It’s crunch time.
I haven’t posted since Friday, but it hasn’t been because I’m slacking! Things are really starting to take shape. I’m assembling materials, earning money to pay for all the materials (so far, I’ve incurred NO DEBT to pay for anything!!), making my plans, assembling a work schedule, and meeting with plumbers. I’m still not firmly decided whether to do my own plumbing.. I’d rather not. PEX is easy enough, but I am doing so many other things and I’m feeling pretty stressed about the plumbing. $3000 is a big, big pill to swallow, though…. *sigh* I met with another plumber today, and will meet with another later, so I’m weighing my options here. Lots of these guys envision the Sistine Chapel of plumbing when looking around… but I don’t want decorative, superior plumbing, I just want to have drains and not smell sewer gases anymore. It’s great that these guys take great pride in their work, but I can’t pay for top-notch design. Many are willing to do things in stages (which is good), but I’m happy with Studor vents and they want to cut into studs and create a network of vent pipes. Not sure what to do here. All I want is “sufficiency.” My home is an average home in a below-average neighborhood; I don’t want to over-renovate it.
In other news, we got our new window. It’s FIVE feet by FOUR feet! That’s twice the size of the existing (crappy), broken window we have right now. OHHH let me tell you, I am SO excited at the prospect of having daylight around me while I work!
Imagine glorious daylight streaming through this baby!
It’s a side-sliding, too! Yay! My existing window is this little aluminum hole in the wall– a single-hung type. But the aluminum is so warped that I cannot open it. It takes one of the taller guys to whack the thing open a few inches. It’s a pretty dismal kitchen I have right now. I cannot WAIT to have something clean and pleasant. Who knows, I may be inspired to cook again, lol.
The old window. The curtains cover a nasty crack in the corner of the glass.
We also got two new toilets for the bathrooms, the 1.6 gallon toilets. The existing ones date back to the 60s, and they are huge. They also have almost no flush power (probably due to the plumbing drains)– with those old battleaxes, we have to hold the flush handle down to flush anything here… and watch as a gadzillion gallons (and accompanying dollars) literally go right down the drain. The water bill here is mortifying. I’m hoping that proper drains will fix most of the problems.
I got these two toilets for $50 off apiece! (I love Lowe’s!). I went to Lowe’s last week, and spotted one of their sale flyers. In it was a sale on a particular toilet– the toilet was high rated and dirt cheap (4-star flush power and $79). I looked and looked but couldn’t find the model. Finally, I asked the two Lowes dudes, and they couldn’t find it either. So they called their manager, who said to give me the next model up (upgraded) for the same $79 price!!! I flipped! So I got a 5-star flush power model for $80/each. They Lowes dudes were fun, too; we cracked jokes and talked about how fun it is to work at Lowes (and to even have a job– this IS New York State, after all). So kudos to Lowes for great service and showing me favor. I appreciate it. 
We also got most of the garden planted this week, too. I’ll have more on that in a future post. Things are really starting to come together. Yay! I can’t wait til this is all over in three months!
4. May 2010 at 3:09 pm
I may end up being my own plumber soon too because the owner doesn’t fix crap in my place but I can guarantee that she has everything new in her duplex including appliances, bathroom, floors, etc. It just amazes me when she keeps telling me she has no money to fix the things I tell her that are broke but I keep seeing new shit go in her place including a new computer which I had to go over and fix on the first day cuz she locked it up trying to tap into my wifi to which I promptly
told her that it is passworded and nobody has access to
it lol
4. May 2010 at 4:09 pm
Whoa, blueyes! I have had a few landlords similar to that.
But none as bad! You could always call the codes department and ask them to come over and have a look around?
5. May 2010 at 2:31 am
Oooo, I bet Livvy is going to enjoy that new window! Re the plumbing thing: my human says that maybe you just haven’t found the right plumber yet, the one who will do what you ask him and realize that you neither want nor need any fancy “geegaws” (is that a word? Or did my human just make that up?). It sounds like you have enough to do without having to add pipes and such to the mix.