Category → Home Improvement
Channeling my inner roofing contractor
Back in October we had some trees come down in Hurricane Sandy:
We recently had the tree removed from our house (there was quite a waiting list for removal services). I had checked our attic and found a bit of leaking, so I called a roofing company that could re-roof the damaged face for a mere $3200. After doing a bit of research, I decided to replace the damaged shingles myself. The new shingles are a slightly different color, but it all went together well in the end. Since I was two stories above the ground, I used a friend’s climbing harness and rope. Safety first!
I also used a mallet to bend the gutters back into shape. Despite the cool weather, it was quite warm up on the roof. I wouldn’t want that job in July!
Bathroom break-in
We have an integrated laundry drawer in the bathroom:
Unfortunately, after Mechel left the bathroom and closed the bathroom door, the drawer slid open, which blocked the bathroom door. We couldn’t get in to the bathroom!
Thankfully, there’s a coat closet that shares a wall with the bathroom wall:
I drilled a hole into the bathroom using a 2-foot long drill bit. I stuck an electrical snake through the hole so that the snake curved up. Once I got a few feet through the hole, I rotated the snake down, hopefully into the laundry bin. After a couple tries, I was able to catch the back edge of the hamper and pull it shut.
Here’s what it looked like once we got the door open:
The side view:
I drilled a hole in the back wall of the hamper drawer, and tied a string to it that runs through the wall into the closet, so if it happens again, I can pull it shut with the string.
Glad it worked out, I would have hated to cut a hole in the bathroom door!
Adding a bit on to the deck
To ease entry into the pool, I added a bit on to one of the landings:
Just like that!
Garden Work
I brought home 1 yard of compost, and we spread it out in the garden with the Belsky children and tilled it in.
Sunday Yard Work
Today I trimmed the mass o’ trees in the backyard such that the trunks are visible. Before, the trunks were surrounded by a ten-foot radius of vegetative mess. Now, it looks like this:
Now we can plant that area along with the rest of the yard. Maybe some woodchips around the base…..
Sunday Stuff
Lots of little stuff this weekend (I was off on Friday).
Last week, our friends the Bahns, from Minneapolis, stayed with us for Shabbos. The Bahns had us over almost every Shabbos when we lived in St. Louis Park during my second year of Graduate School:
When they walked up our driveway, they saw a kid (dare I say “punk”?) checking all the mailboxes, probably for holiday cards (he obviously wasn’t very bright – he’s checking mailboxes in the world’s largest suburban Jewish community (I guess a school budget of $18000+ per student per year just isn’t enough)).
Anyway.
So I decided to install a locking mailbox. Trish wanted to be able to get the mail when she goes down the driveway without having to get out of the van, but the ground is frozen, so I couldn’t move the mailbox post. Only one solution therefore remained:
Trish seemed less than thrilled. Sure, it’s ugly, but it’s so cool! 🙂
The water flow in our fish tank had slowed to a trickle, so I rebuilt the pump system of my Eclipse 3 Hood. The plants growing around the intake had grown roots into the intake and began trapping particles. When I took it apart, the intake was completely full of mud. Wow!
Weekend stuff
This past weekend (I had Friday off) I installed one of those dual-head floodlights on the back of our garage. Last week, as we were leaving to go out to dinner, Tricia spotted some people in our backyard, but it was too dark to make anything out, so we decided to add some lighting.
I got to use the snowblower for the first time this year. We only got about an inch of snow, but if I didn’t clean it up it would have turned icy. This is the first time I’ve used the snowblower on the new driveway; It’s much easier!
Sunday Stuff
I had a 4 day weekend, so I go quite a bit done around the house, including restoring electricity to the Garage. We had friends over for our annual Thanksgiving-on-Shabbos meal, which was very nice.
Today we had some pretty nasty weather, but last Sunday was nice and I took another ride to Stony Point. I took a slightly different route in order to avoid the steep downhill on Thiels-Mount Ivy Road. On the way back, I took Halley Drive onto Cheesecote Mountain (It’s the hump on the profile after Call Hollow Road):
Even though my cyclecomputer, which was in the pocket of my biking pants, went through the wash twice, it’s still working, although the display is pretty dim (hopefully it’s just the battery). 23.4 miles, 1:56 ride time, 13.28 MPH average, 38.6 MPH max.
Everything but the moat
Last Sunday, I built this fort that we got from a famliy through Freecycle. It took a few hours to assemble, but at least we put it together during the day (when I took it apart at the “donor family”‘s house, it was at night after work). We added some additional railings, a steering wheel, and hooks for an infant swing.
