More Home Improvement Follies

First up I decided it was time to fix the light in the basement stairs. A few months ago the switch went bad and I had to replace it. Everything seemed to go well, but a few weeks later the light went out again. I assumed there was a loose wire or a problem with the new switch. I couldn't face the switch again, so I did what I do best - I procrastinated. For a long time.

Today I was ready to take a look at the switch and see what was going on. Before I went to turn off the circuit breaker, I thought I better try something. Amazingly enough, changing the light bulbs solved the problem. Duh!

After my successful (and embarrassing) resolution of the light bulb problem, I tackled the dishwasher problem that appeared yesterday. We have the kind of dishwasher you to have to push across the kitchen and hook up to the kitchen sink. Yesterday the coupler started spraying water everywhere.

A quick inspection revealed the problem: a torn gasket. We have a Kenmore, so my first stop was the Sears Appliance Parts Store at the Rice Street Sears in St. Paul. If you've never been to the Rice Street Sears, you should go. The place is like a time machine and when you stand in the parking lot it seems like 1962. It's a marvel the place is still open.

Anyway, they could only sell me the entire coupler. Boo. So, then I began driving all over town looking for this gasket. Of course I couldn't find one. (I did find a excellent Chicago-style hot dog, though.) I was able to find the gasket online and shipping is only three times the cost of the gasket. Boo.

It looks like the dishwasher will be out of action for a few days. Does anyone have any advice for teaching a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old how to wash dishes? Also, is it fair to withhold the cost of any broken dishes from their allowance?

___

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I Get By with a Little Help from My Dad

As a kid, I spent a lot of time "tagging along" with my Dad while he worked. (As I got older, it was more him dragging than me tagging, but that's another story.) He was a jack-of-all-trades and did all sorts of things, but what I remember the most was plumbing. He was a damn good plumber and he was patient about trying to teach me. And it worked reasonably well - I'm a semi-competent amateur plumber. I'm proud to say I've never had to call a real plumber to finish a job I started.

Today my bathroom painting job took a sharp turn into a plumbing job. Quite a while ago the kids broke the handle to open and close the drain on the bathroom sink. Without the drain stop in place, all sorts of things have fallen down the drain. Tooth brushes, tooth paste caps, toys; you name it, it fell down the drain. Most of it could be retrieved, but a fair amount was accumulating in the trap. This led to frequent clogs. Today it clogged again and I declared that enough was enough.

I took the drain apart and went on a trip to Menards with the kids. They helped me pick out a new drain and a new trap. That was the extent of their help. Which is probably okay. When I was their age, one of my brilliant ideas to help involved removing a door knob and flushing it down the toilet. That one got me exiled to Grandma Jacobsen's while Dad fixed it. I don't need that kind of help.

Things went smoothly until I had to test the new drain assembly for leaks. Were there leaks? Of course there were leaks. I warned you that I was only semi-competent.

I quickly realized my problem. I had forgotten to wrap the pipe threads with teflon tape. Teflon tape is that white, very thin, not sticky tape that plumbers use. I checked through my stuff and I didn't have any teflon tape anywhere. $#%^&!!

Then it hit me. Teflon tape is one of those things that everytime I see it, I think of my Dad. It probably comes from all those years as his assistant plumber. I remembered that I had Dad's old toolbox in the garage. I cruised down, found the toolbox, and opened it up. What did I find? Not one, but two rolls! Somehow I just knew they would be there.

I ran back upstairs. Now that I was armed with the proper equipment, I was able to wrap up the job in no time flat. This time there were no leaks.

Thanks, Dad.

Manual Labor

Allison and the boys are up at Janet's camper on the lake this weekend. Allison has promised an assortment of pictures for the blog. I'm sure they will be of much higher quality than the stuff you normally have to put up with around here.

This weekend I've occupied myself hanging out with some friends, catching up on cleaning, and working on the main floor bathroom. The bathroom ceiling paint has been cracking and peeling for some time now, so I've been working on scraping it so I can repaint it. It went very fast at first, since I started where the peeling was the worst. It slowed down quickly, however, when I got to the parts that are just cracking or starting to crack.

This project suddenly doesn't seem like such a good idea. I went from thinking I would have it scraped and primed today to wondering if I will be done scraping today. How come home improvement projects never go faster than you think they will?

I can't help but wonder how many hours I would have had to work at my old job to pay someone else to do this project. :-)