Home Improv

Appliances

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:50:00 +0000

I purchased a refrigerator, Range, and microwave on Monday from Lowes.

Samsung French Door refrigerator (RF263AEBP) with ice maker without the through the door option and no water dispenser. This thing is huge (25.8 cu. ft.), yet it uses a mere 462 Kwh per year. Our old refrigerator used around 900 Kwh per year. That should save us around $40 per year on our electricity bill. Retail $1499

We decided on the top of the line GE Profile Free standing electric range (PB978DPBB). It has two ovens, an internal meat thermometer, and a griddle feature. Our current 1979 vintage oven is down to just one working burner. Retail $1949

And a GE Profile Microwave. Retail $249

The total retail price would have been around $3724. The cheapest I could find it online was $3319 (with free shipping). I ended up paying around $3240 with tax and free delivery using the Lowes Price match. It was a bit of a hassle, but worth it for the savings. The first time I showed up the clerk didn't want to give me the cheaper price because I didn't have proof. I showed up again on Saturday with proof, but they couldn't order the range, so I had to show up again on Monday.

It will take several weeks for the range to show up since it's a special order, so they are holding the other appliances and will deliver them together.

New Refrigerator

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:48:00 +0000

Buying a new energy efficient refrigerator is a frustrating process. Most sites don't have the energy star guides (the yellow flyers that say how much power a device uses). Sites like Lowes.com allow you to compare features between competing models, but not how much power they use, they do allow you to download the energy guides individually.

You have to pay attention to how much power it uses, because sometimes they get the math wrong and two models with dramatically different power needs will have the exact same cost of operation listed. Also, the little scale on the flyer is bogus. You know the one that says "Cost Range Of Similar Models"...I think this scale is based on very tight parameters, models of exact same size (like 25.8 cu. ft.), type (french door bottom mount freezer) and only within that particular manufacturer... It's better to just evaluate them based on the "Estimated Yearly Electricity Use"

My refrigerator is at least 13 years old, the energy star website estimates that it uses 857 kwh/year to run (and costs $91/year). I'm looking for a larger refrigerator, preferably french door with a bottom mount freezer and an ice maker as well as an internal water dispenser. Currently, I've found a Samsung model that is 25.8 cu. ft. that uses somewhere between 462 - 505 kwh/year to run (and costs just $49/year - saving me $42/year).

Part of me thinks I should get a top freezer replacement of almost equal size that only uses around 330 kwh/year, saving about $56 (over our current fridge). This really would be the better option for the planet, but with a family of 5, our current fridge is usually maxed out and the freezer is always maxed out.

Kitchen Remodel

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:17:00 +0000

Our house was built in 1979. The stove is original to the house as are the cabinets, but I think the previous owners replaced the cabinet doors when they decided to sell the house. The original refrigerator was in the garage when we moved in, but the previous owners had put a new refrigerator in the kitchen (which makes it at least 13 years old now). I think we've gone through 2 dishwashers since we've been here. The stove barely functions, the cabinet doors are cracked and the refrigerator is making some crazy knocking noises. It's time for a remodel.

I met with Charlie so he could take measurements and get an idea for what we wanted. I'll be doing the demolition myself to save cash and I'll be buying the appliances myself for the same reason. My guess is that Charlie is going to come back with an estimate of $20k to $25k for the project.

Rheem Heat Pump Water Heater

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:03:00 +0000

I didn't know these existed, traditional water heaters work like a toaster, they have an electric heating element - essentially a resistor that turns electricity into heat. But this unit works on the same principle as your refrigerator but in reverse. In your refrigerator, the system takes the heat inside the unit and dumps it out into the room and in the process cools your milk.

In this Hot water heater, it takes the heat in the room and dumps it into the water. It is twice as efficient as a standard hot water heater. They claim that will save about $286 per year on your electric bill. The problem as I see it is that the unit costs $1500 not including tax and installation. It is eligible for a 30% tax credit (so you'll save $500). I believe that makes it 3.6 years to payback its cost not counting installation costs.

Since these have very similar 'guts' to a refrigerator, I would expect it to last just as long. I think when our water heater dies, we'll replace it with one of these.

