The Agony of Defeat

A few weeks ago, I decided that it was time to replace our kitchen sink, which had been losing pressure for some time. We'd replaced it when we moved in, but it wasn't super nice to start with. We'd also replaced our garbage disposal, and it was nasty so I got one of those and figured I'd just do all of the things at once.

I got the faucet installed with no problem, but had some trouble taking the garbage disposal off, because it was all rusted and corroded, so we had trouble getting to this snap ring you have to break loose to get the base installation piece out of the sink.

Between James and me, over a few hours, we managed to get it all off and installed the garbage disposal! 

The only problem is that our old disposal was hard-wired into the electric system, and this new one (and all of the new ones) had a plug. So we did call an electrician to wire it for us. We asked about getting an outlet installed instead, since this is the standard now, but that was going to be about $450 instead of $235, so we just asked him to connect it.

In the end, he said that doing so would have invalidated the warranty on the garbage disposal, so he did install an outlet but he only charged what he'd quoted for the visit. Huzzah!

About a week later, I checked and noticed that some water was leaking under the sink. Some investigation showed that it was coming directly from the sink, from what below is labeled "sink flange."

Photo from familyhandiman.com

I pulled everything apart, reinstalled it, and it seemed to be holding tight. Great!

Fast forward to yesterday, and I told James, "I haven't checked it in a few weeks. I will just assume it's working okay.

But me being me, I did pull stuff out and felt around... and the bottom of the cabinet was damp. Not super wet, but the particleboard was swelling and it felt kind of slimy. 

"Is it time to call a plumber?" James agreed that it was.

I had to leave to take Mal somewhere, and in the meantime the plumber came out, found that the sink flange was bent, and fortunately had another one on his truck so we didn't have to buy a new disposal because I guess those single pieces are hard to find??

Later in the day, I was going through my email and saw the invoice from the plumber: IT WAS OVER $700. 

I immediately called the company, which we've used before but on big things that we knew would be expensive, and their service manager got back to me. He said that, yes, that was the price and they don't charge by the hour but by the service. He said they told James the price before they started, but I'm the one who usually does this kind of thing and if I'd been home, I would have told them no, thank you (and I'm pretty sure they would have still charged the $95 visit fee for nothing). 

I got on reddit and asked if I was crazy. People in Austin said they would expect to spend about that if they were also getting the disposal from the plumbing company, and also that this is the kind of jobs plumbers don't necessarily want to do, so they might overcharge for it to discourage having to lie at a weird angle or whatever. They suggested that next time I just get a general handyman. 

James mentioned that yes, they'd told him... and that he just was thinking about needing to get it done but that he might ought to have questioned it. Regardless, this seems egregious to me and I don't think I'm out of line. 

The service manager asked what I thought this should cost, and I said, "$250-300." He said, "Oh, yeah, we don't do anything that cheaply. We are not a sub-prime business." The general consensus on the local reddit thread was that $350 would have been reasonable. 

What's dumb is that the manager who told me that they don't charge by the hour also said, "He did spend two hours there." James then told me that the first hour was spent trying to sell us this platinum service plan. When I mentioned THAT to the service manager, he did offer to refund the $95 trip fee, and I said okay. He asked, "Will that make it better?" I said, "It will make it better, but not okay." And I was upset so I hung up on him. 

Why was I upset? 

Because I try SO HARD to steward our resources well. Obviously, I do minor home maintenance on my own when I can. I bought a couple of shirts yesterday for $5 each because a high-end store sends me a $20 gift card every year for my birthday and I go in, head straight to their clearance racks, and pick out things I'd never pay full price for. (Literally both of those shirts were originally $45-50, and there's just no way.)

Then something stupid happens like I get in an accident and have to have body work done on the car. Or a plumbing company charges us 10x what the garbage disposal cost to install it. 

James has to work almost 50 hours to pay for that repair, and that's basically two weeks' worth of work since he's still part time. We're fortunate to still have a little cushion, but what about genuinely poor or cash-strapped people who need home repair? We really need to replace a bunch of wood on our porch and get it all re-stained. It will be $7500-$10,000. We can't afford it, so we're going to end up like I did with the house in Sherman where there's so much deferred maintenance that we eventually have to sell low to an investor. 

That's why I'm SO frustrated. I cheap out on groceries; we almost never buy meat, and I always get the store brands. I look for sales. I say "no" to things all of the time. Then my stupid nickle-and-diming feels pointless when something huge like this happens that is totally outside of my control. 

That's it. I could rant all day, but I won't. You're welcome.

The world doesn't want me to buy things today

Except for our oven (which we're going to simply throw out and not replace as soon as James builds me a cabinet to hold an induction burner), we've replaced every appliance in our kitchen since we bought the house 6 years ago. The garbage disposal was supposed to have been replaced by the seller but wasn't, the fridge and dishwasher died, and the microwave was murdered by a power surge (the day we activated our solar panels, and the company that installed them reimbursed us for a new one, so no harm/no foul).

Sadly, the dishwasher I chose was garbage. I don't know what to tell you. I'm a cheapskate. I spent a very few hundred dollars, not realizing that LG is widely known as a crap dishwasher. We've had issues with it pretty much from the beginning, with the door making a LOUD noise when opening and closing. Also, the fat doesn't get enzymed away, and instead builds up in the nooks and crannies of the drawers, and all over the floor of the dishwasher. When I go to "rinse off" the filter, it makes me want to barf. I have to wear gloves, because holding it leaves such a layer of orange, thick, sticky fat that if I use my bare hands, there's no effective way to wash it off. And it grosses me out that we still put our dishes in there. They come out mostly clean, but the idea of it is sickening. I spend almost as much time trying to clean the dishwasher as I would if I just hand-washed the dishes (which wastes water, so I try not to).

We decided that the time had come to bite the bullet and spend a few extra hundred dollars on a more reputable dishwasher. I had looked at several and finally found a model that seemed to work for us. I called the local distributor and he helped me make sure we were getting the right one (this one has a water softener, so hopefully that will help keep the enzymes active enough to wash that nasty stuff down the drain like it's supposed to do. The sales guy said he'd send me an estimate for the washer and installation, I'd get 3% off if I wrote a check, then they'd call to schedule as soon as they'd gotten a picture of the check from me. Cool.

But he didn't send me an estimate. And, sadly, after about noon, I didn't get a chance to do anything so I guess I'll call him back in the morning and follow up.

