Cat Troubles

About the same time my mother-in-law passed away my cat started using the carpet in our living room as a litter box.  For a couple weeks we did not know where she was peeing because we could not find it anywhere (it is a nice shag carpet).  Then we noticed the smell and the poop every morning and evening.  We’ve tried a bunch of things to correct her behavior:

• tried different litter including Cat Attract litter
• tried moving her litter box to a less busy room
• tried moving her litter box to the place in our living room where she is making a mess
• tried moving her food to where she has been making a mess (she just moved over a few feet and went to the bathroom)
• tried CatScram ultrasonic device that is motion activated that makes a sound that only Cats can hear

The CatScram seems to have worked for now.  For the last 2 days and nights she has avoided the room and used her litter box instead – yeah!  Fingers crossed I won’t have to try the next course of action – indoor electric fence with collar.

If this keeps working then we are going to have to do something about the smell in the living room.  We’ve tried PetZyme but it still smells.  I think we might have to replace the carpet or at least the padding – bummer since the room is huge.

Mother-In-Law Passed

The last few weeks have been pretty long and hard.  My mother-in-law passed away after suffering a series of organ failures at the hospital.  She went in for a skin infection that was coming every few months. Her kidneys failed almost immediately.  They tried to do dialysis but continually had problems.  She improved with the help of IV antibiotics and was moved to ICU step-down.  Then the infection numbers skyrocketed.  They think her colon ruptured.  Soon the infection spread to her blood.  Her lungs began to fail and they put her on a respirator.  Her liver began to fail as well.  She was strong through it all.  As her body gave out, her mind was strong.  Her last three days on earth were full of pain and sorrow for those she was about to leave behind.  We all cried a lot because we all loved her so much.  She was kind and loving and funny and we will all miss her.

Strong Foundation

We have a crack in our basement wall.  Nobody noticed it during the home inspection but it is there.  We also have some door jambs that are out of alignment and the last few feet of our bedroom seem to slope.  All of these things had me worrying about the crack in the basement wall and that maybe the house was sinking near that wall.  I called Keith at KG Structures (found him on Angie’s List) and had him come out and take a look.  He charged $200 to come out and take a look but it was worth it.  He explained each of the issues and none of them were a big deal.  His advice was to do nothing because nothing needs to be done.  The basement wall crack was caused by not installing J bolts on the top of the foundation wall through the sill plate at construction time.  The doors being off alignment is caused by the wood floor joists flexing over time.  The bedroom wall sloping was caused by the last 3 feet being hung past the foundation wall over the garage and not properly supporting the end of the room on the I beam with a double or triple piece of wood.   Now I’m not worried about the foundation wall any more

New Switches & Outlets – $200

After we moved into the house D decided she wanted to have white outlets instead of putty colored outlets and switches.  We spoke with a builder friend of ours and he assured D that she could do it on her own.  I hit Home Depot and bought wire strippers and an outlet tester and a few outlets and switches and we started the project.  It got easier as we went along until we hit 3way and 4way switches.  Those 3way and 4way switches added a speed bump in the road as we figured out what they were and bought the right switches to replace them.  Now we have all white outlets and switches in the entire house.  We both preferred white but I wouldn’t have done the work if D hadn’t been pushing the project.  It looks pretty good now.

Big Lawn … First Mow

Yesterday I mowed the new 0.6 acre lawn for the first time with the little push mower.  It worked well for a 0.18 acre lawn but this lawn is three times the size.  Lucky for me the lawn is flat all the way around and the grass wasn’t that long.  It took me about an hour to mow it all.  It was hard to mow around the grapevines on the edge of the neighbor’s yard and the back yard was a little painful because of all the different flower beds that I had to mow around.  Still it went better than I expected.  I thought it might take a couple hours so I was happy that it only took one hour.  I am planning on mowing again with my push mower and then borrowing my parent’s self propelled mower for a few weeks to see how that works out.  Then I’ll decide if I want a self propelled mower or a riding mower.

