4/22/2018 Long Overdue Weeding and a Vandalized Stool

About twice a year Amaya used to weed the sectioned off septic and gas tank area. With Amaya getting grown and leaving for Air Force boot camp the weeding  has been back up to me. I let it go and it took me about 3.5 hrs to pull weeds and treat the area. It was not fun.

Before

During

After

On another note.

Years ago we replaced a few interior stools and I placed one in my tool shed. Years later Chell knocked over the stool in the tool shed and saw some writing. The writing reads "Amaya Lynn Dowell. Any Problems Call (her then phone number)". Damn that kid was a brat LMFAO. We are guessing that our stools were vandalized while they were in use in the house smh lol. Guess we will have to ask miss Amaya Lynn Dowell at her Airforce graduation in a few weeks. Wow

Delta Touch20 Install

I installed a new touch activated faucet as a Christmas gift for mommy.

Simple install took less than a hour.

Tis The Season. The Grinch Stole Our Lights Again

The Grinch Hit Up Our House 

Again

Simple way to not light up the whole damn house

Long Overdue Raking

I had two days off in a row that I could devote to cleaning up around the yard for winter so I raked the pine straw and cones up as well as trim back the vine growth on the tree's.

Before 

 During

After

I raked up inside the fence also. I still have loads of winter preparation work in the back yard for next week if the weather holds up. 

No fun at all

The Porch Is Done

The porch has needed to be redone for awhile and I hate painting and sanding so I let it go for a long time. I finally finished sanding and painting both front porches.

The porch was sanded and the broken post caps were taken off

The porch got painted and fixed up

The finished product

I still have to clean up the floorboards but other than that 

DONE

I've Been Fighting a Mole

At the end of September a mole moved into our front yard and began to dig holes and leave mole holes everywhere.

I first tried to kill the mole by using my push mower and blowing carbon monoxide down into his tunnels. Although I saw smoke coming from all over the yard in the tunnels the mole lived.

Views of the damage the mole was doing to the front yard.

After a month of trying carbon monoxide poisoning, poison peanuts, gum, random pitch fork stabbing, swearing and thinking bad thoughts. What worked was spraying and seeding the law to kill the underground bugs that were the moles food source and leaving him no choice but to eat the poison worms I placed in his tunnels. 

R. I. P Bongo Dowell my worthy opponent.

The Gate is Permanently Fixed

My loving family is like a herd of wild animals and broke the gate that I just fixed. In comes me to widen out the holes in the brackets and run carriage bolts through the 4x4 post. Now if anyone wants to tear up my gate they have to rip apart the post as well.

Here you can see the wood has been cracked and the gate has shifted.

 Wider view of the shifted gate

I drilled through the 2X4 frame and 4X4 post and attached the gate with galvanised carriage bolts.

The wood is still split but the bolt is doing all the work sandwiching everything in nice and tight.

Easy fix for my rough ass family

Installed a Entertainment Center in the 2nd Daycare Room

I installed and mounted a Roku HDTV and attached a Nintendo Wii to it in the 2nd Daycare room. I had to run a outlet to feed power to the TV and Wii, as well as mount a shelf to hold the Wii.

I tapped into the lower outlet to feed the new outlet

Simple outlet install

Mounted and adjusted everything

I adjusted the Wii sensor down so it would pick up motions from below and adjusted all the setting for the Roku and Wii. 

All done until next time Chell makes me work.

Made Another Bench

I made a little bench for our good friends the Thomas Family as a housewarming gift.

Total build cost was around $100 and it took about 2hrs to build. All the Thomas Family will have to do is paint it.

Fixed the Side Fence Gate

The side fence gate was damaged during our kitchen repair from the crew leaving the gate open and the wind having its way with our gate. I had to pull out all the damaged wood and between salvaging wood and replacing wood I now have the gate back up and working.

Done until the next time

The Kitchen Has Been Restored and Upgraded

 It took 4.5 days of living like hobos and we went 2.5 days with no water in the house but the kitchen is finally back up and running.

View of the water damage to the bottom of some of the cabinets

Some of the flooring was removed and the mold was contained

We had to move all the items from the kitchen and laundry room into the living room, our room and our bathroom during the repair

A barrier was put up during the initial parts of the repair 

A mold ionizer was used during the repair

It felt strange having our refrigerators in the living room

And here is the finished product

We had the laminate flooring extended to the back doors.

We installed a new sink, faucet, and dishwasher

I hope I never have water damage in my kitchen again in life.