Long version:
For most of the winter the on-demand water heater wasn’t paying attention to our demands. Sometimes it would take several tries to get hot water, sometimes it would come right away, sometimes it would never come. It seemed to work better with the cover off and seemed like it might be tied to the temperature outside (it’s an outside mounted unit).

We had a plumber that works on Takagi water heaters come out to try and figure out what was wrong. Various searches on-line turned up some people with similar problems but with no answers. The blink code from the heater itself indicated one of three things and I never purchased the remote temperature unit because I never saw a need to change the temperature once it was set. It turns out it’s more useful to let it tell you specific error codes. The plumber tore apart the unit and found everything looked good, even the heat exchanger which is usually the part that causes intermittent problems with hard water deposits.

The plumber called the Takagi support people. They conferred and the plumber came back another day (no extra charge) and he checked some more things and then called the Takagi guy and did some more things with him on the phone. Still no answers. The plumber called back a few days later saying there had been more conversations with the Takagi guy and they came to the conclusion that it was probably a little internal spinning part that was frozen with hard water deposits and that it needed to be flushed. I was skeptical because the gas was flowing and a spark could be seen which means everything is starting up normally, it just wasn’t actually igniting.

The plumber gave me the Takagi guy’s phone number and after telling him everything and saying I disagreed with the stuck part theory because it wouldn’t be so reliably related to temperature and it wouldn’t be affected by the front cover being off. The Takagi guy said I needed to check the spark by pulling off the ignition wire and holding it an inch from the manifold. I should see a nice blue spark but instead I saw nothing. At about 1/4″ I saw a weak orange spark. Takagi guy said the problem was the ignition wire and that I should try cutting an inch off the end and reattaching the connector. When I did that I realized the connector was glued on and wasn’t going to be reconnected. I jammed the end on to the terminal and sure enough it was more reliable, even without the normal connector on there. Unfortunately the cable was glued into the igniter as well so I needed a new igniter and cable. It was out of warranty so it was $42 including shipping and handling. The installation took five minutes and the new one has a cable that isn’t glued in which will be helpful if this happens in the future.

We’ve talked about other solutions, one of them being grass for the paths. Julie & Fish just had sod installed and had a lot left over and they offered it to us so Friday we went to work to install it. Breaking up and clearing out the decomposed granite was the slow part, taking probably about 8 hours to remove about 2 cubic yards. After that all the steps were fairly simple (thanks to Julie for providing a list). We didn’t have a sod knife but Dean suggested a serrated knife would do the trick and indeed the bread knife was great and cutting up the sod.

So now we have a patch of grass (assuming it takes) in front of the back door so the dogs will have to run across it (hopefully cleaning their paws from granite) until more can be done.

Thanks to Julie & Fish for the materials and the instructions! Thanks to Dean for assistance in putting down the sod! Thanks to Ward for the digging rod which is a great workout and a great digger!

Saturday we needed a rest so we went with Dean & Marcia to the Gilroy Garlic Festival where I had chocolate garlic ice cream, a garlic sausage sandwich, garlic corn on the cob, garlic fries, deep fried garlic, and garlic chocolate peanut butter cups.

Sunday was more relaxed and got some motivation at the end to finish fixing the front fountain. The water tube that connected the bottom to the top was pushed out by the papyrus plant growing out of control. When I hacked it back some to check out the situation I accidently cut the power cord to the pump. Nicole and Abby hacked away the papyrus some more so I was able to reinstall the tube and install the new pump.

Now we just need to get back to the fence.

Now this weekend I am packing for another tie occasion and I already know the answer so I don’t even look. Then I get a memory flash about a box in a closet. I go look and sure enough, they’re all there! Packed up away since we remodelled. Sure they needed to be cleaned and pressed but they’re back!

I think I need more occasions that require dressing so I can keep track of these things.

I finally got some gopher cinch traps to deal with the gopher problem. Right around that time Grover killed one (and ate half of it before I stopped him). Using the cinch traps has been effective and after not seeing any new gopher activity for a few days we decided to clean up and put down a new layer of mulch/bark. The next morning in the areas we worked on there were four fresh gopher mounds. I think as they are being taken care of new ones are moving in from the 1/2 acre lot next door. More trapping took care of that one though. Still there are still a few lurking elsewhere in the yard. I’m trying to get them in the neighbor’s yard too (with permission) to stop the exodus.

