Home Repair 101: Replacing a Doorbell

After more than a decade at our current home, I know a few things are bound to go wrong sooner or later. We've been pretty lucky so far, but this summer, we discovered one day that our doorbell no longer worked! Not a big deal until people started commenting about stopping by to find no one at home (at times when we actually WERE there.) Hmmmm...after a brief investigation, we found the doorbell was only ringing about half the time.

I put off doing anything for a while, because I assumed it would mean calling an electrician, or in other words, Ca-Ching $$$$!! So for a while, we solved the problem with this:

And this:

(He does a great job of letting us know when someone is at the door!)

But occasionally, he decides to take a nap, so I did some research.  I found out that if the doorbell button is the cause of the problem, its relatively easy to fix.  If the chime itself is broken, that's another story.

Its an easy test to and see if the button that is the problem.  First, remove the old button, and you should see two wires. Disconnect them from the old button.

Now, just take the exposed ends of the wires & touch them together. (Don't worry, you won't get shocked or anything like that!)  If the doorbell "rings" then the button is bad & needs to be replaced. That was the case with mine.

So you'll need to get a new button at your local hardware or home improvement store (Menard's was my choice).

You will attach the two wires to the new button with two little screws on the back side of the button.

the wires can go in either place - it shouldn't matter whether white is on top or red.

I actually had a little trouble attaching the button to the siding of my house (the holes were a little too big for the new screws) So I used another trick I learned - as you can see in the picture above, I stuck some toothpicks into the holes to help the screws stay in more securely.

And here it is! Maybe I will add a video clip of myself pushing the button so you can see just how wonderfully it works now....or maybe not, you'll just have to take my word for it!

**Disclaimer: this is not actual professional advice. Please consult your local electrician, contractor, or doorbell specialist for detailed instructions or help in replacing YOUR doorbell! :)

Pinterest...Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

Recently I found some GREAT ideas on Pinterest that I tried out at home. One was a definite winner, and the other one, not so much!

The first idea I found was definitely a "Thumbs Up!" I had a ton of green onions in my garden this summer, and although I love to use them in a lot of different recipes, I knew I would never go through all of them before they froze out in the garden or wilted away in the house. So, I was very excited to find this little tip!

Wash & cut up your green onions:

I added another step and spread them out on a cookie sheet, then popped them in the freezer overnight. They were easier to work with and didn't stick together in a big clump.

Next, I put them into a clean, empty water bottle:

Put them back in the freezer, and just pour out the amount you need for your recipe! How easy is that?! I now have 3 bottles full of onions ready to use this winter!

Now, on to the "Thumbs Down" pin...

I had SUCH high hopes for this one....I went back to the blog it came from & read through all the comments raving about this cleaning tip, then ran right out to get some Barkeeper's Friend of my own...

So the tip was a magical way to get rid of scratches on dishes. All you had to do was scrub with Barkeeper's Friend liquid. The picture in the pin even looked just like MY dishes, which I believe are from the "White & Gray Scratchy" Pfaltzgraff collection. They are soooo bad that it's really kind of embarrassing to have people over to eat!

And after scrubbing with BKF:

Amazing, right? They're like brand new dishes! But wait, there's more...here is a picture one meal after BKF...

Not completely scratch-filled like it was before, but not perfectly white either. :(  I'm not sure what to do now - I only cleaned a few plates just to try it out, so I guess I could do them all once and gradually let the scratches build up again, then break out the BKF for another round of cleaning. Or I could just ignore it like I was before & use paper plates when we have a crowd over! I have been checking out some Fiesta Ware lately, so maybe now is the time to make the change! Either way, I think I'll stay away from white dishes from now on!

Summertime!

Well, school has been out for a week now, and life is slowing down a bit. Last Friday for the kids' first day of summer break, we took a weekend trip to ADVENTURELAND (The closest thing in Iowa to Disney!) It was much more relaxing than Disney, and a lot less crowded. Over my lifetime, I've probably been there 20 times, and not a whole lot has changed. Although they do have a new "waterpark" section - which we didn't visit since it was a little chilly!

Anyway...on Sunday after returning from Adventureland, I quickly made a birthday cake for the new TEENAGER in our house (yikes!) and a batch of chocolate chip cookies for him to take to church Sunday night. Whew!

Monday night was our troop's Boy Scout Court of Honor (They do this a couple times a year to recognize boys who are moving up a rank and to award merit badges). There's always a reception afterward with cookies & drinks, which I did manage to buy a bag of Oreos for. Hey, they were Double Stuffed, and I had already reached my baking limit for the week on Sunday!

Tuesday night, the previously mentioned TEENAGER invited some friends to a movie (Men In Black III - it was pretty good!) and to sleep over at our house. Luckily I'm not a light sleeper, and I missed all the craziness that went on after about 11pm.

