A Condo update...

Mid-April is fast approaching and there is much to get done before we leave Florida. Most important was a new registration for the motor home in New Hampshire. So we flew home for about ten days to get that done. We were able to register both the RV and our new (to us) Jeep Cherokee. And since I prefer to do the drive back on a weekend, to avoid commuter traffic, we are leaving on Saturday morning. In the mean time, I got a lot of small projects done around the condo. We deployed the new dining room rug, that matches the living room. I had previously ordered a medicine and a linen cabinet for the master bath. I got both of those assembled and put in place. I had also ordered (Amazon just loves me) a shelving unit for basement storage and a wire rack for pantry storage in the garage. Both of them have been assembled and put into place. I cleaned up a lot of the clutter in the basement once the shelving was in place.

There were a couple of surprises though. A few days before we flew back, we got a phone call because the smoke detectors were going off. The painter was over to finish his work and he was not comfortable being in the condo with the alarms. While there was no smoke or odor, Kendra did the prudent thing and called the fire department. They checked for carbon monoxide and smoke and found neither. They determined that one of the detectors had failed due to age. So while there I replaced all four of the detectors with combo CO & smoke detectors. I also ordered a heat detector for the garage and an audio detector for our Ring security system. Next time the alarms go off, we will be notified by the security system.

The other surprise was the water heater. When I went to assemble the basement shelving, there was a small puddle of water on the floor from the pressure relief valve on the water heater. So we called the plumbing contractor to come have a look. As it turns out, the expansion tank had failed. It is a small tank that has a bladder and is half filled with air and half water. So the choice was to replace the expansion tank and pressure relief valve for $300 or to replace the entire water heater which was the original installed in 2005. Since it had already exceeded it's useful life, we chose the later to the tune of $1800. At least it happened while we were here and not when we were traveling for an extensive period.

The painter is almost done. He had done a great job painting all of the walls and doors in the condo. His last effort is the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. As he has progressed we have hung a few more pictures and some bamboo shades. The last big project is the buffet/hutch for the dining room. We bought an unfinished unit with the intent of staining the crown and base molding and the horizontal surface on the buffet and painting the rest of it a gray color. This was modeled after one at Pam's sister's house also in Litchfield. So I continue to assemble the hutch. Painting etc will wait until we return in May. But overall, it has really come together nicely. It will be a wonderful place to spend our time once we are done traveling. And it is very near the kids and grand kids.