Kitchen tile job grout....gone astray.

Yes, I said I'd stop tiling about halfway up the kitchen wall behind the stove... but then I remembered the immortal words of DH will shall now and forever continue to haunt our halls... "(note from DH: Yes, she is fully prepared to tile the whole darned wall up to the ceiling. Trust me.)"

Alrighty then... if I' prepared, might as well just do it then, eh?

It added about $130 to the budget to add an additional 25 square feet above the stove, but after thinking long and hard about it, I think it really would just look like a half-arsed job if we didn't take it all the way to the ceiling.

So first thing's first, after removing the side cabinet and the side panels from the upper cabinets (so I can tuck the tiles underneath like I did at the sink) I thought it would be most important to get a line behind the stove from where the tiles to the left of the stove stopped... over to the right side of the stove. This would be my horizontal line that all the other tiles would have to match.

Thankfully, we hung the cabinets straight and at right angles, so I didn't have to worry about us not having 90* angles for the square tiles. (But I measured with a square, just in case before I got started.)

Once I drew my base line, I could start applying Mastic to the wall, starting from where I left off on the right, keeping the spacing and all that jazz.

Then came a decision: Tile behind the oven vent hood, and if so, by how much?

And my thought was this: Let's say in 2 years, I chuck a travel coffee mug at DH because he continually sneaks spoons and forks into non-silverware drawers in the kitchen. He ducks, the mug dents the hood, and there I am needing a new vent hood and a marriage councilor.

If I keep the DH, but replace the vent hood, if I don't tile now as much as I can, there's a likelihood that a new vent hood won't have the same shape/size, et c. and tiles will need to be added, as with grout, blah blah blah.

So yeah, take the vent hood down and tile under the whole darn thing.

Frankly, it was a lot less work taking down the vent hood and tiling everything behind it, because otherwise I would have been doing some funky small cuts, and it still would have been a PITA to grout behind it.

In the end, it was the rational decision.

But, hey... note the small electrical plug up there on the wall? That's going to stick out like a sore thumb as soon as you walk in the door. Yes, I'm planning on spray painting the hammered copper spray on the plate, but what about the plug? It was stark white.

We wanted the plug up there in case at some time down the road we wanted to change our lighting options and maybe need to plug in a transformer, but for the life of me, we've never used the darn thing. My concern with spraying the plugs at the counter level was that as we used the plugs, it was likely the paint would scratch off from use, but in this case, that's hardly likely.

So here's what I did....

I made a template of a plug, cut out some holes and spray painted the plug.

Like a moron, I came up with the idea AFTER I had tiled around the plug, so I couldn't just willy-nilly spray all over the place. You see, if you have 2 brain cells to rub together, you think of this BEFORE you tile. Yeah.


Anyway, it came out rather well, no fuses blown (yay!) and with the copper painted plate over top, it's invisible.

Oh yeah, btw, as I tiled up the wall, I kept a 3' level nearby. Every few squares of tile I put up, I would check to make sure my lines were still going up level and plumb. You'd be surprised how easy it is to slip and move your tiles into a 1/2" downlope over a 6' span.



A few hours later, I was done and we put the vent, stove and cabinet back into place and made dinner.

The photo does not do this tile justice.

It looks so much better than I expected.

Of course, there were still minor adjustments to make. For example, in one line of tiles just above the stove, a whole column of tiles were a little offset. I just cut straight through the mesh and the mastic, pulled the whole column out and readjusted it.

There were also several squares that were tilted a few degrees of of acceptable, and a razor blade and a dollop of mastic set those right as well. Just don't be afraid to cut into the mesh and redesign as necessary.

Like when I was tiling into the counter corner, and I needed to change the spacing to meet the wall with a solid line of squares, just figure out how far back you need to make the spacing adjustments and spread out the rows/columns to make transitions occur smoothly and undetectably. If your cabinet/ceiling angle isn't 90*, you can take the same approach. It will take longer, but it will look better in the end.



Oh, and we've made some changes regarding the grout.

We are NOT going to use the mixed grout we tested previously. We have decided that although the gaps between the tiles are large enough (1/8" apart) to use sanded grout, we just didn't like the texture in the end. The gritty look of sanded grout didn't blend well with the shiny coppery tiles. We're going to go with a lighter green non-sanded epoxy grout... one that won't need to be re-sealed every year like the sanded grout.

