Really ... you have nothing better to do?

OK just to start this off I realize I was littering ...

but really now ...

On my way home from work today I was at a stop light and had finished a cig and let it drop out the window ... I was sitting there waiting for the light to change when I hear someone next to me yell, "Your car doesn't come with an ashtray?" ... I looked over and said, "No it doesn't." (and it does not have one ... I'm not making that up) ... he gave me a dirty look and said, "Yea right." ... so more sternly I said, "NO IT DOES NOT" ... he nodded and just gave me a dirty look ... as he was rolling his window up I said, "Excuse me ... it is because of non-smokers like you who have complained about ashtrays in cars that they are no longer making cars with ashtrays." and then smiled ... he rolled his window up and shot me a look ...

I mean really ... there are enough people every day that piss in my corn flakes ... now I have to take it from some stranger at a stop light ... it has just been pissing me off so I now much let go ... :)

student loans suck

I would just like to say ... once again ... that getting my student loan was the biggest mistake of my entire life ... and it is going to be killing me until I am in my 50s ...

and i think it is pretty shitty that the money i borrowed supported me and my ex ... and he isn't helping to pay any of it ... i think he should have to give me a chunk of money to go back into the fund ... i mean while we were together he had one loan ... i had two loans and a full time job ... he graduated from college and we split up and i never graduated ... and was left with this whopping bill ... it sucks ...

Which place to work on?

Up early again this morning to start working on cleaning and purging stuff from the condo ... I will say it is so hard working on the condo when there is soooooooo much to do at the new house ...

But we got to work here cleaning up so the place looked presentable for our agent ... he was here right on time at 10:30 ... we went over all the paperwork ... talked about our competition and finally decided on a price ... I handed over the keys and we are now for sale ... our first open house is going to be on Saturday, September 10th and one on the 11th ... I sure hope we get a bite during that weekend ...

After Michael left we got to work packing some stuff up ... Jason was nice enough to agree to come over and help us move some of the big stuff ... even though it made me crazy because we have hired movers ... we went ahead and moved out the treadmill and cedar chest and several big boxes of stuff ...

actually David and I loaded up a whole bunch of boxes and made a trip over to the house ... dropped them off and I took off all the door locks and deadbolts on the house and we headed for a quick trip to Home Depot to get them rekeyed so we have only one key for the house rather than 4 ... after a couple of snags with getting someone to do the job we finally got it done ... made some new keys ... bought supplies to make saw horses and headed back to the house ... we were now late to meet Jason but it worked out well cause he was running late too ...

Jason, Jenny and Ellie got here ... David and Jason did all the work loading up the rest of the stuff to move ... we grabbed some dinner ... headed to the new house and unloaded all our stuff ... J. J. & E headed to my parents while I installed all our new rekeyed locks and then we went over to my parents as well ...

David was a bit bummed we didn't get more work done at the new house this weekend ... I felt like we accomplished some great tasks but I agree ... it would have been nice to accomplish something big and noticeable ... especially since we will be gone for the long weekend ...

but I suspect we will have many more weekends to accomplish big things on the house ... now we just need to see the quotes for the bathrooms ... fingers crossed that one is doable ... :)

A day of meetings

We started the day out really early by having breakfast at the diner before our first contractor appointment ...

The first contractor we met today was nice enough but didn't "wow" us at all ... he wasn't at the house very long and he didn't talk about any ideas while there ... he just asked what we were looking for in our bathrooms but didn't get into any detail about how it could be done ...

as soon as he left we headed to my parents house to pick up some funky IKEA chairs from our apartment in NY so we could set them up and have a place to sit while hanging out at the house ...

after hanging out for a while we went back to the house to wait for our 2nd contractor appointment for the day ... he too was nice enough ... and actually made one really great suggestion that I couldn't believe I hadn't already thought of ... when we told him we wanted to expand the bathroom into the walk-in closet and that we were just going to build a closet along one wall he said "I don't know how you feel about IKEA but they have great closet systems that would fit beautifully, cost less, not feel as intrusive and are like having a custom closet" ... I told him I thought it was a fabulous idea and that I had worked at IKEA and couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that ... so he surveyed the bathrooms and said the job would be easy and would put something together and email it to us ...

we are anxious to see what the three contractors we met with come up with but right now the first one we met on Thursday is still our favorite ... he was very personable ... would work to save us some money ... and we just felt comfortable talking to him ...

after the contractor left we had some time before our meeting with the alarm company so we went to work killing insects in the yard ... the crickets and mosquitoes are crazy in our yard ... well at first I wasn't helping ... I was hanging out watching David set everything up ... but when he turned the hose on and the bottle of insect poison flew off the hose cause of the pressure ... and I was laughing so hard I could barely breath I figured I could give David a hand getting set up ...

