Obamacare

My brother had an interesting post the other day about why the Republicans are so desperate to make The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) a failure.  He does a good job explaining it, so I won't add anything to that discussion.  What I'm interested in talking about is the law itself - what it will do to people like me, and what it won't do.

When I first left my job at Lester Electrical in 2006, I bought a health insurance policy on my own.  The first year, it was a fairly straight-forward process - fill out a 6 page form, pay the money, and you're done.  About the only claim I made on it was when I tore a muscle in my leg climbing out of a ravine on the golf course (don't ask!).  I made a trip to the doctor, and they ran some tests to make sure I hadn't developed a blood clot.  No big deal, and in a month or two, I was back to normal - or as close to normal as I ever get.

Imagine my surprise when I attempted to renew my policy the next year!  I had about 10 phone calls asking about my accident - did I have a history of problems with my leg?  Was I still having problems?  Do I often tear muscles?  They didn't want to insure me, unless they excluded this type of injury.  Keep in mind, this was a one-time deal - kind of a freak accident.  After much discussion, they finally agreed to write me a policy, but it was a very near thing.  That opened my eyes - what do you suppose would have happened if I'd have been diagnosed with cancer or a heart condition?

Because of my experience with buying insurance, we added coverage for me on Theresa's group policy the following year - no questions about pre-existing conditions, no cancellation (unless, of course, you  lose your job).

Fast forward 6 years, and here we are - retired, one of us is disabled, and we both have pre-existing conditions that would make buying health insurance impossible or unaffordable.  Fortunately, Theresa's company has kept her on insurance for 6 months, so we have not yet had to deal with it.  That will end in November, leaving us only a month until most of the new health law kicks in on the first of January.

After January 1st, insurance companies are no longer allowed to refuse coverage or charge extra for pre-existing conditions - a huge issue for us.  In addition, the lifetime limits are gone, so you don't have to worry about a single catastrophic illness making you uninsurable.

There are a few other nice features about Obamacare - young people can more easily stay on their parent's insurance until they get on their feet, and most people will be required to buy insurance.  In addition, health policies must cover certain procedures - mainly preventative care and women's health screening.  Early reports indicate premiums are lower than expected, but we won't really know about that until early next year.  All-in-all, it's a nice, modest improvement that helps a lot of people have just a bit more security.  What is it not? It's NOT a "government takeover of health care".  It doesn't let the IRS determine your health care.  It's not the end of freedom in this country.  It's a nice, modest improvement.

Is the Affordable Care Act perfect?  Of course not.  It falls short of what I think needs to be done - a "single payer" system like that in almost every industrialized nation on Earth.  I hear conservatives bray about "our health care is the greatest in the world", and I agree - if you have unlimited funds.  If not, you may or may not get the care you need.  In this country, we spend more on health care than any other country, with only fair results.  We need true universal coverage.  Until we do, the Affordable Care Act is at least a step in the right direction.

The Heat - Movie Review

The weekend, we went to see the new Sandra Bullock - Melissa McCarthy movie, The Heat.  There's nothing new or ground breaking in this flick - it's a pretty standard "mis-matched buddy cop show".  Except it features two female cops, and McCarthy is totally over-the-top hilarious.

Bullock is the big star, of course, but in this film, she's the straight man to McCarthy's antics.  Her character, socially stunted FBI agent Ashburn, is uptight, unpopular, and very by the book.  McCarthy's Detective Mullins is the  polar opposite in every way - sloppy, crude, nasty - but a very effective cop.

It will come as no surprise that these two are forced to work together.  Naturally, there's a lot of conflict between the two, and eventually they bond and catch the bad guys.  If this description makes the movie sound very predictable, it should - you can know what's going to happen just by watching the trailer.  That doesn't make the movie bad - suspense isn't the point here.   It's plenty entertaining watching Bullock try to manage the foul-mouthed McCarthy, and the pratfalls and jokes are virtually non-stop.  I found myself laughing through the whole thing - from the opening to the final credits.

