April 22, 2022: Oscar and Boomer are still really enjoying the Catio I built for them back in 2018.

June 2022: After finding the door ajar on our stand-up freezer (luckily nothing thawed out) I ordered and installed a dual zone temperature monitoring device and connected it to my home security system. Zone one monitors for low temperature inside the house to notify of potential freeze-up, zone two monitors a probe inside the freezer in case temperature rises and stays high for a set period of time.

The low temperature probe is hung in free air inside the freezer. Other environmental detectors in our house connected to the alarm system include fire monitoring throughout the home & garage and water leak detectors near the artesian well pressure tank, the laundry room and one near the hot water tank.

June 9, 2022: Today neighbour Dan and I got to work rebuilding the fence dividing our backyards. The previous home owner hired a contractor to build the last fence and it was a pitiful job. The posts leaned over and eventually the sections came down with it.

Dan had all the posts dug four feet, his buddy came by with an auger equipped skid steer which had the new holes done in no time!

Today Dan and I plumbed all the posts and they are now ready for concrete.

Job done for now, Dan who is a carpenter is handling the rest of the fence build, he plans to reuse as much material as he can as it's in good shape and only a few years old.

June 13, 2022: Today I made a few repairs replacing rotted out deck boards on the front and back decks, catching these early ensure the rot doesn't spread to the framing.

July 26th, 2022: My plan today was to simply paint the door frames on the house and garage but it got a little more involved on the patio door. The very outside trim was rotted out but only in one area near the door latch, probably from a couple crappy pieces of lumber used in the finger jointed trim. I had some of this facing on hand as I made a similar repair on the garage a couple years ago. The damaged section was cut with my oscillating saw, pried out and a replacement piece glued and screwed in place.

Some paintable caulking and a couple coats of paint made the door frame good as new.

August 2022: Next up was some repairs to my 2017 Webber Genesis II BBQ. I found the lower slats were severely rusted as were the flavourizer bars that cover each burner.

I decided to test out the Webber 10 year warranty as I had registered the unit when I bought it. The process was easy, I filled out an online form, attached some pics and had an answer within a couple hours. Claim was approved and new parts on the way absolutely no charge.

When the new parts arrived I took out all the heat shields and gave the unit a good cleaning by placing a garbage bag where the drip tray normally resides and used a plastic scraper to remove a couple seasons worth of charred build-up.

The original flavourizer bars were enamelled steel, the new ones were automatically upgraded to the same stainless steel parts found on the current models!

The replacement slats even came with new plastic end caps. I sprayed the underside with fluid film rust proofing to hopefully prevent them from rusting out a 2nd time.

Other than those 2 minor issues the BBQ has been fantastic and reliable. The burners are still like new and heat is very even across the cook surface.

Christmas 2022: So many sections of my LED Christmas lights were out again this year I decided to keep decorating simple and throw the last working set up around the front deck. Someone needs to come out with a better product than what's available now.

June 8, 2023: Never ending summer chores. It's not all glitz, glamour and amazing adventures here on Shed-Headz, work and house chores are always a big part of our summer!

June 24, 2023: Torbay backyard views!

March 31, 2024: Crazy to think that less than a week ago there was still a significant amount of snow on the lawn! A combination of warm temperatures and high winds certainly made quick work of even the oldest hard pack winter snow!

June 2024: This weekend found Sandra hard at work pressure washing old paint and weathered boards on the back deck. If I find time it may even see a coat of paint!

August 2024: Today I started a quick little project, moving all the palings on the West side of our back deck tight together. Our Blackstone sits right behind here, sealing up the gaps will help keep the wind from blowing out our propane griddle.

A quick flick of paint and it's looking as good as new!

August 2024: I received a call from my Alarm Monitoring Centre that my stand-up deepfreeze was up in temperature. A couple years ago I installed a temperature sensor that will go into alarm if the freezer rises to -5ºC and stays there for 10 minutes.

It worked perfectly today as the compressor wasn't cutting in, the alarm system notification gave me plenty of time to move our still frozen groceries to our nearly empty wild game chest freezer.

I diagnosed the problem to a defective thermostat as I could manually jump the connection and get the freezer to run and draw down temperature down just fine. The OEM replacement was discontinued so I purchased a universal part up in CBS. I got it installed and tested just in time for moose hunting 2024.

Quick pic of the dual zone environmental monitoring device I installed.

This unit has two zones, a four zone unit is available as well. I use zone one to monitor low temperature in the basement area of our house. Utilizing the built in thermostat, it will generate an alarm if the house temp drops to 10ºC during an extended power outage or furnace failure. The second zone uses a remote (blue for low temp) probe installed inside the stand-up freezer. It will generate an alarm when the temperature rises to -5ºC (with a 10 minute delay to accommodate loading & retrieving groceries).

Both zones are connected to the alarm system individually so they can be dispatched to the homeowner accordingly.

Mid November 2024: Cory dropped down to help replace the metering valve in the main bathroom shower. This was supposed to be an easy job but the valve was seized in place due to hard water build-up. We got the job patched Friday night to get us through the weekend and set to work Monday with a proper repair.

We had to replace the shower valve assembly entirely so out came the tall cabinet so we could cut an access hole in a discrete location.

After the valve was replaced I reinstalled the piece of drywall, gave it a quick flick of plaster & tape to seal the wall cavity, and finally a coat of paint to prevent mould as the bathroom is a high moisture area.

All in all not a crazy busy couple years around the house, but we have some plans for 2025 for new projects and knocking a few off the procrastination list!