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Paver Patio Part Deux

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 This project is taking almost a month.  I dug out the top layer of dirt, down about 6 inches.  I wanted to dig only 3 inches, but it became obvious while digging I needed to go deeper to get to some solid ground.   Once I had all the dirt out, I figured out I needed about 2.5 (cubic) yards of aggregate to fill back in 3 inches.   I had Chicagoland Materials deliver the aggregate and torpedo sand by dump truck to the alley.  I poured the first layer of aggregate into the patio area and used a Wagner compactor rented from Sunbelt Rentals to firm up the base.   The weekly rental price for the compactor was half the price of what Home Depot wanted.  I used gas pipes to lay down and flatten the 2nd layer of aggregate and the top level of sand above that.   Once the sand layer was down, I put down the Gator Base panels.  Much more about laying the pavers in  I'm going to go on a diatribe here about the Gator Base panels..  Alliance, the company that makes the panels, claims you don&#
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Backyard re-do

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  After years of neglect, dogs, and a 10 foot trampoline, our weed farm in the back of the house will finally get some love.  The plan is to put in paver patio, new grass sod, and a surrounding garden with some small trees (Japanese maple and birch).   We already had a new fence put in on the north side of the yard, that will hopefully reduce the spread of weeds from neighbors to the north.
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Horner Park Woodcraft Spring 2023

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  I finally signed up for the Woodcraft class at Horner Park.  I'm planning on making two identical standing planters.   Most planters have a fabric lining that you put the dirt in.  Mine will have a space for a removable 30 in x 7 in plastic planter liner.   I'm going to use cedar boards from Menards.   I could have built this at home, but I want to make this with as few screws as possible, using woodworking joinery techniques.  
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logan square breweries

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 many breweries in my neighborhood
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8" tile, sloped basement floor

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 I had some time over winter break, family decided to tile basement floor in our utility room.  I used the Mapei floor tile mortar, only $5 a bag, seems to work well on concrete subfloor.  I would probably use something better (like Laticrete) for a wood and hardiboard subfloor.   
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1st phase new front porch

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returning cement mixer to home depot, had to walk it from our house finishing the concrete 'platform', where the steps will start about to start mixing concrete, platform form in place ancient water level, tube has windshield fluid in it measuring for square with building, Pythagorean theorem! Roldolfo triumph, old concrete pier excavation old concrete pier in ground, where the new one goes, delayed project 4 hours dumping old concrete at Ravenswood transfer station Eric's fine deck drawing (1 of many) the stairs before demo stairs after complete demolition sidewalk and stairs during demo brick under porch, hasn't seen light of day in a LONG time
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Chevy HHR water leak passenger floor, HVAC fan dead

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After watching a number of youtube videos, I discovered there's a commonly worn out cover under the windshield cowl.  The rubber piece covering this hole (called the fan access) was completely damaged and sunk into the hole.  Water was just pouring in from windshield, then under the hood, then into this hole right into the passenger side behind the glove box. access hole under windshield cowl replacement cover with silicone seal installed cover, hopefully no more leaks here A terrible side effect of having water pour into the access hole is damaged HVAC fan and its resistor.  The 'resistor' enables the fan to have different speeds.  So, it looked like in the end, the water started leaking in, damaging the resistor and the fan would only run on high setting (no resistor).  Then after time, more water would cause the DC motor to fail (rusted brushes, bearings, etc.).  The last symptom was a soaking wet passenger floor carpet.   I replaced both the
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