If it seems like I do something new with our stock tank pool every year, so far that's true! last year we redid the cover, and the inner liner sprung a leak at the end of last summer. So this spring, we relined the pool, replaced the filter, and integrated filtration into the side of the pool! No more vacuum loops, just way less finicky filtration.

I used some additional equipment as well, and I definitely will be using it in the fall so we can fully empty the pool for winter. Most folks in our Northern states flip their tanks when emptied, but I’m not in that group. The liner is designed for above ground pools that can’t be flipped, and the tank can withstand anything.

In working on the one open wall -the couch wall- in our basement library, I decided to add my favorite piece of millwork to the wall: picture rail. Not to be confused with a picture ledge, this sits at the top of the wall or below the crown with a small gap to provide a spot for hooks that hold artwork without tampering with the wall itself. It's fantastic for flexibility, and saves the wall from hanging holes.

My functional brain loves this molding: the purpose in its use makes it a perfect fit for our house, even if I had to get some custom milled. The folks with the knives for what I ordered were on Etsy, and they are identical to the original picture rail in our living and dining room.

​Finally, I’m making some read headway on this basement library. Since working on the bookcase doors last summer, I had stagnated on working in here with other priorities coming up.  When we had the toilet leak, that definitely kick-started some real progress!  Mostly, I’ve been sorting what we’ve been storing down in the library since reconfiguring, and I really went hard on getting work done on the ceilings.  Most of which is now done!

There was a lot of prep work and future-proofing that we needed to do before getting this done, like running preliminary wiring to the future fireplaces.  This part of the basement is a huge step: most of the plumbing and electrical run through this ceiling, so closing it up really means finishing a huge amount of progress on this house.

I also pre-painted all of the bead board in Sherwin Williams Delft (9134).  It’s just a bit lighter than the walls (SW Riverway 6222), and helps visually lift the ceiling while still feeling like a unified color.

It wouldn’t be an old house if it didn’t test me from time to time. Back in October (and August) the little kids flushed something that got trapped in the toilet. Both times, I called someone to fix it, choosing the convenience of professional install over the time it'd take me to do it. The first tech in August did everything perfectly: new wax ring, and caulked the front and sides (in accordance with UPC- the plumbing code used in MN). Everything looked great in October, aside from recaulking, and the near-perfect re-installation showed no obvious signs of defects. But when re-installing, the horn on the outlet was chipped, most likely on the closet bolt coming out of the floor. An easy mistake, and a lesson for me that taking the tank off is advantageous every time.

So, we had a very slow drain leak into our basement. Fast forward to January when the same toddlers think flushing in rapid succession is fun! The leak may have been slow, but the amount of water pouring out now was everywhere. It had clearly been a problem for a while, and now everything was wet.

So far, we've been surprisingly happy with our all-in-one laundry machine. After a year of use, there is a lot of good to say about it, but there are a few quirks that have come out in the past year that make it a little more than a throw-in-and-go machine. But the benefit of it being an all-in-one, is that you trade forgetting clothes in the washing machine for a bit of extra maintenance.

There are a few tweaks that I'd make as GE improves its product design, and we'll get to those! Overall, I give this a 93% satisfaction rating on my end.  This update is pretty meaty, as I'll go over some of the general maintenance and basic troubleshooting from what we've seen after our first year.

For more on my initial impressions, how the technology works, and a little bit about the startup app, check out what I wrote last year.