March 12, 2012

Homeowner Victories

Before you buy a house, it seems like everyone tells you all the reasons you should own a home. "Don't throw your money away paying rent!" "The economy is bad, you'll get a great deal!""First-time homeowners get lots of perks."

While some of these are true, there are certain times that I would very much like to call the landlord and have him fix something. 

One of those times came recently when our water dispenser in the refrigerator stopped working. The refrigerator was still making ice and dispensing it, but no water. Chris pulled out the refrigerator, inspected the back side with tools in hand, tried pressing the water dispensing "cradle" a few times, and then he declared that if I wanted to pay $200, I could call a repairman. He suggested getting a new insert for our Britta pitcher. 

I let it go for a few days, and then I began my Internet research. A year ago, or maybe a little more, a repairman had been out to fix our refrigerator, and he han replaced the circuit board, thankfully at that time still under warranty. So as I was Googling and reading lots of forums and blogs, I steered away from the ones that suggested the circuit board. After much research, I decide that the water tube in the refrigerator door was frozen. I decided to turn our freezer temperature down two notches and take my trusty hair dryer to the door and along the water tube line. I found said "water tube line" thanks to the Internet. Please note that I used my hair dryer on a low settings, as not to mess with the expandable foam in the refrigerator door. I found said "expandable foam" thanks to the Internet. 

After a few hours of the reduced temperature and a few treatments with the dryer: 


I fixed it!!!!

All on my own, I fixed an appliance! When that water poured out for the first time again, I yelled and whooped and hollered like it was pouring money. Awesome, awesome homeowner victory. 


Another victory I had recently was in regards to our sofa. We have a very nice Pottery Barn three-cushion sofa--the PB Basic design. The slipcover on it had been through the wash two too many times, and Porter had claimed one of the arms as his scratching post. The slipcover was a cotton material, and once one or two threads go, the entire stitching is going to follow. Finally, Porter's scratching area was so bad that Chris and I became worried he would soon be scratching the actual sofa. 

So to the Internet I turned. Slipcovers for Pottery Barn sofas, and probably all their furniture pieces, are about half, if not more, of what the entire sofa costs. I called the outlet store here in town, but they said they "rarely if ever got slipcovers in stock." 

I reached further into the blogosphere, until I found this post. Apparently, this blogger had a worn out Pottery Barn sofa and slipcover just like ours, and she didn't want to pay the exorbitant price of a genuine Pottery Barn slipcover either. She mentions that IKEA has the same sofa...and slipcovers. 

I checked it out, and look! Same sofa and slipcover for less hundreds less!

I ordered the light brown and ta-da!


Another homeowner victory!!!!


2 comments:

  1. You are an uh-mazing home owner times two!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am really happy this blog ended with victories... 

    ReplyDelete

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