Laundry Room Redo #4

 Oops, I forgot to take pictures of steps along the way. But it's boring anyway. I primed the crown and painted the room Sherwin Williams Really Teal. The most fun and most satisfying part was putting the wallpaper in. I used peel and stick from Lowes. I ain't gonna lie, it was not easy. I still had to size the area because it was drywall. Our small town was pretty much lacking in sizing products. And I didn't know anything about sizing, except that I needed it. I ended up finding one sad little box of Zinsser powdered wallpaper paste/wall sizing in an old small-town hardware store. Even the staff there didn't know they had it or what it was. The box had been opened and then taped shut. But I didn't care. I wanted my wallpaper on and I wanted it on now. 

The package says "easy to mix", but it was nearly impossible to mix. At first, I just put the powder in a bowl and added the water like the instructions say. But I quickly saw that was not going to work. It was like making a roux or gravy and just dumping the milk into the flour/butter mixture. Lumps galore. So I tried mixing it with my blender. Still didn't work. I decided to start over and add the water a bit at a time, like you would for a roux. But that didn't work either. I finally just stuck my hands in there and smashed the lumps the best I could through a sieve. I did finally get it smooth enough to use. The instructions also say to apply with a roller. What a mess that was. It was so runny, it was like just rolling on water. Drips everywhere.

I waited until the next day to start applying the wall paper.

Myy first piece ended up perfect.

Second piece and little corner piece turned out pretty good, too.

This corner was a bear. The ceiling has some old damage on it that made the wallpaper bunch up. But I soldiered on and, while not perfect, it still looks good. And, who's gonna be looking up in that corner anyway?

Husband helped me install the very heavy solid walnut shelf above the cabinet. I was able to store a bunch of jars on it that were taking up cabinet space.

The cabinet is an old pie safe, probably from the late 1800's/early 1900's. It's pretty rustic. But perfect for the room.

Next up, the pull-down closet rod above the dryer.

Now I have the dreary task of painting the cabinet doors. I'm trying to decide if I should completely strip them of the oil-based paint, or sand, prime and paint. I'm leaning towards stripping. I think they'll look better in the end.

Laundry Room Redo #3

I finished up the crown moulding this morning. There was just this piece and one other left to do. But it took all morning. To avoid going and buying two more pieces of moulding, I had to make what was called a scarf joint. I watched a few YouTube videos to figure it out.

First of all, on this piece, the left side has an angle in the wall that is approximately 16 degrees. I made no less than ten trips down to the barn to make just the right sample cut so that the moulding would fit together at that angle in the wall. It turned out that a 13 degree cut is what was needed to match up with the 16 degree cut that I had already cut and installed yesterday. 

This is the 16 plus 13 degree angle cut. Don't ask me why this worked. It just did. The ceiling has some old damage there on the left, which threw the moulding out of whack a little bit. Nothing a little caulking won't fix. I added a little shim on the top to keep it from shifting when I nailed it on.

Then I had to make the scarf joint cuts, which was both pieces cut at a 22.5 degree angle. That wasn't very hard. It's a thing of beauty when it turns out perfectly. Then I had to make the 45 degree cut for the right side corner. 

 

The moulding at the top of this cabinet was the very last piece to install. It had a 45 degree angle inside corner on the left, a scarf joint to the left of center, and a 45 degree angle outside corner on the right. The inside corner was a little tricky. It wasn't fitting just right, so I pushed the saw a little further than the 45 degree mark and that was the sweet spot for this cut. The outside corner was a perfect 45 degree cut. Figures...it was my very last piece.

Then it was time to caulk. Everything is done and it's ready to be primed.

Yay!

Laundry Room Redo #2

 I've been hard at work. 

It always gets worse before it gets better. I've sanded and primed everything with this grey Zinser Bull's Eye primer. Don't believe it when they tell you it makes latex stick to oil paint. I sanded the cabinets and washed them with TSP. But still the primer will just scratch off. I don't know what to do about that.

Grey primer on walls as well. I figured the dark teal paint that I've chosen will go better over a darker primer instead of painting over antique white.

