What did you do today?

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Finished sawing down that tree. Was pressured by certain members of my household to borrow neighbor's chainsaw for the sake of expedience. Aside from the switch to power tools, all went exactly as planned. The branches and logs are piled up waiting to be cut and chopped. The stump will be converted to a short table we can put our Adirondack chairs around.
 
Glad it went well, Flyover.

I wish I'd had my camera ready when my little dog was barking at the raccoons. They are bigger than him and were not impressed. Then they saw me and ran. They still keep sneaking in though.

I spent a long time cleaning up. I found my mother's lost engagement ring (it had been in a little jewelry box thing that got knocked down and it had disappeared). I had to throw out the kitchen rug because it was absolutely ruined from all the stuff that oozed out of the fridge and freezer and animals using it as a toilet. Caught the dog peeing on it shortly before I tossed it out the door. I was lazy and swept a bunch of stuff out the sliding glass door. Will need to clear it later but for now it's out of the house. My main goal was to get enough of a pathway that Mom can walk through from the front door to the living room and to her bedroom. I wanted to clean more thoroughly but the lift pump crapped out this morning. Jet pump was humming trying to push water but cistern was empty. A bunch of the breakers in the box were red so my friend reset them and pressed them in and they mostly seem to be working now. My ceiling fan seems to have died- but its over 30 years old. My friend said if we can find a replacement motor for the pump he might be able to fix it.

The parquet floor is trashed. It bubbles up and when you step on it it goes down and pops up in another place. Need to find my father's diagrams with measurements of the kitchen to see how much floor needs to be replaced but it's going to be expensive. If we can't find the motor, that pump is going to be expensive too.

Once the water comes back on I'm going to thoroughly clean the fridge and freezer out.

Meanwhile, my friend's grandfather is doing the offline version of hate-watching my friend. He drove by his house several times yesterday (after being kicked out) and today. Several days ago, my friend told him that he needed to find new living arrangements since we would be getting power back and going home so my brother wouldn't be there to help him get his wheelchair up and down the stairs. Also, my friend is not going to leave his fiance alone with his grandfather while he goes to work bc the grandfather treats her like garbage when he thinks no one is looking. He thinks women exist only to serve men. He also propositioned my friend's mother. There's a 20yr old male friend of theirs that has been coming over and visiting & he has helped with the wheelchair a few times. He's a good kid. Loves babies and had to take care of his younger siblings so he helps out with holding & feeding the baby so the mother can eat, go to the bathroom, and take showers. Another factor about the grandfather is that he saturated the carpet & mattress with urine, wiped his butt with one of their towels (and the crap did not come out in the wash), & left snack wrappers all over so the place was crawling with ants. After being told he wasn't allowed to have food in there, he kept eating in there and leaving wrappers and plates on the floor. He also kept pestering everyone around wanting them to cook for him without actually asking. Saying things like "When are we having those hot dogs?" Me: "What hot dogs? I don't know. I don't eat hot dogs. I don't like them." then he was asking my brother "When am I going to get some eggs & bacon?" & stuff like that. Anyway, when we got power back, my friend told his grandfather it was time to go find someplace else since he couldn't get the wheelchair down the steps without help & he wasn't going to leave his fiance to care for the old man AND the baby by herself. The old man started trash-talking the fiance, trashtalking my friend. The fiance stepped in and told the old man to leave my friend alone. Old man then swore at her and called her trash & told her it wasn't her house so she should shut up. My friend told him not to talk to her like that. Old man shouted that it was my friend's mother's house & they didn't get to tell him to get out. My friend bit his tongue and didn't mention that it's not his mom's house for too much longer. She doesn't know it, but since he is paying the taxes and she hasn't paid taxes on it in years, in 3 more years the house will be his. And his name is already on it so he co-owns it. But neither she nor the grandfather know that. The house was supposed to be left to my friend-- it was what his grandmother wanted, but his mother went in and claimed it bc my friend was a minor at the time the grandmother died.
I digressed... The grandfather insisted that they have the 20yr old move in with them to take care of him. He's never even had a conversation with this kid and wanted him to be his caregiver. Kid was in the next room saying "WTF?" It escalated & the grandfather suggested the fiance was going to cheat on my friend with the 20yr old & my friend broke a closet door & told the old man to GTFO.
The grandfather then got dressed by himself and put his ankle braces on by himself (something he's claimed he couldn't do in the past and has called my friend at 6am demanding he come over and put them on for him), got his shoes on, and left. But he keeps driving by the house and staring. He also likes to drive by where my friend works. When he worked at Autzone and O'Reilly's the grandfather would actually go inside & demand my friend stop what he was doing, leave work, and come do something for him. He tried it at the casino a few times too, but it's a longer drive. He's obsessed with my friend and stalks him.
My friend said the old man can still come over for dinner, but he can't spend the night & nobody in his house is going to be the grandfather's servant.

