Archive for "Home Ownership"
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!
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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.
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Changes at Home
Posted on January 8, 2021 by Ching under Home Ownership, Life.
We rearranged some furniture over Christmas break. Brian has been trying to talk me into doing this forever but I’ve always refused because it leaves the rest of our main floor living room quite barren. We used to have just the one chair here with the ottoman. We always either fight over who gets to sit in the chair (it’s a coveted spot in the winter because it’s right in front of the fireplace and literally the warmest spot in our entire house) or both uncomfortably squeeze in it.
I’d thought about buying a chair and a half specifically for this spot so we wouldn’t have to use our loveseat but our furniture is so old that they don’t make it anymore. And, I didn’t want to buy something that didn’t match because we all know how that goes — you end up replacing everything to match that one thing that you just got and it ends up costing you a fortune.
Brian and I are getting too fat to squeeze in the chair together so I finally caved and agreed to relocate the loveseat to the hearth and the chair to the living room. That’s all we swapped. We did have to reorient the furniture, though. Instead of placing the loveseat at an angle like the chair was before, we placed it parallel to the fireplace. We’ve spent so much time in this part of the house since we rearranged and it’s been so much nice that we both wondered why we waited so long to do this.
Brian, the girls, and I are totally loving it. I think we will keep the house this way until the day we move, remodel, or replace all of our furniture — whichever comes first. Until next time. GNG.
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I am not a Handyman!
Posted on April 6, 2018 by Brian under Home Ownership, Projects.
So, the back door to the garage has needed some work for a long time now. If anyone remembers the Farmstead fiasco of a home, then you all know that I am not a handy person. I don’t really know how to fix things all that well.
Heck, I had to have my father-in-law come help me install two smart light switches because the switches were smarter than I was and I couldn’t figure out the wiring. If it wasn’t for him and his friend (Tito Arnel) I could have very well wired it and burnt the house down.
Back to the door! So, the door was water damaged and rotting because the previous owner cheaped out on the install and didn’t seal it properly. One of the sprinkler heads wasn’t ever adjusted right and water just pounded that frame and, well, we get a crumbling POS.
About a month ago I got fed up looking at it and called a professional to come give me a quote on installing a new door in my garage and, while he’s at it, installing a new front door too — because, if they are already here, it will probably be cheaper… Right? No!
After about an hour of his time and the price getting all the way up to $9000, I had to dial him back and tell him I wasn’t going to fork out what could be money for a pretty good vacation, for a couple of doors. We narrowed it down to just the garage door and that was still well over $1000. I thanked him for his time and looked at option 2, 3, 4, and even 5.
I looked at a few videos and found a door at Lowe’s for about $170. Add in screws and caulk and we’re looking at $200 max, plus my time. I managed to convince my wife that this was going to be so easy, a child could do it. I told her they made the doors idiot-proof and that even I could install one now. Heck, even my dad was convinced we could both tackle it and be successful.
Then one night I was playing online with my buddy and remembered he worked construction for like 15 years and knows how to install doors! So I buckled down, swallowed my pride and asked him if he would be willing to help. Without hesitation, he said yes. My wife has never been so relieved to not have to do something in her life. I think her exact words were, “Oh, thank God!”
Fast forward to this last Saturday. My friend and his son Eli come out. I already had the door and everything we needed. He gave me more information about installing a door than I could process. It wasn’t really as easy or simple as I thought it would be. But, in the end, we got it done and it looks great.
I honestly don’t think it would have been as good without him. I’m sure I would have done something to either ruin the door or mess up the install. I am grateful to have friends with skills.
Here’s some pictures of the new door and the old one we removed.
Old, rotten door.
New door, in progress.
New door, trimmed up.
Outside view.
By the way, anyone need a door?
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What Happened Last Week
Posted on March 25, 2018 by Ching under Events, Home Ownership, Life.
I walked over to City Hall last Friday to celebrate my friend Gavin’s retirement from WPD. They showed pictures of him from when he started his career in law enforcement 26 years ago. Many people came to wish Gavin well and the Police Chief said a few words before turning it over to Gavin to address the crowd.
I didn’t partake of the cake and punch because I wanted to get back to work but I wanted to be there for Gavin on behalf of all of our Leadership Wichita classmates. The walk to and from City Hall and the reception itself was a welcome break from my workday although it was super windy that day and I thought I would be blown away several times.
Incidentally, this was the same day that Wichita State was eliminated from the NCAA tournament. In case you hadn’t noticed, I was sporting my WSU colors that day. I also wore my new Rothy’s flats, which are my new favorite shoes for work. More on them next time because I plan to post a video review.
Saki and I took a super awesome selfie.
I think this was on Saturday morning because I look like I just woke up. Speaking of Saturday morning, Brian went outside to take pictures of house for reference for the house painters. We are paining the house next month but we are repainting it the exact same colors so we don’t have to hassle with too many HOA approvals. If you keep the same colors, they tend to leave you alone.
When he was outside, he hollered for me to come out. Apparently, our new lawn service company completed spring cleaning on the yard earlier in the week and we didn’t even notice.
Here are some pictures of the fabulous work they did.
They trimmed the fountain grass, removed all the dead and dried up parts of the yucca and these plants that line the path that I can never remember the name of, and put fresh mulch.
They also cleaned up around the day lilies, which are spreading like crazy. After our coffee chat today, I plan to pull the overgrown day lilies out.
They did the same thing on the other side. They also pulled the weeds from the side of the house and put down fresh mulch. I don’t know why we kept trying to do this stuff ourselves when other people can do a much better job than we can. Plus, it didn’t take up any of our time at all. It was done just like magic. We didn’t even know when they came to do it.
Brian and I agreed that they must have come during the week but neither of us noticed until Saturday morning. If they did complete the work on Saturday morning, that’s even more impressive because we didn’t hear anything at all.
The company is called Commercial Lawn Management (CLM) and so far we’ve been really happy with their service. I think we may hang on to them. The spring clean up they did usually takes up so much effort on our part, not just in the time to complete the work but also planning, and we always end up putting it off and putting off and then the yard looks like crap all summer long.
We highly recommend CLM. They do all sorts of stuff and offer free estimates so if you need a job done, be sure to contact them.
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