Naive about house reconstruction here, but if they started working on Julay Manor tomorrow, what would be the estimated time of completion, at least to make it basically habitable again?
That's the truly stupid thing about all this. If they'd started immediately after the fire, stripped the place out and dumpstered
everything, then got down to seriously rebuilding, they could have been moving back in this August (barring any unforeseen hiccups). If they'd bulldozed it and dropped a manufactured home on the lot they could have been back at 14BLC already. But instead they decided to screw around for months on end rescuing treasures from the hoard and doing fuck if I know what, so now, six months after the fire, they are
still 6-9 months away from completion, and that's being optimistic.
Bernie Wrightson was admitted to the hospital on Monday after suffering a series of small strokes.
Well fuck. And Bernie's not that old. I've seen some amazing recoveries from strokes, so I really hope he's one of them.
Also Captain Sternn is one of the best characters ever.
Also meanwhile the true and honest original creator of Sonichu sails on obliviously untouched; seemingly impervious to fire and flood (just to put this line of conversation sort of back on topic). There ain't no justice.
Never underestimate the ability of old white trash to keep going. The mean old lady is a trope for a reason.
Unfortunately,
☝this as well. Barb also will likely persist forever like crabgrass.
It seems that the greenhouse was made by Rubbermaid and may have been a Sam's Club (the Walmart version of Costco) exclusive, which sounded about right to me. It's apparently no longer being manufactured, and damn, 'cuz I was diggin' it.
I think they still make an optional greenhouse sidewall for their plastic sheds, but I'm not certain. Of course we all know where there's one available used in Virginia, but you'll have to act fast to get it before it's occupied.
It would have been an honor to chill with the Lumberjack in his plastic greenhouse and spin some old Bix Beiderbecke discs.
The loss of Bob's vinyl is probably the true tragedy of the 14BLC fire. Maybe I'm weird, but I think of records like books; some things should be preserved for their own sake. Especially in this brave new world of digital data ephemera.
And what is it with those popcorn tins and your mom?!-- fuck, I swear mine has like nine of those things and uses them for fucking nothing. (We slowly eliminate them when she isn't looking.)
Iknowrite? They're like milk crates and college students.
Also, it looks like Ivy has finally triumphed as is creeping into the house. I would seriously look into digging that shit out of the siding, it is notorious for happily tearing up your masonry and shingles.
I think that ivy infiltration pic is from that weird four season porch structure tacked onto the back of the building, and so I'm not at all confident about how well made that was to begin with. But yeah, eventually ivy is going to devastate that property if neglected long enough (and we all know it will be). It could be worse, though: Virginia is in the kudzu belt.
As long as Barb is alive, they'll survive.
True, but a wide range of living conditions fall under "survive".
I think right now is probably a good time for establishing sleeper field agents within the various trailer parks around Ruckersville. Assuming we haven't already…
Why's there a pile of trash on the ground when there's a perfectly good dumpster? It's like the workmen have been told not to throw trash out, only drywall/bits of wood.
That may be the local landfill requiring that. Some places require things like construction waste be separated from household barbage. That's normally not much of an issue as the houshold trash has to be removed first before you can even get to the walls, so it sort of naturally gets separated into the first loads. But not at 14BLC where the barbage just seems to linger. What gets me is it looks like that dumpster was more full of construction waste, but some of it at the front has been shoveled out again. Usually these things get hauled away full and replaced by an empty one, but that's the same dumpster that's been there from day one, being successively filled and then emptied. Which is weird, but not the weirdest thing about this jobsite.
It's funny you should mention the popcorn tins, I remember that's what my grandma always gave to the adults during Christmas. Nobody liked the popcorn; It was in fact always really gross but what can be expected from a tin of popcorn. We just used them as mini wastebins.
I've gotten my hands on a few, but I used them all For Science! Punch holes in the top and at the bottom of the side, fill them up with natural gas (NOT propane!) and then light the hole on the top… and wait. Or punch a single small hole in the lid, boil a little water in it on the grill, then quickly toss it in the kiddy pool full of water… and wait. Great fun for the kids on the fourth.
At least you used them for something! People gave these horrific things to my mom --- ah, now that I think about it they probably came from her kids, she taught first grade
Where do people even get them from? I don't think I've ever seen them in stores. Most of mine just sort of turned up empty. I'm not certain they all contained popcorn, either. I think one was labeled as containing danish butter cookies (made in china). Imagine that: three gallons of stale chinese made danish butter cookies. I think the popcorn would have been preferable; at least you can use it as packing material.
Charb sharing a trailer together. Now, there's some nightmare fuel.
Nightmare fuel or not, at this point it may well be the best case scenario.
Is this to say there's a chance they may shack up with relatives?
Not if those relatives have any say in the matter, I would think.
Chris and Barb will probably find some squalid way to carry on, but I expect the hoard to suffer serious depletion in the coming months, making all their effort to save it (not to mention fill it out with legos) since the fire an even more meaningless pursuit. They won't have any place to put it all.