Oh, I almost forgot: After all the cleaning I went back and packed up all of the stuff Mom had at my friend's house and brought her and her stuff home. My brother helped with unloading thankfully bc my back was killing me. She's using her computer right now. I'm sure she will gripe that I didn't do enough cleaning. Some of the lights weren't working so I couldn't see (the ones my friend had to fix the breakers on).
 
Raccoons are still wrecking the place and stealing stuff. All of my silicone utensils for cooking have gone missing. I think they even stole some of my tools. I wish I knew where their nest was so I could find my stuff. Sometimes they drop things outside so I will have to look around.
My friend's fiance got hired back at the casino. He will be working evening hours while she works morning but she wants him to quit his job & take care of the baby full time bc she doesn't want to have to watch the baby. She won't make enough money to support them & there are high chances she'll quit or lose the job. She's really desperate to get out of mothering responsibilities. She yells at the baby when he cries.

I got up early (I couldn't sleep last night) to go pick up my friend. We'd agreed upon 7am but he wasn't awake. At 7:30 I poked my head in and told him I was there. He mumbled something. I sat on the couch & waited. Around 8:40 his fiance went and told him to get his *** up. He'd been too tired to realize I was there. He thought it was the first time it had happened-- more like the 3rd. LOL. Sometimes he has a hard time waking up & I wanted him to be awake. Went to the hardware store to get a 2nd pipe wrench (since both of ours have gone missing). Hardware store wanted $54 for a wrench. So we went to Tractor Supply & found a really nice one for $15. He got the new motor on, hooked it up to the wiring, I cut power on: nothing. I figured it must be the wiring. Ran back into town & he grabbed some spare wiring he had left over from something. Brought it back & ran the new wire. Bingo! The float did stick at an odd angle so it didn't raise the lever so I had to go move it, but other than that, it is working fine. I just turned on the water heater & am waiting for the water to get hot so I can start washing dishes. Although, there's a ton of dishes on the floor bc of raccoons knocking things out of cabinets.

My aunt (my mom's youngest sister) was so worried about the raccoons she started calling around & trying to find a pest control that would try to catch them. She listed some & I told her I knew they only did bugs & not raccoons. She confirmed that & said someone told her the late veterinarian's son might do it. We know him so we will reach out. My mother also agreed to let my aunt find a contractor to come do some work-- although mom gave a timeline of one week to get the place cleaned up enough-- but it will take a lot longer bc I will be doing most of it by myself & I'm still sore from the cleaning the other day. I will have to see if I can get Mitch to help. He might be able to motivate my brother to help.
 
Guess who had a surprise major leak in water supply lines for the kitchen sink? It was spraying so hard it was pouring out under the house & I thought there was a broken line under there. Didn't realize until later it was inside. Managed to shut it off for now but back wasn't cooperating enough to pull stuff out and get towels in there. Gonna bring a dehumidifier in after sopping it up & wringing everything out & then hit it with Killz when it's dry. Will need new supply lines obviously. I'm too fat to fit in there so my friend said he'd do it.
 
Thanks. It gets frustrating. And now one of my aunts is really pressuring my mom to just ditch everything, get rid of our cats, and move. I have a lot of memories here. My father built a lot of things here and my cats are my babies. There is also a lot of pressure on me to be the one to get everything cleaned up & I'm feeling overwhelmed bc my brother doesn't want to help so I'll be stuck doing it alone & physically it's getting harder for me. My body doesn't cooperate with me anymore. I get winded far too easily. I forgot to take my meds for several days & that's not helping.

