Homeowner: Day 20

With my own house, I can laugh as loud as I want whenever I want. Thanks to Everybody Loves Raymond for helping me realize this fact!

I also want to put in a plug for Lowe's Home Improvement. I'm sure not all stores are the same, but I have received amazing service and advice since buying my house. I simply walk in, start asking questions, and they quickly figure out my deep level of ignorance and talk me through it--including walking all over the store picking up parts and showing me how stuff works.

I don't think there's much to report tonight. So far, I put a 7" section of foam insulation around one very small pipe that froze and re-constructed my "fort" around the water pump to be safe. I also bought some insulating material for the garage door and will install that sometime soon. Tonight's plan is to get non-garage stuff out of the garage, move tools/workbench stuff into one spot, and clear a spot for the washer and dryer (although the washer might stay in the house until spring--undecided). This will also include getting books placed (but not ordered) on the bookshelves.

Burgers are thawing for dinner. Not to crossover blog topics, but I purchased 4.5 lbs of 90% lean ground beef at Sam's last week. I made 8 1/4-lb burgers to freeze, and froze the rest in 1/2-lb blocks. We'll see how it works out--I was very surprised to find myself buying bulk meat at Sam's.

Now that I think about it, today was a busy homeowner day on the phone. I contacted a local trash hauler and setup garbage pickup (yes, I live in a township)--that's about $18/month. I also scheduled the delivery of the guest bed (purchased through Sam's). At some point over the weekend, I cleared out the guest room for the bed, so that is a good thing. The big puzzle piece, however, is that I received quotes from the contractor for both the kitchen floor (to be paid by Lowe's insurance) and to fix the foundation/footer problem. I'm not going to speak of finances on this one right now--suffice it to say that it is an expensive fix, but it is less than I was fearing.

Well, I should get back to work. I logged in thinking I would just post the laughing observation, but here we are. Back to work...

Home ownership: 2 weeks

I will be very honest here--I'm sure I would have cried by now if I thought it would do any good. It won't, however, so I'm pretty sure that's why I have not.

I did have hot water when I moved into the house on Dec. 30. That was very nice. However, I was greeted by a giant crack in the living room wall which I basically had to ignore for a bit.

Master Bed--the room is no longer, and never will be, this clean

The movers arrived and unloaded the truck. I was overwhelmed to say the least. I've admitted before that I own too much stuff, but this is when it kicks in. I was staring down boxes with very little wiggle room. Even the garage had more boxes than anticipated. The major accomplishment for night one was getting the master bedroom ready for sleeping.

On Dec. 31, I struggled against spotty cell phone service and made some calls regarding the wall, at this point still hoping it was just a really poor drywall issue. The calls yielded very little. Beyond that, I spent Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 getting the kitchen unpacked and organized so that I would have at least one room available. I had overnight guests scheduled to arrive in the evening on Jan. 1. On Dec. 31, my refrigerator arrived from Lowe's. Unfortunately, they damaged the kitchen flooring (vinyl) in the process, and the refrigerator was left setting about a foot from the back wall. Lowe's next move would be to send someone to take insurance pictures.

Kitchen, including "island" table

Otherwise, things went pretty well. Although the place was certainly cluttered with boxes, I was generally ready for my guests when they arrived. We went out to eat at Cheeseburger in Paradise which was wonderful! That was pretty much the night--I slept on the couch so they could have my bed.

We all slept in on Sunday, and my guests left around 12:30. I got back into the mess, hoping to get something accomplished before going to work on Monday. That accomplishment was getting my desk put together and my office partly organized. This was strategic since internet was being installed on Monday morning. As for the installation, that went fine.

Office

Overall, unpacking and organizing has gone well over the past week. However, the house has presented its fair share of problems. Most significantly, after inviting a contractor over for an estimate, I learned that my wall problem (as feared) is actually from the house shifting. At some point after the flooding, someone had the brilliant idea to shim the house at the support beam using plywood--yes, it snapped. The solution is to jack up the house, do some digging, and pour some concrete. I don't yet have the photos or estimate, so more later.

"The Wall": living room, above laundry closet

I've also struggled since Dec. 31 with some leaking under the kitchen sink associated with the dishwasher line. Over the course of this week, I tried fixing the leak. At one point, the leak appeared fixed, but then a different leak appeared. The second leak required me to shut off the hot water supply. After a trip to Lowe's yesterday and some diligent efforts, I discovered that ALL of my water was gone--I lost pressure from the well tank. Thanks to some hammer tapping, I managed to get the water working on Saturday night. However, I woke up around 4:30 this morning and discovered it was off again. I was in the garage until 5:30am or 6:00am (back and forth to my computer) learning how a pressure switch works. Mine appeared to be stuck. I learned how to manually get it running, but the gauge was also bad, so I had no idea how much pressure was in the tank. I got the water running, killed the pump switch, and went back to bed. After a few trips to Lowe's and some more online research, I discovered that the switch was OK, but the water supply feeding the switch was frozen. So, I took care of that problem and the water supply is fine for the moment. I also gave in and put in new hardware under the sink. As of this moment, the dishwasher finished a full cycle and no leaks.

What else...the infamous washer/dryer closet in my living room. After MUCH effort, I've concluded that my particular machines are not going to fit in the closet. This means they are going to the garage hookups. Overall, I'm OK with this situation. However, it does not make me happy given the recent water line freeze. More planning.

Living Room on Dec. 31 (from the couch)

The living room is pretty tight, but it's coming together. My entertainment center will not fit with speakers, so I've got the above setup for now. The plan is to buy a flat-screen TV, including a TV stand that will accommodate my A/V items. That plan is on hold, however, until the other house issues are resolved. 6 months? A year?

So, that's the story 19 days after closing and 11 days after fully moving in. More to come.