Today we were going to excavate the flagstones making up the front patio to put gopher wire between them so the gophers won’t mess that up in the future. Starting on the first one was ok until I saw a bee fly to the ground and disappear down a hole next to the flagstone. I stepped over for a closer look and within a few minutes there were a number of bees looking for the holes in the dirt I had just cleared away. Looking around the rest of the flagstones I now see a lot of these holes. I stopped because I don’t want to be uncovering a nest and pissing off all the bees inside.

Unrelated to that but still odd is that this weekend the garbage disposal started turning itself on randomly. I think the fiber-optic switch on it is somehow triggering incorrectly. The first time we were watching a movie in the other room, the second time was at around 3AM. Both times the cat was sleeping on the bed. For now we’re leaving it unplugged when not in use.

I was also able to repair almost all the damage to the irrigation system so most of the plants should be getting water again. There is still more work beyond the repairs, mainly in setting up drip rings for the trees and drip lines for the bamboo so they start getting enough water. After that I can evaluate whether I need to split the system for different watering needs.

I also chose the two “deadly” chocolate recipes I’m going to make for Mortal Chocolate. The Chantico Death Cake and Carol’s Chocolate Death Cookies.

At Nicole’s mom’s house we went to Sacramento to paint more this past weekend. We got two coats of paint on two of the bedrooms, got the bathroom cleaned up, got two coats of paint on the living room, finished painting the dining room, and we got a single coat on the kitchen. Preping the kitchen was pretty time consuming with all the lines and the mess to clean up under the microwave and refrigerator, and the countertop needing to be re-caulked. Dean & Marcia cleaned up the kitchen and the garage and got one of the bedroom lights working and are workign on fixing the garage door opener.

Next Sunday we go up for finishing touches and another coat of paint on the kitchen.

Then on Monday we cleaned our house and pulled weeds. I don’t know where they came from but there were hundreds of grass seedlings growing on the surface of the crushed granite paths. Definitely not growing from underneath. I focused on pulling those before they got established.

Thanks to Liana for suggesting latex dipped knit gloves. They are small enough to work in and breathe and protect my hands. Unfortunately I can’t find them big enough but I’m doing ok with what I found.

Saturday all the decorations came out including the Christmas village and a tree that lights up. The batteries were corroded in so I cleaned that up with a 50-50 white vinegar and water mixture and an old toothbrush. I had to re-solder one of the wires too. The switch is very touchy but functional and probably requires a trip to Santa Cruz Electronics. Fry’s and Radio Shack didn’t have them.

After the model tree I decided to tackle the Star Wars Lightsaber game. I bought it just over a year ago after having played it at Anne & Dave’s. Unfortunately we had just started the remodel so it went into the shed unopened. When I hooked it up recently there was no video and the audio was bad. Getting apart was a small challenge and then I just bent the contacts for the A/V plug in more and all was working perfectly. Yay!

Sunday I finally installed the curtain brackets and rods that we bought from IKEA a little while ago so that leaves the hemming of the curtains as the next part in that job.

Then to top it all off we went to Ikea and got curtains. Tonight those will get hung.

We also tried out Leo’s Taco Bar on the corner of 17th and Brommer which makes it less than a two-minute walk from the house. The food was pretty good and reasonably priced. I think Taqueria Vallarta is better but this earns points for convenience. They also have breakfast burritos which I haven’t tried yet.

Also while at Costco I found a new motion sensor light to replace the one in the back yard that just decided that something was always moving. It was fairly inexpensive and came with bulbs but I put in compact fluorescents instead.

Since I’ve started a more sensible eating plan I’ve been losing some weight I should lose. This morning I was finally below 210. My plan? I eat when I’m hungry, not when I’m just ‘not full’. I don’t eat until I’m full, just comfortable. If I’m unsure I wait a little and eat more if I need to. So really, it’s just me paying attention to my body and not stuffing food into it.

Now I just have to work on the weeds tomorrow and do the cleaning I was supposed to do this week before Nicole gets home.

How White and Nerdy Are You?

I forgot the pictures of the shower glass in the bathroom which really is the last of the bathroom pictures I think. We did forget one thing in all the bathroom plans and that was where to put towel racks or hooks. We think we have that worked out so there might be one more picture, but everything else really is done.

Pictures of the drawer and cabinet pulls in the kitchen.

Picutes of the living room, library, whatever area.

Sunday we emptied the office and the other bedroom which took about 6-7 hours since this is where everything has piled up during the remodel.

Monday we primed the office, painted the bedroom, and then painted the office. We also got baseboards for the bedroom. Mmmmmm fumes.

