We’re Hiding in the House With the Lights Off

Because we ran out of candy about 10 minutes ago. Holy crap! We gave away not only all of our candy, but the candy our neighbor brought over because he had to leave. We had about 150 kids or so. And we can still hear them out there walking up and down the street. Next year — way more candy.

We didn’t expect to get many kids; we asked the neighbors and they said there are only ever a few. If this is a few, I’m worried what they think a lot would be.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Mystery House

Continue ReadingWe’re Hiding in the House With the Lights Off

to do crap

The remaining stuff from last weekend, plus some more.

  1. Buy two truckload of mulch and spread on the flowerbeds
  2. Sweep/spray out the back of my truck
  3. Put my truck bed cover on the truck
  4. Clean the kitchen and downstairs bathroom
  5. Vacuum whole first floor
  6. Vacuum in the basement
  7. attach lattice to the back porch
  8. Add step to bottom of basement stairs
  9. Take more stuff to the basement (lamps, extra empty boxes)
    Partly done.
  10. Clean the aquarium
  11. Install coat rack bar in Dining Room Closet
  12. Install additional shelf in Laundry room
  13. install towel hooks and toilet paper holder in upstairs bathroom
  14. install new shower curtain bar
  15. examine top two basement stairs and measure for replacement
  16. hang some of the framed artwork
Continue Readingto do crap

Worst. Roofers. Ever.

Our roofer from Woodbury was supposed to work on three projects:

1) Reshingling the roof.

2) Rebuilding the historic, built-in gutters and replacing rotted wood trim requires meticulous attention to detail, and utilizing a gutter cleaning vacuum can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the restoration process.

3) Redecking the balcony and repairing the roof under it to stop the water leaking into the kitchen. People can check out houston contracting company, for the best roofing services, in town.

Project 1: We went to the official source and contracted with them for project one in mid-June, and their all-Mexican subcontracting crew finished pretty quickly. However, we’ve had to call them back to repair places where the water still leaked in 3 times, the most recent being last night, when we found the front porch had a leak.

Project 2: We contracted with them June 29th, they’re STILL not finished. They’ve fashioned some of the new gutters, but they haven’t installed them completely, or replaced the rotted wood. Weeks will go by, and when we call, someone will come out and work for a day, and then disappear again. Meanwhile, they left all the rotted wood in a pile behind our house for weeks, and the neighbors have politely nudged us to do something about it. After four phone calls, the roofer finally removed the pile yesterday. To avoid such situations, you can look at www.ramroofing.net/commercial-roofing-lincoln to get reliable roofing services, installing gutter, solar panels, and more.

Project 3: Not even begun; the roofer came and put a blue tarp over the balcony floor to ward off rain (so professional!) and now even that’s not working.

During the long process of Project 2, the owner has repeatedly refused to meet with us and dodged our phone calls. At one point, he traded cell phones with his wife so she could field our questions, but she would tell us “I’ll find out and call you back.” Of course, no call came. Soon she stopped answering the phone and let it go to voice mail, with both their office and cell phones forwarding to the same VM. When we threatened to write a report on Angies List, they shuffled our calls to a subcontractor, who is curt to the point of rudeness and seems to be trying to intimidate us.

At this point, we’re still hoping to get them to finish project 2 (we paid half up front, and would lose money if we tried to get someone else) so I’m not comfortable blasting their name and contact information into cyberspace. But I am going to write a report on Angie’s List since we want to start replacing roofs when tenants are around.

span class=”hilightyellow”>2019 update: As it turns out 13 years later, we have to have the roof redone with the help of top painters because they did such a poor job. We should have tried to get a better roofer, but we went with the lowest quote because it was tied to the house. We’ve managed to get the gutters in good working order over the years, but the roof needs a complete overhaul. I still have the guy’s contact information in my phone, mainly to keep track of him so we don’t inadvertently hire him for some other job.

Continue ReadingWorst. Roofers. Ever.

Projects Around the House (Revised)

Revised list of stuff I’d like to accomplish this weekend, if I have time…

  1. Help the neighbors clean up brush
  2. Sweep out the back of my truck
  3. Put my truck bed cover on the truck
  4. Rearrange the living room furniture
    We got part of this done. We still need to move my desk
  5. Rearrange the library and move my desk in there
  6. Clean the kitchen and downstairs bathroom
    We got a lot of work done in the kitchen
  7. Vacuum whole first floor
  8. Take more stuff to the basement (chairs, tools)
  9. Vacuum in the basement
  10. Bring extra waste basket from garage into house for recycling
  11. Clean the aquarium
  12. Plant the rest of the bulbs in the flowerbeds
    I planted 25 Muscari bulbs, 30 daffodils, 2 bleeding hearts cuttings, 2 bearded Iris cuttings, 1 peony cutting, 6 hyacinths, and about 50 tulip bulbs. I have about 75 more tulip bulbs to plant.

