The Feral Cat "Neuterer"

This Saturday morning I woke up at my usual time—6:30 AM. While this is a typical Saturday morning for a mother of three boys, this Saturday morning was devoted to wrangling our feral cat population instead of my three sons. All the neighbors were involved and everyone agreed not to feed the cats the day before. I prepared all the traps and waited for my neighbor Sharon to help me out with the trapping. A cat walked into my driveway smelling the food that I had laid out. She was hungry after a day without eating. I decided to set the trap and sure enough within 30 seconds-- I caught my very first cat. I thought to myself, “this is easy.” So, I got on a roll and caught five more within the next 30 minutes. Needless to say I was pretty impressed with myself. Even my skeptical husband was shocked. When Sharon joined me, we caught three more for a total of nine.

Later that morning over on the corner of Argyle and Ditmas-- Andrea started her trapping. She caught two pretty quickly and then a third one a little later on. Andrea had two traps left and our goal was to catch the black male cat. As my son Alexander refers to him, “The Daddy”. She called me later to say that he had walked into the trap but was smart enough not trip the trap and walked out. Sunday is another day.

Seeing how easy it was, my other neighbors Beth and Svetlana, set another trap. They caught the same cat twice. This cat had already been fixed. They moved the cat and we caught another female. With no more room in my garage, I brought this cat to Andrea. Unfortunately she was a smart one and got out. Those are the breaks.

For the first evening feeding, we discovered we had a nursing mother. We did not know where the kittens were so we had to set her free. One days work and we had eleven cats. Our goal is fourteen cats.

Anti-Rodent Device

Now that we are done re-doing everything we have a guest that just doesn't realize that it is time to go. His three friends have met with some untimely ends (yeah!), but there seems to be one more having a run of our house. Let's call him "Ben". Ben has been spotted on every floor except for the third floor. Most recently he was in the basement.
As this post points out we have a temporary Anti-Rodent Device. Her name is Telullah. My only hope is that Ben and Telullah don't forge some unnatural relationship like this "defective" cat to the left. To be fair, if Ben makes it out of our house alive that is fine with me-- it just better happen sooner rather than later. Telullah-- KILL!

Oh, Sh**! Part 2

If you were a fan of Oh! Sh*** The Joys of Ownership, well here comes part 2. Last night the gurgling returned. The only difference this time is that we were on our own- No Uncle John or my faithful Father In Law -- Kaz!. It didn't make it back to and out of the toilet this time-- That is the good news.
Around 10pm we were alerted by our diligent tenant-- Kelly-- that she heard gurgling again. After a quick call to review instructions with Kaz, I was off to the basement to get it done.

- I opened up the sewer drain
- Instead of back up in the bathroom my drain was filled to the rim, and it wasn't Brim
- Note: You always knock off the drain cap closer to the street.
- I did this and the drain pit started draining.
- As soon as muck cleared I began plunging the stuck pipe.
- Something gave way and we were back in business.
- I cleared the remaining Muck out of the drain.

Time to finish-- roughly 20 minutes.

Most notably, I went down to the basement at least 5 times today. Call me paranoid-- It makes sense. Next up-- the plumber comes to figure out why we have had a crappy couple of weeks in the basement.

Oh Sh...! The joys of home ownership

I have lived in a building for most of my life. The waste disposal pipes in buildings are big enough for a roll of paper towels. Last night was a reality check for me. While doing the laundry in the basement I heard a faint gurgle from the bathroom in the basement. I tried to ignore it, but since the gurgle got louder with the sudden flush of a toilet on the first floor I was forced to investigate.*
The half bath was flooded in the basement and all sorts of "stuff" was all over the otherwise clean bathroom floor. So, Uncle John,Alexandra and I began to assess the damage. The pipes were backed up, that was pretty obvious-- Now for some professional help! Alexandra called her father, my father in law, and our contractor- Kaz. Luckily Kaz was on his way back from a party. If he was in bed we might not have received such stellar service. In a flash, the following happened:

- trap (sewer) door removed
- Kaz and John knock off first sewer line cap- nothing
- Kaz notes, " Most people think you twist these off, you knock the cap off."
- I note in my head that I am not "most people" and one of those people to would endlessly twist. I just call someone.
- Kaz knocks off cap number 2 and it's like a geyser. As bad as the bathroom looked- the "stuff" coming out of that hole looked worse
- Pipe Number One handled the run off, now if we only had a snake to find the clog.
- Well, Uncle John not only has an industrial juicer in his car, but also a whole host of tools- including a snake.
- After the hand powered snake was sent into the pipe a few times- out came "unidentifiable rag".

The water all drained out. Kaz and Uncle John made sure the pipe was clear and the clean up began. Alexandra, Uncle John, and I all cleaned up the bathroom. Estimated time from disaster and back to bed; 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Special Thanks
Kaz for coming over after a party and educating me on what to do.
Uncle John for helping with the line, cleaning up, and the tools-- They guy demonstrates on a daily basis what a great guy he is.
Alexandra for making the effort to let me sleep, calling her father, and cleaning up.
Kelly for "discovering" the problem giving us the heads up.

