Inspections Are Exhausting

After a week of work and inspections out the wazoo it's safe to say I've had enough. The termite guy gave me bad news, the shoring guy gave me so-so bad news, but the plumbing guy gave me good news. My families general contractor came to see the house yesterday and spent almost 2 hours walking the place and giving me tips and ideas and advise. Rock on!!! I've decided I'm going through with the contract... welcome to home ownership. Act of Sale is Feb 23, 2007. I'm tired already and I haven't even started.

I ran into my soon to be new neighbors, James and Kara, last night at Molly's. We had some nice convo and lil James is no longer lil James because he is 21 today. Happy Birthday scotch drinker!!! Ran into Gina and Jason and got drunk with my brother.

Termites - 1; Greg - 0 !

I had a termite guy and a shoring guy come check out my potential house today. The shoring guy made this nice structural floor plan of the house that shows all the piers and chain wall. He also had this nifty device to make an elevation map of the house. He quoted me the worst case scenario (cost wise)... I still have to decide which parts of the house I want to raise based on what he gave me, which will obviously change the cost.

Now the termnite guy really didn't have anything good to say, but I will say he did a very thorough job and was a nice guy. He found termite damage in the attic, but couldn't tell if there were any active termites because it was cold and had mold and mildew up there. He then proceeded to crawl under the house to find more termite damage to some of the sills. He didn't see any activity in the wood, but he also said it's cold so they won't be moving much today... and this guy knows his bug... trust me. The worst part is that when he dug a lil hole in the ground with his flashlight, he definitely found active termites. My translation > the house has active termites in it... so this is NOT good !!!

He didn't know the extent of the problem so he didn't give me a quote, but him and his bossman are coming tomorrow for further inspections. Then I'm sure they'll hit me with the damage. And there's standing water under the house, so that'll have to be built up over time.

Good news > > > both the termite guy and shoring guy really liked the house. And my agent also told me a two car garage might be part of this property as well. Nothing like a little langiappe property ya know !

The Purchase Agreement

I'm now under contract to purchase a house on General Taylor, just off St. Charles. It needs a complete renovation, but I'm very upbeat an excited about this project. Eric M took a bunch of pictures when we went to check it out with the agent. My soon to be wrecked house !!!

I Made My Very First Microphone

I made a "true" multi-pattern tube (EF86) microphone. I received the last components I needed this week and finished it last night... but it didn't work. I made one change today and it's works great. I am very happy and this was probably the most fun I've had on a DIY project. I will get the PSU properly encased and post some pics when I'm done.

AM is very nice, too.

I'm going to bed. Busy day tomorrow.

Back in the Studio This Year

Even though I absolutely love designing and bulding gear... and doing anything eletronica really... I'm hoping to get back into the studio in 2007. I've gotten three phone calls in the past month from bands who want to record. I've been talking with Jack at Truck Farm and I'm hoping we can do the projects there. Truck Farm is a great studio in the Bywater, and I must say I fancy the outboard gear and mic collection. Since I've been recording, 2006 was, by far, my most unproductive year... 2007 is bound to be better.

Last year was also my most unproductive year as a musician, but I'm going to change that this year. I had a jam session with Mr. E. Martinez, and even though I couldn't get my clumsy fingers fingering as they used to, I had a great time. Eric even got me to play the drums. I did ok... I think. Eric and I are going to write and record a couple songs... purely for self gratifying reasons. I think we should come up with a name... but I'm not really good at that type of thing.

I've been waking up at 4:45am this week and going to the gym before I go to work. Usually, I go the gym after work, but there's a million+ people there at 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I think I like the mornings better, but it's actually kind of exhausting and I fall asleep at 9pm every night. Gearing up for the CCC 10K... I think it's in April.

Enough rambling about what I want to do this year... gotta get back to work.

A Bad Start to 2007

So 2007 has started out with another wrinkle. Someone broke into my storage unit and stole a bunch of my recording gear... rough estimate is between $6000-$7000 worth of lute. Worst of all they stole my 1978 Fender Precision Bass; my baby. I got it about 8 or 9 years ago. I remember selling two basses I had at the time and my mom giving me $200 for my birthday to get it. I bought if from Mike Blum's shop on Oak Street. I also lost two pieces of gear I hand-made... a GSSL compressor and a G1176 compressor. I lost a bunch of other shit too but those are the things that can't really be replaced.

THIEVES DIE !!!

My 2006 resolution was to keep up my blog, but that didn't last more than 2 or 3 months. My 2007 resolution will be the same... so here's to another year of blogging.