Emerging from the funk

It's snowed a bit back in December. 
That's not a drift.

 It's been almost 2 months since my last blog. It's not as though nothing has happened since then, and I have a backlog of DIY home improvement updates, it's really more about a complete lack of inspiration. I think this is at least partially due to the overall malaise of a long winter and continued covid-19 restrictions. Well, the sun is out today, and despite a near zero morning low, I'm feeling like spring is in the air, and it's time to get going on this.

Before

An ongoing project this winter has been the repair of the basement floor. The main issue is where the concrete and chipped and cracked away from the cast iron sewer pipe. I've never worked with concrete before and like so many other home repair projects, it's more of an art than a technical skill. Anyone can throw concrete patch into a hole, making it look good is where the tough part is. I've used three different types of patch so far, and have found that the type of patch material use makes a big difference in the difficulty of making it look right. 

After

Even after careful application and smoothing with the trowel, I found that I needed to use a rub brick to help smooth and taper the work. That is difficult  and tiring, but helps make the finished product look better. As I have improved my technique, I have gone on the fill other cracks and holes around the basement floor. I've been using a premixed compound so whenever I have some extra time, I can work on it.

Another project I have taken on is rewiring the attic lights. This is a good job to do now before it becomes unbearably hot up there. When we bought the house, the attic lights consisted of old time cloth extension cords with bare bulbs swinging from nails pounded into the rafters. My only improvement so far has been to replace the hot incandescent bulbs with LED's. Now I am completely rewiring from the switch adding outlets and properly mounting 4 LED fixtures. It will be much safer and ridiculously bright. Three of the fixtures will have pull chains on them so we wont need to light the place up like an operating room if we don't want to.

The spooky house on Halloween.

In neighborhood news, the owner of the spooky house next door is making another run at remodeling. He's got a dumpster in the driveway, and a trio of "carpenters" from New Jersey gutting the place and apparently putting in new drywall. He asked me to keep an eye on the place since it is filed with new materials. We do and will continue to do so. I really hope he completes the place, but I've seen this all before and am definitely in wait and see mode. A project this summer may be to build a fence between our houses. This will keep people from cutting the corner from Grand Boulevard, but more importantly, clearly demarking the irregular property line and driveway ownership to anyone that rents the place, assuming it ever becomes livable.