Home improvements

When we first moved into our new home on base (which I LOVE, by the way), little things surprised me, such as the high volume of cigarette butts and beer caps in the yard.  In my mind, a family was living here before us, and while I am certainly used to the hubby leaving stuff around, I was trying to relate to the wife who presumably permitted her yard to get so out of hand--and the gardening was nonexistent.  We still need to finish weeding one of the beds.  In short, it was definitely lacking in feminine touch.  I also couldn't imagine moving somewhere and NOT forwarding our mail (particularly bills).  This past week has marked the first that we haven't received large amounts of important-looking mail addressed to the prior residents.

Other quirks include: the dishwasher missing most of the pegs on the bottom row (making it difficult to wash anything but pots in that section--however because the only upward jet is on the bottom, if you wash any pots or large bowls upside down on that level, you basically take the entire top shelf out of commission), and the oven's temp being totally out of control.  The latter, I suspected as soon as we moved in; however, I confirmed it only yesterday.  I like to bake a lot, and it seemed like since we moved here, I have been burning much more food than usual, so I suspected the oven calibration might be off.  I put my oven thermometer in and set the temp to 350.  The temp reached 350 and continued to rise, so I lowered it to 325--and it STILL continued to rise, reaching over 400.  It did not drop until I lowered the temp to between warm and 250, and then it began to do a sharp dive below 300.  So, basically, if I cook something in the 300-degree range (we bake a LOT of cookies), I need to constantly adjust the temp dial every couple of minutes to balance it at about where I need it, which is fine for short things like the aforementioned cookies (which I successfully made for the first time yesterday, after overcooking a total of 4 batches since our arrival), but difficult/dangerous for things like roasts, etc.

Luckily, maintenance here is very on top of things and has already replaced the bottom dishwasher rack and should be out to check out the oven today.  :o)

It was hard for me to imagine anyone with any sort of homemaker objective either dealing with or not noticing these oddities, and then I found out that about a year ago, apparently, base housing was largely vacant and not the popular, bustling, community it is today.  In an effort to fill out the homes, many were leased to groups of pilot students, who, from what I've heard (in our house in particular), mostly partied their weekends away, probably not paying too much attention to things like baking and dishes.

I am SOOOO glad that housing has since developed a wait list of appreciative families, as we have lived next to (and called the cops on) rowdy students for the past two years, and have not really enjoyed it.  I was always grateful Matt was around to handle things, though, as I am extremely nonconfrontational regarding these manners, presuming everyone I approach is either easily offend-able and vindictive by nature and/or carrying a concealed weapon.  It was not uncommon for Matt to march right over and ask the neighbors to tone it down--or to hand-deliver piles of discarded cigarette butts and beer cans left on our porch/in our yard the next morning.  He is a real warrior when it comes to inconsiderate neighbors (and poor customer service reps--his #1 pet peeve), lol.  :o)