Twas the DVD Before Christmas

One of my favorite Christmas movies of all time is the old version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".  Last year, on the night before Christmas Eve, we popped popcorn, poured some cold beverages (the little guys had Capri Suns), and the whole family sat on the couch as the DVD started to play.  The story was about 5 minutes in when the DVD froze on an image of the Grinch.  Crap, it's time to fix something else.

DVD ruined?  Read on.

After popping out the DVD, the issue was obvious.  We had taken the movie on a trip, and the disc never made it back into the case.  A closer inspection revealed that a scratchy haze was covering the data side of the DVD.  The damage was bad enough that the player couldn't read the movie.  What's a guy to do in a pinch?  Unfortunately, the holiday shows weren't all that great on Netflix in 2012.  The best one available was the 1977 version of  "Fat Albert Christmas Special", so I made some jokes about starting a new tradition and hit play.  The show was better than expected, but fell a little short of "The Grinch".



Hey, Hey, Hey

The next day, after running a quick errand, a tool caught my eye.  3M makes a headlight restoration kit (39008) for about 20 bucks, and the sponge for the last step of the process was sitting on the work bench.  In an effort to improve night time visibility in the old Infiniti G35, I spent a couple of hours with the 3M kit and my drill.  These kits do a spectacular job of removing cloudiness and haze from headlamps. Afterword, the plastic looked like new, and the lights were at least 50% brighter. Hmmm, could the same trick work on DVD's? Let's see.

3M Headlamp Kit - Sponge is the last step

The process was pretty simple:

• Put on your eye protection.
• Apply rubbing compound to the shiny side DVD (opposite of the label).  Probably OK to skip if you don't have any, but the 3M kit comes with more than you need for the headlamp job.
• Lightly wet the sponge
• Pop attachment on an electric drill
• Buff the DVD with the drill until the haze starts coming off.  "The Grinch" took a couple of minutes
• Rise off DVD
• Dry off with paper towel

"The Grinch" is shiny again!!!

After finishing, the DVD looked shiny again, but was still a little scratched up (DVD players can handle a few scratches).  I popped the disc into the player and couldn't believe my eyes.  The movie played all the way through flawlessly!!!  Thanks to this little trick, our Christmas tradition of viewing "The Grinch" is still running strong.

Of Ice Storms and Generators

The Kipor KGE3500TC
Giant among yard sale generators.

The storm of the century was upon us.  Weather.com was showing heavy rain (the window was too), changing to a "wintery mix", and then solid ice.  Temps were hanging around 33 degrees with predictions all the way down to the lower 20's.  Hmmm, maybe I should try to get that generator working before the apocalypse unfolds later this evening.

Last summer, we bought a Kipor Camping-Mate KGE 3500TC at a yard sale for $125. The guy wanted more, but it wouldn't even run unless you pulled the choke out and fiddled with it for a while.  The generator sat idle in my shed for about a year, because last winter was on the mild side.  Priorities were on other things, and fixing the poor little Kipor just never made it high on the list.  This winter is starting to look much different, so priorities changed last weekend.  I spent a couple hours figuring out why you should never buy a generator at a yard sale that doesn't run right.

In my testing, the unit would idle just fine with the choke pulled out about halfway.  However, the smallest of loads would cause the motor to start coughing, and the tiny green "OK light" changed into a flashing red "sorry about your luck if you want power to the outlets" light.  It wouldn't even hold power to a puny little electric drill.  After cracking open the case, several problems were obvious.

1. The previous owner had fabricated an air filter from a used law mower filter that didn't cover the carburetor intake. That's bad if you want to keep dirt out.  
2. The valve cover was sealed with Mr. Gasket.  
3. The oil was very dirty, but full. 

See the gap between the filter
and the filter housing?  Dirt
goes right through.

Not my first choice of ways
to keep the dirt out.

Mr. Gasket used to seal valve
cover.  Not optimal.

Google was about as useful as a bottle of Old Grandad to a bourbon conesseur.  Spare parts for a Kipor are not readily available, and expensive if you can find them.  Mine needed an air filter ($30 ouch), valve cover gasket (can't buy one), and maybe a carb ($50).  Another search told me that an online repair manual only exists for the 3000ti model, so hopefully the 3500TC is "similar".  This project was quickly headed towards a cheapo Craigslist sale.  Fast forward to lunch on Friday and a rather long trip to Lowe's. 

The lawn mower section at Lowes had a wide selection of air filters, and the standard Briggs and Straton replacement looked about the right size ($10 instead of $30).  After scrutinizing the filters another 10 minutes, I got the B&S and picked up a few more items.  Dang, should have picked up a tube of Mr. Gasket...  Advance Auto Parts was the next stop, and they had an interesting fuel siphon ($15) that comes up a little later.  The last stop of the day was the gas station, and our old Toyota T100 got a full tank of gas treated with Stabil. I also treated another 3 gallons to fill up the gen. 

