Adventures in plumbing

Alternate title: only a little person could fix this toilet, and how come universal doesn't mean universal?

Earlier this week, the upstairs toilet began leaking. From the tank, so it was not the gross disaster it could have been, but no fun nonetheless. Interestingly enough, it turned out that that toilet doesn't have a shut off valve of its own, so I had to turn off the cold water to the entire bathroom (given that it was 11pm and I wasn't attempting toilet repair). So, on Wed, I gathered up my "universal" toilet innard replacement kit, some tools, some patience, and set to work.

I thought it would take me a half hour. 1.5 hours later, the bowl and toilet were reunited. But the water is still off. Why? Well - because it is now leaking from joint between the input tube to the water valve. I will buy the magic plumbers paste stuff and try again. But here's the big question - why on earth would you use a fixed length pipe as the input tube instead of the braided steel one that has give and can adjust height easily? Inquiring minds (and sore fingers) want to know.

Things I learned:
1. The "universal" replacement kit contains pieces that are in fact too big for my toilet. Therefore the tank no longer rests snugly on the bowl. Know what? I don't care. As long as it stops leaking.
2. There's also a lot of grease in the tank. How come? No idea. But there's still grease on my hands.
3. Sometimes it's a good thing I'm small. Because I'm pretty sure the plumber that installed it originally was my size or had eyes in his fingers. 'Cause there's not much room for maneuvering to the bolts!

Now, it never actually occurred to me to simply call the plumber to fix the leak. No, I have to try to fix it first (thanks for that, Dad, Mom and Bumpa). But, um, is the time it's taking me to fix it worth the money I saved on the plumber? I dunno. I guess I'll find out if the downstairs toilet starts doing the same thing - hopefully I'll be able to fix it faster next time ;)

Not-so-small small wins

Well, I've owned this house for about a year and 8 months, living in it almost that whole time. And guess what - I finally hung some shelves and the mirror in my bedroom! It's starting to actually look like a room, not just the place where I sleep and change clothes... If nothing else, it's nice to actually have the shelves off the floor.

I also spent several hours on Sat hooking up the actual outlets in the dining room and replacing the light switch. Now, that sounds like (and actually is) a small win in my trend lately of small project completions to make small wins. However, consider the history of that project -
--We created the space for the new outlets and ran the wire in Feb 2008 when we replaced the plaster in that room with drywall.
--R2's electrician dad very kindly hooked up the new wire to the circuit box a couple weeks ago.
--On Sat (with phone assistance from both dads ;) ) I hooked up the new outlets. And replaced the old light switch/outlet with just a switch (the outlet had blown).

So after almost a year and 8 months - no more looking at wires sticking out of my dining room walls! This small win feels pretty big.

Ok, so I failed at the goals.

Oops. I forgot to ban myself from regular hanging out with my friends. And know what? I'm not gonna. Take that, house.

I did rearrange the goals a bit due to a swap in roommates. Wish Erin luck as she tests out life in artist-heavy Bushwick - and welcome R2! Moving Erin's stuff out and keeping some time to repaint her pink room to a normal color also gave a little window of time to finish up some nagging projects in her room. So after working really hard last weekend, I have finished the cabinet Dad started a zillion years ago (until R2 decides she wants shelves), finished the floor where the sink cabinet was, and almost finished the door between our rooms.

In typical Sarah-style, many things were learned. Like - I really shouldn't have worked so hard on patching the nail holes, b/c the wood fill took the stain completely differently from the rest of the wood and now instead of hiding the holes it shouts, "look! There was some patching done here!". So someday I sense that cabinet will be painted...

And I continue the trend of purchasing the wrong things at Lowe's, and Lowe's not having everything I need. Oh well. At least it's right by a nice restaurant.

I also found time to finally spray foam around the basement windows, which will hopefully reduce the number of waterbugs. As of this morning - not much of a reduction. But still I hope. Dad, no comments on my terrible foam job. Apparently I'm not so good at foam aesthetics. Interestingly enough the obnoxious feral cats outside decided to investigate while I was spraying and scared the daylights out of me - why can they not head the bugs off before they come in instead?

Stained cabinet:

From 2009_09_23

Poly'd floor:

From 2009_09_23

Less bugged windows:

From 2009_09_23

New Couch!

Terrible picture, but new couch!

I hate the floor guys.

I really do.
I scheduled them. I emptied (with help, thanks all) the living and dining rooms. Max picked up the old couch. Then at 11 pm, they called in sick. Ok. So we lived with empty rooms for a week. Then on Tues - the rescheduled date - they didn't show. Or call. Or answer my calls. Or return my voicemail. Or contact me ever again.

Clearly fired. However, it was nicely scheduled to be done before the new couch arrived - and now that's out the window. So I'm crossing that off the goal list for end of summer - it's going to be delayed. It'll take me extra time to find new guys, get estimates, etc. Annoying!!! Contractors 2, Sarah 0.

On the plus side, I did complete the hanging of the speakers, so that's a goal completed. Some of the speaker wire still needs to be painted, but I'll handle that the next time I have the ceiling paint out.

The sky is falling!

Real life version of Chicken Little, right here.

Sunday night I thought the house was falling down. Turns out it was just paint falling off the tin ceiling. And last night some fell off the hallway ceiling. Thank you humidity, yes I promise to get back to work.

In other news, saw a mouse on Fri night, causing me to spend $40 on anti-rodent accoutrements. The mouse was captured and killed by Stiletto (Erin's cat) last night. Animals 2, Sarah 0. But thank you kitty!

