Owning a home bites sometimes (part deux) ...

... so in the comments section of the last blog entry detailing my woeful attempt to spruce up my laundry nook, I said things got even better with the whole fiasco. And boy howdy did it ever.

I woke up bright and early on Sunday (and by bright and early I mean 10AM-ish), got dressed, and just decided to get it over with. Grabbed a broom, the new dryer vent hose, and my big Maglite, and opened up my crawl space. Got on my hands and knees, looked inside and saw about a million spider webs. Fun ... I hate spiders.

Started whacking the webs with the broom, allowing me access without getting a face full of sticky gunk. Located the outside part of the vent, made my way over and took off the old hose. It was lined with at least a half inch of lint, so it was a good idea to replace it. Tried getting the new hose on but it just wasn't fitting. The fact that my crawlspace is about two and a half feet high meant that I didn't have much space to get good leverage to slip the hose on. I lose my grip on the clamp which is to hold the hose in place, it hits my thumb and splits it wide open. So now I've got blood pouring down my hand and the hose is all sticky with blood too. Fun fun! Finally manage to get the hose on (which involved a trip back into the house to get duct tape to really make sure the darn thing isn't going to come off). Meanwhile my dogs have decided to see what all the fuss is about, so now I have three animals wandering through my crawlspace ... not what I wanted because they don't really know the concept of "if you knock that out of joint, I'm going to have to fix it". Fortunately, they didn't do any damage (I think).

I stretched the hose out and made my way towards the opening in my floor ... and came up about eight feet short. Ack! So had to run out, buy a second hose, jury-rig the two hoses together (relying heavily on duct tape) and then spend a half hour getting the end of the second hose through the floor. Spent another thirty minutes behind my washer and dryer trying to get the hose onto the back end of the dryer in a position such that it would stay on.

All of this because I wanted a a peg board in my washroom.

I hope when I start hanging my pictures things aren't this hectic!

Owning a home bites sometimes ...

... especially when you're doing "home improvements". Lately, I've been trying to tweak little things in the house, before I start my major projects. Things like changing all my knobs so they're not these drab beige things which are found all throughout my house. So now I have some rooster knobs in my kitchen (going with a rooster theme), and some pewter knobs in my bathroom, along with different patterned knobs throughout the rest of the house (Hobby Lobby rocks). I also have been hanging more pictures and things in my rooms (which had been pretty sparse until this point), as well as fixing the tiny little things which have worn down but I didn't give much thought to. For instance, replacing a couple missing screws in the screen door frame, gutting my toilets and installing new flush kits, taking down some ugly ceiling fans and putting new lighting in.

All these things were not much of a problem, nary a hitch. I should have known the gremlins could come pay me a visit sooner or later though. Little did I know they'd all show up today. So I decided I wanted a peg board above my washer and dryer. Not a big deal right? WRONG. So very, very wrong.

Went to Home Depot, bought the plastic peg board (two 16" by 16" panels) along with all the relevant hardware. Bought anchors to put the boards up too. So I drilled the first set of holes and planted the anchors. Put the peg board up against the holes and started to drill, only to see the anchors and part of the sheet rock pull away. Argh! Tried another --different -- set of anchors only to see a similar thing happen. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Call up the dad to ask him what the hell to do. He informs me that the studs should be 16 inches apart (duh) and if I find those, that I can just screw them into the wall. Go back to Home Depot, grab deeper (2 inch) screws and putty, return home, place putty into the holes I had drilled, and then screw those peg boards into the wall. Peg boards attached, I step back to look at my handiwork. Something doesn't look quite right though. Take out the tape measure and measure both ends. Guess what? Damn thing droops a quarter of an inch at one end. Argh!

To hell with it. Damn thing is going to be crooked until the next time I paint that laundry nook. With that decided, I get ready to push the dryer back into the nook. Look at the dryer vent hose and see that it's pretty worn. Run back out to Home Depot and grab a new one. Return home and go to pull the old hose up out of the floor. Yes, it runs through the floor. Foot after foot this hose pulls out, with no end in sight. Finally figure out that the hose runs through my entire crawl space to the vent outside. Lovely, oh and guess what ... I've never ever been in my crawl space. *sigh*

So, no laundry is getting done tonight, and tomorrow I need to crawl under my house to attach this new laundry vent hose up. Oh, and did I mention it's raining?