And they call this a vacation????

I've mentioned before that Aaron and I were planning to take the week after Memorial Day off to work on the house. We were treated to a visit by Aaron's lovely sister Christy and her husband Tyson 5/26 through 5/29, so we were able to do some "normal" enjoyable weekend activities, including taking in a Washington Nationals game, and having a crab eating, off-track betting contest at the Cracked Claw in Urbana, MD. (For the record, Tyson won by one crab, which I think really constitutes a tie! And everyone lost on the horses.)

Memorial Day, we took Christy and Tyson back to the airport, then got to work on the basement. We've had pegboard, shelving, and assorted hooks and hangers to organize the shop for several months now, and we decided that we should tackle that project first to get more organized for the other projects to come. Here are a couple of pictures of our hard work on the shop. It makes a big difference not to trip on the air compressor, ShopVac, and assorted wood while trying to find a screwdriver!

These may not look like big changes, but I assure you that they are:








The wire hanging down in the second picture is our temporary phone line. We've run the new one, just still need to hook it up and pull the old one out.

In the process of all of this shop cleanup and organization, we developed a huge pile of things to return to Lowes and Home Depot. We went through and cross-indexed things to receipts, but most of them ended up being too old to get us money back. Store credit is good enough though- it kept us from spending a dime at either store until Friday June 2!

At some point on Monday we realized that the condensation pump for the A/C was running nonstop. We turned off the A/C and kept working, since it was still quite cool in the basement. Aaron spent some time trying to fix the pump, taking it apart, cleaning contacts, checking switches, etc. but it was all to no avail. On Tuesday, it was close to 100 degrees factoring in the heat index (of course- it knew that the A/C was out). It was incredibly hot in the house- the dogs just laid around and panted. I just laid around and complained. Aaron continued working like a trooper, but I just couldn't do anything. So, Tuesday (May 30) did not end up being a productive day at all. Aaron did finish the last of some of the plumbing. At some point on Tuesday night, we had a violet thunderstorm that cooled things off slightly, but neither of us slept much. Wednesday (May 31), I had a (FIVE HOUR! plus one hour prep time) conference call for work, so Aaron went to Noland's to see if they had replacement switched for our condensate pump. Turns out that they don't stock parts because the pumps are relatively inexpensive, around $40. So, Aaron just picked up a new pump, which solved the problem. Ah, blissful cool air. Wednesday afternoon and evening we made some excellent progress, finishing up the last few things to get to drywall since I wasn't laying around the house like a limp rag (I'm pathetic- I'm from South Carolina! This Maryland weather has spoiled me.)

Here is a picture of my new best friend, the condensate pump! It was only $40! I'm sure a service call would have been over $100!