Our old water heater is failing in a number of ways, corrosion, fan failing, etc.. It currently consumes an entire room in the basement. Behind the water heater is a Winchester Mystery House staircase which is a remnant of the previous house built on the property.

We researched and immediately learned about tankless or “inline” water heaters. These are common place in other parts of the world, but here in the US we are used to the 70 gallon reserve tank heaters.

Our concerns about the inline heaters were first hand comments about the amount of time it takes for hot water to arrive at the faucet. Finally after some additional research we learned about “hybrid” water heaters and settled on such a device for our house. The pictures below show its size relative to the previous 70 gallon water heater tank.

It has an internal 2 gallon tank that maintains hot water for immediate demand. Beyond the immediate demand, all remaining hot water is delivered by an on-demand mechanism. There were several advantages to this over a pure tankless water heater. 1) We get hot water faster, thanks to the 2 gallon tank. 2) Because the unit isn’t required to heat water so fast, it doesn’t require a bigger natural gas line like many standard tankless units.

The final benefit, is that the platform previously used to host our 70 gallon water heater now is gone and provides an additional storage space!

So to tie this back to the title of the story; the morning that the plumbers arrived, Kevin had a suggestion to the plumbers.  He told them “if you tape wheels to the bottom and a handle to the side of the tank, you can drag it up the stairs from the basement".  We were impressed and think he may have a future in engineering

We haven’t written in a while about Baby LeRoy. He (or is it a she?) is almost 35 weeks and mom is counting down. 5 weeks to go! I feel him move regularly – anything from turning over, kicking, or baby experiencing the hiccups. For the most part, I continue to feel good. Perhaps a little more tired, but I’m still managing to swim a couple times and week and make it to the gym a couple times a week.

Dave and I are getting the house prepared for Baby LeRoy too. Most of our bedroom furniture arrived and we put together the new crib in a snap. We researched car seats and strollers to death and zeroed in on the Chicco brand. I’ve been walking it around the house empty, just for practice.

The Clark’s – childhood neighbors – held a very nice baby shower for me this past weekend. I received all kinds of wonderfully, soft, furry, green and yellow gifts – books, stuffed animals, toys, onesies, blankets, hats, and lots of tiny little socks. My brother and his family gave us a lightweight travel Jeep Wrangler umbrella stroller. I’m not smart enough to install the canopy yet, but the stroller is ready to go. My other brother and his family gave us a highchair. It is on really good rollers, so we can make our baby fly across the kitchen with just a nudge. (Don’t worry, he’ll be seat-belted in!)

My belly continues to grow, and much to my amazement, my skin continues to stretch. But as much fun as being pregnant is, I’ll be happy when I’m done. And Dave and I are really getting anxious to meet Baby LeRoy!

Step 1: Demolition. We wanted to tear out the old wooden vanity without cracking, chipping, or ruining the bathroom countertop. This step was succesful, but not without its issues. The vanity was definitely in there for good! The limestone top is really, really heavy, so we ended up with 2 by 4s holding up the counter for months.

Step 2: Design. Dad measured the underneath of the cabinet to determine how much space we had, what would work etc. We designed a new vanity with three large drawers down the center and two doors on either side. He designed some cool looking feet for the bottom too. We have some closet doors in the bathroom that we wanted to match (wood stain and color), so Dad made us several samples to choose from. We picked one we liked, and on to Step 3.

Step 3: Build. Dad built the cabinet at his house. He made it out of birch, a wood he had never worked with before. He visited a few times to check on measurements. We checked out the cabinet – all looked good!

Step 4: Sanding, staining, more sanding, staining again, trial and error staining. Turns out, the vanity stained a very different color than the samples we originally liked. In fact, the cabinet was a bright orange! Not good! Dad sanded some of the color out and tried a variety of ‘cover ups’ of different color stains to get the orange color out. In the end, the color was perfect, and matched the closet doors quite well.

Step 5: Cabinet installation! This was the biggie. Dad hauled the cabinet over (79″ long by waist height and cabinet depth!). Our neighbor helped us carry it around the back of the house and in the back door. It was all going to be easy at this point, right? Hah!

Step 6: Sanding, trimming, slicing, dicing. The first problem was….we hadn’t factored in the closet door molding. Turns out, this stuck out about 1.5 inches from the wall, making it impossible to slide the cabinet in under the counter top. So, we sliced .5″ off either side of the cabinet. Still too big. Sliced another .25″ off the left side. Now we could slide it in and out without completely destroying the walls and molding. The second problem was…..the reinforcements of the cabinet were hitting the fronts of the sinks. We got out the saw and stripped some chunks out. The fourth problem was….the cabinet was hitting some pieces of wood at the back near the wall. We took a saw and ripped them out. (Hope they weren’t important!) Fifth problem was….it was just a bit too tall. So, we pulled the whole thing out again and sliced 1/8″ off the top. (The unit was getting lighter by this time!!) Sixth problem was….the kick plate was too tall. We sawed some off of that too. And finally, the the feet were a bit too tall, so we sawed them off too!

Step 7: Finale! Finally, the cabinet was in, the color was right, everything fit, and we love it! We are still waiting for the doors to be sprayed (waiting for warm weather to do that part), which explains why they are missing.

The whole process was a comedy of errors. I guess that’s what you get trying to custom-fit a cabinet, while keeping the countertop!

Thanks Dad! It looks fantastic!

When we moved into this house, we said, “Ahhh, everything is all perfect. We don’t need to do a thing!” That was all true, but somehow, we’ve managed to keep very busy with lots of projects.

The first thing we realized is, the roof has no overhang anywhere on the perimeter of the house! Therefore, storage is a problem. We have a two-car garage, but not a lot of extra room. So, Heather enlisted her Dad for some help to build a 5′x11′ shed on the side of the house. We built a foundation, set on bricks in cement. We used the side of the house as one wall. And fabricated siding for the three sides. The roof has tar paper and shingles and it seems to be water proof! The easily houses the lawn mower, garden tools, and a bunch of other stuff.

The house was built approx 8 years ago. The eves are a dark stained wood, but had faded considerably over the years and were starting to crack and rot. We borrowed a 32′ extension ladder and Dave painted all the eves over the course of two weekends. He also painted the strip above the garage door (see pic). He also painted the little brown wooden fence in front of the house. The wood is rotting, but at least it looks freshly painted!

For the longest time, we had no house numbers! We told everyone, “We’re the fourth house on the right hand side.” We ordered some funky house numbers and Heather stenciled a template and hung them up.

Dave, in his true engineering fashion, ventured on a project to install a structured wiring box. All the tv, telephone, and ethernet cables are organized in this box and routed throughout the house. Dave was like a kid in a candy store planning this one. You’d never know the mess of wired behind that nice pretty door!

The biggest projects have been going on inside. We had the dining room and entry painted by a *real artist* – Jim Quinlin. He painted the dining room a rust-colored orange and the entry way a bisque color. The paint was called “Lusterstone” – a cement-like textured paint that you put on by hand with a trowel.

The rest of the house was painted a variety of muted earthtone colors. We are very, very happy with the results. Susan Powell, (Paisley Designs) has been helping us every step of the way. We are very happy with her suggestions and choices. We got a new bed frame, nighstands, and dresser for the master. The dining room set is coming, but not until November! We can hardly wait!

Heather has decided to paint the office bookcase herself. It is quite a job to paint with oil-base, but we have high hopes that it’ll look good.

Many more projects to come, but that’s all for now!