Just Call Me “Plumber Leyla”

Time for dishes again, it seems to be an endless daily routine over here – with only two of us making dishes too! As I filled the sink with water, I noticed that suddenly the water level was getting lower and lower. Surely this was my imagination yes? No! I tried the plug and it was in pretty securely. So I opened up the cabinet door and near pitched a fit. The pipe was streaming out water, not a steady drip… Oh no, that would never be the situation in the Hur household… Nope, this water was streaming out in a sort of a fountain.

I grabbed the closest bowl handy and sat there staring, as if my magic Romani stare would instantly plug it up, right. Wrong… Contrary to popular myth, Gypsies don’t come complete with magic. *rolls eyes*

Ben moved over on the sofa so that he could see what was happening, and was as lost as I was. He asked me if something was “loose” – how the hell do I know if something is “loose”, you think I’m some handy woman or something? But alas, he wasn’t too far off. I began tightening every and anything that was loose – actually, just one part (shown with the red arrow in the photos) was loose, so I screwed it as tight as I could possibly get it with my bare hands… Maybe Romani have super human strength after all… 😉

Right-side sink drain doo-hickey thingie-majig needed tightening too

I asked Ben if the water level was still dropping in the sink and Hallelujah it was not, and no water was leaking underneath either. WOO HOO Leyla! *pats self on the back*

Ben then congratulated me for fixing my very first sink… I am now ready to tackle anything… except that damn high powered hose thingy down the toilet to flush all the gross bits further into the black tank. Let me rephrase this… I am now ready to tackle anything not gross or nasty. 🙂

After fixing the leak – had to also tighten the same part on the right hand side sink – I then had a literal soapy lake to sop up. That presented another challenge for me… But it was easily figured out (yes, you have it right, I am not the most domestically Goddess blessed) and while I was down there, rearranged things and made it look quite neat and tidy underneath, plus I can now get more stuff in there… hehehe

Two loads of dishes later and the basin I eventually found and placed underneath to make sure there were no more leaks, gave me the big thumbs up by being bone dry.

So let’s see… what else can I fix in here…? Oh the fridge…

The “FridgeCool Fan with On/Off Switch” what we ordered. Now waiting anxiously for it to arrive. Hmmmmm wonder if it comes with instructions and best place to actually put the thing…

The back vents are icing over and only the top two shelves are nicely cold. Had to break down and order a fridge fan from Camping World, while we were at it, ordered a reflective dashboard window shade, let’s hope that’ll cut down on the heat that’s being generated in the vardo in this high heat – and to think, we’re only at the beginning of summer… SO have to get things fixed up so we can move on to some place else… some place cooler…

After a fair bit of research… on Pinterest… I learned that fridge fans are a basic necessity in RV fridges. But I wonder if I still have to defrost everything… It seems that freaky day where the freezer and fridge decided to defrost itself was a one-off. With veggies starting to go off in the bottom of the fridge, I think that we need to do something… Eat them all fast…? Maybe the fridge fan will work? Still have to wait for it to get here though – great getting internet sales, not-so-great having to wait 2 weeks (or more) for it to get here – anywhere else in the country and summer’ll be over by the time it arrives.

Anyone have any knowledge of these things and can give a bit of advise?

DIY Day

A minor emergency started our day off this morning when Ben went to get something from the freezer and nonchalantly tells me that the popsicles in the freezer have melted. WHAT??!!! He’s all calm and composed telling me that the popsicles have melted and so that means that the freezer has packed in! Battle stations people, I launch into full-fledged def-con 1 mode and begin pulling stuff out the freezer and then remember that the fridge is cooled by the freezer, so I check it… yup… warm.

How the heck did this happen? I mean, the vents in the back of the fridge were all frozen and iced over yesterday, and in discussing with one of the resident workers here, he told me that when that happens to make sure that we do a defrost – but obviously I am not going to be able to defrost the darn fridge/freezer, as it’s gone kaput.

