So I had a few tasks around the house that had been getting put off that I got wrapped up this weekend.
First had to deal with fixing the wall in the Master Bathroom. When the 'frost-free' valve blew out AGAIN - because they're prone to doing that (kinda funny for something that's not supposed to freeze and split that they always freeze and split), I had to open up the wall next to the toilet so I could get in there and deal with things. Now that I have a regular valve in there, hopefully I won't be having this problem again.
But I had a large square hole that needed to be dealt with. This means some extra wood backing strips to tie into, behind the piece of plaster I removed, so it sits level. This also means playing a few games with the drywall screws to get them set right because the piece I'm putting back in is textured and all of that. I also had to put new insulation in the wall, which was full of blown in (as what was being the spot I'd opened had all fallen out).
Once I got that done it was tape and mud. I used to enjoy doing that work, I've done a lot of it over the years, though primarily on my own places that I was fixing up, but quite a bit back when I was doing plumbing work on the side for a friend. I'm actually pretty good at it, even if I don't enjoy it anymore. Then once I got that all done it was texture and paint. Problem was, when the paint dried I wasn't crazy about the texture job. Sometimes when you're in a place with bad lighting, the white texture over the white plaster doesn't stand out that well. Now the center of the piece I put back in is textured as well. So it wasn't bad, but you could tell, if you looked. And that's just not good enough.
So this morning I re-textured before going out to deal with some chores, then re-painted when I got back.
Yeah, now you can't tell at all. Even if you know where to look.
That done I had to replace the two faucets in the master bathroom (it's a double sink) one of them was pretty heavily corroded. The water here is very alkaline and it corrodes the hell out of the facets and other stuff in the bathrooms. One of the faucets was a major pain in the butt to remove due to heavy corrosion underneath - and it's only ten years old. The other wasn't as bad. Next week I'll do the one in the main bathroom.
At this point every faucet and shower head in the house has been replaced, and several outside ones as well. Sucks, but there's nothing you can do for it. The only way to deal with the problem is a reverse osmosis water system and those are hella expensive to buy, operate, and maintain. I still need to tear down and rebuild the shower stall in the master bathroom. That's obviously been redone at least once in the last ten years. Because they used glass and metal. I think I'll go with something else. Because the metal corrodes, no matter what you do.
The other thing I did was go visit friends in the Wichita Falls area, but the wildfires (that appear to have been set) sorta put an early end to that as roads were being closed, winds were getting pretty narly, and there were thunderstorm warnings.
But hey, I got a bunch of chores knocked out of the way and I'm back to writing the newer of my stories. With any luck that'll be coming out next month. I also have one out to Baen to see if they're interested in it. Hopefully they'll like it and buy it.
So that was my exciting weekend.
