It didn't rain, but it poured

Yesterday I arrived home from work to a very unhappy husband who was sitting in the middle of our living room watch water drip through the ceiling. Whaaaaat?

Turns out the toilet in our master bath has had a slow leak for awhile, and the water finally made its way through the floor and then through the ceiling. We could see almost the entire outline of the framework in the ceiling, water was dripping, paint was falling and the place was a wreck. Rob had taken one of the can lights out of the ceiling and water was really coming out through that hole. He went out to buy a dehumidifier, and I put buckets out everywhere and covered up furniture.

We had a home owners' association meeting that we had to go to (another long story, but every house in our neighborhood is being assessed $1200 and we wanted to know why), so Rob turned off the water and we left for the meeting. We got home at 9 p.m. -- starving at this point since we hadn't had time to eat -- and the water was still dripping.

After talking to my Dad, Rob hit a hole in the ceiling with his hammer and gallons of water poured out into the giant trash can he was holding. It flowed for a good 30 minutes and then dripped for another 30 or so before finally stopping. I made us some grilled cheese and we finally ate dinner at 9:45 p.m.

We slept with all of the house water turned off. This morning Rob went downstairs and turned on the water, then we listed for dripping. We didn't hear anything, and the ceiling is significantly drier, so we showered and turned it off again for the day.

Now we need to get a plumber to fix the toilet, and we'll need a contractor to replace our ceiling. A mess!

It All Fits on Paper

Good news: our new appliances all arrived yesterday!

Bad news: nothing fits.

Actually, that's not the complete story and everything is in its place now, but it sure was an adventure getting it all there!

All three items (stove, microwave, fridge) were scheduled for yesterday, but of course they all couldn't come at once! So the microwave installation guy showed up at 8:30 a.m., plopped it right up there, tested it out and headed on his way. Easy-peasy.

The stove and refrigerator were to arrive between 3-5:45 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. - when we'd seen neither hide nor hair of the delivery truck - I called and was informed that they were running late. No problem... we waited and waited and they finally showed up.

Here's where it got fun! The fridge measured right (and trust me, we'd measured it 101 times), but wouldn't fit in the space. Measure the fridge- check. Measure the space- check. It fit on paper, but not in real life. In the end, we figured out that our hardwood floors are a little uneven and that was making it not slide in on one side.

Let's move on to the stove. The delivery guy attempted to slide it into place... nope. There's some sort of power box screwed into the floors that happened to be in the exact 6-inch area where the stove wouldn't go back, so the whole thing stuck out from the wall 4 inches. Bothersome, but fixable in the next few days, we thought, until I realized that the dishwasher wouldn't open all of the way with the stove sticking out.

ACK!

At 7 p.m., I was tired and hungry and very irritated. The delivery man just shrugged his shoulders, asked me to sign that it all had, in fact, been delivered, and left us with a big refrigerator in the middle of the kitchen and stove that was blocking the dishwasher. Not a happy camper was I.

I informed Rob that I was going to pick up some carry out for dinner, and that I wanted that refrigerator in place when I got back. I have to give him a special shout out - he got out his Dremel tool and sanded the cabinet trim until it finally slid into place. Hallelujiah.

After dinner, he tackled the electric outlet behind the stove (shutting off the power so he didn't zap himself!), unscrewed/un-nailed it, moved it down 6 inches and reattached the whole thing. The stove slid in perfectly!

In the end, it's all where it needs to be and I'm very pleased. It was just a rocky two hours last night.

A New Room!

The sofa is in place... my chair and ottoman are perfect... Rob is nestled in to his leather recliner. Our revamped living room is almost complete!

I've been lobbying for new sofas for a full year, and we finally made it all happen. Everything was delivered week before last, and now our next (and final!) step is to hang the new curtains this weekend. Hooray!

Negotiations were tough. :) Rob agreed to the new furniture as long as he got a recliner out of the deal. I'm generally not a fan of recliners - I think they are big and bulky and not so pretty. But I wheeled and dealed ... I could get my sofas and Rob could get his recliner, as long as I got final veto over the shape, size and color of said piece.

Success! We found a terrific chocolate brown leather recliner that extends an extra 3-inches when reclined - perfect for my 6'5" hubby. And I ended up with a textured chenille couch, chair and ottoman in a khaki/green color. Perfect!

Oh, and during the whole re-do, Rob decided to splurge on a new 50" plasma. We had a few snags in actually getting it home (the box was so big it wouldn't fit in our CRV!), so we ended up renting a pickup truck from Lowe's to bring it home. Now it's all set up and the HD is terrific. Good choice, Rob!

Pictures to follow .... I'm off to sit in my new chair. :)

Lots of Home Improvements...

Wow.... the title of Rob's last post was a little graphic, so I thought I'd update with a more wholesome and comprehensive wrap-up of what's been happening around the Hamilton household lately.

To clarify, the toilet at no time exploded! What a crazy choice in word. It simply wouldn't flush right, so Rob took it apart, replaced the mechanism and now it works like a charm. Or, however it is a toilet is supposed to work. Now he's taken on the challenge of replacing the one in our master bath, too, so we should be all set.

On another note, we ordered our new living room furniture this weekend! I'm so excited... I've been lobbying for new couches for about a year. We ended up with a sofa with deep cushions, a chair and ottoman and a leather recliner for Rob. I can't wait to have it all in place.

We are pretty lucky to have a nice home and the means to keep it up. I love doing home improvements with Rob, and I am fortunate that he is so handy!