House Aggrevation

It seems that there has been a lot going on with our house recently. Two weeks ago, we got a new fence. The fence was 35 years old and was rotten enough that it was getting to be a fruitless job to repair various pieces. This is something we have talked about for a few years, and we finally made it happen. We have a split rail fence and used black locust for the posts and hickory for the rails. Hopefully, these will be maintenance-free. They cost a little more than the pressure-treated option, but there are black locust posts still in use that are over 200 years old. 

And by a scheduling chance, the next day after the new fence, we got all new locks and door knobs for our outside doors installed because the original locks were getting difficult to operate. Also, we wanted more deadbolts and everything keyed alike. This is also something that we've been meaning to do for a while, and we finally made it happen.

When those were completed, we were looking forward to focusing on non-house things. However, the next day, we started noticing an off smell that we couldn't seem to locate. Then Ward was in the basement looking for something and discovered the carpet was wet. It took a while to figure out, but we found a small leak from a water filter in the next room. It must have been leaking for a while because the carpet was sopping. And it really stunk like a litter box that needed to be cleaned. With all of the cats over the years, there had been peeing on the carpet. We got the carpet cleaned pretty well, but we never made it all the way to the pad. I think the dried pee in the carpet was reconstituted when it got wet. 

Wally and Theo came over and helped cut out the wet, stinking carpet and pad, and luckily, the smell quickly dissipated once the rug and pad were removed. We were bummed about this. We liked the carpet. It was of good quality and in good shape. We will have to eventually have to put a new floor in. Thankfully, we have time to figure that out.

Yesterday, the plumber installed a new filter and replaced some other corroding pipes. Hopefully, we will be done with leaks for a while. As a side note, we have a drain on the floor about two feet away from the leaking filter. However, the water did not run to it; it chose the expensive carpet instead.

Moving on to last night, we saw another mouse in the house. I didn't get quite so excited this time, but I'm not happy. We are used to a few coming in when the weather gets cold, but not in the summer. A little reading said that just as the mice will seek a warmer spot in the winter, they will look for a cooler spot in the summer. I hope that these are just random occurrences and that we don't have a nest of them in the attic. It's a whole issue we don't want to deal with but will have to.

And this afternoon, when I came home, Ward told me the washing machine was not working. After a lot of fiddling and a couple of false starts, we have observed that it fills with water, and then the cycle stops, not to be restarted again. More investigation is needed, but for now, we have a bunch of wet soapy clothes. I think a visit to Wally and Theo's to use their machine is in the near future.

But first, something good. Ward smoked a turkey today, and Wally and Theo are coming over for dinner. Add new potatoes, a tomato pie, and some broccoli, and all will be happy. Actually, I'm not sure the Carnivores will notice anything but the smoked turkey. After dinner, maybe Theo and Wally will take our laundry home and do it for us. 

Nothing is horrible happening here, but I sure am aggravated with it all.

Until next time...