Beethoven In Trance - Episode 15

Shop Vac.

It was a lazy weekend. Didn't get much done, except shop-vaced the attic. Had some interesting findings... TV antena, one baby shoe, dirts, wood chips, an army-looking hat, two soda cans, some pencils and pen, more dirts, sugar ants buddies, nails... Now the attic is clean enough to store some stuff. We actually have some extra space there can be used. But it's gonna be a projust on the bottom of the list. Shop-vaced some part of basement too. Didn't complete though. Will continue later. Still need to vacuum that so called 'wine cell' - more like a painting left over equipment cell to me... it needs to be painted ... an extra light in there will be nice too...

Basement starts to get cleared out. Mountains of boxes were dumped in the last couple weekends - the best part of Sunday is dumping trashes... Bumped into neighbor across the street too. An old couple who gave us some flower when we first moved in. Ver nice guesture. We told them that we would invite them over for Chinese food, but we just haven't got time to do it. They asked me if we were hiding. Well, yes, to most of friends of ours when don't have a house, we are hiding, from all the social events, parties or usual chi-chat. For those who own a house, we actually talk to each other more, because we have more to talk about... Just saw a voice mail left on my cell phone from an old alumni from Case. Guess it's another party. Well, we will see... Anyway, we will need to start to schedule a time to invite our neighbors over...

Dinner invitation is not the only thing that needs to be scheduled. Wedding is too, and a more immediate one is "the interview" in Canada this weekend. Meet the parents. Can't imagine what it is gonna be like, but better just keep my temper, smile, lay low for a while... sounds like a gangster just gets out of prison.

Speaking of prison. Some friends from China are crazy about the show 'Prison Break'. Not impressive, after three episodes of the first season. It's still a show for youngsters, too cool to be true. Far less intensive than 24. Happy to see 24 won the Emmy award last night.

My girl has been asking me about the wedding plan. Well, better have something to tell when her parents ask me the same question. I don't know (scratch that). We might go to CA, visit Montery Aquarium and drive the No.1 highway. Then perhaps visit my cusin in San Fransisco. Well, who knows, this is so far the plan. The house has occupied the most of my thought now.
The floor guy will come again to look at the finish this Thursday, I bet they will say the current finish is semi-gloss. Either way, I can't see there is anything more we can do about it. Will see how it goes.

Did some research on trees last week. We might have birch, or ash trees in our backyard. Plus two maple trees at the front. we have a lot of watering to do! According to the tree care article, I need to water the big tree in the backyard for about 1 hour three times a month, and soak hose is the best option for watering. So, lowes here I go. Got the hose from there (homedepot is out of it). Haven't put them down cause it rains last Sunday. Great timing coz my trees are suffering from drought (withering). It seems I don't need to water them any time soon. Rain is good for the tree, but not for the garage roof. It's still leaking after I patched it twice. Can't understand why it leaks again at the same spot as I thought I have patched it again. Did I say I never gonna climb up there to patch it again? Scratch that.

The vole is still at large, it sets off the two mouse trap that I put down and took the apple chunk... well, just have to reset the mouse trap and see what my luck is again.

As for replacing the entrance doors. It's a project that is lost in direction. Still not sure who should go with. Homedepot guys have a unsatisfactory record on BBB. The Angielist guy is expensive. Fall has already started, not sure if it's still a good time to replace doors... The patio door project will sure be postponed to next year.

It seems the most needed project is installing the ventilation fan in kitchen and bathroom. The smoke detector has gone off couple times when we were cooking. Need to talk to our neighbor to see if he is interested in working on that...

Still no furniture in the living room. No big screen TV in the basement either. It's gonna take a while. Might need to keep an eye on this year's black friday.

Friend of mine who is a minister just found a job in a church. Good news for the job, but bad news the job is far from home. He will not be able to commute back home everyday. I hope he can sell his house to the shopping mall company, so that he will have the money for a new one close to work.

