Showing posts with label plumbing. Show all posts

Unity Progress

I've been working more on all the little subunits for Unity Part 2. First I made some HST.

Then I started on the square-in-a-square pieces. Definitely not my favorite thing to make, but better than quarter-square triangles!

I didn't have quite enough of the pink to get all the dark pink/green square in a square units (three sets short). We decided it would look most intentional to make the corners out of a different pink fabric. Then I only needed to cut one additional set of triangles and set one of the original aside.

Now it looks like this and I have to piece together all the rows/rounds. This quilt is assembled in a round robin-type fashion. Some of the rows are inverted right now. The colors are so much prettier in real life. My camera really struggles with the lighting near the design wall.

I remembered to take a picture of the knit selvedge rug. I'm really close to a finish now.

I've also been slowly plugging away at the 16 items I need for our guild advent calendar. I'm just about half way done. I need to submit my items at our November meeting, so that means I have just over three months to finish.

I haven't started on the whole cloth quilt yet since I haven't pressed the fabric. I think that will be my project this weekend. 

Of course I've been quilting a bit. I quilted Dave's Sunflowers on Cynthia's quilt.

Then I quilted Trillium on her other quilt.

She brought me a bouquet of sunflowers, mums, and roses when she picked up her quilts. They are so pretty. 🥰

I quilted Toss Up on Christi's baby quilt.

Sharon selected Two Simple for this super-large quilt. 

She also had me attach binding to the front.


I started stitching Christmas Bows on Christi's other quilt. I was near the bottom when the power blipped. Normally this kicks on my UPS and I can get to a point where I can shut down. However, the power kept cycling and the machine went a little nuts. I got it to turn off and I'll see how things look and try to finish today.

That was just before 5 p.m. We were having a bit of rain, lots of thunder, and heavy winds. Then it stopped and was sunny. Since we didn't have power and Duke didn't have an estimated repair time, we drove into town to grab dinner from a drive-thru. I was hoping to get home before the next wave of storms arrived, but the rain started on the way back home. It was very heavy and there was a lot of lightning. 

My husband had turned on our back up battery to power the fridge, freezer, and internet (priorities!) and we were just sitting around, scrolling social media in the late evening light. We'd forgotten we could turn on the main living room light with the battery. Anyway, around 8 I noticed that my neighbor had sent me a message via Facebook (I don't normally check that) saying she'd seen the transformer on our property pop a few times and then start smoking around 5 p.m. The electric trucks were on the street around the corner, so my husband walked over to talk to them after talking to her. They came over and checked the transformer and determined that it needed to be replaced. By this time everyone else in the neighborhood had power restored except us and the neighbor right across the street. Kind of funny, but our barn is on a different transformer than our house, so the barn had power (to its couple outlets that have been wired) and the house didn't. The power stayed off until a bit after 10. It could have been worse. Hopefully my machine is fine; I haven't checked yet this morning.

Out in the gardens, I have weeded all of the upper front garden and most of the barn garden. We harvested a small bell pepper, a coolapeno, and a tomato from the vegetable garden. I forgot to take a picture of the bell pepper before I cut it up for dinner. As you can see, it was pretty tiny, but perfect for topping our pizza.
There are a ton of beans, tomatoes, some peppers, and maybe the watermelons ready for harvesting. We just haven't made time to do it, unfortunately. We really have to pick through the tomatoes because most of them have been eaten by bugs. Most of the plants themselves look pretty terrible with the exception of the peppers. I'm not sure if it's bugs, lack of water, or a combo of both. It's pretty gross out there right now.

I've decided to clear out the lower garden during the winter. I know this isn't ideal, but between all the weeds, the bugs, potential snakes and other critters, I think it makes the most sense. I'm still avoiding the side garden since I know snakes like to lurk in there.

The chickens are all still alive. Penny will be out of quarantine and able to go back in the coop on Friday. She's doing really well. Smoky has started eating feed again, so that is good.  We aren't sure Smoky, Henry, or Peanut are able to go back out and function on their own. Peanut's eyes have continued to be closed for the last week, so she unfortunately seems to be regressing.

