Let’s see, where did we leave off? Oh yes, after spending an intense month-and a half doing more demolition work than reconstruction work, we had just woken up in our 112-year-old house for the first time (Read that blog post if you dare.). The morning light was streaming through what I thought where called “muttons.” They were muntins.
At that moment, we had no working stove, no working water heater, no washer, no dryer, no way to get from the bedroom to the kitchen without walking outside the house, and no coffee. The apartment still needed to be cleaned out and something was terribly wrong with our Subaru. Ryan was still working one and half jobs, and one of his jobs was like a job and a half, so if you are doing the math, he had two jobs. And Alethia, well, she was just trying to be helpful.
Here’s a bit of the roller coaster that we put ourselves on this fall:
Hooray, we’re in our new house!
What is that terrible clanking and rattling? Lovely. They are using a power shovel to break up the intersection right out there. Just wait– a big chunk of plaster is going to fall off the ceiling during one of these miniature earthquakes. Oh, and now the toddler is awake– and afraid.
Well, it sure will be nice living on a cul-de-sac while they work on the road! All the neighbor kids are out playing in their yards and biking on the street! We didn’t know we were moving into such an awesome neighborhood!
It doesn’t feel like our house yet. It feels like we are camping here. For instance, where’s the coffee?
Gas station coffee!
I’m going to totally plastic off these two rooms that we have torn up so that Alethia doesn’t get into the tools or eat any paint chips. But now we can’t walk between the kitchen and the rest of the house.
But we’ll get those rooms done soon! Or we’ll re-open the passageway from the landing to the kitchen! We don’t need that extra pantry!
Back to the apartment to box up the rest of our junk. So much junk. Let’s just eat everything in the fridge so we don’t have to move it.
Beef tongue and corn on the cob make a delicious supper!
I guess all this food we have left is stuff Ryan can’t eat. Oh well, he got called in to work anyway.
Hey, you’re off work for a few hours! Let’s get our stove up and running!
Of course. Flexible gas pipe kits come with all these adapters, and none fit this sixty-year-old stove.
Ace really is the helpful place!
This old brass flexible gas pipe has probably been here for sixty years, which is probably why it leaked gas. And also why it absolutely will not budge. And we can’t find the breaker bar. When we stuck all this stuff in the garage, we didn’t think we would need the breaker bar right away.
I found the breaker bar in the basement! And my husband is so strong and handsome! Look at him install that flexible gas pipe. And look, no bubbles! Let’s make bacon! And then turn off the gas to this line again, just to be safe!
Back at the apartment. So tired of cleaning.
This apartment is so clean now! Management will be in awe of how clean this apartment is!
What do you mean, you can feel dust on the baseboards? Do you want to come to my 112-year-old house and feel 112-year-old dust on baseboards? Do you want to tell me what you think of the cleanliness of the kitchen at my house? Huh? Do you?
I’m done! I re-cleaned everything! I don’t care if it’s clean enough, I’m going home and tomorrow I’m going to turn in the keys and we will only have one place to worry about!
Hey, Ryan? I’m in the Hy-Vee parking lot. The car is overheating again. It’s eating all the coolant. Will you come after your done with work and make sure we make it home?
We made it home! And Ryan is sure he knows what the problem is!
The problem is the head gasket. This car is not going to move again until Ryan replaces that gasket.
It’s a good thing that Ryan is so handy! And that I didn’t make him get rid of his engine hoist! And it’s a good thing we are done with our month of having two places! And that we just moved to a more walkable neighborhood!
How are we going to get checked out of the apartment tomorrow and get Ryan to work(s)?
With deft logistical coordination, we have gotten checked out of the apartment! I’m going to go home and relax!
I can’t relax. There is too much to do.
Let’s do it!
Well maybe I could get something done if I didn’t have to spend all my time going outside to go back and forth between the front of the house and the back of the house.
But it sure is nice to go outside in a neighborhood where all your neighbors are outside hanging out on their porches and working on their houses!
We should probably call the utility company and tell them we think we might still smell gas around the stove so that they come check it.
The gas smellerometer says you installed the pipe perfectly! Go Ryan!
Oh, but there’s still gas leaking out of these “Warm-R-Burner”s.
Ah, those are supposed to be pilot lights! Let’s get those lit!
