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Yup,
I got the stereo all hooked up. Holy shite it is LOUD !!!!! I went up in the attic and found my old vinyl (what I have left from the superb collection I had at one time) and was spinning some records. Quite an eclectic collection I have. The Beatles, Ellington, Bob Marley, Eno, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters and the like. All I can say is… It is LOUD ! I had the Sex Pistols cranked up and it was incredible, my ears were ringing and I was half deaf afterwards, like I was transported back to my bedroom circa 1979.
I woke up at 2:30 in the morning last night and went downstairs and hooked up the DBX boxes and the CD player. Yup, listening to Sheryl Crow as I right this (but at a low volume, Grace is still sleeping upstairs). I even hooked up the old Pioneer SR-202 reverberation amp. Yes, you heard me right, a real honest to goodness reverb! When was the last time, if ever, you heard one of those? I remember my father had one on his stereo, along with his 8-track and light boxes, those things that looked like speakers but had diffracted plexiglass in the front and flashed multi-color light shows along with the music. I’m not going that retro, but I thought the reverb would be a cool touch!
Did I mention how LOUD this system is?
The only thing is I need to take the receiver apart and clean all the pots and switches, it’s noisy when you adjust the volume. But that’s to be expected with it’s age. The contacts get dirty and corroded after 20 or so years. No big deal, a can of tuner cleaner will fix it right up.
When I first plugged it all in the turntable wouldn’t spin at all. It lit up but the platter wasn’t spinning. I spun it by hand and noticed that if I turned the pitch control up all the way it would make a little jerky motion. So I took the belt off and spun the motor spindle fast between my fingers. It spun a little, real slowly, then stopped. So I noticed that if I spun it real fast it would get up to speed. Basically I took it apart, lubricated the motor, made sure it spun consistently at a fast speed (and it stopped making squeaky noises) and put it all back together. Voila! It worked. Who said electronics repair was hard? And I only zapped myself twice… Just kidding.
So all in all, with a little tweaking and twisting and lubricating (hmmm, sounds kinda erotic) I have it all working like a dream. Clean the pots on that receiver and I’m rockin’ like it was 1979 again! Hell if you was a fly on the wall ya’ mighta even seen me doing the pogo to Eno in my living room! Sorry folks, no pix of that!
OK, gonna go cook up some pancakes for G and me. Have fun and enjoy this day that only comes once every 4 years.
Hey guys…
I know, it has been way too long since I’ve updated. But here I am and I have tons of stuff to tell, don’t know where to start. House stuff- Finally going to finish my bedroom. I primed all the windows, and put up some roman shades. I also primed all the trim in the hallway. Sam and I ripped off all the paneling and then the wallpaper in the hallway too. The walls are that really cool old textured plaster, I’d love to just paint them, But there are too many cracks and holes and the ceiling is horrible. but there is NO WAY I’m gonna rip the walls down to studs and then sheetrock, that’s a nightmare in this house. Instead I got some quarter inch sheetrock and am going to just go right over the walls and ceiling. Big timesaver!
Yesterday Sam and I ripped out the old attic stairs (the fold down kind) and put in new ones. It wasn’t that bad, but man we had to cut a lot off the new stairs, guess they aren’t made for six foot-four ceilings, eh?
OK, so on to the fun part, and the title of this post-
VINTAGE STEREO SYSTEM
I’m building a vintage stereo system. Yup, a late seventies system, real kick ass setup that will shake the whole house! Now you may ask, how am I doing this when I’m so broke I can’t even afford to pay attention (or update my blog)?
Well, Grace’s parents are selling their house, so she is cleaning out tons of old stuff. She asked me if I wanted their old stereo, she said it’s huge and weighs a ton. I said sure, why not, figuring I’ll stack it up in the junk room with all the old computers and stuff I’m never gonna use…
Well imagine my surprise when she brings this sixty pound monster up here. We’re talking a Fisher Studio Standard RS-2015. Cranks out 150 watts a channel of that warm sounding, full bodied, old, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” receiver sound. Look at the heatsinks on the back of this bad boy! Here’s photo collage of an identical but lower powered model.
And she also brought this old Pioneer turntable. It’s a PL-516 model with a Shure cartridge. So I’ll be spinning my old vinyl some time real soon!
Then she bought me this cool old tape deck on Ebay for only thirty bucks. A Technics RS631 model that is supposed to be in flawless condition. The woodgrain is going to look great with the receiver!
So naturally I had to go over to my Mom’s garage and dig out my DBX boxes and signal processor, the only pieces I saved from the superb system I had as a teenager. That was a really nice setup I had- Kenwood amp and tuner, Dual turntable, and also a Technics deck, but an MX model with the DBX noise reduction (and it also handled metal tape, which the one I’m getting doesn’t). I sold that system for twelve hundred dollars of cash and goods back in 1980, so you can imagine how nice it was. I ran into the guy around ten years ago and he said it still sounds better then a new system he had bought!
