New faucets to start the year

Finally got some time to install a new kitchen and RO faucets. Here you can see the finished product. The RO faucet needed an air gap so I found this one with good reviews on Amazon.


Here are the original faucets. The kitchen faucet has a terrible design in that the handle just channels water down the back of the faucet when you go and turn it off with wet hands. Then the water just collects on the counter. You can see the water ring around the faucet.


Here's the RO faucet. It started rusting at the handle and would leak water every time you turn it on.


My working quarters. After moving all the plumbing drains etc. it actually wasn't too bad to work in.


Here's a closeup of the build up in the drain pipe just after the trap. I didn't expect this would be there. This is probably 10 years of build up.


You can see the old valve stop I removed plus the drain gunk. You just turn them counterclockwise while pulling and they come right off. I put in proper 1/4 turn valves.


Here's a closeup of the hard water buildup on the counter.


Here's after I removed the hard water with a razor blade scrapper. It makes easy work of the build up.

New garage door opener and wheels

My old genie screwdrive garage door opener finally died. I tried replacing the capacitor but that didn't fix the problem. The garage door opener was always so loud so I decided it was a good time to get a new, quieter one that was "smart".


Here's the model I bought from Sears (rebranded chamberlain). It's a DC motor belt drive system with a battery backup. It's also smart so I can control it from my phone.


Here's halfway through the installation process. Not too hard.


This is the new unit mounted. Unfortunately the old mounting brackets weren't long enough so I had to extend it a bit. Also the existing wires weren't long enough either so I had to extend those as well.


Here's the final product installed.


Even though our cars have homelink, it turns out that homelink changed their protocol so this garage door opener wouldn't work with our older homelink cars. So I had to buy a repeater that basically takes the old signal from our cars and then changes it to a signal the new opener recognizes. Added about $20 to the cost but so worth it.


In addition to changing the opener, I also changed out the wheels from metal to nylon ones. Here are the new nylon ones. You can buy a set of 10 on Amazon for like $12. Instead of unscrewing the mounting brackets holding the wheels, I found this video on Youtube that shows how to change them out fast. You always have to bend the track to change at least the bottom wheels because they are tied to the spring so this video basically uses the same method for all the wheels. He also shows how to use a standard hammer to bend the track out. It's a really good technique that makes the job super easy.


Here's the old wheel.


Here's the new one.

Surge Protection and Faster Networking

Here's a whole house surge protector that you install at your circuit panel and the idea is that it'll protect all of your electrical devices without needing surge protectors at every device. I'm not sure if they really work but it makes sense and wasn't too difficult to install.



Here's all the tools and materials that I needed. Since I didn't have room in my panel to fit a a double pole breaker, I had to buy 2 tandem breakers and make room.



Here's the surge protector mounted to the bottom of my circuit panel box.



Here you can see the two tandem breakers and then the double pole breaker right above them. Since there are two 120V buses in the panel box, the double pole makes sure the surge protector is wired to both of them.



Here's the panel after the install. Ideally you want to place the surge protector breaker as close to the main lines at the top but since I had to mount the protector at the bottom, that's as far as the wires would reach.



Here's what the normal breaker box looks like.



The other electrical project I finished was running CAT6 cable from the network panel to my bedroom TV area. There's already a cable going to the bedroom but not to the right spot so I thought it would be easy to just run a new line. Bought this cable from monoprice.com.



Here's my network panel. I used my fiberglass poles as seen in this post to snake the wire up through this panel and up in the attic. I then ran the wire to the bedroom and snaked it down the wire to the right spot.



This was the hardest part. Fishing the wire out of the wall and through the opening. Luckily I was able to reach the wire without having to cut any holes in the wall. I just had to remove the existing wall plate and junction box.

