Donorbox

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

A switcheroo of sorts

First of all, the new mattress? Fabulous, absolutely fabulous. It's a miracle, really. When I wake up at least twice a night to use the bathroom, having a mattress that doesn't creak and squeak and wake the dead is awesome. I'll need to post pictures soon, because this sucker is high up off the floor. Worth it? Absolfrigginlutely.

No windows today because a storm broke out last night, right above our house, apparently. Window guy called at 7:00 on the nose to tell me it wouldn't be a good idea to have a crew out to take out all my windows and put new ones in their place. Really? You think? Our next goal is Thursday because it's supposed to rain buckets between now and then. Here's hoping Thursday is clear and sunny with a chance of windows.

Additionally, our water heater has been giving us a run for our money. When Chicago got a million drops of rain over a week ago, we were out of town. Unfortunately, the basement took on a decent amount of water--approximately 5 inches. How do we know? The damage to my bookcases is clear.

(Sad face.)

Bookcases can be built and replaced. What really scared the crap out of us was the water heater. The water rose high enough to put out the pilot light. We relit the pilot light, and an hour later it was out again. Try, try again? Sure. An hour later, pilot light was out. Craaaaaaap.

We called a trusted heating and cooling wizard, and twice they came out to look at it and tinker. I was fully prepared for a "Yer ghana need a-nudder water heater, ma'am," We even discussed the idea of going tankless--it's a long-term goal, but if long-term was sudden thrust into our laps, why not take the chance on it now and save the world a little bit at a time? Thankfully, we're not going to need a new tank. ::happy dance:: Heating and cooling guy came out today and replaced an eensy weensy part--no bigger than the plastic chunk on a thumb tack-- and BAM! Hot water! I tell ya, tonight's shower is gonna be epic. Epic!

Now, we're going to look into pricing some waterproofing options for our basement. We get seepage all. the. time., especially in the spring and summer when it rains like a mofo. And then we use the shop vac to clean it up and we'll mop the floor, and 2 weeks later we're at it again. Not exactly my idea of a good time. If we can afford it now/this summer, we'll get a huge monkey off our backs. Waterproofing the basement will save us time and energy, and we'll save a lot of money because we'll be able to put things down in our basement and not worry about them floating away or being ruined in a short while (excepting an epic flood situation involving an ark or kayak). On top of that, we'll be able to turn our basement into a livable space, ::gasp::!! The very idea of using my basement as a place to work out, get things done, and host parties is sublime.

So, that's where we are now. Pictures of things to come.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Tell me what you think. For serious.