Here are the problems:
1. We have 38 ft^2 of tile to grout.
2. Epoxy unsanded grout does not come int he same colors as sanded grout.
3. Sanded grout costs $25/bag would cover our entire area
4. Epoxy unsanded grout costs $90/bucket and would cover about 18 ft^2
5. We found the perfect color.. #13 lichen, but it's discontinued.
6. Did I mention that the unsanded expoxy grout would cost as much as the tile itself did?

And what if we had a plumbing or electrical problem and we needed to punch a hole in the wall... you can't regrout with a discontinued grout colour... where would you get it?

So the search continues for the perfect grout.
This could take a while.

Installing Ikea Curtain Rod and Custom Curtains

It's January. It's cold out.

I can't tell you how thankful I am that we sprayed in the foam insulation before we put up the drywall... but there's more you can do to control the heating of your home. Considering that heating costs are on the rise, and we don't have zoned heating, I wanted to keep all the warm air coming from the first floor from rising all the way up to the third floor via the open stairway, especially when it's evening and we're snuggling on the sofa watching a movie.

I purchased some good thick upholstery fabric that matched the carpeting, took a few days over the holiday break, and sewed me up some custom curtains. Figuring out how to sew the curtains was in itself a major project, and if anyone cares, I'll post details on how I did it. Note that I did not say 'how to do it' because, well... I was flying by the seat of my pants on that project. 110" long curtains out of four 60" wide panels that spanned 100" long with pleats. Ugh. That's a lot of thread.

The key to this project was again, my love of all things IKEA. Ina word: Kvartal.
We saw the picture above in the catalog and thought it would work perfectly for us. All we needed was 2 track lengths, some do-hickeys to attach the track to the ceiling at the joists, some sliders to fit in the track, and the hangers.











It's actually a very cool set up, but what isn't from Ikea?

The sliders and the pleat hooks came in a separate box. We bought 2, but really didn't need them all.

So, getting started... finding the joists. You'd think this would be an easy thing, wouldn't you? In a second word: No.


Back in September, 2008, when we were prepping for the drywall, we mentioned that we installed a few hundred 1x3 slats as firring strips perpendicular to the floor joists on the ceiling on the first floor. This was to even out the wobbly joists and give the drywallers more surfaces to nail to. It also helped position the can lights right where we wanted them to be.










This picture above is of the livingroom before the drywall was installed.

So here's the point... using a stud finder... which one of the *@#$^*%! beeps is the real joist and which is a firring strip, eh?

Here's the ceiling area we wanted to run the track on:










And here's how many holes we had to drill in order to locate the real joists:










Looks like someone came in with a tommy gun and shot the place up.

I don't know why it was so difficult. Every time we drilled a new hole and there was just air behind it, we'd look at each other and start mumbling about the insanity of the joists not being evenly spaced apart.

Once we found the real joists and spackled up the holes, we installed the attachments that connect to the track. These little hanger nuggets are just so cute.

The copper part is the part that attaches to the top part of the track.








We went with six hangers, because the fabric is so darned heavy, I didn't want the weight of the fabric to warp or bend the track. Turns out it's a pretty well designed track and I didn't need to worry, but why pass up an opportunity to do a little overkill.










Once the track was cut to length and assembled, it was an easy install with screws to the little hanger-nuggets. Then we installed the sliding hangers into the hanging side of the track, inserted the curtain hangers into the pleats of the fabric curtains, then hung them up.










Now we just pull the curtain closed in the evenings, shut the vents on the third floor, and we're in snuggle city.

A great kitchen gadget

I (again) need to thank my in-laws. They got me one of the best holiday gifts ever.

In our heavily used kitchen, DH tends to be the cook, and I like to be the prep cook. I absolutely love the entire process and concept of mise en place. (A few years ago I got a set of 1" glass prep bowls for spices, wasabi, salt & pepper mixes... I love them.)




















This is my job, and I like it.
Except for cutting onions.

When I'm wearing my contact lenses, I have little or no problems. The lenses effectively block the tear-producing agents from getting to my eyes.