Actually scheduled the floor guys. Spent two evenings, and borrowed muscle power, to empty the dining and living rooms so the guys could come today. Last night they called in sick. Living in a shambles of a house until next Tues now. Contractors 1, Sarah 0. I get a discount now though, so maybe we'll come out even...

The Lambchop Fence

When my siblings were growing up, there was a popular children's show called (or about) Lambchop (a lamb puppet). Lambchop had a very annoying song which sticks in your head forever - "this is the song that never ends,
yes it goes on and on, my friends.
some people - started singing it not knowing what it was
and they'll continue singing it forever just because
this is the song that never ends...."

Anyone else remember that? Well - I have the fence that never ends. Two weekends ago, I was determined to finish the fence and get the rest of the plants in. There were three panels remaining, and the brackets had to be driven into the concrete. At the end of a rather hot and exhausting Sunday, I had all the plants in (once again thanks only to Hobs!), and two panels up. And the two panels only made it due to the reinforcements (thanks ladies!) that showed up at the end of the day and helped finish. Drilling those holes into concrete took HOURS. Even keeping the drillbit wet. Lesson learned - next time (may there not be one), I will simply plan in advance for once and rent a hammer drill, it would be worth it!

Last Sun I was going to finish the one panel, plant one new plant, repot the tomatoes, and do some weeding. After an exhausting rugby day on Sat it didn't quite work out that way - I did plant the new big plant, did some weeding, and repotted the tomatoes - but then I got hot and decided I didn't want to play outside anymore. So one panel still to go...

Pics - (note the bench from scrap lumber that will hold the tomato plants - and probably a cat or two, realistically) -

From Fence Continues

And lovely garden!

Goals - got 'em

Not sure if you've noticed, but it's July already. I have no idea how that happened. And looking at my summer plans, I also have no idea when I thought I was actually going to work on the house! Sounds like it might be time for me to set some (hopefully realistic) goals. I always seem to do better when I have something firm to aim for...

By the end of the summer (end of Labor Day weekend) I will have the following completed:
Fence
Hallway, which includes
--Finishing the paste removal
--Patching the walls
--Painting
Refinishing the living and dining room floors (I'm hiring that one out)
Caulking/installing shoe molding in living and dining room
Erin's floor and sink
Finish the speaker hanging
Spray foam the gaps in the back basement window
Weatherstrip the hobbit door

I'd also like to:
Get a good chunk of the kitchen planning done
Clean the very gross windows in the front of the house, possibly including curtain washing
Build the outdoor garbage container
Actually mat, frame and hang pics in the dining room
Maybe even hang the mirror and shelves in my bedroom...

Clearly I'll be doing some work in the evenings. I am officially banning myself from regular tv viewing. But it's good to have goals!

Fencing in the rain

Ok, I haven't posted much. Not because stuff hasn't been going on, but because it's been pretty small gains for a bit. Some planting, lots of weeding and "mowing" (actually-weedwhacking the grass), and some fencing attempts. But when Dad was here last he pointed out that I should really put in horizontals to reinforce the fence so the lattice wouldn't sag in anymore. Then he started the project, bought some of the stuff I'd need, and gave me instructions on how to finish (note - Dad, when estimating timeframes, at this point I think you should just multiply however long it took you by at least a factor of 3...). And a seriously large amount of plants arrived to go in the back.

So this weekend - despite the fact that it's been raining for what feels like months - I really really wanted to finish the fence. Max came to help on Sat, and my unpaid landscape designer started figuring out where the plants would go. We worked through the rain (ok, we did go inside once when it was really pouring), and got all the braces put in to the existing fence panels! Major lesson learned - besides the obvious of needing to build the panels properly to start with - include things like drillbits not being at all resistant to rust, remembering put down newspaper before you track mud through the whole house, and that the ability of my brother to make me laugh at the most frustrating things can turn an incredibly painful project into an amusing adventure.

On Sun the sun actually came out! So off we went to Lowe's for the rest of the supplies, and I got going on the panels that go on the concrete while Hobs (previously mentioned landscape designer ;) ) finished prepping the garden and started planting. It rained. Again. But we persevered. Baja came out to help with the fence, and after some severe frustrations, we got the three panels on the left up! Only the right side to go... And the garden is looking great! Lessons learned from Sun - actually, making both horizontals the same length and the same height down from each 4x4 does not in fact guarantee that said 4x4's will be level. My measurements will be off. Gaps will appear in random places. Severe use of sledgehammer may be required. My house seems to be held up by air, since the lag bolts didn't sink into anything. And - it looks a million times better than the fence that was there.

So - probably one more day of work and the fence will be totally complete! But now at least enough materials have been used that we can actually use the backyard for a bbq if it ever stops raining...

In case you've forgotten, we started here:

From Sun in backyard

Went to here:

From Fence day 2

And are currently here!:

From Fence Again

Also - I had no idea of the amount of work truly required to put in plants. Somehow I kind of thought one could just dig holes and stick the plants in. I should know better, but I guess I always missed the garden prep, just caught the planting - and Dad uses a tiller anyway... Amazing!

Slideshow of the work:

Anyone have kitchen ideas?

The past few weekends have been filled with rugby (and some rain) so I haven't done anything large. I did finally hang most of the speakers for the surround sound though, that was pretty exciting. Still have to hang the very back one, and paint the speaker wire.

But - before I embarked on the backyard work, I did finally finish making a kitchen plan. My kitchen is lacking in the most basic and useful of things - counter space - and definitely needs some upgrading! It does have a lot of doorways in it though, so I could definitely use some advice and ideas. Anyone? Bueller?