Happy Bungalow

Gardening Help

2009-11-02T07:40:00.005-06:00

Last week, we had Art and Linda's Wildflower gang over to steward the beginnings of our gardens.

First, they raked and bagged all the leaves. Watching from the window, I had to admit I was glad we didn't have to do this... Although, we did have to do the parkway over the weekend. We did it the smart way, and mulched all the leaves with the lawnmower. The bag was changed over 30 times... and the tree's aren't even half way done with shedding their leaves.

Next, notice how we no longer have a mud pit. Yep, here's the bright shiny new mulch on display.

And, here, Michael, Art, and a helper prepare our new garden bed for the spring. Not sure you can see all the flags in the picture, but we will have a nice sweeping garden bed all around the yard.

The one thing that bugs us about the backyard, is we have a big telephone pole and attached to it is an alley light. The light shines into our bedroom window, but it's also a huge eye sore and kills the ambience when we're chilling in the backyard on any evening. Art told us a good idea is to plant a fast growing tree, which will block the light. We had a couple options of trees, we opted for the catalpa (hoping I won't be cursing the mess of the spring flowers and bean pods) but it's a really unique and pretty tree. It also grows about 4 feet per year. So the options, plant a tiny tree, a 4 foot tree or a 6 foot tree. We told Art we'd think about it, and let him know. He surprised us when he popped over on Saturday and gave us a little tree to plant for free.

Should be fun watching her grow.

Third times a charm...

2009-10-28T07:24:00.000-05:00

Yes, third times a charm, for giving up on the front lawn.

After tilling twice by a big heavy tiller, and once entirely by hand, and finally having a master gardener come and look at the lawn, it's been decided there is no way we can get anything to grow in front.

I started the search for a landscaper a few months ago on Angies List. The company I was interested also happened to be at the Bungalow Expo we attended a few weeks ago.

We talked to Art and Linda's Wildflowers extensively, and finally decided to have them come out to take a look. Art concluded that we have such intense shade by the Norway Maples that there is no way to get anything to grow. He gave us several suggestions.

Option 1. Contact the Alderman to get permission to cut down a major limb of one of the maples. This could easily cost us $1000 plus to get done. We hate option 1.

2. Try to work with what we have. This involves putting mulch on the yard (the only thing that will obviously survive) and attempt to plant ferns is select spots. He's not sure if the ferns will survive or not. He can also move our gutters to create a pretty rock/rain garden in front.

We are going to try option 2 and wait and see.

We also contracted them to do our backyard. We just don't have the time, knowledge or expertise to do it on our own, and his idea's were superb.

Art took us on a garden tour of several homes around us to get idea's, and his work is awesome.

So, there you have it. Hopefully by next summer, we can post some pretty pictures of the front and backyards of the Happier Bungalow.

The countdown begins

2009-10-03T07:46:00.003-05:00

I've been sleeping on this sorry excuse of a bed for almost 3 months now, and the day has finally arrived... Just saw on the website that the other bed I want to try is going on sale on 10/15. I can't wait to get rid of this one! I'm looking forward to the day it gets carried out of the bungalow, never to return again.

Now, I'm really hoping the new one is better. If it's not, then I'll be really sad, and will probably go get one of those old spring mattresses.

We haven't had much going on lately. We did finally get the bungalow furnished (thanks to Beth's Miami house!) We may try to tackle cleaning out the basement, and moving the storage to the attic this weekend, which once again, won't be as easy as we thought. Since the attic stairs open over the basement stairs, we'll have to carry everything through the outside basement door, through the outside kitchen door, and finally up to the attic stairs. This will really be fun when it gets even colder. Good times.

Erica's no friend of mine

2009-09-10T17:30:00.005-05:00

This is what Michael came home to last night. Ahh, the joys of the first week of school.

So, today I went to the Crafty Beaver to pick up something to get rid of stupid erica. Upon coming home, and pulling into the driveway, one of our neighbors came over to ask if I want to know what to use to get rid of the spray paint. Heck yea I do!

He said Gum out Carb cleaner works on silver spray paint. Who knew.

So now I gotta run to the auto parts store. Hoping I get to post a clean garage door in the near future.

On a pretty funny (and not so clean) note, I was telling my co-worker that we got tagged, and also the garage next to us got tagged with Bella. So, the guy googles Erica Bella. Who knew we had a celebrity in our midst...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068610/

The attic is DONE!

2009-09-05T07:53:00.009-05:00

Wow. I can't believe we got this done in a month. We ROCK.

By Saturday we were completely finished hanging the beams, which left 2 things left, seal some bad flashing on the roof, and cleaning up the attic, which included bringing all the storage we currently had up there back to the basement.

As usual, I eventually used my trusty moving method, which is "I'm tired, and look out below, because boxes are now being kicked down the stairs". I used the same method when moving out of the condo. I must say, it works quite well, as long as those fragile boxes are carefully labeled.

Here's Mike fixing the flashing on the roof. It was a pretty terrifying experience, considering the roof was pitched way more than he thought it was.

After all the boxes were down, it was time to clean up all the sawdust from the sawing and drilling.

Keep in mind, this is a GIANT broom. Yea, that's a lot of sawdust...

Check out the roof! Yay us...

By Sunday afternoon, we were done, and waiting for Eco tec to come for the installation on Monday morning.

Well, we hit a snag...

Eco tec came Monday morning around 8:30am. They set up the attic, taped up the windows and brought the hose into the attic. We waited, and waited... around 10am they told us they had to run to Crafty Beaver because the hose was broken, and they were going to try to fix it. By 11:30 they told us the bad news, they couldn't fix the hose, and would have to come back tomorrow.

Ok... now, Michael had to shuffle all his Tuesday meetings around so he could work from home again. He wanted to be here to make sure everything looked good.

Fast forward to Tuesday, they arrived at 11am, right when they said they would.

Here, they bring the hose from the truck, through the kitchen window, and straight up into the attic.

They were here for 4 hours. And this is what occurred:

Pretty cool huh? Already, we notice a huge temperature difference upstairs. Now, I'm hoping this weekend will have at least an 80 degree sunny day for the real test. Usually, 80 and sunny = over 100 degrees.

And lastly, Safety Inspector Sid, upset that he can't perform his duty upstairs...

Cats

2009-09-02T13:10:00.003-05:00

Here's a post about Radley, the resident kitty from the Empty Bottle. Everyone should raise a bottle to this cute cat, who marked his last drum...

Speaking of cats... Safety Sid had an adventure last night. For some reason, the back gate was left open, and as I was doing some weeding, I turned around to look for him. He was not in the backyard. A scary 5 minutes later, we found him around the corner and in the neighbor's bushes. Grrr. Now inspector Sid will be going for a micro-chip appointment...

Longing for some longan

2009-08-28T00:30:00.001-05:00

When we were in Kauai, we happened upon some wonderful fruit called longan. The best way to describe it is sort of a mix between a grape and a plum. It comes in bunches on a branch, and the fruit is wrapped in a tough outer skin. You have to break through the skin to get to the yumminess inside.

We would eat them all the time, and I've really missed them since we left. Anyways, yesterday while shopping at Mayfair market, we happened upon something that looked very similar, but it was called limoncillo quenepas. Thinking we struck gold, I bought a pretty big package, but for only $2.

I washed the outer skin, bit through, and was left with a funk in my mouth that really didn't go away for several minutes. It was pretty sour, and instead of a translucent looking fruit, it was kind of a peachy color. But, alas, not the hoped for longan.

So, now we're left with a huge bowlful of crappy fruit. Maybe the squirrels will eat them?

Oh, Mark and Tina, lucky lucky you, apparently, the longan grow mostly in China. You should see if you can find it, and thank us later.

Almost there...

2009-08-27T07:31:00.001-05:00

This is been a crazy month, with almost all of our time dedicated to hanging the 2x4s in the attic. I'm so happy to report that we are almost done, I'm thinking Saturday is the day, which is a good thing since Eco tec comes to install the insulation on Monday!

The last thing we have to do is install the beams over the attic ladder, and this requires Michael to remove the pulley system for the ladder. This makes me very very nervous, but we've recently bought a 16 foot ladder, so if needed I can bring it to the window for him to climb down to safety if he gets stuck up there.

Luckily, we've had mostly nice weather for August, absolutely unheard of, so lucky we are.

Also, along with the insulation, we get a freebee rain barrel! Whoohoo! My lawn will be happy.

Speaking of which, our lawn is not happy. I'm about at my wits end with it, and a prairie garden is looking better and better instead of the grass. We've decided next Spring, before the leaves are on the trees, we'll seed again and hopefully the sun will get and keep it established. If that doesn't work, I'm done with it.

Now, onto the most exciting news... I got the Wii game Rockband. It's uber fun, and I've been enjoying working my drumming chops back up.

After I bought it, I came dancing into the kitchen to tell Michael about my new fun purchase, something we can enjoy after the evil attic is complete. His response? Honey, we have a basement FULL of REAL music equipment. Why don't we play those instead of the fake instruments. Hmmm, good point. But Rockband is fun, and Michael's getting into it. Last night, we downloaded 10 new songs and had a blast. Living in the limelight the universal dream.... (yea, we had to get some Rush...)

Michael's TV appearance

2009-08-15T11:28:00.004-05:00

One of the bands Michael plays with, Reely Dan, had an appearance on the WGN morning TV show. Load in was set for 5:30AM, ouch, and luckily the studio was right down the street from us, as someone woke up at 4:51. Whoops.

So, here's the video: Reely Dan

What Not to wear at Lolla

2009-08-13T07:20:00.000-05:00

Lolla 5 has ended

2009-08-10T09:59:00.005-05:00

Lolla started rainy and chilly, and ended a hot sweaty mess. Jane's Addiction made it all worth it. Best set of the weekend by far. Now, let the recovery begin!

1. Intro to Up The Beach
2. Mountain Song
3. Ain't No Right
4. Three Days
5. Whores
6. Been Caught Stealing
7. Then She Did
8. Ocean-Sized
9. Ted Just Admit It
10. Summertime Rolls
11. Stop!

(encore)
12. Jane Says

(M&T - Don't hurt us, we stayed for the whole Snoop set. It was just that good... but we did catch about 20 min of Lou Reed, since he ran over by 20 minutes...)

The injury list

2009-08-07T06:52:00.003-05:00

I'm hoping I don't need to add to this in the future.

Anyone who knows us is aware that we always incur an injury whenever we travel. A sprained ankle, a broken shoulder, cracked rib, it always happens.

Now we can add injuries incurred in the attic.

Me: Sprained wrist
Michael: Concussion.

Mike was hanging a piece of wood. He tightened the first screw, and, ala the Three Stooges, the board swung around really fast and nailed him in the head. He actually fell back, but then continued working.

Cut to the next day, and had he told me this right away, a trip to the hospital would have certainly happened. He was still feeling a bit out of it, but he said he began to feel better in the afternoon.

My mom threatened to drive to Chicago to drag him to the hospital if I didn't take him, but, after looking online at the symptoms, and making him talk and tell me stories to check for slurred speech and delay time, I was pretty convinced that he would be ok.

Last night, there was no work on the attic, as I prescribed rest and relaxation.

Today Lollapalooza starts. Forecast for the weekend? Thunderous downpours, and heat upwards of 98 degrees with a heat index at 107.

