A Little Leak, A Little Stress

Cheryl was sniffing around in one of the basement bedrooms last night and her sensitive sniffer detected the subtle aroma of fresh-leaked gas. The kind that makes houses blow up. It wasn't an overwhelming, pervasive scent, the kind that brings the Energy Utility workers screaming in their red-flashing vans and HazMat suits. It was more like a hint of chlorine in the bottle of water you pulled out of your backpack after a ten mile hike. Annoying, but (mostly) insignificant.

But it was just one more little thing on top of a huge pile of things that is adding to my stress level.

Mary was scheduled to take her Driver's Test this week, and she was going to drive Ruby (the little red subaru). But Ruby developed an issue last week, something related to the IACV, which precluded her being used to carry precious cargo. Unless that cargo has a desire to sit by the side of the road, going nowhere. (IACV issues cause the engine to stall out and die intermittently). Initially it was thought that perhaps the issue could be resolved quickly, but one quick crawl under the car yesterday revealed that the IACV is just the tip of the iceberg. There is also a cracked boot on the driver-side drive shaft. And grease splattering all over the place. And oil dripping onto the hot exhaust pipe. And the brakes feel terrible. Ruby is going to sit this one out.

We'd have Mary use Deb's car, but there's a parking brake issue. As in, no parking brake action. The only thing keeping that car from rolling backwards down the driveway is the Park setting in the transmission. Obviously, that car and I need to spend some serious time getting to know one another, brake-wise. (I am already quite well acquainted with its windshield, exhaust system, rear lights, interior door panels, and console.) But there is this issue of time ...

The graduation is coming up next week and we have guests arriving on Saturday. The basement is not nearly ready yet, and there have been delays due to one thing or another. The plumbing proceeds much too slowly. The flooring still needs some trim work. The electrical is not quite complete. The drop ceiling is barely started. The doors aren't even all up yet.

My car stiill needs an exhaust fix (it's almost as loud as I am), and some brake work. And some body work. Actually, all the old cars need body work. Which was my plan for the summer. Take 'em apart down to the nubs, weld 'em solid, put 'em back together. But that precludes any work on the house, yard, career, writing, music, etc.

Speaking of the yard and the things out there in it -- the baby birds who were nesting under our deck finally took wing the other day. Seems like it was only a week or two ago they were merely beaks pointing to the sky, begging for worms; then suddenly they became huge blobs of downy fluff, too big for the nest; then yesterday they were adolescent hooligans perched on the deck railing, squawking like rugby fans, flapping their wings until the wind took pity on them and whisked them away to distant branches, out of sight (but not out of earshot).

Anyone wanna buy a used bird nest?

**

In other news, I finally put the dishwasher back together (and, miracle of miracles, it works!) so we are now able to handle large quantities of dirty dishes. Just in time for visitors.

And the downstairs bathroom plumbing is (mostly) working. The shower works; I just need to install the shower door and then caulk everything.

Oh! And the Plumbers are coming over on Friday to fix the gas leak. And check our irrigation backflow valve. And try to sell us a tankless water system.

Did I mention I have this new job, too??

A Day in the Basement, Mostly

An Empty Shell of a Bathroom

The bathroom started out as an empty shell this morning, but due to an overwhelming frustration with the study door, it ...

Well, you'll just have to see.

The primary goal for Saturday was getting the rest of the doors up. We'd completed (mostly) the big French door and the suite bedroom and closet doors on Friday night (because we don't really have much else of a life right now) and were hoping to get a few more done, but there was this issue with the vertical hang on the study door (the one leading from the hallway into the study) where it just didn't want to fit right -- like the middle of the frame was bowed out or something -- and after half an hour of struggling with it, I gave up and moved onto something else.

Even after coming up with this nifty door-frame-length-trimming-jig.

My Door-Frame Trimming Jig

So I started working on the bathroom.

Can you imagine the level of frustration that drives a perfectly sane person to go from working on a simple door hanging to a plumbing job?

No, neither than I.

But it happened.

Since Cheryl and Mary were out shopping (preparing for the upcoming festivities), Deb helped move the vanity downstairs, then I managed to get the toilet down there, too. I was so anxious to see how it all worked. If it worked. It wouldn't been surprising if it didn't work -- I am a complete and utter pessimist -- but it did. Well, the faucets didn't get turned on and water didn't flow, but everything actually fit where it was supposed to go. Which is something.

The toilet got installed; the vanity faucet got hooked up. Still need to set up the drain, but it looks cool! Installed the shower valve and shower head.

Then it was time for doors again.

So when Cheryl got home, she helped me install the bathroom door. And while she and Mary were cooking dinner, I went back and beat on the study door until it finally acquiesced. Or at least it managed to close without sticking.

The Recalcitrant Door

After dinner, Cheryl and I headed out to Home Depot and grabbed a whole bunch of odds and ends - curtain rods, towel racks, a mirror, supply line for the toilet, etc. - we'll need to finish things up later this week.

It's starting to look great!

Much better!

Happy Post-Mother's Day!

