We're going to need a bigger backhoe...

It started so innocently, with a tiny backhoe

Uh oh. Words you never want to hear. Luckily, it wasn't on my dime. It all started last year (read this blog) when our sewer backed up. Read the details if you like but what is germane to this blog is that I was advised to call the city and tell them to check the main sewer in the street. They came, and did, but I never heard anything from them. Suddenly this summer, I see the water, sewer and gas lines marked on the street in front of the house. Every now and then I would see a city worker but none ever seemed to know what was going on. Well one day I saw a contractor out there and he informed me that they were replacing my sewer line, Later that day, a small backhoe and a few traffic cones arrived. They assured me it was a quick job and that they would be done in a couple hours. Well, the next day tiny backhoe made short work of he job, but the problem wasn't in my line, Mr.Rooter was right, it was indeed the main. Time to call in the big guns.

This shit just got serious.

Arriving later that day was a monster shovel and a medium front end loader/backhoe combination. As they excavated the line they found nothing. No sewage, just an empty line. Uh oh. After removing a section of the main they found the problem. A massive root plug. With some help from the backhoe, they attached a chain pulled out the root plug. Great, except that one of the poor workers was still down in the hole and hundreds of gallons of backed up sewage roared out of the line. He scrambled up the ladder just in time. I'm not sure what they pay him, but I AM sure it's not enough. In any event, after the sewage wave subsided they patched the line and filled up the hole. Ironically, the plug was upstream from us so we wouldn't have had a problem, but very soon many of our neighbors would have a rather messy problem in their basement. When they found this out, complaints about the noise, dust, and dug up street ended.

Dad awaits lunch and a cold Yuengling. Not in that order.

In other news, we have been traveling a bit since I'm off work, (as is Cindy) and we decided to head to the Jersey shore with my dad. Specifically we went to Wildwood Crest, but dad and I spent most afternoons down in Cape May at The Lobster House, specifically The Schooner American enjoying lunch, cold beer, and a parade of yachts, fishing boats and personal watercraft. I cannot recommend a better place to have lunch and unwind. Up next, Montana and a wedding in the mountains.

Screen door

Crack team of installers.

Work and social/family commitments have slowed progress on house projects this month but we did manage to find a morning to install our screen door in the front. It was clear from the door frame that a screen door of some type had been there before, probably and old fashioned type with a wooden frame. It might have been nice to restore the old door had it still been there, but only the old hinges remained. Anyway, like just about any project, there were obstacles to overcome. First, was the size of the door frame. Apparently, standard door frame size is either 32 or 36 inches by 80 inches. One thing I have learned is that our house is anything but standard and the door frame at our house is a lovely 34 and 5/8 inches. Of course, places will sell you a door of any size, custom made if need be, you just have to pay a considerable up charge for the privilege. However, I found one place that would sell a 34 inch width door at the price of a standard door, and that would be Home Depot. Now, sharp eyed readers will note that I mentioned the width of the door was 34 and 5/8 inches. The "standard" 34 inch door will accommodate a door frame opening up to 34 and 3/8 inches. DOH!

The finished job. Well...almost. 

Stepping up to the plate was Uncle Ed and his Yankee workshop in Apalachin. He had a piece of oak that he perfectly milled to 80 x 1 x 1/2 inches that filled the gap. He brought that oak furring strip pre-drilled and ready to mount. After that, it was a fairly simple job to mount the door in the frame and add the hardware.

The height of the door was about 81 inches, which was really perfect since I needed to add a threshold anyway. I ended up choosing an aluminum threshold and used a hacksaw to size it to the door frame. I then adjusted the rubber brush on the bottom of the door to close the gap.

The door is really nice and more practical that an old fashioned wooded screen door. The biggest advantage is the roll down screen that eliminates the need to store the screen for the winter. As you slide the upper glass down, the screen rolls down from the top. This will be convenient in the shoulder seasons when you want to get some air in the house on unseasonably warm days, or let the sun in but not the cold. I had wanted the door with a kick panel on the bottom but Cindy preferred the full glass door and, well, you can see who won the argument.

