Upstairs bathroom plumbing fixed

The plumbing was not actually messed up but the old shower faucet was sorta broken. The old handle had two parts, one to adjust the temperature and the other to control the water pressure. The piece that was broken was the temperature part. It could do a whole 360 degrees and reverse the cold and hot. So Jeff and I bought a nice new MOEN shower set and had Skinner Plumbing from The Colony install it.

The other major things to finish is to patch the hole in the bathroom where a hole had to be cut to install new pipes (the other stuff was old, so good to have new ones), paint our stair hallway, replace the sliding door, and replace a few boards on the deck out back and stain it. It sounds like a lot, but I'm hoping this one handy man recommendation from our realtor is reasonable on the painting and fixing the bathroom wall and that takes care of that chore! Jeff and I already called Greg, Jeff's dad, and they are coming next weekend to help with the backdoor. We are buying french doors to replace the sliding glass door since the door is off and does not shut unless you lock it! :)

I already have a bunch of the little stuffed packed! I have an empty book shelf in the living room but Melody said not to leave it completly empty, so I'm putting my school stuff on the shelfs and will find a few fall decorations to go there too. The good thing about packing all the small stuff is it will sure help keep it clean while it's on the market.

College is going good so far. Staying pretty busy between school, packing, and a few mystery shops. I'm taking 16 hours this semester. I'm in Education of Exceptional Learners (learning how to educate kids with disabilities), Foundations of School Curriculum, Linguistics, Conceptual Physics, and Art for Children.

Selling the house

Well, Jeff and I have decided to put our house on the market. We were planning to stay here for two more years, but some of the extra expenses of owning a home are not cost effective for the fact of only staying here two more years. Some of the added maintence depending on what must be fixed or replaced will eat into the equity we have in it.

So for the time frame, we are probably about 2-4 weeks before putting the house on the market! Sorta exciting at the same time. Will be interesting with school as it was not something planned, but a agreed upon between Jeff and I between a few of the latest things breaking. The house was built in 1985 and it is only getting older. And again, most maintence is minimal, but the return on the investment is not high enough with the idea of moving in two. I commented to Jeff that if we would be here for the next ten years, it would be another story and he agreed.

So we have looked into apartments and it looks like we will either live at Madison at Round Grove or Rockbrook Creek apartments over in Lewisville off of 3040. I lived at the Madison apartments back in 2000 and really liked them and the management. Our house is 1260 sq. feet and we are looking at a 2 bedroom/2 bath at the Madison at 1228 sq. feet. The positive thing with this apt is Jakob and Roland's room is actually above the attached garage so if they jump or just them being boys, it will not affect the below residents! Rockbrook Creek had an apt at 1320 sq. feet with a detached garage, but I like the idea of being able to move everything into the garage with the move and then we can work through the boxes without having the mess in the apt as we do it. But with the two that we really like, if one apt is not available, we have a backup place.

We looked at apts out in Roanoke since it is close to 35W and would give the same distance to Denton as Lewisiville is to Denton, but there were not many apts out there yet and with no competition, it made the apts almost a $1/sq. foot which is expensive!

The other factor with deciding on a location was if they allowed large dogs. Both of these allow Tito to live with us which we wouldn't have any other way. We have to look for homes for the cats. They love it outdoors, so they are not too hard to take care of. Amy, my neighbor may take them...but I don't know yet. Lana and Greg, Jeff's parents, might be able to take them too. We are still hoping to buy a house in Keller after I start teaching but we'll play it by ear.

Jeff and I believe everything happens for a reason, so we'll get to that point when the times right!

A/C running cool

We have ac in our house again! The thermostat says it is 84 currently. I can handle that since it is continuing to cool off from being over 100+ degrees! And I was really tired of the hotel…I was ready to be home! Amy watched Jakob this afternoon so I could run and get the stuff out of the hotel and then Jeff and I went back this evening to get a few things from the fridge. Tomorrow, I’ll get the other few items from the fridge and check out of the hotel. So nice to be home!

Jakob and I went by The Colony Public Library today to pick up my books and I found another while I was at it! I picked up Beach House by James Patterson, One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, and Angles Fall by Nora Roberts! I just finished 1st to Die by James Patterson which is the 1st book of a series. That one is neat because he has 4 women that work together to solve the crimes. I started One for the Money yesterday, but then got excited with the extras, and started Beach House this afternoon. Figured I could switch the order of the reading! I have some free reading time for another week and half.

And luckily, my Dell batteries from my laptop are not showing up as needing to be recalled. I kept the screen shot that it said they did not need it in case something does happen I can say “I tried!”

Air conditioners are Great things!

