House & Home – Page 18 – Not Content to Crawl

What the…?

Posted onJune 4, 20082 Comments

Last night Joe and I were lying in bed when we heard a very loud, unidentifiable noise come from the bathroom. When I questioned aloud what could have caused it, my dear husband dismissed it as something that fell. That didn’t fly with me; particularly because immediately following the noise I heard water dripping. That’s usually not a good sign so I got up to investigate.

When I flipped on the light, I noticed water coming from the base of the toilet and then I saw this:

Yes, that strange sound was that of a very thick ceramic toilet tank cracking. Damn!

Water was coming out of the crack and running down the base of the toilet onto the floor so Joe – who had followed me into the bathroom – immediately turned off the water to the toilet and flushed it to drain the tank. Then we soaked up the water with a towel.

I’m really mystified as to what in the world would cause that to happen. Neither one of us is particularly abusive to our toilet. I’m not an angry shitter, I swear!

Joe speculated that it could be attributed to the constant changes in temperature in the bathroom but if that was the case, people’s toilet tanks would be cracking all the time. That’s never happened to me before, or anyone else I know, so it’s really odd. Oh well, what can you do?

Added to our weekend plans – buy new toilet.

Scrub a dub dub

Posted onFebruary 25, 20084 Comments

We bought a washing machine from Sears yesterday. Exciting, I know! Ours has been making this horrible noise lately and it’s not the belt, so it must be the motor. We looked at machines a few weeks ago at Sears to get an idea of what we wanted to spend, and of course, my husband being the frugal man that he is was trying to sell me on a $350 model. No way was I getting something with less features than ours currently has.

Frankly, I want those spiffy front-loaders that sell for $800+ each but I knew that was a losing battle. Plus if I want to be logical, it doesn’t make sense to put something that expensive in a townhome that we know we won’t be staying in.

We haven’t decided if we’re going to stick around in this place until we move out of state in 5+ years, but I’m hoping for a house before then, if only to get away from our retarded neighbors. At night the entire courtyard is dark except for two units who keep their patio lights on all night long. Want to wager a guess who those two are? I don’t think I need to spell it out for you. We’ve been looking for light blocking drapes for the bedroom but the only ones we’ve liked were discontinued and the leftover stock in the store wasn’t the right size. We have the best luck with that; we’ve only been searching for over a year. Anyway, we were going to look at Sears but got so wrapped up in our washing machine purchase that we forgot.

And we compromised and got the $450 model which has a stainless steel tub and the capacity is a little larger than our current one with pretty much the same features. After taxes, gift card, 10% special, and “free” installation, I think it will cost $400, so we’re both happy. It arrives on Saturday. No more airplanes landing in the laundry room.

Pantry organized

Posted onNovember 10, 2007November 10, 2007

We found the perfect rack for the pantry at Home Depot today! Joe installed it and I promptly filled it with all the spices and various other items I was having a hard time finding on the crowded shelves. See how nice it looks?

We had to mount it off-center because of the door design, but it doesn’t bother me like I thought it might. It’s very sturdy too, and was inexpensive: only $32 plus $3 for each of the two hanging baskets. In all, a good deal. I’m happy.

Organizing the pantry

Posted onNovember 6, 20072 Comments

I’m sure it comes to no surprise to anyone that I am constantly reorganizing my pantry. No matter how much I rearrange things, however, it’s nearly impossible to avoid having to shove something in the back making it impossible to remember it’s there, not to mention motivate me to use it. This is especially true of my spices. The ones I use most often are on the counter, but I have so many others that I often forget what I own (and yes, I did put them in Excel but that doesn’t prevent my laziness from getting in the way and not wanting to dig in the back to find the spice).

Then I had an idea as I flipped through a catalog sent to me – a pantry door rack/shelving system! That would be perfect. The only problem is deciding which kind to buy – one that hangs over the door, or one that gets screwed into the door. Both have their good and bad points. The one that hangs over the door won’t be very secure and I’ll probably be able to see the hook on the outside of the door which will drive me nuts. The one that mounts to the door will put holes in the door, and due to the door’s design and type of handle, would have to be mounted off-center (which will also drive me nuts even though I’ll only have to look at it when I open the pantry). In addition, I won’t be able to maximize the space because I will have to buy the 18″ shelf system instead of the 24″ even though the door is 27.5″ wide.

And then there’s the price factor. The over the door types are inexpensive, but flimsy in most cases. The only nice system I’ve seen is one that The Container Store sells but it’s expensive as all hell! Just the track alone is $15, plus another $8 for each over the door hook. Each shelf is $8-$13. I added all the shelves I’d probably get and it came to nearly $100. That’s crazy! The one that screws into the door is only $25 if I order it online, plus shipping, but I don’t know whether the shelf sizes will work for me.

I am in a quandary. I’d prefer to see my choices in person so I think this weekend we’ll be checking Lowes, Home Depot, etc. to see what they offer because I don’t want to buy something I’ll end up hating later.

Does anyone have a pantry door shelf? If so, what do you think of it? Do you have some general pantry organization tips to share?

On vacation

Posted onJuly 3, 2007July 3, 2007

I’m so happy to be on vacation! Yes, it’s only 5 days away from work, but those are 5 desperately needed days. I was *this close* to ripping someone’s head off today. But now I’m at home feeling much better after our walk.

Although we were almost attacked by two very pissed off robins. A baby robin was hopping along the sidewalk and apparently we got too close because suddenly two adult robins were chirping up a storm and flying past our heads. Even as we continued away from the baby robin they kept hopping through the trees following us and chirping loudly. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I have no doubt had we actually touched the baby robin, we’d be dead with our eyes pecked out. Those were some fiercely protective parents, let me tell you.

So back to the relaxing. The house is super clean thanks to the hubby who has all this week off. Yesterday he cleaned the bathrooms, washed the floors, did a bunch of laundry (he even washed all our linens), and went to the store. I haven’t had to lift a finger. I came home tonight to chicken with potatoes in the crock pot. It was good too. I love and appreciate my hubby every day, but he gets mega points for all that.

Tomorrow is our 4th of July BBQ, although it might be an indoor one the way the weather forecast is looking. Then Thursday we’re off to Indianapolis to visit the Indy Zoo and some other sites that are still undetermined. I am so excited to visit the zoo’s dolphin dome, you don’t even know! I also can’t wait to see all the butterflies in the gardens nearby. I better go clear my memory cards and charge some batteries while I’m thinking about it.