Sock Box Progress

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:57:00 +0000

I went to Lowes and bought Oak Plywood and an Oak Board. There were 2 sheets of 2' x 2'x 1/2" and I also bought a sheet of 2' x 2' x 3/4". The Board was 1/2"(actual) x 6" x 9'. I cut the 1/2" plywood to produce 3 boards that were 1' x 2' and 2 boards that were 1' x 1'. I also cut out a 1' x 2' board out of the 3/4" plywood. I used a dado blade to cut "teeth" on the 1' sides of the longer boards. I was cutting 1/2" deep, so that the boards would sit inside each other. I had the dado blade set up to be 3/8" wide and I was hoping to have a 3/8" cut then a 3/8" uncut area alternately down the side of the baord. In reality, my jig wasn't very accurate, so when I cut the smaller boards, I had to transfer the measurements from the other boards and cut them to fit.

Here you can see the boards cut, but not yet glued. Also in the picture you can see the 1' x 2' board that will be the lid and the 1' x 2' x 3/4" board that will be the base.

I cut two 9 inch pieces of the board for the top so they were 1/2" x 6" x 9". Then I cut a 6 inch piece off the board for the handles 1/2" x 6" x 6". This was cut into 1" strips 1/2" x 1" x 6". Two of those strips were routed on all four 6 inch sides. The other 4 strips were routed on two of the long sides. The remaining board got cut into three long strips. The first strip was 3" wide, the second strip was 2" wide, and the final strip was 1" wide. I then routed a profile onto the two wider strips. The original was just an angle cut, but I used a 3/8" roundover bit set deep enough to produce a little shoulder. The long strips were cut into 4 pieces and they were overly long so that I could cut them more precisely with the miter cuts for the corners. I knew I needed the two longer pieces to be at least 25 inches (24 inches plus 1/2" extra on either side) and the two shorter pieces to be 13 inches long (12 inches plus 1/2" either side). Here's a picture of the top pieces, trim pieces, and handles.

I wanted a deep red color to the oak, so I used Minwax Sedona Red for the stain, then Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane to protect it. The color came out nice, but I would have prefered something a bit more red.

The trim pieces and handles were all glued on using Titebond III glue. The horizontal pieces of the handle were screwed on. I also used screws on the top pieces, but that forced the top pieces off the lid, so I wouldn't do that again. I placed hinges on the lid and attached it to the bottom half, but it wasn't exact, so I had to break out the chisels to open up the top a bit in areas so that it would smoothly open and close. The final touch was to cut out the copper for the edges and nail them in place with 1/2" copper tacks. Here you can see the copper added.

If I was to do this again, I would redesign the handles to make them stronger. I was definitely unhappy with the way they came out. Also, when cutting the dado's in the earlier stage of construction, I would definitely go with wider cuts, 1/2" deep by 1" or 2" wide. I would also search for a better way to make the copper pieces. I used a pair of scissors and freehanded the cuts except for the complicated cuts. In that case, I cut one and traced it onto the other pieces. Here's where I got the copper sheet and tacks. I used the 10 mil sheet. I was afraid the oils on my skin would discolor the copper, so I used rubber gloves whenever I had to touch the copper. I coated the copper with Polyurethane as soon as possible so that it would stay copper colored.

Sock Box

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:00 +0000

I have an old pine chest that is pretty beat up. My family has had it for probably 20 years. We originally used it as a coffee table/sock box. I've always liked it, so now that I've become Mr. Handyman around the house, I thought I would recreate the box in something a bit more durable than pine. As you can see, the handles on the sides are missing and the top has a crack in it along the length.

When my cousin Christie announced that she was getting married, I thought it would make the perfect gift. Unfortunately, it's taken me a lot longer to complete than I thought. She was married over a month ago and I'm still not done yet.

The inside dimensions of the box are 1' x 1' x 2' The trim pieces on the outside are from 1/2" pieces. I routed mine with a more elaborate profile than the one on the original. The corners are covered in copper.

I Saved Over $200

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:23:00 +0000

I purchased a rekey kit from Change-A-Lock and it arrived in the mail today. I have 5 kwikset locks and one Masterlock, which meant 6 different keys on my keychain. After about 30 minutes of work and the $15 rekey kit, I was down to 2 keys, 1 Masterlock and 1 Kwikset.

I stopped in at a locksmith yesterday and asked about getting my locks rekeyed, $95 service call just to show up at the house, then $32 per lock for the rekey service. Ouch!

I Love My Driveway

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:46:00 +0000

We've been in our house about 12 years and I've never done anything to the driveway. The asphalt was starting to get wavey, creating a rut where our car tires go and cracks were forming. My father-in-law passed along a copy of "Family Handyman" magazine and they recommend sealing the driveway every 5 years, Woops! I spent a day powerwashing the driveway and then filling the cracks with a rubberized crack filling compound.

I bought a bunch of 5 gallon drums of 10 year driveway sealer, it was the best stuff they had and came with all sorts of good stuff like sand and urethane gel...If you're going to do this for your own driveway, definitely spend the $6 and buy a mixer from the paint section.
I didn't initially buy one and it was a real chore mixing the sealer. I bought one for the second coat and it made things so much easier. BTW, I drilled a hole in one of the lids, and pulled the mixer through it before connecting it to the drill, that way it wouldn't splatter everywhere.

I went for a 2 hour bike ride between coats and when I came back, it was ready for the second coat. Here's a before (you cant see it, but the driveway had lots of paint stains, dirt, and believe it or not toe nail polish.)

And an after

I know, it might be hard to tell from these two photos, but if you look at the before, I had grass growing in the crack at the bottom right hand corner of the picture. My plan was for two thin coats, but the first coat went on a little thick, mostly because it hadn't been done in so long that there were a lot of cracks and crevices that needed to be filled up (it also used almost an extra 5 gallons more than I expected too). Since the first coat had left a much smoother surface, I used a lot less sealer on the second coat. It looks so good right now, I find myself drawn to the window to look at it. Sad, I know.

Beat The Drum And Hold The Phone, The Sun Came Out Today

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:31:00 +0000

FINALLY.

My solar thermal domestic hot water system is up and running. One of the panels was damaged, so we couldn't install it on the roof late last year. The company I purchased the system from sent me a replacement part. They told me that I had to squish the sides together before installing the part. So, I built this clamp to hold the sides together.
I put the top 2x4 piece on after I finished the repair just in case.

The contractor started Monday morning and after a couple false starts, managed to get the panel up on the roof. The plumber then finished up.

After filling it up with distilled water, we had just enough sun to test the system and it worked well. Then I had to wait and wait and wait as we had rain Tuesday and Wednesday.

Finally, the sun came out today and we had solar heated water. The water from the street comes in around 60 degrees and after the sun came out the water topped out at about 130 degrees.

Table Saw

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:04:00 +0000

During construction, I borrowed my Brother-In-Law's table saw. It was so handy and versatile, I really hated to return it. This past week, as I was preparing to fix the solar thermal panel, I tried using my circular saw to cut a 2x4 in half. It couldn't get through the board. I had to finish up with a handsaw. So, I went out to Lowes, bought a new blade, then attempted to take the old blade off. It had been torqued way too tight and wouldn't budge. OUCH. It was an impossible task. I ended up buying some penetrating stuff that's supposed to loosen the bolt up. Who knows if it will work.

Meanwhile, I needed something to cut up a 2x4. So I bought a Skil Table Saw at Lowes (we have Lowes Gift cards from B'Days and Christmas)

Railing

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:15:00 +0000

I thought the stairs would be the hard part, but the railing turned out to be the hardest part. All the parts came from Lowes. I sanded and applied polyurethane to the wood parts. I tried the water based polyurethane, but I wasn't happy with the results, I'll be sticking to the oil based versions of Minwax next time.

The directions (see hyperlink above) are like a choose your own adventure. The problem is on top of bouncing back and forth, the nomenclature is confusing and difficult.

In my particular case, the original railing that goes the rest of the way up the stairs is NOT parallel to the kneewall (the part the lower railing is resting on). The only piece that didn't have to be cut with an angle was the first starting newel (post at ground level). That means that the bottom shoerail (piece that holds the bottom of the white posts) is at a different angle than the railing. Which means the newel posts at either end are different sizes and we had to be careful cutting the white posts to make sure they fit.

