House – Page 2 – Frugal Living

Saving a Bundle By Replacing a Faulty Light Switch

February 26, 2016 by Andrew Leave a Comment

“The light won’t turn off, I had to pull the cord” said Shae as she came down the stairs. “Huh” I responded. That statement makes no sense, there are no corded lights in Frugal Boy’s bedroom. We both went upstairs were Shae explained to me that the ceiling fan light switch had stopped working when she was putting Frugal Boy down for bed.

Sure enough, the switch was faulty and was staying closed irrespective of the toggle position.

We moved Frugal Boy to a different room and I tramped through the snow and ice (of course this is the day of a big snow storm) to the home improvement store to get a replacement switch. I didn’t feel comfortable letting 15 amps flow through a faulty switch all night long while we slept.

After shutting off the power at the breaker box, I removed the old switch. Argh, the installer had backstabbed the electrical connections.

Backstabbing, or more properly known as back wiring, is when an outlet or switch is wired by using a push in slot on the back of the fixture instead of using the side screws. While it is a code approved way of wiring, there are some potential downfalls. Firstly, a simple google search on “backstabbed electrical outlet” will yield many ancedotal stories of premature failure, fires, or other grievances. Secondly, the wires are very difficult to remove. In my case, I simply cut them and that brings on a second problem. With an old house and old wiring, the now shorter wire may need an extension or jumper to make it long enough. They aren’t very difficult to add with some extra wire and wire nut but look at how much easier life would be if they just used the side screws like the below switch in our master bedroom.

I also replaced the upstairs bathroom switch and in the process converted it from a normal switch to a lighted switch. That should make it easier to find at night.

While I had electrical on my mind, I replaced two outlets in our living room that were chipped or loose.

The grand total for replacing 3 light switches and two outlets was $28. I would estimate that having an electrician come out and lift up a tool would start at $75 and would likely end up in the low 100s for a simple job like this. The list of tools required is quite small and will pay for themselves after even a small job.

flathead screwdriver
wire stripper multi-tool
multimeter (I like to double check that the power is indeed off)
wire nuts
extra 14 gauge wire (12 gauge if you are working with 20 amp circuits)
utility knife (for cutting away paint or wallpaper around a cover plate)
flashlight

There are plenty of instructional youtube videos and how-to books available at your local library.

Replacing a Worn Out Garage Door

February 18, 2016 by Andrew Leave a Comment

You may recall from last year (here) that our garage door was reaching the end of its life. The hardware including the rollers, track, springs, and pulleys were all worn out and starting to fail. That made this winter quite the chore because although our door would open reliably, it would not shut without a dozen or more attempts. Each time it started to come down it would seize and you’d have to open it all the way and try again. Disconnecting the door from the opener and closing by hand wasn’t much better. The door and springs were so far out of balance it was darn near hernia inducing.

The door had called it quits, and I finally came to terms with the fact that I would have to spend money on it. I hate the thought of spending money on a garage door that faces the backyard. I do not believe that it adds anything to the resale value of the house. By the time a perspective buyer made it back to the garage they will have already decided if they want to buy or not. With a sad wallet, I called out a company that specializes in repairing and replacing garage doors.

The gentleman that came out for an estimate started identifying all of the worn out hardware components and their respective replacement prices. By the time he had finished the total had reached five or six hundred dollars. Then he mentioned that a brand new door with hardware starts at $700. Hmmm, prolong the life of a busted door for another 10 years or completely replace it and get another 30 years? That one was a no brainer. Once we settled on replacing we talked about the different options. We have a detached garage so it was a pretty easy process. We ended up selecting an uninsulated 24 gauge traditional steel panel white door. The 24 gauge metal is slightly more expensive and durable than the company’s most basic door so we should get improved longevity from it but it was still on the cheapest end of the spectrum. The final install cost was $938.

We could have added a row of windows for another $200, but I didn’t feel that was a good investment for the above stated resale reasons. All in all I felt that we got a reasonable deal on the door. Buying a door ourselves at a big box store would cost about $650 for an equivalent door. I would estimate that it would take me an entire weekend to install which would put my labor rate at $18/hour. While not a terrible use of my time, I could think of several things that I would rather be doing than swearing at a garage door.

The company that we hired sent two guys, the owner and a helper, and they did the complete replacement in just over two hours. I asked them how many doors they do a week and they said 4-5, so they know their stuff!

Like Nancy Drew in An Old House

January 25, 2016 by Andrew Leave a Comment

There is always a mystery in every home. What makes that weird noise in the middle of the night. Why is there a wall bump out there. How did that water stain get on the ceiling?

