magic.rox

The next project Rachel and I have is to actually finish a room in the house.  That room being my daughter Taylors’ room.

We are installing new baseboard trim, a new entry door and a new closet door.  Her room is going to be painted a light pink and the existing trim in her room will be painted a beautiful color named “whipped white.”

On deck after that is the remodeling of the downstairs.

Rachel and I were very productive this weekend.  We painted our foyer, I changed the oil in my  truck, trimmed some tree limbs with the help of my neighbor, and I mowed the front yard.

This week I plan on peeking  under the carpet on our stairs to see exactly what is under there.  If it’s hardwood, I think we might actually finish the foyer area.  It will only require some paint, stain, and some stair rail parts.

I love the look of stained treads with white painted risers.  I want our stairs to look similar to this picture.  I would also like a runner, but that is an issue of contention in the household.

I started bright and early on installation of our new solar attic fan.  I wanted to get it done before the heat of the day set in.

The first thing I had to do was remove the cover of the old fan.  While I do not have any pictures of it, it entailed removing some shingles and prying it off the roof.

I then had to replace those shingles I had to remove to prepare the hole for the fan.

As you can see, the top half of the hole has been removed completely of shingles and roofing felt.  I then used my reciprocating saw and pry bar to loosen and remove any nails in the vicinity of where the flashing of the unit goes (underneath the shingles).

Now it was time for some test fitting.

As you can see, the bottom half of the flashing is above the singles.  This is how the instructions said to install.  It took a few times, but we finally got it.  The major pain was the fact that the fan is so close to the peak of the roof.

I then applied some roofing sealant, some call it tar to the underside of the flashing from the 9 o’clock to the 3 o’clock positions.  I ran 2 beads of it for an extra layer of protection.  I then slid it right back to the same spot.

I then nailed the unit in place as the installation instructions recommended.  Then I applied roofing sealant to the areas where I nailed the fan into place.

That’s it!  It was running before I even had it fully installed.

I was very surprised that it only took me about 2 and a half hours to fully install this fan.  I dread any work on a roof, but this went as smooth as can be.

Many thanks goes to my dad for helping me with this one.  It’s much easier to pass things from ground level to a roof with another person.

Now hopefully our attic will stay cooler, our energy bills will be lower, and we will have no leaks.

The next solar project we are discussing is water heating.  It’s hard to decide on what type of system to decide on.

We are currently working on having our first garage sale ever!

It will be this Saturday, June 21st from 8:30 am til 4 pm.  I don’t totally feel comfortable putting my address down, so if you’re interested leave a comment and I’ll give you my address.

Nothing is junk, everything is stuff we just no longer use.  As you can see it has taken up a lot of space in our basement.  My sister-in-law has donated some stuff as well.

What we don’t sell will probably be freecycled or given to goodwill or the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store.

By now I have become somewhat of an expert on light fixture installation, but this one was a doozie.

When I removed the old light fixture, I discovered that it was just merely attached to the drywall and not a junction box.  This new fixture required one, so I went to Menard’s and purchased one.  When I went to install that, it became even more of a jungle.  There was the layer of drywall and underneath that a layer of 1/2″ OSB (Oriented Strand Board).  It had to be removed by means of a reciprocating saw.  Because of the vibration of the saw, more drywall than what I wanted fell off, leaving a not so pretty site where the fixture is mounted.

You can’t see it unless you’re right underneath it, but it’s going to drive me crazy until I fix it.

Our 34 year old attic fan has basically bit the dust.  The bearings have just went kaputz!

As I wrote previously, we are replacing it with a solar attic fan.  Rachel and I did some research, and decided to go with a Attic Breeze - Model AB-201A.

By far it’s largest draw is a lifetime warranty.  Most other models have between 5 to 10 year warranties on the working parts.

It is coming from Texas, and I’m expecting it’s arrival within a week or two.

I will post energy saving figures and installation pictures as soon as possible.

After almost 2 years in our home, we have things on the walls.

We have, at my request, an art area.

We have family pictures abound.

And we have a nic-nac corner.

