Still waiting on the door and window guy to make the new window and get back to me. He's on vacation this week. In the meantime, I've done some more work on what it'll take to install the new flooring downstairs.
If I want to go with a solid wood I have to put down a plywood subfloor to attach it to. That's no big deal - I've looked into what it'll take to do it. What I didn't do was measure whether or not everything would fit under the actual doors. It turns out I'm about 3/8 inch short on most of them. So this idea won't work, and now I'm trying to figure out whether engineered wood will work better because I may have to go with a glue down installation. At least I found this out now, rather than later.
Also discovered that it's time to get a new roof. Definately not a DIY project, and I'll spare all the details around it. It's not leaking, but the end is near. I'm holding out until it cools down some - in my strange line of reasoning maybe you get better workmanship from people when they're not up on the roof constantly thinking about how hot it is. Idunno.
That's about enough depressing news for now. Some weeks it's good, some weeks the news isn't so great.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Don't things ever get fixed?
I really wanted to get the front door fixed before the wedding. REALLY, really wanted to. But the stained glass guy was busy and the window was in much worse shape than I thought, so it makes a lot more sense to just replace it. It won't cost a whole lot more than fixing it anyway, and it'll look a lot newer. Now that we're back from the honeymoon of course now it's time for him to go on vacation. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done... at least it'll be fixed the right way.
We've also trained Snowy to be more calm when the doorbell rings. This isn't going to happen again.
I got a lot of advice from my aunt who knows a lot about decorating and design while she was here. Apparently the shade of green that the entire downstairs is painted in has a lot more life left on it than I thought. She also said that a dark wood would go well downstairs in the living room and dining room, and that it'd be a good idea to think about doing something with the mantle. The floor will be easy because I've been looking into that for months now, but the fireplace... much more difficult. I'm hoping to break ground on this project sometime in late July. Until then I'll be busy planning and trying to integrate all the stuff Elle and I got for our wedding with everything.
We've also trained Snowy to be more calm when the doorbell rings. This isn't going to happen again.
I got a lot of advice from my aunt who knows a lot about decorating and design while she was here. Apparently the shade of green that the entire downstairs is painted in has a lot more life left on it than I thought. She also said that a dark wood would go well downstairs in the living room and dining room, and that it'd be a good idea to think about doing something with the mantle. The floor will be easy because I've been looking into that for months now, but the fireplace... much more difficult. I'm hoping to break ground on this project sometime in late July. Until then I'll be busy planning and trying to integrate all the stuff Elle and I got for our wedding with everything.
Stupid breaks the door (May 26, 2009)
Stupid the dog (formerly known as Snowy) had a rough day today. Someone rang the doorbell today and he took off to go see what's going on but this time he's extra excited and decides it's a good idea to jump on the window. One of the glass panels breaks. No, the dog wasn't hurt.
Thanks, Snowy! The estimate:
$125 to fix the glass
$25 to repair the solder
$300-ish? to refinish the door. But they're taking it off to take somewhere and refinish and I'm really not that great at staining and finishing stuff with funny edges to it. I would've had to farm that out at some point anyway because I don't have the time and space to do a good job of it myself.
For the time being there's a band aid of tape covering the hole, and obedience training in store for the dog.
Thanks, Snowy! The estimate:
$125 to fix the glass
$25 to repair the solder
$300-ish? to refinish the door. But they're taking it off to take somewhere and refinish and I'm really not that great at staining and finishing stuff with funny edges to it. I would've had to farm that out at some point anyway because I don't have the time and space to do a good job of it myself.
For the time being there's a band aid of tape covering the hole, and obedience training in store for the dog.
May 2009
There's a lot to do right now because of the wedding coming up in 1 month, so I really haven't been all that busy. I decided to try cleaning up the grout in the kitchen and dining room again even though it really didn't do a lot last time. A few harsh chemicals made it a little whiter, but the floor was still a nasty concrete gray. Then I decided to grind into it a bit and sure enough it came up a bright white. After doing half the kitchen I remembered I had a can of white grout left over from the last house, and this was taking a long time. I'm sure you can tell where this is going...
