Scrapbook
Week 8 - November 21st to November 27th
Heat comes to the crack house! Well, almost.
This week was again the Andreas special. He booked us a bin (big ass dumpster) to come the following week, had the gas turned on. Then the gas turned off, then on again.
I was remiss in attending any crack house activities however Andreas persevered.
Friday November 23rd, 2006
He scheduled the Gas Man (ok, not THE gas man, just A gas man) to come on Friday, which requires you to be on premises between 12 noon and 4pm. Lucky for us, Andreas is independently employed and can spend 4 hours hanging around. Of course, during that time he also farts around doing this, that and the other thing and enjoys it, I think. This time, however, the gas man apparently wanted to go home early on a Friday afternoon and showed up at 11:30am. Seeing that we weren't there he kindly left a note. Andreas arrived at 11:50am and immediately called The Gas Company but was told that everyone was simply too busy to come back that day and the next available was Saturday morning between 8am and 2pm. I am surprised A didn't pass out at the thought ~ for those of you that don't know him, Andreas idea of a perfectly scheduled day is any time after 10:00am until maybe 3:00am.
Anyway, Jordan the Destroyer came over Friday evening with gadgets and a pencil and paper. Not only is he talented in the destruction department, but he is also an accomplished draftsperson! He has volunteered to not only draw the house floor plans, but he started Friday night measuring every 1/16th of an inch with a laser measure.
(I personally went for a drink with some ladies at work and then did some Christmas shopping, followed by a monstrous take out pizza/wing/garlic bread/joelouis dinner at Sarah & Als)
Saturday November 25th
Jordan the Destroyer graciously volunteered to be at the ch for the 8:00am gas man, and so he was. Andreas also got up early and I believe he may have been at the house before 9am. I was sleeping.The gas man came around 10:00am and said the furnace was old (we know that) but in working condition. So he turned on the gas, made sure both the furnace and the hot water tank were functioning as expected and then promptly red-flagged the furnace and turned off the gas again, but only to the furnace.
Apparently we have carbon build up which has carbon monoxide as a by-product and The Gas Company literally attaches a red tag to your furnace with a note explaining what's wrong. The thing is, there is no explanation on how to untag it. The furnace man just said we need a service, and Andreas pointed out a venting problem, then he fixed the venting problem right in front of the Gas Man. Although he agreed that was probably the fix, he'd already written the red tag and we 'should get it cleaned anyway' However, the Gas Man also gave us some good advice and tips. Since the chimney a) needs work and a liner and is b) really standing in the middle of the house thereby a pain to design around (no, no, make it a 'feature') we think a chimney-less furnace is in our future.
JtD continued measuring...and measuring and measuring but then he christened his new sledgehammer on our formerly lath covered front hall. Then he went upstairs to demo the ceiling of the front bedroom and just got dumped on - blown insulation now coats the floor. Both men also went to the south wall in the main floor kitchen only to discover a turquoise bead board half wall behind the drywall. It was left for another day and they called it a night. They also found that a mouse had been nibbling at our crackers, so I said it must be Stuart (of Stuart Little fame).
Being Erin's birthday, I spent some of the afternoon cooking up an Indian food dinner - cause that's what she asked for.
Sunday November 26th, 2006
I am sure I meant to do crack house things, but a Christmas Cookie Exchange the following evening had me baking 7 dozen gingerbread men. Andreas, however, was at the house for a few hours getting ready for the bin and repaired some small holes in the bathroom dormer fascia/soffit.
Monday November 27th, 2006
As I was at my cookie exchange, Andreas was yet again going by himself to the house to put out the garbage.
Only when I arrived home at 10:00pm he wasn't there so thinking he fell off the roof or something I called his cell."Oh", he says, "you're home. I'm at Home Depot."
I'm laughing at him, and then he tells me he hasn't even gone to the house yet to put out the garbage because he accidentally went to Home Depot.
He stops by home, grabs some cookies and heads over to put out the garbage. And that's it for this week.Next week...a.k.a Tuesday Nov. 28th: the bin arrives!
The story of how we bought the crack house
Common references in my scrapbook:
Andreas: god love him for putting up with me and my big ideas
Me: the other half of the loony toones who decided to buy the house.
dodgy: means sketchy, bad, worse, 'imagine that' and 'can you believe it?'
ch: crackhouse
front room: main floor a.k.a living room
middle room: main floor a.k.a dining room and Command Central
stolen goods room: this is at the front of the house in the basement - the police told us that is where the previous tenants stored their stuff