The List - September 2021

Well.  It’s been six years.  The new kid is almost useful, and I must have done some of the jobs on the list.

Newly on the list:

        1.      Pull the juniper from under the buckeye, dig out the gravel, and replace with mulch and                     big rocks 

        2.      Re-fabric and mulch under the sumac 

        3.      Plant new grapes

        4.      Fix the hot tub – keeps blowing the sub-panel breaker 

        5.      Dig out the dead mountain ash (Thanks again, sapsucker…)

In the attic:

1. Install two bathroom fans (that move air, and don’t howl – holy crap, do I ever need to get that done) 

Upstairs:

1. Refinish kitchen and bathroom cabinets
2. Fill the nail holes in all the baseboards
3. New door sweeps at front door and back door
4. Paint doors
5. Re-silicone the en-suite bathtub
6. Paint upstairs half bath.

Outside:

1. Patch broken stucco (I wish I knew how to do that.  I haven’t tried to learn yet)
2. Hand rails at main entrance and garage man-doors (2) (Currently ignoring this.  I don’t like the look of handrails, but I probably should install one as the grandparents aren’t getting younger.)
3. Replace deck, as the current one is deck boards installed on top of plywood
4. Shrouds for west and garden water tanks (– doesn’t seem as important as it once did.  And lumber is expensive.  Maybe someday.)
5. Add eavestroughs to sheds
6. Retaining walls at the basement walk-out

In the Garage:

        1.      Still more shelves – need to re-do the general-duty shelf unit by the door into the house.

 

In the Basement:

1. Install at least one cold air return
2. Deal with the hacked-in wet bar/kitchen in the basement (rip it out and start again?)
3. Build a hearth of some sort around the fireplace
4. Trim glass block feature (in progress – got one side done.  It looks great, but took two days – currently ignoring the other side until we put baseboards in)
5. Build bookshelves (built one, but then gave it to a kid.  I need more… always more bookshelves…)
6. Install baseboards 

Electrician (or HVAC): 

1. Hook up and/or fix central exhaust fan (Found the wire at the fuse panel – unconnected.  Presumably, that’s the problem.  Update:  Nope.  When connected, we then had 220V at the switch, along with assorted breakers blowing.  More headscratching is required – and probably a pretty good electrician.)

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Total:  26 entries, 14 less than before.  Cool.  Some progress, I guess.

Now, here's the good side of The List.  If I keep at it, the top will migrate to the bottom:

Big jobs that never made The List

1. Build a grape-growing area
2. Pull out the overgrown mugo pines by the door
3. High shelves over the workbench
4. Wire the sound system properly in the walls
5. Trim the skylight (so we can seal it off from the house moisture and hopefully stop wrecking the ceiling when it ices up, then melts and drips – Working a treat so far)
6. Rebuild the quad driveshaft

Crossed off (as of September 8, 2021):

7. Re-grade under the deck and east side of walkout (In progress.  I've dumped a bunch of sand and dirt in there - now need to build some sort of retaining wall and cover it up.  I also added a bunch of dirt to the east side of the walkout, helping with the grading – it’s done well enough for now.  We just need to get the retaining walls in to finish it up)
8. Fix visible seam (well, failed at this one.  Apparently it needs to wait until we replace the carpet.   That should happen c. 2030).
9. Install tack strip at kitchen, hearth
10. Drywall under stairs
11. Stretch carpet
12. Paint garage doors
13. Build shelves in the furnace room
14. Put siding on sheds (they’re currently painted OSB)
15. Designate an area of front yard to go wild, and then plant a bunch of trees and brush to help it along. (Got the evergreens planted, and a bunch of leafy trees.  Next up: shrubs, and then let it go wild – It’s coming along just fine.  I hope the Haskaps do well)
16. Move garage door opener buttons
17. More shelves in the garage (there’s an entire bare wall that could handle shelves for shoes, kitchen appliances, etc.)
18. Weather strips at bottom of garage man-door
19. Build a shed for garbage (also probably not necessary.  We're doing ok with just the garage – a-yup.  This one goes on the Ignore pile).
20. Fix soffits on the house. (Fixed, more or less.  They really need to be replaced.  Whoever installed them didn’t know what they were doing).
21. Build a play house in one side of the play centre. (No need.  We’re done with the playcentre)
22. Run cable from the upstairs TV to the PVR  
23. Figure out why we have bacteria growing in our well water (got it – dirt in the softener), and fix it (can’t get it – ignoring, and when we have to replace the softener, it should go away.)
24. Build a frame for the drawers below the kids' bunk bed.  (Well, stuck some boards to the floor.  It didn’t work well, but the kids are in separate rooms now, so it’s a moot point).
25. Finish new kitchen chairs
26. Build a little TV stand 
27. Fix shingles on one shed.  Again.  And at least once more after that.  And fix shingles on the house, as well as the chimney and a whirlybird.  Wind sucks.

