Plumbing Problems (and obligatory bump photos)

We strongly dislike our kitchen but for the most part we have been able to work with what we have until it's time to replace it.  With so many other projects going on around the house it sometimes seems silly to spend money and effort on temporary upgrades for the kitchen since we don't have a final plan for the space.  BUT we couldn't stand another day with this faucet.  We have hard water and between the hard water stains and scale along with some "retrofits" by the previous owner it was GROSS.  For some reason we have been in the faucet isles of Home Depot and Lowe's frequently in the past few months so we decided just to buy a cheap replacement faucet as a temporary fix.

Gross...and don't even get me started about the brick backsplash...

 

Grosser....

Grossest!  Andy actually had to cut the faucet free from the sink.

Someone once told me that you should never start a plumbing project on a Sunday afternoon because you are guaranteed to have a problem, need more supplies, and then the stores will be closed.  Andy started this project on a Sunday and we almost found ourselves in trouble when he discovered that the trap was leaking.  There was only a tiny crack at first but by the time he got everything removed it had turned into a large hole! Andy took stock of what we needed and quickly went to Home Depot.

 

A quick job turned complex but we were glad to discover the leak before it got worse and get the plumbing replaced before it caused a problem.

 

This faucet doesn't look like much but it is clean, works, doesn't leak or spray in odd directions and we even added a sprayer.  Life in our kitchen is slightly more tolerable.

Some of the family has been asking for baby bump photos.  Andy assures me that this isn't a selfie, but regardless I'm not much for posting photos of myself on the blog.  So here is the obligatory baby bump photo taken last weekend (around 24 weeks).

You can pick -- black and white or color?

The Waste King

We came home from vacation to find that our garbage disposal was broken.  I don't think our nasty neighbor magical elves came in broke it while we were gone.  It was just old, never worked that well to begin with, and was ready for a new life in the garbage.  Andy did some research on Consumer Reports and apparently Waste King disposals are the most highly rated.  I'm not sure if I've posted it on the blog before or not, but we don't have a favorable opinion of Waste King products. But it's not fair to base our judgment of a garbage disposal on the would-like-to-throw-it-out-the-window qualities of our oven.  Waste King seems like a great name for a garbage disposal -- not so much an oven (maybe that's why it's so terrible!). 

Here is Andy installing the new disposal.  It's slightly larger than our old one.

    

Old Kenmore -- ready for the trash.

And our favorite oven (also ready for the trash).  The temperature is about 25 degrees off, it has up to a 75 degree swing (not good for cookies) and is next to impossible to actually get the broiler to turn on.

It's Electric -- Boogie Woogie Woogie

Over the summer I bought some new light fixtures at a tent sale.  Until this past weekend we had only hung 1 of the 5, but this past weekend we were able to hang 3 of the 4 remaining lights and just yesterday Andy hung the last one.

First was the front porch light.  This was supposed to be an easy job to start off the weekend and it ended with an 8am trip to Home Depot followed by another trip to Lowe's that evening so the project could be finished on Sunday.  Remember -- there are no small projects!

The old light.

New light installed after the first trip to Home Depot.  The problem was that the original light did not have an electrical box and the new fixture didn't sit flush with the brick.

After the second trip to Lowe's we got a plate to sit between the brick and the light to act as a box and allow the light to fit secure and flush with the wall.  It's not ideal, but we really don't mind the look.

Then Andy moved to the laundry room in the hopes of finding a project that could be completed without two separate trips to Lowe's.

The original light.  Shortly after this picture was taken the glass cover came crashing to the ground and shattered into a million tiny little pieces.  No small projects!

At least the new light is a great improvement.  The room still obviously needs painted but that will probably happen after the holidays when I can devote an entire weekend to prepping and painting.   

And finally we moved to the kitchen...

This lovely light was hanging over the area of the kitchen table.  It was awkwardly low and when we moved in we used a zip tie to shorten the chain and move the light to the ceiling and we never lowered it.  We hardly ever use the light and the placement is still a little odd, but we figured we could replace it now with the thought that we may be able to reuse the new fixture in a different location when we get to remodeling the kitchen.

Still not the perfect location, but a big improvement and it's not nearly as low as the old one.

After the weekend we had one more light to replace in the kitchen, but when we pulled the light out of the box there were a few areas of chipped paint.  Nothing a little spray paint can't fix, but it's took a few days to finish the painting because I thought I could use paint that I had, but I ran out.

 The old kitchen light.

And the new fixture.  It's the same fixture as the one we hung in the laundry room, but just painted.

And with that in place we have officially added ceiling fans and lights in three of the bedrooms and replaced all of the other light fixtures in the house except for the powder room vanity light, upstair hall bathroom lights, and the dining room lights.