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Home Improvement
Jan. 18th, 2015 11:12 pmLife has continued on since the start of the year. I'm working on a few new projects for Skotos, which is a nice change of pace from last year. Personally, I haven't jumped into anything new, but I'm continuing work on D&D Classics and the Moorcock book I'm writing. (I may look into some newer stuff after the Designers & Dragons Platinum Appendix goes out.) Kimberly has been sick (with a cold) and sick again (with another cold). I've mostly avoided them thus far, though last Sunday I spent the day in bed because I was exhausted, either from fighting off her plague or from getting poor sleep the week because of it. I've played new games at almost every board gaming session this month, and they've all been good.
However, I think our biggest focus in the year (so far) has been home improvement.
Or, perhaps, I should say home breakdowns, because that's what got us going. It started in November or so when the lock on our mailbox suddenly stopped working. Then in December the lock on our foyer door broke too! Then this month our very old* dryer's knob finally broke, requiring us to now start our dryer with a wrench (!) and a bit of finesse. Somewhere in there, winter happened and we started to get the occasional, very unpleasant early morning drafts into our bedroom through the windows.
I did what I could on these problems. I got us a new secure (and hopefully much more robust and hopefully more waterproof) mailbox, but I didn't really want to install it because it required laying cement. I also got us a new set of locks to replace our old ones, and I was able to replace the one in the foyer door, but I discovered the new bolts were just a little too big to fit into the front and back doors and I didn't have a fancy drill bit to fix that. And the drier ... well, I figured out how to get it started with a wrench. And no, I don't replace windows.
So, we've freed up some money to do some home improvement, something that we do every year or two, using the interest from our investments.
On Tuesday we had a handyman out to deal with many of these problems. He put in our new mailbox and after some concerns about its location made it easier to access with a new cement pad in front of it. Then he replaced the locks in the front door using one of those special drill bits that I don't have. Then he peeled off the innermost layer of molding on the archway that our washer and dryer are set into, which should give us enough room for new models at a standard 27" size.
On Wednesday we had a window guy in who measured seven of our windows, including the two in our bedroom, and gave us a replacement quote that we OKed. This will also replace all of our remaining horrible aluminum frame windows, put in at some point by some idiot who for the most part couldn't even get them sized right, so that the windows didn't open smoothly (and that's a dramatic understatement). We're also replacing a big sheet of plexiglass or something right by the back door, which I hope will help with our heat loss back there. (And the handyman measured the back door, another trouble source for heat loss, while he was out here, and hopefully will get us a quote for replacing it.)
On Friday Kimberly ordered us a new washer and drier, which should now fit.
And today I spent about two hours in the back and side yard cleaning out ivy and vines to make sure that delivery men have enough space to get washers and driers in and out.
* If I had to guess from the look-and-feel, I'd say the laundry machine is from the '90s and the dryer is from the '60s ... but it's surely newer than that. In any case, they were both here when we bought the house in 2000, alongside a now-gone refrigerator and a still-here dish washer, none of which were great. We've been replacing them one-by-one with super energy-efficient stuff, which I'm sure will pay for itself
Whew! So everything is in process now. There is still work to be done, including: a bit more work on the yard once I have space in a green bin (Tuesday night), delivery of new appliances (Thursday), more accurate measuring of windows (soon), and installation of new windows (next month).
For the moment, however, a few of the problems are dealt with and we can see the end in the distance for the rest. Whew.
Home ownership. Yep.
However, I think our biggest focus in the year (so far) has been home improvement.
Or, perhaps, I should say home breakdowns, because that's what got us going. It started in November or so when the lock on our mailbox suddenly stopped working. Then in December the lock on our foyer door broke too! Then this month our very old* dryer's knob finally broke, requiring us to now start our dryer with a wrench (!) and a bit of finesse. Somewhere in there, winter happened and we started to get the occasional, very unpleasant early morning drafts into our bedroom through the windows.
I did what I could on these problems. I got us a new secure (and hopefully much more robust and hopefully more waterproof) mailbox, but I didn't really want to install it because it required laying cement. I also got us a new set of locks to replace our old ones, and I was able to replace the one in the foyer door, but I discovered the new bolts were just a little too big to fit into the front and back doors and I didn't have a fancy drill bit to fix that. And the drier ... well, I figured out how to get it started with a wrench. And no, I don't replace windows.
So, we've freed up some money to do some home improvement, something that we do every year or two, using the interest from our investments.
On Tuesday we had a handyman out to deal with many of these problems. He put in our new mailbox and after some concerns about its location made it easier to access with a new cement pad in front of it. Then he replaced the locks in the front door using one of those special drill bits that I don't have. Then he peeled off the innermost layer of molding on the archway that our washer and dryer are set into, which should give us enough room for new models at a standard 27" size.
On Wednesday we had a window guy in who measured seven of our windows, including the two in our bedroom, and gave us a replacement quote that we OKed. This will also replace all of our remaining horrible aluminum frame windows, put in at some point by some idiot who for the most part couldn't even get them sized right, so that the windows didn't open smoothly (and that's a dramatic understatement). We're also replacing a big sheet of plexiglass or something right by the back door, which I hope will help with our heat loss back there. (And the handyman measured the back door, another trouble source for heat loss, while he was out here, and hopefully will get us a quote for replacing it.)
On Friday Kimberly ordered us a new washer and drier, which should now fit.
And today I spent about two hours in the back and side yard cleaning out ivy and vines to make sure that delivery men have enough space to get washers and driers in and out.
* If I had to guess from the look-and-feel, I'd say the laundry machine is from the '90s and the dryer is from the '60s ... but it's surely newer than that. In any case, they were both here when we bought the house in 2000, alongside a now-gone refrigerator and a still-here dish washer, none of which were great. We've been replacing them one-by-one with super energy-efficient stuff, which I'm sure will pay for itself
Whew! So everything is in process now. There is still work to be done, including: a bit more work on the yard once I have space in a green bin (Tuesday night), delivery of new appliances (Thursday), more accurate measuring of windows (soon), and installation of new windows (next month).
For the moment, however, a few of the problems are dealt with and we can see the end in the distance for the rest. Whew.
Home ownership. Yep.