Monday we found out that our non functioning washer has a sensor that knows its not getting hot water. Even the cold cycle has to be 70 degrees to dissolve the HE soap. Ok fine, let's just turn on the hot water in the basement, right?
Wrong. Terrible photo, I know. Come to find out, this is a stop and drain valve which is missing a little cap. Opening this overhead valve results in a shower. Jump to the scene where we bolt to the hardware store!
I had very little faith that we would make it before it closed. Expert piloting, Sar!
Monday and Tuesday, I managed to get a run of gutters all the way around the building. The first couple of sections were done (gasp) without the aid of a level. I may have exaggerated the pitch in a couple of spots to make up for having to assume anything on the exterior of the house is remotely close to level. The first afternoon's work does function, though....
It thankfully hasn't rained since I completed the circuit on Tuesday, but I ran some water through just to test it. I may regret opting for vinyl gutters some day, but man are they easy to install and adjust!
My struggle to find an ideal tool belt setup continues... I have a cheap small canvas pouch on one side, and a metal hammer loop (that doubles as a drill/driver loop) on the other side, with the suspenders clipping into zip ties on the belt. It's mostly comfortable, but I find it gets out of balance too easily... Alas, the struggle continues.
Yesterday. Yesterday I spent the entire morning vacuuming the cat hair and cobwebs out from as many nooks, crannies, and joist bays as I could reach in the basement. The initial result is a 100% less creepy basement. I am perpetually impressed with what people can live with.
After the nooks, I went after the floor. By this time, my shop vac has paid for itself. The poor thing. It had no idea (and I'm thinking this is common among vacuums) what was next.... Trying to go after the cat pee stench.
By now I have read at least a hundred posts online about how to deal with this problem. The solutions range in sincerity from chemical breakdowns of what is happening to produce an odor, to suggestions about the best type of ammunition for dealing with cats.
What it boils down to is that in the years that the previous owners had cats, they likely produced hundreds of gallons of urine in the basement. Unsealed concrete is porous, and as such, the urine which has crystallized as uric acid and salt (essentially), is impossible to remove from the billions of pores in my basement.
Efforts to scrub out the stench made things worse. Later reading revealed that the presence of humidity (read: hot water and Simple Green) will activate the dried salts etc and make the odor unbearable. Lesson learned. I spent the rest of the afternoon outside, plucking Red Lily Beetle larvae off our Asian(?) Lilies, and dissecting the underside of our free mower in an effort to understand this wild 1990 beast and all of her weird safety features. I found some things out. I don't love bugs, and our free mower is not a simple machine.
I do like this little guy, though.
1love
Andy
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