I'd talk about other performances, but there's not much to say.  The rest of the cast is fine, but no one really stands out.  McCarthy's on-screen family is funny, the bad guys are really slimy, and the cops are just kind of there.  The plot, such as it is, is fine, but this is not a plot-driven movie.  It's all about McCarthy, and she's just really funny in this one.

If you're looking for a fun, easy watching movie - and if you're not easily offended by bad language - check out The Heat.  It's certainly worth the price of a big bucket of popcorn!

Adding an Electrical Outlet

I've talked about making simple electrical repairs before, but this is a different case - if you need to add an additional outlet, there's a few other things you need to do to complete this task.

If you're inexperienced in working with electricity, take a few minutes to read my previous post.  Everything in there applies - you'll want to make sure you've killed the power before working on anything.  As always, if you're not comfortable doing the job yourself, consider asking for help from  some knowledgeable person, or hiring an electrician.

In my case, I needed to install an outlet next to the dryer which would provide power to charge a small battery-powered vacuum.  This was an easy project, since there was an existing outlet on the other side of the wall.  Regardless of where you're getting your power, the steps are the same:

• Make sure you've got your supplies.  At a minimum, you'll need a box, receptacle, wire, plate cover, and wire nuts.  Assuming you're installing the outlet in an existing wall, you'll want an "Old Work Box". 

This is a typical old work box

• Choose the outlet you're going to use for power.  Make sure it has adequate capacity, and that it is not controlled by a switch. 
• Plan how you're going to route the cable to your new outlet.  In my case, it was easy, since I was just going through the wall.  In some cases, it will be difficult or impossible to avoid running the wire on the surface of a wall - if that's true in your case, you'll need to enclose your wire or cable into conduit.
• Verify that the power is off at the outlet from which you're pulling the power.
• Remove the existing outlet.  Disconnect the wires, making note of which wires go to the brass (hot) side.  This should be the black wire, with the white wire going to the silver screws.  If it isn't correct, verify with your meter which wire is hot, and mark it with black electrical tape.
• Mark out the outline of your box in the desired location, making sure you'll miss studs, pipes, or electrical cables.
• Cut the hole in the drywall, using a hand saw or oscillating multi-tool.  Check to make sure the box fits the hole.
• Route your wire from the source to your new outlet hole.  In my case, it was easy to push the wire through.  If you have a long run, you may need to use a fish tape reel to route the wire.
• Connect your wires at the source - hot to black, neutral to white.  Connect a third small wire ("pigtail" about 6" long to each, to hook back up to the outlet you removed in the earlier step.
  
• Connect the old outlet (hot to brass screw, neutral to silver screw), and re-install it in the outlet box.
• Route the cable through your new box, and install it in the hole you cut in the wall.  Strip about 6" off the end of the cable jacket, and hook up the receptacle (once again, making sure you put the black, or hot, wire on the brass screw).
• Install the receptacle in the box, install the outlet covers, and turn the power on.  Check to make sure you've got power at both outlets, and you're done!

  

  Wire pulled through, ready for the outlet.

  
  

  

  All done!

This is an easy do-it-yourself job - the hard part is routing the wire.  If you've got power close, like I did, it takes only a few minutes.  After rounding up all the parts, this job took me about a half hour to complete.

My Busy Week

A few of weeks ago, I got called by a former client, who was ready to sell the home I'd sold them a few years before.  It's always gratifying to get a call like that - after all, if they didn't think I did a good job for them when they bought their house, they'd hardly call me to sell it, right?  To make it even better, they told me they had decided when they bought their home that they'd call me when they wanted to sell.

The odd thing about this call was, it was the THIRD call from a former client I received THAT Day!  That's right, three people who bought homes from between 2007 and 2009 called me on the same day.  I made arrangements with each of them to go look at their house and give them advice on pricing, as well as how best to market their home. As it turns out, all of them needed a bit of time to get their house ready for market - they all worked like crazy over the weekend, and I listed all three last Monday.