The guy who's been mowing our yard since 2018 has been getting busier and busier, harder to nail down. We often go two weeks beyond when we actually need the yard mowed, and I feel like I'm harassing him. So we've been talking about buying another electric lawn mower for a while. The one we had before only lasted about a year and a half before the battery wouldn't fully charge, and I learned that you can't get a replacement because both the lawn mower and the battery itself are no longer manufactured. I knew the lawn mower had been discontinued when I bought it. That's why it was on such a great sale! Again, I DO NOT LIKE TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY. But in this case, it bit me in the butt.

So today, I looked at a bunch of reviews and ended up picking out a mower and an extra battery (having to charge 3/4 of the way through the job is a real bummer). What's wild is that the battery alone costs 4/7 the price of the lawn mower! Anyhoo, I ordered it from Lowe's and then realized a couple of hours later that the sale hadn't gone through. They requested a different payment method. I got James's credit card and tried that, but it didn't work, either. Turns out that both Apple Card and the Amazon Visa we have declined the charges, probably because instead of processing it as one sale, they charged the battery and the mower separately, and two several-hundred-dollar charges in a row at a place we rarely spend that kind of money looked sus. We informed our banks that they weren't fraudulent, but I have to wait to call Lowe's tomorrow and have them process the sales.

I do hate spending money, but today I really tried to! The internet just didn't want to let me.

Then this other thing happened that was pretty significantly cooler.

We had a Panda Express coupon that expired today, so of course we had to use it (savings!). D had requested PE this weekend, actually, so it was a perfect time to get a discount. We'd pre-ordered food and I ended up there about 10 minutes before it was supposed to be ready. I ran in to use the restroom, as Mal and I had been running errands for almost an hour at that point, and then Mal mentioned that he was hungry. We'd just picked up groceries, and he wanted to go out to the car to get a Clif Kids Z Bar, then go back inside and wait for the food. He ran like a crazy person through the parking lot, and a man getting out of his car seemed amused by it.

When we got back inside, Mal practically inhaled the granola bar before noticing this cute panda plushie that was for sale at the cash register. He brought it over to show me, and I told him that he couldn't just walk off with it and asked him to put it back. He said, "But I kind of wanted it." I told him that I'd see how much it was when we got our order, but that he needed to put it back until then.

A couple of minutes later, the gentleman we'd seen in the parking lot walked over and asked me if it was okay for him to give Mal a gift. I said sure. He asked Mal's name, then said, "I want to tell you one thing: Never take a present from a stranger if your mom isn't around, okay?" Mal said, "I already knew that!" The guy said, "Good. Here you go." He'd bought Mal the panda! It was so sweet.

On the way home, Mal said, "That guy gave me two things: advice, and a stuffed animal!"

The Joys of Home Ownership, and other adventures

This week, we're having the big old Chinaberry in our front yard cut down because it mostly died during the freeze in February, and it had already dropped multiple limbs in the yard and onto our roof and the open patio, shearing off a corner of a support post.

I hate to see any tree go, even an invasive one, but especially one that was so big and lovely. But we did see this coming and planted a pear tree about 15 feet further away from the house last spring. We've been fortunate enough to have a bunch of rain, so the tree "took" very well, and has some new green growth since we first planted it. It even had a few wimpy flowers earlier.

Speaking of rain... take a look at this extended forecast for the rest of July:

This is MUCH lower than Austin's "average" high of 95.2 (which usually involves a few days of these temps, and equal days of high-90s/100+). On the one hand, the cooler temperatures should keep us from running the air conditioner as much. On the other, the cloud cover means we won't generate much solar so our actual bill might be higher. Still... I'm never going to complain about milder temperatures. It's been practically lovely so far this month. A few super humid, sweltering days. But not many. It's weird. 

We have a plumber coming on Thursday, and this will allegedly complete the master bathtub repairs that we've needed for more than two months. I don't know if this is common practice or a new thing, but one reason it's taken so long for us to have the repairs completed (aside from one of the issues NOT being plumbing, but being a roof leak) is that we are having to get our own parts, and we are lay people who do not speak "plumber."

Like, when they told us we needed to acquire a shower valve, that's what I did. When they showed up to install it, they asked if I got a trim kit. I said no, and asked if we needed one. They said we did. Since this was the second time it had been suggested that we might want to replace our "trim" and I had no idea what they were talking about, I just said, "Can you point at what I need to get?" Well, now I know that a "trim kit" is the shower head, handle, and tub spout. When the first plumber suggested that to take care of a leak, we might want to replace our trim, what WE thought he meant was the really crappy wooden tack-up job that handyman did for us at the beginning of the pandemic. We know it's not perfect, but it IS actually better than what was there before, and I was pretty sure it wasn't allowing water to leak anywhere.

New information in hand, I ran to Lowe's, bought the only non-chrome trim kit that they had, and got back in time for the plumbers to install it. Except that it wasn't Moen. THEY DIDN'T TELL ME THAT THE BRAND WAS IMPORTANT. Sigh. So they left, and I shopped for a Moen handle kit. At that time, I realized that we could have bought an inclusive trim kit with valve for much less than we piecemealed it. Double sigh.

We decided that we could install this ourselves, and would reuse the spout we already had. I gave it a good CLR bath, and that helped a lot.

Nice, huh? Can you tell that we have VERY hard water?

Unfortunately, once we tried to put the spout back on, we couldn't get the base of it flush with the tile. It was about 1/4 inch away from the wall. I looked on YouTube at ways to fix this, and it involved cutting into the stud, which I'm not comfortable doing, especially that close to plumbing infrastructure. So we're going to pay the plumbers to install it (we bought a new spout which is Danco brand, but it's the same size and apparently the off-brand universal replacement for Moen) so we don't end up with leaks in the wall.

Then Saturday, the man who's going to fix our guest bath ceiling is supposed to start on that. While he's here, we'll have him give us an estimate to repair the drywall in the bathroom (which we've kept open until the whole master bath tub is dealt with), and HOPEFULLY that will be it for a while.

So, is it new that homeowners have to provide what I consider plumbing supplies on their own? When I was a property manager, our plumbing contractors had warehouses where they got stuff. If we needed something they didn't have, we paid them to find and procure it. Is it normal that they don't do that now? Or is it because of the pandemic supply chain? 

And if this is normal now, I'm going to need plumbers to leave me a detailed list of what I need, including brand, size, etc. Because I have no idea and it all looks pretty similar to me. I'm so tired of the whole thing; I need it to be over.

Honestly, we do have leaks in both our back (since we've lived here) and front (since the freeze) porches, and I don't know how much there is to do about those. It doesn't get into the house, so it's not a priority. 

