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Dec. 10th, 2011 03:18 pmToday I went to the hardware store! I love going there. Home Depot is nice for outfitting for large projects, but for just shopping around for fun, I like the smaller stores like Ace. That's where we went today.
We got a battery for our tree remote, which was the sole reason we went in. But, as usually happens there, I started browsing. We came home with:
A new 25' tape measure that was on sale. We somehow only have one and it is never on the same level as where we need it. Now we will have an upstairs and a downstairs one. I imagine soon we'll be able to find neither of them.
A two-inch furnace filter. We'd been getting by with the regular thickness and blocking the extra space, but when the thermostat guy was here, he told me they make two inch filters. Holy crap how did I not know that? Well, they don't stock them everywhere or in every variety, but we found one and we're going to try it out. It's time to change the filter, so it was time to get a new one anyway.
Trash bags. The ones with drawstring handles, because I love those and the ones we have now are NOT those. But hopefully we will use all of those up and get to use the lovely new ones soon. Or maybe I will put the old ones away for emergencies.
A V-shaped insulation thingy for our front door. It goes along the side and it's kind of springy. It's supposed to keep good contact with the door so it blocks drafts.
Some plastic outlet plugs, because I am planning to implement Pres Man's suggestion for the library and I want to protect me from myself. He suggested that when we figure out where all the bookcases are going to be, we cut through the back to allow access to the outlets. These are not really fancy bookcases, so this is a great idea. We can use all the wall space. I am not exactly sure how we'll figure out where the outlets are (probably lots of measuring and then giving up and just feeling around and saying "CUT HERE!"), but it seems like a decent idea to make them safer in case we do something silly like dremel through into the wrong spot....Also, I have a nephew who may come back to visit, so anything that makes him safer is good.
And then Pres Man got me a Christmas present! I have been wanting a sander for a long time, and today I pointed one out to him that I thought I would like. I thought he might go get it later, because he did not grab it right away, but then when we went to check out he had it in his hand. WHEEE!!!! I'm very excited. This will come in VERY handy when we're preparing the walls in the future nursery. I should take a picture of the particular bad patch I'm thinking of so you can see how hideous it is.
When we got home I insulated some of our windows. I really should have done it earlier (like last year) but today is warm so it was a good time to do it. I put a strip of foam tape where each of the five living room windows comes down, because our windows are not incredibly tight. This is where some air has been getting in; I felt it the other night. I am hopeful that this will help enough to be noticeable. It would be better if we had gotten on the ball when it was really nice and put the rope caulk in the storm windows, but we did not. Next year!
I also put the styrofoam faucet protector on the outside faucet. Finally. It has a hook inside that runs through the styrofoam bell to a screw on the outside. You hook the thing on your faucet, then screw it tight so that the dome is held against the house (it's got squishy foam where it meets the house to make a good seal). We did not have any trouble with freezing pipes last year, but we already had this thing so we might as well use it.
Pres Man cleaned a lot of stuff out of the Pink room on Friday afternoon! When I got home the walls we are going to paint were completely accessible and he had taken all the screws/nails out of the walls. He'd even pried the piece of wood off the pink wall, which is awesome.
It's all ready to spackle and tape, though he still wants to move some stuff out to make it easier to get around in there. I thought I would do some of that today, but I'm not sure if I will get to it now. I really want to install the new door draft thingy first, because it's so nice and warm (well, it's in the 40s anyway).
I also need to program the thermostat; I realized today that the guy had preset it for our weekday schedule, but he had not done an exception for the weekends. When I realized it was a tad chilly I figured out that the house thought we were at work! Whoops.
We got a battery for our tree remote, which was the sole reason we went in. But, as usually happens there, I started browsing. We came home with:
A new 25' tape measure that was on sale. We somehow only have one and it is never on the same level as where we need it. Now we will have an upstairs and a downstairs one. I imagine soon we'll be able to find neither of them.
A two-inch furnace filter. We'd been getting by with the regular thickness and blocking the extra space, but when the thermostat guy was here, he told me they make two inch filters. Holy crap how did I not know that? Well, they don't stock them everywhere or in every variety, but we found one and we're going to try it out. It's time to change the filter, so it was time to get a new one anyway.
Trash bags. The ones with drawstring handles, because I love those and the ones we have now are NOT those. But hopefully we will use all of those up and get to use the lovely new ones soon. Or maybe I will put the old ones away for emergencies.
A V-shaped insulation thingy for our front door. It goes along the side and it's kind of springy. It's supposed to keep good contact with the door so it blocks drafts.
Some plastic outlet plugs, because I am planning to implement Pres Man's suggestion for the library and I want to protect me from myself. He suggested that when we figure out where all the bookcases are going to be, we cut through the back to allow access to the outlets. These are not really fancy bookcases, so this is a great idea. We can use all the wall space. I am not exactly sure how we'll figure out where the outlets are (probably lots of measuring and then giving up and just feeling around and saying "CUT HERE!"), but it seems like a decent idea to make them safer in case we do something silly like dremel through into the wrong spot....Also, I have a nephew who may come back to visit, so anything that makes him safer is good.
And then Pres Man got me a Christmas present! I have been wanting a sander for a long time, and today I pointed one out to him that I thought I would like. I thought he might go get it later, because he did not grab it right away, but then when we went to check out he had it in his hand. WHEEE!!!! I'm very excited. This will come in VERY handy when we're preparing the walls in the future nursery. I should take a picture of the particular bad patch I'm thinking of so you can see how hideous it is.
When we got home I insulated some of our windows. I really should have done it earlier (like last year) but today is warm so it was a good time to do it. I put a strip of foam tape where each of the five living room windows comes down, because our windows are not incredibly tight. This is where some air has been getting in; I felt it the other night. I am hopeful that this will help enough to be noticeable. It would be better if we had gotten on the ball when it was really nice and put the rope caulk in the storm windows, but we did not. Next year!
I also put the styrofoam faucet protector on the outside faucet. Finally. It has a hook inside that runs through the styrofoam bell to a screw on the outside. You hook the thing on your faucet, then screw it tight so that the dome is held against the house (it's got squishy foam where it meets the house to make a good seal). We did not have any trouble with freezing pipes last year, but we already had this thing so we might as well use it.
Pres Man cleaned a lot of stuff out of the Pink room on Friday afternoon! When I got home the walls we are going to paint were completely accessible and he had taken all the screws/nails out of the walls. He'd even pried the piece of wood off the pink wall, which is awesome.
It's all ready to spackle and tape, though he still wants to move some stuff out to make it easier to get around in there. I thought I would do some of that today, but I'm not sure if I will get to it now. I really want to install the new door draft thingy first, because it's so nice and warm (well, it's in the 40s anyway).
I also need to program the thermostat; I realized today that the guy had preset it for our weekday schedule, but he had not done an exception for the weekends. When I realized it was a tad chilly I figured out that the house thought we were at work! Whoops.