Tuesday we painted another coat on the two rooms so now they are done and a lot of things that had no home can finally go where they belong.

Oh yeah, we can use the shower in our bathroom now that they installed the shower glass. Unfortunately there are scratches on the shower glass so they are bringing us another one in two weeks.

In the kitchen the garbage cabinet has been fixed to be a one-piece pull-out instead of two doors that had to be opened all the way before you could pull out the cans. We’re still waiting for under cabinet lighting and the installation of the blower unit for the down draft.

What’s left aside from that? Painting the office and the other bedroom. Then finally things will be able to be moved into their places. One of the problems of remodelling something is that you decide to do other things while everything is messed up.

For us, that meant re-texturing the living room and the master bedroom and a wall in the “tv” room. We also have an electrical panel switched from the projection wall in the “tv” room to a wall in the laundry room. The water heater has been replaced with an on-demand heater (I can see it has cut gas usage by 1/3). The old water heater took up a corner of the office room so there’s 10 more square feet in there now that the heater is on the outside wall. Since the kitchen floor was being put in we had them re-coat the rest of the floors with more of urethane. We removed the shelf in the laundry room and shortened the interior window that looks into it so that needed a wall build-up. Also since we needed new windows in the kitchen and bathroom we decided to get new windows throughout the house. Re-texturing, windows, and all that means that when we’re done we’ll have painted pretty much the entire house.

The problem was the vent opening on the outside of the house. It has a screen inside of a mesh just small enought oprevent a bee from gaining entry and just small enough apparently to gather up enuogh lint over time to become completely blocked. More likely is that lint formed little clumps over time that were then caught up and blown to the screen where they got stuck. Anyway, some cutting pliers to remove the screen fixed the problem. I’m not really worried about critters getting in there. Hopefully I don’t regret saying that.

In the bathroom we have counter tops installed and the sink as well. We’re waiting for the drawer pulls to be installed there as well, and we have to order glass for the shower. Glass ordering should happen tomorrow if all goes well which would put us about a week away from glass.

I saw that he went through the side, but when I tried to copy that I found that he was able to do that because he had the ceiling open. I didn’t want to punch a hole in the ceiling. So today I cut out the chimney from the old floor heater that no longer exists and made everything fit to the existing vent hole in the roof. I used spray foam to fill and gaps (gas venting didn’t seal the gaps) and used spray foam to seal the lower part fo the old chimney. Yay!

That said, the cooktop works very well and I was able bring 1/2 gallon of water to a high boil in 4.5 minutes. A watched pot does boil.

The oven (which has a Sabbath mode) did a wonderful job cooking a chicken. It’s also amazingly insulated. We turned off the oven and went for a quick trip to Joel & Cathi’s which ended up being 1.5 hours. When we got home the chicken was still almost too hot to handle.

Nicole loves her coffee machine and is tuning it to make the perfect cup of espresso.

We’re trying to switch to a non-outdoor shoe house, so to support that I was walking around in socks. The bad part is that socks on a freshly finished floor can be pretty slippery so I fell down the stairs that lead to the laundry area. I have a nice purple blotch on my lower back but the lump is about all gone. The bruise on my toe was a line shape, then a tadpole. Now it’s a seven.

The contractor hurt his knee playing soccer last weekend so he hasn’t been able to do anything this week. He had an MRI yesterday to find out what exactly is hurt. Today he is there with the electrician hooking up all the appliances except the refrigerator since that needs a lot more effort. This all means that I can actually make the Death by Chocolate I signed myself up for.

The bathroom cabinets are finished and in place. We still need to pick out handles for them but the look good and today the countertop people are there templating the countertops. After the counters are in the sink can go in and we can get the glass to block off the shower.

This weekend we need to paint all the baseboards and door trim so they will get installed on Monday.

First there is a kitchen faucet which is springy and has a front button to switch to spray mode for as long as you hold it. To the right of it is the soap dispenser, and to the right of that is the garbage disposal switch.

The bathroom fixtures in place so far are the bathrub controls and faucet, the shower controls and one shower head, and the toilet and dual-flush mechanism. The toilet seat will come later.

Also after watching splash patterns with the glass shower doors and how the water gets to the floor outside the shower I realized what was going wrong. There are rubber guides at each end that have space for a specific door, indicating how they should be in place during a shower. That puts the inner door closest to the shower head which when water hits the bottom of it, bounces under and on to the floor. The outer door should be the one by teh shower because there is a lip on the other side to prevent the splash, but the rubber guides don’t allow it and have a gap by the wall so then the wall gets wet.