Last night was our one "free" night of the week, which I spent working on a new project! I'm so excited to share it...hopefully soon. It is kind of a big one, so it's taking a while to get done. BUT, if you're curious, here's a little sneak peek:

Okay, so that's a little more than a sneak peek, but I'm SO EXCITED for the finished product! Let me just say that spray paint is my new best friend!

I won't be able to work on these much tonight since Sportsfan has a meeting & I'll be taking the TEENAGER (by the way, maybe that will be my new name for him. What do you think?) to volunteer at a local event for scouts.

Tomorrow Ginny will be coming home (she is spending the week at Grandma's house) and next week will be a little busier since we'll be going to softball games again. I have to admit, it has been kind of nice skipping this week's games!

After the big "patio project" I have more painting projects in mind that I'd like to get going on. Stay tuned!

My Life

Soccer, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Running, Piano, more Soccer! This is my life right now. I have actually done a little spring project that I haven't even had time to post about yet. Someday things will calm down and I will get back to my blog. :)  

Yesterday my son signed up for the 2013 Boy Scout National Jamboree. If you're not familiar with it, it is like the Super Bowl of scouting. Its a summer camp that is held every 4 years (except this time, it's only 3 years after the last one, which was held in 2010 to accommodate the scouting 100th anniversary!) He has wanted to go ever since he first heard about "Jambo" (the Boy Scout slang for Jamboree) probably when he was 9 or 10.  He was even more convinced when older boys from his troop went in 2010 and came back telling stories about all the cool things they did. It's basically Boy Scout Heaven.

Mom on the other hand, is alternating between "Ohmygosh! What did I just sign him up for?? He's too young to go halfway across the country for 2 weeks!" and "It will be the experience of a lifetime!" Oh well, at least I have a year and a half to get used to the idea!

On another note, the eMeals plan is getting off to a pretty good start. I'm not giving it 5 stars just yet. What I did for the first week was take recipes from the previous and current weeks, and kind of combined things. I know that my kids definitely won't eat some of the things on the menus, so I did a little re-arranging. I have to say the biggest relief is not having to worry about going to the store every other day and constantly wondering what to make for supper!

My goal for this week is to get my spring banner pictures (spoiler!) off my camera and onto the blog...stay tuned!

In the Kitchen

My daughter was soooo excited yesterday about a book she checked out from the school library..."Cooking the French Way"

Didn't even realize they had cookbooks in the school library...I was amused!

Free Time?!

Last month I thought that when the kids started back to school, I'd have much more free time on my hands. HA!  That was a fantasy. Since they are at two different schools, things are a little more difficult. BUT I have managed to work on a few crafty things in my little free time. I'm taking lots of pictures & hoping to post them soon. Can't wait to share...stay tuned!

Always Verify Your Source!

As a journalism major in college, one of the things our professors talked about over and over was verifying sources of information. I must be getting forgetful or just lazy in my old age, because I did not follow that advice last week...

Ginny was so excited for her cousins to come visit last weekend, and decided to make gifts for them. She had heard them talk about their new favorite TV show, "Super Y" and wanted to make super-hero capes for all 3 of them. Now is the time to mention that my kids have pretty much graduated from cartoons to all those annoying shows like "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "Sonny with a Chance" - so I'm not too familiar with the current cartoon line-up.

Ginny recruited her grandma to sew the capes for her, then brought them home to decorate.  We had the first one all finished (or so we thought!) when I happened to mention the gifts to my sister. What is this Super Y thing anyway? I asked. She explained the background of the show and how the characters solve problems by asking the question "Why?" Aaaaaaaahhhhh. That makes much more sense than a super hero whose name starts with the letter Y.  (What would her name be anyway, Yolanda?!)

So one "Super-Y" cape later, we learned a lesson! Always verify your source!

MIA

Yes, I have been MIA for a while. I clicked on my blog today & was surprised to see the cute background - it's been so long, I even forgot what it looked like!

Spring has been SO busy...both kids in soccer, then the wedding, plus baseball, tumbling, and end of the year school projects! Today was the last day of school, and I'm happy to report that both of them were "promoted to the next grade level" as they say on the report card! (As I told a curious Grandma earlier today, I'm pretty sure we would have heard about it by now if they WEREN'T moving on to the next grade!) Anyway, that means JUNIOR HIGH for Harry, and 3rd grade for Ginny! Yikes!

So I will TRY to post more often over the summer. No promises, though! I'm sure the next 3 months will be just as busy as the rest of the year!

Out of Time!

I am just amazed at all the moms out there who are able to get their kids to things ON TIME.

School....


Soccer....


Band....


Gymnastics....


Choir....


More Soccer....


All in one day.


That's all I have to say for now. I'm late. Aaaaaaagh!!!!!

Disney and Dave!

Well, we've made the big decision...that's right, later this year we'll be joining the masses and making the trek to Florida to visit the greatest place on earth...Disneyworld! 

