Plumbing Triumph! New Toilet!

I've just had the pleasure of using our brand-new toilet! Woo hoo! Jake installed it himself today, and it only required two trips to the hardware store. The second one wasn't even his fault (the bolts that were supposed to be in the box with the wax seal weren't there)! We're delighted, and this should soon have an impact on our water usage here.

Meanwhile down in the basement, the dryer had (we're not sure when) become separated from the vent to the outside. Blargh. Jake also re-fastened that connection. Jake is now having a duly earned beer after conquering major house fix-ups!

There's lots more to say, particularly about our trip to PA last weekend, but we're a bit crazy around here with stuff to do, so I'll try to get to it soon.

Project Plans

Check out the new delivery in our dining room:

Yup, that's a new toilet. Not, it's not going to stay in the dining room. It will replace the one in the downstairs bathroom that was damaged in our mini-tornado (also, it wasn't very water-usage-efficient, so it seems a good thing to replace in any case). Jake ordered it online, and we hope to install it soon. Or at the very least before, say, we host a large dinner party in the dining room. You may recall some of our previous plumbing adventures (just click on the "plumbing" tag for the blog and all the lovely stories will appear); we're hopeful that we can accomplish this one in-house. Perhaps with the assistance of Master Plumber John? Or Local Expert on All House Things, Matt?

Other than that, we're in the middle of the seasonal transition period. Jake has taken out the downstairs air conditioners (upstairs ones, too, soon!). The grass in the back yard has started to sprout, too!

In other news totally not related to plumbing or our house at all, tonight I'm going to my first debate! Exciting. It's the Democratic Primary debate for our U.S. Senate seat (the one currently held by Scott Brown). We're particularly excited about Elizabeth Warren. I'll try to post after the debate with some reflections.

Irene-watch, Day 3: mini-tornado?

We're all OK here. We still have power. But we've had a spot of drama.



As it is so humid here, I put on all the downstairs A/C units, so as to get things cool and less damp inside. This means closing off the downstairs bathroom. I left the window to that room open, since it's protected by the back porch. Apparently, I created some kind of freaky vacuum-room, and when the winds picked up, they created a cyclone of sorts inside the bathroom. I heard a crash while I was in the kitchen and came running. Lucy was fine, stickering away, and seemed to have noticed nothing. So I carried on about my business. About 15 minutes later, when I went to use the bathroom, I discovered this:





That's the medicine cabinet that was formerly above the toilet, as well as all of its contents. Yikes. It appears that it was ripped off the wall.



In its downward trajectory, it crashed onto the toilet tank, shattering the top (but thankfully not the tank itself, so there's no water)



Thank goodness no one was in there. That would have been bad.



I've closed up all house windows now. It's getting ugly out there.



Stay safe, folks. Beware of medicine cabinets. (If you'd like to see the medicine cabinet in happier days, you can read this old post.)

Also, Plumbing: Shower mystery

Oh, and lately we've been neglectful about documenting various home projects/problems. Mostly this is because we've been too busy. But this morning, we were shocked to find that our upstairs shower doesn't work. At least, it doesn't spray any water, which, to me, is really the essence of what a shower needs to do. We don't know what the cause is, so further investigations will be necessary.

Jake promised to tackle the problem tomorrow. If you're a regular reader, you'll recall that previously, such a project ended with calling a professional. I just realized after looking through past posts that I don't think I ever documented this one. Let's just say it involved the shearing off of a pipe. Fun. Let's hope this adventure is less, uh, adventurous. We'll start by not waiting until after 5pm to start the project.

Updates soon. Until then, we'll try not to smell too much.

Update: Friday, 12/10: The shower is fine. After Jake collected his tools to prepare for the plumbing battle, Lucy wanted to know all about what he was doing. So he brought her into the shower to show her what was wrong and how the shower is supposed to work. While doing so, he noticed a tiny lever on the shower head itself that we had never noticed before. Turns out, the shower head had an on/off switch, and it had fallen into "off." So he put it back to "on," and it's fixed. Hooray! Best plumbing story ever.

