Happy House-iversary!

Four years in, another year, another handful of cash gone. Or maybe four handfuls. This year we were plagued with a variety of issues. Some due to the age of the house, some due to the stupidity of the builders and former owners, some due to lapses in our luck.

I had mentioned in the recap post last year that Adam had started on a bathroom in the basement. Here's the finished product:







Nothing too fancy, but useful for sudden bathroom urges Adam may get while working in his shop. Or when we're stuck in the basement for the ten millionth time because of tornadoes.

We also got a steam cleaner this year. With four cats, accidents are a part of life. It was much easier to clean the carpets with this thing every once in a while. It works great.



We were forced to buy a new vacuum cleaner as well. For some unexplainable reason the power cord of the one we had just fell off one day. Uncool...



Toward the end of the season last year our lawn mower crapped out. The engine seized or something. Of course it was past any warranty period and to fix it would have cost almost as much as just buying a new one. So we bought a new one:



At some point our programmable thermostat died too. Not sure what happened there, but one day it just didn't work. So we had to replace that.

A trip to Door County necessitated a wine fridge purchase:



My love of buying in bulk necessitated getting a vacuum sealer:



(PS - it's awesome!)

More random electrical activity resulted in a new light fixture in the hall bathroom:



and a new ceiling fan in the dining room:



Unfortunate gravity issues resulted in a new exhaust fan (with a light!) for the master bath (the old one literally fell out of the ceiling):



and a new sump pump. Again.

We invested in a sleeper sofa to replace the guest bed that we disposed of a while back.



Adam built me a new desk since the one I had was precariously leaning:



We got new screens for the bay window and the big window in the master bedroom. Pet proof screening and hopefully bug deterrent as well.

After someone stole the top half of our mailbox on Easter Sunday we replaced it with one that's bolted down.



And that's the big stuff. We did other minor things - put a new showerhead in the hall bathroom, replaced the curtains in the living room with vertical blinds, moved the dryer vent after it blew open and exploded lint everywhere, replaced the ice maker hose, tore down part of the shop wall to waterproof a leak. It's neverending.

Coming up: Thanks to a freak hail storm in April and a particularly generous insurance adjuster, our entire roof, siding, and gutters will be replaced in the next month or so. Our blue house will soon be a green house.



Nothing else planned, but you never know what will break next.

QOTD

What kind of milk do you buy?

Skim, definitely. Haven't had anything else in years. Although recently I've started buying Silk for my occasional morning Starbucks Mocha Frappucino rip-off attempts. I seem to be able to handle real milk on cereal but if I drink it straight up or in a smoothie it makes me sick. Weird. The thing with Silk though is it's got the same consistency as 2% milk - thick and slimy. Not so appetizing. I can't even imagine what whole milk is like - chewy?


Unrelated photo: JC playing peek-a-boo

QOTD

What was the longest flight you’ve ever been on?

I've been transatlantic to France twice. First in 1998, second in 2003.

The 1998 flight seemed much longer than the 8 or 9 hours it was because we flew Detroit to Paris on KLM (Northwest.) This was before all the cool technology with video screens on each seat back. I was bored. And the food was scary. And we got bumped on the way back in Detroit. Hello jetlag!

The 2003 flight also seemed very long. This time it was Atlanta to Paris on Air France and while the airplane was 1000 times better, I was in a window seat in a row of three and the girl next to me must have had a yeast infection and wasn't wearing any underwear. I was thisclose to barfing by the time we finally got to the gate and into fresh air. The flight back was much better this time...except for that 12 hour layover in Atlanta where I had to try to make my brain work to get a ride to the hotel that the travel agent had set up for me...that sucked.


La Tour et moi (1998):

QOTD

Do you think you could ever go by your initials rather than your first name?

One of the ladies at work does call me MP occasionally...so I guess it might work. ML? Not so much.

Unrelated photo: Here's the newest cat toy - a bird feeder right outside the bay window in the living room. Aaah, nature!

QOTD

How much does your cat weigh?

Not sure about Connor - he's a skinny thing,



but JC is 11 pounds six ounces,



Ted is 15 pounds,



and Carly, the trouble child, tips the scales at... well, now a lady never reveals her weight.



(a lady also probably doesn't lay like that, but what can you do?)

QOTD

from that's my answer!

Do you listen to the radio or your own collection of music more?

I listen to the radio when I'm in the car - usually NPR because I'm a nerd. WIXX if they seem to be stuck on boring political topics on 89.3. At work I have my iPod playing a weird mix of Britney Spears (and her pop ilk), Van Halen (and their 80s hair band ilk), and Scottish bagpipe music. At home I listen to iTunes when I'm working on something on the computer.


Totally unrelated cat photo:

atrophy

In the past few weeks I’ve started posts but they always descended into something I figured I shouldn’t publish. Between work, the weather, and life in general, the past month plus has been a little rough. Things have happened, but I’m not going to bother to recap. Doesn’t really matter. If it did you would have asked what was up already.

So (un?)fortunately for you, that haiku I wrote about taking a cat’s temperature rectally will never see the light of day.

But I figured I should at least get one more entry in before the world ends on Saturday…