Renovating, maintenance and labour pains

kansuze (63)in #life • 6 years ago (edited)

Okay, just so you know, nobody here is giving birth. This kind of labour pain is from whining labourers. That photo is the current state of the garage.

I spent most of this week working on my house. I'm doing some minor renovation in my garage, needed two bathroom faucets replaced, my kitchen faucet fixed, doing the usual spring gardening, and while putting flowers in the planters on my deck, one of the wooden planters collapsed.

It's funny how we sometimes set out to do things and they don't go as planned. Or maybe it's not funny at all, or maybe this summer cold I picked up is affecting my sense of humour.

A friend of mine was recently laid off at work and is doing odd jobs. He's a handy guy so I had him tape, skim and sand the drywall in my garage and he will build the bench. So far, so good. Thursday, when the planter collapsed, I asked him to repair both of them and he got that done after replacing the screen for the sliding glass door. Friday for him was going to be a tiny bit of sanding and a quick faucet fix while I finished painting the planters, getting the flowers in and putting a coat of primer on the garage walls.

Those are the removable boards that form a platform inside the planters. I painted one side of them Thursday night and the other Friday morning, moving the boards inside so they weren't rained on and outside to dry faster and because they smell. I painted the tops of the planters and the new parts in them, leaving them on the deck. I also painted the spots on the deck where they sat and where some insects had gotten in. The rest of the deck doesn't need painting this year. I knew the planters would be just dry enough by the time the rain came that they would be okay but now I have to wait until they are completely dry before putting them back together. I put the second coat of paint on the boards which I'm stepping over because they're inside again.

My friend was removing my kitchen faucet that hadn't been rotating. (Now call me crazy but when your sink has two basins, the faucet should let water flow into either one.) After mostly removing the faucet that was determined to stay put, off he went to get parts.

Meanwhile I was in the garage. There was a partly used gallon of primer in my basement that when I went to open it, wouldn't open. Okay, it was older than I thought. I struggled and struggled to get the lid off. This is where people say, "don't you have the proper tool..." and of course I had the proper tool but it was bending the rim instead of lifting it. I went at it with pliers. No luck. I was prepared to try nails and tin snips next but decided to wait for reinforcements.

What else could I do now? By the time he returned, I had moved the plants that spend the winter indoors to outdoors, and the plants that I'm starting for outdoors, outdoors. I had disassembled and put away the winter plant shelf, swept the floor, and was checking Steemit. When he returned, my friend used the pliers and with an appropriate amount of straining and grunting, the lid came off.

And just as I started painting, he decided we should go for lunch and take the ### faucet to the 'good' plumbing store. He wasn't sure what was wrong with it now. When we got there, the man at the plumbing store, knowing what to do and obviously a trained watchmaker, fought with it for 20 minutes disassembling piece after piece after piece while shaking his head. He eventually got it down to the important part that had seized due to rust. So it was new faucet time. I chose a new faucet very much like my old one which was discontinued - Sad, I really loved that faucet - and the new one will arrive Monday. My friend offered to install one of the other faucets in my kitchen temporarily but it was getting late and I said I would pretend I'm camping this weekend.

Returning home, I went back to painting the garage and it was really nice. I could watch the gentle rain falling through the open garage door and I was listening to a podcast while I painted. Then the paint roller broke in a way that felt like a flat tire. It really broke, fell apart. Okay, it was probably 20 years old. Now a trip to the store really slows things down but there was another roller in the house. Off I went to see if I could use it. You see, at some point, the threaded part of an extension pole broke off in its handle and was stuck. Maybe I could get it out this time. My, these pliers are getting a workout. I was able to remove it and then went back to painting until I unexpectedly ran out of primer. Oh well, drywall can be thirsty. I looked at my watch and the paint store was closing in five minutes. I guess it's quitting time.

After I cleaned the roller and brush, I came back upstairs and paused for a lucid post-hurricane moment. I paused again the first time I tried to use the sink with no faucet. The whole house was in a disarray of half done jobs, and despite working all day, all week, I had to convince myself that I really was ahead. It didn't feel like it. Stay calm@kansuze, things will improve on Saturday.