When my Military Dad returns from his second set of school deployments I will truly convert from shore duty to sea duty. This brings forward a whole mess of new issues. We are used to Military Dad being home and working decent hours, so it will be difficult to switch to long hours, working weekends, short under-ways and finally, deployments. Fortunately that is several months off due to the training involved in this new class of ships my husband is touring. (For all those mothers out there who have gamers for sons/daughters....be careful saying anything like, "There is no future in playing these games!", they can now drive a navy ship with a joystick and a roller ball!)
Seriously though, this adds quite a bit of stress to our family and I don't deal well with stress. The stress over the last 7 months while he was in Rhode Island led to: two rooms being painted, carpeted stairs being converted into bamboo flooring, drip irrigation sprinkler system conversion, vegetable gardens made and used, lawn removed and turned into drought resistant garden, 2 ceiling fans installed which involved running electricity and shop lights being installed in the garage. I'm probably forgetting a few things, but as you can tell, I can't sit down and relax when I'm stressed. The busier I am, the better I cope with not having Military Dad around the house. The upside, I am smashing our home improvement list to pieces, so there isn't much left. The downside, now that Military Dad will be home occasionally, he seems to think that he would enjoy being involved in a project or two. I figured I had to either get medicated or find another outlet.
I found another outlet.
Let me first explain a few things about myself so you better understand why this was a dramatic decision. I am not what people would commonly refer to as a social person. If you've read my husbands posts, I have severe problems ordering from Papa John's or Sonic.
It's not that I am physically unable, I just prefer not to talk to people. I absolutely hate talking to people on the phone. I can't see their faces so I can't read their emotions. I am very happy sitting somewhere listening and watching other people, no, not the creepy way! I just like watching people and their emotions. Supposedly when you speak to another person, there is this synapse in your brain that completes normal thoughts and answers questions correctly. I don't seem to have that connection, or at least it has faulty wiring.
Therefore, I was completely happy being antisocial and letting my husband do all the social networking and friend making. Yes, it's lonely in my corner, but when I make a friend, they're keepers in my world!
So you get that I'm antisocial. Now let me explain how almost every job I've worked dealt with customer service in some fashion. If you haven't worked in customer service then you haven't experienced life. It isn't always bad, but it definitely isn't always great. After my last job, I decided I was never going to work in customer service again.
Now that I've been a stay-home mom for 6 straight years, with no real desire to get a job, I am now working in the direct-selling field. I am a person who can't order delivery from a pizza place, unless I can do it online. I am a person who cannot for the life of me ask for a Medium, Diet Limeade from Sonic without seriously confusing the poor employee stuck taking my order. I am also a person who swore off customer service for life.
A friend of mine introduced me to an awesome product and I fell in love with both, the product and the company. I am now going on 1 1/2 months working as an Independent Consultant for Jamberry Nails. No, I'm not going to plug my product here, because I still want this blog to be my way to voice my opinions and work out issues I have.
If you're interested, I have a host of social networking addresses I will post at the bottom of this post. Military Dad has become my Social Networking Consultant and he is helping me with this endeavor. I have his complete support whether I make money or just buy nail wraps. He's definitely pretty awesome in my book!
I think Military Dad also sees this experience as some type of therapy for me. In my short 1 1/2 months I have already hosted a party in a person's house, which involved speaking in front of 5-6 potential customers. I forgot to mention that I don't do public speaking either. For some reason, I am willing to go outside my comfort zone with this company/product, so I think it's a great thing for me. (I'm even thinking about creating a video for my site that explains the product - I am a BEHIND the camera person, so this is still a work-in-progress).
I think MD's long term goal,is for me to actually call a pizza delivery company to order a pizza. Right now I either make him do it or I make myself carsick while I try to order online on my phone, while he's driving! My goal was just to have something else to do while he was away other than house projects. If you are interested in my new job my links are listed below. Thanks for reading!
Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/classwithflash
Twitter: @classwithflash
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassWithSomeFlash
Email: classwithflash@gmail.com
Order here: classwithflash.jamberrynails.net
Showing posts with label home improvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home improvement. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Sprinkler Hell
This is day three of trying to work on a set of sprinklers in my front yard. So you get an accurate picture, this section of front yard is about 40 square feet. Considering the other section, it's small. I am going to change this section from grass into drought tolerant plants.
There is a Raindrip product out there that states you can just outfit your current sprinkler system into drip irrigation...don't even think about it, it doesn't work. Changing your sprinklers to drip irrigation pretty much requires an overhaul, so the easy option will not work. Trust me, I tried it. Granted, I learned a LOT about sprinkler systems that I otherwise wouldn't.
I had some parts leftover from that conversion system and tried them out. They attempt to block the water coming out of the sprinkler head. Essentially you remove the guts and install a plastic device that prevents the water from coming out. What they fail to mention is, this doesn't work on normal water pressure sprinklers. You have to put a pressure regulator at the beginning of the line, then it should work.
