What did you do today?

Flyover, that's a lot of work. I strained something in my shoulder using the mop somehow-- I was using the scrubber brush on my mop to try to get up some stubborn crud. I really need to exercise more if mopping causes problems. LOL.

 

Cooked for my family

 

I helped my best friend cut get his kitchen sink put in the new countertop. Last week I hauled the cabinet & countertop for him from the store & earlier this week I put waterseal on the bottom of the cabinet to protect it from water leaks. He was going to try a complicated way of cutting the countertop & I had an easier solution. I had him put the sink face down on the top, figure out where it would sit, then mark out the area w/ painter's tape, set it again, traced around the sink, then measured 1/2" in (that's how much overhang there was) in multiple places, used a straight edge to connect the marks, then told him to drill 4 holes (1 in each corner). So every time there was a direction change, he just lined up the jigsaw inside the hole at the correct angle. Ran out of battery power & the charger I brought wasn't working so I had to drive home & grab my other charger & bring it back.

I brought my mother over so she could do her taxes (he fixed her computer & had it set up there). She finished them & watched TV while we waited for the batteries to charge. Tomorrow I'm going over early to help him w/ the DWV part of the plumbing. He needs a new drain & some slip-fit pvc bc the old setup broke. I also am going to get him to put a vent on it. He was just going to do an S-trap but I talked him out of it.

This time I made sure he's using a wye instead of a tee for the bottom & I'm going to have him put a cleanout on it. Once we get his sink & plumbing all fixed up, he's going to help me try to mouse-proof Mom's computer. I got some fiberglass screen to try. Little buggers have ruined 3 video cards by somehow squeezing in & pissing all over.

If there's time, I might help him stain the cabinet.

 

Got up early & went over to my friend's house so we could get some stuff done before he got to work. I meant to come over at 7 but slept in. He had told me to come as early as I wanted but expected it to be around 9 or something.

I talked him out of getting an S-trap kit. He didn't want to run the pipe outside the house so he got a cheap AAV. It was the only kind they had. Picked up a new slip-joint double drain kit, trap adapter, S-tee, & the AAV. He was too tired to grasp what I was explaining as I was telling him how it would all go together. When we walked out of the store I saw the truck of one of the only two local plumbers (it's the guy who won't come out to my house). Apparently he was standing right next to me as I was explaining how it worked to my friend. My friend said I must have been right bc he knows the guy & the guy would have butted in to tell me if I was wrong. When we got back to his house I put it all together for him & showed him how to fit it in. I also marked where he needed to cut pipe (leaving an allowance for the difference with solvent weld). I also marked the countertop with painter's tape & marked where it would be cut so the fridge can fit next to the counter. He had previously hooked up his water supply lines but I forgot to tell him to purge the lines before hooking them to the sink. He tried to turn the sink on & nothing came out. I asked him if he had purged the lines first & he said "No. I never do that." I told him that even if he thinks the lines are clean, he should always run the water through the supply lines for a little bit before hooking the sink up. I asked him if he had a bucket & he said he had a pot. He went into the bathroom and was dumping a pot out when I noticed a bucket right at his feet & pointed it out. So, after detaching the sink, he turned the water on & cleared the lines. There were bursts of air & it came out muddy. He ran it until it was clear. Then hooked back to the faucet but it was still clogged. So we made a trip to Walmart to grab a new faucet (much better one than the fugly cheap one he had before). Got that one set up & running, and then we started staining the cabinets. Got one door done but his stupid ex called & wanted something for their kid (she of course waited until the last minute to spring it on him) so he had to go. I'll have to go back later to finish the staining. It takes more work for the look he's going for-- have to really rub the stain in so the wood grain still shows through it. I still have to take my mother over later to print her taxes (she said the program won't send her taxes electronically unless she also prints them at the same time).

After watching how much glue my friend uses when he connects pvc, I've decided that I will do the gluing when we work on the stuff at my house. I had to quickly wipe some of the excess out of the trap adapter so it didn't run it.

 

Went back over after a nap & brought Mom to print her taxes. My bro finally found his tax info so she filed his as well-- well, his federal. Louisiana doesn't allow electronic filing for state taxes. While she was doing that, I finished staining the cabinet. My friend didn't give his fiance a heads up about the new faucet so she was pleasantly surprised & immediately started doing dishes.

