Coming Together

Things are continuing to come together at the Johnson House. Our first house guests only smelled up the entire back part of the house, threw up Dr. Pepper in the sunroom, and demanded more pizza when they got here late (and the other guys had already eaten all of it). Ridiculous...Jim gets some extra gems in his crown for teaching those guys on Sunday Mornings.

Jim got his compost bin built. His goal is to have good compost ready for spring. We got our locks off and will replace them today. What? I didn't tell you about that? Jim (and the only reason I point out JIM is because I ALWAYS lose stuff and he NEVER does) lost the keys to our locks on our front gate and the back gate. We looked EVERYWHERE and so my Dad had to come take them off. Also, yesterday, my WONDERFUL Dad installed an electrical switch down through the attic and wall to our exhaust fan. We were able to make breakfast rolls this morning, carbon monoxide free!

Today will hopefully be more cleaning and homework for me. Jim will continue to clean up the front yard and finish his compost bin.

I can't wait for Thanksgiving!

First House Guests

Tonight we are having over our first guests: Jim's LIFE group from church.

In any other situation, I would be freaking out because the house is still not unpacked and while it is straightened up, it isn't clean. Good thing they are eighth grade boys: they don't care. They are coming over for Pizza and video games.

Carbon Monoxide

Last night was our first in-home crisis. Jim was baking some pizza and I was in the living room watching TV with the dog we are dog-sitting. The next thing I know, some alarm starts going off, and Jim yells at me to get the dog and get out of the house. I didn't know what to think (was something on fire?) and on top of that, it was so cold outside, that me and the dog sat in the car. Apparently, the oven was pouring carbon monoxide into the air. We didn't know what to do next. Do we call 911? Do we need to stay out of the house for the night? We called Jim's parents. They said that if we opened windows, the CO would diffuse and it would be fine. However, I was completely paranoid. So, we decided to go spend the night at Jim's parent's house.

The next day, Jim and his Dad came over early to look and see if they could figure out what exactly was causing the CO to leak out into the house. Mike, Jim's dad, said that we should go ahead and replace the entire stove/oven unit. When I woke up around eight, I text messaged my Dad to let him know what was going on. He came over, and said that it definitely was the oven and that we probably just needed a vent-a-hood to provide ventilation for the CO out of the house.

Then we called my Mom to let her know what was going on. She was out of town at a conference. She called a nurse that she works with whose husband is a plumber. He came out (with his really cute little girl!) to test everything. He ruled out that it definitely wasn't the heater and confirmed that it was the gas oven. The measurement was 13 parts per million of CO in the air when the oven was on; anything about 9 ppm is considered dangerous. He confessed that he wasn't an appliance guy, but that we could try the ventilation, but if that didn't work, then he would definitely replace the entire unit.

So, my Dad, Jim, and I went to Home Depot. We bought, or actually my Dad bought for us, an exhaust fan with necessary parts, strainer for the kitchen sink (to catch food since we don't have a garbage disposal), a rubber stop for the bathtub (so we can take baths), a new floor strip for the doorway between the dining room and laundry room, an extender for the shower head, and a CO detector that displayed the ppm in the air so that we could monitor things more closely and make sure the ventilation fan is working. THEN, he came over and installed EVERYTHING. We are very thankful that he is such a handy guy, and that he paid for and did all of the necessary labor! I love my Daddy!

Sleeping in a New Place

Well, we are sleeping at the new house. We have been since Saturday night, but last night we finally got the internet hooked up. However, we still haven't moved everything. Thankfully, we don't have to be out of our apartment until the end of November, so we can take our time and work on things as we are able to.

There hasn't been a lot of time this week, so far, to unpack and put things in their places. I have three tests this week and a huge Upward event. Monday, one of my tests did get moved, and as of today, I only have one more to go tomorrow in Sociological Theory.

It's been really weird getting used to living in a new place. New noises, different furniture placement, and being all hardwood floors, I have constantly been cold. Guess I need to get me some house shoes or something.

While I knew that I wouldn't have the perfect house the day I moved in, it's been hard for me (I didn't think it would be) to not go crazy and spend money on things we don't really need right now. The women in my life have had to remind me that they are still working on getting their homes just they way they want them. That's all for now!

Changing the Locks...

Well, Jim got home and he is 85% sure he did not leave the door open. And while I'm pretty sure that no one broke in (because stuff wasn't taken) we are going to change the locks just in case. They are $30 for dead bolts. We also looked at mailboxes. They are about $30 too. The last thing we did was price lumber and get some more paint samples.

We also decided on some fabric for the shower curtain and I'm going to get the fabric tomorrow.

Weird Things Happen

Yesterday, I went to Target and bought more rolls of cabinet liner. Today, after Botany and before lab (between 10 and 2ish) I was going to work at the house and see what I could get done. Also, the previous owners were going to come by and pick up the money for the table we bought from them. When I pulled up into the driveway, I was getting out and noticed that the side door was opened. What the heck? How did that happen? So I tried to call my Mom but couldn't get her. Then I called Jim's Mom and told her I wanted to be on the phone with someone while I went and checked things out. I have no idea how the door just "blew" open. It wasn't locked and Jim was the last one over there. However, he is a freak about locking doors; he will check them two or three times to make sure that it won't open, so I can't imagine that Jim wouldn't lock the door. Hmmm....creepy. Needless to say, I lined cabinets and came home. I texted the previous owner and told him where the money was and to text me when he got it.

Work Day #1

Today was the first Saturday in 7 weeks that Jim and I have not had to work Upward. It was so great. We got up at 7 this morning, and went to six garage sales looking mainly for a new TV stand that is less bulkier than the one we have now. We were unsuccessful, but it wasn't a big deal. We aren't in a rush and we don't want to buy something for the sake of buying something.

After that, we went to Home Depot and Target. We got some lawn tools, trash bags, kitchen cabinet liners, and composting materials. Then, we headed to the house. Jim went and got some lunch and got a haircut, and I started on the floors. I had a grand idea today: use the buffer with the adhesive remover to get it up! It worked much better than scraping it by hand and it was much more efficient. I was able to finish the wood floors today and I am so excited to have that done.

Jim got most of the backyard cleaned up. There are lots of rocks in all the flower beds, so that is annoying and going to be a lot of hard work to get cleaned out. But it was a very productive day! We are going to eat at Texas Roadhouse for my brother's, Matt, birthday party. Tomorrow we have things to do here at the apartment (like homework and laundry) so not sure what we will get done at the house tomorrow.