I Still Suck At Home Improvement

Yesterday, I found myself with some extra time. Karen had taken our baby daughter (Briana) out for the day. The parochial school (Saint Ann) that Karen attended while growing up in Quincy was closing. As a means of saying goodbye, Saint Ann's offered a day for farewells involving staff. And so Karen attended the farewell celebration of her school with Briana... and my in-laws. (I hear my mother-in-law was quite excited to show Briana off to everyone.)

So while Karen was out again, I figured I would be somewhat productive and work on our never ending home improvement project: the renovation of the first floor bathroom. Now, I still suck at home improvement. A couple of days ago, I miscalculated the number of screws needed to attach the substrate (cement board) to the floor. Consequently, I had to inefficiently stop working on the project until I got more screws.

Yesterday, of course, was no different... only this time I simply forgot about a piece of hardware that I needed altogether. Awhile ago, I had purchased a couple of flanges for the copper pipes. These flanges are used to surround the copper pipes where they enter the wall. As there were different types of flanges, I wanted to run them by Karen first before installing them. Nothing is worse than installing something only to find out that she doesn't like it.

Needless to say, she was okay with the flanges. That was a while ago. Unfortunately, I never went back to get an additional flange... even though I was at Lowe's just the other day. (This happens to me a lot. Curse my bad memory!) I needed the additional flange as there are separate pipes for hot and cold water. Consequently, I had to delay my home improvement project until I picked up the additional flange. So I had to take another trip to Lowe's.

Eventually, I began working on the bathroom renovation. Having installed the cement board on Friday, I figured that I would finish off the supply pipes leading into the bathroom. There currently are shutoff valves for the bathroom water pipes in our basement. Unfortunately, there are not any shut off valves within the bathroom itself. Thus, after slipping the flange over the copper pipes, I began to solder the shut off valve for both the hot and cold water for the sink, and the cold water for the toilet. I then tested each of the supply lines by opening the shut off valves in the basement to make sure there were no leaks. As of right now... still no leaks. That's a good sign!

Anyway, having finished the shut off valves, the first floor bathroom renovation project is one step closer to being completed. Conceivably, it's quite possible to begin tiling the floor soon. Granted, the bathroom still needs to drain somewhere as well. That part of the project has yet to be completed, in part because I dislike going into our crawlspace basement. But all in all, it's coming along.

By the time I finished with the soldering, Karen and Briana had already came home. Eventually, Karen and I ended up watching another movie: Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

(The following video is a trailer for Paul Blart: Mall Cop.)


I know what you must be thinking... did we really watch Paul Blart? Truth be told, the movie was not all that bad. Of course, I had very low expectations for the film. The commercials did not make the movie look entertaining at all. But in its defense, the movie was okay. I have seen worse.

Of course, the plot was silly and predictable. And, the movie starred Jayma Mays of Glee fame. (For anyone curious, Jayma Mays is also slated to be in the new Smurfs movie.) Anyway, the movie was a nice way to end the day.