Notebooks, Galore!

As my work schedule slowly eased up as we got closer to the official start of last spring, I utilized some of my extra time to tackle my two huge ongoing notebooks collections: observation notes from the various schools and districts I work in, and the collection of printed recipes that seems to grow ever larger. The work-related observation notebooks include every observation I've done since I started doing this work as a consultant, and in some school districts that became a years-long process or involved a large number of schools. Knowing how small I write anyway, coupled with the dependence on narrow-lined notepad sheets, you might correctly assume that I've really done a ridiculous number of observations over the last 20 years. It takes a 6-inch binder to contain the work I've done through the High Point University Leadership Academy or in Guilford County; Virginia Beach City observation notes require two notebooks to contain them all.

The other notebook project related to my collection of (mostly) printed (mostly web-sourced) recipes. Originally converted into notebooks in 2017 to organize what had once been tucked into folders in a milk crate, and next reworked and expanded in 2022, I had been finding some of them overstuffed and also realized some organizational and categorical shifting was called for. As long as I was on a notebook kick as February rolled over into March, I refreshed my inventory especially of the extra large binders and set to work on once more improving the management of all those many, many recipes. It took a while to finally file away the stack of backlogged recipe printouts, and that dragged on through the rest of the year: Sunday December 7th was when I finally finished! I figured you'd want to know.

Don't Do the Dew: Dehumidifier Finds Its Home

Among the to-do items that recently got to-done was getting and setting up a dehumidifier for the cellar. And what a workhorse it has been, pulling a stunning amount of water from the air down there, which initially required me to empty its bucket three or more times a day. A better solution was going to be essential.

When I bought the Roediger House in 2003, I was still going to the laundromat and didn’t get around to buying a washer and dryer until 2006 or 2007. Following the example of the previous owners, these were installed in the cellar, where a drain line allowed for the exiting washer water. (Once the kitchen addition was completed in 2009, those appliances were moved up to the new laundry room.)

There was also a disused sump pump in a mortared bowl on the floor, also tied into that drain line. I’d never cleaned and tested it but often wished it worked...especially when I was shop-vac’ing the water that had seeped in if we’d had a particularly heavy rainfall.

That’s how I came to rig a water pump to a garden hose...

...that I routed out across the cellar and through the crawlspace to a foundation vent...

...to empty into one of the yard drains I installed (from my marvelous Quarantine Jar Task List!).

When the new HVAC system was installed at the start of the year, I’d taken to heart the service techs’ recommendations about lowering the humidity so that the equipment would undergo less strain. I’d worn out at least one condensate pump with the old system, plus I’ve got plenty of things stored in the cellar that don’t need to be quite so moist all the time! (There is also such a thing as mold, mind you.) And while the original set-up for the downstairs HVAC system had the condensate pump draining into that cellar line, new codes required that it instead be routed and drained outside into the yard.

Which brings me back to the new dehumidifier and the need for a manageable drain system that took advantage of what was already in place. In my mind was a scheme to extend the drain line, rebuild the P-trap with fresh components, and install hose connections for more secure and leak-free water removal.

The measuring, cutting, assembling, and cementing got completed just as we hit the middle of August.

I’d ordered a utility table to elevate the dehumidifier so that gravity could work its magic, and once the new lines had cured for a couple of days, I hooked it all up and waited for clues as to the success or failure of my amateur shenanigans.

The final report? So far, so good.

Task Jar: Major PowerPoint Revision

During the Covid-19 pandemic and its corresponding shut-down, I had created a sizable task list that was converted into slips that were randomly drawn each day in order to entice me to make steady progress on the always-present to-do list. One of those items, from May 2020, called for me to overhaul a particular powerpoint module that I long ago developed when training administrators in ways to approach coaching and feedback to support their teachers.

Guilford County Schools Mission Possible Retreat
Asheville, NC • 2014

As noted in the blog post cataloguing a mix of project updates in May 2020, that specific task slip was too challenging to complete because I wasn’t in the right headspace needed to create a mindful and coherent revision. As I dug into it almost five years ago (!), I realized it also had implications for the powerpoint module that preceded it, focused on Instructional Design and Planning.

I did labor to sort out and better organize the two presentations, in my typical pattern puzzle approach spread out on the kitchen table so that I could see and shift and manipulate and fill gaps. But I only got so far before having to put it aside.

