Archive for category back room
Things I did today
Posted by aaron in back room, landscaping, porch, shed on 1 June 2014
- Mowed some of the lawn, in advance of tomorrow’s expected thunderstorms.
- Reorganized the shed, because starting to reorganize the back room immediately led me to the shed for something and I just, well, my talents were more needed there.
- Found an excellent use for part of an old broomstick. (Pic soon)
- Remembered how I need to take a few more pictures to finish off months-old posts sitting in the drafts folder.
- Swapped the glass window for the screen window in the front storm door.
- Discovered a loose piece of trim on screen door, took it down to tack down said trim.
- Returned hammer and tacks to back room.
- Discovered more loose trim, took screen window down again.
- Checked to make sure there was nothing else loose on the screen window. Returned hammer and tacks to back room. Muttered about how the back room needs reorganizing.
- Put screen window in front storm door.
So much for that schedule…
…which, I think, may already be the title of a similar post.
Hang on, I’ll check…
(flip, flip, flip)
(waiiiiit a minute, this isn’t on paper…)
Anyway, I have done many, many things on the house since the last post. No, really, you must believe me. What exactly, I can’t remember, because, you know – so many things! Yesterday I do remember. My friend Amanda wants to… learn about home repair? Is bored? Whatever the reason, she’s been asking to come over and help me on projects in exchange for food and drink, which is exactly in my price range dontchaknow. While the initial intent was to tackle getting the gutters back up, there’s still a bunch of pain in the neck prep work before we can even put the patches on the old holes, so I left that for the day.
Instead, we wound up rearranging a huge amount of stuff between the shed and the back room, freeing up tons of space, making tools accessible, and hitting upon the incredible conclusion that, of all the tools and materials that need to be in storage right now, that maybe that pile of plate glass panes that was in the shed could be what gets stored in the basement. You know, instead of anything wood or metal.
Geniuses, both of us.
Onwards!
So much for that schedule…
The blog-updating one, not the house-working-on one. Apparently I didn’t make a single post while on vacation (surprise, surprise), so I’ll have to catch up … some other time. Meanwhile, let’s get the typing started again with, if nothing else, a not-very-elucidating list of things I did around the house today.
– husked the last of the walnuts
– raked the last of the leaves from the front and side yards
– plugged the couple of carpenter bee holes from last summer with that savior of old houses, Abatron
– created more tool hooks in the back room
More stuff later, as always.
More small stuff
Raked about half the backyard.
More clearing in back room and living room.
Took a wire brush to the stand pipe cleanout, then gave it another dose of Kroil. Will alternate this with a blowtorch for the next couple of days and see if it gets us anywhere.
Mapped a few electrical circuits in the basement, including finally isolating the dining room light so I can install the switch and unit – and have a dining room again!
Also sorted through most of the papers that had piled up on the coffee table, which isn’t really house-related per se, but at least I now have a coffee table again. And now Sarah’s calling saying they’re at the Feve, so I think that’s it for today…
Project Week, the sequel
No work this week, so the plan is (was) to repeat Fall Break where I worked from early to late on the house doing numerous projectsd small and large. Monday got off to a slower start than I’d like, plus this week I do have one responsibility – Street Law at the high school every afternoon helping the students prepare for a moot court in front of the city council on Thursday. But I did manage to get some bits done in the afternoon and evening – more cleaning in the back room, installed the banister in the back staircase, and tackled cleaning the stove. Both Comet and baking soda and vinegar cut through some stuff, but it’s been six months of college students and me using that thing, so it’ll take more elbow grease to cut the grease.
Still working on the stand pipe cover – more blowtorching planned for tomorrow.
I was hoping that cleaning the stove top might reveal why the oven isn’t lighting. When I turn the oven knob, the igniters all spark, but there is no sound of gas flowing as there is when you turn on any of the burners. This unit has a main feed line that runs along the front of the stovetop under the cover, with six ports for the burners and a separaate distribution – two lines (one pilot, one main I assume) for the oven. No visible clogging or grease on that distribution, but I haven’t taken a wrench to the two lines to peer inside yet. No idea what to do if there’s not an obvious clog though.
Quick update
I had to take half the door latch off the shed and move it over a quarter of an inch (took thirty seconds, just three screws). I think that it was a little tight to start with, and then the weather and the structure settling slightly was all it took so that the two parts would no longer smoothly fit together.
I was in the shed today, despite the rain, continuing to clear stuff from my back room. I’ve started building more things into the shed – just some crossbars to hang tools right now; soon enough a shelf or three to take advantage of all the space – so it won’t become cluttered like the rooms it is decluttering.
Finally, checked the sump pump today and found that the hose had shifted and blocked the float just enough that the pit wasn’t draining (it was actually overflowing onto the floor). Moved things around a little and it’s draining fine now, but I think this and the frozen hose the other day are signs I should finally go get some PVC pipe and properly build out the pump line.