Updates of Various Sorts

This will be a bit of an update pot-luck, containing the bits and pieces I've been meaning to write for a while:

Paint Update:

Quite some time ago, we blogged about the array of paints we found in the basement. While my mom was here, we got around to doing something about those cans of paint that we will surely never use, like the hot pink that was once in the (now blue) living room, the bright orange that was in the basement, and several other random cans of unknown origin. There were a few that were dried out, so they went to the trash. Then there were several that had paint in them, so we used mom's solution of drying them out using sand. Grandma and Lucy had a very regular job for several days that involved checking on the paint cans. Lucy LOVED this and was very diligent about bringing sand around and checking on the cans VERY often. Today, Grandma would be happy to hear, the painted was deemed dry by local authorities (me) and the sandy-paint cans went out to the trash. Hooray! A job well done.


Infestation Update:

I don't know how or why this happened, but the three plants in our bathroom have become infested with some manner of tiny, flying bugs. It got so bad, I moved them all outside, as I'm not so keen on bugs inside the house. We've had the plants for quite some time. One is a Christmas cactus that Jake got me on our first Valentine's day, one is a spider plant we inherited from Jess when she moved across the ocean, and the third is a leafy guy that one of our neighbors gave us when we moved in here. About a month ago, I re-potted all of them in nice, new, matching blue pots that I got at Target. Could it be that the soil was infested? Any suggestions, readers? I liked having plants there, but (call me species-ist) I'm really not in favor of supporting an insect habitat indoors. Here they are, sadly outside, waiting for further action:


Seating update:

A while back, as documented in a photo from this post, Jake purchased two Adirondack chairs at our local Ace Hardware. He put them together a while ago, but they were bare wood, and we thought some paint or stain would be a good idea. Grandma to the rescue again: while we were off in New Hampshire getting away for an overnight, she gave our new chairs a good coating of stain/protectant. So now we have two quite lovely folding Adirondack chairs for the next time you come visit us!
Additionally, we should note that our new walls, both out front and out back, provide pretty awesome (if hard) seating, should you wish to visit us and rest your feet.

Garden Update:

Between the building of the wall, our various travels, and the lack of rain lately, our garden has not been doing so well. Lucy did just harvest a small array of tiny tomatoes:

They were delicious, and also kept Lucy busy with the picking, arranging, cleaning, and distributing of them. But other than that, there's not a whole lot going on in the garden. That's OK. Our CSA farm share has been terrific, and the local farmers' markets have been bursting with goodness. Tonight, Jake made a tremendous dinner of super-fresh local ingredients, including corn on the cob, a lovely green salad w/ ingredients from our CSA, and absolutely amazing omelets featuring eggs from Matt & Mary. Have we mentioned our friends Matt & Mary? Well, they are awesome. They have chickens (5 of them) in their yard, and they share the eggs with us. They're away for a few days, so we're minding the chickens. This means we get lots of eggs. They are awesome and amazing and delicious. YUM!
By the way, the tomato omelet is topped with Jake's home-made herbed creme fraiche. YUM!

Media Update:

During our travels, our friends recommended a variety of fabulous television shows, movies, and blogs that we think deserve mention here.

First and foremost, we are now officially fans of the fabulous British sitcom, The IT Crowd (thank you, Tamara!). There are three seasons, all available on Netflix to watch instantly. They are funny. As Jake IS the IT department at his office, so he has many opportunities to experience some of the scenarios in the show. Also, Season 3, Episode 5 features a plotline involving "FriendFace" that totally explains why I am not on Facebook. [I'm not. Don't ask me to join. Jake's on if you want to poke him or whatever it is you people do on the Facebook with your Interwebs.]

My new favorite blog is Hyperbole and a Half. This might not be appropriate for some readers, but it is very, very funny. And often quite dark. Just as we like it. The new pain rating scale located here, is one of my very favorites. Be forewarned, there is some language that may offend some readers. And some shocking images rendered in childish cartoon drawings.

In recent movie releases, while at the beach, we went to see Inception. It was very enjoyable, and worth seeing on the big screen. These days we tend to wait until movies are out on DVD so we can watch them at home, thus saving on the babysitter front. We've been burned too often by the likes of Wolverine to get a sitter for a movie with questionable reviews. Fellow parents, I decree, Inception is babysitter-worthy.