We went to eat afterward & just got home. I'm tired but feel good about being productive & I know my friend appreciates it-- and it will be more motivation for him helping me with my bathroom.

I made a picture of the old type of faucet he had vs what I got him now (decided not to go w/ a pull-down bc his fiance would break it).


This is a stock photo of the unfinished base cabinet:


And here's the cabinet (they wanted it to look sort of ash gray but still see wood grain). This is just the first coat.

I think at least the middle panels still need a 2nd coat but it turned out nicely.
I'll have to see later if the footboard will take stain or if it will need primer & paint bc I don't think it will look right if it stays that color. They eventually want to have dark gray flooring put in.

 

Hah, I like the granite countertop + high end stove + $5 plastic drawers used as more kitchen cabinets and to hold the coffee maker. Priorities!

 

Broke up what I could, in the basement, with the 20lb demo hammer before the rental was up. Now I just need to haul all that cement up from the basement to my truck....If only I could get a rental on a tiny conveyor belt....ooooooooo and some of those R/C front end loaders

 

Flyover, that's an $80 laminate countertop (cheapest one they had in that size), used stove w/ broken touchscreen for the oven (just needs a replacement part), & the drawers will go back in the bedroom after they get more cabinets for the kitchen. This is the home of my friend who's old house burned and this house was previously a meth house that he's fixing up. The kitchen was originally off to the right in another room (absolutely tiny) but the roof keeps leaking & ruined the old cabinets & everything in there so he's having to just build a new kitchen. He's going to close off most of the old kitchen & turn the remainder into a pantry. He really needs to get his roof fixed but that's going to be expensive.

I hit it with a 2nd coat of stain. Still not perfect so it needs some touch-up. Looks more like paint than stain now. Helped him cut the countertop & get the fridge moved in. They need more counters to hold the microwave & coffee maker.

Today (well, technically yesterday) I got up at 5:30am, took my medicine & got things set up for a long car trip. Rest of the family was ready to leave at 6am. Then a 3hr drive to go pick my sister up from her hotel (she was in another city for a convention). Drove another hour & a half to visit an elderly friend (she's going to be 95 in July). Had lunch with her & sat and chatted for a few hours. Refueled the truck, then drove back to my sister's hotel, grabbed some Arby's, went to her hotel room & ate, then I managed to get in about a 20min nap. My mother managed to get a longer nap but I don't like her driving so I still drove the 3hrs back home. We made a pit stop at a 24hr walmart for bathroom breaks & my mother & brother grabbed some frozen food. Got back after 1am. My brother carried some of the groceries in but just left them out so I had to put everything away.

Tomorrow (later today) my friend was supposed to come over to help me fix my floor but his ex is dumping his daughter on him so he won't be able to come out. I'll probably sleep all day anyway. He's not off from work again until Thursday.

 

Oh, wow.

 

The meth house was once a nice house that belonged to my friend's grandmother. She wanted it left to him when she passed away but she didn't have a written will so his mother took it & rented it out to meth-heads. When we were first clearing it out his fiance found heroin & syringes in drawers. It had gone to crap so much that the mother couldn't rent it anymore so she gave it to my friend so he can fix it up. Roof is still leaking terribly in the room beyond the hanging blanket so that still needs to be fixed & he needs more cabinets.
One of the doors needs some touch-up but it's looking better now. Countertop was cut & fridge is in place.


My cooktop I ordered from Lowes (that I went to pick up on the 5th & they couldn't find it) never got delivered. I got 2 e-mails from Lowes. One from a real person at CS saying delivery would be today and noting the conversation they had with the management. The other was an automated reminder for me to come get my item. Called the store & they had no idea WTF I was talking about. Employee tried to put me on hold & I got transferred & had to explain things all over again to another clueless employee. First one had said my name wasn't on delivery list. 2nd one confirmed they had no record of delivery order & had no intention of delivering it & only way for me to get it would be to physically go there & pick it up. She did confirm that it's actually there & said she put her hands on it so when I get up there it should be there. I e-mailed the CS person back to update him on that & am waiting for my mother to finish her computer game to go with me to the store. I'm still exhausted from yesterday's driving & she's better at raising hell with people over money stuff. She already spoke with the store manager before so she knows what the person looks like & can speak with them again. I'm too tired to deal with people.

