Saturday, November 7, 1992

Even More Making a House into a Home

July 1992

Planted two new trees in the small peninsula of dirt between our driveway and the neighbor's driveway. Bradford Pears. These have worked out beautifully. They are of moderate height -- maybe 20 feet tall, but very round in shape. In the spring and summer, they have large green leaves. They provide much needed shade for both our drive (in the morning) and the neighbor's (in the afternoon). In the fall, the leaves turn brilliant shades of yellow and red.

15 July to 30 July 1992

Thompson Painting, Drywall and Handyman stained and sealed the outside wood. Under the eaves, and around the windows and doors. The wood gables on the left, right, front and back. Kelly Moore Color #364 Natural Cedar. $2790.00

22 July to 29 July

Install ceiling fans in both kids bedrooms. Fans, pull-chains, lights. This was easier because I could get access in the attic to the electrical and framing work in the ceiling. Removed the old light fixture, and put in a new electrical box and fan brace. Ran extra wire and put in a new switch box, so that instead of the old single switch we now have two switches -- one for the light and one for the fan. $124.68.

21 Sept 1992
17 Oct 1992

Bought two wooden shelfs (at Target) and installed them in the Master Bathroom and the middle Bathroom. These are solid oak shelfs, with a little rail around them, to keep things from falling off. $37.98.

October 29, 1992
Upgrade the sprinkler system. There were some dry spots in the yard, so I asked Gorbet, who put in the sprinkler system originally, to come back and add some more heads and move heads around, as necessary to get better coverage. $123.03


November 7, 1992

Bought a cubic yard of Garden Mix from Gardenville for the yard. $30.24.

Friday, August 14, 1992

Bathroom Repairs

July 1992

For some time -- 2 years -- we had noticed problems with water in the shower area. After a shower, we would find water outside the shower, in a corner on the tile. The problem was a leaking shower pan (under the tile). The water would leak into the space under the tile, on top of the concrete slab, and then migrate out from the shower. This caused water damage to the bathroom shower walls, and even into the bedroom.

All the tile had to be replaced around the shower and tub.

Frank Leitzel was the general repair person. He first removed all the damaged tile from the floor and walls. Instead of the pre-fab shower pan (the part under the tile that had leaked), he installed a fiberglass pan, custom made to the shower.

Then we had to re-install the tile. Myrle Brooks did that. He did a "mud-set" of the tile, which should be better, in the long term, than the standard "thin-set".

The hard part for us was finding the workmen, and picking out the replacement tile. Naturally, it being 6 years after the house was built, the old tile that we had picked out was no longer available.

The general repairs were 1325. The tile installation was 850. The tile cost 514.68. Our house insurance covered a lot of the repairs for the damage. They paid 4400.28 for the damage. Unless there is more that I don't have records for, it looks like they paid us 1810.60 more than the cost of the repairs.