Money pit?

When we bought this house 6 years ago, we were surprised when the owners told us the lock on the back door "never worked right."

We accepted it. Fixed it about a year later (after finding said door standing WIDE open after a long day at work/school).

We found monsters sized cracks in the laundry room, our bedroom, and bathroom approximately a year after we moved in. Not a big deal, all houses settle. 

Should probably have wondered about the electricity when Ironman was out of town & I got "locked in" the garage. The van was in the garage, with about 8" clearance between the top of the van & the garage ceiling. Every time I pressed the button to open the garage door, the electricity shorted, blew a breaker, and we lost power to open the door. The emergency release was above the van. I couldn't get around the front or back of the van at all, so couldn't pull the release, so was essentially home bound until either the fault fixed itself (likely? Right...) or Ironman returned from his weeklong trip. 

Fond out it was due to a short in an EXTENSION CORD run outside to power some lights in the deck. Rated indoor only. Short was caused by melting snow. 

Two years ago we started pulling down the deck due to overly high pergola height. It was so high we never were able to get any sun protection. And the center post? Supporting the entire weight of the structure? Unanchored. Resting on the floor of the deck. Not even toenailed. And we had a porch swing hanging from this. Should we mention the two "outdoor rated" electrical ceiling fans we pulled down? Rusted through the housings. Hanging in open air (no roof over them). Yep, some high quality engineering went into the hanging of these.  

So today, Ironman decided to pull down the rails on the deck. Big old sledge, some frustration, and voila! The rails are down. 

Unfortunately...when he removed one of the rails, the top of a support post came off, revealing it had previously been repaired. He checked a little further and found that almost all of the posts are wet. Or at least damp. That's ok, it's been a pretty wet spring, and its on the north side of the house. Right? Or maybe, if you dig a little around the post, he finds the post is BURIED in the ground, not anchored in cement, and others are likely the same. 

Sigh. 

Updates to follow. 

On the upside? We got the raised bed garden done in about two hours on Saturday!

 

Wish I could send this to the personnel serving overseas!

Hi darlin, there's nothing wrong, but I need to know...

where do we keep the vacuum cleaner?

How did I know not to believe him?

The day started out cold and snowy.  I was lucky that Ironman was at home with the girls.  Twins being hyperactive at home on a snowy day is one thing.  Twins being hyperactive at home with Daddy is a totally different animal.

So Ironman calls me at work and asks me where we keep the vacuum cleaner.  Yes, everyone, I did roll my eyes.  He couldn't see me!

me:  It's in the hall closet.

Sapper:  Which one?

me:  Not the front hall closet, not the glass pantry, the back hall closet.  By the garage door.  Across from the laundry room.  (And no, our house isn't that big, we just have a plethora of doors in the hallway on the first floor.  Eight doorways, but only five doors.  And one of those doors is to the bathroom.  Anyway, I digress.)

Ironman:  OK, thanks.

me:  Wait, why do you need the vacuum cleaner?

Ironman:  No reason, thanks!  ::click::

Hmmm, made me wonder.

You really want to know what happened, don't you?

Well, first of all, I should start out by saying that the reason Ironman stayed home was to work on our non-functioning toilet.  It seems that minutes before we were to leave for a Superbowl Party, I got up from the potty to see that there was water on the floor in front of the base.  Yes, I can be a little rushed in my pre-party prepping, but I didn't miss the toilet completely I promise!  I reached back behind the commode and turned off the valve and called to Ironman about the issue.  He checked to see that I had done the right thing (I had) and said to ignore it 'til we got home.

So we did.

Several days later, thanks to my ultra-savvy husband, we suspected that the flange was being held down by only ONE BOLT.  And that the flange had absolutely ZERO connection with any studs under the toilet.

Yep, yet another mystery found under our house.

Fast forward to the snowy day at hand.  Ironman stayed home and made eggs for the Chicklets for their breakfast.  Apparently he thought Dixie-the-wonder-pup (DTWP), would enjoy licking out the eggshells.  She did!  And then she crushed them in her jaws leaving eggshells all over the floor.  So he attempted to vacuum up the shards of shell using the handheld vacuum (which was of course clogged with debris) and the shards scattered throughout the dining area of our not-so-large home!

No reason to panic, just call to find out where we keep the vacuum before wifey-pooh gets home, right?

Yeah.  That worked.  We've lived in this house three years, but he doesn't know where we keep the vacuum cleaner...

