Archive for the ‘Home Improvement’ Category

The Good, the Bad, and the Yucky

Monday, June 29th, 2009

The good news is that I have a new faucet in the kitchen sink. A faucet that only sprays water when and where I want it.

Which makes it entirely unlike my old kitchen fountain faucet.

The Good

The Good

I knew things were going too well when Spouse was able to install the faucet in very little time and with no difficulties.

Under the sink, however, was a completely different matter.

The Bad

The Bad

The floor of the under-sink cabinet has spent the past eight years or so undergoing a transformation from the mild warping it had when I bought the house to the non-Euclidian surface you can see above.

Spouse thought it would be a fairly simple matter to remove the floor of the cabinet and replace it.

But of course, my house was built by brain-damaged and probably non-union marmosets.

The Yucky

The Yucky

Because I’d like to think that a union brain-damaged marmoset would know that you’re supposed to run a line of ductwork from the vent to the grate. Especially when, you know, there might be water in the immediate area.

Fortunately, Spouse was in Builder Mode already (still trying to construct a new bookcase for the cookbooks before the old one collapses and an avalanche of world culinary literature gives me a concussion—a task from which I keep distracting him to do things like replace the kitchen faucet) and was able to rip out all the warped-and-soaked pressboard, manufacture a custom duct, re-frame the base of the cabinet, and drop a new floor in, and clean up from the repair, all in about 6 hours worth of work (over 2 days).

Because I thought that taking out the entire cabinet the weekend before we expect out-of-town guests was a bad idea.

Catching Up, Redux

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

1. So far, my plan to mostly take the summer off from teaching yoga (just my bimonthly private class) and take a lot of classes has sort or worked, in that I’m not teaching, but I’m also not getting to the gym nearly as much as I’d wanted to—for yoga or anything else.

2. I did, however, get to take Seane Corn’s class, which I highly recommend—so long as you bring a couple of towels. She’s a very inspriational and spritual person, who gets her message across with stories that start out “I was working as an underage bartender in an underground gay sex club in New York…” Also, that is the sweatiest yoga class I’ve ever been in. About 1/3 of the way through, I flipped my mat over because it was drenched. This resulted in a bit of a problem 2/3 of the way through, because at that point, I was sweating from every pore, the mat was soaked again, and my clothes were dripping. But, you know, in a good way.

3. Work, thankfully, has more or less settled down and our big events lately have been a couple of birthday celebrations and trying to juggle everyone’s time-off requests. I have come to love the boring days, particularly since I decided that job-related angst wasn’t appropriate, because I’ve continued to choose to stay in the job. The two projects that took over my technical writer’s and test lead’s lives for six weeks actually launched early, which is pretty amazing in that environment, and I was very pleased to be able to take them out for a congratulatory lunch.

4. Baby shower was a blast, once I got there. I had made a fabulous lemon cake, dropped half of it upon removal from the oven, and cannot thank Taylor’s Bakery enough for saving my, er, bacon. Discovered that even while standing on a chair, I am still shorter than Barry, which amused (perhaps too much) everyone who noticed it. 

5. Digestion is now behaving itself, with occasional diversions.

6. Went to Spouse’s nephew’s high-school graduation in one of the St. Louis suburbs, and spent the next day at the Missouri Botanical Gardens with Spouse’s parents. LOVED the Missouri Botanical Gardens! In addition to a strong conservation program, the oldest working greenhouse west of the Mississippi (where the camelias currently reside), they have a loely Japanese garden, and Ottoman garden (something that was entirely new to me) and a variety of microclimates. What’s really cool, though, is that you can also tour the green-certified restaurant’s kitchen garden, bring in your sick houseplants for diagnosis by a plant doctor, and generally get a sense of the place as a working institution, not just a tourist attraction. All for single-digit price adult admission.

7. Home for three busy days, which included our first anniversary (dinner at the same restaurant where we had our rehearsal dinner) and Spouse’s XXth birthday (which we got around to celebrating last night with half-a-dozen of our favorite people).

