Joe the Plumber

Here's a little anecdote about home ownership, a true story that happened to us a few nights ago.

I was cooking dinner and throwing the food waste into the sink with the disposal as I was going. I had thrown some remains of an onion in the disposal earlier, and then later washed off a fresh head of lettuce and ripped off the outer leaves. I pushed all the scraps down the drain, turned the water on and then flipped the switch for the disposal. I knew the disposal was on because I could hear it running but it didn't look like it was breaking anything up. The water that was running was not going down the drain, but slowly filling up in the sink. I turned the disposal off to let the water drain for a minute. When I turned it back on, the disposal sprayed green-lettuce-pulp-water up out of the sink and lightly misted the kitchen. I yelled "OH LORD!" and Andrew yelled from the family room, "ARE YOU OK?" He hadn't been paying attention to what was going on and I guess he thought I was hurt. He came over to asses the situation while I wiped down the fridge, counter, floor, and other surfaces where the green-lettuce-pulp-water had landed. We decided to hold a large plastic mixing bowl a little above the drain so water could still get down but spray would not come out. After a few rounds of trying that, the sink was full of green-lettuce-pulp-water and nothing was going down. All I could think to say to Andrew was, "Welcome to home ownership!" and we both laughed. At this point I considered taking a picture because I was already thinking the situation would make for great blog fodder, but I decided I'd spare you all the view of the green pulp. Although it was pretty humorous, I started wondering what we were going to do to fix the problem. We know a good electrician but we don't have a plumber (where is Joe when you need him?), we certainly didn't know how to fix a garbage disposal ourselves, and for the first time in our adult lives, we didn't have a landlord we could call. It was up to us to fix this, and most likely would have to shell out a lot of cash in the process. This was the first major "malfunction" we encountered since owning the house, other than ones we created ourselves during various improvement projects. I started to get nervous.


Luckily, Andrew remembered we had an unopened bottle of liquid plumber so we poured most of that down the sink and let it sit for a few minutes. The next time we turned the disposal on everything went down just fine and the water drained. Crisis averted. No phone call to Joe.

Welcome to home ownership.

Pumpkin Carving!

Tonight we carved our jack-o' lanterns for Halloween. I have to admit we both used patterns we found on the internet, but I think we executed them pretty well. I told Andrew I was going to put the pictures up on the blog and have a vote on which one wins. Check out the photos!




























So cast your votes! Are you for Barack or the Kool Aid Man??? Are you a "Yes We Can" or an "Oh Yeah!"? Don't be shy, let us know!

Disclaimer: No political affiliations will be assumed ;)

Brrrr!!!!

A cold front came through over night and it got chilly here in Austin! When we woke up this morning it was 64 degrees in the house! Andrew had to figure out how to get the heat started in the house for the first time! Don't worry, it will be in the mid 70s by this afternoon, and back in the 80s again in just a few days!

Fun Weekend With Friends

So last weekend (October 18th) we made the treacherous trek up I-35 to Dallas for my friend Catherine's wedding. My dear friend Melanie was in town for the occasion, so not only was it wonderful to see Catherine get married, but it was great to be reunited with friends. For some reason I totally skipped over this event on my blog, so I'm rewinding a little to post pictures. Enjoy!




Brian & Catherine Wick!




The fab four, we must always take a picture!



ACU Girls! Go Wildcats!



Cake cutting at the reception




Andrew busting a move on Lindsey




Me and Mel, having to say good bye again :(

Fewer and Far Between...

As you've probably noticed, I haven't been updating as frequently on here as I once was. This weekend was the first "lazy" weekend we have had in months and it was great! We watched a lot of tv, napped on the couch, and caught up on some much needed relaxation. Andrew did a little bit of work on the front door, which more than I can say for myself. He needed to use filler in between the wood trim and the stone around the door since there were gaps around. Then he caulked around it and had to let it dry for several hours. Tomorrow we should be able to prime it after work. Then we'll eventualy get it painted to match the other trim on the house. Here is what it looks like right now.






We also stopped by a friend's Halloween party on Saturday night where there were about a million little kids running around in costumes. I'm pretty sure we were the only people there without kids so it was a little overwhelming but we still had a good time. Other than the Halloween party and church this morning, we have barely left the house all weekend!