The Woods Inn. The weather was better than
 the picture shows,.

Natasha and Katia, our resident cats, also prefer the full glass model as they can lay on the rug, basking in the sun and see out the door. The kick panel would have blocked their view.

I mentioned commitments and I should mention that we had a great time over the weekend at the wedding of the son of our friends Joe and Angela. The ceremony took place in Old Forge NY at the The Woods Inn. The inn was a classic turn of the century hotel on a beautiful lake in the Adirondacks. We had quite an adventure the morning of the wedding when the hotel where we and much of the wedding guests and party were staying lost water. I was willing to go ahead and throw on my clothes and "forge" ahead (this is the mountains for crying out loud) but Cindy calmly and patiently explained (kidding - ha ha) how she needed a shower before the wedding. She actually considered jumping into the lake at one point but just in the nick of time the water came back on and we literally walked in for the "I do's" of the ceremony. Most importantly, we were there, well showered, for the reception.

My  spooky, deluxe suite.

A work commitment was our annual weather support for the NASCAR race at Watkins Glen. I spent two days sitting in the Emergency Operations Center waiting to give weather support for fire and law enforcement should things go bad. Luckily things stayed quiet through the race. Of interest however, is the the New York State Fire Academy where support personnel stay during the event. There may not be a spookier place to sleep anywhere and while nothing went bump in the night, walking around the place is unnerving. The faux marble floor hallways echo your footstep in the 5 story brick edifice. At the end of some of the halls are memorials to dead firefighters and rescued children including silent statues. Past students and officers stare at you from framed black and white pictures. If a couple of red haired little girls in pink dresses ever stepped out from around a corner I'd be out of there faster than a lightning bolt.

Lawnmowers are for short people

My el cheapo lawnmower.

I'm around 6'3", almost 6'4". Not a giant, but taller than most. I would imagine most people would see that being taller is an advantage, and it is usually, but not always. I'm not tall enough to worry about hitting my head on things (usually) and our new home has nice high ceilings, although there is that low part on the stairs (ouch!). Still, there are times that being tall is a real pain, and one of those times is when I'm forced to use "standard" sized equipment. What I mean is that most things can be fitted for size. Clothes, hats, car seats can all be purchased or adjusted to fit. Other things, like tables, chairs, and lawnmowers are pretty much used as is. Cindy and I bake bread (perhaps a future blog) and the job of kneading falls on me. I enjoy it, other than my back aches by the time I'm done because our kitchen table is too low and I have to bend over to work.  Other "too short" facilities and tools for tall people include most sinks, water fountains (I still use them, do you?), snow shovels, and, most importantly, airplane seats.

The north "forty" after a back breaker.

My silly cheap lawn mower is too short for me. I actually love the thing. I bought it for around $150 at Lowes ages ago and it just goes. I've never sharpened the blades, tuned it up, or even changed the oil. I have cleaned and replaced the air filter a couple times, and I check to be sure it HAS oil. Other than that I prime it three times and pull the cord once and off I go. Problem is, it is too short. As I walk back and forth for an hour or so, I'm bent over to reach the handle. My poor back aches. I have to stop a few times to stretch out and walk around to release the knot in my back. I have looked at push mowers double or triple the cost and they do not seem to be any better. If I do end up buying a riding mower, it will mostly be because my back cannot take it any longer.

A definite improvement.

We got a nice gift from Karen and Randy (Realtors Extraordinaire and Best Sister and Brother). Randy surreptitiously measured our fireplace and custom cut some birch logs for us. He carefully washed and dried them to Cindy's standard and approval. They fit perfectly look beautiful.

Of course, right after I wrote my last blog we got a real soaker and and the grass grew like crazy (prompting this post). While there was some relief, the drought continues and the forecast for the next week or so is more dry weather.

In other home improvement news, the ordered screen door has arrived and sits in the garage, hopefully installment will be this week. I installed a dimmer switch for our porch lights so we could sit out there and have them on without feeling like we are on a stage. The dimmer also allows us to have low level welcoming/security lighting for the front of our home. Otherwise progress on projects will be slow for the rest of the month. I'm currently on a 13 day work stretch and we have two weddings and a short vacation at the shore before the end of the month. All that fun and relaxing will be exhausting.

