So…it snowed a lot this last month (90+ inches), I finished the
one show, Paul
opened another, and I started rehearsals for a third. Oh, and I hired someone for the first time to do work on the house. After the last trip to the laundry mat with the 10 loads of laundry I realized that I wasn’t making any progress on getting us our own laundry set up. It’s been over a year and I just don’t have the time (and I’m not making the time to do it either). I asked around for recommendations, called a plumber and just had him do it. Actually, I looked at the estimate and said, “That’s a lot of money, how much of that could I do myself?” I decided to have the plumber just do the drains (which involved things like busting up concrete and cutting out sections of 80+ year old cast iron pipe – I didn’t want to mess that up) and I could do the water supply myself and install the sink.
It was still a lot of money to get the drains done by the plumber. I keep having this fantasy that when I get the bill it will be lower than the estimate because they got it done so fast. Right. I bit the bullet and finally ordered a washer and dryer and before they’re delivered I have to
1) replace the water shutoffs for the washer and move them 24” to the right.
2) redo 110v outlet for the washer (currently it has exposed romex and is near the ceiling).
3) move the 220v outlet from behind the refrigerator to behind the dryer.
4) install dryer vent in wall.
Later I still need to install my $3 laundry sink w/no legs and at the minimum make sure water from the super old laundry shut offs goes into the sink and not on the floor (they’re several inches past the edge of the sink location.)
The dryer outlet is where the red star is and the washer hookups are at the blue star. I'm sorry but I can't have the washer on one side of the basement and the dryer on the other; that isn't right. The square under the blue star? That's a 18" cube of concrete just hanging out in the basement. The new utility sink will go there using the washer water supply above, and the washer will use the water supply from the old sink under the windows.
I took pictures while I tore down and busted up the old concrete sink that I’ll post later. I had this crazy idea that I’d be able to put the sink in the backyard until I figured out what to do with it. After I got it down from the stand, I couldn’t move it 3 feet. Now I have three cardboard boxes full of busted concrete in the basement waiting for incremental disposal in my trash can.
Last weekend my dad helped me install a deadbolt in the basement door for the plumbers to gain access when we weren’t home (without giving them access to the whole house) and the hardest part of the whole thing is always getting everything lined up exactly. Because if it isn’t you can’t get both screws screwed in and it is so frustrating! Trying to put it together, take it apart, find a flashlight, get one lined up but loosen it to get the other in, now you can’t get the first screw to thread – and over and over until finally, magically it works and 10 seconds later your deadbolt is installed. It isn’t like I have any sense of false security with deadbolts since we have 100+ panes of glass in the house. Really I just needed key access from the outside and a deadbolt is easier than replacing the original mortise knob/lockset. Or I could start carrying around skeleton keys.
