Tag: home owner

Double Whammy

This morning one of our smoke detectors gave us the “please change my battery, you friggin’ savage” alarm. I went through the maze of alarm locations in the house trying to figure out which one was yelling at us. I found it in the mud room. They are kinda a pain to take off the ceiling but I got it down. They are kinda a pain to open up but I got it open. They are kinda a pain to pop out the batteries but I got them out. They are kinda a pain to re-hang on the ceiling but I got it back up.

I made the mistake of pressing the test button. When you do that it doesn’t just test the one you’re holding in your hand, it tests every single alarm in the house. The noise is overwhelming, which is good when there’s a fire but really painful when you just woke up.

None of this is the actual story though.

When the shockingly loud, house-wide test was complete and the smoke detector was hung on the ceiling again……….

…………the smoke detector in Harry’s room started giving the “please change my battery, you friggin’ savage” alarm.

Muthapussbucket

I’m Dumb

We bought a new washer dryer set a while ago. It was pre-Covid so it was at least a year. January 2020? December 2019? I don’t think it was that long ago. Whatever.

The set we bought were side loading. I am super tall so we bought pedestals to sit them on. We let ourselves be upsold on one of them. The washing machine pedestal has a small washing machine built into it. How cool is that? Let’s say you just finish the last load of laundry and then you spill something all over yourself. You could throw your dirty clothes into the hamper and wait until there’s enough to do a full load. You could wash them right away and have a huge amount of overkill on the water usage front. No, those aren’t good plans.

Or, you could wash them in the little pedestal washing machine thing. It only holds a few items so it’s perfect for those forgotten, last minute laundry needs. Awesome!

Did we actually need it? No. Did we buy it because it’s awesome? Oh yes, yes we did.

I don’t have a picture of it to share, but it actually slides out from under the big washing machine. It’s probably about two feet tall, max. You slide it out, fill it up, start it, slide it back in, and you’re off.

Or so I thought.

One day, back when we were still going to the office every day, I didn’t have a pair of business casual pants clean for the next day. Perfect! I’ll use the little guy! I slide the thing out, loaded it up, put some detergent into it, hit start… and got an error message. Huh? I tried again. Error message. What the hell? I put it away and forgot about it. I tried again a few weeks later, I forget why, and I had the same result. Our little upsell item is a lemon! Sonofabitch! I then proceeded to forget about it for a year or so.

Until today.

The scenario detailed above happened. I finished the laundry and then messed up some clothes. I took them downstairs to wash them and decided to give the little spud another go. This time, no error message. The timer went to 39 minutes and sat there. Okay. It was too dark to read the settings but I figured I wouldn’t look this gift horse in the mouth and went back upstairs to work.

About an hour later I checked on it. The timer was now off, but the clothes were dry. What happened? I took the clothes out and put them into the big washer and was about to start it when I figured I’d give it another chance. This time I got the error message again. Ugh. I took the clothes out and pushed it back in… and it started filling. What?

I had to hit pause in order to pull it out again, but I reloaded it, pushed it in again, hit start, and it worked! Holy Crap!

I then realized two things. The error message I was getting was because you have to push it back in before you start it. That’s it. That was my problem. You have to close it or it won’t run. Well, I feel like a tool now, don’t I? The other thing was that when I didn’t get the error the first time I tried today, I must have bumped the pause button. I never restarted it so it just shut itself off.

Dummy.

Well, at least I can use the little washing machine now. So I guess I’ve got that going for me. Suck it, Covid.

My Step Son is More Awesome Than Yours

With all of the pre-fab furniture assembly on this weekend’s agenda, Jen figured it would be a good idea to offer Harry some money in exchange for getting a jump on things tonight. He was up for it and as I type this he is in the dining room putting together a humongous pantry that’s bigger than he is. It might be bigger than me.

Sure there’s a little bit of a bribe involved, but that doesn’t change the fact that my step son is awesome for doing this. He pretty much rules. My step son is absolutely more awesome than yours. It’s a certifiable fact.

Replacement Replacement

The replacement to the replacement headboard was delivered yesterday along with a new set of desk drawers for my work from home nook. My back and my legs are still killing me from last weekend, with a little help from yesterday’s shoveling adventure (oh, and did I mention it’s snowing again?), but it looks like I’ve got some things to do this weekend too.

I haven’t played guitar this week. I was too sore yesterday. Maybe tonight, we’ll see.

Lots to do, lots to do.

Weekend Project Part 11: The Temper Tantrum

The new bed looked perfect. The big wire frame seems strong enough to hold an elephant and a hippo and a tank and me. The new headboard looked beautiful, right up until the moment the support that holds both the leg to the bed frame and the headboard itself snapped like a twig because it was a tiny little piece of super cheap plywood that couldn’t stand the strain of me breathing on it.

There was yelling. A lot of it.

Day Two is Done

My closet has been cleaned out and completely reorganized. I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass, but it was a bigger deal than I thought it would be. The closet organizing insert thing was smaller than we thought it would be, but it still works fine. I also hung some shelves, proving once again that I don’t have the ol’ carpenter/contractor gene. Not even close. While I was doing all of that, Jen was reorganizing storage spaces and closets all over the house. She was amazing. Right now she’s on her computer planning out a hypothetical post-covid redesign of our kitchen and dining room. That’s what happens when you watch too much property brothers. You start getting crazy ideas about knocking down walls and putting islands into your kitchen. As always, she is amazing.

Jen and I are both off from work tomorrow and there should be a new bed frame getting delivered. That’s goal number one. I also have to drive my father to a doctors appointment. That’s goal number two. Goal number three? I haven’t played guitar in days. I have a new wah wah pedal literally sitting on the floor next to me and apart from proving to myself that it works, I haven’t played with it yet. That needs to change tomorrow. Mental health dictates that I get some significant playing time in tomorrow. I have spoken.

Day One in the Books

We started last night by cleaning out the storage in the old bathroom. Today we cleaned out Jen’s closet, took down the shelves, put up a bunch of closet organizing things, and put all the stuff (that survived the purge) back in. Last week we moved a bunch of storage things from the bed room to a holding space in Bellana’s room. All of that stuff has found new homes too. I also hung a couple of little shelves in the office. They were meant for the bedroom, but weren’t going to make the cut so they moved to the office. We also added some new lamps in the bedroom and the office and added to our nearly maxed out collection of Hue lights. Jen was able to figure out why the light I put on the side of the house wasn’t able to connect to the Hue bridge, and now it’s tied into the lights at the front of the house. Sweet.

Tomorrow’s primary project is my closet. That should not be nearly as big a deal as Jen’s. It’s a lot smaller, though there is a metric ton of stuff shoved in there. There’s a shelf that is tearing itself out of the wall. Not good. On Monday Jen and I are both off from work and hopefully we’ll be putting together a new bed. We’re keeping the mattress for now, but its days are numbered. We’re going to see if we can hold out until Covid is over before we mattress shop though. Monday should just be a new headboard and a new frame. That stuff hasn’t been delivered yet though, so it’s all dependent on delivery services holding up their end of the bargain.

I am really tired and sore right now (hello, my name is Mr Out of Shape Man) but I’m proud of what we completed today. Good work, Jen!