Curse you, letterpress

why must you be so beautiful... and expensive. and beautiful. i've always been fascinated by fonts and all things paper, but for some odd reason, had never really been introduced to letterpress. which in hindsight is probably for the best.

so now that i'm working on wedding stationary (there's more to it than just an invitation, it turns out), i'm completely and totally obsessed with these letterpress works of art. alas, these brilliant works of art are a bit beyond my reach (read: out of budget... i really cannot see spending $2-4K on wedding paper items), which is why i curse you, letterpress.

a couple of my favorites so far...

hello lucky
bella figura

there are so many more... and so little time (and money).

blinds

we received the new blinds a few days ago and installed them this morning. it isn't terribly hard to install blinds or take down old ones, so this was rather uneventful. the trickiest part was putting the bracket in the right place so it would mount correctly on the rail.

i didn't get a great "before" picture of the old, disgusting, mildewy, pink!, broken blinds.  i got a few pictures of them after we took them down... note how gross they are... eeewww.

the new blinds are installed and they look great. unfortunately, the lighting is bad right now for pictures, so i'll post some later once the direct afternoon sunlight is gone.

how to replace 1980's delta roman tub spout & handles

i hesitate to say this project is complete, only because a leak could form at any moment and plumbing makes me nervous and insane.  that said, we have replaced both the tub spout and the handles from an old delta (circa late 1980's) wall mount roman tub contraption.

here's where we start, with the yellow polished brass fixture. notice that the finish on the spout is completely flaking off. (it was like that when we moved in).



those are some sweet handles, huh?  i'm willing to part with them for the right price.

first, we took off all the decorative pieces to see what lies beneath...

very exciting and a little bit scary.

yesterday we were able to get the spout on -- here's the picture as of yesterday (note the handles are still acrylic and partially gold).

today we shut off the water and took apart the... well, now that i think of it, i really don't know what these things are called... the things the handles go on. that'll do. 

the stems (the plastic thing poking out in figure 2) are held in place with a nut... (i neglected to take pictures of all this...). so you just unscrew that and the outside sleeve (the gold part) slides off and there's a little plastic ring behind it. the stem just comes out.

behind the stem are these little thingy's called "seats and springs". since there are two faucets, there's only one seat and one spring behind each stem. you flip those out with a screwdriver or needlenose pliers (carefully). and then replace with new ones.

this is important - you need to remember what direction the stems are installed. so make a mental note or take a picture or something. anyway, put in the new one in the right direction. put on the new sleeve and little plastic thing (making sure to line up the grooves) and then replace the nut. then put on the handle and tighten with the set screw.

these are the parts -- on the top are the stems and the bottom are seats and springs:

that is it, lather, rinse, repeat for the other handle.

then go turn on the water and pray that it works. it seems to have worked, but i'm still waiting for something to spring a leak.  at any rate, here is the finished product:

the lighting is a little weird, since it's nighttime. not the fixture of my dreams, but certainly more up to date than "the before".

i'd like to thank delta customer service for providing me with schematics of my old faucet valve that contained the replacement parts for everything you see here, ups for the overnight delivery of many of these parts, the awesome lady at mcclendon's hardware for actually helping us (i'm looking at you, keller "go to home-depot" supply) find some of the little doohickies that we needed, and finally and most importantly, my sweetie who has patiently done all of the work to get this mofo installed and operational. xoxo

tub filler... success

i said the other day that the new tub filler didn't fit. which was true. today while we were browsing through mcclendon's hardware store, we came across this little brass thingy that seemed like it would extend the pipe out of the wall further and it might be long enough to actually work, so for $5 we figured it was worth a shot.

we got it home, put it on, attached the tub filler... and it was just a bit too far away from the wall, but definitely progress, so my sweetie figured that he could cut off part of the piece so it would be shorter and thus, closer to the wall. fast forward a few minutes, reattach everything.. and it works! it's still not quite flush with the wall, but it's close enough for government work. and the filler more or less reaches far enough to clear the deck of the tub (so the stream of water doesn't splash everywhere -- well, it splashes, but just about as much as the old one did... so... eff it).

here's a picture (ignore the handles -- we will replace those soon):

baby steps...

sometimes, in the face of adversity, small wins give you some momentum. yesterday, i was able to complete a few of my tasks related to "operation: no polished brass".  i swaped out the recessed toilet paper holder, the tub overflow drain cover and the tub drain (although the part we got for the drain is a cheap piece of crap, so we might change it again). baby steps.

even simple home improvement sucks

and isn't ever "simple". the replacement tub spout totally doesn't fit.  really bummed right now... i'm afraid to even consider the shower because it's probably another disaster... and then we won't have a shower.

on the bright side, i ordered new blinds... maybe someday they'll arrive.

a minor snag

i am starting to dislike plumbing - a lot.

i found out from the manufacturer about the replacement parts for the monstrosity in the master bath... here it is:

so the handles i ordered fit, however they don't fit the way i wanted them to (flush with the wall). instead this particular faucet contraption requires the silly escutcheon plates and sleeves. the first thing is these are polished brass (not gold, polished brass is the technical term), so they are awful. the replacements i can get are polished chrome. which is ok. it's not gold, which is the overall goal here. i thought maybe the handles would work and maybe i could refinish the other stuff in stainless... so i could still totally do that, but then realized that the lovely tub spout will look like a mosquito head next to these bulky handles. not good. the good news is that i found all the replacement parts i need for this in chrome "better than gold."

the annoying news is that i placed an order for the spout and handles and forgot the escutcheon plates, so i'm paying more for shipping. not the end of the world, just annoying. everything should be here by thursday. except the innards, which will be here on monday, i think. the tub spout i've canceled (after they told me it would be 4-6 weeks), so that's taken care of... last thing is returning the first set of handles, which i will do tomorrow when i have energy to make a phone call (i hate the phone).

once this tub faucet project is complete, i will move on to replacing the shower stuff (on order) and the sink faucets (still deciding). is it bad to mix finishes in the same room or should i go all chrome... that is the next question. of course, the shower stuff i ordered is stainless, but it's in an alcove, so maybe it doesn't matter too much.

did i mention that i ordered blinds?