Nice Guy Handyman (2)

The main reason why we called in a handyman was to come in and repair our 2nd bathroom upstairs. It had a huge gaping hole in the ceiling (can't find the pic I took last month) where the sheetrock was already rotted from steady drip from the hole(s) in the bathroom exhaust vent.

Jeff replaced the venting system w/ aluminum coated vent material, set it up so that there is some sort of a trap (much like a sink trap), patched the ceiling back up, tried to replicate the swirls (didn't too good of a job there, but hey, it's not like people spend a lot of time staring at the ceiling to compare swirls) and painted it up again (he matched the existing paint color). He even left the leftover paint behind for us so we can use it in the future if we need to get more work done.

We also wanted to replace our tub spout whose water diverter had broken off years ago.

It still works, you just have to sort of stick your finger into the hole in the spout. This is okay most of the time but when we have family & visitors come over and you have to explain how to do it... eh.. medyo kahiya.

And while we were doing this, hubby wanted the shower head replaced too.

This is supposed to be easy but the last time we tried doing this ourselves, we broke the shower arm off & left a piece inside the pipe behind the shower wall, we had to pay $150 for a plumber to come & fix it.

I figured, it was worth it to just get a professional to do things right rather than have to pay through the roof to repair what we botched up.

The spout was difficult to do. He had to cut off the existing pipe & solder a new one in. He had to do this a few times before the spout fit, looked and worked right. This wasn't a surprise because we had tried to replace the spout lots of times before. We bought different brands, types, shapes and sizes but none fit the existing pipe.

Lastly, the fill valve in the toilet is also cracked and leaking water big time. We've had to turn the water to this toilet off because water was constantly running all the time and would leak down to the floor.

This, too, is supposedly easy to do but the mechanism inside the tank is stuck to the porcelain due to calcium (hard water buildup). I didn't want to force anything because the last time we (okay... it was me!) did this, the tank cracked and we had to replace the whole thing.

Jeff replaced the toilet tank fill valve ($12 for the part) and the water hose connector ($6 for the part). I checked prices for the parts and his were reasonably-priced.

Nice Guy Handyman (1)

We're almost done w/ the home repairs, we've gotten the major fixes done, at least. My next few posts will be about the various repairs that were done to our place by Jeff, the Nice Guy Handyman.

This post will be about our laundry area (o sige na, ... closet).

Problem 1: Existing ductwork is made of plastic, this is no longer up to current building codes and is a fire hazard. Clothes dryers need to be vented, the vent goes into the wall, up the ceiling and should go all the way out of the building/house.

The outer ductwork is aluminum coated (up to code) but the ductwork inside the wall is made of plastic (outdated & could be a fire hazard because lint & dirt collects inside).

Problem 2: As luck would have it, it turns out that somewhere along the way, one of this condo's previous owners decided to cut off the ductwork in the ceiling and attached this vent to one of the roof struts.

Yes, our clothes dryer has been venting heat, moisture and lint into our ceiling all these years. We didn't know until Jeff went into the ceiling to check it out. The insulation around this vent was wet.

Problem 3: See the water hookup ? That hose is made of rubber. Rubber hoses (non-metal clad ones) should be replaced every 5 years and I recently heard from a friend that some condo associations are requiring owners to use metal-clad hoses in their units already.

Problem 4: See that faucet w/ no hose ? For some reason, our washer wasn't hooked up to the hot water, it's no biggie but I decided to just let Jeff check if the hot water source is live and if it is, to hook the washer up to the hot water.

Work done:

Day 1: Jeff replaced the plastic vent with aluminum coated venting material and connected it back to the ductwork (already exists) that leads out of the bldg. He installed metal clad hoses for the washing machine water hookups, patched up the holes that he made in the closet (for installing the new vents).

That night, hubby decided to cover the ugly walls up of the closet with some paint.

I wasn't really feeling up to it and I felt it was a waste of time since this was a utility closet anyway but I suddenly remembered that we still have that unused gallon of white paint left over from when we were doing some DIY work in 2009 (we stopped when we found out I was pregnant with Swe-cha).

An hour later, we had finished painting the upper portion of the closet. We only painted up to the part where the shelves were going to be installed, we figured we can continue the rest later.