As 2025 got underway, there was a helpful convergence of events to at last bring me into that frame of mind for this presentational renovation. Over the past year, I’ve been working up a set of ideas that I’d begun to float (and submit for scrutiny) to some trusted colleagues; I’ve been engaged in some intense work with administrators facing tremendous pressure to up their students’ performance; and I was called upon in an elementary school in DC to create a small seminar conversation that would bridge the needs of a wide variety of teachers. All that occurred close to the same time I was finishing my last session with an outgoing cohort of aspiring administrators and immediately beginning my first day of work with the incoming cohort, through High Point University’s Leadership Academy. Initiate Frame of Mind!

With a couple of quiet evenings plus some open time on a weekend in between, and perhaps working later into the night than is my custom, I finally got it done. My conscience is eased even if it was an item checked off nearly five years after my clever task jar slip idea was first drawn.

WiFi System Reset

This Saturday morning finds me back in my beloved Chapel Hill, joining other alumni brothers to support the initiation of new members into our fraternity. I’ve gotten behind on composing entries for recent happenings here, but I had a draft set aside from September that I knew I’d need at some point to upload, simply because this is the record of life and management of the Roediger House. And the governing compulsion is to have something to toss up every single day.

I really do enjoy how much of the household is integrated into a smart network, with voice control and routines and automation galore. When I got an updated cable modem, I thought it might also be a good time to refresh the WiFi network password and create a guest network, which ought to have been part of my original configuration, frankly. I did not anticipate what an enormous amount of time would be required to reconnect everything to the network: individual light switches, plugs, smart light bulbs, two security system homebases and a couple of the cameras (get the ladder, take them down, resync them, put them back up), the outdoor WiFi extender, the Nest thermostat, the Tempest weather station, irrigation controller, the Sonos devices, the Alexa devices, three printers, and who knows what else. For different smart device manufacturers, there’s a different app, which means different passwords and different tactics. As if it’s not time-consuming enough, quite a few resets failed and had to be re-initiated. For every device that had to be reset, it had to be rediscovered by Alexa and re-added into any of the understandably brilliant routines I’ve built. These are things we do to ourselves in intense bursts of frustration and time-suck because of how clever all these gimmicks seem. When it all works, it’s awesome. When it doesn’t, somewhere an angel’s wings probably burst into flames.

Custom Grill for Foyer HVAC Return

This is the entry foyer, and backed up to the staircase is a lovely substantial sideboard cabinet...one of my eBay acquisitions when I was endeavoring to properly furnish this great old house. Behind it is the scene of one of my long-overdue house to-do tasks: replacing the screen on the HVAC return that was cut under that first turn of the stairs. It required a custom order and custom manufacture of a new grille, but this is one of the undrawn slips from my Quarantine Task Jar that I've known I needed to do for as long as I've lived here.

The previous cover was difficult to keep clean and likely caused extra strain on the system. It might boast a kazillion holes but each one was still rather tiny:

Here's the unvarnished truth of its innards:

Because of its location, this component of the mechanical system stays mostly ignored and forgotten. Now there's hidden loveliness behind that cabinet.

Quarantine Task Jar Update: Kitchen Swinging Door

The huge demolition and rebuild project that led to a wholesale replacement of the simple small old kitchen and sad little bathrooms back in 2008-2009 did not result in full replacement of everything. For instance, the butler’s pantry room was rebuilt to its original dimensions, but upgraded with hardwood floors, electrical outlets, and removal of an unnecessary window. Another carryover from the original kitchen was to have a new door but it was hung on its original swinging spring hinge. Alas, over time, when the retractable top piston hinge would sometimes stick, the door would fall over. It finally weakened the bottom hinge brace enough that, on one fateful afternoon, the door fell over and the break was complete:

Fortunately, the duo of Jami and Zeb Raines at Southern Raines Customs came through with a welding repair so that I could return that swinging door to full service. (Actually, I think Zeb completely recast it.) That was another one of my to-do tasks that eventually would have been drawn from the Quarantine Task Jar. Admittedly, as with so many tasks around here, it still took a few more months to rehang that door after reattaching the hinge plate. But as of December 20, 2023, it once more became operational.