Now if we could finish the rest of the house and yard…

Since taking my mower to the shop to have it repaired, I have not been able to mow the lawn.

When I first mowed the lawn, I only mowed the front yard.  On top of that, I fertilized it as well.  Now the problem is that everyone is starting to mow their lawns on a regular basis.

I’m not as concerned with the back yard, as not many people see it, and it’s still a mess.  I’m hoping to at least get the hole from where our pool was filled in this year.  I have finally found someone selling dirt, it’s not that cheap at $25 a yard but they do offer delivery. 

I might have to wait until next year on re-grading of the back yard.  If anyone near me (Bloomington, IN) has a small tractor with a bucket and/or a yardbox reads this, leave a comment.  I need the use of you or your tractor, and I’m willing to pay for it.

It’s not a big job, but it’s a job that can’t really be done by hand.

Our home has undergone some major changes since we purchased it in 2006.  I just thought I would hi-light those with some pictures, a little before and after.  There was a lot of work to do because of that awful wallpaper.

Before:

After: 

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Rachel and I weren’t ourselves this weekend, we were productive!

Saturday, Taylor came over for a while and we had fun.  She was up with her mom, I think they’re trying to unpack their new home in Owensburg before they actually move up here.  As my big helper, she helped me with the yearly maintenance of my riding mower.  After Taylor left, dad and I loaded all of the concrete remnants I had removed from the ground into my truck.  I then took it off later that night.  I don’t think my truck has ever had that much weight in it, as it was lower in the rear than the front.

Sunday, Rachel and I re-arranged the garage.  It’s more organized now, and I must say easier to get things in and out of.  We got rid of a lot of trash we didn’t even realize we had, for that I took off another load of garbage.

While I finished painting our dining room area, Rachel worked on her final paper for her Master’s Degree.  There is still a little bit of touching up to do, but it looks fantastic!

Sorry about the picture quality, my lens needed cleaned!

We capped off the weekend by watching the last of the Star Wars Saga, Return of the Jedi.  I can’t believe how much of a Stars Wars freak my wife is.  I enjoy it, but she really gets into it!

Well, today went beautifully.

My neighbor came over to try to correct this clog in our drain.  We snaked the line, used a compressed air machine on it, and even cleaned out the vent line.

It just got worse.

So we’ve called some professionals in, we’re waiting on a call back to know when they can come.  Until then, it’s laundromat for us.

I’ve cancelled my plans on getting the basketball goal due to a surprise that came up.  My sister-in-law in Indianapolis decided to get new furniture.  She’s practicallly giving her old stuff to us.  I’ve always loved it, and we’ve wanted new furniture for a while.

So we’ll be pulling my little trailer along to help with the loveseat and couch.

I’m expecting some fun, to say the least.

Progress on projects I have undertaken has come very slow.

Here is a list of things I am currently working or trying to work on:
1. Redesign my website.
2. Redesign all electronic menus for DVDs and packaging for my products.
3. Look for permanent position with ANY company.
4. House fixes and updates.
5. Work with Kelley School of Business on plan to strategically market my business services to other local businesses.
6. Always workin’ on ROX

I do have to say that I have made some progress on the house.  A couple of weeks ago I had a day off and started a surprise for my wife.  She doesn’t like it when I do things that she has no knowledge of.  I painted our hallway.

The color doesn’t come out well in these pictures, but it’s called “Grand Stand Tan.”  It dried a lot darker than we expected, but we still like it.  I was very surprised when I went to purchase the paint, it was on sale!  So after Rachel was surprised, we bought a few more gallons to have enough to finish our living room and entry.

I also must say that all the hard work I put into the hallway definitely paid off.  Our “red” wall has a lot of character due to the texture in the wall.  That texture is there because I didn’t work on it like I did the hallway.  Besides a paint streak here and there, it’s smooth as a baby’s butt.

I have slowed way down on the redesign of my website. All the content is there, I just haven’t found a good way to add PayPal buttons on a Joomla site yet.

The redesign of my menus and packaging are going good, too good to be exact!  I have been working with my logo and have a “translucent design” working right now.  My only problem right now is that it doesn’t look good at smaller sizes.

