Feb 19th Afternoon

Feb 19^th Afternoon

After meeting up with the guy for the cabinets, I headed over to HD to get a couple things and then got to work on the hall light.  I don’t know how this thing didn’t burn down the house.  The light must have been 80 years old and the fabric over the wire was completely gone – mostly due to whoever installed it back in the 30’s tying several knots in the wire.  It was in such bad shape I was shocked.   Anyway, the pendant light I bought to replace it has a ceiling attach unit, but I’m opting to keep the old one for posterity.  There’s a nice glass unit which I think will complement it well.  I would have bought it tonight, but HD closes early on Sun. 

Next I battled with the sink in the bathroom.  I was able to get the faucet out.  I actually had to put a vise grip on the nut, and then put another vise grip on the first vise grip so I could turn it.  Then, I tried to remove the drain.  I tried everything.   I even had a vise grip going one way, a pipe wrench going the other way and a 500lb strap pulling them together an nothing.  Upon closer inspection it looks like the builder epoxied these threads together.  So I have to find a way to use it, or find a way to get the whole sink out.

 New faucet installed but not hooked up.

I then went to work on the back door, which I had glued earlier and put a couple coats of white paint on front and back.  I put in a metal plate on the door frame to work with the latch that was already on the door.   I think before it just went in to the trim which made it useless.  Then I installed the trim molding over it.  Next, I went to work on figuring out why the deadbolt never worked properly.  It was always sticky.   There were 2 culprits.  First, the striker hole and the cylinder hole were not aligned at the right heights.   I drilled out the striker hole and that helped.  But it still stuck.  Then I noticed that the cylinder hole was not completely rounded out and part of the lock mechanism was rubbing on the top of the hole.  By the time I put it all back together, I’d drilled, cut, and sawed so much wood, there was nothing left to attach the lock to.   So I started finding little shims to hammer in there.    Eventually I got enough shims in there to hold it tight and put some wood glue on it and I’m letting it sit overnight. 

All in all, 3 projects really beat the heck out of me this afternoon.  The light, the sink, and the door.  Each of which I thought would be quick and each battled me right back.  By 9:30 when I went off to HD I was beat.  So when they were closed, I went to Wawa and got a hoagie and some coffee grounds for tomorrow, then over to Coletti’s and picked up a 6-pack of Rolling Rock, came back, finished reassembling the door (I had just gotten it to lock when I left) and came up here to work on this and have a couple of beers.

Now off to bed with the idea of trying to get up a little earlier and making use of more daylight.