I was prepared to pull off the rubber guides and glue then back in the correct position, but when I pulled them off I found they covered a metal bracket what allowed me to flip it upside down and snap into position. 4 snaps later and water in the shower should now stay in the shower.

Then I decided that today would be the day to finally run the bathroom vent for Dar’s bathroom. I had all the parts I had all the tools. I was going to run it to the side under the eaves like the contractor had done for our bathroom on the other side of the house. I went into the attic crawl space and made my way to the spot on the door (luckily the previous owners had put an old door up there to work on). I brushed the insulation out of the way and found a beam blocking my way to the outside edge, enough so I wouldn’t be able to get the duct in there without. Then I realized that the contractor had the luxury of having no ceiling in place, so now I have to find another way.

Oh yeah. I also got the taxes done and cleaned out the rain gutters.

Last night we painted the living room and the color looks good but it needs a second coat.

Today the lighting stuff gets installed.

Also some pictures of the bathroom wall tile grouted. I think it looks really good and everything is starting to look like what it’s supposed to look like.

The ceiling looks good and even now, and we decided to make the entry way the same color so all that’s left is to paint the living room walls. If Nicole does the edging tomorrow then I can do the walls in no time tomorrow night.

Then I replaced the flexible part of the drain which is ridged. I was told by the inspector when I moved in that stuff collects in the ridges and it isn’t good for health. Since I was there I decided it was time to replace that too and I learned that the inspector was right, that section was nasty and the other parts were pretty clean. I cut the pipe to size using drywall saw because I couldn’t find the hack saw. I got it all assembled and still felt a drip, the connection between the pipe and sink was leaking. I undid that pipe to find that it was part of the drain itself, so I put it back. I tightened it as much as I could which was far tighter than it was before and now there isn’t any leak that I can tell.

On Tuesday we get the counter tops installed in the kitchen.

This weekend plasterers come to finish the wall in the laundry room, the patch in the tv room, the wall in the office. Most importantly, they are going to complete the wall going to waht used to be the closet and re-texture our whole bedroom, so tonight we get to move our bed into the living room and sleep there this weekend.

Also this weekend, replacing the leaky bathroom faucet valves and drain pipe in Dar’s bathroom, hopefully installing the proper vent for the water heater, and installing the vent tube for the bathroom fan in Dar’s bathroom.

Althought he hasn’t done the staining part yet, I wish we had known about him when we had the floors done last year. Mr. Crow actually likes stained floors and as a result knows a lot about staining. The guy we had didn’t really like staining so much. While we’re happy with how they came out I think John Crow would have done a better job.

Yesterday I ran a new dryer vent line so for the first time since I’ve lived here it doesn’t just vent under the house. The previous vent line was a flexible dryer hose plastered in to the wall and dangling under the house.

While we were working the contractors got the tub installed.

Templating for the counter tops will happen on Friday.

Some tile work has happened in the bathroom too. You can see the different floor tiles in place and some of the wall tile. Also you can see a picture of the not yet installed tub. Hopefully the tub will get installed today which will allow the application of more tile.

Sunday Nicole remembered that King’s Paint is closed and they have the Benjamin Moore paint we had picked out. I looked on-line and found a number of other paint stores and one after the other they were all closed on Sunday. Finally we found one in San Jose. We got our paint and came home and Nicole went back to bed. I started to set up and asked if we had a tool to do corners with. Nicole said “No,” but that I could go get one. So off I went again (to OSH) but they were out and it was a mob around the paint area, probably because dedicated paint stores are closed on Sundays. I found an edging tool and decided to give that a whirl.

I like the edging tool, a simple square brush with wheels so you don’t slop onto the other part and it’s simple. Apparently I have a long way to go to master it though. After about 15 minutes Nicole came to check on my progress and told me that I was putting the paint on too thick and it was going to show a seam. I tried to smooth it out but that part was too far gone. I started using less paint and going back to smooth out seams but that still seems to have resulted in a noticable difference.

