August 2009 Archives
I think we're done have things delivered and installed now -- we got our bedroom furniture and had somebody come install a new ceiling fan in the living room.
The fan was especially nice to get in there, because the light that it replaced was on the same switch with all the living room outlets. That's right, turning the room's ceiling light fixture off also turned off power to the TV, cable box, etc. Now we've got a pull-chain, thankfully. Also, I made some ostrich burgers and corn on the new grill and they turned out pretty awesomely.
After a couple perilous weeks of laundromat reliance, we got our new washer and dryer the other day. They're pretty awesome, although due to the weirdness of our house they can't sit quite flush with each other, and they had to be placed in such a way that the doors open against each other instead of out.
And today we got our sweet new grill, on which I will make some ostrich burgers, turkey burgers and farmers market corn tonight. We haven't found anyone selling ostrich down here yet, but there's a lot of bison; we might switch to that. At the same time as the grill we had a big storage shed delivered, but assembly is DIY so it'll be a while before I can post pictures of it.
I never had a chance to post about it at the time, but we put a curtain up on our big picture window last week.
Also, we got our new living room set from Ashley yesterday. It's a nice dark, dark brown faux leather with white stitching. We also got a gigantic ottoman/coffee table, with padded compartments that turn over to reveal table space. The plan was to move the vintage set from Atomic Home down to the boom boom room. The loveseat moved fine, but the couch thwarted us at every turn -- no matter how we configured it we needed about two more inches of space to get it around the corner and into the doorway. After a lot of frustration, we decided maybe they'd look OK mix and match, with the new loveseat downstairs and the old sofa upstairs. And it turned out surprisingly well! The styles compliment each other, and two sofas up with two loveseats down is a much better use of the space.
With the furniture and painting done, I've just got to finish building all the IKEA stuff and the living room will be complete. We're still waiting on our bedroom set, but after that we'll be pretty much fully in.
Welp, the sewer backed up again on Saturday night. That's right, only 5 days after the plumber fixed it, it backed up again. I couldn't sleep, so at 4am I woke up and started researching backed up sewers online. Around 8am called the plumbing company that came last time and I got an answering machine. I called every plumber on the Google search and got an answering machine each time. Finally, Aaron went old school and pulled out the phone book. There was an ad for Rootor-man plumbing that will come fix problems any time any day. Thank goodness, I did not want to wait a whole 24 more hours without being able to use any water and having a backed up sewer and therefore, sewage on my floor. Gross, I know. I called and talked to him and he said he could come over later in the morning. That was at 9am. Three hours passed that I filled with pacing, crocheting jellyfish, watching the Sopranos and talking to my mom on the phone. At about ten to 12, the plumber called to say he'd be there in a half hour. Thank goodness! Morning ends at noon and I was going to call again at 12:15 if I didn't hear from him. I know it is Sunday, but you said you were coming!
Phil, the plumber, arrived and I told him all about what was going on. He said he'd take a look and try and clear the line and then send a video down to take a look at the pipes. At first, he seemed to be doing exactly what the other plumber did, similar equipment, similar approach,etc. I decided right then that I wasn't letting this guy leave until I was satisfied that the real problem had been identified. After a while, Phil called me down to the bathroom to show me what the camera was seeing in my pipes. Some roots were growing down into the pipe and breaking it and were basically forming a clot in the pipe. He suggested that the pipe be dug up, replaced, and have a clean out put in. I said, tell me how much it costs and let's get going. I was really worried that it would clog up again before we could get the pipe replaced and I told Phil that. He said he cleared it pretty well and to go ahead and use water. He assured me that it would be fine until later this week when they are going to dig up the yard. In fact, he said that he'd come fix it for free if it clogged before then.
I'm annoyed that this happened. It isn't that hard to deal with, but it is time consuming and stressful and stinky. I'm relieved that there was a real problem identified and a solution to correct it. I'm feeling confident that this will take care of it and there won't be anymore surprise sewage for a long time.
There aren't any pictures of this hassle, but it looked almost the same as last time. Maybe I'll take some pictures of the new pipe they put in. On a happier note, Ashley furniture is going to deliver the couch, loveseat, and ottoman we ordered from them on Wednesday. And my washer and dryer is supposed to be delivered on Thursday, but I'm going to see if I can delay that until the sewer issue is solved.
There's a strip of a few blocks in Murphysboro, just down the road from Carbondale, with several resale shops selling everything from complete junk to incredible vintage furniture. Today we got a delivery of the latter from The Atomic Home, which recently relocated from Benton.
For the time being, at least, the couch and loveseat are in the living room (they may go downstairs when our other couch and loveseat arrive, depending on what goes best with the new paint and curtains).
We also got an unbelievable deal on a three-piece dining room set. At first we thought the three pieces were the table, leaves and chairs, and we thought, well, it's a nice table, maybe we should get it. Then we found out that was all one piece, and it came with a beautiful hutch and buffet. And at the prices things were going for, I couldn't afford not to get this excellent cat-tail lamp for the boom boom room.
The table isn't put back together yet, but it's a nice, plain mid-century circle design. But check out these chairs.
The Atomic Home guys were awesome to deal with and their stock is amazing and in constant rotation. If you're in the area (and by that I mean anywhere from St. Louis to Louisville) do yourself a favor and check them out.
We got our stuff today! For some reason our truck was in Dayton, OH, yesterday, instead of here, where it was supposed to be. This afternoon it showed up and we started the arduous process of unloading and sorting it.
It went faster than I expected and we got most of it out before shutting the truck when it got too dark. We had plenty of work to do setting things up anyway -- I got my office all put together and hopefully tomorrow we'll have all the Ikea stuff built for the living room and can get the TV up off the floor.
Update on the previous post. We got a plumber to come over and he cleaned out our septic system. The plumber was super nice and the cost wasn't nearly as high as I thought it might be, so that was good. He advised us to put fans in the bathroom and the laundry room to dry out the rest of the water and also to clean up the laundry room floor with bleach to, well, you know, disinfect the area where the sewage had backed up. Gross. But, we were super grown-up about it, got some box fans, bleach, and buckets and cleaned up all the sludge from the floor. I was ready for a shower and then realized that we had used them all up to sop up the water earlier that morning. Thankfully, Aaron headed out to buy clean ones for us.
The good news is that this happened before our new washer and dryer arrived. The other good news is that our moving truck was delayed and none of our stuff was here to get ruined. Now, hopefully our moving truck will show up tomorrow and we can start unpacking.
Got out of the shower this morning to find the bathroom floor covered with water -- our sewer's backed up! We're waiting to hear back from the plumber about when he can come, but we've bailed and soaked up most of the water and should be OK for the time being. We also have an appointment to switch our car insurance to the company that handles our homeowner's insurance this morning and we need groceries, so it's going to be a crazy morning.
Well, we finally made it. We've been in Carbondale to stay since last Wednesday, only with no furniture (on order, at least some of it to be delivered this week) and almost no stuff. The stuff was supposed to be delivered by ABF today, after we packed it up in Madison last Monday, only they say the truck isn't here yet and they don't know why. Hopefully it'll still be arriving today.
At any rate, we'll be using this blog to post updates about what we do with this place. We've already started painting and once the truck arrives we'll be putting together our super-high-class Ikea items and starting to get the living room fleshed out. Pics to come; welcome aboard.
