Construction

In and Out of Hot Water

Fiascos, Home and Renovation, Uncategorized

As most friends here know, I have a couple of ongoing health management things. These few things require a tub and hot water.

On Sunday evening, I was taking a bath, and the water stopped. I thought, “Huh. Water main break or something.” It’s an old city, happens now and then. Our plumbing is only five years old and we have an on-demand hot water heater the same age, so I just sat there a minute … until J said, “There’s a bunch of water out here on the floor.”

That, of course, was the end of my bath. After drying off and collecting my wits, I took a look at the “closet full of a million pipes,” and found this, with hot water gushing out of it —

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The lead from the water heater had separated from the pipe that takes the hot water to the rest of the house. The clamp on the top broke. I actually thought, “thank the plumbing deities for that,” because it looked like an easy fix.

You may or may not know — I don’t do plumbing fixes. Won’t touch ’em. But. I do understand most plumbing things. To confirm my suspicions, I had J go down to the basement to turn the main waterline off-and-on while I checked the bazillion valves in the plumbing closet. Looked like I was right. It was already evening, so we decided on cold water sink baths in the morning, and I Scarlett O’Hara-ed it until the next day.

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During the critical stage — messy!

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Called my good friend and contractor (who also happens to be our next-door neighbor) Monday morning. He ran by the hardware store to buy a few things, and it was fixed by noon! Couldn’t have taken him more than five minutes. He only wanted the cost of the supplies, but of course I doubled it and made him take it. Because calling in a plumber for something so simple and stupid would’ve cost three or four times that much. Let alone, having it fixed in less than a day.

So, as I was thinking when I first saw it, if we were going to have a plumbing issue, I’m glad it was a simple one.

I was back in the bath by 12:30!

Only Beautiful Things

Arts and Crafts, Goals, Home and Renovation, Personal

We all know that I am currently ill, and abed atop a hot water bottle.

However, I don’t want to talk about that today. Today, I resist torpor and complaining. Today I only want to talk about beautiful things.

I have to thank my dear friend, Madame K, for asking about my projects, and how things are going. It reminded me that I am not made of illness. I am made of creativity. She always knows just the right thing to say.

You see, my trade is creating beautiful things; whether that’s a cottage kitchen, live music, a flower garden, students excited about the possibilities of music, or a musical based on a 1728 play. And, I am privileged to have been able to spend my life as a creator.

So, with illness and frustration aside, I walked around the house today and took photos of things I’m working on that I find beautiful.

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The front yard flower garden. I’m definitely an English cottage garden type person. (No surprises there.)

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A (mostly) finished corner of the kitchen, with our now-exposed huge beams. I had to fill in the space at the top of the wall, of course. I stained new rough-hewn wood to match the old beams.

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Another kitchen wall. Still needs some paint work, but I left the little cellar door rough on purpose. I like to see the history.

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A staircase wall in progress. Because I decided to go with stucco in between dark-stained beams, (Tudor-style), I went with artwork that reflects that.

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And that’s all I know about that! I’m off to rest and have a little bit of dinner. Yep, at 4:00. =)

How Doers Get *Nothing* Done

Fiascos, Home and Renovation, Personal

An update. Un-date, really.

I had to cancel the purchase, ergo the whole renovation. The bathtub had been delayed three times already, and today’s fourth delay would put it here after my contractor/plumber was scheduled.

Nevermind the fact that this was all arranged so it would be done while I was out of town; because there wouldn’t be a bathtub or shower here for three or four days.

Honestly, I’m glad to be rid of thinking about it. The sheer hours of work, websites, phone calls about screwed-up delivery has been exhausting.

I’ll spare you my further thoughts about large corporations destroying the service economy through greed.

ETA – And now, the giant awful infection at the surgical site is back. And my surgeon is on vacation. And I’m supposed to be on a plane a week from today,

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The Old Curiosity Shop

Arts and Crafts, Fiascos, Home and Renovation, New York

It’s been one day, and I am already, “Are they out of my house yet?,”

Tomorrow is what I call “Mezzo Buildio” — taping, spackling, finishing up some drywall issues, wiring the lamps.

As you know, I kind of exist in a “I never really feel well” state, so I have been managing myself pretty well. =) Haven’t tried to help, haven’t carried anything, continuing to rest up and recover from the few days of prep. Needless to say, the dogs are a challenge where construction is concerned.

There’s an organ in the kitchen. A LazyBoy by the pantry. A bedroom’s worth of furniture scattered all over the house. Our living room looks as if Little Nell might crawl out from underneath the piano at any particular point.

The Living Room

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Have a great day!

The Plot Continues

Health, Home and Renovation

Well, it must’ve just been marked down as a bad week.

Wednesday night I got in the car at 6 o’clock to go to work to play the Ash Wednesday service. It was 18°. The car wouldn’t start. I know a thing or two about this and that, and I knew I was the victim of an old battery in freezing weather.

I called our regular Cab guy, and mercifully, he was available. My friend Miss K drove me home. Jonathan called AAA and had them come out and jump the battery so the car could run for a while and hopefully start in the morning.

Thursday morning I called AAA to buy a battery and to bring it to me. The nicest man ever was here within 30 minutes, tested the battery and alternator, hooked up some box so I wouldn’t lose all my data, and installed our shiny new battery.

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However, standing outside in the 20F-something weather for over an hour was definitely unwise.

Besides, I was feeling a stomach/GI attack beginning. (We’re taking medical steps to get that fixed.) I felt absolutely awful by noon, and my temperature goes up (weird) when this happens. Two of my doctors think that’s weird, and the other two are willing to chalk it up to the G.I. stuff.

I got to 102.9, I think. It goes back down as I start to feel better. It was 99 by evening after lots of rest. Along with this, I was without one of my serious medications because the drugstore hadn’t filled it yet. (Honestly, that was the worst part of it.) It was filled the next day, and I became more an operable human being than a groaning bed warmer.

So, that’s enough of that! I’m up to about 85%, and should feel pretty normal tomorrow.

On a happier note, our adding-a-bedroom project is started!

On the first floor we have the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, and this other weird room. I suppose it could be a dining room, but it’s small and in a strange place. Plus, we have never used the dining room when we’ve had one. Of course, it became a “let’s just put it in there” room.

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We’ve felt a downstairs bedroom would be a good idea for many reasons. (One of them is sick people wanting to be near the bathroom when needed.) My design is below.

We’re starting to move the furniture out of the room, after which my friend and contractor will build a new wall, replace the sockets and switches, and move a ceiling light fixture. After the bedroom is done, we’re looking at a bathroom redo.

My design, and probably very much what you would expect from me. =)

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So! The process will be fun to take pictures and blog about!

I’ll keep you posted!