Yoo 689 - The Baby Room

The baby room has come a long way since October, when I first got the itch to nest. I came home from work one day and suddenly the living room was torn apart and I was designing a desk that would fit perfectly in the corner so I could move our "office" out of the extra bedroom.

Fast forward to Christmas and I had finished that bulky project and cleared most of the junk out of the extra bedroom just in time to celebrate with family for a week.

I didn't do much else to the room until the first week in March when I realized time was running out. And all the below happened in about two weeks. Because when I'm motivated...

This is how the room looks from the doorway. I stop and stare at it for a million seconds every time I pass it. And yes, Roscoe is usually sprawled out in there like that. He's taken a liking to this room as well.

The changing table/dressing corner.

With Roscoe, too.

The rocking chair corner. I found the animal canvas prints at Goodwill when I was just a few months pregnant. They were only four bucks and I figured I could work them into a baby room somehow. It's kind of how the loose "jungle" theme came about. I also added a cool dimmer to the lamp so I don't have to turn it on all the way in the middle of the night.

I've had these Ikea leaf things since before I was married. I know I was dating Greg because he was with me when I bought them on a whim. But they've been sitting around for years and have finally found their place.

Pups was sad when we hung them up...he lost a good hideout.

The crib almost made me cry. We were given a nice hand-me-down cherry-finished crib from a friend. It was in fine condition. Except I had visions of a white crib to fit in with everything. Long story short, painting a crib is a complete pain and never ever ever. We ended up throwing in the towel and using some store credits to get this one. And I still feel bad about it.

I made the crib skirt. It took all of an hour. And we'll document it on the official record that Greg was right about the fabric color. I rolled my eyes at him in the store when he suggested this one and then after comparing it to everything else I realized it was our best option. So props to him.

These fabric animal prints were another Goodwill find years ago that I've been hanging onto.

And the guest bed corner of the room. Because Harold still needs a home and my mom still needs a place to sleep when she comes to visit. I don't care if it fits with the "theme" of the room or not, I will never give up that massive space shuttle photo.

This concludes the tour.

BUT WAIT.

Also on the official record, me, just a day south of 39-weeks pregnant:

I felt totally stupid taking a photo but I might miss this someday. I kind of like being pregnant...and I never thought I'd say that. But I feel like it's easier than what comes next. And I'm still sleeping thru the night (if you don't count the 4 times I have to get up to pee).

Now Roscoe again, to finish this out.

He's a little unsure about this impending "baby". But I keep promising him he's my number one pups.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 668 - AC Woes

The air conditioning problem that manifested itself right as I was fixing the washer problem is finally fixed! Here's the story.

This all started a few weeks ago when Greg broke the "No AC until June" rule (loosely enforced) and turned on the AC. While I was washing our clothes in the kitchen sink because the washer was broke. Shortly after the AC came on, we both smelled burning. It was bad. We shut off the thermostat but the fan stayed on and eventually we had to kill the breaker to the unit so we didn't run the fan all night.

Then the weather cooled off so it was easy to stay alive and we procrastinated fixing it. For three weeks.

It warmed up a bit two Tuesdays ago so I tried turning the AC back on to cool the house off before I went to work. Except I left for work and forgot to turn it off. Five hours later I walked into a furnace. The thermostat said 96 degrees! 

Obviously something was not working properly.

So that Friday I got serious about fixing the problem and spent an hour running between Google and the compressor trying to self-diagnose. That went no where.

The following Wednesday morning we finally admitted defeat and called a repair guy. Mostly because my mom and sister were coming into town that night and it was getting hot. The repair guy came over and spent two hours trying to figure out what was going on. I was uber thankful when he ruled out the condenser! I'd already imagined a worse-case scenario that was going to cost me at least five grand.

Eventually the diagnosis came in: a piece had melted on the circuit board that was causing the AC and heater to run simultaneously (the furnace was winning). Definitely not something I would have figured out on my own and clearly a problem. They tried to fix it but didn't have the part so they just disabled the wire to the furnace as a temporary solution.

Cool air again!

A couple more days passed and they were back with the part. A couple more hours passed and voila! I have a working AC! I'm so thankful to have a working AC.

