As you all know I recently got back from 7 weeks in 3 foreign countries. I hope you have been enjoying reading about the trip from my point of view. There is much more to come. I think you are about half way through the trip at this point (or thereabouts).
Well, once we got home it was time to get back into the rhythm of things. And that of course meant –
Fixing things around the house. Yes, that is right. When we got back there were a number of things that needed to get fixed. So, I had the joy, over a few days of fixing the following things:
- Toilet in basement – the flapper had worn out and had a slow leak.
- Sink on the main floor – the pop-up rod had rusted out and so the stopper for the sink wouldn’t go up and down.
- Sprinkler in the back yard – The riser had broken.
- Pool Vacuum – internal gears had worn out.
- One of the sinks in the master bathroom – both valves had to be replaced.
We turned the water off in the house while we were gone. This was to prevent a leak from doing damage around the house while we were gone. But it probably contributed to the flapper going bad. This was determined by me hearing the sump pump in the basement run every 2 hours or so for the first couple days, and I thought, “Why is it going off so often?” The toilet wasn’t making any noise like some do with they have a bad flapper so I didn’t notice it, but then i turned the water off to that toilet and such enough the tank went dry after a coupe hours. So, flapper got replaced and that took care of that one.
The sink on the main floor was easy to take apart, but harder to get parts for. I went to Lowes since I needed a flapper and valves for the other sink (coming up next) so I headed there to get all the parts. I was able to get the flapper and the valves but no pop-up rod. The person at Lowes told me they didn’t stock those kinds of parts anymore and the try and hardware store. So, off the the True Value near my house and they had a variety of pop-up rods, but my sink wasn’t labeled so I didn’t know which one I needed. I had taken the old rod and nut to find an exact replacement, and after a bit of looking and taking parts out of their boxes I thought I had the right part. So, back to home and I tried installing it. The rod fit perfectly, but the cheap plastic nut they supplied with it wasn’t deep enough to fit around the ball on the rod to get to the threads. So, I used to old nut and it went together just fine. (here is a picture of the old rusted one)
I noticed when I was outside that there was a lot of dirt around one sprinkler head and so I turned the sprinklers on and sure enough, nothing but bubbling water coming out around that head. So, I had to dig it out and replace the riser on the sprinkler. This is a common issue, and I have done it many times around my yard. Not a big deal, but it was hot out.
My father-in-law had mentioned to me while I was on the trip that the pool vacuum didn’t seem to be moving much, or at all, around the pool. Since we were going to be back in just a few days he didn’t want to take it apart and try and fix it since it wasn’t the style he was used to dealing with. That kind of surprised me since he tends to do those kinds of things, but I was ok with him not doing it. I got back, took the thing apart and didn’t find anything that really stuck out. Usually when this happens there is something like a leaf stuck in the gears, but not this time. So, I troubleshot it for a little while and noticed there was a bit of play in some of the gears, and realized it was probably worn out. So I took it to my local pool store that I have been going to for 19 years – B&B pools on McClintock and Baseline (SE corner) – and had them look it over and repair it. It was done later that afternoon. It was a couple of the gears that had worn out. Otherwise they said it was in very good shape considering it was 4-5 years old. Brought it home and it is working great.
Now for the big one. The first night home I heard a noise while trying to get to sleep. It sounded like a draining noise from a pipe. Like when a pipe has a hole somewhere in it and the water drains down the pipe and you can hear air getting into the system. I went over to my sink in the master bathroom and turned it on and off and sure enough I could hear that “relief” sound taking place. I didn’t see anything evident at the faucet so I stuck my hand under the sink and felt around in the dark (trying not to wake up my wife). I felt a little dampness on one of the valves under the sink. So, I turned both off and went to bed. The next day I felt around more and there was a little bit of wetness below both valves. Therefore they were leaking. My wonderful wife cleared everything out from under the sink and I looked more closely. While she did that I was out buying the parts to replace them. While at Lowes I decided to buy new lines to connect the valves to the faucet just in case. I hadn’t looked at those, but thought it might be wise. Well, that was a good decision, because when I got home I found out that the valves were original to the house and the lines to the faucets were soldered to the valves, so I needed the new lines anyways. Thank you God! Then the fun began. I had to work under the sink in the cabinet with the center bar in the front for two doors, so you know, not much comfortable space there. I was able to get the compression nut off and the valve pulled off (yes the water to the house is off at this point), but I could get the brass compression piece off from the copper pipe. Over 30 years on there had joined them pretty tightly. After lots of grunts, groans, and probably some words in my head, I was able to get it to loosen and come off. Then I had to do the other side, and that was just as bad. A job that I honestly thought would take 20 minutes took over an hour. But it was done, See!
I am so blessed that I can do these things on my own. I like accomplishing these things. It makes me feel good to know that I can do them with a little work and a little thought (ok sometimes a lot of work and sometimes a lot of thought). There are times for getting help. Sometimes that is calling a friend or family member (I call my dad for insight all the time). Sometimes it is getting help from professionals (like the pool store). But I like that I don’t always have to get the help.
Time for the next project – motorcycle front fork removal – I’ll write on that once I get it done.