Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
home improvements

and now this

After getting a bunch of rain the other day, I checked the basement for water. There wasn’t any rain water, but there was some water around the water heater. It was coming out of the expansion valve tube. The plumber came yesterday and replaced some parts on the water heater and also installed a pressure reducing valve on the water line, which, apparently, it should have already had.

Last night, I checked on the water heater and there was water on the floor again. I couldn’t remember if it was like that when he left or if I was still having a problem, but things are dry this morning, so it must have been the former. I’m still keeping an eye on it, but it doesn’t look like there’s a problem at this point.

That all said, the water heater was installed 16 years ago, so it could go at any time. And prices for them have skyrocketed over the past 2 years, much like everything else. It’s going to cost more than double when I have it replaced. At least I know to put some additional money back for that inevitable expense.

live entertainment

beth hart

Last year, I discovered this singer/songwriter, despite the fact that she’s been on the scene for 20+ years. And, I’ve been obsessed ever since. I hoped one day to see her in concert, so imagine my surprise when I found out that she was coming to The Palace Theatre in Greensburg! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, The Palace Theatre is one of my favorite venues to see a show.

And, what a great show it was! The band played for a Dave Grohl-worthy 2 hours and 15 minutes. She played a lot of stuff from her latest albums (I guess I’m going to have to buy her Led Zeppelin cover album now) and did a little acoustic set at the end of the show. Here’s the setlist. Much like the Foo Fighters, she does a different setlist for each show, so you never know what you’re going to get. Also, I wanted to mention that she’s the only singer I’ve heard that sounds better live than recorded. Amazing.

I went by myself and had a really great time, so I plan on doing it again in the future (I mean, I’ve gone to a bunch of shows in Johnstown solo, but this was the first one out of town). It’s not like you can talk at these things anyway. I did have a second ticket and asked one of my music-loving, dog-walking friends to go, but she was unable to attend. I tried selling it on StubHub, but it did not sell. As it turns out, there were a bunch of empty seats. Had I known that, I would have dropped the price. Oh well. I don’t really care, though, it was totally worth the money. And, I didn’t have to sit next to anyone.

Due to the length of the show, I got home late for a work night, so I’m a bit tired today, but it was totally worth it!

relationships

dating

The last guy stopped texting a couple days after our date, so I guess he wasn’t interested. I didn’t really see that one working out, anyway. But, he seemed nice enough.

Fast forward to last weekend, when I started talking to a new guy. He’s also from the Pittsburgh area, but not the city, which makes things a little easier, I guess (I really do not like driving in Pittsburgh). We seemed to have a lot in common and a lot to talk about. We even had a lengthy phone conversation during the week (and I don’t even like talking on the phone). His son goes to Pitt-Johnstown and he had to drop him off there last night, so we decided to go out for drinks. Because, what else is there to do in Johnstown on a Sunday night? It was tough finding a place that was open. We ended up at Applebees, which was surprisingly busy. I guess because not many other places were open. We were there almost two hours and still had a lot to talk about. And, we have plans to see each other again next weekend.

do-it-yourself

kitchen and bath

The bathroom is back to normal. I removed all of the fixtures before painting and cleaned and reinstalled everything between yesterday and today. Things are looking good in there.

I mentioned before that I got a new range hood for the kitchen. It needed to be installed before they do the countertops/backsplash, so I decided to tackle that this weekend, as well. I removed the old one last night and got the new one ready to install, but I needed Jake’s help for the installation portion (someone needed to hold it up, while the other person screwed it to the cabinet), so that had to wait until this afternoon. Things seem to be working, but I’ll put it to the real test when I cook supper.

do-it-yourself, home improvements

the bathroom

Last September, I had the bathtub refinished. I was cleaning the tub last week and found a crack in the finish. The finish bubbled in a spot and cracked. I contacted the guy who did the tub and he came over this morning to fix it. He said that the finish didn’t bond properly in that area for whatever reason. When I found the problem, I took a close look at the entire tub and couldn’t find any additional issues, so hopefully this will be it. I have the slight inconvenience of not being able to use the tub again until tomorrow, but I’m not going to complain since it was covered under the warranty.

That said, since the tub looks great, it inspired me to paint the bathroom, which I finally got around to this afternoon. I decided to go with a color other than gray this time and chose Breezeway (but, don’t worry, I’m going to paint the living room, kitchen, and dining room different shades of gray). But, leave it to me to look at dozens of colors of paint and unknowingly select Behr’s color of the year for 2022. I think it turned out well, but if you squint, the room could still be gray.