I'm a handyman... not.
Jul. 4th, 2007 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinToday might be Independence Day for y'all, but for me it was Maintenance Day.
Checklist: (1) Replace the garden hose faucet, which requires extending the pipe higher out of the goddamn raised flower bed; (2) swap out cutoff valves on the guest bathroom toilet to eliminate one that won't shut off completely; (3) replace front doorknob, the lock on which no longer works properly.
Okay, report:
(2) Quick off, quick on, no complications.
(3) Had to abandon using the electric screwdriver (grumblefuckmutterdamnscrewstooclosetoknob) and dig out a manual Phillips. Old doorknob came off OK, but new doorknob didn't want to slide together flush with the door surface. Used the mounting screws to force the doorknob to slide together, but this left the knob hard to turn, the key side of the lock very difficult to turn, and the indoor lock latch frozen in place. Unscrewed, reassembled, rescrewed, and for no apparent reason it works fine. Even stranger: once out of the door, the old doorknob's lock works like new. Annoying.
And now for the one that really irritates me.
(1) Cut off water, went inside to do (2) first, then came outside and cut the old pipe. Grabbed the new extension, pre-glued the night previous, and discover to my horror that I'd misjudged the pipe size. I've got 1/2" parts, but I need 3/4". Fortunately Lowe's is open on July 4, so drive into Livingston, take a quick trip through the town festivities, get the parts I need to make the fix work, come back.
Irritant: Lowe's did not have any PVC slide-on adapters from 3/4 to 1/2 (or vice versa) in a straight line- only right angle fittings or T's. I already had one right-angle at home- the only one of my supply of 3/4 fittings I could find- so I got another, plus a 1/2 elbow, to make it more or less work.
The final assembly works thus: coming up from the pipe stump in the ground, begin with a 3/4 to 1/2 right-angle adapter. (This connection was done last of all.) From the 1/2 end of the right-angle adapter, a thumb-length section of 1/2 pipe, then the 1/2 elbow to get the pipe going vertical again. Another thumb-length section to link the elbow to the lower coupling of the extension I'd assembled the night before. Second 3/4 to 1/2 adapter on top of that. In the 3/4 end of the adapter, the section I'd cut off from the ground, with the new faucet screwed into the fitting.
Primed, glued, assembled, mounted. Opened faucet and gave the cement time to cure by fooling with (3) for a while, then turned the water back on. Nothing I'd just assembled and glued leaked- yay my PVC skills- but a fitting in the old section of pipe sprang an all-new leak.
Waited for the rain to abate (did I mention it had started to rain while I was doing this?), then turned off water and slathered the leak all around with pipe cement. Left water off an hour, then turned it back on. Leak is almost, but not quite, plugged; the cement didn't seal the bottom of the faulty fitting, so there's a drip instead of a spray. On Friday, the next scheduled trip into town, I pick up the materials to hack off all the old stuff and about half the new and rebuild the part where the faucet screws onto the pipe.
Also, spent over three hours doing spammer purging on WLP's message boards. Post on that, and also on WLP projects needing long-term artistic help, here at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
wlp.
Now to try to call someone, find out how yesterday was hell for them, and then maybe shower.
My Y chromosome has exhausted its urge for tinkering for quite some time, I think.
Checklist: (1) Replace the garden hose faucet, which requires extending the pipe higher out of the goddamn raised flower bed; (2) swap out cutoff valves on the guest bathroom toilet to eliminate one that won't shut off completely; (3) replace front doorknob, the lock on which no longer works properly.
Okay, report:
(2) Quick off, quick on, no complications.
(3) Had to abandon using the electric screwdriver (grumblefuckmutterdamnscrewstooclosetoknob) and dig out a manual Phillips. Old doorknob came off OK, but new doorknob didn't want to slide together flush with the door surface. Used the mounting screws to force the doorknob to slide together, but this left the knob hard to turn, the key side of the lock very difficult to turn, and the indoor lock latch frozen in place. Unscrewed, reassembled, rescrewed, and for no apparent reason it works fine. Even stranger: once out of the door, the old doorknob's lock works like new. Annoying.
And now for the one that really irritates me.
(1) Cut off water, went inside to do (2) first, then came outside and cut the old pipe. Grabbed the new extension, pre-glued the night previous, and discover to my horror that I'd misjudged the pipe size. I've got 1/2" parts, but I need 3/4". Fortunately Lowe's is open on July 4, so drive into Livingston, take a quick trip through the town festivities, get the parts I need to make the fix work, come back.
Irritant: Lowe's did not have any PVC slide-on adapters from 3/4 to 1/2 (or vice versa) in a straight line- only right angle fittings or T's. I already had one right-angle at home- the only one of my supply of 3/4 fittings I could find- so I got another, plus a 1/2 elbow, to make it more or less work.
The final assembly works thus: coming up from the pipe stump in the ground, begin with a 3/4 to 1/2 right-angle adapter. (This connection was done last of all.) From the 1/2 end of the right-angle adapter, a thumb-length section of 1/2 pipe, then the 1/2 elbow to get the pipe going vertical again. Another thumb-length section to link the elbow to the lower coupling of the extension I'd assembled the night before. Second 3/4 to 1/2 adapter on top of that. In the 3/4 end of the adapter, the section I'd cut off from the ground, with the new faucet screwed into the fitting.
Primed, glued, assembled, mounted. Opened faucet and gave the cement time to cure by fooling with (3) for a while, then turned the water back on. Nothing I'd just assembled and glued leaked- yay my PVC skills- but a fitting in the old section of pipe sprang an all-new leak.
Waited for the rain to abate (did I mention it had started to rain while I was doing this?), then turned off water and slathered the leak all around with pipe cement. Left water off an hour, then turned it back on. Leak is almost, but not quite, plugged; the cement didn't seal the bottom of the faulty fitting, so there's a drip instead of a spray. On Friday, the next scheduled trip into town, I pick up the materials to hack off all the old stuff and about half the new and rebuild the part where the faucet screws onto the pipe.
Also, spent over three hours doing spammer purging on WLP's message boards. Post on that, and also on WLP projects needing long-term artistic help, here at
wlp.Now to try to call someone, find out how yesterday was hell for them, and then maybe shower.
My Y chromosome has exhausted its urge for tinkering for quite some time, I think.