The Lincoln real estate market is strong right now - there is a shortage of quality listings on the market, and buyers are active.  By Friday night, all three of my new listings were sold, and one of my sellers had already written up a contract on a new home.  A second seller is still looking, but will probably buy a home in the next week or two.  In addition, I sold two lots, which will turn into a pair of town homes (one of which is already sold!), and listed another new construction town home that is just getting started.  All in all, my week was one of the best - and busiest - since I started selling real estate.

I know I'll never be this busy all the time - and who would want to?  I don't mind working late when I need to, but I certainly don't want to do that every day.  When it happens once in a while, it's great fun.  Now, I'm taking a week off.  I don't need to feel guilty - I got enough done this week!

"They're Not Gonna Catch Him!"

The Spring Game was last Saturday.  The Huskers, as usual, have some talent - they won't win the national championship, but they'll have a decent team, I suspect.  Often, one or two relatively unknown player will step up and be the star of the intra-squad scrimmage, and it happened in a big way last weekend!

Jack Hoffman didn't play until late in the game.  On 4th down, he carried for the first - and probably last - time as a Husker.  The result was incredible.  Even if you're not interested in football, check out the video clip.  I suspect you'll be impressed with Jack, as well as the rest of the team.

Jack, by the way, is a 7 year old pediatric brain cancer patient.  He was befriended by former Husker running back Rex Burkhead, and has become close to a number of players on the team, and one of the players came up with the idea to put him in the game.  With this run, he goes into the record books as the leading rusher in the spring game, and his touchdown gave the Red team the win in the annual scrimmage that marks the end of spring practice.  I love the play by play guys calling the play ("He's got another gear!"), and it's quite touching to see all the players gathering around Jack.

One way to look at this is that this game doesn't count - it's just a practice, after all.  As I said before, often players will look like stars in this game, only to fall back into obscurity by fall.  In this case, I think this game does count.  This play may not mean much to football fans across the country, but it meant a lot to one little boy.  Twenty years from now, no one will remember who scored first in this spring game.  I bet we'll all remember who scored last.

Blown Away

Many years ago, I owned several guns - a couple of shotguns and a .22 rifle.  I didn't hunt or shoot a lot, but on occasion I'd get out and use them a bit.  My father had a .22 pistol that I had fired a few times, but I've never owned a hand gun.

After having kids, my hunting and shooting got put on the back burner - I didn't fire a gun for over 25 years.  My guns were sitting dusty and rusting in the closet, so I eventually just got rid of them.

A week or so ago, we were out to dinner with my son and daughter-in-law, and they mentioned that there was a new indoor shooting range that had opened in Lincoln.  When they said they were planning to go, Theresa said, "I'd love to go shoot a gun!"  Once I got over the shock, I reluctantly agreed to go and give it a shot (pun intended).

BigShots Indoor Range is a nice place, located just off of West O Street in Lincoln.  The owners are very friendly, and they seem to be quite safety-conscious.  Since we hadn't been to their range (or, in Theresa and my case, any range) we were required to view a short video on gun safety before we could shoot.  Although they are experienced shooters, Matthew and Mitzi also had to watch the video.  The woman who set this up - "Terry" - was nice, and didn't look down on the neophytes in our group.

Theresa and I don't own a gun, but Matthew and Mitzi have a .357 Magnum revolver, and some very nice friends of theirs (Joe and Audra) let us borrow a .22 pistol.  BigShots has rental guns, but you must have a county handgun purchase permit to rent.  If you don't have a record, the permit is easy to get - it costs $5.

We rented hearing and eye protection (required), and went to the range.

If you go, the first thing you'll notice is that some guns are LOUD!  Some guy was shooting something about the size of a bazooka - we all jumped about a foot off the ground the first time it went off.  Standing in the booth next to it, you could feel the concussion every time he fired.  The .357 was fairly loud as well, making the .22 sound like a cap gun in comparison.  Joe gave us some instruction on how to safely operate his .22 semi-automatic pistol, and Theresa blazed away.

