Nov 21 - man about the house, again !

Well, I blew that one.  I'd decided on Wednesday, with showers in the area, to ride Thursday and Saturday.  I did get a lot done on Wednesday and was looking forward to riding on Thursday, but that day dawned with a downpour that continued into the early afternoon.  Huh.  Should have ridden on Wednesday !

So ... I continued with my mental checklist. 

I installed the new ceiling fan in the River Room -- wait, let's get our terminology straight ...

The River Room is the upstairs bedroom that faces the Intracoastal Waterway.  The Middle Bedroom is just that.  The Front Room is the upstairs bedroom at the front of the house, which here is the driveway side.  Up north, we call the "front of the house" the side that faces the water, but never mind that.

So, yes, the fan has been installed.  The mess mostly over, I moved the beds and night stands etc.out of the way; Sandy had already stripped them.  We then moved that carpet into place, which was not an easy task.  It's quite heavy and there's no room to work and it doesn't slide on the underlay.  However, we did manage it and then put the room back together.  That carpet has found a new home.

This is out of order, but I also painted the doors in the Front Bedroom -- entrance and bifold closet doors.  They'd never been painted, only primed, other than the hall-facing side of the entrance door which I'd painted last year when I hung it.  I ran into a problem though.  Checking the door later, I found that it was stuck to one side -- it's a pocket door.  I realized that it had warped significantly and wasn't moving ! 

Wedging something in the pocket and cranking up the A/C (or is that down ?), I left it for a bit and it straightened out.  Whew !  I still have to fix the one spot where it dried stuck to the side of the pocket.

Speaking of painting, I also have a spot up by the ceiling in the River Room that needs fixing, where I'd made a hole to pull wires.  I've done the drywall fix.  I've got the paint downstairs, I believe, I hope !

I'm getting ahead of myself, but when I took down the motion sensor in the Master Bedroom, there's a spot that needs paint -- about 6" x 6".  The green in the bedroom is the same green that Sandy used in the kitchen, which is the leftover can of paint that Riley had left.  We must have finished it up because we don't have any and don't even know the formula.  However, that spot is 10' up in a corner and anything remotely close will hide that spot.

That's the other task that I accomplished yesterday, installing the new alarm system.  That went fairly well except that I had some trouble with the door sensors due to the size of the new trim and the remote control panel proved very difficult to get communicating with the panel.  This is the same system that I installed up north, so I know it well.  I just don't know what was going wrong with the wireless communication between the two devices.  I moved that remote control all over the house trying to find a spot that would let it "download" info from the main panel and it always failed.  I was about to give up on it and then it worked ... perhaps there was something else going on wirelessly that was in conflict ?  I'm not going to undo what I've done just to test that theory !

Here's a funny thing that happened during the installation -- the instructions tell you to power up the main panel and then check to see if you have cellular coverage.  I powered it up and the display showed 12:00 -- just like a digital clock -- and before I could even do the cell strength test, the time changed to the current time.  Ok, I've got cell service :).  The instructions actually don't agree with the setup, since they relate to GSM coverage but when I review the sensors, I've got the CDMA module, which is Verizon.  The old system used Verizon as well.

I'm going to attach the external siren at some point but haven't yet.  That siren is leftover from the old wired system. 

Did I do anything else ?  Oh yes, I finished up that stair threshold piece that I'd made for the top of the stairs.  The construction adhesive wasn't really doing the job so I used some epoxy ... turned out quite well.  That's now installed.  I still have to do the few small pieces of baseboard -- four pieces, to be exact -- totally less than three feet of baseboard.  Perhaps I'll do that this morning before getting out for a ride ?  I haven't checked the weather for today yet but it was supposed to be ok ... just checked, says "scattered t-storms" but the Doppler looks pretty clear.  Hopefully I can get out.

Sandy, meanwhile, had the island covered with paperwork, catching up on dental claim submissions mostly and other stuff.  She found that a check (that's an American check vs a Canadian cheque) from Cigna either never made it to us or was thrown away with the mail that came in over the summer.  She called them and they could tell that it hadn't been cashed, so they have re-issued.  Good.

Pasta, chicken etc. in a sauce made for a don't-have-to-go-out-shopping dinner.

Oh yes, I talked to Sam and the treads will be re-installed on Monday and the railings later in the week, probably Friday.

I also talked to Bill and the three drawer fronts were being painted yesterday, so we might see those today or Monday.  There's nothing else outstanding from the kitchen.  

Onward !