jenbobProjects

This blog has moved

2010-04-18T09:46:00.002-04:00

If you bookmarked the JenBob.net page (http://Jenbob.net/blogProjects.html), you don't have to change anything.

If you bookmarked the old blog itself (http://jenbob.net/blogProjects/blogProjects.html (subtle difference)), you'll have to change your bookmark either to http://jenbob.net/blogProjects.html or http://jenbobprojects.blogspot.com.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://jenbobprojects.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

In all likely-hood this blog will migrate back to JenBob.net and entries will be discontinued here. You can probably just leave your bookmarks where they are for historical sake.

- b

Bob the Plumber Cont.

2010-04-03T11:18:00.002-04:00

Water line to fridge is replaced and working.

What'd that take? Two weeks?

Job itself took 15 minutes. Should have done plastic line to begin with. As long as the mice don't chew through it, should last forever.

- b

Bob the Plumber

2010-03-30T06:45:00.003-04:00

First the toilet leaked from underneath. I fixed that with a new wax ring, then it leaked from two places on the tank - tank to bowl bolt and the ballcock valve.

Apparently all the rubber seals dried out when I emptied it of all the water and left it lying on its side for a day. It's amazing all the little parts and seals you can buy individually to repair all this stuff for like a $1 each or entire kits for just $10. I opted for the entire ballcock kit and tank bolt kit. Turned out to be a really good move as the ballcock kit included pieces I was apparently missing.

The install was easy though I had to go through the pain of draining the tank again, which gets water everywhere.

The new stuff screwed right in, sealed itself and I was done.

It's like a new toilet.

Now onto the fridge water line.

- b

Backed Up

2010-03-27T22:31:00.004-04:00

Got the flange fixed on the toilet.

They have these nifty metal rings you install over top your old flange and you're on your way. The toilet doesn't even rock.

But it's not fixed.

I guess while it was sitting on it's side, the weight of itself stretched the seals around the bolts between the tank and the bowl.

Now the tank leaks, but only enough for a towel and bucket to keep it from becoming a complete mess. Not sure when I'll get around to completing this one.

Next I took a little time to at least figure out why the water line to the fridge was leaking. My first suspicion was the coupling between the new line I put in a little while ago and the line from the fridge. I had some problem with it the first time. I figured it finally gave up. Turns out that wasn't the case.

The copper line itself gave up. I realize we have hard water (at least going through this line), but I'd expect the line to last a little more then a year or so. So it's off to Home Depot to find something stronger and replace all this.

- b

Toilet Flange

2010-03-23T22:07:00.003-04:00

Our toilet rocks.

Literally, it rocks, which means it now leaks.

Well, it did till I took it apart.

A little wobble overtime will cause the wax seal to fail and the toilet to leak. That's why it leaks. The next question is why does it wobble or why does ours wobble?

Could it be that the flange is somehow installed incorrectly? Could it be that somehow the closet flange bolts aren't in their normal slots (which are broken, the slots, not the bolts), but have been drilled through the flange which causes irregularities in the flange surface (the bolt slots are recessed for the bolt heads. The manually drilled holes for the bolts are not recessed), thus causing the toilet to rock?
Though you can't see where the flange rises above the height of the floor at the bolts, you can see where the bolts have been manually drilled and pushed through the flange. How this was done, I have no idea. The flange doesn't just pop off the pipe and pop back on.

The correct fix for this is to cut the pipe, remove the flange, and put a whole new assembly back in its place. The problem is I have two layers of vinyl flooring in this bathroom I'd like to replace with tile, which could change the level of the floor. If I replace the flange now, which has to be flush with the floor, it could be off once the tile floor goes in. Better to wait for the heavy work until the floor is right.

For now, I'll return the "extra thick" wax replacement ring I bought (which has longer screws that I can't replace because of how the above screws were installed), get a regular ring, then use caulk around the base of the toilet to stop the wobble. Of course if it ever leaks again I'll never know as the caulk will keep the water under the toilet and rotting through the floor. One day I'll go to sit down and fall right through to the basement as the weight of me and the toilet crashes through the rotted floor.

Joy.

Is it too late to rent?

- b

One Guy and a PBR

2010-03-22T07:21:00.002-04:00

Got the new dresser moved up to Abigail's room.

It's a behemoth, and I couldn't figure out how to get the drawers out of it.

The easiest route was out through the garage, around the back yard, up the deck and in through the sliding glass doors. The dog leg into the room made me a little nervous, but we made it without a scratch.

If ever it needs to come out of that room, I'll be sure to pay someone.

- b

Tree Damage

2010-03-22T05:56:00.003-04:00

Spent most of yesterday afternoon cleaning up some tree damage at Jen's mother's house.

I swear White Pines aren't indigenous to this area considering how poorly they do in wind and heavy snow.

Her township has a chipping program. The plan was to make a pile of what could be chipped and make a pile of what couldn't (8" diameter limitation). The chipping pile is supposed to be at the street, but considering the chipping appointment (chipping is free, but you need an appointment) might not be for another month, I kept it back behind the house.

For now the pile that can't be chipped is under the deck. Some point soon, I'll need to go back and haul that off myself.

Should make for nice bonfire wood.

- b

Township Easement

2010-02-21T07:12:00.003-05:00

Came home Wednesday night to find the township had plowed around the opening of my driveway.

Well that's nice of them. Typically your driveway just gets plowed in.

A closer inspection revealed things weren't so nice. In plowing around the entrance of our driveway they completely plowed over our street number and a shrub that was planted near the road.

Well that sucks.

I took some pictures and headed over to the township office the next morning.

Turns out the township has an easement that runs sixteen and a half feet from the middle of the road out into everyone's property. This gives them the right to plow back huge piles of snow that might otherwise cause safety issues with "line of sight".

My driveway is such a case. There's a dip and a rise just before you get to it. If a car rolling down the road is in that dip, they can't see me coming out of my driveway when there's four feet of snow piled up around it.

In the end, all I could do was thank the township for making my driveway safer and easier to enter and exit.

The landscaping and street number were put there by the previous owner

I tried salvaging the shrub.

I'll deal with the street number later.

- b

Fios Battery

2010-02-20T17:11:00.003-05:00

Did you know the battery in a Fios system would need replacing?

I should have known. It's not like batteries last forever.

Turns out the backup battery is only used to keep the phone working in the event of a power outage. The phone I don't care about. If the stupid thing didn't beep every so often to let me know the battery was dead, I would have just left it.

A little research on the interweb and I found I could get a replacement from Verizon for $100 or one from Radio Shack (that probably won't work) for $35.

I opted for the $35.

It fit. The beeping stopped and all the lights are green again.

We'll see how long it lasts.

- b

Water in the Basement

2010-02-20T08:56:00.003-05:00

The tenant came home one night to find water in her basement.

The first thing you do whenever there's water in your basement is look for the source (duh). In this case it appeared to be coming from the furnace or the condensation pump.

I took the furnace inspection panels off and looked all inside. No water there, so we focused more on the pump. We poured more water into the pump to see if it was working and it was.

Hmmm.

The best guess was with the exhaust pipe.

Notice where the pipe exits the foundation? It appears to be only a couple of inches above the ground. There's a standard distance the pipe should be above the ground for clearance of things like snow. Not meeting that standard, they put in a 90°, ran a vertical piece the standard, then added another 90°.

The nights previous to the water in the basement had been really cold (single digit cold). Our theory was the steam passing through the vertical piece during the cold quickly condensed and froze. When the temps warmed up, all that ice melted and ran back down to the pump overwhelming it.

Ok, so how do you fix that?

