I've had two very serious water-related problems with my home.

The first was because the plumber my contractor hired did a bad job of remodeling my upstairs bathroom. Water leaked downstairs and I ended up spending a horrendous amount of money to have everything fixed.

Then while I was over on the coast I had a leak in my garage. I found out about it because the water sensor I installed for my water heater alerted me to it (even though the water heater wasn't the cause). I had a friend run over to see what was wrong, at which time he attempted to shut off the water to my home... only to find out that the "gate valve" that was installed wasn't working properly.

Turns out you should never use a gate valve for the water shut-off because sediment can accumulate and not allow the gate to close properly.

I called my favorite plumbing company to have them take a look, then saved the money it cost to replace the valve with the proper kind. It ended up being more expensive than it should have been because not only did the company that build this place use the wrong kind of valve, they embedded it into the wall! In order to replace it, the wall had to be cut open for access...

Then the pipe had to be built out from the wall to accommodate the handle. And since I was having to do that, I went ahead and had a "smart valve" installed as well as the regular valve. This device (the "Moen Flo") learns how you use water so it can try to figure out when you develop a leak so it can turn off the valve automatically...

The nice thing about the smart valve is that I can use the Moen app to manually turn off the water quickly and easily. So if I'm leaving on a trip for a while, I can just turn the water off so I don't have to solely rely on the Moen Flo to handle a leak.

The app will also tell me what my water pressure is and how much water I'm using.

For the first couple weeks, the app is in "Learning Mode" to try and figure out how you're using your water so it can better guess when there's a problem. It will be interesting to see just how smart this smart valve is going to be. Will I get false positives for leaks that cut my water off? Maybe.

But it'll all be worth it if I can avoid having a third water-related problem.

In past years I saved up my money all year long so I could take advantage of all the great Black Friday deals. Mostly clothing, but there was always something cool in there too.

But this year? I've got essential expenses that have to put ahead of clothes and cool stuff. I have plenty of clothes and cool stuff. What I need is a new water shut-off valve! And because my home was designed by a sadist, it's not going to be cheap. It looks like they installed the plumbing for that, then built the wall around it! And they used the absolute worst option... a gate valve. Should have been a ball valve. The plumber is going to have to rip open the wall, desolder the joints, then rebuild the plumbing outside of the wall so they can get it to work properly. And I'm spending a couple hundred extra to get a "smart ball valve" that can automatically turn the water off if there's a burst pipe or a leak. Money well-spent considering I've already had to deal with a leak once.

Alas, all that's something that doesn't get put on sale for Black Friday.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was mad that the new faucet I bought was opposite in operation from the faucet that it replaced... despite being the same brand, Kohler! It was also opposite of every other single-handle faucet I've ever used where the HOT water is away from you and the COLD water is nearest to you. Which only makes psychological sense, because you'd want the more dangerous option to be the furthest away.

I thought I might be crazy in my expectations, so I posted the following photos to Facebook and asked which they would expect to dispense hot water. The overwhelming majority said that the left photo was the correct photo.

Except when it comes to the dipshits at fucking Kohler, where it's not.

A part of me wonders how shit like this happens. Is there like one designer guy who makes all the decisions and just doesn't give a shit? There's no quality assurance person there to say "Whoa! All our other faucets have the hot water dispensed when the handle is away from you! Let's fix that!"

I still don't know if I will swap the lines to the opposite way that they've been marked on the hoses. I'll wait until my ribs are mostly healed again to decide. Though I suppose I should ask fucking Kohler if there's some ramification from correcting their stupid fucking mistake by switching things up. Could be that there's a special gasket for the hot water and running it through the cold water part will void your warranty or some such stupid bullshit.

And now I'm fucking furious all over again.

This is bullshit.

One of my favorite things to watch is home renovation shows. My favorite streaming service is YouTube. So when I find a new home renovation show that I like on YouTube, I am all in. I watch every episode available and then subscribe so I can pore over every new video that comes along.

Last week YouTube, which is well aware of what I like to watch, dropped a video from Tyler and Todd, two guys who bought 10 acres of land in Nova Scotia and are building a shipping container home there with their two dogs Eddie and Charlie and their cat Squirrel. They are incredibly entertaining, have a lot of great ideas, and I was immediately obsessed with their videos...

Todd, Tyler, Eddie, and Charlie (Squirrel not pictured)

More amazing than the work they do is the fact that they've been married for ten years and have been together for fifteen! Now, I've been involved in many home renovation projects, and I cannot fathom having a relationship last through that drama for 15 minutes, let alone 15 years! So good on them.

I think this is the first video I watched of theirs? What I like most about their channel is that they aren't only building stuff, they also talk a lot about their lives and what's going on, which is just as interesting as the work they do...

