House Projects: Tub Diverter and a Shelf

It's been awhile since we've done a house project. Joseph's brother Jacob is coming to live with us so I need to get the guest bedroom cleaned out. I have been using that closet for storage and it is packed. Also, during the bathroom remodel I showered in the guest bathroom and found out that the shower pressure sucks because the tub diverter needs to be replaced.

So my weekend started out by going shoe shopping Friday night. I wore my black flats during a painting project and thought to myself, "Hmm, should I change my shoes? Nah, I will be careful." So I needed some new black flats because I got paint on my shoes. I have actually been looking around for awhile now. It was one of those problems where because I needed something specific, I found all sorts of wonderful shoes - brown wedges, pumps, etc - but no black flats. Luckily, my sister Kristi agreed to go shoe shopping with me and she found me not one but TWO pairs of beautiful black flats. And I had a coupon.

Maybe it's time for a new shoe blog.

Saturday morning I went to my friend Abby's apartment to help her clean because they just bought a house. Because she just had twins. Who is going to turn down that woman's plea for help? Before I left, I helped J move everything out of the kitchen/living room and asked him to sweep and said when I came back I would mop. After cleaning so much my arm felt like it was going to fall off, I came home in no mood to mop. But J had done it for me. And cleaned the kitchen. I appreciated it so much I teared up a little.

It was now time to start the house projects. I had already researched online how to remove the tub diverter, and luckily we have the one that just screws off. J had to muscle it off. I love watching that man use his muscles.

Then we went to Lowe's and bought the appropriate tub diverter, and put the new one back on. Works perfectly.

While at Lowe's we bought a big sheet of MDF and had them cut it down using the measurements I had taken earlier.

This is the first project where the cuts weren't spot on. But it was only a hair off - you can see how much we had to shave it down. Which is where our first problem came in - our table saw made a loud noise and something smelled burned. There was something plastic shredded to bits. We took it apart and found out that the plastic guard on the bottom somehow came loose and that was what broke. We removed the guard, put the saw back together, and finished the cuts.

Then we measured and started drilling. And ran into problem two.

This is what we thought was a stud (the stud finder flashed). Nope, J was smart enough to realize it was not a stud. He poked around in the hole and found out it was metal. So I got him a blade from the toolchest and he cut a piece of the drywall out - he didn't think it was a pipe, it was too thin for that. He pulled off our attic door and looked above and found the metal dryer vent.

So we patched it and drilled a new hole a safe distance away and continued on.

The top shelf is the new shelf. The bottom shelf was there when we bought the house. All ready to hold random stuff that we just can't live without.

The only issue now is that the laundry room is the ONLY room in the house we haven't painted. And I painted the shelf with a white we used in other rooms, and the laundry room is a gross yellow-ish color. I mentioned this to J. He informed me he is not painting the laundry room. I looked at him and smiled. He told me to quit looking at him like that or he would have to change his mind. I walked away, then peeked around the corner and smiled at him again. He told me he would think about it. Which translated, means we are painting the laundry room. But definitely later.

The guest bedroom is now mostly cleared out. We are now utilizing the top den shelf (built that here) and also re-arranged other closets.

Sunday nights are usually dinner at my parents' house to see the family, but we took dinner to my friend Abby since she just had her twins. Joseph made the most delicious pulled pork sandwiches and homemade coleslaw. Dessert was brownies with frosting.

This is their older sister Adilyn. She is such a ham. 

Abby informed us we would be helping re-assemble the TV stand. 

I cannot believe how much stuff we got done this weekend. I'm going to pop some popcorn and watch a movie with my Love. Next weekend I will probably be doing nothing. Jacob should be here by then. I'll have J make him do stuff.

Project Time

Ah yes. This has been a wonderful weekend. I got some stuff DONE.

My sister Kristi texted me and asked for some help with projects around her house. So Saturday morning J and I cleaned our house, did a little laundry, then packed up our tools and went to her house.

I should have taken pictures throughout the day but I didn't, so I only have the "after" pictures.

Hung some shelves over her couch. They look great.

Her sliding glass door used to have those vertical blinds. The ones that are really annoying because they break off pieces all the time (she had several rolled up in her hallway). Her son bought her some curtains for her birthday because he knew it was a project she wanted to do. We hung the rod, but she needs another set of panels. It is a double rod and there are blackout curtains behind the front ones, so it really did its job and blocked out the light.

While I was there she mentioned having a problem with her toilet, so we also changed out the floater piece. That's my first time messing with the internal workings of a toilet (I've only ever replaced a toilet) but it was not hard at all.

It felt good to help out with her projects. And it was a fun day of hanging out with my sister and her son.