Day One
Installed sprinkler plugs, watched water slowly seep out of sprinklers. Figured out it was still less water coming out than when I "turned off" the sprinkler at the head...I hate the Orbit brand, by the way. Found out there was a"new" sprinkler that was covered by 4 inches of grass and dirt. Swore a lot.
Day Two
Decided I was actually going to go ahead with my plan on the drought tolerant garden, in order to save money every month on the water bill. (I live in California. Once the actual gold rush was over, they decided to make water more valuable than gold.)
I dug up what I thought would be the beginning sprinkler head in the system. An hour later, of digging up cement-like dirt, I found out that it was NOT the beginning sprinkler. I also found out that it didn't seem to be connected to the other sprinklers...at least in a way that would make sense.
I dug up the next sprinkler in line, thinking this would be the one! It wasn't, and it seemed to be going towards the sprinkler that didn't seem connected to the others?! I swore a bit. I decided that maybe it connected to the third sprinkler and started digging the pipe up. Another hour later, the pipe turned AWAY from the third sprinkler.
At this point I got out my pipe cutters and fixed both sprinkler heads forever, they are capped off underground. Dirt is filled back in. Only two more sprinklers to go!
Day Three
Began digging up the fourth sprinkler (and the random sprinkler that is attached to the flower garden; don't ask, I have no idea), because it is close to another garden and a sidewalk. It's location seems the most likely to be the source of water. Ha ha ha....
Fortunately this dirt was nice and soft, once you got around/through the tree roots. I discovered that there was a small leak in the pipe and we were personally responsible for watering this awful tree. (My neighbors keep trying to kill the thing, but evidently I was watering it. Oops.)
I was so excited to finally dig out the pipes feeding the sprinklers!
When I dug down to the pipes and discovered not only were they not the inlet, both were leading away from any other attached sprinkler, I actually sat down and cried.
I started digging along the line in hopes of finding the inlet. After about two hours, I found where the pipes turned...one went toward the other random pipes and the other was a T junction. So now I have at least 4 pipes that somehow have to attach to an inlet source, and each other, but don't...yet.
However, now that I'm away from the leaking pipe, the dirt has turned back into cement consistency and I have run out of energy/muscle power. Since I am an optimist, I keep telling myself that I'll find the inlet in the next foot of dirt. (I'm wrong a lot - but only when it comes to my optimism.) I tried to get the kids to help, but I think after they witnessed me sit down and cry, they seem to think they should stay far away from this project. (Even the 8 year old neighbor girl, after looking at the pipes, told me, "Those don't look right.")
In response to my optimism being continually smashed by the sprinklers at this house I've decided that my following thoughts are justified.
I have just reserved a special spot in hell for the sprinkler installer, who previously worked on my home. (He will share company with the person who used so many carpet staples when they installed the carpet padding.)
Every time this person needs to go somewhere, he has to dig up cement-like dirt in order to find the pipes. Once he finds the pipes, he can only travel in the direction that the pipes lead. At some point, he should be able to figure out what is a straight line and an acceptable way to lay pipe.
As for the carpet stapler guy....every time he needs to take a step, he has to remove the carpet staples from his shoes. At some point, he should figure out that 100 staples per square inch is overkill.
Now I need to go finish digging up my lawn. I can't leave the holes in the yard. The HOA would probably not like it, and some idiot would step in and break something. Wish me luck!
There is a Raindrip product out there that states you can just outfit your current sprinkler system into drip irrigation...don't even think about it, it doesn't work. Changing your sprinklers to drip irrigation pretty much requires an overhaul, so the easy option will not work. Trust me, I tried it. Granted, I learned a LOT about sprinkler systems that I otherwise wouldn't.
I had some parts leftover from that conversion system and tried them out. They attempt to block the water coming out of the sprinkler head. Essentially you remove the guts and install a plastic device that prevents the water from coming out. What they fail to mention is, this doesn't work on normal water pressure sprinklers. You have to put a pressure regulator at the beginning of the line, then it should work.
Day One
Installed sprinkler plugs, watched water slowly seep out of sprinklers. Figured out it was still less water coming out than when I "turned off" the sprinkler at the head...I hate the Orbit brand, by the way. Found out there was a"new" sprinkler that was covered by 4 inches of grass and dirt. Swore a lot.
Day Two
Decided I was actually going to go ahead with my plan on the drought tolerant garden, in order to save money every month on the water bill. (I live in California. Once the actual gold rush was over, they decided to make water more valuable than gold.)
I dug up what I thought would be the beginning sprinkler head in the system. An hour later, of digging up cement-like dirt, I found out that it was NOT the beginning sprinkler. I also found out that it didn't seem to be connected to the other sprinklers...at least in a way that would make sense.
