2021 house projects

It was another busy year. We celebrated five years in our house, so maintenance projects are now in the mix.

Indoor Projects

• We put up some cabinets in the entryway that actually have enough space for each of us to have a place for shoes, hats, gloves and face masks.  The roomba fits underneath it!

• Jack put in a laundry sink for a birthday present.  It's great, in part because the water gets hot so quickly right next to the water heater in the basement.
• With help from my parents, I refinished our table and Jack and I finally hung pictures above both of our desks (https://aglie.blogspot.com/2021/10/new-old-table-and-gallery-wall.html)
• Jack replaced the ugly fluorescent lights on our stairs with track lighting.   It looks great.
• We continued our tradition of switching the kids' bedrooms every two years.   This  year we did it between Thanksgiving and Christmas and D got a new bedframe with a trundle bed.  They have bunked up once over the holidays when my family spent the night.  
• In April we put up a really thick glass panel behind the stove and the final five electric blinds on the third floor. 

• After reading a scary article, we bought a kit and cleaned the dryer vent.   I'm not in the market for a house fire.
• We had to cut the railing on our spiral stair in order to clean the house air intake filter 

Outdoor Projects

• On the roof, we put in a second heather plant that promptly died in the July heat wave.   We also moved a boxwood to make room for a Japanese maple.   We also put in a Raspberry Crape Myrtle and <something with red berries>  bushes and some blue spruce sedum. 
• Down on the parking strip we planted white and pink symphony snowberry bushes in October.    The dogwood tree might have died in the heat wave too.  Time will tell. 
• We assembled and reinforced the roof pergola
• In the trough off the boite we planted a little sweet bay tree in February

roof pergola

 After a few years of indecision about reckoning with scope of projects and priorities, we bought an inexpensive pergola for shade on the roof.   With some help from D, we put it up on the fourth of July and enjoyed some shady lunches at the end of the summer.

Flash forward to October, when the wind reminded us that we needed to secure it better.   First, we tied it down and then we attached concrete blocks to the feet and reinforced it with cables.   It was our first time drilling in concrete and the first type of anchors we used were crap.  After many trips to the store and some chilly work, it's done and we're pretty sure it is secure enough.

2020 outdoor projects

Following up on the garden post I did in April, the corner where our parking strip touches the alley saw a lot of action this year.  First, trucks including garbage trucks, drove over it a bunch and made it muddy.  I got the biggest rocks I could manage off of craiglist and put them there.   Someone took them.  Then the street and the alley were torn up over the course of several months and the parking strip was part of the staging area.   Several smaller plants were destroyed, but our trees made it through and they did replace a section of our sidewalk that was in bad shape, saving us the expense and hassle in the future.    

February - my short-lived rocks in the mud

May - pouring our new sidewalk

May - they definitely re-paved some sections more than once

June - four months in and still going strong

September - the rosemary we transplanted from the roof is happy, along with some yarrow and wildflowers

November - I moved the small pavers to the curb and put in some much bigger and more useful pavers

The road and alley work was prime entertainment during the first covid lockdown, when Dd was out of daycare and most everything else was paused.  They put data cables in our block of the alley and the block to the north.  In March and April the work was shockingly close to our house, but nothing was damaged.

I think something they did broke the storm drain just outside our house.   I know that the pipe that goes under our transplanted rosemary bush is ancient and broken, but I can't be sure the drain worked or the pipe wasn't broken before all this work.   In any case, the drain just overflows and the water runs down our sidewalk, rather than draining under our trees and rosemary busy and out in to the street.   If we have prolonged ice and snowmelt there might be a problem.  

So far in this post I've mostly described work we observed, but we did do a few more outdoor projects ourselves.

• On the roof Jack modified the planters so that the two roof drains are easily accessible for cleaning.
• As a birthday present to myself, we bought a box leaf azara tree (evergreen, fragrant flowers) and a 170 gallon trough planter and put in on the ledge in the boîte.   It was hard to plant and it had terrible transplant shock.  After almost all of the leaves turned black and fell off, there is some new growth and I think it will live.   Lesson learned.