The T100 sits on the curb most of the year. It's the neighborhood truck for everyone to run errands. The same tank of gas will sit in the truck all winter.  Gas these days contains ethanol that will gum up fuel injectors, gas tank filters, and carburetors if left untreated.  Stabil keeps the ethanol at bay, so the gas doesn't go bad.  At 24 gallons, the T100 has quite a fuel supply, and a good sized siphon can be used to transfer the gas to a portable tank.  The little Kipor will run several hours on 3 gallons of fuel.  With the additional supply, I'm guessing the gen will run at least 3 days at 24 hours a day, or a couple of weeks if used sparingly.  Note: some vehicles have devices to thwart siphoning fuel. Check yours out before depending on this little trick.
 

Siphon from Advance

With the kids in bed on Friday night, I carried a small space heater and a cold beverage into the garage.  The space heater warmed up the garage to a whopping 55 degrees (it was 21 outside), and well, the cold beverage helped out a little more.  The Kipor was on the garage operating table again with new fuel, a new air filter, and an entire can of Pyroil carb spray.  Believe it or not, the B&S air filter was a perfect match for the unit.  After scratching my head and wondering why the last guy didn't do the same thing, another test was performed.  Basically, if the choke is needed to get it to run, the motor is operating in a lean condition.  Maybe the lack of an air filter was giving the motor too much air.  No such luck.  Next step, carb teardown and a quick apology.

B&S Filter Model 491588S

Much of my childhood was spent working on motorcycles that cost less than $250.  Only on a handful of rides did we ever spend more time riding than wrenching.  This resulted in gaining a bit more expertise than the average bear on how carburetors work.  Since carbs come easy to me (and gas is messy), I didn't take any pictures of the next task.  Sorry about that, but here are the main points of a carb teardown.

Carb

1. Best case is that you purchase a rebuild kit before tearing down a carb.  They're full of tiny seals, screws, and jets that get messed up easy.  Kipor dealers had no such kit.
2. Without a rebuild kit, be very careful about taking things apart.
3. Turn off the gas supply or drain the fuel tank.  Remove the fuel line from the carb.
4. Unbolt the carb from the motor.  The Kipor had 2 nuts holding the whole thing together.
5. Remove the crank case breather tube.  This often times goes into the carb.
6. Take pictures as you go, so if questions arise about putting it back together, refer back to the picture.
7. Remove choke cable and overflow line.
8. Yank off the carb.  This one had an automatic throttle cable that I just left attached through the cleaning process.
9. The bowl of the carb will have at least one bolt holding it on.  Be ready for the bowl to be full of gas when you take it off.
10. Yuck, this was the dirtiest carb in all of of Big B's experience.  Things started looking up at this point.
11. The float is the part that controls gas flow into the bowl.  It's usually held on with a pin and has a tiny stopper that you don't want to lose.  Take the float out of the carb before using any carb spray.
12. The main jet feeds fuel to the motor between around 2/3 to full throttle.  It will either be removed with a very small socket (like 5mm) or a flathead screwdriver.  You usually see the main jet on the bottom after the bowl is removed.  This one needed a flathead, so I removed it.
13. Bonus: this carb also had a midrange circuit (1/3 to 2/3 throttle) that fell out when the main jet came out.  It looks like a little tube with holes in the side.
14. Spray out the main jet and needle tube with carb spray or compressed air.  Don't be tempted to use wire or a tiny nail, because those will both mess up the jets.   Spray out every hole in the carb, too.  Be careful (and wear glasses), because one of those holes might come out another hole that squirts right into your eyes.  Don't spray the float or any plastic/rubber gaskets.  If you hit the gaskets, wipe them off quickly.  Spray out the bowl.  Repeat until all the parts are shiny and you don't see any more dirt coming out.  Don't be stingy.  Carb cleaner is cheap.
15. Reassemble.  Refer to digital camera if any questions arise.
16. Verify no gas leaks.
17. Pray. This step is very important. Zen and good fortune are both necessary when working on cranky carbs. 

After putting the whole thing back together, the generator started up and ran solidly with no choke.  Yipppeeeeeee!!!!  A quick test showed that it still wouldn't hold a load.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!  As a last ditch effort, I turned off the "Smart Throttle" button.  No idea what that button does, but the next test worked.  The gen was able to run a 1200 watt hairdryer and 1500 watt space heater at the same time.  Yipppeeeeeee!!!!

Main panel
2x110 volt plugs

A few parting thoughts.

• My setup works fine for running extension cords into the house to power appliances and space heaters. 
• I'm thinking about wiring a regular power plug to our main gas furnace and installing an outlet in the room.  Pretty sure this is OK, but electrical codes need to be followed.  A gas furnace should only draw 6 amps max, so the generator will pull that kind of power easy.  The main furnace in our house will be more than enough to keep the place warm.
• There's a cheap way to run power to your house called a suicide cord.  Don't use one.  It's dangerous .  Get a qualified electrician to install a transfer switch and special outlet into your main power panel if you want to get a giant generator and power your entire house.
• Get a chain to lock your generator to something, so a powerless thief won't steal yours in an emergency.
• Don't run your gen in the garage.  People die every year doing this.  Mine will go in the back yard under a kid size table to keep the elements at bay. 
• Most generators are rated in watts and appliances are rated in amps.  To convert watts to amps, simply divide by the voltage (in the US it's typically 110).  3500 watt generator / 110 volts = 31.8 amps.
• Test your unit at least once a year and run power to the devices you plan on using. Don't wait until a disaster happens to find out that your plan doesn't work. 

My setup should keep the house warm and the refrigerators/freezer cold for a very long power outage.   Did I fire up the Kipor on the night of the impending apocalypse?  Nope. My efforts must have turned the four horsemen around.

Refrigerator 2 for 1 Special

Hmmm.  Someone is sure hitting the ice hard this weekend, and the icemaker can't seem to keep up.  Our family owns an iced tea brewing machine, and we load the glasses to the rim on a regular basis.  And bourbon, well, if you've read any post on the blog, you already know about that.  The ice level kept getting lower all weekend, and Monday morning, it was gone.  What's Big B to do in this situation?  Easy.  I created a cardboard sign, stood on the street corner, and begged for ice while the neighbors drove by.  After a few honks, pointing, and laughter, I got out some tools.

We own a Whirlpool Gold side-by-side refrigerator and absolutely love it.  About ten years ago, the Lowe's salesman told us that the "Gold" model is built so tough that you can lift it off the ground by the doors (he did this in the store).  The ice bucket is removable (handy), the shelves will contain 12 ounces of liquid (also handy), and the layout is super convenient.  Was I ready for a new refrigerator?  No way.


The first thing was to run a few tests:

• Check icemaker for "stuck" ice: Nope.  This actually happened a couple of times and clearing the ice out fixed the issue.
• Check power plug going to icemaker wiring harness with multimeter:  Good.
• Water supply:  Good
• Ice Bucket Sensor:  Good. When you put your finger in front of the "electric eye" the light would blink twice.  That had to mean something.

All those things passed, and the refrigerator would not even fill the ice tray up with water.  After a little digging and a cold beverage, a hail Mary was thrown.  I didn't have a clue what was wrong, but I knew that a few things were not wrong. 

Amazon has been starting to get more business after the Prime subscription.  A good deal of research revealed that almost every refrigerator in the US is manufactured with one of about 3 different icemakers.  The one in mine fits in at least a dozen models.  After a few clicks, a new OEM icemaker was headed my way for $90.  They had an aftermarket icemaker for half the price, but the reviews were not all that hot.  Additionally, people seemed to say that icemakers go bad in about 10 years or so (the exact age of mine).  After 2 more days of begging for ice (thanks Mom), the new one showed up. 



New OEM icemaker



Icemaker installed

Install for this model was a breeze.  To take out the old one, remove the cover (no tools), slide out the old icemaker, pop the power plug, reattach plug to new icemaker, slide in, and you're done.  The plug was a little stuck on removal, so the only tool necessary was a #2 flathead screwdriver.  Install was the reverse, and I was done in 15 minutes.  Soon after, the sound of ice dropping was music to my ears.  That lasted for about 3 days, and the begging started again.





Arrggghhhh.  The water dispenser was leaking.  Not too bad, just a steady drip that was bad enough to shut off the water supply to the refrigerator.  After taking apart the door, I noticed that the water tube was pretty dumb.  The door had no valve to be seen, so the dispenser must trigger a valve someplace else.  Taking another guess, a water inlet valve was heading my way for $50, this time with 1 day shipping.  This part would also fit on about 500 different refrigerators.  Could this part be installed by a home improvement wanna be like me?  A couple of YouTube videos had me thinking yes, but it just didn't work out that way.

Water Inlet Valve

When I arrived home, the refrigerator was pulled out, and my wife was sitting behind it with a couple of screwdrivers, a small socket wrench, and a razor knife.  A smile immediately came to my face.  Here are the steps, and install is roughly an hour:

Here's the location of my water inlet valve

1. Pull refrigerator away from the wall.
2. Hopefully, the water supply is already turned off.
3. Unplug refrigerator.  (you don't want to get fried)
4. Unscrew the water line from the old valve
5. Take out the bolts from the back of the refrigerator where the water line goes in.  On mine, a cardboard cover is on the bottom, and you need to take out about 4 bolts.
6. Pull the cover out enough to work on the valve.
7. Take out the 2 bolts that hold the valve to the frame
8. Remove plastic water lines from the valve (one goes to icemaker, one goes to water)
9. Pop out wiring harnesses.
10. Remove the bracket from the old valve, and install on new one
11. Use a razor knife to cut a small portion of the plastic water lines off.  You want a clean, straight water line to make a good seal.
12. Pop the water lines into the valve.  This model had quick connect fittings.
13. Install is basically the reverse from step 7.
14. Check for leaks.
15. Check for leaks an hour later.
16. Check for leaks before bedtime.
17. Check for leaks the next morning.  Note: The install is probably good if this step passes.