Also, my voice mail is bad...might not be the best way to reach me:

And the forecast recently:

Tons of rain. We got out of the temple a couple weeks ago and I had a message from USAA informing me that our house had been in a tornado warning. BUT OUR DOG! We got home as quickly as we could through rain sheets and flooding streets. And everything was fine.

That's all.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 667 - Graphic Pictures of Shower Mold/Mildew

Greg and I spent some quality time in the shower on Memorial Day...scrubbing our grout and re-caulking. The shower had been neglected for a while and was long overdue for some maintenance. Not to mention, that one time the spout shot off at me and I found I had a 1/2" gap between the new one and the wall and decided to just fill that in with spray foam as a "temporary" fix.

Then four years passed.

The whole process was a pain but man it looks good now. Also, the shower is henceforth and forever off-limits because it's too pretty to get dirty again.

"Well maybe you should just clean your shower on occasion."

Maybe I will.

The before and after pictures:

That was the "April" project for my 2015 goal of completing one cheap home improvement project each month this year. I'm a little behind. Though the May project is going to be replacing our shower head and June will probably involve fixing the ceiling the old shower head damaged.

Add those to the February project that fixed the ventilation fan in there and our bathroom will be practically perfect.

Until the next disaster. 

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 664 - Adventures With A Washing Machine

My washer stopped spinning during the spin cycle. I discovered this when I went to retrieve my last load of laundry for the week and realized it was still soaking wet. Unfortunately it was towels and bathroom rugs so it was quite the pain to squeeze them out enough before transferring to the dryer.

That's when I went to bed because it was Friday night and I couldn't even begin to deal with it.

Saturday morning found me eating a cookie two cookies for breakfast and watching a really hilarious youtube video of a man fixing the same issue with his washer. And I quote, "punching it does not solve the problem."

I was inspired.

Then I let it sit broken for another few days.

Now enter Monday and a dire need for clean gym clothes. An executive decision was made to use our FHE activity to research the issue.

First, we started by unplugging the washer, turning off the water, unscrewing the hoses, and pulling the washer away from the wall. Then we began removing all the screws on the back. Until we got to two super stubborn screws. Then we looked for the owners manual around the house but it didn't exist. Then we googled for the owners manual and approximately five minutes later I'd found a repair video for our exact washer that kindly told us we could remove the front panel to fix the problem.

So we returned the back of the washer to normal and turned our attention to the front. There were only two screws to remove but naturally one of them was stuuuuuuuuck. That's when I began googling for ways to loosen tight screws. A lot of tapping and WD-40 and Greg-grunting later, our screw was out and we were in business.

That's when we discovered the shredded belt. Which I promptly ordered on amazon for $10 before resigning myself to the kitchen and hand-washing gym clothes.

It was while I was scrubbing my clothes in the kitchen sink that I smelled an intense burning coming from the air conditioner. I thought the house was on fire. Upon further investigation, nothing was aflame but the thermostat was promptly set to off.

And the air conditioner didn't respond.

Eventually I just flipped the master kill switch and haven't turned it back on since.

One problem at a time!

The handle on my back gate is also falling off right now, but at least I got the belt for the washer and, after doing two loads of laundry, that seems to be fixed.

I'm quite pleased we didn't have to replace the washer or call an expensive serviceman, though I'm thinking our luck is going to run out with this air conditioning problem.

We'll see what youtube tells me.

In the meantime, my favoritest dog on the planet.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 635 - Fixed

We have a kitchen light again! It's a lot nicer than the original light, too. No complaints there. BUT, I'm bugged by the kitchen cabinet they rebuilt.

The doors are lopsided and installed too high.

Look at that picture and tell me it doesn't drive you nuts. You can't.

Oh it's driving me nuts.

But popcorn ceilings drove me nuts and I got used to ignoring those real fast. Plus, I heard the guy installing that cabinet and I wasn't about to ask him to make it better. Not to mention he gave me his extra fish sandwich one day during lunch.

I've been working from home for three days to let the contractors in and I never thought I'd say this but...I'm ready to get back to work. This will change promptly at 9am tomorrow morning and I'll miss my pajamas and dog and not being around people. I'm a grass is greener person.

