What A Week!

I haven't been spending much time online this week because of this terrible cold — "the cold from hell." The grapevine has it that this cold and its aftereffects last three weeks. I'm on week two and looking forward to the end of this misery.

As if having a cold is not enough to deal with, home improvements have also been ongoing here at our house — and in spite of my working a full schedule every day but Monday.
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So as to reduce the $500 per month heating bills in this old house, Mr. AOW and I decided to replace our leaky and broken windows (One had a bullet hole in it!). Weeks ago, we contracted with a reputable company and had all sixteen of our outdated windows replaced with double-hung thermal windows. This week, the windows arrived, as did the installers. Of course, in the process of getting the windows installed, all the curtains and window shades had to be removed, as well as the AC window-units; those AC units are still sitting on the floors of the various rooms. As expected, removing the old windows left dust, dirt, paint chips and broken glass in several rooms. Some curtains and blinds went back up last night, but several more days will be needed to get this old house back to normal. In the next few days, the washing machine will hum, and the window-shades section of Home Depot will be be visited — not to mention doing some touch-up painting and spring cleaning.

But the difference these windows make! The house is no longer drafty, of course. The other difference is the quiet. The insulation from outside noise when the windows are closed is so intense that we couldn't sleep on the first night after the windows were installed. After all these years of hearing the hum of traffic, all of a sudden that lulling white noise is gone. If the windows cut the heating bill as much as they reduce the sounds from outside, we've made a good investment.

Just when we thought that we could put the interior of our house back together again, chaos arrived to the outside of our property yesterday afternoon when, on the first decent-weather day in weeks, Mr. AOW and my cousin finally put up the new shed. We had bought the shed months ago, and it had been sitting in boxes in the carport as we waited for a break in the weather. This shed is one of those plastic types and assembling it much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. But get assembled it did and in a mere four hours! Now we have what looks like a little cabin sitting in our wooded back lot, and we have our carport back.

As if the above is not enough, while I was typing this post, someone hit my Mustang, which I streetparked last night because the boxes the shed came in are still in the carport. ARRRGGGGHHHH!