One question that has been plaguing me with our house ever since we moved in was our ‘fireplace’.

The first time we toured the house when we were shopping, I just thought, “cool it has a fireplace”. The listing said the house had a fireplace, so I took it at face value. The second or third time we walked through the house before buying, I inspected it a bit closer and found out it was a fake.

Where there should have been an opening or a door, there was wallpaper behind the metal faceplate. “Oh, okay, when they remodeled they must have sealed off the chimney”. It obviously did not affect our buying decision. We never had our hearts set on having a fireplace.

Still, thoughts about the ‘fireplace’ have always bothered me. The chimney was right there, so it was a logical place for a fireplace. It fit the room perfectly. Then there would be little clues here and there, like when our roof leaked in an epic freezing rain a month ago and I mentioned to my neighbor that maybe it would be better just to get rid of the entire chimney above the roof line, to which he replied that the previous owner had always hoped to restore the fireplace.

So, as I sat at my desk, 8 feet away from it today, I got the sneaking suspicion that maybe ‘blocking’ off the fireplace was more along the lines of “let’s drape some paper thin wallpaper across the opening and call it good”.

Getting up and really personal with it, I saw that the bottom trim wasn’t nailed into anything and could be removed by hand.

I could feel a draft of cold air emanate out from the sizable gap. Cob webs were whipping about as well. Uh oh. I remembered a different house that we tried to buy before this one, and it also had an open chimney with no damper to keep the cold air out. Would this be the same? The gap was too small to see with my own eyes, but I was able to squeeze my phone in to take some pictures.

That’s a chimney alright. I cannot see any daylight at the top of the picture, so there must be some sort of ventilation cap installed or maybe there is a damper. Now I have even more questions! First and foremost, are we losing 8% of our heating bill out a big hole in the middle of our house?

Jerry Rigging a Band Aid for Torrential Winter Rain

December 28, 2015 by Andrew 1 Comment

Merry belated Christmas. We had an enjoyable time getting away from work for an extended weekend. Driving home we passed through several rain fronts, saw one 18 wheeler tipped over into the ditch from high winds, and witnessed many flooded areas. This morning a layer of freezing rain had coated all of the trees and the extra weight had caused many limbs to break off.

Shae noticed some water seeping into the basement, but nothing to be concerned about. The much more alarming discovery was when I went into the attic to check mouse traps. On my way down I noticed two very wet patches of floor where there shouldn’t be water.

On closer examination it appeared that water was coming into the house along the chimney and wicking down along the nearest rafter. I checked the bedroom below and sure enough there was some water discoloration on the ceiling. 🙁

Our roof was just put on two years ago, so I gave the roofer a call. He said that he would come around to look at it when the weather cleared up and it was safe to walk on the roof. He didn’t get any arguments from me, there is no way I would ask someone to walk around a steep icy roof.

There was still a slow persistent drip that needed to be dealt with to prevent any additional water damage. I can’t fix it from the outside, so the best I can do is divert that water to where I want it to go. In this case, a bucket. The best way I know how to do that is to create a wick. I nailed a rag into the rafter to interrupt the flow of water.

The water now flows down the rag and drips into the bucket. Voila, one MacGyver band aid.

It Was the Night Before Christmas

December 24, 2015 by Andrew Leave a Comment

and not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse because I just bought eight more mouse traps. If you recall, we have a bit of a mouse problem in our house as they have set up shop in the drop ceiling above our bed. Ewwww. Anyway, while I was at the store I perused their selection of 50% off Christmas decorations. This year our various strands of decorative lights had all given up the ghost and I am way to frugal to pay retail. At 50% off though I caved and bought a few strands of Christmas lights to do some last minute decorating. I figure in two days everything will be at 75% off so that would be the ideal time to stock up for next year.

Today, with Shae’s help I also finished making our homemade ravioli that we are giving away to friends and neighbors.

So far we have made a basic spinach & ricotta, butternut squash & gorgonzola, butternut squash & goat cheese cranberry, and our final most refined one was sweet potato & gorgonzola ravioli. We experimented with different dough recipes, rest times, rolling thickness, and cut out diameters before finding what we considered to be a tasty ravioli. I’ve made over 250 ravioli and at 2 minutes a piece it has definitely been a gift from the heart. Next year it may be back to easy and quick sugar cookie cutouts. Now that’s a sentence I’d never thought I would hear!

Here is one last frugal tip before I sign off and enjoy our traditional Christmas duck. If you are driving, make sure that your car tires are fully inflated. Under inflated tires reduces gas mileage and prematurely wears the tire. I checked all four tires on our car and found that they all needed some topping off.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (except for those damn mice).