Home Improvement

There are a few things that I really love about this house. Two of them are, 1. We have a shallow well and, 2. The well pump is in the basement. When we lived in Connecticut, we had a deep well. Who knows how deep it was. I’m sure it was very deep. There were […]

This was an unexpected and especially annoying repair. I’ll start at the beginning. About a week ago, I came up with a really good idea. I thought that if I bought an extra garden hose, screwed a big garage hook into the wall above and next to the washing machine in the laundry room and […]

There truly is not much more rewarding than removing water from one’s basement. Things become flooded, things become fixed. It makes me smile. I just wrote a post that covered the flooding in our new (old) basement. In that post, I mentioned that the primary issue was the water infiltration in the dirt crawl space. […]

The fun part about the house we just moved into is that there are a ton of small improvements that need to be made. Many of the improvements have to do with either temperature, moisture or both. I’d say that at least 50% of the serious projects I need to tackle are in the basement, […]

I have been doing an extraordinary amount of home improvement work lately. To say the least, this week’s been a doozy. One project turned into another project and so on. I’m a bit worn out. When we purchased this house, I felt like we got a good deal. And we did. But when you add […]

Well, the white on white on white is finally all gone. I have completed painting the house, from inside to outside. It’s all done. Thank goodness. The final section I had to tackle was the front. I knew this would be the most difficult because I had yet to complete cutting back all the bushes. […]

I began working on this (garage) side of the house earlier than I normally would. Around noon, the sun starts to hit it and if there’s one thing I don’t want to be working in, it’s the sun. Not around here anyway. I knew I needed to get this side painted quickly. You should have […]

I just finished up painting the back of the house. I wanted to write a quick post, just to get some pictures out there. I always like to take before and after shots for memory’s sake. As I said before, I am painting the exterior stucco with Valspar “Woodrow Wilson Putty.” It’s a nice, neutral […]

Alright everyone, I’ve got a painting update for you. Since we’ve last talked, I’ve finished up the Florida room, the dining room, the kitchen and just today, the hallway. So far, I used a gallon of Valspar “Quail Egg” in the Florida room, two gallons of (they’re all Valspar) “Woodrow Wilson Putty” in the dining […]

As I sit here and write, I have to admit that I’m still somewhat in awe of what just happened. Never – never in my life have I painted so fast. And I’d like to apologize for that snide comment I made in my last post about the cheesy PaintStick EZ-Twist paint roller commercial. I […]

Alright, we finished painting one room in the house. Only eight more to go. The dining room, living room, kitchen, two bathrooms and three bedrooms. We also have to paint the entire exterior of this house. All this painting is going to take some time. When I was using the roller to paint the stucco […]

As you well know, I’ve begun giving the house we live in a “face lift.” It was built in 2000 and while I’m sure it’s had updates and repairs through the years, I find the white on white on white a bit disturbing. We’ve got a white exterior with a white interior with white tiles […]

I had a small project on my hands this weekend. It had to do with fixing an issue we’ve had with the house we currently reside in. Not a huge issue, but an issue nonetheless. And this particular issue has been the cause of me having all my junk spread across the living room and […]

Big thunderstorms right now. Big thunderstorms. I couldn’t think of a better time to take pictures of water beading up on the freshly sealed porch. Leave it to me…the crazy guy who gets all wet just for a few photos. Hey man, if you want the good stuff, sometimes you gotta get wet. I started […]

Who says you can’t buy the least expensive item on the wall and still get good results? Not me. I suppose these lights weren’t the “least” expensive, but pretty darn close. When it comes to lighting, the price usually starts pretty reasonably, then gets a little higher and finally gets just stupid. I am not […]

I have always wanted an under sink water filter. I’m not sure why, especially since we have a whole house filter. I guess it’s because the whole house filter is all the way down in the basement and I keep thinking the water gets all screwed up traveling through the pipes. I like the idea […]

Okay, I have been waiting for this post for some time now. It is a follow up to my previous post, “Cleaning Gutters & Installing Amerimax Gutter Covers.” If you visit that post, you can see some comments going back and forth concerning these gutter covers and other gutter covers in general. I had these […]

I have to post this for my father. He wanted to see pictures. I am not sure I told you this already, but for the longest time, I was using a big 36″ wide solid door as a desk. It was mounted on 4″x4″s. It was huge and worked well, but I needed to grow […]

Valentine’s day was here. I wanted to wash the car and have it nice and clean, so my lady and I could drive down to Foxwoods in style. It was pretty dirty and needed a good wash. On my way back from tennis yesterday morning, I dreaded the idea of going downstairs, turning the water […]

That’s two down and a bunch more to go. I really don’t like painting. It’s not that bad once I get into it, but getting into it is the problem. I have found that doing short bursts throughout the day helps. If I put it off for a few days, I am in trouble. I […]

I told you in my last post that I was going to take some pictures of the freshly installed sidewalk lights at night. Well, guess what I just did. You got it. I took some pictures, but at dusk, not night. I am not sure they would have come out at night. I think I […]

Yesterday, I drove over to Home Depot to get two more 5-gallon buckets of driveway sealer and one more bucket of driveway crack filler. After I got sidetracked at the airport (which I wrote about in the previous post), I came back to finish up the driveway. The only thing I did differently this time […]

Like I mentioned yesterday, this morning’s task was to seal the lower portion of the driveway. I had twenty five gallons of Latex-ite Driveway Re-surfacer on hand and was hoping that was enough. I think I read that each five gallon bucket does around 300 square feet, which isn’t much. Ok, here is how it […]

Eventually, all blacktop will crack. It doesn’t matter how good of a job the pavement people did when they came to install that beautiful patch of blackness over what once was a nice lawn. It will crack. “So what, Jay. So my driveway has a few cracks in it. Why should I care?” you say. […]

