DC Rowhouse

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Snow-pocalypse 2010 Day 2 Part 1

12:30am: Notice the power wires have fallen more.

1:00am: Off to bed. Worry the wires will snap and deck will catch fire. Fall asleep in 10 minutes anyway.

7am: Woke-up, thankful the power is still on. Make coffee! Notice wires in the back make it impossible to go out the back door.

9am: Head out to shovel the front. There was about another 12 to 18 inches on the front steps. Since I had already shoveled 6 inches last night - it was surprising. The steps had become slides and the snow was still very heavy.

10:30am: Back to watching the news. Still no word from Pepco about the wires. Figure they won't come out for days.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Snow-pocalypse 2010

7am: Drove to four stores looking for self-starting fire logs because we ran out of wood. All sold out. Skies are gray and looming.

8am: Went to local grocery store, mainly because I sensed I had to, though I didn't need anything. Bought two yogurts and eggs. Felt accomplished.

8:15am: Treated myself to a latte at Peregrine.

8:45am: Started working at home. Dylan & Nina helped.

10:30am: Snow started.

11:30am: National Weather Service increases snow prediction from 18-24 inches to 20-28 inches. (December 19th storm was 16.4", and on a Friday night as well. My office was still closed on Monday).

11:31am: For a reference point, I measure how high 28 inches is. It's past my mid-thigh. My heart beat a little faster.

Noon: Went to corner store. Bought 5 self-starting firelogs. Owner told me they have 9 more cases in the basement. Felt relief I would not freeze to death if power went out. He also mentions not being able to get milk this morning, all distributors are sold out.

12:15am: Turned on the news. Weather guy reports 20" minimum, and says there is potential for 33". It's reported the most the District ever received is 26.5". I measure 33". . .it's about 4 inches below my hip. Sweet baby Jesus.

12:45am: News guy reports DC will not pick up recycling this week, and only trash from the front of the house. Reporters from grocery stores show empty shelves and shoppers waiting in line for hours to either pay or even get into the store. Blizzard + Superbowl weekend = grocery store mayhem.

2pm: Snow started sticking. It's being reports the Metro system will close above-ground stops when the accumulation reached 8 inches.

3pm: Scared to lose power overnight. Start dishwasher and toss a load of laundry in.

5pm: Cleaned out the fridge and took all trash out. Don't want to be stuck in a stinky home. Thankful I bought so much beer earlier in the week. So far, about an inch has accumulated.

7pm: About 2-3 inches

8:30pm: 5-6 inches

8:45pm: Head outside and shovel. Snow is incredibly dense. I work up a sweat. Hear branches crackling. Not a good sign.

9:10pm: Notice the electric wires are down in the back of the house. Call Pepco emergency line. On hold for 20 minutes. They tell me they'll send someone. . . but have no idea when. Now, I have to wait up for them. (the drooping wires in the picture usually are about 15 feet higher than that.)

9:30pm: Hang up with Pepco. Hear very loud crackle. Look out the front and see a 15 foot branch has fallen across the street. Sense losing power is imminent. The "fun" of the storm is gone.

Winter Blizzard 2010

DC does not handle snow well. Six inches could warrant school closings and a run on the grocery stores. So when the weather reports started coming in yesterday announcing 18 to 24 inches from Friday afternoon until Saturday night - it was like the Apocalypse was coming. Lines of cars into the Whole Foods near my office stretched blocks away last night with people gearing up for the big storm.

This morning, I woke early and headed to four stores in search for Duraflame logs or wood. No dice. All sold out. The lines at Home Depot were clustered around stacks and stacks of snow blowers while workers wheeled out more on carts from the back. As I milled around the store looking for hidden stacks of wood (a worker finally told me they had been sold out for over a month!), I saw this:

So cute! What a great gift idea! With the snow-pocalypse about to fall, it wasn't the time for tulips, but it was tempting, very tempting.

My camera and I are ready for Blizzard 2010. . . but I'm not sure the rest of the District is.

Monday, February 1, 2010

I forgot about early mornings

A few months ago, I noticed one of the lines on our range LCD display wasn't showing. So, and 8 would look like a 3. Grrrr. Doing what I normally do, I put it off. Until two weeks ago where I called Sears and in 15 minutes my part was ordered and I had a visit scheduled. Well, that was easier that I thought. Then, I did that other thing I do. . . I forgot about it.

So, when at 7:30am on Saturday the phone rang, we both jumped up and assumed something bad had happened. Since it was 7:30am on a Saturday and who in their right mind would be calling! The repair guy, that's who. See, I made the appointment for between 8am-12pm. But, that always means 11:45am-ish, right? Apparently not.

We were back to the days of having workers in the house before the recommended dose of morning coffee and that always end up a bad start to the day.

I'm gathering more information for the bathroom remodels and some other odds and ends. Looks like we might have a finished house by the end of this year. Did I just jinx us? Probably. Damn it!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Just another day of renovating

Yesterday, I finally got back to working on the side of the stairs. I've been back and forth on this project for oh. . . almost two years now. TWO YEARS! I thought back in December of 2007, that this little reno project would all take a year and I would sitting back and sipping martinis in my new-shiny-not-covered-in-construction-dust house. I'll admit it. . . I was wrong. So young, so joyful, so stupid.

Anyway, last night (after I spent about 20 minutes caulking the side of the stairs in an attempt to FINALLY finish the damn project and get on with other ones) I was heaping ice cream into a bowl and I looked down at a white glob on my finger.

Is it ice cream? Or caulking? . . . Do I lick it? Would it kill me if it wasn't ice cream? OMG, what if it's glue? Did I just get glue into my ice cream?

In the end, I licked it. . . it was ice cream.

And, the stairs are not done yet.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Plans for Master Bath

We have a unique problem in the master bath. The toilet is in a weird corner near the sink.

So, while we could put in a new sink vanity instead of the pedestal, you couldn't get to the toilet easily. Then, yesterday, I saw this:

Wow. Storage, a rounded base. It has everything I need. Except, it's $700, not including the faucet and the storage cabinets underneath. But, do you think I could make it? Using a half round console table and adding the marble top? Or, would that just end up being too much time and effort and cost the same in the end?