This literally took my father-in-law and myself all day for a 4 foot section of railing -containing 10 pieces of wood. I'm happy with the way it came out. The old railing was a hideous steel POS.

Housed Stringer

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:22:00 +0000

I've been sanding, staining, and varnishing the wood I bought from Lumber Liquidators for several weeks now.

Side Note: Lowes price on the steps was at or below Lumber Liquidators (LL) price, I didn't find the wood at Lowes until after I bought from LL. I had issues with LL. I thought I wrote about this previously but I couldn't find the post (must have been in my imagination). Here's the scoop. I went to LL and they were seriously understaffed. The guy who seemed like he was running things acted like he had been building wood floors for 50 years, but was most likely spouting off things he had learned at the LL employee training program. There was a couple asking about laminate and he made them sound like idiots for even considering it. He was of course pushing them to buy the more expensive hardwood (the real deal, not the hardwood laminate). In the end, this guy reminded me of the stereotype of a used car salesman. When I came back to pick up my wood, there were a bunch of salespeople and the actual store manager was correcting "used car salesman" guy in a "I'm tired of dealing with this guy" manner. Your Experience May Vary.

The sanding, staining, and varnishing paid off big time, the wood looks beautiful. My In-Laws showed up yesterday, as always my mother-in-law watched the kids and my father-in-law helped me build the new steps. First of all, I have to say, the amount of dirt that had worked through the carpet onto the stairs was disgusting. Every time I pulled up carpet, there was always a ton of dirt underneath the carpet and the stairs were no exception. Carpet is porous, so the dirt just filters down to the wood underneath. I know that's not a revelation, but the amount of dirt was startling.

As you can see, the stringers have been routed out so that the treads and risers just slide in to place. Wedges keep them aligned properly. This is known as a housed stringer-I bought a book about stairs and there was only one image in the whole book on housed stringers. These stairs were assembled at a factory somewhere and shipped to the site when the house was being built. Because they were assembled off site, We knew we were going to face some issues with the top step and riser as well as the bottom riser, we are expecting the old HVAC unit to be in the way at the top. But, as it turns out, the header holding up the stairs was in the way as you can see in this image next image.

We ended up routing out the channel enough to slide the step into place. We then screwed 2x4s into the stringer to hold up the step.

Unless you're a rockstar, you may never get the chance to take a chainsaw to your house.

The end result was beautiful:

I still have the top riser to put in place, the riser I had was too short by about an inch. The top riser will get glued and screwed to the old riser to hold it in place (the same thing we did to the bottom riser).

Hot Water

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:20:00 +0000

We're looking forward to having the solar thermal system hooked up in January. First, the panel is taking up most of my garage. Second, we've been running out of hot water in the master shower and could use the extra capacity. I'm thinking it's going to be a late January installation.

Oak Stairs

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:13:00 +0000

I've been working on and off around the house (mostly off), trying to finish (it never ends does it?). I've spent a couple of days sanding the treads and risers that will be going into my staircase. My father-in-law loaned me an orbital sander for the job (definitely a must have to make the work go faster).

This past weekend, I spent most of a day staining the wood. It looks amazing. The next step is to coat the treads and risers with a protective layer (three actually) of polyurethane. Each coat takes about 8 hours to dry and I'll have to be careful to avoid getting dust on the finish, so I anticipate this is going to take a couple days to finish before I can start cutting and fitting.

Things To Do Differently

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:43:00 +0000

If I had to do this over again, I would definitely add radiant heat to the Master Bathroom floor. The tile gets really cold.

I would also mount the control panel for the steam shower inside the steam shower. Mainly because that's where it was designed to go; it has a temperature sensor on it that tells the unit when to shut off, but since it's mounted outside the shower, that feature doesn't work. I'll talk to Gallick about moving it, but if they don't, I'll probably move it at a later date myself.

