April Showers

I almost don't even know where to begin. If I seem a little spotty, please forgive me. My mind is in about 5 gazillion places, right now.

*sigh


So as many of you know, we've been doing some home-remodelling lately. We've hit bump after bump in the road, but things were finally progressing. So imagine, if you will, that we've finally taken about 5 steps forward. Well... now think 8 steps back.


My Husband has been living the "Manly Man" dream in wanting to do things himself. I'm not allowed to do them, but it's not due to any fact other than he just wants to be able to do it. Fine. Whatever. I've got PLENTY of other things to do around the house...


Yesterday, McStudly had plans to install the new light into our bathroom. That's fine, but I couldn't keep myself from worrying - so I called.

Honey, I know you're going to laugh at me, but I just have to say it - please don't forget to turn the breaker off before you install the new light.

*sarcastic silence*

"Babe. Seriously. I'm not stupid."

Okay - that's fine. I just had to say it. Laugh at me if you want, but I feel better.

(end of conversation)



Well, apparently it shouldn't have been... in installing the new light, he ran into a bit of a snag and had to make a home-depot run in order to take care of it. While at the Home Depot, he decided to go ahead and purchase a new shut-off valve for the water supply to our new toilet, since the old one was, well, old and needed to be replaced anyways.

Upon arriving home, he decides to switch jobs and install the new shut-off valve instead. (Some of you probably see what's coming. Unfortunately, I didn't know what he was doing, or I would've said... well... you'll figure it out)

He starts taking off the old valve and SQQWOOOOSSHHSHHHSHHSHHSHHHHHSHHSHHSHHHHHHHH (that's my squirting water impression, for those of you not following).


Apparently, Mr. Manly Man himself forgot to SHUT OFF THE WATER!!! He thought that shutting it off on the shut-off valve... the one he was replacing... would shut all of the water off to that pipe. ???


Natural reaction - he sticks his finger in the pipe. I don't blame him. I would've done the same thing... oh wait... no. No I wouldn't have.


ANYwho - he has his finger in the pipe and calls... My Dad. Mr. fix-it-yourself. Probably the best choice, really. So he finally figures out that he has to take his finger out and go shut off the main water... but he doesn't know where it is.


He runs down to the utility closet... then down to the basement and finds three water lines. Shuts ALL 3 of them off. (again - probably the best choice, at this point) But, by this time it had been probably around 5 minutes since "the incident" started. So you know what that means...


Water - EVERYWHERE!!



So I happen to call, and he answers the phone like this:

"I feel so stupid."

Why? What happened?

"I can't believe I didn't that..."

What? You did what? WHAT HAPPENED??

"Ugh - I feel SO stupid!"

Would you PLEASE tell me what happened?!


As he starts to relive what happened, I BUST out laughing... what else can you do? But then he tells me how bad it is.



As you can imagine, 5 minutes is a LOOONG time to have water BURSTING out of an open pipe. It was ALL over the place... literally.


Bathroom - covered in water





(with the new shut-off valve finally in place)


Bedroom - carpet totally wet and soggy at the door and along the entire wall that meets up with the bathroom



Hallway - carpet completely wet and soggy outside of the bathroom door




*sigh* I wish that was where it ended.


Moving downstairs:

Dining room - water rushing down through the new chandelier, through the fire-sprinkler, ALL over the dining room table, ALL over the carpet





Utilities closet - it's raining men in there

(Sorry - it's a bad pic, I know)


Living Room - let's just say you can see all of the seams of the dry-wall on the ceiling. AND where any screw-holes may have once existed.







(the chandelier and one of the sprinkler heads)


(the cieling where the dining room meets the kitchen)


(the floor next to the utilities closet)



Now, McStudly WAS quick to not only turn off all of the water, but also flip the Main Breaker to the entire house. Than the Lord... I didn't need him getting electrocuted on top of all that had already happened (which was my first concern when he answered the phone the way he did and sounding all delirious).



Our HomeOwner's Insurance will be earning it's keep in the near future, that's for sure. Unfortunately, there's no way it'll be done by... TOMORROW, when his grandparents fly in!! But at least they're not staying with us until Monday evening. We'll have a few more days for clean-up and getting the house livable, again.



I'm just glad it was nice outside. A neighbor's kid ran the dog while we cleaned up and when we checked to make sure we wouldn't get electrocuted, we cut the power back on so I could cook some dinner.

On the plus side - the new light is almost installed int he bathroom, and the new toilet (and shut-off valve!) has been installed. I also got a lot of re-organizing and re-arranging in the spare bedroom while McStudly, a Neighbor Man, and Papa Bear worked.






