Here we are tonight

https://panoraven.com/slider/roVnj8QoVf

That's living boy!

Hey V, about how many pics does it take to make a pano like that?

I'll have to count... Be right back.

No biggie. I thought you might know off the top of your head.

Thirty-six individual pictures comprise one 360 panorama. The Pixel I have does most of the work. I hold the camera upright and level and press the start button. It gives me a white dot to encircle with a ring on the screen. There are five horizontal bands of these dots. Twelve around the equator, three at each pole and nine around each band between the equator and the pole. 3+9+12+9+3=36.

The camera takes the picture when I encircle the dot, I don't have to press any buttons. As you get closer to the dot you're moving toward, the dot turns blue. When you have it centered in the ring the dot disappears and the picture of that angle appears. At the end of all the pictures, it beeps and starts stitching them together in the background, leaving the camera free for more pictures.

I usually need a second to recover after spinning around five times in place while looking at my phone.

It's a panorama now, but it takes special software to view it. The phone has it built in, and so does Google photos through a browser. To share it out with you guys, I found panoraven, which you've all seen by now. I use the free version.

For example, I took this one to count the pictures and to show you the recent progress. Twil bought a table and chairs so we have a place to sit and eat and drink. The deck feels like it is filling up. The black mat is where the new grill will go. And the lights are really pretty down low like this, but I can and do touch them with my head as I walk around. They'll definitely have to be raised up into the trusses. The pattern's good though we might have to set them back a bit more from the edge of the tub.

Another point about the panoramas. The computer doing the stitching presumes you've rotated the camera about the sensor. Good fuckin luck buddy. They make special ball head tripods that do
this... I'm doing these freehand. This kind of subject the deck the trusses all those straight lines are especially unforgiving in the these panos.

Thanks, Big V.

Your description of the process for taking the pics is almost the same as my old camera taking standard panos. Only I line up a plus sign inside a hollow plus sign, the cam takes the pic automatically, and I line the plusses up for the next in the two or three shot series. That camera, a FujiFilm FinePix S3280, took pretty good panoramas.

Trying to remember the dog's name...Is it Jack, or is Jack no longer with us? I ferget.

Jack's his name. He's in a sunny spot in the yard, topped by a halo of blue hyacinths.

ETA...

Jack died awhile ago, but Andy, the Reluctant Outdoor Dog, he's still kickin. He's in some of the recent pics.

Today the electrician comes to upgrade our electrical service.

I'm told this will be a two day process. Originally, day one would have been used to switch meter bases and electrical panels. Plan was to have the power company cut power to the house to make the switch to the new meter safe to do. Turns out, the power company doesn't do courtesy cutoffs/reconnects like this on the weekend.

So the new day one will be *me* crawling under the house in the crawlspace to drag the pair of four conductor (probably AWG 4) cables from the entrance to the crawlspace which is next to the deck under the house to the opposite side of the house where the electrical service, meter, and panel are now. I imagine some kind of hole through the floor and wall will be needed, once located, to run the cable up to where the new panel will be installed. I think there will also be a new panel installed today, but only the new circuit connected to it. Then, back out on the deck, the hot tub sub panel (provided by the hot tub company with two GFCI breakers in it, one 30 amp, one 20 amp) will be installed and connected to one set of four conductors for a dedicated circuit.

The other circuit will have its own sub panel and be available for a one of more accessory circuits on the deck, lights, etc. The rest of the 230v circuit will end in a "stub" for further expansion, notably the workshop to be built beyond the garage.

The electrician and I have agreed to let me help on the job in return for a reduction on the bill, basically, he'll pay me what he'd pay any other helper and subtract my "wage" from the bill. I'd be up in his stuff all day anyhow, might as well get paid.

Now crawling under the house is the least attractive part of this proposition and I might have to subcontract this task to one of the kid's skinny friends. We'll see. And you'll see, I already have pics of the torn out wall, ready for its close-up.

Fun, fun, fun! Do good and maybe he'll hire you for other jobs, you know, the dangerous/dirty ones he won't do. :haha:

When I was replacing my old 60 amp fuse panel with a 100 amp breaker panel I had a small generator for light to see what I was doing. Half way through the motor threw a rod. Sure is dark in here. :facepalm:

Unusual for a guy to let you work for him. You'll learn about it too, which is even better.

If I was an electrician, I would be happy to let homeowners help, but I would charge extra, not less.

Charge by the hour, let him help, if he slows you down he pays more.

You're right!
You're right, too!
You're smart and right.
There's a certain logic here, but it doesn't lead directly to soaking in the damn tub...

corrected.

Let's get started!

First step, open the crawlspace and get in there.

Oh shit.

Attachment 67769


What the ever-flowing fucking fuck?? There is a Lake. of. Shit. under the house???

Stunned. Gutted. Had the shit knocked out of me (which collected in a pool under the house directly at the entrance to the crawlspace). Go on, laugh. All other options are worse.

In this picture, taken a few minutes later, you can see the source of the problem. I have an opening on my main drain, a couple feet from the tub and the toilet and the sink and the main stack from the upstairs bathroom. That big, dark empty circle? That's what the inside of a drainpipe looks like. And if you can see in, water can get out.

Attachment 67770


A keen observer of the first two pictures would have noticed a straight line pointing toward the opening in the drain. I wonder what it points to in the other direction?

Attachment 67771


Did I says source earlier? I was wrong, that's one source, here's the other. This is the drain from the kitchen, the sink and the dishwasher. Another gaping, gushing black hole. It's uphill from the lake, that's why the put lakes where they put them, duh. I need to get into this "area". What the fuck am I gonna do?

Attachment 67772


That straight line is a two inch copper pipe that has FALLEN OUT of its installation between the two fittings at the kitchen and the main drain. How does that happen? I honestly don't know. It doesn't appear to have been soldered in, which is ok, since I will have a clean pipe end and clean (and I use the term mechanically, because, gross) fitting to work with when I reinstall it today.

I'll make another set of pics and notes, probably another thread for this surprise DIY Plumbing Emergency Repair. Meanwhile, if any of you guys have a clue how that pipe fell out, speak up. JFC.

Maybe the weight of the spider webs pulled it down.

I know, not helping.

At least you know about the problem now. I would have thought that there would be an aroma from the drain, if not the sound of water splashing from the sink drain.

YMMV

Some DIYers will leave a loose connection, perhaps just banded together with a collet, and the connector rusts away. It can be done to have a ready access point in which to run an auger to unclog pipes in locations that are difficult (or impossible) to reach from above because of the path to the clog. Evaluate your drain network for that to determine how you want to seal it at that point.

Grim tidings.

Is it possible that those black pipes are the former system? The white ones look newer. Maybe they just left those parts of what has been bypassed. Or are they vents? Is the ground / shit wet? Get someone to flush while you're down there and listen.

Make sure you don't look into the pipe when doing this...

My God, you've stumbled onto a magic portal to Trump's secret Cabinet Room. You're just lucky the slithery members weren't meeting.
Best plan is to brick it up, run your wiring above ground and enjoy the deck.

I thought you might like to see the next phase of Big V's project...

I hope his neighbors are cool.

Now, that's just fantastic!