Tag: home improvement

Kinda Bummed Out

I wasn’t going to talk about this until it happened but now it’s not happening so I guess I’m in the clear.

Over the last few months we had been saving money to get our cellar re-finished. We need new floor tiles, new wall board, new dropped ceiling frame and tiles, new ceiling lights, and some electrical upgrades. There was also hopes of walling off the laundry nook and adding a new closet.

We had a dollar figure in mind and we started talking to a contractor about an estimate. The guy was super psyched and his attitude was a little infectious. I was getting a good feeling about the whole thing.

He sent his estimate tonight. It was our dollar figure times three. That hissing sound you hear is the air escaping my balloon.

Shit.

40 Hours and Counting

I took the trash out to the street this morning. It hasn’t been picked up yet. Last week I took it to the street on Tuesday morning and it didn’t get picked up until Thursday. I’m curious to find out when they will come for it this time, but that’s not the point of this message.

When I took the trash to the street I took a minute to inspect the new shed-like-thingie that I put together on Sunday. At the time I set the over under for the squirrels gnawing their way into it at 12 hours. How is it holding up?

Well, kids, I hope you all picked the over because we’re into the second day and it is still completely free of holes! Wow! Now I have to admit that I only inspected the inside and the roof. There may be places on the side where invasion work has started but the rodents just haven’t made it through yet. That’s a possibility. Still, the furry little pricks have yet to make it inside. Give a tip of the hat to the Tupperware-like structure for holding up against the assault! Good on ya, bro!

Over-sharer Fail

What’s a clinical over-sharer to do?

I have four things going on that the clinical over-sharer in me wants to talk about but I can’t. Well… I can, but I just don’t want to… even though I want to. Ugh.

Three of the four things are related to being a home owner. The fourth is a personal healthcare thing. One of the home things is pretty huge, another is kind of huge but dependent on the first thing and after the first thing is squared away there are two other things that have to happen before we get to it… confused? Me too. The third is pretty minor but still nice. The healthcare thing has the potential to become utterly gigantic, in a really positive way, but at the moment is just a teeny tiny thing.

The huge thing will never be discussed directly, the big thing will be, but not until it happens and maybe not until after it happens. The small thing probably won’t be, but in oversharing other things you might get a clue. The healthcare thing is probably going to be discussed in excruciating detail, but not until the process advances quite a bit further than the baby step I’ve taken thus far.

I want to talk about all of it! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

On a completely unrelated and unimportant note, I just asked a HomePod to play a specific podcast episode and it worked. Nice! Hey Siri, play the newest episode of The Walking Dead ‘Cast. It worked!

The Water is Off

21st century life, in a house where the water is shut off while the plumbers install a kick ass tankless water heater.

If it’s yellow, let it mellow
If it’s brown….

Huh.

If it’s brown… hold on, I’ll come up with something.

If it’s brown… hmmmmm

Oh! If it’s brown, Drive in to town!

Just call it what it is: Poetry, babie.

Ready for Tomorrow

Remember a few months ago when I moved everything worth saving in the cellar into the storage areas? That was because one side of the cellar was flooded and there was water damage everywhere. Well, now there is water damage on the other side of the cellar and I have to move all of the shit from the storage area back into the cellar proper so that they can install the new water heater in the morning.

Two items of note. First, those shelves are likely going to have to go. I don’t know how much room a tankless system needs.

Second, I expect to have super powers by morning because I’m pretty sure I got bit by a spider and isn’t that what happens when you get bit by a spider?

Blinds

We bought blinds for the dining room window before the cellar fiasco started. I’m just getting to them today. The window was open and I’m guessing the neighbors were alarmed by the frequency, volume, and sheer viscousness of the swearing they heard coming from inside the house.

Yet Another Kitchen Upgrade

More kitchen changes? No… you’re not serious.

Yes. We are serious.

BOOM!

A new cabinet with a counter top and a peg board to hang utensils and pots and shit.

Drywall mounts, a stud finder, a drill (two different bits). All sorts of construction worker stuff.

I was terrified of all of it and now that we’re done I’m still terrified of all of it. Yikes!

THE STIR CRAZY FILES – EPISODE 73: Mr Fix It

Well, this morning one of our smoke detectors started giving the low battery squawk. We needed a tried and true handy man to track it down, take it off the ceiling, change the batteries, and put it back on the ceiling. We needed a hero. Fortunately that hero was available and came through for us. That hero… was me.

Yes, Robert is so tall that when the low battery squawk starts his head is close enough to the ceiling that he can both track down the ailing unit and reach up to unscrew it from its perch. Yes, his skills are virtually endless. The biggest challenge though was getting the dying batteries out of the damm thing. Something about the model we have, they really stick those batteries in there good. I was, of course, able to prevail in that struggle, and all is well with our smoke detecting system once more.

Please, please, no applause. Just throw money.

Now if I could just figure out why my SleepWatch report from last night keeps disappearing (was it because my watch was on the charger?) and why I only managed an 8% sleeping heart rate dip last night. That is just not optimal! (On the report it labels 8% as “not optimal” so you see what I did there?)

I really need Covid to be over. Really.

Unmotivated

I’ve been pretty much crushed for the last week. It’s getting worse. I just want to curl up in a ball and go away. I can’t though. I have too much to do. Is it necessary stuff or is it distracting stuff. Yes. Tonight I hope to finish up the bed room. New mattress pad, new mattress, new end tables. Tomorrow we start on the kitchen which includes the closet in the mudroom. It’s going to take a few weeks to get through everything on the agenda. There are so many boxes waiting to be opened that I don’t know what to do with them all.

So. Many. Boxes.

At least a new mattress could potentially mean that Jen and I aren’t overwhelmed with back pain when we wake up tomorrow. That’s a plus, right? My foot issue which may or may not be Plantar Fasciitis started sneaking up on me eight or nine days ago, and it was a nightmare through last weekend, but now I think it’s gone. I probably just jinxed it though. At least I’ve got that going for me.

The work day is ~88% complete. 60 minutes to go. At least I’ve got that going for me, right?