Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Let me 'splain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

A week or so before Kidshoot, my computer did this:


The files are still there, but it's not worth fixing the computer.

Then, the week before Kidshoot, I looked at my kitchen floor. It is a temporary floor (I was falling through the 1970 vinyl-covered linoleum plywood) until I can afford to do a proper kitchen remodel. It looked like this:


Not good for mopping up spills. So I decided to do this:

 
It lacked ... something. So I did this:
 
Pro-tip: Make sure your square is really 90 degrees. Luckily I figured out it was off on the first square.

Then is was time to get ready for Kidshoot! And my thermostat stopped working. To make a very long, boring story slightly less so, it turns out there was water pouring from the front of my AC air handler under the house. It turns out it was wastewater from the kitchen sink. Since I wasn't sure what else might be draining through there, I had to ask my company to please only use the outside hose for washing. Geodkyt (AKA Shorter Half) graciously allowed us the use of his plumbing, because nothing says "Welcome to the South!" like telling your company they have to pee in your yard.
 
Some of us went out to dinner.
 
 
After dinner, we came back to the house. The guys played "show and tell" and took turns troubleshooting the plumbing problem. Bubblehead Les sat under the house with me at length and discussed possible options. Because, you see, the plumber I called wanted $750 to snake the drain from the septic field to the house if we dug up the cover for him. Oh, and don't forget to add the $100 emergency fee.
 
I woke up at 4:30 the next morning, mulling over the plumbing problem, and let me tell you, my blogfather is a prince of a fellow. As soon as I heard him stir, I made him get up and run all the taps in the house and flush toilets while I sat under the house watching for more water coming out of the air handler unit. Apparently it was only the kitchen sink -- and that meant we had working toilets! And then I let Jay make his coffee.
 
Kidshoot, by all accounts, was a rousing success.
 
From my Blogfather
Old NFO and more Old NFO 
(Please let me know if I missed anybody.)
 
And I want to give a special shout-out to AGirl's TSM for manning the grill with no advanced warning while most of the guys were busy packing up guns and cleaning up the range. It was very much appreciated.
 
Early in the week, my contractor came out and snaked my drain, for much less money. And then on Friday, I saw some "junk" at work. An old desk and a credenza.
 
So, on Saturday, I looked at my freshly painted wall ...
 

 
And I did this.




 
 
That was the end of Day 1. To this day, I do not know how I got that heavy desk top in my car, and lifted into place by myself.
 
Day 2. I move another Very Heavy Thing, the solid wood credenza. And got it primed.
 
 
 

I still have to frame in the opening somehow, and finish painting the credenza/cabinet. And find 4 1/2" on center handles for the two drawers.

My IT guy at work donated a light fixture from Goodwill to the cause. I rigged it up with a toggle switch and it's now doing it's thing ...


This was all done so that I could make sure I liked the layout before actually, you know, paying a lot of money to have a remodel done that I hate. So far, we both love the layout.

So, no computer, but my plumbing is fixed. I put a hole in my wall, but I have a counter top and much more usable space. Now, I just have to finish the painting so I can put everything away again. And thank Sweet Daughter for letting me borrow her computer tonight.