Fast forward eight months, and it was a Memorial Day project in the making.

Before:

After:

Halfway:

What you can’t tell from the pictures is that a shadowbox fence is super hard to stain. Each board has six sides, and getting an adequate amount of stain between alternating slats without over-coating is practically impossible. And once you finish the front of the fence, you have to do the back. Even 30 feet of fence is a huge undertaking.

The folks at the big box store paint department highly recommended using a nylon foam applicator and doing it all by hand, so that’s how I started. After more than an hour I was only six boards in on one side. As the sun heated up, I started eying the sprayer, and I’m so glad I switched. It may not be coated on as thick or last as long, but it was worth it to get the project complete in just under five hours.

Lessons learned about staining a fence:

• Don’t shake the stain. Stir it. Bubbles = enemy.
• Test in the least seen area first. I was very glad I did this as I got used to the nylon pad and then the sprayer.
• Wear a mask. It seems basic, but I was fairly surprised how much paint covered my respirator mask when I was done.
• Wear eye protection. Unless you like soaking your eyeglasses in mineral spirits (like I had to do), put your shop goggles on when spraying.
• Use a cardboard box to cover for overspray. Big boxes for big areas and use a little box in your free hand for little areas.
• Once you have all your materials out, do more projects. I went ahead and stained my extra piece of fence and a small deck where I keep my grill. I had the sprayer hooked up, mask on and stain mixed up. In hindsight, I would’ve had a few other ideas in the works.

Grant did help me out for about five minutes before declaring the project “boring.” He thought we should get out more colors, like pink and blue. I tried to explain, but then I was boring, too.

That was fine, as it gave the boys a chance to get in some pool time.

One of the first things we did when we bought our 120 year-old house was install air conditioning. In fact, we had the a/c folks come out in February to give us a quote so we could factor it into our budget (they thought we were crazy…especially in Minnesota…asking for an air conditioner quote in February). But with a pregnant wife and little baby, we thought it was an important investment to make

It’s definitely nice to have, but since the house wasn’t built for nor ducted for a/c, it’s not exactly the most efficient. The first floor gets very chilly and the second floor — where our bedrooms are — gets semi-cool, but definitely isn’t crisp. For one, there aren’t any cold air returns on the second floor, so the cold air blows up and that leaves the hot air nowhere to go.

Potential Project:
I talked to a guy about installing some manual vents, but I’m not a big fan of digging into century old, plaster-coated, load-bearing walls. My grandpa once rigged up an attic fan system to suck hot air out of an old house. We do have attic access in the upstairs hallway, but we just had the attic insulation topped off and that door sealed a year ago. I guess overall I’m not really up for that level of project this summer, but it’s something I’m thinking about almost every night.

So for now, until I’m ready for a re-ducting or venting project, we freeze in the living room and sleep under fans in the bedrooms. I think this sums it up the best…

toothpastefordinner.com

I added up the cubic feet needed do to our yard — and this will cover almost the first third!

Do they sell stock in mulch?

My friend Matt is having a new refrigerator delivered this week — with a sweet ice and water dispenser in the door. Man, I love those. It’s like milking a water cow — if your fridge were a cow and water was milk.

But the fridge is a good 15 feet away from the water line, through three sets of cabinets and behind a stove.

So we got out the drill and went to work this weekend.

Before:

From the fridge spot, after:

Behind the Drawers:

Behind the oven:

Through the lazy susan cabinet

And into the water line:

Most saddle valves you can buy at big box stores are self-puncturing. But the one Matt received with his new fridge wasn’t. So we had to drill straight into his water line.

The saddle valve directions were HORRIBLE and the photo wasn’t much help. We couldn’t get the valve to sit flush, had extra pieces and spent a couple hours worrying about the best way to put it on.

And of course, we didn’t want to install it incorrectly — potentially causing a nonstop leak below the water cut-off. We asked his contractor neighbor, who in turn, asked the plumbing neighbor. They couldn’t figure it out. So we drove over the big box hardware store and asked the licensed plumber. He couldn’t figure it out, either.

So we made our best guess, lined it up and tightened it on. I haven’t heard that their kitchen is flooded, which means we did it perfectly. Next time, I think we would start with a self-puncturing one, though.

We have a great backyard, but it’s only fenced on three sides. The alley side was wide open, and my three year-old loves playing in the rocks right next to the alley where the pizza delivery folks buzz through.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Arbor:

The project took all day Saturday, half the day Sunday and a few hours Monday night. Now the boys are corralled. The boys say, “Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!”

More pictures here.

Before:

During:

After:

They started at 7 a.m. sharp and by 3 p.m., were done AND all cleaned up.

Shingles:

Dumpster:

Roof Vents:

Yes, the house is still a hideous pink, but considering the best quote for painting was $6,000 – repainting the house will have to wait until next year. Meanwhile, at least we’ll be dry.

Before

Taping it up:

Grant helping paint:

We bought some school house red metal paint and used some of the leftover polyurethane from my floor refinishing project. Three coats later…
After:

It’s written from experience. The pipes in the crawlspace of our 120 y/o house froze after 4 days below zero outside (low yesterday was -27 degrees). So instead of panicing I spent 2 hours with the blowdryer getting them flowing again. Then the trick is to keep them warm.

This was my set-up:

I reinsulated the outside access door with two layers of plastic. I have a baseboard space heater on high and a small fan heater (also on high). The cookie sheet in front of the blowing space heater was helping to deflect the air off the ironing board. I also have two heating pads wedged around the pipes, although one of them never got very warm.

I got up at 1:30 and 3:30 to flush the toilet, run the bathroom, bathtub and kitchen sink faucets, and ensure the space heaters and electric pads were working (and not starting our house on fire).

The above photo was taken last night at 3:30 a.m.

It’s a pretty good little system, but you can bet we’re going to invest in some of that electrical heating tape in the very near future.

The high was -3 and the low was -20 degrees BEFORE WINDCHILL.

I have a feeling it’s dead, and we’ll have to take it out come Spring. Drat.

“Go ahead and put away the rake,” it teased. “I’ll drop my leaves when I’m good and ready.”

Then the first snow came — which was when the tree at my childhood home would lose its leaves — but they held on and on and on…

This photo was taken on Christmas Day.

Those leaves just don’t want to let go. And I’m sure not raking now, so they can stay on until May for all I care.