What have you bought lately?

[Parts]

A CC radio SW.  the shortwave reception seems decent  I will have to check it out tonight to see how good the regular am is

[DirtDawg]

Yesterday, with the encouragement from my son who also suffers from allergies as my wife does, we braved up and went to Lowe's.

My tummy is aching and I've apparently pulled something in my main Glut/butt muscle. But we pushed into this and I bought three filters and another box fan.

The plan was to make DIY air filter sytems that can run in the house and help with the air quality. We had two box fans welcome inside the house and another older, noisy one, much more powerful I use in the garage.

I bought another box fan, two rolls of white duct tape and three MERV 15, 20 inch by 20 inch by four inch filters, PRICEY!!

Anyway we haggled together three DIY filter thingies by taping the bad ass filters onto the back of the fans.

After just an hour of running all three in the house it was amazing the difference it had made. It was actually shocking to go back outside after breathing clean air again for the first time in weeks.

Our house is well sealed against the elements, brand new windows, all doors sealed properly with fresh rubber, etc. So when my son began putting car and dog towels (freshly laundered, of course) all around the windows I asked WTF. He was trying to keep the smoke out.

I asked if he was willing to help me with an idea. He was all about I don't know. Your ideas scare me.
 

Once he understood my plan, he was onboard and began all the encouragement he could muster. WE GOT IT DONE! I dropped a couple of hundred bucks on this idea with high hopes it would help. Some internet research helped as well.

It helps a lot and the filters, the right ones that can filter smoke particles are fucking $55 bucks a pop. And fans have more than doubled in price as well, $45 bucks for what I paid fifteen for a couple of years ago. All made in China of course, but the filters are 3M, MADE IN THE USA.

So, now we have a filter fan blowing in each bedroom. It really does help! Despite the fact that we have the same filters in our HVAC system, having them "running in the wild" around the house has done even more than I thought it could have.

[Parts]

I use the cheep filters and a box fan sometimes at work to keep the dust down when I am blowing cellulose.

Today I ordered 20 3.5 inch round headed bolts from McMaster-Carr because locally the longest available was 3 inches 

[Icequeen]

Yesterday, with the encouragement from my son who also suffers from allergies as my wife does, we braved up and went to Lowe's.

My tummy is aching and I've apparently pulled something in my main Glut/butt muscle. But we pushed into this and I bought three filters and another box fan.

The plan was to make DIY air filter sytems that can run in the house and help with the air quality. We had two box fans welcome inside the house and another older, noisy one, much more powerful I use in the garage.

I bought another box fan, two rolls of white duct tape and three MERV 15, 20 inch by 20 inch by four inch filters, PRICEY!!

Anyway we haggled together three DIY filter thingies by taping the bad ass filters onto the back of the fans.

After just an hour of running all three in the house it was amazing the difference it had made. It was actually shocking to go back outside after breathing clean air again for the first time in weeks.

Our house is well sealed against the elements, brand new windows, all doors sealed properly with fresh rubber, etc. So when my son began putting car and dog towels (freshly laundered, of course) all around the windows I asked WTF. He was trying to keep the smoke out.

I asked if he was willing to help me with an idea. He was all about I don't know. Your ideas scare me.
 

Once he understood my plan, he was onboard and began all the encouragement he could muster. WE GOT IT DONE! I dropped a couple of hundred bucks on this idea with high hopes it would help. Some internet research helped as well.

It helps a lot and the filters, the right ones that can filter smoke particles are fucking $55 bucks a pop. And fans have more than doubled in price as well, $45 bucks for what I paid fifteen for a couple of years ago. All made in China of course, but the filters are 3M, MADE IN THE USA.

So, now we have a filter fan blowing in each bedroom. It really does help! Despite the fact that we have the same filters in our HVAC system, having them "running in the wild" around the house has done even more than I thought it could have.

Nice. Essentially if you've ever pulled apart an air cleaner, you have a puny little fan and a hepa filter. You made huge air cleaners with a 10x more powerful fan system and a larger area of filtration.

I have a few fans I've picked setting around for stuff like that or the ice trick if the air dies. 90% of the time a fan at the curb during the cold weather season is a working fan someone got tired of storing.