Anyway, like always I’m digressing. Here’s the DBX boxes I still have from back then. A model 120 Subharmonic Synthesizer, which is awesome! It recreates the whole spectrum of audio one whole octave lower and then mixes it back in, makes the kind of bass you can feel going right through the walls!
And here’s the model 200 Program Route Selector I have. Handy if you have multiple inputs.
And an SAE-5000 Impulse Noise Reduction unit. This baby will take clicks and pops out of records for recording purposes.
The speakers I have aren’t vintage, but they are supposed to sound OK for the price and they do push a lot of air. They are KLH Rave-12’s and will have to do for now. I would love to get an old pair of Klipsch Heresy’s or maybe even Cornwalls some day, but they are out of my price range. Even if I could afford them, I’m afraid the 140 year old walls in this house would all start to crack if I turned them up!
Anyway, that’s the system, kinda cool, huh? And all for free, can’t beat that. When I get all my vinyl out of the attic and out from under the stairs I’ll catalog it and put it up for you guys to look at, comment on, etc., K?
Oh yeah, I got a digital camera at last! It takes great pictures. It’s kinda like a business purchase for this joint venture Grace and I started, we’re selling stuff online. It’s almost half way paid for from sales, another couple weeks and we’ll be operating at a profit! And I can now take really good quality pics to post here. All the old ones on this site were taken with my cell phone, and are pretty crappy. I decided on the Fuji Finepix S5000, it’s a really nice camera for not much money at all. You can find them for under three hundred bucks and they are loaded with features, and it has a really long zoom, which I have wanted.
Just so you know, all those stereo photo’s were NOT taken with my camera, I snagged them off the web from various places while doing research on the components of the system. If you want to see a pictre it took, look HERE. That’s my Gray cat and I even optimized it for the web in Photoshop, the original image was huge. But you can see what I’m talking about, it takes some nice photo’s!
OK, I’m starving, gonna rustle up some chow for Sam and moi and throw a load of laundry in. I’m gonna get in the habit of updating regulary here, I kinda miss it. That and I would love to know the flamer who keeps voting the posts down…
l8r
And without any terrorist attacks. Another year over, a new one just begun… K, I know I’m getting old since I can remember when John Lennon was killed like it was just yesterday. It was one of those moments in your life you’ll never forget. I guess like folks from my parents generation remember when JFK was killed. I dunno what got me on these thoughts… It’s that time of year, remembering things past and all that.
I’ve been up to the same old stuff. Work work work. Come home, try and tidy this place up, watch a little tube and cuddle some and then go to sleep. Get up the next day and start all over.
My tenant got a really cute dog for Christmas, a French Bulldog. It is sooo cute, a little tiny thing with giant ears, he kinda looks like stitch from Lilo and Stitch! Sometimes I wish I had a house dog, and think that one day when Princess dies I’ll get another dog. But then I start to think about how much easier life would be with just the cats.
So I woke up this morning, did the dishes, and am making a big pot of my famous chili. Yup, and I’m drinking a cup of my famous coffee as I write this. So for dinner we’ll probably be having chili dogs, or chili and rice, or chili/cheese omellettes, or chili and spaghetti. For lunch chili pies (frito’s with chili on top covered with grated cheese).
Shit, the phone just rang and another guy I know just died. Kinda bummed and have to make some phone calls now. Talk to ya’ later.
-Steve
And I’m not talking about the Beatles !
OK, so Christmas and my Birthday passed and I survived. Only Grace’s B-day and New Years left and I made it through the holiday season. I have some pics to post and also have to update my DVD list, so I’ll do that tomorrow night. It’s late, have to go to sleep. Hope y’all had a nice X-mas !
signed,
Not so bah-humbug after all
OK, This has been the LONGEST stretch ever for me not posting. I hope to be more consistent now. Really, I do mean it this time < sigh >
I have been busy as all hell. Basically I finished the cottage completely. I got all the bathroom fixtures in, the chimney up, The whole heating and hot water systems plumbed in and wired, and the propane tanks installed. The heat is on and it’s all nice and cozy in there. So cozy in fact I have a tenant !! At last !!
He seems real nice. He installs appliances for Sears so he hooked me up with a super nice stainless steel stove for in there. All in all it came out really nice. Sorry I didn’t get any pics before he moved in.
Now at long last I can finish my bedroom. I need to prime all the windows with Kilz and put the trim back around the doors, then finally paint the windows and try that fancy Ralph Lauren paint I got for the walls (the stuff that’s supposed to look like linen). My mom got me roman shades for the windows in there (seven windows in my room, plenty of light!) as a Christmas present, so if I ever finish it, it’ll be nice. Then maybe I can save up and get a cheap dresser or two from Ikea and get rid of the giant old ugly ones I have (which are mostly full of books and magazines and junk anyway). Hell, then my room will look like a real grown ups room, eh?