This stuff all coming up right after we got an AMAZING offer on our house and just weren't able to move on it makes it even more maddening, honestly. Like, we could be in a different house RIGHT NOW and not dealing with this. Although I have no doubt that other places would have issues, too. This is just one more incentive to rent. I know you're not building up equity, but we've spent LOADS on repairs and upgrades since we moved in here.

Anyhoo, this week is a busy one. Mal went to Urban Air today and a friend of his ended up showing up unexpectedly. Tomorrow, we're going up to Temple to see Nana and Pappy, and to swim with Hannah and Chance. The Brownies are coming up in the evening, because it's Tian's birthday. We plan to hang out to see them for at least a few. Wednesday, we have the tree people coming. Thursday, I'm meeting a friend at a coffee place (no coffee for me, thanks). Friday, we might be going back to Urban Air or Indigo Play with two of Mal's neighborhood (kind of) friends. Saturday is one of Mal's homeschool friend's birthday party. 

I'm going to end with a few pictures from our trip last week, because I totally forgot even to mention it. We drove to Dallas on Sunday, July 4, and came back on Tuesday, July 6. But we had a fun time, and wanted Mal to get to visit Peppa Pig's World of Play before we have to hunker down with the puppy pretty seriously for a few months. It was good times with the fam (except for D, who thoroughly enjoyed having the house empty, and who took great care of everything while we were gone!).

Lunch at Joe's Crab Shack on the way out of town.

Bass Pro Shop!

This is the prettiest I've ever seen the Grapevine Mills parking lot.

Waiting for "rope drop."

First ones inside!

Eventful lunch at Rainforest Cafe.

Short stop at the Dallas Zoo... because it was HOT!

Dude, Sweet Chocolate! A family tradition.

Yes, that is a cheese cave. 

Here's a bonus: It's both of my kiddos taking a rest at the Dallas Zoo. Adorable. 

Pupdate!

Hey-o! Two weeks ago (June 13, 2021, to be precise), our whippet pup was born! Last Sunday, when the litter was about a week old, we got to pick the little dude. He's white with grey (maybe brindle) spots, and his name is Luke!

A cool thing about our breeder, Bwhippd, is that they have a live cam on the litter all of the time. We're getting to watch the babies squirm around and they are hilarious. I'll hear James laughing back in his office, and think he just read something funny... but it's just puppies being puppies. It's a nice pick-me-up.

Let me show you how much they've grown just in their second week of life! This first picture is from Sunday evening, and the second picture is from Saturday morning (two minutes ago).

Luke is the one with the blue collar. He's close to the bottom in both pictures. In the first, he's stretched out drinking some milk. In the bottom, he's up against the wall of the "nest." He definitely seems not to want to be in the middle of the crew thus far. I'm probably reading too much into it, but am hoping that bodes well for our crate/alone time training? (I'll rue saying this; I know I will.)

We will be able to pick Luke up sometime between August 9 and 15.

We have always rescued dogs before. Neither James nor I have ever bought a puppy, and have considered adoption a more ethical choice. Well, that was before we wanted to introduce a dog into a home with two extremely sensitive kids (neither of whom actually wants a dog) and three grumpy old cats who are set in their ways. In this instance, for a dog to have much of a chance to fit in with our extremely specific needs, we had to choose wisely, know the breed characteristics, and train it from the beginning. 

So, we're pretty excited to get everything else set up. I think we're mostly ready! I believe I'm going to make a video soon about the preparations. Is there anything you can think of that would be a must-have for a new puppy? I've literally never had a baby dog before!

                                                                            +++++++

At first, I started with this paragraph, then realized Blogger would make this the thumbnail picture, which I did not want to happen! So just FYI... You guys. I cannot even believe how many phone calls I've made in the past two or three weeks, trying to get plumbers and reconstruction folks just to come out to our house. I'm exhausted. But I'm not going to talk about that because...

So I decided to talk about YAY PUPPIES! Because that's what everyone wants to read about, anyway.

Nature Taking Over

One of the things we really loved when we first bought our house was the mini "nature trail" that was right behind our back fence. It became pretty clear after the first year, however, that the people who owned the property before either did a lot of upkeep or just did a bunch of clearing right before selling the house.

Here's what it looked like in January 2017, the month after we moved in.

That "rail" is the remnant of a platform and step down into the grotto. I can't tell whether it started coming apart from age or if the Lower Colorado River Authority, which owns the property ours kind of surrounds, told them to take it down and they half-assed it.

Anyway... want to see it now?

BEHOLD! The triumph of NATURE!

While I'd like to be able to access the back part of that lot without having to be super wary of snakes, I also like the wildness coming right up to our fence. Here's one of the gates three and a half years ago.

Here's what that area looks like now.

Is there still even a trail? We have no way of knowing.

It would cost a lot, either in time or money, to un-wild that portion of the lot. I'm not willing to do it. I love how, in a few years, we won't be able to see the fences at all.

Especially as our neighborhood grows, in terms of new homes, the better "hedge" we can have from having to stare at development, the happier I'll be.

Grow on, wild plants. Grow on.

The Other Side of That Coin

I'm well aware that my last post, though full of thrilling twists and turns, was also extremely whiny and self-serving. So please allow me to put here another truth I know to be equal to my own feelings of loneliness in terms of keeping the house and the people in it: I do not pay for it. And THAT responsibility lies solely on the shoulders of my husband.

Simply: I do not possess the earning ability to maintain our current living arrangements, and in that way, James is our only hope of staying here in this place that we love (when there isn't machine-operated construction going on both across the street and across the other street, many days simultaneously, resulting in it sounding like it is IN our front rooms). I cannot imagine the weight of that stress.

If James does not like his job, that is unfortunately not the only thing he has to think about. He can't get fed up and just quit. And if he does ever seek out another job, it has to be a certain type of job, mainly exactly what he's doing now and has done since we got married, in one form or another. I think he'd be an amazing educator, but unfortunately, he simply could not bring home the kind of money we need to pay for our relatively inexpensive (for the Austin area) home on a teacher's salary.

Fortunately, he really likes the company he works for now. I definitely want him to be happy with where he spends so much of his time! They feed him two meals a day, too, which actually takes some of the burden off of me in terms of meal prep. Shortly after Mal was born, I was still making breakfast, packing James lunch, and then putting dinner together. I can't imagine doing that now (much less when Mal was SOOooo much... and I was so frazzled).

