The Fire

Just when we thought things couldn't get more "interesting" in our lives - FIRE! Before we go on with this the good news is that we are fine (just more depressed than usual) and the work in the kitchen is going well thanks to a first-rate plasterer.

The Story

We heard a "pop" and when Helen went to investigate she noticed that the electric clothes dryer was not running, when she opened it up there was steam and the first hints of smoke.

This is a picture of the area where the fire was - the fire department moved the dryer out, it was stacked on top of the washer that you see in the picture.



Here is a shot of the dryer. The fire chief thinks that the drum seized up and that is what caused the dryer to overheat and catch fire.


Of course the water that they used to put out the fire had to go somewhere. The water went into the finished ceiling in the basement family room. So we hustled to get the ceiling down to stop the water from migrating into the finished wall in the basement.

Now you see it, now you don't and the case of the phantom microwave

It's been over a month since I published anything - sorry about that but we are keeping busy!

This post will be all about the continuing story of trying to sell a house in this lousy market. You may or may not be familiar with our place but we decided that we need to make a few "minor" updates to the house to make it more appealing to prospective buyers. And at the top of the list was replacing the cabinets and counter tops in the 50-year old kitchen.

So here are a few pictures to give you the idea of what is happening...

STEP 1 - the problem door
Next to our family room there is a small bedroom with a door to the central hallway and another to the family room. The door to the family room has been a problem as people have been "confused" that the room has two exists - so we decided to remove the pocket door between the bedroom and the family room

Here we are getting the opening framed in:



And just before installing the final board to close up the opening (at least on the family room side). Please note that this last board was custom crafted by the Author!


Step 2 - the wall come tumbling down!
So - rotating 180 degrees from the above pictures we have the door (on the left) between the family room and the kitchen.



Wouldn't it just be swell to open this up a little? OK - here goes...




Step 3 - demolition!

One closeup view before:



And during demo:




Step 4 - more later

The case of the phantom microwave:

When we where talking with the company about the cabinets - they said will you have microwave? To make a long story short they talked us into a shelf for a microwave - a shelf so that counter tops aren't being used up with a microwave. The problem is that the shelf (and upper cabinets) are only 12 inches deep - but they had a solution: a microwave that they have spec's for years (a STANDARD - it NEVER CHANGES!)from GE that would fit both the shallow depth and the width of the shelf. Of course when we went to purchase the model it was not longer available - but was replaced by a new model ( more expensive of course!)