#168: The Florida Renovation Kicks Off With (Surprise!) A Plumbing Issue

We knew our new house in Florida would involve some big repairs, but we did not anticipate a certain plumbing curveball to get lobbed our way (although given our past plumbing luck, perhaps we should have seen this coming). So this week we are sharing how it popped up, why it cost thousands of dollars, and what we are doing to resolve it. And with so many people suddenly working from home, we are sharing our top pointers for being productive in a home office (even a temporary one) – including what has and has not worked for us over the last decade. Plus, the app that is blowing our minds and the binge-worthy show that we still cannot believe.

You can also find this episode on your go-to podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

What is New

• Well, our plumbing “curse” followed us to Florida with the revelation that our house was NOT hooked up to the county sewer system, as the real estate listing indicated. So after several exploratory holes to find the old nobody-knew-about-it septic tank (which ended up being under a porch – which is not ideal for a number of reasons) we learned that it is fully inoperable (large holes – unable to hold water) and needs to be abandoned. Ain’t homeownership grand?

• If you want to listen to some other stories from our on-going “water curse,” here are some previous episodes where we have talked about it:
  • Episode #59: The Renovation Rollercoaster That Brought Sherry to Tears – When we were told our beach house did not have a water line and it’d cost $10,000 (or more!!!) to add one.
  • Episode #81: …And Then Our Pipes Froze – That one’s fairly self-explanatory. Alternate title: The Duplex Waterfall of 2018.
  • Episode #97: What We Learned (And Saved) From Our Shopping Ban – This is when our duplex water meter was broken and leaking even though the house was gutted and the water was turned off…
  • Episode #110: And Then The Bathroom Began Flooding – Here is when we took out the baseboard and uncovered a leak in the beach house bathroom that had been there since it was rebuilt.
  • Episode #138: Was Ikea Not “Good Sufficient” For Our Home’s Kitchen? – This is the cascading issues of one of the duplex’s water meters getting buried by the patio installer, then the main water line getting broken when we tried to uncover it. Oof. The curse is real.
• Also, if you missed our original discussion of the Travel John portable urinal, you can hear it in last week’s episode.

Listener Question: Working From Home

• With plenty of people suddenly being thrown into working from home, and plenty of requests from you folks for pointers & tricks, we outlined four plain things you can try to up your efficiency and sense of productivity at home (also please know that with kids at home it is a whole new ballgame for us as well).

• Try to create a DEDICATED workspace. Finding a spot that you can designate as your “permanent” work zone for this period of time can be so helpful – even if it is simply the side of the dining table or corner of a room (like the $200 office nook we carved out at our beach house, shown below). The goal is to avoid picking a multifunction surface that requires you to clean up or stash things away each day. For example, try not to work at the kitchen island if it means you will have to dismantle your work area every night for dinner. Having a small zone that you can claim as your “office” will assist you stay focused and encourage you to distinguish your work time from your living at home time. Bonus points if it is behind a door that can offer some quiet (but… our home office is not, so that is not a deal-breaker).

• Focus on making that spot COMFORTABLE. It is likely not feasible to “trick out” your temporary home office with every supply, gadget, and gizmo you have in your regular office. So set your sights on making the space comfortable sufficient that you can easily keep your butt in your chair for an extended amount of time. A cushy upholstered desk chair is a strong start (ours are only sold in this color now, but are quite comfortable). So even if it means simply stealing one from your dining room or spending a few bucks on a new one (like we did back in 2007, as documented by these cheesy before-and-afters below) it can truly assist. Also try to think of other necessities that you can have on hand so you do not find yourself getting up and getting sidetracked (for Sherry this means chapstick, a notebook, pens and highlighters, and a full water bottle).

• If you are in need of a more comfortable chair, here are some strong options to consider (most also come in alternate colors to the ones shown below) : 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

• Try to define specific work times. The upside of working from home can also be its biggest challenge: flexible schedules and the ability to mix personal and professional tasks during your day. But we consistently feel most productive when we avoid multitasking (like trying to write emails in between checking homework questions) and instead try to carve out some time where we can be fully in work mode and then fully unplugged in parenting/life at home mode. We have used various strategies over the years for finding the best hours in the day to do this (early morning, late at night, etc) and it ultimately it is about when you personally feel most focused and productive, or – especially these days – whenever you are able to block off some distraction-free time (which, again, is a whole new ballgame with kids at home too).
• If you are working at home with a spouse or partner who is also working at home, communicate clearly with them. Start your day by being clear with your co-pilot about what you need to get done and what you need from them to assist get that done (like some quiet time to take a conference call at 2pm). This goes both ways, since they may have personal and professional needs for that day as well, so use this conversation to get on the same page and find compromises whenever your needs conflict. You may not get everything you need and they might not either (I think we all deserve to lower our expectations a bit these days) but this type of planning helps to maximize your productivity and minimize your frustrations.
• We also talked in the episode about Sherry working on the floor with her laptop on the corner of our low TV stand. You can see that quite bad and not advisable setup in this old video of our first apartment. It was taken to send to Sherry’s friend a few years before we began our journal.

• Clearly we have come a long way, not simply in the home office department (and the video tour department – ha!)

We are Digging

• That is our printer, the HP Envy 5055 All-In-One that is selling out in several locations due to everyone having worksheets to print for their kids and office stuff to print while they are working at home, but here are some links you can try: Target, Office Depot, and Best Buy.
• We talked previously about how we truly like the HP Instant Ink service which offers free ink if you print fewer than 15 pages per month. We lately upgraded to a paid plan due to increased printing with the kids home with us, so for $2.99/month so we can print 50 pages. That works out to $36 for a year of ink, delivered right to your door (you never run out!). That is about as low-cost as one cartridge, which I am not sure would last a whole year, so we have been truly impressed with the service.
• But the real thing I am digging this week is the HP Smart app that I installed to be able to easily print from my phone – but my go-to feature is the ability to scan documents using my phone’s camera, as demonstrated below:

If you have trouble viewing the video above, you can watch it here on YouTube.

• And if you have not jumped on the Tiger King train yet, it is certainly one of the most memorable documentary series we have watched in a while. It is on Netflix and is not kid-friendly, but certainly highlights animal rights stuff along with a weird twisty story with some truly unbelievable people in it. Warning: the trailer below has some NSFW language but also has the remarkable music video teaser that I mentioned.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode. You can sign up at Grove.co/YHL and get a FREE 5-piece Mrs. Meyers and Grove cleaning set in the scent of your choice.

Thanks for listening, folks!

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