House

Mimosa trees won’t stay dead. Deck Project 1, Mimosa 0 Last summer, I had my deck rebuilt. The home inspector had flagged the deck as a “needs to be repaired or replaced, seek professional help” type of project. The boards were rotting. Nails poking up and the joists were soft. The tree cutters removed the Mimosa tree adjacent to the deck a few months prior. My contractor did a fantastic job. He changed...

Last night while I was doing the dishes, I heard skittering of something in the kitchen ceiling. The kitties were upstairs staring at the wall and walking around meowing. They were following the sound of something in the walls. Not sure what it is. Mice seem to be a good guess since my neighbor recently had issues with mice. The HOA is working on painting and repairing siding on the houses. The painters...

The tub is no longer leaking. My neighbor said that the build quality on these houses isn’t very good and I believe him. This was the second time the tub had to be repaired because of a drip. One thing I did learn with these old Delta faucets: the springs have to be elongated just a little bit with a gentle squeeze from a pair of pliers. Otherwise, they are a little too...

So my day feels like I’m waiting on the plumber because he’s coming to fix the sink (well, tub faucet, but close enough). Related Images:

I turned off the water to the house when I went to work and during the day over the weekend. I turned the water back on overnight so the pipes wouldn’t freeze. I was upstairs looking at the faucet, and BrieBrie decided to try and help me. Help from BrieBrie means her investigating each tool and playing with anything that might move. BrieBrie had her back feet on the ground and her front...

A few months ago, my upstairs bathtub faucet began to drip. Just a little at first, but over the months it became a constant background noise. I couldn’t stand it and found a video on how to repair the Delta faucet. It is an older faucet, with a push-button diverter and a single knob that controls water amount and temperature. I took apart the faucet handle, replaced the inner rubber seals and springs....

The lovely new refrigerator is here! It makes such a huge difference in how the kitchen looks. The house is so much quieter too, without the rattle of the other machine’s motor. It will be interesting to see what happens to the electric bill now. Related Images:

My 32-year old refrigerator is dying a sad death. The freezer’s frost is creeping into the refrigerator compartment. There is a six inch frost ledge. A bottle of juice at the back of the top shelf has most of it’s cap covered by frost. I couldn’t easily move it. This frost is also melting and dripping water. I spent the better part of the weekend online reading reviews and going to the regular...

It rained a lot on Thursday and all day Friday. Inches of rain and some ice. West of me, like out of the barn, there were trees down and power outages. It poured and poured. Thursday night I could barely sleep because I kept hearing the rain and thinking it was Kiesha purring. The water rushing through the gutters sounded like Kiesha when she was about to hack a hairball. That noise instantly...

I’ve been updating the fixtures in the house from brass and fake-looking gold plastic to oil rubbed bronze. I’ve changed out all of the door knobs and removed the towel rods from the walls, especially in the downstairs bathroom. I also replaced the light fixture to match the ones in the upstairs bathroom. I added a hand towel holder in the downstairs bathroom and patched the walls where the 30 inch towel rod...

Ceffyl has been moving! I bought a cute townhouse. Closing was October 9th. Most of my time in October has been spent packing, getting the new place situated, and cleaning out the old apartment. I had to give a 60 day notice for the apartment complex and pay the lease termination fee (two months’ rent!). I turn over the keys to the apartment as soon as I can get to the apartment complex...

I have been looking at houses and condos for a few months. Whenever my Awesome Agent and I look at a condo or townhouse with a home owner’s association (HOA), we ask these questions: What does the HOA cover and what is the owner responsible for? How often are repairs, pest inspections, property maintenance (like painting, for example) done? How often are dues increased? Have any special assessments been made in the recent...

House is SOLD! Party dance! I hope the new owner enjoys the house and has many happy memories there with her kids. Yay!! Related Images:

In 30 minutes, the closing for the house will begin. I’ll be in a meeting, but it sounds like a great time to party! I’ll post as soon as I hear that the deal was successfully closed. Related Images: