We are so grateful not to be in our upstairs apartment in Jersey City where we heard complaints every day about how loud our kids were. We are so grateful for the space to let our kids be kids and to not worry about who is asleep during which hours below us.
But with the extra space, we took on other problems, finding an older home to rent. We are lucky enough to have great landlords that really let us do whatever we need to do to keep the house running smoothly and trust our judgment. This is so nice during the winter! Last winter we had them replace the furnace as it was on its last leg, when it was working at all! This is Emma unloading the dishwasher last winter on one of the days our furnace was out:
[mygal=emma_dishwasher]
We aren’t even half way through winter yet and our pipes have already frozen. We were having problems with our dishwasher and when we had the repairman come out, he basically took a look at the frozen water on the bottom of the dishwasher, shook my hand, and apologized that there was nothing he could do. Great! So, today Chris pulled the dishwasher out, plugged up holes behind it, and put up insulation (there was none!). Plus he wrapped the pipes. The kids, of course, were great helpers.
[mygal=insulation]
It has made such a difference already – you can’t feel a steady draft coming in through that corner. Hopefully we are looking forward to many warmer winter days indoors and not emptying pre-chilled dishes from the dishwasher.
Wow! Looks like you guys are almost haveint as much fun as we are!!
Wow, the joys of winter! I’m glad Chris was able to fix that problem for you! Who would have thought frozen water pipes in your dishwasher?
You guys are very industrious! We’ve had dishwasher problems ourselves lately, but not frozen ones!
Wow! You sound so cold! I think the coldest place we lived was in our little “cottage” we built behind my parent’s house in Colorado Springs. It was previously a garage. We slept upstairs in a loft and there wasn’t any heater up there. (We heated the entire place with a wood burning stove…when it was going it was HOT and when it wasn’t…brrrrr!) I usually just put my glasses in the window sill when I went to bed but quickly learned not to do that. It would get so cold and the condensation would gather until my glasses were encrusted in ice that was several inches thick! Took forever to thaw them out enough to release them! Ahhhh…good times though! Think of all the memories you’re making! But I do hope you stay nice and warm for the rest of the winter! You can make good memories warm, too! 🙂