Pool and BBQ

About a week ago we had the panels installed for our solar pool heat. Solar Solutions did the job (these guys rock!) and also installed a unit that will use salt to treat the pool water, rather than using chlorine (we hate chlorine - yuck!). We've got 5 panels here on the south roof, and 2 more on the east. It's been cloudy, but the pool's already warming up :)

So now that we've been in the house for almost a month, last night it was time to just get in the frickin' pool and break it in. I'm on the right - easy to spot with the gleaming dome - and Shirley is somewhere hiding within or under that splash on the left. No, we didn't stay in long, but that was only because there was food and beer waiting.

OK. Out of the pool and into dry clothes. Now Karl gives us a lesson on how to prep shrimp, veggies, and salmon for the grill. It doesn't get much better. Invite some friends over, have some beers, and let the guest do the cooking! OK, the truth is that Karl's a great chef, and he's smart enough to know he's going to eat a lot better if he preps the food rather than I.

Here's some of the feast ready for the grill: shrimp wrapped in turkey bacon (we don't eat red meat, but we fake it sometimes), shrimp marinated in Karl's improvised sauce (Shirley made sure I took notes), all kinds of veggies, and then there was shrimp scampi done in a pan on the grill's side burner. OMG, we ate well. Karl, you should open a restaurant!

No cars in the garage yet

Here was the garage looking so nice after we primed and painted the floor. We were saying that we'd be parking in there within a few days of moving in. Yeah, right!

Now that we've retrieved all of the things we'd had in storage for the past year, the garage had gotten a tad crowded. At the far wall, you can see some of the shelving units we bought from a store that was going out of business. $25 for each of 4 shelving units, and they can hold a lot of weight.

So I picked up some plywood and laid a floor in the attic area above the garage. The tough part about it, however, was that the boards all had to be cut down a bit just to get up into the attic, and I had to do a lot of custom trimming for the boards to fit around the trusses and boards that were already there. This one was the craziest cut. Oh, and even though it is February, it is HOT up in a Florida attic! I can't imagine installing attic insulation for a living!

But after several hours and many liters of water, we had a decent-sized area for storage. Now I was able to start the real job of moving things up there. Oh joy. We still can't park in the garage, but Shirley's unpacking and putting things away as I'm typing, and we were able to put all the holiday decorations, luggage, ski boots, etc., up above, and will most likely move a few more things up there. We just have to be careful to only store things in the attic if they can withstand the extreme heat of the summer.

Ceiling fans

We like watching the do-it-yourself shows on television, but have noticed that often the first thing some of the designers do is to remove the ceiling fan from whatever room is being upgraded. Well those designers will never set foot in our house! This is Florida, and in the summer time (and much of the rest of the year) it is wonderful to have a bit of a breeze going. So last weekend I installed the fan we'd ordered for the family room. This was a job I estimated would take about 20 minutes. I was only off by 70 minutes :-)

Fortunately, the kit came with very good instructions, and I was, of course, freshly juiced with espresso. I later added a little white caulk where the fan housing meets the ceiling and at the screw holes to tidy up the appearance a bit more. Hey, and the thing actually works and with no wobble!

The lanai fan was a much quicker job. Ben helped with this one, so he did some wiring as I was unpacking other parts, then he was assembling the blades as I was installing them. This one was actually done in about 20 minutes. We really like this outdoor fan; it is metal and wood and cost a little more that the plastic ones, but it is worth it to have something we enjoy so much.

Water filter

The water around here is nasty! There's a very definite sulfur smell and all kinds of other stuff in this very hard water. So we've had a water softener installed to remove much of the minerals. Last weekend I installed an under-sink water filter to remove the chlorine and some more of the yuck. In the apartment, we were buying distilled water for drinking. It is so nice to no longer have to mess with all those plastic water jugs and thinking of how many eons those things would sit in a landfill.

The bummer about the install, however, was that I had to buy $20 worth of fittings to tap into the water line. The other sinks in the house have water valves like what I have always seen in the past at every place I've lived. But in the kitchen, the sink was plumbed with these weird valves that have the valve and hose as a single, integral unit. My guess is this was a cost-saving measure. For the hapless homeowner (me), however, this meant a trip to the store for several adapter pieces. It always seems that the jobs I think will take an hour end up taking 3!

Enjoying the house

One of the things I especially love at the new house is getting up early enough on the weekend to catch the sunrise. Here's a view looking east from the lanai, through the pool cage screen and out to the morning sky. Ahhh....

Here's a shot of Shirley and Ben last Sunday as we were sitting to down to breakfast ...outside of course :-)