Laura's Renovation Adventure

We finally hired someone to help us work on one of our projects. He was an acquaintance of ours, as he used to be our neighbor and his wife works where I work, but in another department. They seemed like nice people and he had been in business a long time, so we hired him to do some drywall work for us and help us round up other trades people to do a bit of wiring and plumbing.

The trades people were fine. We were able to move our washer and dryer out to what was before an unusable sun room. We removed all but three windows, and replaced those. We also put in a new door that actually seals.

Our first indication of a problem was when we came home one day and realized that he had drywalled over a board that had a rotted place in it.

Then, another day, we smelled cigarette smoke in the house, and none of us smoke.

He wanted paid in advance for the work, and, stupidly, I did. There was no final walk through, so that we could complain about the lousy job he did on the drywall. There is tape pulling up. He made joints by the windows. The corners have odd patchy bits. In short, it looks like I did it myself. Actually, my drywall is better than that, and I do not consider myself competent to do drywall.

We've spent most of the month of September cleaning up his mess and trying to patch up the work to make it look right. I am not happy.

People have asked us time and again why we've done all our renovation work ourselves, with the help of my dad and kids. With the exception of skilled trades, every time we've hired someone to do carpentry work, we have been disappointed to the point of feeling cheated.

Normally, plumbing is something that I try to avoid thinking about. I either whine until my dad does it, or I actually break down and hire someone.

But this? This may make me take an interest in plumbing: Perma Flow P-Trap

Unlike most plumbing, this one is see-through, so you can see whether or not it is clogged. It even has a clean out knob, so it dislodges debris that could clog the drain.

I bought a new dishwasher. Even though we're down to one salary this summer and money is tight, our dishwasher was coughing dirt into our dishes that required being scrubbed out by hand. With five people in the house (one of whom is a teenaged boy who eats enough to feed a Bible camp), we have to cook at home. I know people used to cook at home and do dishes by hand, but I am thinking those were generally stay-at-home mom's. I am a phd student. Even when I am not working, I am working. My husband is in graduate school (again) this summer, and heaven knows none of the kids are going to jump right in with dishes duty.

So I bought a new dishwasher. An energy-star, tall tub GE dishwasher that sanitizes.

But to install it, we had to install the garbage disposal, because the one in that came with the house only sort of worked. I brought out the AHS home warranty people once to fix it. That cost me $60 and all they did was clean it out so that it worked that day. Oh, and they told me that the leaking under the sink was from the sprayer.

Right.

My dad came riding in on his white horse to install my dishwasher, disposal, and new sink sprayer. He did, but the sink was still leaking. Why? Because the drain had been installed wrong. As in, where it was supposed to be glued, only half of it was.

Another trip to the hardware store for a new drain.

Then we pulled out the old dishwasher. The copper supply tube was twisted multiple times in a spiral. It is a miracle that *any* water got in and that my dishes got as clean as they did. So we think that, maybe, the old dishwasher is salvageable, so my dad is going to put it in my brother's house. They don't have a dishwasher at all.

Anyway, after two days of work, we got the new dishwasher installed. And it runs beautifully. My polycarbonate pitcher that I splurged on from Pottery Barn fits in the top rack, so I can actually run it through the dishwasher. It holds more dishes than any dishwasher I have ever owned.

And the disposal actually disposes of garbage, instead of taking it for a carnival ride in a circle. And nothing is leaking under the sink. Of course, there is also no floor under then sink. All the drips over the years completely disintegrated the particle board floor. So my dear husband is supposed to be building a new floor for the cabinet. Three days and counting. :)

So tonight, I was at my parents' house for dinner, which is unusual since they live a couple hours away. I was in town for a funeral, and ran into my mom there.

Anyway, I told my dad what we had gotten done in the master bath, and he was most impressed with us. :) And best of all, he says that he can help us replace toilets later this month. Our fixtures are old, and they weren't top of the line when they were installed in 1978. And the college aged male renters did not improve them along the way. If things go well, this should be a really quick change-out. Of course, things hardly ever go well...

Spring break is over, but not my renovation project. Parts of it are done, though. The new vanity is in. The new faucet is in. The shut-off valves are replaced (they are compression valves-- I am not brave enough to solder copper). The sink has a drain-- I replaced the trap and ran it into the drain. The trap is pvc, but the pipe in the wall is ABS. This required a connector and a glue that the man at the hardware store sent home with my husband. I've talked before here about men not believing that I know anything about plumbing, so I sent the pieces with my husband and told him what I needed (because he really does not know anything about plumbing).

The bright side is that once I finish the painting and the edging on the floor, it is pretty much done.I have not started with the floor by the toilet, yet. The joy of peel and stick tiles is that I can do part of the project, and then stop. ;) The toilet needs replacing, but I am kind of afraid to tackle that without my dad around for moral support at the least.

Dripping faucets. How hard can one be to fix? I have even done it before. So I buy a $35 kit and get my husband to turn off the water, and tear in.

Let me back up. To understand, you really must know that I fall asleep pretty easily and sleep like the dead. My husband, on the other hand, is an insomniac, and every little thing keeps him awake. The shower in the master bath has been dripping since we moved in. Our home warranty does not cover faucets. So, he felt that something *had* to be done. I on the other hand, have been putting this off for months. I knew that there was no shutoff for the shower itself. That means all the water in the house has to be off until I get everything put back together.

But dh finally nagged talked me into tackling this. I took apart the faucet, removing the handles and stems, and put on the new stems and handles. This took a relativity short amount of time. Couple of hours.

But of course, both handles still leaked. We had not touched the seats. The seat is a little nut-like thing that connects the back of the faucet to the faucet stem (which is under the handle).

So we take it all apart and take out the seat on the cold water. It didn't want to come out, so off to the hardware store for a different seat wrench. That helped. The seat loosened and came out. It was, of course, shot. So I try to put in a new one. It would not go in. Would not thread. We spent an hour or more trying to get it to catch. So I try putting in the old one, taping the threads and stuff. Nope. Leaking mess. So back to Lowe's to see if there is a different seat sold. No. Gerber changed the way they manufactured them. The clerk, though, helpfully pointed out how the threads were machined differently. And the old seat is ever-so-slightly smaller than the new one.

So there is no way to fix the old faucet. Which means after 6 hours, and $50 in materials, we are back to the beginning. Well, except for the drip that has turned into a waterfall. Dad is coming on Monday to sort it out.

Yeah, I slept in Miss O's room. Dh got to enjoy the waterfall by himself.

I have been to Lowe's or Home Depot four times today. I have bought and returned and bought and returned.

Long day.