I really miss the sheer simplicity of the bikes that I used to ride. Specifically, the KLR650 and the carbureted KLX250. Every but of maintenance was easy to DIY. Even a clutch rebuild was just simple. The 250 had the extra bonus of not wanting to cry, when it decided to take a nap.
Those older simple machines are wonderful. The green BMW was my first fuel-injected bike and after the parts bills to fix its dead fuel system, I still prefer carburetors. EFI is convenient but when it breaks it takes specialty tools and knowledge and lots of money to fix. First part I ever bought for that bike, used, was close to $300 on eBay. It was the plate that the fuel pump, fuel filter, and fuel light float mount to, and it has a fuel-tight wiring connection going through it. The ground wire powering both the pump and float switch had broken contact somewhere in there. No way to fix it and make it fuel-safe again. Then there was buying and installing a new fuel filter and pump, replacing in-tank and external fuel lines, installing pressure-safe disconnect fittings, cleaning the fuel injectors… It eventually became worth it. That bike and its big brother are the most comfortable and practical motorcycles I’ve ever owned. Just took a lot to get there.
I’m about to resurrect a 1986 Yamaha XT350 for my partner and that’ll be a much easier and less expensive process than my fancy BMW’s.
This is a space that used to be two closets in our dining area. When we redid the bathroom to replace rotting subflooring we decided to enlarge the bathroom footprint from 22sqft (2.04m²) to 36sqft (3.34m²), which gave these closets only 8" of depth. They’re too shallow for what we used to store in there, and the swinging doors took up additional floor space with their clearance needs. In a <1200 sqft (111.48m²) home that stuff adds up quickly.
Our plan is to build in shelving to consolidate our book collection, which is currently overflowing from a number of smaller bookshelves and stacks. We picked up some great boards from a local sawyer that I’m excited to get to work on for this project. Once the initial demo and resheathing of joists is done I’ll be able to cut the boards for depth and get them installed. If folks are interested I’ll try my best to record steps in the build to share with the group.
I feel you man. Let’s not forget about hacked up electricity, shoddy repairs from the previous owners, lower building standards back then and other surprises that make a somewhat doable project turn full teardown.
Please please please go through and double check wiring and housing for your light fixtures if you haven’t. We’ve been here a while and have been renovating as we’re able to afford to (there’s a reason we bought an older house) but that was one of the first things we did and there were nightmares hidden in the ceiling
One of our friends found that wall severely browned and crisped behind the oven after it was improperly installed for decades, lol. Terrifying wiring mistakes too, the type that make your hair stand on end. They were remodeling after bad water damage and found all sorts of terrible surprises.
We had a mold issue stemming from a shower vent not connecting to the roof and just dumping humid air into the attic so we wanted to fix that. Found rotten newspaper from the late 40s as insulation mixed with vermiculite under a thin layer of cellulose, which we treated as asbestos and had that professionally removed. Under that found a whole spiderweb of live knob and tube which wasn’t connected to any devices, was disconnected from many of its knobs, and was missing insulation in many places while it was draped loosely over some metal plumbing up there.
The project started as a disconnected shower vent causing mold, and ended up with a whole rewire of the lighting and outlet circuits in the house. Wild stuff.
We were also swapping out the breakers for ones up to code since we had messed with the circuits, and one a/gfci breaker just kept tripping. Found a light fixture that had evidentially been sparking away up there for who knows how long.
Feels really good to have had eyes on every box in the house and know that what’s there now is leagues safer than what was there before.
I feel your pain. 140 year old house with 3 additions and several remodels over the years. Still had a coal cistern when I moved in!
The middle bedroom has a partial window where the addition was tied in but they couldn’t be bothered to seal up the hole fully… it’s about 8 inches wide and made of a custom storm window and nothing else (currently sealed up well with insulation until I can re-do siding).
Fireplace hearth (way overbuilt thing for a pellet stove -previous owner was a mason) was installed over a layer of hardwood flooring, which they didn’t realize wasn’t subfloor because there were 2 layers of hardwood flooring, old kind that was thick - the house sighed with relief when I ripped it all out and I gained 4 inches to my ceiling height.
Had to drill through a 4-inch thick cement wall to install my dishwasher. Someone moved the entry from one side to the other at some point, probably when they added the driveway and garage, and the walkway is still under my lawn. And my cabinets are different internal heights for some reason?
Weird stuff. Every project becomes 5-15 projects to do right.
Ugh, this is it entirely. And then add to the 15 that the final product is going to require imperfections to make it look like it fits the rest of the space.
And my cabinets are different internal heights for some reason?
Our ceilings are made for someone shorter than six feet tall, but our cabinets have spots that my 6’8" friend has to go on his toes to reach. Cabinet logic in old houses is bizarre.
Is there a similar problem with subreddits? During my tenure on reddit, I clicked into a number of history subreddits that seemed pretty weirdly fixated on European culture and history while downplaying things like fascism and Nazi Germany.
I don’t know about the history subreddits, but I do know that there used to be a sub called “whitebeauty” that posted random photos of white people that served a similar purpose.
Despite claiming to stay away from politics, they had really questionable, fascism-like views on what they claim is “degenerate modern art” and harboured some of the worst type of human beings on the planet, and these human beings were open white nationalists and conservative Christians.
The amusing thing about these types, is that they just like traditional values “on principle”. Most of the art they promote has been created by open minded, queer, anti-traditionalist artists who, at the time, were the exact type they are now hating. They know nothing of our history (they have none, so it is our history), and they only rally over “tradition” because the abolition of slavery and women’s rights were a relatively recent development, whose reversion is their core and only value.
We had these types in a local Facebook group. When I pointed out that one of the more classical oil paintings they showcased once nearly caused a riot at the unveiling because it was a representation of the open minded and free thinking of the painter they came in hordes to counter these facts.
Kind of hate slide 1. There's no point in specifying 'in billions of USD' if you're only including percentages. The entire pie chart could represent a trillion dollars, or $25, and they wouldn't have to change a single thing about it.
Edit: Ah, I see, you can hover over them to see the values. Useless as a static image and useless on my phone.
beehaw.org
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