I'll be leaving the door off of this cabinet and it will be open shelving. I didn't want it to look unfinished and to see all the junk on the other side. So I used a closet shelf that I took out of one of my reorganized closets, and happened to be exactly the depth that I needed. I cut it in two pieces and used it it as a new shelf wall. I'll prime and paint those, too. Just learning how to use husband's saw was a chore. He ended up cutting it for me. I guess he's afraid I'll cut my hand off or something.

So, today I thought I'd learn to cut crown moulding. Ha. It's so tricky. Who ever figured out how to do it is a genius. I've watched multiple videos trying to learn how. You've heard "measure twice, cut once". Well, try "measure 15 times, flip the moulding over 10 times, readjust miter saw 6 times. Cut moulding and still get it wrong.

It's hard to tell, but this was my first attempt. It was a hair long, so I took it back to the saw and shaved a bit off the end. I was pleased with the outcome and it fit well. But after I cut the inside corner for the next piece, they didn't fit well together. I finally figured out that the corner is not exactly square. So at this point, I am frustrated and need a break. I'll need to figure out how to adjust the miter just a tiny bit so that the corners fit together.

Oh, hullo, peel and stick wallpaper. Just arrived in mail today. I love it. Guess where it's going to go?

Laundry Room Redo #1

So like I said, my laundry room needs a redo from the old 1970's decor. It has to be on a budget, so it's really DIY.

The room is a weird, sort of triangle shape because my house is sort of an arc shape and the laundry room is positioned at the transition or bend in the house. When we remodeled the house, the laundry room had a window to the outside "breezeway" to the garage. When we enclosed the breezeway, which we still call a breezeway, we made a doorway between the laundry room and breezeway. When we did that, we had to move the dryer to the wall opposite of the washer.

So, here's what it has looked like for the past 16 years, sorta unfinished. I don't think I even painted the door frame and there's some missing baseboard.

The dryer side, clothes rod above it is too high for me to reach comfortably, but also the clothes hang down in the way of the dryer. So I'll put a pull down rod above there so the clothes can be up out of the way, but the rod still accessible to me.

The room looks kind of big in the pictures, but it's really not. It's a fairly small space, but has lots of built in cabinets, which is nice. They're stuffed, so part of my task is to clear out of lot of things and paint the insides and outsides of the cabinets.

The dryer side from another angle. See, the room is so small, it's hard to get a picture of the whole thing in one shot.

And this shelf, oh my goodness, the things that accumulate on an open shelving unit over the years. Ugh. "I'll put this here for now," really means forever. I found a new home for this shelving unit in the garage. And the room already looks so much better without it.

Eek! Sixteen years of accumulated dirt and dust. I'm embarrassed. And the 50 year old cracked linoleum has to go.

After clearing out the room (except washer and dryer because the room still has to function during this redo), the first order of business was to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. It only took me a couple of hours.

Today's task was pulling up the linoleum. I've read that I need a heat gun to scrape up the glue layer. I don't have a heat gun, but will be getting one ASAP.

I'm Back!

 Whew. It's been a long haul. I exhausted myself with all the BOP, DOJ fighting.

Suffice it to say that husband is home. He was released from the halfway house in July of 2022 and has one more year of supervised release. And we're STILL in the midst of the legal battle. Our case went all the way to the Supreme Court. They declined to hear it, which was no surprise. So now we have a Habeas Corpus in the works. And we're waiting on a ruling from that.

For now, he has to work full time, so the farm is suffering from his lack of availability. I do what I can. Mowing seems to be my life right now. The hay fields have been reclaimed by the weeds, so we aren't getting much hay, even if he did have time to cut, rake, and bale. But the fields still have to be mowed. So I've been doing that with my riding mower.

I'm not milking goats this year. We're still raising them, but have cut back on the number of goats we have. Husband and I don't use a lot of milk these days, so there's really no need for me to store milk for the year. Plus, it really hurts my hands. I need a young'un to take over milking duties. We do still slaughter the meat goats, though. We had six this year, so the freezer is stocked.

I didn't put in a garden this year either. I intended to, but the weather didn't cooperate and I was just so busy. So, I'm glad I didn't because there is too much work on the farm for me to add to it.