As you all probably know, I'm not much of one for holidays, birthdays, celebrations, etc.  But there are some special days that I try to remember.  Mother's Day happens to be one of them.

But I got so wrapped up in all the things going on around here that I didn't take the time to call her up and wish her a Happy Mother's Day. (From the posts on Facebook, it looks like she had a good day anyway.)

Happy (Post) Mother’s Day!

I will be so glad when this basement is done.

::

Unfortunately, progress in the basement is falling way behind schedule, and frustration is  building as the day of graduation approaches at light-speed.

The flooring still has a few little tweaks to complete. The plumbing has barely begun. The drop ceiling has a grand total of two tiles in place. The electrical plugs still need to be re-installed.

The dishwasher still needs to be put back together.

And my new job is starting to get very, very busy.

So ... time for car issues!!

Ruby the Red Subaru started dying on the way home from work Friday. Felt kind of like the carburetor was flooded – except it’s fuel injected and thus doesn’t have a carburetor – and I was lucky to get home. Pulled out the diagnostic computer and plugged it in. Code P1507. IACV (Idle Air Control Valve) failure. Which makes sense. Cars tend to stall out when the air is jammed up.

The IACV is located just above the engine, buried in a mess of cables and hoses. I had that section of the car pulled apart a few months back due to a coolant leak and thought I’d cleaned it all up. It’s possible some debris was dislodged just enough to (months later) float down into the valve and clog it up. Kind of like arteries.

But with all the other things falling apart around here (or needing to be put together in the first place), I don’t have time for dealing with it. Nor the finances.

I already had Serenity Jr (the second green Subaru) sitting on the back-burner, waiting for a brake job. It just needs the brake caliper replaced. I scavenged one off Serenity Sr (the first green Subaru) a couple weeks ago, intending to find some time to install it, but never did. Now it’s an imperative.

But not for Friday. Friday's plan was to clean up the dishwasher parts, scrape off the rust and put some primer on it. That’ll be enough for one night. The topcoat can wait.

The car can wait, too. Saturday is full of promise.

::

Two o’clock on a Saturday morning. The phone rings. I’m lying in bed, having just gotten to sleep after sitting up til 1 am watching Monkees videos on YouTube (don’t ask – it’s just a phase I’m going through) and the phone rings. Who could it be? As a parent whose child (Adam) was still not home, only one thought ran through my head: something bad happened. Someone is in trouble.

I run downstairs to grab the phone (because the phone by the bed is disconnected – don’t ask) and miss it by about three seconds. Caller ID says, yes, it was Adam. I call him back. “My car stopped moving.” “Where are you?” “Right out in front of the development.” “I’ll be right there.”

Dressed and out the door in five seconds flat, bag of tools in hand. I take Deb’s car (because it's the only one in position to go anywhere) and race (within appropriate neighborhood speed limits, of course…) to the site. His car is parked in the middle turn lane, emergencies on. No traffic. Because it’s 2 in the morning. So we don’t have to worry about being run over while we’re working on the car.

And we do work on it, he and I. Together. We quickly figure out that it’s the right front brake. One of the mounting bolts is gone, missing, vanished. Naturally, it’s the top one, so the caliper has fallen against the rotor and jammed it. And I don’t have any spare bolts. (Maybe I should start carrying them, eh?)

Only one thing to do. Call a tow truck. Pull the caliper and hang it from the wheel well so we can get the car home. But I didn’t have anything to hang it with. So quickly ran home and grabbed some bungies. Got back to the car and pulled the wheel and unbolted the caliper and bungied it – carefully - to the A/C coolant line which just so happens to run near the passenger wheel well. Then put the wheel back on and drove carefully and slowly home. While Adam followed behind in Deb’s car.

Parked the cars. Tossed the tools back in the garage. Then back to bed. I’m not going to work on the car at 4 in the morning. Even I have my limits.

::

Slept in a bit on Saturday, something about being tired. Had been planning on putting the dishwasher back together so life could return to normal around here, but that was kind of pre-empted by the car panic that morning. Adam needs his car on Monday; we can get by without a dishwasher for another week or so.

First order of business was to run over to NAPA to get the caliper mounting bolts. Got back home and put the bolt on and the Grand Am is back on it’s feet. But I’m still wondering how on earth the original one just fell off. Doesn’t make sense. They were torqued down pretty good. Magic? Aliens with space lasers? Metal-eating nanobots? No telling.

One job done. Now I need to work on Serenity Jr. Because I need a working car on Monday morning, too, if I want to get paid. Besides, all I need to do is install a brake caliper, right?

Thought it would take maybe an hour or so. Ha! Didn’t figure on having such a hard time finding the caliper mounting bolts. 12 millimeter head, 1.25 thread, 30 millimeter length, class 10.9 hardness. Went over to NAPA to get ‘em. I mean, they had the Grand Am bolts, right? Why not the Subaru?