Yesterday I went shopping with my Mom and Grace, we got those shades and a few things for the kids. I have to say, Danny got the neatest present from my Mom, I wish I had one! But since he may read this, I’m not able to say exactly what it is…
Today G and I went to Home Depot, I returned a buch of left over stuff from the cottage and used the credit to get a new tool bag for work, so I don’t have to carry that big ugly briefcase style one. But I will say this, once I loaded it up with all my tools, fluke meter, butt set, toner and a keyboard it is really heavy! Hope I always get parking close to the call I’m going to.
Then I got a tree and brought it home and we decorated it. Thanks to Todd for giving me a couple sets of lights he had never used from last year. It’s real simple, white lights, red velvet ribbons, strings of silver beads, and a few tiny wooden ornaments. But it’s our first tree together, last year I didn’t get a tree, so it’s extra special and really looks nice.
I miss Sam and wish he was here to help decorate it too, but we’re taking a time out from each other and he’s staying at his Mom’s for a week or so.
No big plans for Christmas. Going to go down to St.John the Divine for Midnight Mass with Maggie and Grace. It is absolutely incredible down there. This will be the second year in a row, and I hope to make it a tradition going to that great cathedral every year. Did you know it’s the largest cathedral in the world, right in NYC ? Here’s a cool history of it’s construction, still underway after almost a hundred years…
OK, I need to get to sleep, have a good one.
OK,
I’ll fill you in on the headaches I had yesterday. So I borrowed a big box truck to pick up all the stuff I need to finish the cottage. Make a Home Depot run and that’s it, I’ll have everything and then it’s just a matter of installing it all.
But noooo, all of a sudden the one crucial piece that Home Depot used to stock is now a special order item! I found that out only after the second store I went to and 4 hours later.
But I did get the following-
– vanity, with countertop/sink
– Delta faucet for above
– good quality fiberglass walls for the shower
– toilet
– speedy valves, supplies, and trap for sink
– flange, wax gasket, speedy valve and supply for toilet
– medicine cabinet
– strip light for above medicine cabinet
– 3 pre-hung doors (closet, boiler room, and bathroom doors)
– nice Schlage locksets for those doors
– moulding kits for all three doors
– base moulding for the whole place
– paint for the walls and moulding (cracked wheat is the color, goes nicely with the tiles)
– carpet and padding
– a thermostat
Earler in the day I went to the chimney store and bought a chimney with the roof flange, storm colllar and cap. Chris is supposed to come by today and install that for me, and also fix the roof on the shed and put in the roof boot for the plumbing vent.
So what am I missing you ask ? The glass walls and door kit for the shower! I can’t find it anywhere…
And I need two 30 gallon LP gas hot water heaters. One is going to make domestic hot water and the other will be plumbed in as a mini-boiler, with a circulator pump, expansion tank, auto fill, check valve and combo gauge. I had spec’d out boilers, and the smallest one I could get was almost 5 times the size I needed, so for now I’m going to run a hot water heater as a boiler. Maybe down the road when I add a second room on to the building I’ll upgrade to a boiler. A small boiler is also twice the price of two hot water heaters, and I just need to get it heated and finished so I can get a tenant in there, fast as possible.
So it’s all coming together. The main thing now is to get the heat working before all the pipes freeze and to get it finished! George is coming to lay the carpet next Sunday. I hope to have all the walls painted and the bathroom fixtures installed by then. Working on it a few hours every night it should be possible.
OK, time to start my day, I will take pictures as I get stuff finshed and update the Garage Transformation page. This project was started last Thanksgiving, soo my goal is to have it done by this one. A year to build a small house in your spare time is not so bad. The main thing was I ran out of money and work was stopped all summer. Oh yeah, you don’t want to know how much I dumped into this place so far. Probably close to 25 grand. So you see why I want to finish it and start getting a return…
K, later for now.
Damn,
Grace and I went to see Kill Bill last night. I liked it, a lot !! If you dig samurai flicks or cheesy old kung-fu movies, imagine them with a Quentin soundtrack and his style of repartee… Anyway, can’t wait for part 2 to come out now. Want to catch the new Texas Chainsaw as well, maybe next week. And of course, the final part of the “M” trilogy is right around the corner.
OK, my warm bed and soft girlfriend are calling me, I’m gonna go crash, but I’ll update with some new pics and stuff tomorrow. Been busy as hell and working my butt off around here lately. The cottage is almost done!! Yup, it’s all coming together at last! I’ll fill you in tomorrow.
Of posting stuff here!
