A little rain never hurt anyone

Rain wasn't going to stop these kids from having fun in the lake.  Wasn't going to stop Tresa too.
There was only 1 person it was going to stop.  And it was me!
But I eventually succumbed to the rain too.  It's warmer in the water than out of the water.
In hindsight I should have worn a t-shirt or something.  Cuz I ended up with a cold.  I was sniffling and sneezing for almost a week. But glad it didn't turn into pneumonia that is usually the norm for me.

Read my lips "this is crazy!"

I only swam in the rain the 1x.  Mostly to wash off the sweat from doing my first ever tiling job.  The bathroom turned out really well. The furnace room was a little tricky, but it's ok.  It's the furnace room.  A little grout and it'll look fine!

But it was way easier than I thought.  Cutting the tile wasn't so difficult.  And it looks really good.  I consider it learning for when we do our basement laundry / 2nd bathroom / shower.  Because I'm planning on tiling that myself.

Living in Light

See this lamp.  It was our only source of light in our living room.  During the day our living room is bright and open.
But when the sun sets it turns into a cave.
The only light source is our TV and this old IKEA lamp that I've been wanting to get rid of for years now.  I think i dislike it so much because it casts so many shadows.  It's not meant to light up a whole room.
I don't think any floor lamp will do that.

And not knowing what sort of lighting solution Tresa was going to get (if any) for the living room so we aren't always straining our eyes in the dim light.

I decided that I was going to install pot lights in our living room.  After seeing what it looked like with pot lights next door.  And how nice it looked.
I was determined to get it done.  It was a last minute decision and I was still unsure until I started opening up some ceilings and walls to figure out how to do it.  But once I finished dealing with the basement drain, I kept the momentum going and went for the pot lights install.

Starting is always the most difficult part of any project.  Where do I begin?  Where should I put this? How should I do this?  Is this going to work?

First you buy a box of banana popsicles.  Because this is what I've been running on this past week.  I'm on my second box.  Mostly because it's been hot and humid.  And this has been cooling down my insides.

Eat as much as you like as you are sweating it out anyways.
And always call someone to help you.  It helps to get started.  And then cut a hole in the wall.  Cuz once that hole is there, that's the point of no return. Figure out how you are going to run the wires.  Because you could spend a long time doing this.  This prep work will help expedite the execution.

Glad my brother came over to help.  Ecstatic that we basically ran all the wiring in 1 day.  All that was left was to connect it up. It's so much more difficult to do it on your own.  It can be done, but it's a PITA. Another set of hands and eyes just makes it go so much smoother and quicker. And having the right tools for the job really helps.  A fishing tool to pull the wires through the walls is a must.  You can't do this project with out it.

Then just set out to do it.  Work steady.  Don't take a lot of breaks.  And it's really not that hard to do.  It's just work.  A lot of work, but if I can do this.  Anyone can.  Just don't take short cuts.

Now we can live in the light.  And it's dimmable!
It looks like I had envisioned. After I saw how it was next door. Ha.

For better or worse

Why does it smell? Is the question. And this time it wasn't me.
We had a problem with our basement drain.  Ever since we stopped using the shower in the basement ever since we finished out bathroom up on the second floor, we've noticed something wrong with the floor drain.  It was dry.  And I could feel a draft coming up from the drain. Not good.
There was always a problem with the drain. We have noticed when we are away that the basement seems to smell when we get back.

A house seems like it's a never ending string of projects.  Well this wasn't so much a reno but was also a necessity.

I knew this was going to be a big job.
The drain pipes under our house are made of clay. That's what they put in during the 1950's.  And it's not uncommon for the pipes to collapse. Which would suck, for us! Contractors salivate at the job, cuz it's not cheap.

In any case.  Not what I was thinking of doing for our 14th anniversary, but this isn't a weekend type project.  Well it is, but it could 2 weekends worth of work.  And having a mound of dirt in the basement.  Yeah, that's crappy.

So I got to work on a couple of projects that I knew needed to be done, and I needed a contiguous block of time to work on and be able to finish it without rushing.

So come Monday morning I was breaking the floor.  I didn't think I would need a jackhammer.  But after 30 mins of going nowhere with my hammer drill and chisel.  I headed over to Home Depot to rent a tool that would make my life easier.
Boschammer to the rescue.  This tool is awesome!
I wasn't sure if I would need to rent for a full day, but I did just in case I needed to open the floor up more in order to be able to remove the drain.  And sure enough I did.  Glad I had it.  I couldn't believe how much dirt I had to dig up in order to get access to the trap.  It's a big honking 4" clay pipe trap.  And then I had to be able to get my cutter wheel in the ground to cut the pipe.  Basically i dug down 24+ inches to cut the old broken trap out.

I was shocked to find roots, but i wasn't too surprised.  If roots sense moisture they will move their way through the soil to get at it. It felt like the digging was never going to end.  I was running out of space to put the dirt.  I was piling it up against the wall.

But eventually with patience and perseverance and being careful.  The section of clay pipe that needed to be replaced was out.  It took me the entire day but what a relief.  I can now go to HomeDepot and get the fittings and pipe I needed to put it all back.
4 inch and 2 inch fittings and lengths of pipe.

This is the measure many times, to figure out how long to cut the pipe and then fit it all together to see if this is right, cuz once the glue is on.  That's it.
And  I've had to make a HD run to redo the 4 inch trap in ABS.  Lesson learned, only pencil in 1 spot, not 2.  Really messed me up.  set me back about an hour.
Oh well.  But i did manage to finish connecting everything up in day 2.  I even cemented up the clay pipe that goes to the downspout.  I'm sure that's where the ants were coming from.
I tested out the pipe before putting the dirt back in.

And the next day was the easiest.  It was cementing the opening.  Mostly cuz Sam was doing the work.  He showed me a much better way to mix the cement.  And that's to dump the bag out and add water bit by bit.  It's way easier than mixing it in the bucket.

And it works.  The water is in the trap and more importantly No more smell.  The only smell should come from me. Haha.

So I put everything back almost the way it was before, except now it's done properly.  Next year or whenever we plan to redo this laundry / bathroom area.  Once we know where things are going.  It'll be back to work.  I think this will be the very last project I have to do inside the house.

That will certainly be for the Better.