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I love working on my house. The only thing I like more than working on my house is working on someone else’s house. That’s because I’m not obligated to do the work, I don’t have to live with any of the mistakes, and I’m not footing the bill. Oh, and I work for food, so I get fed when I work on someone else’s house.

Today after dinner, I decided to tackle some jobs in the bathroom. A common problem is the sink not draining quick enough, if at all. While Drano is the typical solution, that was no longer working, so it was time to clean the trap.

After I removed all of the stuff from under the sink, I put a bucket down to catch the water in the trap. The plumbing is plastic, so I was able to release it without any tools. I removed the trap, and the hairball wasn’t even in the trap, but rather in the pipe going into the shaft. After a little tugging, the hairball came out. 2 minutes later, the plumbing was back together and the sink draining properly.

Since I was under there, I hooked up the drain thingy so it could be closed & opened again. The sink is like new again!

Then I did a little spackling – there were some holes in the wall where the kids hung on the towel racks & ripped them off the wall. And (foolishly, I’m sure) I put the toilet paper roll back on the wall. I’m sure someone will just rip it off again, but after (at least) 5 years, it’s time to try again.

I think because I work on a computer all day long, I enjoy doing something & being able to see the result. There’s still work to be done in the bathroom, but getting all that done in about an hour is something that I’m quite proud of.

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 7:31 pm and is filed under Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

For a while now, Laura and I have been planning the vegetable garden that we’d like to start this year. I guess it started with the compost bin, when I realized I’m going to have some rich compost, but no plans for it. We don’t have much room for a garden, so we’re looking to get the biggest bang for the buck and growing as much as we can vertically.

We’re looking to grow

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Green beans
• Cucumbers
• Lettuce
• Peas
• Maybe Pumpkins
• Spaghetti Squash
• Zucchini
• Butternut Squash

I have the Burpee seed catalog here, and have my order ready, but not yet sent (no use now, since I’m not planting the seeds until April 1, to transplant outside about May 15). Good thing I didn’t place my order, as yesterday while strolling around Home Depot, I found they sell Burpee seeds. Now I can save on shipping & handling.

However, ordering online typically gives free gifts (free sunflower seeds with $25 order), and I have a coupon for $5 off a $30 order. Enter code BA53 at checkout and you can save, too!

So, if you’re looking to get some Burpee seeds, use the coupon and save when ordering online, or stop by Home Depot and pick them up yourself.

This entry was posted by Eric on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I like Kenmore… so much, in fact, that I actually considered getting involved in the Kenmore government a few months back when there was a vacancy, but I need to learn a lot more and get some things off my plate before I can really get involved. I went to a few neighborhood watch meetings, but they seemed to have died off.

Well, there was an article in the Buffalo News today about the Village, building permits and licenses.

People are reinvesting in the community, which is an important thing

I like hearing things like this. If only everyone cared about their home and the Village, it’d make it a much stronger community.

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Let’s start with the sick part… Becca brought home a cold from school, and when she’s sick she insists on sleeping with me, so of course I caught it, and then Morgan did. Morgan got it pretty bad, losing her voice (which is the cutest thing when a 2-year-old tries charades because she can’t talk). I still have a lingering cough and stuffy head, which just makes me miserable.

On the home-front, I’ve been working with Home Depot to replace nearly all the windows in my house and a few doors. The window guys are just great – they finished up yesterday and did an amazing job. We were concerned with how the wood would look in the livingroom, but it matches nicely. The doors, on the other hand, were a disaster. I actually just got off the phone with the manager at Home Depot about this. They just took too long to get things started, and then screwed up the first step: measuring the doors. When I heard “custom storm door” I knew there was a problem. So on Saturday, I bought the storm door for the side of the house and replaced it. Took me a few hours, but a lot of it was learning & fighting the high winds that day.

Sunday started with some demo, which I can always find a volunteer to help with. I removed the front storm door and entry door while Laura was at a baby shower. She was a bit surprised when she got home & there was a big hole in the house. I was thinking, though, as I made sure to get the new entry door before I started the demo. If Home Depot didn’t have the door, I wouldn’t have started the job.

So a while later, after building the frame out a little, I went to put the new door in and realized it was messed up. Being a Sunday night, we rushed to the Depot to exchange the door before they closed, but ended up driving to Lockport to get the replacement door. The new door was in place before we went to bed (minus a doorknob, a minor technicality). So in the evening, I’ve been trimming the new door… very… slowly.

The best way to get into a project is just to jump right in. Once I had the front door removed, I thought, “What have I done?” – but everything is coming along nicely. I should have the trim done and storm door installed before Sunday.

This entry was posted by Eric on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 9:57 am and is filed under Family, Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Thank God it’s Monday

What a whirlwind of a weekend! I guess it started with a late night Friday – working ’til about 2AM. Of course, the kids don’t know (or care) if you’re up late, so 7:15 and they’re coming in the bedroom. I guess that’s OK, though, since I had a lot to do around the house. While sipping coffee, I started my list of what had to get done around the house. The biggies were to close the pool & clean the hot tub, which took all day Saturday to get done. Then my brother & his wife came over for dinner, and I crashed after they left (well, once pingdom was happy again).

Sunday morning – same thing. Outside working by 9AM, as I emptied, swept, and tidied-up the garage. Laura added an item to my list: hang the Halloween lights. There’s just 3 strands, but when I went to put them up, the outlet at the front-porch had finally given up. That meant a trip to Home Depot and a completely new list!