It turns out the "ground" beneath where the pipe exits isn't really the ground. It's a raised flower bed that robs the pipe of the clearance it should have. In the spring the plan is to dig out that part of the flower bed so the pipe can horizontally run out of the foundation at the proper height. That should cure the condensation problem of the vertical pipe on really cold nights and remove two 90°s, thus increasing flow.

At least that's the theory.

- b

Playing Landlord

2010-01-24T09:14:00.003-05:00

The new house needed a few things done before the new tenant moved in.

First we had Michelangelo throw some paint on the walls.

Then it was my turn to steam clean the carpets.

But there's a problem. Being new at this whole landlord deal, we missed the water contract. That means no water in the house till next week.

Without water, how do you steam clean?

You haul water over there.

Very carefully with everything else.

Yeah. My life has been exalted to precariously hauling water in cat litter boxes.

At the house I vacuumed while the water was at a low boil. Fired up the steam cleaner and had it all done in a couple of hours.

The carpets still need replacing.

Maybe next year.

- b

More Bike Maintenance

2010-01-12T22:08:00.002-05:00

You'd think I was riding more or something.

The other day, while swapping the clown tire back to the normal one, I noticed my bottom bracket (bearings between the cranks and axle) was bad.

My cranks had a little swagger in them. The left side bearing felt like a loose bag of marbles opposed to the tight/smooth piece of machinery it's supposed to be.

Luckily I had a spare set of semi-used bearings just lying around, which is great considering my aversion to spending money on this thing right now.

I honestly wasn't sure what the condition of the spare bearings were, but was willing to try.

Hell. It's not like the bike wouldn't appreciate the handling anyway.

It's really a quick job. I think I spent more time cleaning off all the crud then actually removing and installing the new set of bearings.

The verdict?

The new ones are good. My cranks peddle straight again.

- b

Bike Maintenance Cont.

2010-01-08T07:01:00.003-05:00

Clown tire isn't going to work in the rear. It rubbed.

The brake was rubbing too. I thought I'd try a different caliper position, but the pads had been worn to fit the rotor a certain way. With the caliper in a different position, the pads were rubbing differently and creating resistance. Climbing sucks more then usual when your rotors are dragging.

So I changed the tire and put the caliper back to its original position.

All in time for a snow ride.

- b

Some Bike Maintenance

2010-01-06T06:39:00.003-05:00

Since my riding average had gone from three times a quarter to three times in a week, I decided it was time for a little maintenance.

My chain had dropped on two different rides. Considering my ride average, that's not a very good statistic for equipment failure.

So first thing to do was check the condition of my chain. Eyeballing it I knew there was some slack, but had no idea it was this bad.

For those that don't know, this is a chain checker and it says the chain is bad - really bad.

Great! So it's bad, time to replace it. Not quite.

It's so bad, technically I should replace the cog and the chain ring. Simply throwing a new chain on the old gears could make things worse or just wear out a new chain faster.

So I checked the cog. Unfortunately there's no cool technical gizmo for checking cogs. It's all eyeball.

And my eyeballs have an astigmatism, but what's supposed to be little half circles between the teeth now look like little half ovals.

At this point it's not even worth looking at the chain ring.

So what's a guy do with some messed up bike parts, a kid due the end of the month and a house closing next week?

Flip the cog around (so the ovals stretch the other way) and tighten the chain via the sliding axle adjustments.

Voila! Single speed bike is fixed. Riding three times in one week isn't worth new stuff. If I start to average that per week, maybe I'll reconsider.

Since I was playing bike mechanic, I decided some different (notice I didn't say new?) tires could make things interesting.

I should just call them clown tires. They're huge. The bike is more rubber then it is steel.

There so big, I had to be careful how true the rear wheel was when fitting in the frame.

Considering my aversion to bike maintenance cost, I had better got the wheel true or I'm buying a new frame.

- b

Headlight Hell

2010-01-05T06:17:00.003-05:00

The passenger side headlight went out in Jen's car.

That's easy enough. The way headlights are today you just pop a clip, pull out the bulb, put the new one in and reset the clip.

It took me nearly two hours to do that in Jen's car. If it had been the drivers side, it would have gone much faster.

In her Prius, to change the passenger side bulb, you need to first remove an engine cowl then an air intake. Once that's done, you have a tiny little space you can't see to work in upside down.

The next step is removing the waterproof cover. The instructions say "turn counter-clockwise (but it's backwards) and pull. If it sticks wiggle it a little". I pulled, wiggled, pulled, wiggled, cursed, threw some tools, etc before the damn thing popped off.

The next step is the clip (locks the bulb in place) - like any headlight clip, just unclip it - but it's backwards and upside down. Fumbling for the clip I managed to dislodge the bulb from under the clip, but not enough to remove the bulb - only enough to prevent the clip from being unclipped.

Did I mention it was freezing outside even in the garage? My fingers felt like wooden pegs. I couldn't feel it when they cut on some sharp edge. I'd pull my greasy fingers out bleeding and not realize it till I saw it.

Finally I asked Jen for some kind of mirror. She had an old compact I was able to use and see what happened.

Using the mirror I could see the bulb, see the clip and see where it all got messed up. Unfortunately I couldn't hold the mirror and work on the bulb at the same time. I had to commit to memory what I saw, reverse it, then translate it to what I felt with my wooden peg fingers.

It took a while. It took a long while and some tool throwing before I got the old bulb back in the right spot so I could finally unclip it. The bulb came out. The new one went in. I snapped the clip back in place, then reassembled the rest.

I really hate this crap. That was two freaking hours of frustration and freezing. For two pleasant hours of my life, I would have easily paid $50 to have my mechanic do that.

- b

Almost Got it All

2010-01-04T06:15:00.003-05:00

We started the holiday break with a lengthy list of things to do. Most of it had to do with the preparation of our new family member, which really meant - make more room.

Since Jen and I moved in four years ago, we've primarily lived on the top floor of our house (we have a bi-level), and either put or left everything else in storage downstairs. With a kid coming, with new furniture and a whole bunch of other crap on their own, we had to some reorganizing.

The main culprit is what we call the blue room. It's a room downstairs with blue carpet. It's served a couple of purposes over the four years and has been documented in this here blog. Lately it's just been a huge catch-all for stuff. It's caught so much stuff, you could hardly open the door.

What's amazed us most is that the majority of the stuff is now simply gone. We threw out a lot. We've made one trip to Goodwill - soon to make another. We Freecycled a bunch of stuff. One women called me the most generous person on Freecycle (meanwhile I'm cursing all the lousy-bastard no-shows). And we also moved things around.

We had storage in our garage attic that was hardly used. When we found something we needed to keep, but not use often, it got boxed and moved out to the attic.

The Picture is meant to be dark. That's how I saw it in all my trips into the garage yesterday. Kind of creepy. Reminded me of Samara's (The Ring) hideaway in the horse barn. No wonder all the horses killed themselves.

Items that needed to be handy, we moved into our newly organized "workroom" or the newly added shelves I put in our furnace room.

By 9pm last night our blue room had become simply another room.

Unfortunately that lasted all of five minutes. There are other rooms whose use take priority in the coming weeks, so the goal was only to get this one completely clear so we could clear out the other higher priority rooms.

Like I said - almost got it all.

At least now we're way closer to having it all clean and clutter free. More like a house we live in and not just a space we store stuff.

At least that's the effect I was going for when I hung some pictures in my gear room.

- b

Picture Says it All

2010-01-02T09:02:00.001-05:00

- b

Miscellaneous Crap

2010-01-01T10:26:00.003-05:00

Haven't been very project oriented over the holiday break.