• In November and December we finally took the plunge to cut the sports net we have in the boîte, which allowed us to attach it to the fence on the north and south sides of the boîte.  This gives us about 75% more play area and makes it way easier to get bikes in and out.   
• After three Christmases with our last tree "Lefty Right Northtip", we bought a new Black Hills Spruce in September and brought him in for two weeks for Christmas, successfully preventing him from experiencing a false spring.   

• Other new roof plants were: sage, thyme, a new lavender (lavandula angustifolia), a drwarf Alberta spruce, two low pink flowering plants (Dianthus Gratianopolitanus) and a yellow flowering plant whose name I have already lost.

The blueberries were a flop that flowered but did not fruit (hence the little bluegold bush we added to befriend the existing high country bush).

I'm not sure why, but I pruned the raspberries back last winter, so they spent all summer growing and only considered making berries in the late fall, when it was too late.   This winter I didn't cut them back at all.

We had good luck with our carrots and the fragrant jasmine plant continues to be one of our most pleasing roof plants, blooming several times.

Roof gardening continues to be a learning experience.  I've found that it is too sunny for most greens on our roof in the summer because they bolt immediately.  Parsley, on the other hand is self-seeding and growing even in January.

2020 indoor house projects

I find this review of all the home improvement tasks we did really satisfying.  So many are things that no one besides us would ever notice, especially in a year where hardly anyone else has been inside our house....     

• We finished the stair shelf by putting up more cabinet doors and pretty paper backing on some more of the cubbies.

• Jack put smart switches on the porch light (so it goes on when it gets dark) and on the entry way chandelier (so it goes off after 10 minutes).  They work 85% of the time, which is great, but also is why I won't be getting "smart" door locks or anything critical yet.
• Back in the summer of 2016 we hastily ordered and assembled the kids' IKEA closet systems in, just before we moved in.  Both rooms needed a few more shelves to maximize the use of the space, but we waited long enough that IKEA had discontinued the line.  Luckily we managed to find the few shelves and parts we needed on eBay.  Especially now that they are filled out, I'm quite happy with the alcove + closet system + curtain approach we have.   As the kids grow, we can re-arrange the parts to allow for more hanging space and we can replace the curtain fabric (which I sewed when we lived in Boston) if anyone starts to care about how their room looks.  In the small bedrooms, closet doors would just get in the way.

• On the roof door, Jack installed a door closer, which was more complicated project than anticipated, requiring a lot of fiddling and replacement parts due to the thickness of the wall and the dyslexic instructions.  He stuck with it and now it works, making the door not slam up on the windy roof and holding holding it open when it is pushed open all the way.   Letting hot air out of the roof door is key for making the third floor more comfortable.  We can stop wearing out bungie cords now.

• We washed all the windows and tried out some new equipment and methods.      
• We put up some more electric blinds on the north wall of the second and third floor (blinds and leaking windows saga).
  

• We patched and painted the walls for the first time.  Some look okay and others are quite obvious because the paint looks different.   I don't know the trick yet.  I think after four years (and the window issues) I have come to terms with the fact that there isn't really a honeymoon period where a new house is maintenance free.  Since this is our first house, there are tons of small maintenance tasks we've just never done before.   
• In December we pulled out the manual for our water heater and cleaned the thimble sized filter that pumps water in to the water heater compartment.  It gratifyingly improved our shower situation from cold-scalding-icy-icy-icy to cold-scalding-warm.   There are more issues to work out here, but it's a big improvement.   
• On level two we still have some electrical weirdness.  When Jack's computer is on, and the bathroom vanity light is on, and the printer runs, the circut shorts..... or something like that.  Jack replaced the thing-a-ma-bob in one of the vanity lights and that seemed to help.   We removed the vanity lights for a couple of weeks also, to test.   One got broken while it was off the wall, so we ended up replacing both with a cheaper, similar looking version, which at least took less than half an hour (with both of us) to rewire.   I *think* it's all working now, but when the printer runs the office lights do flicker.

I'm including organization here too because it is so satisfying, and requires time and effort also. 

• We bought an enormous new heavy-duty shelf for the north part of the basement, which is a big improvement
• I organized arts and craft supplies in a big cabinet by the dining table, instead of on the stair shelf.  So far D has been appreciative and tried to keep it nice.  D draws less than a lot of kids but being home for almost the whole year has definitely made us do more crafts at home.
• We switched our ugly bathroom shelf to the entry way, where it is slightly more functional, and brought the cabinet from the entry to the bathroom, where it is at least super well organized.  Bonus points were awarded for spending $0 on this.

