Dog Door

I finished the dog door and patched up the gate so now le dogs can go outside on their own.

Dog Ramp

I made a ramp for the dogs to get to the window in the basement. It's 95% done as I just have some railings to put on the the ramp itself for the pooches. I overbuilt it as it supports my weight and the dogs weigh like nothing. And we had a visitor in the house.

Beginning of ramp

Backyard Gate

I put a gate inbetween the garage and the house to block out the back yard for the dogs to roam free. Unfortunately the possums are in the side yard sometimes, and Rocky thinks it's cool to roll around in their scat. It's beyond shag nasty.

Dirty hottub

Lawn mower

We got a new lawn mower after the last one refused to be fixed by WD-40.

Apple tree

Strawberries

This weekend Ingrid and I made some raised beds to put in strawberries. Simone and Trey came by on Sunday to give advice and help mix in the soil.

Before

Christmas Tree

We got our christmas tree up and tried to sit it down for some pictures

Squirrels in the tree

Gutters

On Saturday Mom & Dad came over to put up new gutters on the West side of my house. The old ones were Mickey Mouse and would just funnel the water to one part and waterfall from there. The new ones look pretty nice.

Setting up

20% less trash

I got a new toilet a bit ago and had the toilet on the front lawn with the turkey sitting on it. I'm sure my neighbors were thrilled with that. I decided it was time to break it up and throw it out.

First wack

Fall

Fall is here. And so are the dead Turkeys on my porch.

The door for the tv/fridge in the garage is all finished. And the scary room has a few new touches. I'm hoping it'll freak some people out when they see it.

Trees across the street

Dead turkeys

American Clay

Check out American Clay, they have some nice examples of their clay. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't work for my house, but the clay looks awesome in those houses. If I had a few thousand to toss around I'd think about trying it out.

Tub..............

So my tub hasn't been getting super hot as of late, or ever. And the GFI breaker I put on the outside of the garage has been tripping a lot. I had the repair guy come over.

And of course it's like when you take your car to the shop, it won't misbehave when the mechanic is around. I couldn't get the tub to trip while he was there. He tightened down all the wire screws and said that could be it. And then he adjusted the thermostat so it'll get hot in the tub. He warned that it might get too hot, like 110, if it's set to the max. Which is fine with me.

As the GFI is still being tripped, I'm going to disconnect the bonding ground, as that might be doing it as well. If that fails, I'm just going to get a non GFI breaker and throw that on the wall. The tub comes with a GFI so everything should be ok.

And I picked up like a million bags of packing peanuts for insulation. Turns out I really only need like 2 bags, so now I have a bunch of black garbage bags filled with crap that likes to float around and make my yard look even trashier.

Tub is done

The moving party. Dan, May, Maureen, Aimee and Ron's hand.

Tub repair

The hot tub repair guy came out yesterday and hooked up the wiring on the tub. The jury rigged heater element I had put together wasn't going to work, so I had the repair guy install a new heater element with a high temp safety switch (for $350.) That kinda sucked.

We filled the tub with water and after replacing a diode and a cam for the air control buttons he turned it on. And water was whirl and pooling all over the place. Unfortunetly it was also pooling from one of the two pumps. "Oh, that's not good" he said. My response was "Aw ***k, how much is that?" Turns out they are $350 also. Someone has a good racket going on.

I had to stand there and look at my tub with it's pretty water while he told me I shouldn't use it until we get a new pump in it. Otherwise it might break the motor (with water and all), and that'd be another $300.

But, he's got the part in stock and is coming out on Saturday to hook it up. The grand total of repairs for my $400 tub will be $1100. I'll have to stop giving away my cans and bottles and get the deposit myself.

Ron and I are going to put in the french doors on the garage for the TV and fridge this Saturday. Hopefully in time for Super Bowl Sunday.

I have a pic of the tub here

Tub update

I guess it's been a while since I've put anything up here about the hot tub. Probably because I've been busy doing stuff for it. I had thought when I bought it that I'd just move it to some patch of grass, run a wire to it and fire it up. Turns out you have to do other stuff.

After the tub was moved I ordered some gravel from Mt. Scott Fuel on Foster, which was delivered in a dump truck - that was pretty cool. I got 3 yards of clean gravel and my buddy Aimee helped me shovel it into a wheelbarrow and then dump it into the hole. We put pressure treated 2x8s into the ground to support the pavers for the tub as well.

We ran over to Mt. Scott Fuel to get our first load of sand in Ron's truck and dumped that on top of the gravel. We got another 1/2 yard of sand into the truck and came back. While we were there we saw some guy in a Chevy S-10 get a whole yard of sand dumped into his rig. That was pretty funny, his suspension dropped about a foot. I was nice(ish) to Ron's truck and only did a half yard at a time, which was still about a half ton.

It took about 3 hours to shovel, move, dump and level the 3 yards of gravel and yard of sand. I was pretty impressed with our work. Since it was early and I had a truck, we went back to Mt. Scott Fuel and picked up 1400 pounds worth of flagstone. It was supposed to be $0.28 a pound but we got it at $0.20, which was pretty nice.