Finally I finished edging in the kitchen and dining area and got out the power roller to make quick work of the rest. I learned then that the power roller wasn’t really meant for lot’s of repeated uses using different paints. Each time you use it you have to clean it out which means running water through it. You can’t get all the water out so unless you use it for occasional painting you are going to have water come out when you first turn it on to get the paint going. The manual cleaning instructions assume you’re going to store it so they leave out any tips that might help you deal with that. So I start rolling and waiting and water starts coming out and making a puddle and then watery paint starts coming out and adding to the puddle. So I start rolling it on the wall in a place that will be covered when everything is in place. If you’re at our house before the refrigerator goes in or happen to be here if everything is being torn out you’ll see very drippy paint. If only I had thought to use red…

So the rolling going fairly well for a mintue or two before I realize that in the current light that while the paint is wet, you can’t distinguish the paint from the primer except for the wetness and you can’t always see that. I did the best I could but there are sime thin spots and a few missed spots we’ll have to hit later. The areas that are done well are those that the contractor needed to work in so mission accomplished there.

On to the living room. I break out the edging tool and am being extra vigilant about drips and using too much. I think it’s better, but it’s still too much. I was using Dutch Boy Professional for this part because we liked the color. It was quite a bit thicker than the Benjamin Moore though so I should have been extra extra careful. It was all going well and I was close to done when I edged into an open corner. I was edging on the bottom edge and it ran to a wall at a right angle to it with nothing above it. When I got there the paint piled up and overflowed the edger and went into my hair and lips. I never said I was good at staying in the lines. By the time I got to the bottom of the paint tray I noticed a skin had formed at the bottom but that’s ok since I was done.

On to the roller part once again… I’ll give this tip for the Wagner Power Roller, if you are on a scaffold it’s good to drape the hose over your shoulder and loop it (loosely) so it stays there. That way you don’t have to lift the tube filled with paint and try to control it. You sacrifice some range but it’s worth it. Anyway, I learned from my last clean-up to start-up transition that I needed to get as much water out as possible, so this time I think just a cup was still in there. I rolled it on the waterproof paper floor covering until I got paint flow and then climbed up the scaffolding. Rolling was going great, but paint flow seemed to slow down. I was at the end of the gallon and that’s what hallens then so I put in a new gallon and started up again. It was around 11pm, I was getting tired and the painting seemed to be taking a long time.

Finally I finished at 12:30am and went to clean up the equipment. I noticed the water flow through the hose was less that it should be. That’s why it seemed to be taking longer, because it was! I read in the troubleshooting part of the manual that slow/no flow meant something was clogging the line and that requires sending it in to Wagner. Then I remembered the skin that formed which I was doing the edging. One of those must have formed by the time I got close to the end of the gallon and been sucked up. Great, now there’s a latex skin clot in the paint thing (sorry dad!) so I have to take it apart and try to get it out. If that doesn’t work then I’ll send it in, and if that doesn’t work then my dad gets a new power roller tube. Oh yeah, and a lid because the dogs decided to eat the other one in protest of being left at home.

Looking at the living room ceiling today I can see many spots where the paint just isn’t thick enough because I didn’t realize that I wasn’t getting enough paint on the roller. It was wet, I moved on. I guess we’ll try again later this week, but now other things jump to the front of the line. At least I got a good shoulder workout.

This afternoon we should be able to paint the bathroom.

The problem ended up being the roughed in plumbing for the incomplete bathroom. Right now the water is mixing in there and giving us warm water. Turning off the valve to that side of the house solved the problem and when the real plumbing fixtures are in place it won’t be a problem there either.

• We got an on-demand water heater (Takagi K-2). The old water heater was in an outside closet that took up part of the office. The floor sloped slightly in so if the water heater leaked it would run into the office and get the carpet wet. If it wasn’t leaking it would just happen when it rained at an angle to get it through the ventillation holes in the door and be small enough to not notice. Also the water heater was only walled off with dry-wall. No structure to the wall beyond that. That closet has been removed, the external wall built up, and the on-demand heater put there. The downside is it seems it isn’t getting enough gas because the water just isn’t that hot.
• The walls in the living room and master bedroom are going to be re-textured old-world style. However the person doing that had their mother-in-law die of cancer last weekend so he’s home taking care of the kids while his wife is away.
• The bathtub should arrive today. Of course it should have arrived months ago and it’s coming from Germany. They say this week for real though.
• Windows are ordered so in about 6 weeks we can finally get rid of the single-pane aluminum frame windows and replace the double-paned windows where the seal has failed.
• Thereversing of the electrical panel in the tv room will happen tomorrow so finally I can have an unobstructed wall for the projector to project on to
• Tile in the bathroom is going to start next week
• We’re late in getting the cabinets under way in the bathroom so that will be another 6 weeks out.
• I’ll be so glad when the kitchen cabinets go in so we can get a little more breathing room.

Anyway, here are pictures of the kitchen and bathroom that cover the highlights of the last few weeks.