A couple of words of caution on this blog post that can be applied to almost any home repair.  Number 1, the correct parts for the repairs were not intuitively obvious to me.  I took a couple of pretty good guesses and got lucky.  That happens sometimes, but it also doesn't happen sometimes.  Call in a pro if you don't know what to do.  Check here for another blog post about finding the right contractor.  The Maytag repair man works on appliances every day and has seen it all.  He can probably hold his ear up to the refrigerator and know the right part.  Heck, it may even be in the truck.  For me, the risk was low on both parts.  Worst case = no ice, no water, and more begging. 
Number 2, messing up an install that involves water can be a literal disaster.  One of my friends had an issue with his refrigerator, and the thing sent loads of water into his basement.  You can save money now, and spend a lot later if you're not careful.  Call in a good contractor if the job seems too complex.

After the repairs, hopefully our refrigerator be with us for several more years.  The icemaker has even kicked out a tray of ice during the writing of this article.  For some reason, that sound makes me smile now.

Ye Ole Garage Door

Hello?
"Honey, the garage door just fell"
Are you OK?
"Yes"
Is the car OK?
"Yes.  Do you know the name of the garage door company we used last time?"
I'll be home in a minute...

The issue wasn't as bad as it sounded.  One of our garage door rollers had broken, and only one part of the door had fallen.  Lucky for us, the other rollers were holding.  Did I call the garage door company?  Nope, just fired up YouTube for a quick how-to video and then drove to Lowe's.

The round thingy is supposed to stay on the metal rod.

The last time I called Overhead Door, a very unusual situation had rendered a giant hole in my garage door that a white Ford Taurus could drive through.  (Note: bourbon was not involved, and Big B was not at the wheel.)  The Overhead Door guys was great and showed up at 8:00 AM the next day to install a new one.  They're great when you need a new door or a broken spring needs to be replaced.  For this job, all you need are channel locks, the biggest screwdriver in your garage, pliers, and a good radio station.

The day of the incident, Lowe's had a 2-pack of replacement steel rollers for $5.  The door was back in business quickly, and your friendly neighborhood IT Pro was back at work without even changing clothes.  Fast forward to today.  Amazon shipped me a 10-pack of nylon rollers for $15, and the job was to replace all the rollers before the next one blew out.

Nylon Rollers

Here's all you need to do to get them installed:

1.  Get all the cars out of the garage.  You don't want a misstep to bring the garage door crashing down on your brand new Lexus.

2.  Find a spot in the garage door where all the rollers pass by when the door comes up and down.  On mine, this place was in the curve marked with the black sharpie.

3.  Yank the cord on the garage door opener.  Make sure that someone is holding the door, or you have it secured in some way.

 

3.  Pry open a spot in the rail.  For me, big channel locks did the trick.  Make sure that you bend the rail enough for the rollers to pass in and out.

4.  Using the biggest screwdriver in your garage, pry out the old roller from the rail, and manipulate the door to a spot where the old roller will come out.

5.  Slide out the old roller, and pop in the new one.  You might need the screwdriver to get the door in the right spot to push the new roller back in the rail.

6.  Move the door down to the next roller, and repeat 4 more times. 

7.  Using a big set of pliers, close the opening you just made on the rail.  Make sure that the rail looks somewhat like when you started.  Don't worry too much.  The rail doesn't need to pass the ball bearing test on the BMW assembly line.  Just shape the metal so the new rollers don't either get stuck or fall out.

8.  Follow the same steps on the other side of the door.

9.  Reattach the garage door to the opener.

10.  Test, test, test.

From everything I've read online, garage door rollers last about 15 years.  If yours are old, go ahead and buy a new set on Amazon and put them in.  It's much cheaper to do it now than after your garage door has smashed up one of your cars (or even worse, hits a person).  If one breaks, replace them all.  They were installed at the same time, and the old rollers will all break at approximately the same time, too.  Tip: Nylon rollers are much quieter than steel.  My door hums now, where it used to rattle like a roller coaster at Six Flags.  Install took about 30 minutes, and even a wanna-be home improvement guru like me can do it with the simplest of tools.

 

My Not So $188 TV

Curse Sam's Club.  They sent us a flyer in the mail specifically to "advantage" members.  Yes, us special folk can walk in the door at 7am and get a $1 discounts on apples and other various items.  This event had all the makings of black Friday in August.  Fast forward to Sunday night in the Sam's Club parking lot.  Employees were handing out bottled water and cookies, and they neatly arranged the customers in a line heading back towards the tire shop.  We were in the middle of the line, and I could already see that LED TV slipping through my fingers. 

