It's the last day for teachers. I love how here it's seriously chill. We came in at 9 for breakfast tacos and a gift exchange with my team. Then we had lunch at 11. Then I had a meeting with my principal that has been pushed back all week, and....
I just got promoted! Our Instructional Coach/Department Chair is retiring in January. I was miserable at the thought because she's really good at what she does and no one else was going to be the same. Well, there isn't going to be anyone else! For second semester, they're splitting her duties and you're looking at a newly minted math department chair! I'll still be teaching all my classes this year, but will be the lead on planning for my grade level (with a stipend). My principal said that if everything goes well, I will be able to decide if I want the IC position next year. That's a curricular admin position, not teaching. Cuh-razy.
Kitty and I are off to return some things at Lowe's and pick up some things at Ikea. If the elves are listening, I'm going to look at the white dressers and pick which one would be best. They don't have one in the same line as her crib, so I'll have to mix and match.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Room!
We've been running a lot of laundry since I fixed the washer. The new machines are all computerized and sensitive and stuff. Like, you don't have to select a load size--the washer can determine how much water it needs based on how much you stuff in. (And dude, I washed two complete queen sheet sets, 5 bath towels, and a tablecloth in a single load!) And the dryer dries the clothes automatically, until they are dry. I think Skynet might be in my utility room.
Speaking of room... Do you know how easy it is to sit down to dinner as a family when there is ROOM. Instead of one baby in a high chair, one parent balancing a plate while sitting on the floor, and the other parent awkwardly sitting at the computer, we actually can all pull up to the table. The beautiful empty table with room for four actual chairs around it. Or six, or eight, depending on if we add the leaves! Kitty is even sitting at the table like a big girl because we can pull her booster seat up.
We have to rearrange the living room soon because, well, because the way it is now some of the seats are simply too far away from our 27" tv. A TV upgrade isn't in the budget for a good long time.
There are some downsides, though. K's room isn't big enough for the futon, so storytime has been done on the floor. Not quite as comfortable.
And then there are all of the "need (and want) to gets." Like, a dresser for Kitty so that her clothes can be in her room instead of in our dresser. A rack for the fireplace so we can actually use it. A bigger office desk. The list just grows.
OK, Kids are here.
Speaking of room... Do you know how easy it is to sit down to dinner as a family when there is ROOM. Instead of one baby in a high chair, one parent balancing a plate while sitting on the floor, and the other parent awkwardly sitting at the computer, we actually can all pull up to the table. The beautiful empty table with room for four actual chairs around it. Or six, or eight, depending on if we add the leaves! Kitty is even sitting at the table like a big girl because we can pull her booster seat up.
We have to rearrange the living room soon because, well, because the way it is now some of the seats are simply too far away from our 27" tv. A TV upgrade isn't in the budget for a good long time.
There are some downsides, though. K's room isn't big enough for the futon, so storytime has been done on the floor. Not quite as comfortable.
And then there are all of the "need (and want) to gets." Like, a dresser for Kitty so that her clothes can be in her room instead of in our dresser. A rack for the fireplace so we can actually use it. A bigger office desk. The list just grows.
OK, Kids are here.
Monday, December 15, 2008
ARG!!
UPDATE 2: Done!
After shutting off the water (with a pipe wrench), it took liberal applications of CLR, WD40, and counterpressure on the pipe to get the however-old valve off. But once that was done, I installed the new one lickety-split and ran an empty test load in the washer. It works! Huzzah!
UPDATE: So I did a mass email of my school campus, and got lots of the same answer. The valve is in the recess with the meter, but it doesn't have a handle. It's a little handle about 2 inches long with a hole in it, and you have to use a turnkey or a stick to get enough leverage to open and close the valve. I went home over lunch (because I live close enough now!) and looked, and that's it exactly. So tonight, I try the stick option, and then tomorrow, a helpful coworker is going to bring the right tool in case the stick doesn't work. So, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
****************
I'm so deeply, deeply, frustrated. I need to replace the faucet thing behind the washing machine. Ok, fine, I have the piece, I have a pipe wrench, I know how to do it. I just want to get it done.
I can't find the main water shutoff for the house. It took hours of looking and three phone calls (the last one to a friend who lives in the same part of town was the successful one) to find the water meter. Which is OUTSIDE on the CURB under a MANHOLE COVER. WTF. I was looking for the water meter because everyone and everything said that the shutoff should be within a foot of the meter. Ok, but there is no valve in the recess, and I can't find where it is in the house. Just can't find it.
I can call the city, but I'm already convinced that they'll tell me they don't know without coming out to the house. I don't want to call a plumber! I KNOW what to do, I just don't know where it is!
This sucks. I'm almost in tears again from the sheer frustration.
