There are no small projects and the American Standard

We've been a little slow with our updates the past week or two.  Partly because life is just busy, partly because we are in the process of planning and selecting products for the new master bathroom, and partly because there are no small jobs.

SMALL JOB (defined):  In our minds a job that can be done in less than half a day. 

None of the bedrooms had ceiling lights when we moved in.  Andy managed to add one to the master bedroom with only a few minor hurdles, so when he tackled the project of adding ceiling fans to the guest bedroom and my office he thought it would be a small project.  BUT, you must remember that there are no small projects or at least that's what we're starting to discover in our lovely 1964 home.  The location of the ceiling fan in the guest bedroom was directly under the vent work for the air conditioning unit in the attic.  After tearing the HVAC system apart for a temporary relocation he was able to feed the wires, cut the holes in the ceiling and wall for the new switches and get the fan hung.  The project was back on track.  BUT, there are no small projects and as we are finding out in greater detail the previous home owner liked to "tinker", or at least that's the kindest word we can think of.  The electrical work was in but somewhere in our not so logical circuitry there was fault.  When Andy wiggled the wire in the bedroom the hall lights went out and they aren't even on the same circuit.  Andy was able to trace the system, find and fix the problems and we now have two working ceiling fans with wonderful switches.  Small job turned into 2 day job.

New fan in the guest bedroom.  We started to take the border down.  In case you can't tell -- it's tennis rackets.  I realize that this is an older house but pink flowers on the border in the master bedroom and tennis rackets in another bedroom -- when was that ever a good idea?

New fan in office.

Wonderful switches that allow separate fan and light control with a dimmer.

Goodbye American Standard (small project #2):

On one of our many trips to Lowe's in the past month we bought a new toilet to try out.  All of the toilets need replaced eventually, so we got one to try in the guest bathroom to see how we liked it.  Last night Andy suggested that we work on this (small) project and replace the grey American Standard toilet from 1963.  Neither of us expected the toilet to be original to the house and Andy was quick to do the math and calculate how much it had been used (47 years = a lot of flushes)!!  Needless to say it had a good life and it was time for it to find a new home!

 Please ignore the flowered wallpaper -- I do!

In 1964 they used copper plumbing and what we think is a cast iron flange.  The problem is that the flange is rusted and too high for the new toilet. 



After a good bit of research it was determined the best option was to remove the old flange (Andy got to use his beloved Sawzall) and up next we will replace it with a new (lower) flange. 



This small project is still in the works .... TO BE CONTINUED....