Houston, We have a Problem!

I am a consultant - which either has me working from home or working from my current client site during the week.  I have been lucky that I have not had to travel since I bought my house - as it makes settling in much easier.

Last week was like most any other week.  During many days, I will host conference calls and lead WebEx meetings for hours at a time.  Wednesday was no different.  I had ended a call a few minutes early, and I heard something.  It sounded like air or heat was on full force, except nothing was on.  So quickly walked around the house and everything seemed fine - but I knew it wasn't.  I walked outside to make sure the facet wasn't on - still nothing.

Then, I walk around to my crawl space.  Water was seeping out from under the door - and when I opened it - it was several inches deep already.  I freaked out.  I was suppose to be leading a meeting for 2 hours - but I could not let my house sail away on the rising flood waters under my house.

I knew I need to cut the water off, but I didn't know where the shut off was.  I called a plumber that had serviced the house before - he was across town.  So, I had Tim go under the house while I tried to turn it off at the road.  After wading through my snake-invested waterlogged crawl space, Tim was able to find the valve and turn it off.

Okay - so my house was not gushing water, it actually didn't have any water.  My dad thought he could probably fix the problem - but he was traveling out of state.  So, I could try to find a plumber - or wait until 2 days without water.  Plumbers are very expensive - so I opted for the wait.

I survived with some gallons of  fresh water and the rainwater from my rain-barrel.  (If you don't have a rain-barrel, I highly recommend getting one.)  Friday, Dad shows up and has everything fixed in under an hour.  The problem?  The connector of 2 pipes broke off.  So now, my pipes are reconnected, my crawl space is all dried up, I got a lesson on how to turn off the water at my house and road, and I didn't have to pay an expensive plumber - thanks to the best dad in the world!

I am Suzy Homemaker - hear my broken pipes gush!

All the Rage in Christmas Decorating

As this will be my first Christmas in my new house - so I wanted to do it right. I was shocked to see Christmas stuff go up as soon as Halloween cleared out - maybe I shouldn't be as commercial as all holidays have become.  As soon as I put away my skeletons and pumpkins, I started researching different Christmas tree themes since I would be starting from scratch.

While I grew up with a traditional tree filled with decorations made and bought over many years, I really had a desire to do something different.   I started with lights - I decided that I would invest in LED.  They have “Cool White” – which is more blue than the “Warm White” which is more yellow.  I immediately loved the LED Cool White lights.  Going with white would allow me to change around ornaments, but not have to reinvest in lights.  So, I got 2 boxes – thinking that I would have a smaller tree and that would be good.

Then, I moved to ornaments.  Almost immediately, I found a set of ornaments and I had my theme - red, lime, blue, and purple/pink.  I have stars, bulbs, onion-shaped, balls and snow flakes - all in the themed colors.   

Okay, lights and ornaments, check; now onto the tree.   I knew right off that I wanted a live tree - preferably one that I cut down myself.  So I ordered this really awesome stand that holds the tree up with a cable – you just set the tree in the base and then use the foot pump to tighten the cable.  One person set up – the base is all hard plastic – so no metal feet to scratch my hardwoods!

Unfortunately, with a full holiday schedule, the dream of cutting my own tree died - especially since you have to go OTP to find a tree farm.  I settled for a pre-cut one.  Once it was home and in the stand – I knew exactly why my mother used an artificial tree.  This tree is definitely not straight, has random holes, and sheds worse than my cats.  On the bright side, it is no Charlie Brown tree and it smells nice.

After waiting a day for the limbs to relax into place, I put on my Christmas music and started decorating.  I got nearly ½ way up the tree and ran out of lights.  Typical.  So I run to Target to get 3 more boxes.  Only they don’t have ANY – and I mean ANY white lights.  Typical.  So I go next door to Lowe’s – they do not have ANY white lights either.  Great. 

I go home.  I go online – this is why you have free next day shipping – right?  Can’t find any Cool White LED lights online either.  Are you kidding me, all of the internet doesn’t have lights for me?  LED White lights must be the new black.

