I'm Stumped

I think this is the day where I throw the budget out the window.  I'm going to need to come up with a new one pretty soon.  Today I spent $140.  The majority ($125) was on the crew to come out and grind up the stumps in my backyard. 

It was totally worth it.  Let me tell you why.  Here is the troublesome stump that keeps sprouting limbs.  We call it our tree bush, not affectionately.

Here is out little chainsaw that Hubby just put the new chain on last weekend.  Hubby said that this chainsaw couldn't take out that stump.  I begged to differ.  A chainsaw is just a grinder on a smaller scale, right.  It would just take more time.

Here is how much I accomplished in two hours.  I completely dulled the new chain by hitting rocks and dirt and was wiped out for the rest of the day.  Hubby was right on this one. 

I called around to price renting a stump grinder.  Lowe's charges $125/day.  I found another place that charged $90/day and another that would do a 1/2 day for $60.  I would have to pick it up or pay an $80 delivery charge.  We do have a truck, but I wouldn't be able to unload it and load it by myself at the house.  I called a tree service and they gave me an estimate for $125 to remove the two stumps in my yard, this one and a pine tree stump near the garden.  Deal!

They did a great job and were done, cleaned up, and gone in 45 minutes. 

And, because someone else was taking care of the stumps, I did this.  We have a tiny guest bath and the toilet paper holder was at funny bone level on the side.  It was also loose.  My son finished it off while he was potty training and used it for a handle climbing on the toilet.  So, this may be an odd place for a toilet paper holder, but it is better than where it was.  $4 for the new holder,  I'm pretty sure I threw out the old one. 

Last night I fixed the laundry sorter.  One of the sections was torn, reducing the sorting functionality.  It also really needed to be cleaned. 

It is a little bit of effort to take the canvas off the frame. 

I just hand stitched it. 

Ready to sort reds, lights, and darks...

And, my son fixed the music on the water toy.  He turned around the toy so that the button was in the right place.  doh!  I still may caulk or something to keep water out, as a preventative measure.  That is not bad for one day and a couple others I'm still trying to finish may make it into a post by the end of the weekend.

Day 84, Score: -14 (4 new fixed, 1 new broken (dull chainsaw), total fixed=70, list total 124), Funds: -261.76

I lost count somewhere, changing the total fixed to 70 and score to -14 and list total to 124, to match The List.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Hubby gave me a wall mirror a few years ago.  I didn't know what to do with it, so it has been leaning against the wall in the den.  When I was working last September and had some disposable income, I bought grown-up furniture for the living room I had just painted.  By grown-up furniture, I mean stuff that I picked out to match and paid for instead of the hodge podge of hand-me-downs and garage sale leftovers.  I finally found an arrangement in my living room that I like and now I have a place for the mirror.

I needed a way to decide how high I wanted the mirror, so I taped newspaper together in the size of the mirror and taped it to the wall.  I think this idea came from my parents who needed to make sure their new home had room for the piano.  Maybe it also came from my grandmother who once had me measure a room and all her furniture and cut out scaled down paper pieces of all the footprints so she could arrange her furniture with them without moving anything heavy. 

When I had that where I wanted it, I brought out the laser level which I gave Hubby for Father's day as hopeful reminder to hang the mirror for me.  He has accused me of buying him gifts that serve my own interests for years, though I never bought him a bowling ball in my size (from a Simpson's episode).  I thought it was about time to actually be guilty of the accusation, but it didn't work because Hubby can't read my mind on where and how I want the mirror placed.  He still thinks the laser level is cool though, more than other things I've attempted to give him.

It has a suction cup for sticking to surfaces and a little air pump to hold the suction.  It also came with this little plastic piece for when the surface is still too irregular for the suction to hold.  I tacked this piece up where I wanted the level.  The little slip of newspaper shows the level of the hooks on the back of the frame, and where I want to put the screws.

It works perfectly!

I used 50 lb drywall anchors.  I had to do some digging in the garage to find them, but at least I knew they were there and in one of three places.  I reduced those three placed to two places and left them a bit more organized for the next time I need to find something.

I measured the distance from the edge of the frame to the two hooks and marked these along the laser line, then screwed in the anchors and the screws.

It worked beautifully, except that once I cleaned the mirror, I discovered that someone had been scratching it with a toy.  It isn't awful, but I wish...well, to quote Jeff Foxworthy...I remember when my brother and I were playin' in the livin' room and knocked over the table and broke Daddy's Jack Daniels Elvis decanter... shoulda seen Mama. "WE JUST CAIN'T HAVE NICE THANGS!!!!". 

After my wheelbarrow post, my dad sent me a couple of links to YouTube videos on how to seal a tubeless tire to the rim enough to inflate it.  One involved lighting WD-40 on fire and looked like a lot of fun.  The other looked a bit more prudent, especially on a small scale, and that's what I did for our hand truck that needed air in one tire.

