February is for plumbing

Our laundry faucet has been dripping...

drip

drip

drip

drip

drip

I think our home improvement project for February will be to replace this faucet. We already tried replacing the washers, but that didn't help much.

In our home improvement course, we learned of the existence of new-fangled compression valves that don't require soldering (have a look at the second page of this example), which makes for quick plumbing work, especially when the faucet is attached using fancy braided flexible hose.

Maybe we'll finish the plumbing job in an afternoon!

What will be February's project?

The month is almost over (there's only about a week left) and we haven't done any work on the house!   :-(

I am thinking of removing some ugly wallpaper that leads down to the basement so I can paint the drywalled ceiling above the stairs and put in pot lights. That might be a feasable project for this month.

Here are a couple of photos of the ugly wallpaper:



Actually, I find the whole hallway pretty ugly. I don't care for the 1970s yellow and orange everywhere.

Skiboarding is awesome!

Last week, Georges, my friend Cathy and I took a few days off and went skiing at Blue Mountain.

I am a beginner when it comes to skiing, and I hadn't skied in two years, so I was a bit nervous on the first day. Luckily, I didn't sustain any major injuries (unlike the first time I ever tried skiing when I severely sprained my ankle)!

The weird thing was that after the first day, the muscles in my shoulders and arms were really sore, but not my legs! It seems that having to hold up the ski poles really aggravated my repetitive strain injuries. So, for the remaining days of our trip, I decided to forgo the poles and rented skiboards (a.k.a. mini-skis, skate skis, or snowblades), which are much easier to control than regular skis.

Skiboarding is lots of fun!!! I enjoyed it so much that I am now considering getting a pair of skiboards. These little skis made it so much easier to learn, and I was having a lot of fun by the end of the trip. This was the first time that I could really say I like skiing.

Robot Fun!

My Roomba arrived yesterday, just three days after I ordered it from The Shopping Channel (TSC) online, which was unexpectedly fast! With taxes and shipping, it cost me about $280. I have 30 days to try it out, and if I don't like it, TSC will give me a full refund.

So, I plugged Roomba in and let it charge overnight. When I got home from work today, I tried it out, and here's what I discovered.

It doesn't do a perfect job (e.g., it can't get into corners because it's round), but it picked up a lot of dust and fuzz from the floor that I didn't even know was there. We had swept and mopped the floors about a week ago, so I didn't expect to see much stuff in the dust chamber of the Roomba, but I let it run for about half an hour and then checked to see what Roomba found. It actually picked up a whole bunch of stuff!

Roomba had some trouble with our bathroom mat. It actually picked it up and carried it along for a bit until I freed it. I guess the mat is too small and light. And you definitely have to clear away any wires or cords from the floor before turning on Roomba because it gets caught on those quite easily.

Our coffee table was a little confusing to Roomba, causing it to clean the same areas of the floor many times over. And Roomba got caught and stuck on our big floor registers.

In conclusion...

• Roomba is a lot of fun to watch (I actually liked it instantly after I turned it on)!
  
• Roomba cleans in places I don't like cleaning, like under and behind the sofa, and under the kitchen table and around the chair legs.
  
• Because of the way Roomba works, you have to keep junk off your floors (but that's good motivation for keeping the house tidy anyway).
  
• Roomba is like a pet, except that it's a robot that likes to clean! Yay! :D
  
• I think I'm going to keep my Roomba.
  

In case you were wondering, Roomba is about 1 foot (32 cm) in diameter and 3 inches (8 cm) tall:

Don't buy this screwdriver!

Here is a product that I strongly discourage anyone from buying.

It's the Retr@ct-@-B1t screwdriver that's sold through H0me H@rdw@re (the name of the product and the company have been disguised for my protection)!

The bits are built into a chamber in the handle, so you slide a little button to make a bit appear. The reason for this design is so you'll never lose your bits. In theory, it's a good idea, but in practice, this design does not work.

The problem is that after you've used the screwdriver a few times, the locking mechanism gets loose, so the bit doesn't stay sticking out if you apply any pressure on it.

Here's a sequence of shots that demonstrate what happens when I press down on the screwdriver:



This is bad and makes using this screwdriver quite frustrating!

I saw a TV commercial for an "improved" version of this product where there's an extra lock that you engage after sliding out your bit, but I really don't think I will bother trying it, unless this screwdriver has some kind of product guarantee or recall that allows me to exchange it for the newer version. Hmm...

Humidifier repaired

As promised, here are the photos of the repaired humidifier.




Actually, there's not much to look at, since everything looks almost the same as before.

The major change was the reinstallation of the humidistat above the humidifier (indicated by the red arrow in the wide photo), and an electrical box containing the power converter and wire connections (see the detailed photo showing the electrical box with its cover open).

The humidifier originally came with an adapter that plugged into the wall receptacle, but that adapter no longer worked. So, we made our own adapter and stuffed the contents into the electrical box for safety. A wire with a plug comes out of the electrical box, so it still plugs into a wall receptacle (not shown in the photo).

I'm not crazy about all the wires strung across the furnace to the tool cabinet where the electrical box is mounted, but having the humidifier working again is great, so I'll live with the wires.

I didn't know what a big difference it would make to have the house at the right level of humidity. My nose doesn't feel all dry when I wake up in the morning, the skin on my arms and legs isn't all flaky any more, and the house actually feels warmer even though the thermostat settings have not been changed!

This repair was easy, inexpensive (maybe $40, not including the money I lost on the eBay auction for that dud adapter), and has significantly improved my comfort level in the house. And even though it doesn't really add any value to the house, I'd call this project a success!