The targets at the range are on a track, and can be moved to any distance desired.  I'm not sure of the maximum distance, but it's enough that most of us wouldn't be able to hit the target at that range.  We were typically shooting at targets in the 5 to 10 yard range.  Surprisingly, both Theresa and I were able to group shots within about a 6 inch range at these relatively short distances.  Not surprisingly, the .22 was much easier to shoot accurately, although both Theresa and I were OK with the .357.  After a bit of practice, I improved quite a bit with the .22. Matthew and Mitzi were, of course,  better.  John and Audra were quite good, from my perspective - Audra had some really great groupings with the bigger gun.

All in all, it was a lot of fun.  Friday nights are "Date Night", so the range fee was $20 for the two of us.  While ammunition for larger caliber guns is expensive, .22 ammo is still relatively cheap, so, if you own a gun, this isn't the most expensive night out you can imagine.  Gun rental would add a bit to that, but it's still affordable.

A couple of weeks ago, I'd have told you I'd never fire a gun again.  I'd also have been pretty sure I'd never own a hand gun.  Even more surprising, Theresa had a great time!  After going to the range, I find myself thinking about buying a pistol, and making the range a more or less regular outing. 

Our Tile Job - or Why I'm Never Getting on My Knees Again

When we moved into our new home, we had a lot of work done.  The thing we didn't change at that time was the flooring in the kitchen and dining room.  The previous owners had installed laminate flooring - an inexpensive material typically made of fiber board, with the appearance of wood.  Although there are some relatively high quality laminates available, much of it is cheap.  Our floor was not the good stuff, but it looked OK, and we thought we could live with it for a while.  As it turns out, "a while" was about 6 months!

This was our floor before we did any work.  As you can see, it looks nice at first glance.

Laminate floors are "floating" - meaning they are not attached to the sub floor.  They typically have an underlayment of foam, so there's a good deal of give when you walk on them.  We didn't care for the feel of it, and really didn't like the sound the dogs made when they walked on it - kind of a hollow, clicking sound.  In addition, since it's not attached, some of the seams had a tendency to separate, leaving 1/8" gaps at some of the seams.

Laminate floors can be extremely durable - they'll likely last longer than a wood finish under heavy traffic - but most don't handle moisture well.  We had a small leak in the kitchen, causing the floor to swell and warp unacceptably, so we had to make  some repairs, even if we didn't replace the whole floor.

 Since we didn't like the floor anyway, we decided to pull it up and replace it with tile.  We choose tile for durability and ease of maintenance reasons, after thinking seriously about a wood floor.  In the end, I think we made a good decision.

The first step was to pull up the old flooring, down to the sub floor.  Laminate floor is easy to remove - just remove the base trim in the room, and start at one end.  The pieces are about 3' long, and 6 or 8 inches wide.  There's a locking tongue that fits a matching groove along the edge of each piece, so once you get the first section out, the rest comes apart easily.  If you're careful, you can do it without damaging the pieces.  In our case, we weren't going to reuse them anyway, so I just ripped it out, along with the pad underlayment.

The black layer is the underlayment pad - it's just stapled to the OSB sub floor.



All the old flooring is removed, down to the sub floor.

If you're installing tile, you need to make sure your structure is adequate for the load.  Generally speaking, you'll want to make sure your floor joists are rigid enough, and that your sub floor is strong enough to limit the deflection to an acceptable level.  If you have 2 X 10 floor joists  on 16" centers with a span of less than 12 feet or so, you're probably OK.  If you're not sure, use the "Deflectometer" on the John Bridge Tile Forum.  If your joists are OK, you may still need to add to the sub floor.  In our case, we had 3/4" OSB, which is adequate for the type of tile we were installing.

Regardless of your sub floor, you'll probably need to put something down before you lay your tile.  Traditionally, tile is installed on top of cement board which has been set in a bed of thin set mortar and screwed to the sub floor.  This cement board serves to give a good surface to which the tile can adhere, as well as to isolate the tile against some movement in the substrate.  In our case, I decided to use a newer product, an isolation membrane called Ditra.  This orange membrane is flexible, with a waffle pattern that holds mortar.  Ditra is more expensive than traditional cement board, but is thinner, allowing your finished floor to be closer to the height of carpet.  It is also reported to be a better solution to some types of movement in the sub floor.  My main purpose in using it was to minimize height, so the base trim would be in approximately the same spot as before.

