It's Always Something - The Never-Ending "Joys" of Home Ownership

The saying goes, "It never rains but it pours", and that's exactly what seems to be happening in our lives right now. We're sending the final payment to the fence company this week, so one major task is complete. But ... wait for it ... project two intruded into our lives early Sunday morning. 

It never rains but it pours - something else can always 
happen that's even worse or that rubs salt into the 
wound. We got splashed on - the mud hit and we are 
now wet and muddy and - well *sigh*, it's always 
something - LOL. 

DH was closing his window - he always has a window open when he's sleeping unless it's very cold outside. Me? I like indoor comfort and will be happy to see and hear the birds after I've had my morning coffee. He? He likes the feel of open air. He can't hear the birds, so they don't play a part in his morning desires. 

The pane on the right is the pane that fell 
out. DH's bed is less than four feet away from 
that window. Because of the design of our 
house, this is the upper level, but fortunately, 
it's on the side of the house where the ground 
level is much higher than at the basement level. 

So, he cranked the window closed - something he's done for many years since we've lived in this house for almost 40 years now. The final inch or two had a weird sound accompanying it, something I heard but DH didn't. I said something about "That was a weird sound," then turned over and went back to sleep. He went down and had his coffee, took his shower, and then settled down at his computer to play "Lord of the Rings Online" (which we've been playing for 17+ years). 

I did my usual morning routine for a Sunday - sleeping in until 7-8, then settling in for a nice, lone meditation, finally getting out of bed, ready to take my shower and face the day. We had a leisurely breakfast, and then he went out to check on the garden while I cleaned up the dishes. He came back in, telling me he found out why I thought there had been a "weird sound" when he closed the window. As it turned out, the outer pane of glass on the window had separated from the frame, fallen to the ground, and smashed into multitudes of shards. Oy! 

So, the glass was shattered into pieces across 
the ground. It just missed hitting my 
zucchini plants, and I was still finding little 
pieces late that afternoon when we were 
installing the board to protect the window 
and buy us some needed time for gathering 
funds and making window upgrade decisions. 

At the end of the day, after talking about this or that, we decided to put a board up to protect the rest of the window. We simply can't afford to take on a second expensive home repair at this time, and windows are VERY expensive. So, we now have a home with a board in the window - it's well cut and well mounted, but it's a board. *sigh* I don't have a photo of the end result because we finished putting that up too late at night for a photo, but I'll try to remember to take one today sometime and post it later this week. As he says, this will buy us up to a year to make up our minds on style. We know we want Anderson Windows for the job, but we haven't agreed on type of window yet, although we look every year at the State Fair. *sigh* How was your weekend? Anything exciting - LOL? 

Second Verse, Same As the First - Just Different Words

A few weeks ago a person from our City dropped by in the afternoon. His job was to switch out the battery on our gas meter. The battery set-up which was initiated more than a decade ago, allows the meters to be read remotely without a person having to take physical readings at each property (the bad old days - LOL). He said it wouldn't take long - about five minutes - and he was only warning me that he would be in the backyard for a short time. So ... great. Make it happen. 

We have an older gas meter similar to this one, 
 (which is sensible since the house dates from 1960). 
Xcel needs to replace it with a newer version, and 
I'm happy to let them do it. Hopefully it will go 
easily (nothing in this house EVER goes easily, 
so I'm not holding my breath). 

I thought it happened. It was fast, as he had said, and I assumed it had gone through. Then I heard from our local power company - Xcel Energy. Apparently our meter is old enough that it can't accept a new battery, but needs to be replaced. That's what Xcel will be doing this morning. 

On Monday, when DH and I got home from work, we noticed a large, fluorescent orange sign hanging from our front door. It told us that we needed to contact Xcel at a number supplied on the card to arrange for a new meter to be installed and it stated things in terms that we knew we didn't have any choices in this. So I called the number the next day, spoke to a very nice man, and set up an appointment for first thing in the morning (8:00 am) today. He said the meter will be changed over, but then they will need to get into the house to activate the gas flow and relight the furnace and water heater, etc. He said it will take approximately 30 minutes. 

I have NO idea whether the meter on the left is similar 
to what we'll be getting, but we're getting something 
newer than our old one. As far as I'm concerned, it 
was working fine, but they're doing it for their own 
reasons, and if it works, all is good. 

