Day Three at the Blue House...

Today was another full day spent at the blue house.  I headed to Menard's after church to pick up some more parts for today.  I finally arrived at the house around 12:30 P.M.  Mom showed up shortly thereafter, and Dad arrived maybe a half hour later from picking up tools at the other house.

My focus was on getting the water heater gas line hooked up.  I had finished the water lines yesterday, but we still had no hot water!  I picked up a ton of gas pipe so I would have the right parts.  After playing around with the pipes for a bit, I had a game plan.  Dad showed me how to turn off the gas at the meter, and I went to putting the gas line together.

Mom was feverishly working on cleaning the whole house.  She knocked out two bathrooms and was waiting on me to get her some hot water to do the rest!  She cooked water on the stove yesterday to heat it up, but I took away even her gas today!  So I was in full gear so that she could get back to working!  :)  She planted some petunias I had purchased today as she waited on me.

Dad was working on relocating the garage door push button.  When you walk out in the garage, a screen door prevents you from being able to open or close the door unless you reach around it.  So he moved the wire from one side of the door to the other by running it through the attic.  Nice job, Pa!

And now back to me...and my never-ending frustrations!!!  I finished the pipe work after about an hour...only to realize that my shut-off valve wouldn't turn fully because it hit the 90-degree elbow.  Agh, I was so frustrated!!!  I had to take the entire set-up apart and do it all over again, swapping out the union and the shut-off valve!  GRR!!!  About a half hour lost.

The shut-off valve hit the new 90-degree turns!!!  GRR!!!

After the pipes were back together, I turned on the gas and fired up the hot water heater!  Success!!!  Woo hoo!!!  Well, kinda.  When I arrived today, I noticed a tiny pool of water on the top of the heater.  It wasn't much but a leak is a leak!  I tried tightening down the nipples I installed yesterday, but it still leaked.  Sigh.  What to do, what to do...

I can't escape the frustrations!

The rest of the day was wrapping up all of the small (but many!) projects.  Mom cleaned the kitchen.  Dad and I worked on the finishing touches to a few closet doors.  One closet door was bowed out and needed some creative nailing to hold it together.  Another was missing a knob.  A third was missing a knob, as well.

We also tackled the sliding glass patio door.  The wheels are 28 years old and broken, so it didn't move freely at all.  So I bought some parts this morning to fix that.  The door now slides back and forth!

The old sliding glass door wheel...and the new!  Needless to say, it didn't use to slide very well.  It's the small stuff that makes the BIGGEST differences!

Mom left around 4:15 P.M. for a skate party with the church, while Dad and I stayed behind.  We cleaned out the garage.

The very clean living room.  Thanks, Ma!

The other view of the living room.

The kitchen.  Looks great!

I had called up my property manager at 2:30 to let him know I finally had another house for him.  He swung by to check it out.  With all of the tools and parts laying around, he asked when I REALLY would have the house ready for a showing.  I told him tonight!  He didn't seem to believe me!  But that was seriously my goal!  We DID have a lot left to do, but I had a half a day to work!  But the day has arrived where it's in his hands now.  Here's to hoping for a GREAT tenant!

We finally called it a night around 6:10 P.M. and headed over to the skate party, too.  I stayed behind to visit with my nieces and nephew and was dropped off back at the house around 7:45 P.M.  I made a run to the dumpster to dump out the junk from the back of my truck, then headed to Menard's again only to find that it closed at 8:00 P.M. on Sundays.  I arrived at 8:12.  Agh!  I had high hopes of installing a dishwasher tonight!  It was not going to happen.

Not to miss out on any work time, I headed home and mowed my own personal yard in the dark.  I finished at 8:49 P.M., then headed over to the house to do some more work.  I fired up the furnace that had lost its gas when I turned it off this morning (thanks, Pa, for helping on that one over the phone!).  I hooked up the gas dryer.  I talked to the water heater to tell it to stop leaking.  I vacuumed.  I cleaned up what was not done today.  I cleared out much of the garage of the junk that Dad and I had swept up.  I installed new lightbulbs in all the fixtures that needed it (lots of 'em did!).

The gas line hooked up on the dryer.

Firing the gas furnace back up.  C'mon, trusty ol' furnace!

The brand-new water heater installed.  I still need to hook up the relief valve drain line.

I also cleaned and installed the fan blades from the kitchen ceiling fan.  Mom had cleaned the bottoms of them this morning, but when putting screws on the fan this afternoon, I had to chuckle to see that Mom didn't clean what she couldn't see!  The blades were DISGUSTING!  They were full of grease.  As Dad asked, "How does grease travel through the air"?  I don't know, Dad, but it does indeed!

The top of the fan blades Mom had cleaned.  I had to chuckle to see she only got the edges!

The new tops.  So clean!

I made another dumpster run (lots of junk came out of this house!).

Finally, right at 11:00 P.M., I called it a night.  I really hadn't planned on spending this much time over here at this house, but she was much more needy than I anticipated...especially with that surprise water heater not working.  But that's what you get when you buy a house as-is.  Surprises!

I'm going to try and tackle some projects at the other house, then wrap this one up tomorrow night.  It took a couple days of my time longer than expected, but it had quite a bit of undone maintenance.

But the GREAT news is that my property manager has the key!  It's time for him to start showing the home!  He thinks he can get $1000-$1050/month.  I would be ECSTATIC to get that.  But that's why I go through all of these hassles and frustrations.  The pay-off should come in the end.  Here's to hoping!

In bed around midnight...