Oh, and just in case you're curious as to why onions cause tears... it's all chemistry:

Onions are Alliums (includes onions, garlic, shallots) and is actually a member of the lilly family. Alliums absorb sulfur in the soil as they grow. This in turn develops amino acid sulfoxides, called
Propanethial S-oxide.

Propanethial S-oxide is a lachrymator, an irritant that causes your lachrymal (tear) glands to kick into high gear to get rid of the irritant, which in this case, once combined with the eye, reacts to form sulfuric acid, causing the burning and itching sensations that accompany the tears.

In a word, "OUCH."
Sulfuric Acid in eyes = not good.

Here's the solution: onion goggles.
















They're clear glasses with padding around the lenses (like swimming goggles without the strap) and it blocks the Propanethial S-oxide from making contact with your corneas. They're in the picture above next to the heaping pile of onions that had absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. I actually leaned into the pile of cut onions and took a deep sniff, too. No reaction.

No vapor contact, no sulfuric acid.

It's a beautiful thing.
They also come in pink.

New Year... New kitchen Tile Backsplash.

A long time ago in a kitchen far far away, we planned for a tile backsplash. It's been over a year now, and darnit if I didn't get a fire under my backside last weekend.

We had gone to an open house in Newport a couple of months back...I took pictures, but the mishap with the camera (RIP) may have killed those images. I really haven't checked the card yet.. I may get to doing that soon enough... but anyway, I digress.... the open house was done by a very competent fellow who showed us some great tips and cheats (Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to hunt those pictures down, they were really informative and I really wanted to document his work) Argh! I'm digressing yet again!!

Ok, breathe... Tile.

The guy in Newport did a great job in his kitchen with come very cool looking copper/verdigris/brown 1"tiles for a backsplash. Similar colours as our kitchen as well. We thought it looked great. When we asked where he got the tiles we were very surprised to hear that they came from Home Depot.

We were thrilled when he said they cost $5 per square foot. We went and bought a sheet.
We also bought 6 other (much more expensive) patterns and colours we thought might look good if not better, just for the sake of comparison. They all sucked... except for the copper/brown squares. We brought all the others back and bought 32 feet square, a bucket of Omni-grip (same stuff I used for the marble tiles in the master bath shower), and some greenish sanded grout.

The first thing I did was test the grout colour. I wanted to be sure it was the right hue. So I attached (with the Omnigrip) a 4x5 patch of tiles to the back of a piece of clear plastic , (broken from an old cd case) waited for the Omnigrip to cure, then I then mixed up some of the green grout and pressed it into the cracks... waited... wiped... and scratched my head.

It looked too dark. Maybe if I waited a day it would lighten up.

Well it did, but not enough.

So I did the same test with a 50/50 mix of the green grout and some leftover tan grout I had in the basement from the 3rd floor bathroom floor tile job. Then I said "WTH, try it out with the tan grout as well." So now there were three samples.















We narrowed it down to the two green grouts, tried holding them up in different lights, different areas of the kitchen, then chose the middle-mix. (It's the one on the right.) The tan looked awful.

So off to installing the tiles. First thing's first, line the countertop with thick blue painter's tape, get your v-notched trowel in hand and start smearing the goop... at least that's how I started.

Frankly, I recommend learning from my mistakes and pulling the little round tabs off of the light sockets first. For some reason, I kept forgetting to do this, and would lay out the mastic on the wall, realize that I hadn't pulled the tabs off (they WILL get in the way of the tiles, especially if they're small tile like ours.)

So I got the pliers all masticky, and then, well, I shorted out (fried) the dimmer switch. *&^$%#$%%.

No, I didn't switch off the fuse. I didn't think I'd need to, but $30 later for a new dimmer switch says I'm a dumbarse.

Here are the tabs you'll want to bend off (They're notched to make it easy.)














Yeah, so I replaced the dimmer switch, broke off the side tabs (to make them fit next to each other better... with the FUSE OFF (note the flashlight light... heh heh.)















The other thing we were thinking about was the cover plates. We had the cheap white plastic ones and they weren't going to look too hot with the copper tile, so we bought a can of Hammered Copper spray paint and sprayed a few coats on the switch plates.















