Second Annual Installment – Blogger Cribs

Well, looking back on the site, it would be more accurate to call this the Second “Bi-Annual” installment of Blogger Cribs.  The First Annual Installment was back in 2008. 

Since then, there has been a few changes around the house and yard, but nothing too significant. 

I took some snapshots of the house after my final “winter yard preparation”.  Just before winter here in Minnesota, we “batten down the hatches”.  Our yards are cleaned up one last time, the leaves are all removed from the lawns, and our “stuff” (benches, flower pots, planters, hoses, picnic tables, chairs, umbrellas, etc) are all picked up, tucked safely away until after the spring thaw.  Most houses and yards look “minimalistic”, and I think they look pretty darn good!   

Like I did back in 2008, I’m going to ask YOU to join me in this tradition!

No matter where you live, be it a multi-million dollar mansion, a large beautiful house, a modest and well lived in home, a town house, an apartment, a cardboard box, or that niche in the concrete under the bridge – I’d really like to see it! 

Please, join me in this year’s Second Annual Installment of Blogger Cribs!

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May I present you, Casa de Father of Five!

   

   

   

Weathering Any Storm (Door)

Three days ago, my dad and I put a new exterior door on the front of our house. 

Yesterday I had my dad come over and help me with the last “major” portion of the job – the Storm Door.

In between the day the door went in, and the day the storm door went on, I did some minor “prep” work.  I put a temporary wood support under the threshold (need my table saw – which is on loan right now – to custom rip a permanent board into place), I caulked around the door (as much as I could before running out of caulk), and insulated around the door from the INSIDE. 

Well, I insulated as much as I could.  The insulation I had lying around was a victim of the “twice spilled” beer from two days prior.  It was both wet, and smelled like beer.  After the incident of the cats in the ceiling, I had my fill of insulation that smelled like ANYTHING except insulation, so I vowed to replace it instead of trying to use it. 

I needed some other items to finish the job (as well as a few unrelated items).  This was also a “no school” day for the kids and a “work day” for The Mother of Five - so I had to be responsible for had all the kids home with me.

I loaded up #5 of 5, and we headed out to Lowe’s to pick up some light bulbs, paint, insulation, caulk, spray foam, and a new doorbell (the doorbell being the only significant “casualty” from replacing the door).  With my wife’s workplace only a couple of minutes away from Lowe’s – #5 of 5 insisted that we stop by and see mom – and to buy an Icee with the two dollars she happened to “find” in my car… 

So much for that two bucks….

By the time we finished shopping, seeing mom, getting her sugar fix getting her Icee, and heading home, my dad had already arrived at our house.  I pulled up to see the rest of the kids and my dad playing ball outside in the driveway.  I showed him my “acquisitions” for today’s chores, we debated a little bit on where and how to start, but in the end we just “punted”.  It worked out well.

My dad mixed up some mortar to repair a damaged portion in the brick work in front of the house while I pained the brickmould.  We finished at just about the same time, and so we decided to get the new storm door out of the basement, unpack it, and have a vague idea on what we needed to do while the paint and mortar dried. 

Everything seemed to time out pretty well.  By the time we unpacked the door, stashed away the window glass and screen (so the kids would not destroy it), and familiarized ourselves with all the parts, the paint had dried enough for us to start. 

The door went in pretty easily (truth be told, I have installed storm doors in the past, and could have done it myself, but having my dad there to keep me company, and to help out when needed was pretty nice. 

 

Instead of The Doors, or Ron & Fez, today I loaded up my radio with over twelve hours of “The Whistler”.

As dinner time approached, we had the door installed, the glass installed, and the latch installed.  We had ourselves a FUNCTIONAL Storm Door!!  But, by 5pm we both have had our fill of working on the front door.  The last bit of tasks left are minor, and can easily be accomplished by one person.

What’s left you ask??  Some interior drywall / spackling work, the strike plates on both the door and the storm, and a couple of beads of caulking, and (as you can see in the photos to the left) painting our weathered pillar.  When that is done, I can call this job COMPLETE!