Wrap a rope around the tire and a rod.  I used the star out of the trunk.  Twist until the tire is pressed tightly against the rim. 

Inflate until you see the tire pressing the rope out and then loosen the rope as the tire inflates all the way.  I have an air compressor that plugs into the lighter in my car.  It has been very handy sometimes.

I need to put my daughter's bedroom door back on the list.  It is creaking and sticking badly again.  My attempts to adjust it aren't working.  I seem to have issues with door geometry.

Day 83, Score: -16 (2 new fixed, 1 new broken, total fixed=67, list total 123), Funds: -137.76

Stop Bugging Me

We've been having more pest problems this year than any other year we've lived in this house. I wonder if it is the heat or the drought, or Congress. We've had enough cockroaches in the house and garage, that I'm starting to overcome my fear of confronting them. For the first time ever, I've found ants creeping into our kitchen to "borrow" a cup of sugar.

It was time to spray. I think I might dislike the pesticide smell more than the bugs. I really needed a gas mask or something, but a bandanna is the best I have. I left the dog inside until I was done so she wouldn't get sick.
First I sprayed around the foundation and the openings to the house. I moved all the toys, dog dishes, hoses, plants, etc. away from the area I was spraying. If you do this yourself, look for a bottle with a sprayer that you don't have to continuously pump, it wears your hand out. If someone else does it for you, let them worry about their own hand fatigue.

Then I spread this product on the lawn to take care of fire ants. In hindsight, I would have done this on a legal watering day because you have to water it and it isn't safe for kids and pets to play until you do. The lawn got some extra water this week and I'm going to pay for it. Our water bill has been huge this summer without the extras.

If you don't know the wheelbarrow story, I had been searching for one on Craigslist for a while and having no luck when one day I saw one sitting in front of a house with a free sign on it. The only thing wrong is the wheel was flat. I thought that it had an inner tube and that if I were lucky, it would only require a tire patch. I discovered that this tire does not have a tube and must be sealed against the wheel, but the tire is cracked and won't hold air.

I love this little ratcheting wrench.

I bought a new wheel assembly for the wheelbarrow for $20. It wasn't much more than buying just the tire and I don't think I had the right equipment to put the new tire on the old wheel.

I was able to put it back together tonight and make my first load with it.

I bought some paving bricks for $16 to finish extending my patio. Oops, forgot to put that on the list.

I was also reminded of the ceiling in the dining room where I tore the new paint off the ceiling when I left the painters tape on too long.

I found a jewelry box in the garage that my mom wants to give to my daughter. It needs to be painted and a couple of hooks would be nice.

My daughter got a water toy for her birthday today and part of it is already broken. One of the toys doesn't play music anymore, I think because it got water in it. Who designed this thing anyway?!

Day 80, Score: -15 (2 new fixed, 4 new broken, total fixed=65, list total 122), Funds: -152.76

Two Birds With One Stone

I love starting one project and knocking out another while I'm at it.  I've done that quite a bit in this blog.

This is yard work week because we are having a birthday party for my daughter's birthday.  I picked the second worst week to do yard work, next to last week, with temperatures over 100 every day.  I believe they were over 105 every day last week.  I'm praying for something, anything, to cool it down by Saturday.  Anyway, I got some help from Hubby on these.

Here are the before pictures on my project.  The grass and weed are growing up near the house were it is hard to mow and not really great to edge.

This sprinkler is too close to the house and angled too so 1/4 of it's spray hits the house.

I have trained my kids not to climb in the pile of rocks, some of them sharp, but don't want other kids to try playing here.  It is time to do something about it.  The rocks were all found from digging gardens over the years.  I even had to dig a bit to get them all out since they have been there so long.

I used  a pickax to break the hard, dry ground around the sprinkler and the side of the house.  It's really good for working out frustration, too.

The sprinkler has a flexible hose connected to PVC pipe, so I was able to move it out where I wanted and turn it the right direction.  It was set in place with rocks under the soil.  I ended up putting them on top of the soil and that gave me the idea for the rock garden.

Here is the start.  I left that plant there for now, until I figure out what it is, because it looks nice and is happy with heat and little water. 

About this time I had two thoughts, that the rocks are going to spread out and the weeds are going to grow up through them.  I had some of this ground cover that lets water through which I'll put under the rocks.  I also have some treated lumber left from when we removed the deck and I'll use that for a border.

Here is the after picture of the rock garden.  I used mostly smooth stones so no one will get hurt if they fall in there.  I'm going to see how this works for a couple of months before I extend it along the rest of the house.  Anyway, I ran out of rocks.  Maybe I'll find more when I till the garden extension.

