I posted some pictures a while ago of some areas that I wanted to mulch. Many of you probably went, “Hmmm…” when you looked at them. I will admit they weren’t the most attractive photos and most of you didn’t think I could do much with what I had done to the yard. Take a look at them here.

Well, as it turns out, we did make the areas look pretty good. I had fifteen yards of mulch delivered yesterday and only have about a yard and a half left. I plan on making the mailbox area larger this afternoon.

Here are the photos of what we did last night and today. Let me know what you think.

Pile of mulch made from the Witch Hazel tree - 15 yards

Mulch area at top of driveway

Mulch area at other side of driveway and down front hill

Mulch area in front yard

Mulch area in front yard - alternative view

The remaining mulch pile

The neighbors didn’t think I could do it. They laughed when I told them the pile would be gone by today. Don’t laugh at me neighbors, oh, you will see how fast I am. You will see my speed.

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With that said, I decided to beef up the landscape lighting I installed the other day. I mean, it looked good and all, but I didn’t think it was enough. Ever since I went to Punta Cana and saw what the resort did with landscape lighting, I have been intrigued. I like the effects of landscape lighting at night. In my humble opinion, it’s really cool.

Now, I know you remember the six landscape lights that I set up just the other day. I bet you thought that was pretty cool. Well, that was nothing and personally, I thought it was a bit wimpy.

I decided to go back to Home Depot to get six more lights, but this time I got six Malibu low voltage flood lights. They are wicked cool. I also had to upgrade the 121 watt power pack to a 300 watt power pack because there were more lights in the system. That wasn’t hard, it just cost more money. By the way, if anyone wants to set up their own landscape lighting system and needs a 121 watt power pack (good for about ten low voltage lights), let me know and I will give you the old one.

So now, we have six low voltage sidewalk lights and six low voltage flood lights that face up towards the house.

Take a look at what I’m talking about…

Home landscape lighting

Home landscape lighting

Home landscape lighting

Home landscape lighting

How cool is that? Just a few lights brought the place from dark and boring to warm and inviting. I think it looks great, but would love to hear what you think.

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After a few trips to the local hardware store for some mulch and a lot of weeding and digging, I can finally show you some photos of my hard work. I think you will be impressed with my perfection.

Here you go.

Mulch area in front of the house

Front of the house from a distance

New Blue Princess Holly bush

Landscape lighting

After all that weeding and trimming, I had a few open areas. I decided to get two Blue Princess Holly bushes to fill the void. I also decided to get some more landscape lighting. Oh, you just wait for the next post for that one.

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I think I have a dim bulb, but they aren’t bad. Here, check them out…

Sidewalk lights at night

Sidewalk lights at night

Sidewalk light at night

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I have been visiting the local hardware store every few days to get a yard of mulch. I can fit twelve bags in the car, which is actually about a yard and a third. It’s good enough to do smaller areas. Once you start raking, mulch doesn’t go all that far.

I am up to the front sidewalk area of the house. I weeded the whole area this morning in preparation for the sidewalk lighting I purchased at Home Depot yesterday. There were already three lights out there, but two of them were out. I decided to buy three more lights and a set of bulbs. I got the Malibu “Do-it-yourself” metal lights, because they matched the ones already installed.

Malibu sidewalk light

These lights are pretty nice. They are about a foot and a half tall, made of metal, use 11 watt bulbs and are really easy to install.

Since there were already some installed, but I like to do things my own way, I decided to take them out, along with all the wire. With the 50′ of outdoor wire I bought yesterday, coupled with the existing wire, I had plenty to add three light to make a total of six.

After I did all the weeding and pulled out the wire and lighting fixtures, I assembled all the new lights. Each one took just a few minutes. I installed the lights and re-ran the wire so it accessed all of them. I changed the time on the outdoor timer and took a look. Miraculously, all of them worked. I am very excited for it to get dark tonight to I can attempt another picture. I am hoping it will come out so I can post it here. Then, you will see the pure beauty of my work.

After I showed Laura what I did, she suggested that we put in some small floodlights that aim at the house from the sidewalk, facing upward. I am sure you have seen them. There are a few houses that have those types of lights in this neighborhood and I get jealous when I see them. There is nothing worse than a naked, dark house at night time. Well, I’m sure there are some things worse than that. But still, it’s all about the lighting.

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Every time I have checked for the vise I wanted at Home Depot, they were out. This has been going on for some time. The 3″, 4″ and even 6″ were always in stock, but those didn’t have the features I was looking for. For some reason, the 5″ vise had everything…twist, tilt and spin. Why they decided to stick these features on this vise in particular, I don’t know.

