I guess this is more of a Stuff-I-Do-And-Am-Going-To-Complain-About type post.
Our Explorer needs new tires. We've used Sears many times in the past for simple car needs, especially tires, and they've always come through. Today seemed to be the exception.
I went to Sears automotive at lunch, with my co-workers following, to drop off the car, head out to eat, and get the call saying ... you need new tires. The check-in line was so long, I decided to drop off after lunch.
I got back to Sears, again with co-workers following, to give me a ride back to the office. I get in line, which is shorter, and wait. The one check-in person is not exactly speeding along and I waited quite a while before anyone helped me. Twenty minutes into this, I'm getting upset and anxious that my co-workers are getting upset and anxious waiting for me. Finally I get the car checked in, head back to the office, and wait for the call saying ... you need new tires. I got on-line to Sears' website and checked out their selection of tires based on my vehicle and picked out a few possibilities.
I got the call from Sears. They said ... you need new tires. And you need new rear brake pads and rotors. This is at 4:30PM. I am shocked by the brake news and try to skip over that for the moment while I go through the tire choices I came up with. They didn't have any of the tires I wanted and, to make a long story short, the only tires they had available were essentially garbage. A few calls to the Goodyear store, and I decided that they would get my money for my new tires.
Aren't vehicles wonderful?
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Dryer vent fun - the repairs
Well after figuring out that there was a complete break in the vent about three feet away from the original hole in the wall, I bravely (read, slowly and carefully) pulled the washer away from the wall and began cutting away at the drywall. I found interesting artifacts like ... a dryer vent hole that had been cut and then poorly patched right behind the washer which, fortunately, was where I had to open up anyway. I found the following to be the situation:
Note the old metal/paper tubing on the ground with the duct tape around one end and the small bit of old white plastic tubing peeking out near the top right part of the hole. The thin metallized tubing had been taped to the original plastic dryer vent, which runs the rest of the way from there, up the basement wall, through the kitchen floor, and out through the brick wall. We have talked about replacing the entire vent with the proper hard metal pipe from top to bottom, but that means a lot of expense and mess. We may end up doing that when we re-model our kitchen, since we'll have access to the original tubing again.
Well, this is how everything looks now.
I am going to put up some kind of removable access panel over the big hole behind the washer and try to do a better connection from the dryer to the entry into the wall.
Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?
Note the old metal/paper tubing on the ground with the duct tape around one end and the small bit of old white plastic tubing peeking out near the top right part of the hole. The thin metallized tubing had been taped to the original plastic dryer vent, which runs the rest of the way from there, up the basement wall, through the kitchen floor, and out through the brick wall. We have talked about replacing the entire vent with the proper hard metal pipe from top to bottom, but that means a lot of expense and mess. We may end up doing that when we re-model our kitchen, since we'll have access to the original tubing again.
Well, this is how everything looks now.
I am going to put up some kind of removable access panel over the big hole behind the washer and try to do a better connection from the dryer to the entry into the wall.
Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?
Monday, August 24, 2009
The dryer vent fun
Here's a story that's going to be short in some places and long in others. It's terribly exciting overall, but cool in some ways.
A few weeks ago, I discovered no air coming out of the vent on the outside of the house while the dryer was running. I went downstairs and noticed that there was lint gathered around the hole in the wall where the dryer vent went in and that the lint was swaying in some kind of breeze. Uh Oh.
Procrastination takes hold as I contemplate all the things that I might have to do here. I have spent considerable time behind this dryer replacing parts and attaching and re-attaching the hose, so I know how much fun it can be. The other part of this is that we had our downstairs bathroom re-done a couple of years ago and I was not looking forward to the probability of having to tear up the wall to find the problem.
After coming home one day when it was 105 degrees outside with the A/C running at full tilt inside, I noticed it was considerably warmer in the kitchen than anywhere else. I figured out that this was due to the dryer venting into the wall downstairs and that warm air coming up through various hidden holes and crevices into the kitchen. Needless to say, procrastination stopped.
