Murphy's law hits again

Just when you think you've got a handle on things, something happens that makes you realize that you are NOT in control.

The Edge is acting up.  I need to plug in the battery charger and see if that battery can hold a charge.  A frost should not make it act up like this.  

Yeah - it's cold.  It was 19 degrees when Meri and I went to Robb's office to work out this morning instead of a walk.  We're both getting off the worst of colds and the cold air just slays me.

When I woke up today, I found that while the thermostat said that I'd set the house temp to 69 degrees, it was only at 66.  really?!!!  The only appliance that hasn't been changed since Robb passed.  Not sure if I can swing replacing it right now.  Actually I know I can't.  I replaced the battery in the thermostat and the house is 1 degree warmer but it's probably because the sun has come out.

Ever since I turned it on this winter, the furnace has sounded like a dump truck driving through our entry way.  Not as bad as the last time we called someone to fix it, but it's well on it's way.  I thought I'd be ok until spring.  Maybe not.  shoot.

So I googled easy answers to problems like this.  Filter change (check).  Something about checking if you need to clean the flame sensor.  Ummm ok.  I pulled the door off the furnace and it looks nothing like the video.  And I noticed the floor was wet.  g.re.at...  It's leaking from where it probably shouldn't and isn't going toward the drain in the floor.  sigh.  I hope it's an easy fix, like a piece of lint in the wrong place or hey! Here's the problem, just a fuse!  But I'm guessing it's more complicated than that.  The side of the furnace is warm.  It's overheating someplace inside.

me too.

I made the call to the heating/cooling guy.  He'll be here soon.

On the plus side, I had been planning on cleaning out the furnace room anyway!  Just wish I didn't HAVE to. and in a rush.

The property taxes went up by a ton due to a vote on a new pool.   The proponents said, it'll only cost THIS much more a year for a house worth $100k.  So for MY house, that translates to $130 more per month starting in December.  yay me.

The only things certain in life: death and taxes.

My health insurance is raising too in January.  This is NOT a good time to be alive.  

I'm glad I have a lot of canned goods stocked up with my canning habit but I really wish the world would straighten itself out for a while.

I wish Nancy Drew would come along, find a secret passageway that we never knew existed in our house and say HEY LOOK!  Here's a chest full of gold bricks! 

Scary Situations

 I came downstairs to this, this morning...  Creepy Molly, waiting by the front door.

But waiting for what?...

And when I got the house resided last fall, they mentioned that the deck was pulling away from the house... YIKES!!!  I thought we'd have some time and we probably do.  But then I was talking to my brother yesterday and mentioned the deck thing.  I walked out in the cold to see if I could find evidence of what had been reported to me and found this...  I sent him this picture, then walked all the way around the house instead of going back by way of the deck.

The desk is verboten for now.

It appears to only be on one side of the deck.  My brother got nervous about it, telling me about a deck that collapsed once and hurt a young couple and their realtor.  He said, "just rip off the deck and build it again." WHA??!!!  I can't afford that!  So he called me the next day and said that he'd be nearby this weekend for a ski day and would stop by my place the next day and check it out, maybe fixing it for me!  

I need to buy some steaks JUST in case he's able to fix it.  Jen's dad might be here that day too and assist.

If they're not able to fix it, then I'll probably just make some Hamburger Helper for lunch...

Might need to save my pennies to get some pros in.

Beautiful Jaunts

Back to the girls and my virtual walk around County Clare.  We're doing it old school.  A map is pasted to a poster board and a chart at the bottom to record our daily steps.  Every 2000 steps in a mile.  At least that's how I'm counting it.  And that's how it worked out when we did the official Virtual walk app last time.  But this time is free.

Every once in a while, I mark where we are on the walk.  I'm able to use Google maps and plot out a course based on miles walked, starting at the Shannon airport and up to Ennis, down along the shore of the Shannon River to the Atlantic ocean and then north along the shore of the ocean.  

Eventually we'll be within sight of Kilkee!  and the traditional anchor I took the kids pic in front of both times we were there.  

Looks like they've updated the anchor base...

Here was my view last week.  I'm probably several miles past that by now.  I haven't tallied our steps this week at all...  I was within a mile or so of the Lisheen house that we stayed at on our first trip.

