February ends tomorrow. On one hand, it would seem we're through the worst of the winter and can start looking ahead to spring (and sure enough, the weather is going to be above average warm for the next couple weeks), but on the other, that means we're only two weeks away from a year of this "new normal". I feel like there's going to be some mild PTSD that goes along with reliving that time of year and reiterating that our lives have essentially been on hold for a full year. I think spring would be a nice mental boost right about now, but the reality is that spring usually doesn't show its face around here until at least April, and even then it's a bit sketchy for a while. We've had some sunny days (and even one over 50), which gives me hope, but I'm trying to keep things realistic so it's not yet another letdown. The funny thing is that as I share the photos and videos below, it was in the upper 40s again today and there are giant patches of grass starting to emerge. It's a far cry from last weekend!
After weeks of snow and cold, we finally started to get some sun last week in between minor snowfalls. By Sunday the snow piles were huge but the snow was just starting to melt and become a bit more packable. Carter and I played in the snow after church while the big boys were off to basketball. I knew the forecast was going to warm up over the week ahead, so I figured it was our last chance to play in the best of the snow before it started to melt. Even so, that day was in the 30s and I was able to make some headway on the glaciers in our driveway. Everything around us was melting as we played. We could hear water running through gutters where there weren't ice dams, and the neighbor's "ice sculpture" in their front foliage made little crashing noises every few minutes as chunks of ice melted off.
I discovered some unfortunate icicles on the back of our house (coming out of the soffit vents, which is never a good sign), but the ice damming on the back of the other neighbor's house was impressive. Those icicles are almost to the ground!
Our patio doesn't look as impressive as it seemed as I walked through snow past my mid-shin in the middle of the yard, but you can see the deep drift next to the table, the foot of snow on and below the air conditioner, and that the moose that sits next to the lamppost is completely covered.
Carter wanted to sled, so I suggested using the giant piles near the end of the driveway to sled. He even extended his path across the sidewalk so he could sled farther.
I'm not gonna lie, this one cracked me up. Note what he says at the beginning. I think he was auditioning for his own TV show, or at least his own YouTube channel!
The snow piles were really high. You can see from this one that it was about eye level for me, and even though Carter is lounging, it's still pretty high above him.
We both climbed up on our piles, and look how high I am!
I was towering over the basketball hoop (set at seven feet) and my eye level was definitely above the gutters on the house. It was crazy.
I decided that since the snow was finally good for packing, I should make an effort to do a snowman. I'm not sure I've ever done one myself (maybe once?), but regardless it's been a lot of years since I worked on one. I usually leave that up to my dad, who is the pro! Mine wasn't very big--I was trying to do it quickly, but he ended up cute! Later Craig even threw a Knighthawks hat on him and leaned a lacrosse stick up against him to do a Knighthawks Instagram post. I wasn't sure what to use for accessories beyond the hat and scarf (we have a ton of extras) and the baby carrot nose, so I used two extra black buttons and a giant rock vaguely shaped like an open-mouthed smile. I had a heck of a time getting them to stay put in the snow, but we managed. He did need some editing once the warmer weather hit, and even then it was short-lived before he toppled, but it was fun while it lasted!
Tuesday was a big day at the house. Not only did our lawn mower come back from its mouse-nest-in-the-motor rehab after almost six months of waiting on parts (yeah, what's under the snow isn't going to be pretty since we never got that last mow in), but our new dishwasher got delivered! I surprised myself when I looked back and realized that ours bit the dust all the way back around Halloween. The part we fixed many years ago broke again, and it was just time to move on. The only problem was that I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted, and once I figured it out, everything was out of stock or backordered. I'd heard so many good things about Bosch, but most of them are way out of our price range. But there were two models at my price point, both with great reviews, but they were backordered for months. So I waited and did dishes by hand, all day every day. I'll be honest, it was really starting to get to me. I did it for a while the last time it broke, but for whatever reason, this time it was such a burden every night to know I had a full sink. Sometimes twice a day, let alone if I baked or did anything extra. So imagine my joy when I saw a Home Depot ad the one day and just clicked it to check again...and amazingly, they were back in stock! I had to do some frantic checking with the plumber on extra parts we might need, but once that was clear, I eagerly ordered. Delivery was only about a couple weeks off, and then our plumber was a lifesaver and worked an extra long day to get us in for installation that same day it was delivered. Other than a couple hiccups with trying to figure out our breaker box (and him forgetting to turn the furnace back on as a result) and one issue with the kick plate that should get worked out when our kitchen gets its update, everything went smoothly.
I am very relieved to have a new dishwasher that's not broken in a few places like our old one was for years--but it still washed dishes just fine, so we stuck with it. I've only run the new one once (we're an every few days family), but so far so good. It is SO quiet. I almost wasn't sure it was running. It is so nice to once again offload half of the dishes in my sink before handwashing the big stuff. Of course, it's a totally different feel and a completely different loading process, which I am still figuring out, but it's a relief to have it done. Oh, and the plumber also fixed our cranky garbage disposal that kept forcing water out of the pipe joint like a fountain, which was also a weight off. Now it's just a matter of calling the contractors to get the kitchen update moving. It really needs it. I did a thorough cleaning of the kitchen last weekend to prepare for the installation (it needed it in a lot of areas, right down to my spice rack) and it made me realize even more how badly the update is needed. So many areas of the kitchen are just worn, and I think the whole thing will feel so much better with an update. It's not the update I really want to do, but the lack of an extra $50K in our bank accounts to rip out a wall and start from scratch says that's just not possible. But I think light fixtures, countertops, paint, a sink, a faucet, and a backsplash will go a long way. And if nothing else, it will help me hone in on anything else that stands out afterward as needing an update.
