OK it's not January just yet. This is Christmas day. I'm already thinking about January and the start of a new garden year. There's lots of plans in my head to become reality this year. Of course there's always way more plans than what I can accomplish but I'm anxious to get started. The first thing is to get the seed starting area cleaned up and prepared to start seeds in February. I still have to set up my Winter garden area in the basement and plant it. I was hoping to have that started already but alas Christmas cards consumed my time for the month of December.
Today, on Christmas, we had a wonderful thunder storm with rain, thunder, and lightening. It's still raining as the temperature inches toward the high of 55 degrees. Last year we had about eight inches of snow to shovel on this day. What a difference a year makes.
Tuesday January 3, 2017
So let the inside projects begin. With the toilet not shutting off fixed and the kitchen sink drain leaking fixed, it's time to move on to repairing the washing machine shut off valve. There are some challenges with this project.
So, what's the issue? These shut off valves are old and haven't been turned in decades. They have become corroded. In my experience with these valves to put some muscle on them and shut them off is a mistake. Oh, they will shut off but when turned back on they leak. Then it becomes replace the valve. That opens up the issue of twisting the pipe in the wall which could lead to breaking the pipe. Now there's leak behind the drywall. The first alternative is to always shut off the water to the entire house every time the washing machine needs to be worked on. Even though that's unhandy, it's the only way to be sure not to disturb the corroded valve and cause unwanted issues.
These are the parts that will fix the valve issue. Instead of replacing the valve, I'm just going to put another valve in front of the existing one. These valves are made different and will not have the shut off issues of the original valves.
Here is the new valves installed with no leaks. Stage one is complete on the shut off valve replacement. Now the real transplant needs to be done. I took down the model, serial number, and stock number of the washing machine to take to the parts place. The parts guy said it's not on the computer. This machine is probably 20 years old. It didn't surprise me that it wasn't in the computer. So now I have bring in the part to who the parts guy for him to come up with a replacement. They all kind of work the same and I actually believe I've replaced this one before.
Monday January 9, 2017
Well, still no gardening but plumbing continues.
Yeah, I'm still wondering just how to fix this. There are a lot of complications to this plumbing issue. It's where a plumbing vent pipe, tub drain, tub over flow, and sink drain all come together to drain out into the main sewer pipe. I have a couple ideas but none really make me feel comfortable about a permanent fix. 2017 is the year of plumbing I guess.
Monday January 9, 2017
The hole in the ceiling is bigger and the clean up from the mess has begun. It's a real trick to get the dust totally cleaned up from drywall. I keep forgetting it's better to vacuum drywall dust than wet mop it up.
Tuesday January 17, 2017
Started working on the new seed starting area. The long rain gutter was cut in half and each half was set on top of two concrete blocks.
I still have some work to do before actual use. Two more lights are needed and leveling has to be done. I want to build a structure to hang the lights so the chains don't have to be so long. I think I have every thing I need. It just needs to be put together. So maybe tomorrow more things will be accomplished. Slowly but surely things are falling into place for the gardening year 2017.