I've never been a good "business" person. I've been a "show up and try to do more than they expect" person at any job I've ever had, but I've never worked somewhere that I developed a deep passion for what might become a career for me... except maybe TCBY when I was in high school, but a different shop turned me sour on it when a bunch of weird stuff happened, like my being framed for stealing money, which I quickly disproved by having the manager look on the counter and see that I hadn't even taken the key home and someone else closed up after I left. And NOW, most TCBYs are self-serve, so... well, I'd still probably work there if I needed to make some extra bank. Again, though, that'd be a minimum wage job. I'm basically worthless.

I appreciate James's work ethic, and that he's good at something that lets me stay home with the kids and do what I love to do. I guess it'd just be nice to have an au pair or something who would only come out of their hidey-hole a couple of times a week, and who would work for free.

Now I have to go finish watching them install this septic tank. It's truly fascinating stuff.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

(I suppose we have a collective mouth? That sentence doesn't make sense, but I wrote it like a week ago, so I guess I'll keep it.)

We've been bandying this about for a while, and it seemed time to put up or shut up.

I'll admit that I dragged my feet on the global climate issue for quite some time. But now, we're at a point where it seems like a lot of action needs to be taken (ESPECIALLY by the something like 100 giant companies that produce 71% of our earth's greenhouse gases).

But, honestly, we can all act in small ways that might make a difference. You know, lots of people doing lots of small things can be a big thing.

Anyway, something I didn't even know existed and am, frankly, skeptical about, is that our electric co-op has a renewable energy rider. If you sign up for it, it costs less than $1 a month extra, and they provide your electricity strictly from renewable sources (water, wind, solar, bio fuel). I have a lot of questions about this: Is there an external source monitoring this? Do they guarantee it? Why, when it's so stupidly cheap, doesn't just everyone do it? Why didn't I know about it until I searched for it? Maybe they can't accommodate every single person choosing that? Anyway. Lots of questions. But we did sign up for it, anyway.

And now, we've decided, after ruminating for a bit, to take the plunge and get solar panels. We're aiming to produce about 90% of the electricity we use, so the financing should be about the same price as our electric bills would be during the summer. It'll be a little higher during the milder months, but also hopefully our net metering, wherein we earn credit for excess energy we produce that our electric company buys from us (at half what we pay them for their stuff, but that's business for you), will help make up for that at that time.

Regardless of if we end up paying a bit more out of pocket, James and I have both been trying to figure out ways to reduce our impact on the environment. Hopefully this will help.

Honestly, committing ourself to MORE debt (all we have otherwise is our house and car, but still...) and ANOTHER monthly payment has me all up in "buyer's remorse" territory, even though we still have three days to back out. But, again, the net is negligible. AND this is, for now, anyway, the last year the government will give us a tax credit for 30% of the cost to install. Next year, it goes down to 26%, then in 2021 to 22%... then it goes away. Also, existing and potential tariffs are affecting and threaten to affect pricing. So, again... we're kind of in a sweet spot.

In other notes, we placed one of our apple trees in a bad place, solar-wise, so we'll just have to be sure to top it in a few years, and every year after. James said that no one wants to climb 40 feet to get an apple, anyway, so this is probably just a super practical idea on its own merit.

That's it for now! Keep going, earth!

Follow-Up (Or How It All Ended... Almost)

This is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down...

Not really. Just a continuation of the previous post about home and car repairs and whatnot and so forth.

The house: The water damage guy came back on Monday (President's Day) to find that D's room was mostly dry. All of the areas where we saw water leaching and leaking from the ceiling were fine. At the wall shared with our bathroom, though, it was still damp. He moved some stuff around, took one fan, put the dehumidifier in our bathroom, and left everything another day. By Tuesday, it was all dry, so D finally got to return to the isolation chamber.

Joking aside, that kid handled the stress of having basically zero privacy for four days amazingly. It made me very proud, and hopeful for the future, since the anxiety management was so effective.

The SUV, however, is another matter: I picked it up from the shop on Thursday morning, about a week ago, to find that the gas gauge didn't work anymore. It had worked before, and we'd already had the "the battery keeps dying" drama, and I wasn't ready to handle finding a ride home and keeping the vehicle there, so I put it off for a bit. I did call them and told them what had happened, and they said to let them know when I could bring it back in.

THEN the water thing happened, and there was no way I could handle the auto repairs while we were dealing with all of that.

Also, we'd agreed to donate our Cobalt to KUT, holding off about two weeks after our SUV purchase to make sure it would run okay, and we were getting close to that pick-up with no definite resolution on the new (to us) vehicle.

In the midst of this, Mal and I drove up to see my parents and spend a night just to get some people out of our house, which was down one bedroom and one bath. The Torrent drove beautifully, and was SO much more comfortable than the car. It gets pretty good mileage, too: 24 mpg for the first couple hundred miles we drove it.

Unfortunately, the "check engine" light was still on, so it wouldn't pass inspection, and we couldn't register it. The clock is ticking on that particular item, too, as half of the 30 days have now elapsed.

So yesterday, we took the SUV back to Klingemann. After we'd been there almost an hour, they said it would take at least another hour just to get the fuel tank out, and then they'd have to evaluate what was wrong. They kindly gave us a shuttle home; I'd intended to take a Lyft, which was $11, but after 11:30, the "busy lunch" rate kicked in and it was almost $30!

Last night, they called us and said they'd put a whole new (not after-market) fuel pump in and had had the same problem. He told me he'd call me back on Saturday.

I got two calls this morning.

The first call was from a lady whose brother bought the 1/3 acre lot right behind our back lot about a week ago. I had heard them looking at it last Friday, and James had met them on Saturday when Mal and I were in Temple.

The lady is interested in purchasing our "extra" lot so she can retire here. We spoke for a bit this morning, and I learned that Jonestown apparently adopted some building guidelines that would make it impossible for our house to be built today: Namely, that homes have to be at least 1000 square feet (check) and have to have a 2-car garage (nope). Anyway, we chatted for a bit and she made it clear that she wasn't interested in haggling, so for us to tell her what we'd take for it and get back to her.

Then Klingemann called. And they made me cry. This probably would have happened, regardless of the prognosis, but he said basically this: We put in a third fuel pump and had the exact same problem, so we put it in fluid and realized that the sender is bad. I have one on order from Houston. Had we caught it last week, and we should have, we could have told you that it would cost extra. Since we didn't, we're going to eat it. We'll have the part Monday and get your car back to you then.

So. Whew.

