Refinish the Computer Room Floor

The rolling chairs are really taking a toll on the computer room floors; they have needed to be re-finished for some time.  But it helps to have good weather, so we can open the windows to air out the fumes.  This week looks good.

First we have to clear out all the stuff that is in the room.

Then we can sand down the floors (150 grit), vacuum, mop, and wipe it down with paint thinner and put a coat of polyurethane on.  The actual painting only took about an hour.  Then we wait over night.

We put two coats on the worst spots.

An LED "Fluorescent" light for the kitchen

Years ago, we took out the normal Fluorescent light fixtures over the middle of the kitchen and put in a skylight.  For kitchen lighting, we put shop lights on top of the upper kitchen cupboards, pointing up, so that the light reflects off the ceiling and down into the kitchen.  The shop lights each have two 4-foot fluorescent light bulbs.   Every now and then, I have to replace the bulbs.  Power is supplied by outlets that were added in the walls above the cabinets and controlled by the standard 3-way light switches from before the change.

Lately, one of the fixtures has not been working well.  When we turned on the lights in the kitchen it would not come on.  Or not for a while.  Or not until I went and hit the fixture lightly a couple times.  I replaced the bulbs, but it didn't get any better.  So it's probably not the bulbs, but the fixture.  Now the fixture itself is little more than a switch, some wires, and a ballast.  The ballast is apparently a transformer, and sometimes they go bad.  So I need to replace the ballast.

I've replaced ballasts in the past.  It's not easy work, and the replacement ballast typically costs about as much as a new fixture -- $20 to $40.  So there is really little economic reason to replace a ballast; better to get a new fixture.  So, off I go to Home Depot.

Of course, the current fixtures, even for something as mundane as a shop light, are not the same as they were decades ago.  And we are in the transition from incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs to LEDs.  I have a small flashlight with 27 LEDs that is really bright.  If only they could do that in an even bigger fixture.  And they can!  I can get a new fixture that is roughly the same as the old one in size, but with two LED strips instead of two fluorescent bulbs.  In theory it will last forever (or at least decades), so no more bulbs to replace.  $130.

While I was pondering this, an employee of the Electrical/Lighting department comes up and asks if I needed any help.  I said I was looking to move over to LEDs from my current fluorescents, but that what "they" should really do is develop a drop-in replacement for a fluorescent bulb that used LEDs internally.  And the employee said, "They did!", and took me over to a separate stand with a bunch of triangular cardboard boxes.  Each box had a replacement bulb from Toggled.

But it is not really just a drop-in replacement.  Rather the LEDs run off regular 120V 60-cycle wall plug power, so you have to remove the ballast.  Which is perfect for what I need -- the ballast is my problem!  And I figure I know enough wiring to be able to make the necessary changes.  So I buy two bulbs.  $35 each.  Not cheap, but less than the cost of the new LED fixture.

We start then with the light fixture and the two new bulbs.

 The first thing we do is open open of the boxes, to get the instructions and anything else.  The box is not easy to open -- I guess it was designed for sturdy transportation, but inside is the bulb, the instructions, a sticker, a couple of wire nuts and ends for the bulb -- duplicates of what is already in the fixture (apparently there are cases where the existing ones may need to be replaced).

The instructions say to open the fixture and cut the wires to the ballast, which is what I was expecting.  The instructions say to just leave the ballast in place, but I don't see the point in that -- it no longer serves any purpose but to add weight, so I removed it completely.

Now things get a bit more complicated.  For regular fluorescent bulbs, the reason there are two ends, and it does not matter if you put the bulb in one way or the other, is that both ends are powered.  For the LEDs on the other hand, it just gets power from one end -- the other end becomes just a way to hold the bulb in place.  The instructions have a little diagram.

The important thing to notice here is how the wiring for the LED bulb is just a simple power and ground situation.

Understanding that makes it a bit easier to modify things.  I can go to the far end of the fixture and just clip all the wires off.  And the near end can be substantially simplified from what was there.  Power comes in on the black wire, goes to the pull-switch (which we don't use) and then is distributed to one side of each of the two fixture lampholders.  The other wire from each lampholder is brought back and tied to the white (ground) wire.

In our case, the black power wire goes to a yellow wire nut to a yellow wire that goes to one lampholder.  A white wire right next to it carries the power over to the other lampholder, and then another white wire (from the other side of the lampholder) brings the ground back.  The lampholder with the yellow power wire has another yellow wire that takes the power back to another yellow nut with the white ground wire, to complete the circuit.  If I had to do this for show (instead of just for function), I would would change the color of the wires to make it clear which are power (black) and which are ground (white).  But even with the confusing wire colors, this is pretty simple, and no one should see it again for decades (if we are lucky).

Since I can, and just for over-kill, I both used the wire nuts and soldered the wires together -- solder them first and then put the wire nut on -- so the connections should be very solid.

Once the wiring is done, I can put the cover back on and install the two LED bulbs.  This is more difficult than necessary.  The LED bulb only has one side with lights (why have lights on the back side?), so it has to be rotated correctly to get the lights on the outside.  And it only gets power at one end.  The bulb has two aluminum strips along the side and engraved in the aluminum at one end is a suggestion that that is the end which needs power.  A more obvious marking would make it easier to be sure the right end is being put where the power should be.  (But, presumably, putting it in backwards just means it would not work; it wouldn't hurt.)  And with any luck, I will probably never replace this bulb.  (Of course, by the time I have to, I'll have forgotten all about the fact that power comes from only one end).

and then turn it on to see that it works.

Once it is back in place, I can test it out with the normal kitchen light switch and see how it works with all the other kitchen lights.

It seems to take just a moment to come on, but no more than the old fluorescent bulbs did.  The light is very bright.  I had a choice of 3 different "temperatures" for the bulbs -- 3500K (Neutral), 4000K (Cool White), or 5000K (Natural Light).  I choose the 5000K (Natural Light) and it's a bit brighter and less "orange" than the other fluorescents we have in the kitchen, but I would probably change the others to be this color, instead of going the other way; I might step down to the Cool White 4000K color.

This all took about 30 minutes.  Check back in 20 years to see how long they last.

Did a second kitchen fixture in May 2015.

Changed out one of the garage light fixtures in July 2015.

I had been having trouble with this light fixture for months; it was not coming on when I flipped the switch, but flipping the switch repeatedly would eventually get it to work.  Now it turns on every time.  Seems like there is a slight delay before it comes on, but it does come on consistently.  The 5000K (natural light) works really well in the garage.

The First Backyard Pecan Tree

My overall plan is to shade the center of the backyard with a couple of trees.  From working out in the yard, it seemed clear that the East and West parts of the backyard, with plenty of shade from various trees, does fairly well, even in the heat of the summer.  As the sun moves from East in the morning to West in the evening, both ends of the yard get at least some direct sun, but not for the whole day.  The West part of the yard gets the morning sun, up until just after noon, when the large oak tree at the West end of the yard shades it.  The East part of the yard gets afternoon sun.

But the center of the yard seems to be direct sun all day.  So if we plant a couple of trees to the left and right of the center, it should, eventually, shade all of the yard, at least part of the day.  Since we want the sun in the winter, we want a deciduous tree, and for variety (we have mostly oaks), we decided on pecan trees.  If the pecan trees give off nuts, that's good too -- both for us and for the neighborhood squirrels.

Since the East half of the yard is done, it could take a tree.  To reserve space, we have put a volunteer oak tree where the pecan will go (and a stick where the other goes).  Since we don't have the West part of the yard done yet, nor the center, we can't put the second tree in yet.  But we can put in the first tree.

Today, we went to Berdoll Pecan Farm and Nursery and bought a tree.   We have been buying our pecans from them -- in bulk, cracked but not shelled -- and figure that they have good pecans, so they must have good trees.  We bought a medium size Pawnee tree. $49.99 (plus tax).  It is 53 inches tall.

We planted it in the spot reserved for it in the East part of the yard.  The instructions from Berdoll say to water it every day for the next 30 days, so every day in April.

The volunteer tree that was filling in for it was moved over to where the next tree should go.  It will probably be a couple of years before this gets dug up and we can put another pecan tree in it's place.

The information sheet from Berdoll suggests that it will be 4 to 6 years before we get any nuts from this tree.  So around 2020.

Update:  It appears, in May 2018, that we will have nuts on the tree this year.

Update: There were a dozen or more very nice looking plump pecans developing on the tree, but suddenly one early September morning, they were all gone.  Just disappeared.  Nothing on the ground; nothing left on the tree. (5 Sept 2018).

New door knobs

The guest bedroom has been having continuing problems of the doorknob falling off.  The current door knobs were put in when the house was built, and just screw on a flange on the door.  Over time, they can back themselves off and then fall to the floor.  I've tried putting them back on and tightening them as much as possible, but weeks or months later they fall off again.  Not all door knobs, just a few.  Like the guest bedroom.

