So this weekend was full of house disappointments and some small victories, too...
Saturday afternoon dad came over to help install the microwave, replace some light switches and help with some other odds and ends. (When I say microwave, I don't mean the ones that sit on the counter. Rather the ones that mount under the cabinet above the stove!) As soon as dad arrived we got to work on the microwave; dad read the instructions (a tad surprising, usually that's my job) while I unpacked the box. After some measuring and line drawing I come to the realization that the microwave is too big to fit where I wanted to mount it... yet again another disappointment. Not to mention I've waited almost a month to install the darn thing and it was too big. GRRR... score one to the house.
We decided to move on and try our hand at replacing the light switch in the kitchen. Since the switch is at the back of the room and you enter from the front of the room (stupid old house) I thought it would be neat to get a motion sensor so that when you walked in the room the light would turn on. Well of course this wasn't easy, either. It turns out the motion sensor was too big for the electrical box. After a lot of maneuvering we were able to get the box to fit and got it all wired up. There was only one problem, the light flickered once the motion sensor was activated. I tried to adjust all the settings, but nothing corrected the issue. Time to undo everything that was done. GRRR... score another one to the house.
Now it was time to move on to the shower head. I tried doing this last week, but I didn't have the correct wrench to remove the original shower head. Luckily dad had the correct tool and I was able to replace it myself... Score one to me!
Last order of business, hot water! From the very beginning I have not had very hot water - to be honest, I would call it lukewarm on its hottest day. I was thinking that the hot water heater was broken, or the temperature needed to be adjusted. Having never tinkered with something like this, especially not a gas powered appliance, I decided I was definitely waiting for dad. Dad located the knob (which was set at the lowest setting) and turned it up. Immediately the hot water heater started singing and I knew hot water was going to be available soon. Score another one to Jay!
The rest of the evening consisted of me setting up my new wireless router, playing some Wii, watching some movies and later heading to bed.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Clothes, Couches, Heat, Recycle and 311
This has been quite an eventful week on Macon Street!
With the completion of my closet on Monday it was time to fill the closet with all of the clothes hanging out at my parents house. So Wednesday night after work I took a trip to the E.C. and loaded the car FULL of clothes... I didn't realize I had soo many. Once home I hung them all up and I can say I'm quite proud of my handiness. Project one done. Score!
I had also received a call from Marlo Furniture store Wednesday night letting me know that my new furniture would be arriving between 8:30 am and 11:30 am. I took off the morning from work, and knowing how the contractors have been lately, established that I could sleep in a little bit... I mean after all what are the chances that I would need to be awake before 8:30am?
Well turns out I was dead wrong. At 7:45am I heard lots of truck noises, people talking, etc outside my window. I really just wanted the city to be quiet so that I could enjoy sleeping in a little. After listing to all the commotion for a bit I realized that the knocking that I'm hearing is actually coming from my front door. OMG, the furniture people had been out front for a few moments now! I sprang out of bed and started getting dressed as I was running down the stairs for the door... I didn't want the furniture people to leave! I open the door and the delivery man didn't look too happy to have been waiting for me. Oh well.
They moved the furniture in faster than I could have ever imagined, installed the legs on the sofa and they were gone in a flash. Awesome, now time for work.
Thursday night was a chilly night here. I'd been avoiding any kind of HVAC usage because I have no idea what my BGE bill is going to look like. However you hit that certain point where you're just cold and you know the only way to make it better is to listen to the roar of the forced air and feel the warmth on your toes... and so that's what I did. But I only turned it on for a little bit and then off again before bed. I think turning it off was a bad idea, because when I woke up Friday morning the house was darn cold. Like OMG so cold.
Speaking of Friday, this past Friday was the 4th Friday of the month - recycle day. I had gotten passed over last recycle day (on the 2nd Friday) and my small pile of recycle turned into a mountain of cardboard, newspapers and cans. Being the new guy on the street, I didn't want my neighbors to think that I'm some trashy punk kid ruining the neighborhood. When I came home from work it turns out that I was passed over yet again! ARGH!
Luckily city residents have access to Baltimore City's One Call center, by dialing 311. It's like the one-stop-shop for anything you need in the City. So I placed my call and registered my complaint. She took my name, address, phone number and problem and told me that it would be resolved in 24 hours. They even give you a confirmation number. Now knowing Baltimore City, I was sure that this would happen as quickly as she said. I must admit though, I was quite surprised Saturday morning to see that ALL of the recycle had been taken... score two for Jay!