He was our spraying while I started the meeting with the alarm company ... I got everything worked out with Brink's and David finished the yard ... he said the mosquitoes were going crazy while he was spraying and were just attacking him ...

After all of our appointments we headed to Home Depot to get some of the paint we need ... we got "Ruby Ring" red for our front and mud room door and "Popped Corn" white for the inside of the doors and everywhere else we are painting white in the house ... meaning all the ceilings and I know the upstairs hall ... when we stopped back by the house to drop the paint off the yard was filled with birds and they were feasting ... there were dead bugs everywhere and fat birds in heaven ...

we didn't get home until almost 9 PM and knew we had to have a bunch of stuff packed up and moved out and the condo clean by 10:30 tomorrow morning because our agent is coming over to get the paperwork and take pictures of the place ... so I called Michael and told him we just couldn't do the pictures tomorrow ... to still come over but we were exhausted and just weren't going to be ready for pictures ... he was very cool about it and said it was no problem which left me a bit of time to relax and write this post ... tomorrow is another fun filled day of work ... ahhhhh I am already looking forward to years from now when we can relax during the weekend ...

Our first contractor meeting

Today we met with our first contractor and he was awesome ... we are looking for estimates to redo our upstairs bathrooms ... they are both really small ... well this guy tonight was the first of 3 we have scheduled ... there are actually 4 more that I called but haven't set up appointments with yet ...

He talked to us about what all we wanted to do ... took measurments and we just started chit-chatting about all sorts of stuff ... turns out he is from California too and even worked on Fashion Island as a school project ... which is the mall where I had my very first job ...

He is now going to take his measurments and ideas and do some sketches for us and get back in touch with us on Wednesday to go over ideas and price ... the awesome thing is that he will make suggestions as to what we should get but we are responsible for getting all the materials ... which for savvy shoppers like us who have some good connections in the home improvement area that could really save us some serious cash ... he also said he would price it with demo and without and if it made that big of a difference we could do the demo ourselves ... which means my pink hard hat would come in handy ...

I am so excited to see what he comes up with ... I really liked the guy ... even though we were just pricing it out now and aren't really sure it is a project we could financially tackle right now ... I am really hoping that the price is so reasonable we can find a way to do it ... cause what he was talking about sounded fantastic ... I'll keep my fingers crossed :)

Composting ...

Tonight we went to David's work and got a bunch of pallets because we are going to make our own compost heap in the back yard and I've been reading up about them and most people suggest using pallets to design the enclosed area for your compost ... I am pretty excited about setting it up ...

Afterwards we stopped at Home Depot to return some door locks and get some different ones ... and I learned that Home Depot will rekey any locks you buy from them so they all have the same key for $5 a lock ... that is super cheap ... so even though I have installed 3 of the 4 locks we need on our house I am going to take them off this weekend and take them back to the Depot to have them rekeyed ... cause I'll go nuts if I have to have 4 keys to get into my house ... already my keychain has gotten heavy from all the new stuff ...

So after our errands we went by the house ... installed a peephole and then measured all the walls that have wood paneling so we could figure out how much drywall we need ... unloaded all the pallets and then picked out a red color for our front door ...

even though I didn't feel like going out we wound up getting a lot of stuff done ... of course now I am up late ... again :)

The Fun Begins

On August 3rd our bid was accepted for a wonderful house in a great area ... everything we were looking for ... On Friday August 19th we closed on the house ... and now the renovation fun begins ...

Since we are planning on doing so much work I thought a Blog would be a great way to keep track of everything and keep our family and friends up-to-date on what is happening ...