Cree LED Bulb Flickering Problem

I love LED bulbs because they should theoretically last forever and use the same watts as a CFL. However, when they start dying after a year or two, you begin to question whether you should have been buying $10+ light bulbs. I currently have 7 Cree 60W lightbulbs that have issues. 6 of them are the TW series where it's supposed to show true colors. You can tell that type of bulb (on the right) by the purplish color of the glass as well as the larger heatsink fins around the base.

I contacted Cree on their facebook page after seeing so many other people complain about the same issue and seeing a positive response from Cree. So after a few emails, they are sending me all new replacement bulbs and they didn't ask for receipts or anything. They told me to dispose of the bulbs. I thought maybe they would want them back for failure analysis but I'm sure they know what the problem is already.

So thinking it would be neat to reverse engineer the bulb, I was going to take one apart but thought for sure someone has already done this on youtube. Sure enough they have. In the comments of that video, someone explained how most of the failures are due to a loose wire near the base of the bulb. They explained how you can take a flat head screwdriver and dent the metal right near the wire to make a better connection. So considering I had 7 bulbs with nothing to lose, I started hammering away. I managed to resurrect 4 of the 7 bulbs. I'm not sure how long they'll last but at least they are working for now. If you look closely at the bulb on the right, you can see a burn mark where the bulb failed. That is pretty much where the wire is. Most of the bulbs have the wire in the same place.

Now if you get a bulb where the LEDs are glowing dimmly, well this fix didn't work for those. This fix is for when the LEDs are flickering and then completely turn off.
Here's a picture of the glowing LEDs.

3.5 year old project finally completed

After 3.5 years, we finally completed our photo gallery. The actual process took about 5-6 hours not including picking the photos. I wish I could tell you Cole was jumping for joy but rather he was just trying to get in the shot.


Here's the before photo.


All the frames finally getting opened. Luckily none of them were damaged.


We used wrapping paper for our templates to finalize on the wall design.


Here's the final design.


Now with the real thing. I only had to redo a few nails to get the spacing right.


Here's the final version with pictures and all.

WARNING: Graphic post - Clogged drain

Every year or so, the water in the sinks drain very slowly. Inevitably the issue is hair getting clogged in the stopper mechanism. I've seen these stick drain cleaners for a few bucks so I thought I'd try it. The old way would be to remove the p-trap and clean out the drain with an old toothbrush.


Here you can see what I fished out. Overall the tool works pretty well. All I had to do was fish out the hair and clean off the stick. Total time was ~5 mins versus the old way of ~15 mins and there's no need to get a bucket, remove the p-trap, clean the drain, empty the bucket, etc. It's so easy, the kids might enjoy "fishing" out the clog.

Smart water controller

Here's my latest upgrade to the house - Solarsync for Hunter irrigation systems. It's a smart controller for the water irrigation system. It basically measures the sun intensity and adjusts the watering amount automatically. It also will shut off the water if it has rained recently. The one thing it doesn't do is adjust the watering intervals. It only adjust the amount of time the water is on.


I ran the wire behind the gutter so you can't really see it except for the small transition to the down pipe.


In order to get the snake the wire to the controller, I bought these fiberglass poles that are used for snaking wires. Picked these up at Harbor Freight tools for $8 which is a lot less than if you were to buy them from Home depot.


Here you can see the tip of the pole. I've attached the wire to the end so I can pull it up through the pipe.


Here you can see a close up of the pole in the pipe. Thanks to Chuck for helping snake the wire too.

Wood's best friend

Cole accidentally broke the drawer front to his Ikea desk. The desk didn't cost much but it seemed a waste to have to buy a whole new one. So instead I bought some wood epoxy and repaired it.


Here's the epoxy in the chipped out area. You just mix the two different parts of the epoxy to activate it and let it set.


Here's the epoxy after sanding it down so it's smooth.


Our exterior door frame started to get some water damage and dry rot. I had some estimates to fix it and originally I thought you could just replace the damaged wood pieces but it turns out that you have to replace the entire door frame. One of the guys suggested to use epoxy and then paint over it and replace the door frame after the whole frame gets worse.