Oh yeah - AND it looks like I no longer need to mop the bathroom floor!! :-P

It's Crunchtime!

Sorry I've been missing in action lately, minus the random song lyrics, etc. Things have been REALLY crazy around our house, what with getting ready for the grandparents' visit, and all.


The Bathroom is FINALLY painted. HOORAY!


At last count, the following had already been completed:

- remove all wallpaper
- remove almost all remaining wallpaper adhesive (thanks to the tip to try using fabric softener diluted in water - works like a charm when combined with a little elbow grease!)
- sand walls where needed
- patch/spackle nail holes and any other places as necessary
- take down ugly huge-mongous mirror
- remove medicine cabinet
- take out ugly bathroom light that's been with the house probably since it was built (ick!)


And now we can add the following to the list:
- prime
- paint
- temporarily take out toilet and replace wax ring

- remove all wallpaper and adhesive from behind the toilet, prime, and paint

- put toilet back and set in place with new bolts and bolt covers (my dog tried to eat the old ones)

So what's left to do before Saturday? Well, I'll tell you:
- hang pretty new light
- replace old mirror with new one
- replace medicine cabinet (might to just put it back in, due to random/weird measurements)
- purchase and set up shelving
- install newly purchased toilet in place of old icky one
- buy new bathroom rugs
- buy a few candles, etc, to put on shelves
- buy and hang a hand towel holder
- buy and hang a toilet paper holder
- buy and hang a "regular" towel holder
- install new white light switches to replace the icky yellow colored ones
- install new white outlet to replace icky yellow one
- install new white outlet and light-switch covers to replace gold ones (eww!)
- install new white vent cover to replace icky yellow one
- scrub floors, and remove the stubborn wallpaper pieces that have re-attached themselves from the walls to the floor
- scrub the tub, since it's gathered nastiness over my neglecting it for other tasks
- scrub the sink, since it's caught in and every bit of dust and dirt from the remodel




So, needless to say, we've got a lot left to do. And that's just in the bathroom! Take a look at what we have to do in other areas of the house -

Spare bedroom:
- clean out closet
- move storage boxes into closet (as much as possible)
- re-arrange what little furniture there is, including Austin's crate
- purchase and "install" (??) futon
- purchase something to put the TV on
- possibly throw out the old crappy desk that's in there (if we can find something else for our filing section)
- replace backplate for light switch (it's currently gold - ??)
- put in tall standing lamp from downstairs

Living Room:
- buy new tall standing lamp
- buy new curtains for window (to replace the too-small single curtain I have had ghetto-ly covering it since we moved in
- straighten up the built-in bookshelves (UGH!)

Kitchen:
- there's not really anything that could save this kitchen, right now...

Master bedroom:
- hang new ceiling fan
- possibly re-arrange furniture (not likely - that junk is heeeeeaaavy!)
- get all folded clothes out of baskets and actually put away (quite a feat in our house)
- shoes in closets, instead of right by the door, where they are easily accessible
- persuade McStudly to let me buy the new bed set I want from BBB.

All over:
- MAJOR cleaning
- scrubbing of the previous owner's nastiness on the windows, etc (she was a smoker, and I haven't gotten to do this since we moved in)
- vacuum (again)
- mop hardwood (and probably sweep again)
- dusting



So a lot of it is basic cleaning stuff, but with all the bathroom remodelling and painting we've been doing, it hasn't been done as often. Last weekend I did a good clean sweep of the downstairs, to clean off the dining room table (well, almost all of it), sweep the kitchen, wipe down the stove (which I don't typically let get dirty), straighten up mail-drop area, sweep laundry stairs and mudroom, scrub downstairs bathroom sink... etc etc. McStudly vacuumed (what a lovey, right?!) for me and has been tremendously helping with other things as well. He's even off work this week (oh yeah, did I mention he's finally on terminal leave from the Air Force? Another post for another day...) and muscling everything around the house while I'm at work, to get it done before arrival day.

AND I have a friend or two coming over Saturday morning to help me with the final scrub-down before they get here that evening (THANK YOU LADIES!!! Any others want to join us? Lunch will be MY treat!), so that will be MARVELOUS!!!




So I guess that's it. Definitely do-able, as long as we get to work and quit the lolli-gagging! A note on the picture front: so far, there's been no luck with the finding of the bathroom pictures. Hopefully they'll turn up becuase I REALLY want to show you how much better the bathroom looks. Sheesh! But if not, I guess you'll only get pics of the finished product. *sigh



Well, I guess I'll catch you cats later... I gotta get to work!