Here it was way back then.  25 years ago...  I don't know if I'd even recognize it if I found it on the google earth nowadays...

Here is Maddy's view.  She's miles ahead of us.

Kindergartners keep her hopping and on her toes...

And Meri's.  She's not too far behind me.

Leon just got a step counter watch and he and I are going to do the Ring of Kerry again, the cheap way!  On my map.

together.

OH!  The thing that stopped me from posting for over a week was that my BIL and his boys arrived LAST Wednessday and did my deck/porch/pergola!!!!  AND they painted up some scruffed up siding and trim with paint.

So things were hopping here too!

They surprised me by bringing their power sprayer and cleaned my porch/deck floor and then staining it!  What a nice surprise!  I ran to get 4 gallons of stain, then had to run back for 5 more.  The deck was SUPER dry and sucked it all in.  Reminded me of a Green Acres episode that no one else remembers but me...

Here is the before shot of our deck floor and old railings.

A nephew up fixing the pergola.  There were a few rotted boards that needed replacing.

and him staining our deck. 

 

I picked the color "quiet chamois" without knowing how to pronounce it, so it was interesting trying to show the paint guy what color.

And now that it's down, it looks like it should be renamed "Butterscotch Pudding".

I'm having loads of fun putting the furniture back on and pretending we just moved in again!  The first time was such a rush on the coldest day of the year.

AND I got my Etsy purchase hung up finally!

The guys worked Wednesday thru Friday and then came back on Monday for just a day trip.

They put up all the railings in that one day.

AND then BOOM.  It was done!

They plan to come back in 6 months and paint the deck railings for us, since the pretreated wood needs to cure before we can paint it.

What a relief to live in this house again after having the outside looks decent again.  And not get nervous when it rains or blows around outside...

It's almost as if we love our home again!

AND it's inspired us to get some quotes on the siding that we've been putting off.  We may just bite the bullet and get it all done now.  Need to anyway and I don't think we can reside it ourselves...

ANYWHO, as I sit here typing, I glance around with projects in my mind... mmmm new carpet would be nice.

HEY!  They have a sale on wood flooring at Lowes!  OR I can find someone's cast off wood, sand it down and install it ourselves bit by bit.  (Robb said jokingly I want a divorce...)(I don't believe in it so he's stuck with me and all my crazy ideas!)

Robb just wants things to calm down a bit more before we jump into anything else.

The noise around our house lately has been somewhat stressful.

SIGH...  It takes work to be beautiful!

Let There Be Light Again!

I was determined yesterday.  While I love the light fixtures on the front of our garage, they don't work anymore.

The light sockets are cracked and I'm sure I could probably fix them if I had the right know how, but maybe it's just time for them to be gone...

I purchased three new ones and got them installed finally after letting them marinate in the trunk for a week.  Plus it's been rainy and icky and yesterday was the first sunny day in a while.

It took all of 5 minutes each for the 2nd and 3rd one.  

The first took longer to figure out, but then it was a snap.

I'm kind of liking these!  Plus it's just a standard bulb from the bottom, so you won't need a PHD to get the thing apart to replace it.  

I'm thinking orange and black lights for Halloween...

Inspiring words - Maybe...

Get this!!!

I'm actually working in my office today!!  Surrounded by inspiration...

I do on occasion, but haven't started the day out here for quite a while.  And the weather is even nice enough to be on the deck today!  BUT decided that my office could use some mothering.

Got the boy on the bus this morning and he gave me SUCH a hug, I may need to see the chiropractor about my neck again.  Just saw him yesterday.

The movie about Martin Luther was on PBS last night and I've got it recorded.  Don't know when I'll get a chance to see it, but I will...  It's an important year for Lutherans.  The 500th anniversary of Reformation Day is coming up!

Don't know if you knew that, don't know if you cared.  But it is.  Growing up, I've seen about 8 different movies based on Luther's life and the events surrounding his nailing the 95 theses to the church door.  So it's KIND OF a big deal this year.

If I have to place anything on MY front door, it will be with tape or a magnet.

I used the Fiber Fix stuff on the broken fence!!  It looks ugly right now, but it is able to be sanded now and painted.  That is forth coming.  Probably by this weekend, that fence will look TOTALLY different...

