Shoveling in the Alley

Since I'm going to build a fence this winter I thought I'd clean up a bit along the fence line.  I filled up two yard waste containers and three yard waste bags.  The cedar droppings had been building up since at least when we bought the house.  The bottom layer was composting nicely, too.  The roots of the cedars were even finding their way into the mulch.  This actually made shoveling kind of hard since I had to use the pruners to cut the roots.  I suspect that digging the post holes is going to suck because of all the roots, too.  Oh, well.

I probably won't take down the old crappy fence until I'm ready to run the string line to establish the property line.  But I'm really looking forward to taking down the crappy old fence.

Hall Bath Work

We've burned out two little floor heaters in our hall bathroom over the last six plus years.  And we've never even tried to turn on the existing wall heater that's in there (You can see for yourselves why).  We'd purchased a replacement wall heater a while ago but never installed it.  Since winter is approaching, we decided to install it.  And we decided to connect the light in the venting fan to power as well.

Here are photos of the heater before, during and after.  The new heater is a little bit smaller so I just filled the gaps with Gorilla tape.  The wall is going to be removed (hopefully soon) to make room for a nook that will house the new sink... so doing wall repair and rebuilding just isn't energy well spent.

The light switch/outlet got replaced by a GFCI and double toggle switch.  The existing light in the bathroom will remain and have the fan light tied into it so they'll both turn on when the top switch is on.  The bottom switch will control the night light that's in the fan fixture.

Here are some photos of the other side of the wall.  I'm going to take some drywall remnants and close it all up.

But we're going to keep the hall access open for now so that we can use the space as additional storage.  Yay, storage!

I also finally connected the second bedroom heater to the service panel. And... yes, it works!

2nd Bedroom - Part 13: Painted Trim

I've filled all the nail holes, sanded, and painted the trim.  I've also installed a curtain rod and hung some curtains.  The room feels very nice now.

The only thing left to do is built the built-in closet cabinet, install it, trim around it, and then paint the closet trim and doors.  I'm hoping to do that later this week or next week.

Bedroom Improvements

We made a a few bedroom improvements over the weekend.  We built and upholstered a headboard.  We used 1x4's 2x4's, screws, 2" thick foam, upholstery fabric, and staples.  It's not perfect, but it's nice enough.  And it keeps up off the cold exterior wall.

 

We also installed a footboard.  It's a little narrower than the bed so as to help keep us from bashing our shins on the corners.

We also removed the closet doors and hung some curtains.  We got the curtains at Ikea (they're pretty nice!).  The curtains are an attempt to increase the airflow into the closets so as to reduce mold growth on the walls.

We cleaned the entire room with white vinegar to remove as much mold and mildew as possible.  We wiped down the floor, the walls, and the furniture.  The bottom foot of the walls tend to grow some mold because of the temperature and humidity during the winter.  We're also going to look into using an air filter fan to help circulate more air from the top of the room to the floor.