Blinds for the Blue Whale Alcove

As the summer concluded and attention turned to the beginning of a new school year, I found myself trying to wrap up a variety of projects that are catalogued on my "Quarantine Task Jar" list. (Posts on several of those projects are in my backlog of blog drafts!) Three years ago, the big push to finally order custom window treatments for a variety of areas, including the attic man cave, was a huge step forward in furnishing the house. Alas, with all the great shelving built into the north gable on the third floor, tight around that small window, we postponed devising a solution to its covering. In the meantime, light was blocked through creative means, as shown in the photo above.

In the spirit that the perfect ought not to be the enemy of the good, that task list item propelled me to settle on a cheap online solution, this time from JustBlinds.com, and on September 20th a much more appropriate covering for that window was achieved:

New Mailbox Installed

I mean really: how many people do you know who buy a new mailbox for their house in, say, 2014...and then don’t get around to putting it up until 2022? If you know me, then that tally is at least 1. Boxed up in the original packaging and stowed away in the cellar for over eight years, this sturdier, heavier mailbox may have been part of my rug ordering from Hayneedle right around that time, just ahead of the second wave of renovation work that occurred that year (plaster restoration, painting, floor and mantle refinishing). It was a slip in my Quarantine Task Jar but had not yet been drawn. Yay, me!

House Projects of Mid-June

Inspired at last to action and sequestered inside during a fairly uncomfortable heatwave, I spent time during the first half of June tackling some much-needed projects inside the house. Here's a run-down of some of them.

Future Library

Two years and two months ago, during the height of the pandemic and its initial shut-down phase, I was drawing slips from a task jar to keep me busy and productive while sequestered safely at home. One of those projects was to pack up the very junky room that is (or will be) the library. My rule for myself was to put in at least an hour even if I couldn't finish the specified drawn slip assignment, and my intention was to work on it a little bit on a lot of days. But after I made the libary even worse, I did not get back to it until this past June 16 and 17. With a late evening start that Thursday night, and a full day of labor on it the following day, I managed to completely pack it up, clean it out, clean it up, and set it up:

Hanging of Latest Artwork

A few more pieces by local artists had been added to the Roediger House collection, but they've been waiting in my study for me to get around to measuring and hanging them. That was also one of my June projects. I do wish I had a better eye for the right positioning/placement/spacing but it's nice for them to now be on display. I put five of those pieces along and at the top of the stairs (this page has a photo; scroll down to the 28th one), and another piece in a guest bedroom.

This is the painting I placed outside the master bedroom in the main downstairs hallway:

Collinwood Cooler Clean-Out

When the attic was renovated into a man cave and entertainment hall, one of those cool gables was turned into Ray's the Bar with a full commercial double beer cooler installed under the bar counter. I had a love affair with a couple of choice seasonal beers and always stocked up on them during their limited availabilities. (For instance, see this blog post from February 2018 regarding my absolute most favorite of beers: Bell's Best Brown Ale.) Bell's also had a great Christmas Ale and a rare offering called "Hell Hath No Fury," too. Starr Hill Brewery's Amber and their seasonal Snow Blind Doppelbock Lager were worth buying up in bulk because they are limited in availability; Duck Rabbit also has a terrific doppelbock. Abita was great for several beers: Amber, Christmas Ale, Mardi Gras Bock, Andygator, and Turbodog. Alas: when I went on a big weight-loss push in 2018, I pretty much gave up beer. I'd rather have desserts or sweets if I'm going to indulge in calories. At the same time, with the pandemic, there was virtually no company and no entertaining here at the house for well over a year. What I'm left with was a mix of okay but aged beers that were always in the cooler...and quite a few cases that I'd stored away deep in the cabinets, including some from as far back as 2015. It all had to go.

This was understandably a multi-day project, with a small beginning a few months ago, but by June 15th I'd gone through and poured out all of the beer in the house, washed out all the bottles, and put them into the recycling barrel. We are talking cases of awesome beers that were just not any good any more. It broke my heart. That did allow me to really clean up and reorganize the cabinets under the bar and counter in Ray's the Bar, though, so that was a bonus.