 

 

 

   

 

Thanks to my dad for all the help.

Sometimes we may not see eye to eye, or that it may seem like I am not listening, or maybe even feel like I am not appreciative of all the help he TRIES to give, but I am! 

I would not be who I am, or where I am today without his help!

Thanks Dad!!

 

 

 

 

To Door or Not to Door

That was my morning facebook update….  Well, actually it was a little more than than.. 

I received several replies indicating that indeed, I SHOULD indeed “door”, and do so to The Doors. 
     So I did “door”, only not to The Doors.  
            I “doored” to the Ron & Fez show.

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Last April the Mother of Five and I noticed that one of our local “big box” home improvement centers was having a pretty significant sales on doors.  Having wanted to upgrade the “entry level” front door on our house for quite some time, we went out and bought a customized replacement door for the front of our home.   

Over the rest of the summer we continued “hording” the rest of the materials needed to complete the entire project as they went on sale and as our funds allowed.  So we have been storing a customized new door, new door hardware, a new storm door, and new storm door hardware in storage in our basement waiting for a time when I had two consecutive days off with nothing planned, and the weather cooperated. 

Armed with the good weather, all the needed materials, a bit of Facebook motivation, and the Ron & Fez show, I decided that today was going to be that day!I

Actually, I decided the day before, and with only 12 hours notice, I called my dad and asked him if he was interested in joining me.  See, with neither of us having ever replaced an exterior door before, I figured we could either both walk away triumphantly, or bask in crushing defeat together. 

Well, to tell you the truth - the plan was that if something went horribly wrong, I could tell everyone it was his fault, and not my own.  Blame the ol’ man!!  I figured it would work like a charm!!

Since I had worked until 4am the morning before, it was a later start than I would have really liked.  By the time I got up, got dressed, had a little late breakfast / early lunch, called my dad to come over, and his drive time – we did not start the job in earnest until noon.

While waiting for my dad to arrive, I took a few photos of the existing entryway, door and storm – for the blog nostalgic purposes.

      

    

Then I began the demo, starting with the interior trim, and pulling the insulation out from around the door.  My dad arrived just just in time to start ripping the old door out in earnest.  The plan was to save the old door and storm door, then sell them on craigslist to recoup a few bucks towards the new door and storm. 

 

 

 

Things started out ok.  I got the storm off with little or no trouble.

 

 

 

 

 

The old door jamb (on the other hand) must not have gotten the memo. 

By the time I had a clear door frame “rough in”, I also had a pile of debris that “used to be” my front door jamb piled up on the front lawn.  I was able to save the actual door slab itself.…. 

(What am I going to do with that thing?  Anyone need an insulated steel, windowless door slab?)

      

 

 

Former front door jamb.

Current pile of debris on my front lawn.

Future “fire bowl” or chimena fuel.

 

 

 

 

Once we had the new door prepared we caulked the rough in and around the brickmould and starting tipping the new door into it’s permanent new home. 

Throughout the process my dad STRUGGLED with keeping his fingers out of the new caulk. I found that we had to stop over, and OVER, and OVER as we waited for him to clean his hands so he would not spread caulk all over the outside of our new door. 

Then, the inevitable happened.  As I reminded my dad (again) to not get his fingers into the caulk, I stepped into the bed of caulk on the floor where the new door was going to rest….   (sigh….)

The door tipped into place pretty easily, but aligning the door (plumb and level) proved to be a daunting task. 

Tweak, and shim.  Pry and shim.  Push and shim.  Shim and unshim.   We spent the remainder of the day trying to get the door lined up, plumb and level. 

Once we finally had the door plum, level, and permanently attached, I started noticing how late it was getting.  One of my downfalls is being impatient, especially when I am pressured for time.  I start hurrying, I loose focus, I become less careful. 

I had been drinking a “tall cool one” throughout the afternoon.  (just one, and I had not finished it, so I had a half full open beer bottle lying around throughout the afternoon.  As afternoon became evening and evening became dinnertime, I really started loosing my focus. 

