Raincharm’s Weblog

Every big project starts with a single step.
We took one more today.
To be truthful, we have taken a few others already, but we have been moving at a glacial pace toward getting a remodel done.

Monday afternoon we are meeting with the contractor so he can give us tips on how to demolish our exercise room.
This is a room in the basement that has a floor slightly raised above the basement floor. It has “finished” walls, that are flaking paint, and a closet. We call it the exercise room because it houses a stationary bicycle, elliptical, universal machine, sit-up/weight bench and a rowing machine. All are used frequently, except the rowing machine and the bench. (The bench does hold a radio, and is used occasionally.) The rowing machine should be on the curb.

There is water that goes from the wall at some point, under this floor, and out to the rest of the basement. I shudder to think of the state of the underside of this room. I am sure it is not up to code.

And we are planning to take out all of the floor, the wall coverings, and the closet – leaving a big space. This will be re-enclosed after a drainage project to intercept whatever is coming in and redirecting it outside, and an earthquake retrofit project to nail the house to the foundation.

Our part is demolition.

Before our part really takes place, we need to move things away. No reason for everything to get dusty.
Since this work is in the basement, the obvious place for “stuff” to go is up.
Up is already cluttered with over 100 boxes of other “stuff” previously packed.
Therefore, it is time for some “stuff” to go out.

We are flinging as we go, but this is “stuff” we have opted to hang onto.
So our big trip today was to the Storage place a short piece away from our house.
We rented the biggest area they have. We will have to see how it works out as time moves forward.

Tomorrow – we will add our locks to the doors, and start moving a box or two.
Tonight – starting to get a real handle on the box contents – before we have them all off-site, and want something that we just know is in one of them.

And all of this while I am having real lower back pain. For the last 24-36 hours I have been somewhat limited in movement.
A piece on the ground is just a long way away.
My biggest problems come with transitioning from one position to another.
Getting out of the waterbed was probably the worst.
I am icing the area, and we took a walk (to the Storage facility) to try to shake it out a bit.

Oh – and the Brandi Carlile (correct spelling) concert was excellent.
We were very close – but up high and to the side, having a profile view.

See the star – except we were on the opposite side

She can really belt out a song, and is about as energetic as any performer I have watched.
She and her band (not with the orchestra) did one number with no mics on either themselves or their instruments.
This just to show how much she loves and appreciates the acoustics at Benaroya Hall.
It was awesome.

From the Benaroya Hall site.

The hall’s traditional shape, defined by massive wood and plaster surfaces, is faceted and coffered to provide excellent acoustics and diffuse sound effectively. Orchestral performances require long reverberation times, which require surfaces that are heavy and dense to reflect sound and absorb as little as possible. The wood paneling on the walls is subdivided into smaller panels, each one a different size so that each one resonates with a different frequency of sound. The arrangement of how those panels are put together, the subdivisions of those panels and the fasteners of those subdivisions are all expressed in the way the wood paneling is detailed. The result is that the physics of the acoustical design becomes an important part of the architectural design. In addition, distractions in the form of airborne sounds or earthly rumbles from surrounding streets, the transit tunnel, or the railroad tunnel below the site have been eliminated by building the hall as a box within a box, with the inner concrete box completely supported on rubber pads.

This entry was posted on November 24, 2012 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.