We start a frantic search for some way to get this thing cooling again, and finally Ben gets online and starts to look up user manuals. Turns out, the fridge/freezer does an automatic defrost when it starts freezing up the vents. You’d think it would be polite enough to inform US that this was the case. In the meanwhile, the bloody popsicles have leaked out of their individual baggies and big bag and so everything has to come out of the freezer so it can be washed down. Oh and did I mention I am 5’4″ tall and the freezer is at least 5’4 off the ground?! That means that for me to clean, I’m up on tippy-toes and still can’t see or reach the back of the freezer – so yep, it became a job for Ben to do.

A couple of hours later, I checked on the freezer, after deciding to give it a rest and see if it magically decided to work again, and noticed that there was condensation on the back top of the freezer – several more hours later, I was able to just reach enough to feel the condensation which turned out to be ice. WOO HOO!!! Major catastrophe averted!

Before we ripped these horrid blinds and valance out

Well, this experience spurned us on to a couple of DIY’s. First item on the immediate list to be taken care of, the horrid broken blinds over the kitchen sink. No matter how much I would clean the area around the sink, each time I would lift the blinds – securing them open with clothes pegs (or close the silly things), it would still be filthy with a layer of dirt. These things HAD to go. The fact that they were broken amplified the fact that they were the first to be replaced.

Before we moved into the vardo, we picked up a really inexpensive set of blinds from Walmart – less than $4 for them, but they look really swanky and nice and Ben even “custom-fit” them. Now THAT impressed me… except that I had to hold the bloody thing up while he was “customizing” it – that was agonizing for me. I think I need to spend the next week with my feet up just to recover… 😉

So when you’re doing a fix-up, you can do it relatively inexpensively. There are tons of free things you can pick up from design centers too – they always get rid of their previous season materials and you can pick them up for free. While you won’t get reams of materials and such, and sometimes not even identical pieces, but you could make throw pillows (or pillow cases) from what you do pick up to create a whole new design. And you can change the designs each year if you like. You can even make “handkerchief” curtains from the material to create a larger piece. Like these… BTW I didn’t make these, but I am thinking of doing something similar with the material I have on hand. 🙂

Ben needed a couple of things which were kind of necessities for this job – a screwdriver and a measuring tape. Both of which we have… Where? We’ll stumble upon them somewhere… sometime… But today? For this job… Nope. So… we did what I am very good at doing, gerry-rigging and estimating. The difference is, Ben was working this job and not me, so it wasn’t a matter of simple estimations and attempt after attempt before it was half-arsed done. He is so much a perfectionist – so when he told me to get out of the way, I complied… and grabbed my camera instead.

He managed to borrow a screwdriver and drill from Jack (the owner here), so we were good to go, right…? I mean, how difficult is putting up blinds yeah? But then, this is us and there wouldn’t be a blog if it were… We are two of the most inept individuals, but hey, we try and when we do, we actually do a good job.

 

While we had these tools, Ben took advantage of the fact that we had them and took the old microwave out. Good thing we’d brought a shelf (from one of our old cabinets) with us because we had to put it into the hole for our microwave to fit in. Went to plug in the microwave and remembered that we only had two prongs on the plug as we’d had to pull out the grounding third prong as our last place only had a 2 pronged plug. We put the microwave in and… the shelf moved… Well, Ben got to use the drill as he screwed it into place. Now we were secure and good to go… put the microwave back in again and… it doesn’t work. I think there is something wrong with the outlet – which means the ancient microwave that was in there might actually work, it’s just the outlet broken. So… gerry-rigging to the rescue, we plugged it into the extension cord and basically use it the exact same way we had done when it was on the stove, only now it is high up. Oh and did I mention that it’s on about the same height as the freezer… grrrrrr being short sucks!

Microwave after

We started the blind DIY just after 3PM, it was finally finished just after 8PM. Yep… it took it’s time for sure, but it was so worth it. I cleaned the whole area up, cleaned the windows and the “sills”, fixed the stove top, and oh gosh it’s gorgeous.

