My workplace decided to encourage me to become a housewife. They did this by eliminating my position and telling me not to bother coming back into work on Monday. So I'm going to try this housewife thing for a bit and see how it goes. I cooked dinner and did a load of laundry, all on a random Thursday, instead of waiting to have time to do it on the weekend. When I started the laundry, my first thought was to make sure my work clothes got done right away so they'd be ready for next week. Then it clicked... no, I am not going to be needing these for a while. It doesn't really matter if I let them sit in the laundry bin for weeks! This is going to take some time to get used to.
I've decided that housewives also paint their finger and toe nails, and take lots of baths instead of showers. Should be fun to see what else housewives do in the upcoming weeks :D I think I've heard that bon-bons are involved :D
Friday, May 9, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Adventures in Home Ownership
So I've been excited to have some extra time these days and have really been revving up to work on projects around the house. It'll be great to get some of those annoying little things finished up that I just haven't had the time to touch. I've been in a super do-it-yourself mood and no project has seemed to big. Until today...
I got home from work around 2, took the dog out and noticed that the gutter repair guy was at the house and had a ladder propped up against the roof. I was really excited about that because I was worried that if the gutter kept falling off, eventually the roof would leak or something and we'd have a major problem on our hands. I was super worried about leaking and didn't want that to happen, so I was pleased the guy was out here so fast.
I went back in the house with the dog to realize... the kitchen was flooded. Inches of water stood on the kitchen floor and the dog's bed and blankets were soaked. The first inch of the chair legs were under water. The wine fridge was now in a puddle instead of on solid ground. And there was a big, wet tear in the drywall near the sliding glass door.
The gutter guy had wanted to check that the gutter was flowing correctly, so he used the hose outside to fill it with water and watch it drain. Unfortunately, the pipe connecting to that hose had a break and when he turned it on, it blasted water through the wall and into the kitchen. The gutter repair man never knew there was a problem. The dog though was probably going nuts watching it happen.
We were lucky because nothing in the kitchen was really damaged, except the dog bed that isn't drying out right so we are going to toss it.
We went right out to Home Depot and found a guy in the plumbing aisle to ask. He said it was an easy fix and handed us a new nozzle, a connecting pipe and some other connecting something. He explained how to do it and it did sounds like a breeze so we bought what he recommended and came home.
Well, about 3 minutes at home proved that this project was going to be way over our heads. First of all, how do we even get the broken nozzle out of the cement and brick wall!? Yeah, it's pretty much impossible. The only good thing that came out of this adventure was that we found where the water shut-off valve is in the house. So all of those purchases are going to go back to Home Depot. My husband ended up taping up the pipes and when we ran the water it didn't leak. So I think we are going to call that good enough. We'll have to repair the drywall later. Until then, there is the doggie gate in front of it to keep it safe.
Our storm door also broke recently so while we were at Home Depot, we picked up a replacement handle for it. We took apart the current broken handle and started to put in the new one. Well.. apparently our door is 1.59 inches, and the handle we bought is only good for doors up to 1.25 inches. Excellent. So we put the old, broken handle on the door.
That was a lot of work today for very little positive results :P I love owning a house :D
I got home from work around 2, took the dog out and noticed that the gutter repair guy was at the house and had a ladder propped up against the roof. I was really excited about that because I was worried that if the gutter kept falling off, eventually the roof would leak or something and we'd have a major problem on our hands. I was super worried about leaking and didn't want that to happen, so I was pleased the guy was out here so fast.
I went back in the house with the dog to realize... the kitchen was flooded. Inches of water stood on the kitchen floor and the dog's bed and blankets were soaked. The first inch of the chair legs were under water. The wine fridge was now in a puddle instead of on solid ground. And there was a big, wet tear in the drywall near the sliding glass door.
The gutter guy had wanted to check that the gutter was flowing correctly, so he used the hose outside to fill it with water and watch it drain. Unfortunately, the pipe connecting to that hose had a break and when he turned it on, it blasted water through the wall and into the kitchen. The gutter repair man never knew there was a problem. The dog though was probably going nuts watching it happen.
