A new roof incoming!

After reviewing 3 different quotes for roofing and gutter replacement I went with Fichtner Services out of Odenton, MD.  With two co-workers recommendation, plus an Angie's List high score/good reviews it overcame the ~$200 more they wanted to charge for the gutters.  The roof replace was pretty much the same on all three quotes.

Fichtner does both GAF and Certainteed shingles, I read a bunch of reviews of both and they appear to push GAF more, (one of the other companies recommended Certainteed above GAF.)  As long as the warranty is good, and the shingles work...I'll be happy.  From what I read online they both make good products, its more the people who put it on and how well that is done.

Colors, I was shown the below as my options:

I went with Pewter Grey, the swatch under the 'red' shingle.   It is very similar to the 2nd from the top in the first column, but less blue.   I'm getting a full pull-off, with new underlayment plus "Weather Watch" leak barrier for the first 3'.  There was a coupon on Angie's List for $250 off, but the sales person said it was supposed to be for only roofs over a certain size.  I called him on it and he said he'd upgrade my downspouts (yeah I'm sure I just said that...) from 2x3" to 3x4" and all in all I was fine with that.

The work is scheduled for tomorrow (Friday 4/20) so I will take a few pictures before/during/after.  Weather is supposed to be great for the work.  Even though it is a lot of money, I am looking forward to getting the roof off the 'list of concerns'.  (and here's to it staying off it for many years!)

On other projects, I've taped up the main bedroom, bought paint so I should be having the bedroom done soon.  I also got a new wheelbarrow wheel plus some seeds/seed starter kits to get a few flowers/plants germinating.

Really want to think about taking that wall down in the bedroom.  It will be a 'major task' but I think getting it done sooner than later.

Deck lighting

Got home from my trip to Boston yesterday, and after getting home from work today and getting some sleep, I went out shopping for a new round of things that need to get looked at!

Last week I had removed the old, non-working back light off my kitchen.

 

As you can see, rusted, pitted and also...not very attractive.  One of the things that having a house does make you develop is a personal sense of style.  I've always been attracted to Frank Lloyd Wright's work, and its associated Prairie-style.   I found Hampton Bay Mission Hills Wall-Mount 1-Light Outdoor Oil Rubbed Chestnut Lantern which, while expensive, fits the decor I want.  

The previous fitting wasn't connected to a junction box, so I used some un-used washers & metal screws to dig into the white plastic mount.  I was more concerned with how the power leads were going to be connected then with measurements at this time.

But it screwed in tightly, which fit the bill.  The mounting screws (the long silver screws to the left and right in the picture above) are too long for the mounting counter-screw (pretty faux-bronzed screw cap that will attach the light to the bracket.) so I had to dust out the Dremel tool and cut off about 1/2" from both screws.

Afterwards, this was the result:

As you can see, the lantern look is GREAT!  The mounting panel is NOT even though, so tomorrow I will remove the lamp and shift the bracket up about 1" to center the light on the white panel.

I also got another estimate on the roof.  I'll make my decision tomorrow.  I decided to sign up for Angie's List for this month since I'm going to be looking at both roofing & heat pump installations, the discounts it gives plus the reviews are worth it in the short-term.

Tomorrow, look for some work in coaxial cabling in the basement.

The little things...

I've been going through the boxes from the move, slowly putting books up on the bookshelves and starting to think of the 'bigger things' such as painting, electronics placement, etc.

While I do that I have also been trying to get some of the little things cleared up:

a) The hall light is a pendant style that hangs low enough that when you open the hallway closet, the door hits it as it swings open.  Not something I liked, and the look of the light isn't my style:

So I removed it and replaced it with Commercial Electric Rustic Iron 2-Light Semi-Flushmount from Home Depot.  Higher, has two bulbs vice one and is definitely more my style.

b) The hall closet door was rotated incorrectly:

 The 'stop' for the mechanism is facing the doorframe when it should be facing the hallway.  (so that when you push the door closed, it rides the curve of the deadlatch and eventually engages the fitting in the frame.)  I started to take the whole device apart, when I saw that I could rotate the latch mechanism 360 degrees.  Something is fishy with it, but for now I just rotated it so that it works and I'll dig into the door at a later date.

c) The wood stove.  My dad came over this weekend and took a closer look at the wood stove.  There was some build-up of creosote at the back of the stove.  The chimney had been checked clean by the home inspector, but as we chipped away at the creosote, we discovered that it was caked into the back and bottom of my Resolute stove.  We ended up having to pull the whole stove away from the flue pipe and chip/vacuum all the way to the bottom of the 'plenum' at the back.  The previous owners had obviously not been using the stove correctly for quite some time and when they could no longer use it correctly, were just using it with the flue fully open as a small wood fireplace.   Here is a picture of the creosote we removed!

Also a fair amount was vacuumed up.  We dug down until we found clean metal and had a fire to check the stove out.   Dad spent some good time showing me how to correctly operate the stove and we dug around the Internet until I found an owners manual for further reading later. 

I also troubleshot the refrigerator's dispenser panel, bought a new circuit board..but it wasn't the issue.  So, still working on that.  (the fridge's lock button will not unlock so I can't use the dispenser for water or ice.)

I did get the long window of the dining room covered with some new drapes.  That, plus new shower head for the upstairs bathroom and some raking of the front yard and clearing of twigs/fallen branches made for a busy couple of hours today.   I did also start to look at the outside light for the kitchen, but it appears there are other issues.  The switch only shows .2V AC when I turn the switch, I took a look inside the switch box and I don't think the switch is wired correctly.  I'll leave that for next week most likely (also take a look at a new light?)