When did that happen?!

When did I become an adult? Was it when I was excited that I bought a fridge? Or how about when the new windows got installed last week? Oh wait I think it was today when I bought an entire bathroom worth of fixtures and was super excited BUT thought "Dang that was a lot of money". That's when it happened I'm sure of it.

We brought home a new vanity, sink, faucet, mirror and cabinet. Then we ordered the tub and shower and they will be here Thursday. We also went and got a new toilet. This toilet is kind of cool if you ask me (that adult thing again). There are two buttons. One you push for liquid waste which uses less water and the second button for the heavy duty poo (solid waste to be politically correct) which uses slightly more water. I can't wait to try that out...er I mean....

We picked a plumber today. We have a little work to do ourselves before he comes back though since doing some of this will save us some money. We need to sledgehammer through the concrete in the basement and find the pipes that tie into the whole system. We have a general idea of where it is but there's still some heavy duty sledge hammering that needs to be done. I think I need to ask a couple people for favors for this one for sure. Hopefully in the next week we can do that so we can get going on everything else.

This Sunday we're FINALLY finishing the holes for the egress windows as well. I promise to have pictures of that machine, mostly because the 3 year old boy that lives with me enjoys pictures of those things.

I am dreaming of soaking in my new HEATED bathtub, or taking long leisurely showers in the new large shower. It's so close yet so so so far away.

First delivery

The first delivery is now sitting in my garage. Of course they were supposed to be here before noon and rolled in more like 1:15pm but at least it's done. My garage is now a warehouse for building supplies.

We now have proof that we're actually starting some sort of renovation project. We have 165 10ft 2x4s, 2 windows which are 48 inches wide by 60 inches tall, and enough flooring for just under 800 sq feet. The bathroom flooring will be ordered later.

Of course we've been digging a hole thinking the windows were 60 inches wide and 48 inches tall so our hole(s) are still not big enough. Hopefully we'll get started on that second one this weekend... or not. Those nice big windows will be letting a lot of light into the basement though so I am glad we chose larger ones (yah yah people were right get over it).

So here are the next pictures of the project. Gabe was excited and terrified of the truck. He has a thing about loud noises so he kept his hands on his ears the whole time.

The semi front detached from the bed and became the fork lift. The studs and windows came first.


Then the flooring and padding for underneath.

I was quite impressed with that truck up our hill. Anyone who's been here knows that hill is pretty steep. The Uhaul bottomed out on it when we moved in, there's a dent in the driveway from that. I guess what we needed was a semi.

Now I really do need those volunteers that keep saying to call them but mysteriously aren't around when ya ask ;)

The Basement Saga part 1

This really is a saga. It's going to take months and money and sweat, probably some blood too because we know how this works.

I'm hoping to be in my new bedroom after soaking in my new tub by October some time. Am I dreaming? Probably but a girl's gotta dream.

On the Fourth of July while the rest of the world was relaxing and watching fireworks or grilling out my dad and I decided that 90 was a good temperature to dig holes in. We were crazy. We did get almost all of the first hole dug. We didn't die either so that's good, if we had though we could have just rolled that person into the hole and back filled. It's definitely big enough.

There will be a pair of holes. They are for the egress windows that are required for living space in the basement. They'll let a lot of light in too so we don't turn into people that could be mistake for Powder.

I do have a picture of the plans and I'll have to post that later since I forgot to scan it. The dimensions though are as follows: Bedroom 18x14, bathroom 12x14, living space 40x13 (whole length of the house).

I really can't wait until we have a little more US space. The only downside is that we'll be as far away from Gabe as possible. So I'll need to get another monitor. My mom is in the room next to Gabe so he's not alone or anything but it will take some getting used to I think for me.

Without further ado here are the first pictures of the side of the house. The one on the right will be the bedroom, the one on the left is the living space.

The first hole, both will be about 65 inches side to side and from the top of the window to the bottom of the hole is about 52 inches, it's 36 inches out from the house.

The second window and where the next hole will be dug next weekend. That's the top of the umbrella laying on the side. We use it to keep the sun off of us.

Friends

Sometimes I forget how much I love my friends. Sometimes I forget I have more friends than I think too.

We had a fabulous day Saturday with lots of friends, old and new, and I find each and every time we get to go and be geeks wonderful unexpected things happen and I always find new friends.

I remember why the gaming community is something that I love and I don't mind calling myself a gamer anymore. Ten years ago I would have avoided calling myself that at all costs, now not so much. The people are some of the nicest, sweetest, most giving and generous people I've ever had the privilege to meet. The few jerks can be ignored, every group has them.

Of course when we get home at 2:30 am and only get four hours of sleep the next morning I remember why I don't do it more but I do know I want to do it more anyhow. Although I think we need a bigger vehicle. Someone should have a van (other than Jenny :P)

I'm really looking forward to our "little" BBQ this Saturday and I'm hoping I have enough food/drinks/fun (EEK!) but no matter what I know that we'll have a blast.

If you're heading our way next weekend we can't wait to see you. Bring some beer (or whatever you drink) and anything else you think might be fun. Heck bring someONE you think might be fun too. Maybe we'll pitch more than one tent in the backyard. This is one of those events that reminds me why I love having a yard and a house.

OOOH in completely other news, we got the loan for the basement so we will be starting all of that work. I'm REALLY hoping to be in the finished product by October. That way we'll have even more room (privacy) for us and anyone who wants to come and stay. Then the parties can get even bigger ;)

We interrupt this blog....

With just three weeks left in the school year I've been a bit busy. I've just submitted the rough draft of my first real college paper for English. Of course it was about carseats ;) So that's mostly where I've been and what I've been doing.

I do exist I promise!

We're busy at the house as well. We're going to be painting the outside. We have actually bought paint so any day now we can start. We need to seal the deck too, bought that stuff already. My mom put up some lattice work around the deck so the cats don't decide to go hiding.

Lewis- He would and he's dumb enough to not find his way out of a paper bag. He's cute and has a lot of extra toes so we keep him.

Mango-I'm not sure she'll go outside at all. She's a big ball of fluff and teeth (no claws) and really is Mike's cat. Once she got into the hallway of our apartment complex and she was so scared she peed herself.

PJ- He's not that bright either but he's little so he can squeeze through a lot of little places. He likes being outside too though.

Moses- Well she's fat so she can't get into or out of much. I'm betting she'll just lay on the deck and bask in the sunshine.

Yes I admit to having four cats. We're not really crazy cat people, though I'm more of a cat person than a dog person. My mom had Lewis and PJ and we had Mango and Moses and now that we all live together we have four. It's quite amusing most of the time.

There will be a full fence going up this summer as well so the cats can roam the yard freely then.

I'm hoping to have some fun this summer and in just three weeks I'll be free of school til fall (I think).

Over a month?

Image by aussiegall via Flickr

I haven't posted anything in over a month :( Wow I'm sad.

School is great, I'm on spring break now. I've got 2 A- and 2 A's so I'm happy! I really enjoy school. Of course these are the easy classes right? :D It's finally nice outside so I'm thrilled my spring break is later than most colleges too. We're actually seeing the sunshine and warm weather before the humidity kicks in an ruins it.

As for life, well we're FINALLY getting the plans together to do the basement renovation. I'm going to hope we'll be all settled by October in our own bedroom. The plans are in the baby stages and we have to have them approved by the city but we read through things pretty well so I don't think there is anything they wouldn't approve. We're putting bigger than needed windows and we've left enough space next to the furnace and we'll have good ceiling height too.

Anyone who is handy (or dumb enough to take orders from me) is welcome to help us on any part of it. We're going to need hands!

Gabe is getting huge and his vocabulary is EXPLODING so ya really gotta watch what you say around him or you'll be in trouble. We've had to explain that a dam is something beavers build already, oops.

Mike and I just celebrated our EIGHT! wedding anniversary on March 20th. I have such a hard time believing that I've been so incredibly lucky and blessed to have him in my life. He's truly my best friend, the first person I want to talk to every day and the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I can't imagine being with anyone else. I love him so much! Infinity plus one ;)

OCTOBER?!!?!!