Target said that they had a “limited” stock of them at a store across town – so I risked it.  The very nice stock boy helped me go through every box – we found 2 pre-opened boxes stuffed in the wrong place.  I took them and told myself that I would make due.

Reading back over this I realize that I have not expressed this hunt for LED lights as I truly experienced it – but then as I think of ways to covey it – my blood pressure rises.  I will keep it PG and say that I have learned my lesson at Christmas shopping and smile because hopefully I will not need lights for many years. 

My New Addition!

It seems that EVERYONE is expecting new additions (babies) right now (I swear I have at least 10 friends who are expecting now - and that doesn't even count how many friends have recently had kids).  For any reader who does not know me well, let me tell you - that is not the plans for me in the immediate future.

Besides not being married, my career is not exactly in a place where I could have kids.  Actually, for the longest time, I was not even in a position to have a pet fish.  But recently, with a new house and a boyfriend that has time... things have changed.

So... last weekend I adopted 2 cats from Fur Kids (a large no kill shelter).  I would love to have a huge dog - but that would require a bit more time and effort than I can offer.  And 2 cats are better than 1 - as they can play with each other.

Now, about the cats, 2 brothers - Gizmo and Gremlin - about 18 months old and HUGE.  Both are still skiddish and getting used to being in the house - I am not sure if they have ever lived in a house before.  I have found that they like watching tv, sleeping all day, and partying all night - not far from many people I know. 

Almost every night I wake up to them running from one end of the house to the other - I call them thunder cats because it is so loud.  Sometimes they like to wake me up by jumping up on the bed - usually right on my head. Then during the day - when they could be up - they just lay around.  I should have expected no less. 

These cats hit the jackpot - from shelter to ruling the house - they have hit easy street.  Here is how I find them most of the time (when they are not causing chaos at night):

 Things are starting to feel like a home around here.

Cold Blooded Snakes!

Fall is a time for cooler weather - which is always a nice break from the scorching summers we have here in the South.  With the cooler weather, I always personally look forward all of the bugs, mosquitoes, and snakes heading south or underground or dying - whatever they do in the winter, good riddance. 

With the changing of the weather, the leaves were beautiful this year - but resulted in about million dead leaves to clean up.  I can't complain really, I love the fact that I have trees (even though I think many of the leaves come from my neighbors - but I am sure my trees are just as friendly and share back).

So this weekend, I headed out to do another round of cleanup - before the rain was suppose to come in.  The first rake-ful of leaves I pull back - what happens?  Oh, that is right, a snake jets out from the leaves.  At this point, I really believe I have a snake infestation on my property somewhere.

I kept raking the snake back into the street until Tim was able to find a stone and drop it on the snake's head to kill it.  So it wasn't big - but it was a snake - and it is now dead.  Whatever happened to snakes avoiding the cooler weather?  It makes you think twice before picking up leaves with your hands.

Beware snakes - I am Suzy Homemaker!

PS - The rake in the picture - is amazing - it cuts your raking time down.  I can do my entire back yard in under 30 minutes.  Now bagging leaves - I will have to get back to you on a time saver once I find a good one!

The Death of McDonalds

My name is Suzanne and I was addicted to McDonald's.  The first step is admitting you have a problem right? Yeah, McDonald's is supposedly bad and America is obese - but their fries have the some awesome drug in them and they have mastered the Coke formula.  That just kept bringing me back- back multiple times a week.

And then I hiked around Peru (see last post).  When you are bent over, gasping for air, covered in sweat - AND being easily passed by people that are twice your age - you take a moment (well, you are already taking a moment - but you think). 

So, on the side of a mountain in Peru, I decided to kick my addiction.  I would rather climb mountains in my 60s than eat with Ronald McDonald a few times a week.  I am proud to say that this week was my 2 month marker of not eating or drinking ANYTHING from McDonald's. 

I have been tested multiple times - even had to drive my brother through the drive-through and sit in a car while he ate is order.  I still crave it from time to time - and eventually I will probably have it again - but I don't need it anymore. 

So I have this fear....

