This has been, for me and my mom both, The Year of Many Repairs and Replacements. And home improvements, if you wish to add those.
I had to get: a new phone; my car’s transmission rebuilt; some new glasses; a media storage cabinet; physical therapy on my ruptured calf muscle; a new quilt; a new mattress.
In the meantime, mom ended up with a new TV/DVD/VCR, a remodeled master bath, Texcote on the house and trim; the tree removed from the back yard; the awnings relocated; shutters on most of the windows in the house, plus a new hard drive and more RAM, as well as a new printer.
How about you?
I had to replace my cell phone and my water heater. Also, the DVD player went nuts, but that hasn’t been replaced yet; we’re watching DVDs on the roommate’s PS2 for the time being.
Our kitchen (down to the studs). Ditto the main bathroom (except for the tub). Painted the entire house, inside and out. Completely relandscaped 90% of our yard, front and back. Tore out our entire patio and walkways and poured new ones (retaining walls, too). Got a new front door, a new garage door, a new side gate, and installed new french doors off the kitchen. Redid all our irrigation and got new patio furniture, too. Also new curtains and replaced one window in the house (and another one in my car that got broken into).
New glasses, new DVD player, new cell phone, fixed computer, new printer, new hair stylist to replace the one that drank while applying chemicals to my head and replaced the car my daughter wrecked. (Not a scratch on the daughter.)
I haven’t got my insurance settlement to replace it yet, but I totalled my camping trailer. Yeah, finding a replacement for *that’s * going to hurt.
I also blew out the intercooler on my truck, requiring an $1800 fix. I put an aftermarket one in, so the next time, it won’t be that which fails. It’ll be something else.
Other than that, I think I’ve got my life about fixed. I’m a better person than I was when I broke it, anyway.
We paved our driveway it was only gravel. I bought a snow blower the prior year. So now shoveling snow should finally be simple.
We completed our window replacements. We did the entire house in two parts. I had the bedrooms done 2 years ago and the rest this year. The expensive part was replacing the dining room window with a beautiful bay window. It is wood and I finished the wood myself with five coats of Polyurethane just in time for the second JerseyDopefest.
I finally replaced my primitive, clunky cell phone with only 30 minutes a month with a small phone with a lot more hours and no roaming fees. So next year, I probably will not travel as much.
We bought a 37" Westinghouse LCD 1080p to replace the 32" cheap tube set we bought when we moved into our house.
We rescued an 18 month old Labby Mix. Becky replaces our last dog who is not 6 years gone.
I bought a new Hammock. I have it rigged under a large maple tree and in the summer it is 15° cooler in the hammock then in the sun. This is a very good thing indeed.
I made several PC upgrades. The biggest was getting the Family room PC a ram; Video Card and Op system upgrade to make use of the 37" LCD as a second monitor. I also replace the clunky, heavy ugly 17" CRT monitor with a cheap 17" LCD panel. Best $99 I have spent in a while.
I am getting my wife a new lighter laptop that should mean her old clunky but still working Dell will be freed up for my use. This is a nice deal all the way around. That might not actually arrive until January however.
I made dozens of little repairs or improvements to my home, normal stuff.
-Replaced bathroom toilet and grout around said toilet
-Replaced drain pipe around basement and added new pipe from sump pump to street
-Replaced old rotted out grape arbour
-Painted entire exterior of house
-Ripped out entire front yard gardening debacle and replaced with actual garden
-Removed 3 trees
-Replaced all garage shelving
-Replaced cell phone
-Replaced furnace motor
-Replaced wireless router
-Added about 600GB of storage space to the network
-Replaced 2 servers at work
Next year I hope to replace a window with a door, replace the heat with central air, replace the blank spot in my yard with a deck, and replace the fridge with one that’s less humongous.
A house. Got rid of the old one, got a new one. In the new one, I* replaced pretty much all the light fixtures, the light switches and switchplates, the door handles, and we painted almost every surface in the house. I’d like to get new appliances in before the end of the year, but haven’t had a chance to do that yet.
