Tag: repairs

  • A 2 year old, a Hammer, and a Single Pane Window

    A 2 year old, a Hammer, and a Single Pane Window

    What do you get when you mix a 2 year old, a Hammer, and a Single Pane Window?

    Are we remodeling? you ask.  No, No we’re not. This happened shortly after Princess R, the mentioned 2 year old, locked herself (for the 3rd time) in one of the bedrooms. I attempted using the hammer to pry the door open, but the walls are a good 2-3 feet thick, and my hammer is not that long.

    I guess I left the hammer on the floor….though I may have also put it on Mark’s dresser. But that doesn’t matter, because Princess R climbs his dresser all the time in search of treats. I guess this time she thought the Hammer would be a fun toy.

    There I am, pot of water boiling for our Oh so Healthy Macaroni and Cheese lunch, mixing up a bottle for Prince L, when I hear it. The sound of glass shattering.

    What in the world? I say to myself. So I hand Prince L his bottle, and go investigate.

    I yell up the stairs “Girls, did something break?”

    “MOM! R has the Hammer and she hit the window!”

    SHOOT! Off I go, running up the stairs, just as I hear it again ~Shatter~ 

    Once I got the kids out of this room (which we don’t use for anything anyways), and the glass picked up, I made the dreaded call – our Landlord. How was I supposed to explain my 2 year old having a hammer, because I left out, because the doors have privacy locks that she can lock, but can’t figure out how to unlock, so I needed the hammer to pry her out without breaking the door, which resulted in her getting the hammer and breaking the window?

    Thankfully, it boiled down simply to “The kids were playing upstairs and a window got broken. What do you want me to do?”

    Well, hopefully he’s on his way over today to fix it. In the meantime, I probably should go cover it with some cardboard and tape to keep some semblance of heat inside the house.

    Of course after this little incident, we then had Princess C turn off the lights, and lock Princess R in another room. Sigh. I’m going to need some of these door muffs to keep the locks from being turned!

    Source: etsy.com via Adelina on Pinterest
  • Wordless Wednesday – New Carpet

    Wordless Wednesday – New Carpet

    The new carpet has been installed and we’ve begun living again!
  • Downside of Being a Homeowner

    Downside of Being a Homeowner

    I love being a homeowner! The mere fact that this house is OURS, just rocks! There are times though, that I do actually miss renting.  Times like this last week particularly.
    I would like to apologize to you, my wonderful readers. I have not been on here lately.  Life decided it was time for our first Homeowners curve-ball. You may recall my letter to my oven.  It had died on us, and I was very sad.  Before leaving on our Yellowstone Vacation, we bought a new one, and had it scheduled to be delivered and installed the Monday after we got back (this last Monday).  So Monday rolls around, and we start getting ready for the men to deliver our oven. First though we had to run a gas line to our kitchen. See, Mark and I, we like gas ovens. The beauty of them, is you can still cook on them if you’re power goes out. Not that I foresee that happening a lot, but I like to be prepared.  So we bought a gas oven at Lowe’s.  While the plumber was here  running the gas line, he informed us that the insulation from our Cold Storage Room, probably had asbestos in it. He obviously didn’t test for it, but he strongly suggested getting it out sooner than later. Great, I thought! I went into research mode on the insulation, and scared myself a bit. Then the oven arrived!

    Isn’t it beautiful? 5 ranges! Count them…5!!
    While this beauty was being installed, we took the Princess’ outside to wash the cars and play in the wading pool.  We had not used our front hose faucet until Monday. The water pressure was really weak through the hose, so we ran it longer than we normally would have.  Once we had the oven installed, and the cars washed, I asked Mark if he would get started on cleaning up the vermiculite. A few minutes later he was back upstairs telling me I needed to come look.  The floor was flooded. We thought it was just a backed up drain. We were wrong. The basement was flooded from the hose faucet.

    It started in the master closet

    and seeped into the cold storage.  
    We tried to save the carpet in the closet, and master room, but we couldn’t. We couldn’t get anyone from our insurance to look at it until Thursday. At that point, the smell told us it wasn’t worth saving. So for the past couple days we’ve ripped out all the carpet, and have been sleeping on our pullout couch.

     We carpet pad

    Turns out vinyl was laid under the carpet in the master room.
    See how wet that is?! 
    Pulling out the carpet pads
    The master closet without carpet. 
    Our current bed, in it’s couch form. And since we aren’t sleeping downstairs at the moment, I didn’t want Princess R down there all alone. So we put her in the pack n play in Princess C’s room, and I turned Princess R’s room into the laundry room.
    Sit Relax and Read
    Make sure to join me at Sentimental Sundays over on Sit Relax and Read.
    This week I’m feeling sentimental about renting. Although owning a home is our dream come true, there were some obvious benefits to renting. I will always look back fondly on the repairmen we didn’t have to pay, or the heartache of dying appliances.  Welcome to home ownership!

  • Home Repairs Anyone Can Do

    Home Repairs Anyone Can Do

    I realized the other day that there are a lot of simple repairs I can do .  I usually wait for Mark to do them, but I don’t have to. I can actually be quite handy myself! When we first moved in, we had a picture continuously fall off the wall in the Princess’ bedroom.  We eventually took it down, but not before it killed the outlet cover. Well, we’ve lived here for almost 9 months now, and it has been this way for the most part.  Mark finally went out and bought a new cover. And then it just sat there.  Boy are we lazy or what? I actually got mad at myself for being so lazy the other day.  No more! I will no longer just leave these things for a later date!  Really this fix took all of 5 minutes.
    And ta-da! Outlet is fixed, no longer dangerous, and I did it! And of course we can’t forget the child safety covers.