Fixing up the House

Well, after the wife had surgery a week and a half ago I found myself with a day at home with the boys making sure they stayed out of trouble. I decided it was about time the front yard got some love, in this case cleaning it up some so it looked nicer.

I took the cottage stones from a stack in back that have been waiting for a year to be used in another project. Picked up 2 yards of 3-way topsoil down at Carpinito Brother's and put in a full day plus some to get it done. Next up is to plant some of the potted stuff we have around the house and make it look all sorts of pretty. Probably will also include a run down to McClendon's or a nursery to pick up some grasses and other nice plants/flowers.

This is what I had to start with...


After the grass is all removed, it's time to start filling back in with topsoil and setting the stones to build a small planter area.


The finished product, minus plant life. Hopefully this weekend we'll get down to a nursery and get it fixed up.


After the planter area was completed it was time to add a raised garden bed out front and see if we can get some nice fresh veggies one of these days...

Sometimes the warranty does payoff

I have always been torn between buying something with an extended warranty or buying a more expensive model because it has a longer warranty. This really goes for anything, electronics, cars, tools, appliances, etc. I have made a few exceptions in life, like I prefer Craftsman hand tools and that's all I buy given the chance (OCD thing really). The reason I like Craftsman hand tools is simple, Sunday afternoon and I break a wrench or pliers or whatever and a quick trip to Sears gets it replaced for free.

Now, the real reason I decided to blog about warranties today is because of the water heater in the house. In the fall of 2004 when we bought our house and had the plumbing replaced from the meter to the house and throughout the house we also have them plumb in a gas water heater. This, in my opinion, was a great upgrade to the electric that was there when we bought the house. Here we are, 6 years down the road, and we start having problems keeping the pilot light lit. Going on worst case, I figure we are out anywhere from $500 - $1500 depending on how we replace it. My dream would be to go with a tank-less water heater, and bigger than we actually need for upgrades/add-ons to the house. But I digress, the next step was to hit Google and see if I could figure out what was wrong. After 5 minutes of checking multiple sites, I concluded that it's probably the thermocoupler. Being mechanically inclined, I figure this is something that I should be able to replace, if I can find the part...

Yup, that was the real problem, finding the part locally seemed to be nearly impossible. However, as I was gathering the model number, serial number and other information I noticed that it stated on the tag that there was a 9 year parts limited warranty. What the hell, why not! So I call the number on the side of the water heater, spent 5 minutes talking with the customer service representative at Whirlpool support; yes, we have a Whirlpool water heater. He came to the same conclusion, bad thermocoupler. He then took the time to explain how the thermocoupler that came with mine worked and how they discontinued that model; instead he would send me a whole new kit to replace the thermocoupler and the over-heat shut-off. He then went on to state that the parts are covered under warranty and that they would waive the over-night shipping fees for me.

So here I sit, wondering if I will need to re-light the pilot light tomorrow morning before I head into work. The answer is probably yes, but if things hold out like they are, Friday morning it will be lit and stay lit until the water heater is either intentionally shut off or removed from service in the future.

The long story short here is, sometimes having a warranty is a good thing. Will this change the way I look at warranties, not really. I will consider the cost of the warranty compared to replacement cost of the unit and how long I personally expect to have to deal with this problem should it actually fail. Had I been flipping the house in 2004, I probably would have taken price over warranty. Since I plan on living here for the foreseeable future, I will honestly consider going with the longer warranty just to make my life easier.

Trailer is just about done

Well, it's been a long project for me, but we are getting close to finalizing the first part of the roof rebuild. First part really just means it's installed, canvas is up and the entire trailer is completely (100%) functional. What's left for other phases is things like getting some lights mounted, eventually putting up insulation and a ceiling, and any other modifications that I think need to be done.

An Engineer's Son!

Well, leave it to an engineer's son to come up with plans for building a LazyKate. First off, for those non-family members who might stumble across this, my father is a retired Mechanical Engineer. Second, for everyone who is wondering what a LazyKate is... It's a device to hold multiple bobbins for plying yarn after it's been spun. Or at least that is my understanding of it based on what my lovely wife has shown and explained to me.

The task at hand was to come up with a simple design for a LazyKate that I could build to suite her needs. After doing some searching I found a bunch of DIY projects that generally involved using boxes and knitting needles along with other items to create this. I decided that just wasn't going to cut the mustard, as that is what she has been doing thus far.

Upon further investigation I found there were several different designs both commercially available and homebuilt. These started with a wooden box or frame based on the DIY box method either laying flat or angled in some fashion. There were also some along the same design as what I plan to build, where 1 bobbin is raised higher than the other 2. I choose this design as it gives the whole setup a smaller base, in this case I am planning on 10" long, 6" wide and 4" tall. With the bobbins in place the height would be 5" to account for the diameter of the bobbin.

Without further ado, the plans can be found here!

My standard disclaimer on this... Just because I designed it, doesn't mean it will actually work as is. Should you take it upon yourself to build anything based on this design you do so at your own risk and can not hold me liable for any damages.

With that said, I don't mind if you pass these around and build one for yourself or a spinner you know. If you improve upon the design, let me know and I can either host the updated designs and/or will definitely link to them. Once I build the first one and know what costs/time is involved I may even build you one for a minimal cost of materials, and shipping/handling.

Trailer Update

Well, as we all know I have been working hard on completing the tent-trailer roof. Something about aspirations of actually camping this summer and enjoying it!

As luck would have it, yesterday was a beautiful day and I got a lot of work done. Cleaned all the metal trim on the new roof, then put down a bead of caulk (inside) and installed the trim pieces. With help from my father, we were able to install the roof.





Before doing all this, I was able to install 4 new lift springs and eye-bolts on the trailer which makes a world of difference on being able to lift/drop the roof. In fact, so much so, that right now the front lifts off by at least 12" when not held down (hence the straps used in the pictures...

Next up is to take care of the roof hold-downs front/rear, hang canvas and install the vent & skylight.

Coming along nicely

Well, it's been taking longer than I would like but then again the wife always says I have unrealistic timelines!

So this past weekend I spent most of my time at mom & dad's house to work on the trailer roof. We made great headway, given that the roof now has shape and should be getting fiberglassed this week. That would leave us with needing to get a new roof vent (old one broke during removal) and then building the surrounds for the roof vent and skylight. It's been a fun build so far, but I really can't wait to see how it looks all finished up and ready to use this summer.

If you want to see the whole set of pictures (includes the old roof demolition), click HERE! Click on the small thumbnails to see the larger image.

Trailer roof

Well, getting farther and farther along on the trailer roof! Last night we were able to start putting the frame on the trailer to make sure it would fit as expected. Also gave us some time to go over the entire frame and determine what we needed to do to make sure it is strong and will be ready for anything mother-nature throws at us while camping, travelling or just parked in the yard.

The other thing that we (Dad and I), was to start installing the alternator/charging system on the Tohatsu 6HP outboard for the sail boat. I will blog on this over on killin' Time's blog though.

All I can really say at this point is that things are really starting to look good. I am excited to be making progress on the tent-trailer and look forward to using it this summer. It's also nice to see some of the projects for Killin' Time come together so we can make better use of that as well this summer.