I dug up the next sprinkler in line, thinking this would be the one! It wasn't, and it seemed to be going towards the sprinkler that didn't seem connected to the others?! I swore a bit. I decided that maybe it connected to the third sprinkler and started digging the pipe up. Another hour later, the pipe turned AWAY from the third sprinkler.
At this point I got out my pipe cutters and fixed both sprinkler heads forever, they are capped off underground. Dirt is filled back in. Only two more sprinklers to go!
Day Three
Began digging up the fourth sprinkler (and the random sprinkler that is attached to the flower garden; don't ask, I have no idea), because it is close to another garden and a sidewalk. It's location seems the most likely to be the source of water. Ha ha ha....
Fortunately this dirt was nice and soft, once you got around/through the tree roots. I discovered that there was a small leak in the pipe and we were personally responsible for watering this awful tree. (My neighbors keep trying to kill the thing, but evidently I was watering it. Oops.)
I was so excited to finally dig out the pipes feeding the sprinklers!
When I dug down to the pipes and discovered not only were they not the inlet, both were leading away from any other attached sprinkler, I actually sat down and cried.
I started digging along the line in hopes of finding the inlet. After about two hours, I found where the pipes turned...one went toward the other random pipes and the other was a T junction. So now I have at least 4 pipes that somehow have to attach to an inlet source, and each other, but don't...yet.
However, now that I'm away from the leaking pipe, the dirt has turned back into cement consistency and I have run out of energy/muscle power. Since I am an optimist, I keep telling myself that I'll find the inlet in the next foot of dirt. (I'm wrong a lot - but only when it comes to my optimism.) I tried to get the kids to help, but I think after they witnessed me sit down and cry, they seem to think they should stay far away from this project. (Even the 8 year old neighbor girl, after looking at the pipes, told me, "Those don't look right.")
In response to my optimism being continually smashed by the sprinklers at this house I've decided that my following thoughts are justified.
I have just reserved a special spot in hell for the sprinkler installer, who previously worked on my home. (He will share company with the person who used so many carpet staples when they installed the carpet padding.)
Every time this person needs to go somewhere, he has to dig up cement-like dirt in order to find the pipes. Once he finds the pipes, he can only travel in the direction that the pipes lead. At some point, he should be able to figure out what is a straight line and an acceptable way to lay pipe.
As for the carpet stapler guy....every time he needs to take a step, he has to remove the carpet staples from his shoes. At some point, he should figure out that 100 staples per square inch is overkill.
Now I need to go finish digging up my lawn. I can't leave the holes in the yard. The HOA would probably not like it, and some idiot would step in and break something. Wish me luck!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
And the award goes to...
Today I felt I won an award. I felt as though I passed some strange test and now I can move on to the next rewarding level.
What did I do?
I fixed my sprinklers.
To some this may not seem a difficult task. Others laugh and ask why I just didn't call a professional.
I spent days doing research on how to convert our sprinklers into a drip irrigation system. Yes, days. I went to the library and borrowed books on sprinklers, irrigation and for some spice, a few books you actually read for enjoyment. I "Googled" and "YouTubed" so many items on sprinkler valves, drip irrigation, filters, pressure regulators, I made my eyes hurt. After several days of mapping and planning out my attack, I finally went to the store and bought what I needed to fix some leaking sprinkler valves and drip irrigation supplies.
I came home, supplies in hand, and watched one more video. A video that told me that my sprinkler valves weren't up to code. (Evidently specific valves need to be 6-8 inches above the highest sprinkler head...some of my sprinkler heads come up to my knees. Don't ask, this is one of the many unexplained concepts of our sprinkler system.) Back to the store for parts to raise the stupid pipes so they would be up to code. Crossing my fingers that this was also the cause of the "leaking" valves.
Step one: shut the power off to the valves. Check.
Step two: shut off the water....
I can't find the stupid irrigation shut off. I did manage to find my shut off valve for the house though; important information to know. I consult my YouTube and Google libraries and they narrow it down to about four things in my front yard. Two were plastic and two were cement blocks. Plus there was a random cement one in our garage. Why the heck do I need all these boxes? In terror, I cried. Yes, I cried.
I spent countless hours researching the sprinklers, finally convincing my husband that I could handle this without professional help and even bought the supplies. Now I felt I was being forced to call a professional. As you can tell, I don't take defeat very well.
Dave from Aquatech Solutions came and after checking out the problem, he began to raise the valves. I learned a very valuable thing about my sprinkler system....it sucks, it makes no sense. What was supposed to take less than an hour, ended up taking about 2 hours of this guy's time and lots of under the breadth muttering. (My kids were there bombarding him with questions while he worked, so he kept his frustration very G rated. It was appreciated. I wish I could say the same for me when I worked on them. I'm now having to tell Little Dude that "damn" is not an acceptable word....fortunately, that was all he got, because I said way worse things.) More importantly, even after all the extra stuff my system threw at him, he didn't raise his estimate price at all! Yes, it does seem there are honest people out there still.