Inside the store was a whole different story.  60" TV's were set up on flatbeds like jets on an aircraft carrier waiting to take off.  Tons of them.  Maybe people were too scared to grab them at $838.  Maybe the crowd was all spent out by the end of the month.  Not me.  Using a safe and prudent speed, I nabbed a flatbed and started piling it up to the ceiling.  Note: the ceiling at Sam's is pretty high.  The Discover card was maxed at the checkout line, and our Honda soon looked like the Grinch's sled from the Dr. Seuss Christmas special.  My family was about to enter the world of HD video, but not on the first try.

Yes, that's a 60" Vizio TV, and this post was
way too long to explain the ordeal of replacing
 the basement TV.  Maybe next time...

HD video is a totally new world compared to old school cable.  To see the difference in HD signals click here.  Basically, you get more pixels (dots) drawing the same picture, which translates into a much sharper, detailed viewing experience.  Although many things made it home that night, the first job was hooking up a 32" Magnavox LED TV (aka "the $188 TV) and a Samsung Sound Bar (HW-FM45C) in our living room. Piece of cake for an IT guy, right?  Not exactly.

After reading the books and a few posts on the internet, several problems started to materialize.  You've got to remember, that the TV's at Big B's house are behind the times.  My best TV was the 55" rear projection Mitsubishi in the basement that runs a lame 1080i picture only with the Blue Ray.  Please don't ask about the others.  The first roadblock was Time Warner Cable.

My ancient TV sets all have cable mini-boxes that cost $1.50 a month.  The new TV set has a digital tuner built in, so it was time to go boxless!  After several tries, the only channels that would tune in were basic cable, shopping channels, and others that needed to be programmed out.  At that, they all had goofy numbers like 21.1, 21.2, and 80.12.  A 45 minute call to the helpdesk got me a link to a PDF file converting the goofy channel number to the network and verification that my premium channels should be coming in.  A local dispatch was scheduled for the next day.  Chris basically followed the same steps as me to no avail, and then escalated my ticket.  The L2 tech verified that the premium channels are all scrambled.  Wait, that's not fair!  The digital tuner was receiving local channels over cable in HD.  The $1.50 cable box turn everything into crummy low def.  Renting the HD box was $10 a month, and two were needed.   The situation seemed lost until I looked at the back of the Roku box.

For those who have never seen one, a Roku is a little wifi enabled box that streams content to your TV set.  If you don't have a "smart" TV or blue ray player, one of these can be used to stream Netflix and Amazon video.  My family is a long time Netflix subscriber, and the Roku box got us in the world of streaming video.  My son can watch an entire season of Justice League in one sitting and even pause the show to go to the potty or eat supper.  The back of the Roku player had an HDMI input!  HDMI is a transport mechanism for full HD video and surround sound audio.  A few clicks in the settings, and the player was spitting out 720P video and surround sound from Amazon Prime!
 

A little surfing revealed that Time Warner has a Roku app that streams all the premium channels in full HD.  Did my first generation Roku support the Time Warner app?  Of course not.  A little more surfing, and a Roku 2 XD was headed to my house with 2 day free shipping courtesy of Amazon Prime.  I also clicked on a couple of 15 foot HDMI cables made by Twisted Veins. The cables were to rig up the soundbar, but that part of the story comes a little later. If you don't have a prime subscription, they're very handy. Not only are many items available with free two day shipping, but you get a ton of streaming content that is also free.  Full details are here.

After 2 long, long, long days of waiting, the Roku arrived.  The 2XD is the minimum model needed to get a 1080p picture.  Now for all you hi-fi geeks out there, my $188 Magnavox TV's maximum resolution is 720p.  Well in the IT world, we always say that you might want to upgrade later.  Within minutes, the Roku was hooked up, and my entertainment center looked like a scene from a Frankenstein movie.  Wires, power plugs, and speakers were going everywhere.  The next hour was spent searching the Roku channels and punching in passwords for Roku, Netflix, Amazon, and Time Warner Cable (TWC).  Wow.  The TWC app works like a charm.  It's like having a set-top box in HD for $60 (and no monthly fee).   TWC's HD box is $10 a month, so the payback was going to be fast.  I couldn't believe how great the HD picture looked, and all the premium channels were there with program information and schedules.  My not-so-smart TV just got smart!  With the cable TV issue solved, it was time to tackle the music.

Roku main screen

Several years ago, I bought my wife an XM radio.  My box of choice is a Roady 2 hooked to an FM transmitter.  Any FM radio in the house, yard, and probably my close-by neighbors can pick up whatever XM channel that is playing on 103.0.  The entertainment center had an ancient DVD player + surround sound combo that wasn't compatible with the new gear.  With Amazon and Netflix, the DVD player wasn't going to be missed.  We'd just head to the basement to watch a Blue Ray or DVD.  The lack of music, however, was going to be a problem. 

