Sunday, August 26, 2007

Weekends Are Good For Progress

I've been loving weekends even more than usual lately. Today Dad, Grandpa, and Nolan (my brother) helped work on the house again. I actually didn't know anything was going on until I got home from work around 3:30 and saw my dad's vehicle parked in the driveway. When I came inside I saw that 1. Granpda took down the old hood vent and put in an outlet for my new microwave, 2. Dad and Nolan had finished drywalling upstairs, and 3. they got around to filling in the screw holes in the drywall. Sweet!

After a quick trip to Menards to make use of a sale (anything you can fit into a paper bag was 15% off) we got one of my salvaged doors hung in the entrance to the Northeast bedroom. This also required a trip to 'the Depot' to get some more supplies.

Take a look at the door hanging in it's new place. It only needs a little bit of work and a coat of paint and it'll be ready to go. I wish I could leave the natural wood of the door, but everything else is painted upstairs and I'm not about to start refinishing woodwork up there!


While shoving little odds and ends into my sale bag at Menards I grabbed a new faucet for the kitchen sink. The old one was not only dated, but also featured the ever-spinning knobs. It took some strategy to get the water to turn off once it was turned on; the faucet just had varying degrees of on. Just spin those knobs until the water quits! The new faucet is a Moen one complete with a spray nozzle. In case I ever feel like doing dishes. We'll see if this happens. The new faucet looks so nice it almost feels out of place with the grungy 70's kitchen!



For another little snazzy purchase I picked myself up some new toilet seats. Why didn't I just do that the first day instead of using the gross-gross-gross ones that came with the house? The upstairs one was of the vinyl padded variety that I've always likened to relieving yourself on a vinyl padded folding chair. Exhibit A:




And after:
The second toilet (first floor) was your average hard white toilet seat. I'm not quite sure what they're made of but you can see some of what's below the white enamel because its surface is bubbling up and coming off. Classy. Exhibit B:
And after:
You may have heard somebody screaming in disgust this evening, wherever you live. That was me when I was removing the old toilet seat. As I was taking it off the bolt and nut that hold the seat on stuck to my fingers. Eeeyaachh! I don't even want to think about what produced that stickyness!

All in all, a very productive day. Even though most of the productivity came from my family it still feels great to see progress. Thanks again guys! Tomorrow after work I will have to get a start on some of the taping upstairs so that bedroom becomes habitable. I'm not sure how much I'll get done because I'm going to clean out the rest of my storage locker and move my architecture supplies to my desk in studio downtown. I'll have to post some info about our studio building; it's a really cool reuse of a warehouse... I feel photos coming on!

5 comments:

Muskego Jeff said...

Ah yes, the joys of replacing a toilet caked with years of somebody else's filth. I usually buy a cheap pair of gloves and throw them out when the job is done. That soft seat is the worst for bacteria as they suck in air, moisture, urine, whatever, every time the user gets up off of 'em.

Regarding Menards, don't forget that they accept coupons from other places, like Home Depot. I buy the pocket peeler coupons from whatever high school group is selling them. For $10, I get a bunch of coupons including 4 for 10% off any regular priced items at HD. Menards takes them and gives me the same discount.

Nathan said...

Upon reading this posting again, It has come to my attention that I am a real loser for taking and posting photos of my toilets. Who does that!?!

Dulcie said...

Who does that? A houseblogger does!
I was actually going to post in response to your toilet photos -- That is such a simple solution, and I've completely overlooked it. I need to get a new toilet seat myself. I'll put that on my very, very long list.

Jayne said...

I replaced my toilet seat, too, and the only reason I don't have before & after pics is because I wasn't blogging at the time! So, you're either not a real loser...or we all are. :)

Sandy said...

Take heart. I have read a lot of restoration blogs and I have seen a lot of pictures of toilets on those blogs! You are NOT a loser!