Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
A few weeks ago, I realized I needed three new tools…a pressure washer, a leaf blower and a snow blower. I am going to have to wait on that snow blower, as they are pretty hard to find these days.
Yesterday, I picked up a RIDGID 3000 PSI Gas Pressure Washer. I got a pretty sweet deal. I had a 10% off coupon as well as $100 worth of Home Depot gift cards, so I didn’t feel too guilty buying this thing.
I put it all together this morning and let ‘er rip. Everything works as expected, but the soap is a little quirky. I can’t get it to turn off. I am going to have to look at that. I tried it on one side of the house and I think it worked ok. I may have not been using the soap in the beginning. All I know is that the green stuff needs to come off the siding. I got some of it off, but not all of it. I will try again in earnest another day. My fiend also does this a lot, so I will ask him for advice.
This machine came with four nozzles. The first one is for soaking with the soap and the other three are high pressure, “tear your hand off” nozzles. I have to be careful with them.
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Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Yesterday was a big day for Home Depot. I know I said I was going to start shopping at Lowe’s, but this Home Depot is so much closer. They mostly have what I need, so I guess Home Depot it is.
I bought a few things, one of them being a new air conditioner (along with everyone else in the store). I got another LG Electronics 12,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner with Remote. I bought the same exct one last year for the living room at the other house. It works really well. It’s down in the living room here now.
This time, I got one for the master bedroom. I had the smaller 6,500 Btu all set up in there. It was working ok, but yesterday, I notice sweat dripping down my face as I worked in my office. I got up, took a shower and drove to the Depot to grab a new one.
I put the new, larger one in the master bedroom and the smaller one in my office. I have them on power save mode, so they keep turning off and on as needed.
This is the smaller one in my office. It works really well because the room is relatively small. I noticed that it stayed on in the bedroom because it could’t keep up. Now, the bigger one kicks butt. Within minutes, it gets the room to the right temperature and then turns off.
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Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Every time I visit either Lowe’s or Home Depot, I try to go into the nursery to grab a few shrubs. I can always find a use for shrubs, I just wish they were free. That would be wild.
I need about 50 Rhododendrons. I would like to line the entire wooded area up front as well as both sides of the driveway. I love the look of fully grown Rhododendrons. They are great cover and have wonderful flowers.
I remember one house down in Yonkers that I did some work at years ago. It was owned by an old (rich) dude. He had everything looking just perfect. There were huge Rhododendrons, Japanese Yew, Hemlock and all the rest. It was so green and so was I, with envy. I still have the image in my mind and that’s what I would like to have one day.
But for now, I will have to do with small Rhododendrons to start.
I bought three of these during my last trip to Home Depot.
This is one of the areas I would like to line. When the plants grow larger, they will hang over the rocks and all I will have to do is push the mower under the plants. I know, I am too slick.
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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
We made a visit to Home Depot yesterday (we are going to be buying from Lowe’s from now on). I wanted to go shopping for shrubs. Maybe I can just cut this, and the following posts short. You can just read all the other ones about shrubs I have written through the years.
I had a bunch of stuff on my list, but mainly items from the garden area. Here is what I got:
- 1 Blue Hydrangea
- 4 Holly bushes
- 2 Rhododendron
- 1 25 lb. bag of grass seed
- 2 Tomato plants
and some other stuff. Maybe I’ll write about that later.
Laura picked out the Hydrangea and made sure it was blue. There are a few others around here, so it should fit right in.
There are a lot of areas I need shrubs. I really like shrubs at the ends of driveways. I don’t know why, but I do. Therefore, I needed shrubs to put at the end of this semi-naked driveway. I put the Holly and Rhododendron there. There is room for a lot more though.
I also did some seeding yesterday. I went through the whole bag in about two minutes. The spreader settings needs to be high, so it really shoots out fast. I raked the seed in some bare spots in the lawn, and just spread it out on the areas up near the road. If the birds eat it, I’ll just get more.
What’s really exciting is our new tomato plants. These are hybrid something-er-others. They are supposed to produce nice big tomatoes. I like tomato sandwiches, so I am hoping they come out nicely.
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Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Today was an adventurous day for us. We had to go to the DMV to get our Connecticut drivers licenses. That in itself was an adventure. Now, we need to update our car insurance and go back to register the cars here. The thing that really stinks is that I just paid for a new registration for my old car, then got a new car and paid again. Now, I have to pay all over. I wish they would pro-rate a refund for me. Fat chance of that happening.
