Category: House & Home

New Association & Fire Alarm Inspection

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Sometime back in October my payment to our association was rejected by the bank with a notice that the PO BOX had been closed. And this was how I learned that we had a new association (that no one ever told us about). Luckily I have a few neighbors’ contact info and was able to get the whole welcome packet digitally from one of them. Apparently it was mailed to everyone, but I spoke to other neighbors who didn’t get the info either. Trying to get an email response or accurate information from this new association didn’t go well either. Very aggravating!

Eventually they created a website and suddenly seemed to magically now have my email address (which was always on my account) in order to send notices and whatnot. One of those was about upcoming fire alarm inspections. The way in which they laid out the information caused confusion, though. Had it not been for the two people on our board who showed up at my house to discuss voting for new board members, I would have thought the inspection for our unit was on a Wednesday, not Friday. I’m guessing the same confusion happened to the neighbors on either side of us too since neither were home the day they showed up. That sucks, because they will be charged for the inspectors to come back out.

I spoke to the guys who did the inspection and was told that our system really needs replacing but it would be very difficult to do so. Who knows what that means for the future. They were required under their contract to replace two heat detectors in each building and chose our unit for both, so they replaced the one in the laundry room and the other in the garage. Not sure why they didn’t replace one in another unit, though. Kinda seems unfair we got two (of the four in our unit) replaced, but whatever. I’m just happy that is over, for this year at least. They choose the dates and you have to be home or you get fined. It’s really shitty, if you ask me.

Master Bedroom Window

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Over the past few months I’ve noticed the master bedroom has been draftier than usual and it seemed like I could hear the wind whipping around at night more. Plus I could hear the relentless beeping from the big post office across the street. I chalked it up to the fact that our windows aren’t that insulated and asked Joe if he could install a window insulation kit since it’s been so cold in there lately.

Sunday was the day and in order to do it we had to remove the blinds first. So glad we did as that’s when we discovered that the glass had slipped, leaving a small gap where all the air can come in.

Everything makes much more sense now!

Unfortunately Joe couldn’t get the glass to budge no matter what he did and he was worried he’d break it if he used too much force so he put some insulation foam in the gap and caulked the hell out of it to temporarily seal it.

The windows are 30 years old so we decided we’ll be replacing them next year. It sucks, because it isn’t going to be cheap, but I’m really looking forward to having windows that are easier to open. Plus I’ve wanted a new patio door for years.

I’m going to start doing some research so we choose a company carefully. I also plan on speaking to our neighbors to the west as they had all their windows and patio door replaced last year and they look nice.

Refrigerator Organization

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I wanted our new refrigerator to be more organized than the last one and just so happened to come across two perfect items at Costco back in late September.

It took a little convincing to get Joe on board with the egg holders, but now that we’ve been using them for awhile he really likes them. I like how they, along with our fresh fruit and yogurt, are all contained in one space giving more room for other things.

I liked our old fruit containers but they were too large and didn’t stack well. The Rubbermaid containers solved that issue and I haven’t noticed any difference in how long before the fruit spoils.

Our fridge is now laid out as follows:

Top shelf – pre-packaged items for future meals, such as soups or meal kits
Second shelf – leftovers
Third shelf – eggs, yogurt, cream cheese, and fruit
Fourth shelf – milk, creamer, juice
Produce Drawer – fruits & veggies, plus extra butter (we buy in bulk)
Meat Drawer – tortillas, sour cream, and cheeses (block, shredded, and cottage)

Refrigerator Saga

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Sunday (09/18) Joe said he thought there might be something wrong with the refrigerator and I might want to start looking at new ones in case it died and sure enough, it died the next day (Monday 09/19). We ordered a few replacement parts off Amazon, but the more research Joe did, the more he was worried there could be too many possible culprits. Not only that, but the fridge is original to the home so it was 31 years old. Reluctantly, we agreed it was time to replace it.

In the meantime we were able to store some food in our friends’ spare fridge in her garage. That saved us from losing a lot of expensive meats in the freezer. Our fridge was quite large (25 cubit feet) and we kept it well stocked. Even with our friend’s help we had to throw out some food, although we did our best to eat whatever we could.

After dropping our food off, we went to Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes looking at refrigerators. We settled on a Frigidaire side-by-side in white ($1200) from Lowes and were able to secure a delivery date for that Wednesday.

Tuesday (09/20) night we got an automated call letting us know our delivery window was 3-7 the following day.

Wednesday (09/21) morning I got a call from a person saying they’d actually be by between 2 and 2:30. I relayed this info to Joe as he planned on working until noon and then coming home so we could move furniture around and he could disconnect the water line from the old fridge and take the front door off the hinges (the fridges are too large to fit through the back door even though that’s closer to the kitchen).

Well, at 9:30 am I got a call from the delivery guy saying he’d be there in an hour. Joe had to leave work immediately and scramble to prepare for the delivery. The water shut-off to our sink and fridge would not actually shut off and water was getting all over the floor. Joe ended up having to shut off the main water to the house. Also, the delivery guys didn’t actually show up until 45 minutes past the time they said they would.

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Flora & Fauna

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The weather has been very frustrating so far this spring. It’s either been really cold (like 40s-50s) or super hot (90s). We finally got some more spring like weather recently, so we took full advantage.

Saturday (05/14) we hit up a local place called Murphy’s Farm to buy petunias and a few other flowers for our patio garden.

New Flowers

Their prices were pretty reasonable, so we might go back as we have a few more pots to fill. We also planted zinnias since the butterflies, hummingbirds, and finches love them.

Speaking of hummers, we put out the feeder on May 7th and saw our first hummingbird on the 11th, so that wasn’t a bad wait at all. Unfortunately all the birds visiting this year are very shy so I’ve yet to get a picture of any of them. The second I move, they fly away. I even sat on the patio on the 17th for a half hour completely still with my camera pointed toward the feeder and got absolutely nothing.

Sunday (05/15) we made our semi-annual visit to Lilacia Park to see the lilacs and tulips.

Lilacia Park

Despite the fact that the lilacs were listed as reaching full bloom mere days before our visit, they didn’t look their best and the tulips were on their way out because they only last a few weeks in peak shape. I guess next year we need to get our butts out there twice to see them each on separate days. I am glad we waited until Sunday to visit, however, because the temperature was much cooler than Friday evening which was our original planned date. There were hardly any people in the park at 8 am either, which was nice. We both are crowd adverse, which is why we always try to get to places early.

The highlight of our trip though, was the chipmunk we came across.

Isn’t it adorable??!? I felt so lucky for the opportunity to photograph it because they’re usually quick to run away.

After the park we decided to visit Churchill Woods forest preserve because I heard it’s peak migration season for many birds.

While I wasn’t really able to get any photos, we did hear a huge variety of birds, identified with my Merlin Bird ID app.

Here’s a list of everything we heard (the asterisk means we also saw the bird).

Baltimore Oriole *
Barn Swallow *
Blackpoll Warbler
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue Jay *
Brown-headed Cowbird
Cedar Waxwing
Downy Woodpecker
Gray Catbird
Great Crested Flycatcher
Indigo Bunting
Northern Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-Winged Blackbird
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Warbling Vireo