Mini Variety Pack, Plus Be Back Soon!

Indeed, back soon as I picked up a movie for about six-ish weeks.  We all know what that means:  everything house grinds to a halt.  My hope is to still drop in a few posts about things I did complete prior.

Oh, the movie is Widows.  Some hefty names involved there.

Anyway, before I head off to do that on Wednesday, I thought I'd squeeze in a lil' Variety Pack as I seem to be amassing quite a folder full a' mini projects to share.

First off, as we remember, I had to remove the toilet in the first floor bathroom to rip out all the ugly a** tile and spread that swanky new tile down on the floor.  Ever since putting the toilet back in though, it's been making a sporadic few seconds long hissing noise as if trying to refill, all day long.

Water wasted, boo.  Plus, it's driving me crazy.

Especially since my office directly shares the water wall.  Oy me.

Ok so I check out this free new app DIYZ by the Stanley/Black & Decker people (now defunct) and wow, I am quite impressed with it.  It helps you with many of the most common DIY dilemmas folks have.  It even has a feature where you can live chat with a real and knowledgable human (which is currently free).

Awesome, right?  Yeah, download it.  It really is worth it, especially at free.

So what the app is telling me is that the tank filler is kittywampus.  No surprise there.  Surely the dumb flipper bought the cheapest toilets possible and all it took was me jostling it for the wimpy filler to go awry.

Rather than fiddle and fuss, for a mere ten bucks I bought a new filler.*  And thanks to that app makin' me feel all confident and stuff, it was extra easy to install.

Ah ha, lookie there, a new tank filler!

Well, except for the old plastic nut underneath being a jerk and a half full bucket of water spilling everywhere.  Heh, other than that, it was simple.

In a nutshell.....because turns out, it really is that easy....

Turn off the water at the wall, disconnect, and give the ol' tank a flush.  Now, either remove the remaining water in the tank or be prepared with a bucket.  I went bucket, as I uh previously discussed.

Before.  Why are the insides of toilet tanks yucky?

Loosen the nut underneath the tank that keeps the filler attached and pop the old hissy thing out.

It just, it just did not want to cooperate.  Did not want to leave I guess.  Oh the wallpaper.  Swoon.

Following the directions for the new one, it said a corner had to align height-wise with the top of the overflow tube/flush valve and ya know, it's really hard to tell when you can only peer down in, not at level.

Sometimes, it'd be great if directions or images were a hair clearer and say/show exactly what they mean in Normal People Land words/images.  But, I made do.  And hoped for the best.  For the most part, their instructions were surprisingly clear, amazingly enough.

Next attach the new filler from below, wire up the water tube, reconnect the water and crank it back on, cross all your fingers and toes, give the ol' tank a flusharoo, watch for leaks and check the water level inside the tank and bowl.  "Adjust accordingly," say directions.

I am not sure what I'm trying to tell you with this weird photo actually.

This filler thing, you're supposed to lock with a twist before securing in which I thought I had done but whoa, oops holy cow nope, did not.  Water flowing non-stop.

Whoa nelly!  Panic!  The filler shot all the way up and water was just spewing and running and wow, stop!

Once I got that worked out, another flush or two, and bingo!, good to go!  And I have not heard the hissy filling sound since.  Yay!  Pat on the back.  Yay!

All better.  Works like a dream.  Inside a gross toilet tank, ew. 

And!  And.  Bonus:  it's quieter.  Like way quieter.  And lightning fast.  Major thumbs up.  I had my doubts; I mean, how can you make water movement through narrow parts quieter, but it's true.  So quiet in fact, I'm half tempted to replace all the others.

Oh wait.  Did I just hear it go off?  Uuuuugh I think I may have.  Huh, I wonder if maybe the flapper leaks. Sigh, so much for that getting crossed off the list.  Well, at least I've only heard it once in forty eight hours so far rather than the multitudes of times it went off per day before.

Rats.

Well anyway.

While at Ikea I stumbled upon this darn cool light fixture, the Skepp.  Infinitely cooler in person too.  Yeah wow, the photos do not do it justice which is likely why I missed it online before heading out.

Before.  A fountain of chrome and frosted glass.  Not diggin' it.  Power was off here, hence the weirdness.

It's near impossible for me to escape their lighting department unscathed, to be honest.  Hey, light fixtures are the jewelry of your home so you should always get cool ones.  Always.

It was a bit of a hassle to install, not gonna lie, but I do like it quite well.  I'm not sure what it is about Ikea's directions sometimes.....I know, they try to make them stupid-proof with all the images but sometimes, sometimes they're well, just damn confusing.

Space-age-y and modern!

It is indeed dim, this new fixture, much dimmer than I anticipated but eh, whatev's, it looks good.  Heh, better to look good....

Yeah, looks pretty cool.  I like it anyway.

