What colour to paint rims?

[roach711]

Hey Lorna, how do you like working for the Home Depot? My building babysitting job just ended and I may have to resort to going back into retail. I've got a lot of maintenance experience but my age (62) may be an issue in getting back into the building maintenance field. Thanx.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by roach711

Hey Lorna, how do you like working for the Home Depot?

It's okay. I find the continuous web classes irritating and they LOVE acronyms (MOD - Manager on Duty, BOPIS - Buy Online Pickup In Store, etc). I USED to be a BIA (Bay Integrity Associate) and worked 4AM to 8AM Mon - Fri in Building Materials, Lumber and Hardware (I love power tools). Now I am being phased out of a job and being shifted into paint. If I can get paint, I can get hired anywhere. To me paint is easy. This week I am working in Appliances (Monday 8A-5P... yeah, I trained for Appliances), BIA (Tues 4A-8A) Hardware (Thurs 9:30A-1:30P), Paint (Sat 12:30-9:30) and Appliances again (Sun 11:30 - 8:30). I'm kinda all over but at least I'm not cashiering (trained as cashier)... I hope. They like to use me to give all the cashiers breaks. Sometimes when I work extra hours, I end up spending most of the day giving breaks. Next week (Mon - Sat) I'm in paint except for Thurs when I work my 4A - 8A shift as a BIA. The MET Team (Merchandise Execution Team) takes over most of the BIA duties the following week. And that's definitely the end of my two day weekends I guess. Bummer. But since they can't give me fulltime (although I was promised but we all know what promises are worth) I have been told that my position in paint is "open ended" meaning that I will (hopefully) get more than 20 hours per week. This week I got 21 hours, next week I got 32 hours, week after that I got 27 hours.

I have heard that Home Depot is not hiring any fulltime. It's all part time and part time varies widely. I was originally hired in as a BIA with a guaranteed 20 hour minimum and since they phased out my job, I have been told that they will still guarantee the 20 hour minimum. We are paid every two weeks (I direct deposit to my WalMart debit card). My minimum check is for 40 hours (20 X 2) but over the holidays last year I has a few 90 - 95 hour checks and several checks in the 75 hour range. I did a lot of cashiering over the holidays.

Why do I keep working at HD? I get 10% pulled out of my pay to buy HD stock twice a year. After 1 year of stock purchases, I had $1,753.66 pulled from my paychecks (Aug 2012-July2013) to purchase stock which is worth $2388.96 as of 7/28/2013. That's a potential increase of $635.30. Beats the interest paid on a savings account. I'm sitting on the stock until we get to TX (Sept 2015) when I might sell it to buy some land. Twice a year we get profit sharing checks. Unfortunately it is taxed as a "gift" so I lose a whopping chunk to the tax pirates. My last check was getting close to what my stock profit is but the pirates took 2/3rds of it. We are not allowed to discuss what we get paid. I am paid more than I have ever been paid except when self employed. I do not think I am paid well compared to what some others may be paid though. They tend to pay based on your experience. Too much of my experience cannot be verified as it was self-employed. I don't think they quite believe the breadth of my experience.

No commissions and NO employee discount either. Bummer! After 1 year, 1 week paid vacation (in my case 20 hours are paid) plus paid sick days (I had 36 hours accrued since I rarely am sick). I have taken a few "personal" days and used my sick day pay to keep my paycheck the same.


But I have worked at far worse places. The only "better" is when I am self employed. I dislike have someone else dictate so closely the level at which I live. I will hang in here until we leave NM in 2015. Then I will apply again at Home Depot wherever we end up at. Work a few more years until the the plant nursery will support us on it's proceeds alone. I'm hoping I can hang onto the stock until I no longer work at HD. The concrete is hard on my feet. I use Dr Scholl's shoe inserts for runners in my hiking tennies (LL Bean... their clearance sales are fantastic bargains). I destroyed my first shoes (WalMart restaurant shoes) in 3 months. The LL Bean shoes have lasted over a year now and are still holding together.

[roach711]

Thanx. What you said squares with what others have told me. Hiring only part-timers would put HD and Lowes in the "when everything else fails" category. I worked at Sears for 20 years and it was a decent place to work then, but it's a different place these days and I'd have to be at the end of my rope before I'd work there now.

