Weekend triumphs

DH got the toilet repaired and reassembled and it works great. It doesn't even look half bad in our weird old bathroom in a mixing tile with vinyl flooring kind of way.

After conquering the toilet, DH moved on to getting the electrical wiring done that would allow his shop tools more power. Of course, he had a small helper.

I stitched some, this weekend, but as I'm doing confetti stitching, progress is slow.

I'm going to attempt to upgrade my Windows Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 this afternoon. Hopefully, it will go well and you won't hear any yells and moans of anguish, whining, or the sound of a computer being chucked out a window.

More plumbing fun

DH took the day off to tackle the toilet. After he gets it properly piped and reinstalled, he is moving on to tying in the plumbing supply for the new bathroom. So far today, he's only made one trip to Lowe's, but the day is still young. ☺

We've filled our log rack (which holds a rick of wood or half a cord) three times this winter. We're down to half a rick left and hoping it lasts until warmer weather. We've had a very unusually cold winter down here in south central Texas. Bring on spring!

And Linda asked for information about my WIP. It's a pattern from Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery called "Wild Things" from a watercolor painting by Sachi. It was a limited edition pattern and is no longer sold.

I hope to get a lot of stitching in this weekend along with some boring must-do sewing. Sometimes I like to sew; this project is not one of those times.

BAP WIP update

As promised, here's a picture of my WIP as of this morning.

Augh! Ack!!

I would have posted this yesterday, but my internet connection went wonky, probably because of the weather.

It was raining when I woke up; just after lunch, it started doing this. AUGH!

By suppertime, it looked like this. ACK!!

I hate snow (unless I'm skiing on it). Thankfully, it was all melted off this morning by about 10:00 a.m. and the sun is out today. The only good thing about yesterday's weather is that I got to stitch a lot. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

The travails of a woodworker Part 2

Yesterday afternoon, DH set out to finish doing the electrical stuff he needed to do in order to better get electricity out to his shop to run his tools. Then he discovered that our only working toilet was acting up again.

So (with much muttering, grumbling, and banging about) he set out to remove it from the floor and clean out the pipe underneath as he has had to do several times lately. (We know the piping under this toilet is badly done; we were hoping that we could live with it until we get the new bathroom finished. So much for hoping.)

After working for over an hour with both the piping and the toilet itself, DH still could not get the toilet to flush properly. Worse, water suddenly started appearing under the house near the bathroom (we have a pier and beam foundation). DH figured that a pipe must have sprung a leak. We decided that the only logical thing to do would be to tear up the floor under the toilet to inspect the pipes.

DH did that (with much muttering, grumbling, and grumping). There was no water evident near the toilet pipes. DH took part of the pipe apart (including the flange that connects the toilet to the floor) and it seemed fine; no clogs. There we were with a large hole in our bathroom floor and no working toilet for no reason we could see. We stood in the bathroom and racked our brains trying to figure out the problem.

The clean out for our septic system is near the bathroom, too. DH noted that that it didn't seal properly and leaked at times. Suddenly, the light bulb went off over DH's head. The water was getting out past the leaky clean out valve. It shouldn't do that unless there's something wrong with the septic system. He checked the septic system. It was turned off.

The septic maintenance guy had come out last Wednesday and he had turned it off to check the system and, apparently, had forgotten to turn it back on. We didn't check it because the man is a professional and we pay him to inspect and maintain our system; he should know to turn it back on! The septic system had been off since then. An overloaded septic system will cause the toilet to act like the pipe is clogged.

So the toilet is fine, but now we have a cardboard-covered hole in our floor and - after an emergency trip to Lowe's - jury-rigged under toilet piping. Oh well.

On a positive note, with the floor up, DH can better access the water main to the house to tie in the new bathroom pipes. He will do that this coming weekend and then fix the floor. Until then, we are "sitting lightly" on the toilet as it is put together temporarily. So if you hear a loud yell of surprise from my part of Texas, it means the fix didn't make it until the weekend and either DH or I fell through the floor along with the toilet.

How was your weekend?

The travails of a woodworker

DH has been trying to make doors for the bathroom cabinetry that he made. He had to have a cleaning frenzy in his shop to unbury his router table before he could start which took half a day. He was then able to make one door, but was not happy with it. His router table is the problem.

When DH bought his plunge router, he didn't want to spend the bucks for a router table, so he made one. The top is from a kitchen sink cutout that was left in our house in Arkansas. The bottom is the bathroom sink cabinet from one of the bathrooms we gutted in our Oklahoma house. It is a tightwad triumph and it has served him fairly well for over eight years. But for making nice cabinet doors, it is severely lacking.

DH decided to research possible router attachments for his Shopsmith. This entailed a couple of trips to Lowe's and several electrical wiring schemes. (The shop does not yet have electricity out to it; DH has been running tools off an extension cord from our flood light pole.) The Shopsmith pulls a lot of electricity and needed something more beefy than the extension cord to run properly. While he solved the electricity problem, DH decided that he'd rather use a conventional router table than the Shopsmith attachments available.

So, DH had me search the internet for a suitable router table after he looked over the ones that Lowe's had. In the end, we ended up ordering this router table made by Bench Dog. DH is fairly salivating over it. Luckily it won't rust. ☺

I have been stitching quite a bit this weekend and plan to stitch most of this afternoon. I'll post a picture tomorrow or Tuesday.

A kitchen antique

Years ago, my dad was an HVAC subcontractor. His main supplier ran a contest one year. For every item you purchased, you received points and could earn "fabulous prizes." At the end of the contest, Dad had enough points to "buy" several things for our home. (Unfortunately, he did not have enough points for the vacation trip my mom was hoping for!) While I don't remember all of the things he bought with his points, I do remember the lawnmower and the microwave oven.

Microwaves had been out for awhile, but were expensive back then. My mom wanted one, but wanted the new-fangled ones with an automatic turntable so she didn't have to rotate the food herself. Our new microwave was one of the first models with the turntable, made by Panasonic. This was back in 1978.

DH and I still have and use daily that microwave. It was "passed down" to me sometime after college. Occasionally, the turntable will stop turning. DH then takes it apart and replaces the rubber band that turns the turntable. We don't use official replacement parts; the rubber band off of a bunch of broccoli works fine. Notice the timer knob instead of an electronic keypad!

This week, after 32 years of use, the light bulb finally burned out in it and we had to replace that. They just don't make things like they used to. ☺

Wednesday, DH took the day off and spent the day cutting more firewood. We've gone through a cord of wood and now have an additional rick. This has been an unusually cold winter for this part of Texas. Next year, we shouldn't have to use so much wood. (Although DH really enjoyed using his manly chainsaw and the tractor during the gorgeous sunny day we had!)

I haven't stitched a lick in two days as I have been busy with life, but I hope to stitch some today, and of course, stitch this weekend.