Cleaning the Bathroom Fan

Well, due to time, weather, and some other variables we didn't do much this week. I did however, clean the bathroom fan for the first time. I've learned this was probably a bad thing. Not cleaning the fan, but taking so long to do it. Most sites I found say you should clean your bathroom fan at least twice a year.

All I did this time was a rough cleaning. This photo was taken after I cleaned it and, not having seen it before, you can hardly tell I cleaned it.

Our fan is a combination fan and light, I didn't want something that looked like a fan and, bonus, the light over the sink is the only other light in the bathroom. So showering at night, you'd be in dim light, nice when wanting to be romantic but all the other times, not very nice.

You can still see some spots on the glass. These spots are burned on bug guts. Yep that's right. Bugs either crawled in or got sucked in then died when they couldn't find their way out. After turning the light on for several years now, they got burned to the glass. When I took the glass down and initially tried to dump the bugs in the trash, nothing fell into the trash can. I had to get a rag and carefully scrub them off the glass.

There of course, was also a bunch of dust and cob webs. I used the rag I had to remove those as well. It probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to take one of the small attachments to the vacuum and go into the vent a bit rather than just what I could see, but I didn't think of that until I had put everything back together so I could move on with everything I had to get done. So I will see what the vacuum gets when I next get a chance to clean the vent.

If it's been a while for you since you last cleaned your bathroom vent, I recommend putting at least 5 minutes aside to go do that. It's all it takes really.

Installed Another Exterior Outlet

Well, I basically have things cleaned. Of course after I cleaned them they got dirty again, thus, basically clean. My parents came over and installed an exterior outlet so we are now in code for our city.

When we had the air conditioner installed we were informed the building code for our area states there must be an exterior outlet within 10 feet of the air conditioner. So thank-you Dad, again, for installing an outlet for us. 

We first determined where it was going to go. Then my Dad drilled a hole for the wires and we hooked up the outlet and box. The box was then attached to the house. We then went back inside and connected the wire to the new circuit breaker we put in the circuit breaker box. 

Disclaimer: my Dad has researched codes and did his own wiring in his cottage and passed all inspections. If we didn't know someone like him, with his knowledge, we would have contacted a professional electrician to do this and I recommend the same to you. There are codes and reasons behind doing things a certain way to prevent house fires - just watch Holmes on Homes or Holmes Inspection on HGTV or the DIY channel. Do not risk your lives and home just to save a few pennies. It's not worth it.

Trouble keeping clean

So this week, you wouldn't know it but I've been working on cleaning the house.

 

This is a picture of our kitchen, as it is right now. Believe it or not the stack of dishes has gone down. It grows, then I do another load. I'm not as talented as stacking dishes for drying as my fiancé though so, I'm not getting through them as fast.

 

Here is our Living Room, again as it is right now. Again, better than it was. I had several newspapers laying on the floor because I wasn't keeping up on my coupon clipping. There were also ads spead over the floor and had worked their way under furniture. I'm getting there though.

 

This is the office. I have to say, this is one of the spots I've hardly touched yet. So this mess is mostly building rather than going away. I have taken steps though. I purchased some 3-ring binders as I've learned I prefer binders to folders.

What I really need to do is keep up on the vacuuming. With two Golden Retrievers I figure I need to vacuum everyday at least once. I've tried grooming alone, but as you can see from this photo it's not enough. The amount of dog fur collecting in areas is ridiculous.

I will have the Living Room and Kitchen cleaned before my next post, and will have a dent made in the office. I'm also hoping to have some possible layouts to share for our basement.

New Patio Door on the Way

Not much going on this past week. We had Pella stop by on the 3rd and we chose a new patio door. I can't wait. We also decided on a color for our exterior. Kind of had to with the door and all. The design we chose will have some dividers in the door and they are going to be wood on the interior and vinyl on the exterior, the color we chose for the exterior is...Naval, which is this really dark blue, a little darker than a Navy blue. Pella should be calling towards the end of this week to schedule the install once they have an idea of when the door will be finished and I simply can't wait. Approximately the door should be ready early August.

