What home improvement work did you do today?

Mounted a new lockable mailbox next to my Ring doorbell camera. Old mailbox was next to the garage door and not in view of the camera. There's been lots of mail theft going around where I am. Thieves looking for W2s.

 

Down into the single-digit temps here over the next week. Fired up the pellet stove last night only to find it this morning shut off with a code stating that a snap disc/limit switch was bad.
Thankfully, plenty of fix-it mentors trained me to keep something like that on hand!
Not sure if one of the three were actually faulty or if the one was too filthy to work.
Replaced all three to be safe...

 

If you haven't signed up for "Informed Delivery", you might. It'll at least let you know what mail and packages you have coming. https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action

 

Kitchen appliances are installed.

 

Started landscaping, 10 ton fill dirt and 19 ton landscape rock. Slow start, deliveries got goofed up and late. Rock arrived 11 am, fill dirt 2 pm, needed fill first but was able to move rock on the narrow side of house, slow going. Only had 30 min. to move dirt but did some work, neighbors had a birthday party so stopped for the day.

 

Wife bought some art from a local artist that did a special piece(es) fir the hurricane. Mounted right away to this.

Couple weeks later she sees a few old windows off an old school local to us and "had to have them" and she went onto that #&%*ing website pinterest and wanted to make a "brag board" for the kids. So I had to move the artwork up and put the window there. Not bad, I just don't like doing things twice....especially weeks apart lol.

We have a lot of older stuff we put around the house. You know...since we built a brand new house 5 years ago, you're supposed to find old stuff to make it look older.

 

My uncle mounted his 65" TV above his mantle and the height/angle made it seem really small.

 

Redid the hall closet floor. Just need to grout.

 

Little bit more tiling completed today. Laundry room is tiled along with the curved pieces by the front entrance and around the fireplace. Grout will be done on Wednesday for those areas.

 

That looks really nice. They did a great job on that curve.

 

Thanks, he's been putting those curved pieces off for a while. Tile is almost done. Just a little to go in the hallway and the master bedroom.

 

Areas that were tiled on Monday got grouted today and kitchen handles were installed.

 

Have an old Vermont Castings wood stove in the new to us house purchased in 1977. Handles to the front door and side door were welded shut. Been about two weeks of drilling, resealing, and waiting for the new replacement parts to come in. Finally got them in today, bolted up, now it's working like a real wood stove. Up 16 degrees in 1.5 hours with a slow burn sitting at 450 degrees surface temp with the outside temp sitting at 28! Amazed at how excited I am about this....damn I'm old.

 

Why were they welded shut? Child safety or something?

 

Nothing wrong with being excited, wood-stoves are the best.

 

Heat and never being maintained properly. Creosote buildup didn't help either. Tried PB Blaster, liquid wrench, and an impact hammer lol nothing budged them. So I ordered new ones and drilled out the old handles, then used a round file to flush it out to spec.

We are the third owners of the house. Ones before us never messed with it at all. I've been using it in "fireplace" mode since the front handle was missing completely and the side was heat welded together.

 

I grew up with a 70k BTU wood stove hooked up to a custom blower (my dad is a legit sevant with all things engineering and mechanical). So I was pumped to get it working again. My garage has a wood stove as well but it's missing an entire door. Unfortunately they haven't been manufactured since 1999 and I can't find a replacement door anywhere. Gonna have to make something on my own.

 

Oh I see, I thought you meant they were literally welded shut with a welder, doh .

 

Turns out the Critter Ridder is only good for a week. Damn skunk came back last night and did all sorts of damage. Dug up full plants that were planted last Sunday. Pulled up more sod too.

If this keeps up I'm either getting a trap which I don't really want to do because, ya know, skunk. Or I'm just going to let it get under my shed where it's been trying to get under.

 

I caught two rats in two different attics in our house, a day apart from each other last week. I called our exterminator to get some bait traps set up outside the home and checked our perimeter. Anyways, we have two different problems but I was reading about the Critter Ridder last night (because I want these rats gone before they penetrate into the living areas) and the biggest complaint was that you have to keep applying it weekly - so that lines right up with what you are saying.

Have you tried putting up a motion detector light? I've also heard skunks don't like the smell of citrus (go figure). Mothballs might work too.

 

Tub sliding glass installed today, so this bathroom is now officially done. This means demo is now ready to start on Monday in the master bath.

 

Looks great! Hope 1. you don't have hard water, and 2. you have a housekeeper to keep that ORB and glass clean!