We are quickly discovering the many wonderful things that come with owning your own home- like a massive stream of unending repairs. We officially moved in last weekend, and have discovered a few things about our new home.
For instance, the lovely unobstructed westward view comes with a small price: the wind hits the house like a friggin' freight train. To be fair, today's wind storm was pretty intense with gusts up to 50 mph, but I honestly thought the windows were going to implode into the living room. Also, the windows are super drafty- so drafty that there was an actual breeze as I sat on the couch. I created a temporary solution out of some wadded-up paper towel bits and packing tape, but that can't last very long.
We also managed to break the oven. We did this by incorrectly lifting the range top to clean it, and busting the little gas pipes that lead to the burners. It turns out this was a $224 mistake, which sucks. But what sucks more is that the GE guy can only give me a window "between 1 and 5 p.m." That equals a lot of fucking with my schedule at work so I don't lose any PTO. I don't think my boss is too happy with that, so I've been busting extra ass to try to make up for my jackassary.
Oh, and that's not all! As it turns out, the doorknob on our only entrance is a bit, um... temperamental. Sometimes it will unlock, sometimes not so much. We discovered this earlier this evening when Scott tried to leave. The door refused to open. We locked and unlocked it, but the handle refused to turn. Eventually Scott forced it with a screwdriver, which seemed to correct whatever issue it was having, and he left. Later, when I tried to walk the dog, I couldn't get it to open again. After deciding that my barrage of obscenities wasn't helping, I tried the screwdriver. Nothing. If you look at this picture...
...you can maybe see how it's pretty easy to jam a Flathead in there and push the latch in manually. But that little fucker wouldn't budge. I didn't know what else to do so I took the inside half off, carefully, so that the outside part of the knob stayed in place. I don't know the first thing about doorknobs, so I just jiggled things around a bit. I noted how a flat poky bit controls the lock, and a square poky bit is what turns to open the latch. There was more jiggling, then I decided I was completely lost and maybe I should just put it back together. Very carefully, as to not push the outside half of the knob out of the door, I screwed it back in place. And somehow, it was magically fixed. Finally, poor Spencer was able to pee. I left the door ajar while we were out (I'm no fool) and when we came in I tested it again. It's as though nothing happened. We'll be relying solely on the deadbolt for a while, just in case, but everything seems okay for now.
And since I'm in a ranting mood, can I just bitch about Comcast for a minute? I hate Comcast like nothing else. We've had horrible experiences with their cable, internet, and customer service. When we bought this house, we knew they were the only option for high-speed internet, but we were willing to deal with it. We hoped that since it wasn't an apartment, the signal would be better- which it is. But still not as good as Verizon. I miss Verizon, and their HDTV package with DVR, and their superior internet speeds. All for the same price as what we're paying Comcast for shittier TV (without HD channels or the DVR) and slower internet speeds. Bah! I hate you so hard, Comcast. Hopefully soon Verizon will come save us from your craptacular tyranny.
I know, this is a lot of bitching. Mostly, it's great owning a house, and really exciting too. While there are times when I miss the ease of renting, there are far more times when I do NOT miss the inability to fix things the right way (as opposed to the cheapest way) or have something other than white walls and beige carpet. Once we move past the "fixing" stage and into the "decorating" stage, I'll feel a lot better.
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