Posted on June 10, 2008
I ran outside to get our mail and LOCKED MYSELF OUT OF THE HOUSE! Luckily, Chloe was napping, so she was blissfully unaware that I was outside kicking and yelling at the door to let me in! Of course, all the other doors and windows in our house were also locked, I was barefoot, and I didn’t have my phone. Thank goodness my neighbor was home and we had given Ellen a key so she could check on our cats when we are out of town. So, my neighbor drove me over to Ellen’s I got her key, and then my neighbor drove me back home.
So, what did I learn from this experience:
1) double check to make sure the door is unlocked before shutting it. We never lock the handle on our door, only the deadbolt. I suspect that one of the kids, either mine or someone else’s, locked the handle when we weren’t watching.
2) Have some sort of code with your significant other so if they get a phone call from a strange number, they answer. I called John from my neighbor’s house to get Ellen’s phone number and she could bring me a key. Of course, John didn’t answer because he didn’t recognize the number.
3) GET A HIDE-A-KEY. You would think with the number of times I lock myself out of my car and my house this would have already happened, of course it hasn’t.
4) I am also thinking of stashing a pair of shoes in our garage so, if I get locked out barefooted, I have another option.
Any other suggestions for this particular issue? I am open and willing to save myself from having this particular panic attack EVER AGAIN!
Posted on June 10, 2008
Chloe and I are TRAPPED in our house because of the HEAT! Ok, so not literally. We could go out somewhere, hang out at the mall, find other indoor entertainment. But the main issue with that is leaving the house to walk to the car in this unbearable, humid, HEAT. Its nuts. When you go outside, it feels like a huge weight is sitting on you (that would be the humidity.) The only thing that is saving us is we have new windows and doors and four window conditioning units in our house. (Yes, count them, FOUR!) Actually, soon to be five once we get one in John’s office. We can’t put real air conditioning in our house because we have radiant heating which means we don’t have duct work. Last summer we had an “air conditioner expert” take a look and give us a quote. They want $8,00 for a unit in the attic, and $8,000 for a unit in the basement, and apparently it would only work if we have two units. So needless to say, $150-200 window units are a wee bit more attractive.
But, I digress. Its hot, and I wanted to whine. I’m done now. Go about your business.
Posted on March 28, 2008
When we first moved into our house in New Jersey, there was a huge hot tub in the back yard. For some people, this is a perk, but for us it was a hindrance because our back yard is not that big, and it took up more than half of the area we could use for grass. In addition to a gigantic hot tub, the previous owners created a “privacy” screen using these large gorgeous trees, which again took up a large amount of space. We were able to sell the hot tub on Craig’s list (John used the proceeds to buy an XBox) and we have been debating what to do with the hole left behind. Well, its been almost a year now, and we finally hired a professional landscaper to come in, move the trees around, and resod. It looks absolutely beautiful and we now have twice as much grass!
Here are the before and after pictures:
In the before pictures, the trees on the left has side were the “screen” for the hot tub. I looked through our pictures and I don’t have a picture of the hot tub or the giant hole left when it was removed.
Because we have new sod, I had to run the sprinklers for a while. Try as I might, I couldn’t convince Chloe that it was too cold to play in the sprinkler. She got very upset when it splashed in her face.