I got the important thing done - getting the tractor ready to plow - in case of mid snow storm labor pains.

but after that it's all been random crap like taking the bad cleats out of my "old riding shoes", so I can replace them and stop using my "good shoes".

Like I ride enough to warrant "old" and/or "good" shoes. Don't have new cleats yet. Wouldn't really need them till it warms up anyway.

I did some website work (refresh your cache), but nothing as far as necessary improvements, just maintenance.

I also reorganized my detached garage so the truck is NOT parked on the side with access to the attic. We've been moving a lot of the crap that's been unused in the house to the detached garage attic. Having that space more easily accessible (not having to move the truck every time) will make it more viable. In the process I actually emptied three or so boxes that had been packed in the garage since we moved here. Now my workbench is almost usable.

I also started a top-secret project with my commuter bike and the trainer.

Yes I plan to start riding the trainer, but there's an added piece waiting on parts to complete the project. More to follow soon.

We've also been running a lot of baby stuff errands. We spent one morning measuring the walls and current furniture in our nursery, then looking online at various nursery pieces to see what we liked and what might fit. We settled on some things, ran down to the store and placed an order.

Jen has also been procuring and organizing lots of "cute outfits." We might actually be ready for this thing when it comes.

What to do today?

- b

Not Nesting Yet

2009-12-27T07:54:00.003-05:00

Not quite nesting, but we've been working feverishly to get things cleaned up and make more room for the baby.

So far on our holiday break, I finished/completely hacked my toolbox shelf thingy.

Cleaned up the gear room.

Which I've done numerous times, but this time was significantly different. I had and used this box in the gear room,

which I built the summer after my freshmen year in college. I built it as a gear/storage box that fit perfectly behind the cab of my truck and between my roommates and my loft in our dorm room. In my apartment in Spring City it was my gear box and sat in the living room. The same went for our house in Paoli. You can see the scratches on top where CJ used to jump on it to see/bark out the window.

In our house now, where I have an entire room (with closet) for gear, the box was taking up more room then saving it. Soon enough it could be a toy box for kids, but for now it will move out to the garage to hold tools or something.

The next room is our "blue room".

Though it looks in shambles, we've made a lot of progress here. Jen spent the weekend "filing" (either filing or throwing away) all the papers and documents we had stored in here. I've got a huge pile and list on Freecycle to get rid of a bunch of stuff and there's a huge pile for the trash. Hopefully by the end of today we'll have more then just a spare closet, but a spare room as well.

- b

Spare Closet is Ready

2009-12-23T14:08:00.003-05:00

Who knew it would take so long for a closet?

Finally got around to wiping down the walls. I won't go into how nasty that actually was. Let it dry and now it's usable.

It's so nice to check things off the list. No matter how small they may seem.

Next step is to get the room in which the closet is in cleaned up and the room in which the baby will be nurserified.

- b

Doesn't Work

2009-12-14T07:15:00.003-05:00

It appears the battery hack I tried on the dog collars isn't going to work.

In two attempts using off the shelf batteries each lasted only two weeks.

The batteries in the plan usually last three or four months.

Unless both batteries from radio shack were bad, I have no idea why the hack doesn't work.

- b

A Little More

2009-12-09T06:34:00.004-05:00

While "working from home" yesterday afternoon I was able to do a few more things with our new overflow closet.

Exciting huh? A bar by which to hang stuff....

I even vacuumed the space. The only thing left is wiping down the walls and the shelf. Because the cat litter box used to be housed in here, it's a little dusty.

- b

Mixed Bag

2009-12-07T06:27:00.003-05:00

Originally I was supposed to be away this weekend. When plans changed keeping me home, I kind of decided to not do anything and maybe relax a little.

So even though I knew it was supposed to rain/snow Saturday afternoon and I wouldn't have another chance until January, I didn't do the last bit of the leaves in the yard to finish up with them for the year.

But I didn't sit around and do nothing either.

Part of my responsibility in the whole nesting phenomenon is the preparation side. We have a room designated as "the nursery" but it's currently a bedroom with overflow from our closet and drawers. The first task for me is to make available closet space elsewhere, so the closet in "the nursery" can be utilized solely for baby stuff. Seems basic and off-topic from nursery nesting conversations, but I bet fathers everywhere have performed similar tasks prior to the execution of nesting - so follow along.

We have a "spare" room downstairs that we've used mostly for storage - storage of crap we could really just get rid of. In that room is a closet that we've used primarily as our IT closet. In there we had our computer, patch panel, printer, network storage, switches, cables, etc. The idea is to make that closet available as our overflow and rearrange the IT stuff to do so.

Rearranging the IT stuff meant moving most of it out of the closet and into our "work room" where we have these shelves that again we've poorly utilized since moving here. For the most part we just toss things up there and dig around for them later when we need it. That's a huge waste of space. So one of the very first tasks for me in preparing for "the nesting" is organizing these shelves.

Are you still following? We've gone from nursery closet, to spare closet, to work room shelves. See the path?

You can see in the photo I've started a little on the middle shelf on the left. I've been picking low hanging fruit so far and that section was easiest.

The next easiest piece was the toolbox area. In the middle of the shelves I had some toolboxes stacked. Some of which were empty, some of which belonged in other places, and some of which took up too much space. In the picture to the right you see my "roll-away" pieces. The top half has always sat on this little shelf I had made for it. The lower piece was sitting in the middle of the above mentioned shelves taking up too much space. Why I never added it to the collection on the toolbox shelf, I have no idea. Eh. That's not true. The reason it was never added was because the bottom shelf wasn't built to hold it. The legs didn't provide enough space for it to fit down there, so that was the next task.

A little measuring, some cutting, this should be quick and easy!

Not quite. First I didn't accommodate for the lock and label, so after cutting a bunch, making a lot of sawdust, and stuffing it in there, I had to pull it all out, measure and cut again.

Now it slid in past the lock, but I had another issue. I completely forgot that the legs on the other side needed cutting too for the box to completely fit on the shelf.

Doh!

Didn't matter. Jen had another task that needed attention.

Once the tree was up, we headed off to our friends house for the afternoon, so everything was left as it was.

Now back at it on Sunday, for some reason I decided to leave the toolbox as it was for now. I guess I decided the availability of the closet was more important and the empty shelf (from the big set of shelves) the toolbox made was enough to move out the computer equipment from the closet.

So I moved out the equipment and reorganized what had to stay in the closet so we could utilize the closet for it's original intention - hanging clothes.

It's not pretty, and I could have spent a lot more time on constructing a more sophisticated rack for the patch panel, but it's functional and I've got a lot more crap to get to. At least now we have a closet where we can hang clothes (once I put up the bar) that even has an available shelf for whatever else.

I still need to get back to that toolbox and the rest of the shelves in the basement. And now that I look at those pictures of my toolboxes precariously stacked on that rickety little wooden deal, I probably need to do something to strengthen and secure that thing so it doesn't come tumbling down when some little tyke decides it's a jungle gym.

- b

Attic's Done!

2009-11-22T16:10:00.003-05:00

Finished the attic today. Pulled up the last bag of insulation (I think that's six or seven total? Roughly $300) and distributed the batts.

So glad that's done.

Won't have to go up there until Jen wants new ceiling fans or a whole house fan.

While I was finishing that, Jen started the leaves.

I think we've got one more weekend of leaves, though I won't be around for a weekend for quite a while.

- b

Light on the Projects

2009-11-15T09:13:00.003-05:00

Didn't have a whole lot of time or motivation yesterday so I only got the deck furniture hauled up into the attic.

