I have a lot of minor misc home repairs. Most immediate is the gutter in pic. In need of handy man who won’t cancel. Any leads? - Lisa *edit- repairing doors/trim/railing may need to come first.

Fail

 Well THAT didn’t last long. Of course I already ordered the other 2, and gave a positive review.

FFS!! - Lisa

Home Improvement

Trying to make small improvements in our space. The spice rack obviously a fail (for now, but I’m staying hopeful). The new pillowcases and shower curtain seem to be ok tho. So that’s three steps forward, one step back. - Lisa

The New Porch Light

It took me 3x as long today as it should have, but in the end it got done. Ladies and gents, our new porch light.

The Rebuilt Stairs

Our newly rebuilt and painted stairs and railing.  Now to repaint the porch.

A Productive Day

Saturday my nephew Jonah and I rebuilt my front steps and I worked.  Sunday I visited my folks,  then we had a family dinner and played cards with the exchange student.  Monday I walked the kids to school, installed the porch railing with Eric, won my fantasy matchup to go 2-0, fought with my two teenage girls, and went for another walk with my two youngest.  Busy trio of days.

Our New Counters!

Our counters are beautiful... Can't wait to see it all come together.... 10 years in the making! - Lisa

Handy-Man

Tonight I disassembled our dishwasher, replaced the hoses and hose assembly, and put it back together - correctly. This, despite the peanut gallery saying "you'll break it" and "you'll wind up calling Eric." 

I did, in fact, call Eric, but only to borrow some tools. All these haters that mooch off me can go jump in the lake.

A Helping Hand

Smiley helping me repair the back gate last week.

Small Victories

Feeling a little better, so I replaced the light switch in the dining room and an outlet in the kitchen. That pretty much wiped me out for the moment. I'm just gonna sit here and cough for an hour or so, then see what I can muster up for the rest of the day.

A Productive Day

I announced to the family that this would be a day of rest, but I guess it just isn't in us. I watched a quarter of the Packers game, then got twitchy and replaced the fixture in Smiley's closet. That alone was a lot for me, as I suck at home repair, but then I went and cut the lawn, which is a big task with that POS mower. Just when I was literally thinking, "F this. I'm buying a mower tomorrow," the dang thing finally started. Meanwhile, Lisa and Smiley tackled painting Junie's room, completing it just before bedtime. A productive day for Team Slap.

We're repainting room by room because many rooms haven't been repainted since we moved in 8 yrs ago. It's a 120 yr old house, always something to fix, lol. - Lisa

Some Home Upgrades

Lisa and Smiley are busy repainting his bedroom, and I just put up new blinds in the dining room.

Some Improvements

I Prepare for Tracy, Oh Master of Home Improvement, to mock: this morning, supervised by Eric, I installed the water line for our new refrigerator. The fridge itself replaced an 18 cubic foot model we had for 11 years. It's a stainless steel side by side model with an ice and water dispenser - the first we've ever had in our lives - and is around 22 cubic feet in storage. We got it for 1/3 the cost of retail at Sears Outlet. After that Eric removed our kitchen fan and walked me through putting up a new light fixture. The old light was so dim I had to hold up a camping lantern so the delivery guys could install the fridge doors; the new one is the equivalent of 400 watts. The bad news is twofold: fully lit, the kitchen carpet looked awful and I had to steam it again, and the 125 year old plaster ceiling isn't level, so I have to figure out a way for the fixture to lay fully flush. Still, a radical and needed improvement.

Yikes

This is what the outlet behind the tv looked like when i came home from work Friday. The surge protector that was plugged into it was also blackened and partially melted, but did its job and protected my electronics. After a miserable day without TV, Socialist came over to replace it Saturday,  in the process teaching me how to do it myself in the future.

A Quirk of Old Houses

Built into the wall behind our medicine cabinet is this rusty slot, used to dispose of dull razor blades. Since the safety razor first gained popularity around WWI, the wall behind the sink holds nearly a century of metal - each blade carrying the blood of the men of this house. My great-grandfather's is there, as is that of his sons, and my own. Within five or six years Smiley will be shaving and continue the chain.

A (Giant) New Pleco!

A productive day. I waterproofed the back porch - and the handprints of the kids we made in the cement back in '07 - then fixed the latch on the back door. Meanwhile Lisa went grocery shopping and made a great chicken dinner. And to top it off, confident that the Ich was gone, Smiley and I went shopping for a new pleco. 

We found one. But instead of the 1" version we had, we went home with a giant 8" beast that looks like an aquatic dinosaur found its way into our tank. Heck I was scared to even hold the bag when we left the store. 

The best part is, we paid only $4.99 for him. His spine is permanently bent, and so he's gone unsold and unwanted for weeks. It was his disfigurement that sealed the deal, just as GusGus's glaucoma ridden eye made me snatch him up. Yes, I felt sorry for a pleco :)

But, there was more to the adventure. On the way home Parker and I stopped at a store, and when we came back out I noticed the car was leaking onto the pavement. My first thought the radiator went, but no: the giant pleco bag had broken, flooding the backseat and pouring out the door! We managed to save just enough water to cover the pleco and hightailed it back to the pet store, with Parker holding onto him and talking him through the ordeal. 

We made it, and this time when we left the bag was securely sealed in a box for transport!

An Update on the Fridge

Socialist just left. We got the refrigerator door rehung. The metal pin that secured it on the bottom had broken off, and the odds of finding a replacement part quickly were slim. Then I noticed that the other end of the door held the parts needed to move the hinges to the other side of the door - including a spare pin. We pilfered it and got it back in place. Total cost: $10 for his time.

A New Door

I spent a lot of my day off today installing the new rear entry door with Socialist. Surprise, surprise, fitting a modern door and frame into a 120 year old entry isn't the easiest thing to do. Replacing the old door with one of equal size would have meant removing wainscoting and the unique trim around it, so we went down to a 32" door but that provided its own challenges. Anyhow, it's in, it's locked, and all that remains is to put the storm door back on and pretty it up. That will wait for the 4th.

Gutter Work

Following the insurance call I climbed out the kids window and onto the porch roof to do some repair work. In retrospect, probably not the best location for a very angry, very large - and somewhat clumsy - man to work off some steam. But, at least now the gutters are clean, a hole patched and a shingle nailed back in place.

Placeholder

These are pictures of how a bilco door was constructed at a friends house. I'm just saving them for ideas about ours.