In fact, their lives have been so interesting that they started a podcast to discuss it. Their first episode of Tangents goes into some good depth about how they got to where they are now...

What blows me away is their work ethic. They are darn hard workers, having multiple jobs in their early twenties to save up money for all their doing now. So much for the myth that modern generations are lazy and don't want to work.

But anyway...

Whether you start at the very beginning where they quit their jobs to wander North America in an RV... or when they first bought The Land and started living out of a dome... or when they decided to build the shipping container home... or even when they bought a cabin to live in and renovate until the shipper container home is finished... there's no bad place to dig in.

Tyler and Todd on Youtube.

Coat closet remodel complete.

I needed a place to put the Litter-Robot that was out of the living/dining area and could also be hidden away when company comes over.

I have a cat door I bought to install in the closet door, but I think I'm going to skip it. Jake & Jenny would probably feel safer not being trapped in a small place when they do their business. I'll just leave the door open until company comes over because it doesn't bother me and isn't in the way...

If I do ever end up installing the cat door, the barrier between the Litter-Robot and the coats slides forward and has a soft plastic edge that seals against the door when it's closed in case the cats unload a stinker before the Litter Robot cycles...

It's also removable so I can clean more easily.

Even though I raised the hanger bar quite a lot, I still had room for a small shelf to store baskets for hats and gloves and stuff when I don't need them...

I'm happy with how everything turned out. And the build quality is so much better than what was there. I actually gave a crap about how things looked even though it's just a closet that nobody is going to spend time looking at.

On to the next project.

There's a dogwood tree in my front yard. It's been here since I bought the place and I've tried my best to take good care of it. From what I can tell, it's thriving, because I've been careful to make sure it gets food and adequate water. Most of the time, however, it's not a great-looking tree. Better than nothing, but not what I would have picked to look at out my front window.

Except for one week in the Spring when it's in bloom...

For that tiny window, it's a glorous sight to behold. Stunning, really.

Except it never lasts. One day it's in full-bloom, then a couple days later all the petals are falling off at a rapid clip and soon it will be back to its normal self. At least it will still have leaves for a while. Because after the leaves are gone as well, it's back to something bordering on depressing to look at.

I am choosing not to dwell on that, however, because yesterday the repairs on my home were completed... after six years! No more holes in walls and ceilings. And, as God is my witness, there will be no more furniture and other junk scattered around the house after this weekend. I don't care if it kills me, I'm moving everything back to where it belongs, and hanging all the pictures back up on the walls, and scrubbing all the construction dust from walls, floors, and furniture. I am done with my home looking like an episode of Hoarders gone wrong.

And then it's time to start work on the many projects I've got left to do now that I can actually do them.

Last weekend I rebuilt my coat closet so that I can have the Litter-Robot in the bottom while still hanging coats up above it with a protective barrier. I even managed to fit a small shelf above the closet rod, which was something I didn't know if I would be able to do. It ain't much, but it's enough space to put a basket of gloves, scarves, and other seasonal crap that need a place to go when I'm not using them. Not surprisingly, I did a far, far better job with my construction than the original builders did. I took the time to do it right, even though it's just a closet that nobody will look at. This wasn't easy because the door opening is askew and the walls are bowing in and out. It was like trying to build in a funhouse room of mirrors. But after warping board with a steamer, making sure all the screws were recessed and filled, and coming up with something that looked level despite that being impossible... I have something I'm very happy with.

Next weekend I'll start building the access panel covers and other stuff that's been a long time coming.

Who knows... by Winter I may just have a house that looks like a home.

Monday morning and I am not feeling fine. I'm old and everything hurts!

This weekend I was planning on starting a new project. A huge missed opportunity in my home is that there's no laundry chute down to the laundry room. So while I save up for drywall repairs, I'm going to cut a hole in the laundry room ceiling to see if there's any reason I can't cut a hole in the floor from above and build a chute. I'll then build a tube against the wall with a door on top (so the cats won't be taking rides to downstairs). After that I'll build a lower storage drawer next to it which will act as steps for the cats to get to the shelf I built on the stairwell...

It would be so nice to be able to put dirty laundry and coat hangers and such down a chute than to have to haul loads downstairs.

Unfortunately, the walls ended up being askew... but opposite the way that it would have helped me. Which means that I will have to re-think things. I may have to switch to the opposite wall so I don't have to do additional cutting.

So instead of building a chute I decided to work on something else. It took all weekend, but I managed to clean up all the water damage, sand and repaint walls and furniture, fix and re-stain floorboards, install moisture sensors, and vacuum up all the mess...