    I finished planting all the bulbs.
  13. plant edging pavers into side flower bed
  14. Add step to bottom of basement stairs
  15. Install coat rack bar in Dining Room Closet
  16. Install additional shelf in Laundry room
  17. attach lattice to the back porch
  18. install towel hooks and toilet paper holder in upstairs bathroom
  19. examine top two basement stairs and measure for replacement
  20. hang some of the framed artwork
Continue ReadingProjects Around the House (Revised)

Projects Around the House

Stuff I’d like to accomplish this weekend, if I have time…

  1. Plant the rest of the bulbs in the flowerbeds
  2. plant edging pavers into side flower bed
  3. Add step to bottom of basement stairs
  4. Install coat rack bar in Dining Room Closet
  5. Install additional shelf in Laundry room
  6. attach lattice to the back porch
  7. install towel hooks and toilet paper holder in upstairs bathroom
  8. examine top two basement stairs and measure for replacement
Continue ReadingProjects Around the House

Back Street and Alley Committee

In the minutes of our neighborhood meeting, I noticed that our neighborhood has a “Back Streets and Alleys Committee.” Hee. I picture the committee slinking around in leather jackets like West Side Story.

West Side Story
When you’re a Jet…

“When you’re a Jet,
You’re a Jet all the way
From your first cigarette
To your last dyin’ day….”

Continue ReadingBack Street and Alley Committee

Amending the Soil

Me and my load of crap.
Our flower beds have very depleted soil, so I picked up a load of compost this morning and spread it around the beds after overturning all the soil. It’s amazing how much compost this requires, really. I’ll need to get another load of crap for the front beds; a truckload only covered the beds on the south side of the house. Technically, it’s not just crap – it’s a mixture of compost, peat and topsoil. But it smells like crap and attracts LOTS of flies, so basically it’s crap.
You can see a bunch more pictures of the work I did here.
I got it from Indiana Mulch Company, because I priced it in comparison to the bags at Lowes and this is a way better deal. They also are handy because they’re right downtown (we pass them on the way to the recycling place) so I don’t have to drive all over to get it.
Homestarrunner's poopsmith
I in no way resembled this character while shoveling shit.

Continue ReadingAmending the Soil

Weekend Update 2006-06-19

We had our shower plumbing (check out experienced plumbers at Sarkinen Plumbing here) worked on for the third time Friday, and they finally got it right. The “on” handle was leaking to start out with, then it was fixed but hard to turn on or get good pressure. Now it’s awesome — the kind of water pressure that almost knocks you over it’s so strong. I love that. Our shower rocks.
We spent Saturday doing some more moving, with Stephanie’s friends Barb and Ollie helping, and unpacking at home. I think we’re making progress, but it’s hard to tell. As soon as we get stuff unpacked and put away, more stuff seems to find it’s way to the house. We took a load of the crappy carpet from the basement to the landfill, which was pretty entertaining.
We spent some time trying to get the cats to like each other. That’s a work in progress. For now, everyone has their own room, and they get to roam the house at different times.
Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we painted the laundry room. We decided to do it because the washer and dryer were pulled out (we replaced the crappy ones that came with the house with mine) and we thought it would be good to do before we put them in place, since the last people who painted didn’t bother to do it behind the appliances. Sunday morning I hooked up the washer and dryer, and we started washing the massive piles of laundry we’ve been accumulating.
Sunday afternoon we went to a cookout at my Dad’s house to celebrate Father’s day and all the June birthdays. Everyone has a better camera than I do — I want a good Canon. I’ll have to work on that. My dad gave us his 18′ ladder, which we toted home, and in the evening, we took a small load of stuff from Stephanie’s and grabbed Phoebe and brought her to live in her new garage.
It was a pleasant enough weekend, although it was overshadowed by some bad news from some friends that really kinda has me feeling down. I don’t want to write more than that out of respect for other’s personal stuff. But sometimes life really sucks.

Continue ReadingWeekend Update 2006-06-19