Grow Grass Cheaply and Easily

Like many lawns that boarder driveways, the lawn sometimes falls victim to the occasional tire.  Over time the side of the driveway turns into a dirt rut.  Time to replant the grass along the driveway...and hope the tires stay off of it....

Bare spots along driveway

There are many products you can use to grow new grass, but I opted for the traditional (read as "cheap") method of shady grass seed with a marsh straw covering.

To start, I dug up the packed down dirt and broke it up.  Since the ruts were relatively deep, I used a couple bags of top soil to mix with the old soil and bring the lawn back up to the driveway's level.  Once level, I spread the shady grass seed over the top soil and covered it marsh straw then watered.

From what I understand, the trick to getting the grass to grow is regular watering.  By regular I mean two to three times per day to keep the grass seed wet while it takes hold.

Straw covering grass seed

The straw is used to help hold in some moisture and prevent the seed from drying out between watering.  Many of the more expensive grass seed products contain material such as newspaper to help hold in the moisture making it a little forgiving if you are not diligent in your watering routine.

Even with my best intentions, I'll admit there were some days that I did not water twice each day...I may have even missed a full day.

About two weeks later I had full grass coverage and waited about one more week before mowing it.  Total cost of the project to patch the grass along the driveway was less than $10.00.


1 bag shady grass seed: ~$2.50 (on sale at beginning of season)
2 bags top soil: ~$1.50 each (I actually patched 3 spots)
1 box of straw: Free!  Yes, free.  I didn't need a full bail of straw.  Took a box to the local farmers co-op and asked if I could clean up their scraps.

New grass along the driveway

Correctly Sizing Your Backup Sump Pump

Using the sump pump performance chart will help ensure that you chose the appropriate backup sump pump system for your home.  Ultimately, it may make the difference between a dry basement and you spending the next several weekends with a mop, bucket, bleach and a fan.

With all the rain we have been having this spring, I could not put off installing a battery backup sump pump any longer. It has been on my list since we bought the house and now almost a year and a half later I got around to it. The actual installation of the pump is pretty straight forward and not very complicated. I believe most people with a moderate DIY confidence can accomplish the task. 

The biggest risk with this project is selecting a pump without enough power to pump the water out of your house. Everyone should be aware that the pump capacity or flow rate listed on the outside of the pump packaging assumes that the pump does not have to push the water up any vertical height. Of course, that assumption is almost always unrealistic. In almost every case you will at least have to pump up a few feet to get the water out of your sump pit. For most people, the water must be pumped out of the basement and into the yard somewhere. The true vertical distance could be 10 feet or more! Somewhere on the pump packaging or in the manual will be a pump performance chart.  These are also referred to as pump curves. The pump curve or chart will indicate the true pumping capacity at various heights. The picture below is the chart for the my backup pump.

Our vertical pumping distance was 12 feet. In addition, there are two 45 degree bends and one 90 degree bend in my plumbing, so I factored in a few more feet to be safe. Based on the pump chart for my pump, it should be able to remove between 8 and 13 gallons per minute. In my case, I believe that to be enough to keep us dry if the power goes out and the primary pump does not run for a while.

There is a second risk to selecting that is worth mentioning - battery life. Again, some systems will indicate how long the pump will run under battery power but be aware! Their estimation assumes a particular battery size. Instead, do the math yourself with your particular battery (or planned battery).

In the specifications section of the pump manual, you should find a listing for current draw/amps. My pump indicates that it draws 13 amps. Next, find the capacity rating of your deep-cycle battery. This will be listed in Ah (amp-hours). Deep-cycle batteries come in several different sizes, such as 40 Ah, 75 Ah or 100 Ah. Our battery is rated at 109 Ah so to find out how long our pump can run divide the battery capacity by the current draw of the pump. In my case it is... 109 Ah/13 A = 8.4 hours of run-time. 8.4 hours would be a best case scenario for me, I would round down to be conservative. 

Even though the math shows my pump will run for 8+ hours, I conservatively figure it will run between 6 and 7 hours continuously. Once you do the math, determine if the run time is long enough to get you through a typical storm and power outage. If you are prone to many power outages or for long periods of time, you may want to consider a backup system with a generator instead of battery.

Good luck...stay dry!

Basement Carpet Removal - Courtesy of Zoey

Zoey, the dog, decided a few months back that she was going to remodel our basement. She started by removing the old carpeting on the stairs and has now begun the carpet removal process in the basement itself.

Zoey started in the corner...

Check out Zoey's Den for updates on her renovation project.

Weather-sealing Gaps In Your Doors

Sealing your doors (and windows) from drafts saves energy costs and improves inside comfort. This DIY is simple.  Just add self-adhesive rubber foam weather stripping to your doors!

Door before weather stripping

French door before weather stripping

 As you can see from the pictures, we had two doors in our home where the light and cold air poured in. If the light coming in didn't give it away, I could actually feel the cold air coming in and our heat was cycling on frequently. It would run for 5-7 minutes then shut off and restart 2 min later. I was fairly confident we were losing a significant amount of heat through the gaps in the door.