 

Mom wasn't feeling well & decided not to go so I went without her. I remembered that she wanted me to pick up the pills the pharmacy shorted her & I had a prescription to pick up. There was a looong line & when I got up there they couldn't find her stuff. They shorted her 8 pills but they only put that they owed her 7 so I just took the 7 pills in a bottle & headed to Sams club (bc she nagged me about getting more bottled water there before I left). Fortunately, Sams is right near Lowes. Light turned red on me as I pulled out of Sam's so I cut through the Hobby Lobby parking lot & went straight there. I turned on my phone to load up the order # & show the e-mail where they told me my item was going to be delivered today. Phone immediately rang & Mom wanted me to pick something up at Sam's. I told her I'd already been there. Went inside & I asked for the store manager who wasn't in. I got the assistant store manager & showed her the e-mail & explained the situation-- that I'd already been there on the 5th to pick up my item & they couldn't find it & I'd been waiting & they said they would deliver it but when I called they said they wouldn't deliver it & I was rather frustrated. Showed the order # so she went and got the box. I mentioned how I should get some compensation for all my trouble but she just ignored it & I'm not aggressive on things like that like Mom is so I didn't push the issue (plus I was just too exhausted to argue). I did have her open it so I could confirm it wasn't damaged & it was fine. When she took it out of the shipping box, I saw that the NuWave box had a handle so I asked her to leave it out so I could use the handle. I did take both boxes just in case. Went back to Sam's to grab the stuff Mom wanted- pulled it up on my phone to ask an employee where it was bc it had been moved. Picked up a 3/4" anti-fatigue mat to set on the floor in front of where the new NuWave sits to buffer if it manages to get pushed off again (plus they are so nice to stand on).
I put the NuWave box on the counter to open it & 3 cats rushed over to sit on the box. Got it unboxed & was trying to take it out of the plastic. One of the cats climbed on it and laid down while I was tearing plastic while another continued to sit on the box. It says not to place it on a magnetic surface & not to put it on a gas or electric range. My old one sat on the electric range before & I put the styrofoam that had been on it's surface underneath it. I think I will get some sort of non-slip mat to go underneath & a silicone mat to protect the top for when it isn't in use. If I do a review of it for Lowes I can be entered into a sweepstakes to win a $300 gift card. I get 2 entries if I post pictures.

 

Went to Pizza Hut for the first time in a long time last night. Got some friends who still work there. Had a new employee there who misunderstood something my brother said so he tried to pretend he was going to fight him, only I stood up and walked toward him & he ran away. I was all "You scared of a middle-aged woman?" and he kept running. LOL. Sat back down & he came back out with a knife & tried to convince us he was going to cut us. Kept claiming he was "gangsta" & any minute his friends were gonna roll up & stomp us. We just laughed at him & told him "Nope, not scary". He didn't even know how to hold a knife. He probably would've hurt himself. His hands were shaking & he was all mouth. But someone called the cops so they showed up after he went back to the kitchen. He calmed down quick & apologized. We found the whole thing funny so we didn't press charges & he was much calmer & apologized again once they were gone & said he was cool with us. I wish someone would record his boss's face when he gets told what happened. He's going to fire that dude.

I'm thinking of writing a yelp review but not sure how to title the experience of an employee threatening us with a knife but running away from a 5'5" middle-aged woman. LOL.

 

It's been raining a lot down here. AC isn't working & it's also been very warm.
Cats broke my old monitor so I got a new one on sale (I'd been wanting a new one but couldn't justify the expense when my old one still worked). It's an extra-wide monitor that can have split-screen feature. It can be split multiple times & in different sizes. So, I could have normal-sized screen divided out on one side & then have a smaller section for notes & reference pictures. I haven't installed the software yet bc it works with Win 10 & I have Win7 so I will need to download the appropriate software & drivers, but I can currently resize windows & move them where I want on the screen to get the split-screen effect. There wasn't enough space on my old screen for that. I'm liking it a lot thus far.
Trying to get myself motivated to do something productive but the heat saps my energy & I've been having problems with my arm- I pulled something in it.

