Personal Note: House Stuff

[nebroadwe]

Yesterday I had a plumber come to fix the sink (and I cannot say that without recalling the Electric Company's animated sketch -- ou sont les neiges d'antan?). Turns out that the leak I thought was coming from the drainpipe actually originated with the drain basket and the leak from beneath the faucet was perhaps just the result of it being badly caulked. So a lotta money later I have a re-caulked faucet and a new drain basket ... and a new strainer, the first one I've ever had that actually works (i.e. isn't built to default to plug-the-sink mode if you jostle it absently). Bonus! Next task is to seal the underlip of the kitchen countertop, which I can do myself once I lay in some 80-grit sandpaper and polyurethane. Yay for tasks that don't require hiring a contractor at great expense.

I hope the rest of my house doesn't take the plumber's visit as permission to start pulling a wonderful one-hoss shay, though. I went to do a load of laundry this morning and discovered that the washer was half-full of water. (!!) I drained it and am now regarding it with stern and piercing gaze as it goes about cleaning my sheets. I'm really hoping I don't have to replace it until after I've remodeled the bathroom ...

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

"Don't CALL me a dog of the military!" Ed nearly howls at that, realizing just what sort of a verbal trap he's walked in to - dammit, why wasn't Al even on his side, today?

Right on top of Ed's words, Winry shrugged at Alphonse. "Ed must not've gotten the training Miss Hawkeye's dog did."

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Al knows what his brother's thinking and thinks that Ed shouldn't have pointed the finger at him first. "Maybe," he says to Winry, his frown upending into a grin despite all his efforts to control it, "if Colonel Mustang had tried food rewards ..."

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

"That BASTARD can't teach me ANYTHING!" Ed's steamwhistle howl makes Winry wince in response.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Al just looks at him, the word "obviously" hanging like smoke in the air between them ...

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

"Getting back to the wallpaper." Winry is determined to find out the end of this story. Mishap. Why the Elric Brothers are never invited to spend any more unsupervised time at Miss Gracia's house.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Still incandescing at Al, Ed has only a terse, crude, and physically impossible suggestion for anyone who cares about the matter to do to, or possibly with, the wallpaper.

"Brother!" remonstrates Al, taking a quick step back out of Winry's potential line of fire.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

"Edward Elric." Winry's fists are on her hips and she's got that expression on her face - you know the one: Obey or Die. "Tell me what happened with the wallpaper. Right. Now."

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Only a few things are capable of giving Edward Elric pause, and Winry in obey-or-die mode is one of them. His fury dims as surely as if she'd tweaked some internal rheostat, but nevertheless he hesitates. "It was an accident!"

"What was an accident?" Winry's voice clearly warns that she won't be aiming for his rheostat next time.

The brothers exchange glances, Ed's angry and frustrated, Al's angry and ... embarrassed? Then they both begin explaining at once: "It really was an accident --" "That damn dog grabbed the paper --" "-- thought I had it figured out --" "-- didn't realize Al was actually going to --" "-- should have allowed for uneven adhesion --" "-- came down, and plaster every frickin' where --" "-- but we were cleaning it up --" "-- dog tracking paste through the house --" "-- told Mrs. Hughes we were sorry --"

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Winry slaps her palm over her eyes, her hand dragging down over her face. "Wait. Wait. Slow down." She points at the elder Elric. "Why did you think alchemy would solve it?" Holding up her hand before he can even get a word out, Winry says, "Oh. Right," and stares at both brothers with a frighteningly harsh stare.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Ed opens his mouth, but Al puts a hand on his arm. "It wasn't Ed who tried alchemy," he tells Winry. "It was me."

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

"But only after we tried everything else." Ed is determined not to let Alphonse take all the blame.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

"Everything ... else?" Winry hopes that's metaphorical. Ed can be startlingly creative about things other than alchemy, but his habit of hypothesizing ahead of his data (otherwise, leaping before he looks) has led to domestic catastrophe more than once. There was the treehouse incident, and the exploding pies, and ... "Al, what did you do?" she asks hastily.

"Well, we kept getting air pockets between the paper and the wall," Al answers, "so I thought I could use alchemy to kind of, well, push them out at the top, so the paper would lie flat."

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Ed's trying valiantly to contain a smile and losing the battle. "Hey, Winry," he snickers, going down for the count, "every hear a wall fart?"