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  • Saturday, September 24, 2005

    Dead Ant... Dead Ant

    I decided that I should get at least one project done this weekend. So, I've put out some ant bait to try and kill the ants in the upstairs bedroom.

    I have no idea how we've got ants upstairs and not downstairs. There wasn't anything that resembled food up there until months after I bought the place. They should've starved to death or something! The dog likes to eat at night, but we've had to move her food until these ants are gone.

    I bought some brand name ant baits to to the job. I just hope they work as well as my dad's secret formulas. He uses some gel that attracts armies of ants. They take all the gel back to the hive and *poof* no more ants. He uses Malathion outside, and that stuff is GREAT! I had some hives in the yard that were literally piled high with swarming ants. The malathion turned them into piles of dead ants.

    If anyone ever tries to ban Malathion, be sure to pick some up! Environmentalists and other nanny figures are always trying to ban insecticides that actually work. They'll claim that the chemicals hurt birds. I say "BS! If the birds were actually eating the bugs (like they're supposed to), we wouldn't need insecticide!" :)

    Friday, September 16, 2005

    Skunked!

    Last night, we had a visitor. We never saw it, but we sure smelled it!
    The upstairs bedroom still has a faint aroma of a skunk's perfume...

    I hope someone pancaked that sucker before he had a chance to spread more joy and happiness.

    Wednesday, September 14, 2005

    Batten Them Down Again, We'll Teach Those Hatches

    Good news: no storm damage. At least, I don't see any damage. It's awfully difficult to see the roof from the ground.

    My dad called this afternoon and said that a tree fell on the power lines in his neighbor's yard. The power line fell into his ditch, and blocked the driveway.

    The crews have managed to remove the power line and the tree, but he says there's a really neat looking burn mark in the grass.

    Tuesday, September 13, 2005

    Easy Access

    When this house started getting the better of me (day one), I thought to myself "well, at least I can have cool hard wood floors in every room."

    I had a blast tearing up the carpets: all four upstairs bedrooms, upstairs hallway, downstairs bedroom, and living room. I made a night of it, and the resulting pile o' carpet in the garage was an ego boost. The best floor in the house, I found out, was the one bedroom that I planned to carpet over. It figures.

    The big surprise though, was this mess:
    Notice the vinyl tile? That was covering the gaping hole in the floor. I thought maybe someone had decided to practice his tiling skills before heading into the bathroom, which is the room on the other side of the wall. Opening up the access panel to the tub revealed a bucket. See "Plumbing Roulette." Which part of "seller is not aware of any plumbing defects" did I miss?

    I'm not quite sure what to do about this hole, yet. I'm thinking the best option will be to patch up the opening and put in an engineered floor. I understand that engineered flooring isn't tough to install, and it'll be harder than normal wood. Since Kelly thinks this would be a good exercise room (for storing more junk), the hard floor would be a plus.

    They Should Invent Brown Grass

    I'm not watering the lawn today. If the storm doesn't take care of the new grass, that's just tough!

    I've been nursing the lawn on the north side of the house for weeks now. After the basement repairs, we had a patch a few feet wide along the entire side that needed to be planted.

    I don't get it. I've got to make a lake out there to get the grass to sprout, but the weeds are nine feet tall. Shouldn't we have genetically engineered grass by now? I want mine to actually eat weeds! In the middle of the night I want to hear slurping, chomping and gurgling noises outside the window, and wake up to find a bright green lawn free of weeds (and rodents).

    Monday, September 12, 2005

    The Wonder Tool

    I've got to plug this AWESOME pair of pliers I've been using around the house. I found these things at Restoration Hardware in the Mayfair mall. When I picked them up, they felt pretty tough. I would've expected anything from that store to be a pretty cheap gimmick. Then, I noticed that these pliers have a dual head. You flip the handle over on itself (like you're opening the jaws really wide), and the other set of jaws comes out. Picture it, needle nose one second, lineman's pliers the next. And the thing makes a very satifying "click, click" noise when you give it the flip of a wrist. I played with them for a minute or two, giggling like a little girl, until my girlfriend came over to stop the embarassing display.

    I never really used these pliers until I started working on the house. But now I use them for everything! They've been handy for electrical work, plumbing, pulling carpet staples, cooking diner, etc. They've been so handy that I bought a second pair for the times when I can't find the first one. But, my girlfriend pretty much draws the line at letting me sleep with my new favorite tool(s).

    Plumbing Roulette

    The upstairs shower works! Well, at least it should, once the caulking dries.

    My dad and I pulled the mixer valve apart to try and figure out why the temperature control didn't work. Kelly and I were getting awfully tired of two tempteratures: scalding and ice water. It turns out, the rubber seal inside the mixer was really torn up. The cold water was getting through all the time.

    I didn't think we'd be able to find the right replacment, but the ACE on 110th and Oklahoma had just the right parts. Now I know that my faucet is a Kohler, or Kohler compatible. This ACE Hardware had plenty of parts for other faucets, too. I guess I've found my plumbing store.

    Now that the upstairs shower is fixed, hopefully, I've got to get to work on the leaks in the downstairs shower. The control valve drips if you push it in too far, and I'm reasonably sure the drain drips, too. My dad and I found replacement o-rings for the mixer. They'd better do the trick! We've already replaced the drain tubing upstairs, so I'm not really afraid of that project. The toughest part should be getting access to the piping in the fist place. Luckily for me, the guy who built the bathrooms was smart enough to put in access panels.

    Two working showers would be pretty cool!