When I was in Home Depot yesterday, I decided to go look for the vise…again. To my “shock and awe,” when I peeked down the aisle, there was an extra box on the shelf (these things don’t move too often). I walked down to see if it was the one, and to my joy, it was.

Wilton 5 inch multi-purpose vise

If you take one look at this baby, I think you will know exactly why I am excited. I mean, c’mon, look at it. Sweet, clean and pristine.

I am going to mount this vise on my movable tool cart that I made. Then, sharpening the lawnmower blade will be no problem at all.

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When the inspector was reading through the manufacturer’s installation manual, he couldn’t find the part that said exhaust vent clearances only need to be 9″ from windows and doors if a fresh air vent is used. The reason he couldn’t find it is because it wasn’t in there. When I realized this, I began to sweat. Then, I remembered that the updated version of the installation manual was online…that’s where I got those clearances from. I quickly went upstairs to print out the pages I kept telling him about. I ran back downstairs and gave him the paperwork. He approved the install with no more issues.

I really like this installation because we don’t need a protective layer between the stove and the floor, since it’s on the new basement tile. That’s pretty cool, as well as a money saver. Also, we used hardly any exhaust pipe. That’s another money saver.

After the inspection, I called the pellet stove place to complete the order for four tons of pellets. I wanted to make sure the stove would be operable before finishing and paying for the order. They will get delivered in mid September.

I also called the insurance company to inform them of the new appliance. They liked this and added $11 to the homeowner’s policy. Not bad…

On the way home from Home Depot today, I saw a sign that offered a cord of wood for $200. Boy, prices have gone up. Even pellets were about $2.50 a bag a few years ago. Now, they are averaging about $5 per bag. If you were ever thinking about getting into a new business, alternative energy is it. This stuff is HOT right now.

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It took the installers about 3 hours to finish the installation. When everything was in, they fired it up to make sure everything was working properly. One of the installers noticed one issue…the auger wasn’t turning, so no pellets were falling into the burn pot. the auger motor was working fine, just not the auger itself. We made an appointment for the service guy to come out today. By the way, I could have fixed this. It was easy. I actually was almost done fixing it when the doorbell rang. That’s me beating my chest.

Today, the repair guy came out and fixed the auger issue. The small set screw on the auger shaft wasn’t tightened properly, so it wasn’t catching on the auger motor.

I must say, this unit is very nice. It has auto-light, which was very important. I am going to hook up a thermostat, so the pellet stove can shut down and start up on its own. Also, the auger and fan is much quieter than the Harman. The whole system just seems to be more elegant. For a few hundred bucks more, I am happy that I went with this model.

Here are some photos…

St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove

St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove control panel

St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove inside venting

St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove outside venting

What’s nice is that the outside venting is under the porch. The necessary clearances are 24″ away from the porch and 12″ off the ground. Also, since we used the fresh air kit, the clearances from windows and doors is only 9″. I would say that’s one of the huge benefits of pellet stoves.

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He gave me some papers to bring down to the town office for the permit application. Things are a little different here in CT than in NY. Here, you have to fill out the permit information and then, the project needs to be approved by the inspector. This took a few days, because I am sure this fellow is out inspecting all these new pellet stoves people are putting in. In NY, I think I remember just handing the guy the paperwork and him looking at it and giving me the green light. Back in the old town, you could pretty much put up a housing project on your front lawn and get it approved.

Oh yeah, permits here go by the cost of the project. The more expensive the project, the more you are going to pay for a permit. It might be that way in NY…I don’t remember.

By Thursday, the permit was approved by the inspector. I gave the pellet stove company a call to set up an install date. We settled on this Monday coming up, which isn’t bad. I just want this thing in so I can stop thinking about it. I also ordered four tons of pellets. Boy, those pictures are going to be fun.

This blog post is over. At this point, I have nothing else to add.

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The only thing I did differently this time was to clean the driveway, fix all the cracks and then seal the driveway immediately afterward. The crack filler instructions say that it should dry for 24 hours, but I have a feeling it will dry just fine.

Sealed driveway from road

Looking up driveway

Bottom part of driveway

I will tell you that there is some serious grip with the driveway sealer. I just walked up the the road to the the garbage can and I almost stubbed my toe a bunch of times.

I have to go back to Home Depot this afternoon to return a 5-gallon bucket of driveway sealer and one bucket of driveway crack filler. Overall, I used 30 gallons of sealer and two gallons of crack filler. That should be good for a few years and now it looks like we are driving on a brand new driveway.

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