Where to begin ...
Last week, our opening mechanism on our front door went out. You could still lock the door, you just couldn't get in from the outside, so the fact that it did lock was pretty pointless. We had to use the garage all week, which wasn't a big deal. Until Saturday.
You may have heard about the Winter Storm that hit the Midwest this past weekend. It hit us around 3:00 Saturday. We were getting ready to go to a Christmas Party, and because I hadn't felt well the night before, I didn't make a dessert, so I had to run to the local dairy store and picked up some cheesecakes. I made it back home, and because the door didn't work, I tried to use the garage. You may notice that I used the word tried. This indicated an attempt that was unsuccessful, due to a quarter inch of ice on the front of our house. Lovely.
And of course nobody heard me pounding on the front door for at least a full minute, so I got sleeted on too. Beauty-full!
So today DH took the door knob off and out fell some little plastic piece that is apparently vital to the proper functioning of a front door. He gave the rest of the knob to the kids and I think that they had it completely stripped in under ten minutes. I went to the hardware store and picked up a new door knob - did you know how many choices there are. Good Lord. All I wanted was a doorknob that locked and let me in when I wanted. So, I picked one up and brought it home, and I put it on. This was, without a doubt, the easiest door knob I have ever installed. The backplate just slides right over the screws, so no more dropping them. That in itself is so worth it. So now, we can actually let ourselves back in our house. What a nice feature.
And tonight I used my "super coupon" at JC Penney and finished Grandmas shopping - I managed to get clothes for five children, pants and a shirt for each, for under $97. Not too bad, I must say.
I learned something about Penney's tonight - if you have your own totebag to bring your purchases home in, which I typically bring with me, so as to not bring home more plastic bags, they will not use it. They have to put your purchases in a plastic Penney's bag. I asked her why and she said it was for security purposes. I said, even if I have my receipt in hand and am going the ten feet to the door (this is a free standing Penney's, not in a mall, which I would understand). She said yes, that there was no way to know if I had been wandering through the store shoplifting. And, the thought I had, but did not say was, "Okay, but I gave you an empty cloth bag, and am literally going straight to the door, but I'll take your stupid plastic bag, and trash the planet in the process. Thanks, Penneys, the Earth loves ya babe!"
For the past several months DH has been at a client site twice a week working on a system conversion. I'm not exactly sure what they are converting, but there is an inventory involved, and a lot of columns. The last few weeks have been hellishly bad for them all, and even at 4:30 on Friday (the conversion was scheduled to start at 6:00) they (not management, but the people doing the conversion) were hoping to get it delayed. But no, there was one other change made at 5:15, DH got home at 5:30 and went to the basement and kicked off the conversion at 6:00. He literally had to sit there and watch it until 6:45 Saturday morning, just to be sure it didn't stop for some reason or there was some other error. Did I mention that he had already worked a full work week by Thursday at noon and still worked from 8:00 - 5:15 on Friday.
There was a knock at the door at around noon, and the company set me flowers as an apology for keeping my husband busy the last few weeks, especially during what is normally family time. Do you know how hard it is to stay miffed at a company when they send you pink roses, cream gerber daises and white carnations, amidst greenery and pine? They're beautiful, and they totally took away my steam. So I guess they do realize how much DH has/is putting into it (he's down there working right now, fixing some problem they found).
And, keeping in the thread of being miffed, it's been so damn windy here that the plastic I have covering our west windows has popped on five of the eight windows I covered. I guess I sealed them too tightly. So now I can sit here and watch my blinds literally move with the breeze as the wind is gusting like crazy tonight. I think they're blowing at something like 25 - 30 mph. I suppose the blinds wouldn't dance as much if it was coming in all around the window, but now that it's funneled through the one spot where the plastic popped off, it almost looks like my window is breathing. It's on my list of things to fix tomorrow.
Speaking of things to fix (can you tell my DH has been busy and I haven't talked to another adult in what feels like forever?!) I fixed the stoppers on my bathroom sinks today. That was kind of cool - much less expensive than the $100 faucets I want to replace it with. DH says I can, but I'll look around first, I'm sure I can find something cheaper.
Quick list of my Home Repair Skills
- Repair drywall
- Painting
- Kitchen faucet installation
- Fixing the stoppers on the sinks
- Hang blinds
- Replacing light fixtures (safely, and without creating a fire hazard)
- Re-screening windows (very costly to have it done for you)
- Replace the float on the toilet
- Insulating, which is not very fun
It's not the most impressive of lists, but it's still something I can do myself and don't have to hire out. My next task is to repair the leak in the bathtub upstairs. I'm a little more hesitant with that one, since I'm supposed to drill a hole in my bathtub and put fill foam in there, and then seal the actual crack in the tub. There is something about drilling a hole in my bathtub that makes me leery ... I think I'll wait until my Dad is here in December and he can help me.
Speaking of which, my Dad will be here for two weeks in December. Yay us! He gets here the 22nd and leaves the 5th. It will be the first Christmas and New Years we've spent together in five years. Now I've got to get ready for it ...
I think that's enough for tonight ... off to look around on the internet and see what else is out there.
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