Busy Days

The last few days have been crazy around here. We had some new stuff installed in the house along with a visit from Saba (aka Tim, aka Ben's father) from NH. Ben took off from work on Wednesday and Thursday because of the chaos going on.

Tim spent the night on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we all put Ryder on the bus. Ben and I took Zak to his YMCA class (Ben had not gotten to go to his class at all). While there I filled out the paperwork to join the YMCA for 6 months with the grant we were offered through their financial aid department. After Zak's class we headed home to get Ryder off the bus. The boys and Ben played football and soccer with Tim while I went to get Chinese food for lunch.

The boys enjoyed having some egg drop soup in their straw bowls

Wednesday afternoon Ben and his father went to play 9 holes of golf so once the workers left I pulled out the finger paints for the boys. They had a blast! Tim spent the night on Wednesday night as well.

As for the install and new stuff in the house...we had a new outdoor AC unit, furnace, and water heater put in. Our AC unit has been failing all summer, the water heater was about to burst and the furnace should have died a while ago so it was time. We got a few estimates from various places and went with a company named Level Heating and Air Conditioning. They work in Harford, Cecil, and Baltimore counties and they were wonderful so anybody in those areas who needs this work done should check them out.

Our old stuff

New furnace & water heater

New outdoor AC unit

During our estimates we discovered that the exhaust from the water heater & furnace (gas) were against code. This meant the exhaust would have to be re-done which was an added cost as well as an issue to figure out a plan for. One of the various reasons we went with this company is because they had the best plan for fixing the exhaust issue. They had to run all new exhaust pipes from the basement, up through the living room closet, above the kitchen ceiling, and then out the side of the house.

Living room closet with exhaust pipes

Holes in the ceiling of kitchen needed to put the pipes in

The install took 2 days, but we are very happy with the outcome along with the whole process. We have some paperwork to send in various places in order to get some rebates. We will also be getting the federal rebate with our taxes in April next year. There are some holes that need to be patched, but we also have a few holes in the bedroom (from work done on plumbing) along with another hole in the kitchen from the day we moved and the big leak. Ben is probably going to look into hiring somebody to do the holes in the ceilings since that is a lot of work.

This morning Ryder went to school. Zak, Ben, and I ran a few errands and then got home in time for Ryder to get off the bus. Once the workers were all gone this afternoon we went and picked up the dogs from Rich & Laura. Once we got home I made a trip to the dollar store and grocery store. Ginnie and Tim both came over for dinner tonight and then played with the boys for a while. They played with their target ball set and had fun throwing balls at each other and everyone else.

Tomorrow Ben is going back to work. I know the boys will be very upset when they see him leave tomorrow morning since they have had him home for the last 2 days. But the good thing is he will be off for the weekend so it is only one day back to work. I think the plan is for Tim to spend the night tomorrow night as well and then head back to NH sometime on Saturday.