Tools of the Trade

I was running out of space to fit my tools.

Now I'm running out of tools to fit my space!

Follow the Instructions

"I don't need to read the instructions in order to do something so simple as installing shelves," the previous owner said, shortly before fucking up something so simple as installing shelves.

That black metal piece is supposed to be screwed directly to the wall. The shelf then slides onto two posts welded to the flat portion, at which point you drive the small black screws up through the top shelf and into a pair of holes in those posts, locking it into place.

Instead, as we can see, the previous owner simply installed some drywall screws into a pair of hollow wall anchors, spaced roughly so that the heads would slide into the insides of the posts, and called it "good enough."

I fixed it.

And now I don't have to worry about these shelves falling off the wall in the next magnitude 0.01 earthquake.

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Since I was home sick today I decided to tackle replacing the safety valve on my hot water tank, which I had originally planned to do yesterday. It hadn't closed properly after I opened it while flushing the contents of my water softener out of my hot water tank, and had been slowly dripping ever since.

Hmm, I wonder why!

Thankfully a new valve is only around $15, and an extra $5 got me a new plastic overflow tube to replace the copper one that had been there before. 3/4 copper, man, that stuff ain't cheap. I'd rather use it somewhere that matters.

Masquerade

Latest 3D project is done. Huzzah!

Dishwasher or Floorwasher?

So on Friday morning I decided to set the dishwasher going as I was heading out the door. The first thing it does when it starts a cycle is to drain whatever water is left in the bottom of the dishwasher from the last time, and the sound of it draining sounded slightly odd to my ears.

I switched the dishwasher back off and opened the sink cupboard, and lo and behold the drain had become disconnected because the hose clamp had never been properly tightened. Great. That would explain the splashing noise I heard.

I did a bit of quick triage of the water that spilled and decided to ignore it until I got home that evening, at which point I spent about an hour sweating and swearing, reaching around behind the sink to put the hose back on and get it properly cranked down. Good news is that this effort was eventually a success, and I was able to run through a cycle on the dishwasher without any issues. Huzzah!

Bubbly, Bubbly, Bubbly

So my hot water tank had been making some popping noises. I had originally assumed it was the flue making expansion creaks, but I eventually clued in that it was actually the sound of the water at the bottom boiling due to the natural convection being blocked by sediment.

Thus, today I decided to drain and flush the tank, and see what kind of crap comes out.

Oh, hello piles of water softener resin. That would explain things alright. It's a good thing it's no longer hooked up.

Cleaning Things Up

When I moved in the sink in the fancy bathroom had two and a half problems.

Problem one was that the faucet was kinda gross looking, encrusted with minerals along the seam line, cloudy where it should have been transparent, and the light-up LEDs had long ago bit the dust.

Problem two was that the drain had some ugly rust spots and wasn't actually holding water in the bowl.

And the mystery half-problem was some evidence of water leaking into the underside of the countertop around the drain.

As I disassembled things, it became quite apparent that the half problem was actually a whole one. The not-very-good-at-its-two-jobs pop up drain turned out to be one for an overflow sink, not a non-overflow sink as this one is.

That meant that the water draining from the sink also drained out the overflow and into the particle board making up the counter top. Bit of advice: NEVER USE AN OVERFLOW DRAIN ON A NON-OVERFLOW SINK (or vice versa). Unless you want to turn your vanity into a really gross petri dish.

Anyway, a little bit of cleaning, figuring, and plumbers putty later and things look quite a bit better with a new faucet and correct non-overflow style drain.

Not sure if I'm going to do anything about the vanity top, the bit that's gone soft is kinda hidden away under the top layer of solid surface material and with time it'll dry out and become inert once more, so I'm thinking I'll just ignore it.

It's a Good Thing These Are Solid Iron

I mean technically they're PVC-covered solid iron, but all the same it's pretty hard to damage them. I like how one of the warning labels on the boxes says "TEAM LIFT" I mean they're about 14 inches long how are two people even supposed to get ahold of them at once. Anyway, I filled the 30lb gap in my dumbbell collection.

These boxes look so sad Alexa play Despacito.

Toilet Disorganization

So the previous owner had installed those over-toilet organizer things, because that makes so much more sense than just sticking a medicine cabinet to the wall. The one in the fancy bathroom was alright, despite being fairly obviously cheap Chinese crap. The one in the master, though, was not going to stay.

The wire shelves were annoying to use for small items, and the room itself was really too small for the extra bulk of the organizer to intrude. Plus I just didn't need the storage space. It was also rusty and gross around the base.

Thank but no thank. So, to the bin it goes.

Much better. I also no longer whack my elbow on it every time I reach for the TP too, which was a secondary goal.