To get the kids excited (and employ a little Dave Ramsey wisdom) we've started saving money for the trip (spending money, for the kids. We already followed Dave's plan to save for the trip - woo hoo!) Anyway, to get a jump start on things, we took a whole lotta cans and bottles in to get the refund money this weekend. We have a 5 cent bottle deposit in Iowa, so usually we end up getting a few bucks every month. It had been a while since we'd taken any cans in, plus we cleaned out Grandma & Grandpa's garage AND Grandpa's office.

The grand total after the weekend's clean-up was $33.95. That's a LOT of cans! Ginny pointed out that we should start drinking soda every day so we can cash in the cans and have more money for Disney. I'm not sure how well that correlates with my new "Food Rules" outlook on life, but she does have a point.  :)

By the way, anyone have an idea what $33.95 will buy at Disney? Maybe a soda?

New Year's Goals

Faraway BFF was telling me the other day that her husband has been pestering her to make "New Year's Goals". Is there a difference between goals and resolutions? To find the answer, I checked Webster's Elementary Dictionary, the handiest thing in our house. Apparently Mr. Webster was a bit of a jock, because 4 of the 5 definitions of "goal" in the elementary dictionary relate to winning a race or scoring points of some kind. It is also defined as a "purpose". A resolution on the other hand, is defined as "something decided on." Either way, I thought I'd share my New Year's Goals/Resolutions. I tried to pick things that are completely measurable, that is, I will either end up doing them or not.  Easy enough....yeah, right!

1) RUN A 10K RACE. This is a big deal for me, and in order for it to happen, certain other things must also take place, such as staying in shape, exercising regularly, and having good music on my iPod. I'm pretty sure I can do it!

2) READ ALL THE BOOKS FOR MY BOOK CLUB. 12 books a year, how hard is that? But the way our club works is that each person picks a book for their assigned month. Some of our members prefer books that, hmmm, how shall we say....I don't care for. Historical fiction for one, is really NOT my thing. For some people it is. That's where I've been having a problem. I like non-fiction though, and some others don't really. So maybe when It's my month, I'll pick The Tipping Point, again. Maybe someone besides me will read it this time! :)

3) CLEAN MY HOUSE. My idea was to do the one-room-at-a-time thing, but my sister recently introduced me to something even better! Check this out: http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/ I have decided to do the 21-Day Organizational Challenge. More about that later.


4) TELL PEOPLE ABOUT MY BLOG. So maybe someone besides my family might read it!  :)

Happy New Year!

Okay, so I took a little break over Christmas. But I'm BACK! And celebrating the new year with the funky disco ball look! 2011 will be great...stay tuned for exciting posts about the newest member of our family, Jack the dog! Oh yes, as if life wasn't exciting enough with two kids, we decided to add a dog to the mix. And just as a little preview to my first dog stories, let me tell you that cleaning up dog "accidents" in the house is NOT something you get used to like dirty diapers. It's completely different, and completely gross. That's all I have to say about THAT! For now. But by the way, he is pretty cute, and so far a pretty good little guy.

Davenport Trivia

Who out there is familiar with the name davenport? (Yes, you geography experts are correct...there's a town on the eastern edge of Iowa called Davenport.) But that's not quite what I had in mind. I was thinking the other day about the term my parents frequently use for the furniture in their living room...davenport. I wondered where the heck they came up with such a strange name for their COUCH?! So thanks to the modern miracle that is the internet, I did a little research. It turns out that the word "davenport" became a generalized trademark (yeah, I just learned that one too...it's kind of like calling tissues "kleenex") after furniture made by A.H. Davenport & Company peaked in popularity. The term was very popular in the Midwest. The Davenport Co. was around from the mid-1800's to 1973 and even made furniture for the White House. Some of their pieces currently reside in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  

Makes me feel extra special when I go to Mom & Dad's and have a seat on their "davenport"!!

Yeah for Me!

So the basement DID get cleaned up.  It is still a not-so-pretty unfinished basement, but at least it's clean.  Here are the "after" photos:

Ugh-A!

I will have to explain the name of this post later...another time.  (There is a story behind the "Ugh-A" phrase.)

Anyway, the time has come for me to do some serious cleaning around the house. Sportsfan's uncle is visiting from out of state for the weekend, and as it turns out, Faraway BFF's husband and daughter may also be staying at our house.  While I'm sure the guys don't really care all that much about household cleanliness (and will be spending most of their time at the BIG GAME on Saturday anyway), I do!  And it's not so much that our house is dirty, but just clutter-y.  

See exhibit A:

And exhibit B:

I'm not exactly sure how our basement has gotten to this state of affairs.  But, somewhere in all this clutter, Uncle is going to have to find a place to sleep.  Maybe in the mini-tent?  Or maybe in the 4-person tent that has been laying on the floor since our Labor Day camping trip?  Either way, there's a lot of work to do before Friday!  

Ugh-A!