You wouldn't believe how much work it took to get to this point. Here's a summary:

1. Decide to add additional wiring for lighting over sink 2. Cut hole in top cabinet for outlet box 3. Run wire down wall toward the yet uninstalled 4-gang switch box 4. Remove old 3-gang box, while keeping track of 3 circuits and 21 conductors 5. Add 4-gang box, 1 more switch and 3 more conductors bringing the total to 24 6. Oh yeah, replace the 2-gang box behind the kitchen table with a 3-gang box and add a switch for a yet uninstalled undercabinet light 7. Find out that a 2-gang box is so out of kilter, it needs to be replaced with a new one, so disconnect/reconnect 8 conductors and remove/replace box 8. Start installing cement board 9. Cut holes for outlets 10. Find out that screws don't countersink as well as you'd like, so start nailing in the board with ring-shank glue nails 11. Discover that after permanently affixing said wallboard, that your drywall is really 5/8" and the 1/2 cement board is recessed too far to properly attach tiles 12. Run back to lowes to find 5/8" cement board 13. Find that no such thing exists 14. Buy a 4x8 sheet of 1/8" masonite to make up the difference 15. Load it in the car and realize that you should have bought another sheet of cement board, because you are gonna wreck what is currently installed 16. Get the board 17. Get back home and and grind off the nailheads to try and salvage the existing installation 18. Realize that doesn't work as the board breaks and rip out all of your previous work and throw it in the trash 19. Cut a bazillion masonite strips to shim out the studs and staple them on 20. After 5 hours, realize you are back to where you started this morning 21. Get a 1/3 of the kitchen done 22. Drink scotch


Michael AIM: mwsmith70

We've had the granite countertops in for some time, now it's time to put in the backsplash. I'm going to be putting in 12x12 absolute black granite tiles. First, I had to rip out all of the drywall down to the studs so I could put the cement board up to attach the tiles to.

It's a lot of dusty work, but it should be nice when I'm done.


Michael AIM: mwsmith70

Well, my solar pool heater came in and I've got it set up and running. Only problem was that it was damaged in shipping and one of the panels leaked. I have them sending a repair kit, but that involves taking the leaky tubes out of service, thereby reducing the panel's efficiency. I whipped out my handy dandy tube of sealer that I use on my RV. This stuff is made by Ruscoe and is a miracle sealer. It is a flowable sealant that stays pliable when cured. The surface need not be dry to use it and can even be applied underwater. Long story short, it works and is watertight...and those tubes are still in service!

Now to see how much heat we can get in the pool in the next few days!


Michael AIM: mwsmith70

Shelly and I along with my folks, the neighbors across the street, Richard and Candace and their cat Niko.

Purrrrrrrr.


Michael (wireless) IM: mwsmith70

Maybe not such a good idea.... Michael (wireless) IM: mwsmith70

I should have torn down the filter and gave it a good cleaning when I moved in last year, but since everything was working good, I didn't bother. I knew something needed to be done because the filter pressure after backwashing was still 12 psi.

It's pretty amazing that all those grids fit in such a small space. All total, it provides 48 sq ft of filter area. I can also tell that nobody has done a complete teardown on the filter in a while because after doing a pretty thorough backwash, you can see the bucket full of DE that was still stuck on the grids. I'm guessing that's about 12 pounds of the stuff, about the same amount needed to coat the filter for normal operation. That means that there should have been, at most, a 1/16" thick coat of DE on the grids. I had many areas where the coating was 1/2" - 3/4"!!

So, after cleaning and recoating with DE, my pressure is around 8 psi, a far cry from the 14 psi it was before the cleaning. The reduction in backpressure means I can filter more water in the same time...so I can reduce my pump hours if I wanted to, and save some operating costs.


Michael (wireless) IM: mwsmith70

Plenty warm enough outside at 84 degrees, but the water being at 68 it's still a bit chilly. What's remarkable is that yesterday I started with water at 62 degrees. I made a mod to the solar heater to increase its efficiency, and that's how I think I got the big boost in temps today.

What I did is that I stopped using the pool pump to circulate water through the hose. It really wasn't pushing as much water through the hose as I would like. I found a pump that I had on my old saltwater tank and found out I could rig it up to the solar heater. Besides, running a tiny little aquarium pump is much cheaper than running my 2HP pool pump. That alone quadrupled my flow through the hose. The extra flow is what gave me the BTUs to actually see a difference.

However, a cool front is scheduled to come through, so all this work will be for naught. However, I think this gizmo will put enough heat into the pool that if I get 4 days of good weather, it should be swimable.

The upside of this is that when the pool gets really warm in the summer, I can run this thing at night to get rid of the excess heat!


Michael (wireless) IM: mwsmith70

So, what do you do when your pool heater doesn't work? You make one! 200' of garden hose gives about a 10 degree rise, so 62 degree water comes out at 73. You may be able to see the heated water coming out of the end of the hose. The different density of the water casts some slight shadows on the pool wall.

Best of all, zero cost to heat the pool!


Michael (wireless) IM: mwsmith70

I had a mosquito mist system installed at the house a few weeks back, but never got a chance to take any pix of it. Basically, there's a 55 gallon drum of repellent/pesticide that sits by the pool equipment. The stuff is pyrethrum, which is made from chrysanthemum flowers. It mists for 1 minute at 5:30 am, and 1 minute at 5:30 pm. Result? No mosquitos! It is so nice to go out at any time and not get chewed up. We can leave the doors open as there aren't any flying critters anywhere. No need to get slathered in DEET anymore either...which was no help anyway when you were swimming in the pool.


Michael (wireless) IM: mwsmith70

w00t! Michael (wireless) IM: mwsmith70