Now, more excitedly, Greg and I started howling last night with the intention of getting Roscoe to join in and HE DID. It was one of the coolest things that has happened in a while. Pups has such a convincing howl. It reminded us of our dog sledding trip and we high-fived remembering what a great mushing team we made.  But anyways, I wish I could train Roscoe to howl on command. That and dance.

Well, I'm glad everything is all fixed but cross your fingers we don't have any other house disasters for a while. I need time to save up for the next one.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 627 - Four Thousand Dollars

So far the failure of an $8.00 part has cost us over $4,000. And that's the non-plastic version of the part...the plastic version is only $5.00. Yes we have insurance and are only responsible for our deductible but it's still a lot of money to pay for the failure of an $8.00 part.

This is such a fun learning experience! Want to know how much water mitigation costs right now? Then I'll tell you!

$142.17 to rip out a small kitchen cabinet.

$22.87 to throw that cabinet away (even though it's still sitting on my porch??).

$371.99 to rent a massive dehumidifier and 4 large fans. This does not include the anticipated spike in utilities. Every month from here on out I'll be checking that bill with trepidation.

$135.87 to monitor equipment over the course of 3 days.

And that's just the main line items on a thousand dollar receipt.

Another contractor came by the other day to give us an estimate on repairing everything from the leak/mitigation. Their estimates came to over $3,000 with major endeavors like replacing the entire ceiling in the kitchen/dining room and rebuilding a few cabinets.

As said contractor was leaving they casually dropped that they're really backed up and wouldn't be able to get to the work for at least three weeks.

Therefore I have made peace with the gaping holes in the ceiling/walls and lack of a kitchen light.

It could have been a lot worse but it also could have been prevented. I think I'm going to replace all the hoses in my house every year so those parts are always under warranty.

Other news that will utterly bore you: laundry, work, dishes, overtime at work, 90 degrees outside, and my dog. He's awesome.

A tidbit on Cubscouts: we pulled together a really last-minute activity that rocked last week. We basically walked the scouts thru basic maintenance on our vehicle and bicycles for the handyman badge interspersed with lessons on Dutch oven cooking. It was a win because they did our chores and we got to eat cheesy biscuits at the end.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 624 - Water Mitigation In Progress

We're currently playing host to a dehumidifier the size of my washing machine and 4 industrial fans. They're noisy and expensive guests. I can only imagine what my utility bill is going to look like next month...

Their reservation is scheduled to end on Monday so here's hoping. I'm really glad it's just Monday...the nice dude who set them up got a fun reaction out of me when he first joked that they'd be here for 3 weeks! That was a good one.

Soooooo yeah. I've already discovered that the microwave is off-limits for the time being. Tripped a breaker when I tried to heat up dinner last night. Also, the stove is completely blocked by the mammoth dehumidifier and we have to kick around two fans in order to access the fridge. Not to mention spending any amount of time in the kitchen makes you feel like a shriveled, dried-up worm on the sidewalk.

It all rolls into a perfect excuse to order pizza every night. Just kidding, we're eating cereal.

Now for the tour!

TOILET THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! The upstairs bathroom actually fared pretty well. Just had to pull off the baseboards to get some air flowing to the sub-floor.

Meet the dehumidifier. It's too legit to quit. Except when I trip the breaker and kill all power to the kitchen and then it just blinks "Power Failure" for 5 minutes.

There used to be cupboards here. Now there's just a fan. Also, over 16 square feet of sheet rock behind the fridge is missing. The fans on the floor are aimed at that gaping hole.

Ceiling is getting aired out.

The dehumidifier works...water comes gushing out of this hose every few minutes.

And an overall state of affairs in the kitchen.

Life is definitely not dull right now. 

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 622 - The (Kitchen) Sky Is Falling

At approximately 4:37 this morning I awoke to loud crashing noises. It took me a couple seconds to process and actually emerge from the deep recesses of dreamland. Once that happened though, I panicked and began shoving Greg awake.

"Greg!"

Shoveshoveshove. 

"Greg!!"

Mumbles.

"I heard something in the kitchen...go check it out!"

More mumbles as he rolled out of bed and started towards the kitchen.

Seconds later he reported, "Oh, our light just fell out of the ceiling."  Except it was in a deceptively unconcerned tone.

More mental processing.

