The New House and Smooth Nuts

Hey remember me?

I used to blog rather frequently.  Lately I have been slacking but whatever....

I have a new house.  New houses are a lot of work.  New houses are a lot of fun.  Fun as in working the wrinkles right out of your nuts kinda fun. 

I must confess I'm loving every minute of it.  It is what I've been waiting to do for a long time.

I am a handy man.  Jack of all trades master of none.  It really comes in handy.  All of those times helping my Dad when I was growing up comes into play now.  Of course I'm not afraid to attempt anything I've never done before and that can be an attribute unless of course I get in over my head.  I'm sure you won't see me dangling from the telephone pole with a crescent wrench clamped in my teeth and a pocket full of screwdrivers attempting to upgrade my service.  There are limits people.  (my ladder is only 6 ft. tall)

I will however re-landscape the entire yard (and in doing so make sure every poison ivy plant touches my bare skin), I will change out the s-traps under the sinks (and remove the previous owner's hair balls), I will replace the faucet in the shower.......

At least that was my intention.   Ugh Hum!  To make an expensive long story short the stem would not come out of the mixing valve so I had to remove the vanity and sink, cut an access hole through the drywall, remove entire valving system and replace it.  Of course the new valve was not set up like the old valve so plenty of fittings and lengths of pipe were needed in order to achieve the desired effect.

Nevertheless I finished late last night with what I hope to be the last and final leak re-soldered.  Oh and by the way when I pulled out the vanity it was in shambles and the seller had completely Obamanized it with chunks of 2x4s and odd sizes of plywood and the laminate was not adhered to the top in spots and there was enough water damage that I wondered if he bought it at a post Katrina sale. 

So of course we just can't put it back in.  We picked up a new vanity top which was nothing more than a 4 foot chunk of kitchen counter top that I will modify and cut to size.  A new faucet (the old one sucked) and a nice stack of decorative tiles for the back splash.  I will also re-construct the lower vanity and give it a nice paint job that coordinates with the colors of the sink, top and tiles.  The good news is that the sink is ok.

Other than the toilet the bathroom will pretty much be all new. 

This was supposed to be winter work and I squelched at the wife when she wanted the drippy faucet replaced first.  I wanted gutters on the garage.  (would have been much cheaper too) 

We really needed them the past few days.  We have had a ton of rain.  I would guess 5-6 inches in like 2 days.  The river was almost over the road and it has the neighbors yards flooded.

The end of our driveway is now in the lawn and there are foot deep trenches where the deluge washed away all the gravel I just put in there.  Add it to the list I say!

We also have a new person we are adding to the household albeit only for a week.  Her name is Leah and she is in the foreign soccer coach exchange thingamajig.  Basically college students, with a keen knowledge of the game, are here attending school and during the summer they travel from school to school teaching kids new and better soccer skills.  Kaitlin attends this camp every year and we have signed up to be a host family for a week.  Should be interesting.  The majority of the kids are from the UK so I might get some more practice on my lousy British accent.  It sounds more like a mix of British, Australian and a tad bit of Apu from the Simpsons and his Indian dialect.  Amusing at the very least!

I have been getting some pictures to go through the gauntlet of phone, email and computer thing but it takes forever.  My new phone is really cool but I think it had VD because it doesn't seem to work correctly.  Momma is taking it in today while I re-construct the bathroom so hang tight.  I have pictures of my bath remodel they just haven't made it through the "system".  Here are some pictures of the outside of the house and one of the inside.  (only one of the inside made it through the gauntlet)

Yes the boys do love the new house and the yard and the woods and the chipmunks and the opossums and the birds and the....well you get the point they're dogs!

Cheers!