The kids (including a friend who was spending the night) were getting hungry, the Mother of five was not home this evening, the phone was continually ringing, my cel phone kept recieving text messges, the kids continually needed my attention for one thing or another, and it was starting to get cold out…  I needed to get to a good stopping point.  I was really feeling pressured.  That’s when it started happening…  

I bumped into (and spilled) the open, and half full beer bottle all over the entryway.  All over the new lockset.  All over the shoes in the entryway.  This happened not once, but TWO SEPERATE TIMES. 

I LOST IT

I took the trim (that I had knocked into the beer) and THREW it (javelin style) out the open door.  This was when I knew I had to call it quits.  Once I finished the task I was working on (installing the new lockset), my dad offered to clean up our mess so I could make dinner for the kids.

This proved to be quite helpful!  I was able to walk away from my stress, shift my attention to “family matters”, feed the kids (and myself) – and not have to worry about the clean up.  (Thanks dad!)

We left the door in a “functionally unfinished” state, dad cleaned up and headed home, I fed the kids and then cleaned up the kitchen.  The Mother of Five returned home.  The kids got involved settled in for the night.

#2 of 5 over at a neighbors for the night, #3 of 5 watching “Pranked” on TV, #4 of 5 and overnight friend watching Toy Story on a laptop from the top bunk, and #5 of 5 curling up in “mom and dad’s bed”.

That’s when I was able to take a deep breath and really see the work we got done (despite the “turbulence” at the end of the day).  The job is not finished yet.  I have a bit of the “detail” work to finish – exterior caulking, insulating, replacing the trim, and final painting of the interior and exterior of the door – not to mention the instillation of the storm door, but I am happy to report that today will go down into the record books as a “success”!  

        

After taking the two photos above I sat down to start this blog post…  It was not long after getting started that I just ran out of gas.  I had nothing left to give.  I saved the work I had started, popped over to Facebook, and ended my day with one last update… 

That Was Almost Too Easy!

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Not to be undone by co-worker, and fellow blogger Bill at The King of Clubs (and his ongoing Home Improvement series) it was time that I post something similar.

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Last week I posted about an unexpected message that I found when I woke up one morning.  Not long after posting uploading the post, my telephone rang.  It was Best Bud Ed.  He had seen the post, and wanted to remind me about a little tidbit of info that I had forgotten.

He asked me if the disposal was an In-Sinkerator brand, and if it was, they had a universal coupling so I could simply drop the current disposal, and reattach the new disposal to the universal coupling attached at the sink.  It was indeed an In-Sinkerator brand. 

Best Bud Ed had also reminded me to get the model number, and measure the distance between the drain outlet and the top of the disposal.  These steps, I forgot to complete. 

I stopped at Lowes, and headed to the disposals.  They had the In-Sinkerator brand, but since I did not remember the model number or have the exact measurements, I had to “punt”.  They ranged in price from over $350.00 down to $75.00.  The top of the line (Evolution series) had sound dampening mounts, sound dampening insulation, mega horse power, two stage grinding, and all the extra bells and whistles.  Then, there was the basic line.  They were called “Badger” disposals.

 

I went with the Badger line.  My choices were the Badger1, Badger5, or Badger 5XP.  I did not want the bottom of the line, but did not feel I needed the top of the line either.  I settled with the Badger5.  When I finally got the disposal home and looked at the old one, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the old disposal was also a Badger5! 

I got my tools set up, sprayed the universal coupling on the old disposal with WD-40 to help loosen it up, turned on the Ron & Fez show to keep me entertained, and started in on the task at hand.

 

 

 

I un-coupled the old disposal, swapped out the electrical connection, and prepared to replace the disposal. 

(New disposal on the left, old disposal on the right)

 

 

 

 

 

Then, came the hardest part of the whole job.  Holding up the new disposal with one hand while trying to connect the coupling with the other. 

It took me about ten minutes to line it up, and get it fully connected.

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, the job took me about 30 minutes (I barley got through the entry song and the ichibans of the day on Ron & Fez). 

