New(ish) Washer and Dryer

The benefit of having a mother who is a real estate agent, people are always walking away from old appliances. My old set I got from her through a client and now my new set from another client. 

Huge barrell

Above is the new and below is the old 

And a big thank you to my sister & brother-in-law who moved in the new ones.

Just hanging out in the backyard

Just hanging out in my backyard on a Saturday. I still love looking at my new roof and seen all the colors. Deck is still drying out from the winter weather. 

Hanging out with Minny. 

Celia has the benefit of standing in the bowl because she eats the last.

Below I spy all seven of my hens

snow but rain wash some of it away

Celia has no fear of the snow.

The others aren't  so sure

The tonight show, history of rap! Nuff said

http://youtu.be/G0lv-MSmxWo

Another snow day.

Steady stream of flakes is all it takes to close down North Carolina...I love and hate that! 

...guess syddalee is ready to go inside.

Love my jeep

My animals alway cheer me up

How to get away with murder

That's definitely one of my new favorite shows and must watch TV

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=813418892063510

One leak leads to another.

I'm at the point where I want my house to start being a little bit nicer to me. This weekend after cleaning up the flood that I cause while changing the guest bathroom faucet, I found out my refrigerator has had a slow leak since the year ago when it was brought to my house since the leak is not from the fridge itself but the connection at the supply line. I only found it because when I picked up a bug trap the bottom of it was wet, and I was like that's weird and not good. I got down and shined a flashlight underneath the fridge and didn't see any standing water and put down a rag and when I picked it up it wasn't dry but it wasn't wet. More like moist.  Luckily, something told me to put the rag down and leave it for a while and then come back and check it later. so Sunday night at 9 o'clock I picked up the rag thinking I could put it away and it was wet/soaked. Earlier I had tried to move my refrigerator but unsuccessfully but apparently the adrenaline of finding that water is leaking and hitting my floor made me strong enough to where I could move the fridge out of the hole. And sure enough I find a leak. Good news is it's not the fridge itself, Bad news is it's the supply line connection at the Valve. What really burns my biscuit about it is that the person who connected the line (which was somebody my mom hired to move a refrigerator as a side job) knew it was leaking because they didn't open the Valve hardly at all. Just goes to show how other people don't really care about your belongings/home. Also makes me mad because I'm sure it's a simple fix to stop the leak, making any long term damage unnecessary... And did I mention the fridge has been there for a year!!!!  First I shut off the valve and don't have an issue of leaking water now but also dont have an ice marker. Which also makes me mad about the wouldbe installer since all they had to do was leave it shut and say hey I can't get it not to leak so don't turn on the water until somebody looks at it or even if they did connect it and turn it on,  at least say something like hey that's leaking you might want to have somebody look at it, instead of just pushing the fridge back and being like 'okay good to go.'.

 I'm also kicking myself because something in my gut told me it wasn't quite right. It's always been loud but more importantly I can't even remember when but the vinyl floor started to have the seams to peel/stand up. The only place it's happening in my whole house is by the fridge which should've been my sign but I was assuming since I didn't see water; that may be dirt was getting in the seams & causing it to lift since it's such a high traffic area in my house... Or maybe that was my wishful hoping.  You can somewhat see what i mean about the seams in this pic somewhat. 

At this point since I don't see any obvious signs of rot or Cave-in or mold i'm thinking I'll just leave it for a while to dry out. My mother has offered to pay for the kitchen floor to be redone since she oversaw the setup, even though I'm not really blaming her. But I'll definitely have her person come take a look at it and give their opinion as to what's needed and what caused it (even thou i know) and how bad or not it may be to repair/replace...

I'm trying to look on the bright side so I can say at least I found it & it didn't continue. Also plus during cold freezes I normally don't leave anything dripping so maybe my pipes didnt burst because I did have a slow drip after all....yeah, that bright side is a stretch....

3 1/2 eggs today from #thehens

Faucet nightmare.

So today I decided to tackle the guest bathroom faucet. When I was looking online it said the leaking at the shut off valve I saw previously was due to the packing nut behind the knob needs to be tighten, so I did that and then proceeded to do the uninstall of the old faucet. When I went to go pull off the old supply lines they were jammed down into the Valve and didn't fall off like all the others....So when I pulled up I ended up with hot water spewing all over the place. I should've planned ahead and located the shut off valve before hand but it took me a couple minutes underneath the house to figure it out. Got the water shut off and then came inside to mop up the flood of water that came out. After I cleaned up the hallway and bathroom floor I proceeded with the reinstall. Even when I had the supply lines reconnected with the new faucet; I still had leaking from the supply line. At that point I had given up and decide to call a plumber. (Lane's plumbing of Raleigh is who I reached saturday afternoon). I explained the situation to the owner who answered the phone and instead of saying I will come out and charge you, he said I was really almost there and probably just have a simple fix to stop the leak. He told me to undo the supply lines check to make sure the washer was there and adjust the packing nut tighter to stop the leak and when i open the valve to open it open fully (since its an older home apparently the packing nut leaking is common). Even though in my mind I had already surrendered to needing to have someone out, I hung up and did what he said. When checking I noticed that the supply line did lose the washer in all the water mess that happened earlier. I found the washer and placed it back in the supply line and reatteched it. Then I said a prayer and fingers crossed went outside to open the main valve under the house. I came inside and was relieved not to have water shooting out anywhere. I tightened the packing nut like Mr. Lane said to do and then opened it fully. And to my surprise I have a working faucet with no leaks. I called Lane's plumbing back to thank him and he said I just needed a cheerleader and he was happy to help. Mr. Lane also said to make sure to call next time I have a 'real plumbing issue' and I promise I will. 