These doorknobs might be hard to use, if you had arthritic hands, so the idea is to replace them with levers, to make it easier for older people (like us) to open and close them.  We started that already with the coat closet, and now we want to continue that replacement on this bedroom door.

First, we purposefully remove the door knob.

And then all it's associated hardware, to get down to just a door, with a hole in the door.  Then we put the new hardware on.  It takes about 30 minutes.

We are again using Kwikset Tustin Satin Nickel  (720 TNL 15) Signature Series.  This time it's a "Bath and Bed" model, instead of a "Hall and Closet", so that it can be locked, in need be.

And then a couple days later, we replaced the utility room pantry door knob, again using a "Hall and Closet" model, since we don't need to lock the pantry.

And, finally, after the success of these two doors, we decided to go ahead and change out all the others.  We needed 7 more "Bath and Bed" types and 2 more "Closet" types.  Instead of buying these at Home Depot, for $29.92 and $25.87 (plus sales tax) for each, I found a place on the web that would sell them for $19.54 and $18.30 each (with no shipping or sales tax).  This cuts the cost from over $200 to about $135.   We finished switching them all out on 20 March 2015.

More dirt

Spring is coming, eventually.  And when it does, we will need good dirt for the work on the West lawn, and to fill the Raised garden.  We went ahead and got a head start by ordering it now.  Eight cubic yards of Professional Mix from Whittlesey Landscape Supplies.  $434.30.

Dumped in the street, it took 3 days to get if all around back.

Nest Smoke and CO Detector

We got a Nest Smoke and CO Detector thru a frequent flyer program.  Normally it would cost $100.  This is a high-tech item, that communicates with an app on our iPad thru its own WiFi network.

We already have smoke detectors in the Utility Room and in the bedrooms, so we installed it in the area between the kitchen, the sliding Patio door, the dining room and the living room.  This part of the house is really a transition area between the other areas, but we called it "the family room".

Normally I try to put these into studs behind the sheet rock, but this thing should not have much stress on it, so I just put the screws into the sheet rock.

It can communicate with other Nest products, but of course we don't have any others (yet).

Installing Kitchen Undercounter Radio

We have two radios in the kitchen.  One near the kitchen table.

 and a second one on the counter between the kitchen and the living room.  This one has a CD player.

Things work pretty well, but ...   The radio by the table has a very fickle power cord.  It's broken internally, and if it gets moved, the radio tends to lose power.  The other one has a multiple CD player, but we only use one, at most.  And the switch which selects radio or CD is flaky, and will cut down the volume of the speakers at random times.  Jostling the switch can get the volume back, but unpredictably.  Plus both radios are analog tuners, and it's difficult to tune them in well in all cases.

So I've been looking for a digital radio with a single CD player to replace them.  I happened to see the Sony ICF-CDK50 under counter AM/FM/CD kitchen clock radio.  It is rated very well as a radio, has a digital tuner, and a single CD player.  I bought it from Best Buy for $108.24.

We decided to mount it in the middle of the kitchen under the cabinets that hold the dishes.

This counter already has lights under it, so there is an outlet at the wall to provide power.  By being in the middle of the kitchen, we pretty well cover the entire kitchen with one radio.

First we need to remove the dishes.

There are little white plastic spacers provided that allow us to install the radio low enough to clear the skirt around the cabinet.  We needed the 2nd setting.

The radio is installed by drilling through the cabinet and using long #10 screws.  In addition to drilling thru the cabinet, we counter sink the screw heads.

Putting the radio up under the counter and screwing the screws thru the spacers into the holes for this purpose holds the radio up under the counter.

The power cord for this radio is just the right length (about 4 feet).  We got a CordMate C10 cord channel from Home Depot (about $5) to hold the cord up under the cabinet.  I trimmed it to only 4 feet long, and used it's self-adhesive tape to stick it under the cabinet and then put the cord in it.

Replacing the Fan/Heater Switches

With venting fans in two of the bathrooms replacing the heaters that were put there when the house was built, it becomes possible to turn them on to remove humidity after a shower (for example).  But you have to remember to turn them off later.  By getting quiet fans, it's easy to forget they are on if you are not still in the bathroom.  Same with the pne remaining heater in the central bathroom.

