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

Build Your Own Micro SIM to SIM Adapter

Completed micro SIM adapter

This project came about more out of necessity than curiosity.  Sarah's iPhone died and we were not quite ready to shell out hundreds of dollars for an out-of-contract phone.  To hold us over while we weighed our options I thought she could just use my old AT&T phone.  The problem was that my old AT&T "dumb" phone used a standard sized SIM card and our newer iPhone 4S used a micro-SIM.

You can buy an adapter for under $5.00 (just search for micro SIM to SIM adapter), but it was late Sunday night and I figured I'd give it a shot first.

micro SIM adapter components

Really it is quite easy.  Take the old regular-sized SIM from your old phone and place the micro-SIM on top so the gold metal contacts line up.  Trace the outline of the micro-SIM card onto the regular SIM with a pencil.  Carefully use an X-acto knife to cut the shape of the micro SIM out of the regular SIM.  Put the micro SIM into the whole you created and use a piece of tape on the back to hold it place.  Done!

Popped the adapter with micro SIM into my dumb phone and it worked perfectly!

Zoey's Stair Renovation

Carpet removal

The carpet in the basement is pretty worn and old, but I guess Zoey decided she was done with it and started removing it on her own.  She's really a thoughtful dog....trying to save us the work of removing it our convenience.  She also go started on the floor and railing...

See her progress on the carpet in the rest of the basement here.

Old Dresser To New Media Center

Old "media" center

We're still deciding what the final "feel" of our living room will be so buying a media/entertainment center for the room was premature.  But, the current thing that we were using definitely could not be a permanent solution (sorry for the low resolution image, it was the only one I could find).


It just so happened that Sarah picked up an old dresser from the side of the road a few weeks back and thought that it just might be able to be transformed into a sufficient media center until we decide what we really want to do.

Old dresser with old finish

Our goal was to sand off the old finish and get back down to the bare wood.  To do this, we used a basic orbital sander with pretty course paper (100 grit).  Of course, the orbital sander would not reach all the small areas of the dresser so some hand sanding was definitely required.  Once we were down to the bare wood, we went over everything again with fine sandpaper (400 grit) to make it nice and smooth.  We probably should have done a medium grit in between, but for this project, we were not that particular.

Sanded dresser

Since this was going to be a media center, we need to have shelves.  The TV would sit on top, but DVD play, receiver, etc needed to go on shelves.  For this, I just picked up some 3/4" pine boards and cut them to size and fit them inside the dresser.  The wood still wasn't in perfect shape after the sanding, so we elected to use a dark stain (dark walnut).  The dark color would help hide any imperfections in the wood and would also work well in our living room.  Finally, we put on 3 coats of polyurethane finish to help protect the it once started placing items on it.  We used a satin finish, again to help hide any imperfections in the wood.

Stain and Polyurethane

Check out the finished product below!  Still a temporary solution, but one we can live with much longer!!  Total cost was about $10.00 for the stain and polyurethane.

Finished Media Center

Mouse In the Electrical Box!

Dead mouse from the electrical box

I decided to quickly change one of the switches in Sarah's closet room.  Take a look at what fell out when I pulled out the old switch.  Somehow a mouse made its way into the electrical box and couldn't find its way out.  Judging by its remains, it had been there a while.  We haven't seen other signs of mice in the house, but we'll be on extra high alert now.

Are LED Christmas Lights Worth It?

For the last few years I have been toying with the idea of replacing our standard incandescent mini Christmas lights with LED light, but I've always had a hard time justifying the cost.  I know the LED version uses about 90% less energy and they are suppose to last longer, but will they really save me enough money over their lifetime to justify their price?  To figure out if it is worth it to replace my old lights with LED Christmas lights I needed to calculate the break even point of the LED lights.  Scroll to the bottom to see the quick breakdown or continue reading to follow my math.

We're currently using 1,300 mini incandescent Christmas lights to decorate the exterior of our house.  To be very specific - 13 strings of 100 lights.

1,300 Christmas lights on our house

Based on my research, you can purchase a string of 100 mini LED Christmas lights for about $12.00.  Of course it is even better if you can find them on sale, but let's assume this is a pretty standard price.  To replace all of our current lights we will need 13 strings of 100 LED lights.  Total cost of purchasing the lights will equal $12.00 x 13 = $156.00.  For comparison, a box of 100 mini incandescent lights costs about $3.00.  $3.00 x 13 = $39.00.  Enough LED lights for our house would cost $117.00 more.

Each string of 100 lights uses just over 40 watts.  By multiplying 40 watts x 13 strings we get 520 watts.  Meaning, the total power consumption of our outdoor lights is 520 watts.

Our lights run for a total of 6 hours per day.  We use a little timer that turns them on when it gets dark and runs them for 6 hours.  Burning the lights 6 hours per day (520 watts x 6 hrs) we are using 3130 watt-hours or 3.13 kWh each day to power our outdoor lights.

Assuming now that we start burning our lights on December 1st and keep them up for 31 days, our total power consumption is 3.13 kWh x 31 = 97.03 kWh.  Our current electric rate is $0.06906 per kWh.  By multiplying the total number of kWh used (97.03) by our electric rate ($0.06906 per kWh) you get the cost of running our outdoor incandescent Christmas lights for the season.  97.03 kWh x $0.06906 = $6.70.

Let's do the same math with LED Christmas lights.  A string of 100 lights uses about 5 watts.  5 watts x 13 strings = 65 watts.  65 watts is quite a bit less than the 520 watts I'm currently using.  Let's figure out how much it costs to run them.  65 watts x 6 hrs/day = 390 watt-hours used in one day or 0.390 kWh.  A full season running the LEDs would be 0.390 x 31 = 12.09 kWh.  To calculate the cost we multiply 12.09 kWh by our electric rate of $0.06906.  12.09 kWh x $0.06906 = $0.83.

Wow! Only 83 cents to run the same amount of LED lights for a season!  That equals a savings of $5.87 each year on our electric bill.  But, with only $5.87 in electric savings per year it would take almost 20 years of running the LED lights to make up the difference.  The total cost of buying and running LED lights for 5 years is $160.17.  The total cost of buying and running incandescent Christmas lights for 5 years is $72.50.  I'll stick with the old fashioned mini incandescent Christmas lights for now.

Cost comparison of buying and running LED vs Incandescent Christmas lights

How To Clean Tile Grout

Cleaning the grout in the kitchen was one of our first priorities after moving into our new home. Our home was being rented for about 2 years before we purchased it. That being said, it was about 2 years behind on regular maintenance and cleaning.

Your grout will need to be cleaned regularly to keep it nice and white, but ours was particularly soiled. The usual cleaners just were not doing the trick. A friend recommended I try a powdered alkaline cleaner like Oxy Clean. Since nothing else was working, I gave it a shot. I actually used LA's Totally Awesome Oxygen Base cleaner which I picked up from the Dollar Store.

Here's what you do:

Add 2 scoops of powder to a gallon of hot water.

Mop or sponge the solution onto the grout and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Use a scrubbing sponge or toothbrush to remove the dirt - a little elbow grease is helpful here.

Mop up and wash the floor with clean water.

Before and after photos below...