• One easy and fun thing we did was put up this PEony (get it?) wall decal in the third floor bathroom, where we have spent quite a lot of time working on potty training

house technology update

In December Jack completed two long anticipated house projects. When we wired up the house we forgot about a doorbell so Jack installed one, which required a fair bit of electrical work to bring power out by the door.   It also took us a long time to decide what we wanted. Now we have a Nest doorbell with the camera on it hooked up to the Google home app, with a motion sensor alarm on the front door.   I think our best home security is still the fortress like quality of our tall house, with only one door.

We also now have two old-fashioned cordless phones which take incoming calls to our landline (which we are required to have because of the elevator) and both of our cell phone numbers.   This, along with our smart watches, allows us to leave our phones at a central point in the house. The watches are useful but not entertaining so it helps us reduce our screen time.

Another benefit of the phone system is in relation to kids. On cell phones I make the talk on speakerphone to reduce his radiation exposure. I do the same. I like having a phone that he can talk on normally, that we all can easily locate in case of emergency  and something that is just a phone, rather than a camera/game console/computer.

Of course, since I am breast-feeding  and recording Dd’s naps throughout the day I do still end up using my phone often. On the other hand, our new surface charger for the phones actually makes it impossible to charge my phone unless it is in the central location, because the regular charging plug-in is blocked by the adapter needed for the surface charger.  There are a few kinks to work out regarding contacts on the phones but I would say it’s a  solid start to using our phones less.

 As for the google home hub, it’s in the kitchen and at this point is mostly an expensive digital clock. We have the Always Listening mode (where are you can say “OK Google” and then a command) turned off because it creeps me out.

 Can you tell Dd is having a long nap right now?

The roof is ready for summer!

Earlier this month we finished building our four roof planters, complete with automatic irrigation.  Jack set up the irrigation, which is programmed on a smart phone app and is smart enough to water less when it has rained.  The plants we moved from pots to planters seem much happier.  We also got a table and have really enjoyed sitting up on the roof, especially at sunset and later in the evening.

We also busted out some drywall to open up access to the cat door to the roof.  The kittens, who are now one year old, are figuring it out and really enjoying the outdoor time.

The next roof projects are building planters around the outside boundary and fixing up our free barbecue. 

July–December 2017 house projects

Since my last house project post in July, we’ve accomplished a few more house tasks.

• On a lovely fall weekend, before the rain started, we planted heavenly bamboo (nandina, not actually bamboo) and put in rocks for last construction obligation to our neighbors.  We’re lucky to be abe to borrow a truck from Jacks parents for projects!

• On the north side of our house, we planted daphne, rosemary, a yellow blooming lilac and three sarcococca plants.
• We put up a peg board in the basement and organized our tools, which have been in disarray for quite a while.
• Between Thansgiving weekend and New Year’s we built cabinets in our bedroom and and the first floor bathroom, and built a bucket laundry chute.   Thanks for the cabinet help, Mom and Dad!  Dropping the laundry from levels one and two, all the way down to the basement is awesome.

• We’ve had a frustrating and mysterious electrical problems that all seemed to trace back to the vanity lights in the master bathroom.  For over a year we just didn’t turn on the lights to avoid the problem.  Luckily there are other bathroom lights that worked.  Finally this fall, Jack un-wired the almost the whole bathroom to diagnose the problem.  It turned out to be the DC adapter in one of the vanity lights.  After ordering two replacement parts (the first of which wouldn’t fit in to the fixture), Jack re-attached the lights.  Putting up the fixtures is really tricky because of the tight space between the mirror  and the wall.  The first time we did it took us about an hour of working together.  After all the struggles, the threads were stripped so Jack couldn’t use a screw any more.  Jack is optimistic about the utility of hot glue, so he tried that twice without success.  Then he bought these super strong magnets that worked like magic to re-attach the light, perfectly straight, in about 10 seconds.

