Fridge Fun

I had a couple spare minutes the other day and I felt in the mood to mess with my roommates. The refrigerator and freezer doors were swinging the wrong way for the fridge's placement in the kitchen... so I switched 'em! Imagine if you just came downstairs for a glass of juice and... wait... now the handle's over there!?! Ha!

WINTER SUCKS

This is just a quick comment about the weather in Fargo right now. Tonight is a record-setting night for how completely freezing it is. Get ready.

It is currently -25 degrees. With the 20-30mph winds the air feels -50. Can you believe it?

WHY DO I LIVE HERE???

Tomorrow I'm leaving to go to Chicago for five days. I'm excited to go to Chicago because it will be a warm change of environments. Who else can say they're excited to go to Chicago for the heat?

Hmmm...

Well, it's been a few weeks and there's nothing to report. Due to a recent financial dip I haven't done much work. Or maybe it was all of the other time commitments. Either way, sorry!

I Believe that Christmas is Over

A couple days ago I decided that it was time to take down the 'ole Christmas tree. Gettin' towards February. The ornaments were getting dusty.

The tree was so completely dead! Barely touching the tree caused a shower of needles. I think that by the time I got the tree out to the curb there were more needles on the floor than on the branches!


Just look at that mess. It took four dustpan loads to get them into the garbage. Maybe I could have taken care of this earlier.

I unplugged the lights outside, but I'm not going to be taking them down in -10 degree weather

Doorknobs from Ebay!

Sometimes I just randomly click on over to ebay to see what's there. Since I got the house I've always kept an eye out for doorknobs. You know it's really hard to find matching hardware for old houses, and my doorknobs are especially difficult. They aren't the mortise lock type doorknobs that most houses this age have. The doorknobs are made by Schlage, and are what I'd assume are their first crack at the modern doorknob. During the duplexing process, some of the original doorknobs went missing, so my quest finding replacements has been rather unfruitful...

Until now!
I found some on ebay last week! They are pewter, not brass like the majority of my knobs, but they are from the same time period. The metal ones have a hammered look to them, but some of them are glass and match the ones I have already in the house. A couple of the glass ones were made with black glass. How cool is that?

Even though some of these knobs are different, they are period-appropriate so they should work. Of course, this means that I'd have to get back to working on the house. Maybe they'll just stay in the box until spring break. We'll see!

BTW, I'm glad I paid for shipping on parts of the doors! What's up with that?

On a different topic, my friend Martha from the neighborhood association emailed me with some great advice for my water leak issue. It was so obvious I felt absolutely dumb for not thinking of it myself. A mug. A big mug from a local establishment's mug night. You see, when you put the mug under the drip, it stops the water from spreading out into the rest of the room and the rug. See why I feel dumb for not thinking of that? Wow.

So Busy, Yet House Still Falling Down

I've been insanely busy with school, student organizations, committees, councils, advisory boards, and work lately that I haven't gotten much of anything done. You know how that is? You try to do a little of everything and you just get farther behind as a whole. Argh!

While I'm trying to manage everything else, the house decides to erupt in plumbing fiascoes. Here's the readout:

Kitchen: Plumbing to sink freezes again. The hot and cold water lines run right along the foundation, causing them to freeze when the air temperature drops below -10 degrees F. This leads to piles of dirty dishes, a messy kitchen, and crabby roommates. I saw an article online from This Old House that showed me how to get the pipes thawed out. I used a hair dryer (I couldn't find my 'flame thrower' heat gun) along the pipes to break down the ice. I turned the faucet on before I started so once the ice melted the water would run through the pipes into the sink. The flowing water helps melt the remaining ice in the pipe. It was such a great sound when I heard the sink drain start funneling water down to the sewer!

Upstairs Bathroom: This room has always had poor water pressure, but after the little freezing incident it's gotten worse. The tub works alright, the toilet is fine, but the sink is barely putting out anything at all. How ghetto is it to wash your hands in the bathtub after using the facilities? It's a proud moment as a homeowner... I really don't know how to fix this myself. Anybody know of a good (cheap) plumber in Fargo, ND?

Downstairs Bathroom: EVERYTHING LEAKS! As noted before, the shower leaks through the floor into the basement, but it has since gotten worse. The sink faucet cold water supply valve leaks down into the basement as well. Since the big freeze, the toilet's tank has started dripping from where the tank and bowl connect. This is more of a problem because it doesn't just drip into the basement like the other plumbing fixtures, but creates a nice little cold-water puddle underfoot. This puddle starts first by filling the cracks between the peel-'n-stick vinyl tiles creating an unexpected sock moistness that's really uncalled for. The puddle growth ends by swallowing up the entire bathmat from the bottom up. From the top it still looks like a nice dry bathmat, then SQUISH, you're up to your ankles in toilet water. SuRPRiSe! The other fixtures can just keep dripping into the basement for a while (the water just trails down to the sewer), but that toilet needs to be fixed soon.

I just don't have the time for all of this right now!

Did I mention I'm about a week and a half behind in my marathon training? I'm so out of shape!

Update:

We have water again. Heat and water both at the same time. It feels like another Christmas!