We're thinking of skipping most of the afternoon to try to let the afternoon rain and heat pass.
Today's band's to checkout:
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9
Thievery Corporation
Andrew Bird
Depeche Mode

Although, I must say we're really looking forward to Sunday's lineup. Seems to be the best day.
Neko Case vs Vampire Weekend? May be a tossup, but will try to catch a bit of both.
Still struggling with Lou Reed vs Snoop Dog. I'm thinking Snoop Dog will win out, as he'll put on more of a crazy show.
The Killers vs Janes Addiction? Easy. JA wins. I've seen the Killers 3x.

Hopefully no injuries this weekend. 5 years running, no injuries at Lolla (KNOCK ON WOOD).

Attic 101

2009-08-06T07:36:00.000-05:00

Here is what we've been up to lately on our pre-insulation installation:

Oh what fun it is doing construction in the attic in August. Why we didn't finish this in July when it was always 75 and below is a good question, guess we were too busy enjoying the weather with BBQs.

So, now that it's always 100 degrees and above upstairs, time to start the attic project!

Here is a very quick tour of what we are doing.

I'm now known as "the drill girl". It took me a while to figure out how to handle the drills, as I sprained my wrist during the first 5 minutes I started. After it healed, and we actually got the correct drill bits which didn't jerk my wrist around, we were all set.

So...

Step 1: Purchase 150 2x4s.
(1 down, 149 more to go!)

Step 2: After getting up the funky ladder to the attic, make a saw horse. Measure and cut wood. Luckily, most of the pieces don't need to be cut, but for those that do...

Step 3: Let the drilling begin...
First, we need to drill a half inch pilot hole. Next, grab another drill, and drill the remainder of the way with a small hole. Lastly, grab yet another drill and screw in the 3 1/2 inch screw.

Step 4: Attaching the wood (the real fun, and also Michael's part)
Here's where it gets tricky. I have to make sure I've made all the screws even, as we have to press the 2x4 against the existing beam for Mike to make pilot holes. The existing wood up there is so hard (he's thinking walnut, but not sure), that without the pilot holes, the screws won't go in.
So, another drill to make the pilot holes, then change the bit to screw in the 2x4.

And.... repeat.

It's a hot, dirty, messy, exhausting job, but I'm happy to report we're almost half way done!!

And she's going back...

2009-08-03T07:09:00.000-05:00

Last night, Michael decided to once again sleep on my side of the bed, aka the evil side. I told him the bed is broke, and I still wake up sore every day. I think he thought it was just me.

Well, this morning, he looked like crap, and once again was a tad on the grouchy side. I came back in the bedroom and he was sitting on HIS side of the bed.

Me: Are you ok? What's wrong?
Him: I feel like crap! I was up every hour.
Me: Yea, I know.
Him: I can't take it. I didn't sleep at all!
Me: Yea, I know.
Him: I need to try to sleep before I have a meeting in an hour.
Me: Yea, I know the feeling.

So, he wants to try to flip it over, I want to send it back. $20 bucks I win...

The fun continues...

2009-08-02T06:55:00.003-05:00

We have been working very hard on the attic - and we'll post about it soon.

In the meantime, I'd thought I'd share what happened last night.

We took a break from the work around 7 for a BBQ. After said BBQ, we decided we were just too tired to continue, even though it was probably only 70 degrees in the attic due to the wonderful 60 degree day August 1st blessed us with.

So, Michael goes to close up the attic, (we have an insane pulley system we'll have to show you all later) and all of a sudden, the ladder (probably built sometime in the 40's) starts retreating up crooked. CRAP. There's a box blocking it's path to push it up, and now it's gone of the track. So, up Michael goes on the crooked ladder to investigate, with me wincing each step he makes.

He gets up there, and says, Ahh, I see the problem, and KABOOM - The ladder (which still attached) goes crashing off the stairs and into the wall, of course shattering the light hanging on the basement stairs.

So, there we stood, me on the main floor, Michael stuck 15 feet higher in the attic, and a slight panic starts, as we realize this could be very very bad.

Somehow, we get the ladder pulled back up, and realize both sides of the track are split. Double crap! He somehow gets it back on track, but this will be a priority to fix since we'll be using this oooold ladder a lot, since it's our only access to the furnace, er, I mean attic.

Yea, the camera is still in the attic, so I can't post any pictures of all this fun, but, stay tuned...

Sometimes, people are smart

2009-07-20T07:07:00.000-05:00

I'm referring to our neighbors, who came over yesterday when we were completing the last of the re-seeding on our front lawn. They made the suggestion that we have the city come and trim the trees on the parkway, therefore enabling more sun to hit our lawn. Hmmm. Hadn't thought of that. Call the city of Chicago and actually have them respond?

One of the great things about this house is the shady factor, and being able to leave the windows open in the heat, and not having to run the air conditioner, so we had a decision to make... keep the shade on the house, or request the trees be trimmed, and get some sun.

The major deciding factor was we didn't want a storm to blow down a branch, and crash down on our roof, so a call to 311 was made, where they told me they'd be out as soon as possible. I'm betting on next year. Any takers?

Busy weekend

2009-07-19T08:30:00.008-05:00

What an eventful weekend!

Friday night, Michael decided to reclaim the wood that we tore down from this closet to use to build a foundation for the spawn of hell (yes, I've nicknamed the bed). He measured and cut up 4 pieces of wood, which should have precisely fit onto the slats of the bed frame.

Turns out, the existing box spring we had from our previous bed was bad, and we believe it's what ruined the old mattress. This box spring was 1/3 the size of a normal box spring, and what it consists of is wood and metal, and the problem seems to be the metal beams poke through and do not balance the mattress.

So, here's Mike cutting up the wood, of course being supervised by Safety Sid. He gave his stamp of approval.

First, we need to remove the box spring and bring it downstairs. That was fun, as we got it halfway down the stairs, and realized it wouldn't fit since the basement ceiling is in the way. Up it goes to sit in our living room next to the old mattress.

Next, he brings the new wood into the bedroom. Uh oh. The existing slats are not sitting on a ledge, but instead, they're built into brackets holding them up. Michael didn't count on this, and now the wood would have to be strategically balanced to support the mattress. We finally got it sort of balanced, but a trip to home depot is needed to purchase brackets to secure all boards together.

That night, both of us slept amazingly well.

Next morning, Home Depot was holding a lawn and garden clinic. Wonderful, just what we need! We arrived 45 minutes early and were planning on doing some shopping for other things, but inquired as to where the clinic would be held. Turns out, since we were so early, the garden expert decided to give us our own personal clinic where he answered every single question we had. He spent almost an hour with us. One of his main theories about our lawn, is it's actually getting too much water, and the roots of the grass are being stunted, which is why after 2 months of being established, we still can't mow the lawn without them being pulled out. So, we will now water way less, and on top of everything, he gave us a new bag of grass seed for FREE! Total score!

Once we left, we stopped at the store for some barbequables, and on the way home, noticed a store right near our street had a bunch of crap sitting outside. Looks like a sale, so of course we stop in to check out crap. We walk in, and notice it's all crap, total badly used 80's furniture, but I walk right up to a 4 drawer file cabinet which we are badly in need of. Hmmm, these are really expensive in the stores new, well over $150, so I ask how much.... $30, and SOLD! We told him we'd pay for it, but would have to walk back with a dolly since it wouldn't fit in my car, and his wife said she was just leaving, and would deliver it to us for free. Double score!

Next on the agenda, Michael hung up our new address sign outside. It looks awesome, and hopefully we will now be getting all of our mail... but only time will tell.

Lastly, we decided to start on the yard again, and re-tilled by hand all of the bare spots in the lawn where grass hadn't grown. We couldn't believe how much there was to do, and got about 1/3 done (which took 3 hours). Hopefully, this will help, but we know it's an ongoing process.

We ended the night with a yummy BBQ and finally went to bed after midnight, where again, we had a great nights sleep.

Pre-insulation Installation

2009-07-17T05:44:00.005-05:00

After doing much research and getting several quotes for insulating the attic and master bedroom walls, we've reached a decision.

1. We will not be insulating the bedroom walls.

2. We're insulating the attic with what we believe to be the best product on the market, and it's a green product called Icynene.

The reason we have decided not to do the bedroom walls, they will need to drill a hole every 18 inches from ceiling to floor board to inject the insulation, and neither of us are ready for that mess. Instead, we think we'll try to tweak the furnace to pull the air into the bedroom, but that's another post for another day.

So, the product is called Icynene, and it's a spray foam which expands to the roof of the attic in seconds. We believe (and research seems to back up our thoughts) coating the roof with this product will keep heat out in summer, and cold out in winter, to make the attic very close to the house temperature. Now, Michael knows more about this, and I've been pestering him to write a post, but alas, nothing. So, you get to hear from me. Want to know more about this cool sounding product? Check out http://www.ecotecinsulation.com/

We need to have 5 1/2 inches of Icynene sprayed on the surface, and there are 2 ways we can have this product installed; either directly over our joists in the attic, or by building up the joists with 2x4's, and having the foam sprayed between these joists, thus leaving the beams exposed. The pros of adding the wood, if we ever want to drywall the space, we can. And considering we want to use it for a ton of storage, the less likely my head will poke through the foam, since it will be covered. So, we're gearing up for this fun construction project.

So, before anything can be done, we need to add quite a bit of wood to our attic. In the summer.
Granted, we've had what I believe has been the coolest summer since I can remember, but I'm sure that will change the day we head up to start this work.

First order of business? But a cordless drill. Michael has been drooling over this cordless drill, so I can see that purchase in our future. Next, measure and purchase all necessities, wood, screws, nails. Finally, say goodbye to our nights and weekends for the next month or so. Currently, Peoples Gas plus the Federal Government are offering rebates on this work. But, in the case of the gas company, it's offered until the money runs out... so, we're sort of in a bit of a hurry to get this done.

Also, the reason I'm typing this post at this ungodly early hour? Because I lost the bet and won the bad side of the bed last night...

Pain in the back

2009-07-15T07:17:00.005-05:00

It's been one week since we've had our new bed from Costco, the Grande Elegance. Doesn't it sound just dreamy?

The bed comes in a box, and the instructions state it will take about 72 hours to fully decompress, but it also states you should be able to sleep on it the first night.

The first night, I had the worst night's sleep that I can remember. Although, I'm not sure I can really use the word sleep, more or less tossing and turning. My back hurt, but the worst was my arms and legs. It felt like I had slept on the floor all night. This bed is FIRM. Not exactly what I expected from this description:

"Your comfort begins with the breathable, top layer of one inch patented memory foam. The second layer of three inches of premium density memory foam along with the one-inch top layer, are supported by an engineered layer of patented high resilient poly spring foam. These three layers are then mounted on a seven-inch layer of polymer enriched base foam creating a sleep system second to none."

Finally, around 5:30am, I couldn't take it anymore. I got up, and paced the house. I checked more reviews on-line, but I couldn't find any bad reviews, only how this was such a wonderful bed, and blah blah blah.

Then I hear Michael get up. I was dying to hear what he thought. I walk in the room, and he proclaims "I love this bed! That was the best nights sleep I've had since I can remember!" He knew something was wrong since my jaw dropped and I was shooting daggers at him. So, we agree we'll wait the 72 hours for me to make up my mind.

After 7 full nights, the bed is still awful, and Michael loves it. What to do...? We decide to switch places last night.

Now, I admit, his side is a bit softer, but still, not very comfortable. He wakes up and said "There's something wrong with the bed. My arms and back hurt."

