Progress on the *Other* Abandoned Project

Astute readers of this blog know in conjunction with the bathroom remodel, I started a modest project to set up a wired home network, mostly in the basement.

As with the bathroom, it got abandoned. But today after I had to stop laying tile because it wasn't going to stick to the wall if I piled any more on top, I got back to that project and actually got the last of the cat6 wire strung through the ceiling.

The one neat hole in the ceiling is for a can light I've got to replace the mess of a light that's on the wall. I don't know why they made that choice to begin with, except for maybe the can lights of the 1980s were pretty massive. The one I'm putting in is an LED and is pretty compact.

I did make a bit of a mess:

I'm not a complete noob, though. After I got the wire strung, I got out the vacuum and really cleaned things up, including the study which was turning into a dust bunny haven.

It Was Nice While it Lasted, Work from Home

When work ended Thursday, I shut off my work computer.

It's been a while since it's been shut off. I do restart it regularly so it can install updates, but it's rarely completely shut down.

I had to, though. Work from home ended this week.

Today, I hauled all my stuff to my new cubicle.

This is the only stuff I can show you; two monitors and a box of paper for the recycling bins (I used to be able to haul it to a local recycing dropoff, but the big recycling outfit in town shut it down*, so I've just been storing it, like urine on Apollo 13).

I just dropped stuff off at the cubicle; I didn't stay to set things up. I'm not getting paid for this trip, so I wanted to make it as quick as possible. Shouldn't take too long to set up on Monday.

That leaves my home work space looking empty and dusty:

I think what irritates me the most about this is the work I've put in this spring and summer on a wired home network -- I had to have a wired connection for the work computer; no wifi for it -- is kind of moot. I'm still going to finish it because by golly I spent a lot of time running cat6 cable so I'm not going to waste the effort. Besides, I like the faser speed I get on my own computer having a wired connection.

One bright spot: I've converted the work space into an actual space for my own work, plus one of the many "to be read" book piles and my Atari.

I'd still rather be working from home, but c'est la vie.

They suggested by omission that I could leave the dual monitors and the laptop dock at home for . . . I don't know what, because they really killed hybrid work but pulled the plug on full-time work from home to make those losing the hybrid option feel less bad about the situation. I figured, though, since I have my own storage problems with my own personal extra monitors and other electronics, I was not going to offer free storage for company equipment despite the vaguely-dangled carrot of occasional home use. It wasn't said explicitly, so I'm not expecting it.

One thing is true: I worked many days from home when I wasn't necessarily feeling well, but could continue working as long as I had quick and private access to a bathroom. Now that I have to drive across town -- still better than catching the bus out to the desert, mind you -- if I happen to wake up sick, I will be taking more sick days. One of the intangible benefits companies get from work from home employees that you just don't hear about.

*They also shut down their own shop, saying they're building new digs and have been really catty about where it is and when it's going to open. I suspect they hope to increase their curbside recycling customer base through devious means. Not going to work on me.

Network Switch Operational

 

A few sparks, a quick whiff of ozone, and the network switch blazed forth in unparalleled glory.

So that didn't happen, of course. But finally after a few months of tinkering I officially have two devices connected to the network switch I got for Christmas. I still have wiring to conceal to two rooms, and wiring to extend out to the solar control box, but I'm well on my way to having that job done. I'll have to poke more holes in the walls and ceilings to finish, and I'm not going to do that until I have the basement bathroom done.

But work in the bathroom, including stringing some more ethernet cable and expanding a receptacle box in the study in the wall it shares with the bathroom are done, so I'm that much closer.

Why do all this? I dunno. I think it's neat. And sometimes there's more competition for wireless bandwidth than I'd like to deal with in the study.

There are probably more elegant ways to do this, but having done what I've done mostly on my own, and with a little help from YouTube, is a good feeling.

THE NEW CHORE LIST IS HERE!

Spring is here (well, by the calendar, not necessarily by the weather) so that means the chore list I typed and saved last fall is now printed out with EXCITING cross-outs on it as I did complete some of the indoor chores during the winter.

Bathroom isn't as far along as I'd hoped it would be, because of the whole toilet flange thing, but nevertheless progress was made. Hoping we can pick out additional tile for the tub and backsplash this weekend between Conference sessions.

I've also made a lot of progress on the work connected to the "ethernet switch," except I haven't got the wire from the upstairs router to the basement in the walls yet. That'll be a bigger job that I just haven't tackled yet. And it'll be all done just in time for me to have to go back to the office this summer.

Wire Twiddling

Work on the home network continues, though I'm kinda doing it backwards. I still don't have a concealed connection from the router upstairs to the network switch in the basement, but I do have a lot of concealed connections from various spots in the basement to the spot where the network switch will go.

I want to do it that way so I've only got one portion of the house torn up at a time, and given the networking is part of a bathroom remodel, that's taking a bit longer than I anticipated. But I am making progress. That progress includes things like this:

I think I mentioned I got a set of ethernet wiring tools for Christmas. I've spent parts of the last few weeks making eithernet wiring connections, and it's not as easy as it looks. The night before daylight saving kicked in, I was up until 1 am practising. Using the recommended method, I was not very good. Wires kept getting crossed. But I figured out if I put the itty-bitty wires into the connector one at a time, I got it right every time. It takes a bit longer, granted, but my failure rate fell to near zero.

That's a Lotta Holes, Son

So more than a year ago I bought a coil of ethernet cable for some random projects around the house, the biggest being stringing some wire from our solar power controller on the north side of the house to where our router is on the south side of the house.

I was rearranging some things in the study today and decided today was the day.

And man do I suck at snaking wire.

I had hoped to use some speaker wire that was in the ceiling already to pull the new cable through, but that wire was really stuck. So I went to the old standby, poking holes in the walls so I could fish the cable through.

I did succeed in getting the wire mostly snaked -- I have to finish by getting it from the pantry into the crawlspace under the bathroom and then out the side of the house toward the power controller. Then I have to actually get the solar power company to come and connect the cabling, since I'm not allowed to poke the innards of the device.

 

Too Much Stuff to Do

Books. So many books. But I can say that the books I want to have in the basement are now officially in the basement, if not yet put away properly.

I was a little worried about the bedroom being bereft of books, but thanks to a baker's dozen plus one of bookends I ordered this week, I moved my "to be read" pile from the basement to the nighstand by the bed, which is where I get to do most of my reading.

As I feared, there's not enough room on the bookcase I intended for my comic books, so I'll have to figure something out.

Then there's the bottom shelf in the closet, still needing to be sorted out. No idea what I'm going to do with all that suff, and I can't toss it, as most of it is not mine.

Therein lies another problem: Three cases of CDs I have to figure out where to put. I still have the custom shelves I built for them, but there's only one wall in the study I could put it on, and right now it's blocked by that filing cabinet in the photo above. But I'm closing in on it.

After things are stowed, they may get unstowed for a bit. I have a home network I want to start wiring, and the network switch is going to go in this room somewhere. It has to have power. Not sure yet how I'm going to do that.

And I have the bathroom next door to remodel. Michelle's been patient, but she's been waiting on that a long time. So the home network may be delayed a bit, though I may sling some cable in the shared wall  as I'm doing bathroom things.