Tag Archive | personal: construction

Toilet Troubles, Grilled Cheese, and Garlic

Aug20

 It’s possible that I mentioned that we got a water softener a little while ago. 

And by that, I mean my mother, sick of me putting it off, found a plumber in Ithaca, picked out a softener, had it installed, (SCHEDULED the installation), and paid for the whole thing. 

Um. 

Sometimes I manage to stop Mom from getting carried away.  Sometimes. 

Not always, clearly. 

So, the problem was, before that we’d installed a toilet. 

And hard water – and our water was both orange and REALLY HARD – and toilets are a bad combination, it seems.  Our toilet wasn’t really flushing the way it oughta anymore. 

So we took the tank off the toilet and scrubbed iron residue off of every bit we could find, put it back together – nope . Still not working. 

That means, as far as we can tell, that the problem is in the bowl, probably in the interior bit where the water swooshes around before shooting into the bowl proper. 

Thus, tomorrow or Saturday I’m buying a new toilet.  Le Sigh. (by the time this posts, I may have already bought one.  Still Sigh) Continue reading →

Blog Post: What an Old House (Attic Edition)

Aug8

We’re still on the attic… of course we are, we’re going to be on the attic forever…

Well, okay, maybe not forever. 

It stalled for a while, due in large part to a combination of physical and mental illness on my part, but we’re back!

And we’re making things I insist on calling keystones, even though they’re not nearly that important.

We took each rafter (the things that go /\ to make a gable roof) and we “sistered” a long 2×4 to the bottom of it, to provide depth for insulation and some extra structure (considering that the rafters are… not as deep as they oughta be, no matter how long they’ve lasted.

But these /\ joins are in many cases imperfect, so now, with the aid of a hammer, a chop saw, and a sander, I am taking little wedges of scrap lumber and gluing them in between the / and the \ where they meet. 

This means that any pressure from the sistered rafters will have something to push on, rather than just pushing into the air (If the rafters have pressure going –> that way or <– that way.  Pressure going up and down is handled by glue, nails, nails, glue, and three braces nailed to each rafter & sister, and side to side by braces nailed between each pair of rafters)

(we have probably doubled the structure of this attic, to be honest) 

So the process goes: note a measurement on a scrap of lumber, cut the piece, fit, sand down, fit, sand down, fit, glue, hammer into place… repeat.

This is really not that time-consuming a process; I think sweeping down all the cobwebs from the roof took longer. 

But man does it involve a lot of up and down on that step ladder.  

Next after that: framing in the tiny bit of ceiling /–\ that we’ll be putting in there — just enough to put in some new lighting once this is done. 

It’s starting to look a lot like attic….

Blog Post: Catching Up

Jan13

Well!  I haven’t done a what’s-Lyn-Doing blog post in quite a while!  Boring life, ey?

(I suppose after a summer of MRIs, spinal taps, blood draws, funerals, babies (other people’s) and major home renovation, anything would seem a little boring).

So, what have I been up to?  What have YOU been up to?

Crafts

Knitting, knitting, knitting.  I knit my mom and dad each scarflets for Christmas, knit a sleeveless jacket and a hat for Eclipse Viking Baby Capriox. I joined a knit-a-long and am working very slowly on a large asymmetrical triangular shawl, and I am almost done with Secret Project One and about to start on Secret Project Two.  Winter is good for knitting!

House

We were 1/2 of the way through installing new under-cabinet/over-sink LED motion-activated-switch lights 2 weekends ago – and then we realized we had no 1/2″ drill bit. *facepalm*  So now we have a bit and it’s too cold to go out to the garage. Soon!  Then the dishes and our new sink and awesome new faucet – and dishwasher! (it was a busy summer)- will be illuminated.

Oh, and we got a door and a front wall of sorts on the bathroom before we had company overnight back in the beginning of December.  And half the ceiling.  Maybe we’ll get the other half of the ceiling done tomorrow!

Health

I live!  I have new drugs which are jabbity once every two weeks and sort of make me feel like crap for a little bit afterwards.  But they should, ah, stop a repeat of this summer, hopefully! (The bad part with the big needles, not the good part with the home renovations).

Weather

I think the weather is trying to kill us.

I mean, I live on the North Coast; that’s kind of a given.

Yesterday it dropped /twenty degrees F/ in /two hours/.  And then is continuing to drop steadily an average of 1 degree an hour from 5 pm yesterday until about sunrise tomorrow.

Thursday and Friday the high was in the fifties F.  Today it’s 11.

How about you?

Keeping warm? Crafting? Writing? Arting? Healthy? Homed? Continue reading →

New Project in Queue: Ten Dollar ($15.51) Ledges

Aug15

I’m redoing my cave, I might have mentioned.

And in doing so, I wanted to do something with the pile of very small (art-card size and up) flat art I’ve accumulated over the years.

I finally decided on picture ledges after a bit of googling, and, having done that, said to myself, “Hey, doesn’t Ana White have a pattern for that?”

Ana White has a pattern for everything. She’s this DIY guru who puts together easy-to-understand patterns for furniture. Much of what she does is knockoffs of high-end catalog stuff.

And she happens to have a Ten-Dollar Ledge plan!

So I’m gonna make three 32″ ledges!

My lumber cost me $15.51 after discount and tax, so I guess there’s been a bit of inflation. But still! Compared to the price of a single shelf anywhere…!

Now, of course, I’m gonna have more shelf than I have small art – so, where can I buy art* that fit in frames 6×8″ or smaller?

* Like, from independent crowdfunded artists, not posters.com or such.

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