So I really don't like heights (okay, snakes aren't that high on my list either) - but I am truly scared of heights.  I have occasionally gotten the rebuttal that I am already really tall and other jokes about not liking high places when I am over 6 feet myself.  Maybe it is more the fear of falling than the heights - but you don't have to worry about the falling if you don't go up high.

I have recently tried to push myself out of my comfort zone so that I try new things.  3 things come to mind that I have done:

1.  Gone skydiving (some say jumping out of a perfectly good plane). 
I will NEVER do this again.  While the falling was scary initially, my weak stomach and tendency towards motion sickness took over after a few seconds.  As much as people would love to hear that I tossed my cookies on my jump instructor - I held it together until almost 30 after the crash landing, and then felt sick the rest of the day.  Not my idea of a good time.

2. Hiked up an extremely steep mountain in Peru. 
I loved Peru - and actually encourage everyone to go.  As an additional excursion in Machu Picchu, you can high up Waynu Picchu - which is the mountain closest to the ruins and in background of most of our pictures.  You need to be part goat to climb this - and even though my family raises goats - I do NOT have the the stability or stamina of a goat that is needed to easily climb this mountain when you are already several thousand above sea level (at the base!). 

Needless to say, switchback paths with little or no safety measure if you were to lose your footing, was again, not my idea of fun.  But, when in Peru...  So I finally made it to the top - thinking there would a lookout platform.  Americans, this is no Stone Mountain.  At the top, you climb a ladder (think sticks tied together) to the top of a steep rock - which is the peak of the mountain.  People were actually walking around on it.  I climbed out - well inched out on my butt - just so I could say I did it.  I was visibility shaking, I did look over, and then promptly climbed back down.  I am glad I did it - but I wouldn't do that again either.

(That is right - I climbed to the top of that pointed mountain and this picture is taken from high up on a side of a mountain already!)

3. Cleaned my skylights on my porch.  So after you jump out of a plane and summit a crazy mountain - climbing on your house seems like small beans.  To make it interesting a used a ladder that was twisted and never quite rested on all 4 points.  The windows got cleaned, and I my heart still raced a little bit.

I am Suzy Homemaker - hear me roar!

Halloween Horrors

I have been looking forward to Halloween all of October.  As a child who grew up in the country, we did not go door to door trick or treating.  My new house is in a great area that actually has a lot of younger children.  I was excited that I would have trick or treaters for the first time in my new house!!

I probably spend 10 minutes trying to pick out the perfect bag of candy (and trying not to spend a fortune on it)!  Then I sat through 2 weeks of looking at the bag and trying not to eat the candy myself - we all know that was a failure as I did treat myself to a few bites... everyday...

So Halloween finally arrives and to my amazement - people actually do Halloween on Halloween - we use to do it on the Saturday/Sunday closest as we had to have a Halloween Carnival or party at my church. After a day of work, I just can't motivate myself to get into my witch costume, so I didn't.  I sit on my couch with my bowl of candy waiting and watching something on Netflix to pass the time. 

Finally, there is a knock on the door - and my reaction is one of terror - what do you say back, how many little treats do I give them.... I am not sure why I panicked other than inexperience.  My first visitors are the really cute kids from next door (very young) - and I said Happy Halloween and gave them a handful of candy (I am sure all of the parents are loving my portion control).

After the 10 round of visitors - this whole trick or treating deal has gotten really old.  About every time I go to sit down - the door knocks again.  And at this point, even though I bought a huge bag - my generous portion control is blowing through my supplies.  I cut back on the portions because I am apparently going to be doing this ALL NIGHT.  So much for the movie I was trying to watch and dinner I was going to cook and eat.

After about 2.5 hours after the first round of trick or treaters graced my door step - I turned out my lights and locked the door - I was so over this entire night.

To my many friends who live out in the country and don't get trick or treaters, I have 2 solutions for you.  1 - Come up to my house next year and you can do it for me because I don't see myself doing that again.  OR 2 - Be like my dad, buy your favorite candy in hopes that you will get some visitors, fake disappointment when you don't as you eat all of the candy yourself!

