My first emergency repair in the new house; a handy MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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When I [del] was railroaded into doing[/del] volunteered for today’s MMP, I said that with the plans for the weekend involving working on the new house to convert it into a proper VunderLair, that I’d probably have a good story or two to tell. Saturday didn’t disappoint me in that regard.

The Former Denizen[sup]tm[/sup] was there when we got there, loading more stuff of his from the outbuildings. Taters and Spats, y’all are going to be disappointed to hear that the antler collection is gone. He did leave me two wild turkey fans, and I ain’t giving them up 'cuz they’re waaaaaaay cool. He’s down to a car, a ratty old van, 2 even rattier travel trailers, and huge freestanding hunting blind as the last things to go. He has until Friday.

Saturday was the day designated to finish prepping the house to paint, and therein lies the actual story for today. As part of the makeover, we’re scavenging the wainscoting from the kitchen, and the last to go was behind the refrigerator. VWife and I pulled it out, and immediately the water connection for the icemaker started dripping. A little fiddling and a twist of the connectors with my ever present channellock pliers, and the dripping stops. I told her to not move the fridge, and went back to what I was doing at the other end of the joint.

A few minutes later, I hear a panicked shout of “Dad, come here now! I REALLY screwed up!” Seems that Mrs. Right (first name Always) took it upon herself to move the fridge yet again, and there was now a geyser in my kitchen. I found the shutoff, which didn’t do the job completely, and took out the broken piece of tubing, which was really part of the refrigerator, not the plumbing that supplied it. Great. How in hell am I going to find this specific part on the middle of nowhere 25 miles from the nearest Lowe’s or WallyWorld?

There is a Mom and Pop hardware store about 8 miles away, so off I went. I held up my water connection to ask where they had any more of them, and was promptly laughed at. Dammit, Jim! I’m an engineer, not a plumber, and I have to save the life of my icemaker before it’s supply line bleeds all over my floor! Back to the plumbing supplies I go, with one of the store clerks. As an aside, this particular lady sure as hell sounded like she was raised in the Louisiana Bayou, not the Great Dismal Swamp. Sweet as pie, nonetheless.

We found a hose that fit the wide end of my connection, and 2 levels of reducing couplings that fit it to the supply line. Throw in a roll of Teflon pipethread tape, and I was back in business. I got back home and put my contraption on, which worked without a single drip. After everything was connected and working was when I caught hell. “You would have to use a washing machine connector just to rub it in, wouldn’t you? Five feet of braided hose to replace a 6 inch copper tube?”

I can’t win.

In other news, Maddy the VunderDog is having a blast running through the cotton field that surrounds my little acre of heaven. She gets in about 50 feet into the rows, and all I see are those little bat ears of hers moving like dorsal fins in a sea of green…

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Does VunderGal know you call her this? snerk

Wimmins. Always causing trouble. Always breaking shit.

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Turkey fans?

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Geez, I doze off watching a movie, and miss first post by two! Gonna read my book and think happy thoughts of Captain Jack Sparrow, and talk to y’all in a few hours.

So sorry about the fridge/plumbing though, Vunderbob, home fixing up bites. I just discovered yet another roof leak tonight…

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What the hell time IS it in Alaska? Right now it’s 0600 here in the Midwest…

Vunder --didn’t you ask her WHY she moved the fridge after you told her not to?

She might have had a good reason–like a dustbunny the size of the Michelin Man or summthin’.
It was wrong the clerk to laugh at you–I have left stores for that kind of stuff. Yeah, I know, I should keep my equinamity, but sometimes, you just can’t. 'Course, out there in Maybery RFD-you aren’t 'xactly spoiled fer choice re stores, are you…

Off to work now. I need sleep…

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Dustbunnies are best left asleep under the fridge. Besides, if the fridge is breaking, the dustbunnies can wait.

Robin

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Well, I’m certainly glad to hear you managed to save the icemaker–after the huge disappointment regarding the antlers, that is. :slight_smile:

This weekend, I went to a barbecue (fun), watched a lot of tv (also fun), and spent last night lying awake in pain because my doctor told me not to take my anaprox if I could help it (not so fun). I’m not going to work today. And I’m taking my anaprox.

As swampy would say, So There. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Either one of those sentences would look great embroidered on a pillow. Or as a sampler.

Bobbio ain’t the wonders of home repair great? Are you as thrilled as Maddie the Vunderdog running through the cotton field is to know that whatever happens in the new VunderLair, it’s now your problem? Is the hunting blind tall like a deer stand? If it is, you should hope TFD[sup]TM[/sup] leaves it, cause it’d make a great tower to crouch in whilst warding off would be invaders to the VunderLair. I’ve considered erecting gun turrets around my back yard. I’ve been told that gun turrets plus a few cases of MREs are all I need to make my backyard fortress complete. Yeah, my friends are real comedians.

