Thursday, January 23, 2014

Jan 23rd - Brrrrh!!

Last night a little after 5 I filled up the wood boiler, the temp 32 degrees. The official overnight low was 2. At 9:15 this morning I went out and threw in some more wood, we still had heat but it was ready for more wood. The temp on our front porch was 6 degrees when I added wood this morning. Today's high is supposed 11 and the overnight low tonight is forecast to be 3. This is cold weather for central MO. Normal high/lows are 40/20.

Mel and I worked on the McCarty street house again on Tuesday. We think we are snake bit. Never have either of us had so many problems with plumbing. I've worked on the kitchen sink drains every time I've been there, trying to get the leaks to stop. Every time I leave nothing is leaking but by the time I return one, or another, of the fittings has started to drip.

In the bathroom, after reinstalling the toilet the tank/base connection leaked, and we thought the new wax seal might be leaking, but neither of us had ever had a new was seal leak. We took the tank off and replaced the "donut" gasket between the tank and base and we replaced the bolts that hold the tank on the base. That took care of that leak but by then we were more concerned that the was ring was leaking. We pulled the toilet again. We couldn't see why the was ring would have leaked but we installed another new one. After reinstalling the toilet we think it is okay. Then it was leaks at the new tub faucet. Fortunately Mel is smaller than me because, with the toilet in place, there was no way I could come close to getting to the faucet. He spent nearly 2 hours working on it. Finally, after 10 thickness of Teflon tape on one fitting and 8 thicknesses of Teflon tape on another, we had the metal to metal fitting leaks stopped. He never was able to completely stop the drip at one of the fittings on one of the flex hoses. Those fittings have rubber washers and should not leak, but ours did. Mel is still going to try resurfacing the steel tub when it warms up. It needs to be warmer so that he can put a fan in the window and exhaust the fumes from the coating materials.

I went in yesterday and had my hearing aids adjusted again. The only reason I wear them is because Kathy thinks I can hear better with them. I know I can hear some sounds better, but most of the "new" sounds aren't something I care about. I really don't need to hear her wad up a plastic bag when I am in the living room trying to listed to TV and she is in the kitchen. I haven't noticed much difference after the adjustment but we will see.

We also have plumbing problems at home. One of the upstairs toilets has quit working. It will flush OK if you dump a bucket of water in it but something is blocking the flow of water from the tank to the bowl. Water won't flow out of the bowl nearly fast enough to start the flushing action.  Even holding the "flapper" full open water only slowly drains from the tank. I talked to a plumber about it and he has never heard of such a thing. I think a new toilet is in order. I'm tired of messing with it.

We joined the YMCA but haven't been there yet. I'm going in today for an orientation on the equipment they have.

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