Highlights of the past week: from new fridge to new water tank

Its been an adventurous week! Here of some of the highlights:

New Fridge

After all the shelves collapsed and fell off the door of the older fridge that come with the house, we knew it was finally time to buy a new fridge.

The tricky part was making ourselves settle for the size limitations of our old fridge. We knew if we adjusted just one cupboard to make a bigger fridge fit, we would soon end up with a domino effect that started with a bigger fridge and ended with a whole new kitchen!

Jeff found a Kenmore Elite fridge that fit in the spot with the bottom freezer we wanted. It is on the very small side of most modern fridges (well there are only 2 of us). As a bonus, it has an ice maker and a water dispenser! It is the 2 door variety (might be smarter since we are good at weighing down the doors with aging condiments).

Here is the new fridge, just moments after delivery! It took about 20 minutes to get all the tap and styrofoam and plastic off of it 🙂

It sticks out a bit further than the old one, but I think we can handle it. Soon  it was time to move back in!

There is very little room for tall things. I think we may have to remove a shelf. The maple syrup already started to leak since it’s been on its side.

The ice maker is in the freezer and fills a big container full of ice cubes. It is so much fun! Monty runs to the kitchen every time he hears a couple more ice cubes be born 🙂

Halifax trip

I went to Halifax last Saturday for a bit of Christmas shopping and spent the night at my friend’s house. Chrissy and her girlfriend have been totally renovating their house. It is a neat house along the shore – more than 100 years old and it was obviously a home for sketchy carpenters. They are doing a great job of repairing other people’s bad ideas by tearing down walls, adding windows, and insulating it. The outside is done now, with really nice cedar shakes painted yellow. Very charming!

Chrissy made a delicious roast beef dinner and her neighbour joined us for a couple hours. Delish!

We took a little drive to see their neighbourhood. We stopped at a nice little beach for about 30 seconds until the cold wind scared us away.

Chrissy and Alison have two really sweet dogs. Here’s one of them. What a cute face to wake up to!

On Sunday I met up with an old friend and neighbour that I grew up with. Loretta lives in Tennessee now and I haven’t seen her in years, but she was visiting her step-daughter who goes to University in Halifax. We met at the Farmer’s Market in Halifax and caught up on each other’s lives. (How did I not take a photo of us?!?!)

Then I headed down along the Halifax waterfront to visit Theodore the Tugboat for a moment. He was sporting a moustache for Movember!

All the way from Halifax to Truro, it was sunny, but the clouds look really ominous. As soon as I got to Truro, I hit a wall of snow. Suddenly it was winter!

Here I am following a white SUV. You could see him if he used his headlights, but he didn’t. I couldn’t see him much either. Jackass.

Storm? Or Hurricane?

WOW that was a storm last night! (why are the good ones always in the dark?) We had a wind warning for 100 km/hr gusts but I suspect they may have been even more. The house rattled all night. Some of the gusts felt like the front wall of the house was soon coming in.

Monty, our golden retriever, was a total mess. He is 8 and has developed a ridiculous fear of wind. And power outages. I sacrificed myself and left our warm cozy bedroom to hang out with the spazzy dog all night. He finally found some solace around 3:30am in the bathtub.

The power was out all night, and the internet was out until this afternoon. We just got our water hooked back up now. Last night before the storm hit, Jeff called me from the basement. He found a major water leak. The blue pressurized tank that holds the water as it comes from the well, had blew its seal and sprung a significant leak. Luckily our basement isn’t finished. Everything on the floor in Jeff’s “mantown” area of the basement had to be moved so I could shop-vac up the water as Jeff turned off breakers and switches and shut off the water.

I was pleasantly surprised that a plumber was available this afternoon already to come out and replace our tank. He said the one we had was just steel and we were really lucky because when he lifted it up, the entire bottom of the tank was rotted out and he was able to pull out the water pipes without loosening them first. It could have been a much bigger flood!

The new tank is stainless steel and shouldn’t fail like that one did. Now we can flush all the toilets and get the water heater back on. Looks like we’ll be able to shower today after all!