So, I finished installing the tip out trays in front of the sink. The 2nd project was successfully complete. The end result doesn't look as nice as the faucet because the staining on the cabinets didn't take sink trays into consideration. But I did take a video of the finished projects.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Being Jane....
So I decided to embark on two home improvement projects today, and has it been an adventure!
Our kitchen faucet has been leaky for quite a while. The water sprayed out the back of the faucet everytime it was swiveled while running and Don didn't want to call a plumber to fix it because they're so expensive. His solution, in the meantime, has been to put a plastic yogurt container in a larger glass container under the drippy spot to catch the water. Needless to say, it wasn't a solution that pleased me. Don did try to fix it while I was in Vancouver, but he got a little intimidated by all the hoses and tubes, so he left it.
After Don told me about his abandoned attempt, I told him I could probably fix it, maybe by getting a brand new faucet all together. Actually Don did go look at new faucets but thought it a good idea to wait and get my input before buying something.
So today we finally got around to buying a new faucet. It's similar to our old one, with a single handle, but the spout pulls out and becomes a sprayer. I started by disconnecting the cold water line - thank goodness! - and shutting off the water. Righty tighty, lefty loosey, right? Well no, and that's when my problems started. I thought I hadn't turned the cold water valve all the way off so I attempted to turn it more to the right and first there was a little spray, then a HUGE spray and all this cold water came gushing out, right at my face, soaking me. It was chilly and I called for Don and tried to shut it off.... couldn't get close and water continued to gush out. Don finally came, Marlena was napping and woke up as I was calling Don, so she started crying. Don used his thumb to stop the water and I tried, but couldn't manage it, to turn the knob. Don finally managed it, and I scrambled to get towels to mop up all the water. It was all over the place! But the water kept leaking. Don tried to find the water shut-off valve, but couldn't. We finally called the management company, were told where the valve was, Don shut it off and the management company called the plumber. A side note, when Don shut the water off, he shut it off for all 6 units in our building, so no one had any water from about 4:30 pm onwards...
The plumber eventually came. We all thought the valves under the sink were leaky, but it turned out to be more complicated than that and the plumber had to cut into the wall under our sink, refit both pipes (because the 2nd valve busted too as he was checking what was going on) and put on new valves, which are way better than the old ones anyway.
Two hours later the plumber was done - by the way, while we were waiting for the plumber I continued with dismantling the faucet. Figured, why not, the water's shut off now, may as well do it now. Now it was my turn to install the new faucet and it didn't turn out to be that hard at all. According to the info I found on the Internet (great resources for replacing your kitchen faucet) it should only take an hour, barring unforseen issues. Well, we had issues, but the installation of the faucet itself was pretty easy and now we have a new faucet that no longer leakes, has a pull out spout, and is easier to move around. Hooray for me!
The 2nd project will be tackled tomorrow - installing a front tray in front of the sink so we can store out scrubbies there rather than on the sink. Don has already removed the face board, we just need to screw on the hardware and the little tray thingy. Maybe once it's all done I'll take a picture to show off my handy work.
Our kitchen faucet has been leaky for quite a while. The water sprayed out the back of the faucet everytime it was swiveled while running and Don didn't want to call a plumber to fix it because they're so expensive. His solution, in the meantime, has been to put a plastic yogurt container in a larger glass container under the drippy spot to catch the water. Needless to say, it wasn't a solution that pleased me. Don did try to fix it while I was in Vancouver, but he got a little intimidated by all the hoses and tubes, so he left it.
After Don told me about his abandoned attempt, I told him I could probably fix it, maybe by getting a brand new faucet all together. Actually Don did go look at new faucets but thought it a good idea to wait and get my input before buying something.
So today we finally got around to buying a new faucet. It's similar to our old one, with a single handle, but the spout pulls out and becomes a sprayer. I started by disconnecting the cold water line - thank goodness! - and shutting off the water. Righty tighty, lefty loosey, right? Well no, and that's when my problems started. I thought I hadn't turned the cold water valve all the way off so I attempted to turn it more to the right and first there was a little spray, then a HUGE spray and all this cold water came gushing out, right at my face, soaking me. It was chilly and I called for Don and tried to shut it off.... couldn't get close and water continued to gush out. Don finally came, Marlena was napping and woke up as I was calling Don, so she started crying. Don used his thumb to stop the water and I tried, but couldn't manage it, to turn the knob. Don finally managed it, and I scrambled to get towels to mop up all the water. It was all over the place! But the water kept leaking. Don tried to find the water shut-off valve, but couldn't. We finally called the management company, were told where the valve was, Don shut it off and the management company called the plumber. A side note, when Don shut the water off, he shut it off for all 6 units in our building, so no one had any water from about 4:30 pm onwards...
The plumber eventually came. We all thought the valves under the sink were leaky, but it turned out to be more complicated than that and the plumber had to cut into the wall under our sink, refit both pipes (because the 2nd valve busted too as he was checking what was going on) and put on new valves, which are way better than the old ones anyway.
Two hours later the plumber was done - by the way, while we were waiting for the plumber I continued with dismantling the faucet. Figured, why not, the water's shut off now, may as well do it now. Now it was my turn to install the new faucet and it didn't turn out to be that hard at all. According to the info I found on the Internet (great resources for replacing your kitchen faucet) it should only take an hour, barring unforseen issues. Well, we had issues, but the installation of the faucet itself was pretty easy and now we have a new faucet that no longer leakes, has a pull out spout, and is easier to move around. Hooray for me!
