handy man

since i've got so much free time on my hands, i have been trying to fix the place up a bit. that means that i get to pull out my tools and pretend to be good with them! really, i am not much of a fix-it guy, which is a bit surprising because my dad is the do-it-yourself guru! on a saturday afternoon to relax, he will go wander the halls of home depot! i wish i had gotten some of that from him, but instead i am relegated to just trying my best. which sometimes leads to failure...
some of the stuff i've been able to take care of (with a reasonable amount of success). the other side of the duplex had some wiring issues with a few light switches that no longer worked. i went over there with my tool belt on (ok, i dont actually have a tool belt, but i did stuff them into my pockets!) and replace the broken switches in the second bedroom and the bathroom. both were fairly simple and surprisingly successful! also there was a pretty big leak in the bathtub faucet. i tried my best, i took it apart, stared at it, and put it back together. i was flabbergasted that that didnt work! i decided to take my dad's advice: 'son, when it comes to plumbing- call a professional! its not worth the headache'. wise words papa, wise words! i got a plumber over and he took a look, ran to get some parts, and was done within an hour. amazing! another project i wanted to tackle was changing all the light switches and sockets in our bedroom. i had planned on doing that back when we repainted before i got married, but never got around to it. i had all the stuff already purchased, waiting for me to do it, so i finally did. it went pretty well with only one electrical shortage, blowing the fuse. is that burning i smell?!? turned out that one of the sockets was touching the metal box, so it short circuited the whole place... oops. i then wrapped it in many layers of electrical tape, and all was fixed!
all in all, i was pretty proud of myself! now i just need to do some painting and the place will look brand new. ish.