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Kitchen Additions
After 4 years at our house, we’ve finally caught up to the 20th century. Today, we had a dishwasher and garbage disposal unit installed. It was a long time coming – we suck at doing dishes.
We had it installed by Troy Mueller of Finding Time, LLC. He and the plumber did a very quality, discreet, and fast job. If you’re in the Fox Valley, I would recommend him for any maintenance or remodeling you might have.
Yay for technology!
December 16th, 2008 
Tags: Bright Whites & New Lights
We have compact fluorescents throughout our house, except where we have dimmer switches (since dimmable CFLs are still quite expensive and impossible to find locally). Recently, Wanda decided to change our fluorescents to the “Day Light” variety, since she likes the white light better than the yellowish standard bulbs.
We also had the ambition to replace all of our beige light switches and outlets to a bright white. It cost more than I thought it would – I was surprised at how many receptacles we had in our house! Probably the most difficult part was making decisions at the store. There are a surprising number of styles and combinations (and prices)! We think the new glossy, rocker-style switches and outlets look more modern than the old ones.
We also installed a motion-detector switch for our downstairs hallway. The verdict is still out on that one – it doesn’t seem to be very friendly with CFLs, it seems to be a bit too sensitive (shadows can set it off), and whenever the light turns on it makes my UPS chirp. It’s a work in progress…
The only problem with such upgrades, we’ve found, is that it tends to emphasize other fixtures that are in need of rehabilitation.
When it rains, it pours…
It seems like one of those weeks where all of our warranties have expired at once.
Late last week, one of the knobs on our kitchen faucet broke off. We weren’t sure if we wanted to replace the entire faucet or just replace the knob(s). Switching the one working knob back-and-forth between the hot and cold for a few days turned out to be effective motivation to find a solution. I wanted to avoid replacing the entire faucet until we remodeled our kitchen. Unfortunately, finding a replacement knob for our Kohler faucet turned out to be surprisingly difficult. I looked on eBay and at the local Habitat ReStore for a matching knob, but came up empty-handed. I then bought some universal replacement knobs from Lowes, but they had a horrible design (if your hands were even slightly wet, they were difficult to grasp), so we returned them. Unfortunately, the other hardware stores seemed to all have the same lousy selection.
Desperate for a solution, we ended up buying a new faucet. We wanted to get a Kohler to match the rest of the house, but we ended up buying a Delta faucet since it seemed to best match what we were looking for. I think we made the right choice – our new faucet is very nice.
Earlier this week, our garage door opener went on the fritz. The unit had always sucked, but it finally decided to take a shit. I had a new, fancy one installed by American Overhead Door in Appleton. The product was exceptional, but their customer service left some to be desired, but overall, we are quite satisfied.
On our way home from work on Tuesday (Wanda and I carpool), the car stalled at an intersection and the “service engine soon” light came on. I brought it into the mechanic yesterday, which ended up being $300 I will never see again.
We’ve also had a very slow leak in our roof for quite some time. It hasn’t been a big issue, but since winter was (hopefully, finally) over, we decided to have it looked at. We were hoping our roof didn’t need to be replaced since there were also some shingles that were peeling up. By recommendation from my dad, we decided to call Drew’s roofing in De Pere. Fortunately, the roofing guy said that our roof was fine and probably didn’t need to be replaced yet. He also caulked the leak and didn’t charge us anything. I was impressed with their customer service and would recommend them to anyone in the Fox Valley who needs roofing work done.
So far we’ve survived the week, but it’s only Thursday!
New Bed
We finally decided to upgrade our mattress. It was an older full-sized, and we decided we wanted a pillow-top queen. We weren’t terribly excited about the cost of a decent mattresses, though. As luck would have it, we found a slightly used Serta double pillow-top bed complete with box spring and frame from a guy who was moving in with his mother in Chicago and had a house liquidation sale. We got a good deal on it, too. The bed is incredibly soft. The only problem with it is that it takes twice as long to get out of the bed in the morning because it’s so damn comfortable.
Convection Microwave
We received our tax return money recently, and didn’t fair too badly. The great majority of it we put towards the home equity loan, but we thought we would spend a portion of it to treat ourselves on a new over-the-range convection microwave oven. At first we were looking at an Amana, but we ended up getting a Maytag convection microwave. Our other applianaces are Amana, but they don’t make a convection. Being that they are the same manufacturer, the Maytag matched very nicely.
Although it’s a bit like programming a nuclear device, it works very well and looks hella sharp. Hanging the thing was quite possibly the worst thing I will ever do, especially since I don’t have to physically go through child birth.
Since our existing cabinet hung too low, we had to replace it with something more appropriate in size. We found an unstained cabinet at the Home Depot that looked very similar. The next step was to find some stain that matched. Since the polyurethane on our existing cabinets had yellowed with age, this didn’t turn out to be as easy as picking up a premixed can from the hardware store. We ended up going to a local paint and stain place and have them try to match the stain. It didn’t turn out perfect, but the average person probably wouldn’t notice unless we pointed it out to them.
Wanda did the staining (sweet), and once it dried our next step was to hang it. Before we could do so, I needed to install a new outlet in the upper cupboard, since the new microwave required the power cord be installed up through the bottom. The outlet turned out well, although I mismeasured where the hole should have been in the cupboard. Fortunately, it still lined up enough to work well.
