My husband and I have been working on the "garage" to get it ready to empty our storage unit. Saturday my hubby worked diligently out there. He was going to help me hang the vertical blinds, but upon opening the box, we discovered that the top bar was bent. Wow, as if... He had some other things he needed to do, but he had to run to the local home improvement warehouse to get the parts first. Once he got back, I went to exchange the blinds only to have to stand in the return line for about 30 minutes along with about five other customers. I stood there smilin' to keep from getting angry. As the line inched toward the service desk, someone showed up. I thought she was going to help get the line down but instead she looked at a TV that was being returned and told the lady running customer service that it was okay to give the woman her money back. So now all of us in line had been knocked back another person since we had to wait for that return to be completed. Finally I was getting closer when a lady came sauntering back toward the customer service desk in no hurry whatsoever. Once she got back there, she was twice as fast as the lady who had been running the desk by herself, and that's not saying much so you can imagine how slow the first lady was. By the time I got up to the desk, there were at least eight to ten more customers behind me. That store was a complete madhouse, and I finally returned home about two hours later since I also needed to get some other items. Of course, upon my return home I immediately realized I had forgotten some things, but they'll just have to wait until the next time I go by there.
It was late when I got home, and my dear hubby had fixed us some supper. Nothing fancy, but it was something to eat. While I had been gone, he informed me, he replaced the switch that operated the ceiling fan/light in the garage. It had been working intermittently until Friday night when my youngest girl somehow got the light to work. After replacing the switch, the light no longer worked. That's just great! So our diligent efforts to hang the vertical blinds, replace the light switch and get the garage completely vacuumed and mopped left us wanting. No vertical blinds were hanging, the light wasn't working (although there was a new switch on the wall) and nothing had been mopped - well nothing except the breezeway and the kitchen that my boy and youngest girl helped me accomplish earlier in the day even though I wasn't planning on doing those jobs.
Well, in addition to the failed repairs in the garage, my hubby decided to fix the outlet in the bathroom while I was gone because it was missing part of the cover plate, and he figured it would be a good idea to put the new GFI outlet in and make sure it had a cover plate, you know, to avoid electric shock! While he did that, he discovered the switch beside the outlet was cracked all the way from one end to the other. So he shared this with me while we ate our supper and all I could do was shake my head and laugh at how sad the whole situation in this house is.
On Sunday we stopped at the home improvement warehouse on our way to church. My hubby picked up a new switch and a light kit (no small task as my hubby investigated every option and discussed it with the sales associate) while my kids and I investigated light bars for the bathrooms, light fixtures for the kitchen, ceiling fans for the house and the like. We also discovered a nice "lamp post" for the front yard to replace the existing one that is in disrepair so badly that I do not believe it is salvageable.
After church and lunch we set to work on the garage. My hubby began by reattaching the baseboard heater to the wall, and then he hung the vertical blind top bar by himself while I began to vacuum the edge of the floor only to discover...drum roll please....tack nails from old carpeting in the room and carpet fibers stuck to the floor and the underside of the baseboards that had been painted over! After trying to pull out the tack nails myself and struggling to get them out of the concrete (I looked like a little kid wielding a crow bar), my hubby helped me finish pulling them out from around the half of the room that did not have stuff piled against the walls. He left a myriad of chipped concrete in the wake of the removed tack nails. I felt like such a weakling right about then, so I decided to put up the vanes to the vertical blind with success! Yay! Then I began to scrape up and pull out the carpet fibers from the edges with pliers.
My hubby began to remove the light fixture only to discover that it was working intermittently because it was barely hanging on by a wire that had been taped together. His comment: "It doesn't surprise me that this thing wouldn't work." He then had to go get some wire nuts from his electrical supply box to install the light fixture because it didn't come with any even though it had light bulbs!?! We now have a light out there, working baseboard heat, operable vertical blinds and a bunch of chipped concrete not to mention the sticky substance in several different places around the room. One of those colorful piles of sticky goo had a popsicle stick in the middle of it. I believe someone was eating a popsicle, set it down and forgot it. I guess they didn't see any reason to clean it up when they moved out????
Remember I said that the carpet fibers that remained at the edge of the floor had been painted over? When in doubt, paint it seems to be the going theme in this house. I have now discovered that the wallpaper in the kitchen, the bathroom and now the dining room had been painted over leaving me to wonder what else has been painted over in this house, aside from the electrical outlets, switches and the thermostat for the baseboard heating in the garage.
Today I am planning to finish the vacuuming and mopping job in the garage and get the stuff already out there organized so that we can fit the rest of the stuff from the storage unit in there. But wait! I can't unpack the storage unit yet because I am also going to have to paint the walls with some primer that will kill the cigarette smoke-permeated walls. Getting the curtains out of there has improved the odor level about 50%, but those walls will not let go of that odor. So I guess I'll be painting out there now that the baseboard heat has been fixed. At least I'll be able to get it warmed up enough so the paint will cure. Wish me luck!
Happy Home Improvement!