(End of hijack)

[lornaschinske]

When up to pay the rent and electric overage. Seems they gave us an electrc bill that did not belong to us... or someone else paid it. It had our site number but someone else's name. So if the electric was for another site, that means we did not go over the $60 the park allows for electric. The front a/c unit is turned off overnight. The rear a/c hasn't turned off since we installed it. I'm not sure if I should be happy or concerned.

[JakeC]

Happy! Lol...

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by lornaschinske

It seems that every time I replace a micro, they last less and less time. My first micro died in a house fire. My 2nd micro/convection/grill died in a campground (low power killed it) and it was 10 yo at the time. And it's been going downhill ever since! David says it's "job security" I call it deliberate obsoletism!


But we are very happy with our new micro. When we have had it a little longer, I will do a product review on it. We not only use the current cheapie micro to "wave" in but toast frozen dinner rolls, make toast and reheat (grill) my fried chicken that I freeze (yes, you CAN freeze/reheat home fried chicken as long as you reheat it right).

Want my Litton? It's yours if you pay shipping.

[lornaschinske]

Today, we are upgrading the old 5000 BTU air conditioner in the rear of the bus to a new 6050 BTU unit like the one we put in the front. The little 5000 BTU just isn't quite able to keep the rear section cool enough when temps hit 90F and up. The past week has been a hot one again (90°F, 88°F - lots of clouds and it rained someplace, 100°F, 103°F, 102°F, 106°F, 104°F) and since it's supposed to be a cool day today (only 94°F) and for the next couple of days (88°F & 89°F) we are taking advantage to the cool weather to pull the A/C unit out and replacing it. We need to build an insulated wall (and a couple of cabinets) to cover the rear wall so before we can do that, we need to replace the A/C unit.

Time to eat breakfast and head to town to buy the few things we need to install. Parts for the drain line since we can't find the drain line parts that we already have. We'll find them next week AFTER we have bought the parts. Oh well, it's cheap to build the drain port in the bottom of the A/C pan.

We have the rear A/C running on a heavy duty extension cord plugged into the 20 amp outlet of the park power pedestal. The front A/C is wired into the interior breaker panel. We run both A/Cs a lot (front is turned off at night while we sleep). With still turning the electric water heater on only when needed (and when I forget to turn it off) we still have not gone over our site's $60 electric allotment.

After we get set up on our own place (someplace farther east) and can work on the bus, David will rewire the breaker panel box to handle 50 amp. Means we should be able to run one A/C unit at a time on the 30 amp for those parks where there is no 50 amp.

[gbstewart]

over a 100 , I would be changing out the A/C rear fast, I have to replace my rear one as well it packed up, don't really need it right now its 7 deg Celsius that's 44.6 Fahrenheit and raining right now, my cat is sitting in front of the fireplace looking at me, he wants my to light a fire so he can warm up
gbstewart

[lornaschinske]

Got the A/C installed. The temps from front to rear are within 2 degrees of each other (the units display the temp). It's nice and cool inside. Currently 91°F outside (it's cooling down) and 79°F - front, 77°F - rear.
GE 6050 BTU Window Air Conditioner



I also started colourwashing the laminate flooring we use as wallcovering (three thin layers of colour - white, blue and a metallic silver glaze to age the colours - yet you still see the "wood grain"). Tomorrow I should finish it. I'm taping off the long "boards" so it will look like the "planks" were painted individually. Since the flooring is three "planks" wide, I taped off the center plank and painted the two outer planks. Tomorrow evening I paint the center planks. I haven't decided if I will be doing the wallcovering already up or just the wall behind the bed. I will decide once the wall is up. I might wait until I get the flooring in to decide.

[bansil]

Good to hear, I just pulled in back home, it was 90* yesterday in Boone

I need to redo front ac at some point.....bath room first, shall start this weekend (fingers crossed)

Good luck and stay cool and hydrated

[lornaschinske]

Updated my blog. It has pics of the colourwashed laminate flooring we are using as a wall covering. I think it looks much better in person than it does in the pics. It looks exactly like I wanted it to look. The silver metallic glazing makes it look like old weathered wood. We are going to let the paint cure a bit before we start installing it. Once up, I plan on coating it with a Semi-gloss or Satin latex polyurethane (apply with lambswool wiping pad). Temps have been mildish here so the two A/C units haven't been working too hard to keep the temps well below 80°F. The galley stays very cool even when we are running the oven like I did the other day (cooked up a big batch of my Cajunchiladas). So far I'm very happy with the change. I find it amazing how much difference the slightly larger A/C unit made. It's only about 1K BTU larger. But the fan is much more powerful. Standing in the middle of the bus, you can definitely feel the air from both units. Plus the new unit is much quieter than the old unit. Air conditioners are like generators. You figure what you need then you bump up to a slightly larger one so they don't work as hard. Now I'm kinda hoping the temps hit over 100°F again. Next 10 days are forecast to be 92°F to 97°F. Today's high is forecast to be 95°F.

