When fall weather is NOT fall weather

Here in Florida, we use our air conditioners almost year round. There may be a few days here and there (or like last February, a week!) where the temperature hovers near freezing and the heater awakens from it's slumber to warm our little house; however, this October has been unusually warm.

I'm a sucker for fall weather. I love the crispness in the air, the bonfire smell at night and the rare chance (as a Floridian) that I get to wear my cute sweaters and scarves. Last week while my dad was in town, we had a perfect day. The humidity was gone and by evening, we even needed a light jacket. I thought that day meant that fall had finally wrong. I was in for a rude awakening.

I woke up Saturday morning to an 82 degree house. Thermostat was set to 77, but the temperature inside kept climbing. Since Jason was at work, I decided to see what I could do with my handyman skills. I took the front of the unit apart and tried to turn it back on. No such luck. Since we'd just had it serviced (for the second time) a few weeks earlier, I called the same guys back to come out and see what they could do. A few hours later, they stopped by and within five minutes had told me that the motor was broken beyond repair and would need to be special ordered, which couldn't be done until Monday.

After a lot of researching and discussing what would be best for our house long-term, Jason and I decided that the best option would be to replace our 12-year old air conditioner all together. I don't know much about the technical side of this, but we had a 10 SEER unit and the minimum you can buy these days is a 13 SEER unit. The max you can get (and priciest) is a 19 SEER. We're getting a Carrier 15 SEER unit, which also has a $1500 tax credit.

Two nights of sleeping in a hot and humid house was plenty. The new unit is getting installed as I type this and I am counting down the minutes until we can turn it on. I'll leave you with this photo of our thermostat (yes, that's the temperature INSIDE the house).

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Tile Project

After five long weeks of laying tile, we're finally finished! It was definitely a tedious process and I can honestly say, "I hope we never have to do that again!" While our home improvement projects tend to be a lot of work, I have so much fun learning how to become a handyman with my husband.

We went to Lowe's and bought four different types of tile. We brought them home to set against the black kitchen cabinets and choose which one we liked best.

After deciding on Ibiza Bone, we decided to do a pattern using 18 x 18, 12 x 12 and 6 x 6 tiles.

Jason pulled up all the Pergo floor and started to lay the tile. If you've never laid tile before, let me tell you...it's definitely a slow process.

It helps to have few extra hands. Doug and Jason's dad helped get the pattern started.

Day one, and a third of the tile is down. Next up, grout.

Close up of the pattern

Since I wasn't too skilled on the wet saw, I volunteered to grout.

Grouting is a process too. You have to wipe one layer, wait for it to dry, wipe again, wait for it to dry, and continue this until the floor no longer has any residue on it.

Jason did a tremendous job (the dogs LOVE the tile floor).

The finished product!

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Random Musings of August

I have every intention of keeping this blog current, so due to falling behind on that goal, here's a long recap post of what we've been up to this August!

Jason and I attended a tasting at Kouzzina by Cat Cora. I was invited with a few people from work, and able to have a first hand look at the menus, which I designed! I scanned actual fabric that's used in the restaurant and created a subtle pattern for the overall look. {note: the outfit was not planned to match the colors, just a happy accident!}

Jason, Kayla and I played in a co-ed soccer tournament at Disney's Wide World of Sports. Our team name was Das Boot and let me just say, it's been a LOOOOONG time since I had on a pair of soccer shoes. I think it's safe to say that we were more than a little sore after that weekend. Our team made it to the semi-finals though, and we took 3rd place!

Lisa and I met with a wedding planner in downtown Winter Park. Our newest couple Rose and Chris (a med student going through rotations and a recent law grad that just took the bar-busy couple!) are getting married next March. We're super excited to be working on their entire wedding collateral, including save-the-dates, invitation package, place cards and programs! On that same trip, Lisa introduced me to the White Wolf Cafe, a cute eatery near Antique Row in downtown Orlando. On our way back home, we stopped by our good friend Lee's flower shop, Lee Forrest Design, and he gave us a box of orchids that were left over from a wedding. I made a few quick centerpieces that gave our house a little extra color that week!

On a side note, I love when I find our dogs napping in random places around the house.

Lisa and I tagged along with our friend, Monica Holtsclaw , to the Sanford Farmer's Market. Monica has her own bookbinding company and is all sorts of talented! Check out her website and Etsy shop!

Lisa and I will also be training for the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon on January 10, 2009. We're both half-marathon rookies, so this is a big goal for us. Wish us luck!

Remember that leak we had a month ago? Well, one thing led to another and we decided to tile the kitchen, small living room, hallway and laundry room. I'm so lucky to have such a handy-man husband! All of our projects (with the exception of the new carpeting) have been DIY. Here's a teaser photo. Stay tuned for a full recap!

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Air Conditioner: Major Fail

About a two months ago, we had our air conditioner serviced–it got a good ol' deep clean. A few weeks later, we started to notice that the wood in our dining room was rippling. We thought it was the sun, streaming in from the large window. The wood progressively worsened over the next week or so, until one night, I stepped down and water seeped through the wood.

Shoot.

MAJOR problem.

Jason and I discovered that our air conditioner condensation had not been flowing to the spout outside, but leaking into the house and seeping underneath the hardwood floors.

Discovering the source of the leak...the A/C vent.

Jason on the phone with his dad, trying to figure out the best way to stop the leak. We ended up turning off the air conditioner that night, since he had to cut the pipe. Our house was 85 degrees and humid. The dogs were panting and we tossed and turned all night long. The condensation filled up the 5-gallon bucket in three hours when we finally turned the air on the next day.

Some of the floor boards were starting to grow mold.

We moved all the wet boards into the office, laid them upside-down on towels, and turned the ceiling fan on high. Our house smelled like wet wood for a week!

You can see here how far the water had seeped under the floor. That 5-gallon bucket that filled up in three hours? Imagine that pouring out, for hours, days, even weeks!

This is after we picked up the floating floor (foam stuff that sits under the wood). The concrete was even soaked. We immediately thought that our serviceman had done something wrong when he had fixed our air conditioner unit. That is, until Jason poured bleach down the condensation tube and went outside to see if it went through...

Apparently a little black snake had crawled into our condensation pipe and died, thus causing ALL condensation to back-up into our house.

After all was said and done, the damage appeared much worse that it was. Jason had extra wood planks and floating floor in the attic, so the only cost to us were few pieces of quarter-round and a little PVC piping to replace the one he cut.

But when life hands you lemons...you know what you do. We decided to start a new home improvement project. Stay tuned!

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