Mike and Keith showed up about the same time.

Mike brought (and mounted) the fire extinguisher. He told me that you can't use one from Home Depot. It has to be registered or some sort of nonsense. He bought it at some specialty store.

Keith and I did a walkthrough. We marked about 20 or so items. The biggie (in my opinion) is no shut-off valve to the urinal. This seems important considering how much use it will get. Just have to say once again how awesome this is.

He's also going to replace the entertainment center doors with some sort of mesh that will allow the remote to work. Also another shelf.

I'm now polling everyone I meet about phone signal. Mike has Sprint, which is the network that Virgin uses. He could only get one bar. I'm afraid Virgin and I will soon part ways.

Keith uses AT&T and he got a pretty decent signal. I hate hate hate hate AT&T but if that's what works, so be it.

My upstairs neighbors have Verizon. She told me hers is great but his phone isn't so much. I didn't know it could be phone specific. I have no clue about any of this. I hate Verizon only slightly less than AT&T.

This reminded me to mention neighbors. I've met a ton of them. Everyone is nosey as heck. Half of them have walked through my condo. I'm fine with all that but it merits mentioning. I have a huge problem with names. I've even googled this and there are people that can't process names well. I'm one of them. I've tried every little trick suggested and it just doesn't work. So, I've started writing down names of people I meet here so I can review occasionally.

First inspection - Electric - FAIL. Need arc fault breakers on all new lighting/receptacles.

Next inspection - Fire department - PASS. The woman that came out wasn't an inspector and had no clue what to look for. So, she just tested the fire alarms and passed it. I made her look at the fire extinguisher since Mike made a big deal about it. Then she pointed me to one in the entryway (common area) and said the condo people take care of that so I didn't need one.

I would try a cleaner/polisher such as supreme surface.

http://munrocobrands.com/supremesurf...quartz-marble/

Gives the stone a nice shine and cleans it too. Was the stone sealed by the fabricator? If not, you need to seal it.

I recommend Dupont Stonetech Bulletproof: https://www.amazon.com/Dupont-Stonet.../dp/B00065W8G8

or SenGuard:

http://store.countertopspecialty.com...Sealer-p4.html

The SenGuard is more expensive but it is a lifetime seal.

Thanks!

Should I put the sealer on before the polisher? That sounds like a stupid question but just making sure.

I just talked to condo "security". Actually just some old guy that drives around in a golf cart. I quizzed him about various condo rules.

Basically the rule is, nothing happens unless a neighbor complains. I have some questionable items on my back porch. Well, questionable from a rules perspective. But they can stay unless someone complains.

I have a truckload of trash from the move and some of those items are on the prohibited list on a sign at the community dumpster. But he said as long as it fits in the compactor nobody will say anything.

I still need to take apart my workbench. It definitely won't be allowed.

My goal today was to put blinds up while I was waiting for the inspectors.

These guys have it figured out. They have a cutting machine at Lowe's. They are the only brand Lowe's will custom cut on site.



I bought the cordless blinds. They are fricking awesome.

The last time I had to install (corded) blinds it took me forever. The mounting brackets were a pain but the worst was cutting them to length. All those strings.

These were easy peasy. Took less than 10 minutes to do one. Screw in three brackets and snap them in. Voila! Blinds!



I was reading the condo rules earlier to try to figure out the patio rules and stumbled onto a blurb about blinds. Only white blinds can be installed. I bought brown ones for the guest bedroom since it was sort of brown themed. Oh well. Back to Lowe's to get some white ones.

Mechanical inspector showed up. PASSED.

I mentioned to him that all the final inspections were scheduled today. He said he could do them. He called around to other inspectors to see who was responsible for what and he took over for them.

Plumbing - FAIL - A couple of shutoff valve knobs were missing.

Final Building - PASS.

yep you got it. Seal it first and then use the polisher as needed to really shine it up. I usually only do mine when I am having a party/company coming over.

Thanks shaft. On my huge list of things to do................

Took apart my workbench. I was sad. Fortunately the workers here had a wood pile started next to my condo so disposal was easy.

A few miscellaneous items.

Turns out the brown blinds are white on the outside. Who knew?

Put two truckloads of trash in the dumpster. One more to go.

Went to Rooms to Go and bought beds. 2 queens for the guest and 1 king for the king. This is the last of the big purchases for a while. I'm going to have to live with a crappy couch until my checking account recovers.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of sitting on the patio looking over the water.

Fyp

If you've read much of this thread you'll know that I had to deal with getting my Dad into an assisted living center. Part of this was going through everything he owned in order to clean out his house. I thought he was a hoarder but I'm not entirely sure I hold that opinion anymore.

I've spent the last few days trying to get organized. I'd rather not move in all my clutter. At least not how it has been (dis)organized. I don't consider myself a hoarder but this move seemed a lot like my Dad's move. I have boxes and boxes of "stuff" everywhere.

A lot of it is just something I bought at some point in time and at the time seemed useful so I never tossed it out. Years of this produces a lot of "stuff". In my dad's case it was 50 years. For me it has been about 30. I can certainly see why I didn't throw things away at the time. But I'm never sure where the line of "useful" vs. "probably won't use".

I think it just takes a periodic purge to really clear things out. This round produced about 2 pickup loads of things I've tossed.

Yesterday I finally got around to doing a little fishing. This might turn into a fishing blog which would make it even more boring that it already is.

As soon as I sat down, a pelican landed right next to me. He knew what was up. He had a band on his leg so at some time he's been captured. I need to name him because I suspect I'll be seeing more of him.

I caught a variety of things. There is a really common little fish here that is pretty easy to catch so I fed him a few. I caught a few of these little rockfish thingies that didn't look pelican friendly so I tossed them. I probably need to learn my fish a bit better, huh? Also caught a couple of stingrays. I need to figure out how to get the hook out of them without getting whacked by the tail.

Nothing big but it was fun to be able to do this right at my back door. I plan on getting a gopro so I can post some vids of my "adventures".

My rule of thumb is that if I haven't used it in 3 years, it should go.

Do you have now this good feeling of being more in control? I had that after my last round of getting rid of clothing/books I don't want to have any more. It is even better than the feeling that comes with buying something new.

Not really. I struggle a little with throwing stuff away but once I make the decision I really don't think much about it.

I think I'd really like to have a clutter free life. No matter how much I purge, my place seems messy.

Yesterday was my first commute. It took 55 minutes door to door and traffic wasn't as bad as it sometimes gets. It took less than 45 minutes to get home but I work out after work so the roads were clear by the time I headed home.

I'm going to need some books on tape or something. Listening to the radio for that much time during the day doesn't seem optimal.

I'm torn on getting a new job now. I'm a lot more settled in and my new boss is a million times better. But, sheesh, a shorter commute seems pretty important. I dunno.

Have you tried different means of transportation? I don't know how the public transportation in your area is, but if it is good, it is worth trying. One thing if you have for an hour to drive yourself, and another if you can just sit down and basically continue to sleep. I had commuted so in the past for years 1,5 hours one direction.

Are you done unpacking yet? I'm still awaiting the full photo tour.

There is no public transportation here. There are some random buses but that's about it. So far it's not been horrible. Probably because I've prepared for it. But, damn, there are some insane drivers here.