Next was the wiring. I had a 1/2 inch metal conduit from the house to the garage and I figured I'd be able to shove the 220 volt wiring through there. After Ron helped me cut the conduit with his Sawsall we found out it wouldn't fit. So I took the 16 pound sledgehammer to the driveway for fun since we were stuck.

A week later I got a hold of a hammer drill and some bits from my buddy Mike. I drilled a new hole into the foundation of the garage and grew the existing hole in the house. From that my dad and I were able to shove a 3/4 inch PVC from the house to the garage.

The next week I put up a subpanel box in the garage, with the help of Aimee. It took a few hours but I got the 220 hooked up to the subpanel and started on re-wiring the lighting and scary room of the garage. The next day I finished the wiring of the lights. It was a bit tricky as it was a 3 wire set-up with a new ground. There were two hot wires, one for the scary room and one that was switched for the light. I connected the switch, and a 2 plug outlet in a 4" box by the sub-panel in the garage. It was a bit tight with all of the grounds and wires, but I screwed it all in.

That night I started to connect the 220 up to the main breaker box in my basement. I thought better of doing it alone and asked Ron to come over in case I got shocked or something. After turning off the main breaker I started pulling the 220 wiring into the box. That was a bit weird - I had to knock out the knockouts with a hammer and screwdriver which was about 1 inch from the fat hot wires coming from the street.

A half hour later it was all done. I closed up the panel and ran to the garage to see the lights turn on. They didn't. I had forgotten to close the circuit on the subpanel. Still nothing. Damnit. Then I remembered that I hadn't closed the 50 amp circuit breaker in the basement.

Now we had light.

This week I continued working on the wiring. I started to drill holes into the studs in the garage to get a wire ready for the tub. But I was tired and ate pizza after drilling the holes. Turns out you need to have the circuit breaker at *least* 5 feet from the tub. So I drilled a hole right by the subpanel.

Tuesday night I put up my new 50 amp GFCI circuit breaker on the outside of the hose and wired it up to the dead wire. Last night I attached the 220 wire from the subpanl to the GFCI and turned it all on. I tested the GFCI and it did what it was supposed to, so that's good.

I finished up last night by filling in the hole by the conduit (covering the condiuit with a gutter so you can't cut through it.) And finished putting the pavers onto the 8x8 hot tub space.

Then I ate some pizza.

Tub is moved

Last night my climbing buddies, Ron, my dad and I moved the tub into the back yard. I was worried that it wouldn't make it back there, so the previous night Ron and I took my new 16 pound sledge hammer to the ground and made some more room. After a few beers last night we all went outside, lifted the tub up and were done in 10 minutes. This weekend I'm getting gravel and sand, then it's just the electricity and we're soaking.

The hole is done

After 3 more beers I finished the hole last night.

Hot Tub Update

So I've started digging out an area for the hot tub. I'm going to put down gravel layer, then paper, then a sand layer and then the pavers. I'm almost done with the hole, just another 3x12 foot section. I just ordered the owners manual from JW Enterprises in California so someone will be able to hook up the tub for me.

Soon I'll have a toasty warm tub to hang out in.

Hot Tub is here

On Saturday I got my hot tub. It's currently hanging out in my driveway until I get some electricity to it and put in a new heater element. That and some lifeguards.

Tub!

Hot Tub!

Last night I drove up to Vancouver to look at a hot tub that a guy on craigslist was selling. I had measured the passage between my house and the garage and it was 38" wide and 7' tall. When I saw the tub I measured it and it was 37" wide and just under 7' long.

The owner showed me what had to be fixed - the heater element and a little bit of piping. It looks pretty doable, especially if I can snag someone to do it for me.

It's being delivered on Saturday morning and if I get in gear I could have it up and running in a week or two.

Ants

I've been slowly getting new housemates this past month. They're pretty quiet but they are everywhere. I was ok with them being in my bathroom, I'd just kill them and shower off.

Then they took to my kitchen. I'm not a slob or anything, but apparently they've found out there is food residue in the sink from time to time. My spiders seem to be sissys and don't do anything about the ants. So I got some ant traps and put them in my cupboards and under the sink. I even taped up some areas to see if that'd help. It doesn't.

My boss at work reminded me that ants leave a pheremone trail. I'll have to do some serious cleaning to make sure the little bastards can't figure out where to go so easily.

Now I do my dishes within a few minutes of using them, so that's good. They crossed the line when I saw one in the top of my Britta jug. It's in the fridge now.

I'm going to open one of the ant traps and take the gunk out and mix it with some syrup. The gunk is supposed to kill the ants later back in the nest/hive/scary place. But they don't like the gunk. They'll like it with some syrup mixed in it. I forget that I can't kill all the ants because then they can't take the gunk back to the queen - who needs to die.

Finally, some pictures

So I've been lame and not put up any pictures of my lovely little house. Guess I'm still sore that I lost my dope little camera. So I had to 'borrow' my old camera back from my dad.

Here are a few pictures from the house. How cool is that toilet paper holder??

