Greg In The Desert

One Project Closer is giving away $100 Home Depot gift certificate. To enter you can use one of the following methods:

• 1 entries: Leave a comment.
• 10 entries: Subscribe via e-mail.
• 50 Entries: Blog about the Giveaway.

Please, go over and leave a comment to get your one entry, but please to not create a blog post. I would like to keep my 50 entry advantage.

Actually One Project Closer is a great site. Their radiant floor heating installation was a great resource for my own master bathroom radiant floor installation.

A CatGenie is a automatic cat litter box: it removes large items from the litter, washes the plastic litter and dries it. It’s like a toilet and litter box combined in one device and if it works like its supposed to it should eliminate a lot of hassle for the cat owner.

A friend of mine recently bought one and I installed the connections for the device. The CatGenie requies an elecrical connection, a water connection and a drain connection. It connects just like a washing machine with a hose fitting for the water supply and washing machine style drain hose.

The CatGenie comes with adapters for connecting to an existing washing machine connections so the washing machine and CatGenie can be connected at the same time. I also comes with adapters to connect to a toilet. (Note: Don’t loose these connectors, even if you don’t use them. Replacements can be extremely difficult to find.) My friend has a small room underneath the stairs and near a bathroom that the litter boxes are kept in but no connections already in place. Since the studs were exposed I could tap into connections from other rooms. I tried my best to make the connections in such a way that pictures of the installation doesn’t end up on the internet as the way not to do home improvement.

There are exposed electrical boxes under the stairs and I was able to run a wiring into one of the boxes and connect a new box in the room. The existing box was in the kitchen so it was on a GFCI otherwise I would have installed one in this new installation since there’s water involved.

There is a drain and a water connection in the area under the stairs that are for an adjacent bathroom and I modified them to connect to the CatGenie. I wanted to make sure they would be easy to close off and disconnect if the CatGenie wasn’t used in the future.

The water supply to the toilet is PEX tubing and I cut the PEX and added a GatorBite T-fitting in between the two cut parts of PEX. There’s probably a few ways to make that connection but the GatorBite T-fitting (called GatorBite at Lowes and SharkBite and Home Depot) was the easiest for me to work with. The GatorBite pipe fittings are a push on style fitting that work with PEX, PVC or Copper pipe and seem to be a type compression fitting. They are extremely easy to push on and can be removed. They are expensive compared to other types of fitting, the T-fitting normally costs about $21. Some plumbers would probably disagree with the idea of using these types of fittings but I am not a plumber. I wanted to go from PEX to a solid copper connection for the hose and I was in a confined space. The GatorBite was the easiest and quickest to install and has not leaked.

There is a 2 inch drain-waste-vent pipe from the toilet. I cut a section out of the vent portion of the pipe then installed a 2 inch pipe with a 1 1/2 inch Y-shaped extension. The drain from the CatGenie goes in this extension. Since the pipe is a vent pipe I don’t want sewer gasses going into this room through the extension so I installed a rubber gasket that is designed to go over vent pipes with a hole in it that washing machine drains are installed into. The drain pipe seals up into the gasket and should prevent any sewer gaskets from leaking.

So far the CatGenie has operated using these connections without any problems. The cats operating with the CatGenie is a different problem.

I’ve made more progress on the front porch after not doing much for several weeks.

The previous owners had a white, chalk like rock around the perimeter of the raised bed. This rock was popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s and I hate it. The problem with this rock is that its light weight and it ends up all over the place. I also don’t think they are very attractive.

I removed the white rocks and replaced them with grey river rocks from the south side of my yard. I also put the same grey river rocks on the other side of the walkway. I’m making good progress at reducing the rocks on the south side of my yard by reusing them elsewhere in my landscape.

I put together a rough draft of how I would like my front yard to look in OmniGraffle. The plan shows red areas as walls and yellow areas are new pavement.

The plan shows a triangular jog of the wall, this wall layout is mean to mirror the roof pitch and angle. I’m also planning walkways out to the sidewalk that doesn’t exist (the city is talking about adding them) and around the north side of the house. I’m not yet sure if I want to put in concrete or pavers and I’m experimenting with some pavers I picked up from Home Depot. They are concrete with a variation in color and have a similar look to slate.

It’s been hot here. Unusually hot. This last week has been in the mid to high 90’s which seems about 10 degrees more than usual. This poses a problem for me. Last fall I removed the swamp cooler due to the duct work rusting out and making a mess and I haven’t yet resolved it. I realize it’s June and I should be prepared for the heat already, but I wasn’t expecting this much heat at once.

I managed to get the old rusted duct work removed but I’m not yet done getting the cement casing cleaned up. I did get a MasterCool for free but needed to get it blowing cold air into the house. Getting this small amount of duct work made was going to be extremely expensive, one company quoted me $600 – $800.

The Lowes and Home Depot don’t carry duct work larger than 8”. Luckily I was able to find a local hardware store called Samons that carries pre-made duct work. Not being ready to permanently install the duct work… let me just say that if your a fan of duck tape, you will be a fan of my work.

I have a managed to duct tape the whole mess together and sit it on the cement hole. If there’s a strong wind it will probably blow the duct work away, If it rains It will probably fill the hole with water. For now I’m cool.

It’s taken me a long time to complete what now seems pretty simple. I can finally call the pocket door kit install done. Instead of going with a prebuilt frame that can be had at Home Depot, I went with a Johnson Hardware Universal Pocket Door Frame Kit. One reason I didn’t go with the prebuilt frame is because it looks like it’s not something I could take into the house and install by myself. The Johnson kit comes in a box and in pieces which were easy to install by myself.

