Day Two: You Aren't a REAL Homeowner Until...

...your plumbing has blown up in your face.

We, my friends, are *REAL* homeowners!

There I was, minding my own business, pulling and thrashing about to get the last of the wallpaper and backer board off the kitchen walls (next to the faucet) when, out of the blue, the faucet began to leak.

And drip. (Try pulling the faucet tighter.)

And pour. (Take off the faucet handle to see if we can replace the gasket or even just tighten the handle's internal valve a bit more.)

And, eventually, gush out faster than the still-needing-to-be-snaked drain could handle. (Oh poop.)

At this point, we discovered that *tada!* our pre-1950's faucet pipes do NOT have shut off valves. The hot water valve attached to the water heater is too corroded to shut. The bucket that I have placed under the heavy stream of increasingly hot water is almost overflowing. Mom and I take turns running buckets of water out to the side yard while my dad valiantly tries close the faucet valve with various pliers, wrenches and brute force. No such luck. We turn off the main, only to be visited by the oh-so-friendly foundation contractor who needs water to set the concrete posts in the back. Ah. And Matt has just showed up from a half day of work, filthy from the job and needing to shower. Yes. Well. We took turns monitoring the main valve and the buckets in the kitchen sink as the water was turned on and off, on and off. And then we left my poor dad on his own to attend my baby shower down in Santa Cruz... Matt ended up sneaking out of the shower with his BF Jim and heading back up to the house... where he installed a brand new BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL FABULOUS faucet as his first plumbing project, ever. I am SO damn proud.

Dad spent the day sanding away at our kitchen walls. Mom spent the day removing carpet staples and tackboard from our front room floor. (Did I mention it is gorgeous?!?) Matt spent the day working to rewire our lovely knob-and-tube riddled house. And I spent the day experimenting with milk paints. We accomplished less than half of what I had on the "to-do" list, but I am quickly coming to realize that lists and goals and expectations are *WAAAAAY* overrated when remodeling a house... And I need to be ok with that!