Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 16:21:25 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5 Content-type: text/html Last-modified: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 16:44:15 GMT Content-length: 14155 Bolo's House

Bolo's House

To amuse those who have purchased a house and already experienced this... Or to frighten away those who are thinking of purchasing a house ...

I'm recording the various things I have done, am doing, or have scheduled to do to my house.


A Tree Falls

The week after I closed on my house, a tree fell on my truck and scrunched the top of the cab and the fiberglass cap. The first week I have my truck back from the body shop ... A tree falls on my house!

I used my bow saw to defoliate the trunk. A friend helped me carry the trunk off the house, and break it up.

Damages

The gutters are damaged. The end-cap of the roof is damaged. Some of the roof sheathing at the edge is beat up. Some shingles need to be repaired.

The Patio Door has Rot

I needed to reseat the fixed panel of the sliding glass patio door; it was cocked in the frame such that cold drafts and finally insects were invading the house through the opening.

Once I started work on this I discovered that the sill plate of the door, some of the surrounding brick molding, the house siding, and the deck joists in that area were all rotted out. To fix this, I need to remove the deck, so I can remove the patio door and rebuild the rotted members. Afterwards some new siding and deck joists should have the south side of the house prepared for winter.


Water in the Basement

It rained a lot last night. I was outside with my flashlight to see how well the house drained ... It was doing ok, with some minor problems that I could fix in the morning. The morning arrives and I find some water in the basement! One window well was level with the ground, which allowed water to just flow into it. The french well at its base was plugged with dirt, so it couldn't drain. Instead, the water drained into the basement through the window!

I had to mop about 3 to 4 gallons of water from the basement. Then I cleaned the dirt from the window well, and regraded the outside to give the well a slight lip. I need to do something more, but this should work for now.

Play it again, Sam!

It rains heavily again. I cleaned the gutters before it rained, so I was able to determine secondary problems. At the inside turn of the "L" of the house, water was moving so fast that it jetted over the gutter in a stream. This water accumulated between the driveway and the house front, where the grade is above the foundation. Voila; water in the basement.

Killer Elite Dust Bunnies From Hell

While cleaning, I decided to clean the cold-air return grills. After removing the covers, I was assaulted by Killer Elite Dust Bunnies. Fortunately my trusty green Kenmore vacumn managed to devour these wicked creatures before they could coordinate their attack. There where a few tricky moments ... some of the bunnies were so large they clogged the crevice tool's nozzle!

Appliances and other Major Purchases

Lawnmower

I looked at several lawn mowers. I was severely tempted by a Honda mower. It had an aluminum deck and an overhead cam engine. The one feature which made it great was a infinitely variable hydrostatic transmission! It had a blade clutch, which may have been hydraulic also. Although I am an enthusiast of hydraulic drive systems, I didn't care to shell out $838 dollars for it :-(

I purchased a self-propelled Lawnboy Gold Series mower. It has a 21 inch cast-aluminum cutting deck, and the traditional 2-cycle Lawnboy engine. The drive system has an interesting set of clutches. When the transmission isn't clutched in the two driven wheels are completely free-wheeling, just as in a push mower. When the transmission is engaged the clutches lock up, and .. Voila .. self propulsion! It is almost as good as a differential. The mechanism appears to be similar to automatic locking hubs on a four wheel drive vehicle.

I also purchased a rear bagger with my mower. A Lawnboy mower will discharge grass in 4 ways: mulch, side throw, side bag, and rear bag! This is done with a set of interchangeble plates. The plates cover and/or open the side and top of the deck to provide ports for any of the grass discharge options. For rear bagging, a plate is used which has a bagging duct in the top and a cover for the side-ejection port.

Dehumidifier

I have lots of stuff stored in my basement, and I need to keep it dry. So I needed a Dehumidifer. After looking around, all I could find were crappy, low-quality units. Then... I found a GE dehumdifier. The construction is of higher quality than the other units I examined. It also has a two-speed fan; this allows me to work in the basement without the noise bothering me too much.

I've added a fan to the basement to recirculate the basement air mass. This increases the amount of wet air which passes by the humidifier, and helps to keep the basement dry. A friend recommeded purchasing two smaller humidifiers, but I find this works for me. If I had some walls in the basement, the multiple humidifers might be the choice to go with.

Washer / Dryer

I now have a SpeedQueen washer/dryer pair. Their was some confusion with my order, but my sales guy at American TV and Appliance straigtened the problem out, and gave me a discount on the floor model I ended up with. I have the floor model of the dryer because Speed Queen discontinued the gas version of the dryer I selected. :-)

I had MG&E, Madison Gas and Electric run the gas line to my new dryer. The cost was quite reasonable; it cost $131, $4 less than the $135 estimate.

Refrigerator

My house came without a refrigerator. I purchased a 22 cubic Foot General Electric side-by-side in white paint. It fits the space allocated for it almost perfectly! It has an ice-maker, but no ice/water dispenser in the door, which is what I wanted! Unfortunately, the drip-proof shelves are only available in the models with the door-mounted ice and water dispensers.

Satellite Receiver

I have an RCA single-receiver compact satellite dish. I subscribe to services from DirecTV and USSB

After having the service for some months, I am favorably impressed with it. I find the picture quality as good as cable, probably better. I receive some channels that I really like, such as the Comedy Channel and the Science Fiction Channel, which are unavailable through TCI.

The gripes I have with the system are:


Things to Do

Short Term

This category is no longer Immediate. That was too timely a word for my state of immediacy!

Longer Short Term

Medium Term (Fall)

Long Term


Done

Here are the things which I've already done. I wish I had started keeping track of these items earlier, so I could look here to find the impressive list of things I had already done. The Todo list look so daunting otherwise. :-)
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Last Modified: Sun Aug 18 11:42:16 CDT 1996
bolo (Josef Burger) <bolo@cs.wisc.edu>