Hurricane Irma Update

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Chase

Irma came and went and we are alive and well. The battery box performed admirably, but didn’t provide enough cooling. 80+ degree days and nights with very high humidity meant we lost the fridge faster than I had hoped, and sleeping was very dreadful at best. In the end we broke down and now own a generator and window shaker.

As always you learn a lot from these experiences. I am no hurricane expert, but have gathered enough knowledge that I think a guide is in order. For the leathered 3rd generation native Floridian, and the newcomer to our wondrous state. Expect a guide to be posted in the coming weeks.

Until then my only projects this month have involved getting myself and others ready for the hurricane, and cleaning up afterwards. Here is the pile of yard debris I have collected from the storm. I still need to trim the palm tree on the left, and there is a lot of oak trimming that could go on near my shed.

Kitchen BackSplash

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Chase

The kitchen is finally complete! The last two months have involved a lot of waiting on things to get in, but it is all done.

With the countertops installed I was able to go ahead with a layout scheme. The tiles are glass, of different heights and widths, and on a floppy mesh. Figuring out where and how to cut to make it around the outlets was tough.

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Everything started and stopped at a metal quarter round boarder strip. After a few different tactics I figured out that measuring everything from the edges and countertop gave me the best results for cutting around outlets.

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T 20170225_112227 he gaps between each tile varied between 1/8″ and 1/16″. It made any errors on my part easier to hide, but keeping everything looking right meant I needed a variety of shims. When installing the tile I did my best to keep the gaps clean, but sometimes the mortar squeezed through. It is tough to clean without disturbing the wet tile too much. Instead I waited till it was cured and used a custom little tool to scrape it out. It is a thin putty knife ground down to make a small hook/dovetail shape. I was able to get into the gaps and clean out any stray mortar that even the smallest grout saw couldn’t get to.

With all the edges and gaps cleared out I could move on to grout. Backsplash grouting seems to be pretty similar to floor grouting. The grout is un-sanded on account of the narrow gaps, but otherwise you smear it on, let it sit for a bit, then wipe off. The high ratio of gaps to tiles means a lot ends up staying in place and getting wasted in the wiping.

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Hazing is really noticeable on the glass tiles, so they took a few dozen extra rounds of wiping, but you really knew when you got it all. After months of work and waiting, and more money than I care to admit it is really good to have a gorgeous working kitchen. Time for a kitchen warming party!

Kitchen Renovation Part 2

Posted on January 15, 2017 by Chase

Welcome to Kitchen Base Camp Charlie. It is starting to really look like something now! The cabinets were not installed by me, so I can’t take any credit there. I did install the lovely plywood countertops though. The real countertop guy isn’t going to show up for weeks, so we had to make due.

There was always a light over the sink, but I tied in two more lights under the cabinets that flank the sink so they are all on the same switch. Very bright now!

Similarly I ran wiring so the two lights over the microwave are tied in with the pantry and lights over the stove. Now, with the switch for the stove and the one by the sink you have a considerable amount of kitchen lighting without even going to the main overhead lights. It is a nice place to be with a lot more storage than before. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Kitchen Renovation Part 1

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Chase

After a lot of early salvos, the kitchen war has finally begun. First, let’s look in horror and disgust at the kitchen that was. Painted 1980s particle board cabinets with rotted bottoms, dark blue peeling paint, and no flooring. Not a pretty set of pictures.

Don’t look too long, you will hurt your eyes. Granted the next set of images aren’t that much better. I happily smashed cut and dragged out all the old cabinets, and peeled the various paint layers off. At least it looks a lot brighter in there.

Most of the kitchen stuff and appliances had to be spirited away to back rooms and the porch. What was left was the bare essentials. I call it Kitchen Base Camp Alpha.

Next came the sanding of texture. When the house was built, some kind of roll on orange peel texture was used. In decades since installation it has turned to powder and sluffs off in chunks. Every square inch of wall had to be sanded back to the drywall. It was messy business.

Next came patching of various issue areas, priming, more patching of missed issues, and then two rounds of the brilliant blue/green color that was in the living room.

At this point I got a lot of plumbing and electrical fixtures changed, and even a bit of routing done to account for changes in cabinet location. With the walls complete I could scrape the floor of any glues or gunks and get to tiling. As usual odd walls and squareness issues confounded me, but I was able to stitch it together pretty well with the existing living room tile I did last Christmas break.

I could now work on the small pantry without any fear of getting in the way of cabinet installation. It would give us a place to put back some of our boxed junk and help out in minor cooking adventures at Kitchen Base Camp. I went with adjustable wire shelves and wired an under-cabinet light in the top that goes on with the lights over the stove. Some basic molding happened on the inside, but most will wait till I can do everything after the cabinets are complete.

Until the cabinets get installed we got to move a few essentials back into the new area. I call it Kitchen Base Camp Beta.

