Living Room Curtains!

So yesterday we took a lovely trip back down to IKEA. The plan was to look into some living room curtains as well as a new light fixture for the dining room.

After a very confusing time in the curtains section, we finally decided on a sliding panel curtain system. We thought it would give a much needed update to the room.

Fireplace work

Fireplace before.

Last winter, Ariane constantly complained (and I agreed) that our family room was just too cold.  After living in the house for about a week, we found that the room had five areas of cold air leakage:

• The cooler vent, which I stuffed pillows in then covered with plastic. 
• Door to the garage, which didn't seal up correctly.  I surrounded the door with weatherstripping that completely seals it.
• The window -- which still does leak but we have to get that replaced sometime.  We did cover it with that window plastic though.
• Wall on which our TV and other electronics are had holes in it!  These were where the wires for all the components plugged in and were run, and somehow air got through them all.  So, sealed that up with expanding foam.  
• Wood-burning fireplace.  <-- does that make any sense??

The answer was no!  It seemed that even with the damper closed on the fireplace, cold air just rushed in!  We decided that we were going to have to re-do the fireplace.

Ariane's office

Recently, I decided that I wanted a cozier, more comfortable place to relax/work in my office. I am using what the former owners used as their son's nursery as my office. When we moved in, I really liked the color it was painted (a soft blue) and the size seemed right for my office. I usually don't do lots of "work" in the office, but it is a good place to look online, reply to emails (rather than on my phone) and do the checkbook. The closet is large and I imagine, someday, of having a really great organizational system that will hold all our paperwork on one side and all of our linens on the other (the house is lacking a dedicated linen closet, so this seems to be the best place for extra sheets and large blankets.)

Another weekend of yardwork

Even though we had family in town and staying with us, we still somehow managed to get a ton of yardwork done!

Planted front porch pots

We finally got some plants for the pots on the front porch, and we like how they turned out.

Finally a ceiling fan

I have wanted a ceiling fan for who knows how long -- and yesterday I finally got one. Looks like my life is now complete!

Updated bathroom fixture

So Ariane has been wanting to spray paint this ugly ugly light fixture that is in our hallway bath.  I can see why -- it just looks disgusting with it's greenish paint.  It looks like someone brought it up from a shipwreck and didn't bother to repaint.

Low light color.

Leaning fence ...

Since we moved in, we've noticed more and more how the fence in the backyard has a horrendous sag in it. It's got a post that must have rotted out and is no longer able to hold the fence up straight.

Lean wit' it.

Electrical fun

Today we had our electrician, Paul, come over and do some pre-wiring for us. He installed the wiring for a ceiling fan in our bedroom and the wiring for a spotlight on our back porch.

New curtains for guest room

Quite an ordeal, as always, to put up new curtains. Especially in a room that we haven't touched as far as decor yet. The new window is in, but still has unpainted/unstained trim (we haven't decided which yet) on it and is not a good look.

Let there be [dim] light!

Finally replaced the god-awful ugly light switch in the dining room this morning! Whenever we are eating in that room, we would have to deal with the intense amount of light that the still-not-replaced chandelier gave out since there wasn't a dimmer switch. I don't really like to be "blinded by the light" (isn't that a song?). Plus, that light on full blast seemed to put out a ton of heat which made it pretty uncomfortable.

Capped off a pipe!

So I wanted to cap off that water line that ran from the basement up to the coolers so that no one else would ever be able to turn it on again (and make a mess). I thought that would require soldering and all kinds of other plumbing know-how, but alas, I was wrong! Enter the Push-Fit fitting.

Working Hard for a Saturday!

This morning we woke up early and went to Home Depot! Wheeeee! What for, you may ask? The cooler project, of course! Got some more submarine sealer spray, a couple of Aspen pads (old one had a big hole on it), and more compression nuts since I had overtightened so much on one that it broke in two! I also wanted to find a way to cap the water line that had leaked , so an employee showed me this cool cap that you can just pop on and you don't have to solder or anything! I think it was maybe $2 at most.  UPDATED: Got the fitting on and it was easy!

Rainy Dayz

And it's raining.  Good thing I worked so hard on getting those coolers up and running, as it's now 40 degrees out and soaking wet!  It's been raining for two days straight and I think it's supposed to continue until tomorrow.  The forecast said it will be nice tomorrow, but we'll see.

More cooler work!

Last night after work I started work on the coolers again.  It is just an unbelievable time sink having two of them!  Twice the work, twice the fun!  But I'm sure it will be great in the heat of summer to have both coolers on both levels of the home cooling me off! 

Running cooler line

So, since the cooler water line leak, we've decided that we're definitely going to run the water supply for the two coolers outside of the house.  The other day I went to Home Depot to get my supplies: 

• hose bib adapter
• 1/4" two-way splitter for tubing
• 1/4" angle valve
• 2 new float assemblies
• 100' copper tubing
• small pipe cutter
• 2 overflow drain valves

 The total cost at this point is about $96, and I'm pretty sure I'll have to buy more stuff before the coolers are up and running.  But just as far as running the line, I am WAY ahead of the game!  

Cooler woes!

So on Sunday (Mother's Day) after everyone left, we decided that we'd figure out where to turn on the water for the evaporative coolers (we have two) since it's getting a lot warmer here. We've been looking around the house for quite awhile trying to determine where the valve is, and we finally did find the valve in the basement and opened it up. After we heard a good amount of water flowing through the pipe, we decided that was good enough and turned it off after about 20 seconds.