A New Hat Today!!

I don't think I have ever been so nervous about trying a new occupation.  Having water spray in my face is not on my bucket list.  I could only think of all the BAD things that might happen, including a flood of monstrous proportions that would ruin the oh-so-expensive particle board floors and cause a big hit to my checkbook.

I was extremely apprehensive since the last REAL plumber who came here said they never wanted to TOUCH those lines.  He never explained why.

I gathered all the necessary first aid supplies, along with a stack of towels and every wrench I had in the house.  Fearful that the hose would fall through the floor, meaning a terrifying crawl underneath into the depths of Spiderville and Scorpion town to retrieve it, I attached a wrench to the line and tightened it up.

Very gingerly, I turned the water main off.  Slowly .... slowly ... then went in the house and opened a faucet.  Wow .. that was quick, hardly any water at all came though the line.

Next up, flush the toilet.  There's no use mopping up all that tank water when I release the only thing between me and FLOOD!

First, the top line.  Well that was easy, I just unscrewed it with my fingers.  About a tablespoon of water escaped into the towel.  So far so good.  Next I unscrewed the old valve, took it out and screwed in the new one shown here.  

Last step .. screw the top line back on.  VOILA!!  I DID IT!!!!  All that worry and stress for nothing.  It was easy peasy.  But wait ... now comes the big test of my plumbing skills.  Turning the water back on.  I opened a faucet thinking maybe that would keep the pressure to a minimum and slowly, ever so slowly, turned the valve.  

I didn't hear any explosion or huge waterfall noise coming from the house.  In fact, there wasn't even a DROP of water anywhere.  Woohoo!!

Today I'm proudly wearing my PLUMBER hat!!  Even so, I run in the bathroom and check for leaks about every two hours.  So far so good!!

Around lunchtime I spent an hour with my Quilter guru, trying to figure out how to cut those blocks down.  She quickly pointed out that I did not cut the FIRST ones down according to directions, so they were bigger than the 4" required.  She suggested I take them apart and fix that little problem, until I told her I already had some 64 of them put together.  More on that disaster tomorrow.

In the meantime, every time I walked by the patio door, this gal would fly off.  I felt bad for scaring her six times a day.  I had no doubt she was NOT interested in the birdhouse.  For this picture I had to sit on the floor behind a chair in order to catch it before she flew off again.

 A little later I determined what she was REALLY after.  The hummingbird feeder.  This has to be the biggest hummer I've ever seen!  Actually, it's a Gila Woodpecker.  Their back feathers are amazing.

I was finally able to sneak around the door frame and capture her lapping up the syrup.  The critters around here never cease to amaze me.

In a few hours, even more frustrated by the quilt project, I ended up at Shirley's house trying to figure out how I can "fix" it.  A solution was decided upon, which did NOT include any tearing apart.  I'll post pictures tomorrow.  

I tried to hit the hay with my new Plumber Hat, but Cooper complained loudly.  It's hanging in the closet waiting for another day.  I wonder how hard it is to change out a kitchen sink??