New House Blog: Episode XXVI - No Reasonable Offer Refused!

Hear ye!  Hear ye!  Announcing the first, and possibly the last, Back Yard Patio Sale!  Everything must go!  All sales final!  Items sold as-is!  Package deals available!  Save us from having to haul it all to the sanitary landfill!  Ummm....It might look better in your house than it did in ours.

Friends, family, well-wishers - we invite you to partake of this rare offer.  As we have been preparing our new house for move-in the slightly (heavily) used items we have replaced have been building up in our back yard patio.  We prefer not to have to haul these items to the dump, or consign them to the recycling bin, so we are offering you all this chance to take some (or all) of it home with you to use in your house or motor home.  We take cash, cashier's checks, cash, trade, and for those who come over to haul it away we will let most of it go for free.  Our full catalogue of home furnishings is below.

Look at all of that great merchandise!

Yes, that's real stainless steel!

The mirror, lights, and vanity can be bought as a set!

Do those window frames look different to you?!

Operators are standing by to take your orders!  Seriously, if you're interested in any of it please let us know as soon as possible.  Also available is a brand new, in-the-box kitchen faucet with soap dispenser.

Surprised Again

We found another surprise recently.  If you recall, I mentioned in passing in the previous Episode that a certain electrical outlet near our range caused no small amount of trouble.  Here is the tale of that outlet, and what was inside it.

We had the outlet cover off for painting, and on moving to put it back on we discovered these rolled up pieces of paper in the outlet, and having been recently warned about fire and electricity by Bish's brother, Matt, and also remembering the burned up outlet we discussed in this Episode, we removed the paper from the outlet.

After removal of paper we noticed that the outlet was just kind of floating freely within its junction box.  The temptation to leave it as it was, and just let the outlet cover hold the outlet in place, was strong, but we knew it would be best to fix it right, so we proceeded with what we thought would be a standard outlet replacement.  I should mention at this point, because the picture in the previous Episode doesn't show it very clearly, that this outlet is at the end of a wall.  Back to our story. It turns out that the reason the outlet was floating freely in its box, and the reason the paper was inserted to stabilize the outlet, was that the junction box was mounted behind the sheetrock instead of flush with it.  So it would now involve replacing the j-box in addition to replacing the outlet.  No big deal, or so we thought.  It turned out that we had to open up two sides of the corner wall to remove the nailed-in j-box.  Then we had to cut a section out of the corner bead (the metal bracket thing on the corner), then cut a section of the two-by-four that hangs down from above.  All of this was necessary because we had to move the outlet higher up on the wall, because the romex coming down from above was too short to use in the new box and there was no slack.  Here's a picture of the new box with the romex sticking out.

The sharp-eyed may notice the cut-away two-by-four that hangs down from above.  This particular beam was not bearing any load - it did not reach down any further than the outlet.  The sharp-eyed may also notice the hammer-shaped divot in the drywall.


With the new box in place it was simply a matter of splicing, connecting the outlet, and fixing and closing up the wall.  It may sound simple, but it took a lot of hours and a lot of energy.  The pictures below will continue the story.

The new outlet

With new sheetrock and corner bead

With drywall tape

After the first coat of joint compound

I've notice that working with joint compound is not too dissimilar from working with a good buttercream icing.  I'm talking about the texture and how it moves, not the taste or smell.

Painted and ready for use

Daisy

This is just a random picture of Daisy.

Surprised Again Again

Do you remember the knife we found near the front door in this Episode?  Well, we recently found a spoon in the tree remains by the front door.  All we need is the fork to make the complete set.

It's not exactly a silver spoon.

Plants In Front

And finally we wrap up this post with some pictures of the plants growing in the planter area near the front door of our house.  We did not plant them, but we like them and they are thriving, and possibly spreading.  We know which plants are the roses, but we don't know what the other, bushy plants are called.  Can someone identify them for us?

Thank you for following us to the end of this Episode.  Remember, operators are standing by to take your orders.  Call or email us today.

It's an offer you can't
bIsh