After shutting off the water (with a pipe wrench), it took liberal applications of CLR, WD40, and counterpressure on the pipe to get the however-old valve off. But once that was done, I installed the new one lickety-split and ran an empty test load in the washer. It works! Huzzah!
UPDATE: So I did a mass email of my school campus, and got lots of the same answer. The valve is in the recess with the meter, but it doesn't have a handle. It's a little handle about 2 inches long with a hole in it, and you have to use a turnkey or a stick to get enough leverage to open and close the valve. I went home over lunch (because I live close enough now!) and looked, and that's it exactly. So tonight, I try the stick option, and then tomorrow, a helpful coworker is going to bring the right tool in case the stick doesn't work. So, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
****************
I'm so deeply, deeply, frustrated. I need to replace the faucet thing behind the washing machine. Ok, fine, I have the piece, I have a pipe wrench, I know how to do it. I just want to get it done.
I can't find the main water shutoff for the house. It took hours of looking and three phone calls (the last one to a friend who lives in the same part of town was the successful one) to find the water meter. Which is OUTSIDE on the CURB under a MANHOLE COVER. WTF. I was looking for the water meter because everyone and everything said that the shutoff should be within a foot of the meter. Ok, but there is no valve in the recess, and I can't find where it is in the house. Just can't find it.
I can call the city, but I'm already convinced that they'll tell me they don't know without coming out to the house. I don't want to call a plumber! I KNOW what to do, I just don't know where it is!
This sucks. I'm almost in tears again from the sheer frustration.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
I'm popping in, sitting on the floor of the old place which is the place with internet until Monday afternoon. It's mostly empty. The movers were fine, except 3 hours late *sigh*, and so they ended up moving everything into the new house right smack up until 9pm. My friend who came to help wrangle K was available 1 to 6, so by the time the movers got there I was on my own with her.
Anyway, the straggler stuff will be dealt with tomorrow with a friend's pickup. Today I get to replace the fitting thingies for the hose connectors behind the washing machine. Why, no I've never done this before, but dammit, I'm a homeowner. I bought a wrench and some pipe tape, it'll be fine. Assuming I can find the water shutoff.
Here's a tip--find the women employees at Lowe's. They were really helpful with the plumbing stuff. Then when I asked an older male employee where the levels were, he spoke real slowly and showed me one thats "great for hanging pictures and mirrors!" Maybe you had to be there.
Kitty is settling in. She had a really restless night because her room wasn't arranged and she was sleeping in a strange place with me. My family's Christmas gift to K--a backyard climbing structure--is right on time. She has been climbing EVERYTHING lately. She climbs up the outside of her crib. If she manages to climb out from the inside, it'll be time for the big girl bed!
Anyway, the straggler stuff will be dealt with tomorrow with a friend's pickup. Today I get to replace the fitting thingies for the hose connectors behind the washing machine. Why, no I've never done this before, but dammit, I'm a homeowner. I bought a wrench and some pipe tape, it'll be fine. Assuming I can find the water shutoff.
Here's a tip--find the women employees at Lowe's. They were really helpful with the plumbing stuff. Then when I asked an older male employee where the levels were, he spoke real slowly and showed me one thats "great for hanging pictures and mirrors!" Maybe you had to be there.
Kitty is settling in. She had a really restless night because her room wasn't arranged and she was sleeping in a strange place with me. My family's Christmas gift to K--a backyard climbing structure--is right on time. She has been climbing EVERYTHING lately. She climbs up the outside of her crib. If she manages to climb out from the inside, it'll be time for the big girl bed!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Where to start?
It snowed a little last night. Check this out!
And Kitty has a dr appointment and T and I have dentist appointments coming up.... Oh, the house? You want to hear about the house?
Well, we closed, and it was fine. We own a house! We've been working in the evenings, and we'll have our bedroom and Kitty's bedroom all scrubbed, primed, and painted before we move in officially on Saturday.
I was painting in our room last night, and just sort of ruminating. I was thinking about how I liked the color we picked, but it isn't as good a match for our curtains as I had hoped. The curtains are a gold that leans towards the olive, and we ended up with a sunny orange for the paint. Oops. One of the reasons we have the curtains we have is because there is a streetlight right outside our bedroom window, and the curtains are heavy and lined and block the light as much as possible. And then it hit me that the light blocking properties aren't a limiting factor for curtains anymore because we don't face a parking lot and the bedroom is on the back of the house. I can hang white fluffy sheers and it'll still be dark in our room at night! That's when it really struck me that we'll be living in a different place.