In recent DVD releases, while at my brother's house, we watched Star Trek -- the one from last year with Chris Pine as Kirk and Eric Bana as the baddie, and Winona Ryder as Spock's mother (WHOA!). Some of you may be aware of my Star Trek issues. For those of you unaware and those who need a refresher, here is the deal: when my Mom was going into labor with me, my Dad told her to wait until the episode of Star Trek he was watching was over, and then he would take her to the hospital so she could give birth to their first child (me). I am not kidding. I've not quite managed to forgive him or Spock for this choice. So I'm not a big fan. My brother, on the other hand, can safely be referred to as a Trekkie. I mean, he owns the latest Star Trek film, and most of the other ones (feel free to correct me here, Brendan) and (I believe) various items signed by various members of casts of the various Star Trek franchises. Despite my misgivings, we sat down to watch Star Trek on Brendan's considerably large television. It was good. Very good. We thoroughly enjoyed it. As has happened previously with breakfast sandwiches and cream cheese, I have learned that the things I once despised and mocked are actually pretty good. I stand corrected.

That's the media round-up for today. Readers, feel free to suggest additional films, TV shows, blogs or Twitter feeds that we should be watching so that we can catch up with the rest of the world.

Further Plumbing Worries

Last night's glug, which I believed to be localized to the upstairs bathroom, is apparently some sort of system-wide failure. When the downstairs toilet or any drains (sinks or showers) in the house are used, the upstairs bathroom drain makes a tremendous glug glug glug. This, in my understanding of plumbing, is not good. Jake says this means that the studor vent is off the hook, since the other bathroom fixtures have a different vent. This leads us to wonder if there's something wrong with the city drainage system (we did get a ton of rain yesterday and last night) or if there's something in 83 Durant's pipes. Like a poltergeist.

Some improvements

Today we did an overhaul of the living room. We moved all the audio equipment into the TV/video cabinet, and got rid of the ugly and mostly inaccessible corner shelf that previously held the stereo. It makes for a little more space in the room, and makes the stereo actually accessible, which is all for the good.

Also, this makes it so you can see the door, including the patch of dark red paint where we were testing a possible color for the room (the color failed). You can also see the very sorry state that the yellow chair is in; I think it's time to start shopping for a new chair or at the very least, to invest in a slipcover. You may also have noticed that mountain of Lucy toys that towers over our living room. The kid has a lot of stuff.

We also installed a new closer on the front screen door. Try dragging a stroller w/ kid, plus the dog and whatever else you need through the screen door that will not stay open, and you will realize what a HUGE improvement this little device is. When I realized that I wanted to replace our old closer, I wondered what that little thingy was called. I figured that there must be some sort of technical name for it, perhaps something involving the word "pneumatic." But to my delight, I discovered that it's simply called a "door closer" and in fact they're quite easy to find on the internet. I wanted a particular kind of closer though, one that would easily hold itself open, but also easily close after we'd entered or exited with our sundry parcels and creatures. The "Touch N Hold" door closer was exactly what we needed.



Their website claims that the touch n hold is a "revolution in door closers," and, I have to say, though I laughed at that claim initially, it is a huge help. OK, my product endorsement time is over, and I hope we get nice fat check from the touch n hold folks for that.

One other big improvement was the addition of a medicine cabinet to the downstairs bathroom. We were keeping medicines and the like in the vanity drawers by the sink, but it was ill suited to the purpose (the bottles fell over and leaked; the drawer is also too accessible to a certain soon-to-be exploring little one), so we searched for a cabinet. We actually bought a couple at Home Depot, but returned them because they were terrible looking. I found this one on Amazon -- it's made of bamboo, with recycled glass for the doors.



Hooray! I think we might have to get a second one for the upstairs bathroom, which has the same problem.