At least it was a semi-fun engineering endeavor.

At some point I need to make a door/cover for the opening in our garage ceiling to tidy things up a bit.

- b

Septic Fix

2009-11-13T19:45:00.003-05:00

All I've ever heard from my father is stuff like "I've lived here 17 years and never pumped the tank!"

So after only being here four years, I didn't think things would be all that bad.

Overall it wasn't that bad, but the system was neglected and installed improperly (or something like that).

The plan was to access the Distribution Box and add levelers to the drain field access points.

We hired the eldredge company to do the work.

They showed up around 8am and started digging. You can see in the picture the "D Box" (the black plastic thing) they brought in case they had to replace what we had.

They found the D Box, an old commercial style concrete one, and discovered it was too deteriorated to install the levelers. Apparently over time methane eats away at the concrete. He showed me how on the inside the concrete had turned soft and you could scrape it away. That of course meant replacing the D Box. You can sort of see from this picture the irregularities in the lid caused by the methane. They had put the lid back on upside down while they went and got the mini track hoe.

With the track hoe, they dug the old D Box out. They also discovered we actually have six drain fields (there were six pipes leading out of the old D Box). This meant a couple of things. They had to get a bigger D Box (7 hole version was required. One inlet and six outlets) and had to inspect the other two drain fields. The inspection included prodding the soil to check absorption in the drain fields and running a camera down the pipes inspecting their integrity.

They found more problems. One of the extra drain fields we didn't know about before has two issues. The first is it's too close to the pool. More specifically the pool wasn't installed at the correct ten foot offset from any septic source. The second issue was the pool shed is installed over top of the drain field. Your not supposed to even drive over a septic field let alone set a shed on top of it. The risk of compaction is too great and detrimental to the draining effectiveness. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot we can do about either now.

When they went to install the new D Box, they found another issue. The inlet pipe coming from the septic tank was angled incorrectly. The inlet should be flowing downhill to the D Box (no brainer right?). In our case it wasn't. Not only that, but it wasn't connected to tank incorrectly and actually leaking down the side of the tank. This part wasn't in the initial estimate and would cost more if I wanted it fixed.

Of course I wanted it fixed, so they did.

Now I have a new distribution box with speed levelers, an empty tank (pumped out 1,000 ga), and a repaired connection from the tank to the distribution box.

Should be good right?

Who knows?

The whole septic thing (at least in PA) is a mystery. Even the septic people seem surprised if it works or lasts. The whole time the guy kept suggesting I look into getting an easement through my neighbors property to access public sewer on the street in front of our house.

Great. I just spent $2k on a fix you're not confident about. I'll be sure to get as much as I can out of it, before I go the easement route.

- b

Fall Yard Day

2009-11-08T19:35:00.002-05:00

Finally got around to some much needed yard work and leaves.

Jen fired up the leaf blower and started that part of the day.

While I rented an extendable chainsaw and went after the Wisteria.

It gets so tall I've been precariously balancing on a ladder the last couple of years trying to trim it back each fall. This year I decided to just whack it all down and see what comes back.

Then it was time to rake the leaves that Jen had moved with the blower into the yard.

Of course Gretchen had to help - look close, she's there.

It was after dark when I finished mulching. I'll have to wait and see tomorrow how it came out.

- b

Projects Not By Me

2009-11-07T08:57:00.002-05:00

Discovered two issues with our home this week.

Most people think what I do around here is necessary and that our house is a total fixer upper. That's generally not the case. Most of the time I'm just fidgety and need to make things different.

But these projects really are issues.

The first was the trickling sound I kept hearing in the basement.

Turns out the nice new water conditioner we put in less then two years ago is leaking through its purge pipe. It's not leaking all over the basement, but it is leaking. Of course now that I write this, I feel I should have been more adamant about when they should come fix it. Essentially it's the same as leaving your faucet slightly open and running water down the drain. That sucks.

The second is our septic. We've been here four years now and have done nothing with the septic besides fill it. The previous owners had it inspected and cleaned right before we moved in. In considering moving, we decided to have it inspected and possibly cleaned. The inspection failed.

There are four trenches by which it drains (the four blue flags I assume). In between the tank (the white PVC you see in the background) and the four trenches there's a distribution box that obviously distributes to the four trenches. Somehow they determined only the second trench is being used. Their theory is that the distribution box is no longer level and that's why it's only distributing to one trench. They're proposing coming in here to dig up the distribution box and repair it; otherwise, it won't pass inspection.

yay.

- b

The List Gets Longer

2009-11-02T07:19:00.003-05:00

My well is leaking.

Huh?

Ok. Not exactly my well, but the pipe that runs the electric out to the well is carrying water back into the house.

My plan is to silicone the joint where it's leaking. Probably not the best permanent fix, but we'll see how well it lasts.

Now if it would just stop raining long enough for the ground to dry enough for the water to stop running in, I could actually try and fix it.

- b

Two Jobs Today

2009-11-01T18:03:00.003-05:00

Before I could get up in the attic and finish the vents, I had to fix the hole in the ceiling of our master bathroom.

It's not so much a hole as it is a gap. It was created last May when my Dad and I moved the wall forward six inches (see that here).

My plan was to simply add a bogus ceiling joist (the red), cut some drywall and screw it up there.

As I'm running up into the attic, in the bathroom and downstairs measuring and cutting stuff, I'm explaining to Jen we won't be able to put a center light in the shower because there's a real joist running right through the center. We'll have to offset a light or two around the center... and the bogus joist I'm putting up there she points out.

Damnit. That won't work, so she suggests I cut the hole all the way back to the center joist and put up a bigger piece of drywall.

So I start cutting.

I cut so much, I broke one of my razor knives.

Not related to the broken knife (I have plenty), but for some reason I pulled out the dremel to do some fine tuning of the cuts. What a mess that is.

Since the dremel was out, I decided to cut off some screws that were sticking too far through the wall. Sparks!

Then it was time to cut the new piece. Lucky for me, I have plenty of un-used drywall just hanging around the house.

Surprising it fit pretty well the first time. Sure there was some trimming required, but the new piece went in fairly easily.

Ok, so that one's done.

Run to the distributor and get a case of beer so it's cold when I'm done for the day.

Next job.

I had nine more soffit vents to put up in the attic. What a blast. I hate this job. Though it looks kind of cool and cozy with all that fluffy insulation, it just sucks up there. It's filthy. Oh, and the constant risk of falling through the ceiling and landing on your head on the floor below.

Though some things find it homey.

Figures this was in the last soffit area. I cleaned out the nest, slid the vent down and stapled it.

That was it for the vents. The entire attic is now vented.

I had a bag of insulation, so I spread those hoping to finally cover all the attic with R 40+ something, but one bag wasn't quite enough. I'll have to get another bag and get back up there some other time.

And that was it for today. Well almost. I had to clean this up too.

Hopefully that beer's cold.

- b

Snow Chain Giveaway

2009-10-31T14:22:00.003-04:00

I've got more tractor tire chains then I need, so I'm offering up a set for free.

Package says they fit 23 x 10.5 - 12 tires, but they didn't quite fit mine.

Maybe I should have used the included extender links, but I never did.

Honestly I can't guarantee that's the right packaging for these chains, so the chains themselves measure 13.5" x 48". Since the wheels on my tractor are 23 x 10.5 - 12, I figure if you have something slightly smaller these would work perfectly, or try the extenders.

I also have a brand new set of these

for sale $25. That's half off. These are the ones (another pair) that do fit my tractor wheels and work quite nicely.

Email me or leave a comment if interested.