After this, James, Mal, and I went out to the back 40 to see exactly what we'd be selling off. Long story short, we had such a good time (well, all of us but Mal, who was scared and wanted to go to our "real" back yard) that we decided we couldn't part with the land until Mal has had a chance to get out there and explore and have adventures in a few years. Maybe when we get another dog.

This tree is LCRA property, but all of the stuff on the back of the grotto, in the background, is on our back lot.

Besides, 5 years from now, that property just might be worth double what it is now (the tax assessment went up 125% after we bought the property), and that's a lot better a return than we'd get if we sold it and put the proceeds into some investment.

I have high hopes now that I might be able to get the car titled and registered next week. The only possible hold-up will be that it's an out-of-state title and the seller has zero desire to go with me to the tax office (which they recommend), but I'm pretty charming and look legit, right?

One more kind of cool thing from today: We got out for a bit and when I came home and checked the mail, I was surprised to find two prepaid cards I knew *should* be coming, but one never knows...

A couple of months ago, I'd seen an offer for this credit card where you could get what is tantamount to a couple hundred dollars after you'd spent $500 during the first three months. Please! Our car repair and a couple of household bills, and we hit it on mine AND James's. And within a week, they sent us the cards! It was just a nice, encouraging way to approach the end of this whole set of circumstances.

AND, speaking of surprisingly quick action: I filed my taxes on February 11. They estimated that I'd have the refund by March 6, which wasn't in time to make our next mortgage payment and meant we'd have to pull MORE out of our dwindling savings. However, when I logged into my bank account on February 17, IT WAS THERE. So we paid EVERYTHING off that I'd been holding out on until the regular salary payments started back up, AND we have enough to make the mortgage payment with no further withdrawals.

Whoo! Getting back on track feels good.

And lest you think it's all fun and games, I realized this morning that we're 2 weeks out from Daylight Saving Time and if we keep our current schedule, Mal will be going to bed at 12:30 AM and sleeping until 11. Ugh. Let us all hope this story has a twist and as happy an ending as all of this other stuff.

This Week in Review

So, hey. How's your week been? (Pretends to listen intently for about four seconds.) Really? Great. Mine's had some ridiculous ups and downs, plus womanly hormones, and... well, I'm just ready for a new week, frankly. Here's a roughly chronological review.

We started the week with the SUV we'd just bought in the shop for a repair. We knew it needed an EGR valve replacement, but found out when we took it in Saturday that it actually needed the valve AND a whole new fuel tank. Since salvage yards aren't open over the weekend, and the repair shop really wanted to save us some money, they asked if we could wait until Monday when they could call around. (Shout out to Klingeman Car Care on this front. We used them in Oak Hill, and are fortunate that there's one even closer to where we live now over in Cedar Park.)

Sunday morning, Mal and I were going to visit a different church than we usually attend. It starts a half hour earlier than our home church, and since Mal is such a late riser, we pretty much had to throw his pants on and get him immediately in the car. The old, boring car, because our new (to us) car was in the shop. Do you remember that part? Yeah.

We drove way out into Leander, which isn't too far, but feels like another planet because we rarely go that way (we need to; there's a Bahama Bucks pretty close by!) and found the school where the services are held. But the only vehicles there were 3 cars and the trailer ubiquitous to haul-in churches. It was right at 10, so the only options were that they'd changed their service time and hadn't updated their website, or that only three cars' worth of people go to that church, which means their website is misleading and we're not interested because I'll explain why we were even visiting a different church in a minute.

A less introverted person would have gone in to see what was going on, but instead, I sat in my car and sent an email. I have not heard back from anyone. Thanks for making us feel welcome, church!

We ended up going to our church, and for the second week in a row, Mal was the only kid there. We love our church. We love the kids who go to our church. But none of them come regularly. Ever since school started back in the fall, it's like if there's a special thing, everyone shows up. Otherwise, it's Mal and maybe one or two other kids, but 3 weeks out of 5, it's just him.

The past two weeks, he's declined to go to childcare alone, and so the week before, we just left after the children's message. This week, he was interested enough in some magnets that we stayed. But he was so happy to go to McDonald's after and play with some kids.

In case you're wondering, I went through the drive-through at Taco Bell first and got two orders of nacho fries with two sides of cheese.

Do you realize we're only at lunch on Sunday so far?

Anyway, after we got home, I researched some churches around here, and that got really depressing. Here's the thing: I know exactly what I want in a church. Obviously, the very first and most important thing is what they teach, and what they believe about the Bible, and how that informs how their church works. I can tell from about 90% of the websites I look at that it's not for us.

Another way I can tell it's a big, fat "no" is when they have 40 staff. I have done megachurches. I'm over them. I want a smaller church. But smaller churches usually mean there isn't a lot of programming. And apparently if there isn't programming, busy-busy stuff, parents aren't super motivated to bring their kids. Especially since we homeschool, I need my kids to be able to make connections anywhere we spend a chunk of our time.

Monday, we had fun. Mal and I went to Jump Street and he played for a while with some rando kids who were there, then his friend Alexei met him and they had a good time. While we were there, Mal asked if we could use the photo booth. We usually do that at Chuck E. Cheese, but it's only 2 credits, or about $.50. It was $5 at Jump Street, but he was so excited. And here's what he had in mind.

He picked the frame, too.

On Monday, the car people told me that they'd found a fuel tank at a salvage yard, $400 cheaper than buying a new one from the dealership. They still needed several new parts, but we were grateful for the break. Also, we'd actually paid enough less than the couple was asking for the car that even with the more major repair, we were only out $100 more than we had initially thought we'd be paying for the car itself.

Also, we're getting quite a bit of money back from the IRS, mostly because James's old office withheld at a ridiculously high rate when they paid him out for his PTO. When we asked them about it, they said that was normal and it had to be done that way. It made that payment less than two-thirds what we were expecting, but I guess it all worked out because we will be able to use the money to pay off that repair. And some others, but we'll get to that. We're still just on Monday!

Incidentally, I'd had to contact the person who sold us our SUV because I needed her to sign the Texas title transfer. She was really weird about it, saying she'd signed over the (out of state) title and that meant she didn't own the car anymore. I further explained that we could not title the car without her signature, so she agreed to come over and sign it, which she did Monday morning. Then after Jump Street, Mal and I saw her again; she's a cashier at a dollar store. It was weird. Maybe I've seen her there before. She left a CD in the player of the SUV. It's labeled "Travel Music." The first song is "Margaritaville," and the second song is country, which Mal demanded I stop and turn on "the real music." That's my kid!