My work situation is a weird one.  Yes I have a job, and I’m thankful for that.  But I am not a full time employee with IU, I’m an hourly employee.  I do not get paid for holidays, or time off.  Also my position is mostly an “academic-year” position.  Meaning when schools out, I’m out.  I have been applying for positions that seem to suit me, only when they come around.  I’ve had a couple of interviews, but nothing has panned out thus far.  I was really excited about a position I interviewed for last week, but as each day passes I wonder.  I don’t think this economy helps either.  I know it’s sick, but it’s times like these that I really miss my job at Baxter.

I am trying to focus on direct business sales this year.  I think if I start a working relationship with other businesses in this area, it will help my business become more successful and profitable.  I’m no marketing major, so my wife has used some of her contacts in the Kelley School of Business (where she used to work).  I have been in contact with the deans’ wife.  She teaches marketing, and is trying to help.  The only problem is communication right now.  I work when she’s in her office, and I can’t really talk on the phone.  Right now I’m not even near a computer either.  I hope this pans out, with the right plan I could make LML Video Services something bigger this year.

I’m still transferring what I have of ROX onto DVDs for storage.  Some episodes will have to be, dare I say it, repaired.  They just have too much heat damage.  I’m waiting to finish a job for a aunt to get some money.  Once that is done, B will have about 50 odd DVD’s for homework.

Plus we discovered a clog in our sewer line.  Everytime our washer drans, water comes out from under our toilet in a hurry.  My ex-contractor neighbor Bill is going to help me try to fix this problem Saturday.  I got his Wi-Fi going, he’s returning the favor.  He has some specialty tools to help.  I hope we can get this clog gone.

I have finally got my hands on a basketball goal as well.  We have a “post” that appears to be designed to have a basketball goal on it.  I have wanted one for a long time.  The prices for a bracket to attach to the post and a goal add up to a cool $100.  I have been offered one on freecycle for free.  There’s only one kicker, I have to dig this one out.  That’s my plan for Sunday - pray for me.  The strange thing?  I have never been good or even really liked basketball.  I just want the goal!

That’s all I’ve got for right now.  I’d like to write more often, but it’s hard when you have things such as this on your hands day in and day out.

I have been keeping a log of all of our utility usage and costs this year.  I’m hoping to drop our electricity usage by a meager 2% per year.  I don’t want to start large and disappoint myself.

My logs for other utilities, such as water, sewer, telephone and cable haven’t been as closely monitored because I seem to can’t find some of the statements.

Our home is a total electric home, so it is easy to disseminate our total usage.

In 2007 we used a total of 17,712 KWH (Kilowatt Hours) of electricity.  We used an average of 48.9 KWH per day, which cost us on average $4.90 per day.  On average one KWH of electricity cost us $0.10 in 2007, and we paid $1,777.41 for electricity in 2007.

How do your numbers look in comparison?  I really don’t know if ours is bad or good.  So if you are a dork like me and like to keep track of things such as these, perhaps I can get some information to set my household on a track to help this earth, instead of harming it.

I’ve spent the past hour trying to get information on “average household electricity usage” but the DOE’s website is junk, and I can’t find anything else useful.

After living in our home with an attached 2 car garage, we have finally parked a car in it.  Hopefully for good.  Last fall, I demo’ed our garage due to many reasons.  It just needed done.  With winter on us now at full force, we thought it would be good to park the car in the garage. 

Several things had to take place before this could happen though.  When I demo’ed the garage, I removed all of the light switches and wiring attached to our florescent lights.  Over the past year or so we have had to plug in any lights in the garage to see.  Around the time of the demo, I purchased a light and heat activated switch and a receiver and transmitter for garage door openers.  Our garage door openers are old, and do not have built-in wireless remotes like they do today.

I finally got around to installing them this weekend.

Here is the switch:

It’s quite interesting.  Right now it is on all of the factory settings so when no motion or heat is detected for 5 seconds the lights go out.  They went out right before I took this picture.  Pretty good for being completely in the dark!

