What's up? Water, Water, Fan

I have been dragging my feet on sewing.

This has been partly due to sewing underwear, which I will not show, but they were easy to make.  Here's the link.

More than that, it's been working around the house.

When our kitchen sink faucet was so old that it had to be replaced, we just happened to start that project on Labor Day Weekend.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND.  What a clue!

First, we had to remove the old faucet, by turning these:

They. Would. Not Turn.

Not by me, not by my husband, and not by the kid next door.

Let's try to take it off from the top. Great idea?

Or not.  Let's just replace the sink. Disconnect everything, and measure the hole:

Buy a new sink:

Connect everything to the sink before installing:

Jerry-rig the water filter attachment:

Install and test for leaks:

Fix two leaks and final leak test:

Yep, that was part one.

Find a bad smell in the front yard. Assume that the septic tank lid has fallen in. Call the septic company for an estimate. Find that the tank is fine, but the drain field has caved in and needs to be rebuilt: Pay them to tear up the whole front yard in the name of Fixing:

Plant grass seed and hope it grows. Note, it's growing fine.

That was part two.

Part three is that the fan in the bathroom finally died.  Heck, it was probably 50 years old. The hardest part was rebuilding the hole from round to square. Taking his time to get it right, DH took about two weeks from start to finish.

Those are my excuses, and I'm sticking with them!

More Not-Sewing

Here is a report of household organization.  Much rearranging and de-cluttering has been in process!

The guest room "before" pictures:

The guest room as it looks now, part-way through the task:
I do not have a "before" picture of the garage, but the back portion has been cleaned up quite a bit:

Here's an old end table in the living room:

We sold the living room table set to a consignment shop and got a smaller set from the same store. One new-to-us end table is in the living room, between the couch and the chair, with a very tidy effect:
The other end table is now my husband's bedside table, something he hadn't had for a long time:

Progress, however small, is still sweet!

Rearranged Stuff, etc. (picture heavy)

I have "after" pictures because I forgot to take "before" pictures.  Isn't that just how it goes sometimes?

There was a row of rolling storage carts in the sewing room, but they were piled with junk.  There was a row of boxes and containers in the cutting room, likewise piled high with stuff.  Yesterday afternoon I cleared off these piles and swapped the row of boxes with the row of storage carts.  Here's how it now looks:

Ah, yes, I did manage to do one other sewing-related thing over the weekend.  I organized and scanned the fronts and backs of 82 patterns I no longer need.  They are for sale in the Classified section at Pattern Review.  If you cannot see my listings (at lower left on the site), please let me know.  Of course, what would a little reorganization be without finding more fabric that I don't need?  I may have to list it on ebay; if so, I will let you know.

I also "got" to help DH while he prepped, primed, and painted parts of the exterior of the house.  Here are some pictures which include the use of boards to stabilize the step ladder, and the addition of another board to the top of the ladder on which to rest the paint tray: