Safety First

Or, in our case, eventually. No, we actually put up our smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detector. We won't be dying of fire anytime soon, hopefully. Actually, it was an extremely unpleasant task, for being such a simple one. First, we discovered that every single ceiling we tried to fasten a detector to was different. One was wood, one was wallboard, and one was plain ol' drywall. We fastened one to a beam. The same beam, actually, as the ceiling fan o' death that nearly claimed the noggin of my brother (several times). We've also fastened our makeshift ceiling light to that beam as well. Thank goodness for old Ikea paper lanterns. The light it casts is beastly, in my opinion, but it does the trick until we can redo the ceiling and put in recessed lighting.

Anyway, what made the whole detector experience horrible was that it was a throwback to our run-ins with fire alarms at the old apartment (which we shall call, for now, "heaven," as it was clean, comfortable, had heat, and wasn't in danger of flooding). Some of you know this, but the system was hard-wired and made the most god-awful noise. It would have awoken us from a dead slumber. In fact, on our last night there, it did. Horrible. Long story short, we're now really, really sensitive to noises like that. The detectors, of course, needed batteries, but when you put the batteries in, it makes the alarm noise. Several times. As soon as you connect. I literally couldn't hold on to the detector the first time it happened- the noise upset me so much I nearly ran. So, the installation was basically an hour of us having our wits shattered by ear-splitting noises. It was lovely. We got over it. Sort of.

Thing is, we suspect that we would be fine here even if there was a fire or carbon monoxide leak (the only possible source of carbon monoxide in the Rat Hole would be the pellet stove, since there's no natural gas or forced air or anything here). The Rat Hole is so drafty the carbon monoxide or the smoke would probably just drift right out.

We also got our security deposit and half month's rent from the old apartment this week. It's nice to have- now we can buy pex to redo the cold water plumbing and maybe buy that sawzall we've had our eyes on.