July 4th came and went. My fiance worked the closing shift, so I stayed home with our furry children. Did my best to keep Lucky, the older of the two, calm while our neighborhood went firework crazy! They started setting off the big stuff at 11:00 am. No that's not a typo, that's right, in the freaking morning. I don't know that they saw anything because it was only here and there that one went off. Otherwise for the most part it was Cherry Bombs all day long. Needless to say, our poor dog spent the day cowering in the office closet - we have it pretty full, so there's this small space where she just fits - or the bathroom tub. Our other dog, AJ, just wanted attention, as always.

No projects really this weekend, no big ones at least as my parents are taking care of some of their to dos. That's fine, gives us time for more pondering and planning. I've been driving my fiance nuts with all the lawn & garden, DIY type shows I've been watching for ideas. He keeps telling me to turn off the TV. So I've mostly been watching while he recoups from the cold he has, or is at work. I'm starting to feel like I'm grasping what we would like to do with things - vegetable garden out back, possibly some kind of dog agility course, new shape and border for the front and side garden, layout of the finished basement - need I go on? So, I'm hoping to have some time this week for measurements and drawing out some plans for these areas and then share a few with you next week.

New Spicket, New Trouble

So, yesterday my parents came over to help move our existing dripping water spicket to a new location and switch it out for one that wouldn't freeze and leak in the future. While my Dad prepared the new spicket, I worked on removing the existing one. It wasn't fun. I had to stand on the toilet and counter of our downstairs bathroom and use a not so great pipe cutter as the space was too small for a better one. It took a while for the pipe to finally cut. Once removed, I caulked the hole in the wall and went to assist my Dad in turning off the water to the house and soldering the spicket line to the pipe that would supply the water. Once everything was together, we slowly turned the water on only to find the joint from the spicket to the pipe was leaking. So we used the new shutoff valve and shut water off to the spicket so it wouldn't leak. They went to the store for a union so we could redo the leaking joint without undoing the soldered joints since they gave us great difficulty. (Cold water and solder do not get along.)

At approximately 6:25 this morning he texted me, asking if I had remembered to turn on the shutoff on the hot water heater. You see, the water supply to the heater is the line we tapped into for the spicket, and in an effort to stop drawing water to the joint we were trying to solder because simply raising the pipe so the water would have to go up a hill was not working, we turned off the shutoff valve at the hot water heater. I hadn't so, since the doggy alarm had just gone off and I was already waking up somewhat, I went downstairs to turn the shutoff on. I immediately got a steady drip of water from the joint at the shutoff. I tried turning it back off to stop the drip except, go figure, it became a stream. So I turned the shutoff back on and found a bucket to catch the water. I texted my Dad letting him know what happened.

He tried talking me through trying to stop the leak, which was to turn the nut on the shutoff, and I couldn't get it to budge. So on their way over to fix the joint for the spicket they stopped at the store and got a new shutoff for the water heater. He tried turning the nut just to see if he could get it to budge, and it wouldn't budge for him either. At least not enough to stop the leak.

So, trying to un-join the valve from the pipes so we could slip in the new shutoff did not work. We were again drawing water to the heat and creating nothing but steam. We were forced to cut the pipe. Off to the store my Dad ran, while I held a bucket under the pipe freely dripping. We had tried to balance it on the pipe  from the heater but found it unstable while getting those first drops in it and it fell. So I held it for a while before it got itself settled, and I snapped a picture because I had nothing better to do.

Long story cut short, we got the shutoff for the hot water heater installed and the union installed on the line for the spicket. Turned all the water back on only to find, surprise, one of the other joints for the spicket was now leaking. We again turned the water off, undid the joint (thank goodness it was a threaded joint so the pipes screwed into each other instead of a soldered joint), took off the teflon tape, put new on, reattached everything, and found no leaks.

Picking up his things my Dad got dripped on. Looking up, there is an old joint, probably original that at one time leaked. We can tell this because of the discoloration on the pipe. But it had apparently sealed itself. With all out turning water off and on we dislodged the seal. We said screw this because it isn't a serious drip. Took us like a minute to figure out where the water had come from. We put a bucket under the joint to catch the drips but the bucket even now, barely shows any evidence of a drip. So, the leak continues and we are hoping it will seal itself again because we really don't want to have to try soldering another pipe with water in it.