I only needed a couple of tools (surprisingly few), and (in all honesty) writing this post took me longer than actually replacing the disposal! 

Now, it’s on to the next project(s)…  Laundry (don’t watch for any posts), cleaning my room (don’t watch for any posts), and the patio project (stay tuned for a post in the future)..   

Front Patio – Step 4

I have come to the end of another set of days off, and head back to work tomorrow.  I had set myself a goal for these days off…  The fence.  I had wanted to get the fence completed, so we could move on to the next phase of the front patio project – but alas, it was not to be.  Mother Nature and Fate were both working against me.

Yet, despite their best attempts at HALTING my progress, I did get some noticeable work put into the project.

First off, I wanted needed to get work done on this fence to help me feel better.  You see, Best Bud Ed and former neighbor and good friend of his - “Good Neighbor Jim” were going on a camping trip.  They were headed up to the Hogback Lake Trail in the Superior National Forest. 

I too was invited and would have LOVED to have gone – but my fatherly duties, my failing front wheel bearing, and the incomplete (and untouched) fence project that was staring me in the face for the past three weeks were all making a camping trip impossible to fit into my schedule. 

Seeing as I was going to have to turn down the opportunity to do some camping with Best Bud Ed and Good Neighbor Jim – I told myself that the next best thing I could hope for (and believe me, it was a DISTANT next best thing) was to complete the fence project…  If I could not go camping, I could at least cross on project off my list…

As if adding salt to a wound, I was treated to frequent emails detailing me to their current location while enroute, and periodically, some photos of their trip would arrive.  The photo above is one that Best Bud Ed sent me in an email he titled…  “View From Camp”  As you can see, I missed a GEORGOUS trip. 

Enough of that… I’m getting depressed.

Weekend – Day 1

I was STOKED to get out and get working on the fence.  I was (secretly) hoping I could have it done by Sunday,  and have Monday and Tuesday to get some additional work accomplished (above and beyond the fence).  Instead, I got to watch the rain splatter upon my project from the view from the window – while we spent the day cleaning, sorting and organizing our bedroom. 

Weekend – Day 2

GEORGOUS day!  I got a lot accomplished.  The fence was looking AWESOME (See Front Patio – Step 3) – or, so I thought…

Weekend – Day 3

Started with a telephone call the night before.  That phone call resulted in the following facebook update.

What did you say? Your car is falling apart?? You want me to do what? Oh, yeah, I had nothing better planned this morning than to go out and look at the worn CV joint, broken ball joint (and what I suspect is a worn bearing)... Oh, and let me find you a mechanic while I'm at it.. Huh? You also need a loan to get it fixed?? -- Ahhh, kids... Ya gotta love 'em (snicker)

#1 of 5 had a vehicular fever a-brewin’ – and the only remedy was – Dad to the rescue…  Then, there was the whole discussion that occurred after The Mother of Five evaluated the work I had done during Day 2…   Another commentary in the form of a Facebook update.

Now that #1's car is being looked at, and he is back home to get some sleep (works overnights) and I am back home, it's time to get back out to the patio. Didn't I tell you? Michele wants the fence 3" lower. So now I have to take the whole thing apart, dig the holes another 3" deeper, and level the posts all over again... Gosh, what a "good husband" wont do to make his loving wife happy!?!?! (rolling my eyes)

Two and a half hours later, another Facebook update

About 1/2 the way done getting the posts all dropped, and leveled! Thankfully, things have been going rather smoothly - so I'll cross my fingers (for the rest of the posts), quit my whining, and head back out.

And finally, two hours after that update, one last fence update…

WOO~HOO!!! I have final approval from the boss!!!

All in all, I’d call it a “Halfway productive day”.  I got a good solid 4-5 hours of work in before the evening routine of Boy Scouts, Softball, and Picking #1 of 5 up to take him to work started.  By the time I got home, I was exhausted and had to head off to bed early, because…

Weekend – Day 4

…because Day 4 started at 5am – when the alarm clock woke me.  What's that you ask?  5am alarm clock on my day off?  Yes.  Yes, that is correct.  You see, I also had to run out and get #1 of 5 at the end of his work shift.  I had to pick him up at 6am – then (as a favor, because it was raining, and he walks to work) I drove one of #1 of 5’s managers home so he did not have to hoof it in the rain.

