Asheville Living — Southern Energy & Environment Expo

This weekend we took some time to check out the Southern Energy & Environment Expo. There were quite a few green building contractors in the exhibition area, as well as solar and wind power products, biofuel distributors, and all sorts of relevant activist groups representing. There was also a car corral with tons of hybrids, electrics, and a veritable monster truck 4×4 “runnin’ on fat from the fryer vat.”

I can’t say I learned anything new, but I didn’t try very hard. My aim was to find some contractors to help with our house. If you had the time to immerse yourself there were a bunch of classes you could attend. It appeared attendance was strong. It was cool.

Doing the Demo — Extreme Jackhammering!

To quote Killing Joke: “Complications!” That is what we have. There’s a lot going on in this corner of our house. The gas company is about to trench, run a gas line, and install a meter here. Also, and related, our heating contractor, Bullman Heating, is about to install our new heat pumps on this side of the house. Then, there’s the lame moisture and rot problem. The soil actually slopes toward the house and along with some other issues it has caused the sill plate and some of the framing to rot on the other side of the brick. Our general contractor, who won’t start for a few more weeks, is addressing that issue by installing a french drain, applying a moisture barrier, and framing repairs.

Finally, we wanted to get rid of the exterior stairway to the kitchen. No one in his right mind would walk down the retaining wall stairway just to have the climb back up to the kitchen. Eventually, we hope to have a deck that spans from the retaining wall to that little suspended entrance.

I took out the stairs easily enough, but there was a sidewalk and footer (hidden by the ivy) that also had to go. With the extraneous concrete there, correcting the grading and installing the french drain would be a real pain once the heat pumps were installed. I tried to do it with a sledge hammer and pinch bar, but the footer/sidewalk at the base the stairs was, and this is ridiculous, over 20 inches thick. Time for a little extreme jackhammering. Look for me at the X Games.

Asheville Living — Bele Chere Festival 2006

So we’ve been living here in Asheville, NC for two or three months now. I must say that I’m digging it more and more. This weekend was the big Bele Chere Festival. Some of the locals seem tired of it, but we thought we would check it out. We’re close enough to walk downtown, which is nice, because parking was not easy. There was a lot of the usual carnival-type stuff, a lot of art, crafts, and music on a number of stages. But I think the coolest bits were the street performers on the periphery.

Young women with tattoos, dreadlocks, nose piercings, and cowboy boots playing fiddle and banjo on the street? Awesome. Could be any day in Asheville.

A joking juggler or juggling comedian? This guy was pretty funny, even if he did bust on me, twice. There’s a large crowd right behind me.