Been Busy

Excuses, excuses. I have many. The posting has been light lately but we've been swamped. I have mentioned how much work is waiting on this house. Lu and I decided we'd wait until after the first of the new year to get started to give us time to finish unpacking and get settled. There were a few things I just could no longer stand though.

For some reason the shower head (we have only the one bathroom at present) was set at about 4 feet high. I have no explanation. Lu had attached a hand held and a bracket set to a proper height but it wasn't adjustable and pointed straight down. It had to go. I opened the sheet rock in the bathroom and removed the shower head but it was obvious I needed to go further. The house was built in stages out of slope stone and cinder block which means many of my interior walls are masonry. Luckily this particular one is not. I had to tear the back side out from the floor to above the shower head to get at the plumbing. The plumbing is a combination of cast iron and copper. With no anodes. Yeah. I tore it out and found that the plumbing also passed through horizontal wall supports. I said screw it and just tore everything out that I could reach and replaced it with Pex. I did a temporary wall repair because I'm going to have to do more plumbing work when I redo the bathroom but the shower is now sized for humans. I am so happy.

Got Lu's washer installed and working. Got the pantry covered. Rebuilt the toilet. Nothing major just a bunch of niggling little things that were driving us nuts and that we couldn't take any more. I think the front door is next. It hollow core and an odd size. I'm going to have to buy a solid core and size it to fit but that shouldn't be too bad. Maybe next week.

We're trying to decide what major job to tackle first. The kitchen needs a complete redo. It has no dishwasher or disposal, carpeted floors and weird cabinets. The plumbing is atrocious. We can't run the toaster and microwave at the same time and the rest of the house is badly under wired. Every outlet in the house is two prong so a complete re-wire is in order. We desperately need a second bathroom. I have the spot but it's on a concrete slab so I'm going to have to jack hammer out the plumbing runs. I need a garage.

I know, whine and snivel. It's not all bad. Lu and I were determined to get out for some trigger time the other day. We were going to invite Sarge but he's been down with some sort of creeping crud (get better soon Sarge). There's some BLM land just a few miles from our front door. We loaded up the Ford and headed out.

I brought my AR and the flat top I just put together for Lu. Turns out she hated it. Well, hate might be too strong but she definitely wasn't having a lot of fun. We took a break and I brought out the truck gun, a 1942 vintage Moisin Nagant 91/59 in 7.62x54R. I cranked off 5 rounds and asked Lu if she wanted a try. She said maybe later. Couple more shots and she was by my side ogling the thing. "Hey, let me give that a go." For those who don't know the 91/59 is handy little carbine shooting a pretty substantial cartridge. They're a hoot but they're also kinda hard on the shoulder.

Turns out Lu loved it. She shot the rest of the ammunition I brought, about 25 rounds, and was disappointed I didn't have any more. Yeah, it's her gun now. She's also eyeballing my Jungle Carbine, 03A3 and Mauser. I've created a monster. On the plus side it looks like I now have a new AR flat top.

Lu shot her Glock 19 and I put a few through my G35 in anticipation of that sweet new rig from Michael. Not that I'm anxious or anything.

All in all a fine day. It's so great to live in an area where I can travel 15 minutes from my house and shoot anything in my arsenal without anyone having a coronary and calling the local constabulary on me.

Bring it on house, we can take anything you got. Lu and I are here for the long run.

Six