Tag: household

Another Rant About Things Falling Apart

Although I found an emergency AC service on Friday, I could not get anybody to come out right away. The service I got connected to told me they could come on Saturday around 11 AM. I said – sure, but later I realized that we would be at Aquarium and texted them asking to come after 3 PM. In fact, we were back by 1 PM, and then the AC people only came at 3-30PM, while we could not go anywhere. I am happy that the AC was fixed, but we lost all this afternoon time – we didn’t go to the beach one more time or to the playground. The actual repair also took a long time. I knew that this AC unit was old, and I know that I will need to replace it in spring, but I want the old unit to last through the season.

The issue was the same as last time – the leakage. They patched the tubes like how the bike’s inner tubes are patched; only it cost way more!

The 11 feet ceilings and the powerful fans helped us survive the night, but it was still not fun to be at home without AC with 84F outside. It’s so frustrating that I already had HVAC failures multiple times within just five weeks since I moved!

On The Positive Side: My Old House

When Anna and I were out for drinks and dessert on Friday night, I received a call from my realtor.

After the first week on the market, I asked him to bring the asking price of the house 10K down, which he did. All of a sudden, there were way more showings but no offers. After ten days of such development, I texted Mark to the effect of “what we are doing wrong.” The next day he called me with some questions and said that he thinks there will be an offer and maybe two. But again, nothing happened. On Friday night, he finally called to let me know that we have an offer for the asked price.

I e-signed the acceptance on Saturday, and by Tuesday, everything was pretty much settled. Knock on wood; I will close on July 30!

And One More Thing

One more thing I like about my new home is the view from my bedroom windows and from the sunroom. All these windows face the same street, and I can’t even explain what is so special about this view. But each time I look out of the window, I feel as if I am in a hotel in the city center of some European city:)

There are lots of noises in the late evening, but they never bother me. I am falling asleep hearing the sounds of the city night life 🙂

Breakfasts Outside Are Back!

Not like I didn’t have them at my new place, but until I had the flowers planted on my balcony, it felt like something is missing, and I didn’t feel that immense pleasure of having a breakfast outside as I normally would. But now, that part of my life is back 🙂

My Balcony Garden

My amazing neighbors, who helped me to plan my balcony garden, took me to the WIndy City Nursery for flower shopping. I told them that they have to stop me because I am used to a bigger patch, but they laughed and said that this is therapeutic.

This whole project lasted for two weeks. I could not start with the garden when I moved because I was busy fixing the essentials, and then it was already “late in the season.” When I tried to buy the flower baskets, it turned out that most places were sold out. I finally purchased some on Amazon for a way higher price, and then it turned out that the “adjustable” brackets were not adjustable enough to fit my railing!
I tried to shop for different brackets, and then my neighbor who helped me with the bike told me that he could give me a saw to try to cut these brackets.

I spent a half-hour cutting one, and the baskets would still be wobbly. Then he told me that I could use zip tights to secure the baskets. It turned out they work perfectly! I should not have spent time on anything else!

The flower shopping was fantastic! The Windy City is a small family-owned place, but the variety of plants is truly amazing. I could not stop 🙂

Continue reading “My Balcony Garden” →

Overcoming Technical Difficulties:)

Remember my ecobee story and how I fixed it? In addition to the ecobee itself, I had six room sensors, which I disconnected from my previous ecobee in my old house.

I thought they would automatically connect to the new device, but I was wrong – nothing happened when I brought them closer to the ecobee. The website suggested removing batteries for two minutes and try again, but that didn’t help.

The only tooms sensor, which I had and which was not used before, connected to the ecobee immediately.

I was at a loss and was ready to through away all these six sensors, but then I decided to use “the last resort” and contacted an ecobee customer service. They told me to do the following:

  • to put the batteries into my devices wrong side up
  • to pull the ecobee off the wall, wait for two minutes, and plug it back again
  • one by one, take each of the room sensors, turn the battery right side up while staying about 3 feet away from the ecobee, and then it will suggest pairing the sensors.

