Beethoven In Trance - Episode 11

I was dumb enough to put my digital camera in the freezer from morning till noon. Luckily it's still working, well, at least for now. What was I thinking? Oh, couple guys came over for carpeting our stairs this morning, I didn't think it a good idea to leave the camera around so I put it in my lunch bag. Then I came in office, put the lunch bag into freezer as usual...

Dropped by the house during lunch, and found carpeting is done. Nice color. Matches the wall and floor. Didn't realize the color go that well with the wall and the refinished floor. Seems like we have made good choice on color of the floor at least. The second floor carpet looks ugly comparatively, but I don't have the extra $1K to replace that.

The journey of a handman.

Nothing pisses me off more than a lousy job done in the house. Found out our kitchen sink drain leaking last night organizing stuff. Took apart the pipes and joints, and started to suspect the pipe is not correctly jointed, or the P-trap is not the right one for the job. Went over to Homedepot and found the exacte P-trap, then realized the pipe in the house was not connected correctly. The P-trap was connected reversely. The water is supposed to run through the P-trap and go into main drain pipe, but now the water runs to P-trap then slow down (because of the slope of the P-trap is reversed), then the water press reduce, and the water comes back down and stay at the low end connection of the P-trap, the the water starts to leak from that joint.

Homedept guy recommended a water seal tape, $5.84. The very next moment I checked out that tape, I have decided to return it, as this $5.84 is not the solution to my problem. Went back home and used the white plumbing tape to seal the connecter and it stopped the leaking for now. Again, it's a patch, not a solution. Pissed and tired, I left a bucket under the P-trap and went on cleaning up other stuff.

The kitchen floor is still dirty, the P-trap thing postponed my original plan. It looks like a never-ending job which doesn't pay salary.

Need to find a plumber now to correct lousy pipe work. $?

Garage roof shows no sign of leaking so far after I duck taped the seam. Not sure how long will it hold, but need to find someone to fix it soon.

Basement is still sweating. The last one row of the brick wall is wet. Not sure if it's moisture accumulation or water seepage. But if it's moisture accumulation, should it be wet all over the wall instead of one side of the wall, and last row of the wall? Think, think, think...

and where I am supposed to put the ventilation fan in the kitchen?

and when I caulk the bathtub? and skip the shower?

Getting to know the house is not a pleasant experience so far. The more I know, the more uncomfortable I get. The house is like a money vaccum, it sucks your salary in a split of a second.

But does it make sense to spend extra $50K or more to buy a new house in an area far from work? The house will be nicer, and easier to maintain, but we are still talking about extra $50K here, plus it's far and gas price is not helping either, and what about the furniture?

Or maybe I had wrong preception to begin with. Old house needs to be maintained, and I just have to put down some money before we can truely enjoy it. Just like buying a used car.