DIY - Grout Scrubbing & Fridge Water Line

Get ready for some exciting DIY action.  Nothing life changing here, but small things that you'll need one day!!  Enjoy.

Grout Scrubbing 

If you've moved into an older home like ours, a simple thing you can do to make it feel a little newer (and less nasty) is scrubbing that grout and tile.  The heavy lifting award goes to hubby for doing 90% of the kitchen, bathroom, and hallway.  Round of applause for hubs!!

Supplies: 

• OXO Good Grips Deep Cleaning Brush Set
• Oxygen Cleaner
• Water 
• Blood, Sweat, Tears and Time

     

Step 1: Mentally prepare to be exhausted - this process takes time and a lot of elbow grease.  So get ready, but it is all worth it in the end. 

Step 2: Mix & Soak - mix your Oxygen Bleach with the appropriate amount of water. Hubs decided to make a highly concentrated form, then poured this all over the floor to let it soak for an hour

Step 3: Scrub a dub dub - grab a cup of water, dip your brush in and then scrub the crap out of the grout. This kicks up a lot of nastiness, so you'll need to wipe down every so often so you're not scrubbing dirty water into the grout.  

Step 4: Wash the floors - make sure you have a good mop and change the water often, just scrub the floors down so you don't have oxygen bleach film everywhere.  

Step 4: Celebrate!! - Your floors are sparkly clean.  Do a dance in your bare feet (that's what I did).

Before

After

Refrigerator Water Line

Our old copper line that broke during installation!!

We finally got our refrigerator inside (btw - the damage from delivery is barely noticeable!!), and when we went to install the water line, the old copper water line was badly damaged, bent and leaking.  We could have called a plumber, but we really felt this is something we could handle ourselves!!

We headed to our second home (Home Depot) and purchased a copper water line kit. We had gotten advice to get a stainless water line since it is a lot more forgiving and will not bend or break, but the hole that was already made behind the fridge was set for the size of copper, so we'll just upgrade later.  

Once we got home, it was a pretty daunting tasks, the copper line went from upstairs, into the floor and into an area in the basement.  In the end, I felt like this was definitely something anyone could do, so happy we got the experience!

Wet T-Shirt Contest!

Removing the line from
the saddle valve

Step 1: Shut off your water - We shut our off main water line and the saddle valve of the copper line so we wouldn't get soaked.  To be honest, this didn't shut things down completely (saddle valve was pretty worn) so we were still getting wet.  Make sure to have buckets ready and challenge your hubby to a wet t-shirt contest.  (spoiler - the wife will win this contest =D)

Broken line - just use
pliers to pull it out!

Step 2: Remove the older copper line - the old copper line is connected to the saddle valve and the fridge.  You'll just need a decent wrench or pliers to help you out on both ends.  Once we removed this from both ends, we had to unfish this through a hole in the kitchen floor.  The tubing was so old it was easier for us to just break the tubing and use pliers to pull from the basement.  Hubs was upstairs to coerce it from the top.  

From appliancerepair.net

Step 3: Install the new saddle valve - I guess you don't have to do this if it is working just fine, but for us, it was leaking everywhere, old and came with the kit anyway.  So this was a little bit of a doozy, but you feel cool once its done. Make sure to get ready for some water if your main water line shut off doesn't fully shut off (like ours!).  You'll need a wrench/pliers and a screwdriver to remove the screws from the saddle.  Once that is loose, just remove the old saddle valve and replace with the new one, making sure that the piercing needle is aligned with the old hole.  Then tighten the new screws (but not too tight!!).  Then turn t-handle to be perpendicular to the line and your water will be off to complete the project.  

This is where I took 1st place in the Lee Wet T-shirt contest since I had to carefully maneuver plugging the leaking hole with my finger while getting the new one on.  Yay me!