After the horror of sprinkler valve repair, Dave even took the time to walk me through converting my sprinkler heads to drip irrigation. He even showed me how to replace the valves that were leaking, so I could do it myself for a reduced cost. Oh! He also showed me where the irrigation shut off was. :)
A couple days later I get the replacement valves and get to work replacing them. I am ready to "glue" the valve together and discover I can't open the PVC glue can. I even did what I thought was a no-no and used a wrench. The damn thing wouldn't budge. Back to Lowe's, with kids in tow. The return department guy even tried to open the can. Yes, I laughed out loud at him when he couldn't turn it with his bare hands. I'm sorry, but this is one area my husband complains about. Sometimes he would like to open a few jars for me! What can I say? I'm petite, but I got some strong, wiry arms.
Picking out glue, a Lowe's guy asks me if I need help. I tell him I couldn't open the last can so we're here for another one. He instructs me to get a wrench. Ha ha! It wasn't a no-no, I did something correct.
Back home to fix valve one out of six. I manage to fix it, but the kids tell me I have to stop playing; it's dinner time and they're hungry.
Next day, I take a break from the valves to figure out one of the garden sprinklers. This garden even puzzled the professional. Imagine a sprinkler head coming up out of the ground. Now attach pipe to it in the shape of, well...let's go with the letter "P." It doesn't make sense to me either. So I start digging. I find another sprinkler head completely buried underground. Since it isn't in line with the other two, I'm really confused. Great, now I have to dig up the entire garden to figure out the pipes and what head attaches to what valve.
A week later, I'm so fed up with digging. My muscles hurt, my fingers are permanently bent in the shape of a shovel, I have blisters on top of calluses, needless to say, I don't feel pretty and I'm now pissed at this point. The kids have even lost the "hey, mom is letting us dig in the garden" fun and abandoned me for riding bikes. So I did what anyone would do at this point....I capped the damn things off, fixed the remaining broken one and crossed my fingers that it would work.
It worked. It worked so well that I also had to repair a leak in one of the exposed pipes that I had found during testing. Wow! Those suckers can shoot water far and high! The kids didn't seem to appreciate it very much, though.
Valves are now all up to code and working properly. Plus I only had to replace five, instead of six, so now I have an extra one for future use. Sprinkler timer is working properly. I have figured out what sprinkler heads go to which zone. Now I dust off my drip irrigation map....and I trash it.
Yep, fixing the valves seemed to fix several things I didn't realize were broken. The zones I thought were zones previously, ended up being vastly different. So...back to the drawing board, but it should be easy from here on out....right?
Either way, when Princess was yelling out which sprinklers turned on when I used the sprinkler timer, and they worked correctly, I wasn't sure I should cry or scream in pure joy! So I did the next best thing....I called my husband and talked a million words a minute about my accomplishments until I ran out of air. Evidently, I'm still kind of proud of myself, so I shared with you! Honestly though, I'm just excited I don't need to dig up anymore of that garden. I was getting to the point of buying cement and saying to hell with green crap in my backyard!
What did I do?
I fixed my sprinklers.
To some this may not seem a difficult task. Others laugh and ask why I just didn't call a professional.
I spent days doing research on how to convert our sprinklers into a drip irrigation system. Yes, days. I went to the library and borrowed books on sprinklers, irrigation and for some spice, a few books you actually read for enjoyment. I "Googled" and "YouTubed" so many items on sprinkler valves, drip irrigation, filters, pressure regulators, I made my eyes hurt. After several days of mapping and planning out my attack, I finally went to the store and bought what I needed to fix some leaking sprinkler valves and drip irrigation supplies.
I came home, supplies in hand, and watched one more video. A video that told me that my sprinkler valves weren't up to code. (Evidently specific valves need to be 6-8 inches above the highest sprinkler head...some of my sprinkler heads come up to my knees. Don't ask, this is one of the many unexplained concepts of our sprinkler system.) Back to the store for parts to raise the stupid pipes so they would be up to code. Crossing my fingers that this was also the cause of the "leaking" valves.
Step one: shut the power off to the valves. Check.
Step two: shut off the water....
I can't find the stupid irrigation shut off. I did manage to find my shut off valve for the house though; important information to know. I consult my YouTube and Google libraries and they narrow it down to about four things in my front yard. Two were plastic and two were cement blocks. Plus there was a random cement one in our garage. Why the heck do I need all these boxes? In terror, I cried. Yes, I cried.
I spent countless hours researching the sprinklers, finally convincing my husband that I could handle this without professional help and even bought the supplies. Now I felt I was being forced to call a professional. As you can tell, I don't take defeat very well.