We got some Orbeez I'd ordered in the mail, and on Tuesday, we played most of the day with those. Mal even took a bath with them, and I have to tell you that it was a lot harder getting them out than I'd anticipated.

Even Carol is intrigued. 

Tuesday, I spent most of the day on standby mode, waiting to hear from the auto shop. I downloaded Lyft (which I've never tried; we did Uber a few times before they left Austin several years ago, though I suppose they're back now) and saw that it'd only be $8 to get a ride to pick up the car and save James that trip after commuting like he does.

I stress eat a lot when I'm restless, so that was the theme of Tuesday.

Wednesday morning, I called to check on the car. They said it was going well, but they hadn't gotten all of the parts in until Wednesday, and that they'd be done with the car that day.

Oh, hey, it was also Valentine's Day. We got the kids a couple of little treats, but James and I didn't do anything for each other. I got all sentimental about how fortunate I am to have James, and was going to write a thing about it, but have realized that I don't love writing as much as I used to at this moment. I will say this: I've been in several relationships where things similar to what have happened this week were sources of stress and blame and punishing. It's so nice to be able to be frustrated about a circumstance, but not have to worry about the reaction if I am to be the bearer of unexpected inconveniencing news.

At 5:14, 15 minutes before the garage closed, they called and said they were done with the repairs. Mehh. I told them I'd get it the following day.

Thursday, I was taking D and Mal to the Austin RV Expo. I figured we'd just get a Lyft to the garage, then go on from there. But James was home pretty late Thursday morning, so as soon as Mal and I got up, we got him to take us in to get it. I noticed from the street that the hood was released, and mentioned that I didn't want to forget that when I was driving home.

After James dropped us off and left, I found out why the hood wasn't secure: They were having to jump start the car every time they needed to run it. Apparently, he'd called to tell me about it, but 1) I never have my ringer on and 2) in this case, my phone was all the way off and I hadn't looked at it since the day before. He suggested we take it in and have it warrantied out because the battery was pretty new. I explained that we'd gotten it from a private party, and he shot out a couple of things it could be, one of which was a "phantom drain."

That reminded me that James and I had both noticed a green light on the tow wiring glowing all of the time at the back of the car. Although the gentleman offered to try to diagnose the battery problem, I wasn't in the mood to deal with it, and said we'd try to figure it out later.

Outside, though, while the guys were jumping the car for me, I mentioned the tow wiring again. One of the guys brought me a fuse and said he'd unplugged it. That was apparently all it was. It's started for us every time we've tried.

Oh, but it looks like they disconnected the gas gauge. I called to let them know, but I'm not emotionally able to take it back in for a few days. I told James I should take the bill from the rather hefty auto repair and write on it with a Sharpie, "Here's your CD," then wrap the CD in the bill and mail it to the lady who sold us the car. I have many passive-aggressive ideas I do not act on. You're welcome.

Thursday, I woke up early and bought airline tickets for a trip we have planned for the fall. Southwest just released the tickets yesterday, and I'm hoping that having bought them the day they went on sale AND purchasing the auto-check-in will mean we can at least have some choice in where we sit. After that, I went back to sleep for a bit.

Later, we woke D up and drove downtown to the RV show. It was fun. The trends I noticed (since I bought my RV 7 years ago) were: Outside kitchens pretty standard, fold-down patios as an option, and electric fireplaces. D is thinking about purchasing an RV in a few years, so we scoped out some possibilities and got some budgeting ideas. It was nice, but I could tell that after about an hour, we'd reached D's limit.

We passed the AAAS annual meeting setup on the way in and out, and really wished we were signed up for that! It looked super cool. We also passed this, just sitting in the middle of the big lobby of the Austin Convention Center.

It's a breast-feeding/pumping hut.

Interesting. There are two bench seats and one little table area, and a tiny mirror. Mal and I both fit in there, and it was cheery enough for such an apparently claustrophobic pod.

When we got home, it was gorgeous out, so Mal and I spent a couple of hours in the yard, and I totally forgot about fixing dinner until James got home. Fortunately, we had some tasty left-overs.

It was too pretty to stay inside

This morning, I woke up earlier than Mal again. It's interesting. He's been sleeping 6-8 hours straight the past 3 nights. He starts waking asking for "nursies" between 5:30 and 6:30, but then will usually sleep until 9ish.

Today, while I was eating breakfast and waking up, D came into the kitchen to report an apparent roof leak. There was water pouring out of the light fixture. Fortunately, our electric system worked. As soon as the water started pooling, the breaker had tripped, shutting off D's noise-maker fan. That woke D up, and revealed the leak.

I was about to call my friend Jacob (at Birdcreek Roofing) and decided to see if I could tell what was going on first. I climbed up into the attic -- which was dark because the power was off to that part of the house -- and could first hear and then see that it was the water heater. Steam was shooting out from the top of the unit.

Here's my scientific way of choosing a service provider: Open Yelp! and look up the category. Pick the first one near me with mostly all-5-stars. If they answer, they win. If it goes to voice mail, hang up and call the next person.

I ended up speaking with Blue Dragon Plumbing. When I described what was happening, he pretty much nailed what was wrong. He was on the south side of Austin but said he'd make his way up and call me after an appointment he had.

It's interesting, I was too distracted to be icked out by the attic, and then later James advised that I not try to shut off the water to the house (which I'd done hours before) because our inspector said we had black widows in the box. Fortunately, I didn't remember that particular bit of information at all, nor did I see any spiders.

The dripping slowed once I'd shut the water off and emptied (I thought) the water heater. I called ServiceMaster to get them out and drying everything, but it went to voice mail. They were our first pick because James used to work for them, and they're recognized nationally as experts.

But I moved on because I needed speed! Tetris Cleaning Service answered and was at my house within the hour. He had a neat water-vision camera (I don't know what it's called, but it's so cool). He was able to see that we had some water at the seams of our bathroom walls/ceiling, and then D's whole ceiling was just a wet mess.

I don't know if you can see, but pretty much the whole ceiling is damp. But the water was only dripping through at the light fixture, and that one big bubble at the drywall tape.

He was able to verify that the water was clean, and that the stuff in the middle was still HOT. It had absorbed into the fancy new insulation we just had blown in a few months ago, and was holding heat. He removed all of the wet insulation (which we're still paying for, because 2 years was zero interest, so why not?), put two fans in our bathroom, and put 3 fans and a dehumidifier in D's room.

D's room is shut off now, and so D will have to find somewhere else in the house to crash. But the fact that it is closed off means that the rest of the house isn't too loud; it just sounds like when the dishwasher is running. The fans in the bathroom aren't any louder than a box fan, either.

