All Growed Up

To say that this winter has been challenging would be an understatement. It has been crap piled on more crap on top of old crap. But I've learned a lot. A LOT! We've learned to do without and make do. And I've managed to become something of a handyman around here. Obviously I'm not an expert and I haven't tackled anything anyone else couldn't do, but it seems huge for me. Here are a few projects I've handled pretty much on my own:

CHANGED THE WELL PRESSURE SWITCH (twice in a month)

That's it? Well.... It is just a dark gray boxy looking thing, but under the cover is a little different.

And I'm supposed to do what? Needless to say, it was tough to get off the pipe. It was coated in lime scale (YUCK!) and the thread tape was a mess. With a little (teenager) muscle, we got it done twice!!!! And nothing blew up. Confidence grew slightly.







All that done and then we still had NO WATER!!! First thing we thought was OH CRAP THE WELL!!!

If only it were that easy. This is what the well really looks like (the above-ground part anyway):

Underground is complicated and takes a lot of digging. With a backhoe. Not my thing. So we called the well guy out. Found out we had a bad wire. Underground. Digging. But with a shovel.

And here we have a broken wire. Actually FRIED. It burned right through. Good thing it was under- ground.














I didn't fix the wire. I watched, so if I had to I could totally do it next time. It's really pretty basic stuff.

KITCHEN SINK

We needed a new faucet. The old one leaked everywhere. It was nasty.

Eeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

The new one is shiny and clean and not leaky.













WATER HEATER

I'll admit that water heaters intimidate me. They're big and full of hot water. Well, they're supposed to be. Ours was full of ice water. Not fun for showers. Rather than run out in a panic and get the most efficient $438 mobile home electric water heater at Lowes, we decided to try to change the heating element. Since it didn't have water in it for awhile it was probably bad anyway. Plus $8 looks a lot better than that other number up there.

The old element was nasty. It was corroded, coated in lime scale and made me itch. It was also really hard to take off since the tool you use doesn't have much to grip. I almost broke my neck. Literally. I had to put my weight into it, and when I was pushing down on the stupid tool, it slipped off the element and sent me forehead-first into the water heater... with ALL my weight behind it. I got that punched in the nose feeling and my neck snapped back. Needless to say, I've got horrible whiplash today, but we have hot water. Silver lining.



My next project involves drywall and flooring. Oh, and itchy insulation. And caulk. I'll let you know how that goes when I get up the guts (and refill my inhaler) to tackle that mold.