Day 15: What a GREAT Day!!!

I slept in until 8:40 A.M.  With a little bit of a later night, I wanted to be fresh.

I headed over to the house to wrap up the various “little” projects that were remaining.  The big ones are mostly done…now it’s time to start doing the finishing touches!

First on my list was the massive drywall holes in the garage.  One was done by us underneath the breaker panel box, and the other was me correcting the previous owner’s poor driving abilities!  These projects went rather nicely, as well.  All right!!!  The garage is now ready for paint!!!  Finally!

The large hole where a previous owner ran a car into the wall.  I wanted it fixed right!

All patched up!

The hole we created underneath the breaker box panel.

All patched up.  Needs sanded.  :)

Next on the list was the floor in the corner of the dining room.  If you remember, when I first purchased this home, there was a massive shelf that stood to the left of the fireplace.  The previous owners left it there when they put in new laminate flooring.  So after removing the shelf (I thought it made the room look smaller), I found classic 1970’s carpet underneath the shelf.



The classic 1970's carpet under the old shelf I chose to remove.

So this morning I took to pulling out that carpet.  I grabbed a knife only to learn that it came up rather nicely without cutting.  Hmm…it’s possible that this was a piece of carpet laid down under the shelf but not spread around the rest of the room.  For underneath the carpet piece was another surprise, although not really.  For I found classic 12” tiles, but I expected them to be there because I found the same tiles on the opposite end of the room underneath the dishwasher.



Look at that classic original flooring!!!

I scraped away the padding and started cutting new pieces to fit.  I had a pretty rough time finding a color match on the laminate, but I was thrilled to find that the closest match was actually from a kitchen floor in my personal house!  I had saved the leftovers, and they were put to great use this morning.

Thankfully, this project went rather smoothly.  Of course, where the two pieces meet initially (new and old), there is not tongue-and-groove, but the trim should keep it down nicely.  All in all, I am thrilled with how it turned out.  It’s an extra piece of the room available for use now!

It's not a perfect color match, but it blends in well from across the room.  Just need some trim now!

After that, I started tackling the two bricks that needed re-set in mortar on the front porch.  These two bricks were just hanging there with no joints when I bought the house.  I had set these two aside in the garage to reseat them, and now it was time!  I mixed up some mortar, then went at it.  Hmm.  I didn’t feel like I had enough.  So I mixed up some more.  Let’s be honest, I had NO idea what I was doing.  I have seen people lay bricks before, but I have never done it myself.  So I mixed up a lot of mortar, then slapped it up there.  I set the bricks on top and made sure to make sure mortar was oozing from everywhere.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  ANOTHER project complete!

The bricks as I bought the house.  I needed to mortar two back in place.

After!  Not a bad job, eh?!

Today was going great!

Next I tackled the unfortunate problem that we had made for ourselves.  Dad had mentioned after reading this blog that he didn’t think foil tape on the chimney flue was such a good idea…that it could possibly catch fire.  So yesterday at the firehouse, I performed a very quality-controlled test:  I took a flame right to my roll of foil tape.  It caught fire.  I knew right then and there that I would have to remove it.

The foil tape that unfortunately caught fire on my professional fire test.

So I cut out a big hole of the drywall and took it all out.  A little bit of time wasted, but only a half hour.  Safety is definitely the #1 goal when renting a home, so I’m glad it’s out.  Of course, I then patched up that hole.  Another project complete.

I tried to make the hole as unseen as possible.  But it was large so I could reach to the middle!

The flue is back to just flue.  Notice the tilt!

I made a run to True-Value to ask about tub drains, but the owner thought that all drains were the same.  I informed him that I had learned that both coarse and fine threads exist.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  “In all my years, I’ve never heard of such a thing.  I only sell one type.”  Well, ok then!

Once back at the house, I installed some carpet threshold between my entryway tile and dining room.  That was a pretty easy project, although I needed way longer nails than what came in the package!  The seam looks so much better now.

 

The missing tile and the missing seam.  Notice how FILTHY that carpet is!  Ew!



After!  So much better.