Ha-ha. Funny thing about that. The guy behind the counter said they only carry brake caliper mounting bolts for certain cars because of some patent issue or something. They carry most American cars because they are generally SAE standard. But they don’t carry a lot of the metrics. Which explains why I was out of luck trying to find them for my Subarus. Wait a minute – didn’t I go through this before? Oh, yeah, now I remember. Last time I had to order them online from Fastenal because they don’t keep them on hand. And it took a few days. Maybe I should order a case of them this time.

Meanwhile, I had to to re-use the ones that were in there before, even though the middle threads are corroded. Which is why I was trying to replace them. Thankfully, it’s only the end threads that matter, since the bolt passes through half an inch of unthreaded steel on the caliper before biting into the mounting plate.

So I installed the “borrowed” caliper (with new pads) on the driver side and then proceeded to replace the pads on the passenger side. Took an hour to get the stupid pad to click in place because it was playing hard to get. Apparently the tolerances on the side tabs are too tight. Either that, or the heat of braking had warped the old caliper. Had to bang on it with a mallet to get it in.

Got that all put back together, but there’s still one little operation that needs to be done. Since I had pulled the caliper completely off the driver side, the brake lines need to be bled out. With my handy, dandy MightyVac vacuum system.  It should only take a few minutes, since I’m only bleeding the one side. But I’m tired. And there’s basement work that needs doing. So I think I’ll wait til tomorrow. Sunday. Besides, it should only take a few minutes. I can fit it in sometime between lunch and dinner.

Meanwhile, I’ve got some basement work to do. At the very least, I want to get the Sharkbite valves installed in the bathroom and kitchenette.

::

Mother’s Day. And Adam’s birthday party. All on the same day!

We postponed his birthday party so that he could have some friends over for some gaming on Sunday afternoon.  And they did. Game. Not sure which games they were playing, although I peeked in now and then, but there were a couple that looked quite fun. And they did look like they were having fun.

I didn’t have quite so much fun. Remember that brake-bleeding? That was supposed to just take a few minutes? Well, my estimate was a bit off. It took over an hour. Oh, it was no trouble to set up the vacuum pump system. But the bleed screw was allowing too much air through, and there were too many bubbles coming through the hose for me to tell if I was sucking air out of the brake line or out of the garage itself.  Probably getting too much leakage through the bleed screw threads. So I wrapped them with plumber’s tape and tried again. Finally! Got the bubbles to stop. Only took a few minutes after that, and the lines were clear.

Thought the work was done, but on the test drive, though, there was this cyclical scraping noise. So had to put the car back in the garage and pull the back wheel to check on it. Turns out the back plate was almost rusted off (it’s a protective metal plate that sits behind the wheel for some odd reason) and it was scraping against the rotor. So I took it off. Or, rather, it fell off when I touched it. Rust is so amazing!

Took another test drive and didn’t hear it, so called it good. And then it was time for Adam's birthday celebration!

Cheryl made a lovely two-layer cake with a big “2” candle on top. Not sure if that was the tens or the ones place. But it sure was easy to light. And blow out. So we sang Happy Birthday (the non-copyrighted version) and stuffed ourselves with cake and ice cream, then Adam and his friends went back to gaming for a little while longer. It wasn’t til much later in the evening that he finally opened up his cards and presents.

And I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the garage.

::

I apologize for not calling you up, Mom. I do hope your day was satisfying. I did think of you quite a bit as I was washing dishes in the sink (due to the lack of dishwasher), as some of my favorite memories are of us doing the dishes together in the Hermitage Road house, talking about everything under the sun. You have always been a lot of fun to talk to.

I love you, Mom!

:::

p.s. We have two baby robins underneath our deck...

The Bathroom Floor

Bathroom Floor, Looking Towards Shower

Cheryl spent a lot of hours working on this bathroom floor, and we were both relieved when the tiles were finally all cut and laid and we could look at it and imagine that the whole thing is finished, done, complete.

Of course, it isn't finished, done, or complete yet. We still have to pick up one of those hundred-pound oversized rolling pins to flatten it out a bit; there's tiny gaps between the individual tiles that need filling up, and that takes a heavy bit of convincing on the part of the roller.

She wasn't feeling up to par on the day she finished the floor, but she gamely kept on going. Next morning, she woke up with a high fever, lots of aches and pains, and she was coughing heavily. I suppose that's the price that is paid for persistence in the face of stubborn house projects. It wasn't the first time she's gotten sick while working on a house. I remember back about twelve years when I was already out hre in Grand Rapids and she was still back in Seattle, trying to finish the old house and sell it at the same time, and she came down with pneumonia. That was the ghost in our minds the other night. Wondering if she was coming down with it again.

She took the day off today so she could recover. Still coughing, but feeling better as the day went on. Now that it's late at night and we're done with the day, ready to lie down for another small break in the endless routine of work, work, work, and more work, the fever is almost gone and she's relaxing with her crochet while listening to "Rebecca" on audiobook.

She'll be home tomorrow, just to be sure, just to make sure the fever is finally over and done and gone. Then she'll be back to school again, eager to get back into the swing of teaching, helping the kids in their efforts to learn to read.

I think she did a great job. She hopes to get it all done before family shows up in May.

Bathroom Floor, From Shower