Welcome to the Mickey Mouse House
And not as in, The Happiest Place on Earth, in its Mickey-ness. The new house is the Mickey Mouse House because, while it looks good on the surface, there are some issues lurking just beneath the surface.

Witness the fun of getting the dryer hooked up and running. Partially my own neophyte-ism in the process but also partly the house fighting me while trying to get it into functioning order.

I honestly can't say how the last family lived here. It must have taken at least three hours to dry a load of clothes because the exhaust vent had not been cleaned in at least a few years. The dishwasher drain pipes have some serious blockage so any water backfills into one of the sinks. The furnace works like a champ and keeps the upstairs hot and the downstairs kind of chilly. The cabinets in the kitchen were designed by munchkin elves who didn't ever have dishware or food that was taller than 10 inches. And the windows and sightlines for the house are pretty well ridiculous.

It is extreme understatement to say that we've got a bit of work to do.

My punch board list is at 35 projects and rising.

But we're off to the other apartment to get it cleaned up for an open house so we can re-rent it and not have to pay rent there for February. Because we could really use that cash for home improvements.

My new bible is the Black and Decker Home Improvement book. Its got lots of pictures!