Dave from Aquatech Solutions came and after checking out the problem, he began to raise the valves. I learned a very valuable thing about my sprinkler system....it sucks, it makes no sense. What was supposed to take less than an hour, ended up taking about 2 hours of this guy's time and lots of under the breadth muttering. (My kids were there bombarding him with questions while he worked, so he kept his frustration very G rated. It was appreciated. I wish I could say the same for me when I worked on them. I'm now having to tell Little Dude that "damn" is not an acceptable word....fortunately, that was all he got, because I said way worse things.) More importantly, even after all the extra stuff my system threw at him, he didn't raise his estimate price at all! Yes, it does seem there are honest people out there still.
After the horror of sprinkler valve repair, Dave even took the time to walk me through converting my sprinkler heads to drip irrigation. He even showed me how to replace the valves that were leaking, so I could do it myself for a reduced cost. Oh! He also showed me where the irrigation shut off was. :)
A couple days later I get the replacement valves and get to work replacing them. I am ready to "glue" the valve together and discover I can't open the PVC glue can. I even did what I thought was a no-no and used a wrench. The damn thing wouldn't budge. Back to Lowe's, with kids in tow. The return department guy even tried to open the can. Yes, I laughed out loud at him when he couldn't turn it with his bare hands. I'm sorry, but this is one area my husband complains about. Sometimes he would like to open a few jars for me! What can I say? I'm petite, but I got some strong, wiry arms.
Picking out glue, a Lowe's guy asks me if I need help. I tell him I couldn't open the last can so we're here for another one. He instructs me to get a wrench. Ha ha! It wasn't a no-no, I did something correct.
Back home to fix valve one out of six. I manage to fix it, but the kids tell me I have to stop playing; it's dinner time and they're hungry.
Next day, I take a break from the valves to figure out one of the garden sprinklers. This garden even puzzled the professional. Imagine a sprinkler head coming up out of the ground. Now attach pipe to it in the shape of, well...let's go with the letter "P." It doesn't make sense to me either. So I start digging. I find another sprinkler head completely buried underground. Since it isn't in line with the other two, I'm really confused. Great, now I have to dig up the entire garden to figure out the pipes and what head attaches to what valve.
A week later, I'm so fed up with digging. My muscles hurt, my fingers are permanently bent in the shape of a shovel, I have blisters on top of calluses, needless to say, I don't feel pretty and I'm now pissed at this point. The kids have even lost the "hey, mom is letting us dig in the garden" fun and abandoned me for riding bikes. So I did what anyone would do at this point....I capped the damn things off, fixed the remaining broken one and crossed my fingers that it would work.
It worked. It worked so well that I also had to repair a leak in one of the exposed pipes that I had found during testing. Wow! Those suckers can shoot water far and high! The kids didn't seem to appreciate it very much, though.
Valves are now all up to code and working properly. Plus I only had to replace five, instead of six, so now I have an extra one for future use. Sprinkler timer is working properly. I have figured out what sprinkler heads go to which zone. Now I dust off my drip irrigation map....and I trash it.
Yep, fixing the valves seemed to fix several things I didn't realize were broken. The zones I thought were zones previously, ended up being vastly different. So...back to the drawing board, but it should be easy from here on out....right?
Either way, when Princess was yelling out which sprinklers turned on when I used the sprinkler timer, and they worked correctly, I wasn't sure I should cry or scream in pure joy! So I did the next best thing....I called my husband and talked a million words a minute about my accomplishments until I ran out of air. Evidently, I'm still kind of proud of myself, so I shared with you! Honestly though, I'm just excited I don't need to dig up anymore of that garden. I was getting to the point of buying cement and saying to hell with green crap in my backyard!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
"Let it Begin! Let it Begin!"
If you have ever watched "Bolt" as much as our family has, you are very familiar with the guinea pig saying, "Let it begin! Let it begin!" This saying has become somewhat of a mantra in our house when we are about to do something crazy.
If you read my recent post, you know that my husband and I are about to embark on the wonderful fixer-uppers that come with owning your own home. This is also why my posts have been few and far between. I think it's wonderful and exciting. MD is still a bit hesitant.
We are planning on putting in drought resistant gardens in both the front and backyards and tearing out all the carpet to install wood flooring. I have meticulously planned out our budget, even over-estimated in order to plan on those things that just pop up here and there during home repair. I did research for best prices on materials and such. We even planned out what areas we were going to start on and when.
The master bathroom tile was to be professionally installed first. The grout in the current area is coming up in chunks, not cool. However, we are waiting on some special order part, then they should have it installed the week after.
After the bathroom is tiled we were going to install wood flooring in the bedrooms upstairs. I love carpet, I think it's great for kids and pets, and it also cuts down on noise and temperature issues. I also hate carpet because kids spill stuff, pets have accidents and with asthmatics in the house, it's an entirely different problem for them.