Hmm, they don’t seem to want to light. Careful there, don’t unscrew that knob too much. Poof, flames all in the stove, where utility guy just had his hand. Sprinting to the basement to turn off that gas line now.
Everything’s fine! The utility guy is unharmed! I saved the day with a pipe wrench!
Let’s just not use the pilot lights. Let’s just screw them shut and light our beautimous vintage stove with a lighter. And add a gas shut-off valve somewhere closer to the stove.
Not using the pilot lights will save us $15 in gas every month!
Now that we know the stove works, let me expend energy cleaning it. Oh look, mouse turds.
Power washers are fun!
Power washers make mud splash up all over the stove pieces I am trying to clean.
Okay, finally got everything back in the house, triple wiped down, and reassembled. Hooray, stove! Time for a bath!
Yeah, this water heater is more like a water warmer.
It’s the dip tube! After hours of careful internet research, I am sure it is the dip tube!
No, guy at the plumbing store, not a drip tube. A dip tube.
We got it installed! $6 in parts and our 25-year-old water heater now makes hot water! My husband is so handy! I’m sure that this old water heater is not very energy-efficient, but think of the embodied energy in a new one! Let’s go show this old disintegrated dip tube to the guys at the plumbing store! It’ll be educational! Let’s tell our friendly neighbors about our water heater victory!
This tub does not hold water. There it goes, down the closed drain.
O-ring for the win!
This laundry is really starting to pile up. When are you going to pick up that used set from your friend?
Yay! We’re getting the washer and dryer this weekend!
Just kidding– next weekend.
Yay! We’re getting the washer and dryer this weekend!
Just kidding– next weekend.
[Somewhere in there Ryan switched to just working one job, presumably because he ran out of clean polos.]Yay! We’re getting the washer and dryer this weekend!
Just kidding– next weekend. The laundry pile is now occupying an entire bedroom.
Here comes Ryan with the washer and dryer! Good thing because I am completely out of underwear! And shirts! And pants!
The dryer needs a new glow plug? It’s a special order part?
It’s a good thing this set was so cheap! And that there’s a laundromat nearby that only costs an arm and a leg– I’ve got a couple of each to spare!
Once we get the laundry going, it’s going to be a pain in the butt to get laundry to the basement with these two rooms in between torn up.
Let’s open up that place where the staircase used to be!
What do you mean, you don’t think we should start any new projects? Well, of course we shouldn’t start any new projects, but this isn’t really a project, it’s a quick surgical operation that will soon pay for itself in saved time.
Yay, we’re going to saw through this paneling! I can see the parlor from the kitchen! I can move freely about my own home!
We should probably stick some stairs in that hole before our toddler tries to jump from the landing to the kitchen.
I built some janky steps out of pantry shelves and 2x4s! And the glow plug finally came!
Who knew that a glow plug is one of the most innermost parts of a dryer?
All systems go– let’s do some laundry!
The washer gets stuck halfway through the cycle and churns for hours. It’s set up to drain into the floor drain, which appears to have a slow clog. There’s water all over the floor. The dryer still won’t dry.
I’ve got one batch of jeans to dry on our backyard fence, which I am so thankful for! I’m going to wash another batch!
The washer just electrocuted me. Mildly, but still. I’m going to buy a new washer right now. If I had known I would need to buy a new washer, I would have done it a month ago. I just want to do some freaking laundry.
The washer doesn’t have a short, it just had a huge amount of static built up! Ryan grounded the washer to the water line, so it won’t shock anyone anymore! He also did some work on the drain tube so that the water won’t siphon out before the washer is full! We figured out that the vent pipe of the dryer was not lined up with the hole to the outside of the house (and apparently hasn’t been for a decade), so now that we lined it up, it should work fine!
Yeah, it still doesn’t work.
Oh look! I found a gallon of dog hair in the dryer after disassembling it for the second time this week!
You know, if we had been smart, we would have found that the first time we took it apart.
The dryer works! The washer works except for the permanent press cycle! I’m getting the laundry done! Even our friendly neighbors, who are working on their house right out there, are commenting on the lovely smell of fresh laundry! Don’t worry, neighbors, I’ve got fifteen more batches to do! I love you, neighborhood! I’m sending all my fresh laundry scent out to you!
(Well, that brings us to the end of September. October, November and December will have to wait, but compared to August and September, they’ve been a walk in the park.)