The challenge: Fill the gaps in our door seals to prevent the cold air from rushing in.

The solution: Add adhesive backed foam weather stripping (insulation) around the door frame.

Down the road we plan on replacing the doors completely andd want to install energy efficient and attractive doors. For, now I needed a quick and cheap solution to reduce our heating bills.

Rubber foam weather stripping

There are a few different types of weather stripping options. You can buy cheap rolls of felt that you nail onto the door frame to help seal it. I think I'd only recommend this your door has no weather stripping in place and the gap is pretty small. The felt doesn't compress as much as the foam or plastic options so it won't work as well on a larger gap. Plus it must be nailed in place - for me nailing was less desirable.

I chose this self-adhesive rubber foam weather sealer from Lowes.  It comes in a 10' roll and is easier than easy to install. Simply apply sticky side down along the frame.  Take your time, though, because you only get one shot at sticking it down.  That's it you're done.

French door after weather stripping

Door after weather weather stripping

The result: The furnace was would run for 5 minutes or so, but then would break for 10-11 minutes!  A huge improvement!  Total cost of the project was about $2.75 for one roll of adhesive weather sealer.

Packer Fan!

Zoey's getting ready for today's playoff game with her new jersey!

Installing Custom Length Curtain Rods

The north facing wall of our great room has about 14 feet of French windows and doors. We love the light during the day but wanted them covered at night (otherwise it is like looking into a fish bowl from the outside). Additionally, having thick curtains drawn at night should provide a little extra insulation during the heating and cooling season.

French doors without curtains

The challenge: Finding an attractive curtain rod that was long enough and strong enough to span the windows. As you can probably imagine it is next to impossible to find a single rod approximately 15 feet long.

The solution: Combine 2 rods to make the custom length.

It is pretty easy to find solid wood rods in 8 foot lenghts. Join them together with curtain rod connector screw and ...... Ta da. You now have a 16 foot solid rod.

16 feet was more than we needed, however.  At that lenght the rod would extend too far past the windows on each side and would look strange. The rods needed to be cut to a custom length. I took an equal six inches off each rod using a jigsaw to create 2 x 7.5 foot rods.

To join the rods, use a curtain rod connector screw like this one. You're going to want to make sure you center the screw in the middle of each rod so your joined rod is as straight as possible.  I drilled a pilot hole a little smaller in diameter than the connector screw in the center of the the newly cut rod ends.

After joining the two halves tightly there was really no noticeable seam, but what little seam was there was going to be covered up by the center support bracket.  A middle support bracket is definitely necessary at this length otherwise there will be a noticeable sag in the rods.

Curtain Rod Support Bracket Mounting Diagram

Mounting the curtain rod support brackets is the most challenging part of the project, but really it is pretty straight forward as long as you take your time and plan it out in advance.  I've outlined the approach I used to install our curtain rods below.

1. Start by determining the placement for one of your support brackets.  Keep in mind you will probably want it to be a little outside the window frame so when the curtains are open they will not block much of the light.  Second, you'll want to make sure the support bracket is mounted high enough so that your curtains are the appropriate height off the floor.  Use a level to ensure the bracket is level both horizontally and vertically.  Once you are sure of the placement, mark the screw holes with a pencil.
2. Use a level to draw a light, vertical line straight up from the edge of the window frame.
3. Draw a level horizontal line from one of the screw marks to the vertical line.
4. Measure the vertical distance from the top of the window frame to the intersection of the horizontal line.  Then, measure the horizontal distance from the intersection of your vertical line to the screw marker.
5. You now have the measurements to mount a symmetrical support bracket on the other side of the window.  Start by drawing your vertical line and mark the vertical measurement on the line.  Measure the horizontal distance from your vertical line and mark the place for one of your mounting screws.

With the location of your brackets marked, install the hardware, put your curtains on the custom length rod and put them up!

French doors with custom-length curtain rods installed

Updating the Over-Sink Light

Part of our ongoing kitchen refresh project was to update the kitchen lighting.  The over-sink fluorescent light was horrible.

Old over-sink light

Scored an outline of the old plastic on the new sheet

It is a recessed light which makes it a bit more difficult to replace.  The prospect of removing the old light, patching the wall board and installing a new recessed light was not very appealing.  Instead, I decided to update the current light.  Essentially it is a metal frame (painted white...poorly) with a yellowed, cracked and paint splattered piece of plastic.

The plan was to paint the metal to match our kitchen hardware and other light fixtures and replace the plastic with a new piece.

Painted screws to match fixture

Surpisingly, our local Lowes doesn't sell frosted polycarbonate - which is what I wanted to use.  Instead I got a purchase a sheet of fluorescent light cover ($5) with a plan to cut it down to the proper size. 

Laying the old plastic over the new sheet, I scored the new plastic sheet with a razor several times then slowly bent the sheet until cut-out broke free.

After painting the metal and even the screws, I replaced the new plastic and put it back together!


The refinished light looks significantly better!  Not 100% sold on the color I used on the frame, but that is easy enough to repaint if we decide to go back to white.

Refinished over-sink light