I think it looks pretty darned good, considering the copper ones I was looking at had to be custom ordered and were NOT in the budget.

Something else to consider was that once the tile was installed, the switches and the plugs would be reset about 1/4" too deep for the plates. They make a lovely little tab for just this purpose, and they snap together for varying depths depending on how deep your tile is.















These little yellow-green tabs got folded in half and inserted onto the screw behind the switch, but in front of the junction box screw. It just holds the whole switch out a little further from the wall to it's flush with the switch plate. Cheap little buggers, too.
















Once the switch plates were all taken care of, it was all about measuring, cutting and installing the tiles... which was pretty easy until I realized that as I moved into the corner, that my tiles would not be an even match sizewise... I could not fit a whole column of tiles evenly into the corner. *&#@$.

So, BEFORE I installed the last panel of 12" x 12" tiles heading into the corner, I started cutting them into strips of 1" x 12" columns. Each column was spaced about 1/32" farther apart than the connected panels, and the spacing faded away and fit perfectly into the corner. Just squish and move around until they all lined up and looked even. Viola.















Then it was just a matter of scraping out the mastic, squshing the tiles into the mastic along the wall (The easy part) and keeping the spacing intact between sheets of tiles.

The one aspect we hadn't really planned on is that the tiles on the wall behind the sink weren't going to match up perfectly (full size tiles) with the cabinets on the left and right side.

Thankfully, we bought Ikea cabinets and the dark brown siding of each cabinet came off with a twist of a few screws. I was then able to tile right underneath where the siding would cover up, making cutting a million iddy bitty glass tiles in half unnecessary. Yay!

(In the picture below you can see the white side of the cabinet just to the right of the kitchen sink. This is with the dark brown siding taken off. No need to put it back on until the grout is laid in and sealed. In the picture above, the panel is still attached and the mirror is not yet taken down.)

Oh, and I took the tiles up under the cabinets as far as I could with whole tiles, about 1/2" away from the bottom of the cabinets. I wasn't about to start snapping glass tiles in half to make a perfect fit to something only 5 year olds would ever see.















I'm planning on continuing the tile behind the stove, but I haven't decided on a layout just yet... so I'm on hold until I make a decision.















I'm thinking about going straight across the bottom of the stove vent over to the fridge and stopping just out of sight behind it. I'm just not prepared to tile the whole darned wall up to the ceiling... then above the cabinets... where would you stop? (note from DH: Yes, she is fully prepared to tile the whole darned wall up to the ceiling. Trust me.)

Heh. And I have a camera. Well, DH got one for xmas... he lets me use his. Apparently I'm going to have to show I can not destroy a valuable piece of equipment while dancing the epileptic blues in strange parking lots.

Until we grout again, my pretties... ciao!

Adding to the List Again

We've actually been doing a lot around the house in recent weeks but we've not replaced the camera yet and hate using the old one, so it's not as much fun to blog (or read) about projects without visuals.

Suffice it to say, a LOT of trim has gone up and there are some great tips that Mrs. OrDie will be sharing. Also, last bits of trimming in the kitchen resulted in rehanging the cabinets. We'll get you pictures and share some tips on that, too, soon.

Today, however, I'm just documenting another few additions to our list.

The first is what I believe to be a Song Sparrow, non-descript and looking a lot like a house sparrow, safe for it's furtive ground dining behavior and the speckled breast...and, of course, the song. It's rather nice.

We can also add a tufted titmouse--actually more than one.

Then, today, we got to see what appeared to be a Coopers Hawk (I thought perhaps a Peregrine Falcon, but it seemed too brown) come through the trees scaring a dozen or so doves and then buzzing right overhead. Definitely too large for a Sharpshinned Hawk, I think.

It's very pleasing to see the increase in numbers and variety of native species since we've begun feeding and also controlling the sparrow numbers. It's gratifying.

