Small Projects at Dave's

Intro
It was Dave's turn, and he had a list of several small projects to be done in addition to a medium sized project (dishwasher installation). For the dishwasher project, we brought in an outside expert. In Do-It-Yourself-Work-Weekend terms, this is known as a 'ringer'. Dave calls him Dad.
The Ringer and Britny enjoy some breakfast.


Steven and Daniel enjoy breakfast while The Ringer shoots for 2.


Dishwasher

The first step is to cut power and remove the old dishwasher. We hit a snag right away: the previous homeowners had re-tiled the kitchen floor. This 'trapped' the old dishwasher because it raised the height of the floor by at least half an inch, and we could not just roll the dishwasher out. First we tried to pry the countertop up just enough to allow room to get the dishwasher out, but the countertop started to crack. We debated busting up the tile since Dave wants to re-tile the kitchen anyway, but we decided that Britny would get real mad. So, the only other option was to remove the side wall. This would allow us to lift the countertop without cracking it and safely remove the dishwasher.

The Ringer saws the side wall in half.


With the side wall gone, the dishwasher rolled out easily. Daniel and Dave went to work attaching the new dishwasher while The Ringer disappeared into his magic cave to build a new side wall.



The finished project, with a brand new side wall installed. All that is left is to paint the side wall white, which Dave plans to do another day.


Rotten Fence
Not much excitement here, but something that needed to be done. Here is a before and after shot of a fence that had seen better days. Dave plans to build a new fence one day (which probably means Steven and Daniel plan to build a new fence one day too).



Water Faucet Cover Thingy
Dave's front yard has an underground water faucet covered by a lid. However, over time the plastic enclosure underneath the lid had become misaligned, causing the lid to pop up and meet an untimely death by Dave's lawnmower.


Solution: Clean up the hole and put the plastic enclosure back in place...


...then lovingly place a new lid on top.


Doors
We painted two more closet doors and also patched a hole in one of the doors. The hole appeared when the door accidentally met up with a common work-weekend tool. Can you guess the tool? We have put a big clue in one of the photos.



Networking
Dave is a computer lover and a Tivo lover. If you do not own a Tivo, two of the members of the work-weekend team highly recommend that you get one immediately. The other member still uses a VCR (I know, we don't understand it either). Anyway, to take full advantage of his Tivo, Dave needed to extend his home network to his den where the Tivo lives. This allows the Tivo to connect to his computer to download television listings, check the weather, buy movie tickets, and share music, photos, and movies between the Tivo and the computer. Genius!

Here is a shot of Dave's closet in his office (where the computer lives). Turn your head 90 degrees to your right to get oriented.


Here is a shot of Dave's feet while he runs a network cable from the office to the den wall.


Top Secret Project
While rolling in the new dishwasher, 'someone' knocked Britny's snowmen figurine off of the table. Here, an anonymous member of the team super-glues everything back together.


Shhhhh....she'll never know.