So I went looking for a timer switch to allow the fans to be turned on, and then, some time later, turn themselves off.  I have used, in the past, a mechanical timer switch and found it difficult.  Mechanical timer switches use a spring to turn the knob back to zero and turn off the switch, and you have to turn it far enough for the spring to work (turn past 5 minutes), and some of the springs are strong and make it hard to turn the knob.

So I was looking for an electrical switch.  But then there is the issue of how to indicate how long to wait.  You could have a little keypad, or some up/down arrows to set the time, but that is a lot of overhead.  I found one that simple had 4 or 5 buttons -- off, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes.  It seems that this selection would be adequate.

Unfortunately, this kind of switch becomes a large rectangle instead of just a simple small switch, so it is the "Decora" type and needs a corresponding switch plate around it.  And all of our fan/heater switches are just one of two in a two-switch switch plate.  So we will need to replace both switches -- for the fan/heater and for the light.

First we turn off the power at the circuit breaker box.

Then, we take off the old switch plate.

And then remove the screws holding the switches in place.

We disconnect the wires from the switches, remembering which is for the light, and which is for the heater/fan.  We attach the wires to the new switches.  Power comes in on one wire, to the switch and then back out on the other wire to the light or fan.

We test the switches before putting them back in the wall.  (Turns out I had connected the light to the fan switch and vice-versa, so I had to swap the wires.)  Once we have them correctly wired, we can put them back in the wall box.

 And put the new switch plate on.

With these, it is clear which is the light and which is the fan/heater switch.  Plus, I read that these larger rocker switches are better for older people than the standard toggle switch.

This process takes about an hour, even with multiple trips to and from the circuit breaker box to find the right circuit breaker for these specific lights and fans, and with the mistake of the timer switch for the light.

Update, June 2017.  The timers and fans are working well in the Master Bathroom and the Back Bathroom, where we have fans that vent to the outdoors.  The middle bathroom, on the other hand, still has a heater rather than a fan, and does not vent to the outdoors.  It appears to me to be very difficult to run a vent to the outdoors, because of its position relative to the roof and the attic.  But I put in a timer anyway.  Dorothy reported the other day that it would not turn off, and it (the switch) was getting very hot.  I turned it off at the circuit breaker box (circuit 14), and then replaced the timer with just an ordinary (heavy-duty) on/off switch.  I suspect that the timer is mainly designed for lights, and could not handle the higher current draw of a heater.  It appeared that a coil inside had badly over-heated.

The switch on the right has a little light in it (to help find it in the dark), and is the light switch; the one on the right is the fan switch.

Repairing the Flush Mechanism in Back Bathroom

The back bathroom has an American Standard Champion toilet, and my daughter said she thought it was still running after it flushed.  This is symptomatic of a bad shut-off valve in the flushing mechanism.  I could not hear it running, but after flushing, the water level should be about an inch below the top of the overflow tube, as it was.

 If we wait a day after the last flush, we can see that the water level has crept up to the top of the overflow tube, which indicates that the valve is not completely stopping the flow of incoming water.   Time to get a new valve.

Checking the installation instructions for the toilet they describe the valve as a Fluidmaster 400A.  Checking the internet, this is still a common device; we bought ours at Home Depot.

The box contains the flush mechanism, plus instructions.

First we turn off the water supply at the cut-off below the tank.

We empty the tank, by flushing, then using a plastic cup to bail what remains, until finally using a sponge to get the rest.  Then we can remove the old mechanism.

We put the new valve in place, and attach it by a plastic nut on the outside bottom of the tank.

 Attach the water supply line.
 

And turn the water back on to fill the tank.

Check that it is full to the right level.  Check that there are no leaks at the bottom of the tank.  And we are done.  This took about an hour.

Washing the Windows

Linda said that the windows were looking dirty, and since I had been thinking the same, it seemed like a good time to clean them.

At least some of the issue seemed to be with the screens.  I think that the dirt in the air first goes thru the screens and some of it stays on the screens.  To help clean the screens, I used a bottle of Windex Outdoor Glass Cleaner.  This product attaches to the hose.  First you rinse the window with clear water, then add the soap solution, then rinse it off with clear water again.  Since this is done from the outside (with the windows all closed), the screens get washed off too.

It took one bottle and 1.5 hours to wash all the windows this way.

Then I washed each of the windows, outside first, then inside, using a bottle of Windex (or a generic equivalent) and a squeegee.  This took another 5 hours, over two days, for all the windows.

The hardest window to clean was the second story fixed window in the computer room.

This window seems to have water spots on the outside that will not wash off.  Maybe the result of hard water or acid rain.