My friend has been busy so he hasn't had a chance to come out & help. He's got a toilet leak though. He said there's a 2x4 on the back wall that is keeping the toilet from sitting as far back as it should be able to-- it's a 12" rough-in & the 2x4 makes it 11-1/2" or so. I think a 1x4 could replace it & not interfere with how the toilet sits.

Having trouble with the water pressure in the sink since I had to shut off the cold water. Plus raccoons dumped out all of the dish detergent so I need to go buy more.

I know that once I get stuff done I'll feel better, but right now it's stressful. I have to keep reminding myself we still have a roof over our heads & can replace things that got ruined by raccoons.

On the upside, I discovered that my dog Princess understands the word "cuddle". I asked her to come cuddle with me so she ran over to cuddle me.
 
Got the fridge & freezer cleaned up enough to start stocking up on food again. Had to sit on the floor and lean in to clean the very bottom of the fridge. Brother helped. I pulled the shelves/drawers, scrubbed them, handed them to him to dry & put back. He scrubbed the outside of the fridge as well as the seal and insides up higher. Freezer was cleaner than I expected up higher. Can't get the shelves to come out & couldn't get the very bottom shelf out to clean under it-- they are wire shelves. Still need to do more cleaning of the door shelves. Store was out of a ton of stuff. Now I need to find what the raccoons did with our cooking utensils & see if I can locate the frying pans.

I'm hoping he'll help me with more stuff in the kitchen. It goes much faster when we work as a team.

There were two raccoons in the pantry earlier. Tricked the dog into running outside & my brother got the other two raccoons out of the pantry with a grabber arm.

Mom lost her balance (due to an inner ear problem) and fell on top of a soft laundry basket. She kind of laughed about it & said it broke her fall. We both hollered for my brother bc I couldn't get around her to get behind her to pick her up. I ended up using the phone's intercom & held it up wanting her to say "I've fallen & I can't get up". Instead she said "HELP! I fell down!" I heard him typing on his computer and then trying to get up. He picked her up from behind and I stood in front to catch her if she started to fall again and helped her get to her bed. She didn't seem hurt though.
Today we need to go to the bank, drop off Mom's mail-in-ballot, & get more groceries.

I wish the replacing of groceries was tax deductible.
 
Mom slept in and didn't feel like going anywhere yesterday. So we went today, which was serendipitous because it turns out it was the day they were drilling out the locks on the safety deposit boxes. They were supposed to call when they were doing it so Mom could go collect her stuff. They were opening boxes & taking inventory. They said they've found some creepy stuff in there before. I thought we'd cleaned ours out mostly, but it turns out we had quite a bit of stuff. They gave us a cardboard box that somewhat fit the stuff. I then went and bought a plastic bin for it. My dad had a commemorative Border Patrol gun in a wooden box. I decided not to open the box in the bank. I'll need to find a good place to store the stuff for now & also see if Barksdale has safety deposit boxes.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to take Mom to go get her military ID renewed. She also needs me to take her to our power company's main office so she can change her billing preferences. She tried it over the phone & they told her she had to make changes in person. Which is utter BS. She needs to change everything over from that bank (bc the branch is closing so it will no longer be accessible in person) & that bank sucks anyway. Not sure what is happening with the building.

Thursday I need to take my friend to City Hall to contest their claim to ownership of his house. His mom said they told him they still have the title & that they own it (I'm guessing she tried to get the title so she could use it to manipulate him). I was with him when he paid the taxes & I had him record the conversation where they said the taxes were paid & the house is now at least partway under his name. I had him take a photo of his receipt just in case something happened to the paper copy (but he put his paper copy in a special waterproof folder).

His fiance got rejected for employment bc she has a pending misdemeanor case against her that won't be resolved until December but she's so desperate to get away from watching her baby that she's trying to find another job farther away (she seems to want far away jobs so she can't be called home in a rush so someone else will have to take care of her baby). Oddly enough, she's wanting to do a babysitting job for older kids and thinks it will be easy. The demands of the parent seem unreasonable though- and the pay is far too low.

