Tag: Home Improvement

wall photos: wedding

June 6, 2008
found the water heater, finally

May 26, 2008

found the water heater, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

after a week of searching, we found the water heater … and i snagged these never-before-seen pictures through a three inch hole in a cabinet only findable after removing the refrigerator.

if you look at this picture from when we moved in, the water heater is to the right of the refrigerator, under the marble counter top.

it’s startlingly hard to believe who would think it was a good idea to completely enclose the water heater with cabinets, marble, and 2 exterior walls (less the 3 inch hole blocked by the fridge, of course) … but at least we found it and it doesn’t look too, too ancient.
i seem to have misplaced the hot water heater

May 22, 2008

ECPA20080522_1319, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

your not going to believe this, but we can’t find our hot water heater. you would think this would be something that would be hard to miss, especially in a 700 sq. ft. apartment, but it appears that we are “special” people.

last summer when we moved in, our building inspector came in and showed us around the place. he talked us through the a/c, the furnace, the annoying glass-top stove, etc. about half way through, he said “oh, it looks like you guys have communal hot water, so there must be a building-wide water heater down in the basement.”

we didn’t think anything else about it.

… until yesterday. for reason’s too boring to explain, I was emailing with some people from the condo board (more on that later) and asked how the communal hot water worked.

they said there was no communal hot water.

so, i just came home and started looking around for where a hot water heater might be stashed. looked in the closets. looked in the laundry. looked through a this weird, tiny little 9″ x 9″ access hatch located behind our refrigerator (actually, it was too small to look, so i stuck a camera through and took the picture above.)

nothing. not just that, but i honestly don’t know what to do next.

in other news, the reason i was emailing with the condo board members was because they saw fit to elected / appoint me to the board three days ago. a board member was itching to get off — he had moved out of the building and is now renting his place out — and i was a warm body who didn’t know better to say no.

the funny punchline to this is that they asked me to be the treasurer. now, for those of you who don’t know a thing about me … i’ve never been paid to manage a budget, haven’t taken a math class since 1991, and had a legitimate shot of being a triple Theater / Russian / Geology major. (notice the one thing in common? no math.)

anyway, i agreed to serve on the board, but politely turned down the treasurer position, saying that we would be open to a “gross negligence” lawsuit if i said yes. volunteered to be secretary, or internal communications specialist, or streak through the hallways naked … basically anything that didn’t involve math.

*sigh*
fresh paint in the living room

May 3, 2008

fresh paint in the living room, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

it’s officially spring, because the lady sparkler and i got the urge to start painting things, “recycling” anything that isn’t walking, and then rearranging what’s left.

first up was paint: the lady sparkler found a green that she loved in the pottery barn paint collection … which we dutifully poached and had the d.c. home depot match for $20/gallon less.

while we were painting, we put the couch under the windows to get it out of the way … and then liked it so much that we kept it there. during move-in last summer, we weren’t terribly happy with how we had the living room, and this setup is much, much better.

in other news … we took two massive loads of stuff to good will, including about a third of our books (we sold another 40 online). you wouldn’t believe how big the second bedroom looks now 🙂
wall photos: australia

March 28, 2008
wall photos: post-wedding

December 28, 2007
home: christmas expedition

December 1, 2007

IMG_7551, uploaded by [ecpark].

the elementary school next door has a christmas tree sale every year, but some strange reason it’s not until the second week of december. (who waits that long?!?) as you can imagine, being genetically unable to wait for pretty much anything, the lady sparkler and i decided to head out of our hamlet and forage for a tree.

we passed through the seven levels of the rock creek forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and to a magical place called “north Georgetown.” we found a small, Christmas forest of pre-cut trees located at the corner of “Wisconsin” and “Calvert.” a kindly old man with a chain saw assisted us with the finest of skinny trees, and strapped it on to our late-model, german engineered sleigh.

there is nothing quite like a city christmas.
Home: Emergency Bathroom Remodel

October 29, 2007

IMG_0852, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

So, a last week the bathroom vanity collapsed around 1 a.m. in the morning. On Sunday, we made an “emergency” trip to Home Depot, which of course led to an “emergency” bathroom remodel.

The most interesting part of the whole conversation is when we got to Home Depot and saw the exact same medicine cabinet that had collapsed the previous week ($99, fwiw). You would think we wouldn’t have even considered going down that road again, but … fortunately, thoughts of picking glass out of our cat’s hair won out.
Home: 14 Years of Bad Luck

October 25, 2007

IMG_0831, uploaded by [ecpark].

We woke up this morning at 1 a.m. to the sounds of glass shattering.

Never a fun thing to wake up to, we stumbled out of bed and found that the door to our medicine cabinet had collapsed into the middle of the bathroom floor. The cabinet had glass on both sides of the door, so we got a two-for-one discount on the 7-years of bad luck offer.

About a year ago, in our previous place, we woke up to a horrifically loud crash … I woke up with such a fright that I landed (literally) on top of the lady sparkler. Our bedroom closet shelving had collapsed. To this day, we don’t know if I was trying to protect her or if I was running away and just got stuck on top of her.

Anyway, all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put that vanity back together again, and to make matters worse the collapsing medicine cabinet ruined the sink on its short trip south.

i guess it’s time for a trip to home depot.
Home: The First Step Towards Disenfranchisement

August 1, 2007

Today, The Lady Sparkler went to the DMV and successfully revoked her right to participate in our fair Republic. And, from the pictures, I’ll bet that you thought she just got license plates.

For those of you who don’t know, voters in DC do not have voting representation in Congress. We didn’t get the right to vote for the President until 1961, and weren’t given the right to elect our own mayor until 1973. Our founding fathers apparently didn’t expect anybody to *live* in the Federal City, just work. Hard to believe, no?

It’s especially ironic because Washingtonians pay the highest per capita federal income taxes in the country, even though we aren’t allowed to vote in the body that makes those taxes into law. This neatly explains why all DC license plates have “Taxation without Representation” emblazoned across the bottom, instead of a nice state motto like “Live Free or Die” or “She flies with her own wings.” (For those playing at home, DC’s motto is Justia Omnibus or “Justice for All”.)

So, if you happen to be talking to YOUR representation in Congress, be sure to mention the DC Voting Rights Act. It has already passed the House, is currently before the Senate, and would give The Lady Sparkler, myself, and 600,000 of our dearest neighbors a voting member of Congress for the first time ever. It should be voted on this fall.

That’s it. No more sermons until the wedding, we promise 🙂