We also went to Home Depot to get the new mailbox supplies. As I said in an earlier post, I got the new post, a mailbox, some Thompson’s Water Seal, some cement and the brass post numbers. I think that’s it. I mean, I got some other stuff too, but none of it relates to this story. Ok, I’ll tell you what else I got…a new rake, a rake handle that I broke the other day and a 5 gallon, plastic gas tank. Satisfied?
I got the post all soaked with the water seal, then nailed on the numbers. Then, I cut a piece of scrap wood and screwed it on to the post and then screwed the mailbox onto the scrap wood. I am a real carpenter. I did have another job before me though, and that was to get the old mailbox out of the ground. I had no idea how it was installed.
I went up to the road with my shovel and started digging. Then, I noticed some rocks that were cemented together. I had to walk back down to the garage to get my sledgehammer. I walked back up and broke the rocks and cement apart with the hammer. That was pretty easy. Ok, so I started wiggling the mailbox post, trying t pull it out of the ground. Oh, no, not that easy. I first had to dig some more dirt out, only to find more cement down at the bottom. I dug and dug and finally got the whole thing out. I kind of made a bigger hole than I thought I would. Honestly, I thought would just go up there and pull the sucker out and use my post hole digger to widen the hole a bit. Now, I had a two foot hole across. Whatever. I used the post hole digger to dig down a few inches, so the new mailbox was the proper height, whatever that is. It looked good to me.
Cement time…I went back down to the garage and mixed up the bag of cement I got in the wheelbarrow. I brought that up and cemented the whole base of the post. I threw in some rocks and dirt on top of th cement. Then, I used my level about 30 times to make sure the post was perfectly level. I stomped the dirt down and…
…there you have it. The most level mailbox post on the whole road. You can’t tell me that’s not the most perfect install you have ever seen. Sometimes, I need to just pat myself on the back (since no one else will).
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Monday, May 12th, 2008
Yeah, I keep saying I am going to run to Home Depot to get the mailbox stuff, but I just haven’t found the time yet.
I feel like I’ve been stuck inside for days…wait, that’s because I have been. I am doing so much stuff. Unfortunately, it’s all at the same time. I take breaks to rake leaves, which, by the way, are all finished in the front. I even sweat a bit. You should have seen the bugs swirling around my head.
I have a list for the next time we go to the Depot. I need a new mailbox. I am thinking green would be nice. I am going to get a nice traditional post, like many others on the road. I am also going to pick up some more Thompson’s Water Seal (with UV protection). I am going to treat the entire post, from top to bottom. Then, I am going to dig a nice deep hole and actually use cement way down deep. If it’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s having a crooked mailbox post. I know how they get crooked…it’s because of the snowplows slamming snow against them all Winter. With my installation, I am going to try to beat the plows.
I also have to get a 5 gallon plastic gas container for the ride-on lawnmower I plan on getting towards the end of the month. Right now, I only have a push mower and that’s not going to work so well up near the road. The kind neighbor offered to mow up in that area when she does hers. I thought that was nice. I explained to her that I really don’t want to be “that guy” who just moved in and now the grass is too high.
My brother came over yesterday for a visit. He works up North of Hartford, so it was only a 28 mile trip for him. I thought that was pretty cool. We went for a walk down into the woods and then down the nature trail. Then, we got the dog and walked up the road to the dead end. I wanted to show him all the nice houses. It’s good that he is so close now because we can hang out more. I keep offering to make him dinner, but he wants to keep eating in restaurants. One day…
I am planning on taking down the basketball hoop that is set up near the driveway. I offered it to my brother and he accepted. It’s in very good shape. I’m just wondering how deep that sucker goes into the dirt and how much cement they used as the footing. It may be a long day of digging.
I’ll show you some pictures of the new mailbox when I get it in.
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Thursday, May 8th, 2008
We took another trip to a different town today. We went food shopping at Stop and Shop in Colchester. Colchester was a pretty neat town, but a little busy for my taste. It was cute with a nice park right off main street. I think it may have seemed busy because rush hour was getting close.
While in Stop and Shop, I felt a bit tired. I kept wondering why. Then, I remembered what I had done all morning…raked leaves. By the way, Stop and Shop’s prices were waaay lower than Whole Foods. We got about triple the product for just a little mo’ money. That’s cool with me. I think we are still going to go back to Whole Foods because I like the atmosphere. Stop and Shop seemed much more like just buying food to survive. If I am going to go out somewhere, I like to have an “experience.”