Now what? Well, he thinks it could be the box spring (I think it's the bed). So, couple things to try. Rotate the bed, and see if my side is still bad. Also, he wants to try putting plywood between the mattress and box spring.

I'm game for trying, but not sure how much more I can take. Maybe we got a defect?

What NOT to do to a Chicago Bungalow

2009-07-07T06:46:00.004-05:00

Today, I bring everyone a new series titled "What not to do to a bungalow". Lately, we've been driving around, and just cringe when we see what could have been a beautiful house, but the owners have destroyed it by either adding what they think looks good (usually doesn't) or hiring people or doing work themselves that they clearly shouldn't be doing.

So, Part 1 of this series will start with our own Happy Bungalow. I'm not sure what the PO (previous owners) were thinking, but they sure have left us cussing them out.

Do not use a gray silicone-like material to patch tuckpointing. It looks like crap, and causes me to frown. Also, when painting outside, mask off area's to be painted and try to be careful. Little drips of white paint all over the red face brick doesn't look cool.

When you actually do the right thing and use mortar for patching the tuckpointing, USE THE SAME COLOR as the rest of the mortar! No, pink is not red.

When you have beautiful wood crown molding and beams in your bungalow, do NOT paint them.

Well folks, there is part 1 in our upcoming series.

Also, I must mention that last night, Sidney discovered fireflies. For awhile we were convinced Sid is not a cat, but last night proved us wrong. He went straight into hunt mode, and was running around the yard like crazy. Turns out, we have a cat!

Happy 4th

2009-07-05T23:11:00.000-05:00

We had a great long weekend, and ended up getting a lot done around the house, with enough time left over for some much needed relaxation.

Saturday started out rainy, but by the time everyone arrived, it was wrapping up. We had a nice BBQ with some happy mark&tina-gria.

(Don't mess with Beth when she's packing corn!)

Turns out, this neighborhood gets pretty nuts on the 4th. There were so many fireworks, almost as much as we saw when we headed out to Palatine the night before to hang out with Michael's mom, brad, and my mom. It was like our own personal backyard show.

Feeling quite full, and wanting to walk around in the weird smokey fog which descended upon us, we decided a walk from our past was long due, and walked the 2 blocks over to the 2 flat where all of our family grew up. We sat out side and sang amazing grace... I'm sure if anyone saw us they would think we were nuts, but it was an ode to the legend that was Aunt Gracie.

We were going to walk around some more, but people were lighting fireworks on that block, and since some were blowing up in the street, we quickly got the hell out there.

We wrapped up the night with some s'mores (Hollie, you're the BEST). Yummmm. It's been forever since we had those.

Sunday morning, we went out to the backyard to lay in the hammock. About 6 hours later, we finally got up since our neighbor next door was barbecuing and made us up a plate (they rock!). So we had to move to go sit at the table, then back to the hard work that is chilling in the hammock. It was just what we needed.

Whoopsy

2009-07-03T13:09:00.003-05:00

Apparently the lawn is not ready to get cut. We started out, and quickly realized instead of cutting the grass, it was pulling it all out, leaving nothing but mud. Oops.

Here, Michael is scolding the lawn for not being agreeable.

But all is not lost... (except for the grass) for we fixed both gates in the back yard so now we can actually open and close them without it getting stuck on the ground.

Success!

More presents for the bungalow

2009-07-03T07:43:00.005-05:00

With a nice long weekend ahead of us, it's time to do run to our 3 page to-do list, and start getting this house in order.

We've lived here for almost 9 months, and have yet to hang most of our art. With plaster walls, it's a pain in the butt to even get a straight nail in the wall, but today's the day. Yay.

Speaking of art, when we were in Hawaii, we came upon an artist that we fell in love with, Brigitte D'Annibale.

We ended up purchasing an artist proof of a piece titled Vintage Hawaii, however 1 1/2 months later, when it came, we were sent a limited edition instead. Oops. Luckily, the gallery admitted their mistake, but it's been a bit of back and forth (island time) for them to correct the problem. For the meantime, we have the wrong piece in our living room, but hopefully we get the correct one shortly. We also fell in love with the piece Hula Blues. Maybe a birthday present Michael?

Next on our to-do list... the bed. I had bought a bed a little over 3 years ago. In the beginning, it was so comfortable, we nicknamed it cloud-gate. Now, 3 years later, it's a lumpy, bumpy, piece of crap that makes us toss and turn all night. I started doing some research, and we thought the Tempur-Pedic would work well for us. You know, where you can put a wine glass on one side, jump on the other side, and the wine won't spill?

So, Costco sells a similar brand, and because they're return policy is awesome (you can return anything at anytime, as for the bed, they'll even send a truck to pick it up for free if for any reason you don't like it) we decided to go ahead. I've been checking out there website waiting for it to go on sale, and Wednesday was the day, and the order is in. I can't wait for the bed wine party!

Another thing that I was able to cross off the list, an address plaque. Because of all the trouble we've been having with mail service, the USPS and I agreed that an address plaque listing our address AND street name would help the postman deliver our mail. So, the order is in for that too, just waiting for it to arrive.

Lastly, and this was a big one our our list, is to insulate the attic. I perused Angie's List for some highly rated contractors, and picked 3 to come and give us quotes.

The first came yesterday. He first explained how he would do it, and then said with the insulation on the floor, we would not be able to use the attic for storage. Um, not an option. Then, he quotes us a price for building a sub-floor in the attic, and blowing the insulation under the floor. That would work, but I'm picturing us not being able to stand up in there. Regardless, I was pretty surprised at the cost for building a whole new floor and the insulation. Not too bad, but obviously not cheap.

Monday we have another guy come who uses the spray foam, which we believe will be placed on the roof, instead of the floor. Plus, it's an all-green product. And next Thursday, another place comes.

Looking forward to getting this over with soon.

BBQ Fever Part 2

2009-06-29T18:24:00.000-05:00

We started Sunday with some of the best weather we've seen this summer - Sunny, with a nice cool breeze to start out the day.

Off we headed to the Taste of Chicago, where Michael was playing with the Jeannie Tanner Quartet.

Joe, Annie, Alan and Page were able to make the trip down to watch Michael perform, and the band sounded GREAT!

Sorry about the seasick inducing camera work...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27v6ZJ18VOQ

Afterward, we took the El home to get ready to host a BBQ for both of our families. It was a smashing success! We were so happy to have everyone be able to join us and see the Happy Bungalow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4hbd1X9Mng

It was simply the perfect day.

BBQ Fever

2009-06-27T10:59:00.007-05:00

Our guests have left, headed on the road to traverse America, but before they did, we had several more BBQs and a few more jam sessions. It's pretty insane how well brick and glass-block windows insulate the sound of live music being played at 1am.

Cathy helped by unpacking a ton of boxes, (remember this sight), and organized the basement so we can now actually walk in each of the rooms down there! I didn't think it could be done, but she really gave us the jump start we (Mike) needed. Now, next week I get to make calls to get quotes to insulate the attic. Then we can move all the basement crap to the attic... of course, a big yard sale, or huge donation to charity may not be a bad idea either. Only problem is that forces us to actually look in all the boxes, I don't see that happening any time soon.

The Bungalow vs. The Mean Man

2009-06-24T09:15:00.002-05:00

Today’s tale involves the mystery of the driven over garden. After Michael and I had spent 8 hours planting the corner garden full of day lilies and lily of the valley, we had noticed that someone had been driving over the curb, thus driving over our plants.

W.T.F.

So, yesterday I’m out watering the lawn, and I witness a van turn the corner, realize there’s no parking, then it proceeds to backup right over the corner garden and park.

I’m literally in shock, I walk over, and see tire marks over my poor little crushed plants.

He exits his van, and here’s what ensues:
Me: “Dude, can you be careful when you backup, you just drove over my plants.”
Mean Man: “No I didn’t.”
Me: “All I’m saying is be careful when you back up around that corner. You just drove over these plants” (as I point to my crushed plants with his obvious tire marks).
MM: “Why don’t you move out of this neighborhood you racist. You hate Hispanics and I’ve lived here for twenty years, so get out of here.”
Me: I stared at him for a bit unable to respond. “But YOU drove over my plants, I just watched you do it. And how does you driving over my plants make me a racist?!”
MM: “I DID NOT. You hate Hispanics so move out of my neighborhood”.

Apparently, there's no reasoning with a jerky freakshow. As he walks away, he calls me a racist again and walks down the alley.

I go in to tell Mike what happened, and he comes out to look at the plants. Back comes MM with another guy. Again, he says he’s lived here for 20 years and to move away. Now Mike has the WTF look on his face. We kind of shake our heads and walk back in the house.

I’m almost positive we will have no plants left after this encounter, but I’m still scratching my head.

Time for more Bungalow guests

2009-06-23T15:10:00.007-05:00

This time around, we have Tom and Cathy chilling at the Happy Bungalow. They'll be leaving on a road trip shortly to head over to Pacifica, CA, where Cathy will be starting on her new adventure to see how life treats her on the West Coast.

In the meanwhile, that leaves plenty of time for some "Goodbye Chicago" jam sessions and yummy barbeque's before they go. We've all been soaking up some much needed R&R in the backyard, and here's our latest relaxing addition, the hammock.

And here, The Wichmann's make an appearance as we make our long past due phone call to China...

Also, I'm happy to report our front lawn is growing like crazy. Although, we seem to have lots of holes from all the squirrels who like to dig up the lawn searching for some food... I'm sure Sid would like to resolve that problem for me...

Damn you Lolla...

2009-06-17T10:59:00.003-05:00

A quick glance at the evil schedule has me shaking my head in sadness.

Lou Reed vs Snoop Dogg
Vampire Weekend vs Neko Case
Jane's Addiction vs The Killers
Beastie Boys vs Tool
Kings of Leon vs Depeche Mode

decisions... decisions...

Going Postal

2009-06-10T15:05:00.008-05:00

I have had it with the USPS. The Ravenswood post office is quite possibly the biggest bunch of lazy idiots, and here's proof I'm not the only one who thinks so... http://www.yelp.com/biz/united-states-post-office--ravenswood-chicago
(First 5 reviewers' sentences...
1. Slothful, indolent...just a few adjectives that cross my mind when I think of the employees the USPS has serve us at the Lawrence Avenue location.
2. rude rude rude.
3. This is the worst post office in the history of post officedom.
4. Worst service in my life.
5. (And personally my favorite) You know, I've lived in a few really poor third-world countries, where the post offices are about as well-funded and well-run as a garage sale on Skid Row, where queuing is a foreign concept and mail is tied up with twine and takes about five months to arrive . . . and I can recall getting better customer service there. )

It's unbelievable they can get away with this. When your job is to deliver mail to an address, how can you twist that to... I'm lazy, I'll just return all mail to sender stating the address is unoccupied?

Since we moved into the bungalow, we've experienced this a couple of times in the past. Most noticeably in December when my birthday cards were returned to senders!

Now it's happening again. Our neighbor's next door hand delivered some mail from Friday which was delivered to them instead, and we never received anything Sat, Mon, or Tues. I saw the postman walking by and asked what the deal was. He looked down and grabbed some mail to hand to me. What the hell?!!? He had no answer for me by the way.