And here is the place where the rock pile was.  I used some of the flat stones to make a rocky area around the rain barrel.  Anything that was too sharp for the rock garden and not flat enough for here was thrown out.  I even found a sprinkler buried under the pile of rocks. 

Meanwhile, Hubby worked on removing the brush pile.

He replaced the chain on the chainsaw.  I forgot to get a picture of that.  Here is the end result.  He used the chainsaw for the bigger limbs and made firewood.  He used the chipper/shredder for the smaller stuff and made mulch for the garden.  He uncovered a sprinkler too. 

He said there was a rat living in the brush pile and it ran to the neighbor's yard before the dog got it.  They have  a brush pile too.  Sorry neighbors.  We'll put a trap in the firewood pile and try to catch him.  Hubby also made a dent in the dead limbs on the dieing tree, but not enough to cross it off the list.

Finally, here is a random fix that I did a while ago and forgot to include.  This little hand broom was in a bad place in the garage.  I lifted it up to grace by threading a piece of yarn through it so it can hang on the wall and be found when needed.

I count 6 fixes today and $0 spent!  I tried to fix the wheelbarrow tire so that I could use it to move rocks around, but I need to buy a new tire because it is cracked and won't hold air.  It doesn't have an inner tube that I could patch.  This is a new one on me.  I wonder if I just buy the tire or the whole assembly.  If it is just the tire then how to I get a seal on it to fill t up with air?

I also received 3 $25 Lowe's gift cards from credit card points.  I'm going to credit my balance now instead of hiding future expenditures in the cards. 

Day 79, Score: -16 (6 new fixed, 0 new broken, total fixed=63, list total 117), Funds: -116.76

The Car Seat

If you have never had kids and wonder what all the fuss is about with car seats and strollers and gear, here is a glimpse.

This is from the Texas DPS website.

Child Passenger Safety Best Practice Recommendations
Phase 1	Rear-Facing Seats	Infants: Birth - 35 pounds. Rear-facing infant or rear-facing convertible safety seat as long as possible,up to the rear-facing height or weight limit of the seat. Properly install rear-facing in the back seat.
Phase 2	Forward-facing Seats	When children outgrow the rear-facing safety seat, they should ride in a forward-facing safety seat as long as possible, up to the upper height or weight limit (40 - 80 pounds) of the harnesses. Usually 4+ years old. Properly installed forward-facing in the back seat. NEVER turn forward-facing before 1 year old AND 20-22 pounds.
Phase 3	Booster Seats	After age 4 and 40+ pounds, children can ride in a booster seat with the adult lap and shoulder belt until the adult safety belt will fit them properly (usually when the child is 4'9" tall). MUST have a lap/shoulder belt to use a booster seat.
Phase 4	Adult Safety Belt	Once children outgrow their booster seat (usually at 4'9", 100 pounds) they can use the adult safety belt if it fits them properly. Lap portion low over the hips/tops of thighs and shoulder belt crosses the center of the shoulder and center of the chest.
We fudged a little when we bumped my son up to the booster seat.  He was 3 years and 10 months old and 39 lbs when my daughter outgrew the rear-facing infant carrier.  The booster seat costs $40 and the toddler seat cost $80+, so we bought the booster seat and my daughter got the hand-me-down.  I was going to wash it.  That was a year ago.  This post is about finally washing that seat. I haven't been counting cleaning projects in Fixit, except the couple of times I did major organization, but I think this counts. The first thing I have to do is climb on the seat while it is in the car to press down on it and remove some of the tension in the belt clipping it to the car.  I imagine this to be highly amusing to people who witness the act. I brushed out the seat.  I shook it.  I brought it inside to disassemble.  It would have been better to do this outside because crumbs got everywhere, but it is dark and the only time I have to do it. There are various elastic straps sewn into the cover to hold it in place.  I discovered that I needed to remove the base to undo a couple of these straps.  The seat is held to the base with a metal rod. I pushed it on one end with a screwdriver and pulled it out with pliers on the other. This is the base.  Yuck! Then you have to pull the straps out, after detaching them from a hook at the back. Remove all the pieces and then pull the strap through again. Then this piece comes out. The seat cover is in two pieces.  The bottom piece has to come around this back piece.  This the back piece is attached at the back and these hole clips need to be removed. This is the seat without the cover.  Yuck again!!  Here is the result after washing everything and reassembling. I washed the booster seat too, but the cover came off it easily.  Not much to talk about. The effort was precipitated by a chance to really wash and vacuum out my car.  I think I could have fed a small town with the amount of snack crumbs I cleaned out.  No cost to fix and I also have a Craigslist income of $10 from the extra (third) propane tank I finally listed. Day 76, Score: -19 (1 new fixed, 0 new broken, total fixed=57, list total 112), Funds: -$206.76