8. Next, we were off to Belterra, Indiana, which is a hotel/spa/casino in the middle of nowhere in southern Indiana—right on the river, about 7 miles east of Vevay—for Spouse’s first professional conference as an atotrney. He also managed to get most, if not all, of his continuing education done in 2 1/2 days. I’m not interested in casino gambling, and the free wireless network was totally unsecured, so my half-baked ideas about getting work done were pushed aside, and all I needed to do was show up on time for meals, dressed appropriately. I wouldn’t want to get in the habit of sitting by a pool, doing nothing but reading trashy novels and fashion magazines all day, but it made for a much-needed restful weekend. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, too; much better than I had expected from my previous experiences with hotel food.

9. Got an extra 5″ of insulation blown into the attic at a very reasonable price. Next up, new gutters! Still haven’t decided whether or not we’re re-siding the house this year, but we are definitely replacing the not-so-much-leaking-as-fountaining kitchen faucet, now that I’ve finally picked out a replacement. And we still have about 1 1/2 cubic yards of mulch at the end of the driveway. As we’ll actually be home for a good stretch of time, I hope to attend to it. As soon as it stops raining.

Coming up, Father’s Day plans in two cities (fortunately, one of them we live in), Fourth of July plans, possible mini-family reunion plans with my mom’s siblings, and maybe even getting the art hung in the newly-remodeled bathroom (after which I will post pictures).

Things We Have Been Too Busy Doing To Write About…This Time

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

1. Taught 2 weekly yoga classes for the local community education program rather than the expected 1, in the session that just ended. Other teacher had a serious of personal tragedies that prevented her from teaching this time.

2. Multiple projects at work peaking and/or experiencing problems simultaneously. Usually, I need 100% of a tech writer for 4 weeks in one area. This month, I needed about 400% of a tech writer for one week. These are NOT equivalent!

3. Spouse has nearly completed the bathroom—it’s usable, but we still need to drop in the floor transition and register cover, and hang the art and towel bar—but he was distracted by…

4. Ripping out all the trees and shrubs that were planted too close to the house, and dealing with the mess that the new septic system made of a sizeable piece of our backyard. Also, by planting loads of hostas (thanks to our friends who brought them to us) and by 12 cubic yards of much, about half of which still remains to be spread.

5. Co-hosting a baby shower for the harpist in the band that played our wedding.

6. Both of us spending most of this week with nasty, digestive-system distress for unknown reasons.

7. Getting ready to be out of town for a couple of weekends; one graduation and one legal conference.

8. Deciding whether or not Michael is going to re-side the house this summer. If we don’t do it this year, we will absolutely have to do it next year.

9. Having an AWESOME birthday week (thanks so much to all who made it great by showing up)!

We had managed not to make much in the way of plans for this coming weekend, which is a Good Thing. I’m spending a few hours at CitYoga for a lecture and class by Seane Corn, and Spouse is helping a friend with a drywall problem.

Next up will be our first anniversary and Spouse’s birthday. So, likely again with the too busy doing to write about it.

Pipe Dreams

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Several thousand dollars later, I have a new drain line from my kitchen to the main drain line under the house, an intact pipe from the kitchen sink into said drain line, a functional septic system, and a clean crawlspace.

I can flush, shower, launder, cook, and do dishes. And not a moment too soon. Normally, when I’m stressed, I’ll bake. Not so much the option the past few days. Instead, I had a lot of trouble sleeping, and an overwhemling urge to rearrange furniture.

Fire, Water, Earth, Sewage

Friday, January 9th, 2009

One of the reasons I ended up buying my current house (in September of 2000) is because I wanted a fireplace. However, the inspection report noted that there was a problem with the reflective mortar, so I’d never used it.

On Wednesday, I finally got around to having the chimney inspected and cleaned. It turns out that the reflective mortar was probably painted on by a previous homeowner, and a few cracks in it were nothing to be worried about. A metal reflector would provide improved aesthetics as well as put more heat back into the room, but the fireplace was perfectly usable. (the company that did the work was awesome; I’ll happily provide ) Spouse very obligingly brought in an armload of wood that same night and built a very lovely fire indeed.

That’s the good.

The bad is that I thought I had a minor plumbing problem (clogged drain) and found out I have a major plumbing problem (need new pipe run from kitchen sink to main drain line for house). That’s going to be an all-day plumbing job for two guys, bright and early Monday morning. It will involve them cutting through one of the (broken) kitchen cabinets to get through the pipe, but as the house has the original 1976 cabinets still in it, and Spouse can almost certainly engineer a fix that will be much better than what we have now, I am finding it very difficult to muster any level of distress on the subject.