There was some upside:

- next time it happens I know what to do**
- Joanne got to see the basement finally

This definitely rates as one of the "crappiest" things that come up when you own a house. Also, we are now learning how to communicate things they should not flush down the toilet without pointing the finger. As Alexandra said, "It could have been one of our kids". We certainly were not going to examine the offending "unidentifiable rag".

* I am completely lying, my wife found it as I lay asleep in the bed. Realizing the gravity of the situation I got my lazy butt out of bed.
** there better not be a next time.

Never Know What you Are Going to Get

Although this picture does not make it abundantly clear but while stripping the wood detail in my dining room (I should say Six Pack stripped the wood) I discovered that not all of it was the original oak. Rather some Pine has snuck into the mix. Blasphemy! When we sat down for dinner last night we looked up and noticed the words "Prime All Cuts" displayed prominently on the wood. Beyond that-- can you believe what they are doing to my red walls... Uggh!


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Now playing: Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow
via FoxyTunes

My First PTA Meeting

Yeah! It's as exciting as it sounds.

Painting.....

Part of our basement is furnished so I had to give it what I would like to think is my scheduled "decade" painting of the areas that need painting. It's not a big space-- but what a PITA. Though when done I had to admit that it looked a little nicer. Hopefully in ten years I will feel the same way.

U.S. (Ultra Sleazy) Window Factory

This story has a happy ending but I have to say that dealing with this company has not been fun. We canceled our contract in plenty of time but had to jump over hoops to get our money back. Essentially, we found better windows as a comparable price. Here is what happened:

- Sales Rep comes to the house and does well enough to convince us to sign a contract and put down a deposit.
- Sales Rep will match any price
- Sales rep does not have any collateral (brochures, etc.) for his product.
- Sales rep promises to send collateral
- We shopped around the next day and know that we made a mistake committing to the contract
- Sales Rep then reiterates that he will match any price
- Described to Sales Rep what I was looking for: Faux Wood Look, Collateral, and a little more time to make my decision
- Extends cancellation policy by one week - Kudos
- Collateral? "I never said I was going to send you that and it won't be available until October"- bad sign, since the windows would be installed in September.
- Asked him to show me some more options and the type of window I liked,
Sales Rep: "That would be more expensive"
Me: "If it's worth the money then I might consider it. (Described Windows)"
Sales Rep: "Those windows are for old houses, like the ones out on Long Island-- Not your modern house"
Me: (Dumbfounded) "I live in a hundred year old Victorian-- you don't think that is old"
- Needless to say we got the extension on the cancellation, but no follow up on those other "long island" windows
- Next Day we decided to Cancel for the following reasons: 1) Sales Rep lost all interest after the contract was signed 2) Didn't attempt to provide anymore information 3) Made a stupid assumption that "he" and only "he" knew what I wanted
- After the cancellation it took about 15 phone calls to get confirmation that my contract was canceled and that I would get my money back.

As they say in Brooklyn, "Oi Vey!"

Commuting to NJ

I am so glad this is just for this week. Driving as part of your commute really sucks.

Hole "B" Gone

The hole that was in the basement yesterday is gone. Work on the basement is moving full steam ahead. Our contractor has even decided to skip going to the Buick Open in Westchester to get cracking on the rest of the basement. Don't tell anyone that he is a good guy.

The (w)hole basement

You just can't keep kids away. Well, this disaster will be wrapped up today. The hole will be filled, cemented, and hopefully the the washer machines moved. The kitchen in the basement is getting a brand new floor today. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks everything will start to gel.
On a separate note all the rain is fueling the growing grass in the newly leveled backyard. We also had the motion sensor lights installed on the garage and side of the house.
Now if it would just warm up. Living in a hundred year old Victorian does have it's drawbacks. It seems to suck in the cold and dispel the warmth. Then again- the summer has been filled with ninety degree plus days and the body needs to acclimate.

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Now playing: Adolescents - Kids Of The Black Hole
via FoxyTunes

Sewer Lines... or Why You Shouldn't Move Your Washer Machine

What a pain... When the plumber was moving the drainage for the washing machines he accidentally "nicked" the sewer line. Needless to say it needed to be replaced. However, what you don't expect is your basement having to be dug up.

Torrential Rains Flood Brooklyn and much of NYC, Thankfully My House Garage was Spared

A week and half ago NY had torrential downpours. My garage as a result flooded. I have a lot of stuff in boxes in the garage. It flooded, not because there was too much water, but rather the pipes to my sewer were all clogged up. Roto Rooter came over and cleared them out. Still, their is no peace of mind until the same thing happens again.
At 5:30am I woke up to thunder, lightening and pounding rain. I began to get paranoid that the garage was flooded. Alexandra woke up and mentioned the garage. I quickly got out of bed and checked. Dry as a bone.

As for the storm, read all about it at the links below:

CNN
WNBC
Kensington Brooklyn Blog

Gutters, liters, and flooding

We got our gutters and liters cleaned out on Friday. We knew the back liters fed into our main sewer line and there was some drainage issues. Well there was some major rain today and the pipes back up into my garage.

Thank God for wet vacs and Roto Rooter.
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Now playing: Snipers - Who'll Stop The Rain
via FoxyTunes