When will it end?

Why?

As if we didn't already have enough to do.
Our shower stopped working after Husband repaired the broken water line.
In trying to fix it, the wall apparently crumbled.
And now I have this staring me in the face.

I need some cheering up people, stat.

Bling, Bling...

-So I bought myself a new watch today. I decided it was time for a change. This is one helluva change for yours truly. Thing is though... I fell absolutely head over heels in love with it. The flashy bits aren't really my thing but there's just something about this watch that screamed "buy me!" So I did. I love my old watch, I have loved it for over 4 years now but alas it wasn't meant to last forever. I promise not to abuse this watch as much. Speaking of which I need to find a cheap one to wear to work... hmm

-The repairs on the house... they go slowly when they go. We have discovered the bathroom floor will need to be replaced, again, because of a future 2 inch height difference once the bedroom is finished. Husband twisted his ankle falling out of our back door. He broke a water pipe under the house today. I will have no hot water for who knows how long now. Like I say... it goes.

-I've started looking for a place to take yoga lessons. Yoga studios are expensive. And no, I do not want another gym membership *shudders*. I also have plans to find either a chiropractor or an acupuncturist or both. My back, hips, and neck are killing me. I feel like my body is revolting against me. I just need to make some calls and see what, if anything, I can make my insurance cover for me.

-I did have other things to talk about but my mind just went blank. I suppose it's time to lay down and let my aspirin kick in.

p.s.
Yes I do read your blogs, Yes I suck at commenting. I'm sorry.

This Old House, re-revisited...

(This is a copy/paste job done from my old 360 blog, but since some people have been asking questions about the house I thought this might answer some of those, plus I just really liked this blog)

This old house, episode 1

Welcome to the first edition of This Old House, in today's episode we take a look back on the house that Karen and her husband Mr. Karen bought four years ago. Pictured above is the happy naive couple posing in front of said house after purchase. Some background info on the house. It was reposed by a bank and sat unoccupied for several years prior to their purchase. The house had been home to several homeless people and wild parties as evidenced by the internal damage to the house. As said before, they were young and naive when they made the purchase. They no longer wanted to rent but couldn't really afford much in the way of housing. They thought it would be a fun and exciting project to undertake. I mean who doesn' t love a fixer-upper?! Little did they know what was in store for them.

The house is a 1 bedroom in what has been referred to as a shotgun style house. (one room right after the other in a straight line) It sits on approximately 1/3 of an acre in the city limits of Tulsa. Let's get on with the home tour shall we?

First we have the livinroom painted in a breath taking dusty rose and forrest green with matching wallpaper. Featured in the far right corner is an enormous bookcase/fireplace that sits upon a raised section of tile in forrest green. Along the right wall the floor is no longer attached. One can bounce upon the floor because the joist haven rotted out. One window along the far right wall is completely busted out. It is of course a double pain window which is quite expensive to replace.

Here we have the far left side of the livingroom. Here we see what appears to be remnants of a sliding glass door. It now stands as a giant hole in the wall. Not featured in this picture is the forrest green tile that marks the entrance into the kitchen or the forrest green carpet that adorens much of the livingroom.

Next we move into the kitchen that is painted forrest green with light wood panneling along the bottom half of the wall. On the far left side of the kitchen we notice the frame of what used to be a sliding glass door. If you look closely however, you can see the remains of the sliding glass door shattered into a million pieces on the floor. One should also note the carpet that was glued upon the kitchen floor and hence has lots of nice ridges. We can also not forget the hole that was knocked in the wall just past the sliding glass door.

Here our lovely model Mr. Karen shows off the other half of the kitchen. Note the bright pink tile in the background. Behind Chris is the giant planter window that has to be boarded up because it was completely busted out. Not pictured is the mold and mildew behind the counters because of a leak in the sink. The floor is also completely rotted out underneath the cabinets. It felt much like a trampoline when one stands there.

Here we have the family viewing the small space otherwise known as the bedroom. Note that the window behind Karen's mother is busted out, like every other window in the house. The carpet in the bedroom is green, to match the rest of the house obviously. The bedroom features a slopped roof that Mr. Karen can barely fit under at it's lowest. Unknown to the Karens at the moment of the purchase is that the flooring in the bedroom was rotting out and actually slopped in the same manner as that of the roof.

Next we move onto the bathroom. The linolium in the bathroom was the only thing holding up the toliet which was clogged with something unmentionable. The bathtub was covered with an insane amount of mildew that would not come off no matter what product was used on it. The towel rack on the far wall was not actually screwed into the wall which a distraught Karen found out the hard way. The mirror was bespeckled with some unknown substance that was dared not questioned. The floor was by far the worst in the bathroom. One was risking your life by even going in there.

This was the backyard. The Karens actually had no idea how far their property went back until they spent several weeks clearing out the brush. One of Chris's siblings, and Karen's dad both came down with nasty poison ivy in the effort to clean this up.
And thus concludes our first tour of the house of the Karens.

Join us next time won't you?

Bedroom, day 1

How our floor has stayed up this long is beyond me...
This is what we actually found when we took up the floor.
Forget rotten joists, we had no joists.
Why I'm surprised by this I don't know.
I'm so glad Husband is handy.

I'm in the process of uploading the photos taken thus far to my Flickr account. You can either friend me over there (privacy settings and all) and keep an eye out as I update or wait for my lazy butt to put together an extensive photo blog.
Your choice.

(p.s. I'm feeling really lazy at the moment, just saying)

Construction vs 9823.1

Because our floor is sinking ever lower.
Because the carpet is green and 4 years is far too long to live with that.
Because it needs to done.

This weekend Husband will finally fix the floor in our bedroom/hallway. I'm off to OKC so I won't be in his way. Hopefully everything will go as planned. If it does we shall have a tank-less water heater, a new central heat/air system, and no carpet (maybe). Here's to hoping.
(I will post a photo-ish blog in the near future to show before, during and after photos. Stay tuned.)

You don't miss it...

There are things you take for granted in life. Things you don't know how much you need until they are gone. For instance a sewage pump.

Our sewage pump died Monday. This means showering in 3 inches of soapy water, when it's appropriate to shower for the time limit of 5 minutes. Flushing the toilet only when absolutely necessary. Selective hand washing. One load of laundry a day. Most importantly though it means I have a swamp for a backyard.

Never fear though! We bought an extended warranty on it back in 2006 for 8 years! Or so we thought. After numerous hours on hold with Home Depots warranty people they are now telling us we bought the extended warranty for a water heater.... We didn't even buy a water heater on that receipt. And yes, Husband has faxed them a copy of said receipt several times. So I've been without a sewage pump for 4 days now. And worst of all it doesn't appear to be getting resolved anytime in the near future.

Home Depot... you... f-ing... suck!

There is a small bright side to all of this though... Husband has gotten very creative with how to help it drain in the meantime. Let me just say it has involved everything from an old Soft Pool water pump to a shop vac. Gotta love him.

But Home Depot... I still hate you.