Used circular saw last week for the shelfing boards. Didn't wear dust mask or goggle. Wood dust was saturated in the air, and I inhaled quite a bit. Big mistake. I could feel the heat as soon as the blade hits the wood. And it is a loud machine. Quite intimedating, the most intimedating power tool so far... The cuts were fine, I put them on the shelfing rails screwed on the wall last time, and it fits well. One more kitchen project is done. Next will be the towel hanger and hopefully a small bench next to the kitchen stove.

Played 'Titan Quest' on Sunday, a good filler when no Diablo available.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 14

Power tools.

Don't get caught without it in any house project. Another working weekend passed. Putting together a dresser was the highlight. Army of screws need to be drilled into the wood, and one's hand will fall off if trying to accomplish that without power drill. The 18V cordless power drill came in handy, but holding it for a long time is still not fun. The final product looks all right, but no way near perfect. Well, now I realize why assembled furniture cost that much, because everything needs to be perfectly fit into each other in order to be presentable in the show room.

Went to Ikea in PA last Saturday. 5 hours of driving total. Hauled back a bookcase (for our dinner plates), two bar stools, and some other stuff. Putting together the book case right after we sat foot at home. Again, not perfect. One of the boards is too long, making joint seam too wide. A sanding job is needed to correct that, but my girl is saying it's fine as she can't wait to putting in the plates.

The shelfing boards got from Lowes are a total disaster. None of them fit in the places as I hoped. Although I measured couple times, but the unpredicatble happened. Those boards are sitting on the desk waiting for me to deploy somewhere else. Need to go back to Homedepot tonight to get some more boards.

Drilling a screw into stud is not fun either. Got the stud finder at Lowes, costed me a fortune. Found the stud on the wall, then started to drill in the screw. Man, that's not an easy job. Finally, one rail was screwed on the wall, then found out the shelfing board doesn't fit, and I need screws to secure the board to the supporting rack... well, Homedepot again.

The floor by the way was re-refinished. The semi-gloss finishing on the floor is gone forever (sad). The difference in gloss is gone too. It seems they fixed the problem of finishing variance by covering everything in lower gloss finishing. According to the installer, he put semi-gloss everywhere, well, I believe him, and it's good to see they made an effort to resolve the problem, but the end result is just not satisfactory. Will need to reply their call as they called me to follow up the result of the redo.

No lawn mowing this weekend. Our lawn has been taken over by weeds, and it's not pretty. Need to do it today or tomorrow though. The vole in the backyard is still at large. It took the apple chunk next to the mouse trap twice without triggering the trap (smart). Need to set up the mouse trap better next time.

Basement finally smells better after couple nights of dehumidifying. And we finally have some space for plates (with our new bookcase from Ikea). Got a couple S-hook from Ikea too, great for hanging my fry pans.

It makes sense to make a shopping list for home store now.

The garage roof is still leaking. Well, we paid a hundred bucks for the ladder, better use it.
And finally, need to meet the parents in September. Not sure what's waiting there for me...

The cusin in San Fransisco called on Sunday. Sounds like he has came up a plan for his life. Ok, go ahead and good luck.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 13

Edger.

Another weekend spent on working around the house. Saturday morning playing with edger to trim the lawn, and cleaning the drive way with water and new outdoor broom from Rubbermaid in the afternoon. Washed the car, water the lawn. Pretty much the whole day spent outside of the house.

Sunday continue to water the lawn, took out the trash and piles of carton boards. Went to our favorite homegoods shop but didn't find anything (highlight of the day). My girl spent the whole Saturday vacuum the house from floor to walls. Cleaned and rehang the blinds... A productive weekend I will say. But then again, since we bought the house, every weekend is pretty productive.

Also organized the basement a little bit. Not complete clearing out the basement yet. Still mountains of stuff there waiting to be unpacked.

Can't believe we still haven't finished unpacking kitchen - the most important place in our house. Was talking with my girl over the weekend, we called our day as 'an unfinished dinner' (vs. a unfinished chest game, an old movie name). It seems we just keep cooking, eating, cleaning the whole day.