The cats are kind of freaked out. They won't use the two litter boxes in the main bathroom because it's so close to D's loud mystery room, and because the dehumidifier drain hose runs through there and into one of the sinks. The litter boxes are surrounded. But hopefully they'll get over it and get used to it soon. We should have the fans until Monday or Tuesday, and they have to run constantly. He said "24/7," but he meant "24/4."

We filed a claim on our homeowners insurance (shout out there to my agent, Moses), but will probably end up closing it out, since it's likely we'll spend just under our deductible, anyway. I need to remember to call the adjuster tomorrow.

The water heater guy got here while the water damage mitigation guy was still here, and they both left around 4. When James got home, we were trying to decide what to do about food, and I couldn't help him decide anything. He kept talking about going somewhere, but I was so gross. I'd gone to sleep with Mal last night, deciding I needed sleep more than a shower, but then missing out all day when I couldn't catch one this morning.

James would suggest going out, I'd blanch at that, he'd say he'd go into town and get something, and I didn't like the idea of his leaving again, or of his having to drive more after his commute.

Finally, I realized I was being a giant poop and just put on some different clothes and a baseball hat, and we went to this place that has an outdoor playground for Mal... Only to find that they are permanently closed. So we ended up having dinner at Freebirds, and I felt tons better after getting some veggies and cheese into myself.

We went to Walmart after dinner and finally found Mal the only 3 color-change Hot Wheels they had left. They were only $3.50, which is anywhere from 1/5 to 1/10 the price I've found for the color-changing Cars cars he's wanted. When we go home, he played with those for a good hour, going back and forth between between the colors.

Now I'm ready to go to bed. I've done 3 loads of laundry and a dish-washing load since the water came back on. Mal's been asleep for almost 2 hours, which is an early bedtime for him. James is on the phone with his brother. D is in our room enjoying the big brown recliner. I'm tired. I'm glad James has 3 days off, and hopefully when he goes back to work on Tuesday, our house will be back to "normal." And our car will stay fixed. And things can go back to being normal.

Have a good weekend, friends!

Oh, and here's a tip: WHEN YOU LEAVE YOUR HOUSE FOR A FEW DAYS, TURN OFF THE WATER AND DRAIN THE WATER HEATER. You might never have needed it, but you do NOT want to come home to a week's worth of what we had 12 hours' worth of today.

Homeowner's Week of Fun!

The past few days, we've definitely felt the full brunt of home ownership.

First, after some on-and-off really heavy rains Tuesday, that night, we had the windows open as it was gorgeous out (immediately after rains are often the only times it's not ick humid... except when it is). There was a very obnoxious noise coming from the neighbor's yard, maybe? I asked James what it was, and I went outside. It was to the east of our house... As I was looking to see if maybe someone was using a saw or grinder, I saw the light on the mystery box at the back of our fence lit. Uh oh. All I knew was that it was ours, it had something to do with the septic tank, and that can't be good.

I had no idea what to do, and more than concern over the septic was concern over how to make that box STOP MAKING THAT NOISE, and how much is it going to cost to get someone out here at 7:30 at night? I looked up the name on the box, and tried to find a way to shut off the noise, but neither proved helpful. So I called non-emergency police and said, "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what to do here..." They put the fire department on the line, and that lady told me I'd need to call a septic service. By the way, the reason I called local authorities in the first place is that our septic tank is kind of "governed" by the Lower Colorado River Association, and they were closed, so I didn't know if there were a protocol about which I was not aware.

AND THUS, I called a generic septic service. They told me that I could indeed turn off the alarm myself, and then I needed to give the drain field time to dry out, as it was likely saturated from the rains plus my having done laundry. I didn't realize that we needed to try not to put a lot of water in the system during heavy rains. I had a septic tank for 7+ years in Sherman, and never ever heard that.

Anyway, I went back, and, sure enough, there WAS a "silence" switch. I hadn't looked really thoroughly because 1) it was loud, 2) there is a lot of growth, including poison ivy, back in that corner (probably outta do something about that), and 3) I was kind of freaking out.

After 24 hours, the light was still on, and that was a problem. The stuff I'd read said 10-15 hours and the light should go off. It also said the alarm gave us 24-48 hours before it would reach critical mass. So something needed to happen.

A tech made it out on Friday (yikes!) and, as it turned out, the drain field wasn't saturated. The septic pump was burnt out. It was kind of funny: The tech gave James the price for the pump, and when James said, "Yeah, of course... what am I going to do?" the tech kind of laughed and said, "Yeah. You have to."

As a consolation prize, here is a thing I saw in our yard this week.

During this same time frame, our Nest thermostat gave us a warning that something specific was going on, complete with a URL to look up. I did, and it gave me trouble-shooting tips, THEN asked me to do some wire stripping and reattaching, that I did not feel comfortable with doing. So I called them, and they talked me through some stuff on the phone, and between what they can tell on their end and what I was able to read from our system, they were able to determine that the original message error was gone.

However, at that point, our actual air conditioner wasn't working. I'd reset every breaker when we were doing the thermostat stuff, but the house wasn't cooling down. It took us about 45 minutes, but finally, for some reason, at some point when I flipped the breaker, the unit came back on. So that was a fix without having to spend any money. Yay!

Saturday, we'd come back from a walk or something when I started wondering why there was so much Chinaberry debris in our front yard. Looking up, I realized that a large branch had mostly broken off and was just wedged in. Heavy winds, and it would come down. We tried stuff with our ladder, rake, etc. and it didn't work, so we had to buy one of those telescoping-handled saw/branch snipper thingies. The only ones I saw in Lago Vista were chainsaws, and those were $400-600, so James went into Cedar Park and got a hacksaw thing for like $50.

I was able just to manhandle the branch down, after a few tries, standing on the porch and therefore under the roof so the branch wouldn't maim me (yes, I wore goggles). Then I realized there was ANOTHER branch above that one that was also dead. James came out and helpfully pointed out that I didn't actually have the thing fully extended, which would have helped with the first branch, but was absolutely necessary with the second. I had to saw that one off, as the break was on top of a branch, and the dead part was pretty securely wedged in.

That was a work-out! But it finally came crashing down, and Mal even helped me clean up the front yard of all of the sticks and leaf bunches.

Between that maintenance stuff and then my spending 4 hours Friday mowing and weed-eating, then James spending really untold hours all weekend planting irises a neighbor gave us, we've been feeling very much like fully-fledged homeowners.