Anyway, after he finished that interesting little project, he donned his 'going to work under the house' gear and smashed himself down into the crawlspace, together with a twin and DTWP.  He found that he was correct in his assessment of the plumbing problem.  The flange is attached by only one bolt, and there are no studs located near the commode.  Huh.  The toilet never should have been installed where it was installed.  ::insert eyeroll::  Thank you oh-so-excellent-builders!

As he was coming back up out of the crawlspace, he realized he had the opportunity to get the flashlight he left under the house about six months previous.  Wahoo - another valid reason to be under the house!  He returned to the scene of that plumbing experience, found his errant flashlight, and started to come back up to daylight.  At this point, he realized he didn't have DTWP.  He called to her, but she didn't come back from hunting critters.  He called again and heard nothing.  He had Yell call to her and Yell got a whimper.

Hmmm.

He sent Yell in the direction of DTWP's voice and she was found.  Over the sill of our house, down in a cistern!  Yell got her hands behind the dog's front legs, gave a little heave, and DTWP bounded up, over Yell's back on her way to freedom.  Hooray for the scrawny twin!  Bet you think the story ends here.

Nope.

At this point in the day this is what I know personally:  Ironman has been at home with the girls.  He's asked the whereabouts of the vacuum cleaner.  But that's all the information I have.  It gets better.  I came home to find a relatively cleared driveway.

Doesn't it look nice?  Snow had been pushed out of the way, nice soft white, fluffy snow...

Yep, Sapper did a great...job...with the basketball net?

Huh.  Looks like the snowblower and the basketball net had a little fight.

And apparently...the snowblower won.

look at those happy faces

Crab, Ironman, Yell
July 1999

These little Chicklets were 14 months old & trying to escape from Ironman when I snapped this photo.  Yell insisted that she is "the one on the right 'cuz I don't have a big head".  She's right!

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Drama Mama!

The previously thought of light-hearted Post-It-Note Tuesday has been rescheduled due to a bit of drama at ShinesSite yesterday.

Receiving an email from Ironman threw me for a loop.  It seems while at AT (annual training) for the National Guard, his humvee was rear ended by a semi.  Um, what?!

1:10pm  What on earth was I supposed to think?  OK, so I called the hospital where he was supposed to be.  (Uh, hello, hospital? you might want to pay for a higher page ranking.  Google search found your site on PAGE 4 of the rankings!)

Um, hello, it's 2:30...no news....

Oh, no, I'm not a little tense.  Not at all.  Nope.  Not me.  It's nearly 3:30pm and I've heard NOTHING else.  *PING*  Hear that?  The sound of my nerves at the slightest disturbance!

Find some Jimmy Buffett.  Or call your sister.  Something.  Anything.

a little FYI - I finally talked semi-coherently with Ironman at 0136 this morning.

His vehicle was in the left hand lane, with turn signal on, at a complete stop.  Ironman saw the semi approaching in his mirror and was able to brace himself.  Ironman said he immediately felt 'severe pain' but got out of his vehicle and ran around the humvee to check on his driver.  His driver wasn't so lucky and was seriously affected by the impact.  She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.  She has a worse case of whiplash than Ironman, who was diagnosed and released after about four hours.

The thing that saved them both was that the semi's bumper didn't align with the humvee's bumper.  Apparently it had a logging-type bumper that crushed the bed portion of Ironman's humvee and a large portion of the back seat.  If the bumpers had aligned...I wouldn't be posting right now.

The semi has been impounded. 

Hmmm, I don't think the federal government likes the idea of you taking out one of the people they've trained to keep peace Semi Driver.  You're going to have a small bill/lawsuit/investigation on your hands.

We're very lucky he's alive. Thank you, God, for keeping him safe!

The Hunky Husband Survey

This was so fun (found it here) I had to do my own!


What is his name? Ironman (a.k.a. Steve)

How long have you been married? Holy cow. 18 years next month!

How long did you date? Hmm, before he asked me to marry him? 13 months. Before we got married? 22 months

How old is he? 43 (and still smokin')

Who eats more?   I respectfully refuse to answer that question on the grounds that if I answer it honestly I might not get another Christmas present ever!


Who said I love you first?   Teebs



Who is taller?   Ironman - by almost a foot


Who sings better?   for real singing? probably me. I think he'd be a great bass though. For fun singing, definitely Ironman (love to hear him warble out power ballads)!



Who is smarter? geez, when it comes to math-type-logic stuff, Ironman hands down. When it comes to literary crapola, that would be my ballgame.



Whose temper is worse? It depends on the day, usually his. Although today I would be an excellent match.