Watched the 24 season 5 at night. A great season. It's the best season since season 1, and 24 is the best TV series I have seen so far. I tried Alias, but sense it more gear towards younger audience. 24 strikes me as more realistic. When I was watching the world news this morning, I kept thinking about 24 as the news sounds too much like the plot in 24. Cant' wait for the season 6.

Put down couple mouse trap during the weekend. Hopefully catch the vole, we will see.

Called the flooring guy this morning (after leaving him a voice mail and email on Sunday). The floor finishing doesn't look the same in the two bedrooms as in the living room. It seems that they forgot to apply the Semi-Gloss finishing in the two bedrooms. According to the owner, the installer told him that he applied it in all area. Well, why don't you come over to look at it yourself. Tomorrow he will come over and we will see what happens. This is the first project in our first home, and it didn't go that well. Lesson learned. We have been cooperative, give them the key so that they can work on their own schedule, pay them promptly, and what we got is an uncompleted job. Is dealing with private contractor always bad or just to Chinese?

A dear friend of mine is applying a minister job. He has been out of that role for quite a while since last church he put together decided to dissemble. Life is not easy for him, working part time, talking care of two kids, and working aroud the house too. His wife works hard but has little pay. He tried couple churches for the minister position but the experience has been frustrating. I think myself a lucky person comparing to him. Hope he can reach the turning point very soon.

As for the new job, so far so good. It feels different here, much more alive. People are talking, laughing, chatting... completely the opposite to my previous department.

My young brother called me last Saturday. He came to US almost half year ago. He stays in San Fransisco now. It's a long story how he got here. According to my mum, he is moving out of his mother's house. How can he afford the rent is still a mystery to me. He didn't have a college degree in China, and I guess he didn't speak much English. Don't know what he is doing or planning now. Life in US is not easy for a young immigrant like him (although he is ahead of me in terms of green card. He has it because of his mum). He has no previous work experience (he has been a salesman for a while in China, but he wasn't working very hard I heard). Guess the only start place is the Chinatown. Well, I was in CA before, and I don't like the Chinatown that much. Working in Chinatown is not a way of life. He needs to get out of there, and the only way to do it is through getting some education, and that, has been a challenge for him. He is not a bad person, and he can work hard too, but he needs proper guidance, which is something I did a little when I was in China, but not any more since I left there. Well, guess I need to pick up from where I left...

Smashed a vanity base when I was moving it in the basement. Good job.

Need to find the rack I need for the kitchen. We just have too much stuff there...

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 12

Water.

is good to us most of the time. Only when I start to own a 1953 house. Water becomes a problem.

Too much water in the air for example, is nothing we usually care about until it condenses itself in the basement and creates a ‘wet basement’ (house maintenance 101). The water in the air is measured by percentage and labeled as ‘moisture level’. The comfortable level is around 40% - 60%. My basement has a moisture level of over 80%. That’s when a dehumidifier comes into play.

Got one from Bestbuy for $200 (ouch) last Friday night and put it into use right away. It sounds louder than I expected, but it works. Couple hours later, I pulled out the bucket, and found the water half full. All right, keep up the good work. Emptied the bucket and put it back in. Keep pumping! (let’s wait and see this month’s electricity bill!).

Dehumidifier is not the only unit in the basement working hard in the last couple days. A small desk fan has been blowing down there all day long – to increase air circulation and ventilation so that dehumidifier and dry out air efficiently (my theory). The smell in the basement has been improved (good job). Can’t wait to clear out the basement (we dumped everything there when we moved in), so that I can rent a carpet cleaner to clean the carpet floor.

And the sofa in the basement. Dirty. My girl washed the cushion cover last Saturday. The sofa cover itself is not detachable so we need to vacuum it then buy another cover to layer on the top of it.