Yes I needed explination points AND question marks there. I simply can not believe it's October already. I've been a horrible mommy and taken hardly any pictures of Gabe lately. We do have a pumpkin carving party tomorrow though so I'll have new ones then.

On to other things. We got a new furnace today, YAY! It's now nice and toasty warm in the house and so quiet I can't even tell it's on.

Gabe has been in a phase where he's decided to lock himself in the bathroom. This wouldn't be so bad because I can pop the lock from the outside but he opens a drawer behind the door so I still can't open it. We've got new child locks for the drawers so he can't do this anymore because it makes mom VERY unhappy. While putting him in time out for this today he decides to yell at me "mommy go away!" Now this is the kid that doesn't say very many three words sentences so I have to say instead of being hurt by it I had to turn around and giggle because at least it's a three word sentence. He said it with SUCH inflection and the hand wave too.

I know one day I'll look back and think about this time fondly (LOL maybe) but I know in the end this stubborn kid will be labelled persistent and that will be a good thing, right?

The more things you do the more that are left

I swear the more work we do organizing and cleaning in the new place the more that there is. You know how it is. Whenever you start cleaning you always end up with a bigger mess than before you started before it finally gets clean.

Of course everyone has their own time tables and priorities on what should get done first too. We have three adults now (me, Mike and Mom) so it's even harder sometimes to get everyone's wants and desires taken care of. I'm finding it's a game of compromise and just letting the little things go.

Today I have about a zillion things to do and of course not enough time, energy or money to take care of them all ;) I mean who does right?

We're going to buy some curtain rods, dig holes for a couple of trees we have to plant, remover for the wallpaper border in Gabe's room so I can get my butt in gear and paint that for him too.

I'm tired just thinking about it.

We're all working through who needs to do what, who needs to pay for what and who likes things where. We'll get there I know we will.

We have landed...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

We are finally in the new place. I'm typing from my living room with the sun shining in a huge picture window. It's great.

The place is a disaster, half the light fixtures don't work, switches do nothing, the tub is covered in mildew that I'm scrubbing out, it needs painting and organizing but it's ours and that's all that matters.

The move was horrific, no surprise right? The good thing is that we had AMAZING friends who helped us move. Sometimes family isn't blood related at all but found and that's what we had. Those guys moved and organized the truck like champs. I swear Shawn must be a Tetris champion with the way he got things into the truck.

My feet and back STILL hurt but I'll survive.

We did get some appliances this weekend from Home Depot. We got amazing deals on all of them too. A brand new front loading washer and dryer (tiny scratches on them), a wall oven in stainless steel that was a special order that someone else didn't want, and a trash compactor. I'm excited about the oven because it actually has a convection option on it for baking and anyone who likes to back knows convection is the way to go! They will all be delivered on Saturday.

Our garage is PACKED full of stuff though so I hope we can get them into it too. We have so much stuff out there I'm sure we need a rummage to pair down stuff. I'm hoping to get Gabe's room painted this weekend but I have to remove the wallpaper boarder off the wall first.

Gabe slept pretty well last night so I hope it continues and he hasn't asked to go home once. I think he has figured it out that we ARE home. It feels like home and I know in a short time it will really be organized and homey.

Recent house going ons

Image via Wikipedia

I've had a couple people ask what's going on with our house so I thought I'd drop a quick update.

See that picture over there ----->
That's supposedly the international symbol for a squatter. LOL I found it while looking for pictures for today's post. That's what I am though, a squatter.

This past week they have been "removing the lead". I put it in quotes because it's a guy with a scraper and a plastic tarp, no mask, no gloves. He's JUST scraping and painting the window sills because HUD told him it was a rush job and to NOT replace the windows (roll eyes here). Whatever it's not his fault the people we're dealing with are idiots.

Hopefully today or tomorrow he'll be done with that painting part. BUT then we have to wait 3-5 days for a final inspection. Why? I have no freakin' idea why. So there's no way we're closing this week. You know what that means? We're closing next week and moving LABOR DAY WEEKEND?! OMG great. I'm going to beg on my hands and knees for people to help us sat/sun that weekend because my mom's condo sold this week and they are closing September 10th or 11th so we HAVE to be outta here by then. Like completely 100% out because it's not ours.

I'm tired. I'm tired of sleeping on a mattress that isn't mine, in a house that isn't mine, with pillows that aren't mine. I'm tired of feeling like a squatter and not having a real address. I'm tired of not knowing what's going on. I'm tired of thinking about how moving is going to suck with no help because who in their right darn mind is going to help on Labor Day weekend? :(

I'm just ready for this to be over and done with. Please let it be over and done with so we can move on with our lives. I'm tired of the holding pattern.

Slinging burritos

So I've been slinging burritos at Qdoba for almost 2 years now (since this location opened) and I'm getting promoted. What does that mean? Eh not much, a little more money and memorization of when things go bad, a liquor license and the free will to tell people what to do (lol ok only a little bit of free will). But it's nice to be appreciated for doing a good job :D

On the house front, there is lead on the window SILLS. Now it's important that you read that right, the sills, not anywhere else. So they are painting or replacing the sills and putting my crappy windows back in. I'm hoping they drop a few of them in the process and have to replace them anyhow.

No date on the move yet though I'll keep ya posted on that.

Tonight though we got to go out to dinner with a friend of ours which was nice. Since Mike is a first shifter now we can actually do those things. Gabe was super good at the restaurant and enjoyed Jerry's kitty cats at his apartment too. It was nice to be a family and see friends.

Good news, bad news

There was lead found in the house. (Sigh). So we will not be closing this week.

BUT....

They are going to repaint the entire inside for us. If there is lead found on the window sills they will replace the windows for us as well. The windows need to be replaced so we're actually hoping that they will find lead on the windows at this point. (lol).

We'll be here at my mom's (rent free at least) so hopefully this being in the hole will work itself out because of staying rent free (and mostly utility free too).

I'm bummed but excited that the house will be painted. I wonder if I can give them the paint for Gabe's room? :P

Hopefully then this will be done quickly and PROPERLY and then we will FINALLY have our house (and it will be freshly painted by someone else).

I couldn't make it up if I tried

I've been offline (mostly) since last Sunday. Why you ask? Well because I was supposed to be moving this week. We were supposed to close on Friday August 7. This was our SECOND attempt at closing.

Of course we got to Thursday night and I received an email saying we were NOT closing. Why? Oh because someone else didn't do their job. The lead paint test that's required on EVERY SINGLE HOUSE THEY SELL AT HUD wasn't done. How someone didn't notice until 6pm the night before closing I have no idea.

We are supposed to close now on Thursday next week. I'll believe that when I see it.

So lets count the ways this sucks.

I took off work this week to do house stuff (unpaid)

We paid for a truck to sit with our stuff full at my Grandparents for a week ($400 by the way) and now we're paying another $150 for it to sit until next week. The guy cut us a deal.

I have only ONE day of work next week because my boss goofed my new schedule up :(

We had to rig up internet stuff last night because we at least wanted to be able to have SOMETHING to do.

We have 4 cats who are unhappy crunched into a tiny condo.

My son keeps asking to go home and I have to move him again in a week.

I'm tired, I'm BEYOND broke and seriously taking donations if anyone takes pity on us. We're so far in the hole it's not funny. The sad part is I LOVE this house. The house hasn't done anything wrong it's the HUD people selling the house that are annoying me.

I'm a huge birthday person, birthdays are very important. So yesterday was a major downer for me BUT I did get to spend time with my family and have a good dinner and cheesecake and for that I am truly thankful. I know things will work out.

I swear though truth is stranger than fiction sometimes huh?

I have no place to live

As of Sunday I have no place to live. We were told this morning that because Bank of America didn't get the paperwork to HUD til today that we are not closing tomorrow.

If we do then God himself must have helped.

BoA had plenty of time to ask us for all the paperwork and their communication with us sucked. So we spent the last week running around for misc bits and pieces (not major information in my opinion either). Only to find out that it didn't matter.

So I'm homeless come Sunday :( I don't even know if I'm mad anymore, I'm just sad.

