Lifestyle upgrades

In the past couple of months I have had three major lifestyle upgrades. They are remarkable!


Upgrade 1: Gas fireplace: DH installed a gas fireplace in our Hermann house. It is so cool, with the press of a button it goes on with a press of a button it goes off. in these chilly spring mornings I turn it on because – it’s so easy! I would never have a wood burning fire every morning in the spring because that would be so much trouble. When we bought this house the real estate agent cautioned us that the chimney does not draw very well and we tried Wood burning fire and that is true it did not draw well. But that’s OK we had planned to convert it to gas anyway. The cost was a couple hundred bucks and a day of DH’s time to install and move a gas line.

Upgrade 2: Magic shower: When we bought this Hermann house it came with a shower apparatus that is truly the best shower I’ve ever had in my life, and it makes me sad to think I’m almost 65 years old before I got this fabulous magic shower that works in any situation. It is so fabulous that I quacked on and on about it! That promoted DH to Search out and buy the same apparatus for our city house. Cost was a couple hundred bucks and a day of his time to install.

Upgrade 3 roof that does not leak: In this rainy spring it has not rained into my bedroom because we had a new roof put on our city house. We had a leak for more than a decade and it got bigger and bigger. DH couldn’t fix it. He fussed with it for years. He would not talk to me about it so for the last five years we just stopped talking about it. He actually had me convinced that it was not fixable , but you know what? The roofers fixed it! what a concept, hiring professionals to fix stuff. And not surprisingly they mentioned that the leak was coming from one of the skylights which of course is always suspect number one in any roof leak.



Photos

Magic shower moves up for tall people, down for short people, Can be rotated into several fixed positions, and showerhead can be removed for a handheld access. Here is a photo of the magic shower upside down
Attachment 2752

Definitely worth while upgrades. I would have put my foot down long before 10 years with the roof leaks.

I so relate to this.

After using a woodburning fireplace and airtight stove for decades, the gas furnace and fireplace are such a treat. The handheld shower in my ensuite is wonderful as well.

I would add the iRobot Roomba vacuum for cleaning under beds to the treasures of my present life experience. Have you looked at one of them, IL?
https://store.irobot.com/default/robot-vacuum-roomba/

Choosing to live in an area where the sump pump never runs despite the heaviest rain or meltdowns in the spring was a major priority for me as the former home required careful monitoring during severe weather. I love it!

Razz, I also love my roomba and I also have a mopping robot.

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

Definitely worth while upgrades. I would have put my foot down long before 10 years with the roof leaks.

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He really had me convinced he was “ on it” and THIS time the fix would work. Sigh.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

He really had me convinced he was “ on it” and THIS time the fix would work. Sigh.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc4IFIXcDcs (SFW)

We are on our second Roomba. They get a huge workout with two dogs. I run it after going over the house with the regular vacuum and it always amazes me how much it still finds. My upgrade I feel rather sheepish about but I'm holding on to it for now.... I know I have given the horror story of cleaning out my parents house. I started to think back on what age they were when I started to notice things being let go. I do not want to go down that path although some of it is inevitable. We have garage sale every year (many people join in with us so its fun) and we refuse to sit on things we are not using. So with the downsizing and simplification I have now hired a housekeeper. A total extravagance BUT our yard is our love and where we get the biggest enjoyment working. So I have it set up that they come once a month for deep cleaning and we maintain it in-between. We laugh that it takes us two hours to clean before the team comes in but it keeps us on our game. We roll up all area rugs and weather permitting, shampoo them to dry outside. The team cleans the floors (house is all hardwoods except the bedrooms). I love having somebody else clean my bathrooms. I love walking into the house after deep clean day...….. it is decadent and I'll keep it until I have to sell a second kidney.

Your DH is not a pro but he moved a gas line? Where I am only licensed plumbers can do that and they must pull a city permit.

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Originally Posted by Simplemind

We are on our second Roomba. They get a huge workout with two dogs. I run it after going over the house with the regular vacuum and it always amazes me how much it still finds. My upgrade I feel rather sheepish about but I'm holding on to it for now.... I know I have given the horror story of cleaning out my parents house. I started to think back on what age they were when I started to notice things being let go. I do not want to go down that path although some of it is inevitable. We have garage sale every year (many people join in with us so its fun) and we refuse to sit on things we are not using. So with the downsizing and simplification I have now hired a housekeeper. A total extravagance BUT our yard is our love and where we get the biggest enjoyment working. So I have it set up that they come once a month for deep cleaning and we maintain it in-between. We laugh that it takes us two hours to clean before the team comes in but it keeps us on our game. We roll up all area rugs and weather permitting, shampoo them to dry outside. The team cleans the floors (house is all hardwoods except the bedrooms). I love having somebody else clean my bathrooms. I love walking into the house after deep clean day...….. it is decadent and I'll keep it until I have to sell a second kidney.