August Update

So the blog has kinda fallen by the wayside lately. Hopefully the Flickr pictures are providing sufficient info as to why we're not constantly working on the house or blogging

But we have managed to get some small projects done around the house. While Jake's parents were visiting back in July, they helped us out with a bunch of things. Rose did a ton of weeding and mulching, which greatly improved the garden situation. Rose also tested out a pink room paint color for us. She used a sample jar to test out whether we could do the pink room over in a dark red. Too dark. Hmmmm....We still need a solution to the PINK of the pink room.

John installed a new faucet in the downstairs bathroom. This project was not without its frustrations. After John completely installed the faucet we bought, Rose heard a slight leak. Upon further investigation, it turned out that the faucet itself had a leak in it. Argh! So a complete dis-assembly, and a second trip to the hardware store. But who's counting. Actually, it may have ended up being five trips to the hardware store on that one. But we have a lovely new leak-free faucet.

But because the world has an equilibrium of leaky faucets, we just discovered this week that the basement utility sink faucet is leaking. Ah, leakage equilibrium attained.

In other small improvements for the summer:

*We put carpet on the floor of the under-stair nook, where Carter has a bed, and where we park Jake's folding bike and Lucy's stroller.

*We installed a new toilet seat in the upstairs bathroom. While doing this, we discovered that there are two slightly different colors -- there's "almond" and there's "biscuit," and they're not the same. Also, toilet seat technology has evolved. We have a seat with "quiet-close" and "quick-release" functionality. Wow. We opted NOT to get the self-heating one. Ew.

*We got rid of a TON of random metal (fence posts and downspouts and the like) through freecycle. Awesome! We love freecycle.

*Jake (with the help of our fabulous next door neighbor, Lisa) got our gutters cleaned out. They were so full of tree muck that they were starting to bow out and pull out of the fascia boards.

*We got a dehumidifier for the basement. I can't believe how much water this thing takes out of the air! It makes the basement a more pleasant place for working on bikes and working out. This is good. And we've had such a wet summer, that I think it's also good for keeping the fieldstone walls a bit drier than they might be otherwise.

The garden is now giving us tomatoes, and the herb area is full of basil and sage (and others, too, but those are the big ones). We also have an apple on the apple tree!

I've been trying to fit in some crafting time when I get the chance. I've managed to make some little things for Lucy, like a tag blanket (I think this appears on Flickr a while back). I've also cut up some scraps of pretty fabric that she likes; we hide toys underneath them and she's thrilled to find them.

Today I made a few items that please me very much. The first is a simple can o' toys. I noticed that Lucy loved getting into the containers on the counter where I keep her baby products and hair stuff and whatnot, so I figured I should make her one of her very own. I just decorated an empty formula canister and filled it with fabric and some of her legos and other toys. She LOVES digging through it and dumping the can.

I splurged on some fancy fabric last week, and I've been looking for just the right thing to do with it. This evening I decided that the beautiful Mary Flanagan hand-dyed wool felt would make really lovely soft blocks. You can see the prototype (the purple one in the background) that I made from scrap fabric, and then the real one that I made with the six colors in the "Aqua" series: Mason Jar, Spring Rain, Deep Sea, Juniperberry, Evergreen, and Emerald Bay.

I'm very pleased with it. Soft and wooly. I may make more with another color set, too.

That's all I can think of for now. No promises as to when the next post will be, but we'll keep putting up Lucy photos so you can see how she grows. She'll be nine months old tomorrow! Wow!

Small Fix-it Projects: Door & Floor

Meet Mr. Carter, Dog Contractor


Carter was an enormous help on our job today. The bottom of the front door has some heavy duty interlocking metal weatherstripping on it. Unfortunately, it was bent (before we moved in) and made a horrible screeching sound when we opened the door. It also pulled some of the wood apart at the bottom of the door. We've wanted to fix it for a while, but it seemed unwise to take the door off on some of the bitterly cold days we've had lately.

Today, with lovely 50-degree temperatures, we were ready to go. After taking the door off its hinges (a surprisingly simple job!, we removed the nasty broken and bent metal piece.



After rehanging the door, we were sad to find a rather large gap between the threshold and the bottom of the door. Thankfully, we had bought a metal/rubber door sweep last fall, and it was just the right size. So we put that on for added protection. It seems to do the job. Carter was an excellent supervisor, ensuring that everything was done to code.



