Alive!

After switching to FIOS for everything communicative our phone lines went down. Wasn't sure why, I swapped out the old phone line and jack and replaced it with new CAT-5. Still dead. Went out to the ONT box where the fiber optics plugs into the house. The CAT-5 had come loose from it's connecting port in the ONT. Closed the latch (which crimped the CAT-5 wires and completed the connection. 10 minutes later during dinner, Sir Francis Drake called. The phones were fixed.

Border Fence

The first gate will go here
The fence was free from my brother-in-law.
The soil is nearly 100% clay, we have about 3 inches of topsoil. Absolutely brutal to dig through.
The large double gate, with removable post.

We had to hand dig most of the post holes since the 2 man auger couldn't hack the clay.

Check off second major project of the summer.

I wish I had a before photo. The only way my garage could have looked worse is if I had 300 cats living in it, 50 of them dead and the rest living in a massive heap of their filth. The garage was nearly that bad, just without the cats and mound of filth. So we had to clean it, and build shelves, and cabinets (well I just hung the cabinets).





























Take a guess what next weeks project will be. I'm renting the two man post digger for Friday. Whoopee!














Oh and even more amazing news, I got my Grandfather's table saw assembled and used it to build the shelves. It's a beaut! 1950 something or other Craftsman. Took the index and thumb off my left hand first try! Boy can that thing rip a plank! Still need to get the rip fence on though.

Electrical Box? DONE!

 
 
 
 

Well the job is done. I took out that horrible "fire waiting to happen" Federal Pacific box. They have a 10% failure rate I'm told. I replaced it with a Square D cheap jobbie from Lowes. I had a little trouble with the 2 gauge Al wire coming up from the Main but my electrician buddy helped me out with some know how and a weird little contraption to give me the extra 18 inches of neutral wire I needed. Now everything is code and the breaker no longer keeps switching off at random times. One step closer to completing the attic.

The Summer Has Begun

So work will resume.

We will begin work on the picket fence along side the house, as soon as I get the boundary line dimensions worked out. I power washed the fence and boy is it clean! Nothing like 1500 PSI.

Then I have to do the Federal Pacific sub panel in the attic, which might happen before the fence at this pace.

Then I will redo the attic. Yikes!

November 15, 2007

We've been living in the house for the past couple months after moving in August 25, 2007.

There's been plenty to do...

We'll start with the bathroom. If you recall the bathroom was gutted and a horrible wreck. The only bright spot was that we fixed the wiring until it was up to code.

Here the girl's and Seven of Three are trying out the new tub.

After dry fitting some PVC and a having a 4 minute conversation with a purple hippopotamus from Mars I finished the drain (that cement is wicked stuff!)

Finally after 2 attempts to fix a few small leaks, I the Master of Solder, did complete the plumbing...and Lo! The water did flow like Moses and the Rock!

I put the joists up for the ceiling. My expert buddy came over and saved my bacon with some expert drywalling. A couple of days of painting, 2 days to finish the floor. Cut the vanity to fit over the sink fill pipes. 2 days of no water in the entire house as I frantically tried to fix two leaks...problem? Not enough flux. Here is my million dollar tip to all you guys out in DIY land doing plumbing. Don't skimp on the flux, it's cheap, lay it on! It's a heck of a lot better than having to redo a screwed up join.

The sink went in, lights, mirror and a few extras and PRESTO! Bathroom!

Super huge update coming

My computer is down and so an update of mega proportions is forthcoming.

The finished floors, the finished downstairs bath. The finished kitchen, and ceiling fan. The moving day, that's right! We are in! The unpacking, the installation of the upstairs tub! Yup. Just got it in about 30 minutes ago.

And all this posted on my local library PC, ugh.

I'll post soon.