I have no people to move me after this weekend, no time to take off of work (I've taken unpaid days this week) and have to try and get a Uhaul for that weekend. :(

Seriously?

I mean really? Seriously? You have to be kidding right?

So lets start at the beginning of the day.

I get a phone call from the realtor (Karen) who says that HUD (ppl that are selling this foreclosed house) don't have all our paperwork. Uhhh we're supposed to close on Thursday. Why are they telling us on MONDAY that they don't have all they need? We might not close on time now.

Well CRAP, I run out of place to live pretty quick here. I have people coming to help move, I took off work, my dad took off, my mom took off, friends are driving in from out of state, there's a truck rented, you get the picture right?

So I spent half of the morning running around the known free world spending money (that I don't have) like it's going out of style. I find out that the inspector may have to come back to the house (more $$) to turn the water on even though it's ALREADY ON! The HUD people apparently don't believe the city of Grafton. Luckily we got that taken care of.

Then I had to go to my Grandparents house today to get the rest of the paperwork that they are sending over (co-signers on the loan) because Bank of America apparently didn't get it all last time.

Now my Grandma just got out of the hospital and needs to rest, but instead I have to have her sit with me while I'm on the phone to get this straightened out.

GAH!!!! ARGLEBARGLE!

I know why people smoke and drink, really I do.

The inspector said he would just sign off on the water as long as we were okay with it (we are) and send it over with an addendum. I paid the $50 at Grafton water for some darn clean water test that had to be done. I faxed everything from the bank over to the processor.

I hope now things are done and settled, though I don't believe that for one darn second.

As of right now though they say that we're still closing Thursday. Gee what a nice surprise that would be (roll eyes here)

Ever notice...

The closer ya get to moving the harder it is to pack? That is until the night before when you're a crazy woman in panic mode realizing that you're moving tomorrow and you still have eleventy million things to stuff in a box.

At that point the organization goes out the window and you find yourself with a box with a 10lbs weight and a lamp in it (yes my mom actually did that once). I do have a suitcase set aside for the immediate necessities like underwear and toothbrushes.

We are moving Friday July 31 and Saturday August 1. HOLY COW! That's soon.

I promise I have a plan, how well I execute that plan.... well that's yet to be seen. We'll see if my friends that are driving almost 7 hours to come help us out think I'm an idiot or not after they get here ;) I did promise food and beverages too. I reminded them to bring their own pillows though since my crap is packed.

I'm also hoping for no heat and no rain. It would be a novelty for us to move on a normal day though so I'm not holding my breath.

My Dad is coming this weekend to help me move my fridge to the garage so I can put the landlord's fridge back in the kitchen where it belongs.

If I suddenly drop off the face of the Earth you'll know I've been sucked into moving hell.

To do or not to do....

I'm super bored BUT I have a ton of stuff I should be doing. Isn't that the worst place to be? So lets start a list!

• Bring boxes up from basement
• Do laundry so that the non-necessities can be packed
• Pack non-necessary clothes
• Continue packing kitchen stuff that I know I won't need in the next two weeks, including spices
• Throw out any spices I haven't used in recent memory
• Buy bras this weekend, really I'm down to 2 and I NEED to buy some
• Organize my desk so that it can be packed
• Get cleaning supplies ready for this place AND the new place
• Don't freak out that I think I don't have enough boxes now to pack the house

Ok I think that's it. Really I am just sick and tired of waiting for moving. We'll have been waiting for EIGHT weeks by the time we close since our offer was accepted and I'm tired of waiting. Tons of other people have moved before we did even if they decided to move AFTER we did. I'm tired, annoyed and ready to get settled.

I did buy paint for Gabe's room though. I bought a great blue and a great green. Three walls will be blue and one green because it's REALLY green ;) I can't wait to do that. At least someone's room will be done right away.

Now the trick is to stay motivated to actually WORK on the list like I should.

Closing date

We officially have a closing date of July 30th at 3pm. YEA! I am excited but I really wish it was a week sooner. I am supposed to be out of my place by July 31st so I'm going to have very little time to do the carpets after moving.

Plus I want to paint!! I was hoping to get a couple days to paint before we moved because it's just easier and then the house doesn't smell like paint when you move in.