It turns out that it's easier to just spread new grout than grind up the old stuff anyway. Enough of the old stuff has worn away so that the new grout is thick enough to stay around anyway. The difference is huge - I should've done this ages ago.
Snowy the Dog approves of this project.
I've also been busy running around trying to make the place more energy efficient. I was up in the attic above the garage for who knows what reason when I felt a draft of cool air coming up along a wall. Nothing a can of foam insulation can't take care of so I did that, and popped off every faceplate in the house to seal around those along with all the plumbing fixtures and lights I could get at. Anything that makes a hole in the sheetrock on the inside or the brick on the outside (excluding weep holes) was sealed up. It should have the added benefit of keeping bugs away.
I discovered as part of this that you're not supposed to run the furnace fan 24/7. Apparently that doesn't really circulate the air very much and also makes whatever drafts there are worse. The electricity bills should drop however much because they're not on all the time anymore. I'm almost looking forward to getting next month's electricity bill to see just how much lower it was this year vs. last year.
It turns out that it's easier to just spread new grout than grind up the old stuff anyway. Enough of the old stuff has worn away so that the new grout is thick enough to stay around anyway. The difference is huge - I should've done this ages ago.
Snowy the Dog approves of this project.
I've also been busy running around trying to make the place more energy efficient. I was up in the attic above the garage for who knows what reason when I felt a draft of cool air coming up along a wall. Nothing a can of foam insulation can't take care of so I did that, and popped off every faceplate in the house to seal around those along with all the plumbing fixtures and lights I could get at. Anything that makes a hole in the sheetrock on the inside or the brick on the outside (excluding weep holes) was sealed up. It should have the added benefit of keeping bugs away.
I discovered as part of this that you're not supposed to run the furnace fan 24/7. Apparently that doesn't really circulate the air very much and also makes whatever drafts there are worse. The electricity bills should drop however much because they're not on all the time anymore. I'm almost looking forward to getting next month's electricity bill to see just how much lower it was this year vs. last year.
April 2009
Two projects this month. One is just more of the same... the never-ending radiant barrier install. But this month I found a much better deal on the stuff than I'd been getting in the past. I ordered 1,000 square feet of the stuff from Radiant Guard. It comes out to about half the cost of buying at Home Depot, and you get a warm fuzzy because it's made in the US rather than somewhere in China. In any case, I managed to finish the southern exposure in the highest attic and move on to the difficult one and cover the space above the main bedroom. I had to put a sprinkler on the roof to cool things down, and I still had to get out of there around 2:30 because the heat was getting to me.
The other project wasn't exactly something I was planning on doing... it's just one of those things that isn't done right that you get tired of looking at. The door to my closet leading from the master bathroom isn't hung right, the casing is missing entirely from the closet side, and there's tons of caulking in the corners. The gap with the door was so bad you could stand in the closet, close the door and watch the dog walking around from the gap. I got tired of looking at it every day and in about 20 minutes had the door frame taken down. That was the easy part.
Look at all that caulking jammed in the corners!
It became pretty obvious once I got it all out that the door used to open into the closet, but that really didn't make much sense so somebody flipped the door around into a slightly less awkward position. I'm not sure if it was an owner or whoever did the wallpaper and other work in the bathroom, but if somebody actually paid for this to be done they should've gotten their money back. Rather than shim anything and install it like they should, they just nailed the door frame parts to the framing and caulked over the gaps left behind. They were also kind enough to cut the little bits that stick up at the top of the frame that keep everything nice and square. This is going to be a little more difficult than I thought...
Rather than just reinstall everything, the paint on there was looking a little thick so why not have a go at removing it and starting fresh? I want to put a pocket door in there someday because it really makes no sense for the door to open either in or out in that location anyway, so this made a good enough piece to practice on.
