My Fix-It Man Comes to the Rescue AGAIN!

You might remember that I have been without a dryer for quite sometime now. Matt tried and tried to fix our old one but ended up going out on Black Friday and found a GREAT deal on a washer AND dryer for the price of just one of them! I guess it was a little TOO good...they said we could pick it up around Dec. 17th (which I thought was way too long back then) BUT when we called recently they said there were 70,000 people that also took advantage of the unbelievable deal and so ours wasn't even built yet and wouldn't be ready until FEBRUARY!!!!!!! WHAT!!!#@!!! I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL FEBRUARY! It has been a pain hanging everything and breaking into my neighbors house to use her dryer (OK it wasn't breaking in, I had her consent ;) So we decided to fore go the great deal and just get one that we could pick up TODAY! So we got it home and I couldn't wait to plug the thing in and get going on my piles of laundry! It was VERY late at night on Saturday night but Matt was such a trooper and installed the washer and dryer. We were anxious to try it out. We put in a load AND.....the dryer was tumbling but it wasn't heating! WHAT!!!!???? That is what the "broken" dryer that we just replaced was doing!!!!!! YIKES! So all depressed we went up to bed. Matt just happened to go back downstairs and I hear "SARA!" I know that tone and I knew it couldn't be good. I ran downstairs to find our laundry room filled with about 2 inches of WATER!!!!!!!! OOOOOOOOPPPSSS! There were a couple of directions in the install process that Matt missed! :) So we got out the shop vacuum and a lot of towels. Then we had to figure out what went wrong....so by 5:00 a.m. Matt decided he couldn't go to sleep because he had a 6:30 a.m. meeting at the Stake Center! Matt was a ZOMBIE by the time he got home from church at 5:30! He went to sleep and didn't wake until this morning at 7:30!

So now back to the dryer....yes we just purchased a new washer and dryer to find out that the problem was not in the dryer at all but we had a bad circuit breaker! He he he...it is a little funny at this point to think I have been without a dryer for over a month, used my neighbors and spent a fortune on new, when really we could have fixed this little problem in a cinch! :) Funny stuff! Like I said BEFORE, when we try fix it projects the seem small, they turn into quite the production! :) It's a good thing I LOVE my new washer and dryer!

Mr. Fix It!!!!

I've been meaning to blog about all our house repairs as of late....do you remember the old movie Money Pit? It had Tom Hanks in it and it was about this young couple who are trying to fix up an old house...every time he tries to do a repair everything goes WRONG! This little movie clip will give you an idea (I don't know why the foreign language subtitles on the video) Anyway that is what our house feels like lately. Poor Matt has been busy...I am SO proud of him for fixing things himself! Usually he is the first one to say to call someone and then it always costs an arm and a leg. So he has seriously saved us a lot of money...here is a list of some of the projects

• The downstairs toilet was running - Matt FIXED IT WITH EASE


• Master shower was dripping.....fixed it but wasn't with ease....in fact he had to force one of the old parts off and he didn't realize but broke another part in the process...thought it was fixed and then later that day when I went to take a shower I could hear dripping inside the wall BEFORE even turning the water on. (NOT GOOD) Sooooo a trip back to Home Depot and a hole knocked in the wall behind the shower later and Matt fixed it!!!!! I was so impressed that he managed to fix it. At that point I was ready to call someone and pay the big bucks. But my amazing husband did it!


• Dryer wasn't drying - after many attempts, and my two trips across town for parts, this one failed and my new washer and dryer will be here Dec. 17th! Meanwhile THANK GOODNESS for GREAT neighbors (Liz) for letting me come over all the time to dry my towels and jeans...everything else is hanging to dry around the house!


