Woke at 7, at 8 went to see about the new locks. Came home and tried to call Ryder. No answer. Left at 9:30 for closing–too early. Stopped by Mike’s office to see if paycheck stubs were in (they weren’t). At 9:45 show up at Centra, wait for John, he shows up and we babble until the other Realtor/Lawyer comes. Closing goes smoothly. Run home and get cats, cleaing supplies, etc and go to OUR HOME.
I start to clean, Michael starts to work on bathroom. Knobs won’t come off the tub, and the shut off valve in the basement starts to leak badly when Michael tries to turn off the water. Mike leaves for Hughat’s and to get locks.. Comes back with locks for me to install, and nice new tool to remove handles from tub. Handles come out, stems won’t. I spackle the Living room, and then Michael and I figure out how to get the locks installed properly for the front door, and fudge the rest. Michael breaks the bathroom water shut off valve. Locks are done, spackling is done, I can’t do anything else (like cleaning) since there is not water for the house, so we both go to Hughart’s, and then to my parents house for plumbing tools and hacksaw. We get home and Michael cuts one side of the pipe with a hacksaw, and the realizes he can’t get the hacksaw between the other side of the pipe and the floor joist, and the tool to remove the stems does not fit. We leave for Lowe’s to purchase new toilet and necessary accouterments, paint, mailbox, kitchen light and other miscellaneous stuff, including Muriatic acid to etch the basement walls, and more tools (socket set for tub stems). We come home and I remove the nasty shelf paper from the kitchen shelves while Mike installs the new cut-off valve. Although the tub stems STILL will not come off, at least I now have water to start cleaning.
Michael, unable to do anything else with the shower, removes the old toilet, and installs the new. I wander by and mention that it looks bigger than the old toilet, will the bathroom door still shut? The answer is no, the bathroom door will not shut no matter what angle Michael places the toilet. Michael talks about reversing the hinges on the door, as well as cutting a hole in the door to allow the door to close. I dissuade him of this plan, so we decide to go home, clean up, call Lowe’s about returning the toilet and eat dinner. We arrive home to discover that the phones do not work. We run back the University to see if the phones have inadvertently been switched early. They were not, we not have no phone service anywhere. We drive to a pay phone, call my parents and ask them to call the phone company, and then ask them if they want to go to dinner. At dinner my parents are amused by the tales. After dinner we go to Wal Mart to get shelf paper and Mike finds the pipe sections to put the old toilet back (the reason we removed it is because it was nasty filthy dirty, and the water shut-off leaked (badly). We come home and Mike puts the old toilet back while I discover that I don’t have scissors so that I can cut the shelf paper to the correct size, but say the hell with it and unpack the dishes anyway. Mike realizes that he does not have another wax ring to completely replace the toilet, and so runs back to Wal Mart while I put together the mailbox. Mike returns and replaces the old toilet perfectly, including the new shut-off valve and water line. Having read the bottle of Muriatic Acid in boredom, I decided to attempt to clean the toilet with some of the Muriatic acid, and it works perfectly, and the toilet looks like new. Back to Glenn Street at midnight to shower and go to bed.
Tomorrow: calling a plumber about tub faucets.
1 Sept 2001
Day 2 in new house
Woke up and we still do not have phone service. We eat breakfast, pack stuff into the car and head back to University Avenue. As we empty the car, we open the passenger’s side rear door, and it breaks. We get it closed and so now we can not open that door at all. Mike goes to Hughart’s where he is told the earliest they can get a plumber there is Friday. He comes back and we head to Lowe’s. They won’t allow him to return the toilet, because it was installed (even though no water was in it). We picked up more supplies and placed an order for someone to come look at the basement door that needs replaced. We decide just to pick up new tub fixtures that Mike will install. We come home and change the light fixture in the kitchen, and put up the new mailbox. I leave (running late) to get ready for Trubie’s wedding, and jump in the shower only to discover that there is absolutely no hot water. Apparently they shut off the gas, and we emptied the hot water tank last night, so I have to take a cold shower–including shaving. I hurry to get dressed, only to discover that I am bleeding profusely fomr multiple cuts on my legs from the cold shower, so I grab a damp wash cloth, the directions to the wedding, jump in the car, and suddenly can not remember which road is 119, so I drive in the general direction of Uniontown. I realize that I am almost out of gas, and so stop at the gas station to fill up, and use the opportunity to wipe away the blood that is still seeping from the cuts on my legs. I discover that I guessed correctly, and am elated for about 10 minutes until I get stuck behind someone who thought it best to drive 10 mile slower than the posted speed limit. Pull into the parking lot at 1:57 my time, run in, and they have already started walking the mothers in (sigh). The wedding was lovely, and I made my apologies to the bride and groom for having to run out, and dashed back to Morgantown. The trip back takes HALF the time of the trip out. I run back to Glenn Street and change back into work clothes and head back over to University to find that Michael is missing an extension, and the drywall behind the vinyl shower wall is rotted and mouldy and disgusting. He and dad stop digging out the drain at the bottom of the driveway and run to Lowe’s for more needed tools, Michael works on plumbing, I paint. We run to Wal Mart to pick up some parts that Mike needs, and come home to discover that for the second night in a row he must run BACK out to Wal Mart, because a fitting was the wrong size.
He finishes everything, there are no more leaks, he puts up the drywall (special non-mildew dry wall) and I finish the first coat of primer in the living room. It’s now too late to go to my parents to shower, so we clean up as best we can at University, then head back to Glenn Street to sleep.
NOTE: The bathroom quickly came together, we just had to wait for the caulk to dry. The phon company determines that there was a random problem *inside* the house, it was just strange timing, so we owe the phone company an arm and a leg for telling us there was no outside problem at Glenn street (if we’d ignore it, we’d have had a phone in four days anyway AND saved $80) The people never did call us about the door, so Mike and my father and brother eventually rip out the old door and replace it. (This is amusing in and of itself) My mom and I etch the basement walls with Muriatic Acid, Michael paints them with Dry-Lock paint, and we now have a dry (although cold) basement. He did eventually get the French Drain in the back of the house dug, and the living room turned out nicely. We’ve still got a lot to do, but as far as I can tell, it should all be smooth sailing compared to those first two days.
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