[lornaschinske]

I'm trying to figure out... Is living in your conversion while you are converting a good thing or bad thing?

We have changed our minds on the fireplace surround/hearth AGAIN! It's getting done this weekend so we will be locked in on our choice of material. Which also means we will be locked in on our choice of floor covering which is different than and almost half the price of the one I had decided on previously. The blower fan for the fireplace will be in today. David can install it while I am at work to day. I got the weekend off and it's not supposed to rain all weekend (it's rained for the past two weeks... kinda like being back in the mountains). So we will be working on finishing up the fireplace and getting more OSB decking down on the floor so we can start laying the floor covering down. David better have "good days" this weekend. I intend on things getting done!

[bansil]

damn woman...post some pics of said fire place ...

J/K raining for 2 weeks sucks.....

we just found out I am not putting a bathtub in this weekend ....'cause we got a family gathering thing and I will sleep in the bus!

What happened to the old days???? when folks said "we will all visit together" and it took like 4 months for folks to get here???

now with the dang cars and airplanes...like 3 days max...and they are here...unless they come from out of the country and have to drive/fly from Kali-forniaaaa

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by bansil

damn woman...post some pics of said fire place ...

J/K raining for 2 weeks sucks.....

No! Two weeks of rain is WONDERFUL!!!!! I stopped itching for a change. I hate this state. I have aged so much since moving out here. My skin is drying out and I stay dehydrated 90% of the time. I miss the high humidity South!

I will take pics of the fireplace once we get the surround & hearth tiled and grouted in.

Gotta go make Mascapone cheese now so I can make Tiramisu cupcakes tonight.

[lornaschinske]

Still need to add the oak trim to the hearth ( the wipe-on poly is drying). The blower fan didn't come in until Saturday and we couldn't get it from the park office until Sunday. Hooking up the blower fan took more time than we expected. We didn't realize that the fan was thermostatically controlled. We have discovered that the Trafficmaster Ceramica tile (on the hearth) sticks great to painted plywood but needs "help" on unpainted wood. We will be painting the OSB before we stick the tile down on the floor.

[r_w]

We have discovered that the Trafficmaster Ceramica tile (on the hearth) sticks great to painted plywood but needs "help" on unpainted wood. We will be painting the OSB before we stick the tile down on the floor.

That was a valuable lesson!!!

And I love the fireplace!!!

[bansil]

turned out great!!

[lornaschinske]

Oak trim added to the hearth and the fireplace turned on.


Close up of the side of the surround. We still need to add a short piece of quarter round oak at the base of the leg (on the left).

[bansil]

did you use silicone (rtv type), or construction adhesive or ???? to stick tiles down with?

I have been thinking about using silicone since we drive so much on rough roads

[lornaschinske]

We used PL 375 Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive. I personally like PL adhesives better than Liquid Nails. The adhesive is softer and flows better than Liquid Nails plus it does as good or better than Liquid Nails. But that is my opinion.

I got the fireplace running this morning on low. It's coldish in here and the fireplace is turning on/off nicely (thermostically controlled). The FIB100 fan that we bought (Reg $99.99 ON SALE $49.99) from NorthernTool.com last week is doing well albeit a bit whistly (is that a word) and it is on auto so it's turning on/off like it should. David was running the A/C yesterday. Heat in the early AM and A/C in the afternoon.

I think we have worked out where to put the vents for the recirculating fan/later heater (not in the floor). We will wait until we get to a homebase to set up the hydroinic heater. For now I just need to get the fan and duct work on so I can get a HEPA filter on it and de-dust this place.

David had laid more OSB so I guess we will be painting the stuff this weekend and laying tile flooring next week. I have a full box (30 sf) and a partial (15 sf) that we can put down before buying more. Got to go to Socorro at the end of the month for my vacation. See the kids, go visit the VLA while there, do some tagging/titling.