Neighbor Lady Died

My neighbor lady who was so happy about my lawn finally being worked on went to the big garden in the sky on Sunday. I was outside (working in the yard) when I saw two people wheeling out a body bag. A man came over and told me that she had passed the previous night. Turns out she wasn't doing so well lately and it was just her time. When I saw her last she was pretty sprite and energetic. I'm glad that she at least got to see her neighbor's yard not look like a scene out of Africa.

Last night I told my neighbor across the street about the neighbor lady.
"Kinda strange to have someone die right next to you," I said.
"Shit, that's a shame," he responded. "Guess everyone is getting out of this neighborhood."

Lawn is cut!

I finally got my 5.0 peak horsepower lawn mower today. Here are some before pictures. It's dark out now, so the after pictures will just look like a black room.

I had to mow at the 6 setting and when I made my 2nd pass at the 2 setting the engine made a weird noise and died. Well, I figured, I got half of my front lawn done for a $80 mower, not too bad. I turned the sucker over and a strip of sheet metal was broken and had to be removed (it was hitting the blade.)

So I started wrenching with it and got nowhere. Then I had the bright idea, "Hey, I still have Vince's grinder! That should take care of this." I whip out the heavy grinder and start going to town. Then I notice all of the sparks going everywhere and the smell of gas from the mower being turned over. I definetly did not want to be one of those guys you see on TV after they do something stupid, so I stopped. I eventually got the metal off by just wiggling it back and forth.

The wonderful front

The Savanna

Lawn

I had big dreams of getting a lawn mower and taking care of business this weekend. It came through just as well as my last Lotto ticket. I found an used mower for sale ($80) but the guy had to tune it up and sharpen the blades. So I get it today.

Instead of mowing, I started edging the lawn with the help of my mom. I used her edger which is pretty much like a flat shovel that you stand on and you take out 5 inches of lawn at a time. As I was hopping up and down on the edger, one of my neighbors came out and said "Thank god! I'm so happy you're finally doing that!"

I started to explain myself, telling my dumb story about being busy and not able to get a used mower cos I'm plain lazy. I didn't really care about my story, and I don't think she did either.

"Are you going to trim the bushes in the back too?"

Yes, eventually I will.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

My lawn is a bit scary, but it's not that bad. I should leave some lawn clippings on her step as a message.

We ended up filling 2 1/2 lawn refuse bags from just the edgings. I'm a little aprehensive about how much crap I'm going to have when I do the actual mowings.

Moving in

I've been slowly moving stuff into my house, I had just a couch for about a week and then last weekend my parents brought back my futon from the beach house. Yesterday I came back from the beach with my futon frame so I have a real bed and am not just sleeping on the floor. Then my parents brought over 2 tables and some chairs I had left at their place - it's like I have a real house now!

Well, it's complete now because I put up my new training board above my hallway door. Hopefully it's screwed into the header correctly and I won't pull it down when I'm working on it. It has over 15 different holds and I can actually use about 4 of them, so I have a lot of room for improvement.

House fixing

I started working on my house this weekend. I was super ambitous and thought I'd get both rooms prepped and primed this weekend. I tried this orange solvent to strip the paint off of the nasty window frame in the bedroom. It seemed like it was working well, but turned out to be a pain in the ass to clean off.

On my 4th (of 6) trips to Home Depot I picked up a cleaning bit for Ron's cordless drill to take the paint and solvent off from the small spaces. The brushes disintegrated within a few minutes and didn't get too much cleaning done. I ended up taking out my big carbide scraper and taking all of the paint off with that.

My dad helped me fix the ceiling of the bedroom, there was some water damage and the plaster was coming off. I used my new cold chisel to take the plaster down. I then put up some gyp board and mudded it.

On Saturday I took the carpet and padding out of the room. What was left was tack board along the walls and about 200 staples in the floor. I thought to myself, "Hey, I can take staples out no problem." The needle nose pliers couldn't get a grip on the staples, so I had to take a screwdriver and a rubber mallet to get them up a little. Then I took the pliers and pulled the staples out.

My last project was to start taking the security bars off of the windows. I'm using my buddy Vince's grinder for this job. It seems to take about 3 minutes a bolt, not too bad. I'm wearing a tanktop on my head to cover my neck and face from the spark showers that erupt from the grinder (which looks pretty cool.) I got two windows cleared, just 8 more to go.

House is done

My house closed last Wednesday as I was sitting in Ron's truck on I-84 in Utah. Now I can get excited about buying picture molding hooks.

I started my move last night by taking over a bottle of Vodka and Southern Comfort. I looked throughout the house and saw how much cleaning I'll be doing over the next few weeks. Fun stuff.

The refrigerator is standing in front of the hallway door, so I think it's about time to get a sub-zero undercounter unit. I think the first thing I need is a pull up bar. Gotta have priorities.

House

Well, the house process is coming along, we are giving the owners a list of things to be repaired before I move in. Hopefully it'll push through soon.

House is mine

I finally got a house offer accepted. On Saturday the owner of house # 3 signed the papers. Tomorrow I'm getting the home inspection and then it's mine!

House # 3

I made an offer on a third house last night. Maybe this time it will go through. I broke my realitor's record for number of offers made before buying a house.