Bob Vila Jr.
I cannot believe how much mental, emotional, and physical energy has gone into getting settled into this residence! I've never owned a home before and I'm starting to feel a little bit like I suspect new parents might feel when it comes to re-entering their social group with a really big thing having happened.
I tend to be a pretty detail-oriented person and I can be nearly endlessly occupied, fascinated, and/or amused by anecdotes about the step-by-step projects that have taken up so much time lately. Probably even more fascinating because the topic is dear to my heart and fairly central to my life these days. It gives me more sympathy (sadly not much more tolerance though) for new parents who find no other thing to talk about except the gory minutae of substances that enter and exit their babies and the detailed accounts of schedules etc. Especially in the beginning when people invite tales and listen patiently to them.
Example: our washing machine. Boring, right? I know! BUT - you wouldn't believe the laundry list (ha ha) of hassles it's given us so far which besides being annoying from a clean-clothes-are-nice perspective, it's also pretty annoying in that it's a freaking brand new machine and we're expecting our FOURTH service call for it on Thursday. A regaling of the service calls:
Call 1: hot water was coming out when cold should have been (my silk shirts will haunt you, jerks) so I asked our builder if they could arrange for someone to switch them back even though we had already closed on the place and they technically weren't obligated to. They sent someone, he said the hookup was fine - he'd switched it then switched it to the original setting. Told us the problem was with the machine, but he'd adjusted it. Yay!
Call 2. That day, the machine cooperated for a few loads but as soon as I switched the temp to do a load that needed hot, I couldn't get it to do anything except hot loads again. Argh! I called Whirlpool, they sent a repairman next day who jimmied it back to cold and ordered a part for us. We had the cold water back. Yay!
Call 3. Hot water randomly took over again in the interim. The 3 days expected for the part (now backordered because it's apparently a popular problem w/ that model) turned into 3 weeks. It finally came and the guy came to install it and said that the machine was fixed, but that our hookup was backwards so that hot was coming out of the cold settings. (I KNEW IT!!!) He said he wasn't supposed to fix it, but I begged him to either do it or show me how to. I think the facial tic worried him, so he relented and it was FINALLY FIXED ALL THE WAY!!! Yay!
Call 4: Yesterday I wondered why I'd forgotten to start the dryer - when I went to take the clothes out of it, they were still cold and wet. I started it up, and when the cycle finished... they were cold and wet. No heat coming out of any of the settings. Called Whirlpool again - got an appointment for today that the contractor flaked on because he was too busy, got bumped to Thursday. We have subsequently decided to pay a somewhat userous amount for an extended warantee - it's cheaper than buying a new stacked washer/dryer combo which looks like an imminent possibility, given that it's (oh, have I said this already?) a freaking BRAND NEW unit!!!
*sigh*
The "little things" like that that keep needing to be inserted into the regular routine that already contains plenty of other things get to be a bit of a drag. Grateful to have these things, just wish they would do what they were supposed to do 'cause I gots better things to do than clear my schedule to meet with yet another service guy. (Props to the husband for taking the morning off on Thursday so that we could have it done sooner than my schedule would have allowed!!!)
Then there are hugely satisfying examples, like the new closet system that we put in this weekend. Can I just say that I love Elfa shelving??? I can't stop looking through the catalog to figure out a few finishing touches to maximize our storage and organization. Plus, I got to use a drill for the first time ever which was really a lot of fun, and it also turned out to be a very handy thing to have a husband with muscles. The old shelving was anchored to the wall with drywall screws (don't nod off yet, we're coming to a good part), so I had been wiggling them back & forth like a loose tooth until they gradually came free of the wall. I showed my guy what to do to help it go faster, and YANK! He pulled the whole thing out like a weed out of a garden! So I got to do all the undrilling of screws that were holding it in place, and he got to follow me and heave-ho the things away.
Don't even get me started on installing the new stuff! And I stil have spackling to do one of these days to cover up all the holes the drywall screws left! (Ideally done before putting in the new system, but they don't overlap at all and I didn't want to have to wait for spackle to dry before putting everything back into the closet that night, so it'll have to wait until there's a bigger slice of time somewhere.)
Fortunately the filter is still in place in social situations, but I feel home projects creeping into the conversation and I find myself watching programs that would have anesthetized me before - "My House is Worth What?" now appears regularly on my arc trainer at the gym. Also I bought a magazine called "Faux Finish World."
Thank goodness I'm an extravert - needing people fixes is sort of a built-in safety against becoming Crazy Condo Lady!