Of course, early last week we ordered the new $116 city stickers plus permits (grrr on the increase). Michael's was in this batch of mail, but mine wasn't. I have a dreadful feeling that will be the next battle... the lost sticker I'll have to fight about with the city. But first, back to this battle...

On Monday I tried calling the branch only to be met with a busy signal on about 5 tries within an hour. Giving up, I decided to call the Toll Free number, and gave my complaint to Rick, a seemingly nice fellow. He told me they would find out what was going on, and get back to me no later than 24 hours (Tuesday afternoon).

Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon. After no call, I decided to call back. I didn't get to speak with nice Rick, I spoke to someone else who told me their computer system is down, and they can't help me. I'll have to call back later. What? Are you kidding me? OK. 3 hours later, I call back and get the same answer. They can't help me. Now I call back my local useless branch... they tell me they'll speak with the mail carrier and call me by 11am. Nothing.

Oh, how I hate the United States Postal Service.

Kermit was right!

2009-06-08T13:09:00.003-05:00

It's not easy being green... but, we're getting closer!

Here's the latest pics. It's getting better, but we're still having a heck of a time with the patchy spots. I seeded again today since more storms are on the way, but my fear is if we get too heavy of a rain, it will just wash all the seed away. We'll just have to see.

I must add, I NEVER EVER thought I'd have fears over grass. Geesh...

Soon, the grass won't be greener on the other side...

2009-06-03T14:32:00.004-05:00

Today, I walked over to the front windows to look outside. I must admit, I was left speechless... there are sprouts of grass starting to grow on the mud outside! Whoohoo!

Now, we're talking little patches of sprouts, but I'm beyond happy, I'm thrilled! So, now I have to run to crafty beaver after work to buy more grass seed, as I can see where we already have patches of no seed. The only thing I'm concerned about, all the Maple tree helicopters are all over the mud, everywhere. Not sure if that will be an issue, but I'm hesitant to rake it and disturb the grass seed. Anyone have any advice??

Will keep updating with hopefully greener pics!

And, check out what just popped open in the backyard~

The new addition to the family

2009-06-01T14:34:00.013-05:00

Yes, it's been less than a month since we've officially tied the knot, but we're ready to introduce you to our wonderful new addition: Meet Mr. Weber!

The Weber Performer:
This Weber grill is one of the most versatile pieces of outdoor cooking equipment ever invented. This 22 1/2 inch diameter charcoal grill gives you all that with the addition of a large cart, loads of workspace and a gas powered charcoal lighter. This added convenience makes this a very easy to use, almost mess free charcoal grill. Pour in the charcoal, turn a knob, push a button and you are grilling in ten minutes. No lighter fluid, charcoal chimneys or electric charcoal starters. All that is taken away by a single gas burner powered by 14 or 16 ounce disposable propane bottles.

The Weber Performer comes with a great ash catcher system that makes clean up easy. The second you take the last burger off this grill close down the vents and let the lack of oxygen kill the fire. This will stop the remaining coals from burning any further. Once the grill is cool give it a shake and pull off the ash catcher and you ready to go again. The coals left behind can be re-lit for the next cookout.

Hell yes! Sold!

When I first met Michael, I believe he had 4 or 5 grills in his possession. When he moved into the condo with me last year, I believe many tears were shed that he could only bring Mr. Smokey Joe, as the others wouldn't fit on the deck (plus, it was way easier hiding the smokey vs. the 22 inch mammajamma that was the "official" Weber BBQ with my condo rules stating NO charcoal grilling on the wood decks).

Since moving to the house, we've been using the smokey joe, plus another little 14 inch knock-off to grill on. This has made Michael very sad, and the constant whines of missing his old Weber's, and yearning for the days of old made me finally declare over Memorial Day weekend.... dear, get your butt in the car, for we are going to Home Depot to return with a "real" BBQ.

Ok, so 3 hours later, after having to rent a Home Depot truck to bring home our new baby, plus our new patio set, solar lit umbrella, and 8 tiki torches, (yes, this is why I try to order things online... damn impulse buys...) we were ready to set up this bad boy.

The boys got to work on putting it together (ok, so The Rock didn't help too much) and I setup the umbrella. (Sad but true). We worked together to get the patio set done, and voila, we had a new kick butt backyard oasis!

(notice the cool lights working by solar power on umbrella!)

We've had 3 yummy BBQ's since, and now I have a very happy husband :)

People who like to garden are psycho...

2009-05-31T19:50:00.007-05:00

When we left Chicago for Hawaii in early May, it was pretty cold. Now, 1 month later it's still pretty chilly out.

We did come back greeted to a backyard garden chock full of tons of blooming plants. Wonderful! As you can see, Sidney is enjoying himself. At one point, he was actually tiptoeing through the tulips...

So, back from vacation, it was finally time to deal with the yard. Remember the great deal Mike got last fall on the lawnmower for $20? Well, it was time to take it to the repair shop to see if they could get it working. And work it does! They did a total tune up, replaced the blade, and the mower looks and works like it's brand new. Score!

After the grown grass was dealt with, it was time to deal with the front mud. We no longer call in the front lawn because, well, it's pretty obvious why. The plan was to sow the grass seed with the dirt rake, and be done with it in 2 hours. True, that was my plan, but my husband knew better. Turns out, we were going to have to re-till the front lawn again.

A quick stop over to Crafty Beaver, and we had the tiller in tow. Michael ended up aggravating the injury he got from our Honeymoon. (No, not a "fun" injury like one would think they'd get on a honeymoon. This one involved a water slide...) But, the lawn was again tilled, and it was time to rake it flat and spread the fertilizer and seed.

Since the front mud really gets no sun, we know the trick is to make sure we water it EVERY SINGLE DAY. Turns out, even when it rains, the trees offer such good protection, that the mud really stays dry, so we're even out in the rain watering. It has now been 1 week since we put the seed down, and the end result is the seed we raked into the soil is now sitting on top of everything. No sprouts, no growing, but we're making the bird population in Albany Park pretty happy and full. So, we'll see. I will report on any change. And keeping my fingers crossed!

This past weekend, our fun (NOT!) consisted of transplanting the day lilies from the breezeway and the backyard to the front corner parkway. Again, after almost 8 hours of planting, we hope they stay alive.

Check out the Wichmann blog!

2009-05-29T13:09:00.006-05:00

Due to the fact that Mark and Tina did such a great job detailing the wedding week, or, more likely just sheer laziness, I've decided to direct you over to the Wichmann blog to get updated on all the wedding fun!

We have just tons and tons to start posting about, and we promise to get back to blogging about the bungalow!

Until then, we'll leave you with this.

And this, and this, and oh yea, this.

Happy Sax

2009-03-02T21:21:00.005-06:00

We just found out that Matt Feddermann of Phase Recording videotaped one of Michael's recording sessions for Jeannie Tanner..

Michael recorded this for Jeannie around October 08.

YouTube

The Wedding Planner

2009-02-19T18:37:00.004-06:00

Yep, that's me lately. A wedding planner. We've been so busy with... work, wedding planning, BSG, being sick, but, luckily, we have not been busy fixing things on the bungalow! All has been well lately. No flooded, frozen, leaky, or mean bungalow! All seems to be well in the bungalow world (knocking on wood now).

I haven't posted of our last trip to Galena. We planned a great long weekend drive up to Galena to stay at The Farmers Guest House. It's a very cute B&B, we have been there before, but this time we rented the secluded cottage they have in the back. We had lots of plans of skiing, antiquing, eating yummy food, and relaxing. What we didn't plan on was both being incredibly sick, and being stuck in bed the whole time. So yes, it was pretty much of a waste, but, at least we were sick at a place that could deliver us breakfast in bed!

Now back to the wedding planning... we finally picked out our invitations... (yay!) So much for our plan of making them and being all crafty... that was just not going to happen.

We've also begun the process of registering, and... WOW. Fun, but tiring!

Now we are planning our hotels, and where to stay in Maui and Kauai. Also, the itinerary of the "Heather and Michael's Wedding Weekend of FUN!!". Exhausting stuff I tell you...

So, that's what we've been doing during our posting slackage. Oh, and we also got referenced in the Angie's List Blog! Pretty neat.

Posting Slackage...

2009-01-29T21:47:00.004-06:00

Yea, we've been slacking on the posts. We know...

So - the latest bungalow news is our chimney is fixed! I was pretty shocked, but the guys from Kingsborough Chimney came out yesterday to do the entire re-liner job.... with all that snow on the roof... in the freezing cold!

Yea, these guys rock. They did a damn good job. Even insulated the whole flu area from the water heater. One more thing to check mark off our project list.

I must admit, I never, in a million years thought I'd be happy about a chimney repair. Sad, I know.

Oh yea, this week we were introduced to the fun of Dance Dance Revolution... Hottest Party 2 for the Wii. I'm sure our neighbors next door, and all the dog walkers will be pretty amused watching us through the front windows. Hey, we aim to entertain... I have to try to sneak a video of Mike doing DDR... ha.

Tiki Lounge at the Bungalow

2009-01-17T17:56:00.003-06:00

This summer, we took a trip to Denver, and had much fun in a Tiki Lounge we found. Yes, we know, a tiki lounge in Denver? Who knew.

Anyways, we decided during this trip that we must dedicate an area of the bungalow to the Tiki.

Today, we were doing some errands and decided to stop off at the Lincoln Antique Mall, which is always a wise thing to do when you don't want to spend any money... Anyways, we happened upon some great rattan furniture that will look perfect in the basement... once we complete the tiki lounge. For now, since we have no living room furniture, it will reside there. Pictures forthcoming!

The continuing saga of the sump pump

2009-01-14T20:48:00.014-06:00

Hello everyone!

I have been accused by many of being remiss in my duties to post to the Happy Bungalow Blog so I am taking this opportunity to set things right and do my part. If I can offer any excuse at all it would be that I have been working on the Happy Bungalow so much to the extent that I didn't have time to do the posts to the blog.

So, there may be some retroactive posting going on here in the future as I am behind at least one or two posts. However, I thought I would start with the most recent events in a effort to at least get things in perspective and I can fill in the back story later.

So, just to catch everyone up, we have been experiencing some flooding issues with the sump and the floor drains in the basement. These issues surfaced when we had a sudden snow melt when temperatures rocketed towards 50 degrees in a matter of hours. The 2 feet of snow on the ground melted and the Chicago sewer system became over loaded and flooding was prevalent in our area. Northern parts of Albany Park reported flooding and for the first time since we have acquired the Happy Bungalow I began to see some issues with the drains.

This all started on the 26th of December and has been continuing since. Now, I have a lot of backfill about that time period but in synopsis: I had noticed that the drains in the basement seemed full and they began to back up on the basement floor. At this time a ton of water was pouring into our sump and we attributed this to a broken drain tile pipe that we recently had to clear out using a power rod and a rather expensive but very good plumbing outfit.

To make a long story short, I re-routed the sump pump line directly into the catch basin in the back because the theory was that due to the broken drain tile, the water that the sump was pumping into the gutter line was draining back into the sump and simply being recirculated. This caused the pump to run every 4 to 5 minutes for hours on end when there was a lot of water.

This kept us up nights, literally (more on that later) and so eventually I had to reroute the line just to deal with the flooding. Basically I bypassed the current sump pump pipe system and ran PVC directly to the catch basin. I left myself an out and installed a couple of valves on the output in case I needed to reroute the water elsewhere or go to a plan B in a hurry.

This worked for a little while until the temperature dropped to well below freezing.

