Archive for "Home Ownership"
Home Updates and Saki’s Birthday
Posted on September 23, 2026 by Ching under Home Ownership, Life.
We had a productive Labor Day this year. We took advantage of our day off to buy some much needed things for the house: a new stove and new patio furniture.
I can’t remember if I ever complained here about our new stove woes. While it wasn’t the original stove that came with our house, we’ve had our stove for over 13 years. After 13 years, on of the knobs broke and one of the burners wasn’t working properly anymore. It’s a separate burner from the one with the broken knob. This burner just goes high or low and there’s no in between. I kind of wished the broken burner was the one with the broken knob because that burner actually works (as far as I know). We just can’t use it due to the broken knob situation.
For the last six months (maybe almost a year), we’ve just been suffering through it. However, we did remove the broken knob because we didn’t want anyone using that burner and getting burnt because they thought they turned the burner off but the knob wasn’t working.
We tried to buy a new stove on President’s Day because Lowe’s had some good sales on that day but it almost seemed like a bait-and-switch situation. We found a stove on sale that we love. We paid for it and ordered it for delivery but they couldn’t seem to deliver it. On the day it was supposed to be delivered the first time, the stove wasn’t there. So it seemed like someone else bought it and got it? I don’t know. They found it at another store and so they were going to have it transferred from that store to the East store and then deliver it to us but there was problems with that too. I was like, “Why can’t they just deliver it from that store straight to us? Why does it have to go through a store transfer first?” I don’t understand.
Anyway, since there were problems with that, they tried to get us to take the floor model and Brian and were like, “Hell no!” The dude we talked to at the store sat on the store model the entire time he was talking to us. Who knows who else’s ass has been on that thing?
Another solution was to get a different stove–same brand, but better model. I would agree to that only if we didn’t have to pay the difference. This is where it started feeling like it was a bait-and-switch situation. After multiple attempts at trying to get the stove that we had already paid for delivered, we finally just gave up and asked for our money back.
Fast forward to Labor Day and we decide it’s time to try again. We found a stove at during the Labor Day sale at Lowe’s. It was actually much cheaper than the other one we tried to get back in February. And this one has a built-in air fryer feature and you can also control it with your phone. It was a better deal all around. After our terrible experience the first time, I wasn’t holding my breath. But Lowe’s actually came through this time. It was successfully delivered and installed last week, on September 16.
Last week was a big week because Saki turned 11. Brian came home on Monday with a cute birthday cake cookie for her, which we gave for her to enjoy while we assembled the patio furniture that we ordered from Ashley Furniture. We didn’t purchase it in person but I found the sale online. Price was so good we had to jump on it. We got a set of two ottomans for less than $200 and the set of two chairs and a table was on sale for under $350. So we ordered two of the chair and table sets.
I was actually really confused because I saw the swivel chair set with no table and it cost more than the set with the table included. I studied the description carefully and the only difference I could find was the table. It was cheaper to get the set with the table. I didn’t understand this but who am I to argue?
We placed our order on Labor Day and got our boxes in two separate deliveries. The ottomans were delivered first on Saturday, September 12. We didn’t assemble it until Sunday because we had a busy Saturday with Zoobilee and all. Assembly was super easy. We knew the chairs would be more complicated to put together but we were hopeful that it would go just as smoothly.
The furniture that we got was not without issues. I actually sent pictures and all the nicks and issues we had to solutions@ashleyfurniture.com–no reply. I would be more upset had we paid full price for the furniture. I’m looking at their website now and, with their current sale, we would have to pay almost $1500 for all the items we got for less than $900 during the Labor Day sale. Maybe our items were on sale because of the imperfections? It sucks that it’s not perfect but they work fine and we don’t want to go through the process of assembling all the things again so it wouldn’t make sense to return and exchange them. I wish they would have at least acknowledge our issues, though.
It took almost five hours to get everything assembled because we took a break and went to TapNPaddles for dinner. It was almost 10 PM by the time we were done. Here’s a picture of the new patio set in the daylight.
I love how cozy the deck feels now. In case you were wondering what happened to our old deck furniture, Brian took the chairs, sofa, and tables to his work so they could have somewhere to sit outside on nice days. We ended up throwing away the loungers, though. Brian said they were no good.