Who does the laundry? me ::sigh::


Who does the dishes? me ::bigger sigh::

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? me


Who pays the bills? he makes the money, I pay the bills


Who mows the lawn? if he's in town? Ironman. If he's not, me.


Who cooks dinner? me (but give him a grill/campsite and it's hands-off-Suz!)


Who drives when you are together? depends on the task & the car
church = usually me, but if in Ironman's car=Ironman
grocery store = usually me
going camping = Ironman
road trip somewhere else = Ironman (usually)


Who is more stubborn? We are both VERY stubborn. Probably me though...


Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Neither of us, we are always right. But on special occasions we will both admit we are wrong.

Whose parents do you see the most? Mostly mine (thanks for the loaner car, Pop!), Ironman's mom lives about 90 minutes away


Who has more friends? Oi. Ironman=lotsandlotsandlots of Army guys, me=lotsandlotsandlots of moms of multiples (if you count by kids, I'd probably win)


Who has more siblings?   I have 4 (little bro, little sis, little bro, way-taller-than-me-baby bro) - but thanks to Ironman's sister, I have a salutatorian high school graduate for a first-born nephew!

Was it love at first sight?   I don't know about love...but there was definitely a VERY strong attraction!  Whew.  Gotta go take a walk!

Sleeping Beauties

My beautiful little girl (I still think of her as a little girl, even though she's only about 4 inches shorter than me) has a job as a mother's helper this summer.

She loves her job.

The chix went to the zoo this morning with 'their boys'.  ('Their boys' are 26-month-old twins and their 5-month-old singleton brother.)  Apparently it was a bit exhausting.  The big boys did nap on the way home from the zoo, but they didn't nap for the rest of the day.

And the result?  Crab grabbed a little nap with Ironman when we all got home.  Sleeping beauties.

How to go camping without being there

I love my husband dearly.  I am completely in awe of his abilities to perform small but daunting tasks (fix the broken light fixture in the hallway), larger labor-intensive jobs (remove a cabinet, plumb & install the dishwasher), craftsmanship (design & build the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in our home) and general household maintenance (strip & paint the back deck).

But sometimes I wonder how he gets along without me.

---

Ring.  Ring.

me: "______, this is Susan."

person: "mumblemumblemumble"

me:  "This is Susan."

person:  "Suz!"

me:  "Oh, hi, try not to mumble next time."

Ironman:  "I'm not trying to...mumblemumble...(men's voices)...how do you get the awning up?"

me:  "Seriously?"

Ironman:  "Yes, seriously...mumblemumble...I need you to talk me through it."

me:  "Oh, gad, let me remember.  Okay, go to the arms & unscrew the black travel locks on the back."

Ironman:  mumblemumble..."Unscrew those black things!"

me:  "But don't take them off!  Just loosen them.  Then take the hook and flip the lever down.  On the far right."

Ironman:  "The silver metal? or the gray metal?"

me:  "What?!  The lever - at the top right - very top - by the awning.  And then flip the arm levers."

Ironman:  "mumblemumble...here, talk to KD."

KD:  "Hey, how's it going?"

me:  "Is this a clusterPu(k or what?"

KD:  "Hey, watch your language now! Are those arms supposed to be in two pieces?"

me:  "What?!  Is he using the pull bar to pull the awning out?"

KD:  "It's not pulling out."

me:  "What do you mean?  Is the arm taken apart?  Did he flip the switch down?  Did he flip the arm up?"

background:  mumblemumble...men's voices...click...click...click...men's voices

Ironman in the background:  "It's not moving out...tell her it isn't coming out."

me:  "Tell him to flip the switch down again.  And the arms up."

KD:  "She says to flip it again..."

in the background, click...men's voices...click....click...

Ironman in the background:  "It's not...hey, you have to flip these things up...why didn't she tell me..."

me:  "I did tell him!"

KD:  "She says she did tell you.  Man, I'm telling you, if Julie told me, she probably did and that's it."

me:  "Is it extending?"

in the background:  clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick

KD:  "Yeah, it's working."

me:  "OK, once it's out you have to lock it using the levers on the inside of the arms."

KD:  "Yeah, we got it."

me:  "Have you guys got it?  Do you know what to do next?"

KD:  "Yeah, I think so."

me:  "OK, tell him to call me when he needs to retract it."

I'm awaiting a fun phone call on Sunday when Ironman is done with his relay race and everyone is exhausted.  Something involving Kentucky, our camper, a bunch of Army guys, and Bourbon(???). 

Fun times ahead....

---

Of course, in his defense, I can't start the lawn mower.