Old stuff crossed off:

1. Fix shingles on one shed.  But then another one blew off.
2. Run cable from the upstairs TV to the PVR.  
3. Trim the basement bathroom light
4. Run internet cable to the projector/PVR
5. Install outlet for garage heater
6. Clear away a pile of dirt (Involved building a bunk to store it in)
7. Buy and plant pear and apple trees (we’re up to five apples, three pears, and four cherries)
8. Hook up six water tanks
9. Shroud for east water tank
10. Prune more trees (they've all been done once, now)
11. Re-grade east shrub garden
12. Box for propane and pool chemical storage
13. Install reverse osmosis system in basement
14. Fix loose baseboard installation
15. Get rid of the gravel in the shrub garden
16. Take out an overgrown, ugly, pain-in-the-butt flowerbed
17. Fix stairs to the hot tub (replaced with some old ones to a shed.  They work ok).
18. Re-balance the washing machine
19. [Plumber] Figure out whether in-floor heat, and on-demand water heater are installed correctly (nope!), and
20. [Plumber] Thermostat for in-floor heat (Nothing that $5000 couldn't fix.  But then we got a bit better flow through our lines, and all sorts of crud started coming up and clogging various screens. It seems to be settling down now.  Finally.)
21. Fix the leaking eavestroughs 
22. Install half bath faucet.
23. Hand rails at deck stairs
24. Towel bars etc. at main bath, en-suite, and half bath.
25. Install curtains and/or blinds in the bedrooms
26. Fix the rod in the main entrance closet 
27. Get rid of rust stain on side of house
28. Install cat doors in both sheds (this was more a decision that they’re not necessary than a completed job)
29. Paint basement bathroom
30. Paint basement hallway
31. Get rid of chicken coop (Somebody actually paid money for it!)
32. Get rid of chicken poo
33. Remove old internet antenna
34. Patch holes in wall from internet wire
35. Fix old hot tub electrical box
36. Finish drywall repairs in the bathroom 
37. Install bathroom lights
38. New thermostat for garage heater
39. Oil changes for quad, lawnmowers
40. Shelves for the spice cupboard 
41. Replace stairs on deck 
42. Fix saggy cables in the garage
43. Fix mitre saw table
44. Shelves in the garage (two over one side of the workbench)
45. Shelves under the work bench 
46. Fix lawnmower steering
47. Clean pencil crayon off glass block grout
48. Replace stopper in bathroom sink
49. Hook up kitchenette water
50. It’s nice that this section is longer than the top section, even if it’s just by a little.
51. And the jobs that didn’t stay on the list long enough to register
52. Fix the broken glass panel in the pantry door
53. Stop the deck door from binding on the frame
54. Replace the expired smoke detectors, and install a CO detector
55. Make the toilets in the basement and ensuite flush properly
56. Make the vacuum cleaner suck (more)  - Replaced the canister.
57. Fix or replace the vacuum cleaner sweep plate (with the new canister, it just works now)
58. Install garburator
59. Clean main bathroom light fixture
60. Organize pantry
61. Shelf liners for pantry, pot drawer
62. Touch up blue paint
63. Touch up white paint drips
64. Replace leaky dishwasher
65. Weed/mow/trim/prune 
66. Organize tools
67. Figure out snow removal (bought a blade to go with my quad on the day of a 12-inch dump of snow.  It works.)
68. Clean garbage out of composts
69. Power for garburator
70. Power in kitchen island
71. Touch up ceiling paint in basement and kitchen
72. Plant trees to block off the neighbour’s shed
73. Get hot tub running
74. Get quad starting and running well
75. Organize freezers
76. Replace bulb in microwave