After getting both of them to their respective homes, I headed out to the Lumber yard for some last minute fence parts, then to the bank (for #1 of 5’s “loan” (and I use that term loosely)).  After sitting in the parking lot for 30 minutes while waiting for the back to open – I had money in hand, headed out to pay the mechanic for the work on #1 of 5’s car.

I arrived home (for a whopping 30 minutes) and headed back out to take #2 of 5 to his orthodontist appointment. 

(Good news!  Braces come off at the next visit!!)

After the Orthodontist appointment, #2 of 5 had a quick lunch in the car, and I headed out to bring him back to school.

After #2 of 5 made it to school – I had two hours to get something done.  It had stopped raining, so I got all my power tools out, set up, and started measuring – when the skies opened up (again) and dumped rain upon my parade.

I worked (as best I could) through the rain until the kids came home from school.  #2 of 5 had a “Summer Camp Checkup” scheduled – so as The Mother of Five arrived home, I headed out with #2 of 5 to the clinic.

While at the clinic, I called Best Bud Ed and caught up with his camping adventures. 

#2 of 5 came out of the office with a clean bill of health, and the Doctor’s A.O.K. for summer camp and CIT’ing, so it was time to get back home.

We arrived just in time for dinner (which I skipped to finish my last two rails, and to clean up my mess). 

Believe it or not, I got the fence in!!  It still needs to be plumbed and the posts cemented in, but you can stand back and actually SEE the fence.

Now, with all that done, I quick whipped out this post (sorry for the low quality post) and it’s off to get #1 of 5 for another ride to work.  I hope to be home by 10:30 pm – so I can go to bed, and get up at 5am for the much more relaxed pace at work!

 

Ahhhh..

The Life of a Father of Five.

Reclaiming my space

One thing about living in Minnesota is how eagerly we anticipate, and appreciate being able to spend time outside again after a long winter. 

While winter in Minnesota is hardly what I would call complete (it’s widely held belief  that March is the snowiest month of the year) – the snow that we still may get will not stick around as long as the snow we received in December.  Some of the snow we received in December is still sitting on my deck…. Or WAS still sitting on my deck…

Last week we shoveled a little path from the door to the grill so we could BBQ (for the first time since… About November),  but that was not enough!  What happened was in the area where we shoveled, it had melted enough where I could actually see the DECK SURFACE!!  That made me bound and determined to take a little more of .

While using a meteorologically delightful day to take down our Christmas lights and decorations – I decided I wanted a little more of MY space back from Mother Nature! 

So, for the first time since December (I had kept the deck shoveled until then – but finally gave up) my deck is finally OPEN!   (I have no furniture out there yet though…) 

I am thinking of bringing my Adirondack chair back out just so I can say I am able to sit on my deck!!

Just watch out for the staircase…   It is still snow and ice covered (and yes, Bill, it is still missing a few 2x2’s)!

A post almost seven years in the making

We built our house eleven years ago.  One of the “features” of the house Moen brand faucets.  Having spent just short of ten years working in a hardware store, and was familiar with (or I thought I was familiar with) the quality of Moen brand faucets.

Over the next three years, I had three failures of the kitchen faucet, one failure of the shower faucet, and one failure of the tub faucet.

Moen’s customer service has been GREAT.  All faucets were covered under their (extensive) warrantee, so it was only a matter of calling them up, and ordering the part at no cost.  Shipping was even covered!

The tub problem was that the faucet’s plastic handle cracked and broke.  To use the tub, I would have had to run out and buy a new handle, or order one for replacement.  By this time, I think I was on a first name basis with Moen’s Customer service, so I just called up and ordered a new one.

In the mean time, I broke out the trusty vice grip and continued using the tub.

