Slowly but surely, it’s getting there. After getting rid of the ants, we got some spray foam and drywall to fix the ingress area under the window sill. I’ve always had an issue doing drywall work because it’s such a pain in the ass to cut. In carving out pieces from the 8 x 4 you can use a jig saw but it’s never clean and always messy.

After looking up suggestions, the oscillating tool seemed like a good solution and then I remembered that I inherited one from dad when he passed. It was a Dremel and I had opened the case but never even plugged it in. After locating it, I popped open the case and the first thing I see is a drywall blade. After changing out the head and putting on the blade I was delighted to see the tool slice through drywall (literally) like butter. This gives me the confidence to take out the old ironing board storage and make it into a standard room. It made me smile because over 10 years after his passing, it felt like my dad was still in my life.

So awhile back I noticed that ants had been making a track into the attic. I put some bait traps out and then I saw them on the other north side window. I sprayed it and tons of dead ant bodies fell out and I thought that would be it. I had seen them inside too when I put in the new liter box, the little fuckers got in there and I think they bit Sammy, henceforth her aversion to it.

As I was pulling baseboards from the room I decided to pull the baseboard under the sill. As I pulled it off, there were ants starting to stream out. I ran to the RV and got the home defense spray and started the chemical warfare. A quart later the bodies have piled up and I’m guessing that I have to drill into the wall and spray and now it’s time to figure that out.

Finally decided to drill into the wall and deliver some void injection poison to them.

Made a trek to Harbor Freight today and continued progress on the back room. Needed a scraper that was longer than 12 inches so got the 48 inch floor scraper. It made short work of scraping the floor and getting the remnants of carpet padding and glue off the floor. Still a bit of work to do there and then the closet needs to be cleaned out and the carpet in there pulled. I’m also pulling the baseboards and will redo/replace as needed but painting is going to be super easy, no baseboards, not worried about the floor since it’s concrete and the minimal other things are easy to tape.

I’m enjoying the ‘Inside Track Club’ from Harbor Freight too much. Aside from the 4 foot scraper, I got a 100 set of bits for the house, another 33 piece set for the RV/spare. Knee pads for the upcoming flooring job as well as a set of hole saws and two 15 foot extension cords. All for $65. The fact that you can use the app to make a list and then it tells you the aisle. Mind you that just slightly narrows it down but at least it’s a start.

While I still feel that DeWalt is the de-facto standard when it comes to cordless tools, I’ve always had a soft spot for Ryobi. They’re less expensive and for what I do, they’ve always been perfect. But the one thing that’s always bothered me is the cost of the ‘real’ batteries. Like $90 apiece and you can’t really trust the aftermarket ones or I haven’t figured out where to source those from.

Now I spend a good amount of time in Harbor Freight and they have the comparable 20v Bauer tools and they’re inexpensive when compared to Ryobi even if completely incompatible with the Ryobi 18v. Also, when I bought most of my Ryobi tools, the concept of a brush-less motor hadn’t set in the way it has today so not only does it have 10% more voltage but I’d be getting brush-less motor tools.

They have a deal getting a 5 AH battery with charger and a free tool for $90. I’d get the circular saw since it’s the most expensive and then buy the ones I don’t have a Ryobi counterpart of…

I’m sort of in the process of spring cleaning as we’re coming into fall. My thought is that if I start now I stand a chance of maybe having spring cleaning done by spring. Also starting a workout regime to have a summer body but that’s another post. But the premise is that I took everything out of the closet in the office and have replaced it with a storage rack which fits 27 gallon storage totes mostly. The rack has 4 shelves with 3 bins per rack or 12 bins (324 gallons) of storage. I’ve put most of the stuff that was in the closet back in using 4 bins maybe 5 when it’s all said and done with. So it effectively doubles the storage capacity. It looks a little odd but I’m not complaining.

With our absence, the lawn has run it’s course under the summer heat and we’ve had a bumper crop of goathead stickers. It took me all day but I managed to pull the vast majority of them and then do an initial cut on the highest level which was bagged. I also edged and trimmed the front yard. I must have been running a little hard because at the end of the day I was sore and exhausted. But the yard is coming back to normal.

I saw some sand burr plants in the grass so I re-applied the pre-emergent although I think that I used less water than I should have, evidently there are 8 pint to a gallon not 16, oh well, still did the right area so it should be fine.

Finally got the last stuff back into the master bedroom and got the gun safe cleaned out to boot. We left out one chest of drawers and didn’t put the refrigerator back in the bedroom. I just didn’t see the need for it anymore I guess. We may decommission it and store it for another time.

I got the yard done as it rained this evening, it looks really nice when it’s cut and everything is so green. The truck goes in for service tomorrow, should knock out the last two recalls that were pending from the manufacturer.

I sat on the front porch and watched as the storms came in, lots of lightning. It was nice. It doesn’t rain enough down here so enjoy it while I can. I did remember I have a leak in the kitchen roof, grrr. Add it to the list.

As I’ve grown older, I get particular about my yard tools. As much as I’d like a motorized jet backpack like my neighbor, with the small property I have, I’ll stick with the electric. And not the wireless, with my fathers passing I have about half a mile of extension cords so give me a motor. No gas engine for this, I’ve already got half a dozen small gas engines (not withstanding vehicles) that I have to deal with and although I’ve recently become proficient in repairing them, I don’t need another.

I needed to replace my Portland (Harbor Freight) blower/vac as it finally bit the dust after like 5 years. Well worth it and was going to head over and pick it up but while Sandy and I were at Walmart, she pointed out the Hyper Tough blower/vac at Walmart. $6 more but worth it?

The answer is emphatically yes. I looked up the specs and the Hyper Tough (HT) is 400 CFM vs 375 CFM for the Portland. 2 year warranty vs 1 year respectively but most importantly the HT has a metal impeller so the mulching is much better and it’s pretty potent as a blower and vacuum. I don’t know if it’ll give me 5 years of residential service but I’m impressed so far.