Yesterday, I managed to unpack a few more boxes the movers packed.
I was disappointed to find this.
This was another situation where they packet had to physically damage something – in this case, break it – to fit it in the box.
This latch hook wall hanging was made by my late mother-in-law.
Then there was this utterly ridiculous find.
Who does this? I realize its just a roll up sheet of poster paper, but it was folded like this and crunched into a plastic bin.
Insane.
The Re-farmer
My brother has pulled off another miracle for us.
Two of them.
We had plans to go into the city around noon to finally take care of the Costco/pharmacy mess, then a Christmas dinner with my husband’s family.
It was also the day my brother booked to come fix our van door and the hot water tank. Because of our plans, he came much earlier. Amazingly, he started the day at 5:30 am, took three hours to prepare for everything he could think of (because, once here, there is no alternative if something is missing), then drove the hour and a half or more in freezing rain to our place.
Then he lugged a 150-200 pound door down the stairs into the new part basement to work on.
Our door had a broken latch and couldn’t stay closed. It happened because of a loose hinge that caused the door to drop. When closing it, the latch would hit the bar it was supposed to catch on to stay closed. Eventually, it simply broke. I’ve been driving with a bungee cord hooked onto the window frame to keep the door closed, ever since. Our garage had tried to find a used or salvaged part for me, because a new one would have cost an insane amount of money, but they were unable to find a salvageable part.
My brother managed it, salvaging the hinge pieces as well as the entire door.
Long story short, he ended up McGyvering the two together. The frame of the replacement door now has the inside shell of our original door, plus the outside handle of the original door – with the key lock in it – got transferred from the original door, to the replacement door.
This is the original door, with the broken hinge, as well as the broken latch.
It took him something like 5 or 6 hours!!!
Then, as soon as he was done, we headed to the city, while he switched to working on the hot water tank. It turns out he got the last two of those bands left, not just in North America, but the world! They haven’t been made in decades, and they were still in the original box. He wasn’t sure if replacing them would fix the problem, but he was going to try.
We got home less than half an hour ago, and found we have hot water!
Which means, in the morning, instead of sending hours heating water for several people to have baths, we can take 10 minute showers, and get on with out day.
I love my brother.
Update: I just got off the phone with my brother. Turns out only the bottom band needed to be replaced, but the new one was several inches too short. He had to gerry-rig it. He also found the schematics for the replacement thermostat was wrong, which likely explains the breaker going.
We shall see how the hot water is, tomorrow. In the end, it’s still a temporary fix until we can get a new tank.
The Re-farmer
So my claim to the movers has gone out, and I got a confirmation email, telling me it takes 2-4 weeks for claims to be resolved.
Today, I got this. Continue reading
When the girls were rearranging the shed to make more room, they found the radio/record player console that was a figure in the living room for decades. Sadly, it no longer works.
Looking inside, there were several records. A couple of 78s and a couple of 45s. I had to rescue them!
Looking at one of the 45s, I started to laugh and sing “Who Stole the Keeshka?”
They thought I was kidding. Continue reading
I took a break from unpacking yesterday. Today, my goal is to get rid of the wall of boxes in front of the wall of shelves that I have to squeeze through to get to bed.
Sure enough, I found more damaged items. Like this. Continue reading
My younger daughter is some kind of cat whisperer!
Last night, when she headed out to give the outside cats some warm water for the night, The Mothman came out. He’s been hanging out more often, and even taken over one of the old dog houses at times. The other cats are nervous around him, so they won’t go in with him, like they do with each other. When she came out, there were cats all over for some reason. Then Mothman came out of the dog house and she saw why! Continue reading
As chaotic as things are, we’re settling into a bit of a routine. Mornings, the heating of water for washing begins. My past habit of staying up to the wee hours and getting up at around 10am has changed to going to bed before midnight *gasp* and getting up earlier. It takes most of the morning to heat enough water to wash up not only ourselves, but any dishes and stuff that needs doing. No point in heating all that water again in the evening, just to do dishes.
In the morning, someone goes to feed the outside cats and get them some warm water. A warm water refill gets done again, later in the day, when what we gave them earlier is frozen.
Packing my parents’ stuff, cleaning shelves, unpacking our own stuff, then finding somewhere to put it, happens when we can. I have been getting a fair bit of it done while heating water and stuff. Usually it starts with, “I should make breakfast, but I could really use… ” and then I end up going through several boxes to find an item, get distracted and do something else, get distracted and finish another thing… then, eventually, I remember to go back and actually make breakfast.
Green tea with chamomile, in my footed cup, all freshly unpacked!
We’re tea drinkers in general, but since the move, tea is ever-present. Even when I was just coming out to stay a short while (usually for something funeral related), and I stayed at the farm, the kettle seemed to always be on. We’re drinking more tea now than we did even just before the move, when the water at the co-op started tasting worse and worse. We have since found and unpacked our tea supplies – we have a LOT of tea and tea supplies! – so the variety is being enjoyed often.
Loading packed boxes into the van and taking them to the shed has had a bit of a stall. The van is currently full of stuff for the land fill.
Now there’s a new habit we’re going to have to get into. Regular trips to the dump. Continue reading
As we unpacked a box I packed myself and found a chipped mug, we went on the hunt.
Every box of ours marked fragile was opened and checked. Every unlabeled box (which they packed) was opened. If fragile things were found, we unpacked them.
Thankfully, there was not a lot of damage. Considering we have my daughter’s antique tea cups collection and things like the China I inherited (a pattern that was discontinued in the late 60’s), that’s saying a lot.
I’m not too concerned about chipped mugs or a broken glass candle holder.
Stuff like this is different.
The creamer of a sugar bowl and creamer set made for me by my cousin. It had survived about a dozen moves. Until now.
And this.
An old statue of the patron saint of music my mother gave me. It had already been repaired in the past. It’s beyond repair, now.
Still not as much of a problem as this.
Original painting by my daughter. She had even wrapped it in a plastic bag with another painting in her inventory. Something in the box dug into it, causing this damage.
So that painting is now can’t be sold.
Then there is the WTF? stuff. Like this.
My daughter’s metal yard stick. It was in the same box as the damaged painting.
The metal yard stick was bent to fit into a size medium box.
Who does that???
Meanwhile, we had to shove everything we unpacked into any nook and cranny we could reach. Which is not where they belong.
Where most of it is supposed to go is either blocked off by boxes, or not yet cleared of my patents’ stuff.
The girls did get some kitchen cupboards cleared and half or so of them cleaned, so we could start putting our pantry items away, at least.
We are in that “progress is going to look much worse before it starts to look better” stage.
The Re-farmer
I got the desk and computer set up in my “new” office. This is where the satellite cable comes through the wall.
Before moving the desk, the router was set up on top of a couple of boxes to get a stronger signal. We still had to set up our signal booster in the master bedroom. After moving the desk, I put a folding table that will eventually be a work/photography space, in the corner. The router was moved to the table, propped up on the boxes again. Before going to bed, I popped an unpacked box on the table. This morning, my husband found that box was enough to disrupt the signal. It seemed just having it more in the corner was causing signal strength issues, too.
So we got creative and did this.
It looks awful, but it works, so who cares?
The girls have been joking about the squid on the wall since they saw it. Especially since neither of them had their glasses.
Update: our router now has a name. Benevolent Internet Bot.
The Re-farmer
The Re-Farmer 