West gate underlayment- both sides now

$ 11.24 is what I spent on this project. That was for the sand to grout the joints of the brick. This landing greatly improves the experience of passing through this gate, particularly when putting out the trash and bringing the empty trash containers back. This project is both a Gardener and a Craftsman project. I charged the sand off to the Gardener account. I hope that my construction techniques endure for decades.

Project finance review

This is all the refuse I had out for Wednesday pick up. All the old paint cans are out of the house. Now it is time to clean out the storage unit. I put my monthly rent check in the mail today. It is $ 83.85 every month. We have a few boxes of records and some of our Christmas decorations in it but other than that it is full of junk. I desire to empty it out and apply that money to improvement projects on this house. I could get a great return on that money. This much of the "Goodbye old paint" project cost about $9.00 in kitty litter. I have about a quarter of a bag left over. I have spent and done the following: $ 11.24 for sand to grout the brick underlayment at the west gate 59.96 for parts for top notch dryer duct system 9.01 for kitty litter to congeal paint in cans = $80.21 total $80.21 is not enough to pay someone to do any of these vital jobs. I doubt I could find anyone to do things like this, anyway. I would still have $3.64 to roll over to next month, if I were using the mini storage rent payments of $83.85 for my revenue stream. Next month I would have $87.49 for Argenta Craftsman improvements. I gotta get that done.

Good bye old paint

This is the last bit of old paint cans that came with the house. It was in the basement and I stashed it in the crawl space under the house to make room in the basement for our stuff when we moved in. I decided to advance another step to getting rid of these old paint cans when I was under the house replacing the dryer duct. The city will pick up the stuff if you pull off the tops and stabilize the paint material with an absorbent like kitty litter. The pick up day is Wednesday. This being Wednesday and having the need to get rid of some ivy we had pruned, I hastened to prepare and put out the stuff for pick up. You can tell by the pictures that I put a light above where I was working so I could see. It is a small halogen work lamp. Then I dumped the kitty litter into a bin for ease of access. Next I sorted the containers and opened them up. I poured off the fuller cans into the empty cans to even them up. It averaged out that all the cans were about half full. Then I scooped in a generous amount of litter into each can and stirred to blend. I had to add more litter into the cans until the contents were solid. When I was satisfied I had a done good jobbie I took them out to the street. I was happy to finally have this mess cleared out. All the old paint cans in the house are gone and legally disposed of. It is something worth celebrating!

Dryer duct in the basements

The top photo is of the four way elbow protruding into the basement from the laundry room above. I like how this closes off a large gap in the barrier between the wet, moldy basement and the living area. I took the middle photo from beside the elbow connector pointing towards the discharge end. For the basement duct I used two eight foot sections of aluminum duct. I used an aluminum connector and two clamps to join them. I carefully stretched and twisted the duct into a good, free flowing position and secured it with a strap. The bottom photo is the connection to the discharge to the outside. When I started the dryer and checked, the velocity coming out at the discharge outside was at least three times what it was when we first moved in here. The clothes never really got completely dry. Big improvement! I spent a total of 59.96 on parts and we have a completely new top of the line duct work system. If I was charging for this it should go something like this: Parts x 2 = $119.92. Labor: 6.5 hours at $50 =$325.00 making a grand total of: $444.92. I would be happy to provide photo documentation of the project. I am surprised at the guys that we paid to clean out this duct that they would do what they did. I'm sorry for them. They've lost my respect.

Dryer duct fix

This is what I did from inside the house behind the dryer. I got this white plastic couple that enables the dryer and a lead of duct to be disconnected from the rest of the duct system. I put a piece of duct which has four adjustable elbows onto the flange of the connector which screws to the floor. That is the piece in the top picture. In the middle picture I have put the connector with the elbow thing on it into the hole. That's the light from the basement showing. Beside the floor couple there is the other connector and the piece of aluminum duct which I will use as a lead from the dryer to the connector. The third picture shows everything assembled and ready to go. I just need to twist it on as in the bottom picture and work the dryer and the duct into place.

Dryer surprise

This morning I moved a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer. I went outside to look at a project I'm thinking on doing. I was standing by the dryer vent and I thought I would check to make sure the screen was clear. I noticed right away that there was no air coming out of the vent. Not even a warm whisper. My first thought was that what ever the problem it would somehow work it's way out. Then I came to my senses and went to find out what the problem was. I pulled out the dryer and saw what the bottom photo shows. I pulled on an old fleece, grabbed the flashlight and the camera and headed for the basement. I crawled into the crawl space and the air was hot and wet. Everything was covered with lint. The environment was thoroughly damp. I made my way to the place where the vent hose comes through the floor and I discovered what I photographed in the top picture. We paid money to a company to clean that duct just a month or two ago. I found that the hose was split and that an attempt to use tape to effect a repair had been made. If those guys just carried a splice it could have been easily repaired for less than $5.00 in parts. They are fired. I began then and there to make this right.

tunspan

This is a copy of the Argenta plan by this design firm. Here is a link to their web site. http://www.tunspan.com/argenta/docs/Argenta_Workshop_Plan%20Oct15-09.pdf