I'm realizing more and more that spending so much extra time at home over the last year has made me extra aware of the issues in this house and have definitely increased the urgency to fix them. When you have to exist in a space nearly 24/7, shortcomings become painfully obvious and have more of a chance to grate on your nerves. The funny thing is that when we moved in here, there was so much about this house that we loved, if only because it was better than what we had. The kitchen was bright and more updated. There was so much storage. We had a bigger living room with a beautiful fireplace. We had an extra basement hang-out space that wasn't completely removed from the rest of the house. We had a porch and a much better backyard. But I think we got stuck in a rut for a while, where we initially we were happy with what we had, then we didn't want to make changes until we'd lived here for a while, and then we got busy with two kids. We were saving money without having to do upgrades, and anything that wasn't perfect was still good enough. We don't need fancy things, right? But then we suddenly hit 10 years here and realized that things weren't as nice anymore and our tastes had changed. The bright, cheery kitchen was now hopelessly dated. Light fixtures felt boring and cheesy. The bathroom needed help. The basement paneling (which was once an ode to our groovy old basement bar) lost its charm compared to modern drywalled spaces. I'm sure some of this coincided with too much HGTV, but part of that is just seeing that unfunctional, dated spaces can turn into something amazing and wanting that for your own home. There's something to be said for putting your stamp on a place and having pride in it. We did a lot of that stuff at our old house because it was needed, but for a long time it wasn't needed here so we let it go. And at some point I think you start selling yourself short and forgetting that you deserve a little joy and pride and beauty. It's time to rectify that here.
Yes, there are big things that bug me, for sure--the small kitchen, lack of closet space, and the extra small bathroom are at the top of the list--but those are less fixable and probably not worth it for resale value. But if I can spruce up the kitchen, pick light fixtures that are more "us", and eventually start working through some of the other fixable things, I think I will continue to be happy here. I guess for now any little change that we make is helpful in at least providing us some new scenery. We've been staring at the same stuff for so long now (and so intensely for the past year) that any little update is refreshing. Our living room furniture was a nice change shortly before the pandemic started. Little changes in the yard over the summer felt good. The bathroom was a nice boost in September. The dishwasher brought joy this week. That's probably why I'm so excited that our appointment to get rid of our old TV stand is just over a week away, and after that I can put together the new one that's been sitting in a box near our front door for weeks. Something new feels so good in a time where there hasn't been a whole lot of "new and different".
In the meantime, we're refinancing our mortgage. Rates are low so we really to just need to suck it up and move forward. Friday night was spent uploading documents--party party! We almost considered going down to 10 years, but that payment was a bit steep. So, instead, I think we can start making a good dent in it by paying additional principal--somewhere above what our new payment will be (very close to the old one) but less than what the 10 year would have been. Because real estate is selling like crazy and the value of our house is up considerably from where we bought it, at multiple points I've wondered whether we should consider selling instead. The problem with that, however, is that we'd have to buy a house in this same crazy market. I do not want to deal with the crazy bidding wars everyone's getting into, nor do I want to find out this was some sort of bubble and end up underwater with our next mortgage when prices level out. So, we'll just stay here and make it better instead. Someday we may find out that two big boys and our small kitchen and bathroom don't work, but for now we'll survive.
In other news, Friday felt like a touch of normal. After a morning of work Zoom meetings, I stopped into my office for a couple hours to grab a box of thank you gifts we're going to be sending out. I needed to fold 250 bags and then drop them off at the mail house. Well, when I got there I realized I was locked out of the office because the maintenance guy misunderstood when I was coming. After wandering around the building a bit, I finally sent out an office-wide email to see if any of the handful of people squirreled around the building had a key to our suite, and sure enough, a couple did. Whew!
At my desk, I smirked at the site of our office mascot, Harriet the Naked Mole Rat, because we have left her in the seasonal attire she was in when the office closed and she's now officially back in season. How she came to be our mascot is a long story, but basically the University did some research into naked mole rats (did you know they don't really get cancer?) and years ago someone was getting rid of a couple stuffed ones they must have used for events. A teammate grabbed one to keep at her desk, and when she left, she bequeathed Harriet to me (since I was there when she grabbed her), and my boss and I contributed to her seasonal attire. I think when I go back in past the year mark I'm going to update her finally.
As I sat at my desk, I was able to watch the live stream of Jacob's first basketball game of the season! Basketball got the green light here a few weeks ago, which meant that Jacob could play modified basketball this year. It's going to be an extremely short season, but it's nice for him to get his feet wet in the school realm. It was exciting to see him in his first jersey, then to see him on the court he will hopefully play on for years to come. And rushing off from work to pick him up from the game was a nice touch of normalcy, too.
Unfortunately, the team isn't very good. They lost their first two games, the second by quite a bit. Jacob scored nine points in the first and six in the second. Not a bad start, and he's definitely one of the stronger players. I have a feeling that the one thing keeping him from panicking is knowing that next year a good friend of his who's an amazing player is going to transfer to the school, and they should be a good pair in the years ahead. Hopefully some additional good players come in by the high school years and they can get back to the glory days of the school's state championship (which included a future NBA player, but whatever!). But it was cool seeing him out there playing for his school, even if it was just streamed. Better than game two, which we couldn't see at all. I hope someday we can be real spectators!
I know I'm going to find myself wishing away this month to get to spring break, Easter, and warm weather, but the good news is that March is almost here and I won't be spending it washing dishes. Hopefully this is the month we get Carter some help, get moving on the kitchen, and maybe even see a few more things get back to normal.
No comments:
Post a Comment