I'll be using this place to keep track of ideas ... check lists ... suggestions ... numerous trips to Home Depot and all the projects we work on ... in addition I'll post pictures of everything in the actual post as well as in a photo album of progress ...

So to recap our first weekend with the new home (since we haven't moved in yet) here goes:

On Friday after work David, Sonni, Mark and I all met at the house to check it out ... it was the first time we were allowed to go in without an agent and we just wanted to hang out for a bit and wander around the place ... it felt great to check everything out and start working on plans in our head ... but to be sure the "to do" list gets longer and longer every time we go to the house ... but it doesn't matter ... in the end when it is finished it will be a magnificent place ...

On Saturday morning David and I headed to Home Depot ... we have a new set of walkie-talkies that we took with us and I can see they are going to come in very handy for our Home Depot trips ... no more waiting around for each other ... since we usually get separated ...
anyway ... David headed to the lawn and garden section to pick out a new lawnmower and I headed to hardware to get new locks and doorknobs for the front and side doors ... as soon as we loaded up our purchases we headed to the new house ...
David put together his new Lawn Boy push mower in no time and got to work mowing the overgrown lawn ... while I installed a new door handle and deadbolt on the front door ... we had plans to go to the fair and headed out but on the way home from the fair we stopped at Home Depot again and bought a big set of gardening sheers to cut down this way overgrown shrub that was completely blocking the picture window in the kitchen ... David was a bit excited to try them out so we stopped at the house again ... Mark met us there on his way home from the fair and while we were in the back talking I grabbed the sheers and went to work ... I was hacking away branches left and right ... I felt a bit like Faye Dunaway plaing Joan Crawford in the scene from Mommie Dearest where she is hacking away her rose garden ... once I tired out David went to work cutting everything down to stumps ... the change was amazing ... you could actually see out the window and it looks beautiful ... the change was so great that it inspired another project ... we are going to expand the deck all the way across the window and put our future grill there ...

On Sunday David and I again headed over to the house early ... I went to work replacing the door handle and lock on the side door while David took a pickaxe to the stumps in the backyard ... I also removed the door knocker/door bell which left a big hole in the middle of the door but it appears to be the perfect size for a peephole ... I was beat from yesterday but knew we had to get some stuff done ... so I again grabbed the shears and went to town on the overgrown greenery next to the driveway ... it looked like it had been years and years since anyone had taken care of it and the out of control limbs would whip people in the face getting out of their car if they parked in the driveway ... so I just kept cutting and cutting and cutting till my arms tired out and then David took over ... between the two of us we cut down pretty much everything we could reach that was overgrown ... and again - huge improvement ... we then spent the next several hours cutting all the branches into small pieces so we could bag them and get rid of them ... 6 contractor bags in all filled to the rim ...

When we got home we found a $50 Lowes gift card from our realator and even though we were beat we showered and headed over there ... we checked out all sorts of stuff and in the end wound up getting a new doorbell (since I had ripped out the existing one earlier) that plays 62 different tunes ... holiday stuff ... birthday ... patriotic ... even a dog barking and birds chirping ... I can't wait to install it ...

Before using the new Lawn Boy lawnmower.	After using the new Lawn Boy lawnmower.
Bay window view from inside the kitchen. I use the word view cautiously since the overgrown plant blocked the entire window.
View of the bay window from outside. One can hardly tell there was a window there. We talked about removing it from the moment we looked at the house ... the time had come ...
Part way through the removal process
Pretty much finished removing everything ... now we just need to dig out the stumps and roots but the difference is huge.
The new view from inside the kitchen. The window is spectacular now.
Notice the overhanging branches next to the car. You couldn't even get out of the car without being attacked by branches.
David and I took turns snapping limbs and clearing the area. Then we spent hours cutting them into small pieces and filling 6 industrial size trash bags
But the after result was so worth it. It looked so much better all cleared out.

The Fun Begins

Before using the new Lawn Boy lawnmower.	After using the new Lawn Boy lawnmower.
Bay window view from inside the kitchen. I use the word view cautiously since the overgrown plant blocked the entire window.
View of the bay window from outside. One can hardly tell there was a window there. We talked about removing it from the moment we looked at the house ... the time had come ...
Part way through the removal process
Pretty much finished removing everything ... now we just need to dig out the stumps and roots but the difference is huge.
The new view from inside the kitchen. The window is spectacular now.
Notice the overhanging branches next to the car. You couldn't even get out of the car without being attacked by branches.
David and I took turns snapping limbs and clearing the area. Then we spent hours cutting them into small pieces and filling 6 industrial size trash bags
But the after result was so worth it. It looked so much better all cleared out.

