Sprinkler Heads

I just so happen to LOVE the weekend (I know, what a weirdo). I had such big plans for this one but it is raining. So... I've been sitting around the house dreaming of all the things I can do around here. Don't get me wrong, I have a wonderful home! But I very much enjoy learning how to make improvements. I like being a "handy-man"! I want to try to post my tasks projects here on this blog so that other women (or men, I guess) can see how to do minor projects in the words of a "normal" person. What I mean is, I spend a lot of time learning the language of home repair before I even start a project. I am going to try to reduce that time spent for others. Again, not sure if anyone else will actually read it, but I know a few people who do work around their homes so maybe if some of the same problems arise, I can be of at least a little help.  Today I have to raise up a couple sprinkler heads.

Sprinklers:  When I turn on the sprinklers and the grass is slightly longer than normal, the water sprays into the grass and stops about a foot out from the heads. It is supposed to get to around eight feet so that is no bueno. In order to increase the distance of the water spray, other than keeping the lawn very short which I know is unlikely to happen, I need to raise up the sprinkler heads.

  First, you need to get the sprinkler head out of the ground. When I say sprinkler head, I mean the part that has the sprinkler inside of it. When you look down at a sprinkler and you see a circle within a circle, you are looking at the top of the head. When the pressure of the water hits this, the little tube inside pops up and sprays water around the yard (or in my case, the directly adjacent grass). So, I have to get this out to raise it all up. I dug out a small bit of dirt around the head with my finger until I could get my hand around the whole thing and turn to the left. This is what should come out of the ground.

In this particular case, the head came up without the piece of plastic that attaches it to the pipe underneath. The piece of plastic just looks like a plastic screw. You will see it later.

 Because this head came out without the piece of plastic, you need to get that piece out of the pipe in the ground. In order to do this, you will need a tool called a nipple extractor (giggidy). This is what it looks like.

You just put the end of this down into the piece of plastic sticking out of the pipe in the ground. Turn it to the left to loosen it, and the piece of pipe should come right out. If it slips a bit, just try to wedge the extractor deeper into the plastic piece. This is what came out of mine.

So, now it is ready to add a longer piece of plastic to get the sprinkler to sit higher above the ground, increasing the length of the water spray. This is the piece that you will need. It was just called a sprinkler raiser at my home improvement store. They are around 20 cents a piece. The nipple extractor (giggidy) was about $4. I've used it at least 5 times since I bought it. Very handy.

As you can see, these are customizable to the length that you want. You just cut at the little notches to the desired length. You can see that the bottom segment has a bolt type section right above it. This is important if you want to screw it in really tight (I didn't ever use it) but it also signifies that this segment will be the one going into the pipe in the ground, not the sprinkler head. This is the bottom of the piece. So, get a knife, saw, or other cutting piece and trim this to size. I used this handy thing called a PVC cutter (about $10 and I've used it numerous times as well). Really fun tool.

You just click the little handle and it cuts through just about anything plastic. Very easy and super fun. Be careful!!

Now you just screw the cut piece back into the bottom of the sprinkler head and then screw it back into the pipe in the ground. I get it as tight as I can with my hands. I have over-tightened some pieces before and cracked the plastic. What a pain! So far, tightening by hand has been tight enough.

Notice that the bolt type bottom is not screwed into the head, but ready to go into the ground. Just place it into the pipe and turn to the right until tight. If it is difficult to twist, try repositioning it. Sometimes if the plastic goes into the pipe at a weird angle, it doesn't screw in properly.

Alright, that's it. Turn on the water and admire your handy work. I'm sorry, I know this might have been a boring post for a lot of people, but hopefully it might help someone else. I changed two of these out and it took me about 10 minutes. Pretty easy task, especially when you know what you're doing. :)

My gift!

Not much to say today except, look at the wonderful gift my husband got me! The table, not the dog. ;)

Random Thoughts

I wanted to go ahead and make another post but my day was pretty boring. I decided I'm just going to put down a few of my random thoughts today. It might be entertaining later.

1. Nick wanted Chinese food tonight and when my babe wants Chinese food, he gets it! ;)  So I went to the food place on my way home and picked up some delicious Singapore noodles and sesame chicken. Yummm. That's not my thought, though. My thought is this:  Why can the groceries (or in this case, the meal) make it all the way home positioned "just so" only to throw itself at the passenger side door on the very last turn of the trip?! It physically makes no sense. And tends to get a few choice words out of me.

2. Physics...brings me to number two. The Big Bang Theory. Do most people laugh at it because they get the jokes or do most people laugh at it because they don't get the jokes? Judging by a lot of the people I come into contact with on a daily basis, I'm going to say the latter.

