Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Shed pt 3
Sunday, October 15, 2023
Shed pt 2
Monday, October 2, 2023
Oil cap goes pop?
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Shed
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Wood Chipper
Jen's Aunt and Uncle had given us stuff from their garage last year, one of those things was a wood chipper that didn't work. I took the carb off and it was a mess, so I tried to clean it up, but there was gunk that wouldn't come off. So I ordered a replacement and it came and worked, so now we have a wood chipper.
It is a bit undersized, but it did get through a lot of the stuff we cleared for our shed.
Monday, September 11, 2023
Monday, August 28, 2023
Bathroom pt 9
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Update on the Pool Pump...
Pool pump overheating issues. I didn't realize how hot an electric motor gets. The fan that was installed in the pump broke, Nick tried to glue it, but it didn't hold up. So he 3d printed one, then another (center hole was too big, tried to print an adapter, but that didn't work at all...), then another. The issue is that they get too hot and deform.
His current design is pretty tight on the shaft. I had to heat it up to get it on. Maybe it will work, not sure. It ran for 2 hours last night. Time will tell.
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Septic fun
Jen and Nick and probably Maddie too, noticed that the toilet in the basement was slow to flush and there had been some water coming up from the drain in the basement. I might have noticed that the alarm light on the septic had been on for some time as well, but busy you know...
Anyway, went and out and found this when I took the cover off.
So that ain't right... Made some calls Thursday, and Friday morning Mike's Septic called me back and said they could have someone out in the evening. Of course it was my work golf outing, but I said I could be there. Maddie had to take a driveway shower, but luckily we have hot/cold water at the faucet in the garage.
Fortunately, they didn't arrive till 5pm, which worked well for my schedule. Matt and Matt were very nice and were able to replace the pump and also fix a baffle on the outlet of the first tank. Or course they charged me an arm and a leg for it. Especially $500 to replace the baffle which was less than 5 minutes of work. But no one wants to jump into a septic tank, I get it.
I talked with an older septic guy, who couldn't come out, Thursday night and he helped me verify the problem was with the pump and not the switch. There is a plug on the back of the switch plug, if you plug that directly in it will run the pump and take the switch out the equation. Unfortunately, the pump was triggering the breaker each time I plugged it in.
Good times...
Monday, August 14, 2023
Update on the Ice Maker...
So about 4 months after we installed and had been using the Ice Maker it went out... It wasn't pushing the ice out anymore. Turns out the issue is pretty common, Nick took it apart and found this:
Pool Pump issues and fix!
A couple weeks ago the pump on our pool went out. From the symptoms, humming noise, I thought it might be the starting capacitor, so I looked at it and it was bulgy... So I ordered some replacements and tried that. No good.
We had to order a bearing puller as well, which worked on 1 side, but the other side was falling apart, so I ended up using the demel to get it off. Then he was able to put it back together. On the first try the plastic fan fell apart (it was already partially broken) so he had to take it back apart and use plastic cement to fix it. Then put it back together, and Success!
Sunday, August 13, 2023
Bathroom pt 8
More tiling this weekend, trying to figure out how to do the recess and cutting around the faucet. Also, ran the water to the faucet so I could test that out. Used the pex clamp.
Monday, August 7, 2023
Another Flat Tire!
Sunday, August 6, 2023
Bathroom pt 7
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Bathroom pt 6
Progress continues, slow but steady... Hard to get a lot done 2 days at a time, when your family enjoys your company as well 😁
I was able to get some drywall and durock up. I used my left over thinset from filling in hole and tried to tuck point the cinderblock wall a bit as well.
Looks like the lights were installed as well. I forgot to mention a spend a good chunk of time vanishing the ceiling as well, before the show pan went in. I had a good respirator for that, and I am glad that I did, because it made the entire cabin stink for a day or 2 after!
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Bathroom pt 5
Another weekend some more progress. I was able to get the hole drilled for the vent, install the sliding door, and get the shower pan installed (with the issues I mentioned in the last post).
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
A playset for Kit
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Bathroom pt 4
I was able to finish up most of the ceiling, and I put down self-leveling concrete in the shower pan. However, self-leveling is a bit of a misnomer. It looks really smooth and level, but it isn't 100% level there is probably at leave a 1/4 to 1/2 difference in some places...
I put some glue on the fins of the shower pan, but it didn't fix it entirely and the pan will squeak a bit here and there. I may try to spray some foam under it, but it will probably not work well, since there are fins in the way... If I could start over I would put down a bed of mortar, or make sure it was really level.
Saturday, July 8, 2023
Bathroom pt 3
As I was waiting for the concrete to dry, I started working on the ceiling. Greg has a bunch of cedar he had planned to use for a sauna, but it worked really well as the ceiling in the bathroom as well.
Friday, July 7, 2023
Bathroom pt 2
I was eventually able to get the old plumbing out, I tried heat, that didn't work and probably wasn't too healthy... The I used a reciprocating saw and cut off the trap, so I could use some drill bits and drill out the lead/oakum. Eventually I was able to wiggle it out.
I thought about putting the trap coming right out of the iron drain, but the guy at Ace said it would be best to have it right under the drain and it worked well like that. Overall very happy with how it all turned out. It seems to be draining well, and hopefully will be for a long time!
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
To redo a basement bathroom at the Cabin
I am writing this on October 30th, because I wanted to finish the bathroom before I posted about it. It is somewhat done at this point. We did the demo on this day. We had been up since Friday, but had played a lot! Leading up to this, I had taken out the toilet, sink, drywall, and rewired for the new location of the switches. But we had held off on the shower till now, since it is the only one!
That is the before. We accomplished quite a bit that first day!
Then I saw this!
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
New Radon Fan after 10 years
Saturday, March 4, 2023
Shower Door for Kids
Very happy with the finished product, I would do these everywhere but they are about $600.