You can see a picture of the message sent to us from the UK on the bubblewrap for our cooktop as a bonus!

Updates should happen more often and things should happen pretty fast now!

The kitchen has the openings framed to the size they need to be.
The bathroom has the shower, tub, and toilet areas in place.

A little more destruction and some joke doorsin the kitchen and .

They also did more kitchen destruction. Opening up walls, removing the soffits, and smoe exploratory surgery on the room thrown in. I could see the contractor thinking about how he was going to work with all the weird things in the kitchen construction. Like that opening in to the ceiling, the bottom of that has the 2x4s not lined up with a 1.5inch (3.8cm) difference between them.

Now I think I can not have to worry about moving things around when I go home. Yay!

More plant pictures soon too.

Here are plans and before pictures of the kitchen. Tomorrow I should have pictures of an empty space where the kitchen used to be.

I’m glad to be back at work where I can rest.

One bright side about the tree being gone (aside from it literally being brighter in the front yard) is that it smells like christmas tree in our front yard. I hope that lasts awhile.

Yesterday we also picked out our kitchen and bathroom fixtures, sorry, but no pictures of those. Also we finally lined someone up to remove the tree in front of the house.

It took the plumber 8 hours to do everything and clean up. Part of that was because his back was sore but he kept the price the same as his initial bid.

Now we just need to patch up the wall.

Hopefully the plumber will be able to fix it the way I want.

The plumber I picked (not knowing any) was T’s Plumbing. My reason was we used to live next door to the owner on Bianchi Lane and he struck me as a good and honest man. When Peter from T’s Plumbing arrived he mentioned I lived a block from the owner and I sadi I used to live next to him. He then asked if I knew what happened to him and I told him I didn’t. Apparently cancer cropped up and he died last year. Very very sad.

Peter examined everything and thinks what I want is reasonable and will be back on Wednesday to do it.

I loaded up the car with the recycling and put ht edogs in there because they really needed to get out of the house. After recycling we went to OSH so I could get supplies for patch the hole in the ceiling and to get some clamps I would need to hold things in place while I did some cutting. Then we came home to the disappointment of the dogs.

I started more laundry and got to work on cutting the bottoms off the doors in Darlene’s area so it would clear the various carpet and rugs. I told Terry I’d have the saw I borrowed on Saturday back to him by noon. I pulled the old dining table out of the shed to use as my base. I measured the doors to know where I wanted my cuts, and then took the first one outside, took off the door knob and laid it on the table. The hinges determined where on the table it was. Then I just needed a guide for the circular saw that I could clamp in place.

The molding that was around the room that we had to remove to get the floors done was a good choice. The only problem was that in clamping it the saw couldn’t clear the clamp. So I tried using a cabinet door that wasn’t in use as a cabinet door and that let me clamp out of the way of the saw, but it was too thick. Then I moved the cabinet door back and put the molding next to it as a floating guide. That worked!

I forgot to adjust the saw blade to be no more than 1/8″ below the bottom of the but so it was trying to kick back and doing weird things to the cut. I fixed that but the weird start influenced the rest and it wasn’t so hot. I make a second pass and that corrected the major problems. Luckily people don’t tend to look at door bottoms (you shouldn’t either, Dar). If it’s really a big deal it can be sanded right.

Next up was the bathroom door. This one went much better thoguh it still had a hiccup in the middle but not that bad. Again, don’t look down. The third one went very well and I finally had the hang of things. I re-installed the doors and they all cleared! Yay! Then I installed the 2 remaining doors in Nicole’s room that were off from the floor refinishing and called Terry. He tried to send the mafia after me for being late but then gave up so I grabbed some food and went to drop off the saw.

Terry was about to wash his car when I arrived and he said he was seeking motivation to work on removing the tub from the bathroom they were gutting. He asked if I had anything better to do and I said “Let’s do it!” So we did! Over the next two hours I helped (he did almost all of it) cut apart the tub and haul it down stairs to later be hauled to the dump. That was one well installed tub.

Joel called me asking to borrow his saw that I had borrowed and now returned to Terry. I told him I returned it and that Terry was trying to rip out the tub. Joel came over and was impressed and then went home to check on dump hours. He found that they could make it and brought over the truck and loaded up Terry’s mess and off they went. And off I went to go weedwack the back yard.

I came home, applied SPF50 sun-screen, and took an allergy pill. Then I had an ice cream snack and got busy moving all the junk in the middle of the yard from the house being painted. Then I picked up the dog poop I could find (as long as you go right to left in your weed wacking the dog poop will not hit you). Then I called Sandy who wanted to try a better weed wacker for her to come over and try it when she was done showing houses.

