the-richmonds.net

I've been in "handyman" mode for a few months now, but we're starting to switch gears and get back into bookfair mode now.  First event is coming up in a week and a half!

I've enjoyed the handyman work I've been doing, even if I haven't been getting paid for all of it.  I've been able to wrap up a lot of small projects around the house that have been needed attended to since we've moved in.  Some simple projects that I had no excuse not to get to are done (smoke alarms offer great peace of mind, and it only took 15 minutes to put up six of them).  We now have a railing on the stairs from the living area to the bedrooms, three new doors (2 on bedrooms, 1 on bathroom, and a fourth door for the playroom still has to be hung).  I spent 14 hours insulating the ceilings, which has cut the furnace operating time by about half (it used to be on for about 50 minutes out of every hour, now it's on for 20 - 30 minutes per hour).  I finally broke down and bought new hardware for the futon so it could be assembled.  I'll probably find the original hardware this week when I wrap up basement organization!

In the basement, seven bookcases have been filled and I'm in the process of trying to sort them by category.  The kitchen cabinets that we bought in Maine have been assembled in the basement and provide wonderful, organized storage on the laundry side of the room.  The desktop computer is set up on the other half with all of the bookshelves, and hopefully that can be organized into a place where we can keep the bills and paperwork so it doesn't clutter up the living area of the house anymore.

After 4 months, it's finally starting to feel settled!  Still no car in the garage yet - got to organize my tools and build some shelves in the back to hold the typical garage stuff so there is room for the car to pull in.  We're really close!

The weather is getting nice and I'm starting to get some odd jobs to fill what free time I have between bookfairs.  As I think about gearing up for this summer, I am going to put a post up here to let everyone know of a need that I'll have for tools.  It's hard to get bigger jobs without tools, and it's hard to get tools without bigger jobs!  So I'm looking for a few things to get me started. Even if they're not brand new, I'll just need somewhat reliable tools to get me through a few years as I grow the business.

Here's some of the things I'll need to get me going with projects I will have this summer.  I'm hoping to avoid any type of financing. If you know of anyone that may have any of these tools that aren't being used and would be willing to donate them to my cause (or give me a really really good deal on them), please let me know!

• Air compressor and hoses
• Air nailers (framing for sure, maybe roofing as well)
• Chop saw
• Table saw

Please keep my efforts bathed in prayer as well, as I'm setting back out into the realm of self-employment again, hoping to develop a business of work that I enjoy over the next few years into something that I can use as a primary income source to support the family on.

The past weekend has been very productive for me!

I worked in the garage for Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. I built shelves along the wall that adjoins the dining room, from the floor to the ceiling. I worked in a place to put the file cabinet and the van bench seat so we have a place to sit and put our shoes on and off. I dedicated one whole shelf to shoes, so they are not thrown all over the floor by the steps any more!

I finally got a few projects done around the house that I've been putting off for too long. While Heather was working on cleaning up, I replaced the thermostat that came with the house with a 7-day programmable thermostat, which should make our days and nights more comfortable in addition to saving energy during the times when we don't need the heat on. It will also work with the air conditioning in the warm weather.

While I had the tools out, I finally got around to fixing the downstairs bathroom door so that it closes (and stays closed), and the door to the garage also had some latching troubles that are now remedied. Both of the bathtub drains were very easily adjusted to allow better flow, so that water drains out of the tub just as fast as it comes in through the faucet.

No more rust stains, no more hard water!

This morning, Granite State Water Systems came to install our water filtration system. It all went in very easily, in the corner of our basement by the well tank. There are two cylinders and one salt tank. The water comes out of the well, passes through the first cylinder to be filtered through crushed marble media (catches the sediment and iron particles). It then passes through the second cylinder, which is filled with synthetic media that is recharged every other day with salt from the tank. The two outside spigots were put on a bypass, so the water that is used outdoors is not filtered.

The system will backwash every sixth day, and it was installed so that it will actually tie in to our septic system. I took advantage of this setup to solve a problem that I had last winter, with the condensation drain from the furnace freezing where it went outside. The furnace now drains into the same fitting which ties into the septic. No danger of freezing now!

I reset the filter indicator light on our refridgerator's ice and water dispenser. I need to find the bypass cap (I know I have it - just got to remember where!) for the filter compartment on the refridgerator - there is no need to filter water that has already been filtered!

You can see a picture of the new filter setup in the Around The House Album.

Yesterday, we went for lunch at my parent's house. It was good to visit with Jack for a few hours, before he had to fly back home.

While we were there, we picked up some plants that my mother had mentioned we could try to transplant to our yard. I got back yesterday afternoon and got right to work (I still didn't have enough daylight left, and had to finish this morning).

I started by moving the six plants that we got with the house. The builder planted them right up in front, where they get sun for just a couple of hours in the morning. The Wintercreeper Euonymus (Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald Gaiety') needs sun to part shade... it was getting mostly shade where it was. I think it may be too late for one of the clumps that I moved, but hopefully the other will perk back up and fill out. The two Rhododendron 'Olga' also need sun to part shade. I've never seen them in bloom, and I believe this is because they were not in an ideal location. They should both perk back up now that they are in full sun all day. And lastly, the two Purpleleaf Sand Cherry trees are supposed to be in full sun. I moved them out onto the hill where they will get sun all day. They should grow to be 7 to 10 feet tall.