With the completion of my closet on Monday it was time to fill the closet with all of the clothes hanging out at my parents house. So Wednesday night after work I took a trip to the E.C. and loaded the car FULL of clothes... I didn't realize I had soo many. Once home I hung them all up and I can say I'm quite proud of my handiness. Project one done. Score!
I had also received a call from Marlo Furniture store Wednesday night letting me know that my new furniture would be arriving between 8:30 am and 11:30 am. I took off the morning from work, and knowing how the contractors have been lately, established that I could sleep in a little bit... I mean after all what are the chances that I would need to be awake before 8:30am?
Well turns out I was dead wrong. At 7:45am I heard lots of truck noises, people talking, etc outside my window. I really just wanted the city to be quiet so that I could enjoy sleeping in a little. After listing to all the commotion for a bit I realized that the knocking that I'm hearing is actually coming from my front door. OMG, the furniture people had been out front for a few moments now! I sprang out of bed and started getting dressed as I was running down the stairs for the door... I didn't want the furniture people to leave! I open the door and the delivery man didn't look too happy to have been waiting for me. Oh well.
They moved the furniture in faster than I could have ever imagined, installed the legs on the sofa and they were gone in a flash. Awesome, now time for work.
Thursday night was a chilly night here. I'd been avoiding any kind of HVAC usage because I have no idea what my BGE bill is going to look like. However you hit that certain point where you're just cold and you know the only way to make it better is to listen to the roar of the forced air and feel the warmth on your toes... and so that's what I did. But I only turned it on for a little bit and then off again before bed. I think turning it off was a bad idea, because when I woke up Friday morning the house was darn cold. Like OMG so cold.
Speaking of Friday, this past Friday was the 4th Friday of the month - recycle day. I had gotten passed over last recycle day (on the 2nd Friday) and my small pile of recycle turned into a mountain of cardboard, newspapers and cans. Being the new guy on the street, I didn't want my neighbors to think that I'm some trashy punk kid ruining the neighborhood. When I came home from work it turns out that I was passed over yet again! ARGH!
Luckily city residents have access to Baltimore City's One Call center, by dialing 311. It's like the one-stop-shop for anything you need in the City. So I placed my call and registered my complaint. She took my name, address, phone number and problem and told me that it would be resolved in 24 hours. They even give you a confirmation number. Now knowing Baltimore City, I was sure that this would happen as quickly as she said. I must admit though, I was quite surprised Saturday morning to see that ALL of the recycle had been taken... score two for Jay!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Side Note
I think I was right about Connie and her being very involved... I've already gotten two emails from her this morning with a bunch of info in them.
I think between her and Erma I'm going to learn all I need to know about living in Greektown!
I think between her and Erma I'm going to learn all I need to know about living in Greektown!
Getting Involved
So tonight was my first meeting with the Greektown Community Development Corporation (from now on the GCDC).
Most Baltimore City neighborhoods have organizations like this one which basically serves as the homeowners association for the community. They handle items including sanitation complaints, crime, infrastructure issues, parking and more. Together with the community, the CDCs work with Baltimore City to enhance each area of the city.
The meeting was held at St Nikolas Church, which is the main church in the community; the church is responsible for a large number of events in Greektown and is very active in the community. I came to the meeting straight from work and arrived a little early. I was greeted by Connie, a Greektown resident that I could tell was quite involved. She gave me the basic run down of life in the city, about trash and recycle days (something I'm still trying to figure out because every week it seems a little different) and opportunities for me to get involved in the community. She quickly introduced me to Jason, who I believe is the Director of the GCDC. Jason seemed pretty excited to have a younger member of Greektown that wanted to be active in the community. He eagerly told me of a number of positions that were available for me to fill. I gave him my contact info and told him to let me know how to help.
The guest speaker, Senator John Sarbanes, was running a little late so I had the chance to mingle with my new neighbors. I ran into Erma, my neighbor across the street, and we chatted for a bit about the GCDC, the history of the neighborhood and about the BaltimoreSun.com article about Greektown. She gave me the rundown on what the community has been like, past drug problems and soo much more. I guess it helps that she's lived in the neighborhood almost her whole life.