To make this happen, we essentially shuffled some things around.  The other side of our garage is quite “dense” now.

But the end result?  A warmer car in the morning, that won’t have any frost, ice or snow on it.  Which means I can sleep a little bit later, cha-ching!

The little Kia seems to be right at home too.  I have to admit, Rachels’ car is cute, it’s just not right for me.

I think Mr. B will concur with me on the problems with tall men in little cars.

Rachel and I had 5 days off for Thanksgiving this year.  Eigenmann Hall, where we work, was essentially shut down.  We visited with many people and did many things with our time.

Wednesday:  Taylor came up to spend her time off with us.  It had been a while since we last saw her, and we sure missed her.  She brought along her 2nd grade pictures, which I think are the best she has had thus far.

Thursday:  A very busy Thanksgiving.  I must say, I’m very thankful for all the friends and family I have around.  We started the day early and headed to my memma’s house.  We didn’t stay long, just long enough for Taylor to see her memmas’.

We then headed over to Basswood, where we used to live, and where my dads’ family’s Thanksgiving has been held for a little over 10 years now.  This year was much different, there haven’t been as many children around since I was a child.  Overall there was a feeling of happiness, although there has been some much felt losses.  We ate a little bit, talked and spent some time mingling.

Then we rushed the 3 miles or so back to our home.  As this year we hosted the Lee family (my in-laws) Thanksgiving.  Not fifteen minutes after we got home, my mother and father in-law showed up.  This was destined to be a blast.

We had prepared the turkey last Friday night as it was originally planned to be last Saturday.  A certain football game in Atlanta changed who showed up and I think the atmosphere for all.

We followed directions on how to prepare this bird from both of our mothers’ and added a little thought of our own, and voilla!

Overall, I think this was a Thanksgiving to be truely be thankful for.

Friday:  Mom, Taylor, Rachel and I went to see the new Disney movie, “Enchanted.”  I must say this is one I have wanted to see.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up on this one.  We then spent the rest of the day with my memma, Taylor and her had loads of fun playing Connect Four.

Saturday:  Taylor and Rachel primered the hallway while I rehung our dining room chandiler and installed a new receptacle.  The girls seem to like to brush versus rolling paint.  We then ran some errands and went to the MCPL.  Taylor has been wanting to go for a while, but it’s hard to do when you’re 2 states away.  She found some interesting books about “Dumb Bunnies.”  So we all read and laughed.  After getting back home we got a special visit from my little sister.  She flew out last minute from Phoenix!  Sadly her BFF’s dad was killed in a wreck.  We capped off the night by watching E.T. The Extra Terrestrial.  I hadn’t seen it since I was Taylor’s age.

Sunday:  After playing Uno Attack for what seemed like forever, Taylor left for Tennessee around 1:30.  Rachel and I seemed to act like teenagers for the rest of the day.  We paid for it once the sun fell though.

To get my wife’s perspective, check out http://raclee.blogspot.com

All in all, a very good five days.  Very good indeed.

Rachel and I have been busy the last week with lots of preparing for our first Thankgiving in our home.  Since we are young ones in our families, we generally go elsewhere to have this holiday feast.

Our first task was to finally start painting.  We have decided on 2 colors, with one color used for an accent wall.  Our colors?  “Bookmarker Red” and “Grand Stand Tan.”  The red color is a color from The Biltmore House.  If you’ve never been, I highly recommend a visit.

Painting was a royal pain.  I have painted for a living, and never in my life have I had to put so much work into two walls.  This red color required SIX COATS!

Here is 2 coats:

Here is 4 coats:

Here is 6 coats:

Our second task was to replace our old almost non working range.  We had picked one out, and was waiting for the right moment to buy.  I asked my family for Lowe’s gift cards for my birthday, so we put them to good use.

Our third task was to purchase a new dining room set.  Our aging dinette set was past it’s prime, and more suited for a college student than dare I say it, adult homeowners.  We went to Big-Lots to purchase the rest of a set of living room furniture and fell in love with this table.  Since we needed the table more than we needed the new couch and chair, we went for it.  I must say they have really got some good furniture.

