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.

January 2009

I've mostly been working on the pergola. This is a never-ending project... Anyway here are the pics. I've been using Sikkens wood stain. It's oil-based and rated better than anything out there. This is a job that I don't want to do again for a long time and the results have come out great.





I've also been working on the other never-ending project... radiant barrier material isn't cheap stuff. Anyway the attic above the garage is finished now and now I'm working on the attic above the second floor. Elle and I found this top secret passage into the space above the main bedroom. You have to remove the back panel in a hamper upstairs and that reveals a pretty big hole you can crawl through to get in there. It's a sea of gray in there - nothing to stand on anywhere except for the beams and it's a 12 foot fall if you step between them. Unfortunately this is a pretty big space and heat has been a problem in the living room and main bedroom last summer, so I have to install the barrier stuff in there. Fun tims. :/ Here's a view out into the abyss



Not exactly home-related, but I managed to fix the fridge. It was getting loud when it ran... this rrr-rrrr-rrrr whenever it ran. The compressor was loose, but when I was working on it I noticed the fan wasn't turning anymore because it was blocked by a piece of the cardboard material that keeps dust out (or something... it has to have a purpose I guess). Anyway that was an easy fix. I sat on this problem way too long.

June 2008

The movers showed up WAY ahead of schedule - before they got in all I could really do is unpack whatever Elle and I brought along in her car when we drove over here. The car was packed, but that's not a lot of stuff. The plants look bad... I don't know what happened but they really don't look good. Maybe they got a lot of sun on the way over, who knows. Also got an LCD TV and stand (thanks to my parents for the stand). It's a pretty massive piece of furniture, it took a 4-wheeled furniture mover or two to get it indoors.

After all my stuff arrived I had a little repair work to look into. Two fence posts, rotten at ground level for this short section that runs between the fenceline and a wall. Of course you can't just go buy new fenceposts and put them in the square hole in the concrete.

The hard part was really only an afternoon job but it felt like a weekend. It's hot in San Antonio in June, and breaking up the old concrete and getting the new fenceposts installed straight isn't exactly a good time when it's 100 degrees out. Anyway the fence is installed with new pressure treated posts that should last a long time and stand up a lot better to the carpenter bees I spotted going in and out of the old one. I also got the chance to write Elle and my name n the concrete and that's always fun. Wonder how long they'll be around? Hopefully longer than the old ones anyway.

We want to redo pretty much everything, of course the hard part is figuring out exactly what changes to make. The plan is to start with easy or repair type stuff, then move on to bigger and better things once I have a better feel for the house.

Anyway here are a couple of pictures of the concrete. Cheesy I know.