At one point Joseph and Matt (Kristi's son) were working on the curtains while I was elsewhere. Joseph said, "Hey, we don't have any brains over here." (Because I am the Brains and he is the Brawn.) I told him he just burned Matt. J responded with, "Well, he's just sitting here picking his nose." When I walked over I found Matt rolling a booger between his fingers with a satisfied smirk on his face.

Important things were accomplished.

I had a few projects of my own that I've been meaning to cross of my list. Did I ever mention that I passed my CPCU test? Now that the stress of studying for that is over, I actually have time for other things.

Changed a light on my truck (this is a brake light over the cab).

Do you remember when I re-upholstered this stool (found here)? Well, I had re-used the wood base and I don't know what the problem was, but the staples were not very secure. It started coming apart. I mostly ignored it but recently it's been driving me crazy. So we got a piece of spare wood out of the garage, cut it down (using the old piece of wood as a pattern) and re-stapled it. It appears to be nice and secure. And it really didn't take long to do, it was just one of those things that I hadn't really gotten around to.

There was another problem that had been bugging me that we also finally addressed. One of our fans had a problem when you would turn on the light - first it wouldn't turn on, then it would turn on but it flickered. I googled it, and found that there is a small black box you can cut out to fix the problem. Apparently it's a faulty capacitor box. It made me a little nervous cutting that out (fire hazard?) but as long as we don't put light bulbs in over the maximum wattage amount, we will be ok.

And last but not least, once it cooled down today, I washed my truck.

Oh yeah, it's been a good weekend. I am going to make myself some popcorn and watch a movie.

The Weekend

Ah, the weekend. That magical time that flies so quickly.

Friday I got up ridiculously early so that I could get off work early so that we could meet my family at the fair. I checked the website, and reminded my sisters that we needed to get there before five in order to get the $1 tickets.

It didn't really work out that well.

J and I got there at 4:30. There was a reaaaaaaaally long line in front but we walked past everyone standing in line (rude, I know) and found a shorter line. I called Kristi and asked where they were? They were split up into two different cars and were almost there. I asked if they wanted us to buy their tickets? Could they be there before five? Kristi said go ahead and buy 9 tickets.

And then they got stuck behind a train.

J and I went ahead and entered the fair, got a hand stamp and left. After some frantic phone calls and running around, we were able to meet up with Kristi, Breezy, and Steph from the first car. It was 5:30. I told them that I bet there was a certain window where they still let people in after 5 - I told them to walk up, hand over the ticket, and keep walking like they owned the place.

It worked. They got their hands stamped and we went to track down the second group. Jennifer, Mike, Austin and Matt finally showed up. It was 5:40. I told them the plan and we headed toward the front. Kristi directed them toward a specific line because certain people were already turning away the $1 tickets. Jen got through. Austin got through. Mike got through. Matt was stopped. We tried asking nicely, we tried pleading, but they said no more $1 tickets. Matt had to go buy a $10 ticket, but when you think of all the people who got in after 5 and shouldn't have, it was still a good deal.

Mike, J, Matt, Austin in front, Kristi, Jen, Breezy in front, Steph.

Even though there was a rough start, the fair was a lot of fun. It was nice to spend some time with my family.


Saturday morning I went to a Super Saturday craft day with Kristi at her church.

Then I had to run errands. I got my oil changed where they informed me that I had a nail in my tire. Luckily I purchased the warranty when I bought the tires in May, so I went and sat at Discount Tire. Errands don't make for a fun weekend, but they must be done.

I heard on the radio that there was a big pet adoption event at the Petsmart near our house. I have been wanting a dog for awhile now but I've been really afraid of how our cats would react. When we watched my mom's two dogs while she was getting her floor done, it was a big problem. We went to look around and asked some of the volunteers about a few of the dogs. We expressed our concerns about our cats. They had one little dog, Micah, up front with them because all of the activity was making him nervous. They said some employees would take him home and he had been fostered before, and he was a really sweet dog who just ignored cats, so they thought he would be a good fit. The only problem was that he was old, 10 years, and he had a heart murmur. They said it was hard to place older dogs with medical problems. One of the ladies was really attached to him, and you could tell he really was attached to her.

We spent some time with Micah, and I told the people we wanted to think about it and left. I had wanted a medium or large dog and was kind of disappointed with a little dog. But I kind of liked that he was old - I wanted to adopt a dog who needed a good home. I asked J what we would do about the cats? He suggested putting their food and litter box in the guest bedroom and getting a baby gate. I told him if we went to Savers and there was a baby gate there, we could take it as a sign.

$15 for a baby gate from Savers and $25 for the dog later, we have a new member of the family.

Lilly is hilarious because she sneaks up on him and then growls. He just ignores her. Marley has been pretty relaxed about the whole thing. As long as he leaves her alone she doesn't seem to care. I hope it works out. I think once you get a pet it should be a forever pet.