Pool Puppies and Scallops and a Leak???

Okay, I have not posted a lot of stuff about the doggers lately.  So here is a video clip to get your fill of my two silly pups!

Now, if you are not into playing YouTubes, or are low on bandwidth, here are a few photos below.  But you REALLY need to watch the video to get the gist of it.  

Neither one was too thrilled about 

being put in the pool, 

to say the least! 

When I took them out, they immediately went and laid down in the DIRT!!!  So I had to rinse them off again and put them on tie out ropes on the clean cement of the driveway instead.  Geesh!

The rain finally ended this morning, and I think we got almost 3 inches here around Chilton.  Some areas south of us got even more. When the sun poked out this afternoon, I set up my sawhorses and put out some of the scalloped edging pavers to get a couple coats of solid colored acrylic stain on them.  Using a small roller, it went quite fast! 

So I stuck an extension handle on the roller and did up the ones waiting in the garage.  Why handle them twice? Each one weighs over 10 pounds. I did them right on the garage floor, and flipped them up to to do the top edges. 

By the time Steveio got home from work, they were dry enough to set into place! Wheeeee

We do have to trim one block by 1/3 to get it all to fit, 

I kinda did a quick measurement and guesstimate before buying them.

 I think it will look great when it's all done! 

Tomorrow I will fill in around the plants with the bags of black mulch that I have waiting in the garage.  Now that the soft maple helicopter mess is just about over, and done falling to the ground, so we can have a clean slate to work on now.  Otherwise it didn't pay to put down the black mulch if it was going to get buried in dried out tan/brown helicopter pods.

We do have to keep the 3 rain gutter downspouts there

or else we get a lot of water in the basement.

Speaking of "water in the basement" .... we have noticed a minor leak coming down the drain pipe from the upstairs bathroom.  It has been running down the pipe mostly when draining the tub or using the shower.  Fortunately it has not damaged any walls, floors or ceilings.  Just a trickle coming down the old cast pipe from the second floor, directly down inside the wall in the laundry room and runs onto the floor in the basement.

Soooooo tonight Steveio started to knock out the wall in the laundryroom to see where the leak was.  The pipe runs up a space alongside the chimney, all boxed in by plaster and lathe, and a surface layer of some milkhouse board in the laundryroom (it used to be a panty/kitchen until we converted it).

He pulled off the glued-on milkhouse board and then chipped away at the plaster until he exposed the lathes.

Just look how thick our plaster is?  it's like thick cement, not lime type plaster.  No wonder our 100 year old house doesn't have any cracks in the plaster like most old houses do.

He cut away all the lathes and held his breath as he took a look.... hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.  YAY!!! The leak was right at eye level in the section of pipes that join in an accessible region!  (he had been worried he would have to pull up the floor in the bathroom upstairs) 

Now that it should be an easy fix to cut that portion out and put in new PVC drain pipe, he might also cut out the hot and cold supply pipes and swap them over to PEX tubing at the same time.  

So here goes the weekend at 

Our Old House!