Weekly Update WO 3/11

Finished the pulley project.  Yeah once again making it yourself isn't the cheapest or easiest way.  I'll keep the story simple. I should have bought this for $20:


Instead I built my own for a cost of $200.  Well that was for 2 (put 2 up in the garage) and $30 was a ladder rental which I would have had anyway.   Live and learn and it was actually fun.

Got the bike out.  Changed the Oil and filter, put air in the tires and it didn't start.  Weak battery was the problem.  Got an AGM battery,  so I'm back in business.

In the next 2 weeks I got to start the boat process.  Wash, polish and wax the hull.  Then troubleshoot the bilge pump and clean the battery connections (if not replace one or both), then the Wash wax and polish the topside and then clean the interior. Actually now that I am thinking about it I might get the boat yard to do the wash wax part.  Yeah its $400, but man its alot of work.  Well I still have the interior and bilge pump issue.

GOP primary
Romney looks like he's on his way, but  Santorum is putting up a fight.  I hope Santorum wins; better chance for Obama, too far to the right.  Whereas Romney is moderate and could give Obama a fight. We'll see.

Home improvement project of the season

We finally started the most recent exercise in home owning frustration.  After being pestered about a host of potential projects we started the main level flooring redo. I say pestered because I have a rule: No projects during boating seasons (besides short raining day ones), so maybe no multi-day projects during boating season.  Well it was a successful campaign.  After going around and around about material selection (could be a story in itself) we finally settled on bamboo.  We got 680 sqft engineered bamboo from Lowes for our main level (great room and kitchen). Here is a synopsis:

Install time
2 partial days of carpet demo (dump trips = 2) and underlayment install
2.1 full days of flooring install (so far) (2 more sessions (planned))
1 day of molding and basement step install

costs: flooring and tee molding     $2900 (Lowes included delivery)
underlayment                              $170 (Hd)
foam padding                              $65 (Amazon)
molding 1/4 round                       $150 (Hd, the lowes 1/4 round was $400)