Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Stuff

The heat is on... the furnace at my mom's was fixed early this afternoon. Finally! (I'm not fully moved out yet... I'm still eating and sleeping at home.)

Swatchy helped me line a kitchen drawer. (Click for photos of my kitchen.)

I was told that setting out jars of vinegar will dispel paint fumes, so I have three shallow dishes with vinegar in them now.

The new apartment got phone and internet service yesterday. I took over my answering machine, but I didn't bring a power bar. There's only one outlet near the cable box that provides phone service, so that limits me to to items: the cable box itself, and the phone. The way the living room is set up, I'll be wanting to plug in:
• phone cable box
• phone
• answering machine
• TV
• VCR/DVD player
• shelf stereo system
... I count six items. (So far.) Yes, there are other outlets in the living room, but only one other one has something plugged into it: the lamp is plugged into the only outlet controlled by the light switch. (That outlet and light switch happen to be located one above the other, making the switch somewhat redundant. I moved the lamp as far as I could given the length of the cord, though. Of the other two outlets, one is where I don't want to plug anything in, and the other is right by the lamp which needs the switch-controlled outlet. Silly. Oh well, they're all on the same fuse anyway, so I guess it doesn't really make any difference where things are plugged in.

I rearranged more stuff in the living room, so it's starting to look pretty good. I still need to wipe down two sections of the wall unit, put the drawers and shelves back in, and set up the VCR/DVD player. Plus I need to replace the "phone box" with one of my nesting tables. ;)

Speaking of phone tables, that reminds me of the nook in my foyer. It's a phone nook, but it really looks like a Jesus nook. In fact, both I and my brother took it for one. Mom realized that it was a phone nook because that's where the original phone jack is located. It probably helps that she was around for the period of time where the only phone in a house was located in the main hallway. ;) I had quite an entertaining conversation with my phone/internet serviceman due to the "Jesus nook". ;) (His parents were also Catholic, and wanted him to go to midnight mass at Christmas now that he's back in the city.)

You can see the Jesus nook and accompanying phone jack in this photo:
Apartment Hallway
(Note that there's no electrical outlet there... so you can't use a cordless phone there. Note also the wire running down from the jack... that wire goes around baseboards and doors to the only other jack in the apartment, located in the living room... right by the outlet controlled by the light switch. Doh! If they were going to add a second phone jack, they could at least put it by a power outlet that wouldn't be off most of the time!)

I have a story to tell about one of my windows, but that will have to wait for another time. It's late, and I want to get to bed earlier tonight! (I've been having trouble staying awake the past two mornings.)

4 comments:

Kath said...

just FYI - even on just one fuse, you can sometimes have more than one circuit. I don't know the specifics of how that is, just that it can be so because my apartment is wired that way. So I can run the microwave in the kitchen, and the space heater in the bathroom, because the kitchen and living room are on one circuit, the bathroom and bedroom are on another. You get the idea!

Aren't old buildings so much fun? ;)

noricum said...

Whee. :P Thanks for the info. :)

aniexma said...

My parents' trick for getting rid of paint fumes was to cut an onion in half and float it in a bowl of vinegar. It really does work, for all kinds of nasty odours.

noricum said...

So now I need an onion in the vinegar? Does it go cut side up or down? (Or will it right itself once you get the vinegar deep enough?)

So far, now it smells like paint *and* vinegar in my apartment. Does anyone know if these tricks just try to mask the smell? ;)