Saturday, December 22, 2007

Snow

Our first snowfall in the house



(nighttime snow. you can see the large compost bin under construction behind the tree).

The next morning, not long after sunrise. Everything looks pretty with snow.

Detritus free garden

The Township Building Inspector finally signed off on the demolition (the requirement had been to remove the pile from the back yard). So now we have a clear garden ready for planting things in the spring.



(Pictures taken early in the morning whilst S. was still asleep. You can see the start of the leaf pile behind the tree. On the left is the 3x3ft wire compost bin that S. thought might be large enough...).

Adventures in Plumbing

Today the leak:




was back. Apparently, just fixing up the POs hack job:



wasn't sufficient. However, having demolished bits of the interiors of the kitchen cupboards last time, this time it was easy to fix using... drumroll ... the right parts! It's amazing how much easier, cleaner, and less leak prone it is when you connect pipes using a joining piece between the fittings rather than chopping them off and using clamps.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Yay?

Some relatively good news, for once. When I was in the kitchen last night, mixing up some bath salts, I heard a hissing noise and noticed dripping water coming from beneath the cabinet where the leak was...the inside of the cabinet was also wet, indicating that the leak might have nothing to do with the heating system, but rather with the water lines going between the sink and dishwasher.

M checked it out today (with minimal dismantling of our counters and cabinets) and tightened a few connections...and the leak appears to have stopped!

We had some minor annoyance when we drove around later to look at roofs - the roofers gave us the addresses of other houses they'd done so we could look at roof colors - and we ended up in several more post-war planned developments wherein all the street names begin with the same letter. Last time we went out we were in the "R" neighborhood; today we ended up in "Q" and "C".

The annoyance entered in when we discovered that not only did the streets begin with the same letter; some of them had the same danged name. So we were looking for two houses on Crystal Place, but we actually ended upon Crystal Drive, looking at the wrong houses (both streets had the same numbering system!). It ended up being too dark after that to see what the roofs on Crystal PLACE looked like.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Dreadville Doldrums

I don't know whether to declare this blog on hiatus or not. I certainly haven't felt like writing in it.

I don't really feel as thought we've gotten anywhere in the past few months. Mostly, I sleep too late, eat erratically, and spend too much money on my revolving perfume oil collection. Hoorah, depression.

Last month we had our furnace serviced...wherein "serviced" actually turned out to mean a nearly 5-figure sum to have the whole bloody thing replaced when the old one (not serviced in years by the P.O.s; what a shock) spewed near-lethal amounts of carbon monoxide when turned on. Oh, and the water heater leaked gas.

As the additions have been demolished, we're in contact with the roofers again to have the roof replaced, tentatively scheduled for the end of December. It'll probably snow, hail, rain, and sleet to deter us, though.

There's been a mystery water leak in the kitchen ever since the heat was turned on. It seems to be getting worse and, unfortunately, the only way to access the leaky area is to dismantle/destroy/demolish our kitchen counters. Whoop-de-effing-doo.

Other news? Hmm..

M's leaf pile in the back yard has grown to gargantuan proportions. We only have three trees, so he's been raiding the neighbor's yards for leaves, up to the point of liberating the leaves from their yard waste recycle bins. We dragged down four large pallets that were for some reason in our attic to corral the leaves, though there are more than will fit.

I got bamboo shades for the front door and the dining room window and installed them. Such excitement!

I unpacked and/or stowed away the boxes that were still cluttering up the living room. It's nearly box free now, and actually looks like a living space. There's still a whacking great hole in the wall, and we're using one of those cotton tapestry throws as an area rug, but at least it isn't boxville anymore.