Heather's Uncle Joe had been by to see the place for the first time since we moved in along with Judy and her children. While Heather was showing them around I had shown Joe the latest issues to get his take on things. He told me he thought I was on the right track but that the current configuration of the sump line was going to be in danger of freezing. Joe is a wise man when it comes to Geology, water and old houses and despite his sagely advice, I never did get around to rerouting the line into a more freeze friendly configuration.

Frankly, in the back of my mind, I knew I was headed for a fall here but I was so glad that this all the work I had done had stopped the sump pump from running every 5 minutes that I just reveled in my temporary success a little too long and never got around to what I should have done in the first place. I allowed myself to get lulled into a false sense of security.

So, finally after about a week, the temperature dropped drastically. I had a late night rehearsal with the fusion project I recently started and I came back home and finally got to bed around 12 midnight. I must admit, when I walked into the kitchen from the garage that I detected a decidedly funky smell.

We had had some funky smells from the drains since our last back up incident so I figured it was more of the same and plugged the drains in the kitchen and went to bed.

I awoke at 3 in the morning from an awful nightmare that I can't remember. However, I can tell you this: It was perhaps the most fortuitous nightmares I have had to date. Here is why: I woke up, literally sat straight up in bed and noticed that the sump was running. It wasn't cycling on and off, it was just running straight.

I jumped out of bed and ran down to check it and was greeted with the most awful smell of sewage. Yeah, that is what I call a nice wake up call at 3 in the morning.

The sump pump was running full bore and the water in the sump was steaming. Yes dear reader, steaming. The pump had been running so long that it was in the process of overheating and melting down. It had been dissipating it's heat into the surrounding water and this had heated the water to the point of evaporation.

I quickly unplugged the sump pump and shut it down before it burned out. I tried the backup that I installed but this pump did the same thing. It would run but it would not clear the sump pit.

Let me tell you, no man has ever felt so alone than when he realizes that he has sewage draining into his sump pit and the sump line is frozen. You can only imagine how much I had wished I re-routed that line before everything froze.

Fortunately, due to last weekends adventures, I had an arsenal of pumps ready to go. So, I choked back the urge to vomit and threw the submersible utility pump in the sump, ran the drain hose into the utility sink and cleared the sump to prevent any flooding.

I was alright for now. The lines were frozen but at least I had a way to drain the sump. It might mean staying up all night again but at least I would ward off the flooding. Really, I had just solved problem 1: the frozen sump line.

Problem 2 was a little more complex: sewage back up in the sump. Why was this happening and why now? Before it was just water...why sewage? It wasn't even raining or snowing and we didn't have a melt situation on our hands.

Here is what the water looked like in the sump:

Yes, that's gray water, not exactly what you want to see in your basement floor drains.

So, I kept pumping it out and eventually it stopped being so gray. Although, in this picture, you can see how its running out of one of the drain tiles:

Ok, the auto focus got messed up on this shot, but you get the idea. Trust me, you don't really want to see this in too much clarity anyway.

So, I spend the rest of the night pumping out the sump pit every 1/2 hour and place a call to the city to have them look at the storm drains. My plan at this point is to ride out the flooding downstairs with the pumps on hand until Home Depot or the Crafty Beaver opens so I can buy some more PVC and re-route the sump line AGAIN.

In the meanwhile, I decide that maybe I can do something about the frozen sump line. I get Heather's hair dryer and a microphone stand and some packing tape and start to try and jet hot air on the sump line to melt the ice. Check out my makeshift contraption:

My musician friends will love this: this is how you close mike a frozen sump line. HA! Sorry, it was the only bit of humor I could muster at 4 am when the temperature was a balmy 4 degrees. And so I began the hopeless task of thawing the pvc line. I moved the hair dryer every 15 to 30 minutes. I would try occasionally to pump water through the line but it remained frozen.

I kept this up throughout the night until morning when I gave up and decided: "to heck with this, I will just rebuild the line with a downward slope like Uncle Joe advised."

So, the Water department shows up at 8:30am to check the sewers and they tell me that everything is fine on the city's side and that what I need is to have the drains power rodded out from the house to the street. Around 9 or so I call Big Mike's plumbing and they promise to come out and power rod the drains.

Well, Big Mike came out and I showed them the whole deal, the catch basin, the sump, the drains and the clean out in the front. Big Mike decided we should power rod towards the street through the clean out. After digging out the clean out cap out of the frozen ground they rodded the drains out and we achieved drain nirvanah once agian.

The sump stopped backing up with sewage, the nasty smells went away and the drains in the basement floor went back to normal water levels and stopped backing up. Thank heavens.

So, that was it, the drain on the way to the street was clogged with tree roots and Big Mike rodded them out. He explained that the tree roots grow into the clay pipe that comprises the drain tile system. You heard me sports fans: the tree roots grow through the clay pipe. Think of it like a chia pet in reverse. Those trees are so hungry for water that the roots seek any source of water they can find.

Yep, as gross as it is, they tap that sewer pipe (easy fellas, it's not that kind of tapping) and they just move into the pipe and take it over. After awhile, they restrict the flow of....er....water...and you have backup hell.

So, for now, problem solved. I have some more on how I resolved the whole frozen sump line issue but we have to sign off for now. Heather's yelling about watching some BSG.

Hope you found this entertaining - see you at the next post!

Michael

BSG

2009-01-13T23:38:00.000-06:00

The Cylons Were Created By Man
They Evolved
They Rebelled
There Are Many Copies
And They Have A Plan...

Ok, so we haven't posted in a while. My super cousin's Alan & Page gave us the first season of BSG for Chrismukkah, and holy freaking crap...

So, I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan already, but for some reason, I never started watching this show. I've heard about it, just never got into it. Then you have Michael, who I'm not sure even knew what a TV was before we got together.

Now with our insane work schedules, and non-stop house fun, we also have to fit in watching every single BSG episode before we burst. This show is AWESOME. We love it. Thank god for Netflix, although our mailman is getting really annoyed with the back and forth of the DVD's.

We're starting Season 2.5 tonight. I think we need to play hooky soon to catch up to Season 5, and also maybe get some sleep...

Anyways, A&P, you guys rock. Thanks for introducing us to what we've been missing!

Ancient Chinese Recipe... Sangria?

2009-01-06T16:49:00.002-06:00

I may get in trouble from my China friends for posting the secret recipe for the Mark&Tinagria, but I must share because, well, it's just that good.

They got this recipe while they were in China, from an old Spanish lady from Barcelona.

1 bottle of wine (the cheaper the better)
1 cup rum
1 cup OJ
1/2 cup sugar (taste, may need to add a little more depending on just how cheap the wine is)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 green apple
1/2 orange
other fruit you have hanging around

Load up some glasses with ice, and some of the cut up fruit, put the remainder of the fruit in the pitcher. Be prepared to cancel any plans the following day.

Cheers

Guest Blogging from the Bungalow

2009-01-03T12:24:00.005-06:00

Ah, so we, their China friends, were the lucky ones to be the trial guests at Heather and Mike's Happy Bungalow B&B.

We've signed up for the 4 day stay, and as all excellent B&B's we are immediately greeted with a short tour and then given some wine to enjoy. Since they are new to guests we brought our own inflatable bed with us - problem being when we went to inflate it. Inflating it we found out that the pump needed to be charged, so suddenly it's night and we have no bed. Mike runs down stairs and pulls out his old inflatable mattress but warns us that it may have a small leak. Just about the same as the inflatable bed that we let our guests use back in China.

For New Year's Eve we let Heather and Mike do the planning, off to a quick dinner at Fiddlehead and then most likely to the Dank Haus for celebrating midnight with a German flair.

Turns out that the dinner that we went to at 19:30 took a little longer then anticipated and suddenly we looked and it was 23:55 and we we had just started into our main course. It seemed odd but because of the fact that they kept us plied with wine we wouldn't notice. So suddenly we had hats and noise makers and we happily enjoyed midnights passing while still eating dinner. No crazy drinking and carousing, just fun talking and drinking of wine. It was a great night and finally they kicked us out of the restaurant around 2:00.

The first then we decided to take it easy, and we spent a quiet evening in the bungalow, Tina made her sangria and we played Scattergories - Mike won.

Scattergories at the bungalow

Our final night in at H&M's B&B we let Heather make the sangria - she got the recipe correct - and we played with their Wii.

Mike trying to pick up the spare

Tina following through...

Heather celebrating two strikes in a row.

Oh, and to make the stay better - Heather went out and purchased a new, quality, inflatable mattress to replace the leaking one that we brought and the old one of Mikes. It made for a quality sleep....

Mike - checking out the new bedding. It's good.

First Bungalow Guests

2008-12-30T08:27:00.004-06:00

Tonight, we have our friends Mark and Tina coming to stay with us for a few days. They are our first official guests!

The good news is that the house doesn't smell like we had a flood. My Uncle Joe lent us his dehumidifier, and we think it's really helped. Just in case, we bought 4 gallons of bleach to scrub the basement with, so that should emit a nice smell for them... but it's better than a mold smell and we need to clean up any bacteria the city of Chicago graced us with. We made the smart choice of stocking up on over a case of wine, that way, they'll never even notice any smell.

Last night Mike started the task of sawing holes in the subfloor to locate the drain giving us trouble. More good news... we have yet to find any water damage. We think we know the route the water took, so we should just be able to remove that portion of the floor until we're ready for total demolition. We'll post some pictures soon.

Crapola

2008-12-28T01:25:00.004-06:00

Got a new tune in my head.... I fought the water and the water won.... I fought the water and the.... water won.

Blah.

After the last post, Michael went back to HD 3 more times. The auto switch for the pump didn't work out, and they didn't have anything else that would work. We did go ahead and rig up a system we thought would work, I'm not posting it here since it "may" officially be a no-no... and we monitored the situation for about 2 1/2 hours. It seemed like it was working fine, and my idea was to take a nap for ONLY 45 minutes then check it again. So, I set the alarm for 45 min, came down, and there was water everywhere. We're now back on shifts. I still proclaim the fact that if either one of us was down here, we wouldn't have noticed until it was too late, since the water came from a totally different part of the basement. We would have still been in the laundry room, thinking we were fine. But, we're not fine, and again, I'm up at 1:30. And, I guess this one is kind of my fault. Again, blah.

One cool thing, Mike did build a new route to get the sump water to bypass the cracked drainage tile. It's temporary, but a lot better than what we were dealing with before.

And, the rain has officially changed to snow, so things may be looking up for us.

Space Madness (2008... Go Away!!!)

2008-12-27T06:34:00.017-06:00

I title this post Space Madness, because I'm reminded of the Ren and Stimpy episode, where Ren has completely lost his mind while in space. Stimpy comes across Ren, who's posting his captain's log about his time in their space ship (of course, since it's the future, the log is being sucked from his brain). Anyway, I come downstairs to see Michael still awake, and writing a 14 page log, each page filled top to bottom, monitoring our water situation at 5:30 am. Oh wait, let me backup...

I believe I last posted on Tuesday. By Tuesday night I had come down with the flu. It was not fun. Michael had an after work party, and I had to call him to come home and bring me medicine. Since I was so sick and achy, I couldn't sleep, it was just a lot of moaning and groaning, not the good kind either, and a lot of stomach pain. However, around 2 am, Michael woke up, sat straight up in bed, and made a bee line to the bathroom. Seems we both have the flu. Drat.

Anyway, this continued to Thursday, Xmas morning. I was still sick, but Mike was actually feeling better. (He was feeling so much better, that he installed the Watchdog sump backup system. Of course, I slept through the whole thing. I really would have helped... Really...) But, I knew I couldn't make it to his mom's for Xmas, I felt terrible for missing it, but would have felt more terrible had I infected everyone.

So, Mike's leaving to go to her house, when he comes back in 20 minutes later. It seems, when he drove me to Firestone to retrieve my car after they replaced my flat tire, on his way driving home, he got a flat tire. So, his car is stuck in the garage, without any room to fix the flat. And it's a complete sheet of ice in the driveway, so he can't fix it there. Drat. He'll have to use my car. Oh, did I mention my car was in the street stuck in the ice and snow? Yea... So, after he was gone for about 45 minutes, I thought it odd since he said he'd be right back. I look outside, and see him shoveling. I get dressed, go out, and help him get out of the space. it seems all is right in the world again. Ha.

Friday we get up, I'm feeling remarkably better, and the chimney guys come bright and early at 9am. It's not such good news. We need a new liner, they show us a video where the whole chimney is collapsing upon itself, and I'm ready to throw up. Well, also, they tell us we need to rebuild both chimney's top 5 layers, since the bricks are worn away, and moisture is getting in. I'm not even writing down that quote...

So, now, after my minor meltdown, we're getting ready for his Dad to come over to celebrate Xmas. We were going to show him, his wife Kim, and her kids the house, and then go out for dinner. Meanwhile, it has gone from freezing to about 50 degrees outside, and since we have about 1 1/2 feet of snow on the ground, roof, etc, that can't bode well. As we're giving them the tour around 5pm, we get to the basement, where we see the storm drain overflowing. I've mentioned this drain in the past. It's saved our asses before, and is not being nice to us now. We then called our insurance guy, to add flood coverage before something happens, but we're told there's a freeze in Illinois, and we can't add anything for at least a week. Also, it seems Albany park is in the news again, flooding. Shocking! So, Mike tried a bunch of different things, and finally we decided we can't leave, and off he headed to home depot. As much as we NEED home depot, I have grown to hate that place. Anyways, we order takeout, and while he's at HD, I went to Michael's FAVORITE place in the world, Smoque BBQ, to get takeout for everyone. Seems we're having dinner at home. Well, Mike came back with a pump, and started by pumping the water from the drain into the sump pit. Yea, not working. Still coming in. Ok, where the hell can we put the water where it won't come back? That's easy, in the alley. Sure, it's not legal, but what the heck do you do in this situation?

Anyways,the water level is dropping, however, once the pump is turned off, the water comes back in. Oh, and it has started to rain. According to Michael's log, that started around 2:13. He's turning into Mr. Skilling, he's tracking the lightning and thunder too. I told you, space madness...

Anyways, I went to bed at about 1:30, I told him to wake me in an hour, we were going to do shifts, but he stayed up. During his SM time, he kept a log of everything that he had done, and what was happening with the water. He made some trenches outside in the ice, all around the house, so the water would funnel into the storm drain. Oh, he also found the storm drain under all the snow had searched for previously, and shoveled that out for the water to flow into. (Log time 2:49am)

So, when I woke up at 5:30, I couldn't believe he was still down here. I told him to go to bed, and now I'm sitting in the basement, on the stairs, monitoring the situation. The rain just stopped, but according to the forecast, not for long. In the past 1/2 hour, the pump actually started running dry (per the log, this hasn't happened in 3 1/2 hours) so I turned it off, and I'm keeping an eye on the water level. I'm not sure if he expects me to keep this log every minute, but I'm not. I don't want to get the SPACE MADNESS!!!

Update at 11:25am. Now it's pouring, and it's getting worse. Yikes. Mike just left to get another pump from home depot. We talked to our 2 neighbors, next door is ok, but the house next to them is badly flooded. This poor older couple is bailing buckets of water every 30 seconds. Mike is getting them a pump too. And, the rain isn't letting up... We think 2 pumps should handle the upcoming storm (we hope)! At least the drain is close to the sump pit, and I'm just sweeping the water into it. Seems to help. We're at least at a steady level now.

Update 3pm:
That Edwin Starr song keep going through my head.... Water... huuh .. What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing! Say it again!

That is how that song goes, right? Well, Mike came back with the pump, and it was dead. LOL. So, he went back and got another one, after fighting to exchange it. Now, we have 2 pumps running, and it's still backing up. So, guess where Mike just went off to? Yep. HD. I need to buy stock in that place.

So, now, we're getting an automatic switch to turn on and off the more powerful pump, so we don't have to be up all night again. Oh, also, he's going to rebuild the sump pump line, to bypass the cracked drainage tile. We'll basically have to dance the limbo if we want to use the back stairs, but, oh well. Oh, he's also stopping to get some ice cream, because, well, dammit - we need some ice cream...

Tonight we had plans to go to Everest with all our cousins. It was going to be a wonderful dinner, with wonderful company. Instead, we've basically spent the equivalent, if not more, on the latest bungalow adventure. Bummer.

Project #29

2008-12-23T11:00:00.002-06:00

Last night, we picked up my car from Firestone. Other than the 2 new tires, it's basically in the same shape as when I brought it in. They may have made the steering wheel a little worse, but they swear the car is aligned straight. I'm tired of fighting, so I'm letting it be. At least the window is in, and the door locks work.

After that, we stopped over at the Home Depot since we found our 10% coupon. We bought the Watchdog Sump Pump backup system. I have no idea when we're going to attempt this install, but it's going to be pretty soon. Once it warms up, there is going to be a ton of water, with all this melted snow. Speaking of which, there's currently a blizzard outside. Since Michael is working late, I may attempt using the snow blower myself.

So, I'm going to have to assume the Chimney guys are going to cancel today. It's pretty windy, and I can't see them climbing on the roof in this weather. Oh, and besides, the chimney cap is currently frozen to the sidewalk. Michael told me to put it in the garage weeks ago, before the snow, but did I listen? Nope. I figured, hell - the thing sits outside when it's on the roof, why put it inside now? Yea, I should have listened...

Fun with cars

2008-12-21T17:40:00.003-06:00

We have made the determination that my car does not like attending any Jewish Holiday events at Aunt Hazel's. First, came the flat tire on the way to Passover a couple of years ago. That was a bummer, but I missed the portion of the four questions, and I was very very sad about that.

Now, the flat tire on the way from the Hanukkah party. In a snow storm. We were able to limp it to a gas station, fill it up, and all seemed happy in the world. Until this morning, when we went to snow blow the driveway, and came upon the flat tire again.

So, poor Michael had to change to the spare in the actual temperature of -6. Well, -25 if you include the windchill, but -6 sounds bad enough.

Get to Firestone, order the 2 tires, and I ask them to throw in an alignment. They tell us it will take 2 hours, so we decide to be brave and walk over to the Abbey Pub for some lunch and bloody mary's. That was the longest 3 block walk of my life. Freaking freezing outside. After some lunch, we walk back and it's been 2 hours.

The car isn't done. This is where the trouble started... turns out, they did 2 alignments, and the car still won't drive straight. They assure us it's straight, but it's still pulling, so we're watching them stand around the car, literally scratching their heads. Another 2 hours later, they're still working on it. At this point, I'm ready to tell them to forget it, give me a refund, and we'll go. We've been here for 4 hours, I'm tired, and my entire afternoon of watching Battlestar Galactica and eating chili has been ruined.

So, we're standing by the glass door, waiting to tell them the news, when the guy comes out to inform us the drivers side window has just fallen out. Yep, fell OUT. It didn't break (pfew), but they're trying to get it back in. That took another 45 minutes.

The manager tells us we're done, the others in the waiting room actually cheer for us, and we're off. We pull out and the car is PULLING to the right (previously, it had been slightly misaligned to the left). I mean, you let go of the steering wheel, and it veers hard to the right. No way can this be safe, so we turn around and go back.

The manager tells us he'd like his other mechanic to look at it tomorrow. Can we bring it back? Well, let's just go home, grab another car, and leave it tonight. Ok - he agreed, and promised to stay there to wait for us.

Upon getting into the car, Mike opens the drivers side door, and tries to unlock the auto lock on the door. Nope. Doesn't work now. Sigh.....................

Well, the car is now in the garage, we're happily home, but I'm afraid what will await me tomorrow.

The Black Olive

2008-12-16T13:49:00.004-06:00

Sid got a new nickname last night. He always sleeps next to our "green olive" pillow, so now he's black olive. Sorry, couldn't resist the post, he's cute.

And I thought this one was cute too. Here's black olive keeping me company while I work...

And AGAIN!!!

2008-12-15T17:14:00.009-06:00

All night long, we listened to the sound of the valve on the sump pump. Shooop... blickity blickity blooop kathunk. Over and over. And over. About every few minutes.

We seem to have a problem. Well, several actually.

1. The valve is busted. It's still sort of working, but by the sound of it, it's getting worse.

2. We have a swimming pool on the side of our house. Maybe that would be a good thing in the summer, but when it's -10, not so much.

The pipe where the sump pump drains into on the outside of the house seems to be clogged. Or busted. Or broken. The water was gushing everywhere.

First order of business was to replace the valve. I anticipated for this to be a major hassle, which would result in water everywhere, but of course Michael knew what he was doing, and task 1 was accomplished quite quickly.

The other problem, you know, the Sunnyside pond, wasn't as easy.

Because it was SO darn cold out, the water was freezing pretty instantly. It was overflowing out of the pipe, gushing in the front, going under the fence, gushing in the back, and we had ice everywhere. But, I was more worried about water everywhere in the basement. We decided if we built a trench, all the water would flow into it, seep into the ground, and that would easily buy us some time to figure out how to fix the problem. Well, here's the trench, and I have to say, it wasn't draining anywhere. Mike got a nice workout though!

I'm sure you can guess the next thing we did. www.angieslist.com

Big Mike's Sewer and Plumbing. You gotta love a place that's called Big Mike's. They have an A rating, so we gave them a call. Mike is the bomb. He's the best. He showed up within a couple hours, rooted out the pipe, and was reasonably priced.

Of course, we seem to have a bigger problem, something about a cracked pipe, or something. When he was talking about the "bigger problem", I kind of went to my happy place, so I wasn't quite listening. Sounds like we have a couple options, nothing urgent right now. We'll call them back in the spring for them to take some pictures.

Yep.

Here we go again

2008-12-10T11:59:00.006-06:00

Ahhh, the Happy Bungalow in the snow. How pretty.

But what's this on the ground?? Hmmm.

I look up and see this -

Mean bungalow, spitting the chimney cap onto the ground. The question is... did the wind do it, or do we have a new pet?

So, I've started calling around Chimney places I've found on Angies List. I found one I liked, but they can't come out until 12/22. Oh well. And, I'm still waiting for Mike to post about this exact same Chimney, and what we found inside of it. Although, if the chimney cap was loose this whole time, that would explain it. Come on Michael! We're all waiting!!

So, we'll need to have the company do a cleaning, and I KNOW they are going to tell us we need a new liner. Good times...

Daley Craziness

2008-12-02T18:43:00.003-06:00

Alert I just got to my email from the Chicago Trib:

"Rates for most city parking meters will increase to $1 an hour starting Jan. 1 as a result of Mayor Richard Daley's deal to lease the spots for $1.1 billion to a private firm.

