Fence July-November 2009

Our property is just over an acre. When we first moved in, there was no fencing at all. The prospect of fencing such a big area was daunting. Primarily, cost was a huge factor. A traditional wood or vinyl fence all the way around the back portion our lot was cost prohibitive. Second, we wanted to maintain the overall open feeling that we loved about our yard while adding privacy to certain areas. We opted to do a partial wood, partial field wire fence. The wood portions would keep our pool and garden areas private, while the remaining field wire portions left us with a largely uninhibited view. We have a small section between our house and fence that didn't seem to fit with wood or field wire fence, so we opted to use wrought iron sections with wood posts there.

Theatre Room Round 1

When we were thinking about buying this house, the large basement room played heavily into our decision making process. We have always loved the idea of having a theatre room, and this room was the right size and shape in addition to being completely dark.  

When we first moved in the room had an orange faux-rock painted floor (it was a doozy!), dark green lower walls and white upper walls with wallpaper trim dividing the two. There was built in cabinetry in the far end of the room and a large closet  on the wall opposite the cabinetry. 

We decided early on to gut the room so that would could decide where to place electrical outlets and where to run speaker wire. 

Our kids were eager to help...

Here is the scary floor...

Once we tore out the drywall and cabinets, we strung all the electrical and speaker wire, hung new drywall and built a riser for a row of seats where the cabinets previously had been. We tore out the old closet and built one small media storage closet and left the remainder open as a small alcove. We put 10 can lights in the ceiling that we put on 2 dimmer switches (one for the main room and one for the alcove section. We installed a wirelessly controlled automatic theatre screen so we could choose whether to have the screen up or down. Then we painted the ceiling black and the walls a deep maroon.  We put dark grey carpet on the riser and lower level with a pergo walkway along one edge.

We mounted our projector and speakers, brought in theatre chairs and we were all set!

Movie time!!

Hot Tub and Pool Equipment Relocation

When we first moved in, we had a hot tub, but nowhere to put it. There was one spot, but it was in front of our basement door, and we agreed that it seemed like a bad idea to put it there. Until it got cold and we really wanted to go in the hot tub.

Our basement door has a patio that is about 8' X 16'. Great place for a hot tub, except the logical place to put the hot tub was taken up by pool equipment. What? Who builds a pool and then puts all the equipment (including the electrical) 5 feet from the pool and below the water level? The previous owners, that's who. 

We'll take care of that in a later post. 

Anyway. 

We decided that putting the hot tub in front of the door would be a great SHORT TERM solution. 4 years later, despite the coolness factor of opening the door to get in the hot tub, we decided it was time to move the pool equipment and the hot tub to more logical locations. 

Step one involved jumping into a semi frigid pool to put a plug in the bottom drain. Wow. That was really, really fun...

Once the plug was in place, we were able to cut all the pipes and move the equipment out of the way. We had to remove all the sand from our sand filter in order to move it. I was excited to replace the old sand with new. It was really interesting to see the innards of a sand filter and get a good understanding of how it works. 

We relocated the equipment 20 feet farther from the pool, up against the side if the house next to the chimney. 

We had to run new pipes from the pool bottom drain and the skimmer drain to the equipment's new home. Time to dig!

In addition to the drain pipes, we ran a new gas line (the original gas line got taken out in the first scoop full of dirt in the septic tank replacement, despite calling Digline...) and conduit for the pool light. Our pool came with a light, but I have never trusted it. It's duct taped in the middle. For me, swimming in the dark is better than light from a questionable light that may or may not electrocute everyone. So, we put in some conduit in hopes of someday getting a new, properly placed pool light. 

Once the pipe was ready, we plumbed all the pool equipment in. Then we had to tackle the electrical. Our house is an old house that is stretched to its electrical limits. Instead of running new service, we decided to repurpose an interior outlet as an exterior outlet. Once the outlet was done, we added a programmable clock to manage the on and off cycles required for proper water circulation. 

We added new sand to the filter, primed the pump, plugged everything in and crossed our fingers. Thankfully it all worked!! Hooray!!!

Once the pool equipment was moved, we addressed the hot tub. We had to clean up the area where the equipment had been, and build a retaining wall to prop up the corner of the pool deck. 

A little more digging and some creative paver placement got the job done. 

With a little help from our friends, we pushed slid the hot tub into its new spot. It was a close one...

Now all we had to do was run a new 220 line in conduit from the junction box to the hot tub, fill it up and enjoy. Piece of cake!