- b

Skimmer's Done

2009-10-31T13:47:00.003-04:00

Finished the pool skimmer caulk last night in the dark.

I had enough caulk this time, but not quite enough experience.

I had a suspicion I would need to completely caulk over what I had caulked earlier in the week, otherwise you'd see an obvious difference in flow. Sure enough this morning when I checked it, there's about an eight inch section I didn't re-caulk and it's noticeable.

Oh well. Lesson learned. At least it's done and I don't have to worry about ice cracking the coping or concrete because there wasn't any caulk.

- b

Chores Before School

2009-10-27T21:13:00.001-04:00

Not completely done before work, but I did get up early one morning and paint these spots in the kitchen.

The above had been a hole in the wall since June 2008. The switches below had been open and exposed the same period of time. Ouch.

Now it's all done or done enough - haven't decided which.

- b

Night Moves

2009-10-27T06:13:00.005-04:00

Spending all weekend trying to best utilize the weather, I ended up having to relegate some things to Monday night after work.

The tractor's got lights right?

Yeah it has lights, but once you try to use them, you realize they weren't really meant to be used. I need to do what my dad did and rig up some old car headlights on the front and maybe mount the current lights out back (reverse is very dark at night). Maybe mount some KC Daylighters on the front?

Jen would kill me, but they'd work nicely. They even come with a nice little toggle I can mount in the dash of the tractor. Hell. I've practically convinced myself.

I only did the front yard (dunno why. wishing now I did the back too). I hadn't cut the grass or mulched the leaves in a few weeks. I figured a quick trip around the yard would give me a little head start if/when I got to it this weekend. Unfortunately the sun doesn't come up for nearly another hour, so I really don't know how well I did.

After the yard it was back to the pool skimmer.

I have to admit. The expansion joint caulk made me nervous. After the super-duper adhesive experience I had with the pool tiles, I was a little nervous using some other caulkable pool thingy. My fears were unfounded. This stuff was great. Almost too great. It came out of the tube like warm butter, which I thought was pretty amazing for a silicone based product. It flowed into all the depth and gaps and leveled itself out nicely.

It didn't take long to realize I was going to run out. Unfortunately it took until this morning to realize I should have simply put a thin layer down inside all the joints to seal in the bottom of the gap, then gotten more to finish off the job later. Instead I tried to do a couple of the joints completely and left some of them completely undone.

And now it's pouring outside. Worse case scenario (I hope) I have to do it again. At least I'll know how to do it and how much I'll need.

- b

For Caulk Sake

2009-10-27T05:20:00.003-04:00

So the day before I noticed a huge split between my wood siding behind one of my gutters.

We need new siding. That's just plain and simple. The splitting is nothing new. A few years back I spent a few days caulking the entire front of the house (needs to be done again) hoping to get a few more years before we actually had to get new siding.

But this split takes precedence. This one is cause for concern. It's on the western side of our house. It takes the brunt of the majority of the weather we get. Also I have suspicions the effects of this one has actually penetrated the house.

In our living room, at the ceiling along that side of the house, we have this funny thing going on with the paint. It appears to be bubbling.

Typically when paint bubbles there's some kind of contaminant. Now our house originally had popcorn (i.e. textured) ceilings. It could be this is some kind of leftover from the work done to remove the texture. Either way, I'm not taking chances and the fix (even if temporary) isn't that difficult.

So up the ladder I went.

The split was pretty bad. There appeared to be things living in there.

The bad or missing paint is where the gutter was. It really wasn't hard removing and replacing the gutter. Why the painter didn't do it (LAZY) is anyone's guess.

After cleaning out the crap, I stuffed as much of the gap with backer rod (strip of foam to fill up the space too big for just caulk).

Then caulked it. Considering the western orientation and my possible moisture infiltration, I went ahead and caulked this entire section. It's about five and a half feet wide between the chimney (which I caulked too) and the front edge of the house. I think it took three tubes of caulk, which meant a trip to Home Depot for more (I should just keep a case of the stuff around).

In the caulking mood, I decided to tackle a similar job at the pool.

Since replacing the pool skimmer, the expansion joints between the concrete pads and coping has been missing or damaged. Not only is it unsightly (especially if you're considering selling), but it can cause damage if water gets in there and freezes over the winter. The expansions joints that were there are made of some kind of really hard, yet flexible, plastic. It's a real pain to remove or work with, so I spent most of the time since the skimmer job trying to figure out the best way to remove it. Finally it came to me. I could use my pneumatic cut-off wheel to just cut it out, so that's what I did. I got the majority of it cut out and cleaned up. To replace it, I'll use pool expansion joint caulk. It's a self leveling super durable caulk that does the same thing as the plastic. It just comes in an easy to use dispenser.

I got it all cleaned up, dry and filled with sand (sand is cheaper then backer rod, since I had it free in my yard, with cat crap no extra charge!), then went to apply the caulk.

The reason why I was doing any of this caulk stuff that day was mostly because of the weather. It was sunny and 65° F all day. That's great weather for caulk. As I'm reading the pool caulk instructions, I see it's application is good down to 0° F. Knowing that, I decided to leave the spot alone for a day or so to dry out more. With a temperature rating that low, I could effectively apply the caulk one night after work regardless of outside temp (at least for a few weeks), and instead spend more time caulking other things that did have temperature limitations.

Back to the siding.

This is on the front of the house. I re-caulked (the previous owner had done it at some point) the front of the house two years ago. Most of it is still ok (just ok, not fine). I'm guessing because of the window install the integrity of this caulked area was lost. In the bottom of the gap, you can see the backer rod I put in two years ago.

The gap had gotten so big, it required two more pieces of backer rod (Yeah I know. This is like using a band aid for an amputation).

So now I'm really in the caulking mood and proceed to check out what else is in need.

Of course everything needs it. All the windows in our downstairs haven't been touched since we moved in.

Then I find our bay window is like this.

And suddenly I get bored/tired of caulking. It's late anyway. At least that helps explain why our bay window leaked last year.

At this point, all I can muster is filling some carpenter bee holes.

You'd be surprised how roomy those little holes can be.

- b

The Attic Sucks

2009-10-25T08:24:00.004-04:00

Since yesterday was supposed to be rainy and semi-cool (70° F isn't exactly cool, but it was raining), I decided to get up in the attic and hopefully finish that job.

You may remember last spring I started putting in rafter vents so the air from the soffits could more easily travel between the rafters up to the ridge vent. This is done for two reasons. In the summer it helps to cool the attic. In the winter it helps to dry the attic. When our roof was replaced in 2006, I think nearly half the plywood was replaced because it was rotten from too much moisture. The previous owner stuff the insulation too close to the soffits, thus stopping the air flow and trapping moisture in the attic.

I had something like 30+ of these vents to install. I wanted it done and over with so I didn't have to go in the attic again. I put on my attic garb and headed up.

While working at the western most part of the roof I found this.

I put my sweaty fingers near it and the wood felt damp beyond the dampness of my fingers. When I could hear the wind outside, I could feel it on my fingers. Crap.

Have I mentioned how much I loved our roofer.

For comparison here's a spot that used to be wet, was fixed, and has since dried.

I climbed out of the attic, took off my gear and went outside to investigate. The obvious part was this was happening near the chimney, so I got out the ladder and climbed up.

I found two spots that looked like they could use some caulk, so I caulked them.

While I was up there, I noticed this huge open gap in the seam of our wood siding behind the gutter. Guess what I'll be doing today?

