Finally – and unfortunately – had a chance to apply California Wall Patching – which I have seen in many Youtube home repair videos – at my home.
Until now, all the drywall repairs I have made in various instances have been mostly with simple spackling fill. While this time our big guest made a two-fists wide damage and the broken pieces were not reusable at all so I decided to use new drywall board pieces with California patch which connect paper part and board gaps with joint compound.
As usual, things have been always more difficult than video but finished the first portion of repair – now I need to sand and apply the texture then paint it again – so I wondered whether I should smile or cry… ๐
After having ghosting cabinet one or two doors for years and now the count reached total four, so I decided to dig thru to solve the problem.
Definitely not easy thing to start as identifying the broken piece in this small but delicate fine mechanical system was not easy.
Finally after adding my laboring on top of some Youtubing and Amazoning finally all doors’ ghost disappeared. And felt so funny to realize the fact that peace of mind has come from the cabinet door stay closed and firm ๐
This has been in the check list for the long time but finally changed to new & black door knob as the closest door also changed from gold to black. ๐
Now question is what is the next one to change & when… ๐
One thing encountered after moving in current place in last summer was this place is hot in Summer ๐ – Part of it driven by Townhouse structure and also next door neighbor’s air conditioner vent was installed right next to the siding door of our place; hence opening the window/siding door never helped or even made worse in hot summer days.
After long thoughts and landing a plan to stay at this place for one more year, purchased expensive LG portable Air Conditioner. Now, the problem is how and where to install the vent, and making it worse, this home doesn’t have a horizontal or up-and-down windows, leaving the only option as installing the vent at siding door. (plus as a rental house had the solution shouldn’t impact the main structure of the house and should be easy to remove when season is over)
As all the portable air conditioner assumes up and down windows, had to find the solution to have vent at tall siding door, but luckily found there is something at Amazon for this.
However, this was not sturdy enough (PVC) or very loosely standing – likely because this is optimized for siding window – not turning out to be a long lasting option (had to do adjustments almost every time we turn the conditioner on) and also the default vent didn’t fit with LG’s outlet.
So had to take several actions
– Hand cut the vent to fit the LG outlet with knife and hand saw
– Buy and cut the 2×2 lumber and cut + make a rabbit cut at the bottom to fit into the door’s rail
Then forced to snug the vent kit between the door and inserted wood – but kit was still unstable as the door’s lock installed at the end of door wasn’t providing angled & straight support to the kit.
So bought one more 2×2 had it as a place holder at the door’s end and inserted the vent kit between 2x2s; worked well but vent kit was still dancing around and had tons of gaps to let air flow in various locations, and – as expected- 2×2 not being straight/square also generated sizable gaps between door and 2×2 when closed.
To solve these next set of troubles, drilled between the kit and 2×2 and screwed it to make it sturdy; adding one more layer of wood at outside to close the gap between door and 2×2, + applying weather stripping to seal the gap around the vent kit and 2×2 and also applied the weather stripes on inner frame gap (between the moving door and fixed door), and also cutting the 2×2 for security lumber as the lock will not work during the times we have this vent. ๐
Although not having ever been an engineer, reminded me engineering is all about problem solving ๐
Now the question is – shall I paint the woods to white to match or not ๐
Our pocket door has been broken from the 2nd month after we moved into this house after some kids attempt to push it instead of slide it.. ๐ฆ
Well – my first attempt, after about a year of sad hanging, was changing the roller but only lasted shortly – it lasted short as the side-rail was bent and didn’t completely closed the door as door was taller than it should be – out of adjustable range
After some thoughts and research finally I decided bought the new rail set and decided to cut off the wall to exchange the rails – Journey started…
Order a new rail set with much solid top down hanging style, some wall cutting tools, and stud finder
Tear off the frame of the door
Pullout the door
Cut the dry wall to have some space to pullout the old rail and attach the new one
Pullout the old hanging parts attached at the door and installed new hanging parts
Hang it! – but failed as door did not move: New rail had a longer height so the door, which was already kind of oversize, was totally stuck at the bottom/floor. ๐ฆ
Detach the door & hanging parts again and cut a half inch of door with saw
Reattach the door and hanging parts
Adjust the door for, finally, a complete close – as I reduced the height of the door now everything became ‘within range’ of adjustment on how the door hangs ๐
Pulled out not-working stopper & added the new stopper at the inside of the door
Reattached the frame of the door
Re-cover the open dry wall – attach the wood (via screw) at back of the opened spot and cover the part I pulled out and screw it down
Fill the gap with wall mud and paint – looked ugly so had to fill the gap again + add orange peel and repaint -felt like a plastic surgeon.. ๐
Now need some final paint touches on the bare spot revealed during this process ๐
Another “Black Friday bought but delayed installation” Ring Doorbell Pro is finally installed.
As usual, after getting over ‘here and there of unexpected challenges’, and good fellas who shared the workarounds in Reddit, now my home got smarter smarter day by day… Am I being smarter as well?
Finally installed the Smart Garage Door Opener ordered during Black Friday as end of year project ๐
Fairly simple. Connect the little pod to opener, install the sensor at door & the wall close to door when closed (to communicate), and wireback that to pod, power the pod + Wifi connection to pod.
Now, the “2 nights and 3 days of summer camping with garage door opened” shall be the past thing in future..
Maybe about a year ago, wife told me there is a burning smell of plastic at laundry room – and noticed the fan was on for some long period, and the burning smell went away when I turned off the fan. (and placed a tape on the switch not to turn on)
As this was the fan at first floor, getting access directly from the top was not an option, hence studied youtube videos for a long period and multiple times and finally attempted to replace it. This required lots of work – electricity wiring, hammering/screw nailing – as the fan was attached to different direction then intended, dry wall cutting as there was no exact size as old one in the market. Finally, found the fan’s plastic was broken causing the smell after inhaling lots of dust only after I tore down the existing fan. ๐
After all – maybe saved about $150-$200 labor cost ๐
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