Senator Sarbanes spoke and it was great to hear about what is going on in D.C. especially with all the financial crisis happening. There were, of course, some very heated residents that seemed very mad about it all... but who isn't these days?
The meeting adjourned at about 8pm and I spent a few more minutes talking to my new neighbors and then headed home.
Most Baltimore City neighborhoods have organizations like this one which basically serves as the homeowners association for the community. They handle items including sanitation complaints, crime, infrastructure issues, parking and more. Together with the community, the CDCs work with Baltimore City to enhance each area of the city.
The meeting was held at St Nikolas Church, which is the main church in the community; the church is responsible for a large number of events in Greektown and is very active in the community. I came to the meeting straight from work and arrived a little early. I was greeted by Connie, a Greektown resident that I could tell was quite involved. She gave me the basic run down of life in the city, about trash and recycle days (something I'm still trying to figure out because every week it seems a little different) and opportunities for me to get involved in the community. She quickly introduced me to Jason, who I believe is the Director of the GCDC. Jason seemed pretty excited to have a younger member of Greektown that wanted to be active in the community. He eagerly told me of a number of positions that were available for me to fill. I gave him my contact info and told him to let me know how to help.
The guest speaker, Senator John Sarbanes, was running a little late so I had the chance to mingle with my new neighbors. I ran into Erma, my neighbor across the street, and we chatted for a bit about the GCDC, the history of the neighborhood and about the BaltimoreSun.com article about Greektown. She gave me the rundown on what the community has been like, past drug problems and soo much more. I guess it helps that she's lived in the neighborhood almost her whole life.
Senator Sarbanes spoke and it was great to hear about what is going on in D.C. especially with all the financial crisis happening. There were, of course, some very heated residents that seemed very mad about it all... but who isn't these days?
The meeting adjourned at about 8pm and I spent a few more minutes talking to my new neighbors and then headed home.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Contractors are LAME!
I took this morning off of work to meet with an electrician so that I could finally get my dryer connected. I'm not sure how many of you know that electric dryers require a special 4-prong outlet (it used to be a 3-prong but recent code changes now require 4-prong) connected to a 30 AMP breaker. Since my home was built in 1915 and the previous owners never had a dryer, an electrician was clearly required.
So being in the real estate biz we have a lot of contractors that do work for us. I called one of the contractors on our list and setup an appointment for this past Thursday. I took off of work for the morning, woke up early and waited. I received a phone call saying that "someone had broken into my truck, and I won't be able to make it." Being the trusting person I am it seemed like a legitimate claim. He later called me back to setup a new date and time. Sweet, I'll be able to stop doing laundry at my parents house!
That same day BGE calls me and needs to schedule a time to replace the battery in my gas meter. Apparently the gas meter (located inside my house) has a wireless apparatus that allows BGE to read the meter from outside... I always wondered how they did that. I conveniently schedule the battery replacement for the same date and time the electrician is supposed to come. I love killing two birds with one stone.
So I wake up early this morning knowing BGE will be here between 8am and 12pm and the electrician is going to be here at 9. At 9:30am there was a knock on the door and a polite little man identifies himself as a BGE tech and goes right to work. Five minutes later he's done and gone... but wait, where is the electrician?
I wait until 10:15 and give him a call... surprisingly he doesn't answer. Great. Now I enter dick mode. I leave a not so polite message on his cell phone stating that if he isn't to my home by 10:30 am not to bother coming at all. Did I get a call back? If you guessed no, congratulations you’re a winner.
I guess this will be another weekend of laundry at mom & dads.
So being in the real estate biz we have a lot of contractors that do work for us. I called one of the contractors on our list and setup an appointment for this past Thursday. I took off of work for the morning, woke up early and waited. I received a phone call saying that "someone had broken into my truck, and I won't be able to make it." Being the trusting person I am it seemed like a legitimate claim. He later called me back to setup a new date and time. Sweet, I'll be able to stop doing laundry at my parents house!
That same day BGE calls me and needs to schedule a time to replace the battery in my gas meter. Apparently the gas meter (located inside my house) has a wireless apparatus that allows BGE to read the meter from outside... I always wondered how they did that. I conveniently schedule the battery replacement for the same date and time the electrician is supposed to come. I love killing two birds with one stone.