If you use Ditra, read the instructions.  You must use a "Modified" thin set mortar to install the membrane to a wood sub floor, and an "Unmodified" mortar to attache the tiles to the top of the membrane.  If you're installing on a concrete slab, make sure to read the instructions and do it right.

To install the Ditra membrane, mix the mortar a little thinner than you do to set tile.  Think "Milkshake" for the membrane, "Peanut Butter" for the tile.  You spread your mortar on the floor using a small notched trowel (they sell one specifically for the job), then press the membrane into it.  I used a roller designed for installing vinyl sheet flooring to roll it out, squeezing excess out of the edges.  I soon discovered it was much easier to handle it in smaller (5'-6') pieces, rather than trying to go across the room in one shot.

The orange Ditra only adds about 1/8" to the height of the floor.  Kodak isn't convinced he likes this floor yet!

Once the Ditra is installed, you're ready to start laying tile.  Note Carter is starting near the center of a room.

You should do a little planning before you start to lay tile.  Since you don't want to end up with a tiny sliver at one end, lay it out so you have about a half tile at each end.  Starting in the center of the room gives you a little more leeway, so getting a little crooked isn't so noticeable.  In our case, we had to start at the edge of the kitchen, then work around the room so we weren't trapped in there.  Once that was done, we could just work our way to the far end of the room.

Note the pattern - we used 6" and 12" tile.  The spacers between tiles help to keep the grout lines straight (although with this pattern, it's hard to see if one's a little crooked!

The kitchen is about done - after grouting, we'll be able to move the appliances back in.

Lizzie and Carter came to help, so, as usual, Carter laid all the tile (actually, Liz did a few of them).  I put down most of the Ditra, and cut tile, while Liz helped on both tasks.  A big job like this is much easier with two, and three is even better.  In our case, we also had 4 dogs in the house, so one of us frequently had to deal with canine issues.

We had a cheerful crew working on the job, at least at the beginning!

Not everyone was working - Alex had a pretty good view of the project.

I really liked the pattern, but it added quite a bit of labor to the job.  Although the total square footage of this job was only a little more than what we did in our lake project, this was a lot tougher job.  Not only did we - meaning Carter - have to deal with the pattern, we also had many more nooks and crannies to tile, so there was a lot more measuring and cutting involved.  Also, unlike at the lake, we had to move furniture and appliances around, as well as deal with a whole pack of dogs!  In any case, eventually the tile was down.

Once the tile had a chance to set, we were ready for grout.  Applying the grout isn't rocket science, but it's hard work.  Just as hard is washing it down afterword - you're on your knees, wiping and scrubbing like crazy.  Fortunately, Liz and Carter were in better shape than I was, so they were able to finish this job when my arms, back, and knees gave out.

We grouted the kitchen before finishing the tile in the other room so we could move the appliances back in.

I really like the pattern - it adds to the look of the floor.

The tile is still damp from washing - it's not this high gloss when dry.

Carter's knees must be sore - she's bending over to clean this section.

All clean!

This is how it looks when dry!

Ready to re-install the trim.

Once the tile was done, all that was left was to re-install the base trim.  Since the floor was a little higher than the old one, I trimmed about 1/4" from the bottom of each piece on my table saw before nailing it back on.

After working on a couple of tile jobs, I can tell you it's not something I'd want to do for a living.  Everything is heavy, and you spend all day kneeling and bending over - I suppose a person might get used to it, but who would want to?  On the bright side, the entire project cost under $2,000 - a much smaller number than you could expect if you hired it done.  I might tackle a very small tile job myself, but I'd never want to do this alone - Carter and Liz were very much appreciated!  If you decide to do this kind of job yourself, try to get someone with experience to guide the job.

In any case, we now have a great new floor - a big improvement to our home!