LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

Home 'Improvement'

Let there be baked things!

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I don’t think I wrote about it, but way back in the beginning of January Lloyd and I were in Lincoln looking around, and he asked if I wanted to look at stoves again. I told him that I really didn’t care any more. The only two requirements I had were 1) it should be a smoothtop, and 2) the controls needed to have a number pad, not just up & down arrows to control the timer or temperature.

Well, we happened to be in Sears, and just walking around looking at control pads narrowed it down to two stoves, and the crazy high price on half the choices narrowed it down to one, and that one was on sale. Sold! (But not picked up or delivered, because they only deliver to Seward on Fridays and we have jobs.)

So, many weeks went by and today we finally got the stove. Woo-hoo! Well, not really ‘woo-hoo’. See, while it’s nice to have a stove, it was something we needed, and $700 spent on something you need is not nearly as much fun as spending $20 on something less necessary, like….. say….. Forearm Forklifts!!

I told Lloyd that if we bought them, we could get the stove inside by ourselves. (Harold is always most gracious about coming over to help move appliances, but fortunately, Lloyd wasn’t thinking about that.)

Read the instructions, you fools.

Looking at the video I linked to, now I realize that we actually had the straps wrong. Whatever. It’s a testament to how well they work that we got the job done.

Lloyd got it all hooked up & running, and I turned it on for a while to burn off the ‘new’ smell, and I’m sure when I make my first mess meal, I’ll let you all know how it goes.

You killed my father, you son of an electrician. Prepare to die.

I can see the attraction…

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Last week I finally got a chance to devalue something in our house my own self. You might recall that we had to get a new TV, because Brad was coming to visit. That led directly (think minutes) to having to get a new DVD player, and within two days to having to get digital cable.

That led, or so I’m told, to needing some new furniture in the living room to house said purchases. Fortunately, this was accomplished with some re-purposing rather than purchasing. Unfortunately, the bookshelf didn’t have holes for cables, so we just put the cable box and DVD player on the floor under the shelf. This worked, but we had to aim the remote over the trunk, and that became annoying quickly.

Lauren had an extra shelf in the basement (I know, don’t ask me) and rather than drill holes for supports we managed to find some of those yellow cylindrical blocks to hold one shelf above the other. I took a Dremel to the back on the bookcase. It was literally like cutting through cardboard; mostly because it was literally cutting through cardboard. Nothing but the best for us.

Guess which hold I dremeled first.

I remember telling someone five or six years ago that I never wanted to be the kind of person who spends $2,500.00 on a television. It turns out that I don’t mind being the kind of person who spends $550.00 on a television. That’s probably about what we spent on our last one 15 years ago. Hmmm, we might have spent less on this one after adjusting for inflation (which I like to do in my spare time).

How many items in this picture can you identify?

An outlet for his frustration.

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Lloyd has neatness issues when it comes to electrical cables and cords. Well, it has bothered him for some time that all my computer stuff has been plugged into an outlet in the kitchen and looks so messy. Yeah, that’s what people would notice in our house – the messy cables.

A computer, a lamp, a panel heater and its switch. oh, and a stick a'butter.

Anyway, he decided this weekend was the time to fix it, and bought some stuff at Home Depot to devalue the house install a new outlet.

I helped by taking pictures, and by making sure he didn’t electrocute himself. That was hard to do when I was napping.

The project was derailed by several hours because the original outlet he wanted to steal power from is on the same circuit as our microwave, which likes to freak out and trip the breaker every so often. Lloyd’s second choice was an outlet in the basement, and just as he was about to commence electic’n, I reminded him that that particular outlet was connected to the light switch to the basement.

Yeah. The cables are the messiest thing in the basement.

We decided to just chance it with the microwave.

Holes were cut, cord was run, outlet was attached, blah, blah, blah. I got to be in charge of the hole saw, which – let’s face it – is the best part.

Two layers of countertop, can you believe it?

I think it turned out splendidly, despite the things that I did wrong. (Look at the bottom right of the outlet in the top photo. See that big chunk of missing cabinet? That’s my fault.)

They go down to a power strip.

It should always look this neat and tidy. ....Ha!

Way to go, Lloyd. I guess you are an electrician by birthright.

Yard work

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Within 24 hours, our yard went from being relatively clean and leaf-free to having our oak tree upchuck all its leaves 3 inches deep. Weird.

Oak leaves as far as the eye can see. Well, past the fence, anyway.

Lloyd took care of them this time, mowing slowly to really mulch them up – then he mowed over everything else. Disregarding rocks, sticks or stepping stones, now the hostas are gone, as well as the peonies and seedums. Oh, and we’re going to need a new mower blade.

Along those lines, we can’t imagine why people rake. Mowing is so much easier, and (presumably) better for your yard since the little bits break down and enrich the soil. Plus – no sweating, no blisters, no bagging. With a self-propelled mower, the only way it could be easier would be if you could sleepwalk while doing it.

So, pick your side: Mower or raker?

Lemi Shine

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I’m not going to be shy about this – I’m writing this post to win a contest.

The good people at Lemi Shine have a monthly testimonial contest, and I’ve read many of the winning entries – they sing the praises of this miracle powder for the hard-water inflicted that makes their spotted glassware sparkle, cleans the spots off the inside of their dishwasher, and makes it smell lemon-y fresh.

Pffffff. Those people don’t have real hard water problems.

Here’s a real problem – a couple of weeks ago I looked into the bottom of one of the dishwashers at work and the heating element had so much build-up on it, it looked like a piece of coral. Horrified, I checked the other dishwasher – same problem. (This discovery led to the realization that our water softener has been unplugged for several months, and our super-hard water has been baking onto the heating elements.)

Holy. Crud. I didn’t take a ‘before’ picture, this is a ‘during’, but you can see the strata.

You're soaking in it.

I tried soaking some washcloths in vinegar and wrapping them around the elements overnight, but it didn’t help. A little internet search said that vinegar was too weak of an acid – you need citric acid. I scoured the kitchen for lemonade drink mix, but we didn’t have any. So, out to Wal-Mart to see what they had.

They had Lemi Shine.

Lemi Shine, you are my hero.

I filled the bottoms of both dishwashers with enough hot water to cover the elements, poured in a bunch of Lemi Shine, and let it sit for a couple of hours. I came back and was able to chip off a fair amount of crud. After that, though, the voice of my old boss from Dairy King, Bonsall Huffington, came back to me – “Let the water do the work”. I’ve been letting the solution sit overnight and am able to gently scrape it off with a jam spreader, and I’m almost down to the elements.

Fascinating, isn't it?

Thank you, Lemi Shine. You saved us the cost of two heating elements, if not two new dishwashers.

No Shame

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I’ll see your aluminum-foil-wrapped windows, Beth, and raise you…. bubble wrap.

I’ve been doing some internet searches for cheap-o winter ideas, and there are several folks out there who say that bubble wrap can significantly increase the R-value of old windows. (‘R’ stands for ‘Ridiculous’, in this case.)

So, I tried a test bit on the lower half of one of our bathroom windows this weekend. I’m not sure about it’s R-value, but it did keep shower steam from condensing on the cold pane and dripping down to the sill. Last year we had an embarrassing mildew problem due to the sheets curtains I hung up. Water would condense, freeze, then drip slowly and wreck the wood. (*sigh* I’d better get rid of this website if we ever decide to sell this house.) I’ve tried running a little fan so far this fall, but it can’t keep up with the moisture.

So I put bubble wrap on the rest of the bathroom windows tonight. Until we can get new windows, this is definitely worth the experiment!

I'd like to say that it looks better in real life, but it doesn't.