The downstairs carpet was third on the list because having wood flooring would increase the resale value in the long run. Not to mention the whole pets and kids spilling stuff thing.
Final in our list of major home improvement ideas was ripping out a majority of the front yard grass and planting a drought resistant garden...mostly rock and a few succulents. The backyard is mostly drought resistant already, however there is a large abundance of red mulch and ants all over the place.
I'm not sure where it started to go wrong, but our timeline went to hell in one quick swoop. I'm pretty sure it has to do with living in California. We decided to get termite protection, since California has wonderful weather and breeds termites rather well. I'm going to have to give Orkin a shout-out here, because they were AWESOME! Great customer service before and after we bought their plan. They explained there are two main types of termites: house and subterranean. Evidently house termites aren't all that bad compared to the subterranean ones. They like to set up shop and eat for years. Subterranean like to send in millions and a time to annihilate anything in their path.
You say, "this is great, what the heck does it have to do with anything?" It has to do with the 400 pounds of red mulch around our house attracting these stupid bugs. I thought I was overreacting until we started digging it up. We found termite eaten wood and lots of it. We also found that whoever laid the sprinkler system was quite possibly high or charged by the foot of pipe. We also found that since there are so many trees in our yard, several of our sprinkler lines leak.
Now the last item on our list got moved up in order to deal with the water bill and bug issues. In order to understand what needs to be worked on, I went to the library for some research on sprinkler systems and found that drip irrigation will work great. MD is hesitant about working with the actual pipes. How do I know this? Everyday now he has mentioned this wonderful company that does free estimates on sprinkler systems.
Next we had to move up our downstairs flooring before the upstairs flooring. This is due to the fact that I decided to clean our carpets with our home carpet shampoo machine. Little did I know I would be bringing up the nastiest stuff known to man. Me being me, the carpet is now torn up and outside in the trash.
After removing the carpet, we need to seal up the holes in the concrete and obviously let the flooring "settle" in to its new home for a few days. I'm hoping next weekend we will have the beginnings of a beautiful new wood floor!
If you read my recent post, you know that my husband and I are about to embark on the wonderful fixer-uppers that come with owning your own home. This is also why my posts have been few and far between. I think it's wonderful and exciting. MD is still a bit hesitant.
We are planning on putting in drought resistant gardens in both the front and backyards and tearing out all the carpet to install wood flooring. I have meticulously planned out our budget, even over-estimated in order to plan on those things that just pop up here and there during home repair. I did research for best prices on materials and such. We even planned out what areas we were going to start on and when.
The master bathroom tile was to be professionally installed first. The grout in the current area is coming up in chunks, not cool. However, we are waiting on some special order part, then they should have it installed the week after.
After the bathroom is tiled we were going to install wood flooring in the bedrooms upstairs. I love carpet, I think it's great for kids and pets, and it also cuts down on noise and temperature issues. I also hate carpet because kids spill stuff, pets have accidents and with asthmatics in the house, it's an entirely different problem for them.
The downstairs carpet was third on the list because having wood flooring would increase the resale value in the long run. Not to mention the whole pets and kids spilling stuff thing.
Final in our list of major home improvement ideas was ripping out a majority of the front yard grass and planting a drought resistant garden...mostly rock and a few succulents. The backyard is mostly drought resistant already, however there is a large abundance of red mulch and ants all over the place.
I'm not sure where it started to go wrong, but our timeline went to hell in one quick swoop. I'm pretty sure it has to do with living in California. We decided to get termite protection, since California has wonderful weather and breeds termites rather well. I'm going to have to give Orkin a shout-out here, because they were AWESOME! Great customer service before and after we bought their plan. They explained there are two main types of termites: house and subterranean. Evidently house termites aren't all that bad compared to the subterranean ones. They like to set up shop and eat for years. Subterranean like to send in millions and a time to annihilate anything in their path.
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| Wonderful age where they actually LIKE helping! |
Now the last item on our list got moved up in order to deal with the water bill and bug issues. In order to understand what needs to be worked on, I went to the library for some research on sprinkler systems and found that drip irrigation will work great. MD is hesitant about working with the actual pipes. How do I know this? Everyday now he has mentioned this wonderful company that does free estimates on sprinkler systems.
Next we had to move up our downstairs flooring before the upstairs flooring. This is due to the fact that I decided to clean our carpets with our home carpet shampoo machine. Little did I know I would be bringing up the nastiest stuff known to man. Me being me, the carpet is now torn up and outside in the trash.
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| Before nastiness |
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| After removing nastiness...& MD's butt! |
After removing the carpet, we need to seal up the holes in the concrete and obviously let the flooring "settle" in to its new home for a few days. I'm hoping next weekend we will have the beginnings of a beautiful new wood floor!
Monday, August 6, 2012
I'm being unleashed....
There a few things that get me so excited I actually shake with glee. One of those things is tackling home improvement projects.
