I went to HD yesterday and bought some 2 inch wood screws to secure our hat rack into the studs. I thought it would be pretty simple to replace the 1.5 inch screws one at a time. Not so much! The thing pulled out of the wall while I was replacing screw number 1. With Steve’s help, we got it back in to place and got all three screws secured into the studs and the rack is now ready to accommodate hats, sweatshirts, etc. Sweet!
Flat surfaces in a house tend to be problematic because they collect stuff. Every day, when we get home from work, a pile of mail, a purse, and messenger bag gets dropped on the kitchen table. Often some shoes end up underneath it as well. We needed a spot for this stuff to keep it from cluttering up the living area. Enter the entryway. We have a pretty large entryway with a big blank wall pretty much equidistant from the front door, where most visitors enter, and the garage door, where we usually come in from the car.
Our blank wall.
We added a shoe rack that I got from Ikea years ago. I’ve never actually used it as a shoe rack before. In fact, it’s been a TV stand for most of it’s life, with baskets in the compartments holding stuff. Ikea also happens to have a matching hat rack, so I picked that up and assembled it, and up on the wall it went. Here’s the finished product:
Our new mud area.
We thought it would be a pretty simple task. My dad (and my mom, and my brother) was even here and he helped us out with it. The pre-drilled holes, however, were not spaced at 16 inch intervals like the studs, so we had to drill some new holes. One that was done, we drilled the holes in the wall and unfortunately were off by about and inch so we didn’t hit the studs. Measure twice, cut/drill once, people! Anyway, after some trial and error, it made it up there.
I bet you are wondering why there are no purses, coats, etc. hanging on it to dress it up. Well, we only had 1.5 inch screws, and as it turns out, that’s not long enough to get into the studs. Oops! So although it’s up and it looks nice, until we can get to HD and get some 2 inch screws, it’s not strong enough to hold anything and it will remain bare. Sigh! Hopefully we will be better prepared next time we tackle a project.
Last night, our dinner dishes washed themselves while we kicked back and watched “Mythbusters” on DVR. Yup, we actually accomplished a task on our to do list by replacing our dishwasher drain hose. Here’s what we did:
Under the sink, before.
We actually did not have to replace the entire drain hose, which made this project much easier than anticipated. The only problematic hose was the connection between the “air gap” and the garbage disposal.
For those of you not blessed with an air gap, in some areas, building codes require that a dishwasher not drain directly into the disposal. Rather, the drain connects to a vent in the top of the sink (the “air gap”). A second hose goes from the air gap to the disposal. You can see in this picture the hose connecting the air gap to the disposal is a bit kinked. It’s not entirely closed off, but you can see that it is bent at too far of an angle, narrowing the passage of water. As a result, when the dishwasher drained, excess water that couldn’t make it through the small space leaked out the air gap.
You can see the hose flattens out where it bends, allowing less water through.
It’s pretty simple, really. First, you loosen the bolts on the hose clamps, the little metal strips wrapped around the ends of the tubing that hold it to the connections on the disposal and the air gap.
Here is S trying to get the hose off the disposal connection after loosening the hose clamp.
Once you’ve loosened the clamps and removed the hose, you just reverse the process with the new hose. Remember to check the size of your existing hose before you go to the hardware store to buy a new one. We forgot on our first trip. Our hose has a 7/8 in. internal diameter. Most of what they had at Home Depot was 3/4 or 1 in. , so we had to get some hose specially cut. We purchased about 4 feet of hose, just to be safe.
Place the hose on the connections at the air gap and disposal, and tighten the hose clamps. Viola! You are done. Here’s our new, extra long hose:
Under the sink, after.
It looks funny, but we couldn’t find any other way to connect the air gap and the disposal without creating a kink in the hose, just like we had before.
This post is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and is not intended to be advice. Please consult a professional. Also, before doing any home improvement projects yourself, remember to take all appropriate safety precautions (for example, but not limited to, turning off electricity or water, etc.).
When we were in contract on The House, we hired an independent home inspector to check things out and give us a report on its condition. You know, so we wouldn’t end up like Shelly Long and Tom Hanks in “The Money Pit.” For the most part, The House got a clean bill of health, but there were a few minor issues that needed to be dealt with in the short term. They are:
Dishwasher Drain Hose: The existing hose is too short and as a result gets a kink in it where it bends under the sink. As a result, the DW does not drain properly and water runs out the vent in the sink. We need to replace the hose with a longer one. Relatedly, the faucet requires some new caulking around it. We’ve noticed that when water runs out the vent, it leaks through the gap between the faucet and sink and to the cupboard underneath.
Gutter Drain: The drain near the garage door does not reach all the way to the ground. As a result, when it rains, water pouring out the drain can leak into the foundation area. We need to put an extension on the drain so it will flow down the driveway and not into the foundation.
Upstairs Bathtub: On of the upstairs bathtubs requires new caulking, and a tightening up of the faucet. As it is, water could be leaking through underneath the tub.
We hope to tackle the dishwasher hose this evening. We had no dishwasher at our old apartment, and were so looking forward to not doing all the dishes by hand, but because of the drainage problem we are still handwashing everything! So this is a top priority. Stay tuned for the results.
In other news, we previously wrote about packing up for the move, but have yet to finish the story with unloading into the new space. Hopefully we’ll have that post ready soon. Also, we’ll get to a room-by-room as soon as things are unpacked enough that the place is presentable.
