See You In The Spring

This pretty much sums up this falls leaf season and all the raking I've done.

It's now official official, my outside yard work and chores are complete!

I spent a couple hours yesterday taking care of the few remaining winter prep tasks - turned off the spigots, drained and put on their Styrofoam covers, drained the hose and put away (it's been so dry I had to take out of storage to water my winter rye the last couple of weeks), brought my two front yard Adirondack chairs into the garage and the coup de grâce, which is the final task I do, installed the reflective driveway markers along both sides of my driveway.

Inside projects only till spring, so time to hunker down!

Bubble Boy!

Yes sir, another fall project completed today!

The yearly bay window winterization shrink wrap installation project.

Before sealing things up I pulled the screens, washed the inside windows and applied a thick coat of gel wood furniture polish to the wood, targeting the base as it's getting dried out being in direct sun.  Added a thick blanket to the base.  Oh, and I washed all the window drapes in the living room too!  Can't remember when or if they've been washed since being hung but they look better.

Now, when to turn the heat on in this room, hmmm 🤔

Waxed and Ready!

Another fall chore completed!

Although, worn and beat up, my Cabela work boots are ready for another wet, slushy and snowy winter.

As I often do a couple times a year, and always in the fall in preparation for the winter, I apply a generous coat of mink oil to help keep the leather soft but more importantly to keep them as water tight as possible.  Nothing worse that wet feet in boots, especially when out shoveling snow and snowblowing.  I also ordered new Dr. Scholl's insoles to replace the old ones. Almost like new.

For the record, I nixed Timberland work boots; the company and their boots are dead to me.  I used to only buy and wear Timberlands back in the day, sadly like many things these days, their quality went downhill.  On several occasions, when I had issues, I reached out to the company and always were poo-pooed and told they couldn't help.  So, since there are too many other options, I gave Cabela a try and couldn't be happier.  I'll show them 😁

Spit and Shine!

Spent a little time refurbing the shine on this sterling silver platter.

I don't recall where this came from but I pulled it from a box I brought down from the attic.

Picked up some sterling silver polish and with the help of an old toothbrush and some elbow grease, WAALAA!

Before - 

After -

It's kinda hard to tell in the pictures but the after is 100% cleaner and shinier! Still needs more work but I'm happy with the results so far.

I Shredded It, Of Course!

I've been doing a bit of shredding the last several weeks, UGH!  We pulled down from the attic our old, real old like late 90's, bank statements, paychecks, mortgages, etc. and began the process of shredding them. I filled, and I mean filled, (3) leaf bags full of the shredding's!

What a chore, as we have a rinky-dink shredder, not made for such heavy use.  I does a great job but would shut itself off when it got too hot, which meant I had to find something else to do while it cooled down. 

In the end, and now that it's behind be, it's all good.  Very happy to have all that paperwork shredded and off to be recycled.

Tight As A Drum!

I just finished installing the below Frost King insulation shrink kit on our family room bay window, PHEW!

Simply enough but yet I find myself putting the install off thinking it's a bigger process than it actually is.

My work at home area is just to the left of this window and the fact that our family room has cathedral ceilings, it's gets a tad nippy in this room.  Covering this window really makes a BIG difference in keeping this room warmer.

Of course our cat, Oliver, is none to pleased with this latest development, as he can now no longer jump up and keep an eye on things.  Hence the dangling "reminders' taped to the plastic...

Prepping the area; washing the inside windows, wiping down the sill, etc. -

Complete!  Added a thick layer of old curtain, folded nicely, atop the sill for added insulation -

Bring it on Mother Nature, we're prepared!

Took A Little Off The Bottom

Banged out another winter chore today. This one has been on my list for quite some time now.  Since it really wasn't bothering anyone but me, and it wasn't a break-fix kinda thing, it's lingered.

The fix is not the unevenness of the before picture.  Although, in hindsight I should have fixed that before taking the picture.  Anyway, ever since these blinds were installed, like most, they've been too long for the window.  The extra slats all bunched up on the bottom looking unsightly.

These wooden blinds are installed in three windows; two in the dining room and one in the bathroom.  So, today I removed (8) slates from each, shortening the blinds by approximately 8".

Not a difficult project at all, just takes time and some patients.

Before -

After -

The Green Hinge System - Outstanding!

I happened upon an overhead door performance system designed to help reduce energy costs when poking around on Amazon.  It's a spring-loaded garage door hinge system that allows automatic adjustment of the overhead door by a company called The Green Hinge System.  A 4-panel garage door, like ours, comes with (6) new 12 gauge powder coated steel hinges.  Simply replace the originals with these, it's that simple.

Before -

After -

Before: You can see the daylight running along the right side.  This of course is where the outside cold winter air was poring into the garage.  Once the new hinges were installed, BAM, no more daylight at all!!  Sealed up nice and tight -

Also, the new hinges help with the door rattling when windy and in general a smoother opening and closing.  Nice and snug!

There was an issue with my original order.  I sent the company an email on Saturday morning explaining the issue and received an immediate response from the owner - problem resolved.  Outstanding customer service!

"Take Me Away"

The original downspouts were installed in such a manner that water would drain onto the driveway, especially the front one.  This caused all kinds of puddling that became more of an issue as the driveway itself started to deteriorate.  When winter arrived this became more of an issue as the water would freeze and we'd have layers of ice.

At some point shortly after we moved in I diverted the front downspout to the rear of the house. However, in doing do, which was successful, I created an eye sore of sorts with the downspouts running along the side of the house even though we painted them to march their background.

When I had the new driveway put in this past Fall, I had PVC piping installed under ground to divert the water away from the house and to the other side of the driveway.

Yesterday, I dismantled by previous handy work and installed the downspouts into their new underground piping.  Looks better too.

Before -

After -

Bring on the rains...

Vintage 70's Calgon Take Me Away commercial for your enjoyment