Two-third of the city's meters now cost 25 cents an hour, but once the paperwork is finalized, any metered spot costing less than $1 per hour will increase to $1 next year, city officials said today. And by 2013, those same metered spots will cost $2 an hour, according to City Hall.

The most expensive meters, which are found in the Loop, cost $3 an hour now. They will increase to $3.50 an hour next year and $6.50 by 2013."

I was just commenting to Michael last week and questioning why, every time (ok, honestly, close to 60% of the time) I park at a meter, that meter doesn't work. Now it's not a biggie, I throw in a quarter, it doesn't work, I move my car, throw in another quarter. Yea, it's a pain, but less of a pain than fighting a ticket. But who the heck is going to have 4, let alone 8 quarters to park their car?! Seems a little nuts to me.

Warranty Schmorranty

2008-11-29T15:40:00.006-06:00

Why is it that nothing is ever free? You'd think if you have a warranty for something, they replace that item for free, and that's that.

Nope.

So, we have this homeowners warranty for the bungalow, which luckily we had added to the contract by the sellers. The company makes it sound wonderful... Buy this warranty, and if anything ever goes wrong, you simply pay the $60 service call fee, and they replace or fix the broken item. Sounds easy, right?

Buried in the small print, is a heck of a lot of small print. One item being, if something breaks, they'll replace it, but they won't take the broken item away. If we want them to, we have to pay. $50. Um, no. I have faith in the Chicago junk guys that someone will be our junk fairy this week, and haul it away. But that meant Mike had to carry it out to the alley. We'll see if someone takes it, or the city may be charging us a nice fee for the fact we just left it in the alley.

Another item in the small print... they'll replace a covered item, but if the water/gas/whatever line they are connecting to is not up to Chicago's code, they can not do the work until they bring those items up to code, for which we have to pay for. Yea, the gas and water line weren't up to code, shocking huh?

All in all, it wasn't too expensive. Less expensive than if we didn't have the warranty, but more than we wanted to pay. But, we do have hot water now.

One of the things we knew about the house when we bought it was the first thing we needed to do was replace the hot water heater. We applied to get the bungalow certified, which did happen, and one of the perks is we get access to grant money. So, we were planning to get a tankless hot water system. But, the city of Chicago struck again, and they ran out of grant money... hence, the old water heater exploded since we never replaced it.

I'll let Michael blog about the bungalow certification later. Fun stuff...

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiii

2008-11-29T10:48:00.003-06:00

So as I was scouring all of the ads looking for a water heater sale at 5am, I couldn't help but notice all of the advertisements for the Wii. There were Wii systems, Wii fit, Wii games, Wii accessories, Wii wii wii.

I've actually been wanting the Wii system for while, because I want to get the Wii fit. I've heard it's fun, and really works as a good exercise program.

So, once I realized the warranty would cover the water heater, I took off in my car to go buy us our early holiday present, the Wii.

I got the last system at the store I went to at 7am, but they didn't have any Wii fit. That's ok, we found it last night not too far from us, and I have to say, this thing is FUN!

Mike kept saying it was way more fun than he ever thought it would be. It's true. It's awesome.
The last gaming system I had was the Atari. That was a looooong time ago.

Anyway, here's a video of Mike taking the Baseball training.

After playing some of the sports games , we installed the Wii fit, which is a balance board. They give you all of these tests to check your "Wii fit age", Mike is 53, and I'm 57! Which, is actually better than the score I got for my "Wii sports age", which was 75! LOL! Ok, granted, I've never been good at sports, but 75?!

So, after taking the tests, Wii told me I'm very unbalanced, and asked me if a trip alot when I walk. Why, yes I do...

So, I will have to work on my balance, which it will help me do. They also have strength training, aerobics, yoga, and some other fitness regimes. We played til about 1 last night, and I have to say, I'm sore this morning!

The game is a blast, I'd recommend it to anyone, and I can't wait to improve my wii age!

Um, what part of "The bungalow is not a boat!" don't you understand?

2008-11-28T04:41:00.008-06:00

I'm asking that question to the bungalow gods on this bright and early morning at 4:30am on Black Friday.

There we were, sleeping peacefully when I realized I was in a half asleep, half awake state. Yes, there's a new noise in the bungalow, but I'm kind of dreaming so not paying much attention. I know it can't be the cat, since he's next to me... Yea, I'll investigate later. I'm tired.

Later came when Mike popped out of bed, and ran out of the room. The noise? That would be the noise of a sump pump, which I guess he thought odd since it wasn't raining.

He comes back, and there's a sigh as he gets back in bed. Well, the water heater just exploded. I love our basement drainage. Good night. Um... what?!?!?

Yep, water heater exploded, and granted, while that sucks Sucks SUCKS, it could have been OH so much worse. The unit is right next to the sump pump, and a couple feet away is the drain I mentioned in the previous post about water. So, all the water was pouring down the drain. None of our boxes got wet, none of the music equipment got wet, no floating organ playing that horrible Celene Dion song as it sinks, just the laundry room soaked, with the water flowing down the drain. I guess we really should consider ourselves lucky in that respect.

I guess I can list the positive aspects of this:
We're surviving our first major bungalow crisis...
We no longer need to worry about what to get each other for Christmas/Hanukkah...
We don't have to worry about throwing out all our boxes of crap in the basement... (wait, is this a good thing?)...

Now, I sit here and search all the black friday adds from the paper, hoping to find the deal of the century on water heaters... so far, that search is not looking good. We'll keep you posted...

UPDATE 6AM:
I was talking to my mom, since I knew she'd be up at this early hour... and she said "Shouldn't the home warranty you have cover that "? Ha. That's right. The sellers gave us a year home warranty on all appliances. Mom, you're the BEST! Guess we're kind of forgetful at 4am. Now we get to see what exactly happens we you activate the warranty. Yay!

Advil is my friend...

2008-11-24T08:58:00.003-06:00

Yep, that can only mean one thing... Beth came into town yesterday.

Woke up this morning, and my head HURTS... I'm sure Beth is sleeping in, nice and cozy, unaware of the light snowfall we have covering our beautiful city.

Yesterday, we had a luncheon at Wildfire for cousins Alan and Page, who recently got married. It was a lot of fun, great to see the family.

Afterward, we took Beth over the the house to hang out. It wasn't long before we thought we should venture out for a cozy dinner at Fiddlehead. Before we knew it, they were closing, so we ordered one more round before driving Beth back to her neighborhood. Once we were down on Rush and State, it was decided there should be one more round. So over to the new Dana Hotel. Stayed awhile, and whoops, they were closing. Ok, back to dropping off the Bethster, but wait... one more round. We're walking down Walton, and Mike says, hey, isn't the Underground Wonderbar on Walton. Look up dear... yes, we're 2 steps from walking in the UW, where more drinks and fun was had by all. We almost went for some Tiki drinks, but decided since some people had to work the next morning, that may be a very bad idea. See, sometimes we can be smart.

Turns out, if you don't use the flash in a dark bar, you don't get very good pictures.

But that's ok. We have another month of fun before Beth departs back to the wonderful land of Maui. Which gives us time to stock up on the Advil...

Executive Decisions...

2008-11-18T16:40:00.009-06:00

Well, today I made an executive decision. Since Michael was at work, and we were unable to hold a bungalow meeting, I made the decision to hire a landscaping service.

This Sunday, Cat came over to once again help us rake up all the leaves. OK, she did all the raking (she claimed she wanted the exercise, yes, she's nuts! But seriously, THANK YOU!) but after 5 hours, with only 1/4 of the leaves bagged, and piles of leaves still laying around, and as the temperature dipped in the low 30's, and the snow began to fall, I realized these leaves were going to be in piles for a long long time.

Today I was watching the landscapers work on our neighbors lawns, cleaning up all the leaves, plus doing the gutters, and I decided to venture outside in the freezing cold to inquire about their rates.

Wow. Way cheaper than I could have imagined. Hence, the executive decision.

So, now our gutters are fresh and clean, which is a good thing since we don't have a ladder big enough to reach the damn gutters, and those piles and piles of leaves are history. And we're no longer the sore spot on the block.

All in all, I'd say it was a job well done.

The bungalow is not a boat...

2008-11-16T19:09:00.003-06:00

Shortly after we closed on the house, the area had some of the worst storms and flooding ever. Luckily, our house survived without any water at all.

It wasn't so lucky with Hurricane Michael and Heather.

First came Hurricane Michael, and my Sophies Choice moment. I heard Michael calling "Help... Help!" from the basement. I ran downstairs to discover the basement flooding in the laundry room. Water was gushing everywhere. I thought that's what the call for help was for, but no, Michael was trying to move a huge TV, by himself, and while he was carrying it, his shirt got stuck on something, and he was left holding the TV, while stuck. I stood there, pivoting from foot to foot, unsure what to do first. But we're flooding! I yelled. He had no idea what I was talking about, so I made the wise choice, help Mike, so he can take care of the flooding. Luckily, we have a drain in the laundry room, and most of the water had run down the drain.

Turns out, when the washer empties into the utility sink, it would be unwise to leave clothes in the sink, to stop up the drain. Lesson learned.

Next came Hurricane Heather. I've been recovering from being sick, so it's really the only explanation I can offer for my stupidity. So, I stop up the kitchen sink to do some dishes, you know, let them soak a bit. So, I leave the water running, and walk away. And forget. And get sidetracked. And, again, I was SICK! Wasn't thinking straight.

So, I come back awhile later, and all the water is rushing onto the counter, to the side of the cabinet and wall. CRAP. Turn off the water, clean up the mess, and hope it doesn't get moldy behind the cabinet.

About 1/2 hour later, I'm telling Mike what had happened, and his response was, "Any water in the basement?" Hmmm... water in the basement? Didn't check.

Open the basement door to find the stairs are soaked. And a nice big puddle on the floor... with all the water.... running into the laundry room drain. It didn't get any of the boxes, that were a mere couple feet away. I LOVE the laundry room drain.

Lesson learned on this one? I'm banned from doing dishes when I'm sick (Ok, I banned myself, Mike doesn't know yet).

Last note, sitting on the couch watching the snow fall outside. Amazing how much more you like snow when you know you won't have to dig out your car the next day.

A present for the bungalow

2008-11-08T14:39:00.003-06:00

Today we woke up early to drive out to Ikea. We wanted to buy a bench for the den, and a cabinet for the bathroom. Here's the picture...

Oh, right, we didn't get either of those two things. Instead, we found this wine cabinet, on clearance at Pier 1.

Let me tell you how fun it was to drive this back from Schaumburg to the city. I'm still not sure how we got it in the car, and me along with it... it was a pretty uncomfortable ride home. The end of the cabinet kept hitting the window button, so every bump, the window would go down, not that I felt it being crunched in the trunk...

But, our bungalow got a present, and we love it!

Michael's First Official Post

2008-11-05T20:59:00.006-06:00

OK....everyone has been requesting that I post and I agree, I should...so here it is!!

Well, I love this Bungalow, I always wanted a Bungalow and the more Bungalow-ey I found Bungalows to be, the more I liked them. I think that I drove our Real Estate agent to tears trying to find this one but it's finally ours and I couldn't be happier about it. Especially because it happens to be my dream house, plus, I have Heather running around inside of it, so that just makes it extra incredible.

So, that's a good start. Everyone should know that I am a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and that the Prairie Style of Architecture is something that I have always thought was classic as well as classy as well as really practical.

