A day of rest...

Today may be the most non-productive day I can recall. I was too tired and sore to do much of anything. It all started on Friday.

Jill is in Denver visiting Tara, so I was on my own. Pat and Katie finally got the keys to their new-to-them house. It is quite a nice house with good bones, but it looks rather tired. On Friday morning, I drove to Monmouth with the car packed to the gills with tools, materials, overnight gear, and Pogo. I picked up the keys from Patrick and drove to the house. There were a number of areas in need of dry wall repair. Mainly there were little nicks and gouges here and there. I got busy with my drywall mud and spent a good deal of time repairing things.

When I first arrived, I found a note on the front door saying the gas company had turned OFF the gas. I called Pat, and he said that he had assumed the same company that provides electric, water and sewer and garbage service would turn on the gas. Not so. I went outside and found the gas meter. The valve was not sealed, so I turned it on, but I couldn't get any appliances to light. So, it was on to other things.

The dryer didn't work, so I took a look and found out that the knob that needs to be turned to start the dryer was cracked. This was a typical cheesy plastic knob, which was called upon to turn a rather stiff "D" shaped shaft. I found an old picture hanger and was able to bend it around the plastic part that was defective, and voila! The dryer works.

Pat and Katie arrived after work, and we continued with prepping for the big paint party on Saturday. At dinner time, we made a trip to Costco, Home Depot, and the bank, followed by dinner at Taco Bell. We picked up stuff to feed the troops and some various parts. Then we went back to the house. It was about 11:30 by the time we got back to their apartment, but we felt ready to paint the next day.

Saturday morning we started early and painted all day. Katie's mom, Terry, arrived and did some cleaning, but mainly she painted two bathrooms all by herself, bless her heart. Friends Dave and Kellie showed up and worked hard. They finished the painting of the large office. Then friends Trevor and Ashley arrived. The did a bunch of painting in the guest bedroom, but Ashley had to leave to look for a sitter for 2 year old Kayley. She didn't return, but Trevor did a lot of painting.

Pat's pal and fellow basketball coach, who is a semi-pro painter, was there, too. He gave us a lot of tips and took on the job of finish painting and fixing boo-boos. I spent a good deal of time working on plumbing a new faucet to replace the leaky one on the kitchen sink, only to discover that I needed some parts to make the old plumbing compatible with the new.

We stopped "early" on Saturday, but we had managed to paint the whole inside of the house, twice, excluding trim. We were home by 9:30 PM. I never slept so well. But it was a short night and we were at it again early on Sunday.

I made 3 (count 'em, 3) trips to True Value before I found the right parts for the faucet plumbing. I started to help with painting trim, when Terry said, "The toilet in the master bath is really leaking." I took a look, and found the bolts that secure the tank were so rusty and the rubber washers so rotten that water was leaking around them. Terry had turned off the water and flushed, so it was not a crisis.

Katie was about to go out to get some lunch, so I asked her to stop at True Value and get a toilet repair kit. After lunch, I disassembled the toilet and put in the new parts. When I reassembled it, the toilet leaked worse!! Oh, my! I disassembled it and re-configured the tank bolts. Still it leaked. The third time I disassembled it, I suddenly heard a rush of water, and the supply pipe came out of the wall in my hand. Pat and I scrambled to find the water shut off.

After yet another trip to True Value, I got enough parts to fix the broken pipe, figured out that the leak was coming from the gasket between the tank and stool, and reassembled everything. No leaks, hooray!

Next I started to install a fancy new faucet in the master bath. It wasn't until I got about half way through the project that I realized the faucet wouldn't fit the sink. So, I re-installed the old faucet, and we will get a different sink, because the kids really love this faucet.

The others finished the painting of the woodwork, and we all pitched in to clean up. We headed for the apartment about 7:00, dumped a lot of garbage, and I packed my gear for the trip home.

Today, when I arose...very slowly...I realized that this was going to be a very non-productive day. I did take care of some book-keeping, but that was the extent of my exploits. I have arranged a slide show to show some before-and-after pictures of the house, although the before pictures were taken in the daytime and the after pictures were taken after dark. Click the photo to see the show.