The big college dorm move-in day will happen next week. We went to Target to buy a mini fridge that had a freezer and I decided I needed to treat myself to the new LEGO E.T. set. I've been slowly building it. He has a small phone and a tiny replica space ship inside. You can see the phone(red) and the ship just above the wide light blue piece if you look really closely. I thought it would be funny to move it around and hide it in various shelves (think doll closet in movie).
Finally, one for the "what's going to break in Anne-Marie's house this week" category...our water pressure has been quite low for several years now. We knew that the water company needed to add infrastructure to meet increased demand. Our neighborhood has gone from sparse to built out in the last few years and they are always adding new subdivisions. Our neighbors haven't noticed having less water pressure. Our is so bad that if I'm running the washer or dishwasher, nothing else can be run. If someone flushes the toilet while a shower is running, the pressure decreases very noticeably.

My husband thought he should probably inspect our shut-off valve and pressure reducer. Well...the pressure reducer's lifespan is 10 - 15 years according to the internet. Ours is 14 years or so. The shutoff valve isn't rated for potable water. Great. Have we been having lead leach into our water all these years? Incompetent plumber strikes again. The plumber also put in a 3/4" valve instead of the 1" it should have been. My husband consulted with the water company about the outdoor shutoff valve and it's very easily accessible on our own, so these parts will be replaced in the very near future. We also need to look at our filters and replace at least one. Adulting is so fun. 🙄

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.
Posted by at 3 comments
Labels: , , , , ,

Lots of Little Progresses

I don't feel like I've accomplished much since last week, but looking over my pictures, we've made a good deal of progress.

 First, the bathroom in the basement.  We were really hoping to have everything done by the end of last weekend, but the counter fitting took significantly longer than expected.  And we took several trips in to Menards and Lowes.  And we took our daughter practice driving on base and she sort of got pulled over by the Navy Police.  Mostly it was coincidence and he didn't use lights and we were in a parking lot and there wasn't any issue.  We got a fun story out of it.  

 Anyway, the bathroom walls are done and look great.  The toilet is back in, cleaned, and functional!  I may be most excited by this part.  The counter took a lot of lifting on and off because the drywallers built the corner out too much and it is out of square.  So my husband had to trim the quartz on one end to make it fit nicely.  I think we lifted that thing off and on four or five times and hauled it outside and back in a couple times.  But it's on.  

The next logical step would be to hook up the faucet, but I really wanted to see the light fixture on the wall.  So the light works and the plumbing hook ups and outlets are currently in progress.  I have cabinet knobs on order since the store only had three of the four I needed.  The only thing I still have left to buy is a mirror.  We debated getting a framed mirror since that is what is in style, but I have one upstairs and I hate it.  It collects all sorts of grime and dust.  I will purchase a big, beveled edge mirror because that is what I like.  Trends be darned.

In the sewing arena, I have now received all my Polaroid blocks.
Here are some I sewed for myself.
These are all the extra ones I have left.  I'm still open to side trades.
Here are all the diamond blocks that I am procrastinating on.  I was surprised by how yellow the fabric reads as a whole, although I'm happy to see it doesn't look quite as yellow in the photo.  Oh, and look--there are all those Queen Bee blocks that have been hanging around for a few years. The blocks that are left on that require appliqué or hand sewing.  Could that be why it's still unfinished???


