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well, I’m sitting here on a Saturday morning having already accomplished a good bit this weekend so far. We replaced the kitchen faucet, replaced all of the cabinet hardware in the kitchen cabinets and hall bathroom cabinets and have pulled up half of the kitchen/dinning area/front entrance tile. The tile covers an area of about 350 sq feet so it is a good bit to pull up. Going to try to pull up the rest today. The biggest challenge is to get the thinset up. It is REALLY difficult. I rented a tile shark to pull up the tile (works really good) but the thinset is at one with the concrete floor. I think I’m looking at renting a floor grinder or something to pull that up. Once that is done, then I’m paying someone to lay probably a glue down manufactured hard wood.

And now, an open statement to my builder, tile contractors, and homeowners everywhere:

Do you want to save yourself, homeowners and people in general a lot of grief? Do you want to make someone’s life a little better? Do you want to bring a smile to someone today? Then take this little advice. You ready? Here goes. IF you happen to be building a home or own a home that is on a concrete slab, if you are EVEN considering putting down tile on said concrete slab, then WHATEVER you do….put SOME sort of backer board, membrane, etc. on BETWEEN the concrete and thinset. This will make for happier moments for everyone involved.

Sincerely,
aj

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….think it might be time for a new look to the blog. Gonna scope out some new designs. Got some ideas for a few features, too. If you see some weird things going on…well, weirder than normal…just ignore it

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Was reading through some blogs last night and came across Perry’s latest post. You know football season is near when the smack talkin’ begins (see the end of his post). I love this time of the year. You see the high school teams starting up two-a-day practices and colleges starting the same. Were inching closer to just a month away from the start of football season!!! Woo HOO

So, being that I’m a die hard Georgia fan, I wanted to address the smack! Now, I’ll admit it….Clemson has a fairly easy path to not only a possible ACC championship, but also a shot at the National Championship. Their schedule sets up nicely for them and they return some serious talent, especially in the backfield. But do you really want to talk smack about UGA? I mean aren’t you suppose to win a conference championship before you can even “dream” about a National Championship (Clemson hasn’t won their conference since FSU joined in like 1990, UGA has played for 3 conference championships in the past six years and won 2 of them). Aren’t you suppose to be used to 10-win seasons before you look beyond to the post season at a National Championship (Clemson’s last ten win season….1990, UGA has had 5 10-win seasons out of the last six years)? Why no love for the UGA? Maybe he’s old enough (like me) to remember the good ole fashioned hate that existed between the two schools in the early eighties when UGA would play Clemson with the national title shot on the line. Maybe it’s because the last six meetings between UGA and Clemson have resulted in a UGA win, including a shut out of 30-0 win in Death Valley in 2003 (that was a fun day…was there…was incredibly hot but very fun).

I’m just sayin….

Let the smack begin!!!

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….thinset concrete 1, AJ 0

So, our kitchen floor is ceramic tile in thinset on a concrete slab. Now, the correct process would have been to have attached the ceramic tile to a cement backer board or some sort of membrane instead of directly onto the concrete slab. Why that didn’t happen when the house was built is another post for another day

The result of the former are two distinct cracks in the ceramic tile where the foundation settled. So, this weekend, I began the process of pulling up some tile with a heavy duty hammer and chisel. I was able to rip up about 9 tiles with relative ease. The thinset under it?…..wasn’t budging. Looks like I’m headed for renting a powered chipping hammer to get it all up. I’ll have some photos of the process so you can see the start and finish. Planning on putting down some sort of floating floor….maybe a Pergo-type.

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Kim and I went to see the Dark Knight Friday night and wow….what a flick! Heath Ledger nailed the joker. Having to follow Jack Nicholson would be the last job I would want but with Ledger, he brought the kind of insanity that was more real vs. caricature. Definitely a must see for super hero fans.

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Wanted to give a quick shout out to the man that discipled me….back when I was a punk…okay, back when I was younger punk From the time that I was in 7th grade through college, through all the junk that I went through, Tom was a constant Godly influence in my life. He discipled me. For that….I am more than eternally grateful. What an incredible gift I was given. Well, he’s finally blogging so I thought I’d give a little “whoop, whoop” to my man tom…check him out.

Tom’s Blog

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You can’t have a revival until you have a funeral.

“…and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:38-39

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We’re at home today, chillin, grillin and…okay, can’t think of another illin’ word but we’ll also be contributing to the noise pollution in Aiken with some serious fireworks in front of my house. Hope you have a great day celebrating the freedom we have because of those that gave it all. Thank you, God, for this country.

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wanna test just how fast your internet service is? checkout Speedtest.com You can see how fast your upstream and downstream is.

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One thing I’ve noticed about worry and stress is that it robs vision. I believe that God wants dreamers. Not saying that we should walk around daydreaming all the time, but I do think that dreaming is a valuable way to spend SOME time just dreaming. This weekend I was relaxed, just chillin in our pool (don’t be impressed…it’s an 18′ x 38″ pool with the inflatable ring around it…but we love it in summer time), on a float, looking up at the sky and “BAM”…..had a couple of ideas hit me that were really strong. Can’t share what they are right now, but they are the kind of ideas that you seriously pray about, and I am praying about. I must confess, there have been some things on the mind that I’ve been stressing and worrying about way too much…things that I constantly had to take back to God and say “You got this thing, Lord.” Not only does worry kill vision, it affects my relationship with God and my fam bigtime. At some point, whatever you’re going through, if you’ve done all that you can “to stand. Stand firm then…” Ephesians 6:13-14 Trust God that He is not only your protection, He is your provision, your source, your sustainer, your commander. He’ll lead the way through the things that we tend to worry so much about. Anyway, hope you find that place today where you stand in Him and lay the worry down.

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