Given that it's my house, where nothing goes easily, I estimate it will be closer to 45-60 minutes, but I'll be here, and DH will be here, so it should go smoothly. DH actually cleaned up a bit, and vacuumed the short hallways where people will be walking. SHOCK! I removed the few handing clothes I had in the laundry room which is where we have the furnace and water heater, so I think we're as ready as we can be. Now to have them show up on time - LOL. Good news, of course, is that there is no charge to us for any of this. Huzzah. 

So, I'm off and running once again. Many things to do, and little time in which to do it. 

A Saga About My Dryer Repair - Argh Doesn't Begin To Describe My Opinion

The dryer repair person was expected between 8:30-11:30 am, but didn't arrive until almost 11:00 am. A poor beginning for what turned into a poor experience all together. We didn't click - Tim and I. Just didn't really click at all. He went to the dryer and first questioned whether I wanted the work done at all since it was $400+ into a 6-year-old dryer and I could spend an additional 2-3 hundred to get a new dryer. "No," I said, "I want this fixed". 

The rectangular box on the back right side at the bottom 
of the disassembled dryer is the heat exchange unit. That's 
what broke to cause me to contact repair to come out. 
The Idle Assembly was somewhere on the left side in the 
electronics over there. 

So, that said, he proceeded to dismantle my dryer to get to the heating element. He knew what he was doing - exactly where each screw was, and exactly how to get everything off, up and out. I might not have liked him, but he did good work. 

The belt is supposed to be fairly snug around 
the dryer drum. This is how loose my belt 
was when he pulled the drum from the dryer 
yesterday. Not tight at all. It's rather 
remarkable the drum was able to move around 
at all with this much slack. 

Unfortunately, when we took a serious look at the dryer, it wasn't just the heat exchange, but also the belt and something called an Idle Pulley Transfer Assembly. He didn't have these parts on his truck, so he put everything back together again, called it a "diagnostic" call instead of a repair, and trundled away to his next call. He left it up to me whether I wanted to have him order the two parts and come back to do the repair. After thinking about it, I finally contacted the company for a refund on the money I had already paid them for the repair and decided to talk to DH about it (not that he's talking to me at the moment, but this is home repair stuff and he'll talk - minimally - about that). 

The Idler Pulley assembly was toast, one more 
part that the belt attaches to for moving the 
dryer drum. It's not much of a part and not 
very expensive, the expense is all in the 
labor, not the parts. 

I decided I'm going to investigate getting a new dryer, so I measured the old one today because the space is tight - not a lot of wiggle room at all. I'll start looking at dryers on-line today. Wherever I buy it from will also have to do the installation, so I'll start with my local appliance store. They actually have VERY good people for the install part of the job. I'll be using the laundromat dryers for a few more weeks while I figure all of this out. (Big sigh.)

A new tensioner and belt can be purchased for less 
than $100, and the heat exchange unit usually runs 
anywhere from $100-$150. So the total in parts at 
most, is approx $250. The labor, on the other hand, 
is at least $300-$400, bringing the total to $550 or more. 
Maybe if I hadn't disliked the repair person so much, 
I would have considered it, but by this time I would 
have put $650 into an old dryer when I can go 
new, with a new warranty, for a couple of hundred 
more. As much as I'd love to keep my current 
dryer, it doesn't make a lot of economic sense. 

To say I'm very disappointed in the quality of my Samsung dryer is an understatement. I'm very pissed off that something that was installed in my house on January 21, 2015 is already dead on March 11, 2021. I really expect more than six years from major appliances. At least the washing machine is still working well (knocking on the nearest piece of wood). 

On that note, I'm out of here. As always have a wonderful day and please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Taxes, the Dryer, It's Going To Be a Busy Day

Today, sometime between 8:30 am and 11:30 am, a repair person (or two repair people) will show up at my door to replace the heating element on my dryer. I will then have a full functional clothes dryer once again and will happily be singing joyful songs to the aether whilst putting loads of laundry into the machine to get dry. I'm beyond happy about this, and can hardly wait. 

It will be a relief to have a functional clothes 
dryer once again. As I recall from watching 
you-tube videos, it's going to be installed 
from the front of the machine, so it should 
be able to stay in place without being moved. 

Of course, I hope they arrive as early as possible, hopefully shortly after DH leaves for the shop. That way their van (they almost always seem to arrive in some sort of van-styled vehicle) can park in the driveway, taking up all of the space without a problem. If they arrive before DH leaves, it will be a bit more difficult since his truck will have to be able to get past the repair person's van. 

This is the produce section of my local grocer. They have 
an outstanding selection of fruits and vegetables, both 
standard and organic. I'm quite spoiled. The store is within 
a mile of the house and I can walk there and back if needed. 

