Adventures in home owning

I tried to plan my weekend so that today would be my day of rest. Per Jesus.

But, my house had other plans. It's pretty much a brand new house now.

Appliances
The dryer broke. Got a new one. We've already covered that.

I cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer yesterday. It might be the oldest fridge in the world. The ice maker doesn't work anymore. I hoped the cleaning would magically revive the ice maker. But, it didn't. At least now the whole thing sparkles.

Plumbing
I replaced my shower heads. My made-to-retire home came equipped with your standard-issue old-folks-ready hospital-type therapeutic shower, um, wands? They are off-white and they don't match anything. And over the course of the past few years, they leak and whatnot. They're not pretty.

In fact, I'd call them grody.

Had I known, however, how easy it is to replace shower heads, I would have done this the second day I lived here. The new ones are amazing. And they don't leak.

I am a master plumber.

Yard
My crepe myrtles have the scale, y'all.

I sprayed them with some stuff a couple of weeks ago. It didn't work. So I went back to the store for more stuff.

I found a helper at the store. "My crepe myrtles have . . . the scale." It was all very dramatic. I felt ashamed.

It's kinda like they have leprosy and they are outkasts from the other crepes, and I have failed them as they're keeper.

Store Helper hooked me up with more anti-scale stuff, so I sprayed the trees again yesterday.

I still love them. The trees. Not the scales.

Garage Door
This one was unexpected.

So, I get back from Target today and my garage door decided not to open, or close, or be nice at all. It had been acting a little weird lately, but today it decided to just kinda freak out completely.

As a homeowner, I like to take it upon myself to fix everything myself. So, I grabbed some tools and gloves and dug into the finer points of Automatic Garage Door 101.

I have no idea how a garage door opener works or how to fix one.

I looked, I messed around, I applied my tools, I got really dirty and sweaty.

Nothing was better.

I did determine the problem, but by the time I figured it out and started hardcore "fixing" it, I apparently angered it and made it worse.

Turns out, when those wheels come out of the track, they are really hard to get back in there. And my garage door weighs about 108,000 pounds.

So, I was forced to admit defeat and call my handyman (aka: my dad). I woke him from a nap with my tale of woe.

He came over to rescue me and we reassessed the door situation. I had successfully pinpointed the problems, but he brought the know-how to rig it enough to where it works again, and I don't have to replace anything for now.

However, if you don't see me for an extended period of time, I am likely trapped in the house because my garage door is mad at me again and holding me hostage.

At least I have new shower heads and a clean fridge. If I'm trapped in here for months, I'll have good showers and cold water.

C.T.