The last week I had "off", we moved my household, plus two storage units, from Hermiston, Oregon, to Northern Idaho. It took 3 trips with a 26 foot moving van. Most days I drove 3.5 hours, loaded the van, drove 3.5 hours back, and unloaded it. It was an exhausting week, and now I am back in the 3 week grind part of my work schedule.
I just had one day off, of which I spent 4 hours at work starting up the plant at midnight. On my one day off, however, I got some good stuff done around the house :)
A week ago, we ordered some custom sized pleated cellular shades. They aren't cheap: A set for all the windows in the house (except the master bathroom) cost $2700. But these suckers really trap the heat in, so they are worth it! I spent several hours installing the shades yesterday. It wasn't much fun, because it was overhead work, and my shoulders kept getting sore.
On the bright side, I have a really nice Ridgid drill that made it go pretty quickly. I love that sucker! The little work light comes on when you pull the trigger, and it's down by the battery, so you get nice side-lighting on what you are drilling/screwing. See picture.
I can already tell how well the shades are insuling the windows. The house is heated by a heat pump, and it has been running almost non-stop every night, starting at sundown when the chilly mountain air starts to come on strong. Yesterday after I installed the new blinds, the heater never came on at all, and I was up until 5:00 AM, getting ready for night shift.
I can't say it strongly enough; these shades are pretty amazing. When you lift them in the morning, you can feel the cold air pour out of the windowsill. Best of all, the new design has no cords. Here is a side view of one of these blinds.
Front View:
Another thing I did was repair the water system/ice maker on the refrigerator. When we were living in the rentals the past couple of years, the fridge was out in the garage. The first rental didn't have room for our big fridge, and the other rental had its own fridge. In any event, since it never occured to me to drain the fridge, the charcoal filter cartridge froze and exploded, as did the plastic solenoid valve assembly that sends water to the ice maker and the water dispenser. We now have ice!
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