sewloud

So Rob and I live in a tiny shoe box in a suburb of philadelphia. It's very very cheap, rather falling down, and has a very hands off landlord. This was never a problem before. In fact it was kind of great, if we were a bit behind on the rent? He never noticed or cared...but about six months ago my former upstairs neighbor Victoria noticed that the dryer outlet was sparking...badly. Turned out there was water leaking in from the cracked foundation and running down the wires straight into the outlet. I turned the breaker off, told her not to use it and we called the landlord. Instead of fixing the whole thing he just replaced the outlet box. That seemed to fix the problem.

Fast forward to a month ago. I put the laundry in the dryer and sit down to watch tv with Rob. We hear this weird popping noise but can't figure it out. I go into the basement, laundry is happily drying and all seems right with the world. Go back upstairs.  A few min pass and we hear the noise again. Look around, all is fine. Repeat. Then we hear a big pop and the lights flicker. I run down into the basement and say to Rob "why don't you grab the fire extinguisher just incase" When I get to the basement the flames coming out of the dryer outlet are about 6" high. A big blob of burning plastic falls onto the pile of dryer lint just as Rob shows up with the extinguisher and I grab it from his hands and start spraying everything. We standing in the snow for a few min debating do we call 911? do we call the non-emergency line? Verdict is I want the fire department to say it's safe. They were super nice, turned off the breaker, checked the oxygen levels and installed a smoke alarm...it has now been a month. The fire marshall has been here twice and the land lord has fixed...nothing. We cannot use the washer, the dryer or the heater in the basement that keeps the pipes from freezing. He has tried to convince us that WE should fix it as it is somehow our fault....

The result is that it's just the right time to move. We found a WONDERFUL apartment in an apartment complex Rob's parents used to live in. It's twice as expensive as what we pay now, and his amazing wonderful family is going to help us afford it. They told me I need to have a safe, calm home to come home to and study in. Rob is bringing the application over tomorrow. I don't see any reason we won't get the new apt but it still makes me a bit nervous until it's all settled.

But it feels like a wonderful fresh start. We will go through everything we own. Much will get purged, much will get re discovered. I will start in a clean, fresh, HUGE apartment....And did I mention there's a pool?

So Rob was appalled by our electric bill this month and turned the head down to 50...consequently I'm sitting here in wool socks, giant fluffy slippers, jeans, shirt, sweater, fleece, gloves...coat...okay no coat...But it's COLD (side note he's standing here in fleece pants, shirtless perfectly happy)

I originally decided that if it was going to be this freezing in here I was going to spend all day in the shower, the only toasty place in the apt, but then I got all pruney.

Today is my  last real day off. I have four more shifts at Joanns and then start at Reconstructing History. I'm sure Kass doesn't expect me to be at the shop 7 days, but small businesses have a way of expanding to fill the space you'll give them...and I do seem to spend my days off talking to her on Gmail chat as it is...

So I'm left wondering what to do with my day off. We had Matt and his Girlfriend Heathyr over for dinner last night so the living room, dining room and kitchen are actually clean. AND I vacuumed. But my sewing room is a disaster, as is our bed room. The laundry has reached epic proportions. I have a return at Kohl's from the In-laws that didn't fit, and a gift card to Old Navy I could spend on new work cloths. I guess I should do the errands before life gets in the way and I don't have time. But I also want to soak up some rest while I can. PLUS there's plotting to be done for costumes for the coming year...decisions decisions...Oh and I should write my thank you note. and I HAVE to mail rent today...

Okay so it's actually day two but it was the first REAL day of digging into the new apt.

We signed the lease on thursday night. I did do a little washing and threw out some nasty mini blinds.

Yesterday we went in with guns blazing! We were supposed to just replace the counter tops and the sink. But when we started ripping things out we found a few....problems.  For instance the "counter" was plywood with a laminate sheet on top. Sitting, yes, SITTING on top of the 2x4 cabinets. When we touched said 2x4's with a hammer they fell into a pile of rotted wet wood before our very eyes. So since the original cabinets were homemade nasty wet wood Rob decided to just make new homemade cabinets. Will it be amazingly polished? No. But we're going for a quaint retro kitchen look anyway and it'll serve our purposes just fine. After we had removed the sink and counter we found that the water had soaked (and I mean soaked): The entire sink cabinet, three shelves, a layer of plywood, THREE layers of linoleum, the original tar paper and another layer of plywood. We got down to the sub floor and it was damp but not rotted. We've bleached the heck out of it, cleaned off all the mold. and Put up a very heady layer of Kilz. Can we just discuss how stinky oil based paint is? OMG. Words don't do it justice. Our kitchen currently consists of a stove and a refrigerator.

Because I was helping Rob in the kitchen so much  I didn't nearly finish my projects. I got half of the ceiling paint that was fall off down and finished spackeling the living room walls. I did not sand or wash the walls and got no Kilz up anywhere but the kitchen.

It's a good thing we're getting such an amazingly sweet deal on the rent or this would so not be worth it.