So I wake up early this morning knowing BGE will be here between 8am and 12pm and the electrician is going to be here at 9. At 9:30am there was a knock on the door and a polite little man identifies himself as a BGE tech and goes right to work. Five minutes later he's done and gone... but wait, where is the electrician?
I wait until 10:15 and give him a call... surprisingly he doesn't answer. Great. Now I enter dick mode. I leave a not so polite message on his cell phone stating that if he isn't to my home by 10:30 am not to bother coming at all. Did I get a call back? If you guessed no, congratulations you’re a winner.
I guess this will be another weekend of laundry at mom & dads.
Monday, October 20, 2008
SUCCESS!
Well ladies and gentleman, it is DONE! My closet is finished and not a moment too soon.
We did have a few struggles today. I wanted to get another piece from Lowes in exchange for a piece I didn't need; because of course I measured wrong and didn't have the correct size parts. After waiting in line for 30 minutes to return the one piece I realized that I didn't have my coupon for the other piece. I was hoping that customer service would let me email them the coupon from my BlackBerry and then print it for me, but no such luck. At least I was able to get a credit back for some things I didn't need.
Since it was 6:30 and I still hadn't made it to the city, I was forced to choose between going back to my office and printing the coupon or just heading home and finishing the bulk of the project... after a few minutes I established that I was just going to go home and settle for a small victory.
On the way back to Greektown I remembered that I needed some additional brackets for the last piece of the closet. Luckily there is a Home Depot on Eastern Ave that I frequent to pick up the random things I need. After acquiring the goods, I established that a grocery run was in order. After all, I have lived in this house for almost a month and have probably only cooked dinner a total of five times.
When I was in Canton for my first grocery store experience in the city a few weeks ago (and OMG was the Canton Safeway PACKED!) I got to chatting with a young lady about local grocery stores. I told her about my move and where I was living and she suggested that I try the Shoppers on Eastern... conveniently located across from the Home Depot. Tonight was the night to check it out. I must say the selection wasn't bad and the prices were awesome. I'm not sure I was too impressed with the produce section, but the rest of the store has what you would expect to find in Giant or Safeway but at much better prices. They also have a huge International isle with all kinds of foreign products... pretty cool!
As soon as I got home I went right to work on the closet... there was no way I was going to bed unless it was done. A red bull and an hour later I was putting the finishing touches on my master piece. Check it out below.
Now all I need to do is go to my parents and get my clothes. Lets hope the damn thing doesn't fall off the wall when I put all the clothes up there!
And in addition to finishing the closet, I cooked myself dinner and lunch for tomorrow, and I setup my wii. Score one for Jay tonight!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
The beginning.
And so it starts. The blogging about life on Macon Street begins!
This past Friday marked the three week anniversary of life here in Greektown. Its definitely been a new experience - the suburb boy living in the city - and I'm looking forward to all the new experiences that I'm going to have. So far the people seem to be friendly, the crime is low, and the parking is better here than in other areas (a special shout out to the jerk that hit my car the other night... I didn't like the paint job on my bumper either. Thanks for helping out with it). Oh, and the food is awesome. I haven't really tried anything other than Gyro platters, but so far so good!
It's hard for me to grasp the fact that I'm a homeowner. I mean I know it's my house when I walk through the door, but sometimes I'll be sitting around and it just hits me... this place is mine! It has been quite the transition for me though. I've always been a pretty independent person, but I've never had the chance to live alone. I must admit, I sure do like it!
For those of you that don't know, my house is a 1200 square foot, two story, brick-front row home just outside of Canton. It has new carpeting, brand new kitchen with new appliances (minus the dishwasher) and a new bathroom. The house is pretty basic but it has some great architectual detailing. And don't worry, I'm definitely working on making it my own.
I hope to post here frequently the things that I'm doing around the house - my most recent project is working on my closet organizer. Although I have had some major problems with mounting it (you wouldn't believe how different plaster walls are from normal drywall... oh and lets not forget the brick walls on the sides of the house), I think I've finally gotten all the right wall anchors and I hope to be done with the closet tomorrow! You have no idea how badly I want to hang my clothes up! Living out of plastic totes and suitcases is a pain.
