Just Another Recap

Alrighty, add another check to my list of "What I have survived during deployment".  I have now dealt with a busted HVAC system. Yep, you read that correctly.  The air conditioning in my brand new home went out the other day. And let me be clear. I know *nothing* of heating and cooling. 

I was upstairs hanging some items in Jules new room when the first signs that something was up came about.  By the way, I loathe hanging items.  I refuse to go completely half ass which means I break out the anchors and the level and the stud finder. I am not the hanger in the family though--Matt is. But that's a little too bad for me right now, isn't it?  So I busted out the tools and did the best I could.

It was while I was finishing up with Jules' new glass corner shelf that I realized how hot I was getting. Shrugging and figuring I was just overworked, I stripped off my tank top.  A few minutes later, I was absolutely drenched. Damn, I had no idea a shelf could kick my butt like this. Off came the bra.  Ok, so yeah I just created a sickening visual for my family, sorry about that, but it's the truth of the situation. I was hanging a shelf in nothing more than a pair of shorts. Matt was horrified at the thought of my giving the neighbors a free show but I told him to chill out--it was daylight outside and the room had curtains.  It's doubtful anyone saw me.  I think.

It hit me then that this was just not right. Something was up. That room gets hot but this was getting ridiculous.  I went to the thermostat in the hall and what the hell?  It read 85 degrees when I had it set to 76. Hmmm, wait a tick, something is not right here.

I grabbed our ladder from the shed out back and hoisted myself up into the attic access.  And yes, by this point, I did have a shirt back on. I noticed water in the A/C pan. I don't know much but I know that's not right. And wait another tick, there was a block of ice on the pipes.

Long story short because HVAC stories are so damn boring, I called our builder who arrived a short time later after praising me for my early catch and he proceeded to work on it until 11:15pm on a Sunday evening.  You gotta give him credit for that one. However, he merely got rid of the potential water drainage issue, the system still had to be fixed. Monday came and went and the HVAC guy never showed.  Tuesday morning's 9am sharp appt time came and went and finally, finally at around 10:30am, the guy decided to show up.  How nice of him. But what I can say? I can't bitch about it really--I wasn't paying a dime for this repair.

Again long story short, it's fixed. We have air conditioning again and I am grateful our temps were lower than they normally are at this time of year so all in all, it wasn't completely horrible.

However, this wasn't going to be the end of the home issues.  No lie but a couple hours after the guys left, our large flat screen TV went off in the living room. It just shut off. I almost broke down thinking our one year old TV just crapped out as well.  Enough already. Seriously.  But then I noticed another device sharing the same outlet circuit wasn't on. Hmm. I went to the fuse box and did the flip of the switch thing and returned to the TV.  When I turned it on, however, another outlet in the room hissed and all of a sudden everything shut off again. Once again, I know nothing of electrical but I did know that can't be good.  After a few more investigations, I just shut the fuse switch off completely and called the builder again.  He asked what seemed a very random and yet very insightful question: "Were there jets flying today?"  Why, yes, yes there were.  Low enough to rattle our pictures actually. He said it's rare but he's had it where if they were low enough, they could knock a wire just loose enough to cause an issue.  He is due out to take a look in person though.  In the mean time, I kept the power off so you know, the house doesn't go up in flames in our sleep.

I figured, at this point, I just need a broken bone and a tree to fall through the roof to complete my list of things I have endured.

So what else have I been up to these past few days?  Well, Jules now has a flat screen TV in her room and I am doubting I will see her much anymore.  Once I get the bracket attached to the wall, I will post pictures. It's a pretty sweet set up and I find myself wanting to hang in there. I am sincerely happy for her--every child should have a space they consider their own and that makes them feel safe, secure and happy.  I think we pretty much got that covered in these past few days.  She's got some rocking digs.  And by the way, this is it. That room is not being redone until she moves out and goes to college.

Amidst the room remodel, which has included numerous trips to Target, Walmart, Lowes, etc, we managed to fit in some time with friends. Jules and Alyssa each had a sleepover at a friend's house, we had dinner at a friend's place, and I even escaped to next door for an hour to watch True Blood since my cheap ass still doesn't have HBO.  All in all, our days haven't been too bad.  Sure, I've had to play peace keeper among the girls and remind them that the goal is to *not* draw blood on one another, but otherwise we have survived our first week of summer vacation and are anxiously counting down the weeks and days until homecoming.