Out with the old...

and in with the new - furnance that is. Yikes is right! And to complain a bit more, today I broke my back molar right up to the root canel I had filled a few months ago. Gratefully, it doesn't hurt and I'm hoping it stays that way until I can get to the dentist next week, for oh joy a cap I'm sure. I really hate the dentist - so much that I would rather give birth again than have to get any major dental work done. Having a baby was a breeze compared to sitting in a chair with bright lights in your eyes and drool coming out your mouth because you can't swallow with all the gizmos and gadgets they cram in there.

Anyway, on to the furnance story. On Tuesday, which just happened to be a very cold and SNOWY day in Bountiful, our furnance went out. I had heard this low humming noise and told Jeff the furnance sounded weird. He was reading his ESPN magazine and looked pretty comfy on the couch so he didn't really listen to me at first. Plus, he was probably just thinking there she goes again with her total paranoia thinking something in the house is broken or that I was just cold (being cold isn't too unusual for me - it's when I'm hot that he worries because then he thinks I'm pregnant again - no I'm not pregnant!). But after confirming my suspicion by looking at the thermostat and realizing there was a four degree difference in the temperature our house was supposed to be at and the actual temperature, we both wandered into the bathroom to check out the furnance. Jeff noticed that our pilot light was out so he started poking around a bit with the old, cheap, piece of junk. We soon realized our fears had come true and that we needed to call someone to come and check things out. Luckily for me, we had Pearl to worry about getting cold because otherwise Jeff would have made us both tough it out for the night. We ran over to the Lord's (our next door neighbors) who just happen to have one of everything, seriously they do, and get this huge portable furnance to keep Pearl's room warm.

Anyway, the furnance guy comes and his first words are "Oh, your furnance is illegal." What? How can a furnance be illegal (not that we were too surprised considering how old our house is and how tiny the space is that our furnance is in)? Well, after two previous winters of doing repairs to the furnance, we decided it was probably time to just bite the bullet and get a new one. We were just lucky that this time though because it was April and not January! So... a few thousand dollars later we have a brand new furnance that is actually energy efficient. It kind of sounds like a jet plane taking off with this low rumble but hey it keeps us warm.

Being a homeowner is wonderful and all but honestly, could we do any "fun" home repairs? We've invested probably $20,000+ into our house this year and we are literaly sitting on the majority of that money. In November, we realized our kitchen was sinking. Let me give you some background - the first fall that we moved in, I heard this loud crack one night (Jeff again thinking I've gone crazy) and the next day find this crack in our kitchen/sunroom. Everyone figures it's probably been there for years and that we shouldn't worry about. Well, being the paranoid worry-wart that I am, I keep my eye on it. While I was on maternity leave last summer, I heard a couple of loud pops and suddenly our crack grows so big that you can stand in the sunroom and look into our kitchen through it! It was huge! I totally freaked out. We had a foundation company come and check things out and that's when we realize our kitchen had sunk 3 inches and there's a huge crack in our foundation. So... we have to have our house put on titanium steel piers which are anchored to our foundation then drilled into solid bedrock, not to mention we had to get new rain gutters because they think our downspots caused some of the problems. After the piers get attached and they drill down to the bedrock, they lift our house up with hydralics and presto, the crack is almost totally gone! It was a pretty interesting process and it amazingly only took one day to fix. But now our house rattles and creaks even more but hey, if we ever have an earthquake at least the south wall of our house should remain standing! And since I brought up this, I might as well post some pictures of the whole procedure.

This is the crack from the sunroom side of our house, before the foundation is fixed.

This is one of the piers that attaches to the foundation.

Yes, that is a 6 foot hole in my kitchen! Did I mention that because we have a 100 year old house and no basement, that a crawlspace is not the ideal thing to have for this kind of home repair? We had to knock out the tile in our kitchen, take down the cabinets, move the fridge, then cut a hole in the floor and dig out the crawlspace to get these piers in place.

Getting ready to lift the house with hydralic pumps.

And whalaw! The crack is nearly gone after lifting the house. Amazing, huh?

And the winner is...

I know, I know. I haven't posted any updates on our 2008 NCAA Bracket Challenge but that's because I was LOSING! We did terrible this year with our picks and I was quickly out of the contenders spot for the new pair of shoes, after only a couple rounds of basketball games. It came down to the wire with Pearl cheering on UCLA and Jeff UNC. But for all you March Madness fans out there, you already know that neither team made it to the final game. So...the winner was actually determined on Saturday but I decided to keep ya all in suspense until tonight. The lucky winner who gets a new pair of shoes is....Pearl. Yup, that little twirp beat both Jeff and I. Jeff keeps saying she cheated and looked at his picks before filling out her own bracket. But he was a good sport and has already ordered her a new pair of shoes. Adorable aren't they?

Pearl's checking out her bracket, which upon learning she had won, decided to celebrate by shredding it and then eating all the pieces she had torn off.

The shoe obession is really sickening isn't it? Like father, like daughter I guess (I personally think there must be some shoe loving gene that is being passed from generation to generation because Jeff's sister and mom also have this obession with shoes)!

Spring is in the air...

Spring is in the air as evident by the fact that Jeff has already broken out his new lawnmower, daffodils are beginning to bloom, March Madness is nearly over (stay tuned for tomorrow's blog update announcing the winner of our bracket challenge), and undertaking some spring cleaning. Well, spring painting! I had been complaining about our living room for the past few months and so we decided to give it a fresh coat of paint. Our couches just seemed to blend into the walls and there wasn't enough of a contrast to make things "pop." It took me forever to decide what color to paint the room and with nearly 40+ paint samples all of the wall, Jeff figured the only way to get me to choose was to start patching nail holes and putting primer all over the walls. It worked and well...the rest is history!

Jeff putting primer on the walls.

Pearl helping dad put tape on the molding. Pearl had a great time yesterday helping us paint. She strew toys all over the house and no once seemed to care (she thought it was great to only get told "No, that's not a toy!" when she got near the paint buckets).

Pearl and dad on the ladder getting ready to paint. Pearl was still trying to put tape all over the walls or eat it, I'm not too sure which was more fun.

No turning back now! Jeff always has fun painting and as evident by his beautiful rendition of Pearl with the curl.

This picture was just too cute to not post!

Pearl joined in the fun with painting. Luckily it was on the floor and not on the walls!


And now for the finished product...whada' think? It's definitely different, a little dark but rich and helps the couches/pillows and painting "pop" just like I was hoping!