77. Move stones from scattered randomly over the yard to a pile
78. Attach the bathroom fan exhaust hoses to the roof vents
79. Replace bathroom baseboards (removed for tiling)
80. Touch up paint at colour changes
81. Clean fans in boys’ bedrooms
82. Shampoo kitchen chairs, couch cushions
83. Replace screens in boys’ bedrooms
84. Replace weather strip at garage doors
85. Replace weather strip at garage man doors
86. Replace weather strip at main entrance door
87. Clean kitchen lights
88. Move fireplace
89. Fill fishpond (with dirt)
90. Level sandbox (dig into the hill) and then fill sandbox (with sand)
91. Plant lilac
92. Plant oak
93. Finish drywall repairs in basement hallway
94. Touch up red paint 
95. [Gravel truck]Add gravel to driveway 
96. Clean the old place.
97. Clean the new place.
98. Paint (and patch, and re-paint) the new place
99. Pack and move everything from one to the other.
100. Install a new kitchen faucet – the cheapest available, so that the sink doesn’t leak into the cabinet
101. Replace almost every bulb in the place with bulbs that were either not dead, or put out light
102. Put tiles around the ensuite shower and main bathtub
103. Install another new kitchen faucet – this time, one we like.
104. Find the yard, somewhere under all the weeds
105. Find the garden – spray it, scythe it, and rototill it.  Then repeat a couple of times.
106. Unclog the drain in the main bathtub
107. Unclog the drain in the half bath sink
108. Unclog the drain in the ensuite sink
109. Figure out where the water pressure all went
110. Fix the hot water flow
111. Get internet installed
112. Get lawnmower working
113. Fix tire on lawnmower
114. Haul truckloads of junk to the dump
115. Fix leaky kitchen sink
116. Replace under-cabinet lighting 
117. Got the basement vacuum figured out.  Now, upstairs...
118. Paint ceiling at skylight
119. Level sidewalk tiles at shed, walkout
120. Install projector and screen 
121. Figure out basement lights switches that do nothing, and the lights that won’t turn on. 
122. Clean up and/or throw out carpet (under stairs)  
123. Install outlet for water heater
124. Fix saggy ceiling in garage
125. Added a sand filter to our water lines - like, to filter out sand  
126. Fix the fuel leak on the rototiller, and get the starter working
127. Fix the lawnmower - the PTO sometimes doesn't turn off, and there are sparks
128. Install the last two door casing (walk-in closet and pantry)
129. Add small shelves for garage chemicals and such
130. Put a cat door in the garage.
131. Hang Pictures 
132. Install baseboards in the closets 
133. Find a place to hang the vacuum cleaner hose
134. Fix the shelves in the walk-in closet
135. Fix play center and and install a wheel up top
136. Install a faucet that doesn’t get half-turned-off in the basement bathroom
137. Install towel bars, TP holders, etc. in basement bathroom
138. Fix soffits on shed
139. Add a closet rod and shelf in the boys' room
140. Assemble bunk beds. (Much more work than it should have been, involving ordering the thing twice, and several replacement parts on top of that)
141. Paint the window wells in the basement
142. Install a new kitchen sink to replace the constantly-stained white one
143. Rip out all the old water treatment stuff and install something that works.  (Plumber plus $6000 = good water again.)

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Total:  27 + 143 = 170 entries

I might have to add a section for motorhome jobs.  They're adding quite a lot to what I need to do.  The current big one is to get the generator running well again.  And then to get a check-engine light shut off.