Category Archives: Adventures in Remodeling

Home Network Installation: Real Soon Now

Posted on June 30, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Our home remodelling project is advancing, but slowly. This week they put on the doors and windows in the new part of the house (we are still in Phase I: build new part; Phase II is 'rehab old part'; we were supposed to be finished with it all by now.) The plumbing and electric is mostly done and the ducting. If all goes well, the network guy is coming Real Soon Now to wire the home network…

Meanwhile I have to spec out the equipment. We settled on structured cat 5e cable that will handle phones and the network. I think I've picked a router and a switch, although I haven't ordered either. The old wireless router and switch will be relegated to serving as a mere access point and run off a different part of the network.

I ordered patch panels and also a wall mount for them as I still don't have a clear idea of what sort of rack or other platform I need to hold the gear. Something pint-sized compared to the professional gear, I'd imagine. Maybe this?

The gear is going to live wedged in a very wide closet about 26”deep, with the patch panel living on the 26” wall. In the fullness of time it may hold more switches, a server or two, some phone gear, and who knows what. I think I want a rack with wheels rather than the kind you screw into the floor and (9') ceiling, but beyond that there seem to be a bewildering number of choices, all of which need accessories to hold anything.

Of course, I won't get to use any of this stuff until that side of the house has the electricity turned on and is ready to move into. I just hope that installing the new network doesn't require pulling the plug on the existing, temporary, DSL connection. If it does, I may have to try pointing a Pringles can at the University.

Posted in Adventures in Remodeling | 3 Comments

Florida Has A Cement Shortage

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

First we put half our stuff in storage. Then we moved into the front half of the house, about the size of a NY two-bedroom apartment, putting the kids into a bunk bed. The idea was to start the project in the fall, and finish by about, well, May or June. Then we had permit delays. Then, finally, in January we knocked down the empty half of our house — including a piece of the kitchen — so we could rebuild it better and bigger. Then they started to build, poured a foundation, built some walls, and almost a month ago got ready to pour the beam and install the trusses.

But wait! We failed inspection! The city of Coral Gables has tougher requirements than the County and even though these were noted on the plans, the engineer just did the routine calculations. Three week delay to recalculate, get twice as many trusses, re-inspect. Ok, that takes us to last week. Good to go to pour some beams, right?

Oops. Seems there's a cement shortage. As the contractor tells it, there were three local plants that supplied about 60% of south Florida's needs with the rest coming from abroad. Most of the imported stuff is being diverted to other places, like China, that are willing to pay higher prices than Florida (!). And all three of the local plants are having mechanical problems. The biggest plant has problems so severe that the owners have decided not to repair it, but just to wait for the new plant to come on stream in about a month.

So after a few days extra delay we managed to get a truck to come and bring some of this precious commodity, and we poured yesterday. Except we ran out.

Question: Is it more reasonable to imagine we'll finish in August (contractor's current estimate), December (my guess), or some time after next March….

Posted in Adventures in Remodeling, Florida | 6 Comments

OK, I’m Jealous

Posted on February 21, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I got some very useful private responses to my plea for help about some basic home network questions . But Doc Searls's similar plea —admittedly one of more urgency—resulted in personal advice from the Head Lemur.

Posted in Adventures in Remodeling | Comments Off on OK, I’m Jealous

Please Help Cure My Ignorance About Home Networks

Posted on February 19, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I know from the email and blog comments I get that I have really smart readers. Many of them are people I've met at one time or another, many others are people I hope to meet someday. (By and large they seem more willing to email than to post comments; perhaps shyness comes with wisdom?) Certainly, every time I've asked for any sort of tech help here, the responses have been overwhelmingly useful. So I can't resist asking again.

Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures in Remodeling | 1 Comment

Notes on Travel (Pitfalls of Orbitz Dept.), Xmas in the Dark, and an Uncertain Number of Septic Tanks

Posted on December 17, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Assuming the existence of some future point when I have more energy, I will explain further why our bedroom is now in a different part of the house, and why my desk is in that room too. The story involves architects, a contractor, vast sums of money, permits, the acquisition and filling of a 10×15 climatically controlled storage space, the expectation of permits, an as-yet-undetermined number of real and proposed septic tanks, vast sums of money, the partial destruction of our kitchen, the Sisyphean expectation of the final permits, and of course random and unpredictable delay.

Meanwhile, however, as we appear to have hit a period of delay until the waveform number of future septic tanks collapses to an integer and either produces a permit or a lawsuit, I have cancelled my plans to cancel my plans to go to England for two weeks of Xmas revel with the in-laws. Rather than stay here and grade exams, I will use my ticket. [Much more than you probably want to know about the dangers of buying air tix online in the extended entry.]

I am not the only person I know who abandons Miami when the weather is at its coolest (ie just warm), driest (ie just a little damp) and most perfect in order to go spend a fortnight in the exciting outskirts of Didsbury, a suburb in the outskirts of Manchester, England, which is a somewhat dark and wet and cold and dark and wet and cold place at this time of year. After all, my wife and children do it too. But they are 50 to 100% British, so they may be genetically predisposed to enjoy four daily hours of what is euphemistically called “sunlight”. (Lest I be suspected of Manchester-bashing, it's a great town, and often very nice in the summer time.)

I intend to keep adding to the blog while in Didsbury, but as my internet access will be POTS rather than broadband, and metered POTS at that, I may have fewer posts, and they are likely to have much more about England and the rest of the UK than is the normal fare here.

Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures in Remodeling, Personal | Comments Off on Notes on Travel (Pitfalls of Orbitz Dept.), Xmas in the Dark, and an Uncertain Number of Septic Tanks