Last of the Labor Day Work

After the ceiling fan went up I knew we were going to get some major work done this weekend. And when I say we, I mean Dad and Kyle would be doing all the working really.

Left on the Labor Day Work Weekend List:

     Install overhead lighting/fan in the living room
     Install light over the baking area on the kitchen
     Install a cable outlet in the living room AND run the cable up to the attic
     Check to see why the running water in the shop isn't working
     Figure out why there are open wires coming out of the gazebo
     Install the kiln

But before the list got shorter... it got longer.

My parents were staying the guest bedroom with the guest bathroom. And when my dad went to take a shower, he found a loofah wrapped around the hose. (We have one of those handle shower things...) So he took the loofah off and hopped in the shower. Led to water spraying over the top of the shower door all over the bathroom!

Apparently the loofah was there for a reason. So we added replace the shower hose to the list. We're sorry to all the people that have used that shower, we had no idea!

The other new item got added when we heard the doorbell ring.

I didn't even know the doorbell worked. So I hopped up to see who was at the door. No one. And so I sat down. Then it rang again, so I went back to the door. No one.  At this point I thought I was being tricked, so I left the door open so I could see the little neighborhood kid run up.

Doorbell rang again, no kid. Then it rang, rang, rang, rang, rang, rang, rang. No joke. So we added repair the doorbell to the list.

One more trip to Lowe's and the men were set. We ladies ran to Dallas real quick and when we arrived home all the work was done. Really. It was like little elves just came in and fixed the house for us... except that Dad and Kyle don't quite look like elves...

They made a light where there was no light, made a switch where there was no switch, replaced the doorbell, replaced the hose on the guest shower, installed a cable outlet in the living room, and ran the cable to the antenna in the attic (so we don't have to prop up the antenna in the living room anymore). They even had to take off a sheet of paneling in the back living room to get the cable wire all the way down the wall! But they put it back on before we got home...

Impressed? Me too.

So by the time we ladies arrived home, the honey-do list looked about like this:

     Install overhead lighting/fan in the living room
     Install light over the baking area on the kitchen
     Install a cable outlet in the living room AND run the cable up to the attic
     Check to see why the running water in the shop isn't working
     Figure out why there are open wires coming out of the gazebo
     Install the kiln
     Replace the doorbell
     Repair the hose in the guest shower

So I headed outside with the men to check out the water to the shop.  See we have these two water spigots: one on the side of the shop and one on the gazebo.

Problem is, neither one of them worked. So Kyle and Dad started exploring to figure out the problem and Kyle found this:

Turns out it's a valve to shut the water off in the winter when the pipes could freeze. Handy, we just didn't know it was there.

So Kyle turned the red valve and the water was back on and working. The blue knob is for the winter. If you turn off the water flow to the spigots, then you open this knob and the water flows back out of those pipes and into this hole so the water doesn't get trapped in the pipes and freeze. Genius, I think!

Then to the other gazebo issue: the random wire situation.

Not a pretty sight. Or a safe one either. Dad checked the wires for power and figured out that we had 220 volt wires and 110 volt wires. Hot tubs (which the previous owners used to have in the gazebo) can be either 110 or 220, so maybe they had both sets just in case. I'm no electrician.

So my dad shut off the power to the 220 volt so that we could use the 110 volt. A normal household receptacle is 110 volt. So Kyle will be putting an outdoor receptacle out there and we'll have ourselves a place to plug in the gazebo lighting some day ;)

As for the kiln, we didn't quit get there. I told my dad we should wait. Still not sure if I want to fire up a 2305 degree kiln for fear that I'll blow up the house. So we're waiting on that one for now. But don't worry, I'm not getting rid of it just yet.

After all that work we rewarded ourselves with some East Texas-style rewards, you know, Dairy Queen Blizzards. With the buy one get one for 99 cents deal they were running, we couldn't resist.

It was a great Labor Day. Family, home improvement, ice cream. What else could a girl want?

Oh that's right, to try to take pictures of actual family members when they come into town instead of just fans and doorbells... oops!