New Floors

Day 1

Son David inspired this home improvement. He replaced the flooring in his bathroom, and we saw his handiwork during our recent visit. We found a really good deal at the Home Depot in Hendersonville, and now I have one bathroom done and one to go.

Day 2

I stripped out two layers of flooring and replaced it with this. It took me about 4 hours today: work a little, rest a little, work a little, rest a little. My beautiful bride helped with the floor removal and clean up. Thanks, Sweetie.

New Water Heater (revisited)

Back in September I decided to go ahead and replace our water heater. It was manufactured in 1993, and so, it was a problem waiting to happen. Normally, I have replaced my own water heater, but this one was a nightmare. Look at the plumbing before the replacement.

September 18, 2013

The plumber did away with all the unneeded mess. He made a manifold under the house and ran one line up to the heater and one line back down. The result was a nice clean installation.

The water heater lives between our air handler and a closet wall.  Here is the closet put back into place after the installation.

I plan on calling on Tanner Plumbing again when I decide to replace the old polybutylene pipes.

Bathroom Vanity Redo

Wednesday, December 18.  Today, I ripped out the old vanity in the Master Bath. I was able to install the new countertop and sinks. I will be replacing the floor and making a new front with three doors.

This is the before picture.  We had already painted the walls.
The new top is an inch and a half deeper, and I raised it 3.5 inches.

Thursday, December 19

I rebuilt the floor for the vanity, and we bought new medicine 

cabinets/mirrors.  Tomorrow we will be redoing the water 

supplies and put in cut-off valves.

Friday, December 20, Happy birthday, Tim.

My neighbor friend, Phil L., came over and helped me redo the water supply
under the sinks. Now, I have cut-off valves.

After Phil left, I finished off the frame for the vanity. This
is the fitting. It fit.

Here it is sanded and stained.  Marcia picked out the stain,
Golden Oak. It is just right.

I also finished the doors and put concealed hinges on them. Tomorrow, I will be putting a couple of coats of poly on the frame and the doors. Because of the smell, I will leave them in the shed a day or two before final installation. More to come...

Saturday, December 21

Two coats of poly, new door knobs, doors hung, and initial final fitting.

I am very satisfied.

Before and after. Click on picture to enlarge.

December 23

I put in two slide out shelves in the middle section. Now, it is done.

New Siding

We had new siding, fascia, and soffits put on the house. The guys who did the job were artisans. They had a real eye for detail. 

December 23

It is finished, just in time for Christmas. The guys came out today and put the shutters on and finished up the fascia/soffits above the carport.

The shutters here are drawn on to give you an idea
of how it will look when finished.

They made a sill for each window.

The wrapped each window with a brick mold wrap.

We got an octagonal eave vent.

They wrapped the shed.

We got new gutters on the shed.

Buying a Hiccup

I was in the Wal-Mart the other day looking for some cough medicine. A man and his wife were blocking my way because they were looking at every package comparing the ingredients. They were getting on each others nerves a bit, too, because the man had a severe case of the hiccups, and they were keeping him from completing his sentences. They were the kind of hiccups that were uncontrollable, and they shook him with each, "Hic!"  I was being prevented from getting my cough medicine by this predicament. I decided to draw on my experience as a middle school teacher. The following is a true account of what happened. I bought his hiccups.

I walked up to the man and told him the following:  "I see you have a good case of the hiccups, and I would like to buy them off of you."

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet. "I've got ten dollars here, and I am willing to give it to you if you will just hiccup for me one more time." While I said that sentence, I opened my wallet and pulled out a ten dollar bill and held it out to him. As I finished the sentence, his eyes grew large as he looked at the saw buck and then looked up at me. I said, "Now, it has to be a real hiccup, not a fake one. Just hiccup for me one more time, and this can be yours." Silence reigned while the cycle of hiccups was interrupted. He said, "They are gone. I've been hiccuping all over this store. I was hiccuping back in the garden section, and now they are gone."

I have performed this buying of the hiccup for over twenty years and have not lost a dime. After I first heard about the trick, I began offering a quarter. That worked, so then I started offering fifty cents. Finally, I would offer a dollar. On this particular day, I didn't know it, but all I had in my wallet was a ten dollar bill, so I offered that. It was the most expensive hiccup I ever bought. And, it didn't cost me a thing.