There's some wall touch up on tap now which I hope I have enough paint leftover for.  There were a scant few drops left.  Although, hm, having just been in that room a few moments ago, it could really use an entire second coat.  Mmmrrrrrrph.

Some reworking will be happening in here for sure.  I bet it's that floor I'm having trouble with....................

Oh, speaking of looking good....I picked up some of that porch paint for our utility closet floor.  Have I mentioned the porch paint before?  Oh.  No.  I have not.

I originally picked some up in white for our main stair.  But, as that idea keeps changing and evolving, the paint has not seen the light of day.

Until recently.

Finn, when he gets mad at the world cruising past, hops his front feeties onto the big picture window sill and barks, snarls, jumps, claws, pounds, freaks, and wreaks havoc.  Yeah.  Not fun.  Hence the sill is all scratched up.  Hence why we cannot have a nice window sill.

So what did I do?  Took some porch paint to it and it's holding up amazingly well.  Almost confoundingly so.  As such, I repainted the frame around the garage door with it, the jamb of the door leading onto the deck, and our back door jamb when we had some odd seventy degree days in February.

And then, as such, I sensed it'd hold up on the utility closet floor so I grabbed a quart in a gray.

Porch paint!

After scraping up loose paint, vacuuming, and generally being creeped out by icky spiders, it was go time.

Pre-clean up.  Yuck.  Just yuck.  And dog vomit yellow.  Ew.  Not sure how it went from painted to a mess.

So far so good.  It's holding up nicely.  Granted, gee, it's been a mere month-ish.  It could also use a second coat so once I'm back home, I'll be sure to add that back onto the list.

And here it is drying! Ahhhh, so much nicer. Yes, I even painted the PVC furnace drain tube to try and "hide" it.

Heh, man, it seems everything I've attempted to cross off the list in this post, it ends up right back on there.  Ah well, such is the nature of being a homeowner.  Or maybe it's just the nature of me and my projects.  Alas.

Oh right, I made a couple pillows for our bed.  We originally bought a who-ha set in a hurry, ya know,  impulse-get-anything, a comforter with throw pillows the day we got the new bed.  The comforter, never a fan of I was (white?  Large dirty dog on the bed?  Yeah, no.) but packrat, stashed the pillows.

Mike asked me why I bothered making these at all as we don't make the bed up all fancy.  Like ever.  "For when we sell," I quipped.  Yes, he eye rolled me, "you are so weird."

At the same time I was shopping for fabric for the faux bed frame, I unearthed snippets of interesting fabrics then hit up the massive fringe room they have.  Their fringe is unbelievably well priced.

Both pillow covers were a major pain in the a** to make.  Man, I am mean to myself.

The sequined fabric had a cool wavy finished edge so I smartly (snark) thought to make that a feature.  Yeah.  Pain.

Schwanky sequined pillow near Finny's big teddy bear.

Then I thoroughly mis-cut the sliver of faux cow hide having to then rework my math and entire plan.  Go figure.

That 6" fringe was only $3 a yard.  Yes, $3 a yard.  That's it.  Still loving our headboard all right.  So glad I made it.

That assembly took uh, um, weeks.  Most of the time spent was me staring at the half finished cover on the floor and walking away.  "Tomorrow.........."

And here they are together.  The two snippets of fabric ran me two bucks.  What a way to get a custom look on the cheap, huh?

But I'm quite happy with them.  Yay!

For the recipe portion (ah ha, portion, pun) of today's post, I was waffling (ah ha, waffle, pun) between two but I may as well share both.  One is more cold weather, one more warm although in my book, ice cream is year 'round.  So, spring weather if you will.

A great soup we really enjoy (though I frustratingly recently discovered that Mike does not consider soup a meal, as in like dinner) is this Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.  I cut back on the butter and flour a bit.  And the curry as it was needlessly curry heavy.

And this Vanilla Frozen Custard is ridiculous.  Ri.dic.u.lous.  Although next time I will leave out a yolk, maaaaaybe two, as it was borderline too eggy.  What did I toss in at the end?  A full sleeve of crushed Thin Mints.  Oh yes.  That's right.  I did.

Meeting with the alderman finally about the rampant off leash dog problem in the park.  That'll be interesting.  Did you see me eye roll?  I'll be sure to let you know what he says (or rather, doesn't say) (aw ok, I should give him the benefit of the doubt, fine).  I already printed out four articles for him which I've highlighted that he will not read.

There ya have it!  Mini Variety Pack.  Ok!  I hope to be back here shortly!

Oh and please don't forget to come vote for Flipping the Flip over in the JDR Industry Blogger Awards, the Best Remodeling Blog category.  A one time vote, no registering, it's so easy!  And please share if you would as that would be so lovely and I'd appreciate it greatly.  Thank you!

*The toilet tank fill valve is an Amazon affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.
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