I'm glad that hubby sort of insisted that we do this because the new coat of paint makes everything look so much cleaner and nicer. This is how it looks after Jeff put the shelves back up on day 2.

Now, I'm much much happier, after having done a couple of loads of laundry using HOT / WARM water :)

I'm hoping that we can finish the rest of the painting soon so this doesn't look half-done (and I know us... the longer we put things off, the lesser the chances of it ever getting done at all).

For the vent work, Jeff charged us 1/2 of what the other company quoted us. He also only charged us a little bit extra for the water hose replacement. I'm glad that we had this fixed because the existing vents were almost choking w/ lint (we really have to get the vents cleaned more often) and all that moisture being vented into our ceiling ?... can't be good.

Pouring

And yet again the saying that "when it rains, it pours" is proving true in our home.

Yesterday, I made an appointment w/ that Nice Guy Handyman come over to check out the repairs that needed to be done in our house:

- vent replacement (the leaking vent in the bathroom exhaust)

- vent replacement (the dryer vent w/c is still made of plastic, hence, a fire hazard)

- cut out the rotted part of the ceiling & cover it up, apply swirly-textured finish to match the rest of the ceiling and then paint it

- replace the spout & showerhead in 2nd bath, this includes cutting out existing pipe & soldering a new piece in to match the length of the new spout

- fix cracked mechanism in 2nd bath toilet

But before the guy arrived, the bldg superintendent was knocking at my door. Yes, there was a leak again. And before he even started checking things out, he was already explaining to me that if it were my responsibility, I should do the repairs quickly while the damage in the unit below (same unit that was damaged by my leaking windows) gets any bigger.

The next hour was nerve-wracking. Superintendent cut holes in my ceiling and my wall and we started turning faucets/showers in the 2 upstairs bath on and off. Water started pouring down the drain - unfortunately, water poured IN and OUT of the drain (both surfaces).

Luckily, the leak is NOT our responsibility. Super just came back today to fix the broken pipe. Sad lang because he had to cut a hole in my red wall and when he comes back to close the wall, he will just patch it up - no paint job included.

But here comes the next part, while checking out that huge leak, they (superintendent and the unit owner below) happened to notice a water stain in my ceiling a few feet further but didn't see any leaks coming out. Last night, hubby stared at the pipes while I turned things on/off and that's when we found out that there is a leak in our shower.

*sigh*

Ayoko na.

I guess we were lucky, in a way, that things didn't start breaking down until now. I've been here 7 years already, after all.

Ah. Teka.

7 year itch kaya ito between me & my home ?

Costco

We finally received our Costco coupon book in the mail, this is the first since we got our membership last October. I've been bumming coupons* from my sister for the last 2 (or was it 3 ?) years because I wanted to make tipid and didn't want to pay for our own membership so we shared w/ a friend's.

Friend eventually moved and found a different warehouse club that was more convenient to their new place so we had to get our own membership na. So far, it (the fee we paid) doesn't seem too bad. But then again, last year, I had that part time thing.

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* Sis and I had a good method, I'd check out the costco coupons as soon as they get posted online on blogs and if there are items that I'm interested in, Achi clips coupons from her coupon book and sends me some. Fortunately, all the coupons for all products have the same code so it doesn't really matter if you hand in the actual coupon for the product or for something else (in case there are items that we both want).

Home

We flew to California (the trip was a last minute decision, hubby was asked to go on a business trip at work and I didn't want to be alone w/ Swe-cha all that time) a few weeks ago and were able to spend Swe-cha's 2nd birthday and Christmas with family.

Ang saya!

While we had a blast being with family, especially during those important events, I will not deny that it does feel good to be finally be home and be in our own space again.

But spending some weeks at Achi's has made us feel cramped in our condo. We can't wait until we are able to move to a house - ideally, we'd love to have 4 bedrooms and a home office. Imagine all that space to run around in (and wrestle giant teddy bears*), Swe-cha will love it for sure!

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* a great aunt gifted Swe-cha with a teddy bear that is bigger than him, we had to leave it behind in California as it didn't make sense to lug it all the way to NJ.

All is well

Once again, God has shown me that things that go according to His plan always turn out well in the end.

This morning, I was ranting about how stressed I was and as it turns out, it was for the best!

