* Deja Vu All Over Again

* Let me preface by stating that I never use the above expression, except when I am trying to pull some humor out of an unpleasant situation...or if I already used the title "Deja Vu" in a previous post.

While preparing for our Super Bowl party last weekend, I noticed a bad smell that seemed to be emanating from the girls' bathtub. It improved after I ran water down the drain for a while. Fast forward to last night, when we noticed water backing up into the bathtub when letting the lukewarm water down from the kitchen sink after doing dishes. (Deja vu number 1.) This time it did not appear to be as significant as last Spring when the entire bathtub was full of grey water and didn't go down, since it s-l-o-w-l-y drained away.

Did you notice my reference to "lukewarm" dish water? Right...we discovered when cleaning up after dinner that there was no hot water in the kitchen. (Deja vu number 2.) This is nothing new, if you've followed the on demand water heater saga that stressed me out when we first moved into our new house. This time, however, when I was researching the problem, it appeared that the pilot light was out on the gas water heater. Neither JP or I could get it re-lit. The propane tank was at 40% of capacity, so we weren't out of gas...some other problem.

Fast forward to this morning when we woke up and the house was 60 degrees. I realize that some people do this every day in the winter time, but we have set our thermostat to go up to 68 degrees about half an hour before it is time to rise and shine. Yep. The furnace was no longer running. (Deja vu number 3.) JP whipped out his Droid to check the freezing point of propane (it's 150 degrees below zero, by the way). At least this time when we flip a light switch, the lights come on!

Now we are waiting for repairmen to return our calls. (Deja vu number 4.) We are still able to use the showers on the West side of the house...that grey water still drains outside and is connected to an electric water heater. Unfortunately, the upstairs shower is still filled with 5 gallon buckets of water, so we have to go downstairs for a hot shower. Inconvenient, but not the end of the world. We have the wood stove blasting and again, we are thankful for having it here. Even better, this time we actually have firewood split and ready to use!

Sometimes being a home owner in the country is a pain in the you-know-what!

Things That Go "Bump" in the Night (Or Welcome to Country Livin')

The desktop is up and running, so I was able to upload a few pics from my camera.

It is now the 3rd day that we have been here, and it seems that little progress has been made. Even though I tried to label all the boxes in storage REALLY well, I look at them now and say "Lamp? What lamp? And why are there mouse traps in with the lamp?" It's slow going to say the least.

Since we found the first nest of mice last week, we have uncovered at least 2 more. This means that on top of moving everything out of the garage, unpacking boxes and finding new homes for things, not to mention putting furniture back together (no easy feat in itself), I have to steam clean all the couches and chairs. EWWW. Haven't seen any more of the nasty critters though, thank goodness, although I did find the mouse traps when I unpacked that lamp.

The alternate propane company delivered this beauty on Thursday afternoon. I wonder if I'm allowed to paint a hot dog bun and some condiments on it? I guess I'll just plant some shrubberies around it.

Thursday night, a muddy raccoon climbed up over the hood of JP's truck...

through a half open window in the back...

and rummaged through his trash can, leaving dirty footprints everywhere.

The builders were out on Friday, and with the exception of putting trim around the oak bookshelves by the stairs, they worked outside. They finished up the deck, and put vinyl around all of the posts on porch. They also wired the garage.

One of the first orders of business on Friday was to "shock" the well. This involves dumping large amounts of Clorox into the well, and later into the 2000 gallon holding tank, letting it sit for hours and hours, and then emptying it all out. Want to take a gander on how long it takes to empty a 2000 gallon tank? It took about 20 hours for the whole process, all told...probably should have let things soak for longer, but we got impatient. So...without having it analyzed, we have been drinking the water. So far no one has developed uncontrolled vomiting, diarrhea, fevers, or bleeding from the eye balls. J did loose her other top tooth this morning...related????

I was in the process of washing dishes when the cistern emptied. (Did I mention that there is no hot water in the kitchen yet? I'm heating water on the stove to wash with!) This coincided with a tremendous downpour, so I captured some rain water from the roof to use.

I may have to revise my glowing review of the Sears Outlet store. It seems that on top of their very poor delivery service, the appliance damage is not only cosmetic. Our new refrigerator does not work, and only the 2 burners on the right hand side of my induction cook top work consistently. A repair guy is coming out Monday (some time between 8 and 5) to look at them, along with my washer, which sprung a leak while in storage. Unfortunately, once the countertops were installed in the kitchen, there was not enough room to maneuver the fridge back out, leaving the only exit point up and over the bar. It took 4 men to make it happen!

I need to get to work if I want anything to get done today since I spent the morning at the Laundromat! I will try to post about rooms as they get finished...it might be awhile!