DIY with Dad
April 29, 2012 in Bathrooms, Building and Repurposing, Outside, Pups
My Sunday Productivity Level peaked at about 8:30am today… when Dad and I were just finishing up our To-Do list for the weekend. After he packed up and hit the road, I promptly headed to the couch.
And camped.
All. Day.
Don’t judge.
…I can feel you judging me!
We had a great weekend and crossed several items off my list. You see, I’ve been without a second bathroom since last fall when Mom and I did some tiling. Yup, the toilet really has been sitting on a tarp in the shower for five more months than I care to admit. BUT – not anymore!

Dad gave me a quick wax ring how-to (yuck) and then proceeded to drop that baby into place. Hallelujah! A real, live, working second bath! Woop!

A quick dig in his (so friggin’ heavy) bucket o’ tools and he had a hold of his two “must have” tools:

1/2″ and 7/16″ Wrench
1/2″ and 9/16″ Wrench
According to my Dad, these are the two most common sizes you’ll ever need. Noted. Literally… I wrote it down! ..and now that I blogged about it, I can toss that piece of paper and use my blog for reference.
Before I could even stand back and admire my newly re-installed toilet, Dad had already moved on to his next project. Installing a brand-spanking new GLASS STORM DOOR on the front of the house. Oh man – you have NO idea how excited I was about this. I found this door at Lowes last fall on Clearance. It was a $330 special order door that had been returned. Lucky me scored it for $30.
Yes…
THIRTY dollars. Hardware included!
First task… remove the existing door. Come to find out, the brick moulding around the outside was rotten in the bottom right corner:

After a trip to Lowes for a $15 piece of brick moulding, he pried off the old piece and replaced it with the new. Booyah. That’s some handy-Dad work for ya!
I don’t have photos of the actual moulding/door installation process. Sorry.
I was the official door holder. Example of how the conversation went…
Dad – “Dana, hold the door and don’t let it fall ok?”
Dana – “Ok, got it.”
Dad – “Are you holding it?”
Dana – “Yep… I got it.”
Dad – “Now don’t let it fall!”
Dana – “I’ve got it Dad.”
Dad – “You holding it still?”
Dana – “………….” <crickets>
LOVE YOU DAD! For the record – “I’ve got it Dad.”
So a couple hours tweaks later and the door was installed and working like a dream!
I may or may not have been standing outside demanding he give me a thumbs up.
Yep, my lanterns are still hanging from my log. You can read more about those here.
I’m seriously loving this door. It really shows oh-so-much-more of my cheery yellow door.
The girls are loving the door too! They like to peer through the glass looking for squirrels, rabbits, people, blowing leaves (yep, those call for a good bark too)… if it moves, they’re interested!
The best part – the door has a lock! I don’t have to worry about one of them jumping up and strategically knocking the handle to let themselves outside. While Quinn would likely stay close to home, Emma’s been known to go on a great adventure around the town (with me on her heels: Furious. Terrified. Screaming.).
I had to adjust the lighting on the picture below so you could see more than just a black hole of a room. The dark blue walls in my living room make it tough to get these shots!

Great before and after right?! The new door is exactly what I wanted.
…and what the girls wanted too…

Dad and I cranked out some other things too while he was here… Re-installed the trim in the bathroom. Put hinges on the bathroom cabinet doors. Picked out some pegs for him to take home (along with the old storm door that’s going to go on his garage!). Oh…. and some beer and Mexican! Labor payments come in the form of food and beverage around here. Interested? Call me… we’ll talk. Currently looking for a concrete person. Willing to pay in Mexican or Sushi!
Way too long story short, we accomplished quite a bit for one weekend! The only downside of the entire 2.5 days… finding out my DishNetwork package didn’t include the network playing the Blues Playoff game last night. Ugh. SO frustrating. Instead, I followed along on Twitter, Yahoo and streaming radio online from our local KMOX. Girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!
I’m feeling motivated to keep going in that spare bath now that it’s functional once again. I’ll be sure to share the successes and fails along the way. I’ve already had one major fail… which completely derailed my motivation. I’m back on track now though! Stay posted.
Cheers to productive weekends! Maybe now I’ll get my lazy butt off the couch and crank out a couple more things before the day is up.
P.S. The photo collages / edits in this post were done using a downloaded version of Picasa. I’m still working on figuring it out, but it just might be my replacement for Picnik. Sigh. Oh picnik, how I miss thee.







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