Later, back in the attic, I was at the far western edge and checked my possible fix. I put my fingers back up to the wet spot and thought I felt a breeze, but it was pretty stormy outside. With all the rafter vents in place in that part of the attic, it's breezy in general. So I'm kind of stuck. It's a really difficult spot to get to in our attic with all the insulation I have up there. The ideal way to check if the caulk fix worked is to go back in a few weeks and see if the wood has the past wet now dry look to it like the picture above. The other option is to call the roofer and have him get up there. His work was guaranteed for 5 or 7 years, but he's a pain in the ass.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do at this point.

Somewhere around 6pm, I got sick of the attic and came down.

My sick of the attic shot with the new camera

I got one half of the attic completely vented and insulated to R40+. All that's left is 9 or so more vents and some insulation. Hopefully I'll get to that today or sometime this week.

By the way. I also found another fossilized mouse. Nothing but fur and bones. I think that makes 30 something dead mice found in this house since we moved in.

I hate the attic.

- b

Damp Sunday Chores

2009-10-18T19:29:00.005-04:00

Today started out drizzling and breezy, so it was another day of inside chores.

I began with trimming a switch cover to install on one of two coverless switches we have in our kitchen.

Since adding the dimmable fluorescent switch, I've had to replace the cover, but any new cover in our house requires fitting and trimming to fit with our woodwork. Ideally I should move all the switch boxes away from the woodwork for better balance, but that's not happening anytime soon.

I thought this would be a quick job, but no. Turns out one of the switch screws that attaches the switch to the box was stripped (it's the box that's stripped, not the screw), so I had to fight and fight with it to get the switch positioned just right for the cover to fit. Finally used a toothpick jammed under the slipping screw to hold the switch in place at least until I got the cover on and screwed tight to the switches.

Bitch of it is that I should have used a larger cover. This one is too small. Doesn't cover enough of the wall around the switches and doesn't match the other cover plates we have, so at some point I'll have to do all this again for these switches.

Next job was finishing the dimmer switches we bought for the basement last spring.

I had only managed to get one dimmer in and not even really. The box had too many wires, seemed to small and I couldn't easily figure out the breaker for the other switch (the lights and switches are on different breakers?).

With the breaker situation figured out, I decided to replace the box with a deeper one I had. When I measured the new box against the old box just to be sure, I found out they were the same size.

Damn!

I got some coffee, a chair, and sat down to try and make the wires take up less space.

See the wire sticking out of the top of the box? If you look (real close) in the first picture you'll see the box screw hole is busted. While I was messing with making the wires tighter, I glued the screw hole and used that trash wire to hold it in place while it dried.

In the end, it all worked out pretty well.

Of course there are things I could do to make it a little better, but it's way better then having a dimmer switch hanging out of the box against the wall. Try fumbling for that in the dark.

Next on the docket was cleaning Yarnall's Demo 9.

I borrowed it back in August when I went downhilling with Buddy and Rick. Yeah, yeah, I'm lame for not returning it sooner, but he didn't need it and I was contemplating borrowing it again. Anyway, the big deal about borrowing Yarnall's bike is cleaning it before you return it. Makes sense huh? Maybe? Partly I hadn't returned it because I was afraid to clean it. I was afraid I wouldn't clean it well enough, so I pick a cold dreary day to do it. Genius right? I had a bucket of super hot soapy water, a rain jacket, wool hat and cold hose water to make the effort. Rinse, wash, numb fingers repeat.

I got to the point where I knew I made a good effort. I did all kinds of OCD things I don't even do with my own bike. It was during this time of obsession I found this.

(clicky makes biggy)

Looks like something out of Aliens, but that's not the point.

So the swing arm is cracked. Sent Yarnall an email with some pictures. Maybe now he won't notice the dirt I might have missed, though I'm hoping that's still more important then a possible cracked swing arm. I can't imagine my skinny little butt was the root cause of this.

Moving on.

I cleaned the pellet stove for the first time this season (that's the fire pot). I was kind of neglectful last spring and didn't clean it before the summer, so it was a little over-do. It was also a little rusty (not the red you see above, but where the red arrows are pointing below).

Not sure what that's all about. There were other places too. Maybe leaving the ash in all summer was a bad idea? Maybe it soaked up moisture or something? We'll see what it looks like next cleaning. Something tells me a week of solid clean burning will "fix" things. I'll just have to be sure I clean out the ash before the summers.

I also cleaned the stove glass today. What a difference that made, and it's simple! Just a wet paper towel and the glass is clear. I can see every lick of flame in the fire chamber. It's almost better then TV; then again, it is my TV.

After the stove I moved onto our "blue room" where we have boxes and boxes of crap in storage. Jen and I both have been randomly cleaning stuff out of there. So far our efforts have resulted in one trip to Goodwill and one trip to donate six boxes of books to the public library. We also have a large pile of stuff ready to be freecycled. Today's effort resulted in a pile of paper stuff I don't need anymore (to be recycled), finding my old Star Wars cards and other interesting goodies I'll have to post about later.

What a day. I'm exhausted, though staying out till midnight with a buddy from work last night probably had more to do with that.

- b

Rainy Day Jobs

2009-10-17T21:13:00.002-04:00

Not much (I want) to do outside when it's 37°F and raining.

So it's a day for inside chores, which means I needed the truck, which was 440lbs. full of stuff to go to the dump.

Off to the dump the dogs and I went. Gretchen wasn't happy about it.

After the dump it was Home Depot to get insulation for the attic (great cold rainy day job).

But Jen wasn't home, working in the attic sucks, so I decided on something else (wasted trips?).

Since we've started using the pellet stove for the year, I decided to finish the electric project I started this summer in our downstairs hallway. - see it here. In that process I temporarily took out the programmable switch that powers the fan

(the switch is programmed to turn on/off the fan in sync with when the stove goes on/off) that moves the heat from downstairs to upstairs.

The programmable switch was in the box on the right. The original owners had installed this switch box to power two lights we don't use or have chosen to switch from somewhere else.

I could have put the programmable switch back in the box on the right, then find a cover for a decora switch and blank (pain in the ass), but I had another issue. The switch box on the left was wiggling. To kill two birds with one stone, I decided to put in a more stable three gang box on the left and either put a solid cover on the right box or just patch (w drywall) over it completely.

First step was getting the wiggly left box out. Mmmm wires.

Second was cutting the hole bigger (including my hand accidentally), rerouting some wires from the right box and putting in the new three gang box.

Now the box on the right is empty.

Next step was wiring up the light switches, programmable switch (which needed new batteries), and the receptacle powered by the programmable where the fan plugs in.

So it's all wired, programmed and plugged in, but no fan.

Hmmm.

Check this. Check that. Still no fan.

Call Dad.

He says try a regular single pole switch, maybe the ($30) programmable switch is bad?

Sure enough. Switch is bad.

Luckily I had another one. Not quite as functional as the first, but programmable none-the-less.

So that's done. The lights all work as they should and there's an automatic program powering the fan at the appropriate times for the stove.

I guess if I was really cool, I'd get a thermostatic switch to power the fan when the temp in the hallway reached a certain setting.

Maybe next time.

- b

Pool's Closed

2009-10-11T19:07:00.002-04:00

Finally! Freakn' took forever to get around to it.
Even replaced the tiles I should have replaced months ago.

Though something tells me I'm going to regret the 3m marine adhesive I used.

Either the cover somehow got into it before it was dry or the mortar I didn't remove (see photo above) from where the tiles were will pop off and take half the tile with it next year if/when I open it.

- b

Deck's Done - Sort Of

2009-10-10T19:04:00.002-04:00

I had only two sections of spindles left to do.