We were lucky because nothing in the kitchen was really damaged, except the dog bed that isn't drying out right so we are going to toss it.
We went right out to Home Depot and found a guy in the plumbing aisle to ask. He said it was an easy fix and handed us a new nozzle, a connecting pipe and some other connecting something. He explained how to do it and it did sounds like a breeze so we bought what he recommended and came home.
Well, about 3 minutes at home proved that this project was going to be way over our heads. First of all, how do we even get the broken nozzle out of the cement and brick wall!? Yeah, it's pretty much impossible. The only good thing that came out of this adventure was that we found where the water shut-off valve is in the house. So all of those purchases are going to go back to Home Depot. My husband ended up taping up the pipes and when we ran the water it didn't leak. So I think we are going to call that good enough. We'll have to repair the drywall later. Until then, there is the doggie gate in front of it to keep it safe.
Our storm door also broke recently so while we were at Home Depot, we picked up a replacement handle for it. We took apart the current broken handle and started to put in the new one. Well.. apparently our door is 1.59 inches, and the handle we bought is only good for doors up to 1.25 inches. Excellent. So we put the old, broken handle on the door.
That was a lot of work today for very little positive results :P I love owning a house :D
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Weekday Warrior?
With my company going under, it looks like I only have a month or so left of work there. Until then, I don't really have much actual 'work' to do. Maybe 2-3 hours every day, but that is if I'm working reaaaaaally slow. So the powers that be have said that 2 of us are allowed to go home at noon every day, and the 3rd person must stay until at least 4 pm, just in case something comes up. However, we are 'working from home', so we are still getting paid for this time off.
It's awesome :D
I've decided that while my work is paying me to go home at noon, I'm going to use this time to go home and get paid by my company to do work around the house. I'm going to be a weekday warrior, instead of a weekend warrior. There are so many little projects that need to be done and I'm excited to finally have the time to do it (Plus still getting the paycheck).
I'm starting in the master bathroom. We never repainted it after moving into the house. The bathroom is painted a plain, neutral color. It just never was really a big deal. The other 2 bathrooms are perfect and adorable but this one is just functional and nothing else.
When the asshole previous owners painted the bathroom walls before moving out, they also were kind enough to paint all over the shower tiles, the electrical outlets, the light switches, the wood molding around the doors and the towel hanging rods. Fabulous. Thanks, jerks.
I did a bit of research a while ago about paint remover chemicals, but since we have a little dog who gets into everything, we were nervous about how to use them safely around her. So it ended up being too complicated for me to figure out, so I abandoned the project.
But now that I've got time to deal with it, I've started it up again with a passion. I decided to look into non-chemical ways to remove the paint, if possible. I took a nail file to the bathroom tiles and used it to scrape at the paint. It's slow, hard and tedious, but it really works and doesn't seem to damage the tiles at all. So far, I've cleaned off 12 tiles. 17 still to go. But it's a start :D
It's awesome :D
I've decided that while my work is paying me to go home at noon, I'm going to use this time to go home and get paid by my company to do work around the house. I'm going to be a weekday warrior, instead of a weekend warrior. There are so many little projects that need to be done and I'm excited to finally have the time to do it (Plus still getting the paycheck).
I'm starting in the master bathroom. We never repainted it after moving into the house. The bathroom is painted a plain, neutral color. It just never was really a big deal. The other 2 bathrooms are perfect and adorable but this one is just functional and nothing else.
When the asshole previous owners painted the bathroom walls before moving out, they also were kind enough to paint all over the shower tiles, the electrical outlets, the light switches, the wood molding around the doors and the towel hanging rods. Fabulous. Thanks, jerks.
I did a bit of research a while ago about paint remover chemicals, but since we have a little dog who gets into everything, we were nervous about how to use them safely around her. So it ended up being too complicated for me to figure out, so I abandoned the project.
But now that I've got time to deal with it, I've started it up again with a passion. I decided to look into non-chemical ways to remove the paint, if possible. I took a nail file to the bathroom tiles and used it to scrape at the paint. It's slow, hard and tedious, but it really works and doesn't seem to damage the tiles at all. So far, I've cleaned off 12 tiles. 17 still to go. But it's a start :D
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