Trials of a Domestic maintenance engineer

We have an old house, a very old house. We have lived in it for a LONG time (30+ yrs). It was a fixer upper when we bought it, and I think it has aged back into a fixer upper again. I have heard, and it has been roughly my experience, that "things" last about 8 years. Thus I usually write the purchase date on appliances such as water heaters, washers, dryers and I should have put one on our new furnace that replaced our aged furnace that started "acting up" just before a forecast cold snap.

So small jobs accumulate. A leaky shower valve, "fixed" but still not right. Then last night while playing with Lily, I hopped (do NOT try to visualize) a bit in the hallway to get her to run away, and CRASH! down came the glass globe from the ceiling light. (OK, maybe I need to lose some weight).

So this afternoon I dismantled the valve, and put another new washer in it. The washer worked perfectly, however, now the valve stem leaked horrendously. (Horrendously = I won't be able to BS Moonrabbit that it's SUPPOSED to do that for lubrication purposes) So off to hardware store #1 for a new complete valve kit and a replacement globe for the light. Found the kit eventually($4), then found globe that LOOKED like it was the right size ($9). It was on a top shelf, and when I tried to grab it, it rolled to the back. Get help. Get home, the diameter is 1/4 inch too big, but I have already taken off the labels. I know the other globes they had would be too small, so it's off to hardware store #2 across town, but there are some other things I need in the neighborhood. They don't have the other thing I need, and when I find the globes, they don't have the size I need. They DO have a NEW base ($3)which would fit the new globe. My old base may be out of date?

I get home, reassemble the valve with the other new parts it needed, it seems to work properly. Then I tackle the light fixture. I SO enjoy working over my head, literally and figuratively. The best description of what followed is the old adage about a monkey having relations with a football. Dropped screws, connectors, drill (as a power screwdriver) etc. Anyway it works now.