Day Four: The Blue House is Tenant Ready!!!

I woke up at 8:30 A.M.  I had originally woke up at 7:11, but I had my alarm set for 8:30 due to being up late last night.  Thankfully, I was able to fall back asleep and get that extra hour!  I was in dream sleep even at 8:30!

I headed over to the blue house to start my day.  And my day did NOT start well!  I opened up the dishwasher one more time to take a look...and decided to try out the unit.  It would need a new "spinny" part, but I wanted to see what I was working with.  I started it up.  I needed a tool at home real quick, so I zipped home.  I was back in a few minutes, and I found a puddle of water all over my kitchen floor!!!  I quickly shut off the dishwasher, but the water just kept on coming.  I pulled off the bottom of the unit to find water going everywhere.  I was on bucket brigade for the next 20-30 minutes.  sigh.  I KNEW I needed a new dishwasher...I just knew it!  But I figured I would give it a shot before a I dropped a few hundred bucks.

Mom sent a text right then, "Hope today goes well!"  Oh, Mom, if you only knew!

After I had most of the mess cleaned up, I pulled the unit out of the kitchen.  I was going to just get rid of the whole thing.  I heard a knock at the door.  "Hello?!  Are you my new neighbor?!"  A woman walked in and introduced herself.  She was the kindest 85-year-old woman.  I let her know all about what I was doing, and she was impressed...and a huge fan!  She kept on encouraging me and even gave me a hug!  And she LOVED the new bushes and flowers we had planted.



The new boxwood bushes!

That little piece of encouragement went a long way!  SOMEONE was watching us.  And it was nice to know that the small changes are noticed.  I walked her through the house, and she loved it!  After she left, I hauled the dishwasher outside.  I loaded up the water heater and headed for the Rochester house.

I stopped at the firehouse to get a part to try to creatively remove my bathtub drain that won't budge.  The four cross-members had broken, but I saw a trick online that I wanted to try.  It consisted of wedging a large socket down the drain and turning it.  I also tested out my tape that I had put on my chimney flue with a lighter.  Unfortunately it caught on fire!  So I have to remove that.  AGH, I created my own problem on that one!

Once at the house, I was ecstatic to learn that the socket trick worked.  I had to wedge a small piece of tin in between the socket and drain to get it to not slide, but it worked flawlessly.  Woo hoo!  That is one of the larger projects left to do.  Unfortunately, the kit I purchased did not come with the rubber washer, so I couldn't complete the project.  GRR!!!

The "cheap" trick to the $30 tool.

The piece of metal wedged in between the socket and the drain to create a tight fit.

GROSS!!!  The drain came off pretty easily!

My brother helped me load up the old dishwasher, and then I spent the next half hour loading all of the wire we had removed.  I took it into town along with the two dishwashers and water heater, and I was ecstatic to get $57.84 for my scrap!  I'll take it!

The wire we removed from the house.  What work!

Aluminum in the back, cable on top, copper on the right, two dishwashers, and a water heater!

We had to remove this foot-by-foot!!!

Quite a bit of wire.  Puts it all into perspective.

From there, I headed to Menard's and Lowe's to pick up parts.  I shopped for quite a bit.  Then it was off to the blue house to meet up with Mom and Dad to finish that house!  They both graciously agreed to swing by after working their full days!

I focused in installing a new dishwasher, while Mom cleaned.  Dad was wrapping up several various projects.  I installed the last closet doors with new hardware (woo hoo!).  After yet another Menard's run for parts for the dishwasher (I bought the wrong ones earlier), we all tackled the remaining projects.

Removing the old dishwasher (and mopping up the huge mess that it made!).

I installed the dishwasher.  Dad replaced a bulb in the front exterior light.  He also installed a new rear exterior light and battery-powered doorbell.  We hooked up my dryer vent.  And we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned.

I removed the massive light fixtures from the garage, took the aluminum ladder, and tidied up.

I am soooooooooooooo happy to say that this house is RENT-READY!!!  Mary came over with some freshly-baked banana bread.

I installed a fire detector.

I made another dumpster run and removed the tools.  I am so excited about this house!  It really turned out sharp!  I'm very proud of it!!!

C'mon, tenant!!!

I called it a night around 10:15 P.M.