Through a series of mishaps (needing a new stem because vice grip stripped the stem, multiple occurrences of misplaced parts, and (let’s be honest here) a severe case of procrastination)  days turned into weeks.  Weeks, turned into months.  Months turned into years.  (Yup folks… Years (plural))  More that six to be exact.

During Christmas, a family friend (who had moved to California) had come over.  She had not been to our house in four years.  After coming out of our bathroom, she jokingly teased me about the vice grip tub faucet handle…This motivated me to finally get this job done!  I promised her that next time she came, the tub facet would be repaired…

Not long after Christmas, the Mother of Five found the part I had misplaced!!  Huzzah!  I could finally repair the tub faucet!  After a couple of attempts to do so failed (because the washing machine was running, the dishwasher was running, the tub was needed) I finally had a day I could do it!! 

Moen faucets have a cartridge insert.  Replacing the cartridge is supposed to be only a matter of pulling out a pin and sliding out the old cartridge…  “Supposed to be” is the key phrase here folks… 

Murphy’s Law – An old saying that means "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".  I think at times, Murphy wrote that law – JUST FOR ME!

I gathered up the tools needed, and began the process.  Vice grip removed with only a minor setback in that the inner workings had rusted together over the past “way too many” years.

Before long the vice grip was off, and I pulled the pin that held the stem in place… Now (I told myself) – I just need to “pop” the old stem out and push the new one in place!

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Pull, and pull, and twist, and twist, and tug, and tug, and turn, and turn, and… Well you get the idea… I even hopped up on the little ledge, and tugged at the thing with ALL my might, it would not budge, until… 

>>POP<<  -  The stem busted off…  Sigh…

Now I had NOTHING to grip to get the old stem out.  Over the next couple of hours,  I had to carefully (did not want to scratch the inner brass liner that housed the stem) poke, prod, and chisel the old stem out of it’s housing.  It was a painfully excruciating and daunting task, But in the end, I was triumphant over the old stem.

Busting the old piece out (bit by bit) did eventually work, but it created a set of it’s own little problems.  As I dug my way down through the stem (and as the little bits broke off) some of the tiniest pieces fell down the inlets into the faucet, and back into the pipes of the house.  If I did not get them out of there before installing the new stem, they would get caught, and block water going to the valve.

You can see the inlet in the photo (with the red arrow).  Tiny pieces (like in the photo on the upper left) fell into two of the little slots.  To get the bits out, I had to fabricate a plastic “waterfalls” that would prevent water from going where I did not want it to go, then turn the water on (unrestricted - without the valve in place) so the water pressure would “blow” the bits out of the lines. 

Since “Murphy” and his law were growing tired of me – This portion of the project went very well!

Once the lines were cleaned, and the valve box dry, I had to use some emery cloth to remove as much of the mineral deposits (green in the photo to the left) from the housing.

The new stem installed pretty easily, but the stem holder (pin) did give me a bit of a struggle.  I ended up chipping a bathroom tile while tapping the pin back in place (Thankfully the chipped tile is under the cowling and not visible). 

I installed the replacement handle, and for the first time in just about seven years, laid my eyes upon the bathtub faucet as looked eleven years ago!  New!  Pristine!  Shiny and sparkling! 

With fingers crossed, I turned the water supply to the house back on, bled air out of the water pipes, and turned on the tub faucet.  NO LEAKS!  Works as well as it did the day we moved in the house, except…

The Hot and Cold were reversed!!

Since we lived with a vice grip for a faucet handle for the past (almost) seven years – We can put up with reversed hot and cold… at least for a while! 

Be sure to stop back sometime in the next seven years and ask me if my tub faucet is still running hot water from the cold setting, and cold water from the hot setting! 

Oh, and on a positive note!  I only lost one screwdriver down the hole where the faucet goes through the tile.  It’s about a two foot drop, and the hole is too thin for even the tiniest arms.  If you are ever in need of a small thin (and slightly warn) slotted screwdriver – I know where you can find one!

(All photos are click-able for larger views)