BUT, I've started a new decorating project that I'm pretty excited about - the laundry room. It's been a long time coming. When we moved to the farm, we remodeled most of the house, but not the laundry room. It still has the original 70's linoleum and popcorn ceiling. I need a creative outlet. All work and no play makes me a dull bird. So, although, this project IS a lot of work, my mind's eye is on the finished product, which gives me joy and satisfaction. I have to do it as cost effectively as I can since we're still under the government's thumb and still have legal bills. So I'm DIYing it as much as possible. I think I'll be able to do everything except the floor. I want to have brick pavers, but I'll have to wait an undetermined amount of time for the floor since it's a big expense.

More to come on this project.

BOP Administrative Remedy Process, In Pursuit of CARES Act Home Confinement (#4)

Okay, recap time. We submitted the BP-229, which was rejected because they claimed we used the wrong form. Then we submitted another CARES Act request to the Residential Reentry Management (RRM) office as directed by Regional Counsel. That submission was completely ignored and we received no response whatsoever regarding that submission. So the next step was to submit the BP-230 form. 

Sorry, I know all of this is exceedingly boring. It's no picnic for me, either. But I feel it's important to document this and put it out there for others who may be looking for information on the Bureau of Prison's Administrative Remedy Program and how they implement it. As a reminder, their policy manual states on page 8: 

"When deciding whether to reject a submission, Coordinators, especially at the institution level, should be flexible, keeping in mind that major purposes of this Program are to solve problems and be responsive to issues inmates raise."

Anyway, onward. We mailed BP-230 on February 7th. Post office tracking shows they received it on the 9th. It was stamped as received on February 16th. Their response to our BP-230 was dated March 7th, mailed on March 11th, and we received it on March 15th. The AR Policy states that they have 30 days to respond at the regional level.

Here's the cover letter we sent with the BP-230.

*****************************************************************************

February 7, 2022

 

Juan Baltazar, Jr., Regional Director

South Central Regional Office

U.S. Armed Forces Reserve Complex

344 Marine Forces Drive

Grand Prairie, TX  75051

 

RE: Administrative Remedy BP-230

 

Dear Regional Director Baltazar:

 

My name is Thomas --------, and I’m a halfway house inmate at the -------------------------------------, Texas. Enclosed is an Administrative Remedy for your office’s review.

 

I first submitted this Administrative Remedy on a BP-229 form. The response I received was that my request was denied because I used the wrong form. However, on the back of the BP-229 (blue) form, it says, “Requirement for submission of this request directly to the Regional Director, Bureau of Prisons. When the inmate believes that he may be adversely affected by the submission of this request at the institution level because of the sensitive nature of the complaint, he may address his complaint to the Regional Director. He must clearly indicate a valid reason for not initially bringing his complaint to the attention of the institution staff.”

 

I did not feel that my request was of a sensitive nature, so I DID submit the form to the institution staff. As was explained in the letter that I sent with my BP-229 (also enclosed), the institution staff advised me that they do not process administrative remedies and instructed me to send it to your office, hence the submission of the BP-229 to your office. 

 

Nevertheless, as instructed by your office, I am resubmitting my Administrative Remedy with the form that your office provided to me (BP-230).

 

I was unable to resubmit it within the prescribed time frame because (1) The denial letter was dated December 22 and was postmarked the 28^th. The halfway house staff delivered it to me on January 5th, 15 days after the date of the denial letter. (2) I was advised by Jason Sickler in Regional Counsel to NOT resubmit the Administrative Remedy and to instead, submit a CARES Act home confinement request to RRM, San Antonio.

 

I did submit the CARES Act home confinement request to RRM, which they received on January 10^thand I have not received a response from them.

 

So I am now re-submitting the Administrative Remedy.

 

Sincerely,

 

Thomas -----------

********************************************************

As I stated above, we received their response on March 15th. This is it:

REJECTION NOTICE - ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDY

DATE:  MARCH 7, 2022

FROM:    ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDY COORDINATOR

                SOUTH CENTRAL REGIONAL OFFICE

TO:          THOMAS -----------, ---------------

                -----------------------------

                -----------------------------

                ----------------, TEXAS

FOR THE REASONS LISTED BELOW, THIS REGIONAL APPEAL IS BEING REJECTED AND RETURNED TO YOU. YOU SHOULD INCLUDE A COPY OF THIS NOTICE WITH ANY FUTURE CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING THE REJECTION.