"Wait...our kitchen light fell out of the ceiling??"

It hit me and I bolted for the kitchen.

We stared in silence and wonder for about 2 seconds before noticing the drips and puddles all around. Then there was that slow look at each other while both of our faces portrayed something along the lines of "oh shucks" before zipping around and sprinting up the stairs to find the leaky culprit.

It was the toilet.

To be more specific, I did some studying of toilet diagrams so I could describe it using terminology other than "water thingy that leads to the toilet". I'm just going to throw this out there...somehow the "stainless inlet supply connector" was spurting water. Actually, my recollection is fuzzy. Maybe it was coming from the pipes in the wall before the emergency shut-off valve? But probably not because when Greg shut that off the water stopped. Either way...the wall behind the toilet was soaked and it had obviously penetrated into the kitchen below.

Isn't that fantastic?

Here are some pictures:

The downed light fixture.

The light fixture's former home...notice the leaking.

And water.

So there you have it. Pretty extensive water damage and the house already smells like mildew. My life is a kickin' and a rockin'!

I mean, at least it wasn't sewage, right?

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 511 - Living Room Beds, Tuition, and Pizza

Our living room is one giant bed.

It started earlier last week with a movie night. We inflated the air mattress and enlisted every pillow and blanket in the house to make it extra cozy. I think we then fell asleep before even starting the movie.

But over a week later, we're still sleeping downstairs on that air mattress.

Partly because it's fun, and mostly because it is at least 10 degrees cooler in the living room than it is upstairs. We would wake up every morning with heat exhaustion in that sauna of a bedroom. Maybe because one of us refuses to set the thermostat below 78 in an attempt to keep the utility bill reasonable. (it's me.) But the living room boasts a comfortable climate!

Now we're both happy.

Even though our real bed is starting to seem very desirable. I kind of miss it. But I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't pack up that air mattress until...November? Probably November.

In other news, we paid tuition yesterday. That was fun. Goodbye summer savings! Goodbye trip to Australia or new computer or down payment on a bigger house. I think I'd be less bitter if this was the last tuition bill we were paying for a while...but it isn't. UTSA waved their evil trident and forced the Gregstudent into another semester.

I'm not allowed to talk about it in public yet because I still have nothing nice to say.

So on to pizza. I botched my second attempt at making pizza this week. I'm pretty sure it's because I forgot to add oil to the dough. Something about omitting crucial ingredient leads to less-than-desirable results? But I'm not giving up! I'm on a quest to find our favorite pizza dough recipe.

This quest will probably be a lot more productive when I start following the recipes correctly.

Last but not least, dork dog. He loves car rides. Especially ones that lead to the dog park.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 486 - He Was The Best Of Dogs, He Was The Worst Of Dogs...

THIS DOG.

We all knew this post was coming. The "I thought you were never ever ever coming home ever...so I panicked" post.

We leave him with free reign of the house for 6 hours...and everything is fine. But then we leave for 30 minutes to run an errand...and he goes berserk.

He killed a ninja turtle.

Straight up decapitated their leader.

Then he played a little Rook, clearly losing his temper towards the end.

At some point a pillow was sentenced to losing its innards by gnashing of teeth and slashing of paws.

And Greg's favorite baby toy underwent several amputations.

BUT. Worst of all...

...HE ATE CALVIN AND HOBBES! *moment of silence*

And he doesn't even care.

Honorable mention: Roscoe's leash is now hanging on by threads, Greg's backpack is down a few critical straps, our Webelos handbook no longer has a cover, and fur.

So that happened. Like we're surprised. I have decided to not make Roscoe watch "Marley and Me" as originally planned. This dog does not need any ideas. Like, good job buddy, you've already reached "Handful" status.

What now? Are babies this hard? Don't answer that question.

This is where the Kyoo mom is giving the computer her "I told you so" look. "I told you not to get a dog until you had a backyard and could spend more time at home with him."

Whatever mom...we totally have this under control. Roscoe is the coolest.

And what does Greg have to say in the aftermath? "IN YOUR FACE LEBRON!" Clearly the Spurs game is on. But does anything else matter right now? Nope. I'll tune back in for the last two minutes. This attention span can't be wasted.

Have a great day :-)