El Nino Ate My Fence

I have a lot of house blogging to catch up on and I had hoped my first post of the year would be to tell you about all the projects i've worked on the past few months. Instead I guess I'll tell you what my next, unplanned, project will be: a new fence!

The beginning of a week-long El Nino storm rolled in to Southern California yesterday afternoon. By 3pm my entire street looked like the Grand Rapids; it was flooded from sidewalk to sidewalk (I mean up over across the sidewalk, up to everyone's lawns). The rain slowed and by 6pm, the street was just creek gutters. Then it was calm all night and in the morning.

While i was at work, the rain and wind turned on again, with wind up to 21 miles an hour. When I pulled into my driveway at 3:45, all I could do was laugh when I saw this:


Some of the posts that were in the ground, were snapped in half and some had pulled out iwth the cement they had been sunk into. Luckily, the fence was just short enough to miss taking out my neighbor's 3 cars. In fact, I went over there and they hadn't even heard it fall down earlier! They were nice and helped me knock down the last section that was about to come down (it's still up in the above picture which I took before they helped me).

For reference, here's what my fence used to look like:

I called my agent at Liberty Mutual to see if my homeowner's insurance covers this. It does, but I have to pay a $600 deductible. For some reason that's not stressing me out. Probably because I'm excited that I'll get to get a new, slick gate across the driveway. Although it is a little ironic that after 5 months of debating on this area rug, I finally bit the bullet and ordered it last night because it was on sale. Doh. Picture for those too lazy to click on the link (you can also see it in the living room of the current season of Biggest Loser - I think it's season 9):

The bursts are made out of raised ribbon.

However, who knows how long until the new fence is actually up? I'll probably have my friend Krista's carpenter come do it since he's reasonable and he built her an awesome barn door style gate. But the adjuster might not come out until Thursday and the rains are continuing through Friday. I guess for those of you who know where I live, you now have open access to play Super Mario Brothers on the hot tub Nintendo in the back yard =)

Amber vs. The Shower Faucet

While I was in escrow the rental tenant in my house broke the faucet off in the shower and left me with this:

He said he'd fix it before he moved out, but by "fix", he meant, I'll buy a replacement without reading the part on the package where it says "SINK faucet" and leave it on the vanity for you to install.
Shower Faucet: 1
Amber: 0

After I bought the house, I had about a week and a half before I moved in. On my second day of ownership, I opened the replacement faucet that had been left for me (just one of those fake crystal plastic pull handles that most old sinks and tubs have) and that's when I noticed it was for a sink and not a shower. Grr. But not biggie, after I bought the right one, it would only take a second to screw on. On the 3rd day, I went to Home Depot and tried to get a faucet. Turns out there are different faucet models and those fake crystal pulls aren't universal. I needed to go home and read the make of my faucet on the silver ring.
Shower Faucet: 2
Amber: 0

Two days before I was supposed to move in, I happened to be at Ace Hardware and I decided to just make a random guess and buy a faucet (they're $13) and hope it was the right one because I kept forgetting to check my model. Took it home and it didn't fit. And that's when I noticed it wasn't ever going to fit because the bolt from the old handle had broken off inside the cartridge stem (look closely at the first picture in this blog and you'll see).

So now I had the wrong faucet AND I needed a new cartridge and a new faucet faceplate as well, not just the handle.
Shower Faucet: 3
Amber: 0

Move in day, Sunday June 28, and I still don't have a working faucet. But it was okay because I still had 3 more days of access to my apartment so at least I could shower there. The Moen 1222 replacement cartridge I needed was $40 at Home Depot (although I see it's cheaper at HD online), but I found it for $18 on ebay, so I ordered it. Which meant I had to wait for it to ship and in the meantime, I was done at my apartment so I didn't have shower access anymore. So I suffered one night and the next night took a half-ass shower in my kitchen sink (i.e., washed my hair and shaved my legs - a perfect use for that pull out sprayer attachment!). Sexy.

The part arrived Thursday night and luckily I had Friday off to tackle the shower in earnest. Friday morning I woke up and went to take the faceplate off the faucet, only to discover the screws holding the faceplate in place were stripped and I couldn't get them out with a screwdriver.
Shower Faucet: 4
Amber: 0

Carl, the handyman working on the remodel next door is super nice, so I went over and asked if he had anything that would work on a stripped screw. He gave me a vice grip and some silicon lubricant spray. Didn't work. Luckily my friend and neighbor Matt (of Scooter Brigade post fame) was off work and his friend Max who works on houses is staying with him right now. They came over and Max had a special attachment for his drill and got the screws out in 10 seconds. Turns out the screw wasn't stripped, it was BENT!
Shower Faucet: 5
Amber: 1

The boys left and I got back to work. By following the illustrated instructions that came with the replacement cartridge, I was able to get that out really easy. Although I thought I hit a snafu for a minute when I couldn't pry the old cartridge out with pliers. I had forgotten to put the white plastic turning lever that came with the NEW cartridge on the old one. It's only purpose is to allow you to use a wrench to turn the old one 45 degrees so it disengages. Once I realized I was skipping a step, I was able to get back on track. Got the old cartridge replaced and began installing the new faceplate and faucet.
Shower Faucet: 5
Amber: 2

But the screws that came with the new faucet were too short, so I reused the old, bent ones. Got those in pretty easily, then went to put the new handle on and it wouldn't go on far enough to allow it to screw in to the cartridge stem. Turns out I hadn't pushed the stupid cartridge retaining clip down far enough! So the faucet handle wasn't able to slide back far enough; it was getting stuck on that top bit you see in the picture below.

Not my faucet, I got this from Reader's Digest.