To keep things short, I learned a lot about what not to do. Don't expect the paint stripper to do very much work. Maybe I got something that wasn't strong enough... all I know is that it did a decent job on the top layer or two of latex paint but didn't bother to do anything on the stuff down below. Second, don't scrape paint from anything you'll be looking at or standing next to with a paint scraper. It leaves a lot of dents. Especially on the trim pieces. Seriously, don't do it! The last little problem - the tool I have (don't know its name) that lets you cut wood at an angle isn't so great. It gets almost a 45 degree angle, but when you line up the pieces of wood it's not a perfect fit. But it's all back together the right way now and looks so much better than it did beforehand! This is what somebody was trying do do, but now it's done right. Nice and square, with fresh new casing on the bathroom side.
The other project wasn't exactly something I was planning on doing... it's just one of those things that isn't done right that you get tired of looking at. The door to my closet leading from the master bathroom isn't hung right, the casing is missing entirely from the closet side, and there's tons of caulking in the corners. The gap with the door was so bad you could stand in the closet, close the door and watch the dog walking around from the gap. I got tired of looking at it every day and in about 20 minutes had the door frame taken down. That was the easy part.
Look at all that caulking jammed in the corners!
It became pretty obvious once I got it all out that the door used to open into the closet, but that really didn't make much sense so somebody flipped the door around into a slightly less awkward position. I'm not sure if it was an owner or whoever did the wallpaper and other work in the bathroom, but if somebody actually paid for this to be done they should've gotten their money back. Rather than shim anything and install it like they should, they just nailed the door frame parts to the framing and caulked over the gaps left behind. They were also kind enough to cut the little bits that stick up at the top of the frame that keep everything nice and square. This is going to be a little more difficult than I thought...
Rather than just reinstall everything, the paint on there was looking a little thick so why not have a go at removing it and starting fresh? I want to put a pocket door in there someday because it really makes no sense for the door to open either in or out in that location anyway, so this made a good enough piece to practice on.
To keep things short, I learned a lot about what not to do. Don't expect the paint stripper to do very much work. Maybe I got something that wasn't strong enough... all I know is that it did a decent job on the top layer or two of latex paint but didn't bother to do anything on the stuff down below. Second, don't scrape paint from anything you'll be looking at or standing next to with a paint scraper. It leaves a lot of dents. Especially on the trim pieces. Seriously, don't do it! The last little problem - the tool I have (don't know its name) that lets you cut wood at an angle isn't so great. It gets almost a 45 degree angle, but when you line up the pieces of wood it's not a perfect fit. But it's all back together the right way now and looks so much better than it did beforehand! This is what somebody was trying do do, but now it's done right. Nice and square, with fresh new casing on the bathroom side.
March 2009
Not a lot going on this month because I was back in Seattle pretty much the entire time. Most months are like that, but I think I was only in Texas for a few days in March.
But I did manage to get a few things done. Because this house is in Texas and the back of the house faces due south it can get a little warm in the main bedroom. The living room faces south and also has windows to the west, but they're sheltered by trees and the pergola and it doesn't get hot in there. The main bedroom though - last summer it would routinely get above 86 in there, which is a good 8 degrees or more than the thermostat is set to. It could be more, but my thermometer runs out of numbers around 86 or 88 and if it was hotter in there I don't want to know about it. So since it's March and it's already hot out I decided to do something about it.
Because replacing the windows would've been insanely difficult and expensive I decided to go with tinting instead. Beforehand the blinds were hitting 100-110 degrees when closed, so they were basically acting like giant radiators dumping heat into the room. Elle and I went to Lowes and got some tinting that blocks 70% of the energy from coming into the room and went about installing it. It's really a weekend project if you go slow and take lots of breaks. Pretty easy to do, but you absolutely have to have a helper. The tint will stick together and drive you crazy without someone holding it still. That will ruin the piece you are trying to install and you'll have to start over. But seriously, it's a very easy project to do yourself.
The results? The room is now the same temperature as the rest of the house! It dropped a good 5 or 6 degrees and is much more comfortable to be in. The blinds are now only slightly warmer than room temperature. When I had them off I could really tell what 10 years worth of sun has done to them. They're Everwood by Hunter Douglass so they aren't supposed to change color due to UV exposure, but you can tell they've been exposed to a harsh environment. The green (ick!) pleats were faded nearly white on the sunny side.