Dry, Drier, Driest

The golden brown over western NY
Indicates a "Severe Drought"

I've been forecaster for central New York for almost 30 years and like fashion, I've seen the weather go in cycles. We'll have periods of wet, dry, cold, warm, snowy, and snowless that will last years, sometimes nearly a decade. The 90's were warm and dry in the summer, but produced some record snow for the winters. The 2000's turned wet, with record breaking floods and billions in damage, but the winters were rather snowless. Of course, there are shorter term periods within these that bucked the trend, but in general there seems to be a cycle of sorts. This year, we are having a very dry summer, in fact a drought, and farmers and owners of shallow wells are very concerned. Some local municipalities are issuing stern warnings about the water supply. The City of Binghamton, which gets it's water from the Susquehanna river, has stated they have no current problems. Who knows, perhaps we are entering a period of warm, dry summers and snowy winters.

The question I always get asked, is if the dry weather is related to climate change. Well, no. Climate change (which I will not get into on this blog) is a large "background' decades long trend upon which our short tern weather is painted. In other words, warm, dry, cold, wet are all short term, normal weather variations that have been, and will continue to be, going on for millions of years despite whatever background temperature change is.

Tree down up at the corner of Park & Grand

Locally, the dry weather has affected my work around the house. I gave up cutting the grass the other day because I could not tell where I had cut, and where I had not. The grass has pretty much gone dormant, and even the weeds have slowed down. I've also given up watering the grass after noting that it was not helping, and also noting that I had doubled my water bill. Yikes! Of course, there has been some rain. A recent storm brought down trees and caused a blackout on the street, but not for us. Our next door neighbor lost power for 3 1/2 hours as did most of the street, but we didn't. Weird thing is our service lines come from the same pole.

The heat caused us to purchased a window air conditioner for the bedroom. I had hoped that the solid masonry construction of the home, along with the ceiling fan, would get us through the hottest weather, but it was just too warm at night, We now are slumbering in a cool albeit noisy cave each night. It's amazing how much noisier air conditioners are once you get them home and it's 3 AM. Thing was as quiet as a church mouse in Sam's Club.

Branches ready for pickup. Note the pitiful excuse
of a "lawn" in the foreground.

Back at work on the graveyard shift this past week severely limited my repairs and improvements. I did manage to trim some more trees along the fence line by the park. Again I did this with my hand saw as my purchase of a chain saw has been stymied by indecision. It was exhausting work in the heat and barring emergencies, I think I'm done trimming for the year, or until I get a chain saw.

Sloppy yet effective repair of Katia's destruction. 

Katia, our rambunctious cat/dog who follows us around the house on all projects and tasks decided to climb the dryer vent which I had carefully cleaned and pieced back together. I used some duct tape to temporarily hold it in place but the heat of the vent actually makes this a poor choice. I should get some aluminum tape soon and do a proper repair job and permanently cat proof the vent.

This week, screen door arrives and we figure out how to get it to work in an irregular size opening. I see head scratching, swear words, and Yuengling in my future.

An embarassing confession

Pex piping extended to the washer. Note the new
stainless hoses. Classy. 

In our 29 years of marriage, there's something my wife Cindy and I have never done. Most couples do it at least once per week, some do it every day. That's right, I'm talking about laundry. Of course, we washed our clothes, but we have never owned a washer and dryer. Our previous home on Helen St had the hookups in the small kitchen which we never used. Instead, we went to a fairly nice laundromat, about a block away, for years. That changed with the purchase of our new home, which came with both a washer and dryer. However, inexplicably, the previous owner had cut the hoses to the washer, and removed the plumbing. So there sat a relatively new Maytag washer and dryer, dirty and unused. Now, I've mentioned before that my plumbing knowledge is on par with my knowledge of quantum mechanics. I do know which end of the wrench you hold onto, but I'm always concerned that any repair or installation I attempt will end in a dripping leak. Adding to the problem, was that the plumbing I needed to work on was Pex, with which I have zero tools to work. Stepping into the void was Uncle Ed, who not only has the tools, he has the experience in working with the stuff. So after a quick survey of parts needed, we were off to the store. After returning home, the installation went quickly. While the plastic doesn't look as nice and study as copper, the installation of the Pex is far easier, and the compression fittings work well. After Ed left, I took apart the dryer and venting pipes and cleaned out all the lint. We plugged both in, turned on the water, and TAA DAA! They worked perfectly. Cindy is beside herself with the convenience of going downstairs to do wash, not down the block.