As I was outside today cutting down some more small trees, the chimney repair guys rolled down the driveway. I thought he said they were going to call to set up an appointment, but this was fine with me. The faster I can cross something off my list, the better. The job was to repair […]

I am rather impressed with myself. A few weeks ago, I was scratching my chin, wondering what to do with this basement. Now, I am standing on brand new tile throughout the entire thing. I think I might be amazing. So, after five short days, the tile guys completed the job and left. I thought […]

Today, the tile installers finished laying the full pieces of tile. Now, they have to come back on Monday to make all the cuts for all the edge pieces. I am going down tonight to count all the edge pieces we’ll need, just to make sure we have enough tile. On Tuesday, they will come […]

It feels good to get some things checked off my list. Today, the gutter guys came over to clean the gutters and install the rest of the gutter covers. I felt a little bad having a gutter cleaning company install the covers, but they didn’t seem to mind. The owner told me that I could […]

Also today (it was quite a busy day), the tile guys came over to start the tile installation in the basement. I have to say, this installer has impressed me on a number of occasions. By nature, I am skeptical. I always think people aren’t going to do a complete job or try to get […]

Yesterday was pretty fun. I met the tile installer at Tile America in West Hartford. I picked out the tile for the basement and the grout color. I like the grout to match the tile, so the floor doesn’t look like a big checker board. We also ordered up the thinset. I bought 473.44 square […]

As I am sure I have mentioned numerous times, we needed to replace the doors downstairs in the basement. There was some rot at the bottom of the framing. Just this morning, I realized why. Remember that big long post (directly below) about rain gutters? Well, it now all makes sense. When it rains, the […]

If you have ever gone through the agonizing process of dealing with gutters, you would certainly know that it’s…well, agonizing. Here’s one for you. Have you ever realized that every single gutter cover company claims they are the best? It actually gets comical after a while. They all seem to have the “latest patented technology” […]

Just a few minutes ago, I finished painting the basement. I feel like this is breaking news or something. Well, with the way I dread painting, I feel like it should be some sort of news. I have been doing a little bit each day…chipping away at it. Luckily, the walls were in great shape. […]

I have been pretty busy lately, between working, planting plants, getting the cars registered and, oh yeah, re-doing the basement. I believe I told you about it in an earlier post. Then, I had the floor torn up and was considering what to put on it. Now, I am paiting the whole thing up. I […]

I am going to put this one out to the masses. I recently became stumped with what to do with the basement floor. Unfortunately, the stump”ness” came about after I tore the whole thing up. If you don’t know me all that well, I oftentimes shoot first and aim later. At first, I thought this […]

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 […]

I never thought it would take so long to unpack a garage. It’s not that I have a lot of stuff, it’s that I refuse to just pile things up like I did in our other house. I say “other” because it’s not sold yet. There, I kind of had stuff over there, over here […]

I decided to take this photo this morning of the wall I was working on the other day. I just finished painting it. I figured that some of my loyal audience was a little nervous about the taping and compounding job I did. It looked like a mess, but I actually knew what I was […]

After weeks of two old kitchen cabinets sitting on the front porch, I decided today would be a good time to store them behind the house, under the porch. This is where I keep any wood I want to burn, dry. Tim and I haven’t had a fire in a few weeks, so I felt […]

To run the wiring for the dishwasher, I had to cut a piece of sheetrock out of the wall below the breaker box. I did this to get my drill down at the bottom of the wall so I could drill a hole for the wire. I was really trying to avoid this, but I […]

Just as a quick FYI, I noticed that Lowe’s spells moulding like “Moulding.” So, that’s the way I will spell it from now on. Yesterday, I began putting up the crown moulding in the kitchen. Not the cabinet stuff, that’s already done. This was the regular stuff I like to put up in every room, […]

Today was a good day to install a new dishwasher. Good thing too, because our new one showed up this morning. I would say this has been a long time coming and almost didn’t happen. Luckily, while we were in the kitchen place in December, we made the decision to get one. I think it […]

Ever since I went out this past Saturday and purchased a new dishwasher, I have been preparing for its delivery and installation. The appliance store will be doing the delivery and I will be doing the installation. Setting everything up is actually pretty fun. This post is about the plumbing part of it. Here are […]

So today was all about getting the kitchen sink working again. That has really been the pain in my side this whole time. There is actually a funny little story that goes along with today. As you know, we installed the old sink and faucet in the counter top last night. I was trying to […]

I felt that it was my duty to bring you a few more photos of the kitchen installation. It is my duty and my honor. The second day of the installation is full of detail and trim work. The installer has been out there cutting small strips of wood for filler and hanging the crown […]

The installer finished up here at about 7PM. He worked his butt off today. I was second guessing that it would take two days to install a kitchen, but I was wrong. All the trim work took a long time. The majority of the time was taken up hanging the crown moulding, installing the knobs […]

Well, the living room is full of kitchen cabinets. What a mess…I didn’t think there were going to be so many. It’s quite the pile. The guys showed up at about 10:30 this morning. Being my usual self, I jumped out there and helped them bring all the stuff in. I basically brought in all […]

I just couldn’t help myself. I was sitting there looking at all this stuff in the living room when one of the cabinets stuck its tongue out at me. Then, all the cabinets started laughing and saying, “Oh Jay, look at you…you can’t even install us. You are very good looking, but a baby nonetheless […]

The installer arrived this morning at about 8:30. I was very pleased to greet him in the driveway holding the plans in my hand. I felt like a puppy looking out the window. It is extremely nice to see this thing being put together. There are already some things that I would’ve had trouble with, […]