Ugh.

That's about all I have to say right now. Ugh, with a capital U!

We've been feeling like we keep taking one step forward only to have something break and end up two steps backwards. Last week we complained that we felt like there has been something working against us (or at least our DIY mojo) with our various projects. While our project list keeps getting longer, we're just not knocking things off of the list. As of our post last week, I decided we needed to make a real effort to start checking things off of our list. The result...well, lacking.

While we checked the "Install WaterCop" off of the list last weekend, which felt like a major victory, we ended up taking at least one and a half steps backwards.

We've kept you all informed regarding the saga of our stolen downspout and totally ghetto dryer vent replacement.

Well, I'm sad to say it's gotten worse. I contacted a company about purchasing a copper replacement and had high hopes, but have yet to hear back from them. In the meantime we had a wicked wind storm, which left the dryer vent that has withstood a hurricane and several other major storms, well, completely battered. 

Picture this. A few days ago it started raining and the torn and fractured dryer vent downspout began spewing water all over the side of the house. Do you know where you could find me? Hanging out of the bedroom window with a 10 foot length of PVC trying to pull the portion of the downspout that had blown onto the sun porch roof away from the house. I wish we had a photo, because I'm sure it would have been lovely.

Now that we're waiting to hear back about the copper, and we also have Spring showers approaching, it looks like I'm going to be buying another dryer vent until we can get a more suitable replacement. 

To add insult to injury, one of the recent wind storms did more damage to our house, only this time with the electrical line. It seems the wind was fierce enough to pull the mounting anchor of the main electrical service from the side of our house. It's hard to see exactly what I'm talking about, so I've illustrated the issue with my amazing editing skills.

Again, I've contacted a local electrician about this repair, but have not heard back on it. Perhaps it's time to start making more calls. It should be an easy fix, just place a suitable anchor and screw it back in, but it's dealing with our main electrical service, so I'd prefer someone else handles this item. I mean, I'm into DIYing, but I'm just afraid it could be my last endeavor if I were to give it a shot.

Another thing that's been really getting frustrating lately is the careless nature people have been taking in the parking area behind our back gate. We have our own parking space back there as well as a number of parking spots reserved for people that live in houses bordering that area. Well, it's a complete and total mess right now. A massive construction project on a nearby house has turned it into a treacherous mud pit...

...and the contractors/owners of the house don't seem to realize the effect it's having on the neighborhood. To add insult to injury, I found this sitting in our parking space the other day.

Yep, those are two spike like pieces of metal left by said careless and uncaring contractors. I bet those would have been pretty awesome if someone would have run over them with their previously fully inflated car tire. To give context, the shorter one is about 2" long. So now, not only do we have to deal with our own stuff, we apparently need to clean up after other people too.

And finally, our lovely front French doors that were so nicely painted just a short time ago in a high gloss paint are looking battered and bruised with a collection of scratches and chips that are just begging for another coat of paint. So I'll be pulling these doors down down from their mount and applying another coat of high gloss black. I should really do this before it starts to get warm out, that way the paint will be applied when the wood is fully shrunk and hopefully some of the cracks won't appear next winter.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I wish my update was more sunshine and rainbows than failures and scratches. We have all of these issues we need to resolve, and we fear our house is starting to look really horrible given these few items in need of repair. We need to get them taken care of, and are trying to be on top of things, but we can't get people who we need to work with to actually call us back. I mean, I don't even know if this anchor issue on the electrical service is something a contractor will take care of, or if it will be handled by the power company. Any ideas? All I know is it sure makes me glad that 98% of the time we do it ourselves.

I hope you're not experiencing the same as we have been lately. I'm hopeful spring will bring much progress, but my hopeful mentality is not very strong right now.