AND be as strong as steel.  I'm not going to try to beat it up with a bat or anything, but maybe we'll put up another bouncy house on a windy day and see if it's still standing later...

Here is the commercial that sold me on it.  LOVE that the parents are getting a little revenge.  

Personally, I'd have given that kid a swat on the butt a LONG time before then, but every kid AND parent is different I suppose...

Have a great Wednesday!

LIterally Dripping with Characters

 Here are my two entries for the main part of the style show on Saturday.  

My Christmas outfit with the mermaid skirt, made from a Burda pattern October 2012.

And then a shirt that I made from a Butterick pattern.  And yeah...  someone mentioned to me privately that I tend to make frump-ware...  and need to make more form fitting clothes.

Um no.  Not until I lose a few more pounds...    For now, I'm into camouflage  mode dressing!

The literal style show was a lot of fun!  

On Friday night, Meri and I pulled out the hot glue gun and started working on a Ruffles collar for my top while we watched the last Fargo episode together.  I'm sorry, but I just LOVE that show!!!  "It's just a space ship Ed, come on! We've got to go!"

It was a huge fail as we only had one glue stick between us....  I attempted to use crayons instead of glue sticks, as I'd seen that somewhere... but it just looked like gloops of blood on a chip.  So I put the Ruffles in baggies and pinned them to my shirt.    

So my entry was a top with Ruffles and a tea length skirt.  Get it?  GET it??!

A friend had a double breasted jacket...  lol!

Man, these women are fun!

Other than that, I finished the photo book for my mom and dad!  I need to get it off to the printers today so we (my siblings and myself) can present it to them this next weekend when we celebrate Christmas with them.

Tune in tomorrow when you hear me ask, "Why are earth is it raining this close to Christmas???" and "how do you stop a roof from leaking?" and "WHEN will it END??!!!"

Master of none...

You know the old saying?  Jack of all trades, master of none.  

That's me...

Our air conditioner has been freezing up lately.  And when I say freezing, I mean it!  On the machine outside, the hoses leading to the actual machine are iced over with 1/4 inch ice, going all the way into the box and covering a motor deep within.  The fan on it still runs...  weird.  But no air makes it all the way into the house.

In the past, we've spent $200 having a guy come over.  We have a guy...  He usually checks it over, tells us to leave it off for over night to thaw out, and then we turn it on and it runs.  He advised us to do that next time it happens.  So we did.  It worked!  I may have blogged about it.  I don't know...  

But a couple nights ago, we noticed the house was hot again.  And I mean in the upper 80s IN the house.  It was a lot cooler outside at that time.  Good thing or we'd have been sleeping in a sauna all night!  So we left the air conditioning off, since it was iced over again.  The next morning, I turned it back on and it was frozen over again by lunch time...  

hmmm.

We looked online and I found a Youtube video on how to clean the coils.  So I was going to fix this sucker myself! 

I had had to work late and when I DID get off work, the three girls, Leon and myself went out to eat some homemade ice cream that a guy locally makes with his family.  YUMMO!!!!  

Got back and I tackled it again.  

It took 15 attempts at various tools, but I finally found the sweet one and got to work on the bajillion little bolts holding the metal panels on.  Got it pulled apart by 10pm last night. 

Robb had brought home some coil cleaner after his bagpipe band practice and this morning before I came to work, I went and sprayed the heck out of the coils.  This is what it looks like after I'm putting it back together.  

I would have tried to get a better photo of it, but my back was already against a wall and I couldn't go back any further...

 

NOT a pretty sight!!  But I don't care if it's not pretty, hopefully it works now.  

I turned the fan back on and air IS coming out of the vents now.  Not superdeeduper fast, but there is air.  So I turned the cool part on and took some duct tape back down to the basement.  Not ALL the grooves fit back together on the metal plates...  So the parts where air gushed out, cold air I might add, that I hope makes it upstairs by tonight, I sealed up every seam.  

It looks pretty!  Zebra colored duct tape is awesome stuff!  I just hope it works!  

Who am I kidding??  I DO care if it's pretty!

When Leon jumped into bed with us around 4am this morning, he was one sweaty little monster!  and he didn't want to touch ANYONE!  He just wanted to be in THIS bed.  

I think because we have the biggest fan blowing on us all night...

Wish me luck!