November 3: Winter is Among Us

Winterizing the house, the yard...it's rarely, if ever, a good time. Rather, it's a pain in the butt, if I may be so blunt as to put it that way. Especially when your lawn sprinkler system is set up in a way that requires you to blow out the spinklers from the basement via an old, rundown air compressor that's definitely on its last leg. You're getting a visual now, aren't you? Regardless, this past weekend, I begin the winterizing process with something simple - I shut-off the valves on the outside faucets from the basement. Unfortunately, in the process I came to realize that the front faucet, whose spicket had been replaced in July, was not working as it should. I was still getting a trickle outside. So, on Monday, I had called Mr. Handyman to come out and take a look; as they were the ones who replaced the aforementioned spicket just 4 months prior. Today, same guy came out to have a looksie at my shut-off valve. I felt good about the whole thing until he called me to the basement with a "we seem to have a bit more serious problem than we originally thought". Not a good way to gain the good graces of your customer. Turns out that not only is the shut-off valve to the faucet shot, but the shut-off valve down the line AND the valve that controls my main water line into the house. Translation, there's no way he can shut the water off to fix any of the valves. He tells me that we'll need a Plumber to come out and shut the water off "from the street", so that he can repair all 3 valves. He even knows a plumber who can lend a hand. The good news? Well, at least he didn't charge me the standard Mr. Handyman service charge for figuring all of this out. I guess what they say is true...you really can find something good in any situation.

November 2: Down Come the Halloween Decorations

Two days. That's all it took for all Halloween decorations, both inside and outside the house, to come down this year. That's a new world record in our household, as I believe the previous shortest time span was one week. Maybe it's because they went up so early this year that my wife and I were so motivated to bring them down so quickly. Not sure, but I'm not complaining. There's nothing worse than ghosts and witches adorning the front lawn as we're pulling out of the drive to visit family on Thanksgiving Day.

November 1: MHA Loans

With the interest rates being so low these days, my wife and I looked into refinancing our mortgage. Heck, even if we could save a couple hundred dollars a month it would be well worth it. So, I made the call today...just as an information-gathering effort. Unfortunately, the plummeting housing values didn't help much and a traditional FHA loan didn't offer us much in the way of savings. So, the mortgage rep to whom I was speaking to suggested a MHA loan might be the way for us to go. He explained what such a loan could do for us, and I kindly thanked him for both the information and his generosity (as he was actually pretty straightforward with everything). Then, I made a beeline to the Internet to research MHA loans; as I certainly wasn't going to make any investment in something I know nothing about. Despite what the Mortgage Rep said. MHA loans are part of the Obama Administration's "Home Affordable Modification Program" focused on helping struggling homeowners keep their homes. The goal is to reduce the interest rate or extend the mortgage term to make payments more affordable if someone has lost their job or perhaps has extensive bills that are impacting his/her ability to pay their mortgage. Of course, I'm thinking right away, "well, we don't really fall into that category, so why did the Mortgage guy suggest it?" What I didn't realize is that the legislation includes a provision for refinancing; a component specifically targeting individuals who are making their payments but who are not able to get a lower interest rate due to the loss of equity in their home due to the low-value housing market. We're considering it as an option, but we haven't quite made a final decision yet. Still can't shake that feeling that, despite all of the good things I've read about MHA loans, somehow the mortgage company is still going to screw us.

October 31: Halloween Trail

This was the first time in 2 years that we've been home for Halloween. The last 2 years, we went to my Mother-In-Law's house downriver, and the kids did their trick-or-treating there. But, this year, we decided to stay home. The last time we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, the kids were obviously younger, so our route consisted of a few houses down the block, the house next door and the house across the street, then we called it a night. Not this year though. The kids were ready to go, and go we did. In fact, we did our street and both of the drives along the way for a total of maybe 50 houses. More than we had ever done in the past. I know that because the kids' bags were so full that my daughter was dragging hers along the sidewalk , and I ended up carrying my son's as we approached home. Too bad their Mom won't let them eat all of that candy they earned...but somebody has to, right? We just can't let food go to waste, now can we?

October 30: Spider in the Coffee

Let's just start this little story by stating the fact that I absolutely hate spiders. I hate the way they look. I hate the way they move. And, I hate the fact that I also have a fear of them. Yep, I'll admit it, I'm afraid of spiders! So, the phone call I got from my wife while I was running an errand at the store today was all the more disturbing based on this aforementioned information. She called me because she was cleaning out the coffee pot, and in the process discovered a very large, very hairy type of spider carcass in the tray that holds the coffee filter. Meaning, of course, that over the course of God only knows how long, any coffee we've prepared, and we make a pot every morning (SA-FR), likely included this particular spider in the brewing process. Honestly, on the other side of the phone, I thought my wife was going to throw up while sharing her discovery with me. She asked me if I wanted her to keep the "carcass" in the sink until I got home so I could see it. I couldn't do it...I think that would have made it too real for me. Besides, had I seen it, I don't think I would have drank coffee in our house ever again. For the record, we have a new coffeemaker now.

October 29: The Roof

Six years we've been in our house. And, during those six years I've been obsessed with getting a new roof put on it. Today, thanks to a storm I've mentioned before in this blog, my new roof day finally arrived. In our first house, we had a roof installed, so this wasn't the first new roof I've had in a home I own. However, in our first house, the roof was part of the negotiations to purchase the house and, therefore, installed prior to us moving in. Today, seeing as I work from home, I was able to experience the entire process from inside the house. Loud. That's about the only way to describe it. On more than one occasion, I was convinced that a roofer would be crashing through my ceiling. Didn't happen though, and everything turned out as planned. A small price to pay for a 6-year dream, I guess.

October 28: A Little Sugar

Tomorrow, my son's class has their Halloween celebration. My wife committed to making 24 sugar cookies, which we are required to wrap individually in 24 sandwich bags. Not sure why, but that was the direction she received. So, tonight, the entire family chipped in to get the job done. This was the first time the whole family made cookies together from start to finish. My wife made the dough, I rolled it, the kids pushed down the cookie cutter shapes, and we all decorated each cookie with frosting. Afterwards, we were left with quite the spooky Halloween mess in the kitchen, but it was still a frightfully good time!

October 27: Oh, Canada!

Today, I had the privilege of beginning work on a project with my learning colleagues in Canada. Almost 3 years in my current role and not once have I had such an opportunity. Interesting how you can neighbor another country, yet not realize how different things are between you and them. Not just from a work standpoint, but in so many other ways, as well.

October 26: Porch Swing

When we first moved into our home, years ago, my parents bought us a porch swing. It's very fitting for our home, not to mention well used. In fact, one of my wife and kids favorite things to do is rock on the porch swing and just sort of take in the neighborhood on any given day. It's kept it's permanent position on our front porch - Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter - since my folks first gave it to us. Until today that is. With strong winds, allegedly in excess of 65 mph, headed our way, I had no choice but to take the swing apart. I basically just removed the swing and the cloth top from the base, then stored those pieces separately in the garage until the inclement weather passed. Better safe than sorry...at least that's what the front picture window suggested to me.

October 25: Spaetzel

My wife is from German descent, and this evening I both made and tasted spaetzel for the first time. For those of you who have never heard of spaetzel, it's a soft egg noodle commonly found in German cuisine. It really has a unique texture and taste to it as compared to, say, a spaghetti noodle. The amazing part is that my kids absolutely loved it; went crazy over it!