Up on the Roof....

So with a little finagling, we managed to get me up on the roof yesterday afternoon with one of our "new" ladders. We recently ordered a "whole house fan" (what I've always called an attic fan) and it should be here on Monday. The one we ordered was pricey, but I'm a gadget guy, what can I say.

One of the requirements for installation of said fan is to improve our attic ventilation, which is pretty poor right now. We have to provide enough flow area out of the attic for all that hot air we're pulling out of the house, so yesterday I added three extra vents to the north end of the attic.

I still need to add three more to the south side, but I can't do it with out a taller ladder (which M-H is vigilantly working via a craigslist lead today on a 28' extension). I'll let you know how it turns out.

One thing I noticed -- roof and attic work in Colorado is a big piece of strawberry topped cheesecake compared to back in good old humid, sweltering Mississippi.

Double Vision

I have to brag on my wife. When it comes to finding deals, I think she is one of the best I've seen.

We've been browsing through various want ads lately trying to come across some used ladders (for a price that won't break the bank). Specifically:

• 2X - 6' (for work inside the house)
• 1X - 20'+ (for me to get on the roof)

Yesterday, we visited our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which is kind of like a thrift store for building supplies (used and surplus). M-H must have had her "stealdar" on, because she was able to navigate right to three old 6' wooden ladders in a corner. There were no prices -- so she got the store manager and I just stepped back to watch her work the magic. As I watched, she began to shake and rattle these old ladders in front of the manager, not unlike shaking a money tree...in the way that you would see the $$$ falling from the tree. Before the manager new what hit him, we were out the door with two rather rickety ladders for $8 --- yeah, you read it right -- that's $4/piece. A little tightening on a few nuts (that M-H must have failed to point out to the manager) when we got home and these ladders are as good as new.

The Blog's Name

The name of this blog "A House for Abby" is somewhat of an inside joke that probably only I (Mary-Hall) get. Its not even funny, so I won't bother to explain it, or else you'll all know how strange my sense of humor really is.

Truth be told, its not a house for Abby at all. Its definitely more like "a house for Mary-Hall" but anyways... To some extent it is "a yard for Abby", but actually not really, as she gets yelled at for running through the flowerbeds, etc. If Abby got to choose, I think she would probably elect to move back to Marshall where the house and yard were already in bad shape, and she basically had free reign of everything. Poor dog. Here's a picture of Abby's new home, which she stays in while her guardians are at work. guardians.. a ha ha... Its a really big pen. You can't even see it all in that photo. But she spends 95% of her time right where you see her, staring at the gate.

A now a few more photos of Abby, our baby:

Our Yard and Flowers

Photobucket Album

Patio Sprung a Leak...

A couple days ago, we decided we needed to "understand" our sprinkler system......

So as I toggled through each of the 5 subsystems on the control in the garage, Mary-Hall was out in the yard running around making note of each sprinkler location and what subsystem they were on (we got to use the two-ways -- breaker, breaker). All was looking good until we got to the last subsystem and Mary-Hall noticed a large amount of water gushing from underneath our concrete patio in the back yard.......so I figured I would be fixing a leaky sprinkler line this weekend.



I started digging (and hacking through tons of very healthy tree roots -- I'm guessing this thing has been leaking for a while). After tunneling a pretty decent piece underneath the slab, I finally hit plastic -- then I began to gingerly carve out around the pipe. It was then that I noticed the oddity......

Whoever put this slab of concrete down, laid it right over the top of an existing sprinkler. That's right -- they've been watering the underside of this concrete slab for no telling how long. Crazy....




















So, needless to say, I was surprised but in a good way. It was much easier to run to Lowe's and get a couple of pieces of extension to move the sprinkler out into the flower bed, than it would have been to fix a leaky section underneath that slab.



I'd probably still be digging it out right now.

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Uh-Oh! Here Comes a Mechanical Engineer with a Roll of Romex

So - like mh said - we just got the internet at the new house yesterday, so we're playing a little catch up on the status of our doings...

A little background information on the house -- it has several aluminum wired electrical circuits -- which is a no-no now-a-days, but apparently was just fine back in the disco decade.
You can google aluminum wire and see what kinds of trouble it can cause......
Needless to say, reworking these circuits is a high priority on our list. Gotta get some good 'ole copper in there.

We were at Lowe's early last Saturday morning to buy the necessary supplies for me to begin the first of several tricky improvements on these circuits. So I spent my entire day last Saturday re-wiring the basement with 12-2 copper wire. It was a little tricky since the basement ceiling has been fully sheetrocked, but I managed to get it done with a minimum number of holes cut in ceiling -- and a good bit of holding my mouth right while I fished the new wire in place with the old.




















We figured, while I was doing it, I might as well improve the circuit to 20A and add a couple additional receptacles (the first being a GFCI suggested by mh's dad). It was a good day's work -- and I still have like 200ft of romex left....

House Renovation Project #1

Okay, the first renovation project happened, like, over a week ago, but we didn't get the internet at home until yesterday... so my blogging was severely hampered.

And now for the before and after shots:














We basically bought a can of "tacky-gold-be-gone" from Lowe's, total cost $5. I think we'll definitely get our investment back when we sell the place.

Score!

Well, the move is now complete. Everything's very disorganized now, of course. I want to take it all to the goodwill. But guess what? We've discovered at least one very exciting thing about the new house: The ugly carpet is hiding wood floors!