New switches

Timer Switch
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

I've installed a new timer switch for the ventilation fan in the guest washroom upstairs and a motion detector switch for the light in the laundry / mud room.. Now when I go into the laundry room with a load of dirty clothes I don't have to reach for the light again!

The pictures for both switches are on Flickr

Photos for Logic board replacement

The business end of the logic board replacement.
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Sorry for the delay in posting pictures for the logic board for the garage door opener! They are mildly interesting, but I am overjoyed that the opener works properly again.

Logic board for garage opener arrived.

Last Friday I finally received the replacement logic board from Chamberlain. I installed it on Saturday and it works like a charm. I took some pictures and will put them up later..

"Stone" style glass tile

Stone style glass tile
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Applied another sample called "Stone". This time with white grout. Looks good.. I think we want to use this one for the kitchen.

Recursive Houses

Recursive Houses
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

I've decided to start a series of pictures documenting the suburbia life through the eyes of a caffeine drunkard.. me.

The first image is this one. It is scary how I cannot see the end of houses through the gap between my neighbours' houses. It is even more scary how there is such uniformity of positioning the houses and lot so that there is an unbroken row of gaps between houses. I live in a cookie-cut subdivision in a suburb. I'm a suburbanite, through and through.

This series will be sporadically updated.. when I feel depressed. You'd hope there isn't many pictures here in a Flickr set!

Surge protector for Garage Openers

Surge protector in use
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Home Depot indeed has the surge protectors in stock. I splurged and bought two of them.

My garage opener is busted

I have two Chamberlain Whisper Drive garage door openers. They were installed one week after I moved in. They seem to work fine until recently. One day we came home to find the door opened. That was scary. Everything in the garage seems to be in order at least. We also found that my garage opener opens both doors, and the wife's ? not working at all. That's weird. After we closed it, the wonky side also opened by its own.

So today I called Chamberlain and asked for help, after discovering that the unit refuses to reset after I hold the "learn button" down as instructed by the manual's troubleshooting guide. After a few tests the customer rep says that the logic board is fried and they will send me a new one in 7-10 business days. So nice. I will see what happens after I replace the logic board. Meanwhile I guess we'll just unplug the unit when the wife is home.

Update: Simon has found that Chamberlain makes a surge protector for its Liftmaster line of garage openers. I'll see whether I can find them at Home Depot.

Glass mosaic tile install practise session

All the mosaic are installed!
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We finally decided on using glass tile mosaic to tile our kitchen back splash. I've never tiled before, let alone these specialized glass tiles. So I decided to do a simulated install on a spare piece of dry wall.

I took left over dry wall pieces from the washroom vanity light project and attached it onto the garage wall. I then proceeded to install three sample sheets of glass mosaic on it.

I think it turned out reasonably well. The tiles are resonably lined up and nothing fell out. :-) Now I wait for 24 hours before i can practise grouting.

As usual, I was my own photo-journalist and the pictures are up on Flickr.

Update: I've done the grouting practise and the photos are now part of the same set on Flickr. Use link above to see the complete set of pictures for the entire practise!

Hanging curtain

Bracket with rod.
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We are SICK of RediShade. We also need to access the backyard through the patio doors now that we have a lawn. So we went and bought the necessary curtain things and went at it. The challenge in this project was provided by our boneheaded builder who decided to put in a bulkhead so close to the trim of the patio door.

As usual, I was my own photo-journalist and the pictures are up on Flickr.

Update on my shelves in the garage

Epilogue...
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Finally able to take a picture of the "new" 3 layer shelving I installed in the garage after I last blogged about this project. Three levels of storage space for more crap! I don't need a proper toolbox.. my bottom shelf is now the tool storage.. Easy access to my growing tool collection!

Dehumidifier update

Hose adapter
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

My basement has become quite humid after April. I've been using the dehumidifier constantly, but empting the tank every other night is becoming tiresome. So finally I bought the short garden hose and attached it to the dehumidifier.

Thanks again to my friends that bought me the dehumidifier!

Photos on Flickr.

Computer in the hallway

Computer in the hallway
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Why are there two computers that aren't plugged in and stacked on top of each other in front of the staircase? Yes, these are old computers that I don't use and I am REALLY using them as paperweights. Kinda. After the contractor glued the edge of the laminate floor to the subfloor near the nosing he asked me to put something heavy on top. So I did.

The Glue? PL400. Look it up yourself!

Photos on Flickr

DIY Vanity Light Installation

The wife hated the strip light the builders installed in our washrooms. So I decided to rip them out and replace with better looking vanity lights.

Before:


After:


As usual, I was my own photo-journalist and the pictures are up on Flickr.

DIY Heavy Duty Shelves

So our second major project is to install our own shelves in the garage.

We know we have a lot of shit stuff that needs to be put into the garage. So we looked around for shelving. Stuff from IKEA (search for GORM) or HomeDepot (such as ProRack) doesn't look too good, so in the end I decided to build our own.

As usual, I was my own photo-journalist and the pictures are up on Flickr.

DIY adding handles to my new cabinets doors

When we talked to the builder and picked the inside choices like cabinet style and colour, we also told them to not put in the handle knobs for the doors for the kitchen cabinets. We like what we saw at Lee Valley better (look under Handles and Pulls > Specialty Handles > Stainless-Steel Handles > Bow Handles). We also told them to not drill any holes either. Anyways Frendel Kitchen the contractor did a very nice job and now it's time for me to do my stuff!

Illustrated steps can be found at Flickr.

Interesting kitchen movable island

http://www.comforthouse.com/comfort/whitcutboar.html

Tyatt says:

i'm still thinking of how to remodel our kitchen....because I just realize I'm cutting the breakfast area spaces...but then again...many modern kitchen don't care about the breakfast area (as in...remodel the kitchen in such a way that it has breakfast bar extending to breakfast area and don't need extra tables). If it's done well...that's no prob at all....i don't know how much u like to have an empty breakfast area to put table in or just an integrated area. I'm looking more into that now. There's this hawaii remodel kitchen
Hawaii Home + Remodeling magazine on web...and has lots of cool kitchen pictures for ideas. :)

Lots of backissue too. :)

The picture of the breakfast table Tyatt refers to is this one...

Our new blog!

Well, I've started a new blog to document new ideas, info, web pages, and other stuff related to our new house! This is so that we have a way to remember all the stuff we thought about.