Molding installation. 

There's been other significant accomplishments so far this month. I FINALLY finished the vestibule with the installation of the molding along the ceiling. My measurements and cutting of angles went very well using my little miter box. The difficulty came with getting to the corners above the closet, and nailing the stuff into our concrete walls. Oof. It looks pretty good. After a bit of touch up of the walls and cieling (after a couple of errant hammer swings) the little room is finally done.

New paint, numbers, and mailbox.

They had a big paint sale at Home Depot so at the last day of the sale Cindy and I selected a color for the outside trim work of the house. It looks to me like milk chocolate and goes nicely with the white stucco walls. One of the most visible parts of the house is the porch so I decided to start there and scraped and painted the columns and trim, as well as the railing and lattice on the stairs. I think it looks very nice. Since I had to remove the old, ratty mailbox to paint, I installed a new one that Cindy had liked at Kovarik's hardware. We had purchased new house numbers last fall so they went up as well. The house is really becoming ours now.

Other big news is that we ordered a screen door for the front of the house. It should add some much needed circulation to the downstairs, and allow me to remove the main door for some badly needed restoration. I'll hopefully have news on that project in the next blog.

Heat, Humidity and Holidays

It's been a quiet time on the home repair and maintenance front. My paid job, heat and holidays have interfered, but that's not a bad thing. My paid job as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service becomes busier and more chaotic in the summer as the weather literally heats up, and co workers head out on vacation. This leads to extended work days, overtime, and a crazy work schedule as I fill in for others. Frankly, it tires me out, especially since our office is open 24 hours a day and I may be called in at anytime.

After a cool Spring, summer has been hot so even when I have a day off, it kind of spoils my ambition to work outside in the heat and humidity. The grass is getting high but the weather and my job has kept me from it. It's not looking good for today either. However, to be honest, I have had opportunities, but have chosen to do other things. Last week, Cindy and I had ambitious plans to prep the den for renovation but when it got time to get at it, we decided the heat in the house was too much and we went to the movies. Today, a cooler day and perfect for cutting the grass after work, we plan to head down to The Dicks Sporting Goods Open and catch a little golf. I volunteered at the event for years when it was the B.C. Open, and after that we always for at least one day of golf into our schedule, but we have been in quite a while and I'm really looking forward to going.

The extent of  my fireworks.

We enjoyed a subdued 4th of July holiday. I was working graveyard shifts and the weather was warm and sticky. In the end, we had our Uncle Ed over for gourmet burgers and a picnic on the porch. Later in the evening we had planned to head out to watch the Highland Park fireworks, but ended up just sitting on the porch watching the show various neighbors put on. It's interesting to note that personal fireworks are completely illegal in New York, but there seems to be little regard for or enforcement of the law. The scanner was alive with calls for fireworks but apparently the police just ask people to stop as I did not hear of any arrests. The bangs and booms did seem to upset poor Katia as she ran around in a somewhat panicked  form looking for the source of the noise. Natasha meanwhile couldn't have cared less and snoozed though the evening, as usual.

We will not be getting this door. I
 liked the kick panel at the bottom.
Cindy wants full glass, She wins.

Speaking of Uncle Ed, I did manage to get some work in at his place and help him assemble and raise a gantry crane in his garage. It's a 1 ton crane and it was sure built like it could lift a ton as we put it together. In the end it took three of us to finally lift it into place. Luckily, Ed has a beer cooler nearby the work area. On the flip side, Ed has agreed to bring his tools and help me extend the Pex plumbing in the basement to our clothes washer. Our nearly 25 years of trips to the laundromat may soon be over!