I’m not sure how much the Home Depot prebuilt kit is, but the Johnson Hardware kit was $60 through Ace Hardware’s online site.

Next up, the electrical

I installed a ceiling fan in the living room today. It’s the simplest, most basic ceiling fan I could find, an 60″ industrial ceiling fan from Home Depot.

This fan is controlled through my home automation computer like the other fan. Unfortunately the only PLC compatible fan controller that exists is the Lightolier Controls Digital Fan Control (CCWHISPLC) which costs over $100, I have one for the kitchen ceiling fan and it works great. Besides the high cost of the CCWHISPLC it is also X10 only. I’ve decided to use a SwitchLinc V2 Dimmer for the living room fan. Dimmers don’t make good fan controllers. They usually cause a humming noise and can damage the fan.

To eliminate the hum from the fan controller I could implement a work around by Ed Cheung. It’s a passthrough device that properly switches the speed without humming or damaging the fan. The cost of this device is about $50. A Switchlinc is about $45. Together I’m getting close to the price of the CCWHISPLC, but at least it would still not be X10. I’m still pondering this option.

The last problem with this fan is it hangs a bit low. My ceilings are 8 foot high and this one hangs about a foot down. I think I can cut down the 6″ rod about 4 inches which should help.

When I bought this house, the first thing I worked on was the kitchen. I had hoped that I could keep the cabinets and refinish them up but they were in too bad of shape. I didn’t have a lot of money. I installed the majority of the cabinets that I could afford, plus I needed to do some construction before I could put all of them up. I used the Mills Pride brand from Home depot.

Here we are a year and a half later and I’ve have some money to put up more cabinets. Home Depot is apparently not carrying Mills Pride anymore, in fact Mills Pride’s website says it’s under construction. I’m not about to trash the cabinets I already put in and start over, so I decided to use some open shelving.

There’s an area between the microwave and the wall I plan to nock down. I’m dying to nock down this wall, but I’m not quite ready yet. I really need some shelving here to hold food related stuff when I’m cooking. My “pantry” was next to my sink, which was an original cabinet and a pain to access. By placing open shelving in both of these locations I can easily access things that I use frequently and hide the rest in normally closed cabinet. I like steel wire shelving. Normally shelving like this is expensive so I used less expensive shelving normally used for closets and made them adjustable.

So far it’s working out much better than I imagined. Having the extra cabinet space and having easy access to spices while still having them off the counter has been terrific. Cost of materials for 3 shelves 27 inches long, 3 shelves 31 inches long, 12 brackets and 4 wall mounts was about $80.

I’ve been looking for a way to organize all the receipts I get, espcially the ones from Home Depot and Lowes. There’s a few programs out there for the Mac but they require you scan them in with another program. They seemed more work than they are worth.

Neat Receipts attempts to solve this problem. They have a program for managing recipts that works directly with a scanner.

Just scan your receipts into the NeatReceipts software. The program will automatically crop, rotate and resize the receipt image, then apply patented Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and character analysis technology to read and understand the text on the receipt.

The killer feature here is that it uses OCR to extract the information from the recipt, eliminating the need to manually enter the information. It also has some sort of IRS certification so that you can keep the scanned doucments for tax purposes, so you can throw out the paper version.

Currently, Neat Receipts on works on Windows XP (a Vista beta is available). They are working on a Mac version for release in 2008, in which I’ve signed up to be notified. The Neat Receipts scanner and softare are $229.

I like the industrial look. Things made of metal, not overly ornamental. When I got a deal on a Red Dot VAG-02-C vapor proof light at Home Depot, I had the type of lights I wanted for the outside of my house. Not only do I like the look, but they are practical. After the Home Depot purchase I came across a larger version that works perfectly over my garage. I haven’t been able to to find any more deals since.

I not only haven’t been able to find a deal, I haven’t been able to find anyone that sells this brand except home depot. I’ve found this type of light, but they have been too different looking. I also think the deal I got at Home Depot was a mistake, a mis marked product.

Recently I came across e-conolight’s products. They not only have vapor proof lighting, but they ones similar enough to the red dot brand I originally bought, and they are considerably cheaper. I purchased 5 of their ceiling mount incandescent fixture for the back yard. They were a thrid of the price of the Home Depot version and shipping was only $10, although they did charge sales tax.

The first light to go up replaces the back porch light, a ugly 70’s style light. One problem with the original light is it made a great place for birds to nest in the winter because the heat from the bulb would keep them warm. The vapor proof lights are not warm to the touch even with a halogen bulb.

I’m very impressed with the e-conolight fixtures. Unlike the red dot version, they come with the box to mount the fixture on. They have rubber seals vs. paper on the Red Dot and have a better paint job (actually, they have a powder coating). I’ve got some stucco work to fix on this particular light, the rest are going under the rear eaves.

I guess I don’t have a infestation. After my last post I went to the nearest Home Depot and found some Glue Traps. They are a platform with a ultra sticky substance that’s suppose to attract scorpions, spiders and other bugs. I’d prefer to stay away from the nuclear option of spraying the place if possible. Besides, scorpion’s are difficult to kill with standard pesticides anyhow.

Since putting them down I haven’t seen as single scorpion, which surprised me. Until a few days ago, I found a small one in the glue trap. I’m not sure where they are coming from but It’s pretty clear they are coming from the north end of the house. They could be coming up from around the heater ducts in the floor or possibly from the master bathroom where the roots were coming up, i haven’t finished demolishing that yet.

In either case I’ve learned to live with the fact that they are there. In fact, they are a excellent predator and will eat centipedes, another nasty insect that people find in their homes in New Mexico. So what would I rather have, scorpion’s or centipedes? Scorpion’s turn out to be the lesser of two evils.