Speaking of projects, there are so many half-projects that I have going on right now and I just wish I could get them done. Unfortunately its a matter of time and tools; it seems like anytime I get a new project going I either don't have the right drill bit or pliers, or I can't hold whatever it is up and screw it in at the same time. Take my new shower head for example... my current shower head is just a basic, run-of-the-mill shower head. Yes it works to get me clean, but its not the refreshing, relaxing shower experience that I want to have. Being the bargain shopper I am I was able to find a great deal on a waterfall shower head. I read over the installation instructions and they were a breeze: unscrew the old shower head, screw on the new one. I could definitely do this... or could I? It seems that whoever installed the old shower head used the force of 800 men to tighten it. Do I have the right tools to loosen it? Of course not... that would be crazy! So lets chalk that up to another task that will get finished when my dad comes over... hopefully soon.
I did have some success today though. I was able to mount the mailbox on the door, put up the house numbers on the door and got some trash and boxes thrown away and ready for recycle. Now I know that house numbers don't seem to be a really big deal, and trust me it only took a matter of seconds to affix the stickers, but there's a bigger part to it. Ever since the thought of living in the city, I've always wanted one of the nice plaques with the house number and street name. As I was in Home Depot today I realized that it would cost me almost $150 to make it myself, and probably equal to that price if I ordered it online. So until the time comes when I have money to throw around like that (or someone decides to buy it for me as a housewarming!!) these basic numbers will have to do. HAHA.
Well I think this is enough for the first post. Comment and let me know your thoughts.
Good night!
This past Friday marked the three week anniversary of life here in Greektown. Its definitely been a new experience - the suburb boy living in the city - and I'm looking forward to all the new experiences that I'm going to have. So far the people seem to be friendly, the crime is low, and the parking is better here than in other areas (a special shout out to the jerk that hit my car the other night... I didn't like the paint job on my bumper either. Thanks for helping out with it). Oh, and the food is awesome. I haven't really tried anything other than Gyro platters, but so far so good!
It's hard for me to grasp the fact that I'm a homeowner. I mean I know it's my house when I walk through the door, but sometimes I'll be sitting around and it just hits me... this place is mine! It has been quite the transition for me though. I've always been a pretty independent person, but I've never had the chance to live alone. I must admit, I sure do like it!
For those of you that don't know, my house is a 1200 square foot, two story, brick-front row home just outside of Canton. It has new carpeting, brand new kitchen with new appliances (minus the dishwasher) and a new bathroom. The house is pretty basic but it has some great architectual detailing. And don't worry, I'm definitely working on making it my own.
I hope to post here frequently the things that I'm doing around the house - my most recent project is working on my closet organizer. Although I have had some major problems with mounting it (you wouldn't believe how different plaster walls are from normal drywall... oh and lets not forget the brick walls on the sides of the house), I think I've finally gotten all the right wall anchors and I hope to be done with the closet tomorrow! You have no idea how badly I want to hang my clothes up! Living out of plastic totes and suitcases is a pain.
Speaking of projects, there are so many half-projects that I have going on right now and I just wish I could get them done. Unfortunately its a matter of time and tools; it seems like anytime I get a new project going I either don't have the right drill bit or pliers, or I can't hold whatever it is up and screw it in at the same time. Take my new shower head for example... my current shower head is just a basic, run-of-the-mill shower head. Yes it works to get me clean, but its not the refreshing, relaxing shower experience that I want to have. Being the bargain shopper I am I was able to find a great deal on a waterfall shower head. I read over the installation instructions and they were a breeze: unscrew the old shower head, screw on the new one. I could definitely do this... or could I? It seems that whoever installed the old shower head used the force of 800 men to tighten it. Do I have the right tools to loosen it? Of course not... that would be crazy! So lets chalk that up to another task that will get finished when my dad comes over... hopefully soon.
I did have some success today though. I was able to mount the mailbox on the door, put up the house numbers on the door and got some trash and boxes thrown away and ready for recycle. Now I know that house numbers don't seem to be a really big deal, and trust me it only took a matter of seconds to affix the stickers, but there's a bigger part to it. Ever since the thought of living in the city, I've always wanted one of the nice plaques with the house number and street name. As I was in Home Depot today I realized that it would cost me almost $150 to make it myself, and probably equal to that price if I ordered it online. So until the time comes when I have money to throw around like that (or someone decides to buy it for me as a housewarming!!) these basic numbers will have to do. HAHA.
Well I think this is enough for the first post. Comment and let me know your thoughts.
Good night!
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