The ugly is that while the plumber was under the house, he discovered that there’s a problem with the septic system, in that it seems to be full after having been emptied only 6 months ago. The exact nature of the problem is yet to be diagnosed, but anything dealing with septic systems is bound to be a messy job.

Then, there’s the cleanup in the crawlspace. I don’t even know what that’s going to entail. There’s no point in even planning for it until after everything else is done anyway.

And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Work on the bathroom remodel is on temporary hiatus, as Spouse has injured himself moving a sheet of plywood. Fortunately, he’s taking good care of himself and improving—muscle injury rather than connective tissue, thank goodness. Still, we’ll be “rebaslining the schedule,” as I would say if I were at work.

Which, thank goodness, I’m not.

On the plus side, the floor joists look sound, so that headache is avoided.

A Hat Trick of FAIL

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Hat Trick of Fail

It looks like the plywood subfloor is also soaked. And that black stuff at the bottom of the walls would be mildew. Spouse will be patching drywall for certain. Meanwhile, the toilet, sink, and old vanity are in the garage. The sink and toilet will be reused, but the current plan is to build a new vanity, which will have a tiled top that matches the new, tiled, fiberboard-free, and please $DEITY dry, floor.

First, though, Spouse needs to find out whether the floor joists are also wet, and whether they need to be sistered.

And just because we haven’t had enough potty-related fail around here, at least one of the cats doesn’t like the crystalline litter and has made his opinion quite evident.

In Spouse’s hat.

Thank Petsmart for enzyme cleaner.

I’ve got a Clever Plan, though, because I’d really like to keep using the new, self-raking litterbox. The box isn’t designed to be used with clumping litter, but if we’re willing to empty it out a little more often (and I am, especially if it means no more pee in headgear) I think I can make it work. Stay tuned; film at 11:00.

One Down, One To Go

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Feline bathroom remodel completed: all we have to do now is convince the cats to use it. We’ve already had poo on the floor once, and it’s been set up less than an hour.

Still Life with Litterbox

Human bathroom remodel: Still in progress. The orange bits are plastic-backed polymer, weighed down with some primed scrap wood. Note the bottle of fungicide spray in the corner.

Still Life with Polymer & Fungicide

Floor Fail

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

It’s a good thing we were planning to redo the half bath over the holidays. Below is a picture of what we found after Spouse took up the nasty old carpet.

Every time Spouse embarks on a home improvement project, he usually ends up wishing fates worse than death upon our builder. Take, for example, the use of fiberboard as a subfloor in a carpeted bathroom.

DOUBLE FAIL!

Fortunately, my dad, a bona fide mad scientist with his very own lab, is going to give us some superabsorbent polymers to help suck some of the moisture out of the moldy sponge that the floor has become.

For those of you who are not fortunate enough to have a mad scientist in the family, I am told that diapers contain the same substance.

Stay tuned for another exciting holiday room remodel.

ETA: My dad was not only able to provide us with superabsorbent polymer, he also had a “better than bleach” fungicide for us…which is good, given that Spouse’s worst allergy is to molds, mildews, and fungi.

Stumped!

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

I have a research challenge that has exhausted my paltry research skills.

I am looking for information about the Charak Furniture Company of Boston, MA. I have one of their pieces, a revolving bookcase, that was sent to me by my grandmother. I’d like to get an idea of its value in order to find out if I need a special insurance rider for it. However, there’s not a lot of information out there on the company itself, and although its pieces pop up pretty regularly in auction catalogs, I can’t find any mention that they ever made revolving bookcases, despite the label on mine.

So far, I have discovered that Charak was based in Boston, and considered a very fine furniture- and cabinetmaker. They appear to have been in business from the late 1920s until the 50s or 60s. They were originally known for traditional styles and colonial reproductions, but ultimately ended up making a midcentury modern line of furniture. Many pieces are numbered, and all of them appear to have been handmade with very nice woods, like mahogany and maple. The postwar pieces are allegedly hard to come by; the item I have is dated 1949. They were competitors with Kaplan Furniture of Cambridge, MA (“Beacon Hill Collection”) and the Old Colony Furniture Co. of Boston, MA and, later Nashua, NH. One of their prominent designers was Tommi Parzinger.

This item looks quite similar to mine, but the inlay pattern is different, and mine has a leather top.