Tag Archives: DIY

My Dreams have Tanked…

Aside

DSCN0330Regular readers will recall the saga of the basement remodeling, that led to the second story remodeling, which in turn led to my current dilemma – plumbing. I hate plumbing! Actually it scares me sh*tless!! I have nightmares about plumbing.

Ever since the time the town upgraded their water lines–producing extra water pressure that ended up in half the buildings in town being flooded as joints blew–I’ve been in serious dread. On that occasion I ended up lying in 6 inches of water in our upstairs bathroom, almost naked, holding a joint in the line to the commode while smiling at a young police officer who came in response to Wendy’s 911 call. Then I remodeled that bathroom and had to reposition the commode, which retaliated by dumping a steady stream of sewage directly downstairs one horrible day; fortunately we caught it before anything serious happened. “These books are crap” never came so close to being literal truth.

The latest adventure is the basement toilet. Wendy and I set up housekeeping down there recently, after my creating her a “writing room and yarn containment area” turned into “Why don’t you remodel the whole thing, honey?”

Yes, dear….

Like most basements, the sewage line is at near ceiling height and that required an ‘up-pump’ toilet, which needed a water line, a connection to the drain and running a vent to the outside of the building. I discovered during the process of hooking it up that there are a million different sized pipes described as “half inch” but none of them are and none of them can be connected together. Then we also needed a sink; what is it with sink drains that are a different size from standard?

Just about the last plumbing job was to remove a brick in the wall to allow exit for the vent pipe. (How many of you are now humming Pink Floyd in your heads?) It took me the best part of a day to get that brick out – it was at the top of a double brick foundation and that row had the bricks laid crosswise, so I had to chisel and drill out an awful lot of mortar before that &^%$* would dislodge!

But the scariest moment came switching on the “up-pump” unit. I put it off as long as possible. I knew that the tank had to fill to a certain level before the float would actuate the pump and I had no idea how long that would take.

Wendy is not a hesitater. “When are we going to start using the toilet?” “Is it ready yet? Oh, then when?”

Finally she figured out I was just plain scared, so she did the sympathetic thing a wife does in these circumstances: invited a group of friends over for the ceremonial first flush. “This way, dear, if it’s wrong, you’ll have a support group.”

DSCN0331My wife is a lovely woman….. I keep reminding myself of that.

So there we stood, the moment of truth at hand and me surrounded by well-wishers–or perhaps, in this case, pump-wishers–and me reaching my hand to the handle… no more procrastination, no more excuses, no more stays of execution…

It flushed. It made that sucking sound and the water went down in an elegant swirl, and everyone applauded. Then they went upstairs to have Apple Pie in the cafe.

Wendy kissed me. “We all had confidence in you, dear.”
I stayed behind to spend a moment alone with my toilet. After all, we’ve been together through thick and thin.
DSCN0333

TA-DA!

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Jack created our new downstairs bedroom pretty much from scratch. This is what it looked like before he started.

IMG_3508 With two rooms downstairs, he finished the big one for me as an office and yarn storage space. (There’s a blog called “His Square, White Heart” that describes that room, back a few months ago.) But then he began casting his eye on the second space….

How it was at the beginning.

How it was at the beginning.

Well, okay, so maybe I said something like, “What will we do with that smaller room at the back?” Anyway, the point is, he decided it would make a good bedroom. And it does. You can see how smart Jack was about finding all the crevices and getting the most storage space possible. For a hanging closet, we bought an old cedar wardrobe from our friends at Vintage on Main (a secondhand store a couple blocks up). The nice lady who worked there surprised me by putting in a couple of dresses she thought I’d like as a bonus!

So… behold Jack’s handiwork! (He and Bert decided to model for us.)

We used the high shelf behind the bed for shoes and winter blanket storage.

We used the high shelf behind the bed for shoes and winter blanket storage.

In a fit of what we modestly think of as genius, I realized all my wicker baskets that had stored yarn would be useful downstairs in the various crevices. We didn't have to spend money on new ways to store things!

In a fit of what we modestly think of as genius, I realized all my wicker baskets that had stored yarn would be useful downstairs in the various crevices. We didn’t have to spend money on new ways to store things! (You can see the original brick at the back of that chest storage area.)

bedroom 4

We bought those burlap-esque white containers, but we had all the wicker laundry baskets. Those hold our clothes and the white bits serve as the “I don’t have to justify why it’s here” junk pockets. I think this set of shelves was Jack’s greatest stroke of brilliance. The basement walls sloped heavily, with a kind of cement wattle at the bottom and brick at the top. The white wall shows how far in the wattle sloped, but Jack reclaimed the space at the top by installing this shelf.

So the Bookstore goes on above us, and Jack and I have a little hideaway where we can read and relax. Jack still has his office and studio for recording his radio programs on the second floor, and I have my writing retreat downstairs. Soon the SECOND STORY CAFE will open in our former living room, and our second story storage space will turn into a proper functioning kitchen. Life is good!

The little standing lamp next to the bed is one of the finds from Vintage on Main. It really works with the limited space because it overhands my one-foot-square bedside table and leaves me room to pile on BOOKS. (And the occasional kitten)

The little standing lamp next to the bed is one of the finds from Vintage on Main. It works well with the limited space because it overhangs my one-foot-square bedside table and leaves me room to pile on BOOKS (and the occasional kitten).