Once the cupboard was hung and the outlet was installed, it was time to hang the microwave. Long story short – after messing around with paper templates, brackets, stripped and inadequate screws, misaligned holes, and instructions that seemed to be poorly translated to English, we finally got it hung. It looks very nice, and works even better. It was well worth the trouble.
Pressure Washer
Man, who would have thought it would be so difficult to find a decent pressure washer for a good price. When we started the projects of re-staining our deck and fence, we wanted to give them a pressure wash first. We bought a 1650 psi pressure washer from Fleet Farm. It seemed to work well, but eventually the trigger handle became stuck and you couldn’t detach it. We decided to return it. Next, we bought a 1750 psi “Husky” pressure washer from Home Depot. It was $20 less and features more PSI, so we thought it was a good deal. Upon getting it home, it only lasted a few hours before the spray wand started spraying erratically. Again, we returned it. Even though the electric models are generally more convenient, portable, and easier to maintain, we were frustrated with our experience with our first two electric pressure washers and decided to look around at the more expensive gas-powered pressure washers.
We went back to Home Depot. They had some really swank models with Honda and even Subaru engines. Unfortunately, they cost a bit more than we wanted to spend. So we went to Sears to check out their selection. We ended up buying a 2550 psi Craftsman with a 6.75 HP Briggs and Stratton engine. We got a great deal on it because it was a return. It turned out to be a very sweet choice. It had all the features we wanted, excellent power, and was easy to use. After having used a gas-powered model, the electric ones clearly suck in comparison. This thing cleans the wood at a fraction of the time! Our lawnmower is also a Craftsman. So far we’ve gotten very decent value and service from Sears.
Lesson learned: Electric pressure washers suck. Pay more for gas.
The Hunt for Living Room Furniture
We went furniture shopping this weekend, as we’ve done quite a bit in the past few months. We were looking for roughly two end-tables, a TV center or armoir, and possibly a coffee table. We’d been having a difficult time finding pieces that were reasonably priced, fit our taste, and matched each other. We saw some complete fully-matching sets at a couple of places, but they were quite expensive. In an attempt to save money, we went to Target to try to find some decent end tables we could match against, but we were unable to find a TV center that matched well. After going through nearly a tank of gas, we realized that if were were going to get pieces that matched and looked well together, we’d probably have to buy a full set. I never knew how much of a pain it could be to find decent, but affordable living room furniture!
Although it was a fair amount more than we were hoping to spend, we found a perfect set at Van Vreedes in Appleton, which is where we originally bought our couch set. It helped that they gave us a roughly a 12% discount for paying cash. We ended up getting a TV center, two end tables, and some lamps that matched very nicely. Although we fell in love with a
couch table they also had, we didn’t feel we could afford it at this time. We didn’t buy the coffee table because we felt it would leave the room too cluttered.
So we’re excited to get our new furniture. Hopefully our living room won’t feel so empty now.
Yard Work Continued
We’re still poking away at our yard. Wanda and I took our first class in the Home Owners Landscape Series at the Fox Valley Technical College. The class was on yard maintenance. We’ve since learned the proper way to prune trees and shrubs, and we’ve replaced a large bare spot of grass in our backyard. We tried Scott’s PatchMaster Sun & Shade Mix, which includes seed, fertilizer, and a biodegradable mulch made from recycled paper. A neat idea, you just lay down the mixture and water. It’s supposed to germinate in 7 days, however, we’ve so far had mixed results. I think we didn’t lay enough down, and it rained hard shortly after, washing much of it away. We might have to consider laying more this weekend.
Giving the Yard a Facelift…
Since buying our house, we have come up with several big projects we’d like to do. Obviously, the timing and extent of what we do is dependent on the bank account. We’d like to eventually redo the kitchen, although it’s still a matter of contention whether we’d install a dish washer or not. I think our kitchen is too small, but Wanda thinks it would be a good addition. We’ll see.
Our yard also needs major work. There are a couple of spots that need to be filled in with topsoil. Also, we have a lot of areas of dead grass. The trees need to be pruned so I don’t kill myself while cutting the lawn, and our bushes are pretty much at the end of their life cycle. I also really want to get concrete curbing installed, but that’s not high on Wanda’s priority list. In all, we’d like someone to design out landscape, install the curbing (which is surprisingly expensive), and then implement the design.
This week we talked to a landscaper to do some spring cleaning of the yard, including trimming the trees, filling/grading the holes, and tearing out the shrubs. It’s fairly expensive, so we need to decide what we’d like to do ourselves or wait for.
Lawnmower
This week we set out to buy our first lawnmower. I thought it would be as easy as going to the store, picking one with the features we liked, and handing over the credit card. I was wrong. With so many models missing one feature or another in our price range combined with conflicting information regarding mower and engine manufacturers, it was not an easy task. I wanted one with the bigger rear wheels since we have a lumpy lawn, but those on are available in the front-propelled models. I preferred the rear propulsion because it keeps the front end lighter and, in my opinion, more easily meneuverable. We ended up getting a Craftsman 37482 for one heck of a deal at Sears. Everyone says Toro is the best, but I thought I’d give Craftsman a try because it seemed to offer excellent bang for the buck. Craftsman mowers also had decent ratings on consumerreports.com, ranking in the top three with regard to repairs, behind Toro and Honda. We’ll see if my next lawnmower is a Craftsman or not 
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