One Fine Saturday (A Variety Pack)

One fine Saturday, this most recent in fact, it was a glorious spring day.  Oh it was so nice.

Now.  I’ve been a bit less than motivated around the house lately.  I have been dragging my butt room to room in hot pursuit of a project.  This entails a lot of staring.  Just standing there staring.  Yep.

Not blank staring, haha thank you, I’m designing and redesigning and redesigning in my head.

I found a project though, so, good news.  As long as I can stop redesigning it, that is.

But one fine Saturday a bonfire lit under the aforementioned butt and I got a sh*tload of stuff done.

How my day went:

During breakfast, I organized my day.

Task:  Replace storm door clips on the front door.

I bought some crappy ones at Menards because for freakin’ ever I’ve been seeking the right ones, can’t find ‘em when Mike points out last week “hey babe, we need to replace these,” (Finn breaks them jumping all over the storm door yelling at passerby).  “I know I know I can never find…..” and then there they were online.*  Metal too, peerrrfect!

Kinda unfortunate though as Mike said if they didn’t work, he was contemplating a new door. Ack they worked!  Dammit!!

Task 1A (unplanned):  Clean up overspray.

The clips, big dog Finn, and the paint thinner made for improvement of this horrible storm door.

I have been meaning and meaning and meaning to do this.  The overspray makes me loony, the door looks dirty and trashy.  I mean, the door always looks dirty and trashy but the overspray irritated the hell outta me.

A little paint thinner,* a scrubby pad,* a rag, and I was done in ten minutes.  Whhyyyyy did it take me so long to do this?!

Task:   Do a light refinish on the butcher block counter.

It didn’t need it.  But I’ve wanted to tung oil* it.  There were minor stains, the board butter not really repelling Mike’s daily onslaught.

This shoulda gone down way back when, I knew it then too, so it’s been a low-level nag all this time.  Recently, I had been waiting for a warm day so I could open windows; tung oil is smelly.

A nice sanding* with 150 grit block,* a power sand with 220 grit then a hand sand of 600, voila.  Smoooooth as a baby’s butt.

Dribble on oil (it’s food-safe, I looked it up) spread with a rag, let it sit.

Clockwise:  Before.  Sanding.  Tung oil.  And jumping ahead, done.

Task:  Polish up the stainless appliances.

While waiting for the tung oil to do tung oil things, I gussied up our appliances.

See, we were getting rust spots on our quite young fridge so I tried that tip I mentioned.  While it definitely worked, the fridge was light at the bottom, dark on top.

So, heh, I then scrubbed the entire thing with the paste to even it out but nope, now it was zebra print.   Ugh ok, I ruined it, great.

Nope!  Enter the bestest ever stainless steel cleaner/polish* ever ever ever.

Just be aware this stuff stee-ee-ee-inks and the overspray is wow, unreal.  The appliances though, the vast majority seven years old, look brand-spankin' showroom new now.

Task:  Finish up tung oil.

Mmk, buff buff buff and I could not stop running my hand over how smooth and lovely the counter is now.  Sweet!  It beads water beautifully but I’ll do a second coat as recommended.

Really it doesn't look different at all but it is.  It is.

By now the weather warmed up nicely, let’s move the party outside!

Task:  Install some simple solar path lights.

Between our porch light and the now overly-exposed street light thanks to our tree being horribly ax murdered (Pete the Sweeper admitted to calling the city for a trim setting the ball in motion therefore this catastrophe is on him [he hates trees]), we don’t need lights.*

But, I thought it might look nice as they are not unattractive.

Push stem in ground, done.  Sun, do yer thing.   [Days later: none are working, must investigate]

Cute, yah?  They will get destroyed by a certain four-legged beast though.

Task:  Drop in another stepping stone.

Heh, *cough, throat clear* since getting grass to fill in out front has been an arduous process and it never comes in closer to the edging, I opted to skootch the 4x4 edgers into the yard further.  Finn thinks it’s a wider footpath for him to trounce through and tinkle in.  Jerk.

Hahahaaaa, ok, was it an excuse for more pretty plant areas?  Ha, maybe?  Truly it was about the lack of grass though.

A little dirt scraping, plop, it’s in the gap.  Tuck dirt and mulch around it, looks like it’s been there all this time.