Time for a Pandora account.  Pandora has an app for just about any device.  The basic service is free, and you can pay a small monthly fee for additional features and no ads.  Pandora has some built-in channels by genre, or channels can be created by typing in the name your favorite artist.  The service is interactive, so you hit the thumbs up if you like the song that's playing and thumbs down if you don't.  Pandora will play other songs that are similar to the ones you like, and skip songs similar to the ones you don't like.  You can even hit the "I'm tired of this song" button, and Pandora will give it a break.  One time on our boat, I almost walked over to the XM radio and hunted for the thumbs down button after "Radioactive" had played what seemed like 10 times in a row.  Man, it would be nice if XM could do that too.  Within a few minutes, Jimmy Buffett, Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, and a couple of pop stations were added.  My wife likes Sade, so that one was programmed in just for her.  Music was blasting out the sound bar, and we were all jamming until "Thrift Shop" started playing.  As the kids were sitting on the couch and singing, F-bombs started dropping like a B-52 Stratofortress at war.  After what seemed like an eternity, one of us dove for the remote and powered off the system.  Note:  Pandora has an explicit content filter that can be activated to weed out the dirty words.  One last great feature of Pandora is that your channels will also follow you around on iPads, Androids, Smart TV's, and PC's. 

With all the technical details worked out, it was time to clean up the mess.  My wife didn't want me drilling holes in the shelves of the entertainment center, so a trip to Lowe's was in order.  I settled on a nice 2" piece of light colored wood for the sound bar to hang on.  We darkened the wood a bit with a stain marker, drilled a couple of small holes, and installed the new board with a couple of L- brackets.  Height for the sound bar is just above the TV, so the tweeters are somewhat close to ear level.  Cabling and fitting everything in was the hard part. 

The sound bar has multiple ways to input sound.  The best way is to use HDMI or fiber optic cable.  I decided to run HDMI from the Roku, into the sound bar, and another HDMI cable from the sound bar to the TV.  That means that anything coming from the Roku gets great sound.  The problem is that the TWC Roku app doesn't stream local channels.  The cable input and built-in tuner are needed for the locals, but the TV has no way to get sound to the soundbar.  If you're buying a TV that's more that $188, look for either a model that will match up with your soundbar via Bluetooth or 2-way HDMI signal (ex: Samsung TV + Samsung Soundbar) or get a TV with a fiber optic sound output.  If you go this route, the TV feeds the soundbar 100% of the time, which is much easier to deal with. 

Coax Staples for cable management



Back of the sound bar

Roku attached to entertainment center
with 3M Command Strip.  More coax
staples to run HDMI and power.

How does it sound?  Let me just that the quality of this Samsung unit is incredible.  The bar has 6 drivers plus a wireless subwoofer.  I've never heard speakers that could extend sound past the point of the tweeters.  Seriously, if a car drives by on the TV, the sound goes from one end of the living room to the other.  Movies have a full range of sound with good vocals.  Music is about as loud as you want your living room to be, without waking up the neighbors. 

Wireless Subwoofer

Interested in the totals?  This one was a little embarrassing.  Fabricating the mount, installing the sound bar, and cleaning up the cabling was a 4 hour job.  Configuring the Roku, troubleshooting the cable TV, and other miscellaneous research easily extended this out to a full day's work.  Yes, to cleanly rip and replace an old school TV and sound system is more like a weekend job.  Add up the soundbar, Roku, cabling, and wood, and $188 TV is more like $500.  Worth it?  Absolutely.  You should have seen the kids grinning from ear to ear last weekend when we were watching "LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes Unite."  Daddy was grinning, too.

If you like hi-fi, this article may also interest you:  Basement Hi-Fi upgrade

 

Knife buying guide for dummies

The following conversation takes place with a person at work.  I was seeking advise on a much needed Christmas present from a person of the female persuasion.    

"Don't do it Big B"

Why not?

"Well we kinda want to keep you around here. Your plan would make her angry and put a lethal weapon right in her hands.

Hmmmm, do you think we can come up with an alternate plan where I survive to the end of the blog article?

"We need to lighten the blow."

How about if it's a family present?

"Man, that's pretty expensive for a family present."

I could get approval first?

"and it could still be a surprise."

Perfect.

At our house, carving a turkey or cutting a bad piece of a steak used to be a religious experience.  I prayed every time for the strength to make it through the tough stuff with our super dull kitchen knives.  The 10 year-old Faberware set was just not cutting it anymore.  

Bourbon was poured, and I navigated straight to amazon.com.  After one beverage, the world of kitchen knives unfolded right before my eyes.  You pretty much have 4 choices, and price is directly related to quality.  

Cheap:  Our old Faberware set falls into this category.  Around 15 knives can be purchased for less than $100.  These are Wal-Mart style, budget models.  They will underwhelm you, and an upgraded set will haunt you every Christmas, just like me.