REMEDY ID                :  ------------   REGIONAL APPEAL

DATED RECEIVED    :  FEBRUARY 16, 2022

SUBJECT 1                :  OTHER COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

REJECT REASON 1:    YOUR APPEAL IS UNTIMELY.  REGIONAL APPEALS (BP-10) MUST BE RECEIVED WITHIN 20 DAYS OF THE WARDEN/CCM RESPONSE OR RECEIPT OF THE DHO REPORT.  THIS TIME INCLUDES MAIL TIME.

REJECT REASON 2:  SEE REMARKS.

REMARKS:  YOU ACKNOWLEDGE R1 REJECTION RECEIVED BY 1/5/22, BUT R2 SUBMISSION DATED 2/7/22.  FOR DESIRED REVIEW COMPLETE AND SEND BP-9 (ENCLOSED) TO BOP RRM.

***********************************************************************************

Note a couple of things. First, they lie about when they received our submission. Post office tracking says they received it on February 9th, but they didn't stamp it received until the 16th. So they've just given themselves an extra week to respond. AR Policy says they are supposed to respond within 30 days. The rejection letter says, concerning time limits imposed upon inmates, "This time includes mail time". Do they impose that rule on themselves as well, or is it just the inmates that have that mail time limit imposed? So, they received it the 9th of February and they mailed their response on the 11th of March. They mailed it at exactly 30 days, but we didn't receive it until day 34.

The AR process requires lots and lots of paperwork. The inmate has to provide several copies of each page submitted. Copies of the forms, the requests, and the responses have to be mailed with each submission. Inmates in prisons are severely limited in their access to paper, envelopes, stamps, copiers, typewriters, and actually posting something in the mail.  While Tom was in the prison, the mailroom often held outgoing and incoming mail for days. Tom was rarely able to buy stamps from the commissary. The whole time he was there, the printer did not work.  Access to a copier was limited and you had to buy a typewriter ribbon from the commissary to use a typewriter, if you were even lucky enough to get to use it. Typewriter ribbons were scarce.

So I can imagine that it is extremely difficult for inmates that are housed in the prisons to obtain what they need for each submission and to meet the time limits imposed upon them, especially since they have no control over how long the mailroom takes to send out or deliver their mail. I can hardly imagine going through this process without someone on the outside helping.  Thankfully, Tom is able to come home on the weekends, we have everything we need to make the required copies, and although Tom cannot go to the post office himself during the week, I'm able to get everything mailed quickly.

Also note that they direct us to use the BP-9, which is the first form we submitted and they rejected it because they said it was the wrong form. We're at a loss as to what to do at this point. How can one follow such incomprehensible instructions?

Click here to return to the beginning of our BOP Administrative Remedy for CARES Act Home Confinement.

What Next? In Pursuit of CARES Act Home Confinement (#3)

Okay, so to recap, we submitted the Administrative Remedy form BP-229 and it was rejected by the BOP.  Click on links to see these documents.

When we hadn't received a response by the 20th day as described in the Administrative Remedy Policy, I had our counsel call the RRM office to see if he could get any information about it.  Click on "rejected" link above to see the timeline of the AR.  He was forwarded to South Central Regional Counsel, Jason Sickler. This is the man who advised us to submit the AR in the first place, which is what set us on this Administrative Remedy path. Well, he told our counsel that if the response we receive is not satisfactory (remember, we had not received a response or any kind of acknowledgement at that time), then instead of submitting the next level of AR, we should submit another CARES Act home confinement request to the RRM.

Personally, I wanted to do both (1) submit the CARES Act request, AND (2) file the BP-230 as directed by the rejection notice. But our counsel said we shouldn't do that. We should follow Regional Counsel's advice and submit the CARES Act request because doing both would confuse the RRM and gum up the system. So we only submitted the CARES Act request, along with a cover letter as follows:

COVER LETTER

January 10, 2022

Regional Reentry Manager, 727 East Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard, Suite B-138, San Antonio, TX  78206

RE: CARES Act Home Confinement Request

Dear Regional Reentry Manager:

My name is Tom ------, and I am a halfway house inmate at the -----------, in Tyler, Texas.

Enclosed is a request for CARES Act home confinement. I would appreciate you considering this request. I believe I fulfill the requirements of CARES Act home confinement.

