Adventures in handymanland...

Over the last two weeks, I've had a full plate of "things to get done before the world shows up for thanksgiving", some of them involving power tools. Understand, I know which end of a drill to aim at the wall, or which finger, when struck with a hammer, brings the most colorful phrases to mind, but most of what I do comes from reading a book on it, and then trying it, albeit slowly. Thus, I get it done, usually two or three times longer than I originally estimate. I always caution Irma, "Don't look at the mess until I'm done cleaning up", and probably spend half my time climbing up and down a ladder (if one is involved), or up and down the stairs getting "one more tool", or running to the hardware store to get something "I didn't have when I started, and probably should have been obvious that I needed, but didn't think about until I pulled that other thingy off..."

Adventures. One of the projects this week involved, as it turned out, undoing a problem created last year. See, last year before thanksgiving, we remodelled our kitchen and guest bathroom, most of the work was done by professionals. However, I replaced a mirror and installed a new vanity light fixture in the bathroom. It's not hard, (well, except the generic builder installed mirror was glued to the wall, and took the better part of 2 hours to remove from the wall in pieces, very very carefully). The new light fixture went in easily, drill 2 holes for the mounting anchors, attach the wiring (black to black, white to white, green to green, don't touch the power switch whatever you do...). Screw the fixture in, install bulbs, voila, new bathroom (and a fine bathroom it is!). Everything was fine. Or so we thought.....

A few months later, in a seemingly unrelated issue, water stains started appearing in the basement bathroom ceiling (my remodelling project of 2 years past). It started very small, but by this last summer, was obvious something bad was happening on the other side of that drywall (wet-wall?). In september, I finally had a spare few moments, and cut a hole in the ceiling to find the problem.

Weird. Plumbing above the ceiling looks fine, no wet spots. Yes, there were hot and cold supply lines running from the water heater to the basement laundry room, but they weren't leaking. Drain line from upstairs, dry. Except, water was coming from somewhere. A bucket placed under the hold caught a tablespoon of water by the next day. Hmmmm.

Over the next few days, investigation revealed that water dripped from the elbow of the drain pipe, only when hot water from the master bedroom shower was run for more than one minute. Further investigation showed a possible crack in the pipe, might it be expanding with the hot water? But patching the crack solved nothing. The water was coming from upstairs.

The investigation continued. I traced the drain pipe upstairs, at first I thought it ran through the ex-laundry closet on the main floor where I built/installed some pantry shelves last year, perhaps I'd run a screw into the pipe? No, the pipe ran through the bathroom wall. Mirror mounting screws were carefully placed into wall studs, so... The light fixture.

To make a long story short, one mounting screw was driven right into the drain pipe from the second floor, leaking a tablespoon or so of water a day from showers. So, cut a hole in the wall, fix the pipe. Now I've got 2 big (well, one football sized, and one doormat sized) holes in bathrooms to patch, and 4 days till the world shows up to eat our turkey.

I finished it. Even textured the ceiling patch in the basement. A little touch up paint, and... No one will know that, It was all my fault in the first place.... ;-)

What does it all mean? I got to thinking, I"ve done a lot of varied projects around the house, from plumbing to electrical to drywall to construction. We garden, paint, landscape, do tree surgery, pick apples. Is this what it means to be a jack of all trades? I compare this to what a typical character in my stories might have to do. If he's a farmer, he's doing all that (well, no electrical, but so much more.) Cooperage, minor blacksmithy, tool repair. etc etc etc. Tending to the tack for the draft horses. Wagon repair. Hmm, guess I'm not so jack of all tradey after all. I've got a lot of more specialized knowledge, and maybe more than most peoples general knowledge, but... What I don't know, I can get from a book. My fictional character probably has never seen a handyman book. If he doesn't know how to do it, he's stuck.

It's something to think about, and remember as I'm writing.

Anyway, next time, I'm hoping to post a bit of fiction. We'll see what my muse drags out of me over the next couple of days.....

Clear skies, Jim.