Our Henkel Set

Moderate:  Henkel and Victorinox have good sets in the $250-$400 price range.  Be warned, the name Henkel used to mean 100% pure quality.  Now, they make different grade knives as you'll see in the next category.  I'm no pro chef or anything like that, so some midrange Henkels were a perfect fit.  Since the knives were needed for Christmas Eve dinner, the Internet was not used.   Bed Bath and Beyond had the set in stock (with a 20% off coupon), so the knives were in a gift bag after a quick trip.  Hey, isn't that a Ginsu knife in the Henkel block?  Yes, sometimes you need to cut through a brick (or a rack of ribs).  Trust me, hacking through gristle, fat, or bone is all it's good for.

Expensive:  Be prepared to spend $1000 for these guys.  The main difference is the grade of steel.  The sets usually only have a few knives, and many times the steak knives are sold separately.  Henkel, Wusthof, and Shun are the brands in this category.  I'd recommend doing your homework before buying one of these sets.  Read the reviews on Amazon to understand the quality before spending the bucks. 

Ultra Expensive:  You don't buy a set of these.  The set is assembled one knife at a time.  The upside is that you only buy the knives that you really need, but you also need to be somewhat of a knife expert to know what to buy.  The brands are the same as the last category.  Some of these guys go for $200 a knife, so get our your credit card.  If you look closely, we have a Wusthof in our block. 

Trying my hand at knife sharpening.
Note the test carrot.

At a later point in the holiday season, Amazon made my shopping list.  We got an Amazon gift card for Christmas, and I remembered seeing a knife sharpener at the bottom of the screen while looking at knife sets.  What???  Knifes need to be sharpened?  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew as much.   The gift card was burned on the "Presto EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener".  You basically pull the blade through 4 slots on the machine to put a sharp edge back on.  How often to sharpen them?  Well, depends on how much they're used.  A super chef probably does this all the time, but ours get tuned up about every 3 months.  You'd be surprised how much better they cut after a good session.  BONUS: This unit also sharpens knives with serrated edges.

One more tip before you leave.  Using an expensive knife on a glass cutting board or plate is generally a bad idea.  The surface doesn't have any give and the edge wears off the knife blade much quicker.  We picked up a set of composite models that work great and keep the knives sharp longer.  Wooden boards also work well.  

How did the gift go over?  Well, I didn't suffer any puncture wounds, and my wife appreciated the "family gift" very much.  The Christmas ham and turkey carved like warm butter, and prayer was only used before the meal to give thanks.

Back to the Basics - Weather Stripping

NOTE:  This blog story takes place just before "Replacement Window RFP". 

That chair is my place.  Used to
 be the coldest seat in the house.

We had just received a sizable windfall and were pondering all the options.  Our drafty Ball home was freezing us to death in the winter.  No joke, you needed a coat at dinner time if you sat in the chair closest to the door.  We needed new doors and windows, but the cash was only going cover one of the options.  The decision did not become apparent until the furnace crapped out.

Lucky for us, our HVAC guys are good.  Charles from B&D Refrigeration came out to fix the furnace issue, and we posed the question to him.  He took one look at the doors and gave us the answer.  "I'd get the windows and just repair the doors".  The builder either forgot to install weather stripping, or it was worn out so bad that the wind could blow in.   To make matters worse, the door was not hung level.  Excessive upward force was required on the door if you wanted to throw the dead bolt.  On a bright, sunny day you could see a nice sliver of light between the door and the frame.  The next call was to our favorite handyman.

We had a backlog of stuff for Alvin to do:

• Paint exterior
• Repair bricking on back of house
• Seal doors
• New door hardware
• Level doors

Alvin is one of the best handymen in the area.  If you don't have a guy like him, you really need one.  Compared to me, he's the Yoda of home repair.  He can wave his hands and things magically go into place.  He can do stuff with vice grips that I can't pull of with real tools.  We've known him for 10 years and hope that he'll never retire.

One of the things we had Alvin do was install new door handles and dead bolts on all the doors.  For some reason I don't understand, the back doors had different keys than the front.  That's just a little too complex for me.  One house key is plenty.  Rekeying the locks in your place is something that should be done shortly after move-in, and we hadn't done it yet.  Who knows how many people had keys?

Alvin reset the door, repaired the rotten wood, and installed something called weather stripping.  Weather stripping is a foamy, rubberish material that goes around your entire door frame.  The stuff comes in all different shapes and styles, so check your doors before heading off to Lowe's.  Our doors have a groove around the entire frame, and the weather stripping has a tab that slides right into the groove.  After doing a little research for this article and looking at the doors, I bet installation took about 15 minutes on each door.

The black stuff is weather stripping



Top Pic

So what happened?  The difference was night and day.  Where a screen door previously existed, a solid door materialized.  My chair is no longer the coldest seat in the house, and the coat can stay in the closet.

My recommendation?  Check the weather stripping if your doors are drafty.  Odds are that you can do a simple repair that won't cost must money. 
Would I do the job myself next time?  Yep.
What about the next windfall?   Hmmmmmmm.....