We also got replacement parts in for the blinds. At only 10 years old they were starting to look pretty sad. A part that holds the cloth sashes up is made entirely of plastic with two thin arms supporting the whole thing. Of course the arms break off and the blinds look run-down pretty fast. There's a solution to replacing them though - Fix My Blinds. They sell replacement parts for all makes and models, and they're stronger than what the originals and should last longer. We plan on ordering again later to get rid of the 1990s hunter green sashes on the blinds in the main bedroom, and fix a defect on the blinds in the laundry room.
But I did manage to get a few things done. Because this house is in Texas and the back of the house faces due south it can get a little warm in the main bedroom. The living room faces south and also has windows to the west, but they're sheltered by trees and the pergola and it doesn't get hot in there. The main bedroom though - last summer it would routinely get above 86 in there, which is a good 8 degrees or more than the thermostat is set to. It could be more, but my thermometer runs out of numbers around 86 or 88 and if it was hotter in there I don't want to know about it. So since it's March and it's already hot out I decided to do something about it.
Because replacing the windows would've been insanely difficult and expensive I decided to go with tinting instead. Beforehand the blinds were hitting 100-110 degrees when closed, so they were basically acting like giant radiators dumping heat into the room. Elle and I went to Lowes and got some tinting that blocks 70% of the energy from coming into the room and went about installing it. It's really a weekend project if you go slow and take lots of breaks. Pretty easy to do, but you absolutely have to have a helper. The tint will stick together and drive you crazy without someone holding it still. That will ruin the piece you are trying to install and you'll have to start over. But seriously, it's a very easy project to do yourself.
The results? The room is now the same temperature as the rest of the house! It dropped a good 5 or 6 degrees and is much more comfortable to be in. The blinds are now only slightly warmer than room temperature. When I had them off I could really tell what 10 years worth of sun has done to them. They're Everwood by Hunter Douglass so they aren't supposed to change color due to UV exposure, but you can tell they've been exposed to a harsh environment. The green (ick!) pleats were faded nearly white on the sunny side.
We also got replacement parts in for the blinds. At only 10 years old they were starting to look pretty sad. A part that holds the cloth sashes up is made entirely of plastic with two thin arms supporting the whole thing. Of course the arms break off and the blinds look run-down pretty fast. There's a solution to replacing them though - Fix My Blinds. They sell replacement parts for all makes and models, and they're stronger than what the originals and should last longer. We plan on ordering again later to get rid of the 1990s hunter green sashes on the blinds in the main bedroom, and fix a defect on the blinds in the laundry room.
February 2009
The new trees came in! I went to Millenberger and walked around the back lot where they keep the big stuff. I picked out a cedar elm that's about 30 feet tall and a live oak that's maybe around 25 feet. It's not a true DIY project because I didn't dig the holes the trees were planted in, but it took a huge earth mover to dig down 4 feet and I'd rather farm that out than stand out there with a shovel and pickaxe for a week! The one problem out of all this... the vitex shrub tree things that were there beforehand. I cut them down myself which was pretty easy to do. But I didn't take into account what to do with the wood. It's stacked up in the back yard, waiting for me to do something with it. Hope I can figure something out before too long!
Before:
During - you can see why I didn't want to dig the holes! It was impossible to get a pic of the bottom of the hole since it was pretty much 5ft around x 4ft deep.
And After! The big challenge will be getting them established. Texas is in a horrible drought right now so that means lots of water. They aren't a lot to look at right now, especially since there aren't any leaves yet. The tree guys said they'll look a lot better next year (as in, 2010).
Before:
During - you can see why I didn't want to dig the holes! It was impossible to get a pic of the bottom of the hole since it was pretty much 5ft around x 4ft deep.
And After! The big challenge will be getting them established. Texas is in a horrible drought right now so that means lots of water. They aren't a lot to look at right now, especially since there aren't any leaves yet. The tree guys said they'll look a lot better next year (as in, 2010).
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