Immediately after a day of non-stop rain.
A few hours later.
Lots of rain hit the area yesterday causing much flooding and destruction. I feel bad for people whose homes flooded. The above photos taken of the courtyard behind our townhome was the worst of it in our immediate area.
Remember the whole issue we had with the furnace after getting a new unit installed? I’m happy to report that ABT replaced the motor in our furnace this morning and now everything is great. The furnace is so much quieter and I am so relieved! No more whining noise can be heard throughout the duct work. The repair guy informed us he was swapping a motor at someone else’s house today too, so apparently this is more common than they led us to believe initially. Kinda sucks for them to have to do all that extra work due to a manufacturer’s fault, but I’m just glad it’s now resolved.
Last week we decided it was about time we bit the bullet and put some money into buying some shelving for the garage to better store all our stuff, particularly the storage totes holding holiday decor and whatnot. We made plans to do it this weekend and as it neared I got more and more excited. Seriously, I don’t think anything excites me more than getting organized.
Friday after work we headed to Menards and dropped almost $300 on shelving – 1 really large metal unit, 1 smaller unit, and shelving that mounts to the ceiling. When we got home we decided we’d just put together the free-standing shelving so we could organize it on Saturday but once we got going we were motivated to just do it all right then and there.
Here’s what it looked like before.
And here’s what it looked like about two hours later.
Joe wasn’t entirely happy with the results, so we went to Menards on Saturday and got another shelving unit, so this is what it looks like now (sans bikes as we need to reconfigure them).
I’m so happy that I can finally get to my decorations without having to ask Joe to move four boxes to get to one. I can get everything myself, plus all the extra home stuff (like fabric softener, toilet paper, and paper towels) are within easy reach as well. I can’t believe we waited so long to do this.
Unfortunately the left side of the garage is a total mess now with all the empty boxes from the shelving, extra drywall from the last remodel, and moulding that no longer have a place on the right side, so we’re going to have to work on that side next weekend. We’re debating whether or not we’re going to keep and use the ceiling storage or not, so that hasn’t been taken out of the box yet.
This morning when I checked the Menards ad I saw that the two big shelving units we had just purchased were on sale for $30 less plus an additional $20 rebate, so we went back and they gave us back the difference for the sale price ($60 total) in merchandise credit and we can get another $40 back via the rebate so that’s pretty cool. The credit never expires so next time we need something for the home we’ll just go to Menards instead of Home Depot or Lowes which is fine by me as I’ve noticed Menards typically has better prices anyway.
The above photo explains the last day and a half after a pretty brutal storm ripped through the area. While we were lucky to not have lost our power we were without cable, (home) phone service, and internet from Monday morning until yesterday around 5 pm. It was brutal. ;)
We fared better than our neighbor, however. This looks worse than it really was as I do not think their car suffered more than some scratches, but the gutters over their garage were dented. We also just learned their house is up for short sale which terrifies me as who knows what kind of people will move in next. We could get lucky and they’ll be quieter, pet-free, and non-smokers, or they could be the complete opposite and make us miss our current neighbors. I wish we could afford to buy the place ourselves and rent it out so we could control who we end up living next to since we’re going to be here for at least a few more years until the home prices recover.
Speaking of being without things, our air conditioning died on June 10th. Due to the high volume of requests we couldn’t get anyone to even look at it until June 20th because we had decided to bite the bullet and have the entire system, including the furnace, replaced. We knew there was a freon leak in the air conditioner which we had paid to be refilled at least twice (once each season if my memory serves me correctly) so we knew it was time to do something more permanent since the furnace was getting old as well.
At a coworker’s suggestion we went with ABT Electronics. Joe took the day off on Friday the the 22nd for them to do the install. When I got home from work I noticed it was running pretty loudly – a very noticeable and annoying humming was coming from the furnace. In addition to that the air stopped working shortly after it shut off and then was turned back on. We were not pleased. After many phone calls and being talked down to we finally got someone out on that Saturday to take a look and they found the cause of the air ceasing to work was a loosely connected wire in the outside unit. Fixing the noise wasn’t so easy. Try as he might, including using metal tape to seal all the joints in the ducts, he could not make the noise go away (although he did quiet it somewhat). As he was an installer we had an actual technician come out later that night and right away he knew the issue was the motor. He said he had seen the same issue in a few other units. Apparently there’s a fault in them and he said he’d have to order the parts from the manufacturer. Therefore we have to deal with the noise for a few more weeks but at least there’s some relief in sight, or so I hope. I’m starting to get a bit used to the noise but will still be happier once it’s been eradicated.
