Around the House

February seems like a perfectly good month to start tackling some projects around the house.  There are some big ones, some small ones and some small ones that get big when you find out what is lurking beneath the surface . . .

I didn't take pictures because I didn't really know I was going to be getting into a Jr. Plumber project until there were parts lying on the shower floor.  As things change gradually over time you tend not to notice.  The temperature control on the shower was one of those things . . . everything was great, showers were hot, then they became hot enough, and then we started wondering why they weren't as hot as they used to be.  I took a quick look online and didn't see anything remotely resembling our Hansgrohe thermostatic valve, but how different could they all be?  That point was moot through the first hour of trying to pull the handle off.  After some tugging and light prying, I switched to dumping hot water on the handle, hoping that would loosen things up.  Then I switched to swearing and brute force and finally the handle flew off and thankfully did not break the glass of the shower enclosure.

With the handle off, I could go back to the internet to find out that my older valve looked nothing like the instructional videos online.  For example, my valve did not have service shut offs that everybody kept talking about . . . so I went to the basement and shut off the lines to the shower with the conveniently located valves in the laundry room.  The amount of torque required to get the mixing cartridge out of the valve body left me with the nasty thought at the back of my mind wondering how many plumbing connections I might be breaking in the wall . . .

To make a long, boring story less long and only slightly less boring, the cartridge was all scaled up.  White vinegar and water did the trick to loosen things enough to be able to clean off the gunk.  Everything went back together much more smoothly that it came apart and like magic our shower can be cold, hot and everything in between.  As a bonus, the water pressure is better now too!

This is only a taste of what's to come on the DIY (and YDIFM) front.  The house just got some new insulation, new windows are in the works.  I am planning on installing a whole house humidifier and for fun, we are looking into getting the floors resurfaced!

You might ask why all the attention to the house?

Doesn't he deserve it?