Well, the summer session has finished! Yeah! I finished my Geography class and the Business Calculus class. My final for Geography was on Thursday, and I know I did good on it. The math class finished Friday and after I finished the test, three of us that were able to at the time went to speak to the Chair of the math department. We had a nice person as a teacher (a grad student actually), but not a good teacher for the course. The entire course, he would write the formula, normally go on forever showing the proof of why it worked, but hardly did examples on how to work the problems for the course. The teacher was Japanese, and he could speak English and communicate with us, but sometimes we think he did not always understand the questions we asked him at times. Luckily, for the class, Jeff took the class a few years back and remembered a decent amount and was able to help me. The other advantage was we had a good math book that actually had the examples. So we finished the test and with the “Power of Three” (as we laughed about) went to the math department. It took a moment, but we were able to get the forms to fill out in regards to him. The form included questions of what Math courses we had in the past (high school, and college) and then a section to express our concern. We all discussed the problems with the course. When we finished the Chair of the department spoke with us. His first comment when we sat down was how he always gets many complaints against teachers especially in summer, but there was one difference between the three of us. We weren’t sure what it was but he then commented that the big difference in the three of us was we all were GOOD students! Our past math grades were GOOD and our GPAs were GOOD! We weren’t the crappy students making low GPAs and expecting an A. We were concerned with future classes and wanted to make sure something was changed for his next classes. I could go on forever about all the problems…But on a positive note, I should have an A in that class too. Oh, Mom, since you always worry, the forms we filled out will not be seen by the teacher at all. These were documentation for the math department. I have to do the real evaluation soon. I have to check the deadline soon.

Well, sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning, our A/C in our house went out! Our neighbor Tim came over early Friday morning and did something to it and hoped it would have worked for the time frame. I got home Friday afternoon and Tim had planned on coming back over to work on it more. Well, unfortunately, the compressor has gone out on the unit and he couldn’t fix that. So Jeff and I called our warranty company for the house. It covers most of our appliances including the big things like the A/C and water heaters, etc. Anyhow, when I called the person said we should get a call within 4 business hours! I laughed and said um, 4 business hours is Monday! I said its really hot here, and we need someone immediately! He said (and I’m sure it’s b/c it was b/c of paperwork) why is it an emergency? I about said, “you got to be kidding me,” but I didn’t and just said because it’s over 100 degrees in North Texas! I also told him we had an 18 month old. He said b/c of the 18 month old it could be considered a medical emergency and we should have a call in 2 hours. Okay, so I’m thinking within that time someone would call and come out! Well, that was not the case! We called back 2 hours later and they said well, we should have a call within 2 hrs but the technician would be out within 24 hours. I was so irritated at that point!

Okay, so it’s now 8pm, and I’m hot beyond the point of dealing with any more. I had already looked up the different hotels in the area for pricing. I found a Budget Suites in The Colony that had a weekly rate for $209. I was hot, tired, and not dealing with the heat any longer. I called Budget Suites and found out they had a room available. I was able to cool off in the A/C from the car that by the time Jeff got in the car, I already felt better.

Saturday afternoon, the A/C guy authorized from our warranty company came out to look at the A/C. Of course we already knew from Tim that it looked to be the compressor, but we couldn’t really say we already had another A/C person look at it. Tim’s not officially authorized to fix it! Anyhow, looks like the compressor is the issue. Our A/C unit was replaced about 6 years ago from the warranty company before. So the A/C guy has to check to see if the part is still under warranty (not our home warranty). If it’s under warranty, they will replace the part. If the part is not under warranty anymore, we should get a brand new A/C unit. However, at this point, it looks like the A/C unit will not be fixed until Tuesday-Wednesday of next week since they will order the part/machine probably Monday. Luckily we had a weekly rate hotel in the area which is a better offer than a basic hotel. We have a stove and a refrigerator along with a small living room, bathroom, and bedroom.

At least the A/C went out while school was out of session. Sure would hate to have to pay for the hotel and not even be in it! And at the same time, I will probably relax more at the hotel compared to at home since I have fewer chores here at the hotel! However, we have been going back and forth picking up things we need and switching laundry. We can only handle about 30 minutes in the house at a time though! It’s so hot in there!

Gerry and Roberta came over and dropped a few things off for Lana yesterday. We played the Da Vinci code board game and Roberta and I beat the boys! It’s a puzzle type of game where you have two different shapes and you use them to get the points in the game. Afterwards, we went to Wendy’s, Toys’R’Us, and then Stonebriar Mall. I needed to return an EXPENSIVE $54.00 outfit that was bought for Jakob from a mystery shop. Roberta and I went into the location and returned it. I laughed that I got it home and how I didn’t sneak it in right and my husband had a fit of how much I spent! I joked about how I should have left it in the car until he wasn’t home…and of course the stories worked b/c she laughed about when she goes shopping and told us her shopping stories. Then Gerry needed something from a store also in the mall. We didn’t do much more in the mall. It was almost 8pm by this point, and Jakob was wearing out. Jeff and I dropped off Gerry and Roberta and we went to the grocery store for a few items.

Tomorrow, Jakob and I will probably get the oil changed in the car and get the car washed. Even if I wash the car and then if it decides to rain, I think it’s ok. Don’t think the rain could get it as dirty as it is right now! Tuesday, I need to go get the new book that the library called me on Friday about. I had the new Angles Fall by Nora Roberts on hold and it came in. Good timing because I’m almost finished with 1st to Die by James Patterson. I have lots of time to read here at the hotel. I’m hoping to do a little scrapbooking once we have A/C at the house again. The kitchen table at the hotel is really small and I don’t have a way to work on it without letting Jakob into it!

Dell Laptop

Jeff and I had been debating getting a laptop, but we got one a good deal and it was delivered this past Monday! It's Dell's Inspirion E1505. We ordered it with a 120 gb hard drive and 1 gb ram, etc. I found a coupon online that saved us 30% off of it, so it worked out nice! I used it Wednesday to take notes in my Geography class, and that was sure nice.