Gallick Corporation

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:25:00 +0000

So, Gallick is officially done with their contract work on the house. We have a 1 year warranty plus work on the solar heating left, so we'll still see them around. They finished 2 weeks earlier than the contract deadline, so we owed them a small bonus. I'm happy with their work and would recommend them to my neighbors. ABL has issues with Charlie, but she would gladly deal with John again. In the grand scheme of things ABL's issues are minor and not related to the quality of the final product.

We had watched a lot of Holmes On Homes, so we were prepared for the worst. Charlie is definitely a fair and honest builder. As far as costs go, Charlie was reasonable, I did have a little sticker shock when I received the bills for the solar thermal system. That would be my fault though, I didn't get an estimate before he started, so I was pretty much stuck paying whatever he charged. My budget for his portion of that work was $3000, but he's charged me $4600 so far and there's probably another $1400 worth of work left. I evaluate that in the larger context of the contract work which was over 100 grand, so to me, 1 thousand or 2 thousand over is just a percent or 2 in the grand scheme of things.

Plumbing Problems

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:16:00 +0000

So, I got a call from one of my neighbors. They were having the same issue that we had with the plumbing. They live at 12603, we are 12607, and we heard that 12611 has had plumbing problems. 12605 and 12609 have so far been spared the plumbing issues. My guess is that at the time, the builder was running two crews and they were leapfrogging down the street. We got the inexperienced crew.

Closets

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:11:00 +0000

My Father-In-Law just finished up the closets and just in time, my bedroom has become the dumping ground for all the things that could possibly come out of a dryer. Speaking of which, our dryer isn't drying anymore. The spouse is dropping major hints that I need to get it replaced. It's rapidly moving up my list of things to do...Anything to put off the working on the stairs.

Window Trim

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:19:00 +0000

To save a little money on this job (around $1000), I had the builder pull the window trim out of his contract and I did it myself. It's actually not that hard when you have a compound miter saw (on loan from my Brother-In-Law). It took some trial and error, but wood is cheap. I did buy myself a present to help...A Skil Router...
This thing is sweeeet. I should have gotten a router table to go with it, but c'est la vie.

For the long window in the bathroom, I made the center a little thicker than the ends (in a nice gentle arc) so it would act as a shelf for candles or shampoo bottles. It's a nice little touch that I wouldn't have had if I let the builder do it.

I'll have to go back and sink the nails in all the trim, when I find my tool. Then I'll have to apply caulk or spackle to the holes.

Flooring Final

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:56:00 +0000

So, I had the contractor send somebody over to finish the flooring that the plumber flooded. My In-Laws have stopped by a couple of times, my mother-in-law watchs the kids while my father-in-law handles some of the tasks on my list. I was able to lay the Pergo flooring on my ground floor area in a little over two days by myself, which included ripping up half of it to reposition the plastic underlayment. (Note: The directions call for overlapping the plastic by 8" on either side, which means a 2.5' wide roll of plastic actually only covers 14" - Yes, it means you have to buy nearly 3 times more plastic)

I have one more Pergo floor to install and then I'll have someone come in and put down carpet in three rooms. I still have to install trim around the flooring in some areas. I also will be replacing the carpeted contractor stairs with Oak hardwood stairs and I'll be adding a nice railing (the old railing was an iron POS that was probably leftover from some exterior job the original builder had lying around).

The floors look awesome.

The Great Flood

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:10:00 +0000

We left the house for a couple hours yesterday. The plumbers were finishing up their work. When we returned, I gave a tour of the new addition to one of our friends. During the tour, I noticed that the floor in the walk-in-closet was under a thin layer of water...I soaked it up with a towel and more water started draining out of the Pergo. Now, you're not supposed to wet mop Pergo, so I'm guessing leaving it soaking in a layer of water is bad.

I immediately called my contractor, who called the plumber, who showed up bright and early this morning to locate the leak. The plumber investigated for quite some time and finally called the guys that had been working on the job. They admitted that while they were working, they had removed a cap from a pipe in the bathroom vanity and somehow the water got turned on. They had cleaned up the flood in the bathroom, so that by the time we got home, there was no water in there, leaving an inexplicable mess in the walk-in-closet.

