Ahhh Homeownership....

Anyone want to buy our house and then rent it back to us? That would be sweet right now.
So I am in nesting mode, which FYI "nesting" for me seems to involve everything except the nursery. I haven't even opened that can o' worms yet. I did order the fabric and come up with a paint scheme and move our winter coats out of the closet, but that is as far as we've gotten.

So far nesting has involved having a repairman come fix our dryer... Yay for no more squeeking!..., making a slip cover for our basement couch, deep cleaning the kitchen...including the oven, considering how little we bake things in there, it gets ridiculously dirty..., resealing all our windows, and getting a furnace tune-up.

The windows and the furnace are our most recent issues. Last winter we noticed that there was some serious draft-age coming in from the sides of our Energy Star windows. We didn't install the windows, the people who owned it before us did. But apparently they aren't all that good at installing windows. Since they are vinyl replacement windows there were thin strips of vinyl on the exterior that covered the gaps between the window and the existing wood frame. Hopefully what I am saying makes sense to you, otherwise just play along. Anyhoodles, this summer I pulled one of those strips off and turns out there is nothing between the window and the existing frame. If you were looking at the edges of the windows from the inside you could see daylight.

We installed a few windows when we lived in the farmhouse in NY and although we aren't experts by far, we do know the procedures to installing windows in cold climates. It might work to not put anything in between in like Arizona, but in Colorado, you need to seal those gaps. The most amazing product we've ever discovered is expanding foam insulation. It comes in a blue can from Lowe's. So last weekend I pulled all the vinyl strips down and scraped out the caulking. Then we foamed in the gaps and caulked. It actually didn't take as long as I had predicted. Not to mention how fast time flies when you spend it making caulk jokes the entire time. We started preping Friday and then we finished by about 2pm on Saturday. Guess it helps that we don't have a zillion windows in our house and it is also awesome that we only have one-story above ground. Working on a high ladder is not my specialty. After accomplishing the windows I felt unstoppable. I am woman hear me roar and that type shit.

Well Tuesday was our furnace tune-up. I was traveling for work, so that evening I called Andy and he filled me in. Turns out our furnace is not getting better with time. Apparently we didn't get one of those self-healing furnaces that everyone dreams about. We had it looked at when we moved in and we were told that it needed to be replaced. I was hoping that this tune-up would get us through until next summer, but, as the magic 8 ball would say "outlook not so good". The HVAC guy took a look and cleaned it up.

Apparently we need all sorts of new parts...expensive parts no less...you know the kind of purchase that is more like applying duct-tape to a leak in the Hoover Dam. He also looked at our gas line. Not only is there no shut-off valve, but the line itself is made up of several pieces of copper that are soldered together. By code it is supposed to be a continuous line and there has to be a way to shut it off. Sweet right? Anyway, a fella is coming tomorrow to test the air and see how much CO2 and other bad shit the furnace is leaking into our air. It isn't looking to hopeful though that we are going to skate through this winter with our ancient furnace.

Have I also mentioned that we have baby on the way? Yeah that and I need new tires, Andy needs new brakes, and I just want to go on vacation. It is times like these that I really wish I had been a trust-fund baby. Emmicakes and Pickles are in Chicago this week and later this month they go to Hawaii for 10 days. On my way to work today I was like 'how on earth can they do all this stuff?'. Then I remembered, student loans. They don't have them. Mother-f-er. If I was only born with money, not only would we have a new furnace in our basement right now, but our baby could have a freakin' live in nanny. Although having a live in Nanny would seem pretty ridiculous if you saw how modest our house is.

I guess in all actuality I am pretty stoked at how Andy and I have accomplished so much in our short lives as grown-ups. I really don't regret not having been born with a silver spoon in my mouth. But there are definitely times like these when you start looking around for silver briefcases full of cash.