The heat has demonstrated the need for a screened storm door on the front of the house to improve circulation. Ed has agreed to help with the installation but as usual, there are issues. Apparently, MOST doors are 36 or 30 inches. Ours is not. Ours is 34 5/8 inches. This takes you from buying a stock door to ordering a custom door at astronomical increases in prices. However, I'm not ready to give in. Home Depot sells 34 inch doors at stock price. Unfortunately, they say their 34 inch door will fit openings up to 34 3/8 inches. Can I adapt the door to fit my opening? I sure hope so and plan to try, even if it means adding a thin strip of molding to narrow the gap. This is where the addition of another mind will help. I'm pretty confident in our ability to solve this one. (gulp!).

The rain, the park, and other things

Splash block back in place.

We are in a light to moderate drought here in central New York this summer. Drought, of course, is relative and folks in California would likely laugh at our "dryness". In any case, a drought it is and in the middle of it, in typical New York fashion, we had flooding. In just a couple hours three to four inches of rain fell over the Binghamton area. Suddenly, the sun broke through but it was to late and the heavy rain led to flooding of underpasses, parking lots, and unfortunately, our basement. It was minor to be sure, less than an inch in the corner, but it was poorly timed, and poorly placed wetting some large and thick pieces of particle board I was saving for future projects, It was a quick clean up even with my mini shop vac but the damage was done, both physically and mentally as I will take partial blame. I had removed the gutter splash block to help the grass grow. This allowed the gushers coming out of the downspouts to run right down along the basement wall.

My yard, the fence, and the park beyond.

As I have mentioned many times, we have a large lot which is bordered on the north by a small city park. Between the park and our yard is a 3 foot chain link fence that is rather beat up, but serves the purpose of marking the border along with a row of trees. A couple months ago, the new Binghamton Parks Commissioner saw me in the yard and stopped in to chat. He has begun an initiative to remove the fences around the city parks and wanted to know if I objected. Well, yes. What's to keep kids from playing to discover my large side yard and thinking it's part of the park? In any case we had a nice conversation but I was left with the feeling that even though he had asked, the fence was coming down, So, after some thought I decided to call the mayor's office to voice my opinion (I've met the mayor, he seems like a nice guy) and was firmly blocked from any access by an assistant. I also shot the mayor a message on Twitter to no effect. If anyone has an inside line to the mayor, please let me know. I'd really hate to lose that fence.

Weeds gone, marble in.

I was pretty embarrassed by my whining about the motion light in my previous blog and practically the next day I had the new LED lighting installed. For now I have it set for a low light, all night illumination that becomes full brightness when it senses movement.

The weed problem around the back corner and back of the house had bugged me to no end so I ripped up all the weeds, put down some weed blocker plastic and covered with marble chips that simply caught my eye at home Depot.

Stump removal by a free professional.

A couple days ago a friendly neighbor dropped by to follow through on a promise to remove the stumps that were leftover from our bush removal last fall. Jim showed up with a chainsaw and all the safety equipment to remove the stumps. Things were going well until he discovered that some bees had built a hive in the stump. He asked if we had some spray and despite knowing that somewhere we have it, I couldn't lay my hands on any bee spray. No problem Jim ran down the street to his place and came back to end the threat and finished removing the stumps.

Stumps are gone, grass is still patchy. 

 I'm still cutting the lawn with my old and tiny push mower. Prices are starting to drop on riding tractors so while I get exercise I'm potentially saving money. Also, there is still the Fall equipment auction to look forward to and perhaps get a bargain. In the meantime, I'll continue to push and extol the virtues of lawn mowing and the exercise that comes with it to my lovely wife
and perhaps she'll join me in this fun task. .

So, did anyone pick up on the references to a certain cheesy 60's bubblegum pop song in this blog? If so, please  list any references you found in the comments section below. Thanks for reading.