomorrow, we're going to install some strapping on top of the wall so that we're screwing into wood.

My mom resumes work on Monday. The apartment needs to be ready before that.

Me and my dad finished installing a new curtain to separate the stuff from the office.

In the basement apartment's bathroom, the GFI outlet was ugly.

Me and my dad replaced it with a new one.

We also discovered that the outlet only works with the light on.

When we opened the box, we saw two 14/2 cables. One was the power source and the other was the lights over the mirror.

The lights were not on the "load" side of the outlet like they should have been. They were on the line side.

We fixed that.

A few years ago, I saw a bulb burn out right in front of my eyes.

The bulb flashed a few times and turned off.

Me and my dad spent five hours this afternoon changing the door for the basement apartments.

We removed the old 2x3 frame that held the old door and made a new 2x6 one for the new door.

We had to do a lot of cutting with the sawzall.

We already levelled the hinged side.

Tomorrow, we will level the handle side and install the handle.

We had to do it this weekend when my mom was not working.

Me and my dad spent four hours finishing the install of the new door.

We had to remove the door from the frame and replace the left 2x6 because it was warped.

We then :

- attached the hinged side of the frame to the left 2x6
- hung the door
- attached the handle side of the frame to the right 2x6
- tested and adjusted the door in the frame
- flipped the window
- flipped and installed the handle
- installed a chain so the door does not open too far
- put trim around the door

It looks great.

The new handle also locks. The old one did not.

We have a large shed in our backyard.

The door would not open properly because the shed sank but the little porch did not.

We had to options :

- jack the whole shed with a car jack
- lower the little porch

We tried the first option, but the shed was too heavy with everything in it.

So we spent the time to remove some boards, cut some bolts, jack the porch and dig underneath until it was level.

On one side, the porch is bolted to the shed. We replaced those bolts.

On the other, the porch rests on two hidden floating concrete blocks.

We removed the two 2x6 boards close to the shed to replace the lag bolts and the farthest one to align the hidden blocks after digging underneath.

We worked Friday and today on this.

This weekend, we had to prioritize replacing the basement access door because my mom does not work on the weekends and we did not want to disturb her.

Over 6 years ago, I made a system to turn on a light when the basement access door is opened.

I also previously recorded every time it opened/closed into a text file on my server. I no longer do that.

Last weekend, we replaced the door and today, I installed a new magnetic switch.

I also added a second light on the ceiling so that I can see it from my chair.

(The first light is on my desk)