Net Neutrality

Last week the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, posted an excellent comment on the importance of Net Neutrality. See some US Internet providers companies (and their clueless political puppets) want to charge website owners for preferred access to their sites. This would create a tiered Internet and this is a really bad thing. His post is a good place to start if you are interested in this issue, so is this one.

Basement: Construction Album

Here's a large album of pictures from the construction. Once the dust settles and we get some furniture, I'll make a "Basement Finished" album.

Basement: Day 47 - The final day

Greg finished up yesterday and I spent today moving things and setting up equipment. I actually started the equipment setup yesterday and had it playing before I went to bed at midnight. today I had a hard time waiting so I took the afternoon off to get an early start.

As you can see in the photo, it looks like the vacuuming put a lot of dust in the air. I'll take some better pictures in a few days.

Now, the basement isn't truly ready for use until we get some furniture, and I want to do some touch-up painting after everything is moved down. However, I'm declaring today the end of the development. The first day was April 3rd and there have been 47 work days since then. Some were just a few hours, some were long, long days.

Photo albums to follow shortly...

 

Basement: What's left

45 work days down...

• Greg (the general contractor): Finish stairwell trim, trim projector window including shelf, remove all trash
• Me: Touch-up the paint on the walls and trim, install remaining equipment
• Still waiting to hear about the seating, we're approaching their 8 week promise.
• There may be a final electrical inspection required.

All I really need to start watching movies is that projector shelf and the couch.

Basement: Day 45

Greg did some more trim today and I did some more wiring work in the equipment room. I also put up the shelving for the DVDs in there. The cable modem and wireless router are in there now.

It's a new router, a Netgear RangeMax WPN824, and it's great. We get a strong signal all the way upstairs, and I have yet to find a dead or even slow spot.

 

Basement: Day 44

Greg got a great start on the trim today. The windows and doors are done and most of the walls.

A little sawing and for days the photos show dust in the air.

 

Basement: Day 43

Floor is done. Electrical is done. Doors are in.

 

Basement: Day 42

The floor is just about finished. I've placed my wall covers and started on the ordered chaos that will be the equipment room wiring.

 

Good Herman Today

Every once and a Herman comes along that tickles me right where I itch.

Basement: Day 41

Greg finished laying the laminate in the main room. That just leaves the landing with the door in the stairwell and half the equipment closet. Also, Brian finished the electrical so all the lights are working, including the 4 in the stairs. I finished the phone and Ethernet plugs and started on the cable, IR, and speaker plugs.

 

Basement: Day 40

40 days. Work days, that is. Day 1 was all the way back on April 3rd. The floor is now mostly done and then it's just the trim, finish my wiring, the final electrical inspection, and then we're ready for furniture. And then it's show time.

 

Basement: Day 39

It's great to see some floor.

 

Basement: Day 38

Window sills are in and the floor has been started a bit. The plan is to work on the weekend to catch up a bit since the rain has been causing problems with another project of Greg's.

In the photo all the marks on the walls are reflections and dust particles lit by the camera flash.

 

Basement: Day 37

Greg was only able to start the frame on a window today.

 

Basement: Day 36

Today I put the second coat of paint over the windows, gave the brown wall a third coat, and put in a new light in the stairwell.

 

Basement: Day 35

I painted around the windows today. Tomorrow or this weekend I'll do the second coat. I purchased a work light and with it (the main pot lights aren't connected yet) I've seen some weak areas on the dark wall so I'll give it another coat as well.

Note: The white blemishes in the photo are dust lit by the flash.