Self-sufficiency
 

There's been some discussion lately about how we can learn to handle the little jobs around the house on our own.

My mission for this evening: install two window air conditioners. My central AC is great for the main living area and my bedroom (which has a half-wall that opens onto the area above the living room), but is puny and ineffective in the two smaller bedrooms. I hadn't worried much about them until I moved into one of them as my home office. After a day dripping in sweat, I went to Home Depot and bought two--one for that one, as well as one for the guest room (since my son will be coming to visit).

They are 50 pounds each, and I just lugged them both in from the car and lugged one upstairs. Once I cool off and catch my breath I can lug the other one upstairs.

The installation instructions don't look too complicated--I'm pretty confident I can do it without too much hassle.

Oh, and this morning the flush lever handle in my downstairs toilet broke--rusted through. So I picked up one of those and I'm fixing that tonight, too.

These are NOT complicated jobs, but it makes me feel good to be able to handle them myself without any help. Last year, I installed a range hood, and even had to replace a section of ductwork where the old duct attached to the old range hood pulled out. Big messy job, but again, did it myself. I've also gotten pretty good at patching drywall. :)

Way to go! Must be project day. I just installed a rear signal light on a Volkswagen... Talk about the Germans over engineering stuff. I had to rip apart half the inside of the car to get at the bulb housing. Cheers to self-sufficiency!

good job Lexi! amazing what we CAN do once we make the decision to DO so! you actually READ the instructions??? I'm impressed! :)

Yeah, I do read them! Sometimes not carefully enough, and I wind up messing up. On this deal, I red them twice and realized I would have put the brackets on the wrong window frame. Just goes to show ya.

I also keep them for later reference, but I can never FIND anything like that in this mess. The organizer should take care of that.

One of my MALE colleagues is very anxious to hear how I make out with the organizer. He's had a couple of people suggest it to him (he apparently has a very small apartment in the D.C. area, and lots of STUFF filling it up--he'd like to have more room).

BTW, toilet now fixed. On to the ACs!

That is awesome, Lexie.

I tried to fix my furnace once - the flame sensor needed to be cleaned (I figured that out by reading articles online) and the repair tech said I did it right but when I was monkeying around with it I blew a fuse on the furnace and almost electrocuted myself.... Sigh... Not a handy person at all, much to my consternation. I really want to be though, darn it.

So I admire your efforts!!

good job lexie.... i have been working on getting things done myself the past two years and sometimes it seems endless but mostly feels good to manage.
:You_Rock_

And we have...
 

COOL!! It was slower going than I thought it would be, but my office is now officially cool.

It's a nice little unit, and not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be. It's a small room so I didn't have to get a big energy hog. Plus the central AC in the house keeps it from being TOO hot--it's just too hot to work comfortably in. This should make my workdays much more pleasant in the summer. Unfortunately, the same rooms tend to get cold in the winter for the same airflow reasons. My HVAC guy told me there's no way to really improve the airflow, so I will just have to make do until/unless I decide to put in one of those ductless heat/ac units in those rooms.

I'm too tired and sweaty to tackle the other one tonight, so I will stop with this one for tonight and do the other one in a day or two.

All done! Both ACs installed and working. I went slowly and carefully--paying attention to how everything was supposed to fit.

They look great, too--I remember the big, clunky room ACs I had years ago. These are smaller, quieter, more energy-efficient. They don't junk up the room (lol, well, any junkier than the rooms already were). They even have nifty little remote controls to adjust everything.

And I am still chipping away at uhf*cking my downstairs. It's coming along.

great job, Lexie!! :You_Rock_

I've become quite handy myself - funny how pride will force you to learn things you never knew how to do before! Pride, or stubborn?! Anyway - I enjoy the heck out of figuring stuff out myself.

Way to go Lexie! Very inspiring!