Friday, August 29th, 2008
There is something that really bugs me about myself. I think I’ll tell you what it is. My brother has the same problem. We I get something in my head, it rarely leaves until I satisfy it. Many times, it has to do with a project I am doing and it involves me going to the store to buy something. I am a pig.
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…
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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Friday, August 29th, 2008
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but I have been busting my butt to get the front sidewalk area of the house landscaped. It wasn’t all that difficult because things were in pretty good shape. I really like mulch areas, so I decided to add a few. Keeps the weeds down, if you know what I mean. Also, it just looks damn good.
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
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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Thursday, August 28th, 2008
As you may know, I have been doing a lot of work outside trying to make things look nice. A lot of sweat has gone into these projects. Things are rolling along smoothly and actually getting somewhere.
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.
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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Friday, January 25th, 2008
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 save a few bucks…kill me. The sink is white and I wasn’t sure if it would match the rest of the kitchen. The faucet is aged brown. After we installed them, they actually did match pretty nicely. Tim, next door, called me cheap because I was using the old stuff. I just couldn’t bring myself to throw a perfectly good sink in that big garbage island in the Pacific.
Anyway, I took a trip down to Lowe’s this morning to pick up some plumbing stuff for under the sink as well as a range vent. I needed the vent for the light above the oven. I like to turn off the main kitchen lights at night, but keep the small ones on. I got the stuff from Lowe’s and came home to hook it all up. I hooked up the vent first…
The reason I got this new vent is because the old one was 36″. This new kitchen only offers a 30″ space. I think it looks pretty good. I even got extra small CFLs as lighting.
One other thing about lighting…I finally found CFL candelabras. Can you believe it? They were right in Lowe’s. I got four of them for the ceiling fan lights.
Ok, back to the sink. I hooked up all the plumbing beneath the sink and was very excited to see the water running in the kitchen once more. I stood up and moved the faucet lever backwards. You know the little sprayer thing that you can pull out? It’s the thing attached to the hose. Well, it decided to spray all over me. Actually, the handle was cracked in half and that’s where the water was coming from. I was a little ticked off. I guess there was water in the system when I stored the whole sink and faucet system out on the porch for a month and a half (during Winter). The faucet wouldn’t work. I checked under the sink to see if there was anything I could do. Apparently, the only option I had was to buy a new faucet. I priced out what was already installed and it came up to $218. That ticked me off even more. I found a great looking “Peerless” replacement at only $62. I ran back down to Lowe’s (which ticked me off) and got it and put it in.
Here is a nice photo of the plumbing job I did under the sink…
Everything works beautifully now. Tomorrow, I am running over to a neighboring town to buy a dishwasher. They deliver for free, so they are my kind of people.
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Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
I didn’t even know they had these. They must be new.
I was just reading a story on Yahoo! about CFLs and the new energy legislation passed by the senate yesterday. Apparently, regular incandescent light bulbs are going to be phased out by 2012. I guess that’s a good thing if they figure out the mercury issue. They will. Sometimes, it takes a little force to get things going.
Anyway, I was wondering what they were going to suggest for everyone’s dimmable lights. Well, they make dimmable CFLs.
Did you know that?
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Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Here is an exciting post. It’s about the new medicine chest and shower rod we bought last night.
We had to go down to Sam’s Club anyway, so we decided to hit Lowes first. We needed a few things, with the medicine chest being the most important. The shower rod and the little chrome thing that goes around the shower spout came in second and third.
Since we decided to stay with the white vanity, the shopping was easier. It’s much easier to match white than woodgrain. The only thing you have to keep your eye on is the bevel designs. Everything is so damn cheap anyway, I’m not sure it even matters.
So, here are some pics –
As you can see, we decided to keep the current lighting (it has a bulb out). I just unhooked it from the wall and cleaned it up a bit. Then, I reinstalled it slightly higher, to accomodate the longer medicine chest. I like this new chest because it is more “classic” than the old tri-pane one.
Here is the new shower rod. I know, how exciting can shower rods be? Well, when your old one tore the paint off the wall and fell down all the time, a new one can be kind of fun. This new one is nice and heavy and screwed into the wall.
In other news, I ran down to the tile place in town again today and picked out the tile. We ordered it. They are going to give me a call with the availability for installation. I met the owner…he is a nice guy. I am glad I decided not to “Home Depot” this job.
I also ran over to the hardware store and picked up one of those big wax sealer things for the toilet. We need to temporarily remove it for the tile installation. The tile dude told me to get the biggest one I can find, to accomodate the new height of the floor.
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