Then, in my spare time today I installed new drapes and rods.  Our house is really starting to look more like a home.

We’ve decided to take a break until after Thanksgiving.  Then we will be painting the “Grand Stand Tan.”  After that we are painting all of our trim white!

When we purchased our home, there were several things we didn’t exactly like about it.  Those things mainly being the above ground pool and the shed.

Yes, having a shed is nice.  This one was impractical though.  It sat almost a foot off the ground and the setup was weird.  It had a loft level accessible from the deck, a door on the side and the main doors were shot.  Plus the view out one of our bedroom windows was the roof!

Most people put things in sheds like mowers and other “outside” type items.  We could not.

So it was decided to try to get rid of this, but how?  It’s not an easily movable shed, such as ones that can be purchased at home improvement stores.

I placed it on Freecycle.  The first time, I got many responses.  Nothing turned out to be serious though, as nobody even came out.  The second time seemed to be the charm though.  It was removed today, 4 days after placing the post.

The plan is to build a new shed in an area we assume used to be a garden.  It connects to our driveway, and is perfect.  I have some other projects to do before I can get to building.

Bye bye shed, I hope you make your new owners happy.  I heard you’re going to be a greenhouse!

Over the past year, I’ve forgotten how much mental energy an office job takes.  My stamina has long gone away.  Most of this week, I have been exhausted by this new job.  I’m not complaining, just explaining.

We have been “address cleaning,” as it’s called.  To put it in layman’s terms, we are sent database tables which have names, addresses, citys, states and zipcodes.  Sometimes they have more information, such as a student ID numbers or e-mail addresses.

The purpose of address cleaning is to format the addresses to the USPS standard, which can be very interesting if you haven’t had to do that before.  Did you know that there is a way to shorten almost every street name, IE drive, road, lane, etc.?

The tiring part is these tables, some were as small as 300 entries, but others were as large as 6800!  When we thought we were done, they were checked, and the remaining errors were shown to us.  Nothing bad, just constructive criticism.

Thursday night after work we went and picked up Taylor in Louisville, Ky.  My mom helped us out and took a half day off of work and drove to Clarksville, TN to pick her up.  They then drove back to Louisville where we met at her house.  We then had to drive back home so I could make it back to work in the morning.  We left as soon as we left work, and got back home around 11ish.

Lets just say I was of no use to anyone on Friday, and luckily my new job is very flexible and I was able to work only 6 hours.

So today I am doing some home remodeling and it goes much smoother with my lil helper!  I’m re-installing our stair hand rails to a much more comfortable position, with new hardware.  And I’m patching the rest of the holes in the drywall.  We also picked out our paint colors, which hopefully will be done before Thanksgiving.

I’ve spent the vast majority of this week preparing our living room, dining room, hallway and entry areas for paint.

This has entailed a lot of drywall patching, sanding and even texturing.

The final picture is enhanced to show the joint compound.

I patched 4 problems like this, plus we had 2 holes in our walls due to an earlier installation of some type of intercom or home speaker system.

The major problem was our ceiling, as there were many cracks.  There were also several places where the “tape” as it’s called came loose from the ceiling.  I had to remove the sections and replace.  The best part was making it look nice, which required the purchase of a new tool!

The only part I am not completely satisfied with is the ceiling texture, as I have no way to perfectly match it..  I purchased some spray texture, but it looks more like a popcorn ceiling than what is there.  I think after we paint it will be less noticable though.

Not bad for someone who doesn’t have much experience in drywall.

Today I’ve been working on removing our old entry chandelier and replacing it with a new one, more suited to our tastes.  Our old one is on the right.

It is similar to our dining room chandelier, but much larger.  We purchased it months ago, but the height of our entry was too high for my ladder.  Our entry is only 6′ x 4′, but it’s about 15′ tall!  I left early to rent a ladder, but decided to stop and see if my neighbor Gary could help, and help he did.  I asked him if he had a ladder taller than mine, and his works!

After about 3 hours of interesting work, I finished, and the most important thing, it works!

Now I just need to finish the walls.  Our house is begging to look more like a home.