Anyway, back to those leaves. Since this propery is a bit larger than our other one, it is taking a little while to get used to. One thing I noticed was that there needs a lot of raking to be done. There are many gardens (which are very nice and right up my alley), but they need a bit of TLC because of the Winter. The good thing is that they have a nice variety of plants already planted. There isn’t much in the way of running out to the nursery to get new stuff. Yesterday, we went to Home Depot for some spruces and pachysandra. I got the spruces, but there was no pachysandra to be found. When we got home, I noticed there was pachysandra already scattered throughout the front. They were just kind of buried with leaves.
A few days ago, I decided to it would be best if I picked one area per day to rake. There is no sense me killing myself and I can always use a nice break from the computer. I already did about three or four areas and things are starting to come together. Today, I did part of the big front garden and along the front of the house.
Believe it or not, this area had three tarp fulls of leaves. One tarp full equals about four wheel barrow loads. Crazy. If you are wondering what the heck a tarp full is, it’s me laying a big tarp on the ground and raking the leaves onto it. When it’s full, I pick it up like a big sack and carry it into the woods.
The front of the house was easier with only one tarp full. I needed to get the leaves away from the house because, well, it looks better and I can also get to the foundation for insect spray.
After I am all done getting all the leaves up, I am really going to focus on getting the lawn in order. I already have been doing some stuff, but it needs to be raked and reseeded.
Also, this is the month I get my new ride on lawnmower. I am planning on this towards the end of the month, so there maybe one tough day with the push mower.
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Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Today, we quickly ran up to Home Depot in Glastonbury for a few things. I had to get some yard stuff, some more light bulbs and some little pine trees. I got seven Blue Spruces. Oh yeah, I also wanted to get some screwdriver bits.
What I really needed was some sort of an extender for my existing screwdriver bits. I find myself increasingly needing longer bits, but I am stuck with all these short bits I bought a while back. I was just going to get a few long bits, but then remembered back to when I actually had one of these things…it got dull fast.
As I was looking around for alternatives, this little DeWalt set of screwdriver bits caught my eye…
I love these little kits. This one has the extender piece I need and a whole lot more. It is also the same size as my DeWalt drill bit set. I love having the kit, because I can keep it in my tool box, use the tool and then return it to the tolbox, nice and neat.
That’s the way I roll. Don’t try to change me.
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Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Yes, I know, this is probably one of my more boring posts. Actually, maybe not…I have a lot of boring posts.
Well, we had our new washer and dryer delivered today. We left our old ones back in NY. We were going to bring them, but I thought it would be a good selling point for the other house if we left them, especially since they are almost brand new. Also, I really wanted to get one of these new types of washers. They are Energy Star® and use much less water. Also, the spin cycle spins the drum at 1,100 RPM, so the clothes really get a lot of the water spun out of them before they hit the dryer. That equals less dryer time.
The washer is very quiet. I was sitting right next to it, while talking on the phone and could hardly hear it operating. I like the way I can watch the clothes flop around in there. We got the “LG Electronics 4.0 Cu. Ft. Energy Star® Front Load Washer in White” from Home Dept. I think the Energy Star®, along with the reduced usage of water was worth the few extra bucks.
The dryer is a regular old dryer. It is the “GE 7.0 Cu. Ft. Super Capacity Electric Dryer” also from Home Depot. When we went in to pick them out, I really wanted the stainless steel drum. The sales girl told us that she went to a class just the day before and was told that the stainless steel did virtually nothing for performance. I thought this was a little odd because the stainless costs more and she would probably want to make a bigger sale. Since we really don’t need any fancy features for a dryer, we got this one.
The first wash is going right now. I am going to get the dryer going and start finishing up the pile was already have down in the laundry room.
Peace out.
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Thursday, May 1st, 2008
The other day, while driving home from Home Depot in Willimantic, CT, I noticed a sign that said, “Eastern Connecticut State University.” I thought that was pretty strange, because I had no clue that Eastern Connecticut was so close by. I knew that UConn was pretty close, but that was it.
Since I was intrigued, I decided that it would be nice to drive through the campus on a nice sunny day like today. We are always looking for a good college campus to go to shows, etc…
We drove over to Willimantic this afternoon and pulled into campus. I was very pleasantly surprised. The school is very well taken care of and quite attractive. Laura really doesn’t care if a school looks good or not, but I do. She is all about function and I am (a good part) about looks. I try to explain to her that I want to be happy when walking through a campus and not look only at bare concrete and parking lots. I am not sure I am ever going to get my point across. Either way, this campus looked great.
We drove around and left campus after a little while. I was going to take some pictures, but it was just too busy. We drove around town a little bit and then drove to the new hometown to stop at the local food store to get some cold food for dinner. Again, the gas people are coming on Monday. We need that to cook.
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