Front door mission accomplished, I moved upstairs to tackle the hole in the bathroom floor.



With the proper tools (and a cool bag to carry them), the job is much easier.

Planning & Purchasing for upcoming Projects

It has been a rather uneventful weekend for house projects, though the credit card has been seeing some action in the service of upcoming projects. Using a sweet 20% discount coupon, we bought a bunch of R19 insulation batts for the basement, where there are a few bays in the laundry room without any insulation at all. We also learned about some energy efficiency initiatives, including a tax credit for adding insulation. We're also thinking about a couple of new storm doors (one for the kitchen and one for the pink room), but those projects will wait for now.

We would like to add insulation to the walls and ceiling, particularly in the areas of the house that always seem cold, like the kitchen. The trouble is, it's hard to figure out where there is already insulation. So it looks like we may get some thermal photography of the house done, so we can figure out what's worth doing, and where to do it.

We also made a trip to the attic to assess the vent pipe situation. BTW, all is well up there, no visible water or varmint problems that we could see.


As you may recall from earlier posts, this is the situation:

The Studor Mini-Vent will be our solution. Check out the stats here.

So we've placed our order for that, as well as some insulation and weatherstripping for the attic hatch. We're hoping that once these two tasks are done, we will have sealed off the last remaining source of moisture and warmth, and that our attic will be in tip-top condition.

I also set about ordering some objects to solve our hole problems, also known as some of the "WHHHAAAAAAT?" situations in our house. Specifically, we have a hole in the basement, on the chimney, currently filled by a red sweatshirt. I discovered that the piece we need is called a flue stop, so I've ordered one of those.
[I would normally advise against decorating ideas that begin, "Wouldn't it be funny if…" for much the same reason I advise against witty bumper stickers: Even if it's funny the first 100 times, that's still only the beginning. That 200th time you look at your joke wallpaper/bumper sticker, I guarantee it won't be funny. That said, we don't spend too much time in the basement, and wouldn't it be funny if we got this flue stop? -jb]

I also ordered a couple of really large corks to fill the weird hole in the bathroom floor.

So fans of 83 Durant can look forward to some small but hopefully successful and educational projects in the near future (probably over Spring Break).

We did do another draining of the boiler today, and found much less of the gnarly water.

WHHHHHAAAAAT? (Part 2)

We're slowly cataloging the many oddities of 83 Durant. Here is today's mystery: the plugged hole in the floor of the upstairs bathroom, as portrayed here:

It's a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, plugged with red plastic. It's about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, and a little more than an inch and a half deep. It's right in the middle of the floor in that area (yes, we have hardwood floor in part of the bathroom, which is also a bit odd in itself). I thought it wasn't a big deal until the other day I got the heel of my shoe caught in it. Anyway, we need to find a way to plug it so it's not quite so hazardous. Therefore, I am instituting the first contest of the 83 Durant Street blog. We are looking for both creative and useful answers to these two questions:

1) What is this hole? Why is (was) it here?
2) How should we fill/plug/otherwise deal with it?

Please use the comments section! We appreciate any and all contributions. Your prize will be immortal glory in the blog-o-sphere, and our eternal gratitude, of course.

Oh, in case this helps: the hole is near the hook-up for the washer/dryer that was (at some point in time) also in this bathroom. We've found both a dryer plug, and the washer water hookups in the wall. We have not, however, found a vent for a dryer. So perhaps that's what's going on here. Another thing: there is no radiator in this room. Every other room has a (steam) radiator, but there isn't one here. Instead, there was an electric heat element under the sink. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work, so we're using a portable electric radiator, which warms things up nicely. Anyway, these pieces of evidence may help in figuring out the answer to #1. Or they may not.

Stained Glass Glory

Today we covered the window in the downstairs bathroom with this film that makes it look like stained glass. Some of you may remember seeing this kind of stained glass in earlier pictures of our house. Unfortunately, the previous owners took it all down when they moved. But we liked the look of it for the bathroom, so we did that here.