plumbing / heating

saturday, 3/26
Seeing that my brother was in town, my mom and I took this to our advantage and had him help us move my dining room set from our rental in Willoughby to Tremont. The table is super heavy! Shortly afterwards, my mom and I met our furnace/plumbing repairman Tim at the new place to take a look. Notably, heat is not rising to the second floor and there was a noticeable water leak when the Water Co. came out. Tim found that in the gas line, three valves or vents (I forget which term he used) were closed. He guessed these could be for upstairs, so he opened them up. Another suggestion he had, in case that wasn’t going to do the trick, was to install “dampers” or magnetic rectangular strips on the downstairs vents so that the upstairs will heat first and then the furnace will work harder to maintain temperature downstairs. He said that’s the best solution considering the house was old. Regarding plumbing, we learned the toilet had a crack in it and would need replaced. This would explain the leak from when my mom flushed the toilet. He found the crawl space to get to the plumbing and learned there had been a space to access the plumbing in the family room that had been closed up. Since Tim didn’t have all the supplies he would need to get the plumbing up and running (some would need to be bought), he’s coming back out today (Monday) to install everything. My mom, Adam and I made a trip out to Home Depot to buy our new (elongated) toilet ($99.00), Magnetic Damper Strips (2 pkgs - $4.47, 3 sheets in each pkg) and a small utility door to access the plumbing ($11-$14). Once it is installed, we can just paint it and it should just blend into the wall. While the inspection was happening, I worked to touch up the upstairs bedroom / future closet.

Having a little fun in Home Depot. :)

I think Adam and I are young at heart

I think she found us a toilet!

Adam felt the need to test out the selection.

sunday, 3/27
Sunday was the ‘big reveal’ to my brother. My mom told my brother she was taking him “on a field” trip which ended at the house. He said he was definitely shocked but had a feeling something was up when she started driving towards Cleveland. He seemed generally pleased with the house, mentioning he’d like one of his own and for the price we paid – it was a great deal! We walked down to Lincoln Park where C-Town Chow Down was wrapping up. All but one of the food trucks was still serving food, but the line was still 15-20 people long so we just walked into Civilization and grabbed a coffee and croissants. Then I drove my brother around Tremont a bit, so he could get a feel for the area. He has never been, other then by the Christmas Story House. As my brother was driving back to D.C. that day, he didn’t stay long. However, I decided to stick around for more touch ups and to get some purple paint on the wall.

I decided to play it safe and start on the dining room wall opposite the living room. I painted enough wall that I could really visualize how the color would look. Standing in the living room staring at the wall, I became perplexed. I was surprised the purple looked as shocking as it did. Was it too much? I called my mom immediately to question her thoughts. She thought maybe because the walls had been white it was natural for it to look shocking and suggested I just finish the wall as she could take a look in the morning when Tim returned. Instead, I decided to paint the opposite wall (seen from the kitchen, looking into the living room) as I thought the purple would look nice against the brown in the living room. Yes, love. I love the purple and against the brown looks great. I finished the one wall before it started getting dark, and frankly I’m not sure how to proceed on my next visit. Perhaps, rather than painting the whole room purple, a light brown, deep tan would complement the brown and purple. We’ll see what my mom thinks.

A fresh coat of purple for the dining room.

Lastly, I learned one of my good friends from high school, Danielle, and her boyfriend are moving to Tremont. Her boyfriend works in Akron so the commute should be interesting. However, Danielle has voiced her desire to move downtown when she finishes up grad school (she’ll be done in July, she’s studying in England) so I think it’s a compromise. All I know is he found a cheap place for $400 and lives near Lolita, across from Fat Cats. All I know is the more “community” I have from the get-go, the easier transition so I’m excited to have more friends in the area. :)

And just to keep track on the furnishing process, my brother was nice enough to swing by the Ikea in D.C. seeing that it was only 20 min away (as opposed to me having to drive to Pittsburgh from Cleveland) and picked me up some things.

• MAVAS entertainment center for the living room ($79.99) http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40140635
• 3 - SPONTAN Magnetic Boards ($12.99/each) http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30159442