Day Eight--Another House!!! And More Electrical on This One!!!

I made yet ANOTHER trip to Menard’s this morning.  I picked up two Moen cartridges (out of the three possibilities available).  I headed out to the house where my brother and Dad joined me.  Our goal today was to wrap up the ENTIRE left half of the house with the bathrooms and bedrooms. As we have been re-wiring circuits, we have been removing some outlets from the original circuits (both for ease of wiring and for logic’s sake).  Now we needed to tie them all back in.

I was back in the crawlspace, and Dad and Kirk were upstairs guiding me where to go.  They would drill holes in between the walls through the floor, and I would run new Romex up to them from the crawlspace.  It was again fairly simple work.  Push wire up, tie it in to outlet, move on, do another.  It’s just tedious!

I was able to get all of the wires to them before I had to run for a very special appointment:  ANOTHER CLOSING!!! J  I closed on another house at 11:00 A.M., so I left at 10:40 for that.  I changed from my dirty clothes to my “fake” dress clothes actually at the title company!  I literally changed in the street!  Sometimes appearance is everything.

Everything was set up to go smooooooth until I realized I had made a bone-headed mistake.  I had forgot to get a cashier’s check, and the title company wouldn’t take my personal check!  I was embarrassed in front of the owner and my banker, and I realized I made a 45-minute mistake.  I rushed out of there while those two waited.  GRR!!!  Seriously embarrassing.  I rushed to my credit union only to watch a silly event unfold.  I wrote out my “worthless” check to them after which they printed off a “credible” check based off of my “worthless” check.  Voila!  The title company now had a legit check.  So stupid.

I rushed back, and we were finished within one minute.  Sorry, guys!

I made a quick run to Menard’s to pick up more items.  I was on a feverish search for circuit breakers to fit my 45-year-old breaker panel.  I picked up some ones that I thought might fit.  I also picked up a VERY expensive $35.99 cartridge for my bathtub handle.  That was about double what I was planning to pay.  Sigh.  I made a trip to Lowe’s, too, to look for circuit breakers, and between both stores, the electrical section workers and an electrician walking the aisles had never seen the type I needed.

I also picked up galvanized pipe for my master bathroom plumbing.

I headed back over to the house.  My brother had to leave, so it was just Dad and me working this afternoon.  He tied in all of the electrical, and we hooked up another circuit!  Little by little.  So we now have ALL of the wiring done on half of the house!  That means I can get my painter and floor installer in there.  This is HUGE!!!  We’re getting there!

We had to move one of the receptacles.  You can see the old location to the right of the air return.  The new one is to the left.  That return vent prevented us from drilling down to the crawlspace, so we just moved it!

I tackled the water problems.  Thankfully, we still had the mirror removed in the main bathroom, and I literally stuck my entire body waist up into the wall cavity. It was uncomfortable work, and blood rushed to my head quick, but I had a nice access to the pipe. It was HARD getting it free, but it finally came unstuck and unscrewed nicely. Phew! I added a longer supply line, and attaching the sink lines to the new pipe was a breeze. I love when projects go well!

The original pipe was so close to the tile wall that I couldn't get a good amount of teflon tape on the threads.  So it leaked!  I needed a longer pipe!

The longer pipe!  It's EASY to get teflon tape on these threads now!

The new 1/4-turn valves.  Looks great!

I installed the new cartridge into the tub, and as I was putting it together, I noticed that the tub handle itself was broken!  AGH!!!  So I wasn’t able to try the water out AGAIN!!!  Most likely, the handle was turned to hard to stop the dripping water, and it broke the plastic!  So I’ll need to get a handle before I can finally turn the water back on.  What a lengthy process!

The cartridge removed.

I have owned this house for a couple of weeks now, and I STILL can't turn the water on!!!  It's seriously driving me nuts!!!  Every time I think I am ready, something else pops up!  After I buy a handle for this tub, I SHOULD be able to turn it on.  Except that I've heard that a million times before!

More projects complete!  More outlets wired!  Another day in the books!  And ANOTHER house to start thinking about, too!!!  Aghhhh!!!  One house at a time.  I REALLY want to get this one done before I start jumping into that other one, except I think I am going to need to steal just a couple of days away to get that other one ready!!!  Agh, so many projects to do!!!