   

After it’s all done, how gorgeous it looks

So… we plan on putting in a tile back-splash, and I think we’re going to put it right behind the stove itself, while the small area around the window, we’ll paint. I removed some of the wall paper which was peeling and bubbled. As money comes in, we’ll have to redo all the walls and get insulation put in to ensure it’s winterized as it’s just a wooden panel on the walls. I’m now wondering about painting as I think the undercoat will more than likely get soaked up into the wood, might need a fair few coats just to hold the top coat(s).

The area behind the stove is where we’ll put the tile backsplash

Well… now that the kitchen window is done, I’m eager to get the rest of the windows done. The rest of them, I’m also going to get curtain dowels and put up curtains over the blinds – extra privacy and pretty it up for us in here too.

So what do you think? My very own DIY! HA

While Ben was sweating it up in the over 10o°F temperature, I did my own “DIY” (HA) project… tell me, what do you think…? 😉

Winston had another very hot day today. Poor lil guy, he was panting most of the day, but he was very happy when he got to sit up on the sofa right in front of the floor fan and cooled down. As you can see from this photo, he’s smiling. 🙂

And of course, can’t not share with you how relaxed and at home the girls are… here they are chillin – although I think Ezmi really was the one lounging the most today…

Ezmi

Ainey

Nari

Ezmi’s perfect spot to bird-watch

Settling In…

Today I finally got around to unpacking and finding a home for the things that were on and around the dining room table. Boy it was hard and tedious work and I’m SO ready for bed… Maybe I’ll swap beds with Ben tonight and opt for his comfy bed up in back and he can sleep on the painfully uncomfortable sofa/futon bed that is my bed…

There are only three things left to be sorted through, unpacked, and homes found for them; and the belong to Ben, so he’s got a job ahead of him this weekend.

Soon, I’ll be able to start looking at decorating. I need to get giving some readings for that to take place… And the toilet fixed… and the kitchen sink… and… and… and…

This morning,  I went into the bathroom and it stank like a skunk had crawled up and in and sprayed in there. Ben was convinced it was the sewer since we can’t flush right now, I was convinced it was him (HA)… in actual fact, I think that there was a skunk in the area and the smell wafted in and stuck… It was gone an hour later. The joys of living in the semi-wilds.

I didn’t get a chance to go out once today. I volunteered Ben to take Winston out as I really wanted to get this area sorted and tidied up, but I’ll take him out for his last walk.

Oh… we had a rain drop fall this evening. The weather said there might be chance of a storm… we’ve been told that here in the desert, we get about 2-3% humidity and that the rains dry up before they reach anything. We had a big gust of wind which swayed the whole vardo, and then a sound that sounded like a few rain drops… I looked out the window, and there was literally one splat of water rolling down the window… and then… it dried up. Out here, I can wet a dish rag, do some cleaning and then hang it to dry, and it’s dry in 15-20 minutes! It’s almost freaky.

Dinner tonight… I made a pot roast again. Enough for leftovers tomorrow and on Sunday, I think I’m going to make (Romani) sodmay *cabbage rolls*

About sums up the entire day… I’m seriously exhausted and think maybe I should have laid down for siesta when the rest of the household did this afternoon… now everyone is up and wide awake and I’m about ready to crash…

Afternoon siesta… Ainey and Ezmi finding unpacking and sorting terribly exhausting and time to set the tone for the rest of the family to have afternoon siesta…

Winston joins the family in afternoon siesta time.

Ezmi is woken up by the arrival of a new RV to the park – could be here a few days, or just overnight…

There! The corner with the dining table is all cleared up and looking very nice. Ezmi thinks this was done for her and her alone so that she has a new place to sleep.

Thank you Mummy for making a place for me to sleep on

Ezmi chillin

Baby girl Ezmi’s 1st birthday tomorrow – Saturday May 11th 2013