Murphy's Law

For the first time in a long time there wasn't much to do here over the weekend.  So since there wasn't any running around to do, I took the opportunity to get some little things done around the house.  The first thing I went to tackle was the floor flanges for the railings on the front stoop. 

I put up the new railings three years ago after mudjacking the stoop.  So after three years, the plating/coating on the floor flanges peeled away, leaving a white residue.  I think that they were aluminum and the coating looked to almost be like an adhesive coating.  I figured that I could just scrape it with a wire brush and then blow it off and wipe it with some mineral spirits and then paint it with some Rustoleum.  After wire brushing I thought that I might be able to just unbolt them from the concrete to paint them.  It would also allow me to go get some new screws and nuts since they were severely corroded as well.  Unfortunately, the nuts were so corroded I couldn't turn them. 

First, I stripped one nut, then when I tried to turn the next one, the stud itself broke off.  And since I only had two bolts/studs holding it into the concrete, I was left with pretty much having to replace the flange.  The same thing happened with the second flange.  That one however I had bolted down with four studs, and of the four, I was only able to get one nut off.  It also lead to one of the studs breaking off a chunk of the concrete.

That meant going to look for new flanges, which ultimately lead to getting new rails as well.  So what I thought would be about an hour long job lead to about a seven hour project and several trips to the store for the right kind of bolts and screws.  By the end of the day I was able to get one rail and post replaced, and I left the second one for today.  Since I know exactly how to get it installed now, getting the second one up today shouldn't take quite as long.  It just always seems like whenever I go to fix something, it turns into a great big deal.  I think Murphy's Law is whatever can go wrong, will, and that sure seems to define my attempts at home improvement projects.