• Suddenly we noticed a wet spot on our ceiling...Not a good sign. It was damp too and so we immediately called a plumber. Well $95 later the plumber left with the following USELESS diagnosis..."Well I've tested everything and can't figure out where it is coming from, keep watching it and if it gets bigger knock a hole in the ceiling to see what the source is and then call us to come back." WHAT!? Thanks a lot Joe the Plumber! It wasn't until Matt was talking to a guy from our ward (what would we do without good old Bill Smith- Bill has come to our rescue a number of times....like the day we moved into this house and the AC was broken and I was 6 months pregnant with Emma and it was 90 degrees....or the time I broke our washer, or the time I hit the water main to our house with the lawn mower!) Anyway he told Matt that if we wiggled the toilet and it moves then we need a new wax ring on our toilet! TA DA!!!! It was the wax ring! Now why couldn't Joe the Plumber figure that one out???? Matt fixed it AND re-textured the popcorn ceiling! WHAT A MAN!


• Matt put up new blinds in Emma and Luke's rooms. But see even something that simple turns into a production! I don't think I gave Matt the EXACT measurements for the window....how was I supposed to know that even a half inch would make THAT much of a difference???!!! We tried to put up Luke's first and they were too short, so Matt went back and got new ones. Then when he tried to put up Emma's they were too long! So back to Home Depot! But now it is done and they are BEAUTIFUL! Thank you Matt!


• This last year Matt also put in our landscape lighting and our outside lights near the garage! I LOVE them! I didn't know Matt knew how to do that kind of stuff with having to run wire underground etc.

So these are the things that are done...do you want the list of things that are falling apart???

• One of the burners on the stove is not working


• Fridge leaks


• Dishwasher is having a few issues and sometimes the detergent door doesn't open and so after a cycle I have a hard lump of detergent left over in there


• We just found out that one of our windows that is high up has been leaking (we don't know how long this has been going on) and the wood in the window frame is ROTTED! YIKES! This is beyond our fixing abilities and is going to cost a pretty penny!


• Our screens are all split on our back screened in porch.


• Our closet in the guestroom leaks after major storms...this happened clear back when the hurricanes hit in 2003 I think it was, Matt and his dad fixed the closet - had to re-drywall and Matt caulked the outside but for some reason it leaked again during another big storm this past summer.


• Last year Matt fell through our ceiling in the garage when he was up in the attic, ok he didn't fall all the way through like my brother Tyler did at his house, just his leg came through and now I have a gaping hole.

So there you have it....it probably sounds like we live in a dump! Oh great now I'll never get any of you out here to visit! We really do have a nice house that I LOVE! It has just been almost comical lately with all the things that are falling apart. I hope I'm not jinxing myself writing this and have to write a part 2 post with double the repairs :) I also hope I don't sound like a complainer! My real intent in this post is to impress you the way I have been impressed with Matt for trying to do all the things he has done! I didn't know he knew how to do these things! (THANK goodness for the Internet which has helped him in most projects).

(OK I NEVER SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN THIS POST!!!! I jinxed myself and now my camera or computer is having issues and I can't retrieve or upload pictures!!! YIKES! I guess I will have to wait until morning when my Mr. Fix It is awake and can save the day :) IRONIC!

New Home!!!!!

OK we didn't get a new home, but it feels like it! We had our house painted!!!!!! Here in Florida it is a necessity every 10 years or so. Not only because your house starts to look faded and gross, but also the stucco starts to crack and then if hurricanes hit you can expect water intrusion. Our house was starting to show the cracks and we decided it was time. I had the hardest time picking out a color. How do they expect you to imagine your house with a color that you are looking at on a piece of paper that is 1"x1"! IMPOSSIBLE! So after making a couple of trips to the paint store and buying about 4 different quarts of paint I finally decided on a color. I think I was driving Bob, our painter, CRAZY! When I took Emma with me to the store to pick the color she said, in a very serious way, "Mom, can you please have him paint our house pink because for my next birthday party I am going to have a princess party and I want our house to match." Funny little girl! So Lori and Brad can Emma have her next party at your house? :)

OK so I forgot to take a picture of the house before he painted so this picture is of when we first bought the house. Since then we have made many changes including taking out that huge ugly palm tree out front. :) And luckily the previous owners took the cactus with them :)

Tada! Here is my beautiful new home!

My handy man/husband put up these beautiful new light fixtures! I was so proud of him! He also put in our landscape lighting! I didn't know he knew how to do all these projects! THANKS MATT!