The last four sections of spindles I've done as if we're moving. That means I've only put in three screws per spindle.

If we don't move, I'll put the fourth screw in the spindles at some point.

If we do move, I still have to figure out how I'm going to paint/stain everything.

Almost makes me not want to move.

- b

Night Shift

2009-10-05T22:04:00.004-04:00

It got dark tonight before I could get started, so I had to improvise a little.

The dark wasn't so bad,

it was the damn rhododendron that made things difficult.

Just two more sections of spindles and this project could be completed. The tools and equipment necessary for this one have already gotten significantly less.

- b

Another Weekend Down

2009-10-04T20:30:00.002-04:00

The intention was to close the pool today. We're about a month late as it is, but that's for other reasons.

I started with some compost work. I had really let things go and needed to do some mixing and flipping.

Sure it looks all good and composted now, but I literally dug all the stuff out of one bin (right down to the dirt) and threw it on top of all the rotting fruits & veggies.

Then I moved onto taming the Wisteria. That's really gotten out of control this year.

But what about the pool?

Then I moved onto cutting the front yard. New tractor blades are nice! Too bad I couldn't do that before each time I cut the grass.

After the grass it was baths for both dogs. Lovely.

Finally time to close the pool. A quick test of the water revealed the chemicals weren't quite right for closing. The water was way too soft and I really didn't want to let it sit there for the next eight months with the water too soft. Problem with pool chemicals is you have to let them circulate 8 - 12 hours.

Which meant no closing today. So as to not completely abandon the process, I got things all ready to go for the closing. This involves putting all the pool furniture away and getting the blocks and boards out for the cover.

Funny thing about those boards - after four years I finally realized the spot that I thought was perfect for them in the summer months is probably the worst spot they could be in. They're tucked away between some fences and under some pine trees so you can't see them, but they're tucked away between some fences and under some pine trees is a spot that never dries! Not really a good place for wood that you'd like to keep around a while.

Oh well. I pulled them all out, cleaned them up and leaned them against the pool fence to dry and warp some more before I finally put them down on the cover sometime later this week.

If there was anything else I did, I don't remember and probably don't want to.

- b

Some Variety

2009-10-04T08:38:00.003-04:00

The blinker came in for my car, so I started with getting that installed. It took a little "manipulating",

but it went in nicely.

After that I spent some time with the pool getting it ready for closing - nothing significant, just cleaning and chemicals before we put it to bed for the winter.

A late surprise was replacing the tractor blades after dinner.

Usually I'm too tired or dinner is too late to do stuff after. Guess I didn't work hard enough during the day or the stars aligned just right.

Using the air tools makes the job silly fast. I had it back together and on the tractor before I rememberd to take a picture with the new blades. I think It took me longer to clean up the mess then it did to do the switch.

- b

Finished the Medicine Cabinet

2009-09-30T07:59:00.002-04:00

Caulked and put the doors back on. You might not notice the subtle difference, but the trim we added around the outside looks really nice.

Only thing left in this bathroom is caulking or replacing the vanity and some touch-up spots on the ceiling.

When that's done, it's time to finish the master bath.

- b

Headlight Overhaul

2009-09-29T19:11:00.002-04:00

The headlights on my car were atrocious.

After ten years they were completely clouded over with scratches.

My Dad had told me about these kits he'd seen demoed where you could restore the lenses yourself, but I thought that was a bunch of crap.

I didn't have time for some DIY solution and would probably screw it up anyway.

It just seemed easier and more practical for me to buy new headlight lenses. Boy was I wrong.

The kit was only twenty-something bucks and was supposed to do two headlights. Perfect!

I read through the instructions, then read them again before I started. As I went through the process I read them a third and fourth time just to be sure. With all that reading and picture taking, it probably took thirty minutes to do the first/worst light.

It came out beautiful!

Maybe my Dad does know a few things?

- b

ps. It didn't work quite as well on the second light. I even repeated a few of the finer sanding steps to be sure, but I don't think the kit had quite enough to do two lenses as bad as mine. The second one was better then it was, but didn't have the sparkle the first one had.

No Surprises Here

2009-09-28T07:32:00.002-04:00

My weekends are startging to feel like Groundhog Day. Every Saturday and Sunday I wake up and do the same thing again and again.

It was supposed to rain all day on Sunday, so I never expected to get outside and back to work on the deck.

I did get a new drill - unfortunately before I found this beauty in the basement.

That's all metal! Shiny and heavy!

I got a second coat of paint done in the bathroom, but didn't get to caulk or put the cabinet back together. Maybe I'll manage some time during the week after work.

- b

More of the Same

2009-09-27T09:32:00.002-04:00

It's like a rerun.

Paint the bathroom.

And work on the deck.

Besides one lower rail, I got everything up to only have to do the spindles and I'm finished.

Speaking of finished, my drill died. It's a shame. I really liked that drill.

I also made a little movie during the work. The top deck rails are pre-cut from the store for a specific application. For my application I have to rip off some of their cuts. The actual movie films the entire ripping scene. I could get it online if there's demand (?), but here's a teaser.

- b

Work Myself Silly

2009-09-20T19:29:00.003-04:00

Started the day with a door stop.

Then it was a second coat of paint in the bathroom.

While that dried, I moved outside to work on the deck. Remember the deck?

It was nice having the outdoor speakers. Though pretty sunny, it was a nice temp. to work on the deck.

It took a while for me to get back in the groove of things. I guess not working on the railings since last November has taken its toll.

I also tried a different technique this time. I used to do an entire section at once. I'd do the 2x4s, top rail, and spindles before moving onto the next section. This time I tried to do as many sections with 2x4s as I could - at least until the paint dried in the bathroom and it was time to finish that.

Back in the bathroom, the first thing I did was install the medicine cabinet.

I came up with this nifty way of hiding the screws into the wall with the shelves, but only if the shelves go where I put the screws.

Then it was time to mount the light. Yeah. I should have done the light first, but whatever. I had some concerns with the light box. There were only two nails holding it up there, and they weren't that secure.

The light is metal with four glass globe like thingies. I didn't want to risk it pulling out of the wall, so I rigged some over-engineered support.

The key of course is the two little screws through the box and into my support. You probably can't do chin-ups on the light, but I'm pretty sure a little rumbling won't shake it loose.

Then Voila! The light goes up!

Then some more painting of course.

And still the bathroom isn't done!

- b

Door Stop

2009-09-20T08:39:00.002-04:00

A whole page on a door stop?

Like everything else around here, a lot went into these. We actually bought three or four different styles of door stops and mocked them up before settling on this kind.

We considered everything from function, aesthetic, vacuum cleaner interference, to toe stubbing.

When we finally figured out what we wanted, we could only find it online and they cost $16. We only ordered one to be sure it was right.

Due to the span of our trim and door project, Home Depot started selling the door stops - at half the price.

So supply is cheap(er) and plentiful, but we only needed four.

They won at the selection because they're magnetic (holds the doors from breezes slamming them shut) and spring loaded (softens the blow from whatever slamming them open).

So much effort for a door stop, you'd think we were nuts for considering selling this house and buying a different one.

- b

Another Weekend of Work

2009-09-19T19:42:00.003-04:00

Started the day in the yard. Got it all cut and trimmed by noon.

Then time to spackle

and paint.

At the same time we were also FreeCycling a bunch of stuff.

Then I replaced the alternator on the truck.

After putting a new battery in the truck then having it go dead, it was obvious the test I had done on the alternator a while back was bogus. This would be the third alternator I've put in my truck. The first was along the highway on the way to O.C. Maryland. The second was along the highway somewhere between Bristol and Knoxville, TN.

