2022 Update: What I needed was a waterproof doorbell. All along. Repairing the classic mechanical door chime worked for me – carefully troubleshooting with each of the components: the transformer, the door chime unit and the doorbell push button. But after the repair, it was only a year or so before I had a new problem: […]
Repairs
Replacing a Bathroom Faucet and Drain
It’s 6 AM. My daughter bursts into my bedroom shrieking, “The sink exploded and it’s not my fault!!” I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I’m pretty sure this could be a bad start to the day. I run to the bathroom, and sure enough – water is literally shooting up from the bathroom faucet […]
Installing a Bathroom Ventilation Fan
2022 Update… Mold and mildew were becoming a real concern with our upstairs bathroom. The humidity build-up after showering was clearly damaging the bathroom wallpaper and ceiling; it was starting to look pretty nasty up there. It was clearly time to install a new bathroom ventilation fan. Long-Term Bathroom Water Problems The water issues in […]
Fire Pit Patio Rehab & Tree Demolition
Rehabbing my crappy fire pit patio area took 3 seasons: fall, winter, and spring. A LONG time. The main reason? I wanted the backyard soil frozen solid to support the tree demolition equipment. A dead ~70-foot sweet gum tree, after all, is not something you cut down without a LOT of exceptionally-qualified professional tree removal […]
How to Fix a Bedroom Door that Won’t Latch
2021 Update… My bedroom door had been getting more and more difficult to close. It reached the point where in order to get the thing to latch – I had to pull up on it by the door knob really hard every single time. How hard? So hard that I became the only person in the […]
Lawn Repair: Patching a Large Area with Kentucky Bluegrass
Update — Originally Published June, 2015 Maintaining a beautiful lawn is an ongoing effort. There are the rules of watering, seeding, fertilizing, lime application as well as both pest and fungus control. So many facets to consider, and if you’re reading this – you’re probably quite well-aware. But there’s one more challenge that I recently […]
Refreshing a Pool Landscape: Dead Hinoki Cypress & Solar Tiki Torches
Our pool landscape, now at 11 years old, needed some tuning. We’ve maintained it continuously, but the two Hinoki Cypress right up front (circled in the original landscape photo below) – died together. This particular area of our backyard, under the heaviest of rains, would sometimes pond a bit. And the last 2 years, we […]
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