Let’s see. I told y’all about the lizards fornicatin’, the surpirse visit from sis etc. and the neighbor dying. I didn’t tell y’all about the bird supper, which was tres faboo! We had fried quail and dove, rice and gravy, homegrown sliced maters, pickled onions and cucumbers (which I understand are absolute musts at a bird supper) and biscuits. Dessert was lemon icebox pie. Dessert at stuff like this is pretty much usually lemon icebox pie. Rice and gravy and biscuits are also required at a bird supper, but I already knew that. There was also plenty of sweet tea, lemonade and beer. I left full. It was YUM!

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The tail feathers of a wild turkey, arranged to look like they’re spread out, fan-like. The equivalent of a stuffed deer head…

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Great minds think alike, Swampio. It is one of the tower kind, and when I had to mow around it, it struck me that maybe I could use it to spot the dog when she goes on a tear through the cotton. I don’t have enough neighbors to make it worthwhile for use as a bell tower, and I like it that way…

Oh, and for the first time, I actually felt guilty mowing the yard. Riding mowers are too much fun, and when you have all that painting to get done…

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morning all.
Bobbio - I killed a fridge once - It was an older model that had to be manually defrosted periodically - and I tended to wait way too long between efforts. Also I am impatient. So instead of doing something intelligent, like placing a vessel of warm water in the freezer, I tried, as soon as the larger blocks of ice started peeling away from the walls, to pry them the rest of the way off. With the only large flat object I could find, a chefs’ knife. And I pierced a freon line.
More later - I’m late for work :wink:

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Morning all. I got nothing other than the fact that my piece of pottery from FCM arrived. It rocks. For those of you who didn’t get one, all i gotta say is:

Neener neener neeeeeeeener, I got some potttery!

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I poked around the derelict sheds yesterday, and found 2 (!) really old refigerators rusting away; the kind with the door handles that killed stupid kids who got locked inside. Those gotta go. Rosie, you can skewer those to your heart’s content…

I also found a goose blind, which is a basic box you cover with camo net, and wait for geese to land so you can blast 'em. I might actually use that, so I think I’ll keep it. Lots of galvanized metal roofing, too. I wonder if it has any scrap value…

Cleaning up the property is gonna be a full-time job for a while…

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Just poppin’ in to say …

ARRRRRRGGHHHHHHHHHH!
Stupid full moons and stupider people!

I go sleep now.

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We had a fridge like that once. We didn’t pierce a freon line, but the liner was coming out, revealing insulation. Our new fridge is self-defrosting, but it has a design flaw. The climate control is in the front, and the sprog has been known to turn the fridge off. It’s a really bad design.

Robin, who thinks refrigerators should come with locks.

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My friend convinced me to go see a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream on this past Saturday. Well, convinced is a strong word, since I love a good Shakespeare.

Well, the SO and I met her Saturday night outside of New Paltz, then together we drove down to Boscabel, where it was. Somewhere near Bear Mountain and near where I lived in my teen years.

We went to this show, which we paid $40 EACH for. We sat in this huge outdoor tent. (At least they had chairs.) Did I say outdoors? In the summer? Yes, the bugs were out in force. Why not, all this meat on the hoof.

But all this could have been OK. It was a “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, after all, they really could have included real life. It really was a midsummer’s night, after all.

First of all, I will say the actors were very good, which was the only thing that really made it worthwhile.

The actors did not have a stage. They did not wear costumes. They had no props. It was a sort of ultra-minimalist thing. They delivered their lines flawlessly and with anima but did not draw us into the play. A really good show would have made us forget about the bugs, etc.

In between they had a Men In Black theme going on, and danced to the song at the end. WTF? Only the faeries and Puck were dressed the way they were supposed to, and even that was minimal.

Now the SO is somewhat burned on Shakespeare shows and I can’t blame him. I was really disappointed. What a waste of an evening. We didn’t get home until 1 AM, and we had to get up early the next morning, too…but I’ll post that tomorrow.

Grr.

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The supply line for the ice maker on our refrigerator keeps freezing up. So every couple of weeks we’ve got to roll the fridge away from the wall, disconnect the hose, thaw it out, and then go into the freezer part of the unit and chip out ice that has run down the inside.

Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your hands down there, Bob. I was serious about my offer last week, just so you know.

Still feeling the effects of the cold thing I got hit with last week. I hope I’ll be in good enough shape to golf on Wednesday. I mean, I’m going to be out there no matter what - I just hope I’m in good enough condition to enjoy it.

Slaying the dragon of delay is no
sport for the short-winded

Yep, still getting stupid fortunes.

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Anyway, good morning all, now that I’ve complained! Good MMP, Bobbio.

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I was one of those who used to open the fridge door and stare at the contents wondering what I wanted to nosh on. My mom said she was going to take pictures of the contents and paste them on the front of the fridge so I wouldn’t waste energy

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Good morning, Dopers!

Here I am, back at work. But I’m all dressed nice in my new dress and french fried nails for a change, to keep my spirits up.

I had a breakfast taco and now I’m looking for something to do…