I know how ridiculous it sounds – but it worked!

The Sunroom

Now I have benches as I wanted

And I bought my first sunflowers after moving in:)

Yet Another IKEA Delivery

Everything is in balance. There was this happy air conditioning thing, and also, both of my shower faucets were replaced on Saturday (I was mentally ready to find out that something more than a faucet was wrong in the small shower). In some sense, it was true – the plumber told me that there was a lot of rust and that I might end up needing to clean the pipes. But now everything works, and it took not as long as I was afraid of (my neighbors had to be without the water for just about 30 min).

Also, I’ve assembled the second bigger Kallax unit. 

And now, here comes Monday. I was working from home because I had an IKEA delivery scheduled, and also I thought I would need an AC service. There was no need for the latter one after all, but the IKEA delivery service sent a message that it will be on schedule. The timeframe was set from 1 to 5, and I was ready. 

At about 12-40, I received a text message from my old neighbor in Palatine: Hettie, there are IKEA packages for you eft by the mailbox!

OMG!!! I know exactly what happened! That was when I misspelled my email because I was ordering it on the train and was in a hurry. Then, Chase Vise rejected my transaction, and I didn’t realize why and used a different credit card. And what I am sure did happen was that when I was putting a different credit card, it auto-filled all the fields, including the address! It was before I changed my billing address.

Thank God for the neighbors like my old friend, and it is great that Dylon is taking me to sell my car on Wednesday, so we will be able to stop at my old Palatine house. But HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID! Also, I really needed the things I ordered; I had time set aside to assemble all the new arrivals. 

Air Conditioner

As I mentioned earlier, I spend four days with the assumption that something is wrong with my air conditioner or that my ecobee can’t connect to it properly. Since I could not have a service on Friday because I was helping mom pack, so we agreed with the mechanic that he would come Monday morning.
I’ve managed through an extremely hot weekend, juggling the doors and windows open and close and turning on a portable air conditioner. I went to bed on Sunday thinking about why I had this feeling that the AC just does not turn on, and in the morning, I woke up and realized what could be wrong.

It was so stupid; I can’t even believe I was so dumb! But the first thing I did it the morning was marching to my ecobee and looking at the screen. Yes! It was showing just the “Heat” icon!

The ecobee has three modes: Heat, Cool, and Auto. I had it on auto in my Palatine home, and since I had it for many years, I forgot that you have to switch it explicitly! So I switched, and I turned the comfort setting for cooling one degree down to trigger the AC. It worked!

I left the message for the mechanics that all is good (they called me anyway to double-check), and then I spent the whole Monday with the mixture of joy and regret:).

Making It My Place – Work In Progress

This week, I somewhat “returned to work,” and it turned out that there is a lot of work. As a result, I feel completely exhausted by the end of the day every day. Also, I continued to unpack and make small improvements, like hanging things on the walls. Also, things keep falling apart:)

I scheduled faucets replacement for Saturday, and fingers crossed, that will be fixed.

I finally installed a new toilet seat instead of the one with the paint partially off:).

I unpacked all of the boxes! Dylon took some of the boxes to my mom. My neighbor from downstairs, who is moving in a month, took almost all the rest. 

I managed to catch when two kinds of KALLAX units were available at IKEA and ordered both. The bigger ones were delivered on Friday, and I assembled one of them, which is a great achievement. The others are scheduled for delivery on Monday.

Another IKEA purchase, a sleeper unit, was delivered, but they left it downstairs!!! Fortunately, Dylon was a hero, and he came and brought it up. 

I learned to operate my new washer/dryer; it works much better than the machines I had in Palatine. 

And just when I thought that things are getting better, it turned out that the air conditioner is not working after all of the repairs!

I won’t have mental resources until Monday to call for repairs 🙂

And also, none of the ceiling light fixtures work.

And since several people asked me for more pictures – here are some

Kitchen
Continue reading “Making It My Place – Work In Progress” →