New Kitchen Faucet installed and a kitten update

I stopped by True value to get some stuff for unclogging my kitchen sink and the store had a nice looking high-rice faucet /with sprayer for a kitchen sink that cost $65.00.  I have been looking for this type of faucet for the kitchen the last couple of months and so I bought it and installed it this weekend.

To say that the plumbing in this house is “problematic” is excessively kind.  Most of the plumbing is a hodge-podge of different materials that seems to have been done cheap and quick rather than done correctly.  Now I’m no plumbing expert but mixing materials like copper, steel, aluminum and plastic pipes along with what looks like “copper brazing” attaching steel pipes to a simple metal shut off valve has made those valve completely ineffective as a shut of valve.  Because those valve are not working I had to shut off all water to the house to replace the Kitchen faucet.

I learned a lot about my house plumbing on this job and the house water valve needs a little extra push to stop all water coming into the house.  3.5 and 5 gallon buckets are your friends for containing water from water pipes that have water in them and not completely depressurized of water and add towels to sop up the water.  I have been replacing water valves under toilets and sinks as I go but the kitchen sink faucet metal base was starting to disintegrate/leak and needed replacement as soon as possible.

I’m not sure when the old faucet was mad but it was basically 3 copper pipes soldered together with an aluminum cover.  I’m guessing the age of the faucet in the 1980’s age range.  The metal in the old faucet disintegrated and I had to sweep up all the metal chunks that fell away as I removed the old faucet.

After dealing with all of the water issues  and the crazy install of the old faucet, I installed a Homepoint High rise faucet that has the ADA compliant and easy to use lever type handles.  The sprayer works great and overall the faucet looks good.  I had a bit of good luck getting all the water fittings tight before I turned on the water main and I had no leaks.  That ability/time to run down to the basement to turn on and off the water and check for leaks made this job a bit more stressful.

I love how high rise faucets make filling up large stock pots to my Mom using the high rise faucet in the bathroom to wash her hair and put a perm.  I’m putting new faucets that have levers rather than the push/pull/twist sort of faucets.  My strength can get a bit “iffy” with my CIDP, but I can certainly push/pull a lever without fine muscular control. My outside door all use levers rather than door knobs.  Evan I on my worst day can use and elbow to push a lever.  Turning a knob is more difficult.

Onto the kitten assimilation at Casa de Chaos.  Well Tucker has allowed the kittens on my bed. Of course the kittens are a bit of pain to me but they seem to be slowly learning not to get in my face.  Tucker seems to be doing more “admonishments”  rather than going after the kittens from instinct.

I still have a slow drain in the kitchen.  I have run the drain snake as far as I can work it trough the kitchen pipes.  I’ll try the “Drain King” pressurize water “blow out” of the clog.  I don’t hate plumbers! Most of them could have installed the kitchen faucet in about 30 minutes or less.  It took me over 2 hours to install a kitchen faucet. That time is money/time/value.

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New kittens are named and are settling in.

The 2 new kittens are named Ash and Teeg.  Ash is grey with some Tabby stripes but the reason for the name is that kitten jumped into the ash bucket by my wood stove. Teeg is fascinated by Tucker the peke.  Teeg has rubbed all over Tucker, walked under Tuck’s belly, ate the dry dog food and generally just disarmed most of Tucker’s anti-cat behavior.  Tucker will not share my bedroom or allow the kittens on my bed but over all integrating the new kittens is going much better than I had anticipated.

These kittens seem very smart and can be trained on basic behavior.  I’ve had the kittens for few days and both are using a small kitty litter box.  Ash is the “explorer” and jumped on my computer desk.  I removed Ash from the desk  to a chair or the floor and seemed to get the desk is off limits.  Of course Ash climbs my Computer chair and climbs on me, but in just a couple of days this kitten generally avoids climbing on my PC desk.

I’m keeping the “doggie door” blocked to stop the kittens from going outside.  I like having out door/indoor cats but the kittens are so small and don’t have a mama cat to train them about my yard and safe areas.  I’m going to give them a few weeks to get used to my house being the safe place, before I let them outdoors.  Smokey the cat is not happy about the kittens but she has ate the dry kitten food and is stand offish.

While I have had cats.  I have not dealt with 8 week old kittens in decades.  These kittens have been a great distraction from the death of Brodie not only for Tucker but for myself.  I miss Brodie but the kittens remind me life goes on.  Over all having 2 new kittens at Casa de Chaos is looking good.

 

Things are getting crazy, I got a credit card and Brodie my dog is gone

From what I see on the internet there is a growing backlash at the MSM culture. From the Boycott of Disney Star Wars to Comics book artists and writers going with independent or self publishing.  We see some of this from self published books via Amazon but now Amazon is starting to ban authors for “Wrong Think”.  Now some people are trying out digital downloads/ serializing their books via a website or using Patreon or Indegogo to publish paper/hardback books. Now I’m not a comic book reader but I love books and using a kindle to read new authors at a low price is great.  I’m invetigating how I can buy a writer’s work directly from the authors website.  Amazon is easy and convenient but they can drop an author for any reason or no reason at all if they( Amazon) gets pissed off by “wrong think” and in this PC/Cancel culture that can happen quickly to anyone.  I have been re-reading the series from Jay Allen and Ryk Brown books that are Military Sci-Fi genre.  If you like Weber, Ringo type authors you will probably like these books.

I got a credit card but I’m using it a completely different way than what I was taught as a “debt instrument” or short term loan over a couple of months.  I hate debt so getting a credit card is crazy, right?  But what if you only buy items on sale in between pay checks then pay off the card the next week or two weeks?  No interest is accrued on the card because you always pay off the debt before the 25 day billing/interest cycle occurs/rollsover into next months payment.  From what I have seen this is how financially smart people use credit cards.  The smart people never carry a credit balance over 25 days but pay off the debt the next payday.

For me I see a great sale on food items but the sale happens5-7 days before I get paid. I can use the credit card to take advantage of the savings and then pay off the credit card when I get paid.  I am not using a credit card to live above my means. I’m just expanding the opportunity of getting good sale prices on weeks I don’t get paid.  Credit card debt is very easy to fall into the minimum  payment rather than paying the card odd every month to avoid interest.  I have been in in some ugly debt and I have gone mostly cash for my living expenses.  I’m going to try out using the credit card and see if it saves me money or costs me money.

Brodie my dog, is over the rainbow bridge.  He was having some tummy troubles the last 7-14 days and losing weight fast.  The vet confirmed he had a tummy tumor and at 15 years old I did not think any medical treatment could give him a good life for additional year or two.  I did not request for a biopsy because any surgery would have been physically hard on him.  Brodie was “uncomfortable” when I took him in but he was aware and could bark at other dogs at the vet shop.  Godspeed Brodie… Until we meet again!

Mom is bringing over the kittens for a tryout in my house with Smokey the cat and Tucker the peke.  I read about German Shepard mix that is 3 years old that might be a good addition to Casa de Chaos.  We will see how Tucker likes the dog at the pound’s meet and greet.  I will set the parameters on the meet and greet not the “shelter”.  Me and Tucker the peke will test out several dogs at the pound and see what fits for both of us.  I won’t get a dog that won’t fit in with my current pets.