Settle down, Francis. This is not the major work you are thinking about now.
Today’s plumber visit is to fix one of my 1950s toilets. However, with the plumber on site I will be requesting price quotes to fix the numerous other plumbing woes my house has.
A Day Of Homebody Living, And Cooking
It didn’t take long for me to realize that Saturday was going to be a fairly unproductive day, staying at home for the better part of the day. While lying in bed I was thinking about the chicken I had in the refrigerator that didn’t get used for Wednesday’s potluck lunch. I knew that I would need to do something with it that day.
I started off with the idea of cooking the chicken in a pan, placing the cooked chicken back into the refrigerator for later use. But then I saw the half onion remaining from Wednesday’s lunch, a red bell pepper, the leftover ginger, the leftover ancho chili pepper, and a plan started to hatch.
“Unexpected Breakfast” (Atlanta, GA, USA)
In addition to aforementioned ingredients I used some leftover chicken stock and some of the tikki masala sauce that was also in the refrigerator.
The oddest part of this whole process was that I wound up eating this for breakfast.
Check Engine? Now What?!?!
On Saturday night I drove over to ITP-Betsy’s to celebrate her birthday with a handful of friends. I believe a good time was had by all, yours truly included.
My evening was ruined on the mile drive home when the Jackmobile’s TCS (Traction Control System) and Check Engine lights came on. When I got into the Jackmobile to drive to work yesterday (which was a total bust) the Check Engine light remained illuminated. With the plumber coming today I will have to show up at work late, and with my plan to leave early enough to make it to Eddie’s Attic for the Rhett Miller (Old 97’s) show, I’ll not have the time to take the Jackmobile to Peach Auto today. Tomorrow I will be driving the Jackmobile to Peach Auto to find out what’s going on; this may be Jack’s Last Stand.
So for the next week I’ll be driving around in a rental, in this case a Fiat 500L. I’ve never felt a car looked and felt fat before, but this Fiat has changed that. I am certain that this will not be my next car.
And If That Weren’t Enough
Today I have to follow up with the City of Atlanta. I discovered on Friday that I have to file paperwork with them, including some documentation that I am not sure that I have because I didn’t think I needed to file it since I was formed as an LLC, in order to dissolve Sharpened Stone. You’d think that they’d get the hint from the State, like the did when I created the LLC and they charged me a penalty for not having a business license with the City, but noooooooo. I just have to keep telling myself that if I follow through on this properly, the painful experiment that was starting my own LLC may be over soon.
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Plumber is here and unfortunately I kinda have a bad feeling about this — getting quoted some really high estimates on things I would have thought to be cheaper like replacing a kitchen faucet and garbage disposal. Getting the toilet fixed using the coupon purchased, think I might seek out other possibilities for the rest of the work.
Does anyone have plumber recommendations?
Yep, I knew it. The plumber is now on his way to Home Depot / Lowes in order to find a gasket that matches the one he just removed because it’s not standard. This is why so many of my home repair projects in this house have never reached completion.
And, to make matters worse, now I can’t get the damn bathroom sink to stop dripping, which even more problematic because there is also a leak at the drain. Yes, I have a bucket under the sink catching the water drops.
This is starting out as a very expensive week and I’ve not even taken the Jackmobile to Lam’s. FML!
Plumber is back, and tells me he found out that the parts for my toilet are discontinued; he’s now going to try and improvise. Yeah, this is why I need to get the fuck out of this house.
And sadly, HD or Lowes will not likely have the gasket, as they don’t stock old repair parts. They would much rather sell you a new whatever.
Check the gas cap on the Jackmobile.
My 5 day weekend finally ended. Friday, while the house was clean, we had friends over for dinner. Saturday, I managed a good part of the ride to the In-Laws, but I was over fighting the wind when Debbie drove past me and I climbed into the team car and withdrew. Katherine (Saddle Sores) swapped a horse with us- Micah needed a job and Gillie (short for Gilligan) needed some rest. Gillie is a BIG boy- almost taller than me at the hip. He and Phinney are buds from a prior trip to NC, and except for jumping OUT of the pasture last night (!!) is a good boy.
Yesterday was lunch with friends and then a solid hour of suffering. I rode the time trial program (5×4:00 with 3 minute breaks) followed by half the descending interval video. It was a good day not to be outside on the bike, unless you were crazy enough to be racing CX, right Bob?
