Shed

We purchased a shed kit with our new costco membership, so we had to find a place to put it.  We cleared a spot, and put in some pier and beams.  This spot in the yard can get wet in the spring, so putting it off the ground seemed wise.  I also allowed for a small desk on the front for a place to sit and watch the kids ice skate.

 

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.

One more update on the Pool Pump

 Apparently it gets hot in there...

So we need to figure something else out.

Bathroom pt 9

We came up the previous week as well, but I didn't grab a picture.  Most of the tile is in now, I had pieces fall out on me, so I had to mix up a little thinset and re-apply.  Fan is in now too, that needed some work to get the hole right.

 

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.

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...

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:

You can see the screw has broken on the cylinder...  That piece turns and pushed the slushy water through and up and out the holes at the top of the mechanism.

Here you can see the cooling camber and the cap with the holes that the ice comes out.

Fortunately, we were able to get a refund for the machine through Amazon, but it took awhile as I originally contacted the seller directly.  They offered a replacement unit, but it didn't have the water line input which I wanted.  So they sent me back to Amazon.

Once we had the refund, I order a very similar looking one, which we have been using since June 12th...  We will see if this one has a bit more life.