It started on Friday when I had plumbers come in to install, replace, and fix some things. I've been wanting to replace the kitchen faucet for some time. It was a pain one that was installed when the house was built, and had separate knobs for cold and hot, which always annoyed me. Then some time ago the cold water started to come out with really low pressure and it was time to look for a new faucet.
About that time the garbage disposal just stopped working. It was an old Insinkerator Badger 1, all rusted inside. So now I had two things to look for. But every time I would see one of those in a store that I liked, I would hesitate to buy it because I didn't have the other picked, and I knew I wanted to replace them at the same time. And the cycle continued for about a year.
Well, couple of weeks ago Costco had this German design Hansgrohe faucet on sale for $200, which I knew was a really good price, and this was pretty close to the design I was going for. I had that moment of: "lets do it already!" and got it.
Next on the list was to look for a garbage disposal. I have done some research before and found that after Insinkerators the next recommended brand was WasteKing. Again I checked with Costco, and found this 1 HP Universal Mount on sale for $119. It was an acceptable price for me.
There were few other items I needed to get for this, like sink strainer for the other side of the kitchen sink, the hole cover, and parts for new outlet that I needed to install under the sink myself. (very proud of myself for that!) There were few other smaller tasks for the plumbers, like replacing stoppers on two bathroom sinks and backflow preventer on an outside faucet. They came on Friday morning, and it took two guys to do all that in just over 2 hours. I am so glad I didn't even attempt to deal with the disposer my self, because parts were so rusted then had to use a metal saw! Love the final result!
On Saturday morning I was expecting the garage door guys to come and install it, but he was running late so I decided to reschedule for next weekend. I had other plans for the afternoon. Zoran and I went to the East Austin Art Tour. He went last year with Emilia, and was telling me how interesting it was. They went on bikes then, but we decided to just drive, then walk an area, then drive again. I liked it better that way, since some parts are pretty far away. He was right, it was really an interesting experience. Totally not suburbs like. :) There were all sorts of mediums of art, and all sorts of styles. Some tangible works for everyday use, some visual representations of real world pleasant to look at, and some totally "out there" expression of an artist mind! Some where in warehouses and studios, and some in people's homes, where they opened all their rooms and even served some drinks and food! Totally different. We spent about 4 hours walking on-and-off, and the day was perfect for it. I kept wondering what is the demographics of all these people, what area of town to they live in, what percentage of them were artists themselves...because it all looked so different and I couldn't see anyone remotely familiar. That's east Austin!
Sunday morning I went with two dear friends of mine, Julie and Maggie to the Wurstfest in New Braunfels. It's a festival of all things German: food, beer, music, dances, and Lederhosen! I guess it's close to the Octoberfest in Germany. It was the last day of the festival and we arrived there just 30 minutes after they opened so it wasn't crowded at first. I had some yummy sausage with sauerkraut, paulaner oktoberfest beer, and cherry strudel. Yum! There was music and dancing in few different areas, some rides and games, so we walked around and then enjoyed our time next to the Comal river. Again, it was a gorgeous November day, low 80s, and it drew a large crowd out in few hours we were there. I am so glad we were able to make it to the festival before it ended. The last time I was there was 7 years ago! It was time to go again. :)
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