Darkoshi

In sub-freezing weather, to prevent plumbing pipes from bursting in case the water freezes, I leave the indoor faucets dripping. Both the hot and cold water, as I read in the past on a plumbers' forum that (counterintuitively) hot water pipes may be more prone to freezing than cold water pipes.

To dampen the sound of the dripping faucets, I used to put a sponge in the sinks to catch the drips. That worked pretty well. But perhaps it depends on the type of sponge. Lately I've been noticing that once the sponges are saturated with water, the sound of drops falling on them gets fairly loud too.

So I have switched from sponges to brushes. For example: dish-washing brushes, tub-scrubbing brushes, or plastic hair brushes. I lay them under the drips with the bristles facing upwards. The bristles break up the water droplets into small trickles of water, preventing much of the thump thump thump sound.

While watching a how-to video on Youtube, someone replacing a kitchen sink's faucet cartridges, it strikes me that their hands look very much like my own. They may be the most looking-like-mine hands I've ever seen! There are differences - the paths of the veins and the shape of the nails (and probably more that I don't easily see). But still, like my hands!

I don't think I have very unique hands; surely my mom's at least look similar to mine, though I can't picture hers right now. But I don't think I've ever been struck by that thought while watching a video before, so they must not be all that common. Maybe there are so many different varieties of hands, that other people don't often see ones like their own either.

Because of that, I watched some more of their videos, including their other channel.
This one is short and amusing:
Get Rid of Skunk Under Shed

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...Dang. The lengths one has to go to, just to stop a faucet from dripping.
I need to go buy a new cartridge tomorrow, because the old one looks so dirty that I don't even want to try flipping the O-ring on it around as suggested in another video.
The base of the faucet shifted a bit while I was trying to get one of the parts off. I sure hope my problem doesn't end up worse than it was to begin with.

Yesterday I washed a section of the garage wall that had gotten moldy, with bleach. Boxes had been pushed up right against the wall, not allowing enough ventilation. This is the 2nd round of bleach on it, as after the first round a week or so ago, it still smelled musty from somewhere. I hope there isn't mold on the inside of the wall. It's plain unpainted plyboard.

Then, as I was doing bleach anyway, I mopped down (up) the sun-room ceiling too, as it had accumulated a bunch of mildew spots from the frequent moisture in there.

I looked up info on adjustable beds, as Qiao is planning to get one. Currently he switches back and forth between the bed and the recliner at night, trying to get comfortable. His foot hasn't been hurting him much the last few days though (hallelujah!).

Today I washed the dogs. They really needed it.

Then I tried to figure out why the kitchen sink drain was suddenly (since yesterday) making glug-glug-glug noises, even though the water was draining fine. Suspecting a blockage in the drain vent, I got out the ladder and went up on the roof to check the vent. There wasn't anything blocking it up on that end, and water I poured into the vent seemed to be draining fine / not backing up.

While up there, I cleaned out the sun-room gutters. Zorro chose to stand directly in the path of the falling dirt and debris. It occurred to me that I had just gotten her all nice and clean... Yelling at her didn't help any, but I finally managed to sweet-talk her into moving away.

I debated whether to go to the hardware store to buy a drain auger. I had tried pushing some cable wire down the vent, but it wouldn't go further than the bend at the bottom of the vent. But I didn't really want to go to the store.

I left the kitchen faucet running and checked the drain pipes in the basement. They were vibrating from the glug-glug-glugging. After a while, there was a change in sound - a larger rushing of water as if someone had dumped out some water into the sink. Whatever had been clogging it must have unclogged itself, as the glugging noise was gone.

While in the basement, I saw that water had leaked in during the flood-storm. It was absorbed into the dirt and didn't look too bad, but I carried a fan down there to help dry it out.

After the fact, it occurred to me that I could have simply tried using the sink plunger instead of going up to the roof and down to the basement.

I took advantage of the remaining daylight to cut down a branch that had cracked in the storm and which was leaning down on the shed. I had to use the extendable pole saw, with it extended to the maximum height.

And I washed 2 loads of clothes/towels, and made brownies. Finally.

Next, sleep-sleep-tired-tired.

On a related note, here's info on getting rid of unpleasant mildewy odor coming from a sink's overflow vent.

My bathroom sink was having this problem for quite a while, and I tried several things over several months to get rid of the odor:

- Run hot water for a while. Then dump 1/2 cup baking soda down the drain, followed by 1 cup of vinegar.

- Same as above, but spoon as much baking soda into the overflow vent as possible, followed by vinegar

- Applied an enzyme drain cleaner

- Poured bleach down the overflow vent

- Applied foaming drain cleaner (contains bleach) down the overflow vent

- Pushed a small snake with a brush attachment down the overflow vent to clean it out

None of the above attempts got rid of the smell for long. Often it came back after only a few days. I started taping the overflow vent shut as nothing else worked. After a while, I could smell the bad odor even with the vent taped shut.