I wish Facebook had a feature where you could unsubscribe from follow-up comments other people make on a status update that you commented on unless it’s the person who made the original update. I hate getting updates on crap that doesn’t matter to me. It’s the reason why I don’t comment as much on people’s updates as I otherwise would, especially if they are one of my more “popular” friends who tend to get 20 comments on one update.
Anyway, here’s what’s been going on around these parts since I’m a sucky blogger.
Home
Our garage door started acting funny a week or so ago where it would start to close and then halfway down it would go back up. It was doing it here and there before then but it got to the point where nothing would make it go down all the way. Joe had to open and close it manually to get our cars in at night and out in the morning which sucked since it’s been getting colder around here. Also yours truly didn’t have a nice warm car to get into when I left for work. But hey, at least I didn’t have to mess with the garage door! Joe figured out what was wrong – the plastic (yes, plastic) gear was shredded, so Sunday we went to the Sears parts store. $40 and an hour of Joe’s time later and it’s all fixed. That was our excitement for the week.
Movies
Hmm… what else? We saw Puss in Boots with Joe’s daughter last time she visited (his son couldn’t make it) and I thought it was a pretty good movie which was lucky since I had no idea what it was even about going in. I want to see The Muppets even though I’m not a muppet fan, because I like Jason Segal. Remember the Muppet Babies? I did watch that as a kid but I never liked the regular muppets. Rowlf was my favorite, but I hated Miss Piggy and always will. Someone needs to turn her into a BLT already. Oh, and we saw a 3D movie for the first time in years – A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. It was legend-… wait for it… -dary. So much better than their second movie. Possibly even better than the original.
Kids
I don’t think I wrote about the fact that we got K’s iPod Touch replaced by Apple for $150. They let us purchase a refurbished one. We took the money from K’s account since she broke it, though. Sucked to have to do that, but better than buying her a brand new one. She also broke her Kindle. Well, we aren’t sure if she broke it or if it had something wrong with it, but either way Amazon replaced it at no charge which was good. So when she was over last time it was like Christmas for her getting a new iPod Touch and Kindle.
Speaking of Christmas, I’m glad that the kids are older because instead of buying a ton of little things I only have to buy one or two things which means less time dealing with the crazy shoppers. This year we’re getting E a Kindle Fire (he already knows since he asked for it) and I don’t want to mention what we’re getting for K in case she knows about this site but I think she will find it very useful.
Holidays
We’re both off work Thursday-Monday so it will be a nice extended holiday weekend. I love Thanksgiving! What’s not to love about being encouraged to stuff one’s face? Hopefully all the exercising I’ve been doing lately will lessen the weight gain.
I have no plans on shopping on Black Friday, and didn’t want to go outside at all that day but I have to get a cat scan in the morning and then pick up the kids in the afternoon. I’m staying away from all the stores though!
I don’t even know what I want for Christmas. Nothing, really. I would like an iPad, but not the one that’s out now. I can’t justify spending $500 (and let’s face it, even if it’s a “gift” from Joe it’s all the same moolah) on a device that has a lower quality screen than my phone. Plus if I had it my way I’d prefer a 7″ tablet. Maybe next year they will introduce an iPad 3 mini. I’d be all over that.
I do like opening presents, but I’m so not into buying stuff just for the sake of it. I keep trying to get rid of stuff either by donating to Goodwill or selling on Craigslist and Facebook. I recently sold Dance Dance Revolution 2 to someone I used to work with. Joe got it for me because I asked for it but I ended up hating the game because I have no rhythm; plus the stupid dance pad took up too much space. I’m glad to see it gone. Another thing I need to get rid of already are the Disney souvenirs I bought for my coworkers on my honeymoon six years ago. I’m sure I wrote about this before but I was so pissed when I came back from my honeymoon to learn that essentially nothing was done the entire two weeks I was gone that I never handed them out. They’ve spent the last six years in a hall closet and I get angry all over again whenever I see them so it’s time to let it, and them, go already. I’m going to ask my mom if she wants to wrap them up for our annual game of Crazy Bingo this year. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I often have a hard time parting with things I’ve spent money on but I’ve come to realize it’s silly to hang onto things you’re never going to use just because you feel like you wasted your money. It’s wasted either way, so you might as well get rid of it and clear some space in your house. It’s been getting easier letting go of stuff once I see how less cluttered the closet looks without it around.
Anyway, I don’t know whether Joe and I will be exchanging gifts this year. He’s a pain to buy for and I can’t think of anything I really want, so we might go small this year. Maybe I’ll have him get me a few CDs or something.
Music
Speaking of music, in case anyone cares, these are the top five songs I’ve been playing lately. Feel free to share yours in the comments. I love discovering new music.
You Make Me Feel – Cobra Starship
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
Hello – Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette
Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People