Day 14--Wrapping up Odds and Ends!!!

I woke up so, so tired.  These long days are catchin' up with me!!!  Since I had taken Mom and Dad out to eat last night, and we had finished fairly late (around 6:45 P.M.) and got home fairly late from eating (around 10:00 P.M.), I told Dad I would meet him at 8:30 A.M. instead of 8:00 today.

Well, that was even ambitious!  I saw a garage sale on the way over, and I ended up stopping by and buying a nice toolbench...for $100!  Aren't garage sales supposed to be nickels and dimes?!

I had various projects to wrap up today.  First and foremost, I wanted to tackle what Dad and I noticed in the crawlspace:  my ductwork had fallen down from the floor joists.  When it did so, it pulled away a couple of duct vents with it, so the furnace and air-conditioning was inefficiently pumping into the crawlspace and not the bedrooms!

The ductwork had fallen from the floor joists.

So while Dad worked upstairs on altering a circuit in the kitchen (we aren't done with wiring, I guess!), I worked downstairs hanging ductwork.  It wasn't too bad of work.  The ductwork was pretty heavy, but I just worked methodically from the end closest to the furnace on down.  I think one of the issues was the original furnace had been replaced, and this new furnace didn't really line up with the old ductwork.  So I was able to lift the ductwork to level, but they did not match up with where they used to be nailed into the floorjoists.

Before:  The ductwork drooped across my crawlspace.

After:  Level again!

After I hung up the ductwork, I reconnected two bedroom vents and taped them up.  This house just gained some real efficiency!  It intrigues me to wonder how long this was like this...and how many other homes across America have something similar.  I NEVER go down in my crawlspace!  A yearly check-up should probably be done.

The Master Bedroom was not getting air!  I know why!

Re-hung and taped.

Another bedroom had an air leak!

Pushed together again and taped.

After that, I then cleaned the crawlspace.  I took out our various messes we had made, laid the vapor barrier back flat where we had been crawling on it for two weeks, and re-installed the foam against the outer walls.  Another project I had had for today was to connect the dryer vent all the way out to the exterior wall.  I had seen it dangling numerous times while in the crawlspace in previous days.  Well, I was ecstatic to find that this was an old vent!  A new one ran from the dryer to the exterior wall!  Woo hoo!!!

The new vent on top, and the old vent below.

The crawlspace is clean!  And look at those working lights!

I then helped Dad to run a new stove wire.  He wanted to run a ground wire to the stove, but it was just as easy to run an entire new wire, so that's what we did.  I thought we were done wiring!!!  :)  That actually proved to be a little bit of a difficult chore!  Once AGAIN, we had the hardest time running wire through the wall!  It's crazy, too, because I only had about a foot to go on this one!  We seriously labored through running the new wire.  So frustrating again!

I then hooked up the wiring to the dishwasher and ran a cycle.  No leaks!  So that project is complete!  It made the house smell better, too, so it was a win-win!

My nieces came over this morning, and we just sat around and visited.  It was a PERFECT day for a nice little rest.  We sat out on the deck (every house should have a deck).  They did help with picking up sticks from the yard, and Keeks helped to sweep the deck of all of the helicopters.  But mostly we just hung out.  We even fed a bluejay some week-old doughnuts much to the delight of the girls.

Dad and I made a run to pick up my workbench in the early afternoon.  Once back at the house, we tried to finish installing the remaining light fixtures.  When I bought the house, it had come with two non-matching light fixtures in the living room.  It wasn't a terrible look, per se, but it certainly was noticeable.  It drove Mom nuts!  And one of my rules when I flip a house is..."What would my mom or sister say if they walked in here"?  So Dad swapped out some matching light fixtures we had previously installed and hung them up in the living room.  We also installed a new one in the hallway (it was so dim!) and entryway after learning that my larger fixture wouldn't fit (it hung too low).

One was silver, one was dark!  We changed them to match.

Proof for Mom that they are IN FACT changed!!!

The previous ugly (and VERY dim) light fixture.

The entryway light.

This evening I headed back to the house with Mom.  Dad called it a day (as he should!).  He spent his entire vacation helping me with this house!  Mom and I installed lightbulbs all throughout the house (so many were missing!).  She also helped me reinstall my leaky toilet.  I was THRILLED to wrap up that project again!  I hate "open" projects!  She then worked on painting the area behind the stove so that we can start testing and moving appliances in.

That's what my kitchen is going to look like!  Bright blue!  Time to move the stove in.

After checking for leaks one more time, I finished putting the trim on the dishwasher, and she cleaned, cleaned, cleaned.  It's time to start doing the finishing touches on the house!

The dishwasher is done!

I did make another project for myself.  In my main bath, I had a drain without a drain cover.  I decided to replace it, as it was old and scratched up.  Well, unfortunately, when going to unscrew the drain, the metal cross-members broke (and rather easily).  So that's not good.  I now have a broken drain stuck in my tub!  How to get it out?!

The old drain.  I broke those metal crossmembers trying to remove it.  Ruh roh.

The cross-members broke.  How am I going to get this out?!

We finally called it a night at 10:15 P.M.  I was soooooo tired and exhausted.  Thanks for the help, Ma!  I'm seriously ecstatic about the toilet working again!