Tag: household

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Or How I Donated a Mirror

I had a small gym in my Palatine home, and in it, I had a wall mirror from IKEA, which consisted of twelve separate pieces. You might remember my previous pictures from there.

Since I already knew I would have a gym in the new building, I gave away a lot of equipment, but there were several pieces I wanted to bring with me to the new building. Among these items, there were a wall clock and a mirror. You won’t usually think of them as gym equipment, but you notice when they are not present.

I asked the association whether I can install both on them on the gym wall (I was not sure whether I am allowed to make holes in the walls :)). They replied that they would ask a maintenance person who was in charge of these things. The wall clock was easy to install, and also I needed it, so I installed it myself. As for the mirror, it required multiple holes, and I thought that it should be installed by a professional.

A very long email chain followed. Periodically, I asked “where we are” and when the morrow will be installed. I placed the parts and the hardware by the TV so that they would be visible. Twice, I was told “the next week,” and I had to ask again in a week. Finally, I was told that the mirror was installed and that the maintenance person” won’t charge for it.” I went to the gym to check it out.

You won’t believe what I found out!!!

There was a small mirror that somebody brought in a long time before I moved in, and this mirror was standing by a wall. And that was the mirror he installed!!!

I laughed, took the pictures, and emailed the board :).

Finally, ten days later, the correct mirror was installed!

One More Step Toward Normalcy :)

Although I am absolutely happy at my new place, the move itself was quite disastrous, and even a month after I moved there were still numerous problems not fixed. Moreover, the moment one thing got fixed, another would break (just remember my air conditioning story!)

But recently, the havoc retreated, and multiple things got back to normal or were resolved.

Accepting the offer on my old house was one of these things (although I didn’t close yet). Finally starting my new job is another one. The fact that Etsy returned me money when one of the sellers didn’t ship the shelves to me was another nice and almost unexpected thing.

Saturday was the day of major progress: I finally (almost) resolved my ceiling fans problems.

Among many things which were wrong with this condo were the ceiling fans, none of which were fully operational. It was especially frustrating because they are expensive light fixtures of excellent quality, but I didn’t have either remotes or users’ manuals. In three places, the fans were not working. In the living room and the guest bedroom, the fans were moving, but the lights were not turning on.

Both Vlad and John tried to address the problem, and Vlad even sent me a link to purchase a remote, but neither he nor John could connect this remote to any of the lights. I knew I needed to find a proper electrician, but things were piling up, and I just didn’t have time to start solving this problem.

Finally, I made an effort and went to the NextDoor to search for posts about electricians. Soon I found a person who had a problem similar to mine and was looking for an electrician two months ago. I messaged them and asked whether any of the contractors who were recommended to them worked. I added that everybody tells me good electricians are hard to find.

That was it! Immediately, several people replied to me with, “there are good electricians in Rogers Park!”
The one I hired promptly suggested that he come on Saturday (I couldn’t stay at home during the week of job changing).

After a little bit over an hour, the living room light/fan was working. The guest bedroom fixture could be operated with the new remote. We also discussed the plan to fix the rest of the fans and to get new remotes. Oh, and we also talked about Universal Health Care and Berni Sanders :). So it’s all close to eternal happiness :).

… Can you imagine the joy of being able to turn the lights on?!

The Dining Room

On Sunday, I assembled the last two IKEA storage units in the dining room, moved to the guest bedroom the units which were there temporarily, and finally put all the things at their designated locations. Also, back on Friday, John and Anna took a bookshelf that I didn’t need anymore to my mom’s house. That way, finally, the last room in my new house started to look like I wanted it to look.

And you know what? I felt pretty depressed for a while, and every day, I told Boris that I am not sure what’s the primary cause of that: is it the old house, the job situation, or something else. And the moment I cleared the dining room, I realized that my primary source of depression is gone!

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:)