Life Lessons Through Plumbing

In my inaugural post to this blog, I plan to write not a step-by-step tutorial on how to fix a leaky faucet, but to talk about the greater life lesson I learned through the experience. We've all heard the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Typically, people use this phrase in the figurative sense, like when talking about a sitcom formula or mortgage-backed securities. However, I've learned to think of it in the literal sense.

It started with a leaky hot water faucet stem in the bathtub. A Google search lead me to various sites that showed me it was probably a failed faucet washer. At only 59¢ I decided to buy two in case the other side should decide to go out. 10 minutes or so after arriving home, the hot water side is fixed. No leaks! "That was easy," I think to myself. "I might as well replace the the cold water side, too." [pause for audience groans] This is where Mike Birbiglia would say, "I know... I'm in the future also."

The details are a bit hazy, but suffice it to say, after a severely magled bolt (see Exhibit A), a new tool (Exhibit B), and a new valve stem (Exhibit C) - by the way, did you know there are multiple companies that make faucets, and therefore, faucet stems? - we're back to where we started minus 2 hours, $20 and 50 sanity points. Well, this investment of time and money was worth it to learn the literal meaning of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Exhibit A - The item formally known as "Faucet Stem Bonnet."

Exhibit B - Shower Valve Socket Wrench - a very handy and inexpensive tool

Exhibit C - New faucet stem - $13.97 at Lowes

Scene setter.

Dobson, Zach. Mistake!. 2010. digital file on blog.

The only part that actually needed to be replaced.

Dobson, Zach. Relief!. 2010. digital file on blog.

--Zach--

christmas at thornhurst

so looking forward to our 2nd christmas in our house. we started the tradition last year of having a live, giant tree in our living room & a second flocked christmas tree in the dining room. that is all the lights we did this year. couldn't come up with a plan i felt worthy of the outdoors.  our flocked tree was actually a gift from avriel shull to the original owners so it's always fun to have that one here. I'll add a pic of the flocked tree later. but here's a beautiful view of our live one, courtesy of my hubbs zach.

merry merry days ahead to all of you!

Remembering Charlie

The original owner of our home passed away about a week ago & I wanted to take a moment to write a little about him. He was such a kind man who took such an incredible pride in his home.

Mr. Hubley & his wife, Ethel built this house in 1956 with Avriel Shull. They were the first couple to purchase a custom built home from her. When we first met, he invited us over to see his house, but not because he was interested in selling. Just because we might like to see it.

We WERE seriously interested in buying it from the start & had actually approached him for just that reason. But he was steadfast in his desire to stay in his home of 52 years. As weeks went by, we made multiple visits to his (our) house. Over time, he and his family decided it might be time for him to move.

I sincerely feel that we were "chosen" to by Mr. Hubley to be the next owners of our house in Thornhurst. He seemed to trust that we truly appreciated the architecture & history of the neighborhood. He was not entirely unique in being the original home owner of this house. Many of the original home owners have only recently passed or moved from the neighborhood. They all take great pride in their place in local history.

Buying a house directly from the previous owner is a unique experience that could certainly go poorly - but we were incredibly lucky in that our experience was a good one. Mr. Hubley left us a ton of useful stuff to get started as new homeowners. And he had an open invitation to visit our house. It was always fun to have Charlie visit & he was so happy to be here. My favorite visit was when I looked out the bedroom window one morning to find him checking out the shed.

As a final gesture, Mr. Hubley apparently told his sons that he had seen we were using his front porch furniture & he had taken a few pieces with him to his new home when he moved. He asked his kids to be sure that we got the remaining furniture to complete our front porch set. And these were the best pieces so we are thrilled to have them displayed on our front porch.

I hope he did feel he made the right choice, to pass on this home to us. We are so lucky to have our home!

I know I'm a terrible blogger but

BAZ MCM is not. If you haven't visiting Atomic Indy ever or even lately, you should. He's got a real blog with everything a blog should have. Have a looksee & if you likesee, then you should totally vote for Atomic Indy as Indiana's Top Blog.

That's all for now. Except, have you ever seen this many leaves i

n one place? It's like my trees are out to smother me in a slow & soft cushiony fashion. Woah! Props to the big Z for picking *most* of these up. I did some too - as demonstrated in the picture below.

July is flying by

After a long weekend of work in the back yard I realize that I have once again failed to update the blog!  And so, I'll have pics of my snazzily upgraded patio shortly but for now, I'm going to back track and share some fun projects from the past few months.

First up: the mid-century modern dresser come media center.  We took up a friendly free-cycler's offer to utilize this dresser sans drawers as we saw fit.  The before:

I have decided on royal blue as an accent color in our living room (I'll show you the pillows, throws, & tchotchkes another time).  So we went for blue interior on the case.  Here's the after:

And here it is in use in our living room:

I know, I know. It's been a long time!

Thanks for all your friendly reminders about the lack of updates to my blog. In case you were unaware, I had the small task of bringing a new person into this world just 6 weeks ago & therefore was a little busy for a while. Give me a break! Geez!

So here's a picture of the new addition & I'll get back to the all important house updates shortly!

the garage has benefitted from my nesting instincts

Finally! I have a place for our tools & paint supplies & all the stuff we use all the time updating this house.  Here's the after photos from a long day of hard work. It only took me 3 days to recover.  At least everything is off the floor! Once I get the work bench cleaned off it will really be organized...