The 2nd project will be tackled tomorrow - installing a front tray in front of the sink so we can store out scrubbies there rather than on the sink. Don has already removed the face board, we just need to screw on the hardware and the little tray thingy. Maybe once it's all done I'll take a picture to show off my handy work.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Happy Birthday to Marlena
Here is a little video of Marlena's birthday. We had a bbq down at the beach and chocolate-zucchini cupcakes for the birthday cake. Please excuse the angle at which the video was taken - Marlena's friend's dad took the video.
Hier ist ein kurzes Video von Marlena ihren ersten Geburtstag. We haben am Strand gegrillt und danach cupcakes gegessen - chocolate-zucchini cupcakes. Das Video hat der Vater Marlena ihre Freundin gemacht und deshalb muss man sich auf der Seite liegen um den Video zu sehen.
Hier ist ein kurzes Video von Marlena ihren ersten Geburtstag. We haben am Strand gegrillt und danach cupcakes gegessen - chocolate-zucchini cupcakes. Das Video hat der Vater Marlena ihre Freundin gemacht und deshalb muss man sich auf der Seite liegen um den Video zu sehen.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
New skills that aren't so new anymore...
Neue Fähigkeiten die nicht mehr so neu sind...
From November 16, 2006
From November 16, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
A Winter's Day...
Took Marlena out for an afternoon stroll at the beach. A little chilly, was in the high 60's. Had to put on a long-sleeved onsie.
Marlena is still sleeping so....
I'll post some more pictures... These are from October. We didn't dress Marlena up for Halloween, but we did take her to a pumpkin patch. Maybe I'll also load another video.Da Marlena immer noch am schlafen ist werde ich die Bilder von Oktober auf laden. Und vielleicht auch noch ein Video... Viel Spaß daran!
Video of Marlena from September 7, 2006
Here is a video of Marlena - it's somewhat older. We have some newer ones that I'm planning on posting over the next few weeks or so...
Don Sein Neuer Haarschnitt...
Es ist jetzt schon eine lange Zeit seitdem ich hier etwas auf Deutsch geschrieben habe. Es ist auch eine lange Zeit seitdem überhaupt etwas geschrieben habe... Und da es doch so lange ist, weiß ich nicht wo ich anfangen soll den ich habe eine Menge Bilder und Videos von Marlena. Doch dann dachte ich daß ich vielleicht mit etwas lustiges anfangen sollte - nämlich Don sein neuen Haarschnitt.Don, um Geld zu sparen, hat sich ein Rasier gekauft damit ich seine Haare schneiden kann. Doch er entscheidet sich immer ganz kurzfristig das er jetzt seine Haare geschnitten haben will, und immer bevor Marlena ihren Schlaf, oder weil sie am schlafen ist. Da wir unten in der Garage seine Haare schneiden ist es schwierig für mich da es ja nicht geht Marlena in die Wohnung alleine zu lassen.
Jedenfalls, kurz nachdem Katja zurück nach Deutschland geflogen ist wollte Don daß ich seine Haare schneide. Da ich nein gesagt habe meinte er er würde sich selber die Haare wieder schneiden und ging in die Garage.
Eine viertel Stunde später kamm er wieder hoch. Als ich ihn sah hab ich mich fast in die Hosen gepinkelt ich hab so gelacht. Wäre Marlena nicht in meiner Armen gewessen wäre ich auf dem Boden gelegen, so doll habe ich gelacht! Er hat vergessen den Teil vom Rasier das die Haare eine bestimmte länge abrasiert an den Razier festzumachen und fing einfach an seine Haare zu schneiden! Dann kamm er hoch nachdem er nur die Hälfte abrasiert hat! Es sah sowas von witzig aus!Er hat versucht es zu verbessern, doch eventuell musste ich bei Hand mit sein Rasier alles abrasieren und jetzt hat Don keine Haare.
Um mehr Bilder zu sehen, drück auf dem Bild hier von Don.
Monday, August 21, 2006
New Pictures
So, by switching my browser (right now I'm using Firefox), I seem to once again be able to add pictures to my blog. Here is one from last week. I liked all the colors. Marlena's new favourite spot is sitting right in front of all her toys. That way she can pull out whatever catches her eye. Already, she is trying to pull herself up and you'll often find her on her knees with her hands in one of the bins, playing with whatever toy.Today I tried a different approach. I pulled the bins out of the shelf and placed them on the floor. She didn't seem as interested. I think she liked the challenge of reaching up and in.
Her latest skill, is banging two toys together. She seems to like to do that. Other "skills" include holding an object in each hand. Did you know that was a skill? I didn't. I found that out last night as I was surfing the web to look for suggestions on how to play with her to develop her skills. One suggestion was, once she had an object in each hand, to offer her a third object to see what she does. This morning I did just that - she dropped one the took what I was offering her. What we still need to learn: dropping things into buckets.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Some More Videos
Here are a couple more videos. These were taken by Don. Not having much success in getting him to actually create a post to share with you.
I also seem to be having problems uploading new photos to this blog, though. Not sure what the problem is. All of a sudden it seemed to stop working. Wrote to the people who manage this site, but haven't heard back from them.
This video shows Marlena eating beets for the first time:
Listen to the sounds of this video. Marlena has discovered a new sound she can make. But you have to listen closely...
I also seem to be having problems uploading new photos to this blog, though. Not sure what the problem is. All of a sudden it seemed to stop working. Wrote to the people who manage this site, but haven't heard back from them.
This video shows Marlena eating beets for the first time:
Listen to the sounds of this video. Marlena has discovered a new sound she can make. But you have to listen closely...
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