Home thoughts

So, over Thanksgiving, I got to demonstrate to Tracy's family just how much of a handyman I am.

• The sink in Tracy's grandmother's kitchen, and the one in the bathroom clogged Thanksgiving day. We spent Thanksgiving night working on them, and I got a hand covered in Drano. I wasn't able to fix the kitchen sink.
  
• Then, Saturday, at Tracy's parent's house, Scott and I replaced the light fixture in the living room, I replaced the one in the bedroom Tracy and I had slept in.
  
• Also Saturday, I connected their satellite decoder box to the dish that was already mounted on the house and made it work.
• Thursday, I rebuilt Tracy's grandmother's computer, reinstalling Windows on it.
  

Between all that, and some conversations with Tracy's parents, I had a few thoughts on things I want to do when I finally own a home:

• Tile Kitchen floor. I'm tired of linoleum/vinyl flooring in kitchens.
• Laminate wood flooring in the Living/Family room(s). I really like it, it cleans up well, and it's easy to install.
• Radiant heat flooring in the bathroom. I hate waking up in the morning, going into the bathroom, and stepping on cold tile. This solves that.
• Tankless water heater. Hot water was a big issue this trip. The pilot on the water heater kept going out, and it was never very hot (though that was just the thermostat) Even our hot water heater is wimpy. We can't both shower in the morning. Plus, they save between 15 and 40% on heating costs since you don't have to keep a tank warm. (And you can't blow them up like Mythbusters did to a regular water heater) They may take a while for the hot water to reach the tap, but that's the same with a regular hot water line, and if you need instant hot water, you can install a mini-heater under the sink!