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An early spring cleaning

Posted on February 19, 2009 10:49 am by TheAngelForever

As many of you know, something I always do is reply to each comment left on my blog with an e-mail. I take pride in doing this. If you took the time to leave me a comment, which I adore, I want to acknowledge it.

Over the last week, I have been slacking in this area. NHL has been home from school all week thanks to winter break, but there is more going on. The days and nights have been a blur as we prepare for the arrival of the new refrigerator. To say that we finally took charge of the chaos within the house would be an understatement. This new refrigerator has been a blessing in disguise. Our curb on garbage night will certainly show how nicely we were able to purge "stuff" from our house. At last count, we had well over a dozen bags of garbage and the recycling is overflowing on our front porch.

Here was our attack method:

Saturday – JL and I went right for the kitchen. We went through the area that we store kids medicine in and checked dates on everything. Then we cleared off the top/side are of the refrigerator and by the back door. Next up were the counters. I was feeling ambitious and opted to start going through the cabinets to clean things out. I figured Passover is coming, so this will save us time later on. After three hours we, finished up to get dinner ready and put the kids to bed.

Sunday – JL took the kids out for a little while. I went into the extra room, known as the "third bedroom." Prior to leaving, JL brought up boxes from the basement of clothing for me to shuffle outgrown NHL clothing into. When I was done the 24M/2T things were up and ready for JSL, and the 3T/4T/5T things were put away from NHL being done with them. A few boxes of spring/summer clothing remain along with a Rubber Maid box with towels. Still a work in progress, but it is organized and you can move within the room. In addition to this, I also managed to do two loads of laundry.

Monday – Next up was the dining room. After dinner, I started to work on the floors and piles within. JL and the boys started to work on the toys in the living room.I moved my knitting items into the third bedroom and made room for a container with games for the boys. A little drama happened this night during our cleaning session. JSL tripped over a pile of toys that were being moved. He fell right into something else and ended up with a nice goose egg on his forehead. Fast-forward to bed time. JSL was in our bed settling with JL. Suddenly I hear JL scream for me. I arrive on the scene to JSL doing his impression of a volcano. I will spare you the details and just say two loads of laundry from 9-12 that night included our blanket, sheets, matress pad and my pillow is gone.

Tuesday – JL and I finished up the living room. Basically moving books, papers and coats to see what was in the room. We do not have a coat closet, so in the winter our little couch serves as catch all for coats, scarves, gloves and hats. We also purged lots of kindergarten work that we just do not have room to save. The toy area was also completed during this time.

Wednesday – Before JL got home from work, I started my attack on the dining room table. Almost everything is currently off it. A few things of vitamins, my laptop, and a container of wipes remain. Items were added to the shred bag and then we had dinner and put the kids to bed. Once they were asleep, we finished up with the kitchen. The counters were tackled one more time and we cleaned off the refrigerator itself. Now the only thing left to do is clear out the food when they come to deliver today.

As you can see, that has kept me very busy here. I will catch up with my e-mail replies, I promise. Are we finished with the cleaning? No way! Next up on the list of purging/cleaning is the upstairs room. We have not used it in several years. It is an amazing space with an additional half bathroom. It will be fabulous for the boys to have as a playroom. A perk will be that we can move a lot of the toys from down here up there. We hope to be able to start working on that next week when the boys are sleeping. Slowly, we will finish up this project and then move on to our bedroom.

The refrigerator is scheduled to be delivered today between 1-3 and JL is here to man the fort with me. If I ever doubted that we needed a new one, below is what I found yesterday in the back of the old refrigerator. This is the container that was collecting the water that is leaking inside. It is a solid brick of ice.

Categories:
house me moments

Pricey week

Posted on February 13, 2009 12:02 am by TheAngelForever

When we bought our house almost five years ago, we remodeled the entire kitchen. This is why it was needed.

A wall was moved, pass through was put in, new stove/vent/dishwasher were bought. Only one item remained from the original kitchen. That item was the refrigerator.