I sewed up this quilt top from a kit I bought a few years ago.  There was supposed to be enough fabric  for the backing too, but they neglected to take into account that the fabric is directional. Duh.  So I am going to have to piece a backing somehow.  I bought a little extra fabric because I didn't like the flying geese main triangle fabric that came in the kit.  When I bought the extra fabric, it was a three fat quarter bundle, so I will probably try to make the extra fat quarters make up the difference on the backing.  Still, it is really annoying that they didn't give enough fabric to do it properly.
I went fabric shopping because I needed a few things.  (More below.) I was really happy to find some yardage so that I could make a backing for this quilt.  It's a great big one.  Not sure when I'll get to quilting it, but at least now I'm a step closer.
Finally, I joined another quilt along.  I didn't really need another project, as anyone who has visited my works in progress tab up above can attest to.  However, I'd been looking at just how much fabric I have and I was feeling pretty guilty over my excess.  I also was noticing how some of it goes together.  And I had seen mention of #DashAlong on Instagram and the quilt is one of my very favorite blocks, the Churn Dash.  While the pattern calls for a layer cake, I realized I had almost enough in my stash to do the entire thing.  I purchased four extra fabrics to balance out the colors.  There are so many different manufacturers in this--Riley Blake, Moda, Windham, Timeless Treasures, Cotton + Steel, Dear Stella, Kaufman, a few unknown (no selvage).  I hope it turns out well!  I'm terrible at envisioning a finished product.  It's not too late for you to join in too.  Just search for #DashAlong for the free pattern and details.
I'll be trimming HST for the rest of the week.  What are you working on?


Posted by at No comments
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

PEX Plumbing Failure

Today on the blog, I bring you a PSA about PEX plumbing and fittings.  While we were planning out walls and such for the basement sewing room and bathroom projects, my husband pointed out that the joints of our PEX waterlines looked odd.  They have white crusty, foamy looking stuff all over the brass fittings.  This seemed rather alarming, especially since our house is only three years old.

 After a little research, my husband found that what we were seeing is called "dezincification" and there was a known problem with some brands of fittings and even some class action lawsuits because the parts can fail.  Basically, dezincification happens when water penetrates the surface of the brass and removes zinc, which in turn creates a honeycomb effect on the metal, thus weakening it and eventually causing failure.  Great.  

 We decided that even though it is a major hit to the budget, it would be better to remove all the plumbing lines and replace them and all the fittings.  I'd much rather take the budget hit now than have everything fail and flood us out later.  We used NIBCO (R) HydraPure (R) bronze fittings because they have the least amount of dezincification we could find.  My husband also installed a MANABLOC so that we can turn on/off each line individually.  This has been especially helpful as we are replacing all the plumbing so that we could get some of the fixtures back up right away. Going without water is not fun, even when it's only for a day.  I would have been a terrible pioneer.

 Here are some pictures of what we first noticed on the lines.

 Here are some shots of the insides of the pipes.  For reference, the pipes are all 1/2".




Here is a shot of some of the new plumbing lines and also the MANABLOC.  If you like to watch Mike Holmes on TV, chances are you've heard him talk about the MANABLOC before.
Do you notice the white PVC pipe with the red "u" shape on it?  That is our radon mitigation system.  I would highly suggest you have your home tested for radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer.  Many health departments will test your home for free or a minimal charge.  We were shocked that our house was well above the safe limit.   Radon is colorless and odorless.  Testing is the only way to find out if it is present.  If you're building a new home, installing a PVC vent pipe from the basement up through the roof is an inexpensive way to help mitigate the gas.   You can, of course, install one afterward but it will cost more than doing one upfront.  And then if you need to add the fan, like we did, expect that to be another $800 or so.  As long as our red "u" is uneven, our fan is working.  You can expect the fan to last five to 11 years.  The pipe and fan system is the only EPA-approved method for mitigation.  Paints and sealers DO NOT work.
The MANABLOC
You may be wondering why we didn't go back to the plumber who did the rough in.  That is a bit complicated.  First of all, most outfits only guarantee their work for a year, which we are past.  Second, we actually let them go before the entire job was done after they completely trashed the kids' bathroom cabinets, damaged an irreplaceable sink top, and bumped a hole in the finished wall all in a few hours, so we didn't part on good terms.  Sadly, these plumbers were recommended by our realtor.  She thought we were being too picky on things.  Thanks.  

 I am extremely thankful that my husband is very talented and is able to do most anything our house requires.  Thankful for modern plumbing too, even when things go wrong.

 Anyway, if you can afford it, I'd totally go the all-copper route. Ours is copper in the walls and under the sinks with PEX supply lines.  If you do have any or all PEX tubing, I'd suggest you check the fittings for dezincification.  Don't want any floods happening.
Posted by at 4 comments
Labels: , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)