After that I tackled the mantle above the fireplace.  I had to cut it down to size, as it used to wrap around one side portion of the wall.  I had taken note when I had the large hole in the side (to remove the tape) where the mounting wood was (previous owner had put some horizontal 2x4’s between the studs).  That mantle was very heavy, but I set a level and went at it!

It took a while with the trim and getting those long screws down deep, but I was pleased to have that project done.  Until I stepped away to take a look.  Somewhere along the way my level mantle became unlevel.  Sigh.  It was pretty frustrating.  I had gone to extreme lengths to ensure it was level!  I guess that screws pulled my left mount away…or something.  I don’t know.  But for the rest of the day, every time I walked by it, it pulled my eyes towards it.  “I’m a ski slope!”  So aggravating!

The mantle is back up...and sloping uphill!  GRR!!!

Mom and Dad took off early from work and came over to help.  That was a much-welcomed surprise.  Dad worked on getting a couple of small fixes to the circuit breaker panel box (some 15-amps needed switched to 20-amps), while Mom mowed the yard.  It was tremendous help since my list of projects was tremendous.  I leave for work tomorrow (gone for 10 days), so I NEEDED to wrap all this up.

Mom and I swept up the garage, so that’s looking better.  Mom then left with a little bit of brown paint to do some touch-up’s at the blue house.  Thanks, Ma!

Dad left somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 to call it a day.  Thanks, Pa!

I knew I had a long night ahead of me to wrap up projects, so I planned on working until midnight.

I had to make a Menard’s run to pick up some more parts, so I headed there.  I REALLY wanted to get the blue house 100% finished.  It stood at 98%.  Unfortunately, I had to wait 20-30 minutes for help at the store (I REALLY wanted the right parts).  It was maddening…that store has been so understaffed lately.  I showed him what I needed for a gas stove, and he literally chastised me for cutting it off.  “Did you cut this off”?  “Yes.”  “Why”?  “Well, I had no idea what I was doing.”  “Yeah, umm, you REALLY shouldn’t have cut this off.”  Sigh.  Story of this flip.  I now had to buy a flaring kit to redo what had already been done.  I was disgusted to see this guy unscrew the piece in front of me by hand when I couldn’t get it with two pipe wrenches.  My heart sunk.  I picked up some wood trim, water heater drain parts, and an anti-siphon repair kit for my front faucet, and headed for the other house.

Once at the blue house, I worked on the anti-siphon faucet first.  Thankfully, the repair went flawlessly.  This morning when I woke up, I first stopped to see if the parts inside were broken.  Amazingly, there were NO guts inside!  No wonder I had NO water coming out the end of my hose.  A quick $6 kit and 2 minutes later, and we were in business.  I watered the new bushes that were in desperate need of some kindness.  Woo hoo!

Next I tackled my water heater drain.  I built a drain out of CPVC and had it run to my drain.  Perfect!  Except for ONE thing…I needed thread tape for my connection, and that was at the other house!  So I had to leave my last glued piece until later.  GRR!

Next I tackled my baseboard trim pieces.  I had one long piece and four small ones to cut.  That was a bit time-consuming, and I added more blood to my repairs.  And I had ANOTHER problem:  my hammer was at the other house!  I couldn’t nail them in!  Agh!!!

That’s when I realized I forgot one thing:  a spring for my screen garage door!!!  Mom had even sent me a text about it, and I forgot it.  I was fried.

I then cleaned out the garage and took what I could to my garage and the junk to the dumpster.

I then headed BACK over to the Rochester house around 10:30 P.M. to put in a good hour’s worth of work.  I needed EVERY hour I could get.  I mounted the trim along the laminate floor I had installed today and mounted some along the ceiling above the fireplace.

I then searched for my tub drain so I could find a good match but to no avail.  I loaded up all the tools and headed for the other house.  I was able to quickly the water heater drain tube and baseboard trim pieces.  I headed for home.

The relief valve drain tube installed.  The water heater is now 100% done!  AND not leaking!  :)

I unloaded everything into my garage.  I looked at the time.  12:00 A.M.  I went to bed filthy without taking a shower I was so tired.