Farm Flashback - Beverly Hillbillies

I live in the city now - and I absolutely love living in the city., but I was raised in the country - on a small family farm.  While most of my childhood friends had chores like folding clothes, feeding the dog or taking out the trash, my brother and I were working in the garden, putting up fences, chopping wood, or feeding the cows/goats.  Maybe this is why I enjoy my DIY projects around my house.

We often used our golf cart on our chores.  Now, this is not your country club golf cart - it had a 'bed' in the back instead of seats.  And it did have a top - but my dad actually chopped a tree down and it fell on the golf car - so it is now a convertible.  It looks close to below - only ours was never that clean...

My grandmother lives next to us, so we often visited her and helped her with the upkeep of her house and property too.  One day, my brother, father and I were up at her house - I do not recall the reason for the visit other than at the end of it, we loaded up an old rusted chair to take back to our house (so we could take it to the dump - yes, out in the country you have to go to the dump - trash is not picked up at the end of your driveway).

Now the chair is on the back of the golfcart and since we are all big people - my dad decided that I would drive and my brother would ride in the front - he would ride on the back in the chair - like the Grandma of the Beverly Hillbillies...

Now it is a short drive around the hay field from my Grandma's to our house.  I took off driving like normal.  Now my father tells a different story - of me driving Nascar style around the curves, hitting every bump. Then again - as a young teenager, that was probably my normal style.

We were about half-way home and I took a curve and hit a bump at the same time.  Now, the next part seemed to happen in both slow motion and warp speed - as so many disasters seem to happen.  My father and the chair slid to the side, hit the edge and then flipped off the back.  The entire ball of metal chair and father somersaulted in the air - his hands holding the chair arms in a death grip.

Luckily, he landed right on his head - probably the hardest part of his body.  Unfortunately, it was right in a bed of ants.  My brother and I immediately stopped and ran to him - and he slowly unfolded like an accordion, finally releasing the chair.

We tried to help him up - but he said he needed a minute and that he would walk the rest of the way home. We drove off home with the chair on the back, but leaving him laying on the ground.  Needless to say - he doesn't ride Beverly Hillbilly style anymore...

Anybody Home?

Last week, I went with my family down to the redneck riviera - I mean Panama City Beach for vacation.  My brother and I drove down the day after my parents for scheduling reasons.  We always us our family friend's condo - Big Ed (that is his nickname, not the condos).  We have been doing this for several years now.

That said, you would think that I would know where this place is.  Or maybe my brother would.  Now, to his credit - he did say he thought it was on the top floor.  However, when talking with my dad, I thought he said condo E1704.  So my brother and I arrive.  We manage to get all of our bags, food, etc in our arms and troop up to the 17th floor.

I burst into the condo Kramer style and look around.  The door was unlocked - and I immediately notice that Big Ed must have remodeled - the floor and furniture was different than I remembered.  Then, I notice the shoes.  I come from a family of big people - and big people have big feet.  There were tiny shoes in the hallway and I knew that this wasn't the right condo.  I heard someone coming out and tried to get out quickly - but as I mentioned - we are big people - I couldn't have shoved Will out of the door if I had tried.  Not to mention negotiating a narrow hallway with multiple bags in hand is difficult.

So like a deer in headlights I was frozen in my spot as the man walked out of his room.  Had I been in the country, he probably would have been carrying a shotgun instead of his ice cream bowl.  I immediately try to push Will out the door while apologizing with Sorry, wrong room!  What was probably only 5 seconds felt like hours.  The guy was nice enough - and he now probably locks his doors.

Well, what goes around comes around.  2 days later, I go up early for a conference call and leave the door unlocked so that the rest of the family can come in without disturbing me.  Low and behold - just after my call an older couple blows into our condo just like I did to poor E1704.  A very confused conversion ensues, as they are not sure why the rental office would give them a key to a place that was already rented.  After a moment, I look at the key - it was for the place next door.  And you don't need a key to unlock a door that isn't locked.  They too apologized and turned to leave, blaming the confusion on their age.

