More rain gutter work, ‘Little Children’, ‘Running with Scissors’, ‘Smokin Aces’, recessed-lighting install (posted from home)
(this post covers 17-22 May)
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Tuesday, 22 May –
This morning I had a quickie morning appointment at the periodontist so by the time I returned home the attic had heated up more than I’d have liked. I spent an hour or so installing and wiring up one of the recessed-lighting housings, sweating my clothes through. That afternoon we drove into town to pick up some electrical supplies at the new Lowe's in West York. We then had supper at Logan's Roadhouse. This was our first visit there and we shared an excellent rack of baby-back ribs. We spent the evening on the web and watched 'Deadliest Catch' and 'Frontline'
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Monday, 21 May -
I spent the morning running the cable segment down from the attic and installing the dimmer switch for the new circuit leg. Because I’m installing the new switch beside an existing one, I had to remove the old single-gang box (by cutting off the mounting nails with the SawZall) and install an old-work double-gang box then wire in the switches. That afternoon I went jogging at Rocky Ridge. This one wasn’t too bad— it took me a little over an hour and a half but the pleasant weather was very comfortable.
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Sunday, 20 May –
This morning I started the planning for connecting up the new recessed lights and realized I have a problem. I see the circuit I was hoping to extend is unsuitable—it has too much load on it to add the new lights. It would be a real pain to try to run a new circuit, particularly in routing the cable blindly up through a partition to the attic. But eventually I realized I can extend from a new circuit we had installed last summer and I don’t have to run a cable the whole way up through the partition. I need a dimmer switch in the circuit anyway so I can run a segment up halfway from the bottom to the switch hole and another segment down from the attic to the switch hole; problem solved---- in theory anyway! I spent the afternoon measuring to the general area, taking down ceiling panels, planning the splice into the feed cable, figuring out where to drill a new cable-routing hole, drilling the hole, and routing the lower cable segment.
That evening we watched “Smokin’ Aces”. Silly but kind of fun.
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Saturday, 19 May –
Labashi jumped on the web this morning and found what looks like the ‘right’ bulb for our project (a short R14 with medium base) and found that Lowe’s carries them. While she was doing that I installed the aluminum flashing strips on the front rain gutters. I then took the Concours in to pick up the R14 bulb. Late in the day I mowed the lawn before we settled in for the evening to watch ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ and ‘Braveheart’ on cable.
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Friday, 18 May –
Today we spent hours shopping for recessed lighting at Lowe’s and Home Depot and still came away with questions. We have been looking for 4-inch ‘eyeball’ fixtures (‘trims’) which will allow the ceiling-mounted recessed lights to be directed on wall-mounted art work. Our difficulty, however, is in finding the insulation-contact (“IC”)-rated housing for the eyeball trims we want and in finding the ‘right’ bulbs. We’ve also had a tough time finding a good display which will show how the light washes against the wall. We finally decided the best way to proceed is to buy one of each of the trims, housings, and bulbs we are interested in and try them at home.
As we headed home we stopped at the video store to pick up some movies and decided today would be a good day for our own little film festival. Back home we first watched ‘Little Children’ with Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson and liked it. Then we watched ‘Running with Scissors’ for the second half of the double-header. We’re not fans of that one.
That evening we started playing with the various combinations of lights. I took the reflector off my mechanic’s trouble light and used it to power the fixtures. By holding the fixtures up against the ceiling we could simulate how they will cast the light beam against the wall. It quickly became apparent that we don’t want the ‘spot’ bulbs, we want a ‘flood’ bulb. The spot bulbs all had a multi-faceted reflector and these throw an ugly, streaky beam. And after trying the flood bulbs it became apparent that we need a shorter bulb—a PAR16 sticks out the end of the fixture and is too easily seen from the side.
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Thursday, 17 May -
Today I made a morning run into Starbucks and Lowe’s in York (it’s great to have the coffee shop next to the home-improvement store!), then I spent the afternoon working on the rear gutterwork on our house. While the replacement of the old downspout with larger downspout last week was good for improving water flow, a recent light rain had revealed a different problem. Even with a low volume of water there was a significant amount of dripping all along the fascia behind the gutter. A search of the internet confirmed what I suspected— low-pitched roofs tend to have problems with the slower-moving water curling back under the shingle-line rather than dripping off into the gutter. The recommended fix is installation of aluminum flashing under the drip-edge and overlapping the inner gutter-edge. I found Lowe’s has rolls of ten-inch-wide by ten-foot-long aluminum flashing painted brown on one side and white on the other — perfect for the job and easy to handle. I cut off two-inch wide strips and started installing (using self-drilling screws) at the lower end where the flashing easily slipped into place. As I approached the upper end I had to remove the gutter-screws to fit the flashing but only for the last ten feet so that wasn’t a problem. Now we need some rain so I can see if the fix worked. That evening we drove into the Texas Roadhouse for ribs.
(this post covers 17-22 May)
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Tuesday, 22 May –
This morning I had a quickie morning appointment at the periodontist so by the time I returned home the attic had heated up more than I’d have liked. I spent an hour or so installing and wiring up one of the recessed-lighting housings, sweating my clothes through. That afternoon we drove into town to pick up some electrical supplies at the new Lowe's in West York. We then had supper at Logan's Roadhouse. This was our first visit there and we shared an excellent rack of baby-back ribs. We spent the evening on the web and watched 'Deadliest Catch' and 'Frontline'
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 21 May -
I spent the morning running the cable segment down from the attic and installing the dimmer switch for the new circuit leg. Because I’m installing the new switch beside an existing one, I had to remove the old single-gang box (by cutting off the mounting nails with the SawZall) and install an old-work double-gang box then wire in the switches. That afternoon I went jogging at Rocky Ridge. This one wasn’t too bad— it took me a little over an hour and a half but the pleasant weather was very comfortable.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 20 May –
This morning I started the planning for connecting up the new recessed lights and realized I have a problem. I see the circuit I was hoping to extend is unsuitable—it has too much load on it to add the new lights. It would be a real pain to try to run a new circuit, particularly in routing the cable blindly up through a partition to the attic. But eventually I realized I can extend from a new circuit we had installed last summer and I don’t have to run a cable the whole way up through the partition. I need a dimmer switch in the circuit anyway so I can run a segment up halfway from the bottom to the switch hole and another segment down from the attic to the switch hole; problem solved---- in theory anyway! I spent the afternoon measuring to the general area, taking down ceiling panels, planning the splice into the feed cable, figuring out where to drill a new cable-routing hole, drilling the hole, and routing the lower cable segment.
That evening we watched “Smokin’ Aces”. Silly but kind of fun.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 19 May –
Labashi jumped on the web this morning and found what looks like the ‘right’ bulb for our project (a short R14 with medium base) and found that Lowe’s carries them. While she was doing that I installed the aluminum flashing strips on the front rain gutters. I then took the Concours in to pick up the R14 bulb. Late in the day I mowed the lawn before we settled in for the evening to watch ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ and ‘Braveheart’ on cable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 18 May –
Today we spent hours shopping for recessed lighting at Lowe’s and Home Depot and still came away with questions. We have been looking for 4-inch ‘eyeball’ fixtures (‘trims’) which will allow the ceiling-mounted recessed lights to be directed on wall-mounted art work. Our difficulty, however, is in finding the insulation-contact (“IC”)-rated housing for the eyeball trims we want and in finding the ‘right’ bulbs. We’ve also had a tough time finding a good display which will show how the light washes against the wall. We finally decided the best way to proceed is to buy one of each of the trims, housings, and bulbs we are interested in and try them at home.
As we headed home we stopped at the video store to pick up some movies and decided today would be a good day for our own little film festival. Back home we first watched ‘Little Children’ with Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson and liked it. Then we watched ‘Running with Scissors’ for the second half of the double-header. We’re not fans of that one.
That evening we started playing with the various combinations of lights. I took the reflector off my mechanic’s trouble light and used it to power the fixtures. By holding the fixtures up against the ceiling we could simulate how they will cast the light beam against the wall. It quickly became apparent that we don’t want the ‘spot’ bulbs, we want a ‘flood’ bulb. The spot bulbs all had a multi-faceted reflector and these throw an ugly, streaky beam. And after trying the flood bulbs it became apparent that we need a shorter bulb—a PAR16 sticks out the end of the fixture and is too easily seen from the side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 17 May -
Today I made a morning run into Starbucks and Lowe’s in York (it’s great to have the coffee shop next to the home-improvement store!), then I spent the afternoon working on the rear gutterwork on our house. While the replacement of the old downspout with larger downspout last week was good for improving water flow, a recent light rain had revealed a different problem. Even with a low volume of water there was a significant amount of dripping all along the fascia behind the gutter. A search of the internet confirmed what I suspected— low-pitched roofs tend to have problems with the slower-moving water curling back under the shingle-line rather than dripping off into the gutter. The recommended fix is installation of aluminum flashing under the drip-edge and overlapping the inner gutter-edge. I found Lowe’s has rolls of ten-inch-wide by ten-foot-long aluminum flashing painted brown on one side and white on the other — perfect for the job and easy to handle. I cut off two-inch wide strips and started installing (using self-drilling screws) at the lower end where the flashing easily slipped into place. As I approached the upper end I had to remove the gutter-screws to fit the flashing but only for the last ten feet so that wasn’t a problem. Now we need some rain so I can see if the fix worked. That evening we drove into the Texas Roadhouse for ribs.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 22:27
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