Home "Improvement"

Tonight was the night that I nearly made a ruins out of my kitchen. We got a new fridge a few days ago, and I decided to attempt the installation of the water line for the icemaker/water dispenser. After a couple of trips to Home Depot I had all of my fittings and tools. I had drilled the holes and run the water line earlier, which was a whole experience in itself. I at least managed to avoid drilling through the dishwasher, so that was a bonus. The old cold water pipe came apart fairly well and the new fittings and valves weren't too bad, but once I had most everything hooked up I had water pressure in every faucet except the sink.

I had to go into the crawlspace approximately seventy-five times to turn the water on and off. There are a lot of spiderwebs down there, and I saw at least one rather large Black Widow. I hate spiderwebs and dust and especially poisonous spiders. They make my skin crawl. I think they're neat and all, but not when I'm crawling around in their habitat. I didn't get bitten, so that's a plus.

But I couldn't get the water pressure to be more than a trickle and I was becoming angry. I banged around for a while and then took a break to clear my head. I had partially disassembled the faucet already, but an article I read led me to believe that the problem was deeper inside the faucet. I dug around and pulled the faucet all apart, sprayed water all over the kitchen, and felt some pretty big pieces of grit come through. Then I put it back together again and it worked better than it had before. And the water dispenser on the fridge isn't pumping out black water anymore. And my wife is still talking to me. So tonight I have been to the depths of despair and the heights of triumph. It worked out all right in the end.

The Update

After a few months of searching and offering and waiting and inspecting and signing paperwork we finally have purchased a house. We signed the papers yesterday and everything processed today, so we've started the process of moving in. We went over there today to drop some stuff off and wait for the locksmith to come and change the locks out.

As soon as we showed the neighbors from one house over came over to introduce themselves. Later another neighbor came over to talk to us. We mentioned that we were waiting on the water to be turned on, which the city couldn't do until Monday. He mentioned that he worked for the city and could turn on our water tonight after reading out meter and leaving a message at the office. So we got water a couple days early.

Now I'm really tired, so I am going to bed.

Not much to post about. The kid likes to play inside of boxes. He's popping some more teeth out in the top to go with his lower teeth.

Packing up for the move is going fairly well, but the living room is so full of boxes that it is difficult to walk through the house. It would be lame if the house fell through at the last minute and I had to move all that stuff back into the rest of the house.

I reworked my Imperial Guard lists to include the models that I like and want to paint and play with. It should still be a good army to game with; I think I hit most of my bases as far as anti-tank and anti-infantry. I'm a little short on Troop choices, though. I may have to alter the lists again to increase my Troop selections.

Packing Up

We are hoping to close on the house within the next week, so we've been packing our stuff up in boxes and staging it for loading in the truck. It is a pain, especially when you've packed ten or fifteen boxes of stuff and the room doesn't really look any different. But we're making progress. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we can have most of the small non-essential stuff ready to go. Then we just have to wait for the paperwork side of things to go through.

In between packing boxes I've been trying to work out army lists for 40k. After building my initial Imperial Guard list I felt that it didn't have enough figures to stand up against Space Marines or Orks. So I am looking for ways to increase the number of figures without sacrificing too much in the way of firepower. I've also been reading up on various tactics and builds that work, although I think playing the Math Hammer game takes away from the aspects of army-building that appeal to me most. I redid my Space Marine lists again, but I think I am going to switch them back again, as I wound up without a great variety of units. I'd like to pack a few different things into my lists rather than running (and painting) a million of the exact same thing.

The Pledge

I recently made my own version of the Pledge. It doesn't involve painting a certain number of figures; I just am not allowed to purchase any new figures until sometime in August. Hobby supplies are okay. So far I've made it. I had a close call at the hobby shop with the new GW Temple of Skulls. The sticker price on it is rather high, but the store discount is pretty good on certain items and the box containing the model is much larger than I expected. But I refrained from getting it. I did buy a couple of jars of paint and a book on building scenery. The new Land Speeder Storm transport for Space Marine Scouts and the Ironclad Dreadnought are being released soon, and I'd really like to pick up the Warhammer Fantasy Empire starter box as well as a Steam Tank. But I've made it this far fairly easily and I may extend my Pledge another month or two just to save some money.

I've got plenty of stuff to keep me busy; I may transition a bit more into buying bits here and there on eBay for conversions rather than buying new box sets all the time. Or combining the two like I did with my Assault Terminators. With the five Terminator bodies from Assault on Black Reach you can turn a five-man Assault Terminator box into a ten-man Squad with five Thunder Hammer/Storm Shields and five Lightning Claws.

Finished Reading The Last Chancers

I finished reading The Last Chancers a day or two ago. I felt that the last book in the collection was the weakest. It's probably just personal preference, as the last book took some turns that I didn't care for. I don't want to post any spoilers, but the story included more Chaos than the others. The various Chaos armies are probably my least favorite parts of the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k universes. They just don't do anything for me the way that much of the other background does. As with anything, your experience and preference may vary. I will still be building a portion of my army to reflect the Last Chancers and even have one or two characters from the last book modelled in the army, but overall I was disappointed with the way the series ended.