I said no worries - I did it same thing earlier and I don't think it has anything to do with age!

Please be seated.

I was getting the mail last night and the gentleman that was cutting my neighbor's yard greeted me (we have a very friendly neighborhood) and I greeted him back.  He then proceeded to tell me that he used to take care of my yard and that it would get a ton of leaves.  Now, I know he is just looking for me to hire him-but, God blessed me with an able body and I plan on maintaining my yard myself.  Thank you, I will save money and do it myself. 

On the same note, I find that often DIY project can save money - as with the windows treatments I did.  So lets move to my favorite part of the house - my screened in back porch.  It is a small area, but one that I wanted to highly utilize - but didn't want to break the bank in making it that way.

So, I started looking at outdoor furniture.  Oh boy that stuff is expensive - or huge - or really small or really uncomfortable looking or boring.  Nothing seemed to fit my porch - I mean, how hard is it too find a rectangular table and chairs?  Finally, at Ikea I found a table I liked.  It seemed pretty sturdy and it was white - I have an issue with clashing wood colors my porch is 90% natural wood already.  So I got it - worse comes to worse - I could always paint it a color I wanted or return it - right?

Now, I have my table.  Great - so buying piece by piece has the potential to be cheaper - but a much bigger hassle.  I found a rug randomly online that I LOVED - so of course, I bought it.  It is a Turkish print with blues, greens, yellows and some purple.  I liked how bright it was.  Okay - table and rug check...


All that is missing now were the chairs - which are crazy expense (I am STILL trying to find something I like for my dining room).  Randomly, my parents have 4 straight back small chairs that they are getting rid of - did I mention that they were old and faded?


Not a problem for me - I just sanded them down and spray painted them in the back yard.  They look perfect with the rug and table!  I got creative and blew all of the dust from the sanding away with my new blower - quick and easy (very opposite from the sanding).


One lesson learned: when sanding - wear a dust mask or something over your nose - just trust me on that.

Below are the before of the chairs and the after with my porch - and all for under $100!

I think I saw that on Shark Week once...

A short break from home related adventures - to my Peru adventures!

When I first read the proposed agenda for my recent Peru trip, the last day of activities included "Swimming with the Seals". 

My first thoughts - umm, I don't think so.  I have seen Shark Week before, and as we all know, seals are a shark's favorite food.  So, in no way am I planning on joining the seals as a swimming buffet for sharks.  (As much as I would love to have my own TV show- making a guest appearance on Shark Week - as the meal - is NOT one of them.)

So then I re-read the agenda as we finalize it and realize that it is "Swimming with the SEA LIONS" - which I don't remember any guest appearances by them on Shark Week - so we are good.

Fast forward.  Peru - last scheduled day on our agenda.  I have pictured a Disney or Cancun like bay area where, in a controlled environment, where I would be in the same area as A (read 1, one) sea lion.

Below is what I see 2 hours into our boat ride:

Yup - that is right - an island with 8,000 sea lions!  I don't know how to begin to describe everything - but one predominate feeling - fear over the temperature of the water.  For those of you that failed geography - Peru is bordered by the Pacific Ocean - and in September, they are just coming out of winter.  I asked one of the shipmates the temperature of the water - "oh, not freezing, maybe 16-18 degrees".

Oh, not freezing - great.  But, how often are you in Peru by an island of 8,000 sea lions?  So we squeeze into wet suits.  (For anyone who has not had the pleasure of visiting Peru - I look like a giant compared to them.  I specifically ask for "grande" size wet suit - they laughed and gave me an XL.)

The water will knock the breathe out of you.  Once I went numb - or into shock - not sure what happened - I slowly swam out to the sea lions.  They were wild - and swam away if you made quick movements.  The "life guard" (I am unsure of what qualified this guy for the title) - had me float and then pushed me into the masses of sea lions.

This encounter is probably the most incredible thing I have ever done.  As I floated there - they stared back at me - barking, nudging my feet, swimming under me - jumping right by me.... it was amazing and overwhelming. 

This was my favorite adventure in Peru - maybe of my life... well, at least top 10!