The list so far:

Canadian Geese
Mallard Ducks
Turkey Vultures
Red Tailed Hawk
Bats
White-footed Mice
Grey Squirrels
Opossum
Raccoon
Chickadees
Mourning Dove
Rock Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Robins
Junko's
Grackles
European Starlings (invasive)
English Sparrows (invasive)
Chimney Swifts
Blue Jay
Garter Snakes
Crows
Carolina Wren
Cardinals
Brown Thrasher
American Kestrel
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Mocking Bird
Tree Swallow
House Finch
Goldfinch
Great Blue Heron
Northern Flicker
Ruby-throated Humming Bird
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-headed Woodpecker
European Wall (Lazarus) Lizards
White Crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse
Cooper's Hawk

The Anchor Grill in Covington, KY

The most amazing 24-hour a day breakfast grill and luncheon place I've been to is the Anchor Grill in Covington.














It's a dive. A REAL one, but the food is OMG-hangover cure or 3AM munchies kind of yum.

Keep an eye out for the dancing barbie and bandstand in the animated juke box near the disco ball.

Recently, the current owners, which are the kids of the original owners, decided to go through with a plan to paint the side of their building with a mural of an Ohio River steamboat. Apparently it was something the parents wanted to do ages ago, but never got around to hiring anyone to do the mural.

Well, the parents are gone, but not forgotten. They've been painted onto the stern side of this mural and I hope it lasts 100 years.

It's on the corner of Pike and Main Streets, about 100 yards east from the Pike Street/MLK exit off of I-75/71.

You should go.

Before and After (1980 vs. 2009)

View of Russell Street facing North, 1980:














View of Russell Street facing North (via Google) 2008













2008:















October 2009:














1980 Corner of 11th & Russell:














2009 Corner of 11th & Russell, via Google:
















1030-1036 Russell in 1980:














1030-1036 Russell in 2007:



































1035-1037 Russell in 1980:




















1035-1037 Russell in in 2007:



















Harriet Albro House 1980:



















Harriet Albro House 2007:














Corner of Russell and 10th, 1980:














Corner of Russell and 10th, 2009, via Google:

Pre-Russel Street Fire - circa 1980 pics

Just 29 years ago these houses in the Seminary Square Historical District of Covington had boarded up doors, broken windows, and squatters.

In 29 years, owners of these homes have spent millions of dollars to turn derelicts into beautiful homes.

Last week, a fire started from a heater that sealed the fate of one resident on Russell Street, and destroyed the homes of all of the others in the complex.


Every time we pass the fire damaged homes, I feel a deep sadness for all of the work that went into restoring and rehabbing these places.

This is what the houses looked like in 1980. I only hope it doesn't take another 29 to get it back to the way it was just two weeks ago.















This (below) is on the corner of Russell and 11th Street:

By the time we saw it a few years ago, it too was a shell of a house. I don;t know if a fire took it, but it looked like a bulldozer had. We thought at the time it was waaaaay more work than we wanted to do.

Heh. We laugh at that naivety now.

Anyway, someone else bought the place and did a great job fixing up the place.


We met the current occupants, Dillon and Anne, while standing across the street from what was left of the fire last week, as the owners and occupants tried to salvage what was left of their belongings.

This one, with the plastic coverings on the window openings instead of glass, or for that matter, plywood, is now a very nicely redone home on Russell Street, just up a ways from the fire.

I think Ill go around and do a before-and-after photo shoot of these places, just for perspective. Some of these abandoned properties in 1980 are going for $300K+ now.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any old pics of our place yet, but I'm still looking.

Everyone who has seen our home when we first bought it, in the mess that it was in .... (remember the beginnings... check this out for 'perspective'.....LINK) and seen how much of our lives/our time/our money went into this place always asks us if we're planning on rehabbing another one, and if so, how soon.

My answer is likely, never.

We sacrificed a lot to rehab our home. We sacrificed our business and our health. Besides blown out knees, wrenched muscles, ruined backs... I don't want to even think about how many times I smacked my head into a low beam rafter, or when particularly unlucky, the nail sticking out of the low beam rafter. Or getting slammed upside the head when the hammer drill got jammed while cutting a hole in the joists to run electric lines through. That one hurt. Then there's stepping into holes, falling off of ladders, and hammering fingers.

And after all that, I love my home. We're still working on it, I've been finishing up the window sills on the second floor (just like the ones on the first, so no pics necessary) and I'll be cutting aprons this weekend. But to see it gutted by fire after getting so close, it would ruin me.

For those who have lost everything, you have my sympathy and my empathy.