So this Bungalow, as well as thousands of others is not perfect, but that does not detract from it's Bungalowly Goodness. In a sense, it's imperfections are homey and charming and with a building that was erected in 1922; to be expected. That's the whole point of buying the vintage stock of Chicago. You want a piece of that, you know what you're in for, and you are glad that what you end up with is unique and one of a kind.

I have the same affiliation with classic cars. You may curse them for not starting but when they are running and you are cruising down the road, you realize that the experience that they offer is unparalleled with anything that was built today. It's a visceral experience that you can't forget that somehow makes your life seem more rich than it would have been had you picked the normal thing.

And, so it goes, I love classic sports cars, vintage Saxophones, guitars, organs, amps, mixers, tape machines, microphones and houses. I like the low tech and grit that these things provide in the high tech world I live in.

So, not so difficult to understand. This house has a thousand stories. The people that stopped by that lived here told a few. They confirmed some hunches and disproved others; it was all a fascinating process. So, when you buy a place, you sign up for an Odyssey of sorts, you never know where you will end up. You are stuck with it good or bad, but with a place like this, even the WTF moments make you smile as you peel back the layers and discover what lies beneath the facade.

Now, we have a great frame and a canvas that is worthy of many artistic impressions. We have made a few tentative starts, always checking with the spirit of the house to see if it matches the original ideals. We may extend into Neo-Classicism as we customize this classic ride into a low-rider of a house that we seek to unleash upon the streets of Albany Park. However, we both agree that we are going to keep this Bungalow true to it's nature. It's strength lies in a time tested design.

Jeff, a long time friend of mine made an excellent analogy: "A Bungalow is like a Fender Stratocaster, try as you might, you can't perfect the design any further." "It was designed right the first time, you can't make it any better than it is."

So, I'll join in the fun as we go here, I have been working on this earth ship as Heather has been posting - you've only seen a small sampling of the pictures. This place is so ripe with experiences that I can honestly say, "you will have to visit to get it", but some of the more interesting parts we will post. Hopefully, all of you will stop by and see what we have been blogging about.

Right now, I would love to post about what is happening in the house next door. But that, is for the next post. Don't despair, I have pictures.

Celebrate!

2008-11-05T07:49:00.003-06:00

http://wichmannstories.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-post.html
Great read. Well said, Mark.

Today is my happy day.

I am off from work, and it's 75 degrees outside.

I woke up early, started organizing the house, and then went for a massage.

Next stop: Opart Thai for lunch. Now my mom is coming over to see the house, and go for a walk. Maybe some shopping, buy some cheese, then dinner at our favorite pizza place, Pizza Art Cafe.

Oh happy day! (Then the diet begins...)

Vote!

2008-11-04T16:59:00.004-06:00

I voted 2 weeks ago, but heard some interesting developments... If you already voted, your name is still appearing on the roster for today, as not voted yet. I heard this from 2 people at work, who's spouses and children had voted early, yet they were still on the list without a check mark. Vote early, vote often? I don't get it.

I did read somewhere that the results from the early voting wouldn't get counted until 7pm tonight, however, again, they're giving you the option of voting twice?

Anyway, tonight we'll be celebrating with some wine and cheese (and maybe some unpacking), but mostly wine... and cheese.

This country NEEDS some change. Hopefully the majority agree.

http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/

Gardening 101

2008-11-03T17:31:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning, I was up bright and early, and thinking over the project list, I wanted to accomplish 2 things. Unpack the rest of the boxes from the move, and plant some bulbs. Since it looked like a nice day, planting the bulbs in the garden won first order of business. We had to rent a tiller from our friends over at the Crafty Beaver, so Cat came over to help us move it in her truck, and then the fun began...

Giving a man a large power tool is like giving the kitty catnip... happy as can be and craving more. So, no, we couldn't just have a small flower bed line tilled up, but a nice great big area for Mike to have fun with. I had about 85 bulbs to plant, and a huge area to work with, so I figured it would work out. But, once I started planting, I realized the flowers are going to look pretty scarce since they'll be so far apart. Oh well, live and learn. (Thanks Cat for all the help also!)

Michael decided since we had the tiller, he'd do the entire front lawn. Yes, it's too late to plant grass seed this year, but don't argue with a man with his rented power tools... So, he tilled the entire front lawn, which was dead anyway, but according to him, it will help for next spring. Again, men and their tools... don't argue. After a full day of that, we were SORE. It was too late to bring the dang thing back to the CB, so we'd have to do it Sunday.

Sunday, we were even more sore. Mike and Cat took the tiller back, and came back with a dirt rake to even out all the lumps. While Mike was raking, the neighborhood men on the block convened telling Mike it's not going to work. Apparantly, this has been done before, over and over. We'll see though. We're still confident they didn't have the right grass, and that they also didn't water it.

Cat helped move some hostas that were on the corner, and not doing well, to a better area now that the lawn had been tilled. And then the brilliant idea came to rake the leaves and sweep the sidewalks. 6 hours later... we finally finished bagging all the leaves. Looking up at the tree's, you can't help but notice it's still pretty darn full, about 1% of the leaves have dropped, and we had 7 full bags of huge lawn bags filled up. By this time, I was done, so I pretty much passed out and was done for the weekend. Oh yea, no boxes got unpacked.

This morning I woke up and looked in the backyard. The squirrels had dug up the daffodils and left them half eaten around the yard. Yep, guess there won't be many flowers next year...

Busy...

2008-10-30T16:50:00.002-05:00

We'll, we've both been too busy to post (I promise I'll get Michael to post one of these days...) and we haven't been busy with house stuff. I've been putting in 16-20 hour days at work, which is making me pretty grumpy. Michael's been super busy with his music, both playing out, practicing, and doing recording sessions.

Hopefully, we'll be able to unpack some stuff this weekend, since living out of boxes isn't so fun. Then we can post more pics and projects for your reading enjoyment.

Introducing the new Opart Thai....

2008-10-27T17:05:00.003-05:00

One of the biggest issues I had with leaving Lincoln Square, was leaving my second home behind, Opart Thai House. I have a feeling we paid for their monthly lease with the amount of time we frequented their happy establishment. It was only a 1/2 block away, and they had the best, no really, THE BEST Thai in the city. Between the Peanut Sauce Lover, the Khao Soy, and even more Peanut Sauce Lover, I was a wreck that we were moving, and they wouldn't deliver to us.. just 6 blocks shy of the delivery zone.

Last night, we were craving some Thai like mad, so I opened up Grub Hub to see what places will deliver to us. Perusing the menu's, I happened upon a spot called Dharma Garden. Hmmm, this is interesting.... I thought as I was browsing the menu. Lots of vegetarian offerings.... Almost all vegetarian offerings.... Yep, it's a Veggie / Seafood only place. Yum! That makes me happy, and Michael, who loves seafood happy, so we ordered it up to check it out. Not 20 minutes later the doorbell rang. Food had arrived piping hot, and as we were opening container after container, we were blown away by the portions. We'll each have food for 3 meals, plus, they threw in a Pad Thai for free. Can't beat that. Oh, did I mention the food rocks? Happiness...

The Rock

2008-10-25T13:09:00.001-05:00

Sidney, the cat, is finally adjusting. His nickname is "The Rock" because when he sleeps in the bed, he refuses to move, even if you accidentally kick him, you'll encounter a non moving cat, and you'll need to adjust your legs, so you may as well be sleeping with a rock in the bed.

Yesterday, when we came back to the condo to get him, he was not happy. When we brought him to the house, he was really not happy. Around 3am, he finally realized he recognized the furniture, and then kept me up all night headbutting me, and jumping on and off the bed. This morning, he discovered the basement stairs, and I don't think he's moved in the last 6 hours.

Thanks Cousin Eileen!

2008-10-25T12:02:00.004-05:00

We hired a company called Checkmate movers - we found them on Angies list and I swear I'll never move again without them! They were great.

When we arrived at the house, we had a wonderful surprise, Eileen (who works right down the street) had dropped off an adorable welcome present, along with a balloon. It really cheered us up after packing all night, and dealing with all the stress a move brings.

After we finished setting up the furniture and unpacking some boxes, our friend Cathy came over and we decided some Mexican food (and more importantly margaritas) were in order. Eileen recommended a place near us called Taxco, and they have some of the best margaritas I've ever had. Great food too! But this morning, I was definitely hurting...

What? We have to mow the lawn?!

2008-10-23T10:26:00.007-05:00

After taking ownership in late August, I guess we can consider ourselves lucky that the grass didn't grow too quickly. But each weekend, we did tend to notice it getting a little taller, a little more weedy, until we couldn't see our ankles, and I'm sure we had quite a bit of wildlife setting up for the winter.

One weekend we picked up a Craftsman lawnmower for $20 at a garage sale. Did I mention it doesn't work? "I can fix it" said Mike, and I've quickly been learning he can fix anything... (if only we had the time). Next weekend... should we take the lawnmower in to get fixed? We don't have time to work on it. "I can fix it, it's just the carburetor". A couple weeks go by...

Sweetheart, I'm beginning to have nightmares of the weeds attacking me as I walk to the garage... and that's when the Crafty Beaver comes in handy - they rent lawnmowers for $15 a day.

So, now that it's in the 50's and getting colder every day, we only had to mow once this year. joy.

Fun with strippers!

2008-10-22T09:14:00.005-05:00

No you perverts, not those strippers, paint strippers. While Mike was spackling away, I decided to try my hand and stripping the paint (25 layers of paint) off of one of the windows in the office. We bought a citrus stripper, which doesn't smell bad at all.

Well, chalk this one up to rule #1 while using paint strippers... Do not use a canvas drop cloth, as it will not keep paint chips layered with stripper from seeping through, thereby also stripping off the clear coat polyurethane from the newly refinished hardwood floors. Who knew? Now we get to work on the floor!

Yep, didn't get too far. Would you believe at one time this window was painted red? RED!??!!

Moving day coming up...

2008-10-21T23:04:00.001-05:00

How does one accumulate so much crap? I've been trying to figure this out, as this is how our basement looks, and we still haven't moved our stuff in from the Condo. Oh, Friday will be fun...

Aversion to spackle

2008-10-20T18:57:00.000-05:00

I hate spackle. No, I mean I REALLY HATE SPACKLE. It's gotten so bad, that I physically cringe whenever I see or smell it. And I see it a lot...

So, I understand that plaster walls, after sitting around for 86 years, will settle and crack. Sure they're prone to bulging a little, sagging a little, it's what happens after all that time. Again, I get it. But this is beyond your normal wear and tear aging... I can't explain it. Well, I can explain it... it's called painting 25 coats over old wallpaper, never patching anything, and letting paint drips dry all over the place. And just not taking care of the walls.

So, what does all this mean?

A) Put up drywall. But, we're not doing that because of the crown moldings in most rooms, and we don't want to pull them all down. Plus, plaster walls really do add some charm...

B) Re-plaster the walls. But again, not doing it because, well, that's a hell of a lot of work.

C) Spackle the problem spots. Yep, chose this option. This option sucked, hence my aversion to spackle...

(Michael taunting me with the spackle...)

And here we go...

2008-10-20T18:34:00.000-05:00

We just bought a 1922 Chicago Bungalow. We'll be sharing our progress along the way, and I figure since we'll be officially moving in this week, we'll have a hell of a lot to share...