-FP
Will check the gas cap, though I am good with clicking it a few times when putting it back on after I fill up.
I saw Little Willie on Saturday night and asked him to bring my trainer back so that I can use it again. I wonder if he remembers me asking, he had been hashing after all.
Keeping my fingers crossed that this plumbing job is going to work out. During this week of giving thanks I am going to try and figure out what my next (literal) move will be.
Plumbing sucks – no matter what, it costs more than you think it will. Hopefully you can get it to work the way its supposed to.
We got a couple cement estimates for the carport/shed in the back yard, still need 1 more. One guy, $4600, other guy $7000. Hopefully #3 will be less than $5000 too, so we can totally laugh at the high priced guy.
and – for Allan – BROWNS WIN!!!
I don’t think I would pay a plumber to replace fixtures, with patience and youtube videos you can do just about anything at half the cost. Even if you have to buy new tools to do the job it is still cheaper to do it yourself. The hardest part is contorting yourself to get under the cabinets to do the work.
A buddy once told me there are only 3 things you need to know about plumbing, hot is on the left, shit rolls downhill, and payday is on Friday 🙂
Yesterday I raced in just about the worse conditions I have ever ridden in. It was AWESOME!! Slogging through the mud was fun as hell, felt like a kid again. The hecklers were in rare form too as there was a keg of Sweetwater IPA for all to consume. We only did 5 laps, if the course were dry I’m betting we would have done at least 8. There was a sand section where I don’t think I have ever gotten my heart rate up higher than that, right after the sand was a big hill climb. I wasn’t sure if my heart or my legs were going to explode first. Great times!!!
I’m off all week, already cleaned up the bike and riding gear. About to build some shelves then maybe get a bike ride in. It is beautiful outside, going to spend as much time as I can out there.
Plumber is done, this job cost me $240, because I had a coupon for $200 of service for $100. Toilet is fine, though the tank now wobbles slightly.
I think I am going to call Jenka’s realtor and schedule a walk-through to see how much she thinks I can sell the house for “as is” or, how much work I need to get done to it in order to have it sell quickly.
I need to downsize.
I need to have things like houses and cars stop breaking and making me manic.
I wanted to have someone fix the toilet since I have proven that I tend to over tighten porcelain and break it.
If my house had decent base plumbing, like I could shut the water off underneath the sinks properly, I would attempt to replace the faucets myself. I may try anyway. I wish houses were built to easily access/replace pipelines, mine wouldn’t be too bad if there weren’t another bathroom below the one that needs work.
I know it’s just my perspective because it’s my money being spent but it seems to me as if all of the plumbing failures (excluding the Big Problem) have occurred at the same time.
Like I said – plumbing sucks.
You gotta catch it early (if you can), or it costs a fortune.
And – did you hear – Stacy Fox has a not fun roof leak, so even though the landlord has to pay for all the repairs, it still totally sucks.
No, I had not heard about Stacy’s roof leak. That does suck.
My coworker Darren says that there is a plumber shortage and that rates are at a record high. Figures.
A new line of work… hmmm. I don’t mind the work, but I’m not really skilled at it.
This is the second round of leaks for Stacy. The LL has already replaced her weeks old TV.
Bob, I bet it was fun. We were over that way but not prepared to stand in the rain to watch. I thought about you guys at one point as it was coming down really hard.
It’s times like these that I’m glad I am renting, that’s for sure. Though it’s getting quite ridiculous! The first time, my brand new 46″ TV got toasted. I may or may not have cried. The second time (Saturday night) I had sent it to sleep in the kitchen overnight *just in case*. Thank heavens I did. He’s in my place now so fingers crossed the there will be no third.
I know you’ve been talking about selling and moving for a while now, but any idea where you’d move? Same area?
Hope the car checks out OK too. It may just be a gasket on your CC or something easy like that. That happened to me once, and it wasn’t very expensive.
Oh! And check your email about an upcoming beer festival (almost wrote “beef festival” huh) that I think you need to go to. I’ll be serving, of course. 🙂 http://atlstrongbeerfest.com/
Unfortunately I cannot attend that beer festival. That’s the last day of CocoaConf Atlanta and I will be in attendance all day.
Bummer. Oh well. There will be more.
CocoaConf sounds like you should be sitting on a beach drinking cocktails with umbrellas in them.