I'm crossing my fingers for the closing to be moved up even more but I'm just glad that I won't be homeless (lol).

Today I'm home from work because Mike isn't feeling well. I NEED to bring up boxes from the basement and run to the bank. I should be productive on this random day off. I wonder how many boxes I can still fit in the garage?

Paint, paint and more paint!

Image via Wikipedia

Let me tell you choosing paint colors for a whole house at one time is HARD work.

Then not only do you have to pick the basic colors but there's about a zillion shades of that color to choose from and then coordinate it with other colors in that room etc. BAH! I'm going blind ;)

I do know that the kitchen is going to be orange with blue accent and white cupboards. The kitchen is HUGE and we love color so it's a good place to put a lot of color. We found gorgeous square dinner plates (well a set with cups and bowls too) that is blue to jump off of for the blue shade. The living room is adjacent to the kitchen but I think that is going to stay a more neutral color. I call it wet sand (lol). My mom and I have been talking about paint forever it seems. Mike only wants to have input when we narrow it down. He doesn't like too many options to think about, plus he's partially color blind so he doesn't always see them how we do anyhow.

Then I have Gabe's bedroom which is going to be greens and blues to coordinate with his bedding that we already have.

After that my mom has her bedroom to choose and her bathroom to choose. We're going to be staying in the smallest bedroom til we're done with the basement remodel so I think my mom is going to choose the color in that room too since it will be her sewing room.

In a couple months I'll have my bedroom and bathroom to choose and the family room in the basement to choose too.

I LOVE painting but picking all of the colors at once is tough work! I just want to be done already. We still have a couple weeks before we close so I can't actually get my painting done either, I'm just picking out colors.

Here's a picture of an orange/blue kitchen that I saw that I like. Our cupboards are white though. I figure someone thinks we're crazy so I thought I'd show ya that it can work ;)

Lots to talk about

First let's talk about the house. I haven't talked about the house in awhile and I'm sure that you're wondering what the heck is going on there.

Tuesday we had our home inspection. There were things wrong but nothing that really surprised us.

• The furnace is not currently working (at least it's summer) and the inspection is pretty sure it's the on board computer that needs to be replaced, not horribly expensive at least
• The flashing on the chimney was not done properly so there was water getting in (there was an old leak in the kitchen from it. We'll replace the flashing and be good to go.
• The water system has a leak in it... Where we don't know exactly we're going to be checking that this afternoon when we go.
• There is some mold/mildew in the bathroom. The fan didn't work properly and we're redoing that bathroom right away anyhow. It's not toxic mold so it's not a major concern.

The roof is okay for now. We probably have 5 years before we have to tear it off and put a new one on. The gutters are PACKED with crap from the trees so they are backing up on to the soffets so hopefully when they get cleaned out they'll drain probably and we won't have to redo the soffets right away.

Other than that our closing is still scheduled for the first week in August. We're trying desperately to get it pushed back to the last full week of July so that we're not homeless. Our lease here runs out July 31st and I want to be able to clean my carpets before we have to really be out.

Next item of business....

Mike had an interview this morning with his current company but for a first shift position. Yes you read that right FIRST shift. That's what a normal person works ;) There is a pay cut because he's going from third to first we'll lose that shift premium but I don't care. He's been told he's an front runner but there are a few other interviews that have to be done first.

Third-

I think I'm going to go to school if Mike goes to first shift. Now I have NO college credits. I'm terrified of wading through the paper work and figuring all of it out. I want to do online courses so I can do them while Gabe sleeps during the day, or in the evenings after Mike is home. I'll either go for a medical assistant or a pharmacy technician. I NEED them to give us enough money that I can actually pocket some of it to help with living expenses. I know I need to start with FAFSA but we make LESS this year than we did last year (especially with the pay cut coming) so I have to figure out how to add an addendum to it so that they know that we're making less. ACK see I get scared and then I do nothing.

So as if moving wasn't enough stress we're going to make as many life changes as we can in as short of time as we can apparently. Then people wonder why I'm stressed out right?! I know why some people drink. I swear I need a vice.