Problems with the new house...

Okay so you know what this is right... obviously it is a burner for a electric stove. Although if you are really creative or desperate perhaps, this also doubles as a way to heat up water in a gas water heater. It seems like all you need to do is run some wires to this and then plug those wires in. Or so that is what previous owners/tenants (or someone) did at our new house.

I think I told you we got the water on, but didn't have hot water. I figured it was just because the tank was just filling up, but it turned out that the pilot light was off. As Robert was trying to light the light (it was suppose to be a self-ignighting hot water heater... I don't know much about all this) it wasn't working. We decided to call someone that knew what they were doing instead of us blowing our house up. I call Questar, they said they can't do it, but they could walk me through it on the phone. Yeah -- no thanks on that!! We decided to have a service call to the guys that did our furnace at our old house and they could also check out the furnace at the new house to make sure things are all good. Robert had mentioned that something felt loose under the water heater. Still no hot water though, no problem, guy comes to look at it on Tuesday, we move on Wednesday.

I go out to the house on Tuesday to meet the repair guy, he comes back up from the basement with this electric burner from a stove with two wires connected to it. He said this was the problem there is no hot water, this was under the hot water heater, and the REAL parts are missing and no where to be seen, we will have to order new parts. I am just looking at the heating element just laughing thinking, what was that all about? "Can't wait to tell Robert about this one!!" Turns out, that the parts won't be in until maybe Monday, and if they get them in early monday they can fix it but if not, it will have to wait until Tuesday. The whole drive home back to the old house I am just chuckling, thinking of Robert saying, "something just doesn't feel right there, it is all loose." Now we know why it wasn't lighting or turning on and the gas was just coming out doing nothing.

Then on Wednesday we had hired some movers, which we thought would be easier and faster, make one trip not have to worry about everything... that was a mistake. When I talked to the guy on the phone he told me the time started when they got to the house and it ended at the new house when they were done. No paid travel time. Well, they charged us for that. I called the guy I talked to back, and he won't return my calls and I get put on "hold" and end back up at the main menu and dial his extention again just to get his voice mail. Man I am mad about it all! It was quick and it was nice to have someone else do it all. They just didn't meet my standards I guess. They stopped once at our old house "for a break" and then once again at our new house "for a break" while they did various things from smoking to talking on the phone. And why should I pay them to have a cigarette or call their wife? (Okay, I don't know who they were calling, and it wasn't that they were smoking that bothered me, they could have been reading the BOM for all I cared, but why should I pay them to take a break to do that?) Still a little upset about it all.

We got all our stuff to our new house, the furniture it pretty much in place, all boxes went to the garage. I had numbered most all the boxes and then put a master sheet together of what was in box #1, #37 (which happened to be shoes which I had to find today) and then where it belonged. So box #37 was to go to the "loft" since they were everyone's shoes to be sorted out in the middle of all the bedrooms. I had over 140 boxes crazy huh! Now when I am looking for something, I go to my list and find what box and then go get that box. Okay back to my point, we got all our boxes unloaded, some of the boxes are damaged, since they didn't really care what was on top of what boxes, and I have sugar leaking out of a box somewhere because I unloaded a kitchen box that had sugar in it.... can't wait to find that box with my #10 can sugar that has gotten opened I suppose. They broke a few of my crates and totes that had stuff in them. The movers just weren't real careful. I opened a box today with some colored decorative bottles in them to find one was broken. Bummer! Oh well, at least we are done with that part.

Meanwhile, we are here at our new house.... enjoying the space, washing hands in cold water, heating up pans of hot water to do dishes, and boiling water to add to the washing machine to wash clothes... fun huh! It almost feels like a fancy way to go camping.

Oh yes, speaking of washing clothes, I got one for that one too. Our dryer has the "wrong" hook up for this house. Our dryer has a 3 point cord and the outlet is a 4 point (I think is what they call it) so Robert rewires our outlet so the dryer can plug into it. We get the dryer going, YIPPEE! When we hooked up the washer, there was a little bit of leaking from the hoses, figured some white "teflon?" tape would do the trick or some tools to tighten it would work, all which happens to be at the old house still. We get the right stuff and hook all that up, no more leaks. I start filling the washer up with clothes and turn it on to wash some colors... since I haven't really washed clothes for several days and hadn't done much before that since I was focusing more on moving then laundry. I keep adding clothes in the washer, and then notice all this water coming out from under the washing machine, getting my bare feet all wet. I think, "Man, this dumb washer! The hoses must not be tight enough, how did that happen?" I turn the machine off, only to keep hearing a GUSHING of water. I scoot the washer out a bit so I can get a look behind it to see that the drain hose had came off the back and now the water was just gushing out everywhere, going on the floor, under the dryer, under the washer... I am looking for anything right there to clean up the mess. I find some towels and some sheets (which sheets don't really work so great) and start soaking up as much as I can. I get myself sort of lodged behind the washing machine and the wall and the washer is shoved up against the door so it can barely open. I hear the girls shouting and all excited. They then yell, "Let's go tell Mom!" They run into the laundry room, telling me there is a flood in the basement. I am thinking, you have got to be kidding! This is rediculous. I climb back over the washer, across the dryer, squeeze through the narrow doorway and go down to the basement to find the celing dripping with water and foamy bubbles and puddles on the floor. After some cleaning and testing, it turns out the water just came through the floor, but I thought the water lines where leaking. Phew!!

What a time, what a time! I am hoping by Monday we will have hot water, and then that will make things much easier. We got the whole washer things solved. It is great except for the part of trying to get hot water or warm water to wash clothes. Cold water seems to really make the soap just clump up and not do any good. Good thing for a big pot of water and a stove to heat it on.

The phone guy said that someone had taken like half the guts out of the phone box outside. I am wondering if someone was trying to fix things themselves, or hook things up themselves. Weird huh! The more things we find out the more we get nervous of things to come.

Sorry about the long post... I just had so much to say, or should I say vent about. Oh... another thing, they don't have DSL here... or not through Qwest like we had. We can get a "air card" is what they call it I guess, it is like faster internet which goes through verizon cell phone signals, does that make sense? Not sure how I like that. But... if you go over some many Gigabytes or whatever it is, they will charge you extra. How do they determine how we do that? I am not sure, but I am sure they will let us know. I haven't let the girls even touch the computer until I know how much it is going to be for the stuff Robert and I do on the computer. Okay, I really should get to bed, I am exhausted!!