Ceiling Fan Ghost

Our ceiling fan in our new master bedroom keeps turning on or off by itself.  After a while I guessed that someone in a nearby house was turning their fan on and off and our fan was listening in on the same frequency.  I took off the wall switch and opened up the fan casing and changed the frequency so hopefully our light won’t turn on at 7am tomorrow!  Mr. Fix It strikes again!

The Move

The move went pretty well.  The movers we had (Twinsburg Two Men And A Truck) were great.  They packed us and moved us (packed on Friday and moved on Saturday).  We had to disassemble several tables and shelves because we barely fit everything on the truck.  We ended up making a few trips with our cars including the last one with our cars packed full and the truck paced full too.  They moved all the boxes in and mostly to the correct rooms.  Then the fun started… we had to unpack a whole house including rebuilding shelves and tables and beds, etc.

My long time friend, Scott, was a godsend.  He helped so much in the last several days that I just couldn’t thank him enough.  He helped me with the garage, and office and kids rooms and master bedroom and bath.  He carried heavy things around (more than I did) and stayed late and got sore and dirty.  (thanks again man!)

Today we are pretty much done with the move.  So far I have already done a bunch of home improvement projects:

• Sanded and planed door to office so it would close/lock
• Chiseled and shimmed door on kids bath so it would close/lock
• Chiseled and shimmed door on downstairs bath so it would close/lock
• Shimmed door on Z’s closet so it would close
• Fixed lock on master left door (lock goes up into the door jam on top to hold the door stationary)
• Shimmed left and right doors on master so they close and lock (double doors)
• Chiseled door and replaced strike plate with taller one on master bath so it closes/locks
• Replaced kitchen phone socket with wall mounted one so phone can hang on the wall
• Replaced broken doorbell on front door
• Ran a double extension wire from the family room TV to the treadmill so you can wear headphones when you are on the treadmill instead of blasting the TV
• Fixed bent hinge on upper kitchen cabinet so it now hangs straight
• Assembled new garage tool holder and put all the tools in it
• Screwed tall shelves in garage to the wall (had to find a stud and drill through the metal shelf)

We have already had the cable company (Time Warner Cable) come and install the phone/cable/Internet and return 2 days later because both DVRs were broken (lovely).

Most of our family and friends have been over to see the house or help out in one way or another (thanks mom and dad and Urs and of course Scott).

Tonight I’m planning another trip to the hardware store so I can repair a leaky toilet and look for new drawer slides that fit our drawers (most of our drawers are rickety).

Ahh.. the joys of home ownership!

Waiting For Realtor To Call

We’re waiting for our real estate agent to call and give us the OK so we can start moving some things into the new house tonight.  I already got a call from the title company people saying that it was filed with the country so now we just need the key so we can get going.  Exciting stuff!

Final Walk-Through

This weekend we went to the final walk-thru for the home we are purchasing.  My parents and D’s dad stopped by to see the house for the first time inside.  It all went OK except I wasn’t exactly pleased with the placement of the radon remediation pipes from Suntech Radon Systems.

The pipes are not in the best locations for finishing the basement now so we might end up having to pay to move them to another location – total bummer.  We are still waiting for the radon re-test results on the house.  I have to say we had some difficulty with both radon companies.  Radon Survey Systems did the house we are selling.  Their installation is very well hidden and went very fast.  The problem we had with them was getting the paperwork in a timely manner as they promised.

Other than that the walk-thru went fine and we should be in the house before next week.

House Sold!

Yesterday we met with the closer from the title company and signed the paperwork for the close of the house we are selling (now sold!). It all went pretty well. Now we just need to do the same for the home we are purchasing tomorrow. Today I spoke with the mortgage company and the title people and everything seems to be on track. If it all goes well we could get the keys tomorrow. If there is a delay in filing the paperwork with the county then we might not get the keys until Thursday.