Big B's Budget Part II

OK, get out your virtual pen and check off the items that are complete:

___   Excel
___   Bank account for personal escrow funds
___   Summary of fixed, variable, and non-monthly expenses

If you don't have checkmarks in all 3 slots, this articles won't be much help.  Head back to Part I of Big B's Budget Blog for your homework assignment right here. 

Now for the big question, how did the budget turn out?  Mine had a few surprises (like negative cashflow).  Assembled below are some of the best tricks I've come up with since living on a budget.  Nope, none of the concepts were stolen from Dave Ramsey, Wikipedia, or mint.com.  They all came from the school of hard knocks.

You need a suitcase full of these to buy anything.

Fun Money

This is the toughest budgetary item for most folks out there.  First, decide how much money to spend on the frivolous, unnecessary items.  For people making tons of money, you're probably OK putting all the money in one line item and discussing the items as you go.  If fun money is a very low amount, or you can never agree on how to spend the money, give everyone in the family an allocation of cash.  My budget had this issue early on.  We had a puny $100 to dump in this bucket.  Well, it was really more like a thimble.  The spreadsheet had 2 line items:
     Me           $50
     Her           $50

Her

The money could be used for eating out, computer games, or setting a fire in the back yard with $1 bills.  If we went out to eat, she could have the $35 lobster tails with a glass of wine.  I could suffer through the $6 meatloaf, but pick up a copy of Diablo II at Best Buy on the way home.  You get the drift.  As an added bonus, the leftover fun money carried into next month's budget!  That way, we could eventually buy stuff that cost more than $50.  Small loans into next month were also permitted for special occasions.

Me

Windfalls

In the pre-budget days, my first windfall was about $1,000.   WOW!!   My first thought was that we had plenty of money to do anything in the world.  Fun stuff got slapped on the credit card like mad until the statement came in. A quick calculation showed that the windfall was spent approximately 2.5 times. I don't remember pondering this one over a bourbon, but it was probably the case. After the "windfall disaster", a new worksheet appeared in Excel named "Bonus Money". The after tax amount is listed at the top, line items summarized, and the remainder is computed right under the amount.  We take great care these days in planning bonus money, and doing it is fun to boot. All of the money is either spent on things that are agreed on or put into an interest bearing account. How do we pick things to spend the money on? Check out the "Long Term Projects" tab. Yes, future house blog articles are listed in priority order here with an approximate cost. 


Scratching your head and wondering how you get windfalls?  Here are a few ideas:

• If you get paid biweekly, only budget 2 paychecks each month.  That way, 2 paychecks each year are windfalls!  (well, technically you get 3 every 7-8 years)
• Set federal and state withholdings, so you get a tax return instead of paying.  Don't go crazy, Uncle Sam doesn't pay interest.
• Get a credit card that pays cash back, like my Chase Rewards Visa.  Withdraw the money for a windfall when the money builds up.
• CHRISTMAS MONEY!!!

What is the HSA tab?

Up until recently, my company had a Cadillac health insurance policy that included $10 doctor visits, $15 prescriptions, and no deductable.  My first son was born to the tune of $100.  Seriously.  Fast forward to corporate cost cutting ideas and high deductable health care plans.  Family plans with a $3,000 deductables are common now.  That's tough on a monthly budget, but Uncle Sam has a program to assist with some of the cost.  If you have an HSA plan at work, an account can be opened to pay for medical bills.  Any money deposited into the HSA savings account is pre-tax, so the money doesn't make it to the Taxable Earnings column of your paycheck.  We deposit enough money in this account to pay for 100% of medical costs.  Doctor bills and prescriptions are entered in this tab and paid with the Chase Visa card (earning us a 1% rebate), and money is moved out of the HSA account to cover the bills. 

Short Term Savings

Lots of the expensive stuff in your house has a tendancy to break over the long haul like hot water heaters, A/C coils, microwaves, and TV sets.  Cars have the same problem. Most monthly budgets can't handle a $2,000 repair bill, even if you eat refried beans all month.  While we still had 2 incomes, my wife shoveled money into an account to pay for expensive, incidental items.  Ours is set up in a brokerage account that is invested in bonds and a money market cash fund.  Unless you have a bigger pile of money than the picture, stick to funds that are easily liquified.  Sure, Verizon stock pays a great dividend, but what if you need $4,000 to pay for a new roof when the Dow is down 1,000 points?   If you don't have a rainy day fund, start one now.  Either take a windfall and sock it away or allocate money each month to build one up.

Donations

Last but not least, the donations tab keeps track of money that we donate to charity.  We give money to several causes throughout the year, and I print this tab before going to the tax guy. 

Parting Thoughts

Big B's budget has evolved over nearly 20 years, and it works for our household like a charm.  Feel free to take any of the ideas in the article and add new ones that pertain to your own personal life.  Managing your money with a budget over time can greatly reduce the stress in personal finances.  What if the greatest stress in your budget was how to spend a windfall?  That's my dream.

Interested in tips to lower your electricity bill?  Click here