The plumber offered to pay for more Pergo, if I had to pull it up, which later the contractor confirmed was the best course of action. The stuff is meant to go down, but not to come back up. I eventually had to take out 4 rows of Pergo to get rid of all the soaked boards and most of them got severely chipped while I was removing them. It's going to take me hours to replace them. There are three complicated cuts in the last row, approximately 2 easy cuts, and then the T-Moulding for the doorways needs to be trimmed to fit and that can be complicated.

Argh. I was so ready to move on to other parts of the house.

Flooring

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:34:00 +0000

My father-in-law came down again on Thursday to help me finish up. He worked on the baseboard trim, while I finished the flooring. Then I put a first coat of primer on all the doors.

What's left? The windows need trim (I'm waiting for inspiration). The downstairs flooring (I'm waiting for Lowes to get a new shipment of Pergo). The shower doors (Charlie is waiting for the glass place to create them). The sinks for both bathrooms (Charlie ordered them Friday). The stairs need to be covered in wood (I need to find a supplier). There's lots of little stuff that'll take awhile to finish up. But we should be able to start moving stuff today.

Final Inspection

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:34:00 +0000

The final inspection was last Friday. The inspector walked around a bit with Charlie. The inspector wanted to fail it for several things, (siding - I'm getting estimates, Shower doors - on order, bathroom sinks - on order) but Charlie talked him into passing almost everything, but noting the items that were incomplete. So for instance, we passed HVAC with no restrictions, but failed plumbing because the sinks aren't in yet.

Flooring

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:05:00 +0000

ABL's brother James and his GF Miss Patty came over to help us apply color to the walls. After they left, ABL and I did a bit more painting by ourselves. Then my parents and my Aunt and Uncle showed up to knock out the rest of the painting.
Here's RJ painting.

My dad and I started laying down a Pergo Laminate floor (Summerview Oak from the Casual Living collection). The Pergo comes with an underlayment already glued to the bottom and snaps in to place without glue. The floor is floating, meaning it isn't attached to the walls or the subfloor. It just lays there like a wooden rug. The Pergo was $52.24 a box, each box covers 17.6 square feet. My initial purchase was 24 boxes and represented everything Lowes had on the shelf (I was able to fit 24 boxes in my Cav, but it wasn't pretty). I went back a second time and picked up another 10 boxes, and I put 24 boxes on order (ABL wants a lot of the downstairs covered in wood).

Here you can see my dad, holding TG, and RJ has his back turned to the camera. The room is about half (or a third) covered by the laminate and this represents about a half days work by the two of us. I was able to finish the rest of the room by myself on Sunday. The transitions at the doors can be very frustrating.

My father-in-law came down on Monday and Tuesday to help me out. He and I were able to put down laminate in the hallway and the spare bedroom. It looks amazing. He's coming over today to help with the baseboard molding. Charlie's crew cut all the molding. In some cases it was nailed up already and I had to pull it off to put down the floor; in other cases, I had asked them to just cut it to length and I'd nail it up later. Once the molding is up, we can start moving furniture this weekend.

Friends And Family

noreply@blogger.com (llamoure) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:02:00 +0000

Thanks to our friends and family members, this project is rapidly drawing to a close. This past Saturday we had a "Painting Party". Charlie's guys did an excellent job preparing the walls, so we had a great canvas to work with. Morrow, Zinger & his wife Steph, and TerryO put primer to wall, while the Czenanski's took our two oldest off of our hands for the day. TGL (our 7 month old) was tag teamed all day, in the morning by Princess Christine and in the afternoon by TerryO's wife Angie.

Morrow:

Zinger:

Mrs. Zinger:

TerryO:

We started out with two 5 gallon buckets of VALSPAR primer (good stuff) from Lowes, but we ran out and I had to run to Home Depot for more Primer. I got the Glidden Drywall Primer and it was lousy. Take a look at this picture.

Looks like a monochromatic Rothko, doesn't it? Anyhoo...The Valspar had good coverage and the walls are definitely a uniform white color, so I won't be using this Glidden ever again.

I applied the a white latex ceiling paint to most of the new construction, I ran out on Tuesday and picked up another gallon today. My brother-in-law, James showed up with Miss Pattie to help put the paint on the walls of the bathrooms and the laundry room.