I hope the insurance can help to remedy a quick recovery, and if anyone needs to borrow a chop saw, a ladder, a box of drywall screws. I have them, and you are welcome to them.

It's That Time of Year

Credit Maslowski Wildlife


It's fall and the birds are migrating. As such, we've had geese overhead every morning and afternoon now for a week or so. We've also had new visitors, a pair of White Crowned Sparrows. Add another species to the list. Pretty neat.

Fall is the time when a lot of folks start thinking about feeding the birds over the winter. It's a nice thing and can provide a lot of pleasure and entertainment. There are a few caveats, however. One is, keep an eye out for diseased birds. If you see any birds with eye infections, don't fill your feeder for a couple days and before you refill it, wash it well with a mild bleach solution. You don't want to be spreading diseases to the birds you're attracting to your feeder.

The next thing you need to be aware of is invasive species. I know that house sparrows are cute, but they are non-native. In point of fact, they displace other cavity-nesters. If you want to know why you've not seen a blue bird in a while, European house sparrows are the reason. They will take over the nest of any other bird and if necessary, kill it or any young in the cavity. Normally, this would be one of those unpleasant, but natural realities. The problem is, it's NOT natural.

House sparrows are not natural in this habitat. The birds that live here can't compete with this aggressive bird. If we allow them or encourage them to spread, we'll stand the risk of entirely losing some of our native species.

So, what to do? First, don't put out cheap bird food or bread. Sparrows love the millet and other filler grains/seeds and the other birds don't. Don't attract and specifically feed the sparrows. Use thistle seed and black oil sunflower. The sparrows will eat it, but they'd rather eat bread, corn, or millet. Secondly, consider initiating an a sparrow eradication program, if you can stomach it.

There's ample information on sparrows here

One other thing. If you decide on the eradication route, make very, very sure you can identify a house sparrow from all the other "little brown birds". A house sparrow looks a lot like the native bird above, especially the female. Other look-alikes are house finches and in some cases native song sparrows.

The first place to start is here.

After that, Cornell has a fantastic birding site. Here's the White Crowned Sparrow link, but you can use them for almost any bird identification.

Anyway, thanks to my sharp eyes and the native sparrow visitor, we have three additions to our urban back yard critter list. One is a red-headed woodpecker. The other is the European wall lizard (more on him, here.)




Credit Ohio DNR.







The list so far:

Canadian Geese
Mallard Ducks
Turkey Vultures
Red Tailed Hawk
Bats
White-footed Mice
Grey Squirrels
Opossum
Raccoon
Chickadees
Mourning Dove
Rock Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Robins
Junko's
Grackles
European Starlings (invasive)
English Sparrows (invasive)
Chimney Swifts
Blue Jay
Garter Snakes
Crows
Carolina Wren
Cardinals
Brown Thrasher
American Kestrel
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Mocking Bird
Tree Swallow
House Finch
Goldfinch
Great Blue Heron
Northern Flicker
Ruby-throated Humming Bird
Sharp-shinned Hawk (or perhaps a Cooper's Hawk)
Red-headed Woodpecker
European Wall (Lazarus) Lizards
White Crowned Sparrow

Tragedy in Seminary Square

COVINGTON - Moments away from being rescued, a 57-year-old woman tragically died in a large, fast-moving fire overnight in the 1000 block of Russell Street, a fire official said.

Covington Firefighter Dave Studer was within arm's reach of rescuing the woman as she hung out a second story window of a historic home holding four condos when fire broke out a window below, said Covington Fire Chief Mark Young. Flames raced up the wall and separated the two.

“It was tragic. She retreated back into the house away from the window,” Young said in a phone interview today. “The firefighter nearly fell off the ladder. We were unable to retrieve her at that time. Crews went ahead and started fighting the fire. Once they got the fire to a manageable means, it was too late. She had already perished from the smoke and the fire.”

Firefighters were able to rescue the woman’s husband and another woman, he said. Both suffered smoke inhalation. The man was treated and released at the scene. The woman was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital North as a precaution.

Their names were not released.

Studer was not injured, but a second firefighter who fell off a ladder suffered bruising, Young said.

It is the second fatal fire in the region in the past 24 hours. Early Monday, three men died in a house fire in Lebanon.

