Sprinkle On

Here's our sprinkler control system:

See all those sliders? Each represents a zone on our property. One of the reasons we don't use our sprinklers often is because I'm not good with numbers. As in, I don't deal with them if possible. See those numbers all over the sliders? Yeah.

So this is how I can actually deal:

I made a chart to show which numbers are which zones. It's probably an accurate way of seeing how my brain thinks - in colors and shapes.

Do you have the same dilemma?

Pick Up Our Marbles

Although we may have lost our minds in any given home project, we've definitely picked up some literal marble for the master bath renovation:

You're looking at 7 packs of yummy chocolate marble tile in the back of Mitsi:

Just look at those tasty veins. I think this is going to be my favorite aspect of the new master bath.

See how those stacks of marble tile are now magically stacked in the garage? Yep, that was from yours truly. You just missed the gun show.

Shedding

We don't just work on our own house, we help friends as well.

Three men with 2 ladders and more hammers than you can count - roofing on a hot day...

They are building a shed. That looks like a little house. Does that make them little gnomes?

Park It

X marks the spot:

My parking spot. In my garage:

Granted, I can park without this indicator but it's just so much quicker this way. I line up the steering wheel up to the mark on the wall and put her in "P" and I'm done.

Without the mark, I just inch my way closer and closer to the spare propane tank until I get too nervous to get any closer. I could move the propane tank but that would be too logical.

Do you guys have some sort of visual indicator as well?

Spring Chicken

Here is the inside of our garage door. What is wrong with this picture? Well both our torsion springs are broken! There are 4 pieces when there are supposed to only be 2 (the springs should be intact on either side of the red tag). This meant that not only would our automatic garage door opener work, but neither would the manual mode.


There are few home projects that we are not willing to tackle ourselves. But this one had us a little hesitant. Why? Well first we'd have to order the springs, and purchase a winding bar and other tools. And then we'd have to figure out how to do this which would take the entire weekend at the very least. And if you read this tutorial, you'll notice that the word emergency room was mentioned 6 times (My personal favorite is "...the cable [could] rip through muscle and bone.")!



So enter David. He does this everyday. I know, because I asked him. He did a decent job but I really wished I had gone with Shlomo even though he was a bit of a hustler with his salesman techniques.

Anyway, David took off the broken springs and I set them aside so I knew what size and kind to order the next time this happens, and we could do it ourselves. Maybe. Here he is sliding on the new springs. And questioning why I am taking photos. Is it unacceptable to document this process?

Here are the new springs installed.

Here is the loose cable just dangling at the side of the door.

Here it is with the cable properly reattached.

So did I make the right choice to have this home project done for me? I know my eyeballs (and intact muscle and bone) thank me. What unexpected home project have you encountered?

Heavy Metal

Earlier this year, we discovered a surprise relic on top of our (rather new) water heater:

(shown above on our garage work bench)

The timing was perfect - right during our kitchen remodel. I have no clue how old these are, or which previous owner they belonged to, but these snippers have definitely come in handy.

Did they belong to the previous owner (who lived here only 5 years yet perhaps gave these constant use), the owners before them? Or those before them? Or maybe they were left by the water heater installer?

And the saying definitely rings true here, they don't make things like they used to! These bad boys cut through a tin can like its butter. They're indestructible.

Have you found any useful or interesting relics, memorabilia, or treasures in your home? And yes, tools count!

Suzi, Kawi, Saki

Just over a week ago, we said goodbye to Jesse's motorcycle, '03 Suzuki SV650 (also known as Suzi*):


We made sure she went to a good home though - to a young boy transitioning from dirt to street bikes. He was enrolled in riding courses and surrounded by professional riders and had his mom's blessing (she actually bought it for him, cool mom!).

This was a somewhat sad moment as Suzi had become such a member of our garage pack for almost the last 2 years. I can't even begin to count the hours that Jesse has spent on her.

Being without Suzi meant he had to ride my motorcycle, Kawasaki '03 Ninja 250 EX (also known as Saki) in the interim. Which meant she needed tags. $300, 4 DMV trips and hours of aggravation later, she now has papers.

Before we knew it, this motorcycle joined our rice rocket posse ('08 Kawasaki Ninja ZX6R):


Her name is Kawi (apparently Kawk didn't appeal to Jesse). To go with Saki (the little big sister). So now we are a Kawasaki household. As well as a little big sister/big little sister household (in reference to our dogs). 3 trips to the DMV, 1 trip to a sketchy junk yard downtown, a $50 inspection and $600 later, this had papers and plates (yep, we spent a grand just to get these two bikes legit for the road).

Do you have brand loyalty to cars or motorcycles or other big ticket items?

*Completely coincidental and with no relation to this Suzi Suzuki

Space Out

With drywall and cabinets up, and old cabinets and materials out (it took a while), we finally have room in the garage.

This is what our garage looked like in March. Remember when a dumpster was at the top this girl's wish list?

After one FULL day of cleaning, this is what our garage looks like now:



We can finally park the car in it 3 months later. Which means I can change the oil, wash, polish, and vacuum the car again. And it won't be 300 degrees when I get in it.

And look what our tidiness attracted from the wild:

Smart creature.

Sink or Toss

We still have the old kitchen sink in the garage because I'm not sure what to do with it yet (I always think twice before sentencing anything to a landfill). Possible ideas for repurposing include:

1. Outdoor bar
2. Outdoor potting station
3. Garage utility sink

Or maybe I just toss it.

Advice?

Kitchen in the Garage

Everyone says their garage is a mess, but we really mean it. Renting a dumpster for several hundred dollars doesn't sound appealing so I've taken it on as a challenge to slowly get rid of all our demolition mess through our weekly trash pick up. Easier said than done, because we have a mini trash can (it's cheaper, and prior to this kitchen project we didn't product much trash).

Ideally, the old cabinets would be in such great condition that we would repurpose them in the garage for extra storage and organization. But they didn't even have backers, you'd see the wall when you opened the cabinets. And some genius painted that white to trick you. So it's all rubbish. We even tried to burn some cabinet parts in our fire pit but it created a raging smelly smokey fire. There were no shortcuts, we had to hack it all into small pieces for the trash over the course of several weeks, maybe even months. My wrist took a beating and somehow my pinky as well. We've thought about sneaking it into neighbors' empty trash bins, and business dumpsters, and even at the dumpsters at our old apartment. I'm just so impatient, I want the non-choppable, oddly shaped, non-bendable old oven hood gone. Is that so wrong?