And while we're outside working and enjoying stuff, here is a little record of what our back yard looks like right now, if you're interested. I took the video to mark this for posterity's sake, so if you don't want to watch it, I'm not even offended. Also, the wind wasn't that bad; I need to get a muffler for my camera, or a remote mic with a cover.

Lots of other stuff, but we'll save that for another time. Happy Easter, and have a good week!

The Colorful World of Poverty on Television (and in my own house)

We all know the "ugly girl" trope on cheesy TV shows: glasses on a hot girl and, boom, she's ugly!

But have you noticed what I've noticed about how the lower middle class is presented in television shows? Their homes are bathed in color. People who have above-average means (most people on television) tend to have a general color theme, but "poor" people just have random stuff sitting around, I guess, and that is what shows us that they're not people of means.

For example...

Of course the first thing to spring into my mind is the Conner house from "Roseanne." My grandma crocheted (or knitted??) at least one blanket like that. How about yours?  I guess the theme here is that they have mismatched pieces of furniture, and this shows that they don't have any money, because if they did, they'd have stuff that was matchy-matchy? In fact, did they change it the last season?

Oh, another thing that shows "poverty" in television shows is the colorful restrooms. Here's the one in the Conner house.

I actually dig the flamingo curtain, obvs. I'm sure if someone bought a house with this bathroom today, they'd rip it out... but I don't know that I would. I think it's kind of cute.

The bathroom on "Malcolm in the Middle" had a similar pink and blue theme, but I can only find a .gif of that from the spider episode. So just trust me.

On "Married with Children," the living room was kind of bland, but that was to illustrate Al Bundy's life, I'm guessing. His very colorful wife had a bathroom that reflected her own personal, ahem, taste?

On The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt, Kimmie and Titus live in a basement apartment in an allegedly poor (but gentrifying) and crime-ridden area of New York. Again, we have these deep, rich colors: turquoise on the walls, red window coverings, purple paint in another room, patterned flooring, and mismatched couch cushions on a blue couch.

Oh, plus Ms. White going "upstairs." Genius.

It doesn't look that small or that awful to me, but when richer people come by, they always remark about how poor Kimmie is. *shrug*

I don't watch Shameless, but have read that it's one of the better depictions of poverty on television righ tnow. Guess what?

Right: colored walls, wallpaper with tiny pattern, that bright turquoise pack-and-play, teal shelves, and colorful stuff on the shelves. Then the kitchen (below) has curtains with a small pattern and a bunch of stuff hanging on the wall. So I guess any small pattern, whether as wallpaper or on draperies, indicates that one didn't have the funds to buy something more subtle?

One of my favorites, both in terms of the television show itself and the decor, is The Middle. It looks "real" to me, and it looks comfortable. And I can relate with the "months without a kitchen sink" thing. I never did that, but I did have no oven for a year once. But I'd totally live in the Hecks' house.

Handmade blankets are another common thread. Do rich people not use hand-crafted items made by grandma or anyone in the family? Do they only buy stuff from Peru that was pre-selected because it complemented their Flor tiles?

This whole house just looks like fun to me. A little loud? Maybe. But I'd take it.

Oh, and we can't forget another infamously poor group: The pals from Friends. Although their lack of funds and "crappy NY apartment" were a joke, guess what they had to PROVE they were poor? Yeah. Turquoise.

Oh, and mismatched dining chairs. Delightful.

So, what does that mean? I don't know, but I look at these obviously color-saturated abodes... Oh, yeah, here's one that's way more literal first.

Where Lois and Hal from Malcolm in the Middle lived after they'd had kids: 

Versus where they lived pre-kids, when both had jobs so they had more money (and time to clean, I suppose):

I couldn't find a great picture, but EVERYTHING was white.

Does this Hollywood design strategy reflect a larger truth? Our living room is crazy with randomness, but here's what I see when I look around: 1) A giant old comfy couch (that we haven't moved since 2013 because it's TOO HEAVY and justifies hiring movers all on its own) that was built during the 60s or 70s, likely, and that used to belong to James' grandma. It's orange and yellow and faded brown, as you would expect. 2) A giant blue recliner and a half that I bought for $25 from a guy who was moving out of our old apartment complex. It's SO comfortable. 3) A beat up old travel trunk that I bought off of Craigslist from a guy in Dripping Springs so James would have a place to store stuff in "his" new Austin house, other than just keeping it in boxes. 4) A red foam kids' couch that I got for Mal and that he uses as a ball pit sometimes; one of the best purchases I've made for him (other than his kitchen). 5) A red kids' recliner that someone who has never met me before ordered for Mal because she saw a picture of him watching TV sitting on a stepstool. 

You know what? That makes for one loud color pallette, but I love all of these pieces, and I did get an area rug to kind of pull everything together, but it actually adds another color (TURQUOISE!) that wasn't in the living room before, and there's no red in it. So it's still a hot mess. I probably could afford to switch it all out, but why would I? 

Color makes me happy. Patterns are fun. When I moved into my house in Sherman, a Las Vegas friend saw a picture of the dining area (which we used as a homeschool room) and said, "You can paint over that wallpaper and it won't hurt my feelings." I never did. It was warm and inviting. Did it look like it belonged in a grandma's house? Probably. But being at Grandma's feels nice, right?

When we moved here, I purposefully got mismatched dining room chairs. Again, I like the variation. And, if one breaks, I don't have to work hard to find an exact match. Just find something else that strikes my fancy at the time (which is a thing that your grandma would have said).

Our bedroom is another non-uniform collection: a bed we got because we gave up on our kid sleeping on his own for years, a leather recliner James "won" in a raffle (his friend was organizing the giveaway and manipulated the drawing), pictures from our trip to Haiti, nightstands that were originally end tables James' parents got as wedding presents maybe, and a cat condo. Oh, and a blue chair back with arms. 

I blogged a year or so ago about how I thought I would never own "grown-up" furniture, meaning a set of really anything. At the time, D didn't love my ideas and asked if we'd ever have a cohesive design scheme. However, lately, between the awesome NASA pictures we did (had each one printed on canvas), and the sweet outdoor couch area we finished off today, D is starting to appreciate the "quirky" "style." 

So there are two things: I want my house to be comfortable, and I think what we've done accomplishes that. Also, when our little tiny house downtown was up for rent, the listing called it an "adorable eclectic home."  Thing is, move our loud, clashy, comfortable stuff out, and it's just this kind of boring itty bitty space.

Thus, I'm sticking with the poor TV folk style. I like it, and I hope you do, too. Feel free to come over any time! <3