New Appliances

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Chase

Strike number two in the kitchen renovation! I ordered a new stove and dishwasher as part of the November black Friday madness. Instead of waiting for them to arrive after the new cabinets go in I’ll do them early. To some extent this doubles my work as I will have to uninstall these in a few weeks when the renovations start. While that isn’t ideal, this lets me work out the process and guarantees I have the right parts on hand.

The two patients to be worked on are a very old chef magic dishwasher and a GE slide in glass top stove. The dishwasher was rusting out and had a broken soap door when I bought the house 7+ years ago. I thought it would die soon, but it has held on! The oven is decent, but the top was scratched badly (not by me). It worked well aside from a somewhat expensive touch board failure a few years back.

Off with their heads as it were! Well first I was able to run one final load of dishes before the delivery guys came. Just in case I spent a long time getting them all installed, I would at least have clean dishes.

First comes the unwrapping and the very careful reading of instructions. Or rather the unwrapping and the smelling of new appliances. Instructions would only come when I was really really stuck!

They really do look gorgeous! The stove was the first one to go. I had already pulled the old one out a few times for measurements and such. The cord swap went quickly, and after some cleanup and feet leveling I was able to shove the new one home. It is a good thing I got these now, the front overhang is slightly different. My old stove covered the countertop a bit differently and it leaves some edges exposed. This would be a problem, but we are getting new everything, and the countertops will be fitted to this stove. Good thing I acted now.

Next came a perplexing game of “figure out how dishwashers are installed”. The plumbing was pretty straight forward, but the electrical turned out to be an issue. It is barely long enough to reach the front panel let alone let you pull the unit out past an inch or so. I eventually worked everything out and got the old girl to the street corner where she belongs. The new one went in slowly but without major incident. I barely have enough power cord, so a modification of the permanent electrical system is in order.

For anyone working on this kind of thing, I highly recommend stubby wrenches. Much better for getting into those tight places under the dishwasher. Like installing the adapter for the water supply. Got lest than 6 inches of wrench room? No problem for a stubby!

The new appliances are wonderful. The dishwasher is very quiet and cleans a thousand times better than the previous junker. The stove has a lot more cook top flexibility, and gets hotter faster than the other. It even managed to get through a 7 dish Thanksgiving baking session without spilling anything! Now if I could just get the rest of the kitchen to catch up to these two beauties I would be all set.

Kitchen Lighting Upgrade

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Chase

I have made the first salvo in the kitchen makeover war. It needs a better name. How about instead of the war of the roses it could be the war of the spatulas? Any who, instead of leaving everything for the two weeks or so I will be doing our kitchen renovation, I am tackling small jobs that are easy and won’t involve a lot of backtracking. For example, some of the lights can be installed now and left in place throughout the renovation.

First, what did I have to start with? A fluorescent tube set over the sink, a hanging light trifecta over the stove, and on the ceiling, a spot light array. I did the one on the ceiling a few years back, and the one over the stove when I first moved in. The stove one looks nice, but doesn’t provide the best lighting. The ceiling one is bright, but kind of harsh and the color temp isn’t great.

For above the sink I went with an under-cabinet LED light. I want to put lights under the cabinets to the left and right of the sink. I figured using the same light over the sink and under the cabinets would tie together well. I found some with a good color temp and really high CRI. I installed one as a test. I love it and bought the rest of what I will need! There is going to be a second one under the window, and one under each cabinet all connected to the same switch after the cabinets get installed.

I went with a matching set of lights for the ceiling and over the stove. They are the same style from the same company with 4 lights over the stove and 6 on the ceiling. Frosted spot lights directed most of the shine downwards over the stove, while regular bulbs were used in the ceiling. The modern “daylight” LED bulbs are amazing!

The kitchen is already nicer to work in. Next will be an early appliance delivery. After that, I am out of things to do before starting a full kitchen destruction in ernest.

Hurricane Matthew Update

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Chase

We had quite a storm pass through here recently. Matthew was the highest wind hurricane I had ever dealt with, though not the biggest or most destructive. Still, I am a home owner this time, so I have a lot of skin in the game. The shutters went up, the yard was cleared, the bees were hunkered down, and we got out of dodge.

The base is quite heavy due to the paver and amount of wood. I threw another paver on top and strapped around everything so the total pile was tied together was over 100 pounds.

Post Storm

We evacuated to stay with friends, and came back to a yard that was a mess, but happy looking bees, and an in tact house.

My fence repair from a few weeks back was perfectly timed. No pickets were lost and the fence is still standing. There is a new lean though. Posts near the ones I repaired appear to be broken now.

Instead of removing any of the posts like I did last time, I just put new ones in next to the old ones. It doesn’t looks as good and is a bit lazy, but was a ton less work.

I might be able to work those old posts off at some point, but for now they were too well connected to the horizontal portions of the fence. While I was at it I replaced some of the gate hardware that was in bad shape, added more connecting straps, and some anti-sag cables. The cables were past due, the two doors have rhombused a bit and rub at the tops when trying to close. Oh well, it ought to buy me another few years.