The cause of the 1:45 a.m. Covington blaze remains under investigation.

A damage estimate is not available, but all four units in the 1800s building were destroyed by fire and water damage, Young said. The fire caused small parts of the roof to collapse before flames finally burned it almost totally out, he said.

No smoke detectors were heard or found.

Several people were displaced. It’s not yet clear how many, the chief said. The American Red Cross has been called to the scene to help them find temporary lodging.

The fire burned for a while before it broke out windows, drawing the attention of a passerby who called 911, Young said. The man also went around the building, knocking on doors and waking residents.

“It’s unfortunate, these early morning fires go unnoticed until they gain enough momentum and break through the windows,” Young said. “By then it’s usually had a pretty good head start when somebody calls on it.”

When fire crews arrived, flames were shooting from the building and a man was standing on a patio roof waiting for rescue.

“He informed the crews his wife was still inside,” Young said.

Firefighters went around the back of the building and saw the 57-year-old woman hanging out a second-floor window.

“We were right there,” the chief said. “We could almost reach out and touch her. She was a larger woman and was having difficulty getting through the window. We were trying to get her out….It’s very tragic when these things happen. We always think in the back of our minds: ‘would we have done something different?’ In my judgment, we did everything we could. The fire had started pretty good and spread pretty rapidly.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We just got back from the fire scene, which is literally only one and a half blocks from our home.

Turn out we met the folks living on the South side of this building.

These four homes (some were rentals) are all connected and apparently the fire started in the second unit when they turned on the gas heat some time last night. The fire spread up into the attic, then spread to the other units.

The entire third floor is gone.

These folks on the end (Just Can't remember their names right now...) we met a few years ago before we bought our home. They were in the Covington Rehab- O-Rama tour. We visited their home and noted what a beauty of a job they'd done redoing the whole house. I remember the uber-cool lights they had over their kitchen island, and I hope they can salvage most of the work they've done.

It makes me want to cry seeing them try to salvage their furniture and artwork out on the front yard after all of the fire/smoke and water damage.

Our hearts are with you all.

Waiver of Jury Trial Rant

Ok, it's been a few years since Business Law, but I seem to remember a generalized statement of law that signifies that you can not sign away your rights, no matter what agreement you enter into and what ever contracts you sign, you CAN NOT sign away your legal rights.

Every citizen in the United States has the right to a jury trial. These are especially good if 1.) you are guilty of a crime and want to attempt to persuade a crop of your own folk to side with you on an emotional basis, or 2.) you are more like your peers than the other guy is.

In the case of PNC, it's more likely that YOU are more like a jury of your peers than a whole gaggle of corporate lawyers.

Believe it or not, some times those jury fellas just don't 'bond' with the high paid, high-pressure, Harvard types.

So, in order to put the pressure on all of us Provident Bank-->National City-->PNC Bank wussies, they're sending out a pamphlet that states that we somehow have already given our voluntary consent to waive our U.S. Constitutional rights to a trial by jury, one of our most fundamental civil rights.

How freaking creepy/wrong is that? I seriously hope all of the PNC customers understand that this is NOT legal and that they shouldn't allow PNC laywers to bully them into arbitration when and if real damages are caused by PNC.

Much like the ridiculous signs in the coat check area that state that they "Are not responsible for lost or damaged items" THEY ARE.

Just because someone has a sign up that says, "It aint my fault if I put a rock through your car window" doesn't mean they aren't. THEY ARE.

When you see a sign at the car repair facility that says "Not responsible for items left in the vehicle" when it's on THEIR LOT, guess what? THEY ARE.

If you sign a contract when you walk into a beauty parlor that says, "I won't sue you if I burn your scalp with harmful chemicals" and they actually burn your scalp with harmful chemicals... guess what? You can sue.

Tried and tested over and over again because business owners think they are protected when they hang up a sign that says "Nuh UH, don't blame me."

PNC: You have seriously lost my respect, and you may have lost my business.

Creepy wrongness, dudes.

Since my camera is kaput....

Here's some from someone else.
I call this one, "Bad place to put an electrical panel"




















And this one.... called "Bad placement of a wall heater"















And for Galt's sake, get some safety goggles!















Um.........