Along with moving the builder's supplied plants away from the house, I planted a Forsythia bush (from Mom) on the hill, and I replaced the Euonymus with Hosta and the Rhododendron with Day Lilies. One of the Cherry bushes got replaced with Lily of the Valley, and the other was left empty. I built a small rock wall to hold back the front flowerbed where the Cherry bush was.

When we chose the flooring in our house, we were given an allowance to use for upgrades. We used the entire allowance on the tile for the kitchen, entry, laundryroom and bathrooms. We had to go with the cheapest grade of carpet that we could have installed, knowing that down the road, it is much easier to replace carpet than it is to rip up vinyl flooring and replace it with tile. (Hardwood in the dining room will also be a relatively easy project compared to tiling, so the carpet in that room will be replaced eventually too).

Planning on having kids, and perhaps a puppy someday, the cheap carpet that we are actually planning on replacing was also a good idea. Already, we've had to pull out the "Little Green" machine to catch spit up and other things that come with having babies around. It is still good looking carpet, and I'm not unhappy with it, but we are looking forward to a nice berber carpet in the high-traffic areas eventually.

Until then, we have carpet with a thin backing, which allows those tack strips to poke through. Yesterday, I had enough. Most of the time, it's just an annoyance, a little prick. Sometimes, it requires a band-aid. I like to be able to walk around the house in sock feet, and not have to think about where I step.

I remembered what Britt told me about Steven and Ashley's new condo and the carpet tack problems there. I was inspired to follow Ashley's example. I went around with a hammer and banged down every inch around the doorways and the fireplace downstairs. I haven't done the stairs or the upstairs yet, but will soon, as the ones on the stairs are the worst.

I had the water at our house tested today. We have low pH and high iron. The iron I knew about (subtle hints like the red in the showers, sinks and toilets, and the whites that we launder slowly becoming off-white). The pH I did not know about. Low pH means acidic water, which can corrode copper pipes from the inside out. Not something that we want to be happening!

The solution is a filter, which (with the appropriate filter sand) will bring the pH up and filter the sediment out of our water. The neutralized water will then pass through a softener. It won't be cheap, but it is something that needs to be done before much more time goes by. In the long term, this expense now will save lots of bigger expenses down the road. If we decide to have the filter and softener installed, they can be in within two weeks.

Now that bookfairs are done and I can focus my efforts on other things, I've been trying to prioritize the things that need to be accomplished this summer.

First off, I'll be working with Dad and the family business. We've got some business plans that we will be implementing in the coming months, which should help to grow Yankee and bring it to the next level.

Around the house, there are a few things to work on. I need to do some maintenance on the trailer. Two years of accumulated wear-and-tear have added up. Mostly damage due to having improper accomodations to park it at our last place of residence.

I'd like to see what I can do to get the Jeep back up and running. Maybe not even to the point of off-road capable, but just to have it running would be great. An SUV would be very handy now, with all of the extra baggage that comes with our little bundle of joy!

The Corsica is still running fine, but the body is going downhill fast. Most of the clearcoat has flaked off of the roof and hood, and there is surface rust forming on the roof and around the doors. So... I think I'm going to attempt a paint job on my own. I figure that if I had the thing professionally painted, it would cost more than the car is worth. For less than it would cost to have it painted, I could get the equipment and do it on my own (I can't make it any worse than it already is!). And as an added bonus, I would have everything that I would need when it comes time to paint the Jeep!

Lots of small things to do around here too, like hanging up some art, and the new under-cabinet lights that I installed need a new switch. Apparently, the switch that was provided was for short-term use only. We left them on for too long (apparently) and the switch fused itself open. Oops.

And there's the siding that was damaged by flying branches during the windstorms a few months back... Got the materials, just need to find the time to replace those pieces.

Then there's the last two rooms worth of paint that we have from Lowe's the other month. Cranberry for the living room and dark green for the dining room. Got some chair rail and crown moulding for those rooms as well (another excuse to get a compressor for the painting - it'll come in handy for tacking up the trim too).

Well, speaking of errands - I've got a few to do here before the sun goes down!

I learned a lesson that cost me 20,000 miles of wear on my truck tires. To avoid the same mistake in the future, I am planning on rotating the tires every 5,000 miles. If I had done that with the tires I had on the truck from the factory, I would have had the misalignment professionally diagnosed about 15,000 miles ago, and the rear tires would not have been the ones to take all of the wear from the trailering. At 41,000 miles, these tires were ready for retirement.

I wound up having to have 4 new tires put on the truck, in addition to the alignment. When I went to pay, the final price I was charged was off by $100 from what I was quoted the day before. The tech didn't apologize though - he said he didn't think I would mind that it was that much less than what he had said it would be. I wasn't going to complain!

The new tires are designed for the type of work we do, and the tech said that I can get 60,000 miles off of them if I am diligent with my tire rotations. And, as part of the deal that I got with these tires, I get free rotations and flat repairs for as long as I have them on the truck! So I have no excuse not to rotate every 5,000 miles!