The Lockout

I absolutely love my job - what I do, the culture, co-workers, everything - especially the fact that I work from home on Fridays.  I actually find that I am quite productive in my work and can usually squeeze in a few chores in between meetings/tasks.

Rewind to a few Friday's ago.  It is Friday morning.  I have about 20 minutes before my next call.  My goal is to prep for the day - which includes removing any distractions from my immediate work area.  Today the only thing that needs to be cleaned up are my breakfast dishes and my new blower.  I took the dishes to the kitchen and then take the blower to the back porch. 

I set the blower down and turn to go back in the house.  I open the door - expect that it doesn't open.  My back door, in addition to a deadbolt, has a self-locking door knob.  Great.  I try again just to make sure I am not having a blonde moment.  Yup, I am officially locked out of my house.

Now, as I was just planning on dropping off the blower and going inside - I don't have my phone, purse, keys of any sort.  So I quickly run the options... bedroom window - locked; fencedoor so I can go to the front door (even though I know the front door is locked) - oh wait - that is right - I have padlocked my fence so people can't get into my backyard.  So I am locked out of my house, locked into my backyard.

Quite embarrassing.  I can't call anyone as I don't have my phone.  What good would it do anyway - no one has keys.  So then I start to think about what window I want to break to get into my house and wondering how soon Mr. Tommy would be able to fix it for me...

I look over into my neighbor's yard and he returning from an errand.  I say good good morning and ask if he still has the spare key to my house.  He is unsure - but will check.

We will just fast forward to me getting out of the locked fenced backyard and around to the front of my house.  He comes over - and praise God - he has a spare key.  Another blessing - unlike some people who work from home - I actually change into real clothes to work instead of working in my PJs.

So I get back into my house without any broken windows or doors and some minor embarrassment in time for my next call.  Needless to say - the self-locking door has to go - deadbolts, traditional locks, and a good alarm will do for me.

Toliet Humor

Okay, so I am not really a homemaker - I report to a job on a regular enough basis to get a paycheck to semi-afford my house that I am trying to make my home.  And maybe I just have (mis)adventures throughout my life and not just related to my homeownership.

Currently, I am a project manager deploying a great program a ABC Corp*.  My client's project manager, Katy, is amazing to work with - we get a ton of work done, but we also have fun.  We are going live next week, so things are a bit tense (this is me playing down the true stress of the situation).

Katy has been on the verge of a mental break this week as she is a project team of one.  Her hair is disheveled by early afternoon.  She is living on diet cokes and 5 hour energies (I am worried at this point).  I don't even recall what she came into my office for - but as she turned to walk away, something caught my eye.

I call her back in and ask her to spin around.  Her eyes pop open wide and she twirls.  Yes, she had toilet paper tail hanging out of her pants - just barely visible from underneath her jacket, but definitely there.  I tug at it and one sheet rips off and I return it to her.

This situation could now go one of two ways - total melt down or a hilarious outburst.  Katy opted for hysterical laugher - which is good for me as melt downs are never good on a project.  Well, I think the laugher ended in tears, but it was a nice break from the stress.

Hours later, as I am getting ready to leave - I am trying to make Katy go home as she has been working too much.  As an economist, I employ the law of diminishing marginal return to my work life - and my teams work life.  After a certain point, your productive starts to drop - regardless of the effort you put in.

As I am encouraging her to go home and let us start fresh tomorrow, I remind her that she hasn't had any breaks and has been working nearly 12 hours now.  I causally ask if she has even taken any restroom breaks today.  She quickly responds -- oh at least 2.  My calm reply - "I have only seen evidence of 1."

Unfortunately, she was drinking water during my reply - which triggered another bout of laughter, spraying her water out of her nose.  Perfect ending for her day.

I am going to get her a roll of nice toilet paper as a Go Live gift.

*Names have been changed.

Death of a Snake

Yup - that is right -the ever so fierce snake just didn't cut it in my backyard.  While I almost had another heart attack in finding the snake - I was very pleased to find him dead.  Some other animal - I am going to go with bird or squirrel - bit the snake's head off - thank you friendly, non-slithery backyard friends.