Speaking of vacuum, another expensive item ($300). We got one from Sears last Sunday. The unit is supposed to be quite when it runs (called whispering bell). Well, it should be called ‘thunder bell’ by my standard. I can’t imaging how much louder a vacuum machine can get. Anyway, the unit is supposed to be able to used for floor, carpet, walls, and inside of a car (with an attachment). We will find out soon how well does it work. By the way, it’s a canister vacuum, supposed to be the best option for bare floor.

So, we spent $500 on tools to clean up the house and dry the air (electricity bill not included), does it sound like a good deal to you?

Got ripped off by Sears guy on the lawn mower starter-plug though. Next time, go to Homedepot! No impulse buying! Always research before go into the store! The lawn mower still doesn’t start right away (after plug change). Might be the filter (Sears again).
About the lawn. Oh, thanks for asking. It’s taken over by weed. The neighbor across the street told me to get some chemical to spray on the lawn. ‘You can bring the lawn back’ he said, ‘look I have a beautiful lawn…’, yeah, thank you for the advice. Let me see how to squeeze this project into my future weekends.

Weekend? What weekend? Weekend is work day in the house. The highlight of this weekend is patching the garage roof. Before I get to the details, I need to talk about our neighbor first.

Our neighbor is a licensed electrician, and a handyman in general. He is remodeling his basement, and fixing all around the house. He and his wife and daughter all seem very nice, they have been offering help to us since we closed the house. They are happy that we become the neighbor because previous owner has a gang of biker friends. You can imagine the noise level. Last Saturday, we had the cable guy over to install the internet, and I had the chance to drop by their house (as the cable guy needs to go over to their backyard to activate the service). They were nice enough to show me the house and work-in-process basement project. Later, the guy came over looking at our leaking spigot in the back yard, and decided to pull that spigot out. He showed me how to pull out the siding (now I know how vinyl siding works), disconnected down sprout, then pulled the spigot out. He ran back to house and came back with a new spigot like mine. Before he could put it back in, he found the fitting inside the wall is rotten and leaky too, so it needs to be replaced first. After trying difference wrenches and tools, he decided to give up. That fitting is just rotten and we didn’t have a good grip on it to pull it out. The only way out seems to be cut the pipe from inside then, replace the whole thing. The job calls for a plumber, his brother is a plumber. How convenient! I am now just waiting on plumber come over to fix it….

He also gave me some three prone to two prone adapter so that I can plug my computer in. My home network is up and running. TV is on too. Nice…

While he and I were working in the backyard. My girl made some strawberry smoothie for his wife and daughter. They were polite enough to empty the smoothie (not to say the smoothie taste awful).

So, the night we went to Chinese grocery store, we bought some noodle and soy sauce for them (they mentioned the soy sauce before). They gladly accepted it (and wondering what are they going to do with it in their mind I bet). The guy brought out Jonny Walker Blue Label Scotch, and we had a shot together. The wife came back with anther cup of drink from her home country. My girl had a shot. Well, it was fun. Next morning I woke up, no headache.

After the Sunday lawn mower racing, I started to work on the garage roof. Neighbor saw me up there and right away pointed out what I needed to do the job right. He threw me a tube of roof patch cement. Put it into my caulk gun, I was ready to rumble. Put down the shingle, nailed it, caulked around the shingle and nails (as neighbor suggested). Took me about one and half hour to get it done, and hope it won’t rain any time soon. Well, woke up this morning and notice it has been raining. Went into garage, water again… not sure where is it from though, the water leak is not as bad as before, but still a small paddle on the floor. Where is it from??? Hopefully it’s not because of the caulk not completely dry as I really don’t want to climb up there again! (But do I have a choice?)

Other than the roof caulking. Also did the bathtub caulking last night. It needs 24 hours to cure, so can’t use it till around mid night tonight.

Well, so much for the caulking!

