Well, well well.  I suppose I can just chalk it up to home ownership. The house is 20 years old this year so I suppose I should expect a few more items to give out around here. Its been bad enough the past three years around here with our multiple floods, but Halloween weekend our well pump started spewing dirty rusty water. We just can’t seem to get past water issues I guess.  Now this is a major problem we have on our hands, you just can’t live without it.  So, we had to call in the pros, who promptly came on Saturday only to tell us no can do until Monday because supply shops are closed. Makes sense, except the fact we had no water for 2 days!

Thankfully we have nice neighbors who let us fill our empty water bottles for use and going to other relatives houses to bathe. It was like camping at home! Not as fun though. So I took Monday off for the major plumbing operation.  They pulled out 460 feet of pipe and wire, replaced the pump (which should last typically 10 years so we were lucky), added some new fittings, wire and stuck er back in the deep. Unfortunately we still had to flush out the crap in the water so the pump had to run all afternoon and until the next morning spewing water outside. What a mess.

We finally got water back on Tuesday, although its going to take some time to clear out the plumbing. Cold water is fine, but the hot water is still murky, because the hot water tank is full of this crud. Its a cascading effect, now we need a new hot water heater. I guess its about time anyway. This is also 20 years old.

I suppose this could not have happened at a better time though. Imagine this going kaput in winter, or how about some extended holiday like Christmas?  Bah humbug!

Well now, its been quite some time since I’ve actually written something on this blog so I suppose something should be in order right? Hell, I’ve been busy okay? If you really want to keep up with my daily doings just follow me on Twitter, or on Facebook, although I essentially treat those as the same platform. I think the lack of effort on here is mainly due to my Nintendo Wii addiction, thanks for that one family! I just can’t seem to get enough Call Of Duty 5 (and now Guitar Hero)  in every free minute of my life.  So, lets recap whats been going on around here for the last few months:

• We just came back from Las Vegas, commonly reffered to as ‘The Big Out’ (no kids!).  It was a friggin good time, so lets just say what happens in Vegas…. No I can easily boil the 4 days down for you;  Walking, drinking, eating, gambling, drinking, walking and did I mention walking? If interested check out the photos in the gallery in the link above.
• I finally finished the basement! Well, mostly. There are a couple of things left to do but by golly I got it done. It only took me almost three months. We decided the heck with it why not just do the whole thing. I would have a photo of the finished product but its already been taken over by kid toys, which is obscuring my fine work. I don’t feel like cleaning it up either.  Yeah ever since I finished I’ve been on a lazy streak.
• Erik and I went to another Monster Truck Show! Cars were crushed, the kids went wild.
• The kids have been busy growing up (its what they do best.). I can’t believe my baby girl is now a toddlin smack talkin toddler.  Lauren is something else I tells ya, and so damn cute.  Erik is just a massive ball of energy. For a kid who doesn’t eat much, where the heck are his batteries?
• I turned 36. I won’t go further into details on this one.
• Working.  NIU was keeping me busy with plenty of overtime stuff this past winter. By the way is Winter finally done? This was a brutal one.

So there ya have it. 3 months or so packed into a nice little list. Exciting and impressive I know.

Since I’m home today watching some sick kids, thought I would share whats happening around here in the deep freeze of Winter. As most of you know, last year we were blessed with not one but TWO floods. Because yet another brand new carpet had to be torn out, we decided to put tile in instead. This of course would be a monumental task, 600 square feet of tile and materials had to be brought in. Since I had some time off during the holidays I thought it would be a good time to start. I was hoping to be done with the whole thing during that time, but I found out the hard way that its slow, messy,tedious and back breaking work. But, with some help from Trish and a coworker (Thanks Mackey! I still need to buy you lunch.) I’m about half way done. I have to say it looks pretty damn nice down there.

From Phone pics

The days are long and warm, the kids run around outside with glee…

and I have a huge backlog of house projects to complete as well. I’ve been slacking for two summers now because of school. Well, I have no excuses now, the joys of home ownership have taken hold, its time to buckle down and work that list. Man, its a big one. Some of this stuff is leftovers from last year that I couldn’t finish! Lets take a look at the rundown of some biggies..

• Replace breezeway storm doors (1 done! and oh my God it works right!)
• Power wash the house
• Plant Veggie Garden
• Stain Deck
• Stain deck chair
• Fix Dryer Vent
• Finish trim in living room (started that one last year!)
• Replace fly screen sliding door, again (purchased and waiting)
• Cut down dead trees
• Caulk sidewalk at front stoop (mostly done)
• Minor outside painting of door frames
• Figure out why the dryer isn’t drying (%&*@#! POS just bought a new one) New dryer installed now
• Condemn the swing set
• and probably a bunch of stuff I can’t think of at the moment.

Ah the cost of home ownership. Yeah yeah, you must be thinking I’m such a whiner. Well, I am! This sucks! I want to kick back instead but hey who doesn’t. Think of this list as my motivational tool to help me get this crap done.

The Storm Door from hell project…Nothing is ever easy around here

Well, it finally happened. We pulled the trigger and got new carpet! Finally! The stinky crap carpet we destroyed has been replaced by shiny new smell carpet. Hey no food or shoes in here!

Hey all you Korioth.com junkies out there. I know you’ve been jonesing for something new on here. So, since I have a moment, I’ll tell you about all the goings on at the ole K Corral. Since we haven’t done much in terms of fixing up/remodeling the house in a few years we felt it was time. Besides, warm weather is for outdoors, winter is for ripping up carpet and putting in wood floors and buying new furniture. We’re not quite done with the room, trim needs to be installed but the wood floor is looking mighty nice! Check out these pics: http://www.korioth.com/gallery/v/2007/January/remodel/

This past weekend I bandaided some annoyances in the kitchen as well. Tried resanding and staining our butchers block on the center island and I finally replaced the undersink floor as it was gross. Ahhh, progress is good. Next project is to replace the carpet in the living room. Ohh I can’t wait.