3. I am going to start calling people "dill seed" when they annoy me. It is the name of a street I pass regularly and it sounds funny to me.

4. Blinkers. Why is this such a hard procedure for people to master? I will explain. You use your left pointer, middle, ring, or pinky (if you wish) to gently lift or lower that weird lever on the left side of the steering wheel. If you need a demonstration, just ask me. I'll  be happy to show you. I do find it odd that this particular task is so difficult but they can figure out the windshield wipers. Those you actually have to turn something on most cars.

5. There are people here that I will wave at while in my car that will look at me and NOT wave back. They see me wave and they consciously decide NOT to wave back. What exactly are they thinking at that moment? "I see you waving and I hate you so I'm not going to wave back." ? "Why is that crazy lady waving at me?" I considered the last thought but there is a guy that I wave to EVERY morning on my way to work and he has yet to so much as nod back to me. One day I considered rolling the window down to say, "Good Day to you, Sir!" but he is elderly and I'm afraid I would cause some sort of cardiac arrest and then I will feel bad. Right now he is the bad guy and I'd like to keep it that way. For purely selfish reasons, obviously.

I believe that will suffice for today.

Why can't things just...work?

My husband and I put sod down in our yard last weekend and have been watering at least twice a day (as recommended to get the grass to adjust properly). During one of the waterings, I realized that the sprinkler box was filling with water. I decided I was going to tackle the task of repairing the leaky sprinkler valves!

To Google! I found a video on the "This Old House" website on how to repair leaky sprinkler valves and it said all you really need to do is replace the diaphragms in each of the valves. You just unscrew the top, replace the diaphragm with a new one, and screw the top back on! Sounds easy enough. Home Improvement Store, Ho!

I get to the "home improvement store" with a very detailed picture on my phone of my sprinkler valves  that the sales man quickly pointed out did not help him decide what diaphragm would fit INSIDE the valve. Even still, I'd probably have more luck finding what I need at the local nursery. Nursery, Ho!

I walk into the warehouse of hoses, pipes, sprinkler heads, artificial grass, bird houses, and more!! Holy Gardening! I have no idea where to start looking for sprinkler valve diaphragms and it apparently showed because some young man (and yes, I'm old enough to say that...bleh) came over to me and asked what he could help me with. I told him I needed a diaphragm for my sprinkler valve but I don't have a picture of it. He looked at the picture I did have and said, "yep, we have those!". I found my new go-to store. 5 minutes, 5 diaphragms, and $50 later, I went home.

I quickly installed the new diaphragms EXACTLY like the old ones. I turned the water back on and BEHOLD! One started spurting out more water than before, one was better, one just plain didn't work at all and I don't even know the last two because I blurted out, "are you FREAKING kidding me!?!" and threw the spade at the tree next to me (sorry, tree).

Nursery, HO!

I explained to the same young man that either I'm not as handy as I thought I was or these diaphragms are CRAP! I didn't actually say that but I wanted to...especially the crap part because it couldn't possibly be me. I did explain that they didn't work and he said, "Well, why don't you just buy a whole new set? They are only $15 a piece and will obviously work."   ...Really? You sold me a diaphragm for $10 when I could have bought a whole new system for $15? Maybe you aren't my go-to store. I'll give you one more chance... "May I return the diaphragms I bought before?" 

"I guess so, as long as they don't look too used and they are in their baggies they came in."  (go-to store again)

I went home, dug the baggies out of the trash can, and installed the new systems. What do you know, they worked! No leaks, grass is happy, husband is happier (he worked all day), and I feel successful!

Cassidy - 5    House - 22  (obviously this score is accumulative from before the blog. I'm catching up!)

Newbie

I was talking with a friend of mine about the things we were doing around the house (she just laid tile in her bathroom and I repaired the sprinklers on our newly sod(ed?) lawn) and started thinking about writing this kind of stuff down. Even if no one reads it but me, I thought, at least when I'm 80 I can bust out my past adventures on my virtual internet glasses. Or something like that...it's more than 40 years from now, you know!

So, just to get it started, I'm a twenty something woman living in the southwest with my husband and four dogs (a.k.a children). We bought a foreclosed house 2.5 years ago and my life hasn't been the same since. In a good way, I've learned a lot, but also in an extremely tiring way. I never realized just how difficult home ownership actually was.

I work at a Veterinary clinic so I get lots of "interesting" stories from that part of my life as well. Some great, some not so great. I probably won't write too much about that part of my life but it may slip in there every now and then.

I want to pre-apologize for any grammatical errors (I'd say spelling but I see the spell check in the top right corner). I do try my best but I received a small town, dare to say "hick", upbringing and grammar was not exactly a priority in a lot of the classes. Please, no offense to fellow students...it just wasn't.

So, without further adieu...