Over the years the refrigerator has given us a lot of trouble. Not staying cool enough in the summer, forming ice on produce, and the latest water sitting on the bottom and forming chunks of ice that was not in the freezer. The sad part, the refrigerator was manufactured in 2001. Not too old, but not worth spending a lot to fix since it is not an Energy Star appliance.

Over the weekend, we started to look for a replacement. Things went into rapid mode Thursday while I was sitting with JSL and feeding him. I heard water dripping in the kitchen. I followed the noise into the refrigerator. To my horror there was a huge waterfall inside. I moved things around and followed the flow of water. It was coming from on top and everything was soaked. By the time I moved everything and put a container inside to catch the water, it was starting to slow down.

I called JL at work and told him our time was up. We had to make a decision and get a new refrigerator before this one completely died on us. The little guy and I went to two additional stores this morning. After JL got home from work, we brought the boys to Nana and Papa’s house and went to buy a new refrigerator.

I am happy to report that we are the proud new owners of an Amana that has the freezer drawer on the bottom. Now we just hope that the "old" refrigerator keeps plugging before our new one arrives Thursday (they were already booked for Monday delivery).

So my question to you this week:

What is the most expensive item that you bought this week and why did you purchase it?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #35

Categories:
Aloha Friday house shopping

Bird is the word

Posted on February 5, 2009 9:35 am by TheAngelForever

I admit it, I am a bird person. Growing up I always had a pet bird. We started out with a parakeet named Pretty Boy. He passed away when my brother was born. We bought a cockatiel and also named him Pretty Boy. My parents had him for over 20 years, very rare for a cockatiel. Along with Pretty boy at one time or another we had two parakeets (Ninja and Teddy), three cockatiels (Baby, Wild Thing and Cinnamon), and two cockatoos (Moose and Whiskers). Only Whiskers remains these days and certainly makes her presence known.

Bonding with Wild Thing Moose kisses

Apparently, I need to further explain that statement. Although I appreciate wild birds, I do so when they are outside of my house. Yesterday was a wild day (pun intended). While I went downstairs to put laundry into the dryer I heard something crash behind me in the basement. Let me clarify that I was alone, JSL was upstairs and no other human was in the house with us.

I turned around to see what was going on. Over by the bottom of the chimney, near the furnace, I saw something move. It must have seen me and stopped for a minute. At a quick glance, I was able to identify that the very dirty animal had feathers. Then it moved across the basement floor. What did I do? I screamed and ran up the stairs of course!

I immediately called JL and was in tears. He started to make phone calls. First was Animal Control where he left a message and nobody has returned it. Then he called DEC where a woman gave him the names of people to call who take injured birds to rehabilitate them. JL gave me the numbers. Out of six or more that I called, I got a hold of one woman and left a message for another who was at work. Nobody was able to assist me, so JL called the Humane Society for more ideasa. He started a loop of calls and found a wild life hotline and left a message.

While waiting for calls my father came over with a box and gloves, armed to assist me in finding the bird. We went into the basement with a flashlight and saw nothing. There were too many hiding places for a small frightened and injured bird. I put the rest of the laundry in to dry and we left the basement.

The woman from the hotline called me back when we went upstairs. She would not be able to make it to our house until the evening. I told her our new problem. She said she would call before coming over to check on the status.

Fast forward to JL getting home from work at 5:00. He went into the basement and looked around. He came up at the same time as the woman from the hotline called back. JL informed me that he thought he found the bird and it was definitely nom alive. He wanted me to go into the basement to make sure that it was what I had seen. I told the woman and she told me not to fret that we did the right thing and tried, but it was not meant to be.

I went into the basement. Sure enough there was the small bird by our dryer. I had noticed something there earlier, but thought nothing of it. The poor thing had definitely come in via our chimney, which connects with our furnace. The bird was in rough shape and I am shocked given the condition that it was able to move from one side of the basement to the other. JL packed up the bird to dispose of it and I returned another call from a rescue person that was coming today. I thanked her and told her that it was no long needed.

As soon as it is safe to get up by the chimney this spring, we will be putting up a vermin guard. Had I not been in the basement when this bird got in I probably never would have known about it until we smelled it.

