Month: June 2014

Magic’s having a bad day!

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Like every other day, Magic was quiet and stayed in the bedroom most of the day, right up until an hour or so before Jen gets home. (I swear, our dogs know what time it is and it has nothing to do with Pavlov!)  As she emerged from the bedroom, she immediately started doing the boot scoot on the rug, across the hardwood floor, the little rug, the ceramic tile in the kitchen…

I let her outside, she does her job but seems to stay in poop position forever, she comes back in and runs right into Jen’s office to the carpet and sits…she runs to the living room carpet and she sits.  Unfortunately, I have seen her do this before.  Impacted Anal Glands..she did express one of them, but the other one was causing her some discomfort.

In the meantime, while trying to cook dinner, Scott gets here with the circuit board for the HVAC system…yep, a crazy day!

Magic’s discomfort got worst very quickly so as soon as Jen get’s home, she decides to take her to the vet. Stoney Creek is closed so they refer her to Keystone Veterinary Emergency and Referral Center in Havertown, PA.  They must have seen papillon and thought $$$ because the first estimate they gave her to lance her anal gland was full blown surgery at $1100.  When they saw the panicked look on Jen’s face, they went more of a reserved estimate, $475.  From their office, Jen called Old Marple Vet, they had an 8am for her…so she just had to get her through the night.  So Keystone gave her tramadol for the pain to get her through the night, charged her $120 for the emergency visit and sent them home.

Jen’s morning visit included waiting for a while to see a Dr, but they were able to take care of it, give her more tramadol and an antibiotic…and sent her on her way, cost $145….so even with the emergency visit to Keystone and the trip to Old Marple, it still came in way under Keystone’s reserved estimate.  The vet at Marple, Dr Will, said that it would suck to be her for the next couple days, but she should be fine!

Gas Line

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Did I mention that there was an exposed gas line between the meter and the ground?  Last week while Kevin was here looking at things, getting ready to dig for the footers, he saw that the cement/pipe encasement around the gas tube was no longer.  Just a tube…one good hit with the weed wacker, he says…BOOM!  Yeah, he thinks he’s funny  🙂

I called PECO on Monday morning, they tell me that someone will call me in the next 3 to 7 days to schedule a time/day to come out and take a look.

Wednesday morning, 2 big PECO trucks out there…checking it out.  He said they will schedule a dig crew and let me know when they would be replacing it.

Friday morning, dig crew, gas line installers…took them about 30 minutes.

Not 1 call! Guess I can’t complain, they came out fast, they replaced fast…works for me!

Categories: Around the House

HVAC Circuit Board

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I don’t like turning on the AC too early in the season, but I dislike being uncomfortable more.  So a couple weeks ago it got pretty humid before a thunderstorm so I decided to turn on the air conditioner.

Later, after I turned the AC off, I noticed that the fan on the unit was still running. I could hear it from living room. Time to call Scott!

It was fun troubleshooting with him…I had to run up and down the stairs at least 25 times to change the thermostat settings to manual, auto, cool, warm…that’s one way to get some exercise, huh?

Scott narrowed it down to the circuit board. He will order one and give me a call when it comes in.

Categories: Around the House

Bathroom Sink

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The first thing I did when I bought this house was gut the bathroom (except the tub – love the old comfy back rest…oh and I re-built and re-installed the old reliable toilet).  I may be able to search through the many pictures and find some before and durings, because I always take pictures (just not always able to find them)….but anyway

The faucet started dripping and I found out the HomeDepot does not sell the cartridges for this faucet any longer (even though they still sell the damn faucets), and the cost of shipping from the manufacturer and the snail mail weeks worth of water dripping made the decision to just buy a new faucet…and since the bottom of the cabinet was water damaged, it’s coming out too…

Since it’s a small space between the tub and the toilet, my options of cabinets are limited. I found a sink cabinet combo at HomeDepot (I really wish there was a Lowes in my area…or even better, an Ace Hardware)

Now I know that every house reno (even replacing an outlet) can become a huge project so I plan out to do this on a Saturday, early, just in case there are “complications”. I bought all new supply lines and a u trap because, well, huge problem preventative.

cabinet/sink/faucet (plumbing tools and supplies…ready to go)

I disconnected both of the supply lines, the U trap, carefully remove the cabinet so that I don’t rip out the drywall…so far, so good!  The sewage line runs straight down through the floor instead of through the wall, so I need to cut a hole in the bottom of the cabinet…really not a big deal…hole saw, measure twice, cut once…I impressed myself…it fit and nice and snugly too.  So I level it and caulk it in place…part 1 done, looks good!

Next, putting the new faucet in the new sink (that is part of the sink/cabinet combo), supply lines connected, ready to drop it in.  Something doesn’t look right!  The new faucet is hanging over the sink…by at least a 1/2″  * DAMN SINK IS FAULTY!!  I guess no-one ever checked the specs before cutting the holes.  And it’s part of a combo that 1/2 is installed (nicely) and I cut a freakin hole in the bottom…so I can’t return it or exchange it!

Good thing I didn’t use a hammer to get the old sink out (I was tempted), so I cleaned all the caulk off of it, made it look nice and installed the faucet and dropped it in.  It looks nice, I am happy with my work!

  • (called HomeDepot about the sink/cabinet combo, left a few messages, sent a few emails…never heard anything back, not even a courtesy call to let me know they got my messages)

Lauren’s Graduation!

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It was a crazy busy weekend and we went to a Bach Society concert in Baltimore to see Jen’s dad perform, so we missed being able to sneak into the Bob Carpenter Center and see Lauren (my friend, Janice’s daughter) graduation ceremony…so here is a picture of her and her brother Tyler!

You worked hard for it Lauren!  Watch out UofD!