Now all that's left is to save up enough money to have all the drywall replaced that I didn't feel comfortable doing myself. Then... ugh... please can I not have any more house expenses for a year or so? Is that really too much to ask?

My cats are hating me right now because I'm painting in the guest room and have the door closed so they can't get in. Never mind that they have the run of the entire rest of the house, of course the guest room is the only place they want to go!

Typical cats.

Today my Facebook memories came up with the news that I adopted my cats Eight Years Ago (back in February... so they're late) and these two photos popped up...

It's almost enough to make me want to get another kitten. Almost. Maybe this time I will get a kitten that's not a feral rescue and not terrified of absolutely everything. Except... those cats are easily adopted. I'm thrilled to have rescued a couple problem children. Jake and Jenny have been the absolute best cats.

And speaking of them... this week was kinda a Big Deal, cat-wise.

I got tired of having the Litter-Robot in the "Great Room" which has the kitchen flowing into the dining room flowing into the living room. It's not that it smells or anything (except temporarily, every once in a while when one of the cats has a particularly stinky poo to unleash) but I would really rather not have the cats doing their business next to where I'm watching television.

And so... when the electrician was here last week, I had him put an outlet in my hall closet. That way the cats have some privacy. Not that they seem to care about that, but it's sure nice for me...

Now I'll build a shelf above it with an air-seal so that I can still hang coats above the litterbox. Then I'll put a cat door in the closet door so I can close it off. Nice!

I was very, very worried about moving their pooping place. It's been the same since I got them eight years(!) ago. What I did was move the Litter-Robot about six inches every day until it was in its new place. They never batted an eye, and now they're going there automatically.

I don't know what I was expecting. But it certainly wasn't having things go this easily!

This morning I was hungry enough to eat breakfast, but not hungry enough to cook the eggs, hash browns, and toast I wanted. So I microwaved a couple hotdogs and headed off to work. Yummeh.

When I got home I wasn't nearly as exhausted as I usually am, so I nuked two more hotdogs for dinner and decided to install my guest bathroom speaker into the ceiling behind where the access panel will go. My cats hid upstairs because I was screaming obscenities the whole time. But I did it...

...barely.

If I could have found a quality bracket I would have gladly paid for it, but instead the only one that would work for the position I needed was a $20 cheap piece of crap. The screws in particular are soft, cheap, and shitty that were stripped out with zero effort (like more screws you get with cheap crap). Plus the hinge mechanism is stupidly designed. And, as if that wasn't enough, the instructions left out a critical piece that I had to figure out on my own.

Hopefully it doesn't fall down and ruin my grossly overpriced Sonos speaker. Wouldn't shock me in the least.

Now what I really need is to celebrate this achievement with a couple of hot dogs for dessert. Considering people in my home can continue to party with music while using the bathroom is worth celebrating. Because one of those people is me!

I read a bullshit article where millionaire Barbara Corcoran was reinforcing the old adages "Money doesn't buy happiness" and "Money makes relationships complicated"... which is what people with money have been telling people without money since the dawn of time. Because that way they don't feel bad about not sharing their hoarded wealth to make other people's lives better.

Get fucked, Barbara.

I've lived with a toilet and glass shower doors sitting in my hallway for 6 months while I've saved up the money to have my bathroom put back together (after the first contractor did shitty work that caused a leak). I would be far, far happier if I could just throw money at my problems and have them solved instantly. My relationship with my toilet would not be more "complicated" because I have money...

Holy shit do I detest deplorable assholes like this. You can enjoy your immense wealth and be happy about it while shutting the fuck up and not lying to people because you have an agenda to keep the working class under your thumb. NOBODY is buying it. Barbara even says that she "isn't giving the money back" so what the fuck is she even on about?

But anyway... first I had to pay to have the old shower demolished because that's where they said the leak was coming from...

Except... that wasn't where the leak was coming from. My tile guy figured that out when he decided to pull the toilet because he couldn't see where any leaks from the shower that got ripped out. Thousands upon thousands of dollars wasted FOR NOTHING. But at least my tile guy did a much better job of rebuilding my new shower than what I had before...

Now that the glass doors were out of my hallway, I had to save the money for the ACTUAL leak under the toilet to be repaired...

Which resulted in yet ANOTHER hole being put into my home so they could replace the pipe and flange going to the toilet...

Shockingly... despite the wood being continuously soaked and pools of water forming on the ducts (which left behind a lot of mineral scale) there's no mold to be found...

And now I have a toilet...

But I'm not done yet. Monday I have an electrical install. And then I need to have all the drywall repaired once I have the money saved. So that will be expensive fun. Because apparently home repairs NEVER END.