If my dad is reading this, he is shaking his head in disbelief. When I was younger he had to drag me kicking-and-screaming into a home improvement project. I guess I did not appreciate the knowledge I was gaining, I just felt that I was free labor.
I also understood that anytime he needed anything at a home improvement store, I had to go a long. The fact that I was a teenage girl in a store teaming with teenage boys looking to "help" someone, did not go unnoticed by my dad. If he needed to ask a question or needed something loaded into the truck, he would disappear around the corner. Seconds later, a young, helpful man would come running around the corner to assist me in my woes of home improvement. Later with the questions answered or materials loaded into the truck, we would drive back to my manual labor, no fun on the weekend, bonding experience with my dad.
I learned how to install ceiling fans, sprinkler systems, decks, wood flooring, tile and several other things that I can't think off of the top of my head. Some of you are thinking, "Wow! What an opportunity to learn things from your dad, I never had that chance." Yes, you would be right, I had a wonderful opportunity, however I was a teenager and did not understand that at the time. I was also an only child, so it didn't matter that I was his daughter or whether I was capable or not, I was simply there when tasks were needed.
With all this being said, now that I own my own home, I look forward to everything on our to-do list with so much excitement that I think it scares my husband. Maybe, even terrifies him.
Before we owned our own home, we fought over who got to put things together from places like IKEA. We would even go through the effort to make sure something was delivered when the other person wasn't home. Sad, I know.
Lately, with home ownership I have slowly been carving away at my husband's do-it-yourself insecurities. He helped install a new toilet for the kid's bathroom with hesitation, however, by the end he started looking around the house for new stuff to do. It was a proud moment in my life!
Moving ahead, we had Home Depot measure our entire house for flooring installation. I never planned on Home Depot doing all the installation, however I later realized this was exactly what MD had in mind. His do-it-yourself fears came flooding back due to his inexperience. I, on the other hand, had this wealth of knowledge, the right attitude and tons of YouTube videos at my fingertips...I was READY!
I started looking over Home Depot's estimates and doing a cost analysis of materials and labor that we could save if we did it ourselves. MD just wasn't buying this. After about a couple of weeks of begging and pleading, he changed his mind for some reason. I'm not sure if it was the constant ideas being thrown at him, the YouTube videos I made him watch ("see honey we can really do this, that guy with a mullet did it!"), or the professional massage package I told him he could have after we completed the project (no, I didn't really, but it makes the story better), but he hesitantly agreed to unleash me.
Now that I have been unleashed I kind of feel like that dog who is made to sit and watch their toy be thrown far away. They just sit their shaking and drooling, until they are told to go get it. I've been unleashed but I'm still waiting to go get my toys at the store and start. Maybe another week....
If my dad is reading this, he is shaking his head in disbelief. When I was younger he had to drag me kicking-and-screaming into a home improvement project. I guess I did not appreciate the knowledge I was gaining, I just felt that I was free labor.
I also understood that anytime he needed anything at a home improvement store, I had to go a long. The fact that I was a teenage girl in a store teaming with teenage boys looking to "help" someone, did not go unnoticed by my dad. If he needed to ask a question or needed something loaded into the truck, he would disappear around the corner. Seconds later, a young, helpful man would come running around the corner to assist me in my woes of home improvement. Later with the questions answered or materials loaded into the truck, we would drive back to my manual labor, no fun on the weekend, bonding experience with my dad.
I learned how to install ceiling fans, sprinkler systems, decks, wood flooring, tile and several other things that I can't think off of the top of my head. Some of you are thinking, "Wow! What an opportunity to learn things from your dad, I never had that chance." Yes, you would be right, I had a wonderful opportunity, however I was a teenager and did not understand that at the time. I was also an only child, so it didn't matter that I was his daughter or whether I was capable or not, I was simply there when tasks were needed.
With all this being said, now that I own my own home, I look forward to everything on our to-do list with so much excitement that I think it scares my husband. Maybe, even terrifies him.
Before we owned our own home, we fought over who got to put things together from places like IKEA. We would even go through the effort to make sure something was delivered when the other person wasn't home. Sad, I know.
Lately, with home ownership I have slowly been carving away at my husband's do-it-yourself insecurities. He helped install a new toilet for the kid's bathroom with hesitation, however, by the end he started looking around the house for new stuff to do. It was a proud moment in my life!
Moving ahead, we had Home Depot measure our entire house for flooring installation. I never planned on Home Depot doing all the installation, however I later realized this was exactly what MD had in mind. His do-it-yourself fears came flooding back due to his inexperience. I, on the other hand, had this wealth of knowledge, the right attitude and tons of YouTube videos at my fingertips...I was READY!