Now I leave you with this Family Guy segment as a tribute to the bird.

Categories:
bad news house me moments vent video

Plumbing predicament

Posted on November 11, 2008 9:27 am by TheAngelForever

When in the middle of buying a house, nobody ever thinks about all of the drawbacks. Do you know what I mean? Now a home owner for over four years, I really appreciate when we were living in our apartment. Those were the days. When something went wrong I only had to dial one number to report it. Something leaking, AC not working, drain backing up, no matter what I called the landlord. Ah, the simplicity!

Now, the problems are all ours. We have to find the problem and figure out who to call if we deem the problem above what we are able to work on ourselves. I love my hubby, but where JL can build a computer from scratch. . . . he is lacking in the home repair area. We have learned over the four years of owning this house that we do not try things when it comes to be electricity or plumbing issues. This is mainly because of the age of our house.

So back to where I was yesterday when I mentioned that the plumber was here. I asked if anyone wanted to guess how long he was here working.

The answer . . . . . just over 4 hours!

Can you see me panicking as the time kept going by?

Project #1 – The leak under the sink. This was "easy" according to the plumber. All he had to do was fix things that were done previously that were wrong. In doing this he had to remove more of the backing and wall going to the pipes.

Project #2 – I mentioned to him that that sink was constantly plugging up and has since we have lived here. I would venture to say this was where most of the time was spent. According to the plumber this clog was likely haunting this house for 8-10 years. He actually had to attack it from our attic. This was during lunch time and poor JSL was spooked when the snake from upstairs suddenly came out the wrong way. The snack actually came out of the bathroom sink when it should have continued down to the basement. Ooops! End product – the clog was fixed and the sink is working amazingly well!

Project #3 – I asked the plumber to look at our bathtub to see if he could give an estimate on how to fix the leaks in our nobs. Unfortunately, the parts are no longer made for our antiqued system. He explained what would have to be done to ultimately fix the problem. Basically it means and entire bathroom rehaul! You know spending $10-20K at least . . . . yikes! So as I tried to steady my breathing I asked if he could at least snake that drain and help us to delay the emergency of the situation. I was amazed at how quickly that drain cooperated. They were able to attack it from two spots and it was over.

This particular plumber bills later (he is very old fashioned, but so thorough). I sort of pressured him for a ball park estimate on the work done. Thankfully he was under the $100 an hour that most plumbers locally charge. Not too shabby, but we shall see what happens when the actual bill arrives.

Ah, the "joys" of owning a house . . . specifically an older one.

Categories:
bad news house losing my mind NaBloPoMo sarcasm vent

The “joys” of owning a home

Posted on November 10, 2008 9:10 am by TheAngelForever

On Election Day I was greeted in the bathroom with a leak under our sink. I was just sitting there and suddenly heard air and water dripping at the same time. This is never a good sign. Sure enough I looked under the sink and saw water oozing out of the pipe.

What a sweet way to have our house say good morning to me on such a monumental day in United States history. We were in a hurry to head to a parent/teacher conference for NHL and then I went to vote with the boys. Still, I made an effort to put out calls and e-mails to people asking for recommendations of a plumber. NHL suggested "Joe the Plumber" . . . . JL and I prefer licensed plumbers, so that was not a real option (*wink*).

When I arrived home I put in a call for a plumber that came highly recommended and was quoted as being reasonably priced. Fast forward to Friday. Yes, you read that right. We never heard back from the plumber until Friday morning. Sure, I could have been angry, but we were all so sick we were not really up to a plumber in the house anyway so it worked out.

When he called at about 8:40 he said he would be over in about 20 minutes. There I was standing in my pajamas with a 17 month old refusing to nap. I quickly got dressed and moved toys out of the path of anyone coming into and out of the bathroom.

Anyone care to guess how long the plumber was here?

Cue the Jeopardy music and I will leave you with this. . . . . . he fixed the sink and cleared two clogs in different parts of the house. Oh and he said he had never seen a clog quite as bad as one of them in a LONG time.