But now I had a problem - I needed Max to come back over and get the stupid bent screws out again because I had reused them to attache the faceplate!
Shower Faucet: 6
Amber: 2

Now at least my shower worked, it's just that it was always on. I had to turn off the main water to the house because the faucet ran non-stop. But at least I could take a luke warm shower. Max was supposed to come over the next day, 4th of July. But he forgot and I didn't want to bug him on a holiday.

So I had to spend the night of the 3rd, all of the 4th, and until about 9pm on Sunday the 5th when Max came over to save me with the main water to the house turned off. I would just turn it on when I needed water to cook or whatever, but when I'd turn the main water on, the bathtub faucet came on full blast too. I was wasting a lot of water which made me feel guilty. But at least I could take showers. I wonder if my neighbors saw me running outside in my bathrobe to quickly turn on the water, run to the bathroom to take a shower, then run back outside to shut the water off again?
Shower Faucet: 7
Amber: 2

So Sunday night Max got the screws back out. Monday during lunch I went to Home Depot and bought new 2 inch screws that were long AND not bent (I keep saying screws; they were actually stainless steel bolts) and had the plumbing department guy show me why I couldn't get the retainer clip down further. Plumbing guy showed me there's actually a slot in the bottom of the pipe the retainer clip has to slide through and I just needed to jiggle everything around to make it work.

That night after I got home from surfing, I tackled the shower. AGAIN. Faceplate off. Faucet parts removed. Time to force the retainer clip through the slot in the bottom. What a bitch that was! I tried adjusting the cartridge a little and jiggling things. Eventually through a tricky combination of pushing down on the top of the clip while using a flathead screwdriver to push the legs back so they aligned over the slot in the bottom of the pipe, I got the clip in. I cheered for myself and my victory over the shower faucet then quickly placed the faceplate back on, tightened the bolts and got the faucet handle on (this time it slid on far enough to actually attach).
Shower Faucet: 7
Amber: 3

Now to test if it works! I went outside (it was about 9:30pm at this point) to turn on the main water and could hear the water running in the bathtub. Ran back to the bathroom and turned the faucet handle to see if I could actually turn the water off. I could!! And I could turn it back on! And I could adjust the temperature! Who knew faucets could be so fun and rewarding? More cheering and major excitement at the prospect of a luxurious shower at a temperature I controlled.
Shower Faucet: 7
Amber: 4

I grabbed my pjs and got ready to take a shower. Once I was in the shower I noticed that I had tightened the faceplate bolts so much that I'd actually pulled the pipes inside the wall closer to the wall which had forced the tub faucet to break it's chaulk seal and it was poking out into the tub. DOAH!!

Shower Faucet: 8
Amber: 4

Whatever. The shower works and I was tired of fighting with it over the past two weeks.

I started this post almost a month ago and I've been intending to fix this last little bit since then, but I'm over it. Maybe before summer's end, I'll loosen the screws so the tub faucet gets back to being flush with the wall and re-chaulk.

Final Score to be posted (but I doubt I can make a 4 point comeback, but technically I'll be the winner since I have a working faucet!).

First Homeowner Hardship: Water Pressure Valve

This was actually taken care of last week, but it took me a while to get around to writing about it.

When I had my inspection on my house, Mac The Inspector said everything was in great condition and the only thing he wanted me to do immediately was replace my broken water pressure valve. It's this thing connected to your main water pipe on the outside of the house which, you guessed it, regulates water pressure.

Water Pressure Regulator Valve

Mine water pressure was at 110. Normal/Safe is 50-60. Not only will it hurt to take a shower when the pressure is this high, it can cause problems if you leave the house for something like a vacation and the water isn't turned on for a while, all the pressure builds up in the pipes and can break them when you finally do turn it on. At least that's how I understood what was explained to me.

So on my first full day in the house, Monday June 29, I had my surf buddy Alex come over to check it out since he does pipe fitting stuff for a living. He assessed it and it was something he could fix so he came back on Tuesday with all his tools to get started (I had purchased the replacement valve already, they cost about $50). He came over at 4:30 and had forgotten some pipe that we needed, but luckily I've befriended Carl, the handyman working on the remodel next door and Carl hooked us up with the 3/4 inch pipe we needed.

My valve is in a very awkward spot, right behind the huge (ugly) juniper growing by my front door which makes it hard to work on. And the fact that whoever put on the original valve jimmied it into place. After 3 hours of trying to do it what was supposed to be the easy way and, Alex had to admit defeat for the day and he needed to do it the harder, right way tomorrow (he has to crawl under the house). The actual pipe coming out of the house needed to be converted from the rusted out T-pipe that has the unused T joint plugged off into a 90 degree pipe instead. The old pipe started leaking when it was all disconnected, so we had to shut off the main water to my house.

So no running water for me Tuesday night until Alex could come back on Wednesday. Luckily I was able to shower at my old apartment since I had to go over there after Alex left to clean.

Wednesday Alex came back over, SUPER excited to crawl under my house with the spiders and bugs. Who wouldn't be? He put on a long sleeve shirt and I outfitted him with a beanie to keep the creepy crawlies out of his hair (in his defense, I offered this to him, he didn't ask). Then he crawled under my house with a blowtorch and the new pipe. I made a mental note of where my fire extinguisher is located and hoped the fire department was close because I could hear Alex when he made it to the corner of the house where the pipe was and all I heard was the sound of the torch going off for several minutes. Don't set my house on fire!

A few minutes later my cell phone rang. It was Alex calling me from under my house lol. He needed me to pull the old pipe he had disconnected out through the wall.

After he installed the new piping, getting the new valve on was a breeze and he finished just in time for me to get to band practice on time. And now I had running water in the house again! But I still couldn't take a shower because the previous tenant broke the handle off right before I bought the house. More on that project soon. At least I could flush the toilet again.

My new pressure valve and pipe (and the hole I talked to Alex through).