“I” is shorthand for “my friends who actually know what they’re doing, who do all the work while I provide good beer, mediocre food, and cheery attitude while they’re working.” You can understand why the shorthand is appropriate.
My car =_=
Had my car stolen for the second time in less than a year. They smurfed up the electrical system something awful. Became undriveable. Bastards.
Replaced my garage door opener on Sunday. The gears were all chewed up on the old one, so I managed to buy a new one that would fit in the old one’s spot (different frequency though).
Replaced the garbage disposal a few months ago. Who knew it would be so easy?
Replaced the hard drive in one of my older computers. Managed to save the data before all was lost, and didn’t even have to reinstall Windows!
Replaced my father-in-law’s web server with a new, overpowered one. Boy is he happy!
Need to replace my wireless router. It half-works.
2 cars, 2 phones, 1 DVR, 1 printer, 1 mouse (PC, not live), 1 garage door opener, a couple of frying pans, some clothes, a dimmer switch. Heck, except for groceries, fuel, & utilities, that’s about all I bought all year.
As part of our glacial effort to renovate our kitchen, we replaced the stove, garbage disposal and refrigerator, which finishes out the appliance renewal.
Replaced the Honda with a Chrysler.
Replaced a few worn out CDs: Talking Timbuktu, Brasileiro, maybe one other.
Replaced my wife’s worn out winter boots.
Replaced all the exterior tree light strings. It took ten 100-light strings this year!
Replaced a garage door remote.
Traded in one of the TV cable boxes for a “new” one that actually does what you tell it to do.
Kitchen floor, countertop, sink, wall treatments
new French drain in backyard to aid driveway runoff
new Subaru to replace old Subaru
new washer and dryer
new lawn mower
new vacuum cleaner
New timing belt in the Jetta, rebuilt differential in my van, new furnace and air conditioner, new half bath in the basement, new leaf sucker/mulcher, new tires on my van, new (to us) sailboat.
This year, I have replaced or repaired… [ol][]My monitors. Both the smallish CRTs on my computer were dying, so with last year’s tax refund I bought a 23-inch HD (1920 x 1200) LCD to replace them.[]My clothing. New pants, socks, underwear, shoes, and shirts to replace those that wore out.[]My financial situation. True, the greatest amount of my debt was paid off in 2005, but I am now out of the danger zone and I have an increasing amount of money in my savings account. []My work. I am now doing far better at my day job. Projects are done, I am taking training, things are being redesigned to be easier in the long run, and there are good structural changes underway. Outside my day job, I am working on a long-term project that may lead to an unprecedented amount of success in my life.[]My body. I am eating better, exercising, losing flab, and becoming stronger.[]My culinary skills. I have developing a touch for making ice cream in new and interesting flavours.[]My math skills. I am relearing how to do algebra and calculus. Needed for item #4.[]My apartment. I am tidying, rearranging, and tossing junk. Next stop: clean, hang pictures and make a dining nook.[/ol]Next frontier: romance.
Mom just had to replace her top-freezer fridge as well. I mention it because I help her with such things.
I swear…appliances conspire to die or seriously malfunction within days of each other.
I started a new job in January, to replace the old one that quit me Oct 2005.
The back porch is finally (almost) completely finished. New ceiling, new paint, new fans/lighting, new carpet. We chickened out on the new floor (carpet instead) and turning the window into a second doorway.
New car to replace the old one that got crunched three days before Xmas.
Repairs to the minivan (ball joints, tie rod, CV joints) Big $$$.
Grout repaired in the upstairs bathroom we don’t use hardly (but we will!).
And there’s a bunch of stuff we haven’t done that needs to be done…all I need is a big bag of money.
[]My work. I am now doing far better at my day job. Projects are done, I am taking training, things are being redesigned to be easier in the long run, and there are good structural changes underway. Outside my day job, I am working on a long-term project that may lead to an unprecedented amount of success in my life.[]My body. I am eating better, exercising, losing flab, and becoming stronger.[]My culinary skills. I have developing a touch for making ice cream in new and interesting flavours.[]My math skills. I am relearing how to do algebra and calculus. Needed for item 