missive II

February 3, 2006


Dear Aunt,

Well, I gave up in my battle-of-the-birdfeeder against the grey squirrels and went out and bought a feeder called a “Yankee Flipper.” It has a motorized perch on the bottom that activates if anything heavier than a songbird tries to sit on it. The sales clerk played a video for me that showed a squirrel trying to plunder this thing and it kept flinging him off into the rhododendrons --- it was really funny! So yesterday morning J***** and I replaced our platform feeder with the “Yankee Flipper” and crouched in the kitchen waiting for our squirrels to try it… and it works TOO well! The squirrels looked at it and wouldn’t even attempt to try and climb it! So much for our free show. We had to go and entertain ourselves by doing laundry instead.

We bought a new washer and dryer at the Home Depot last month while they were having a big sale, and those were delivered yesterday; I have NEVER been SO IMPRESSED with an appliance in my life before! We had acquired an old Kenmore set with the purchase of the house, but the washer used an awful lot of water, and the dryer took an hour and a half to dry an average load of clothes… plus the timer on the dryer was broken so if you forgot you had clothes in there it would run until you remembered some three hours later. So we thought that we could probably save some money in the long run on water and electricity by upgrading to something from this century…

J***** gets very excited whenever somebody comes to deliver something. He wants to watch them install it/put it together, whatever, so he was right there when they brought the washer and dryer in. Like everything these days, the controls are computerized, so when you turn on the power all these gold and green lights come on and it makes a chiming sound. (Luckily the power button is out of J*****’s reach, and there is a child-lock feature.) He demanded that we get some laundry to wash so he could see what else it did. The washer is a front-loader, so we sat on the floor and watched it fill with water and tumble the clothes for maybe ten minutes! It uses probably half as much water as the old one, and I think it holds more laundry. The dryer has a light inside the drum that comes on when you open the door – imagine that! It dried a giant load of clothes in 4o minutes, and they were so soft, and completely dry. Ok, I realize that I had no opinions about washing machines or dryers when I lived with my parents and since then I’ve always had to use whatever coin-operated machines were available, but I had no idea I would be so happy with a new appliance. My sister-in-law, who just got a new range, says, “Isn’t it sad when the only excitement you get in your life is over new appliances?” I say hey, take it where you can get it!

The next home improvement we get to be excited about is replacing all the old toilets. I knew when we bought the house that the toilets were an odd shape and thought, “We’re going to have a heck of a time finding replacement seats for those” and I’ve scrubbed and scrubbed the bowls and can’t get the stains off the water line, but the thing that put us over the edge is that the stupid things don’t do what they’re supposed to do! We have to plunge them constantly. We spent all last weekend plunging the damn toilets. I was ready to put a portosan in the garage or start driving to the Duncan Donuts to use the bathroom! So Sunday night Steve did some research and on Monday I went to Foley and Sons Faucetorium and ordered three new American Standard toilets. Steve thinks he can install them himself. The lady who manages the bathroom portion of the store said that if we have trouble they can come out and help us out. Of course, they’ll charge us, but I was relieved that they didn’t give us the “and are you a licensed plumber” nonsense that you would get in New York if you tried to do anything yourself. It’s funny really; I knew when we bought this place that I’d want to replace the wallpaper and the carpets, but I had no idea I’d be desperate to replace the toilets!

I have lots of grand decorating ideas for the house that I suppose will happen one day, but I think the people who owned it before us spent money on decorating and not on the (boring) infrastructure stuff like ventilation, plumbing and electricity. And luckily I’m married to an architect who came up through the trades, so he can wire a light fixture instead of going out and buying a stick-on battery powered light that lasts less than a year (there were several of those hanging out in closets and stuff when we moved in). So we’ll get all the basic appliances, insulation, thermostats, etc out of the way and then gradually I can buy furniture, window treatments, carpet and wallpaper. I’ve got a file folder where I stuff all my decorating ideas.

We did get J***** a “big boy” bed because we’ll need the crib for the next one come summer. We told him it was coming the day before it was due to be delivered, and when it arrived he went tearing up and down the stairs after the delivery men, and danced in the hallway while they were installing it… he loves to lie on it and read, but I can’t get him to sleep on it any better than I could when he was in the crib!

Here’s a picture of him “trying it out” just after it came.

Love,

(Sorry, blog friends, my Micasa seems to have disappeared. I'll try to restore it and add the picture another time...)