The before

The old and the mess it caused

And the new faucet. 

I'm just glad to have all the faucets done at this point and to be done with this project. 

Faucet update.

I did order the oil bronze one from online and exchange the other.  I still haven't tackled the guest bathroom but I will do that this weekend and add the picture. But for now this is the new master bath faucet. 

As you can see it goes with the other fixtures. If you remember (from another post) the light above it is the same finish. 

...still pretty proud of myself

Ash Wednesday

For Lent i decided on giving up string cheese. Honestly, it's a food I cannot control myself with. I go to eat one and I eat 4...this will definitely be for the good :)

Ice/snow day

Another home update diy faucet

I decided to spend my Valentine's Day changing the faucets in my home. The only one I didn't complete successfully was my guest bath. When I shut the valves off I noticed the water was leaking  so I didn't proceed with the install. and right now I'm kind of glad I didn't because I am considering exchanging one (I bought the same fixture for both bathrooms.)..., for a oil bronze one for the master bath and move the new master one to the guest bath. What inspired that you may ask... First, I realize the piping was copper under the sink and then i realized I had  cheapest(buildegrade) fixtures. Then I start searching online to see how invloved the project is. My confidence was high since I just successfully did my lights; again I went to YouTube & watch how to videos; it seems just as easy as the lights because all you're doing is connecting two ends. So I went to Lowes and Home Depot. I ended up getting my kitchen faucet from Lowe's and then the bathrooms I got from Home Depot. I also bought the supply lines & bought a wider wrench and a basin wrench (but never used it). I came home with that at first and realize I couldn't even get the plastic holders turn off the screws to undo the fixture. So I went back to Home Depot which was a nightmare because the traffic on a weekend. The dogs enjoyed it since they got to go for a car ride. I bought the

The stores plumbing super wrench, that's made for faucet removal, it was 20 bucks (well worth it, so much easier to get everything uninstalled and reconnected.) 

So, First I decided to tackle the kitchen sink since that was the most expensive one I bought &also the one most desperate in need of upgrading. 

The before 

I spent well over an hour trying to pull out the faucet because trying to get all three of the tubes for hot water, cold water & spray hose through the 1 hole was hard! I did check the night before so I knew I had a four whole sink.

The faucet I bought works with any # of holes sink. Above I had already installed the soap dispenser that comes with the new faucet set. And here it is below all finished and on to prove I have it working. I also checked underneath for any leaks and didn't feel any water or see anything after minute(s) water running. 

Hot & cold all work. Below is all the other pictures from the masterbath before and after. 

The guest bath will have to wait for another day, once I Google what the valve shut off leaking needs/means and if I need to call a real plumber or not. Which will give me time to decide if I really want to switch the new master bath and exchange the other one for the oil bronze one that was $$$. (i'm thinking I will and then since it will really be the last of any extra money I have)

so this will probably be the last home update for a while. And live here just over a year and a half and it's taken me this long to do it. 

Little home updates

 Last time when I first moved in & installed my chandelier I hire an electrician to come out and install it. I watched him most of the time & thought to myself I can do that. So since I had some extra money that I wanted to spend I decided to update some of my interior and exterior fixtures. So I watch the YouTube video on how to change lights. The only tool I didn't have that I needed was the wirecutters which I bought a cheap cutter for $9. And that was only after I had done one light using scissors to cut the wire and shave it back. (I also had to borrow my brother-in-law's screwdriver drill, for 1 screw I could not get out of an outlet box by hand)

Fairly easy to install and relatively inexpensive (if u do just one) and totally changes the feel. The problem is I started with just the outdoor ones and within a couple days I had my whole house done. 

The before backdoor fixture (the front door was the same thing) 

The new front light

The new back light with motion sensors 

The before hallway 

The new hallway lights 

And the most pain in the butt light to change was just changing the shade on my ceiling fan light in my living room. Can be done with no tools just fingers but damn those light screws that hold the shade in place are a pain! 

(The pattern matches the swirls and colors on my fireplace mantle, and I know that the pic isnt appealing because of all the colors but with the fan on you can't really see the gold with the lights on.) 

 

Also did the lights in my bathroom but I didn't take a take before picture but you can see how big they were and they didn't have any shade so it was just the bulb light shining bright first thing in the morning irritating my eyes plus I'm not a fan of bright lights to begin with. I havent painted yet because I haven't wanted to crawl up into the attic & I'll do that this weekend but you get the idea what lights look like for the meantime (i'll update the pictures once I paint)

I also decided to get a rug for the kitchen 

and add a window film for the window in the dogs room. The dogs also got a new light in their room to remove the builder grade gold base one (like the hallway one) but what I replaced it with was just a simple around light like the one that was there, just with a oil bronze base. 

(I had just said to myself to doublecheck to make sure they were going into the same direction but after stepping back I realize I had done what I just said not to do but like it enough to leave it)