Redid my friend’s laptop. Took a day and a half to get it going. His laptop was full of spyware and crapware.

The only stipulation was that he is not allowed to use Internet Explorer.

Had to make a quick repair this afternoon. I was cleaning up my desk in the basement and realized that it was way too cold by the wall. I started feeling around and realized all the cold air was coming from the window. After further investigation, I found out there were gaps between the sides of the windows. The gaps were hidden by a plastic seal. To fix it, on the right side I cut a board to fit the gap and sealed it. On the left because it was smaller than the board, I filled with expanding foam. Now I am waiting for the foam to dry and will put a plastic seal on top of it.

Kind of embarrassed it took me this long to find the gap. It’s filled now.

I had a busy weekend with doing some do-it-yourself landscaping this weekend. The front of the house has been in disrepair since last fall when I started to remove all the rock from the front. It was one of those projects that fell to the wayside for other activities.

Yup, nothing pretty about it.

This is what the house looked like pre rock removal.

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I noticed that the drainage pipe was from the blower was loose a while back. Didn’t think much of it till we turned on the AC briefly last week and notice a build up of moisture that would otherwise end up going through the drain pipe.

Afterward, I turned off the AC and removed the external cover to discover that the pipe fitting had been broken off the drainage pan under the coolant coils.

It’s a pretty clean break, and I can push against it and it fits snug. I am wondering if it is worthwhile using epoxy to put this back on. Or should I call in a professional? Any thoughts out there?

Also, this is a carrier AC unit, so I believe someone has to be certified by Carrier or they can’t order parts for it. Any recommendations on an AC repairman?

I think the blog juices have been restored after a relaxing and constructive weekend. This weekend kept us busy but we weren’t swamped with particular chore or event. It was just a nice balance.

We’re making progress on the kitchen. The old cruddy tarnished brass cabinet handles have been replaced with polished nickel handles. The polished nickel also match the new light fixture we put up a few weeks ago.

We haven’t replaced the hinges yet. You can see a small gap on the door on the left. The nickel hinges I picked up at Lowes are about a 1/4 inch off, we’re going to have to special order them online.

P.S. That’s not the green we’ll be painting the kitchen. Just a test area.

Just a little work around the house.

Last weekend I tackled the stopped up bathroom sink drain. This weekend I upgraded the lighting configuration for the basement. Before the basement lights were controlled by one switch at the top of the stairs and there was no light in the stairwell.

This weekend I put in two new switches at the bottom of the stairs and a stairwell light. Switches at the bottom and at the top control the stairwell light. The other switch controls the basement lights. Eventually, I’ll put in two more switches to divide the basement into regions. Right now, one switch controls all the lights. That’s another project for another weekend.

It should be man-law that any self respecting man have a tool belt. I got mine at Xmas from my parents. It made a huge difference in my work flow. Before, I’d lay a tool down, walk away, and then spend 15 minutes trying to find it. With the belt (as silly as it looks), I had everything right there. I wonder if I could get away wearing one these at work?

Now with a stairwell light, I can be reminded on a daily basis that I need to paint it.

Man, my workbench is a mess.

The blue reel, commonly referred to as a snake, is what I mentioned in a previous post. An essential tool if you plan on rewiring a house.

I was actually not a lazy bum this weekend.

Dad came over this weekend to help rewire and replace the front porch light and the foyer light. The wires for the lights had been cut over a year back when we were rewiring the basement lights.

One of the beauties of owning an older house is that everything is wired to the same circuit.

The greater part of Saturday we spent exploring the antique wiring and devising a plan on how to rewire everything. One of the best investments this weekend was a 25′ steel guide wire.

We would hook the guide wire to the old wire then pull the old wire out. Once the guide wire was through, then we would hook up the new wire and pull it back. This method worked extremely well.

Mrs. Shoo is extremely happy because this year we get to have Trick-or-treaters. Everyone stop by with your kids, we’ve got plenty of candy. I don’t need any of it. (I am sneaking a piece as soon as I hit publish)

It’s Sunday night and this is about the first real time since Friday evening that I’ve sat in front of the computer. I know, I know, it was barely two days. But that’s a lot of time in the digital world when your job consists of keeping a web based application up 24/7.

Part of the reason for the disconnect was that my Dad came over Saturday to help out on a wiring project. Our house is about 50~60 years old and a lot of the wiring is original and done with aluminum wire. I am told it was cheaper and more readily available when our house was built. It’s also kind of a fire hazard.

(Note: Drawing not to scale.)

Dad helped out replacing 5 outlets. We passed on the 6th for right now as it was connected to the same circuit as the bathroom lights. How that happened, I don’t know. Our two hour project took a whole day, but we’re steadily making progress on rewiring the house.

Sunday I met some friends out at Site M aka Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Park, I prefer Site M, for some mountain biking. A beautiful unseasonable 80 degrees out, but was a great day for a ride. I think I spent four hours out there.

Just a great fall weekend.

It’s green. Mrs. Shoo still has another chair to paint and decorate. I believe the next one will be blue.

I use Dreamhost as the host for gotshoo.com and a bunch of other sites. Really cheap hosting with a somewhat reliable reputation. The hosting plan I have gives me 300+ GB in storage. For a long time I considered what the heck to do with all the storage since most of my stuff doesn’t take up more than a few gig. A few months ago I read a tutorial on how to backup your personal files using some Unix utilities (Rsync). So, I created a job that every night it would sync up my photos and music directories with my online storage. Awesome idea, right?!

Maybe it was the account name that gave it away, ’shoobackup.’ I got an email from support stating ‘Hey, it’s cool what your doing but your hosting plan doesn’t allow for it. Delete everything or start paying us $ .20 per GB a month’, which was up to a 100GB. I just deleted my account.

Anyone else use some kind of online storage backup? I checked out Amazon’s S3, they’re about $.15 per GB. Curious to hear what anyone else has to say.

The UPS man today delivered some new parts for my ‘old school’ pc that I am turning into a home server. USB 2.0 interal card for about 8 bucks, a gigabit lan card for about 10, and a new quieter processor for fan for about 18. Everything works like a charm.

Here’s a size comparison of the new fan vs. the old one. Intriguing.. huh? It’s quieter. I am lacking on content and the dogs wouldn’t cooperate with tonight’s photo shoot because there was a new episode of House on. The dogs are both huge fans of House and the Office. The Mrs. and I both agreed that tonight’s episode would have been much better aired before Christmas.

Roommate Steve moved out a few weeks ago, so I’ve been working on the upstairs. We’ve put a full size bed up there but had been unable to get the box springs that go with the mattress up the stairs. It’s a winding staircase. I had convinced myself through trial and error that if I just modified the outset of the ceiling above the door jam that I would be able to squeeze it up.

Before:

After:

Well… I didn’t get the clearance that I’d thought I get, but on the bright side I removed the unsightly sheet rock. The stairwell was already on my honey-do list to repaint. Now, I get to do a little drywall.

Anyone looking for a box spring for a full size mattress? I can make a great deal.

Remember the 3D mock up I did for the stairwell skateboard ramp shelving under the basement stairs? Well, I built the shelves this weekend.

Below is how it turned out. Didn’t take a before picture, but just imagine the space below the stairs with no shelves – you should be able to come up with an idea of how it looked.

These are also ‘green‘ shelves, the plywood is from a water bed frame that GTG’s parents were discarding.

Eventually I’ll close them in with some wood paneling and doors, but that is for yet another DIY weekend.