Due to the winter weather, we’ve been stuck at home since Thursday afternoon. Sadie & I went for a short walk yesterday along where the roads and sidewalks were cleared. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out this afternoon. The snow on our driveway is gone, but we have a swath of ice across the driveway this morning. Rainwater/melting snow from the roof collects in a system that exits from a pop-up near our garage door. Said water flows across the driveway toward the street. The water froze overnight. Once the sun and warmer temps kick in, we’ll try to get to Publix and Home Depot.

While I’ve been at home, I’ve discovered we have a couple of leaky, double hung windows that need professional repair (one is 14′ up in our 2 story family room). Fortunately, I have the name of a reputable company I can call to complete the repairs. The garbage disposal decided to call it quits after 11 years, so that’s also on this week’s to-do list. The final discovery was that our HVAC filters had not been changed since late July. The cooling components of our HVAC units were replaced around Labor Day. No need to change the filter at that time. Thought hubs had done that in the fall, but weird noises coming from the attic unit had me investigating things. The main level and basement units were easy to do as replacement filters were nearby. No spare filter was found for the attic unit, so I checked to make sure it needed to be changed. Yep, it definitely did! A quick trip to Home Depot netted a new filter and industrial Velcro for another project. Let’s just say I’m proud of myself for pulling down the attic stairs all by myself (not once, but twice) and replacing the filter.

The sense of accomplishment that comes from doing something I don’t normally do is very empowering. A couple of weeks ago, I replaced the brush rollers and belts on my Bissell carpet cleaner machine. It was a learning experience as I didn’t realize there’s a specific order in which the drive belts have to be reinstalled. I had to undo everything and start over. Oh well, the machine now runs and my family room and office carpets are clean!

I really thought about installing the garbage disposal by myself, but after watching a couple of YouTube videos, I’m going to “delegate” that task to our appliance repair folks. Hubs replaced the one in our last house and said call the professionals for this one.

Sunday afternoon turned out to be quite pleasant. Sadie and I went to the grocery store and stopped by the park. Saw several robins at the park. Hopefully this means spring will come early this year. I’ve had my taste of winter. Time for warmer weather!