Gas leak & a cranky bed

Bob was over early to continue work on the hot water heater which should technically have been working but "might" have a gas leak. You find gas leaks usually by putting it in water or rubbing soap over it. I, however, have yet to find dish soap. He ended up just smelling for it and that was enough to justify replacing it. He had to redo the whole gas line set-up that attaches to the water heater but attributed it to a bad valve. That's the important part that meets the pilot light and actually heats the water after ignition. He was in and out all day and tried to work on the bracing for the water heater. His initial plan of wood supports was scrapped for a metal strut one. Our water heater might double as a jungle gym when its done but its definitely not going anywhere in an earthquake.

Anne stayed with Katherine for a little bit and I got some unpacking done before she had to leave. My mom came over in the afternoon and I got a little bit more done before the baby had to take a nap. I didn't want to unpack anything because the sound of rustling paper and cabinets opening might have woken her up. Sound carries surprisingly far in this house; in fact I can hear Mike snoring upstairs now. I shouldn't have worried though because she slept through the chop saw being used in the garage to cut the steel struts.

Mom and I tried to tackle the office/ guest room in the downstairs bedroom while she slept. Our "office" at our old house was a guest room, an office, camera/ computer part storage, craft room and general store room. We plan on keeping the desk in the downstairs bedroom and otherwise trying to keep it as much of a "guest room" as we can. The upstairs green room will someday be kid #2 but for now can be a craft room and stores everything that is too small or too young for Katherine. All our other storage stuff will actually be able to find homes elsewhere, we just don't know where yet. We have lots of space, which we know will eventually fill up, but we're trying to find out what will be the most logical location. That and we're still unloading boxes so we'll think all of one thing will fit in one location only to find another box of it and have to move everything. A lot of this miscellaneous stuff is marked "office" because that's where it came from, even though that's not where its going. So that in and of itself has been challenging.

We finally moved enough stuff around that we had room to build the guest bed. Now, eventually, we will have a full size bed in that room when we upgrade our full size bed to a queen. Until then, our guest bed remains my old twin day bed. My mom and I figured out today that its 22 years old. It works; for everyone but Keith and George. Someday guys, someday. ;)

The bed, if you haven't seen it, is made of steel and heavy as hell, but it has pretty flowers on it. The connection between the bed frame (what you sleep on) and the sides of the bed is actually a strange double bolt. The bolt is roughly C shaped and each part goes through a hole in the side of the bed through the steel tube. Each bolt has to go through the frame of the bed and then a nut holds it in place. On one side Mom and I had a hard time keeping the bolt through both holds as we tried to fit it through (see "what it tried to do" below). At some point in its life it had lock nuts on it but that time is gone. Once we got to the other side we were surprised to find no bolts. We shook the side and sure enough we heard the bolt sliding from one side of the bed to the other. There are brass knobs on the top so we pulled those out first but found that the tube was sealed off at that point. At the bottom was a plastic foot; a paint knife made quick work of that and the bolts slid out. Then it was a matter of getting it back in in the right spot.

We didn't see any way we would be able to slide it up the leg and just happen to get the bolts in the right orientation through the holes so we tried from the outside in. Surprisingly, the bolt is just long enough that it does not easily slide through one hole and into the correct alignment through the other. It took some work on one side but we got it in and got a nut on it so it didn't fall out. The other one, on the other hand, took some convincing. Many problems with fittings can be corrected with a hammer; I was eventually able to force the bolt into all the way into the tube and *tink* right down through to the bottom. After I recovered it again through the bottom I tried it again, gentler this time and was able to get it. Mike took the bed apart by himself before the move and swore he never would again. The next time we take this bed apart it will be to sell it so I'll never have to put it together again.

Since reassembling the bed took the majority of the baby's nap we didn't get much else done. Its all slowly coming together but slow is frustrating. Katherine can open all the long handle (no doorknobs) doors in the house, has discovered the kitchen cabinets are not locked, and loves to play at the landing at the top of the stairs above the tile floor. In fact today she was practicing her somersaults right at the top. With that many potential heart attacks, its hard to be productive on my own. Its a good thing our parents live near by or we would be living like this for years.

Tomorrow I hope to find the dish soap and run the dishwasher for the first time. Its 20 years old and looks like its never been run. I found the laundry soap but there are still some fittings we have to finish. But hey, the baby got a warm bath tonight so I can stand dirty dishes and clothes.