I also tried these methods in vain:

- Boil water, carefully carry the pot of hot water to the bathroom, and use a small measuring cup to scoop up and pour the very hot water down the overflow vent.

- Hang a balloon down in the drain, partially inflate it, and tie it off. Then apply drain cleaner down the overflow vent. The balloon blocks the bottom end of the vent, so that the drain cleaner doesn't drain out as fast.

The odor problem started in February. None of the above fixed the problem. I started considering getting a whole new sink.

Finally in October, I used the snake again. But I also used some small wire-centered bottle brushes to clean out the bottom of the overflow vents, from the drain holes in the pipe where it connects to the bottom of the sink. (The sink stopper must be removed in order to do this.) The brushes weren't very flexible, and I couldn't push them far into those bottom holes. But I cleaned out the holes as best I could. And this did the trick, even though I didn't see much gunk come out. It's now 2 months later, and since that day, the bad smell has been gone.

The brown silicone caulk I applied to the rim of the tub 2 years ago worked as I had hoped, in that during these last 2 years, no signs of mildew appeared on it. The brown color was truly unattractive, but it was better than seeing mildew.

Recently, however, a section of the brown caulk came loose from the tub. So I replaced the section with (not-so) new brown caulk. Unfortunately, that caulk was too old and never hardened. So it had to be replaced again...

At the hardware store, this time I found silicone caulk in a metallic grey color. Surely gray would look better than brown and would hopefully still be dark enough to mask any mildew that might appear over time.

So I decided to remove all the old brown caulk and replace it with the new gray one. I also removed the older light-colored caulk in the other sections, as it had gotten visibly mildewy in the meantime too.

The light-colored caulk had been the "Polyseamseal" brand. It was so well stuck to the surfaces that it was a right pain to remove. I had to use a razor-blade scraper with a lot of force. The razor blade ended up breaking.

I began to worry whether I was doing the right thing, using a silicone caulk again this time, as there had been other previous occasions where silicone caulk had come loose. Silicone caulk never seems to stick very well for me. The Polyseamseal one seems to stick much better. Yet I'd had other problems with the Polyseamseal one (like cracks in the middle, and it being a right pain to remove!!!)... Yet everything I read says that silicone caulk is the best kind for tubs.

As I had already bought the metallic gray silicone caulk, I went ahead and used it. The metallic gray color truly DOES look much better than the brown color did.

This time, I even caulked around the ends of the 2 handrails, which never had been caulked before. I had to first clean out a bunch of rust that had accumulated around the screws under the end cover-plates.

I know it is in vain, but I hope NEVER to have to caulk that tub again.

I had a mini-breakdown/tantrum while laying down the caulk. All this work! And it might all come loose again anyway! I went through all this work already in the past; why am I having to do it again and again?! Why do I have to do this kind of work during my vacations?! I hate this! It hurts my hands having to press down the trigger on the caulk gun! And no matter how much effort I put into it, and in spite of having more experience each time I do it, it still always ends up looking like sh*t! The bead never comes out nice and even. Even after I smooth the bead, some sections end up being a total mess. And then I have to spend time with toothpicks and q-tips trying to make it look better, but that only helps somewhat. Is there really any purpose to this caulking? Does it really even matter if water gets into the seams? The old silicone caulk that I removed seemed damp underneath, even in the sections where it hadn't been loose... maybe water gets underneath it anyhow. Maybe I'm going through all this effort for no good reason! Other people don't do this! What am I going to do when I get older and am no longer capable of putting so much effort into these tedious tasks?!

Sigh. I managed to get past the break-down with only a few tears, and without hitting anything, though I was tempted. What is it about rage that makes one want to hit things?

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I also finally replaced the toilet fill-valve which had been malfunctioning for over a year, but still technically working. Then I also had to replace the flapper which suddenly wasn't sealing well anymore. Then water starting dripping/leaking from the supply line! But it seems it may simply not have been tightened enough - hopefully I've fixed that now.

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Before (with part of the old brown caulk already removed):


After (nice and silvery):



Update (2014/01/12):
I'm really pleased with the new caulk color. Its silveriness, and the contrast between the color of the tub and caulk, looks very fancy. It looks just as good, if not better, than white caulk would have.

The drain of my bathroom sink smelled mildewy, so I poured in some vinegar and let it sit overnight. The mildewy smell went away, but now the drain emits a foul vinegary smell. I'm going to pour something else down it tonight.

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I was out shopping today and passed a new consignment store. I went in to look what they have, and saw a very nice-looking rug. It was expensive, but I'm not sure how much a rug like that usually costs. I didn't see any tag saying what the fiber content was; if it is silk or wool I wouldn't want it. So after getting home I did some web searches, and came across this:

It will take one girl about half a year to make a 2×3ft carpet of 300 lines (90,000knots per square foot), 1.5 years to weave a 2×3ft silk carpet of 500 lines(250,000knots per square foot), two years to knot a 2×1.5 feet silk carpet with 800 lines(640,000knots per square foot) and 3 years to make a 1.2×1.5 feet silk carpet with 1000 lines(1000,000 knots per square foot). The silk thread used to knot top quality carpet is as thin as a hair. When knotting, weavers even need to use magnifier. The work is so harmful to weavers' eyes that they seldom can make the second same piece. So this kind of silk carpet is named "soft gold".

Good gosh, I wouldn't want a hand-made rug; the thought of someone tediously and painstakingly working for years just to produce a small portion of a rug makes me shudder. If I had a rug like that in my house, I'd feel guilty just looking at it. Surely the rug in the store was machine made, but I'm still not sure about the fiber.

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I also went to Bed, Bath & Beyond. They have so much neat stuff there! I got some solar-powered lanterns to put in the back yard where it is very dark at night. And some other things. Their website has neat stuff too. I wonder how this thing works - a chess set with LED pieces which glow when they get close to the board.

I've been trying to figure out a mystery of why my bathroom sink drain would smell slightly like sulfur after turning the cold water on in the mornings or after the sink wasn't used for a while... and the kitchen sink drain too. It started happening after I plugged a small leak in one of the drain pipes in the basement. I've been thinking it could be a problem with the main vent stack, but normally there would be other clues if that were the problem, which haven't been the case for me. And the kitchen sink has its own vent stack, anyway, which I noticed today. I removed the plug I had put in the pipe, and the smell went away. Now I put the plug back in, to see if the smell comes back again. It's hard because it's one of those things you have to wait several days to test out.


The basement is a maze of pipes, vents, and cables. Whenever I go down there, I notice something I did not notice before, or figure out how something is connected, which I had not realized before.

It is boggling how many different pipes and lines there are down there, criss-crossing everywhere. Input cold water lines. Hot water lines. Drain pipes. Vent pipes. Gas lines. Heater exhaust pipes. Insulated HVAC ducts. Uninsulated HVAC air input ducts. Power cables. Telephone cables. A bunch of other old cables lying around which probably used to be connected but look like they aren't anymore.

The water lines and drains go to and from each and every fixture that uses water - the sinks, the toilets, the tub, the washing machine, the dishwasher, the refrigerator (even though I don't use the water from the fridge dispenser).

Then there are the vents on the roof and side of the house. The drain vent stacks. The heater exhaust / the shower fan ... haven't figured out yet whether those 2 are using the same vent or not ... the stove vent, the oven vent (since the oven is an enclosed fixture), the dryer vent, the water heater exhaust vent.. the attic fan...

I had the air conditioner on earlier today so that the person whom I had hired to install tile flooring in the washer/dryer area wouldn't be too uncomfortable while working. The temperature in the house was down to about 83 degrees (which felt way cooler than outside). Around 2pm, I turned the AC off and haven't had the windows open since then. It supposedly got up to 102 today, and is supposed to go down to 78 tonight. Now it is 11:16pm, and is about 87 degrees in the house, but it still feels hotter outside than in!

I'm not complaining, mind you. Just marvelling.

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Now I am trying to decide which washer and dryer to buy. I really have a hard time making decisions like this sometimes... there are so many factors, so much data to consider, so many potential problems. On the internet, you can find stories of problems with pretty much every brand and model, so you have to figure out which problems are wide-spread versus not.

And should I get the smaller sized ones which would fit better in my w/d area, or bigger ones which can handle larger sized items... no, I don't have a king-size-comforter at this time, but is it possible I might ever need to wash something that big in the future???

And I'm not sure if I will need to get part of my standpipe replaced, since one brochure said it should be a minimum of 2 inches, and mine is smaller. While checking the pipe in the basement, I noticed that the insulation on the electric cable to that area is frayed off, leaving the paper wrappings exposed.

I wish that the w/d area were located somewhere else... not in the main part of the house where it could cause a big mess if the water ever leaks. But it is where it is.

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I wonder if I can get my shower faucet which has a single control replaced with one which has 2 or 3 separate controls, or if that would require cutting into the shower wall to get to the pipes behind it.

these 2 old water-faucet knobs i had lying around finally told me what to do with them... make them into bells! of course! nuh, duh! (how is that spelled, anyway???) seems so obvious, it's odd it didn't occur to me sooner.