• This might be a stretch to include in a post about house tasks, but we spent a lot of time on it, so I’ll throw it in.  With three cats our self-flushing litter box was under considerable strain.  We spent a few evenings up to our elbows in *** deep cleaning it in our shower.  Then we ended up installing a second one of the same type in our basement, which takes times too because we use this hacked control board that this guy sells online so that we can avoid buying the cleaning cartridges that are the expensive re-occuring cost for the little box.  There are now NO EXCUSES for not using a litter box correctly!
• We successfully covered the house in Wifi using a 3-pack of mesh routers.  It’s not that the house is so big, it’s just that it is very strangely shaped (5 small levels). We had done the data wiring and, amazingly, we were able to find both ends of enough wires to create a wired connection at all three access points.  In the last, most difficult one (high in the wall in the pantry), Jack re-wired the end dozens of times (he was running out of slack coming out of the wall) before figuring out that his tester was malfunctioning!  Gaah!
• We also had an “anti-project.”  Unfortunately some of our windows are leaking.  Stay tuned for the soltuion…

progress on a few little projects

It's very satisfying to finish projects around the house, no matter the size.

This window is on the fourth floor penthouse (access to roof).  By mistake, it so low that it is a code violation (that they didn't catch), but at this height, even code compliant windows are scary.  We used metal pipes and I'm really excited to be able to leave this window open because it is very good for ventilation, has a screen, and is less of a concern if it rains unexpectedly.

We'd planned to put a food poster of some kind in the kitchen, and we finally found one that I like, from Pop Chart Labs.  It's a diagram of edible plants families.   There are a lot of tacky food posters out there.

This towel rack is a detail I've been looking forward to.  On the kitchen island, there is not a good place for a towel rack, so we came up with an unconventional spot under the counter.  It's also where we have the garbage disposal switch and a kitchen stool to access high storage and windows.  It is on the kitchen side of the island so it's not visible from most of the room.

Last month we finally put up this mirror, fixed some wiring and installed the light fixtures in one of the bathrooms.  Drilling through tile to mount it was harder than I expected and required a diamond drill bit (who knew?).  I was happy to find the mirror at Second Use, although I managed to forget to use the coupon I had.














This totally random formatting is brought to you by Google Blogger.  I can't find any good free blogging program.  In May, Open Live Writer, which replaced the older Windows Live Writer, stopped working.   You can write blog posts directly in Word, but not with google blogs if you have Windows 7, which I do.  I find this frustrating.

indoor projects

 

Here’s a loooong list of house projects.  There is enough to do that prioritizing the time and money can be tricky, but we’ll get them done eventually.

Kitchen

Completed:

• flipped refridgerator door swing
• electrical
• built ikea cabinets for kitchen

To Do:

• add panels to conceal the litter box area and contain more of the litter pellets
• install instant hot water on prep sink
• install a hand towel rack in the kitchen
• assemble and install cabinets in dining room
• create an awesome light feature above dining area
• replace prep sink faucet, which is too small and low flow to use
• build a “barbecue cart” that will roll in to the empty under-counter space
• install a water filtration system (pending discussions about what it is worth to us)

 

Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Completed:

• built ikea cabinets for bathrooms
• electrical
• hung one mirror and one plant
• installed a bidet
• installed master bedroom closet system
• installed most of smaller bedroom closet systems

To Do:

• put in a mirror or medicine cabinet and light fixtures in bathroom
• build sliding closet doors for master closet
• install three toilet paper holders (one actually needs to be moved)
• add tile on wall just outside of master shower which seems to get a little bit wet
• assemble and install cabinets in master bedroom, master bathroom, second bathroom, which will include the laundry chute
• build a storage bench along the windows

 

Rest of the House

Completed:

• assembled two futons
• put up coat rack in entry way
• attached shelves to walls (baby/earthquake safety)
• hung up pictures (just the frames we already had)
• put peephole, chain and chain guard on front door
• put up mailbox
• put up two hanging racks in the basement (my parents did)
• installed doors and inner shelves on staircase bookshelf
• installed peg board for tool storage

To Do:

• build a desk
• diagnose and fix electrical issues (flickering lights, master bathroom lights, some stair lights)
• put in more outlets in basement
• put safety bars over the terrifyingly low fourth floor window
• put in drywall on basement interior walls
• install a doorbell and perhaps security features
• install a cell phone docking station
• install speakers and clean up the routers using all the low voltage wires we put in
• finish or replace the supports for the clear moxy pannels next to the stairs
• buy and install blinds for whole house (currently we have hardware store temporary blinds)