Now I just hope that he didn't have a family...

Privacy Please!

I have 2 lovely bathrooms in my new house, each with awesome windows to let in natural light.  I also have 2 great neighbors on each side of my house, each about 10 feet from my house (welcome to city living!).  Needless to say, as lovely as the 2 windows are and close as I am to my neighbors, I am not close enough to want them to see me showering or doing any other bathroom activities from my lovely bathroom windows.

Curtains are expensive.  Okay, home-ownership is expensive in general.  So curtain cost, in addition the fact that I still don't know how I want to decorate the bathrooms, but needed to get some privacy asap, led to me looking for alternative options for the windows.

If I haven't mentioned it before, my parents are wonderful (and pretty smart).  My mom recently has gotten into home related DIY projects and mentioned that I should look into window film for them instead of curtains.  You get to a certain age and you learn that your parents are probably right about most stuff - so I make another trip to Lowe's to check it out . (FYI - if you decide to do this yourself - window film is with the blinds.)

I liked what I saw, so $30 later I head home with my window film and an application kit (you obviously can't apply it without the kit - of course.) 

So Saturday morning, I get up early and start following instructions.  I get to the point when you need to "trim" the excess around the edges - and of course, the knife in the kit may as well be a spoon.  So I make my daily run to Lowe's and get a big girl blade!

The windows turned out great - see the before and after below.

So as a cheap fix - I was able to cover 2 windows (one not shown) for $30 and they look even better in person!  Now I still have my lovely windows that let in light and great neighbors - who now cannot see me shower!

Snake Pit

Day 1
I just finished signing away my life.  I am now officially a debtor - I mean homeowner... So because I was not blessed with patience and have been struggling to develop it, as soon as I had those keys in my hot little hands, I had to move in (that and my apartment lease was up the next day).

     So, I start moving stuff in.  The air was not on - but I was okay with not paying for it since my doors were mainly open during this process.  I stay at my old place that night as the movers were coming the next day and as excited as I was to be in my own house, I was not thrilled about sleeping on the floor.

Day 2
Still no air, but didn't really think about it - still moving, doors still always open.  I had an obligation out of town that night so I didn't think about it more (plus Dad was coming up the next day and I decided reserve that for him).

Day 3
It is approximately 86 degrees in my house.  While I don't require an icebox for a house, I do prefer to keep it at 77 in the summer.  Anything over 81 degrees is a bit much even for me.  So, as a proud new homeowner, I decide to look into the situation.  The display is out.  Change batteries - display is working - and I am feeling proud of myself.  See that wasn't so hard. 

Only the air still doesn't cut on.  Breaker - maybe it is off - (again very proud that I think of this).  Check it - not the issue.  Still no air.  Dad comes and he doesn't have any answers.  Great.  As soon as I walk into the house some major aspect isn't working.  Typical.

Day 4
Talk to my realtor and inspector and am told that it could be that the main switch for the HVAC is flipped off under the house - simple and free fix - just crawl under the house and flip it back on.
I am hot and desperate at this point.  I put on my big girl panties, grab a flash light and go to the crawl space.
Exhibit A (below): My crawlspace.

So, I open the crawlspace door and a snake jumps out at me.  Naturally, I scream at the top of my lungs and about jump over my fence.  Now to answer your questions: Yes, it was a snake.  It exited the crawlspace and went around my house. No, I do not know what kind, other than very much alive and active.

I walked away at this point.  There was no way that I was crawling into the snake den.  I go back inside and realize that it is hotter in my house than it is outside.  I took a moment, grabbed a shovel (like I could really try to over after the snake to kill it) and went back to the snake pit.

Yup, I did it.  I actually crawled under my house.  I found the switch and cut it back on.  The air cut back on and I didn't see any (more) snakes.  For those of you who know me well, I did not have a heart attack or need to change out my big girl panties.  Call it brave or stupid - but I did it.  I am a homeowner - hear me roar (and sometimes scream)!