I got lucky with the fallout from the fires, it was pretty smokey and nasty to the north and the south of me, and I stayed in this narrow stream of somewhat clean air on the map, the air was a little hazy and heavy for about two days, but my allergies and asthma stayed in check and the numbers didn't get too bad.

[DirtDawg]

Nice. Essentially if you've ever pulled apart an air cleaner, you have a puny little fan and a hepa filter. You made huge air cleaners with a 10x more powerful fan system and a larger area of filtration.

I have a few fans I've picked setting around for stuff like that or the ice trick if the air dies. 90% of the time a fan at the curb during the cold weather season is a working fan someone got tired of storing.

I got lucky with the fallout from the fires, it was pretty smokey and nasty to the north and the south of me, and I stayed in this narrow stream of somewhat clean air on the map, the air was a little hazy and heavy for about two days, but my allergies and asthma stayed in check and the numbers didn't get too bad.

Yeah, I knew we needed a lot more power with what was going on in the air here. And I felt that the best benefit might come from running them in the bedrooms overnight.

After doing some mild calculations, we are close to filtering the entire volume of air in the house every forty minutes. That is not accounting for what ever the built-in air system can do.
I have also reversed our ceiling fans (back to up shot, winter performance) to help eliminate any stagnant corners that might not receive enough air flow to filter effectively.

We were all waking up with trashed sinuses and a sore throat. Even with our fancy filter in our HVAC unit, there was still some bad air in the house. But, these MERV 15 filters even capture about 90% of pollen, so that's got to help with those allergies, too.

Fortunately, we have had several rains here since the worst of the smoke days. That helps more than anything.

Kind of proud of this little father/son project and it seems to work even better than "advertised."

[renaeden]

I bought shelves for the loungeroom. One lot is mostly glass and that will go next to the tv. The other two are wood shelves with glass sides. One is three levels high and the other is six levels high. The latter isn't available until next week so  I organised them all to be delivered on the same day, when they're all at the shop.

These are to replace the flimsy shelves we had before. I now have an extra set of shelves in my bedroom.

[DirtDawg]

Not me, but my daughter got an Ikea thing.

I helped her put it together. I am not one of those hardball nutheads who ignore directions. I never have been.

This little under bed drawer sectional piece was very complicated and it took half the afternoon to get it right with both of us ganged up on it.
I love the fact that she is gaining confidence using hand tools!!
And she knows about tools she has seen but never used when a need arises. "Hey, wait! Don't you have a this or that kind of thingy out there somewhere? Wouldn't that work better?"

This kind of question represents a "next level" grasp of using tools.
I am so proud of her.

Questioning her choice of Ikea furnishings is every Dad's job.
 

[renaeden]

^ That's awesome.

Kayleigh will most likely put our shelves together with my help. She reads instructions as well. Hopefully there are no missing pieces!

[odeon]

Books.

And I finally replaced my aging Canon printer with an HP. Should never have bought the Canon to begin with but it was a lot cheaper than an HP at the time.

[renaeden]

^We have a Brother.

We shared the cost of GPS tracking tags for the cats. Kira went missing again two nights ago and then turned up at 3am last night. The tags are a bit bulky but the cats are handling it. So far, we've discovered Rowan has gone across the road and Kira has stayed mostly out the front of our house. Bloody cats.

[DirtDawg]

Well, today it's a Schwinn bike. Not mine but my daughter did this out of the blue.

She was at work when it arrived. WTF!?!  OK! But now I am gathering tools to assemble a new bike for my daughter.

I intend to help, but only barely. She has come so far and can do this!

I will be right there and suggest when appropriate, but she is doing this.

Obviously I'll help with adjusting the brakes and derailleurs, but this is all her baby!

She can do it!!

[DirtDawg]

I bought a new grill thingy that will hold veggies over the fire and turn them easily.  A few more skewers and away we go.

They came Friday and it was just too hot to light a fire, but Sunday night was perfect.

[odeon]

Groceries.

[Genesis]

Boba Milk Tea (Mango flavored!?!)

I don't regret it... really good stuff 

[renaeden]

Oooh, mango flavoured. Yum.

I'll be going to Aldi and buying burger meat and brioche buns for tonight's dinner.