I started weed wacking and 2 hours later (including Sandy visit) was done. Nicole was home at that point and didn’t want me to scoop up the cut grass so I’ll do that today when I get home.

We went to dinner at Carpo’s and then to Julie & Fish’s house to work on the D-Link device they had. After a time I realized that the device should be reset to factory defaults and then I was able to communicate with it and almost set it up. Unfortunately the manual thast comes with it just mentions the mode but not everything you have to do for that mode. I’ve looked it up now and maybe tonight I’ll go there and set them up.

I continued up 880 and after 5 miles came to a stop and joined a 5 mph group. I listen to traffic, no report on anything wrong but it’s wrong as far as I can see. After 15 minutes I realized that with 60 miles left to go I would get there in time for the end and then have to go. I get off to turn around and as I cross on the overpass I see it’s like that as far as I can see.

I came home and decided if I couldn’t have fun with people I should at least get work done around the house, and hey, we have two lights waiting to be installed for like the last 2 months. I got to work on those. The one from Ikea was a challenge because it didn’t come with appropriate mounting hardware like I’m guessing it is supposed to. Their screws were too big, but the ones that worked had too narrow a head. I got some washers for the narrow ones and that worked fine.

The Ikea one was going to be in the office and was going to require a new electrical box in there so I have a hole in the ceiling to work on that. The new light for the office doesn’t need that though so now I have a hole to patch. The one was tought to install because it came with a funky electrical box crossbar and it was tough to make it all fit but I did it! Yay!

After that I went to Julie & Fish’s house where Fish and & were watching Seven and I worked on the device I picked up to try and be a repeater for their wireless network (reception outside of their little office is horrible). Unfortunately, as it turns out, the device I got can’t be used in that way so it’ll go back to Fry’s. Fish says another device he has there is supposed to work that way but he can’t talk to it to get it configured. I told them I’d call on Sunday about trying to configure that. When it wasn’t working and I had finished helping Julie in her Hearts game I went home.

While I installed the cabinet, Nicole vacuumed the RV. After all that we returned the RV and we are now free of that. Yay!

Oh yeah. We also need to move the wood burning stove. It’s awkward and it weighs like 500 lbs. That should be fun.

On the easy side. We finally got a newer, smaller, medicine cabinet for Dar’s bathroom. I hope to install that tomorrow. Also tomorrow I’d like to cut the bottoms off her doors so they can close.

SO! EASY! Unlike almost any other Home Depot transaction.

Then we went to look for other medicine cabinets for Dar’s bathroom and they didn’t have the smaller one in stock. Then we didn’t see any outdoor lights we liked. Then we left.

Either we need a smaller cabinet or we need to move the outlet. We haven’t decided on the better choice yet. Nicole is leaning towards the smaller cabinet idea. Sorry, Dar!

Tomorrow it goes to the dump. Now we just need to get the floor guy out here to fix the hole in the floor.

Tonight We’ll finish the removal. The floor guy should come today to remove the floor heater (not that the floor has its own heater, but the heater is sunken in to the floor). Then he can assess what he needs to do for repairs.

We also removes all the tacks and nails from Nicole’s room so now it’s just a wood floor waiting for repair and finishing. Tonight we’ll pull the carpet out of the master bedroom and all the tacks so that can be investigated for damage.

The CS desk says they need the SKU# and start to call someone. Knowing it’ll take awhile for someone to get back there I tell them I’ll get it. I return a few minutes later with the SKU and they look it up. The computer reports that they have two of them in stock and so they can’t order it.

They call someone to go look for them and he then goes walking out the front door. We ask where he will be. They said “Here (CS desk) or there (cabinet aisle).” I figure we should wait by the cabinet aisle since then if he makes it there but not back to the CS desk we’ll still have seen him. After about 10 minutes, during which time I talked to Dar to confirm the selection, we go back up front to say he never showed.

They call him again and this time he goes back. After 5 minutes he comes back and says he can’t find any. He also says that he’s not a kitchen & bath guy but is normally the appliance guy. Glad they have enough people and give them the training they need.

So 1.5 hours wasted and no cabinet. We go home and I try to find it on-line. Home Depot’s site doesn’t offer it on-line or even show it exists. The manufacturer says it is exclusively sold at Home Depot.

Today I have to pull out the floor heater so the floor guy can see what is needed for repairs.

