The good news is that the plumber arrived at 8:00, worked straight through to 1:30 without a break (love that work ethic!) and left me with functional plumbing when he departed. No hot water yet. He moved the water heater and the electricians will reconnect that in its new location soon. But since today was only supposed to be a rough-in day, with actual hookups to come next week, I’m not going to complain! The entire process took just only 5-1/2 hours. And now I have a beeeeautiful clawfoot tub with a beeeeautiful faucet. AND the graywater that’s been emptying…
Category: Home improvement
Sorry to disappoint my Christian friends who might hope I’ve had a conversion, but by that I mean only that God-the-Plumber has arrived. On the appointed day. At the appointed hour.
He is now (terrifyingly) drilling holes in my brand-new bathroom floor.
Since Handyman Mike wrapped up his part of the work on Friday, I’ve been hustling like crazy: drywalling, mudding, painting, moving shelving, the vanity, and plumbing parts into the room. No way am I finished, but by working late every evening, I got everything plumber-ready. Last night after finishing my to-do list I spent an extra two hours inspecting and asking myself, “What have I forgotten? What do I still need to discuss with the plumber and the electricians? What else is likely to go wrong?” I scribbled notes on the walls for the electricians (due tomorrow). I got up early today to fix a couple of things.
Now I can sit on my arse for a whole day. Well, other than helping to move the tub into place and starting to clean the living room, which is full of ladders, drywall squares, utility knives, levels, measuring tapes, and suchlike.
But now … to catch up with some overdue emails, blogging, TZP polls and whatever else I can think of.
One thing about drywalling and painting: they’re mindless enough to allow random thoughts. Here are a couple of those.
The Big Scary Project drags on. I’ve been Handyman Mike’s Official Minion the last two days and will probably be so until the end of the project. Exhausting! Mike worked all weekend and tells me he’s been working weekends for a month or so. It shows. He’s never been exactly a fast-moving kinda guy, but between that and his Perpetual Life Crisis, hours have been short, productivity hasn’t been good and “mistakes have been made.” A day off would be a blessing for him, but the only realistic way to achieve it is to hustle harder for the next three…
I’m working on a blogosaurus related to a comment on “Come and Take Them. Start Here.” (And what a comment section it’s been!) The giganto-blog is about 2/3 done and I’d hoped to post it this afternoon. But I got dragooned into minion work on the Big Scary Project. So at least now there’s this: That old addition was a stupid idea to begin with. By the time I bought this place it was held together by rot and insects. So down it comes! (And no, that’s not me swinging the sledgehammer. All I’m doing is bagging old blown-in insulation…
It’s started. The Big Scary project. And I’m as nervous as the proverbial long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. With spikes on their rockers. Poisoned spikes. With blasting caps in them. And alien plague germs. Flesh-eating alien plague germs. One good thing: worst comes first. The initial step (which I’m staying out of the way of) is to tear up part of the floor to gauge just how much rot, beetle damage, carpenter ant infestation, and other baddies might be under there. Once we see that, we know the baddest of the bad things that can happen…
I’ve been occupied lately getting ready for the next Big Scary Project on my house. This one involves demolition of one of the many ill-conceived and ruinously awful additions, foundation and under-flooring repair in one corner of the house, plus moving and completely reconstructing the bathroom.
The real work could begin as early as Thursday, as late as Monday, or could be postponed for months if Handyman Mike’s Perpetual Life Crisis doesn’t resolve in time for his work to be coordinated with that of The Only Plumber In Town, whose appearance is a privilege that must be arranged two months in advance.
Work, work, work this weekend. Among other things I started the next section of the complicated ceiling:
I don’t know when webmaster Oliver put this up, so you may have caught it before I did. But part 1 of my series on turning a $10,000 house into a home is now online at BHM. Working on part 2 as we speak. One of these days, I may even have a front porch. 🙂
The complicated ceiling: And here’s what the old beadboard ceiling looked like when the roof above it collapsed last year: The roof peak I painted and trimmed this week: The peak behind it still needs doing, but that’s a job for a pro — and a job that probably won’t get done until 2017. Here’s a before pic. Or rather, a “during” pic. This was taken while the not-a-garage was being torn off and I was just trying out my first paint samples. Sorry I don’t have one taken from a similar angle as above, but I think you can…