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I had a housekeeper come every two weeks for a few years. The housekeepers we had were our friends and then they got out of the business so I never look for others. And then we finished our downstairs and it looks nice, and so I rather enjoy a little bit of housecleaning down there because it’s just a pretty room!Besides, our upstairs is now not a place I want anyone to see because we have an infonntinent cat Huge holes in the ceiling cracking back to when it rained in my bedroom. I told DH if we had children, CPS would take them away based on the condition of our upstairs bedroom.


But I hear you about getting older. When we move to Hermann I am going to get a housekeeper. Agreed that I will continue to do Garden maintenance because I couldn’t hire anyone to adequately care for my perennial gardens anyway.

I had a monthly cleaner that did the floors and bathrooms until I lost my job. I miss them.

My wife has an old retired guy do a deep clean of at least one room a week. He's not that good but he's cheap.

DH is better at the deep cleaning than I am. We both have areas of the home that are more important to us and tend to focus on those. He keeps the kitchen spotless because he is the one who cooks 99% of the time. I hate clutter so I am never going from one room to another without picking something up and putting it away. I do all the laundry. Still...….. I could keep him busy from dusk until dawn with the heavy power tools that I can't handle. Chain saws, gas trimmers, getting the tractor out of the shed for me and maintaining it so I just have to jump on and zen out as I mow.
I am blessed in that I really don't notice the house most of the time. It usually hits me about 5 minutes before company is showing up. Then I notice all the dog snot on the windows and the tufts of fur that have wafted to the corners. It is still more important to me that the walkway to the house is weeded than the inside is vacuumed. Priorities ya know...………….. At this time of year all the nurseries have my picture at the cash register and I shop with my VISA plastered to my forehead.

2 years ago we spent the money on a gas line into the kitchen and a gas stove/electric oven combo. i can SIMMER now! My flattop would not simmer.....the lowest heat would boil. I couldn't do anything long-cooking well at all and who wants to stand at the stove to make a fabulous pot of soup or sauce that is best made with 4-5h of simmering.

LOVE my gas stove:)

I think the benefit of buying our 4ever home when we were 30yo is that it's been little bites along the way. 1 thing at a time for cash so nothing was huge or traumatic. If I look around at all we've done it's actually a lot but 1 bite at a time....it was easy.

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Originally Posted by Alan

My wife has an old retired guy do a deep clean of at least one room a week. He's not that good but he's cheap.

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Too funny, Alan!

I guess ours would be that we are hiring someone to stain & paint the house this year instead of doing it ourselves. It would consume all our free time for a year or more, so at this stage of our lives it seems like a crazy use of our time.

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Originally Posted by SteveinMN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc4IFIXcDcs (SFW)

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Hahaha! Yep, thats me.

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Originally Posted by Yppej

Your DH is not a pro but he moved a gas line? Where I am only licensed plumbers can do that and they must pull a city permit.

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I dont know the code in Hermann but it is much less rigorous than in our city. When I say “moved” he added a channel to an existing line to be more precise. Still that might be “permit only” work in various places, I dont know.

Congrats on your upgrades! The fireplace sound fantastic.

We're looking for a shower system, and I'm willing to invest a little bit to get a really nice one for our soon-to-be-new outdoor shower on the lake. I'm like you--spent my whole life totally not into creature comforts like super-duper shower fixtures, but when my DIL gave me a shower head for Christmas I figured I must be ignorant of some wonderful secret everyone else is on to.

I'm looking for one like yours: a nice regular "rainfall" type but with a hand-held shower wand. I may even splurge for jets.

When we remodeled our house we didn’t bother to get any permits. My husband knew what he was doing. For big jobs like painting the outside of the house I hired him a helper and that way they worked all day and got it done. Now the last painting he was only 55 so next time the outside of the house needs to be done he may not be up to it.

The dangers of not getting a permit are if there is a problem (say electrical fire) down the road your homeowners insurance may not pay the claim. Also when you go to sell if you added a room you cannot claim it to the buyer, and if they check with the city you can get hit with all the back taxes you tried to avoid at once. And someone could snitch on you and you get hit with a fine. That happened when my dad and grandfather redid their roof. Worst of all is if someone is helping you and they get injured. You are liable.

We never got permits for renovating the kitchen in BIL house (or ours either, for that matter). It slowed down the sale of the house because then we had to backtrack and get it all done. It took about 3-4 weeks of back-and-forth stuff with the Township. As IL undoubtedly knows, the wheels of the Gubmint run mighty slow at times.

The neighbors can be the worst. We had two that were fighting in our subdivision. It started when one did not like that the other ran a small consulting business from their home and might have one or two cars occasionally parked in front of the house. So the neighbor they were complaining about saw a new dormer on the complainer's house and no building permit posted. Called the gubmint agency (in NC a stickler for accuracy and fussy about it). Oh, my the trouble they were in. And on and on.

We not only have to deal with building permeits but Certificates of Appropriateness due to the historic designation of our neighborhood. Of course, our house is non-historic but it does not matter.

We didn’t add a room and the stuff we did I don’t see how anyone would know what the inside looked like before. Our handyman worked for 4 months fixing the house with my husband. If he had gotten hurt our homeowners insurance would have covered it.

