Tuesday's To-Do List

Post Project Pic

I go through phases with my house and with projects.  Sometimes, I become obsessed with the idea of doing a certain project and I can't really focus on anything else.  Other times, I will go for months without doing anything.  Last night, I came home from our meeting with the Scouts (where I volunteer as a Scoutmaster for the 11 year old kids) and I felt like I needed to do something useful.  I don't know why I felt that way all of a sudden, but I couldn't rest, couldn't hardly eat until I had finished the following four projects.

In my mind, I thought that I could do all four simultaneously and that it would take about an hour total.  It took longer--all night in fact and two separate trips to Lowe's--but I got it all done.  And I went to bed feeling like I had actually accomplished something.

The License Plate Project:

Before...

I have this really license plate holder that I like because it reminds me of the community where I grew up.  Unfortunately, it broke a while back and it was bugging me.

I figured that with a little epoxy and the right part from the hardware store, I could fix it right up.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the exact size that I wanted for the part, but I decided to try and perform the "surgery" anyway.  I'm kind of curious to see how the epoxy holds and whether it breaks again.  If it does, I guess I can always go buy a new one.  :-/

...After

The worst part of the project was that I left the two screws on the car bumper when I removed the license plate.  I figured it was a great place to keep them safe until the project was done.  It was...until I had to run to Lowe's for a second trip because I needed to exchange the part.   I forgot to pick up the screws and then I couldn't find them in the dark!  Luckily, I went to look first thing this morning and found them--safe and sound--in the middle of the street.  Phew!

If you look closely, you can see the mending plate at the top right corner (it was a little bit wider than I wanted) and some of the epoxy.  What's the verdict?  Is it too ghetto?  Should I just dump it and buy a new license plate holder?

The Cook Dinner for a Week Project:

Since my family is gone, it's a bit of a challenge to eat healthy.  I decided to cook up some brown rice and add it to some Summer Squash soup that I froze and brought home from our family reunion at Bear Lake.  I'll eat pretty much anything if I'm hungry and I figured that this would be both tasty and nutritious.  It didn't look like much, but it was good.  And it cooked while I finished up my remaining projects.

The Wireless Garage Door Opener Project:

Tools of the trade...

When we moved into our house, I bought a wireless garage door opener.  You probably have one at your house. It allows you to punch in the code and it opens your garage door, without having a key or a separate garage door opener.

I bought this little unit over 2.5 years ago!  I hadn't put it in, because--to do it right--I knew that I would need special screws that are made to anchor into the stucco securely and solidly.

I finally bought my stucco anchors last night at Lowe's and tackled the project.  It went off without a hitch and I'm excited that I don't have to worry about carrying a key if I go for a late night run.  

In addition, when friends and family come visit, I can just give them the code and I won't have to worry about giving them a key or giving them our spare garage door opener.  I'm hopeful that we are going to have some visitors soon, so this could prove fairly useful.  It was also one of the reasons that I felt like it was time to finally install this gadget that had been sitting on the shelf in my garage for so long!

All done!

The Keep S. Happy by Fixing the iPad Project:

Remember my fiasco with getting the iPad fixed?  S. asks me every single day if the iPad is back yet.  And every day, I had to answer "No."

I even ordered an iPad mini for the kids--but S. wanted nothing to do with it.  I don't think they've even set it up yet.  S. wants his iPad and he wants it the exact. same. way. it. was. before.

Well, the replacement iPad showed up at my office this week and I managed to get it all set up last night, thanks to iTunes and Apple's ingenious customer-friendly software.  I think that S. is going to be very happy when he sees it.  :-)

Once the projects were finished, I had to get everything cleaned back up.  As much as I liked doing the projects, I maybe felt the best about the way the kitchen looked (Ground Zero for all four projects) when I had finished.   (See above.)  I think that my mom would have been proud of my cleaning skills!  ;-)