The Streetcar Chronicles

Our Saturday got off to an interesting start. We were expecting P to arrive just after ten to help us bring the treadmill into the house. I had also booked some junk removal guys to come from 12-2 to take away the old sectional couch from the spare bedroom so we could proceed with our plans for the room.

Just before ten, my phone rang. It was the junk guys letting me know that they had a gap in their schedule and if we were home, they could come before noon. I ran it by S and she was fine with them coming by earlier. Minutes later, P arrived and began asking questions about the treadmill. “Its 300 pounds?!” she exclaimed when S told her how much it weighed. P began asking us additional questions:

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Yesterday, S and I had a miscommunication that resulted in some more water woes for us. Let me backtrack:

It all began yesterday afternoon when S noticed that the sink in the back room (the addition) was backed up. This wasn’t a surprise since the room isn’t well insulated. To avoid freezing, we leave the water dripping in the bathroom sink. Last year, we had a freezing incident but it wasn’t the water going to the faucet, it was the water in the pipes beneath the floor, the ones that aren’t insulated properly.

That’s what happened yesterday. There was still water dripping out of the tap but nothing was going down the drain because it was frozen. S got on the case and put the space heater in the bathroom along with some towels on the floor to catch whatever water was dripping under the sink.

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S and I have just made it through yet another chaotic (and stressful) chapter in home ownership. We woke up yesterday morning and found that there wasn’t any water coming out of our taps. When the temperature dips, we let the sink in the addition run a bit since those pipes aren’t properly insulated. We never bothered with any other sinks because we didn’t have any issues last winter. There were certainly some cold days, so we figured the house’s pipes were fine. We were obviously mistaken.

Upon getting up, I took the gal pal out for our walk while S asked P for advice about what to do. When I got back from the walk, S let me know that P suggested we ask the neighbours we’re attached to if they were having any issues with their water. Since our homes are attached, it is likely that we share the same water lines. If their water was fine, we should call the city to see if there was any water main breaks in our area.

I knocked on our neighbour’s door and the female half of the couple answered. I asked her about her water and she went to her kitchen to check her taps. Not surprisingly, the water flowed freely. I asked if they’d ever had frozen pipes and she said that they hadn’t. I was really hoping it was a city issue and that someone else would have to look after the problem. That wasn’t the case.

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S and I are taking a cue from our friends Christine and T with regards to Christmas shopping this year. Christine and T don’t buy gifts for each other, instead they buy one big gift that they’ll both enjoy.

S and I have decided that the big gift we could get that we could both use is the proper set-up of our spare bedroom. When we moved in, we threw the awkward sectional from my apartment in the room. The sectional doesn’t really fit in the room and not longer after we moved in, Sophie started going into heat and relieved herself on it.

Also in the room is an empty dresser we don’t use and bags of clothes that we’ve been meaning to take to Goodwill. Needless to say, we’d rather have the room set-up a little more nicely then it currently is. S is envisioning a nice futon with a small flat-screen TV set up with the spare Blu-Ray player we’ve had for awhile.

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We had our lesbian neighbours over for wine and appetizers last night. I think the night went well but S thinks we won’t be seeing them again. Its’ not that things went horribly wrong, quite the opposite. Upon their arrival, S gave them a tour of the house upon their arrival while I put the warm appetizers in the oven.

With the tour over, we chatted about the similarities and differences between our two houses. While the warm appetizers were baking, we brought out the cheese, crackers, shrimp and wine. We chatted about the neighbourhood, our jobs and families and all of the other stuff that people usually talk about when getting to know each other.

Around nine, they said they should be going since they had a friend coming in from out of town who would be staying with them for the weekend. We walked them out and said good-night. As soon as they were out of earshot, S turned to me and said, “Well, we won’t be seeing them again any time soon.”

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