some actual news
Written on November 22, 2008 by eric
It’s been a long time since we had any actual news, but here comes a bunch all at once.
We had decided to bite the bullet and actually have the stove repaired so we could have a working oven. The stove guy came out again, looked at it some more, and decided that in fact to fix it they would have to haul it back to their shop and spend at least a couple of weeks ordering parts and doing work on it before they could bring it back and reinstall it. We thought about the time, money, and inconvenience and decided maybe we ought to just buy a new stove instead. And so on Friday it was out with the old:
and in with the new:
It doesn’t have the charming style of the old stove, but it does have the great advantage of actually working. And after the ordeal of trying to get the old stove out the door, it seems in retrospect like it was good to have a plan that didn’t involve trying to get it back in again.
Speaking of things actually working, Steph came home one evening to find that none of the ceiling lights worked. Fortunately all the outlets still did, so it wasn’t too bad waiting a few days until an electrician could look into it. After a bunch of investigation, it turned out that one of the wires for the ceiling light in the front bedroom had gone bad and was causing a short. With a new wire, it’s all working again.
Meanwhile, the kitchen faucet had developed the alarming habit of squirting water on the wall and window above it every time it was turned on. This was something we were actually able to fix ourselves, fortunately. We took it apart, took out the rotten remains of the rubber O-rings, and replaced them with nice new ones. It still is a little leaky around the edges, but no longer causing mass havoc.
And on the cat front, Hobbes the neighbor cat had started following the example of our cats and jumping in our window on a regular basis. He’s a nice cat, but he doesn’t live here. So we shopped around and got a cat door to go in the window, thinking that we could set it so our cats could go out when they wanted to but Hobbes couldn’t come in.
But the cats haven’t figured out how to use it! They will sit near it and meow until someone comes and opens it for them instead of figuring out how to do it themselves. Hobbes, meanwhile, does understand how to work it, so if it’s set to allow passage both directions, he still comes in. Sigh.
Filed in: Uncategorized.
How did you guys like Jimmy? He’s quite a character, huh?
My understanding is that the best solution to your cat door problem is an electronic door that recognizes your cats by some micropchip identification they wear (either surgically implanted or on their collars). I know a couple of people who have had great success with this (in one case keeping raccoons out of her garage). It’s not a cheap solution, but it is the only really effective one.
Thanks for letting us “borrow” Jimmy–hopefully, it didn’t actually set your schedule back any. I think there’s still something amiss in the attic, but we’ve been assured everything is safe and the lights are working…also, the electrician who did the rewire will be back to run power to the garage (part of the original contract) the week after Thanksgiving, so we’re going to have him check everything inside again.
As for cat doors, we do want to get a chip-activated one eventually…someday when we have the money to replace the rickety back steps and build a deck we’ll put a more deluxe cat door through the wall to the deck. In the meantime, I don’t think they even make the in-the-window kind quite that sophisticated. Fortunately, I think it is high enough off the ground that we won’t get any raccoons jumping in.