So this weekend, I patched the garage roof (and the improvement is not clear as I still see water in the garage). I caulked the bathtub ( we will see how does it go tonight). We bought a vacuum and a dehumidifier. Our neighbor pulled the leaking spigot out from the back of the house (come to think of it, I might need to seal the hole temporary with duck tape so that the rain won’t get into the wall… see, now I think like water). Our basement moisture has been reduced because of the dehumidifier. My girl washed the sofa cushion. I set up all three PCs in the house, speakers and home network. We didn’t get chance to vacuum the house as we planned though. And I still need to find some storage cabinet and rack for my kitchen (when do I have time to shop?)

Friday night we went to a friend’s house. We met them when we were studying towards our first MBA degree. Another classmate just graduated from Ph.D and got a teaching job in NJ. He dropped by Cleveland before NJ and stay in their house for the night. So, we got together in their new house. Yes, it’s a 1994 new house, and a big one too. My girl still likes ourselves (who doesn’t like their own house) as our house is closer to work and smaller (not necessarily easier to maintain though). As for me, I don’t know. Both houses have pros and cons. It’s good to work in the house a bit so that I start to learn the house - the electricity, the plumbing and various kinds of job. But those learning takes time. One can use the time to make money, ex. stock market, investment etc. But am I a finance person or handyman? That’s a question I don’t have an answer to now. So, let me just fix the house emergencies first then I sit down to reevaluate how I shall spend my weekends.

What are the projects for next weekend?

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 11

I was dumb enough to put my digital camera in the freezer from morning till noon. Luckily it's still working, well, at least for now. What was I thinking? Oh, couple guys came over for carpeting our stairs this morning, I didn't think it a good idea to leave the camera around so I put it in my lunch bag. Then I came in office, put the lunch bag into freezer as usual...

Dropped by the house during lunch, and found carpeting is done. Nice color. Matches the wall and floor. Didn't realize the color go that well with the wall and the refinished floor. Seems like we have made good choice on color of the floor at least. The second floor carpet looks ugly comparatively, but I don't have the extra $1K to replace that.

The journey of a handman.

Nothing pisses me off more than a lousy job done in the house. Found out our kitchen sink drain leaking last night organizing stuff. Took apart the pipes and joints, and started to suspect the pipe is not correctly jointed, or the P-trap is not the right one for the job. Went over to Homedepot and found the exacte P-trap, then realized the pipe in the house was not connected correctly. The P-trap was connected reversely. The water is supposed to run through the P-trap and go into main drain pipe, but now the water runs to P-trap then slow down (because of the slope of the P-trap is reversed), then the water press reduce, and the water comes back down and stay at the low end connection of the P-trap, the the water starts to leak from that joint.

Homedept guy recommended a water seal tape, $5.84. The very next moment I checked out that tape, I have decided to return it, as this $5.84 is not the solution to my problem. Went back home and used the white plumbing tape to seal the connecter and it stopped the leaking for now. Again, it's a patch, not a solution. Pissed and tired, I left a bucket under the P-trap and went on cleaning up other stuff.

The kitchen floor is still dirty, the P-trap thing postponed my original plan. It looks like a never-ending job which doesn't pay salary.

Need to find a plumber now to correct lousy pipe work. $?

Garage roof shows no sign of leaking so far after I duck taped the seam. Not sure how long will it hold, but need to find someone to fix it soon.

Basement is still sweating. The last one row of the brick wall is wet. Not sure if it's moisture accumulation or water seepage. But if it's moisture accumulation, should it be wet all over the wall instead of one side of the wall, and last row of the wall? Think, think, think...

and where I am supposed to put the ventilation fan in the kitchen?

and when I caulk the bathtub? and skip the shower?

Getting to know the house is not a pleasant experience so far. The more I know, the more uncomfortable I get. The house is like a money vaccum, it sucks your salary in a split of a second.

But does it make sense to spend extra $50K or more to buy a new house in an area far from work? The house will be nicer, and easier to maintain, but we are still talking about extra $50K here, plus it's far and gas price is not helping either, and what about the furniture?

Or maybe I had wrong preception to begin with. Old house needs to be maintained, and I just have to put down some money before we can truely enjoy it. Just like buying a used car.