We got rid of our sun shade and ordered some curtains from Amazon to replace them. I do like the look of the curtains except for it’s a new hiding place for Saki. Remember the cookie? We thought she scarfed it up but she actually only took a couple of bites. We found the rest of the cookie covered in ants tucked underneath the curtains the next day. We had to get her a do-over replacement birthday cookie. We’re only giving her a little at a time this time around so it doesn’t go to waste.
No Comments
Home Appraisal
Posted on March 6, 2026 by Ching under Home Ownership.
I don’t know how the county appraisal of our home managed to go up even with a dilapidated deck most of the year. We generally pay about $5,000 in taxes every year for our house; but with the recent $466K appraisal, I guess we are going to have to pay even more in taxes now? WTH? Our house appraised at double the amount it was worth when we moved in back in 2012. I suppose this is both good and bad. It’s good that the house supposedly worth more but bad in that we have to pay more taxes on it annually. Truly, though, are we even able to sell our house for what the county says it is worth?
I joked to Brian that maybe we shouldn’t have fixed our deck (or at least waited until after our appeal) and perhaps we could have used that as a justification to drop the appraisal value. But now that it’s fixed, perhaps when they see our new orange deck they’ll change their mind when they appraise our house for 2027. LOL.
I was looking at the appeals process and it seems like a lot of work. Neither Brian nor I have the time or appetite for it. I guess we won’t fight it and just keeping paying? How about you all? Did your home appraisal increase significantly this year? Have you ever appealed an increase? How did that go?
No Comments
Deck Rails Repaired, Finally
Posted on January 26, 2026 by Ching under Home Ownership.
So our deck railing that’s been barely hanging on for most 2025 finally fell off and we did also get it repaired, finally.
As you all know, it gets super windy here in Kansas. One morning the rails were there and then they were gone when I got home. I found them on the ground next to the stair. Yes, it was super windy that day.
We got rid of all our deck furniture. They were over ten years old and Brian and I were tired of them anyway. Also, he said they could use them on their patio at work so that’s where the furniture went.
Besides replacing the deck railings, we also replaced the steps which had been falling apart as well. We kept the main deck floors to save money, though. They still felt sturdy and secure.
I took a few pics when the contractors first started working.
Here’s are a few more progress pictures.
Apparently I didn’t get pictures of the finished product. The railings and steps are done but they do still need to be stained and treated. I guess the $12K that we paid didn’t cover that part. Ugh. We have to pay another contractor another $900 some to get that done. I’ll get pictures of the fully finished work then. Stay tuned!
No Comments
The Joys of Home Ownership
Posted on January 19, 2024 by Ching under Home Ownership, Relationship.
We were having problems with our Nest thermostat over the weekend. The furnace kept shutting on and off and the thermostat display showed this error message. It would cut out and then turn back on but our biggest problem was that we didn’t know how to make it come back on when it would turn off and it just did it randomly so we really didn’t know when it would be working and not. It was both temperamental and unpredictable.
Anyway, we decided to call one of our friends who referred us to one of his BNI acquaintances who specialized in this sort of thing. But it was Monday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – night so Chad (tech/service guy) said he could come out but it would be overtime. Well, I am way too cheap for that so Brian and I decided to tough it out and have him come out the next day.
Well, on Tuesday morning we woke up to a 55 degree house and the Nest thermostat display was all black – no error message or anything, it was just completely blank. Brian thought the thermostat had finally gone kaput. I’m like, “No way! That thermostat is only six years old and they’re supposed last ten.”
We didn’t really know what was wrong so we called Chad but Chad couldn’t come out until the afternoon because he already had appointments scheduled for that day. In the meantime, we were in the midst of the coldest days in January so we turned on the electric fireplace downstairs, the gas fireplace upstairs, and I moved our little space heater to the living room to help bring the temperature up in the house. I figured that should get me by until we can get the furnace/heating issue resolved. Brian went in to his office and they have heat there so it was mostly just me freezing to death. I decided to work from home on Tuesday so I could let Chad in the house when he did arrive.