Lookie at all that new planting room!  I don't remember what that bushy is on the left, I'll have to iNaturalist it.  I should stain these darker, these stones.

Task:   Re-spike those 4x4 edgers.

Right, since I moved them, some of the stakes* broke or disintegrated enough to be unuseful.  No problem, just pound in new stakes, done.

Task:  Clean out the dryer guard.

I love Mike, like mad, I do.  He’s highly skilled at adding things to my to-do list though.

Walking along our awesome gangway concrete, he paused and said “hey babe, this thing is full of lint.”  Yeah ok, I know, it’s an annual task, yes.

A hot tip:  be sure to check around outside for all the little things that get neglected over the winter!

Using my spiffy new drill and free impact driver bits* (a birthday coupon from Menards) despite not having an impact driver (they’re just nice bits), I zipped out the Tapcon,* got the yucky crusty lint out, zip zip, done.

Counterclockwise:  Full before, the spiffy bit set, empty after.

Task:  (yeah I’m getting tired by this point but onward!)  Fix the jacked-up spigot situation.

The dumb flipper people overly patched around the spigot so it’s difficult to screw anything on to it.

And while this little extension thingie* works to tip the end out, it tips this Split It Deluxe hose splitter way out, too out, but so it is.

That Split It is guaranteed to never leak.  Gee, guess what, it’s leaking out of every possible spot.

Counterclockwise:  Before, jammed.  Extender.  Spigot with plumbers tape,* extension with tape, and done!

Task:  Replace the front hose sprayer.

Yeah, the splitter* is there because I’m too lazy to drag one hose back and forth.

I left the sprayer* attached to the front over winter which was a way bad idea.   That thing became a sprinkler, holes everywhere.  I feel bad as my parents had that sprayer forever; I leave it out one winter and it’s ruined.

Old sprayer, so sad I'm so sorry.  New sprayer from Menards.  And hose with more plumbers tape.  I like that tape, what can I say.

Task:   Figure out the dripping situation over the front porch.

Mike likes to let Finn out front to do his, you know, dog business (aka holler at everyone).  When it rains, Mike gets dripped on despite our efforts to make the porch a drip-free zone.

So I crawled up there after making some long faux shims out of cedar, only to discover that the ends of the HDPE curled up a bit, screws were broken.

Wish me luck!

Hm.

So I slipped the faux shims in, tacked down the HDPE.  Fingers crossed.

Task:  Wildflower seed.

I’d been turning over all the grass out front out front, the parkway, in an effort to spread wildflower seeds.  Task completed but I came into more seed.

I expect to be annual-less this year so most planters received seed, including the ones on that weird balcony so that visit was twofold.  The remainder went in the parkway so hopefully it will be a super thick, crazy bounty of wildflower goodness this summer.

Repeating image, apologies.  Clockwise top left:  re-staking the 4x4 edgers, adding the stone, front updated and seed in place.

Task:  Fix back storm door squeak. 

I know, hang in there….

Brand new squeak, as of that day.  Of course.  WD40* in all the hinges, done and done.  That door closer, yep, winner!!

Squirt.

Task:   Clean the siding mold.

Happens every year, the north side vinyl siding turns green.  Yuck, horribly unsightly.

Spritz on some Simple Green* (even outdoors this crap gives me the coughs, jeez), let it sit a minute, scrub, rinse, gone.

Counterclockwise from top right:  Ew before.  Scrubby scrubby.  After, improved.

Task:  Hit the showers.

No photos, you're welcome.  Man, along with oodles of laundry, that was a day.  I was wiped.  It sure felt good though.

Last task:  Relax on the deck with Mike post-grilled-dinner, chit chat over a glass of wine.

Yep, later I slept like a rock.  Probably snored.

Oh!  Variety Pack recipe:  bake this bread.  Or, bake this suuuper easy chocolate goodness!

*The storm door clips, paint thinner, scrub pads, tung oil, sandpaper, sanding blocks, stainless steel cleaner, solar path lights, wood garden stakes, impact driver bits, Tapcons, spigot extender, plumbers tape, hose splitters, wand hose sprayers, WD40, and Simple Green are Amazon affiliate links.  That's a lot of shopping.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.