The new alternator was obviously the fix. I haven't seen the charge this good in a while.

Meanwhile Jen was cleaning up our "blue room." Didn't know we had a blue rooom did ya? It's kind of an extra room we've been throwing stuff into and closing the door. I think it got to the point where the door wouldn't open anymore.

At the end of the day, the first coat in the bathroom didn't look so bad.

- b

Still Finishing the Bathroom

2009-09-13T20:03:00.002-04:00

Today I worked on putting the trim back in the bathroom we had to remove to move the vanity.

The vanity has been without trim since the spring.

Whatever right? It's not like our whole upstairs has had trim for the last three years.

But this job was different then most of my trim work. This job required re-using the old trim, cleaning it up some, cutting it to the new size and reinstalling.

Which looks kind of crappy up close, but who's going to get down on their knees in the bathroom and check it out in person - besides my Dad?

With a little caulk, wood filler, joint compound and some paint, it will look good as new.

Not bad considering I had to finish the stair treads & risers, went for a hike, looked at an old farm, and Jen did a second coat of joint compound.

- b

More Weekend Labor

2009-09-12T19:25:00.002-04:00

We finally got back around to working on our bathroom remodel project we started last spring.

I had made a mess of the new drywall getting it into the new spot. Luckily Jen is an excellent drywall finisher. Here she measures out and cuts her corners.

Then it's time for joint compound.

Meanwhile I finished painting a door from last spring.

And started finishing up the polyurethane we started on our new stairs that we got almost four years ago (click here and scroll down toward the bottom).

Looks like another weekend day of work done - till tomorrow at least.

- b

Paint, Caulk, Paint, Caulk

2009-09-08T20:52:00.002-04:00

At least I think that's how Labor day went. I really don't remember.

We painted a bunch. Caulked a bunch, then painted some more.

It was all kind of sketchy because it was supposed to rain yesterday and our windows were out of the frames all weekend.

Luckily as of 11pm last night when we pulled the last bit of tape off

and put the windows back in their painted frames, it hadn't rained.

- b

Last of the Trim

2009-09-07T07:51:00.002-04:00

Besides the closets, laundry room, kitchen quarter round, stairs and foyer, I got the last of the upstairs trim down last night around 9:30pm.

Now it's time to paint it all.

Twice.

- b

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-06T22:12:00.001-04:00

Nothing but labor around here so far.

I think we might actually finish all the trim work upstairs this weekend.

Maybe I'll get some pictures up.

- b

Window Work

2009-08-16T21:13:00.003-04:00

So we got these new windows a over a year ago.

While I was off busting my ass for a mt. bike race, Jen got around to painting them (that's not meant to be negative in anyway - it's just the way it came out).

This was only half (at minimum) of what she got did.

She also got the mullions done too.

Now it's time to tape the trim and finish it up.

- b

Pool Filter Cleaning

2009-08-15T20:19:00.002-04:00

You can only backwash a pool filter so long before you have to crack the seal and completely clean it.

At least that's how it works with mine.

I should have done it sooner. It's really not so bad.

Basically loosen up the filter band that keeps the lid on, pop it off and voila!

You've got a big tank full of soggy ick!

Luckily it rinses off rather easily. The one of the left has been rinsed. The one on the right has not. You may want to click on this one for more detail.

There's all kinds of chemicals and potions you can get to do the same thing without having to actually crack open the filter, but this is really so simple I don't see the need to buy and use all the chemicals.

Once they're all rinsed (there's 8 of them).

You put them back together,

drop them in the filter and seal it up.

Done.

Good as the beginning of the season.

Almost worth doing in place of backwashing.

- b

Side Project

2009-07-20T23:46:00.003-04:00

After dragging lengthy lines of air hose from the garage, under the door (particularly unpleasant when the inside and outside temps are at extremes) and throughout the house, I came up with a better plan.

I'd simply drill a hole through the wall from the garage to the basement. Brilliant!

Eh. Not so brilliant. A hole through the wall doesn't really help with temperature differences between outside and in, nor does it protect from critters.

I had to have a better way.

Which of course required some machining.

And voila!

I'll be the first to admit it's not perfect, but it's a start.

It's a start to a whole series of air lines plumbed throughout the house and garage!

Just imagine the euphoria to opening a closet door and finding an accessible air chuck in the back corner! It will be amazing!

Home repairs nuts everywhere will bow in envy!

Or not.

- b

Truck Alternator

2009-07-09T21:09:00.005-04:00

Back when my father was here in May I started having issues with my truck. The battery didn't seem to want to hold a charge.

I don't drive my 21 year old truck with 277,000 miles much anymore, so the battery has a tendency to go dead from time to time. Usually I charge it and everything is good for the short while I need the truck.

In May I charged it, then drove it some and ended up having to get a jump in some parking lot somewhere.

When I was done needing it for the chores my father and I were working on then, I charged the battery and let the truck sit a while (2 months). When it came time to need it again, I'd see if the battery held the charge. If the battery held the charge while not being driven for two months, that would tell me the battery was good but the alternator was bad. If the battery didn't hold the charge, then it was time for a new battery.

This week I fired it up and the battery held the charge. That told me it was the alternator, which wouldn't surprise me. I've put 2 alternators on the truck (both roadside installs) in its lifetime. This would be its 4th alternator.

To be sure I first had the battery tested. It tested fine. To test the alternator, I had to remove it and take it back to the parts store.

Being that my experiences with alternators had always been roadside repairs, I was kind of dreading removing it to just test it.

I actually started the removal in a very inefficient way (I'm out of practice when it comes to car maintenance).

(I wish blogger was smart enough not to rotate my pictures incorrectly)

It didn't take long for me to get smarter and upgrade my tool.

Then get smarter still...

and had that thing yanked out in five minutes.

So I took it to the parts store to test it and it tested ok.

Huh?

Now what?

Just put it all back together and hope it works ok I guess.
Maybe the battery was just never fully charged those times I needed a jump and I hadn't driven far enough for the alternator to charge.

I guess we'll find out.

- b

Backwash

2009-07-08T22:03:00.002-04:00

When the pressure at the pump gets too high, it's time to backwash the filter.

It's sort of a headache that I kind of dread, though not sure why.

It basically consists of installing a long hose to the pump equipment and "back pumping" water through the filter and out the hose - essentially rinsing the filter into the yard.

There's no real labor involved just time and aggravation. Aggravation from the old hose clamp I use to connect the hose to the waste pipe, aggravation of the hose twisting, etc. Normal stuff I suppose I shouldn't get all worked up over.

Though oddly enough, I didn't find it too aggravating when I discovered a mouse (or something) had chewed a hole in my hose and it was gushing (waste) water at my feet.

Sure, I had to disconnect the hose, cut it and fight with the hose clamp again, but what can you do?

It takes about 10 minutes to backwash the gunk. The next step is replacing the D.E., which takes a lot longer. It's a fine white powder you have to dump into the skimmer. I have to dump 8 coffee can loads in, but not all at once. Each can is painstakingly emptied very slowly to be sure the D.E. dissolves and flows freely through the pipes to the filter. If you do it fast, it gums up and sticks in the pipes - a real pain in the ass.

Like I said, not a whole lot of work, but something tedious I dread.

Of course letting Gretchen swim in the pool doesn't help. Within a day of back washing and Gretchen swimming, the pressure is already up half to where it was when I back washed.

This means, I'll have to pull the filter apart and actually rinse the filter grids by hand -something you should only have to do once a summer, but with the (spoiled) dog it's quite frequent.

More on that, when it happens.

- b