How does it work? Hiccups are an involuntary response. A person has no control over them. You can fake hiccups, but you cannot purposefully hiccup for real. When I offer to buy a hiccup and the offer is real, it flips a switch in the person's brain. Now, they are focusing on trying to hiccup, and since you cannot will a genuine hiccup, time passes, and the hiccups are gone.

The man and his wife were amazed, and I put the ten bucks back in my wallet, picked out my cough medicine, and headed for the check-out.

Books of the Bible

I've been a Christian since 1969 and a Baptist since 1957. I figured it was about time for me to memorize the books of the Bible, so I went online and looked for something to help me. Eventually, I ran across this chart that is organized like the Periodic Table.

It is color coded and grouped into groups that are more easily memorized. The Old Testament is grouped into Pentateuch, History, Wisdom Literature, Poetry and Writings, Major Prophets, and Minor Prophets. The New Testament is grouped into the Gospels, History, Paul's Letters, General Letters, and Apocalyptic. Each square has the number of chapters and verses, date of writing, and author. Now I can say the books of the Bible in order from memory.

New Blade Bank

Original Blade Bank

 A while back I made a blade bank out of an old Noxzema cream jar. It was a little small, so I was on the look for a similar jar but a little bigger. Well, I found one (a nasty smelling hand cream), and now I have a new blade bank. The first blade to go into the bank is the government shutdown blade. I started shaving with it on October 1, the first day of the government shutdown. I shaved every day with it until the end of the shutdown, October 17.  It was a good blade.

New Blade Bank

New Faucets

Eventually, I want to raise the counter top three inches and replace it with new sinks and counter top. However, today, I took a small step towards that goal. I replaced the original faucets with new ones. This small upgrade has made a difference in appearance already. New counter top and sinks will cost about $400. Hopefully, I may get that done before Christmas. We will see.

Blade Safe/Bank

I created this blade safe from a Noxzema cream jar. The blade on the top represents the Shark Super Chrome that I got 21 shaves from. Now I have a place to put my DE blades as they are retired.

The Hole

The guys from Pike Electrical Contractors showed up about 8:30 Wednesday morning. We had a power outage about a week ago, and they were here to fix it.  They hooked up a machine that sent a 20,000 volt pulse through the line to find where the problem was. I have no idea how this works, but they stood in our front yard and marked a spot with spray paint. They unloaded a small digging machine and began to dig. 

They found the line and cut it and then spliced it back together. I think that the insulation had been breached somehow. The splice, along with the sleeve, was the cure. The two men worked well as a team, and finished up in about an hour and a half.

This is the machine that sent the pulse.

Finishing up.

Loading up

Getting ready to leave.

They returned about thirty minutes later with seed and hay to reseed the area. They did a fine job.

Bird Nest Relocation

These birds (house finches) tried to build a nest in the middle of our carport. Click here for more information. It kept falling down, so I bent the edges of a license plate and set it where they were trying to build, and they were successful in building the nest and raising a family of baby birds.

 After they flew off, I took the nest and plate down and cleaned everything up.

This week, a couple of finches returned and were trying to build a nest next to the house again. Marcia wanted me to block these two places where birds had built nests in the past and discourage these birds from building there because of the constant falling down of nesting onto the carport and car. She suggested a free-standing birdhouse, but I decided to do this instead. Marcia loves the birds, not the mess.

Next to the house

Center of the carport

I built boxes that extended from the 6x6 to the roof. Then, the birds came back and saw that their "home site" had been blocked. They seemed very frustrated, so eventually they moved to the other end of the carport to try to build their nest there. But, there was not enough room, and the nesting material kept falling down. Therefore, I decided to have mercy on these sweet little birds, and I installed the license plate to give them more room.

Nesting material

Ledge too small to accommodate a nest. It kept falling down.

License plate gives additional room for the nest.

View from bottom

Momma bird approves of the addition.

 We went to eat and returned about an hour later to see that the little birds had been able to add a significant amount of material to their nest in that short period of time. I will be documenting their progress with more pictures. So, bookmark this page and check back every week or so if you would like to follow along.

More nesting material.