 

Finally got AC fixed. My best friend knew a guy who was able to come out right away & fixed it in less than 5 min. He doesn't have a high opinion of the guy who installed the AC in the first place. Put a new capacitor in & added some freon. Said the capacitor has a 6mo. warranty so if it goes out before then, replacement is free. He also told me I need to find a way to get a hose out to the outside unit to spray it off & keep it clean so it won't clog up & overheat.

My friend wanted to pay us back a little by doing some work (bc he's had a lot of stuff go wrong & we helped him out) so he changed out the faucet in Mom's bathroom to a new Moen one. Old one kept leaking & I couldn't for the life of me get it detached w/o breaking something. He has stronger hands & better coordination. It took a lot of work, but he finally disconnected the old one & put the new one in. Eventually the whole drain kit needs to be replaced but that will be when I get rid of that chrome plated stuff under the sink.

He then called the AC guy bc it was way too hot inside. After it cooled off he helped me with the flooring mix. Patch level went on much smoother this time. It got rid of most of the bumps where the toilet will sit. Still needs another coat or two (maybe 3) but it went on much smoother this time. I might be able to finish it off myself (although I'll test my smoothing/trowel skills in an area that isn't important first). I'll have to take pics tomorrow.

 

- Installed a bunch of cable hides (or whatever they're called) so now the living room doesn't look like college students are squatting in it.

- Installed a rain barrel I picked up by the side of the road.

- Hauled bags of mulch all over the place.

- Bought all the broken scalloped pavers I could find for $0.50 a piece, then lined my patio with them so Mr. Racoon won't be able to get in (or out if he's already in...hmm....).

- Cut my son's hair.

- Installed a new latch on the privacy fence gate to the backyard so my wife could get in there (she's shorter than me by half a foot). This was the most challenging project because I had to fabricate wooden parts of the fence so the latch would fit properly, and modify the latch so the gate would open properly.

 

I was out walking around the block with my kids after dinner and noticed there was a nice bright moon in the sky. I ran in and grabbed my camera and the telephoto lens, then came back out and took this shot.

I like how the craters look near the lunar south pole (i.e. the bottom right of the moon visible in the picture, where it starts to go into shadow).

 

That's a beautiful picture of the moon!
I've been playing chauffeur for friends again. My best friend's fiance was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance a couple days ago & my friend wanted someone to keep her company while he went to orientation for his 2nd job. He also needed a lift to the orientation since it was at a different store than where he's going to work & was farther away but he didn't have $ for gas. He would have been OK but someone skimmed the numbers off his tax return card & emptied it so he didn't have to pay his grandfather's phone bill to keep his own phone from getting cut off.

Speaking of phones, my phoneline has been out since Thursday. AT&T claims it's on my end but they've said that before when it was on their end. They sent a technician out Monday when I was home but we never heard him arrive & later found an angrily written note on the door about how he had tried to call our phone but nobody answered. Uh, duh! We don't have a working phone! That was the whole point of having him come out. But, I'm going to replace the old phone line. The stuff we had was meant for indoor only and I'm putting in 24/4 indoor/outdoor that can be run under a raised house. It's technically meant for RJ45 but I'm going to use an RJ11 plug. So, while my friend was at orientation, I took his fiance to Lowes with me & got the wire, a splitter that will come out of the surge protector to go to two different phones, and a kit that came with the crimping tool & a bunch of RJ45 & RJ11 6P4C ends. Now to find my electrical tape so I can tape the new line to the old one and pull it through to the box.

I also got my hair cut nice and short bc it was just making my neck too warm in this heat. I had to be up at 6am to go pick up my friend and he didn't finish with orientation until after 3:30pm so there was a lot of time to kill. Got home after 4 just in time to make some food for Mom. I'm hoping to be productive in the house tomorrow.

 

Filed a complaint to the phone company for our non-working set, applied fresh new paint in the living room, and then rewarded myself with an episode of GoT, which, after the ep turned out, didn't feel like a reward at all.