I still have to get a couple of errands done today, no matter what, but grocery shopping might be later than usual unless they arrive quite early. I'm sure there will still be plenty of fruit and veggies to buy, though. I'll mix up another batch of my "ogre juice" today (that's what DH calls my daily vegetable smoothie) and put two containers in the freezer. That'll take care of Thursday through Sunday when I can mix up my next batch. I also want to pick up some fresh fish for Friday, as well as my usual chicken, and I need some spices and I also want some Himalayan Rock Salt. I've forgotten to get the salt the last two times I went to the store. I'm going to try my best to remember today. 

I never thought I would fall in love with a vegetable 
smoothie, but my daily ration is something I look 
forward to every day. Since I make two batches 
a week, I'm always changing up the ingredients 
a little from batch to batch. But the basis is always 
spinach, arugula, celery and avocado with other 
things added too. Right now I'm also adding apples, 
but I'll probably pull the apples out within a few 
more weeks. 

My arm has been sore (the arm I got my Covid vaccine injection in), but not too bad. I don't have any redness and it hasn't stopped me from my tasks and other events. All in all, I can't complain too much. I'm just happy to have had the vaccination. DH was chosen for the vaccine lottery, but he refuses to drive to Eagan. He wants the clinic to call him when he can get the vaccine there. Of course that's NOT going to happen. I'll see if I can set up an on-line account for him and that way at least he could be notified via email. He never checks his email account, but I check it for him every day. 

I like my clinic, but they're not going to phone out of the 
blue and inform DH that a space has been reserved for 
him to receive his Covid vaccine. Just not going to 
happen. I'll see if I can get him signed up on-line, 
though, and they can inform him via email (which 
they actually WILL do). 

On that note, I'm out of here. I have a lot to get done today, including getting the last of our income tax stuff together for our meeting with the accountant on St Patrick's Day next week. I guess I'd better get moving - LOL. Have a wonderful day, stay safe, be kind and please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Thoughts About Windows

Yesterday, DH and I started discussing the next major project we need to save up for and undertake - replacement windows throughout the house. I'm looking forward to this like a root canal - i.e., not at all. But it has to be done. It's going to be expensive, but more than that, it's going to be incredibly difficult in one room of the house - the computer room. 

Casement windows are what we have now, but 
instead of opening in, like the example on the 
left, they open out. DH doesn't want casement 
windows for our replacements. 

The difficulty arises because for the installation, everything in the room needs to be moved away from the windows. That's fine in the den and the bedrooms, even in the library area, and we can move things away in the dining room and the living room, but the computer room has built-ins everywhere and moving them will be all but impossible. I suppose it will be an opportunity to replace my broken clothes dresser with something that has functional drawers that won't have to use shims to keep them closed, but it's the electronics that's really the problem. Taking this room apart will be incredibly difficult. 

We want glass block windows in the laundry room, 
craft room and downstairs bathroom (although the 
bathroom is still under discussion). The laundry and 
craft room windows are very small and open into 
window wells since the rooms are in the lowest 
level of the house. Glass block windows make 
sense for that setup. 

Why new windows? It's a reasonable question, but every time I look at the windows from the outside of the house, it's pretty clear. The frames are in terrible shape. We're losing heat through every window which is adding to our heating bills in the winter. We don't run A/C in the summer because the entire HVAC system needs to be completely overhauled and redone, with new central A/C units - something we may not bother with in our lifetimes - LOL, but the windows - yeah. They definitely need to be done. 

Our living room has a large, three-panel picture
window with smaller casement windows below 
for air flow. It's a hard window to use, the casements 
don't work well, and when we have roof issues, it's 
here that we have leaks. This window might be a 
big problem. 

DH doesn't want casement windows. That's what we currently have, and I certainly see his objections to them. He doesn't like something that opens out, preferring instead to have double-hung windows. I've had historical problems with both styles, and really don't care as long as we can manage the project, but this one will be a big one. I think I'll push this one off until after we've retired. Then we'll have the time to actually figure all of this out and get the rooms prepped when we need it. Ugh - another nightmare in my future *sigh*. 

A single or double hung window is one of the easier 
styles to use, but I'm really not fond of the center 
line on the window that breaks the open space into 
smaller panels. This is the style of window that DH 
wants installed, and I'll probably give in, but 
I'm hesitant. I think we really need to meet with 
the window people and get a better idea first. 

On that note, I'm out of here. Have a glorious Tuesday, do something kind today because we all need positive things these days, and please, be safe and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow.