Handy Dandy

Living alone for the first time in my life has given me the opportunity to be responsible for all those things that were previously taken care of by someone else.
Fantastic.

My neighbor told me that he got a "chuckle" out of watching me mow the lawn on Sunday.
Whatever. I got it done. So what if I haven't quite mastered the speed on the stupid thing yet? It seems to have a hair trigger between going along at a decent clip and dragging me along behind it. I'll figure it out. Hopefully. Maybe.

Next, in the master bathroom the little lever inside the toilet that pulls up to make the toilet flush broke off.
I went to the hardware store and the levers were sold according to whether the lever is on the front or the side, plus model of the toilet. Pete's sake, they make this shit difficult to figure out!

Okaaaaaay. Well I was pretty sure the lever was on the front, but model? I have no fucking clue.
I didn't really want to go check the model and come back (because I am lazy), so I bought one that claimed it could be used in all standard toilets.

Ha. Liars.
When I tried to hook it up, there was no way to get the lever in and through the plastic loop without either the lever being shorter or breaking the plastic loop.

I, briefly, considered taking it back to the store and getting another one but I didn't (because I am lazy). Instead I hooked the lever up to the base of the toilet (correctly) and then grabbed an inexpensive necklace chain I didn't really like very much (removed the pendant, which I do like) and used it to loop through the level and the plastic loop so the damn toilet will flush.

So, now I have a working toilet again. It's not exactly the right solution, but it's not exactly the wrong one either. It's a slightly stupid solution that makes me feel just the tiniest bit like MacGuyver.

Hardware Throwdown

So, as some of you know, I've been renovating my upstairs half-bath. (It's step one in my plan to renovate my house and then eventually take over the world.) I've been busy removing hideous wallpaper, repainting and whatnot. I have some ideas in mind for some other things to change, and to that end I've been scouting out options at the hardware store.

I've bought everything so far from the Ace Hardware in Monroe, but it's a teeny, tiny store, and thus doesn't meet many renovating needs beyond the basics. Ace is sweet and I try to spend local whenever I can, but for the most part, Ace was knocked out before he even entered the ring.

Last Friday, the husband and I went over to Home Depot. Home Depot seems like the lux of the hardware store world. It's pretty and clean. It's displays are pretty slick. Their commercials are everywhere (did you know TONS of Olympic athletes work at Home Depot? Side note: this makes me sad for them).

Today, I stopped by Menards. I've always had a bias against Menards. I've thought of it as the "ghetto" hardware store. It's floor is weird. It kind of smells funny. And their commercials are too loud. When we first moved here, the parents spent some time in Menards picking out light fixtures. It took too long and I was really fucking thirsty by the time we left, so every time I think of Menards I get thirsty. I've avoided that place for years, due to that fact alone.

Yet, the winner between the two for home renovating needs and selection is Menards. By a clear fucking mile. In fact, I spit on Home Depot and it's poor selection. It's like some "inspirational" sports movie. Menards is the underdog, scrappy with bruises and scars all over his face and every one underestimates him. Home Depot is the pretty boy every one bets on and he spends most of his time winking at pretty girls from the ring. Yet, when they go glove to glove, Menards is the one left standing.

I was so disappointed after going to Home Depot last week, that I considered giving up some of the bigger changes I wanted to make to the bathroom if it was going to be this giant pain in the ass that I was going to have to pay someone else tons of money to special order and then do for me (it's only fun if I can do most of it myself). But, after my little jaunt to Menards, I'm re-energized. We'll have to save up some money, but the costs aren't unreasonable and in the end I think it will be something I'll really love.

That wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be

That's what she said.

Ha. 

No, really. Today, in addition to going to the grocery store, hardware store, gym and baking cupcakes (strawberry with vanilla icing AND sprinkles, delicious!), I stripped the wall paper out of our half bath. It's been a busy day. I'm tired. 

It was the most hideous looking wall paper known to man. I have hated it ever since we moved in. I put off taking it down because I thought it would be this big ordeal because in order to really get it all down I needed to move the toilet in that bathroom.

As it turns out, both moving a toilet and stripping wallpaper are not as hard as I thought they were. Really, start to finish, the whole project only took a couple of hours. I'm not completely done yet as I still have to fix the walls and repaint the bathroom, but still, I should have done this years ago.

It looks so much better. Of course, it wouldn't have been such a big relief if I had done it years ago. I wouldn't have come to loathe that fucking wallpaper, so I guess it all works out in the end. Right?

I feel so handy.

I Should Have Done This Years Ago

I swear the woman who owned our house before we did LOVED to put pictures on the walls. Every two feet. On every wall in the house.

There were about half a billion (at least) holes in the walls when we moved in. Including wall anchors. Mostly I've just been ignoring them for the last 3 1/2 years. 

Then, when we were in San Antonio last weekend we bought a painting and had it shipped home. I hung it on the wall and there were two ugly holes above it and one right below it. It was driving me crazy. I didn't want to look at those stupid fucking holes every time I looked at my beautiful picture. 

So, yesterday I went to the hardware store and bought some Spackle and a putty knife and went to work. I pulled out all the damn anchors, spackled, sanded and painted all of the holes I could find. I even touched up the paint in some places that had been dinged or scraped over the last couple of years. 

The walls look SO much better. I can't believe I waited this long to do this. No more holes around my painting, no more holes anywhere. Yay!

It feels so good to have this checked off my list of things to do I've already started planning home improvement project number 2: The upstairs half-bathroom. 

The ugliest wall paper on the planet is falling off the walls and the door hinges are rusty. 

If I can get this done before August of 2012 I'll still be ahead of the game!