On another note, for everyone reading this on the East Coast, our weather in Austin is finally starting to get "cooler." We had one or two nights where the temperature dipped as low as the high 40s, but the days are still pretty warm. I think on Saturday the high was 87, but for the next week the highs are in the low 80s, high 70s. The evenings are very pleasant though, and we have enjoyed taking the dogs on walks around our new neighborhood. Since we're slowing down with work on the house, we're finally being good dog owners again and taking the dogs out and exploring our neighborhood some more. There is an open field on the next block over, so one of these days we will probably experiment with letting Beamer run around there. In between walks, the dogs have been pretty good at lazing around with us the past few days.






I never put pictures up on here from my friend Catherine's wedding that we went to last weekend in Dallas. We had a great time and got to see some friends that we hadn't seen in a while. We also got to spend a few hours on Sunday morning visiting with my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Dallas. Maybe over the next few days I will post some pics from the wedding.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Honey Do List

All of the unfinished projects that we have keep running through my mind and I wonder where we will ever find the time to do them all. The house is definitely liveable, but there are so many loose ends to tie up on so many different projects.

Here are some examples:





There are no transitions between the tile in the kitchen and the wood floor in the family room and formal dining, just a gap where you can see the cement floor underneath. We bought one piece of the t-mold transition that we will use to see how it looks, but we need to buy several more feet, and set some time aside to glue them down. This is what it will look like:









I've mentioned on here several times that we haven't done the baseboards yet, and if you've wondered what it looks like, here is what I'm talking about:





Again there is a gap where the wood ends and the wall begins, not to mention the lack of paint along the floor where the baseboards will go. To do the baseboards on the whole first floor will be a pretty big project, so eventually we will need to bite the bullet and do it. Here is a picture of the one sample piece of baseboard we bought and what it will look like:





So those are just two examples but since we are on the subject, here is the longer list:

Finish baseboards
Finish wood transitions in kitchen, powder room and downstairs coat closet
Prime and paint exterior trim on the front door
Touch up around front door on the inside
Touch up green paint in family room & kitchen
Change ceiling fan/ light fixture in both guest rooms
Change light fixture in guest bathroom
Change all towel bars & fixtures in guest bath
Hang valance on guest bathroom window
Finish unpacking and decorating second guest room
Put a second coat of paint on master bathroom
Put up all fixtures in master bathroom
Install baseboards in master bathroom
Touch up paint in master bedroom

Then there are several outdoor projects we need to work on like raking, weeding, mowing, and trimming some branches.

And then sometime down the road I'd like to paint both guest rooms and the guest bathroom, but those projects aren't so urgent. I'd also really like to put a new door on the backdoor out to the deck, like a single french door or something with a window so you can see out to the backdoor and also let more light in. That is not urgent either but its on my long-term to do list.

I'm sure I've left a few things off that I will remember later on because that list seems way to short! Eventually we will have the list whittled down, but until then, any volunteers??? ;)

Mending Fences

One of the tasks we have been putting off for some time now is fixing the gap along the bottom of our fence in the backyard. For some unexplainable reason, the fence doesn't go all the way to the ground on one side of the yard. There is a large drainage ditch on the other side of the fence, so maybe that has something to do with it, maybe it was for run off purposes, but we haven't really figured it out. In some places the gap is as large as a foot in a half. That is definitely enough space for Macy to walk comfortably underneath, and enough for Beamer to slide under.










Up until recently, Beamer just liked to peak around under the fence and look out to the other side. Luckily they haven't tried too much to get out, but recently Beamer figured out how easy it was to get under the fence and became really interested. Once he gets out he doesn't try to run away, I think he is mostly fascinated with the fact that he can go under the fence. Here is the view we have been getting of Beamer lately:







And just so you could get the full effect, I took a short video of Beamer's David Copperfield act, with Macy as his assistant.








Unfortunately I didn't catch these all on the same video, so here is Beamer trying to get back into the yard while his little sister terrorizes him.






Obviously if this continued it would be a problem, so tonight Andrew went about cutting some wire fencing and stapling it to the wood fence. Here is the play by play:















The fence isn't entirely "mended" yet; there are still a few more feet of wire fencing to be added. The wire is surprisingly sturdy, though, and even if Beamer could bend it, it would be quite uncomfortable for him to try and squeeze under it. I don't think we will have any more disappearing acts from now on.

And one more video, just because it's funny and a glimpse into our everday life with the doggies. Macy loves to dart around the yard and chase Beamer and bite all over him, and he loves to ignore her. It's love.