a little lift for the kitchen

WARNING... this is a long one!

Today, we had a delivery of 4 Kenmore appliances... range, fridge, dishwasher, and chest freezer. We ran out to that AWESOME 20% cash back sale at Sears as soon as we saw it in the paper. Boy, it's GREAT to have new appliances, and I can't wait to take advantage of their abilities! The old ones went bye-bye as quickly as the new ones came, and I won't miss them a bit. They stunk... capital P, capital U!

There was a slight set back with the fridge... When the house was built, there wasn't a hook-up thingy for the ice maker (you know, with a knob to shut off the water), so they had added a small copper pipe up through the floor. When the delivery people went to hook up the new fridge (has built in water filter and dispenser right inside), there was a leak between the fridge's tubing and the copper. They didn't have adapters (whatever that plumbing stuff's called), so we had to shut off ALL the water to the house until we could get the parts, thanks to there NOT being a shut off knob for the fridge! Thank the knowledge fairies that Gerald's brother, Joe, is a master plumber and could not only tell him how to fix it, but gave him the parts out of his garage stash for free! Gotta love a diverse family! (and Enid got one of Uncle Joe's b-day balloons as a perk... and a lot of face-licks from the dogs... and she chased the cat around the house saying "Kitty, are you?")

As for the dishwasher, Gerald removed the old one and installed the new one himself, because he had done it in our VA Beach house and knew how. Well, it's almost installed... we need to buy an elbow pipe of some sort that we don't have so it is hooked up correctly.

ON WITH THE SKYLIGHT... Yep, the man who installed the new roof for the previous owners last year didn't show up (twice) when he was supposed to and to make a long story short, I guess he's not going to honor his warranty and guarantee because he's not returning phone calls. So... We called some other companies and they all had minimum fees of $150 (it's not covered by our home warranty because Century 21's plan SUCKS and the sellers could have spent the same $400 and gotten an awesome warranty with AHS. In hindsight... WE SHOULD HAVE SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR AHS IN THE CONTRACT!!! You live and you learn.), so we got Cliff who owns A+ Roofers to come out today. We simulated rain with the water hose, and he ended up using 3 tubes of caulk to reseal the thing! THIS BETTER WORK!

All this was happening at the same time, by the way... the leaky fridge, the guy on the roof... It was crazy! I'm glad our neighbor, Benny, was around. He helped with the whole shebang.

So... having a new chest freezer in the garage called for a huge BJ's Wholesale tub of Breyer's All Natural ChocVanStraw and a few other things, including a big ole container of blueberries. It's a little sad to take fresh blueberries and freeze them, but they won't be used right away. MMMMM.... Blueberry Crisp, here we come!

To add to all of this... Thursday, Gerald took both cars for state inspections (didn't have those in GA & only VA has had the dumb county stickers that cost $25 here!), and yesterday my car was making a crazy noise on the way home. I had just passed the neighborhood fire brigade, ambulances, cops, and even a life flight helicopter (a 9 year old kid got cut up by a boat on the lake because he reached into the water), and I was starting to wonder if I'd need their help! I was almost at the house so after I pulled into the driveway, I looked all up under the front right bumper where the noise seemed to be emanating. There was nothing... no limb, creature, or flat tire. Gerald crawled under there today and found that one of the mud guard plates that covers part of the engine was dangling and missing screws. Later, I found one in the driveway, and we bought some AutoZone screws to try. OF COURSE the Car Doctor place that did the inspections are closed for vacation now!

Considering all this, I am VERY grateful that these are the extent of our problems.

Okay, you can stop reading now.