Tag: home owner

One Month

Today at a little before 2:00 (the end of my lunch break) will mark one month since I started my personal anti-facebook crusade. How many of you fine people have jumped on my little spartacus wagon and left with me? I’ll wait a second for you all to sound off.

(insert sound of crickets chirping here)

Anyway, At some point tonight I may pop in and actually tell everyone there that I’m pissing off. That and clear the 106 notifications (got another email today). I still have Messenger on my phone so folks can find me there, and there’s always twitter (@RobJ_).

After that? Will I be gone for good? I don’t know, maybe? I’m getting to the point where I’m not really missing it anymore. I don’t find myself tapping the spot on my phone’s home screen where the bookfayce app used to be. I take that as a good sign.

Outside of the facebook boycott, today is the day we get to ride out a nor-easter without having a furnace in the house. We have a space heater in Jen’s office and a the wall mounted heater in the bed room. I’m still planning on working from Harry’s room today. If the temperature starts bothering me I’ll move to the bed room. I really don’t think it will though.

Watch me as I eat my words.

Light

The cellar has (had) six fluorescent light banks in the ceiling. Right now, exactly one is still functional. Fortunately it is near the washer and dryer so there hasn’t really been an issue.

Still, I wanted to be able to see on the other (much larger) side of the cellar if for some reason something is happening over there. Maybe I can find a use for that area other than storing stuff. I don’t know. I was hoping we’d be able to have the whole place redone, complete with new overhead lights. For the near future at least, that ain’t happening.

So Jen and I talked about getting a couple of floor lamps and sticking them down stairs. I put them together this morning before work and set them up with internet connected light bulbs so we can turn the lights on from upstairs and have everything lit up nicely before we go down stairs.

Now all we have to do is clean up all the shit left over from when we had the ducts worked on. Then maybe I can do something with the space. Maybe a new music room? Probably not. Who knows. I’m just glad I can see again.

Oh, for Fuck’s Sake

Okay, I’ve had enough of this shit. The universe is just kicking our ass over and over again. Right when we think we’re in the clear… Blamo.

We had a new water heater installed one month and two days ago. To celebrate the monthiversary, the furnace died.

Well… it didn’t die, per se. We had someone come in to give it a tune up and found that it’s leaking exhaust into the house through the ducts. Oh good. The tune up guys shut off the power to it and shut off the gas line to it and put a scary red tagger on it that says, NO!

So let’s recap. Leak in the cellar floods everything and ruins almost everything we had stored down there. Then the duct fell off the ceiling. Then the water header flooded everything again. Now the furnace is no longer usable.

Yeah. Hip Hip Hooray.

The good news, it’s not winter yet so we’ll be fine. Also, venting exhaust into the house is bad so that’s not happening anymore and that’s pretty awesome. The new furnace is coming on Thursday. That is really awesome. The new furnace is going to be much more energy efficient than the huge, ancient beast we’ve been using since we moved in here 11 years ago. Given all of that, this is absolutely worth it. I’m just tired of things going wrong.

In the end, I will look back on this kick in the balls as a good thing. I’m already pretty close to seeing it that way. Jen ordered a space heater to keep in her office. I will likely move my desk back to our bedroom, where there is a separate heater installed in the wall already, a smidge earlier than I had planned. Maybe not. It’s in the 50’s out right now. I might just put a sweater on and deal.

Everything is all right.

3:45 AM

3:45 AM I’m awakened from a nice happy sleep by the smoke alarm in the hallway.

Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep. then silence.

Wait a couple of minutes… nothing.

Huh.

I know it was the hallway because they have an indicator light that turns on if they detect something. The indicator light for smoke is on, but not carbon monoxide.

Wait a couple more minutes… nothing.

Well now what?

I changed the batteries and now I’m sitting up for a while to be certain nothing is going on.

Happy Monday, everyone.

Lawn Pause

Front yard: Done.

Side yard: Done, from the street all the way back to the woods.