1) Swe-cha waking up for almost an hour a 7 meant that he was sleepy enough to fall asleep on the way to CT (no tantrums in the car)

2) Picking up the lechon from the faraway place made us late but it also meant that we were late enough to get warned by friends about the heavy traffic on the Merritt Parkway - we picked an alternate path.

Ang galing!

Swe-cha only cried for 1 hr (yes, 1 hr, sigh!) at our friends' place, but that is another story. At the end of the day, we had a great day with friends. B & M are wonderful hosts and we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

My boys

Grabe. It's only 10am and I'm already *this* stressed [raises hand to shoulder level].

Hubby fell asleep last night and would not wake up so I had to clean up in the kitchen (this is his usual chore). I started cleaning past midnight. After I loaded the dishwasher, I decided to wash the teakettle and that pot filled with oil that I usually use to deep fry (ewan ko why he leaves these to stand on the stove top, edi nadudumihan lang when you cook other foods).

I was going to stop there but the stovetop needed cleaning too. I was going to go throw out the trash but I was too tired. Maybe I should put a smelly diaper in the trash so hubby will throw it out right away, otherwise, he's okay letting it accumulate.

I think it's time that hubby and I had a talk about chores. He does them naman and is so guilty about falling asleep last night before getting a chance to tidy up, but the thing is, there is a flaw to his method eh. Tidying up is the last thing he does before going to sleep, uunahin pa ang TV, games at kung ano anong babasahin w/c is really optional. I don't usually mind him doing that, my principle has always been "your work, your way", I won't complain about your methods so long as you get things done. Yun nga lang, this isn't the first time and I'm sure that it won't be the last time that he'll fall asleep and I'll have to pick up the slack.***

Anyway, by the time I was done, it was 3:30a. I was so tired that I just fell asleep, forgot to check Swe-cha's diaper. Normally, we change his diaper in the middle of the night because he pees so much while he sleep and there's a tendency for the diaper to leak. True enough, I woke up to screaming at 7am. I was startled and couldn't function right away and the longer it took me to respond, the louder the screams.

I thought it was gas and kept trying to put manzanilla on Swe-cha's tummy. Swe-cha kept swatting at the manzanilla bottle and pulled on my hands, I should've just let him have my hands from the start because as soon as I stopped fighting him, he touched my hand to his wet pants & shirt. The leak was in an awkward spot so I didn't find it right away when I first did a spot check.

After I changed him, he still screamed at me every now and then - para bang nanininisi (haha!) - and finally fell asleep again (in my arms) by 7:50a but I couldn't put him down on the bed and lie down myself until around 8:15a (he would whimper and cry and I was so scared that he'd wake up na so I just sat and held him), he eventually woke up for the day at 9a.

Normally, when I'm too tired to get up, hubby would pitch in & help w/ Swe-cha but there's that lechon that needs to be picked up (that lechon better be so good so it's worth it). Hubby calls me up after he picks up the lechon to let me know that he's on his way home.

"You got the lechon sauce, right ?" I asked.

"Bumili ka ba ? nag order ka ?"

"Kasama ang sauce pag bumili ka ng lechon, dapat meron, did you check ?"

"Di naman tayo nagbayad ng sauce eh"

"Meron dapat, check mo. Hingi ka kung wala."

"Kung wala, bibili ako ?"

"SHIT. BINAYARAN NATIN ANG SAUCE, ANG MAHAL MAHAL NG LECHON TAPOS SASABIHIN MONG WALANG KASAMANG SAUCE ? MERONG SAUCE DAPAT. KUNG WALA, BUMALIK KA. FOR YOUR INFORMATION, PARATING MERONG SAUCE ANG LECHON. HINDI PA AKO NAKAKITA NG LECHON NA WALANG SAUCE."

[Siguro, if I looked into a mirror at this point, I'd scare myself. Nanlilisik siguro eyes ko. Ang kulit naman kasi eh.]

He must've still been in the parking lot at that time because it didn't take more than a few seconds before he said "ah, meron nga, nandito sa loob."

I love my boys kaya lang when they tag-team me like this, nakaka-ubos ng pasensya talaga. Gusto kong mag Frap or iced coffee, pang recharge man lang.

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*** I'm not usually so annoyed when he does this and I'm okay to pick up the slack, it's just that I've been so so tired for days and have had no rest pa. Teka... why am I even explaining ?