New (to me) Tools!

A friend's parent gave me more tools! They're mostly gardening things, but two of the things I'm most excited about are the broadcaster and a container to organize screws/nuts/bolts/nails/etc in!

My yard is mostly crab grass, so hopefully I will be able to pull all of it up this spring and reseed (hence the broadcaster). I also hope to put in a vegetable and herb garden.

The organizer is great b/c it has little drawers to put each type of thing. Who knows when I'll get around to organizing my box of fasteners, but now I have a place to put them.

Also, if you need a saw please let me know. I have 2 bow saws, a small power saw, and 2 crosscut hand saws.

Another hole in the wall

I got around to fixing another hole in the wall. This one was in my bedroom and I knew it would need to be fixed before I moved in (unlike the one from my previous post). I forgot to take a picture of their make-shift fix before removing it from the wall, but I pieced it back together the best I could and took a picture so you'd have an idea of why this is another "What were they thinking?" moment.

I can't even really describe the material, but it looks like tar. The hole was caused by the door handle and was hidden when the door was open, which may be why they didn't even bother to make the tar smooth. It, too, was indented. Anyway I used a retractable razor to make a wall patch fit in that space and plastered over it. Still haven't finished sanding it flat, but here's what it looks like:

I'm working on getting the rest of the walls even so that I can paint over the yellow paint. My power sander has helped get rid of a lot of the bad patch jobs and I'm making good use of the joint compound.

Roof Stomp Housewarming Party

Fourteen of my friends confirmed that my new windows are durable during Laura's "Window Bang," which is my Bible Study group's version of the Air Force's "Roof Stomp." Those events begin just as their titles imply... in a Roof Stomp, people get on the roof of the home of the person they are surprising and stomp on the roof. Well, I certainly was surprised when all of the sudden I hear this loud thundering noise that turned out to be people banging on every single one of my main level windows. It's a good thing I hadn't armed the security system because ADT would have been really confused about why all of my window sensors were going off. It takes me a second to realize who's out there (it was already dark that Wednesday night), but when I do I welcome the largest gathering (to date) into my home! We proceeded to have an Impromptu (to me, that is) Housewarming Party that I didn't have to plan! They brought food, drink, activities, cash for a housewarming gift, and most of all FUN!

We ate, drank, talked about the house and what an undertaking it is (but it'll be worth it), played Christmas carols on pipes (think wind chime chorus -- see video), and toasted the house with champagne.

I have fabulous friends!

Out with the old, in with the new Doors

These are the sad, sad doors that were on the house when I bought it. The back door was especially bad with an inch gap at the bottom that let in bugs, and with a window pane that had obviously been replaced poorly with a horrible caulk job (yes, tape and caulk were the M.O. of the previous owners - - what were they thinking?). Oh... and neither of the storm doors closed.

I got new doors from Home Depot and had a contractor install them and they look a ton better. The poorly painted red door is gone and although I kind of miss the smiley face that my friends painted on the inside, it's much nicer to have that streaky red paint all gone. My place is no longer the McDuplex! Hopefully I'll get rid of most of the yellow by the end of February!
Here's a picture of my new front door in the snow:

Dryer Vents... The Homeowner's Slinky

Imagine, if you can, using duct tape for its actual purpose… taping ducts! I did just that in order to prepare to use for my new clothing dryer. In the spirit of “what were they thinking” I must explain that I’m anti-tape right now because the previous occupants tried to fix EVERYTHING with tape. However, since duct work requires duct tape, I made an exception. The ducts from the bathroom exhaust fan and the dryer needed to be connected together to exhaust out of the house. Those were connected with a T-duct that was in inch too small in diameter. In order to remedy this, I bought the correct size T-duct connector (4 inches, in case you were wondering) and duct tape. Basically all you need to do is put the ducts over the ends of the connector and tape them down. It normally results in the whole connector being covered by duct tape, but there’s nothing wrong with that because it ensures that the exhaust is, in fact, exhausted from the house. 

Fun fact - - Duct tape was originally called duck tape b/c of its waterproof quality according to wikipedia.
Also, I must admit... even though dryer vent duct work looks like a slinky... it's not as fun.

Way ahead of Obama

If you read my old posts you would know that I've been trying to make my house more energy efficient. A couple of months ago I re-insulated my attic and I've also replaced windows and doors. I knew insulation was energy efficient... I had no idea it was sexy. - Check it out.

I can dream...

I was talking to a friend about how I joined the gym at work just after she had viewed this blog. She commented, "between the gym and redoing your house, you will have bigger biceps than madonna."

She may be onto something because a lot of the repairs are physically demanding. Especially sanding. At the very least, it's something to strive toward