Health check: OUCH! My back hurts, my leg hurts, my arms hurt, my shoulders hurt. Yup, it’s lawn day. I’m taking a break for a few. Usually my lawn breaks are on the patio in the back yard, but everything out there is soaking wet and the sun hasn’t had any luck drying it off, so I am inside.

Okay, break time is over. Get back out there and cut some more grass, fat boy! You can do it! Through all of this mowing the lawn your Apple Watch activity app has given you credit for 16 minutes of exercise! Go cut that grass and close that ring!

Thursday Morning Musings

It’s September 30th. How the hell did we get here so fast? Yesterday and today the outside temperature when we woke up was cold enough for jackets. It just sucks. Covid ate two summers in a row, but they both flew by so fast anyway that I feel like we would have missed them even without Covid. Crud.

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but yesterday was the 11th anniversary of our buying this house. Our 11th Homeownerversary, if you will. I didn’t do anything to celebrate then, but I did today. I went downstairs to do laundry. While downstairs I looked for leaks and water on the floor. I didn’t find any. Oh happy day. I think there is probably some water under the floor tiles in a few spots still, but nothing visible. I need to run the dehumidifier for a few days to clean up the hidden stuff (in theory at least. Will it work? Who knows).

We are going to see the kids this weekend. Bellana asked if we could bring up some Fall clothes for her. I offered to wash everything first. Big mistake, Robert. There is so much laundry to do. So much. Mountains and piles and piles and mountains (I am exaggerating, yes, but there is a lot of it. A lot). I hope to have it all done tonight.

We missed the new What If last night. Jen was tied up at work and by the time that was wrapped up and dinner was done Harry was busy with homework. We’ll try the watch party thing again tonight. Last night we were going to mess up the tradition by not having burgers, but we can fix it tonight. Jen suggested veggie burgers. Consider it done.

And now, on to work. Happy Thursday, folks.

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?

Fresh Leak Hell

We have an appointment to have a new tankless water heater installed tomorrow morning. I still have a bucket under the leaky pipe in the current water heater and it’s kept the floor dry for a week now.

Or has it.

(insert ominous music here)

My wetvac is falling apart. Whole chunks of it have fallen off. It still works, and I could probably change the filter and all would be well, but now…

I emptied the drip bucket by stickin’ the wetvac hose into the bucket and sucking it all up. I’ve been doing that for a week now. Today, a few hours after emptying the bucket, I went downstairs for laundry reasons and saw water on the floor. WHAT THE HELL?

A little investigating has lead me to believe that the wetvac is actually leaking now. The water this time was next to the wetvac but a little down hill. I cleaned it up, knowing how goofy it is to use the source as it’s own fix, which clearly will have to be done again later tonight.

Oh well. I will be spending some time down there tonight to clean out the storage area where the folks will be working tomorrow and while I’m there I will empty the bucket and the wetvac and hopefully that will be the end of it. When the bucket gets emptied some time tomorrow, the water heater will have been replaced.

Fingers eternally crossed. I am so sick of having water issues in my cellar. It’s enough to make me want to move into a house that doesn’t have a basement. Houses in San Diego generally don’t have cellars, do they? If that’s the case, let’s go!

Tankless

Just had a plumber looking at our water heater. It’s time to go. I think there is a tankless water heater in our future.

Things I learned today. Tankless water heaters are mounted to the wall. We might be losing some of our shelving in the cellar storage area. I’ll take that in trade for not having water on my floor anymore. Another thing I learned today. Apparently our current water heater (and our furnace too? Maybe?) vents out of the chimney. That’s what the guy said. Who knew? Is he referring to the fireplace chimney or is there another vent out of the roof that is just called a chimney? I don’t know.

All I do know is that tankless water heaters are supposed to produce fewer carbon emissions which, along with driving a hybrid car, makes me feel better about my place in the universe. Not a lot better, maybe 0.01% better as I do expect I’ll be making use of air travel again at some post-Covid-19 point, but better.

Also, I am really really sick of Lake Asshole, so the sooner we get that thing installed the better.