Please note that South Central Regional Counsel advised me to submit this request to your office, not to halfway house staff.

Thank you for you time and help with this matter.

Respectfully,

And CARES Act Home Confinement Request

 

This serves as my request for CARES Act home confinement consideration.

 

I.              Case Background

 

On July 7, 2018, I was indicted for Conspiracy to Defraud the United States (18 U.S.C. § 371) and Evasion of Payment for Taxes (26 U.S.C. § 7201). Following a jury trial, I was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment followed by three years supervised release. I was subsequently designated to FCI Bastrop Camp to serve my sentence. I have since been released from FCI Bastrop Camp and am currently housed at the ----------------------, halfway house in Tyler, Texas.

II.            Consideration Factors

 

CARES Act home confinement is governed by the nine factors presented in the April 13, 2021, memorandum by Assistant Director Andre Matevousian (“Memorandum”).[1] These factors and application to my case are discussed below:

·      Disciplinary History: “Reviewing the inmate’s institutional discipline history for the last twelve months.”

 

I have maintained clear conduct during my term of incarceration. I have not been charged nor found guilty of any disciplinary code violation.

·      Verifiable Release Plan: “Ensuring the inmate has a verifiable release plan.”

 

Please see Section III below, where my reentry plan is presented.

·      Nature of Current Offense: “Verifying the inmate’s current or a prior offense is not violent, a sex offense, or terrorism-related.”

 

My crime of conviction was for federal tax-related offenses. These offenses were not violent, sexual, or terrorism-related. Additionally, I have not previously been convicted of a crime.

·      Detainers: “Confirming the inmate does not have a current detainer.”

 

I have no pending detainers.

·      Low or Minimum Security: “Ensuring the inmate is Low or Minimum security.”

 

Other than quarantine periods, during which I was incarcerated at the low-security FCI Bastrop, I have remained a minimum-security inmate at FCI Bastrop Satellite Prison Camp. I am currently housed in the ------------------------------ halfway house in Tyler, Texas.

·      Low or Minimum PATTERN Score: “Ensuring the inmate has a Low or Minimum PATTERN recidivism risk score.”

 

My unit team has notified me that my PATTERN Score is minimum risk. Specifically, my General Score is -6 and the Violent Score is -1.

·      Violent and/or Gang-Related Activity in Prison: “Ensuring the inmate has not engaged in violent or gang-related activities while incarcerated.”

 

Since my admission to the Bureau of Prisons, I have not been involved or associated with those who engage in violent or gang-related activities.

 

·      COVID-19 Vulnerabilities: “Reviewing the COVID-19 vulnerability of the inmate, in accordance with CDC guidelines.”

Redacting this part because of privacy.

·      Time Served: “Confirming the inmate has served 50% or more of their sentence; or has 18 months or less remaining on their sentence and have served 25% or more of their sentence.”

On June 28, 2021, I was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. I arrived in federal prison on July 20, 2021. Upon arrival in federal prison, I was awarded the standard prorated good conduct time, resulting in an approximate 81-day reduction in sentence. My current release date is October 29, 2022.

 

With the above calculations in mind, even without taking into consideration the good conduct time, I have served over 25 percent of my sentence.

 III.          Reentry Plan

If this request is approved, I will live in my home, the house located at ---------------------------------, TX -----, which has been inspected and approved by both a probation officer and a BOP inspector. The only other resident is my wife, ---------------, who has no serious underlying health conditions. If granted home confinement, both my wife and I can be reached at ------------ (landline which meets all halfway house requirements), ------------ (my approved cell phone), or ------------ (---------- cell phone). Additionally, I can provide my own transportation from the halfway house in Tyler to the release residence, using my own halfway house approved vehicle. As a resident of the halfway house, I was required to obtain employment, which I did. I am currently employed by ------------------------.

IV.          Conclusion

 Thank you for considering this request. If approved, I will return home with my wife, where I will ensure to comply with all terms of home confinement. This placement will enable me to reduce my COVID-19 risk by being able to socially distance and following other CDC best practice

---

[1] Memorandum from Andre Matevousian, Bureau of Prisons Assistant Director, Correctional Services Division (Apr. 13, 2021).

Click HERE to return to the beginning of our BOP Administrative Remedy for CARES Act Home Confinement.