A Two Day Lesson In DIY

Source: Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

Last night we saw a beautiful Harvest Moon over our area. Sadly, for many, the moon reflected off the still receding flood water than inundated their homes. One riverside town in our area may cease to exists after this flood. 40% of the people who resided in the town never went back after Hurricane Floyd flooded its streets in 1999. Many of the residents say Hurricane Matthew was the final straw.

Meanwhile, those of us who can have been helping those displaced by the flood through donations of time, material, and money to organizations such as Catholic Charities, The Salvation Army, Red Cross, and various other churches. The folks whose homes were lost to the flood need everything from toothbrushes and tooth paste to clothes to new furnishings. My wife and I filled our pickup with such items from our own closets, Sam’s Club, and Target and delivered them to Catholic Charities the other day. I am humbled to say the first drop off point we went to, the County Extension Office, has been so blessed with donations they had nearly no room for more when we stopped by. As loads were prepared and sent off to shelters, more room for new was being made. The need is greater than any one warehouse can hold.

Others in the area, not as hard hit, after doing what we’re able, are trying to get back to as close to normal as we can. My wife and I spent a good part of yesterday and most of today working on fixing things around the house. I have learned two important things in doing so.

Source:Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

The first is, I am no electrician. A friend of mine who is a subcontractor installed a new vent fan and light combination in one of our bathrooms but he is not licensed to do wiring. I looked at the schematic on the instruction sheet and thought it seemed straightforward enough I could do it myself. WRONG. While I have, in the past, successfully changed out a light fixture or two and maybe a light switch here and there, it eventually, after too much time spent hunched over in the attic, that wiring this combined vent/fan was too much for me.

I did get all the wires connected, the ground attached, and thought everything should to smoothly from there. When I turned on the circuit breaker and threw the switch, nothing happened. At that point I knew I needed expert help. I detached the wiring, capped it off, put the tape back over the switch to prevent it from being accidentally activated, and put all my tools away.

Today, we are working on our sunroom floor. My subcontractor friend, who does great work, replaced a section of the floor that had rotted. This morning, my wife and I have been working on taking up the Press-And-Stick tiles we put down over a decade and a half ago during one of our earlier DIY projects. The tiles came up easily enough, with the help of a square edged shovel. That was the easy part. Once the tiles were up, we realized there was going to be a lot more work to do to prepare the floor for the new tiles, or carpet, or whatever we decide on, than we thought.

Such is the life of a homeowner. No project is ever as straightforward or simple as you think it’s going to be. I hope to be able to translate this lesson into my classroom the next time I think something should be straightforward and simple for my students.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator