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We dropped in an invisible fence for the dog last week and what a difference it has made! Before we had a tie out that we used for her to go potty with but she was constantly getting wrapped up around the bushes and required us to go unwrap her. That really sucked in the snow storm or when we’d put her out at 10 at night and then we had to go out and untangle her. She basically destroyed one of our bushes by wrapping it up with the cable then breaking off branches as shed try to pull free of it. We bought the Petsafe regular one from Petsmart for $150.

Here are a couple of lessons I learned:

1) Buy the Wal-mart version instead of Petsmarts. I could have saved $50 and got a better version from the same maker.
2) Use an edger to make the trench to bury the wire. A single blade width is all that is needed.
3) Use a paint stiring stick to push the cable into the trench. Its the perfect width to push it to the bottom.
4) Lay out all the wire before starting the trenching to make sure the layout is correct.
5) If you have to cross pavement or sidewalks do it at a seam and use a masonary saw to cut the groove then reseal it.
6) Leave slack as you lay out the wire. I needed an extra 5-6 feet through out the course of the whole yard due to the waves as you push the wire into the trench.

A couple of other observations I’ve noticed with the reciever.
1) Cell phone chargers can trigger the collar. She was laying in my office and I moved the cable for the charger near her and the reciever started beeping as its warning prior to activating. Not cool.
2) Long prongs are needed if the dog has thick hair.
3) Figure out where to get spare batteries from, they are a special type.

After 3 weeks of working the bathroom is done. I’m not sure I would do it again because it was just a pain in the ass needing to use the spare bathroom for everything and living in all that drywall dust for that long. The Project ran over budget almost from day 1 but I figured I needed to spend the money on it for my own enjoyment of the room and for resale in the future.

As promised earlier here are some photos:

In this one I just pulled the old panels off the wall. As you can see they were just glued into place.

Close up of some of the wall and floor damage the leaking water had done.

This shows the water damage to the 1/4 subflooring, this all got removed and replaced by cement backer board that will not rot ever.

Drywall coming down to remove the old shower floor.

Kristi pulling out some drywall.

Installing the new backer board flooring for a solid rot proof floor.

I used PEX pipe, so much easier then copper to bend.

Kristi after cutting open the new shower wall box.

I’m dry fitting the back wall to make sure it lined up correctly. I needed to shim it a bit to get it lined up in the end.

Walls are up and the hole was drilled for the plumbing to go through to mount the final wall.

Kristi hanging drywall.

Drywall is hung and screw holes mudded, I taped and mudded the edges after this one was taken.

Grouting the floor. I used the already waterproof stuff since it is just a pain to seal the grout on those 1 inch * 1 inch grids.

Floor done, walls painted. They are a light blue color.

Reinstalling the toilet, note the blue paint in my hair and the amount of drywall dust on the top of the cabinet doors.

Hanging the shower doors. These ended up being slightly wider then the old ones so its a bit tighter of an entrance but the clear glass look is a lot nicer then the hammered glass that looks so cheap.

Finished bathroom. The rugs really help pull it together and help a lot.

We decied to get a new shower in the master bath due to the old one cracking and leaking everywhere. So I go down to Lowes and after having some issues finding it in the computer, I manage to custom order a shower and wall kit. I placed the order on Jan 21 after 7 at night and was told the estimated delivery date on it was Feb 1. Not bad, 2 weeks for a custom shower to be delivered. Friday the 25th I get a phone call that the shower was in and ready to be picked up. Sure enough there it was, ready to be picked up 9 days early. That beats the hell out of the 4-6 weeks late that Home Depot managed to get my last special order. From now on its Lowes only for all my special orders.

That being said, I’m working on the bathroom and will start posting photos of it soon.

Next project - Replacing the master shower. Once again due to the construction of the house, more specifically the finishing work, we have found an issue and are having to spend a lot of money to fix it. What is going on is that the seal between the shower door and the shower wall was not installed for long time useage and it fell apart before we looked at the house. This has lead to water slowly leaking out into the drywall and ruining it. This has now lead to the water getting under the vinal flooring and ruining that too in an area of about 2 sq ft. The issue is that the shower consists of plastic sheets just glued to sheets of drywall so I can’t just repair the drywall, I have to pull out the sheets and they are already cracking so I know as soon as I pull they will break and I need a new shower. I already ordered a 3 piece replacemnet so we do not need to worry about the breaking of the sheets as much anymore.

Issue where MI Home gets me at is they installed a 32*48 shower base, do you know how rare that is? I only found 2 models in total at Lowes and Home Depot that come in that size. Standerd sizes are 32*32, 34*48, 36*48, 34*60 and 36*60. I opted for the 34*48 and will redo the plumbing to the shower. Once the parts start coming in I’ll start taking photos so I can document the process.

Kristi and I went out over the last week and saw probally 150 different couches in hopes of getting a new set for our living room. Finally we ended up finding one that made both of us happy. We’d find one that might work then only after we’d sit on it would we find that we just didn’t like some aspect of it. Usually it was that the cushions were hard or something like the back cushions weren’t secured at all and would move on us.

Eventually we settled on a design we both liked. Its casual but still is streamlined and not wrinkling everywhere. We ordered it in Olive Green:

When we looked at it I noticed the flyer for it mentioned it came with throw pillows and after asking about them I found out that was a misprint so they gave us $160 in credit for it. Then we waited until after August 1st and they had a 10% off sale so it was even cheaper. In the end we bought the sofa, loveseat and chair. It should be here in less then 3 weeks.

The police have been showing up more so hopefully that helps things out…

I really dislike the place around me. I’m not going to post why but if you details contact me.

Oh.. let me tell you about the joys of skimcoating… I wish I had just bought the self leveler and been done with it.

I’ll post pictures soon of what I’m talking about if you haven’t already guessed.