I wasn't willing to simply start tearing up the wall to see if i could find the problem. I needed a way to see how far in the break had occured. After some great advice from my lovely wife, I came up with this contraption to be able to get live video from the inside of the dryer vent.
This piece of ingenuity is made up of the following: 1. mini wireless video camera originally intended for an aerial video project I still want to do. 2. 9-volt battery to power it. 3. small flashlight strapped to battery to provide light. 4. dryer vent cleaning brush with the bristles taped flat with all of the above strapped to it, to be able to push the camera rig into the dryer vent AND be able to control and retrieve it.
The camera transmits to a receiver which I had hooked into our USB TV tuner which was plugged into our laptop which was running Windows Media Encoder so that I could see the live feed (and record some) of what was in the tube (phew!). This worked very well from the outside of the house going down into the vent. I had to take the camera rig off of the vent brush and put it into our shop-vac hose to be able to get it to go in the flexible tubing in the basement.
What I found was that the vent was very clogged at the top and needed to be cleaned out and that the vent tubing had a complete break about 3 feet away from the hole in the wall in the basement. I felt very good that I didn't have to completely guess where the break was and I also had an idea of what other cleaning I had to do.
Actual repairs to be seen in following post. I can't have all of the excitement in one!
A few weeks ago, I discovered no air coming out of the vent on the outside of the house while the dryer was running. I went downstairs and noticed that there was lint gathered around the hole in the wall where the dryer vent went in and that the lint was swaying in some kind of breeze. Uh Oh.
Procrastination takes hold as I contemplate all the things that I might have to do here. I have spent considerable time behind this dryer replacing parts and attaching and re-attaching the hose, so I know how much fun it can be. The other part of this is that we had our downstairs bathroom re-done a couple of years ago and I was not looking forward to the probability of having to tear up the wall to find the problem.
After coming home one day when it was 105 degrees outside with the A/C running at full tilt inside, I noticed it was considerably warmer in the kitchen than anywhere else. I figured out that this was due to the dryer venting into the wall downstairs and that warm air coming up through various hidden holes and crevices into the kitchen. Needless to say, procrastination stopped.
I wasn't willing to simply start tearing up the wall to see if i could find the problem. I needed a way to see how far in the break had occured. After some great advice from my lovely wife, I came up with this contraption to be able to get live video from the inside of the dryer vent.
This piece of ingenuity is made up of the following: 1. mini wireless video camera originally intended for an aerial video project I still want to do. 2. 9-volt battery to power it. 3. small flashlight strapped to battery to provide light. 4. dryer vent cleaning brush with the bristles taped flat with all of the above strapped to it, to be able to push the camera rig into the dryer vent AND be able to control and retrieve it.
The camera transmits to a receiver which I had hooked into our USB TV tuner which was plugged into our laptop which was running Windows Media Encoder so that I could see the live feed (and record some) of what was in the tube (phew!). This worked very well from the outside of the house going down into the vent. I had to take the camera rig off of the vent brush and put it into our shop-vac hose to be able to get it to go in the flexible tubing in the basement.
What I found was that the vent was very clogged at the top and needed to be cleaned out and that the vent tubing had a complete break about 3 feet away from the hole in the wall in the basement. I felt very good that I didn't have to completely guess where the break was and I also had an idea of what other cleaning I had to do.
Actual repairs to be seen in following post. I can't have all of the excitement in one!
Bow pulpit work on the boat
This is a picture of the anchor locker from the outside. I believe I need to add two access holes, one one each side of the interior near the bow pulpit stanchions in order to get access to the nuts to be able to remove the pulpit.
This is a picture of the same area, only from the inside of the cabin. I thought maybe this would be a good way to go instead of from the outside, but I'm not sure.
Either way, I am planning on installing access ports similar to the one shown in the top picture once I have made the repairs by replacing the rusty nuts and bolts and fixing leaking fiberglass.
This is a picture of the same area, only from the inside of the cabin. I thought maybe this would be a good way to go instead of from the outside, but I'm not sure.
Either way, I am planning on installing access ports similar to the one shown in the top picture once I have made the repairs by replacing the rusty nuts and bolts and fixing leaking fiberglass.
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