Around lunch time, the Nest thermostat kicks back on again. The furnace comes on and everything seems to be working as normal. Of course, we still want to Chad to come because we can just have the furnace randomly turn on and off, specially when we don’t know how to get it back on. That’s just not going to work.
A little bit later, Brian tells me he is on his way home because Chad is on his way to our house. Brian is completely convinced the thermostat is broken (either that or he just really wanted a new one) so he stops by Lowe’s and buys a $250 Ecobee. Chad fixes the furnace and replaces the Nest with the new Ecobee. When I get the low down from Brian (it turns out there’s some kind of sensor on the furnace that has rusted out due to condensation) and realize the reason the thermostat was going off and on was because the furnace was going off and on, I am livid. I’m like, “Why did we buy a new thermostat when there was nothing wrong with our thermostat?”
I felt like we could have saved ourselves the expense. Plus, I’m thinking we’re probably going to pay the labor for having Chad install the new thermostat when we didn’t have to replace our existing thermostat to begin with because there was nothing wrong with it. I just couldn’t get over how wasteful it all seemed.
Looking back, it was interesting to me how I was overwhelmed with feelings of anger, irritation, and frustration every time I looked at the new Ecobee thermostat whereas every time I looked at our new faucet, which we spent about $300 on, I was filled with so much joy and appreciation. The amount we spent was about the same – the thermostat actually cost less. I believe the two things elicited different feelings in me because I felt the faucet was necessary and Brian painstakingly installed it himself; while the new thermostat was a completely unnecessary expense. We could have used the $250 to pay Chad who we still needed to pay.
I felt like we could have avoided having to buy a new thermostat by asking two simple things, “Is our thermostat broken? And, do we need to replace it?” The answers would have been no and no, and we could have saved ourselves $250. But we don’t ask questions. We just spend money because that’s what we do.
I was so annoyed that I actually picked a fight with Brian about this, which I immediately regretted. Well, maybe not immediately. I was still kind of pissed off when I went to bed but then came to my senses when I woke up in the morning. In the grand scheme of things, this is a really stupid thing to be pissed off about. Yes, we spent $500 that we did not expect to spend when we probably could have gotten by with spending half that but it’s a stupid thing to fight about.
I realize now that Brian’s intention was not to “waste” money. He was unhappy with our old thermostat (even though it still worked) much like I was unhappy with the old faucet (that was also working perfectly fine) and so he wanted to replace it. I think the main difference between the two scenarios is that we were aligned on replacing the faucet but we were not aligned on the thermostat expense.
My key takeaways from this:
- We won’t always agree on everything but I think we at least need to make an effort to get alignment before making decisions.
- Brian gives me grace when I screw up – not saying he screwed up but rather he made a different choice than I would have – so I need to allow him the same.
- Brian tries so hard to make our lives better and doesn’t deserve me questioning his judgement every step of the way.
- I was wrong to pick a fight over this. Brian and I have always prided ourselves with being very rational and approaching everything sensibly and I was completely irrational in this situation. If I had to psychoanalyze myself, I think I would have concluded that I was pissed of and frustrated about other things and this just happened to be thing that I could blow up about.
- I just need to be better.
I don’t always apologize because I feel like I’m usually right (LOL) but I did apologize for how I reacted. I hope he knows that the apology was sincere and I do regret my actions. Seriously, though. We haven’t had a fight in over ten years. I wouldn’t have thought it would be over this. What a stupid thing to fight over!
No Comments
Labor Day Weekend Achievement
Posted on September 21, 2021 by Ching under Home Ownership.
Brian and I did some labor on Labor Day weekend. We’d been talking about reorganizing our basement storage room for a while (and when I say a while, I really mean a few years) but hadn’t gotten around to it until now. Things finally came to a head recently when we were running out of room to hide our crap. Here are a few pictures of the end result of our efforts.
It’s amazing how much space we really have in there once everything has gotten organized. We were able to move some of my fitness equipment from one of the basement guest bedrooms and we event have space for a legitimate crafting/gift wrapping table for me and also a gun cleaning table for Brian.
I am super pleased with the end result because now we can easily get to our luggage and also our Christmas tree for when it’s time to put up our Christmas decorations. I just love seeing how tidy our basement storage is now. Until next time, GNG.
No Comments