In all, we are past the hurricane without any major issues. Now if they could just come by and get the piles of yard waste.

Fence Repair

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Chase

I have a bit of a fence issue

For no apparent reason other than age, one (maybe even two) of my fence posts has given up on life and is starting to lay down on the job. How to affect repairs on something like this? I started by sinking two 2x4s on either side of the main broken post to act as temporary supports.

I had a brainy idea and used a big marker to put lines at the 2ft depth on my post hole diggers. Now I know exactly when to stop.

I screwed the fence into the two 2x4s and was able to move on to removing the old post. Getting the old post disconnected from the fence was easy, and it was, unsurprisingly, completely broken off at the ground. Getting the old concrete out of the ground was another story. It took a lot of prying, digging and grunting.

It might not look like much, but that sucker was heavy! With it out I was able to put the new post in its place. I thought about trying to dig out the other post that had a slight lean, but after wresting with this one for so long I punted. Instead I sank another post right next to the leaning one. I don’t think it was completely broken yet, and the horizontal 2x4s that hold the pickets didn’t end at that post.

Fast forward a week later and the concrete was all set well. I pushed everything back onto the new posts and screwed it down. The 2×4 temporary supports came out, and I added a few right angle brackets to make sure it all held well.

While I was out working on the obviously damaged section I replaced a few bad pickets, and did some preventative screwing. I sunk 3.5″ screws through all the 2x4s into the posts. I have been buying only torx head screws recently, but had a lot of old exterior philips to get rid of.

Lowe’s basic grade of 3.5″ exterior screw managed to break not one but two dewalt philips head impact drivers in about 20 minutes. I had two screws left, but had to toss them and move on to torx. After that I put a shorter screw through the center of every picket I could reach, and burned through most of a 5 pound box of screws in doing so. My arms hurt by the way.

A new fence will have to happen in the next year or two, but this should help keep it all together until then.

Flexing Flashlight Helper

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Chase

My name is Chase and I have a flashlight problem. OK, not really, but I love flashlights. The modern surface mount LEDs can be really efficient and have gorgeous color rendering. Gone are the days of blueish sterile white light. I have a small fleet of flashlights that run on 18650 lithium ion batteries. The lights run a long time, are rechargeable, and have a variety of light settings from stun to kill.

Most of them come in some form of all black tactical form factor. That is great for clipping to a belt, or holding in the backyard. What they aren’t always the best for is home projects. They tail stand ok, but are easy to tip over. I need something that will give me a stable base and let me point the flashlight where I want. Enter loc-line.

Pointing up

Pointing down

I started with a finished shot because it is a little convoluted if you aren’t familiar with some of the components. I had left over loc-line from a CNC mill vacuum project. This is 3/4″ line, and can be found in kits for reasonable prices from amazon and elsewhere. I started by prepping a base from some 3/4″ plywood, painting it a zazzy orange, and attaching a screw down base.

The loc-line will snap onto that orange base, and provide flexibility to point the flashlight. To hold the flashlight I found this snap on 1/2″ PVC fitting. It came with the cutout, and a threaded female fitting. Most of my flashlights fit nicely in the opening and their clips help keep everything in place.

A threaded 1/2″ PVC fitting went on some 1/2″ pipe. This will all fit inside the open end of the loc-line. I thought about using epoxy to bond the two together, but I don’t know how well glue sticks to the blue plastic and there is a huge gap to fill. Small screws in pre-drilled holes did a really good job of fixing both halves together.

Once fixed I spray painted the PVC holder section to match the blue loc-line as much as possible. In retrospect it would have been easier to paint before I attached. Live and learn. Now I can have blinding light pointed in any direction when I am under the sink, changing outlets, or anywhere else.

Ikea Picture Rescue

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Chase

Our new living room deserves a really epic picture for above the couch. We went to ikea to get a copy of their giant wave poster, but they were out. Not deterred we checked the as-is section. Ta-da, there was an assembled copy of exactly what we wanted. The only problem was the fact that it is over 4 feet wide and 6 feet long assembled and had a tear out on the one side. I figured out we could disassemble it, cut down the frame, and re-assemble with the blemish cropped. After some negotiations we got it for half price. Here she is.

And here is the blemish. The scale is hard to tell, but the circle is about the diameter of a quarter, and there are some stains around it.

The frame is simple extruded aluminum with plastic corners. The canvas wraps around the frame and is held in place with plastic wedges. A hack saw took a quick 5 inches off the width, and we were ready to re-assemble.

Once put together I trimmed up the excess from the right side and installed it on the wall. The picture added a lot of character without making the room feel any darker.

Always check the as-is section of ikea! A few minutes of work got us an otherwise out of stock item for half price.

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Category Archives: Home Improvement