Fletcher the Puppy

So we did so much work building a fence for this puppy, so we might as well show him off!

Here he's about 2 months:

And at 5 months...

New ceiling fans!

We wanted to update our ceiling fans, as they were a horrible gold/brass finish with cane blades. First we began by removing the blades from the old ceiling fan. Now, FLIP THE BREAKER and ensure no power is going to the fan. 

We unscrewed the fan from the ceiling mount, and took a quick picture before disconnecting. This is EXTREMELY helpful for our house, which has some of the weirdest wiring I could imagine.

Next we screwed the ceiling assembly to the ceiling mount. One of us held it in place while the other inserted the screws.

Next, we attached the lights, the blades, and flipped the power back on. Voila!! There is light.

How to Build a Chain Link Gate

So pretty much, we screwed up. Even though we measured over and over again, when we had actually finished concreting in the gate posts for our gate, the gate posts were too far apart. So, we had to figure out how to build one custom gate.

First we had to build the frame. We did this by purchasing top rails. Ours were 1 3/8 inch in diameter. We measured very carefully, and cut them to size. Below is a diagram displaying how we calculated how long our rail segments had to be. We needed our gate to be 51" in width. By testing the elbow pieces and seeing how far we could shove the elbow pieces onto the rails, we calculated that because the elbow pieces added 2 inches onto the length, our segment needed to be four inches shorter than our 51" width. Follow the same procedure for the gate length, and keep in mind the total high should be about one inch shorter than your fence height, so the gate is able to swing without touching the ground. Ours measured 47" tall for a 48" fence.

Here I am assembling the frame.

Here's a close up of the gate elbow.

Then we used gate hardware to put the gate in place.

We proceeded to attach the fencing to one end of the gate using 1 3/8" tension bands, stretch it to the other, and attach at that end.

And we have a gate! We still need to trim the top off of the chain link fencing, but for now that's just a cosmetic consideration. Our puppy can now run around!

Building a Fence

So we desperately wanted to get a puppy, but first wanted to build a fence so that our property was totally enclosed. It was about 80% enclosed when we got the place, but the fence would just start and end randomly. Below is the before pictures. There is a gate present, but it attaches to nowhere. We used the information from the Lowe's website. http://www.lowes.com/cd_Install+a+Chain+Link+Fence_588388906_

So first we measured out where the fence would have to go, using string to keep a straight line. Then we used spray paint to mark where the holes for the line pots should go (ours were spaced about 9 feet apart). Andrew then used a post digger to dig the holes.

Then, we mixed up the cement in a wheelbarrow and poured the concrete around the post.

 Here's what the post looked like. We let the concrete dry  for 24 hours, making sure to cover the tops so that rain doesn't get inside to rust the line post. We used Seran wrap with a rubber band, because we hadn't purchased the post caps yet.

Next we assembled the top rails. These were from home depot, and were made to slide into eachother to make longer segments. We then had to saw it to size.

 We placed line caps on the line posts, fittings on the corner posts, and attached the top rail.

 We then decided to attach wire to the bottom of the fence, to make it more difficult for a dog to dig under the fence.

Then we attached the fencing to one post, unrolled it, and cut it to length.

We inserted the tension bands, stretched the fence, and attached fittings.

Finished!

 And here's the newest member of the family! With so much room to run around!

AC meltdown...FIXED

So when May turned into August and we began a long streak of 90+ degree weather, we decided to abandon our eath-loving hippie ways and turn the central AC on. At first, everything was cool (pun intended). But after a couple days the AC stopped working. It just wasn't pushing any cold air through the vents. After much freaking out and then a little investigation, we finally noticed something that didn't add up:

There was some white material on the tube connecting the AC to the house - upon further investigation, I realized this was ice. The pipe insulation had disintegrated in some spots, and where it did the pipe was collecting a thick layer of of ice (circled in red in the second picture above).

We turned off the AC unit, and we ran over to home depot to buy some gorilla tape and 3/4-inch rubber, self-adhering  pipe insulation:

We had to wait a couple hours for all of the ice on the outside of the pipe to melt. Once that happened, we used an exacto knife and scissors to tear up and remove the old insulation. Then we wrapped around the new pipe insulation (sealing it together with its self-adhesive). We also wrapped gorilla tape around the pipe to protect the insulation a bit:

So far (fingers crossed) the AC is working and the insulation is holding up.

If we had called an HVAC guy to come over and identify and fix the problem, it would've cost us at least $100 (and probably even more). Because we took the time to investigate a little and do some research online, we saved money (and time spent in the sweltering heat). All said and done, this took us under an hour and only about 8 dollars to fix.

Stay tuned for a bathroom update from Tessie..

Landscaping

In the fall, we stole a bunch of unwanted plants from my parents (and they were generous to give us some nice, larger ones). We planted them and anxiously waited for them to pop back up this spring. And they have! (Pardon the weeds - I'm slowly annihilating them.)

Also, two mystery plants from the last owners popped up! Any ideas what they could be?

Also, we have a veggie patch in the back. I started collard greens, spinach, green onions, tomatoes, and kale from seed during late winter. We've also added asparagus and strawberry plants. I'm currently waiting for string beans, mesclun lettuce, and cucumber seeds to sprout. 

I demanded a patio!

So Andrew and I built a patio over the past three weekends. We started with an ordinary grassy patch...

Then we dug a hole. It was 12'x12' and 5 inches deep at the end close to the house and 7 inches deep away from the house.We graded away from the house so the rainwater would flow away from the house (so to prevent any water damage to the basement). We filled this with three loads of gravel (about 3" deep)...

 ...followed by one inch of sand. We then tamped it down with a tamper and tried to make it as level as possible.

In come the concrete pavers!! We got them at Home Depot for 44 cents each. They're made to look like brick (pretty effectively!), but are seriously cheaper. We laid the bricks down on the sand and gently tap them into the ground with a rubber mallet.

This part was terrible. We hadn't realized just how level the sand had to be. This part took a lot of adding sand, removing sand, and cursing. Eventually I got the hang of it though. Sand was poured over and brushed into the cracks...

And furniture and grill added! (Sand makes patio look white washed - we need to figure out how to clean it without removing sand from the cracks - any ideas?) We've also started making a garden bed in the area closest to the camera in the picture below. This will help prevent the water from collecting on the patio - and will serve for aesthetic purposes.