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

If he had gotten hurt our homeowners insurance would have covered it.

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That's a good way to get your policy cancelled, get your property blacklisted with other insurers, and if the injuries are serious you better hope you have an umbrella policy.

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Originally Posted by sweetana3

We not only have to deal with building permeits but Certificates of Appropriateness due to the historic designation of our neighborhood. Of course, our house is non-historic but it does not matter.

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I'm for that! I love homes and neighborhoods that have been preserved for historic reasons. One of my favorite towns, Ocean Grove, NJ is a historic landmark town so there are a lot of restrictions about what you can and can't do, but in some ways I don't think they go far enough. You have this beautiful little Victorian charmer from the street and then you walk inside and it looks like a Joanna Gaines makeover. So disheartening. At least they've kept the front-facing garages at bay.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Upgrade 2: Magic shower: When we bought this Hermann house it came with a shower apparatus that is truly the best shower I’ve ever had in my life, and it makes me sad to think I’m almost 65 years old before I got this fabulous magic shower that works in any situation. It is so fabulous that I quacked on and on about it! That promoted DH to Search out and buy the same apparatus for our city house. Cost was a couple hundred bucks and a day of his time to install.

Photos

Magic shower moves up for tall people, down for short people, Can be rotated into several fixed positions, and showerhead can be removed for a handheld access. Here is a photo of the magic shower upside down
Attachment 2752

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I don't know about the "magic shower" as a name (don't google that with safe search off), as I tend to see that marketed as a handicapped shower (good for those in wheelchairs, as well, etc).

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Originally Posted by Gardnr

2 years ago we spent the money on a gas line into the kitchen and a gas stove/electric oven combo. i can SIMMER now! My flattop would not simmer.....the lowest heat would boil. I couldn't do anything long-cooking well at all and who wants to stand at the stove to make a fabulous pot of soup or sauce that is best made with 4-5h of simmering.

LOVE my gas stove:)

I think the benefit of buying our 4ever home when we were 30yo is that it's been little bites along the way. 1 thing at a time for cash so nothing was huge or traumatic. If I look around at all we've done it's actually a lot but 1 bite at a time....it was easy.

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I’m glad you mention this because I am toying with the idea of maybe using an electric stove when we rennovate our Hermann house. We have gas to the house, but I have been using The electric flat top stove and it seems OK. I mean it’s not as flexible as a gas stove but it sure is easier to clean. Before the stove which is admittedly not new (it’s an old kitchen) , I just remember my mothers flat top stove from the mid-70s; it took forever to heat up, it was ridiculous. I swore I would never have one of those.

But I will likely stick with gas stove.

I've had gas heat, and--as I've mentioned--I'd rather not have it again. Every time I start to get complacent, I read about another gas-related or pipeline incident. Kablooey! I don't want to worry about explosions or carbon monoxide at this point. I'm very happy with electricity. Unfortunately, the condo I occasionally contemplate buying has natural gas heat...

I've never had a stove that took too long to heat up; I can't even imagine that. If I really needed an instant-on element, I'd get an induction burner or cooktop. At this point, I hardly use my stove anyway.

Personally, I'm eagerly looking forward to any or all lifestyle upgrades. :welcome:

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

I just remember my mothers flat top stove from the mid-70s; it took forever to heat up, it was ridiculous. I swore I would never have one of those. But I will likely stick with gas stove.

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YES! Our glass top took forever to heat up. And then it stayed hot for a long time so a risk if anyone but the 2 of us was in the kitchen.

I LOVE my gas!

I love gas, too. We have electric in G.I. and gas lines are not doable unless you do propane. I don't miss the gas as much as I thought I would, but I still miss it.

I am the opposite - was glad to get off gas and go with a glasstop that is easy to clean. If it were cost effective I would ditch my gas hot water heater too.

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Originally Posted by Yppej

I am the opposite - was glad to get off gas and go with a glasstop that is easy to clean. If it were cost effective I would ditch my gas hot water heater too.

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Yeah, I'd love to do solar for hot water.

The stove posts reminded me that I am pleased with my induction cooktop, convection oven though. I had the option of a gas stove but preferred the electric induction. It gets hot but doesn't stay hot for very long.

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Originally Posted by razz

The stove posts reminded me that I am pleased with my induction cooktop, convection oven though. I had the option of a gas stove but preferred the electric induction. It gets hot but doesn't stay hot for very long.

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I know these terms, induction and convection, but I do not have one of these devices.

When I bought my microwave in 2006 it was also a regular and induction oven. It cost 800. At the time we were having lots of big parties and I needed both ovens. The down side is you have to wait for it to cool down before you can use the microwave. Now we live in a smaller house and the most I invite at once is 15 people so I haven’t used the oven in 7 years.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Magic shower moves up for tall people, down for short people, Can be rotated into several fixed positions, and showerhead can be removed for a handheld access. Here is a photo of the magic shower upside down

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We have a magic shower too. I agree, it's awesome! Not only for showering, but for cleaning the shower too. In a perfect world every shower would be like this!