the world is turned upside down. Raging fires along the 405. Winter coats in TX. More lies from der Gropenfuhrer and his henchmen.
So Adobe and I took a walk. It was quiet. Cold. Puppy’s first snow. She played.
The plumbers that installed the pot filler at the kitchen cooktop did not make it level and plumb — and it wiggled, just a little bit.
As part of the punch list, Odell and Jacinto from Ranserve chisled five bricks from the exterior wall on the outside of the house directly opposite where the pot filler is mounted to the studs inside the wall. In other words, we are working from the outside of the house, to the inside. Why? We don’t want to have to take down the red glass tile backsplash that the pot filler is mounted to inside the kitchen. And, additionally, we need to get to the mounting structure inside the wall; the shortest route is to chisel from the outside in.
This became a two-day project — just to fix an oversight by the plumbers — with another day pending.
Photo essay:
It took several hours to carefully dissect our way into the house. Photo above reveals two network cables that run down the exterior wall into a conduit that travels under the concrete slab of the kitchen floor, then out to the island, where we can plug various devices into the network inside the house. At right, Odell, Steve and Jacinto — after much discussion — opted to cut away a chunk of stud to yield up access to the copper fitting that screws three times into whatever it is mounted to. And we had to do this without breaking any of the glass tiles on the other side of the drywall visible at the back of the photo. At right, is an older, darker, intact stud original to the house. Further right is a brighter stud — newer wood — and the edge of the OSB sheathing that Ranserve installed against the new stud and several others behind brick that we did not remove.
With the pipe angle bolted and the pot filler leveled, Odell and Jacinto cut down a piece of 3/4-inch plywood, screwed that tight to the intact darker stud to the right of the sliced stud, and then drilled three screws into the wood against which the pipe angle is mounted, pulling that short piece of wood into a position where the pot filler inside the kitchen is level, plumb and secure, with minimal wiggles.
And it’s 48 years since this took place:
This is reprehensible.
and the link.
Steven tackled the pantry shelves project.
Two sheets of 3/4-inch plywood from Home Depot, transported in the back of Andy’s truck. Andy lives next door.
16 heavy-duty shelf brackets ordered online from Woodworker Express.
Screws, drill and bits, Danish oil, stud sensor, level.
With help from Jacquela cutting the plywood at the table saw.
Six days, including 72 hours waiting for the Danish oil to dry sufficiently.
The dryer died while Steven was biking in Washington, DC. Somewhere around 15 years old. Served well in at two houses. But after at least two major repairs, the smart decision is to get a new one.
Jacquela got a killer deal on a model that Samsung discontinued — a model that just happened to be the mate for our Samsung washer.
Lowe’s took away the old Kenmore Elite and installed the new Samsung.