diggin holes, cutting doors
it's been a hectic couple of weeks, so sorry about the lack of posts. last saturday (2 saturday's ago) we went to pick up our storm door at Lowe's. i checked some measurements and we crossed our fingers that it would fit in the car (on an angle through the trunk to the back seat). we picked it up ... no good with it in the box. took it out of the box ... no good. dang. hmm. we need a truck! i'm sure many people in the parking lot wondered what crazy people thought they would fit a storm door in a Saturn anyway. we felt pretty dumb out there. in my defense, it was pretty close ... the problem was the sides of the trunk screwing up the angle into the back seat, something i didn't notice when checking measurements. i tried calling a local friend with a truck, but he was gone. so, we took the door back inside, went to Home Depot, rented a truck and came back. annoying. this delay put me behind a bit, but i did get a good start on putting it in before we had to head north for my cousin's wedding. we spent the rest of the weekend around Goshen. we got to hang out with Ross and Sarah for a while which was really nice. we just don't get to see them as much as we'd like. it was also nice to have the Sunday lunch get-together with the fam. those are always good times.when we got home Sunday night, i went back to working on the door. this is when the problems started. after much diagnosis (a.k.a. confusion, swearing, head-scratching), i determined that the door was just a bit too big (maybe 1/2") for our opening. i think we were kind of in-between sizes, so we got stuck with the size slightly too big (the next one down would probably have been way too small). i don't quite understand how a "custom size" door still comes in standard sizes that you just get to charge more for. hmm. anyway, the problem this caused was at the top of door. there is a piece that trims out the top/provides weatherstripping. because the frame was so "high up" in the opening, there wasn't enough room to slip this piece in properly. i worked on modifying the trim piece in 2 areas and the frame section at the top. by modifying, i mean using a tin snips and cutting off much excess metal. after much laboring, the door was still binding on the trim. arghhhhh. it was getting late, so i just installed the door hardware so the door would latch shut and would wait til another day to finish the rest. bah humbug.
this past week was a work nightmare. i had a big deadline that other prior deadlines had caused to be a big big problem. i worked ... a lot. i was stressed ... a lot. luckily, when i got home Friday i still had a wife.
somewhat spontaneously, we met Michael, Kim, and Steve (Michael's friend) at Turkey Run
for some hiking Saturay noon/afternoon. we had a really good time, despite some muddy conditions (muddier for some than others, i'll let those involved tell those stories). the leaves aren't out yet, but it was still nice to get outdoors and get some exercise with some friends/family. i also got to start breaking in my new hiking boots which was nice. this is the pair of shoes i exchanged for after returning from the Grand Canyon (i rid myself of those demon, achilles-killing, death shoes). i think i'm gonna really like these. they are probably a bit heavy for everyday hiking, but not too bad. i really wish the first pair i got would have agreed with my feet, they would have been the perfect hiking/backpacking combo shoe. oh well.when we got home, i moved back to the frustrating storm doo
r project. i refined my "modifications" to the best they could be ... then did some extreme "bang-to-fit" action on the top frame piece. whatever i did, it seemed to work, just barely! i put an extra screw in the trim piece to hold it ... a slight shift in that piece and we're back to square one. the "too tall" issue struck again when installing the closers. the top closer would bind up on the frame piece, leaving the door stuck closed. that's no good. so, i drilled some new holes and shifted the closer down about 1/2". all good. we have a fully functional storm door! the 1-hour estimated install time advertised didn't quite play out. today was outside work day. it was going to be "go downtown and watch the Final Four
festivities/concerts" but the weather wasn't so hot. we picked up an axe at Menard's on the way home from church and i went to town trying to remove one of five shrub stumps in the front of our house. our lovely previous owners just cut them off and shuffled some mulch over the stumps to try to hide them. after about 2-3 hours of digging (for some reason the hole doesn't look as impressive in the picture as it did in real life) and chopping i managed to rid the yard of one of these beasts. sweet. 4 to go. not sweet. i may not take them as far next time ... Tony from across the street offered to help yank them out with his truck after i get them started. that will save me some time and energy. we also did some yard clean-up and cleaned the porch. our favorite previous owners also managed to splatter paint on just about every surface out there. the cleaner we got didn't work on paint though, so we have to find something else. anyway, that's what's happenin' here in N'ville (along with storms-a-brewin'). have a good week y'all.
posted by Chris and Chrissy Miller @ 7:23 PM
2 Comments:
What cousin got married?
Does Sarah still work at Penn?
How does DST feel in Indiana?
1. Terry Martin
2. Yup
3. It sucks. Changing time zones on your computer wreaks havoc with meeting times in Outlook. Talk about lost productivity due to confusion about what time it is. I want to start a campaign to have one world time (say, GMT). No matter where you are, it's the same time and it never changes. Everyone regionally just adjusts business hours as necessary to get whatever daylight hours are desired. It's all relative anyway.
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