I started looking over Home Depot's estimates and doing a cost analysis of materials and labor that we could save if we did it ourselves. MD just wasn't buying this. After about a couple of weeks of begging and pleading, he changed his mind for some reason. I'm not sure if it was the constant ideas being thrown at him, the YouTube videos I made him watch ("see honey we can really do this, that guy with a mullet did it!"), or the professional massage package I told him he could have after we completed the project (no, I didn't really, but it makes the story better), but he hesitantly agreed to unleash me.
Now that I have been unleashed I kind of feel like that dog who is made to sit and watch their toy be thrown far away. They just sit their shaking and drooling, until they are told to go get it. I've been unleashed but I'm still waiting to go get my toys at the store and start. Maybe another week....
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Yay! Home ownership!
I may have mentioned that we bought our first home in June. I don't want to downplay the experience to anyone who isn't in the military, because your first house is huge, it's a big deal, celebrate!
If you are in the military and somehow you manage to be stationed somewhere where owning a home makes sense, that's just AWESOME! We get to celebrate twice! First we bought a home, YIPPEE! Second, holy crap, we will be stationed in one area for more than two years, HOORAY!
Since it is the middle of July now, we've done some small house improvement projects such as painting and yard work. Now it's time to move onto the bigger things.
I'm excited, my husband is terrified.
I grew up, an only child, with a father who worked construction, until he was forced to choose a different (safer) career. (That's another post). I grew up learning certain electrical, plumbing and general construction projects that most home improvement stores try to teach people everyday. The only project that I hated and will never, ever attempt again is wallpapering. Thankfully that has gone out of style...hopefully forever.
MD and I decided that our first project probably needs to be installing a smaller toilet in the kid's bathroom. Little Dude, being...little, has some issues with the current toilet. Heck, I'm only 5'3" and I have issues with my feet touching! Evidently these are the new ADA compliant toilets, which are great for elderly and obviously handicapped persons, however for us short people, they suck...a lot.
For a couple of weeks, we have been researching toilets and browsing our local home improvement stores. After watching a few YouTube and DIY videos on installing toilets, I felt this was a project we could actually handle. MD even watched the video with me and commented that it seemed easy enough. That was all I needed, so I started researching toilets to see what was the most economical, and where to buy it.
I found one and informed him that it was indeed economical and we could pick it up the next day. MD gave me a look, that said "Uh-oh, if I seem too interested, we'll be doing this project tomorrow." I saw his weakness and said, "Which means we can install it tomorrow!" At this point, I am smiling from ear-to-ear. His first look has now turned from unsure to horrified. He then changes the subject to flooring, which is also another future project on our list. Off I go, researching flooring.
That was last night. Now I'm awake and ready to go! (In my head, is my little person rubbing their fingers together-think Mr. Burns of the Simpson's fame). I may have to drag him kicking and screaming, but after I break his home improvement fears, I think he'll be okay.
I may even post before and after photos...maybe not, it is a toilet after all! Wish us luck!
If you are in the military and somehow you manage to be stationed somewhere where owning a home makes sense, that's just AWESOME! We get to celebrate twice! First we bought a home, YIPPEE! Second, holy crap, we will be stationed in one area for more than two years, HOORAY!
Since it is the middle of July now, we've done some small house improvement projects such as painting and yard work. Now it's time to move onto the bigger things.
I'm excited, my husband is terrified.
I grew up, an only child, with a father who worked construction, until he was forced to choose a different (safer) career. (That's another post). I grew up learning certain electrical, plumbing and general construction projects that most home improvement stores try to teach people everyday. The only project that I hated and will never, ever attempt again is wallpapering. Thankfully that has gone out of style...hopefully forever.
MD and I decided that our first project probably needs to be installing a smaller toilet in the kid's bathroom. Little Dude, being...little, has some issues with the current toilet. Heck, I'm only 5'3" and I have issues with my feet touching! Evidently these are the new ADA compliant toilets, which are great for elderly and obviously handicapped persons, however for us short people, they suck...a lot.
For a couple of weeks, we have been researching toilets and browsing our local home improvement stores. After watching a few YouTube and DIY videos on installing toilets, I felt this was a project we could actually handle. MD even watched the video with me and commented that it seemed easy enough. That was all I needed, so I started researching toilets to see what was the most economical, and where to buy it.
I found one and informed him that it was indeed economical and we could pick it up the next day. MD gave me a look, that said "Uh-oh, if I seem too interested, we'll be doing this project tomorrow." I saw his weakness and said, "Which means we can install it tomorrow!" At this point, I am smiling from ear-to-ear. His first look has now turned from unsure to horrified. He then changes the subject to flooring, which is also another future project on our list. Off I go, researching flooring.
That was last night. Now I'm awake and ready to go! (In my head, is my little person rubbing their fingers together-think Mr. Burns of the Simpson's fame). I may have to drag him kicking and screaming, but after I break his home improvement fears, I think he'll be okay.
I may even post before and after photos...maybe not, it is a toilet after all! Wish us luck!
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