Then I’ll remove the floor heater to prepare for floor repairs and I’ll start work on the washing machine drain.

Hopefully tonight I’ll get to the ceiling light in the computer room. I’m going to try to raise the conduit on the ceiling light. so I can install the electrical box in the ceiling.

We don’t know when we’ll start yet but it should be interesting.

Oh yeah. Sill have to do the shelf in the closet.

I didn’t take off the molding because it was stubborn and I had more painting to do.

And… It can be watched without all the lights out in the room!

The rest of the stuff is piled in the tv room so Dar can start to pack and move her stuff.

We went to OSH and picked out some paint and ran other errands before returning home. I got out the shop-vac, converted it to wet mode, and started trying to get all the water I could out of the carpet before I we tried to rip it out. I covered all the area I could and got about a gallon out of it. Then we went back to OSH for more painting supplies and a utility knife so I could cut the carpet. I decided removing small pieces would be easier and it was.

So I cut rectangles in the carpet and start pulling it and the foam out (yuck!) and find the concrete until the carpet used to be painted green. That makes sense since long ago this used to be outdoor carpet in an area connecting the house to the garage (which is now the tv room). However, it is not what we were expecting. We were thinking we would just leave it as concrete for awhile but now we’ll have to actually do something with it whether it’s paint it another color, or have a better floor put down.

Anyway, most of the visible wet carpet was removed and then we started moving the furniture and stuff from atop the furniture to the tv room (former garage). Then we moved the wood cabinets which exposed the wettest of the wet carpet, then the computers and desks. Finally I pulled out the rest of the wet carpet and carpet tack strips.

Then I was really tired and it was midnight and we’d been going at this all day so I set up a box fan to blow on it and help it dry and I went to bed.

This morning I got up and pulled out the rest of the dry carpet and carpet tack strips, dusted all the walls, removed all the witch plate covers, removed the smoke alarm and heat register, and pulled off the lamp fixture (but left it wired for extra light). Then I used the converted-back-to-dry-use shop-vac to pick up all the junk on the floor.

Today Nicole with the help of Julie will pain the walls and ceiling.

You’re probably wondering why I have movie talk as a category for this. Well A number of laser discs I had waiting to be recorded to DVD were on the floor (including the Star Wars ones) and the jackets of them got pretty wet! I haven’t looked inside yet but they have plastic-lined sleeves so I think they are ok, but this is interfering with the Star Wars project.

The only source for that could be the water heater. So I went outside in the rain to access the water heater closet which is on the same slab as the computer room but divided but some dry wall. In the closet the concrete was wet but that could be from the rain. Then after a few minutes I saw a drip from the temperature and pressure relieve valve. After putting a pot under the outlet fo rthat valve and watching during Nicole’s shower I saw the drip rate increase.

The next morning the concrete was dry but the pot was completely full. Since the pipe from the valve extended in to the pot some got sloshed on to the concrete in the process of dumping it out. From this little bit on the dry slab I could see the water running in the direction of the computer room.

We went to OSH and got a new valve, waited until everyone showered, and then shut off the hot water, turned down the burner on it, and drained some water out of it so it wouldn’t spew hot water out of the side when I pulled the valve off.

I then took off the outlet pipe (easy), and put the pipe wrench on the valve and foun dit was stuck. Then I saw there was putty stuff that was used to seal it in place. I called my parents to ask for advice (since I sisn’t want to bust the whole water heater). My mom answered and she said it sounded like I wanted to talk to my dad, and I agreed, but she was disappointed that she wasn’t getting asked, so I asked her first. I explained it was stuck and had putty stuff and I wasn’t sure how to proceed. She suggested a bigger wrench (I only have a 10 inch pipe wrench).

Then she passed me off to my dad who pretty much suggested the same thing except also suggested cutting away the putty with a utility knife and putting a pipe on the end of the wrench for more leverage. He recommended against whacking the wrench with a hammer to break it free because the wrench is springy and would fly off and cause damage.

The cutting away the putty suggestion reminded me that I have some nice picks for doing that sort of thing and using them the putty came off pretty easily. The valve was still stuck without the putty so I wrapped my hands around the wrench, hunched up, and slowly too kthe weight off my feet. That did it and the valve moved!

I put the teflon tape on the new valve and installed it and then I put some on teh drain pipe and put that in.

Still to do is to change the drainage to it goes to the outside instead of straight down since there is no drain except for the computer room. Also is to find a way to channel water to the outside in case something else fails (like the whole heater tank.