Friday, March 30, 2012
A joke I liked
A woman is walking along the street and stops to give some money to a homeless man. He thanks her and tells her that he appreciates her help. "I wasn't always like this, you know." The woman asks him what does he mean by that. He says "I used to have millions of dollars in bank accounts all around the world." The woman says "Oh my, what happened to you?" He lowered his head and sadly replied "I forgot my mother's maiden name."
Houses, houses, houses
On Wednesday, the Sorianos closed on the house they sold. They have been living with us since May while they tried to sell their house. Having to pick up after 4 kids every time before a showing seemed like too much to do so they moved in with us. Having 6 or 7 (sometimes Bing, the father in law is here also) extra people around the house has mostly been enjoyable. We have all gotten along quite well.
They have an offer in on a house (a short sale) in West St. Paul. That would be closer to where both of them work. Their offer was accepted by the couple so now it is a matter of waiting for the bank to approve the sale and that could take anywhere from a week or two to several months.
In the meantime, we have begun work on Park House in earnest. A crew of 9 friends came over on Saturday and we pulled down the ceiling in Daniel's old bedroom, repaired the hole in the kitchen floor, dug up and removed the jungle gym that had been competing with the Leaning Tower of Pisa for most acute angle while still standing, removed the (for 15 years) non-working dishwasher, removed several old screen doors, pulled down the wallpaper in the kitchen, primed the front entryway and hauled 21 contractor bags of debris and old insulation out to the back yard. The metal from the screen doors and the jungle gym disappeared rather quickly as it sat by the alley in the backyard.
Tina lost her cellphone and it took quite a while to locate it in one of the bags of insulation. The insulation muffled the ring tone. We had almost given up when we tried one last time to hear it.
We still have a TON of work to do. A carpenter friend came over yesterday and gave us some advice about what we need to do to prepare Daniel's ceiling to put in a suspended ceiling. A stone mason stopped by in the afternoon and gave us some advice about repairing the crumbling foundation in the laundry room for a lot less than what we had thought it would cost. He said stone masons are a dying breed as houses are no longer built with limestone foundations.
Monday night some other friends came over and helped paint the entry way and did more work on the kitchen walls.
We are blessed to have such good friends.
They have an offer in on a house (a short sale) in West St. Paul. That would be closer to where both of them work. Their offer was accepted by the couple so now it is a matter of waiting for the bank to approve the sale and that could take anywhere from a week or two to several months.
In the meantime, we have begun work on Park House in earnest. A crew of 9 friends came over on Saturday and we pulled down the ceiling in Daniel's old bedroom, repaired the hole in the kitchen floor, dug up and removed the jungle gym that had been competing with the Leaning Tower of Pisa for most acute angle while still standing, removed the (for 15 years) non-working dishwasher, removed several old screen doors, pulled down the wallpaper in the kitchen, primed the front entryway and hauled 21 contractor bags of debris and old insulation out to the back yard. The metal from the screen doors and the jungle gym disappeared rather quickly as it sat by the alley in the backyard.
Tina lost her cellphone and it took quite a while to locate it in one of the bags of insulation. The insulation muffled the ring tone. We had almost given up when we tried one last time to hear it.
We still have a TON of work to do. A carpenter friend came over yesterday and gave us some advice about what we need to do to prepare Daniel's ceiling to put in a suspended ceiling. A stone mason stopped by in the afternoon and gave us some advice about repairing the crumbling foundation in the laundry room for a lot less than what we had thought it would cost. He said stone masons are a dying breed as houses are no longer built with limestone foundations.
Monday night some other friends came over and helped paint the entry way and did more work on the kitchen walls.
We are blessed to have such good friends.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Ancient of Days
The Park House has hot water heat so it has a boiler, rather than a furnace. Saturday, the heat would not turn off so CenterPoint Energy had to come and turn it off. It was 81 degrees in the house. The problem was that the boiler was dirty, the soot made the flame explode out of the front of the combustion chamber and burned a couple of wires that controlled the turning off function. So we were without heat at Park House for a few days. The weather was in the high 30's most of the time so it wasn't a huge problem. The inside temperature dropped only to 54 with the addition of some free space heaters provided by CenterPoint.
Today the cleaning man came and did a very thorough job on cleaning out all the soot. Then another CenterPoint Energy man came and restarted the boiler and checked it and tested it and it looks good.
He noted that the boiler was installed in 1954 so it is 58 years old!!! That is a pretty long life so I suspect we will be in the market for a new one in the next few months.
He also told me that there were two pilot lights on the boiler, something that I had somehow forgotten in the last ten years. The other pilot light is in the back and I think I may have lit it by accident a couple of times in the 31 years I have started the boiler, but I have never opened up the back of the boiler (where it is) and lit it. I have occasionally had a very, very faint smell of gas around the furnace and he said that is probably why. He tested the connections for leaks and for CO2 and said it tested perfectly. He was actually somewhat impressed it was working as well as it was.
Tina and I (mostly her) spent many hours this past weekend cleaning out the laundry room and work room. We managed to sort things into give away to people we know, donate to thrift stores and put in the trash. We already gave some stuff away to people. It feels great to be getting stuff out of here.
A month ago, we had the floors sanded in the living room, dining room and front hall. They look very nice. We tossed the living room furniture which was old and falling apart and bought a new couch and two recliners. Daniel and Luke spend a lot of time watching the gigantic TV in the living room so the recliners work well for them.
Last Sunday, we had an Area meeting of about 30 people at Park House and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and mostly see each other. Lots of positive comments on the improvements that we have made so far.
Still tons of work left to do, but that is another story.
Today the cleaning man came and did a very thorough job on cleaning out all the soot. Then another CenterPoint Energy man came and restarted the boiler and checked it and tested it and it looks good.
He noted that the boiler was installed in 1954 so it is 58 years old!!! That is a pretty long life so I suspect we will be in the market for a new one in the next few months.
He also told me that there were two pilot lights on the boiler, something that I had somehow forgotten in the last ten years. The other pilot light is in the back and I think I may have lit it by accident a couple of times in the 31 years I have started the boiler, but I have never opened up the back of the boiler (where it is) and lit it. I have occasionally had a very, very faint smell of gas around the furnace and he said that is probably why. He tested the connections for leaks and for CO2 and said it tested perfectly. He was actually somewhat impressed it was working as well as it was.
Tina and I (mostly her) spent many hours this past weekend cleaning out the laundry room and work room. We managed to sort things into give away to people we know, donate to thrift stores and put in the trash. We already gave some stuff away to people. It feels great to be getting stuff out of here.
A month ago, we had the floors sanded in the living room, dining room and front hall. They look very nice. We tossed the living room furniture which was old and falling apart and bought a new couch and two recliners. Daniel and Luke spend a lot of time watching the gigantic TV in the living room so the recliners work well for them.
Last Sunday, we had an Area meeting of about 30 people at Park House and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and mostly see each other. Lots of positive comments on the improvements that we have made so far.
Still tons of work left to do, but that is another story.
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