My aunt is trying to help my Mom figure out some financial stuff. She made a spreadsheet involving the finances (but she thinks my Mom gets more $ than she actually does). She wants her to hire contractors to do some work. She's alarmed at how much stuff needs to be fixed & hasn't been fixed yet.

Meanwhile, I need to clean the pantry *again* bc of the damn raccoons. Maybe Thursday I can get my friend to come over and help me sort through & get rid of expired stuff.

My brother started his "practicum" for his teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) certification. He said the instructor he's shadowing is very nice & is going to give him some teaching experience as well as observation. He has to do 20 hours of observation & I forget how many of teaching. He just had his first day & it was eventful. There was a sad misstep of sorts when they were asking a foreign woman about an earthquake. Turns out during that earthquake she watched her best friend die (house collapsed on her). On the funnier side, there was a Vietnamese woman who couldn't differentiate between "feed the cat" and "eat the cat".
 
Lately, my back has been really messed up. Can hardly walk or stand. Oddly, I can ride my bike. But what I DID, is, with the help of a good dose of Lorazepam and my wife literally holding my hand, got through an MRI! I am extremely claustrophobic and this is my third try to have one done. Woo-hoo! Hope it's something they can fix easily. Stay safe and healthy, friends.
 
Sorry to hear that, NeilG. Glad you got through the MRI.
I hope they can find a good treatment for you.
Today I slept in. I really need to get my hours straightened out. I keep being awake at night but sleeping during the day.
 
Sorry to hear that, NeilG. Glad you got through the MRI.
I hope they can find a good treatment for you.
Today I slept in. I really need to get my hours straightened out. I keep being awake at night but sleeping during the day.
I hear you. Good sleep is not easy to come by for a lot of people these days.
 
I even said something to the people who were opening the boxes that I thought it would be best to NOT open up a gun there & they said "Oh yes, please don't." I could tell they tensed up when Mom said there was a gun in the box, but I said we'd wait until we got home to open it & the bank people appreciated it.

I ended up staying home & doing nothing but some very light cleaning today. My aunt called again, she keeps trying to say it would be cheaper to just dump the place as-is & try to move. But we still need to do cleanup before we can even pack & my mom and I are both semi-hoarders. My aunt is saying we should get rid of all my dad's old tools and stuff but I really really don't want to. The more they talk about moving the more I realize I don't actually want to move, but I recognize that we can't stay here forever. It will be too difficult to maintain. But it will be hard to find a place where we can bring all the cats and the cows. I think we can stay here a few more years if we get the place fixed up though, but my aunt is really pushing for us to move & it's stressing me out. She wants to come help clean but last time we had people come help it was really stressful. I don't like other people touching my stuff.

I know my aunt means well, but I wish she would back off a little.

I'm waiting to hear from my friend on when he wants to go to City Hall today, and I need to get the inspection sticker renewed on the CR-V.
 