Just been so busy, and it’s way easier to just vegetate that last waking hour in front of that other, bigger CRT that has 500 channels to choose from. But of course I watch the same dozen channels all the time so all the rest are really just fluff.
So what have I been doing you may ask? Well, a lot of work on my Mom’s house and even a little on the cottage here as well. At her house, she added a sun room on the back, had her kitchen and bathroom doubled in size, and tiled half the house. Problem is, after throwing the second incompetent general contractor off the job, it was all done inside, but the outside was completely unfinished…
OK, so don’t ask me why, but I said I’d finish it all for her. So I had to shingle the whole addition and half the front that was ripped apart, trim all the new windows, install soffit and fascia boards on the addition, and then paint the whole house.
All in my spare time of course, and whilst still keeping up with the never ending and eternal renovations at my house, and oh yes, of course, still trying to finish the cottage so I can rent it out and start getting some return on all the cash I’ve dumped into it so far.
So I find on the front of her house the sheathing is rotted in spots, so I rip it all out, skin it with new plywood and then Tyvek it. Then just do the shingles on it and it’s ready for paint. You can see here the new shingles are white. Here’s another shot to give you an idea of how many shingles it was (a lot!).
Here’s the new addition, I shingled it all and trimmed the windows, but you can see there’s no fascia or soffits yet, here’s the other side of it. Here’s a closeup of the roof valley, without the trim on. I have to add a few shots of the addition all finished, I thought I had taken some, but I guess not.
But I do have a pic of the front all painted and done. Not bad, all she needs to do is have the front walk done and plant some shrubs and of course put gutters up and the whole house is pretty much done.
And I still found time to bake cookies with Sarah and Danny, which kind you ask? Oatmeal chocolate chip with walnuts of course!
The only downside to enjoying candy and sweets as much as I do is this. Yup, that’s me enjoying a root canal a few weeks ago!
Grace and I haven’t been downtown to enjoy some pho for at least a month now, so I ordered a few vietnamese coffee makers from quickspice.com so I we can enjoy a cup at home now. But I think I feel a hankering for some pho coming on…
We also had a nice bonfire in my fire-pit when the kids were all up a few weeks ago and roasted marshmallows and made s’moores too! I have a bunch of wood stacked up and if I get all my scheduled projects done this weekend (one crucial one is closing the pool) we’ll have another fire Sunday night.
OK, that’s it for me. Glad I posted a few pics and hope I didn’t bore the hell outta y’all. I’ve had quite a few more things going on I didn’t even mention. I’ll post more and try and “back log” until you’re all caught up on my goings on last month or two, K?
aiigghht, ‘nite all…
Well it’s been a few years, but I got a new tattoo. I know, you must be thinking, where do you have room ? But actually I have a little strip about 2 and a 1/2 inches wide by 7 inches on the back of each upper arm that’s bare skin. Yup, I missed a few places.
Anyway, a friend of mine is a REALLY good artist, (actually he’s an art teacher as well) and is learning to do tattoos, so seeing as how he needs practice, and he is doing them for free… Yeah, I never let anyone practice on me before, but it turned out really good. He has a super steady hand, the thin lines are so straight it’s amazing. And it came out really really nice. Maybe I’ll let him do some stuff on my legs.
I’ve been talking about starting on my legs for years now, so maybe it’s time to take the plunge. I have an idea for a neat custom piece, a Sun server and monitor done graffiti style, with the motion squiggles, and bright colors, with cables flying about, little lightning bolts coming out of the cables, and hex code in a cloud floating behind it all, and maybe even a Sun logo to boot. I would get the color scheme from some old Sun postcards and ads I have saved, and see if he could draw something up. I’m thinking it would be nice filling up a whole calf, the outer side.
Then on the other leg, again outer calf, I’ve been wanting to get Shiva and Shakti, in “the divine embrace” with some sanskrit and lotus blossoms in the background, all in black and grey.
Oh, are you wondering what I got done? I got me some of that “gangsta’ style” Olde English lettering in a vertical strip, starts right at the bottom of a tee shirt sleeve and goes a few inches below the elbow, five letters, it’s nice and deep, deep black. I’ll get someone to take a picture and I’ll post it.
OK, I’m fighting off the remnants of a cold that had me miserable earlier in the week, so I’m going to bed early tonight.
Oh yeah, this Saturday is my youngest son Danny and my brothers’ birthday. Happy Birthday Danny and G-O, you’re getting old!
G’nite-
Yes, I know, I kinda’ took a month off from posting, but I PROMISE to be more regular starting NOW!!
So I just woke up, it’s raining out, and I’m waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. Grace is upstairs half asleep, think I’ll just bring our coffee up and snuggle and doze a little more. Yup, sounds like a plan.
I’ll fill you in on everything that’s been going on a little later, like, this evening. But trust me, nothing that exciting…
Thanks for being patient whilst I was on hiatus !
-Steve
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