A clean house is hard to keep

So a week ago today I had a professional come into the house and scrub the place ... let me tell you I learned I SUCK at cleaning house ... I am no good at it ... but I have made a vow to get better ...

After meeting the woman last Tuesday who we thought would be our selling agent we have learned we didn't like her at all ... not at all ... she was arrogant and basically a liar ... so we were back on the hunt for an agent ... and the goal for us was to keep our house clean until we found one ...

we accomplished both ... Sunday morning we met with a man that was right on the ball for us ... he loves our place and has a great plan to sell it ... we hung out talking to him for 2 hours and felt very confident with him ...

but now it turns out instead of moving the weekend before Labor Day we aren't even going to list the place until after Labor Day ...

so there is a good side and a bad side to that ... the good side is we can start doing work on the new place ... messy stuff that we would rather not do while we are living there ... the bad side is we need to move more stuff out of our place and keep it clean for a lot longer ...

tomorrow night is our walk-through before closing ... so it is pretty exciting ... and Friday morning we close ... I can't believe it is all happening ... it is awesome ...

last night David and I decided we are going to start going Flea Marketing to find furniture and kitch for our new house ... really work on things and make it an eclectic and exciting place to live ...

sometimes ... when you hang in there through everything ... life can feel pretty good!!!

going good / going bad

So while I watch "Minding the Store" (which I love) I'm going to recap my weekend ... I spent the weekend packing up some shit and moving it into my parents garage so our house would look presentable for our open house ... the open house isn't for 2 weeks but the agents are coming here on Tuesday to figure out how much we can list this place for ... David and I are a bit nervous cause there are a bunch in our area up for sale ... I don't like that ... but oh well watcha gonna do ...

So Saturday while David was working I decided to bust out the office ... I rearranged it so it looked more spacious and packed up a ton of crap ... when I hooked my computer back up the monitor wouldn't work ... and I think in all the times we rebooted while trying to fix it the actual computer got killed ... fucking sucks ... it is only 6 months old so I think I am going to take it back and upgrade to a Dell from a Gateway ... hopfully CostCo will work it all out well

The condo is starting to look good ... hopfully I can bust everything out tomorrow when I get home and Tuesday morning since I am taking the day off ...

well I am going to get back to Minding the Store cause I love this show and look forward to it each weekend ... great show ... :)

Stress time has begun

So starting today when I get home I need to pack up a big chunk of our stuff ... it feels like half of our stuff (no furniture) and move it into my parents garage by Monday evening ... I also need to figure out if I can scrap together enough money to get our house professionally cleaned on Tuesday morning because Tuesday evening the selling agent is coming by to talk to us about the sale of the condo ... and I want it to be in open house condition ...

then anything else I need to do has to be finished by the 16th because starting on the 17th they will start showing the place to agents ... on the 21st we have our open house ...

then starting on the evening of the 21st I will have less than a week to pack up the rest of our stuff so we can move out on the 26th and move into our new home ... it is just a crazy plan and it is stressing me out to no end ...

I'd like to actually just spend the next two weeks packing up our house and move into the new place on the 20th and have the open house on the 28th ... but everyone agrees that we should look like we still live here and that we are neater than we actually are because it makes us look less desperate as sellers ... and I want to get as much money out of this place as I can ...

Still hard to believe

I still can't believe we got the house today ... I'm just floored by the whole thing ... when I got home from work today David and I took a drive by the place ... it is crazy how big the house is ... we didn't get to go inside but we sat out front for a while and just gazed at the place ... the we got out and walked all around ... peering into windows just jumping with joy ...

there was already even a sign out that said "under contract" ... man the agent must have stopped by after accepting our bid ...

wow no more Frenchie upstairs ... no more bats in the house ... no more stinky hallways ... and room for all our stuff ...

now I just gotta start clearing shit out of this place so it doesn't look so crowded to potential buyers ... :)

Original House Photos