While at Home Depot, I decided to stroll over to the doors, just to see what kind of options we have. Well, I think Laura and I will be there for a while when we pick out our new front door this week. I guess I haven’t mentioned yet that we’re replacing all the windows in the house, since many are the original windows from c. 1920 when the house was built. They leak air like mad, so we’re finally biting the bullet and replacing them all. In addition, we’re doing the sliding glass door in the rear of the house, and the front door (which also leaks air). Oh, and 2 storm doors. Yeah – it’s a big job. I’m glad I’m not doing the installation myself!

So after Home Depot, I started working on replacing the outlet in the front porch, only to realize the new outlet doesn’t fit the old box. So I had to rip out the box, make the hole bigger (cutting a hole in your house isn’t for the faint of heart), then put a new box, outlet, and cover in. I’m always afraid when I turn the power back on, but there was no fire, and now the lights are put up

There were a few things on my list that didn’t get done, and I’m constantly thinking of new things to add on, but I still got a lot done. It’s nice to get away from the computer once & a while, and to do some physical, not virtual, work.

Tomorrow the replacement fan for the bathroom should be delivered, so I can get that installed, then get the ladder out of our bedroom and back to the garage; then I can hang some hooks in the garage to get the deck chairs out of the way.

When projects go well, I like working on the house. When I’m done, I have a great sense of accomplishment. And after working on a computer all week, it’s actually fun to do something constructive (after demolition, that is!).

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 9:15 am and is filed under Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

A short but action-packed weekend is finally over! We had so much going on, it was nuts.

Friday night Steve needed an email from me; 2-1/2 hours later, I was engrossed in a new piece of software, which I don’t think I’ll keep. I don’t know… doesn’t seem worth it. But it was a good learning experience… we’ll see.

Saturday morning I ran, then Laura and Becca went to a birthday party, while I cleaned the house a bit and watched UB hold off Penn State for a little while (I guess UB lost after I turned the TV off). Becca and I went out to order the pizza and pick up ice, Hair dropped off the beer, and we were ready for cards!

The cards weren’t falling right for me Saturday night. Hold ‘em is a game that either you play often and well, or you play infrequently and loose. Since I haven’t played in… well, a long time – I lost. No big deal: Ed, Joe and I went to the Losers Lounge (aka – hot tub) and hung out for a while.

While in the Losers Lounge, we talked about playing games. My brother is big into video gaming… he told of playing a game for 70 hours the first week it was out – and this was ontop of keeping his fulltime job. The only game I play is Civilization (I don’t play Civ III anymore because I lent it to my brother-in-law, who almost ruined his life by playing it, and threw it away… oh well, I have Civ IV now, anyway). The funny thing is that I see affiliate marketing as a game. Think about it: you’re playing against other players, all over the world, and you are trying to “win”. You make a move, and wait to see what the other players do. The only difference is, in my game, you can make money

So once enough people were out, we started some dealers-choice. Unfortunately, we had a lot of people interested, so we were limited in our game choices. With 7 players, you can only play games with community cards or stud games. The real fun came when it was 4 of us, and we were able to play some draw games. About 2AM, we started to wrap it up and tried to get some bigger pots going, by playing “Jacks or better, trips to win“. Typically, this game goes on for a few rounds, especially with 4 players. But we cleared it twice in a row, on one hand. So we switched to “High hand, high spade” (5-card draw… need the high hand AND the high spade to win the pot). Again, we had winners in the first hand two deals in a row. So a little after 2, we called it quits, and Mark, Laura and I started to clean up. Overall on the night, I think I broke even. I do a bad job of keeping track of my money at card games. I have one pocket full of my money, one full of the tournament money, another is money from the cash games, and I have people giving me money for the food & drinks, Ray paid me for camping, etc. etc. etc – it’s hard to keep track, but I’d say I broke even. The sponsors really helped, as the $5 everyone paid for food really only covered the pizza & wings.

Sunday morning, after a short night’s sleep, we were running around like mad-men, as there was another baby shower, this time with women (who actually notice things like if you cleaned the curtains) so it was a bit stressful. I picked up the balloons, the meat platter from Mike’s, cleaned the house some more, and got the dog a nice home outside. Just in time, as the women began appearing so I hid outside, puttering around the garage and listening to the Bills Steeler’s game.

After the party, I had an electrical outlet to replace (as it caught on fire right before the party, but managed to hold out so I didn’t have to change it during the party) and went to Home Depot w/ Mr. Bishop to pick up a few things for some projects that we’ve both been avoiding. Once home, I was slightly motivated so I replaced the exhaust line from the dryer to the outside (hasn’t been done in 7 years, but didn’t have that much junk in there), and I attempted to replace the cracked flag-pole-holder on the porch, but the extra one I had wasn’t the right size, so I’ll have to find this exact one again (as I don’t want more holes in my porch). Oh, and I put one of Morgan’s dresser drawers back together again… just a few more braces and it’ll be good. It’s time to go around the house, make a list of projects per room, and start getting 2-3 of them done per week. These little things just go on and on.

The good thing with all of these parties is all the food, and therefore lots of compost-pile gifts. Laura did a fruit bowl yesterday, so there were lots of peels and such to go in. I found a bag of potting soil yesterday in the garage, and threw that in this morning, stirred it up and noticed my pile was steaming! That’s excellent news, as that means it’s working.

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 9:18 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Family, Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.