Step 4: Fish the new copper line & connect - We're almost there!!!  You want to make sure there is enough slack in the line for you to move your refrigerator around, so make sure there are a few loops remaining behind the fridge. Hubs fished the copper line through the hole (much easier than getting the old one out since it wasn't bent and broken) then connect the copper tubing to the saddle valve with the ferrule & ferrule nut.  The ferrule nut will go on first, then the ferrule (the little bulbous thing) will go over the copper line.  Then just insert into the saddle valve, pull down the ferrule to be flush to the water outlet, then tighten the nut.  Then do the same thing to connect the tubing to the refrigerator and you're connected!  make sure these connections are nice and tight!!

Step 5: Turn the water flow back on and flush! - turn your main water line one and make sure your saddle valve is turned on.  If the t-handle is horizontal to the water line, then water should flow.  Check to make sure that there are no leaks happening (I'm crossing my fingers here).  Then spend the next 5 to 10 minutes flushing the line by pouring water through your line and discarding it.  This way any dirt that was kicked up during installation is flushed out.  

  

Step 6: Enjoy your fresh/cold water and bask in your DIY abilities yet again!!!  You may be soaked, but you did it.  Congratulations, now go enjoy a glass of ice water to celebrate.  

That's it for now friends, we've started settling in, so updated before and after pictures are overdue.  

xoxo

Moving into some bad luck

Moving Day!

We did it!! We finally moved.  After a month of trying to get through renovations (we haven't finished yet), we made our move out of our rented townhouse to our house.  We figured it was only 8 minutes away, so we'll get a truck and move ourselves with some friends.  We were very slowly moving items into the garage, but as I was packing before our official move day, I realized we were really in over our head to move ourselves.  On Saturday night I left a message for Illiana Mighty Movers.  The next morning, he texted asking if we still needed help.  He was only charging $55/hr for two guys to help load and unload.  He got there in 20 minutes in his big yellow truck, I asked how much more it would be to also use his truck.  I offered him some cookies and he said $5/hr and we've got a deal!!  They were lifesavers and did all of the heavy lifting (couches, bed, dressers, etc.) so Hubs and our friends didn't break their backs!!  Thanks to Jay & Rin, Jonathan and Jay for helping out that day.  It ended up being a great day to catch up and eat with our friends!!  

Illiana Moving Company owner!

Our UHaul and Illiana Mighty movers

Bad Luck

First, the carpet for our hallway, stairs and family room was supposed to be installed on Saturday, there was a delivery delay, so they could not install until Tuesday!!  That meant we had to keep most of our belongings in the garage until carpet was installed!

Next, on Monday I had our cleaning ladies from Maiden Poland come over to clean the townhouse and our new house so we could start using the bathrooms and kitchen.  (They are an amazing company that cleans in Chicago but happens to be in our area on Mondays!!).  While they were cleaning our bathroom, there was a back up that they had to clean up which was an indication of something wrong with some pipes.  We were calling around to try to get a plumber in over the next couple days, so we decided to not stay there and stay with mom and dad. 

Third, we ended up with water in our basement during the crazy storm.  Used to seeing this happen, so didn't freak out too badly.  

Fourth, power ended up being out Monday night through Tuesday, so our carpet guys couldn't fully install, so they laid down the carpet and padding to prep for the next day.  

Fifth, when the power finally kicked on, the sump pump started to work, but because there was a clog, it flooded a portion of that bathroom, kitchen, family room and living room.  
 

Lastly, our refrigerator was delivered but when it was opened it had HUGE gashes on the side from delivery. 
 

Silver Lining

So as corny as it sounds, all these things happened for a reason.  If the carpet was installed on time, then the flooding would have been even worse to deal with.  We were able to just rip out the wet padding, wet vacced hte subfloors and carpet.  Then we used fans and a dehumidifier to save the carpet, dry out the subfloor and all was installed just fine.  

After getting ARS Rescute Rooters out, it turns out our pipes are fine and we just had a soft clog that they fixed quickly.

Also, turns out the gashes on the fridge are on the side that won't be seen and the company we purchased it from offered us a few hundred dollars back or an exchange (thinking we'll take the $$ and hide the gashes with a picture of X :).  

Most importantly, we are moved in and starting to unpack.  Can't wait to pick out our light fixtures and get all of the little things in place!!

Our painting and carpeting is all done, so I'll be sure to post pictures soon of those final products!  Stay tuned!!