Kitty's room is just exactly the right shade of sky blue. With her white furniture, it should look really nice. When you look down the bedroom hallway, our room pops orange, and K's room pops blue, so we need to pick another bright color to do the back bedroom. We're not rushing to get that done before we move in, though, because it will be much more sparsely furnished and used, so it will be easier to paint while we're living in the house. The trim all over is in really bad shape, though, just from however many years of life. I need to find out if there is an easy way to replace or strip it. Like, if I invest in a crowbar and nailgun, can I just pull out the door trim and baseboards and put up new ones?
We've had some glitches. One is that the valve for the gas dryer isn't compatible for modern dryers so rather than go through the hassle of having a plumber out to change the 40 year old valve, we're just getting an electric dryer. I debated with myself, and I'm ok with this. The big pro for gas is that it gets hotter, so clothes dry faster. But they cost more and higher temps mean clothes wear out faster. I also think they're more to repair or something. In any case, we're getting an electric.
Another glitch is that APPARENTLY the power company and the gas company are separate. And when you call to turn on utilities, you need to call two different places. The City of Austin for water and electric and TX Gas for gas. Who would have thunk.
The power and water has been on since Monday. When we realized we had no hot water, and then realized the stove wasn't lighting, we thought that maybe the dryer installer turned the gas off at a main valve before they realized it was a nogo and didn't turn it back on. This is complicated by the fact that we're having a cold snap, and I'm worried about the pipes freezing because we have a gas furnace as well. So I go over at lunch intending to find the valve. No valve. No where.
It slowly dawned on me that maybe we just never initiated service. Crap. So I call the gas company and here's what I hear, "We're experiencing a technical difficulty and cannot take your call at this time. If this isn't a gas leak emergency, call back later." Over and over for 2 hours. Eventually I got through, and they were able to squeeze us in for Friday. And my friend Melissa who has lived here for years in a similar house says that the pipes should be fine for one frozen night if we trickle the taps. So that's what we're going to do. And cross fingers.
Ok, I gotta go.
TTYL
And Kitty has a dr appointment and T and I have dentist appointments coming up.... Oh, the house? You want to hear about the house?
Well, we closed, and it was fine. We own a house! We've been working in the evenings, and we'll have our bedroom and Kitty's bedroom all scrubbed, primed, and painted before we move in officially on Saturday.
I was painting in our room last night, and just sort of ruminating. I was thinking about how I liked the color we picked, but it isn't as good a match for our curtains as I had hoped. The curtains are a gold that leans towards the olive, and we ended up with a sunny orange for the paint. Oops. One of the reasons we have the curtains we have is because there is a streetlight right outside our bedroom window, and the curtains are heavy and lined and block the light as much as possible. And then it hit me that the light blocking properties aren't a limiting factor for curtains anymore because we don't face a parking lot and the bedroom is on the back of the house. I can hang white fluffy sheers and it'll still be dark in our room at night! That's when it really struck me that we'll be living in a different place.
Kitty's room is just exactly the right shade of sky blue. With her white furniture, it should look really nice. When you look down the bedroom hallway, our room pops orange, and K's room pops blue, so we need to pick another bright color to do the back bedroom. We're not rushing to get that done before we move in, though, because it will be much more sparsely furnished and used, so it will be easier to paint while we're living in the house. The trim all over is in really bad shape, though, just from however many years of life. I need to find out if there is an easy way to replace or strip it. Like, if I invest in a crowbar and nailgun, can I just pull out the door trim and baseboards and put up new ones?
We've had some glitches. One is that the valve for the gas dryer isn't compatible for modern dryers so rather than go through the hassle of having a plumber out to change the 40 year old valve, we're just getting an electric dryer. I debated with myself, and I'm ok with this. The big pro for gas is that it gets hotter, so clothes dry faster. But they cost more and higher temps mean clothes wear out faster. I also think they're more to repair or something. In any case, we're getting an electric.
Another glitch is that APPARENTLY the power company and the gas company are separate. And when you call to turn on utilities, you need to call two different places. The City of Austin for water and electric and TX Gas for gas. Who would have thunk.
The power and water has been on since Monday. When we realized we had no hot water, and then realized the stove wasn't lighting, we thought that maybe the dryer installer turned the gas off at a main valve before they realized it was a nogo and didn't turn it back on. This is complicated by the fact that we're having a cold snap, and I'm worried about the pipes freezing because we have a gas furnace as well. So I go over at lunch intending to find the valve. No valve. No where.
It slowly dawned on me that maybe we just never initiated service. Crap. So I call the gas company and here's what I hear, "We're experiencing a technical difficulty and cannot take your call at this time. If this isn't a gas leak emergency, call back later." Over and over for 2 hours. Eventually I got through, and they were able to squeeze us in for Friday. And my friend Melissa who has lived here for years in a similar house says that the pipes should be fine for one frozen night if we trickle the taps. So that's what we're going to do. And cross fingers.
Ok, I gotta go.
TTYL
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
