I LOVE this thread! What a good start Kimbo - although sorry you have to deal with these kinds of repairs and such. They certainly are ongoing for homeowners. I will be back!

Great advice thus far!!

WILD


*Plumber, huh Jack?????? :cc:

Don't you have some wood to chop---:giggle:

I've been so stuck on the plumbing thing I haven't been able to get into the wood chopping thread.

This might be slightly off-topic, but i am wondering how people get their outdoor holiday lights so straight and evenly spaced?

__

Either has anyone else once the "gnomes" invaded!

:canadian:

I will say this, (little bit I KNOW?, kinda...) when I bought this place, it was all customized threaded on the property galvanized piping. My father [back then] came right in (from HIS house building time period, upgrading a large landmark town building, -and just working with things knowledge, I guess) and said "easy replacing that piece". He measured, had it threaded at the local little town hardware store. That lasted years.

And I actually viewed ALL of this "exposed" metal plumbling as something akin to "Lloyd Wright" home artwork! LOL!!

But, I recently got copper replacement. At some point prior to this, (to add on) I adapted some plastic plumbing which is super easy and inexpensive to do of course, but I didn't like it! AT all.

Like some have said though, if you are in it for the LONG haul and have concerns... the galvanized does clog up from the inside. I would have thought that with a smaller diameter the water pressure would have been "greater"...(?) Want to explain that to me Jack?

But, it was well water sediment in mine from over the years, not "rotten from the inside out", that I could tell anyway. Maybe I was misinformed though. (One very unique description of this here, I'll tell ya!! Thanks. LOL!! Blech!!!)

I'm worried about the friggin' carpenter ants here. Whatcha got for that Jack? I've done many things over the years here. Little bastards.

Hi all! Happy SNL!!

WILD

*OH! Hot water tanks should be flushed out regularly, I "think". I did anyway. Now, I have the "hot water on demand", tankless "thingie"... (popular in Paris!). I believe that cut my gas bill down as well! But, like Jack stated, if it is that old, I wouldn't flush that out now unless you want to kayak out of your house!

Kimbo--I don't have to hang lights this year, it's just something I've always been curious about. My dad refused to put lights up outside, so if we wanted them, we had to do the task ourselves. I could never get them straight, though. :duct:

Jack--Pretty funny question, huh? Ah well. Glad I could keep you entertained. :)

~cara

Oh my god! This reminded me of the "Married With Children" episode "Psycho Dad"!!! I just saw that AGAIN tonight?!

(Sorry, don't know what your show is, but I'm gigglin' here!!)

PSYCHO DAD!!!!! (There is a "Psycho Mom" version on the show for Peg, too!)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJX1Atch1k"]YouTube- Psycho dad and psycho mom[/ame]

:clap::clap::clap::clap:



*I love Al Bundy's way of fixing things! I know a guy like that!! Seriously!!

Cara... Being that this is one of my pet peeves.... the "zen" Christmas lights and their unacceptability... I found a couple of tricks over the years...

The lil clip thingys that are sold at whatever your favorite retailer might be... a LIFESAVER. These are for hanging lights on the house...

The lights for trees/shrubs now are sold in "nets" rather than the strings and strings of lights twirled around the shrub.

Other than that, its a matter of patience and "being on a mission"...

On another note... pet peeve #987... special order countertops that were cut WRONG!!!! :furious::furious: Thank goodness that Jess had measured meticulously (how did we ever live without the laser measure thingy from Sears?!?!?) and it wasn't the measurement that was the issue... the manufacturer just cut one of them wrong...

We know Jack's latest obsession with the flat screen... we picked one up on Black Friday with the BluRay DVD... AND have discovered the netflix streaming feature... needless to say, it makes not being able to finish the countertops more bearable.

The last thing on this round of kitchen renovation is installing the faux tin kitchen tiles. They look pretty easy... adhesive up...

Next on the list is moving the w/d and installing beadboard over the existing STUCCO walls in our now dining room....

For now, I am glad that we are on hiatus till after the holidays... more time for TV!!!

Well the sheetrock is down and my mess is cleaned up--now that I have a look inside the wall it makes sense. It does look like the culprit pipe is the hotwater pipe out of the water heater. Of course I am not going to be able to get that one fixed today because we will need to drain the tank and move it--I am hoping we can get the new heater early this week.

I've got an 1.5 hours before my friend is here--guess I'll go to Starbucks!

Sadly my project is delayed a week. Due to the location of the pipe and the fact that we need to drain and move the water heater and the fact that she thought rehooking up this water heater would be a bad decision. I've got to get the new tank in house so we can do the whole project at once. We have some challenges, we are going to try and move part of the plumbing so it would better accomodate a stackable laundry set saving even more room in the already small room...I am hoping it gets a bit warmer throughout this week--it's pretty cold here, not good for in, out project work.

Stayed tuned--

So...I need to hang some curtains. I remember how hard it was last time trying to screw into the wall, so I bought a small, Black & Decker, cordless drill and a small set of drill bits. (My first power tool! I'm so proud!) I've charged the drill the obligatory 17 hours per instruction. I'm scared to drill holes in my wall, though! What if they come out uneven? I know I'm gonna end up spackling the wall when I leave, but I'm still wary of this task. I have to drill 3 holes with a 3/16" bit. Then, I have to put in 3 plastic anchors (my dad called them "Molly Bolts" when I was growing up). The screws will be easy and hanging the curtains will be a breeze.

I just have one question, so far: when measuring where to place the holes, can I base it on the ceiling line, or do I go with the window frame? (And does that make any sense?)

Handily challenged and may need to resort to :duct: if I can't get the curtains to hang level,

cara

drill & bits. check!
level? damn!

Thanks for the help, Jack. My curtains are too narrow so I have to go back and buy the wider set. No curtains for me tonight. :( I should probably get a level and a new tape measure while I'm at it.

~cara

OK.. so here's a new one...

How do you go about jacking up a house? Ours is "drooping" in the back area.. specifically the kitchen.

There is a good clearance under it to place jacks/ supports. I have been told to use "pop bottle" jacks ( :eyebrow: sure, I know what those are) and that the process has to be very slow, so as not to upset the foundation.

Is this something I should undertake myself or hire a professional " jacker?" WTF is a house jacker upper called anyway?? LOL. Anyone ( hint Jack) know of a good website with video showing the process?

There is very mild "sloping" in other areas, but the kitchen is the most dramatic. The wife says she hadn't noticed it so much until we placed a new round table in there, which makes it glaringly obvious. So,.. yet another wee little project in the ongoing saga of Extreme Home Makeover: Butch Edition.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Jess