The weather this Spring has been one of the best that I can remember. While the temps haven’t been really high (10 C), they have been higher than we normally see. The big thing has been the lack of rain and wind. We have been able to go for a walk, in comfort, since early April, which is very uncommon here in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Spring of 2009
July 5th, 2009Flooring Project – Fall 2008
July 1st, 2009Oct 2008 – After many years we decided it was time to rip up our carpet in the main floor area (living room/hall) of our house and replace it with either hardwood or laminate flooring. As usual, I did quite a bit of research and found some pros and cons to both laminate and hardwood.
Hardwood:
- easily dented (con)
- expensive (con)
- more difficult to put down (con)
- better resale value (pro)
- looks really good (pro)
Laminate:
- tougher, but still not indestructible (pro)
- less expensive (pro)
- easier to install, I could do it myself (pro)
- doesn’t have as good a resale value (con)
- doesn’t look as good, but still looks very good (con)
At the end of the day, we chose laminate, the 12 mil type. We felt that it provided the most cost effective improvement to our home, and from talking to many people, we found that it’s very common these days for people to use laminate instead of hardwood. I would install it myself and save some money.
Shopped around and found a good price at a local flooring outlet here in Mount Pearl. Before I bought the flooring, I asked the salesman if it was made in China, because I had heard flooring that was made in China was very hard to install because of the locking system they used. He said he didn’t know. I then asked if the flooring I was buying was hard to install. He said no.
Well, the flooring was very hard to install. It had to be installed in ‘full lengths’, which required at least 2 people. It was tough. I had installed laminate in my son’s bedroom about 4 years ago (2004) and it was much easier to install than this stuff. The salesman had lied.
Anyway, it took me about 4 days from start to finish to do the installation, and it probably took about 5 years off my life. I thought I was going to die!! My legs and knees hurt a lot.
I borrowed a 10″ chop saw from a friend and that was a big help. I had started out using a jigsaw and the 12 mil boards were too thick for the jigsaw. I went through about 20 blades in no time. I had to use the jigsaw for “lenght-wise” cuts and it was torture.
The railing at the stairs was another problem, but the flooring store told me how to dismantle the railing and made custom bull-nosing for the edges at the stairs. I had another company come in and re-install the railing. They did a pretty good job for less than $100.
The carpeting on the stairs is still waiting to get done. Hockey season takes up a lot of our time so now that it’s over for a few months we will have more time to pick something out.
Pictures:
Living Room Before (editted)
Railing Before
Stair-nosing Before
Railing Removal
Railing Removal
Railing Removal
Installing Laminate
Living Room
Hall
Railing Re-Installed
New Carpet On Stairs
New 2009 Ford Escape
June 19th, 2009Yesterday, we took delivery of a 2009 Ford Escape. Sangria Red paint with Black interior. With gas at $1.10 per litre, we decided to get the 4cyl Front Wheet Drive (as opposed to a 6cyl or even 4cyl 4WD) model.
Options include: Automatic transmission, Sync Voice Activated System and the Convenience Package (Message Center, Trip Computer, Ext Temp, Compass, Dual Sunglass Holders and Illuminated Visor Mirrors).
This vehicle comes very well equipped in base model form. All the basics, including Air. Some notable features are Alloy Wheels, ABS, Traction Control, Stability Control, Sirius Radio (6 mths free), 6-way Power Drivers Seat and 6 Air Bags (2 front, side/seat and curtain). Tire pressure monitoring is standard on most, if not all, vehicles these days anyway and is included on the Escape.
The Escape is a very nice vehicle to drive. It’s a nice size, not too big and not too small. The intention is to keep this vehicle a long, long time. 8 years minimum. We felt the combination of size, comfort and fuel economy would allow us to do that. We will see how that works out.
First fill-up:10 litres per 100km on 539km (560 on odometer). Mix of 50/50 city hwy driving.
First wax: June 27, 2009: Used Mothers Carnuba Cleaner Wax and my new electric Buffer/Polisher. Mothers is a really good product. It will take out minor scratches and leaves a smooth glossy finish. The buffer is a corded model. I thought the cord would be a pain…but it isn’t.
First Service: Exhaust noise from muffler seemed a little louder than normal. I had driven 3 Escapes/Tributes prior to buying this one and I don’t remember either’s exhaust being so loud, so I made an appointment with Cabot Ford. Got an appointment for the next day. Impressive. Mechanic agreed right away that my Escape didn’t sound right. He made some adjustments and the sound was better when I left the lot. Later that same day, it seemed “not right” again however. Will make another appointment with Cabot.