Recycling of Crushed Cans

While I have also given up soda, there's still a lot of it consumed here at the Roediger House, plus increasingly quite a few canned beers, seltzers, and so on from guests. I've always washed them out and crushed them and, once before, took them to a paying recyling center. There were 12 or 13 paper grocery sacks that had backed up near the crusher in the cellar, and I got them taken care of. They went into the 11th huge garbage bag of crushed cans that were piled up at the other end of the cellar. I decided to load 'em all up in the back of the pick-up and took them to a different recylcing center, where the total weight of them all was 260 pounds. But hey: that was $127.00!! On another day, I gathered up the old cleaning fluids, rotted gas can, and other old hazardous chemicals from the cellar and took them to the appropriate recycling center.

Cleaning Up the Laundry Room

Situated just inside the high-trafficked back door from the parking lot is a cozy laundry room, only big enough to accommodate those appliances, cabinets above, and a utility sink. It's where I keep my yardwork clothes and gloves, the food for birds and the dog, and bottled water.

Unfortunately, especially with my bigger yard projects of the last couple of years (like the irrigation system), it became awfully easy to come in from a very long work day and drop all the stuff I needed on top of the dryer...because I'd be right back at it again the next day.

No surprise when it becomes an accumulating monstrosity.

I present these photos with insufficient shame.

After achieving what felt like a great victory over the devastation in the library upstairs, I was inspired Saturday a week ago to knock out this last clean-up challenge. It's not suitable to Southern Living, but it's ideal for RoHo living.

Weeding and Mulching

While I am celebrating these terrific interior advances, I must say that it is pretty disappointing that I've done far too little out in the yard. Before it got so freakin' hot (I still prefer summer to winter, however!!), I was aggressively weeding and even got around to some mulching. Alas, I have yet to go buy any plants or flowers and so these are now just dressed areas that ain't going anywhere.

Center Front Drain Repair

I suppose with any project you've got to start somewhere. Back in the spring of 2020, I blogged about the drain lines I installed to capture water from a side downspout in the kitchen herb garden area, that also includes two new drains to catch some of the driveway run-off, and an improved drainline through The Grove that ties into the already-existing downspout pipes running under the yard up to the front retaining wall.

Given all that I wanted to connect up, it made sense to me to start at the low end, where all the water I wanted to channel needed to exit. Let me explain.

In about the middle of the front retaining wall, just to the right of where the original driveway was, is a drain opening onto the sidewalk. In my digging down behind the wall, I see where there's old collapsed clay pipe that ended up clogged and broken in non-use.

I'm guessing that when the driveway was relocated and the parking area put in, along with the retaining wall and fill-in work that accompanied all that, an attempt was made to tie the southside drainspouts in so that the water would be channeled down and out at that location, using 4-inch PVC pipe instead of the original tile pipes.

An opening was left topside to allow surface water along the front retaining wall to escape as well. One clear problem with its design was that the gutter downspout line hit the vertical plastic corrugated downline (up against the retaining wall) at pretty much a 90-degree angle.

Over the last few years, I've noticed that the retaining wall is getting a lot of over-wash and through-wash, resulting in cracking and a bit of bulging. It's one of the green yard task slips that I included in the quarantine task jar during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, but I went ahead and tackled it without that task slip actually getting drawn.

So two Y-connections were installed: one into a new PVC vertical pipe so that the end of the line angles down towards the exit at the bottom; the other is at the midway point of the yard portion so that I was able to connect in the line coming through The Grove.

This angle makes much more sense than that old straight-on blaster.

Haven't I mentioned that I get ideas in my head and then just have to go with them, even if they are goofy or impractical? Another yard project of 2020 was the irrigation system, hastened along in part because it made sense to plan and lay water lines as long as I was digging drainpipe trenches. To winterize the system, I wanted to be able to drain it...so as long as I was at it, I added in a connector for the ¾-inch PVC of the sprinkler system. But to get it to work I had to do about a 12-piece assembly for that entire vertical drain line at the front wall! Pictured above is the assembled portion needed to tie in the irrigation line.

I also installed a valve at that end of the irrigation drain as a back-up or fail-safe...but it was a bit low (as shown in the picture below), and I've already reworked the protective housing around it (see the bottom of this blog post for more). Still, for a first-timer blundering his way through it all, I'm pretty pleased with how much this improves the drain situation, even if it still has shortcomings.