I cleaned some counters, tried to get the water supply line fixed but they only had one hose the right size. We have a 3/4" PVC pipe with a 1/2" PVC nipple (looks like large threads). Old hose fit fine & old nipple/coupling was deteriorating. Got a 1/2"x1/2" faucet supply hose but it wasn't grabbing the old coupling-- kept crossthreading. So, I got another new one (they didn't have any brass ones so I got stuck with PVC) & it still wouldn't grab. Either the hose is backwards & one side can grab more than the other or I just need a different hose. I priced out the couplings vs the hoses & hose was half the price. The one I saw at Lowes online has more threads so it looks like it could grab. Current one is too shallow & can't grab more than the very first thread & then goes crooked. It was the only hose they had at the store though.
I suppose I can keep it for another purpose & see if it fits anywhere else. I will see if my friend can try flipping the hose around (I'm too fat & my arms are too short to reach up inside to disconnect the hose from the sprayer).
He talked to the tax lady at City Hall and the good news is the City doesn't own the house but the bad news is bc he mentioned his mom's name when he paid the taxes on it, it's still in her name but "care of" in his name. She can still try to sell it out from under him or put it up as collateral to bail one of her boyfriends out of prison. My friend has already had to pay bail for more than one of her boyfriends when she put the house up as collateral while he was living there. They said the only way to get the house in his name is if she donates it to him. He said he'd be fine with her putting his sisters on the deed too, but he doubts she'll give up the one piece of property she owns (even though it was supposed to go to him according to his grandmother's will). She can still continue to manipulate him by threatening to kick him out. Tax lady said it sucked & was sympathetic. She didn't think it was right. I'd say he should get a lawyer and try to get something set up to prevent her from pulling that bs with him, but it would probably cost more than trying to get his own house at this point.
He got paid by the insurance company for his grandfather staying there & it will almost cover the cost of a new bed, carpet, and carpet pad. Apparently his grandfather was told that the payment had been made bc he was calling my friend up and demanding to be given half of the $. My friend called the insurance company to confirm that it was all intended to go to him & not his grandfather as they were paying him for having taken care of his grandfather for those days. The grandfather somehow thought he was entitled to getting some of the $ even though my friend is still needs to replace stuff he damaged. I don't get how someone can be so selfish & greedy. He's now single and has no dependents, his insurance covers his medicines & doctor visits- he gets compensated for gas for going (but often tries to get other people to take him without paying them for gas), & has multiple sources of income. He got a good deal off his workman's comp for the injury. He owns several rental properties. Meanwhile, my friend has 2 kids, a fiance, his mom, & his ex to support & barely makes ends meet. He hung up and blocked his grandfather's number again after the grandfather demanded $ from him.
I forgot to mention that I installed the latch on the pantry to keep the raccoons out.
 
I believe your threads are all wrong. You probably need an adaptor in order to use the PVC threaded fittings.
 
Havasu, I can tell the threads on the hose don't fit the coupling/adapter. The old setup worked and strangely, the new hose looked the same as the old one, but the threads just weren't right. I priced it out & the replacement hose is much cheaper than trying to find the right adapter. This is something I will need to keep in mind when I put in the sink in the guest bathroom. I need to make sure I know the pipe sizes & such.

Went to the post office, grabbed groceries, & visited my friend. He's stressed bc his grandfather owes him $50. The grandfather doesn't have a checking account & AllState would only put $ in a bank with a checking account so they had to use my friend's account. They sent $300 for him to give to his grandfather. He withdrew it & gave it to his grandfather but it turned out it was a mistake so they did a chargeback which put my friend's account in the red. He was hit with overdraft fees. They then later sent $250 back & my friend managed to get the overdraft fees removed bc it was the insurance company's fault. But his grandfather still owes him the $50. But, his grandfather is mouthing off all around town saying my friend owes him $ and is refusing to give him his insurance money so my friend is getting grief from family members when it's the other way around. His oldest uncle told him what the younger uncle was saying about him but my friend explained it and the uncle agreed that the grandfather is a jerk. But the youngest one will continue to spread crap about my friend bc he wanted the money-- he constantly steals from the old man. He hates him, but only wants his $ and is trying to get him to write everyone else out of the will and leave it all to him. The grandfather drove by and laid on the horn until my friend went out there to tell him to knock it off (it woke the baby up & made the baby start crying) and then the old man was demanding $ from him. He told the old man that he's the one who's owed money but the old man kept insisting so my friend told him to piss off and not come back. Then he got into an argument w/ his fiance bc the fiance keeps screaming & yelling at the baby when the baby wants food, a diaper change, or attention. She will hear the baby crying & cover her head with the pillow and let him scream for hours & refuse to do anything.

I found some Quaker apple cinnamon rice cakes & they are pretty good. Ate one & then helped give the dogs their heartworm & flea medicines. Princess did not want to take hers. No matter what we put the pills in she kept eating the stuff around and spitting them out. I finally crushed them up and mixed them in. I had to grab her and cram the heartworm one down her throat to get her to swallow it.

Picked up my cereal from my friend's house.

Gonna nap before I do some more cleaning.
 
Back
Top