House in Upheaval

Our house is in the midst of such chaos right now.

On the interior front, we have a half dozen guys in and out of each of our rooms, garage, and attic installing a whole new HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system.   A little background on why this is necessary.  When we purchased our home in 2004, the previous owner had put a "new system" in so that he could "flip" the home quickly and offer more lure to prospective owners.  I'm not sure who he hired to do it, or if it was just him and some buddies working while only partially sober (kidding...), but the job they did was HORRENDOUS!  We've known that since we've lived here, suffering from not only inconsistent heating in all of the rooms, knowing my hot water supply will be limited any time I try to take a bath, paying twice the amount per month that we should for a house our size for our electric bill, and more recently, within the last two years, having to put a bucket in our garage to gather dripping water every time we run the air conditioning.  When we had the HVAC company that we are working with come in to look at our current system, they were appalled.  Where the vents are located, the venting system installation - all of it - it's horrible. 

So, we decided, since everything else on the outside of our house is torn up, we might as well allow for upheaval of our interior.  It sure isn't a cheap fix, but we know it will be worth it - if not for comfort, but then for the money we'll save each month.  In light of this, I've opted to stay at Michele's, where they have heat and unlimited hot water in a bath tub....ahhhhh!  =)

Perhaps because it knows we are really paying attention to it, our home is letting us know right and left about any and all other improvements necessary to fix or replace.  In the last couple of months, all of this has broken down: our bathroom toilet, our kitchen sink, our garbage disposal, our bathroom showerhead, and our fridge.  Unbelievably, as John was replacing most of those this last weekend, he determined our dishwasher wasn't draining either!  Are you kidding?  (We are hoping that is just a $3 replacement part - as we are running out of credit line at Home Depot!)  In addition, our washing machine should be added to the list as it sounds like a jetliner is landing everytime it hits the spin cycle, but at this point, we will run it until its dead...

This is not even addressing what is going on in our backyard - a whole lot to report there, but I'll save that for another post.   In the meantime, off to return soda cans with Michele and the girls in Salem.  Oh, the excitement of this year's spring break!!!