More info to follow.
Escape on Cabot Ford back lot (Sangria Red)
At Home
Side View (sun making paint appear lighter than it really is)
Interior (Black - sun making it appear grey)
Interior (Black)
Plasma TV
June 2nd, 2009Oct 22, 2008 – Decided to buy a big TV. Prices are down these days so the time was right for a family Christmas gift.
Checked out many models and compared LCD and Plasma both in person and on the web. At the end of the day Plasma won out for the following reasons: 1) better dark pictures 2) better for watching sports 3) better for watching at an angle.
Brand name also played a big part in the decision. Panasonic TV’s get really good reviews so the decision was actually pretty easy. The Viera TH-42PX80U for $1150 tax in at Futureshop was the final choice.
New Clothes Washer
May 13th, 2009May 12, 2009 – Had to buy a new clothes washer today. The Whirlpool that I did so much research on about 6 years ago has died. The transmission is gone. The repair guy (Amperage Appliance - Steve Hilton) only charged me $40 to tell me what was wrong with it. I was very happy with that. He is highly recommended.
Considering I bought what I thought was such a good product, this time I bought the cheapest product I could find. I am sure this one will last just as long.
At the end of the day I bought an Estate Washer (Model: ETW4400WQ0 Ser #: CY1531661) from Smiths Furniture on Topsail Road. Price was $379 + tax = $428. It’s actually made by Whirlpool. Says right on it. It has most of the important features. At least the ones that are important to me.
Hockey Equipment
September 20th, 2008Stephanie needed some new hockey equipment this year. A helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and jill were the main items. This post is basically to remind me that you can never start looking too early. I actually started in early June and never did get the elbow pads that I wanted for her. The pair I got were very good but not what I wanted. Got Itech spandex Jill, Bauer Vapour XXII skates, Bauer One90 knee pads (awesome pad), RBK 8K helmet (I think the 6K would have been good enough), and Bauer Vapour XXV elbow pads (wanted the One90’s). Steph really likes all this equipment and I have decided that buying comfortable good equipment is worth the extra money. She plays so much hockey that she needs to be in comfortable equipment. Hopefully Santa will bring a new stick. I have already started looking!!! Brad only needed new skates. He picked out Bauer Vapour XVI. Perfect for the amount of hockey that he plays.
More Paint
September 20th, 2008This time it was interior paint. Nobody will ever confuse me with a person that does a lot of painting, but over the last 20 years of home owning, I have probably used 10 different brands of paint. Well I can honestly say that CIL TrueLife from Canadian Tire is the best paint I have ever used. It doesn’t drip, it hides really well, it doesn’t have much odor and dries very quickly. I highly recommend it. August 12-14, 2008
Deck Painting
July 22nd, 2008Recently stained my deck (July 14) . Needed 2.5 gallons of stain. Type used was Rez brand and color used was Redwood and if I had my time back I would have used a light brown or even dark brown instead. Stain pad soaked up the paint, but was really fast. Stain roller worked pretty good too, but pad was faster.
Deck Cleaning
July 6th, 2008Cleaned my 10×13 deck today. I used a chemical cleaner for the first time. I was looking for some sort of quick effective means to bring the deck back to new again.
I went to Home Depot to buy a $20 bottle of Thompson’s cleaner and found a $4 bottle of Behr cleaner, so I decided to try that instead. The $4 bottle did a pretty good job. Probably a better bang for the buck than the $20 bottle. I doubt the $20 would have got the deck perfectly clean…and the $4 bottle didn’t either.
Cell Phone – Brad
July 4th, 2008I am in the middle of moving Brad’s cell phone away from Telus because he is using more call mintues and text messaging than he used to. Virgin is $10 cheaper to get everything he needs (100 mins, free evenings and weekends (7pm) and unlimited texting) and they have a nice free phone if you sign up for a 1 year contract. Koodoo was another good option but the free phone wasn’t as nice, and you actually had to pay it off over a year or more.
However, getting the phone number converted over from Telus has not been easy. I have been trying since Monday to get it done. Futureshop staff (Dara) have been very helpful but there is only so much she can do.
Finally got the phone yesterday (Sat July 5). Dara noted on the bill that the warranty period doesn’t start until July 5 and not when I bought it on June 30.
Nice phone. Good clear reception when calling it. Has a real nice clear screen. Point of interest is that a TransFlash card is the same as a MicroSD card. Gave Brad the 512mb card I had.