Here's a picture of the epoxy before any sanding.


Here's after sanding (not the best job) and paint.


You can buy this product at Lowes but not Home Depot.

Side gate fun

The wood in our side gate was starting to break off. It didn't help that the kids would ride their bikes into the slats and even broke off a piece. So I got some quotes to have the wood replaced by a handyman and they ranged from $200 up to $425. A little more than I was expecting so I decided to do it myself with some help.


Here I removed the wood slats, sanded any major rust spots, and then repainted with some spray paint. This is after I taped and covered the area. One piece of advice. If you want to keep your hands and arms clean, wear disposable gloves and a long sleave shirt.


Here's the synthetic fence wood I picked up at Lowes. Hopefully I won't ever have to paint or stain these or replace them for that matter. Our local Home Depot and Lowes carry the same synthetic wood slates but Lowes has this darker color and a red cherry while Home Depot only has the red cherry. My neighbor fortunately has a very nice table saw and even offered to cut the wood while I was at work. All I had to do was let him know the measurements and then pick them up later. Now that's a neighbor.


Here's the finished project. I bought new bolts at Home depot and the kids helped me install the pieces. All I had to do was drill the holes for the bolts.

Stucco water damage

Our raised wall on the side of our house wasn't sealed properly. As a result, water would damage the stucco and cause it to peel off. The proper fix is to seal the block wall from the inside which unfortunately requires removing the dirt, brushing the wall, sealing the block with tar, and then filling it back again. That is some nice dirt, um I mean rocks.


You can see the rest of our wall and all the rocks. The white stuff on the wall is my attempt to stop the water from the other side which no matter how hard you try, won't work.


Here you can see the nice tar coating on the inside of the wall.

Divine Design - Master Bedroom Retreat

When we had cable, we would watch Divine Design with Candice Olsen and always dream about having her design our bedroom. So for sabbatical last year, we decided to hire an interior designer to redo our bedroom. Overall the experience wasn't quite what we expected but we are pretty pleased with the transformation. Here are the before pictures.


Luckily I was able to sell all the furniture on Craig's list.


Since I redid our closet, we didn't have a need for the dressers anymore.


Here you can see the faded carpet from the previous owner as well as our redi shades covering the sliding doors. Those temporary shades were up for over 2 years.


We added 7 recessed cans, moved the ceiling fan, and added another pendent light.


Here I'm having the painter smooth out the stucco wall to make it ready for wallpaper. Yes, wallpaper. Never did I think we'd be putting up wallpaper.


Here's our new wood floors to replace the carpet. They are 7" maple. You can also see the new wall color.


Here's the wallpaper lady.


Here's the finished product. We had just finished getting professional photos taken so if you look closely, you can't see any alarm clocks or phone chargers. You can see the TV and the console table on the left which were things that we had picked out. The designers weren't too keen on a TV in the bedroom.


Here's our sitting area.


Another shot of the finished product.

Now you see them, now you don't

We are almost done with our Bedroom makeover and one of the remaining pieces was mounting the TV on the wall. We picked up the framed console table at Crate and Barrel. It's nice but has an unfortunate design element. There's a reinforcing piece of wood running the length of the top in the shelf. As a result, the height clearance is only 2.5" instead of the 3.5" in the front. So in order to not have to cut into the furniture, we bought a Tivo premiere to replace our Tivo HD. The Tivo premiere just fits.


Here you can see the full motion arm. It took a while to find one that would sit close against the wall (only 1.3") and yet swings out over 24".


I bought a combo surge protector outlet and wire management unit from Home Depot that will go right behind the TV. Also, right behind the console table, I put in a wire outlet so I can pass the HDMI cables behind the wall and right to the Tivo and DVD players.


Here's the finished work.


You can see the outlet box and the HDMI cables going into the box and running in the wall down below.


Nice and flat!