We picked up Rosko and brought him home yesterday! Even though it was just a couple hours after his surgery, he was up and around and moving just fine. He did very well on the car ride home. I don't think he's ever ridden in a car before though, (except when he was picked up as a stray and brought to the shelter), so he wasn't really sure what to do. We didn't want him to have to ride in the bed of the pickup for the hour and a half drive back home from Bonita, but we couldn't coax him into the backseat and there wasn't a good way to lift him back there, so we ended up letting him sit in the front and I sat in the back. Believe me-- that is the first and LAST time that will happen. He didn't much care for the stop and go of traffic, but he loved the wind blowing in from the window.
He spent a couple quiet hours in the storage room while we went to dinner . This is where he is going to spend the days while we're at work until he is settled and trained enough for us to open up the doggie door and give him access to the backyard. After we got home we took him around the house and the yard on the leash and worked on getting him used to walking a little behind us instead of infront of us (important for dominance). He learned very quickly not to bolt out of doors and to wait for Scott and I to walk through first. Scott's dad and Sarah and Eddie were all in the backyard playing darts and it took a few minutes to get comfortable being around so many people, but once he did we let him off the leash and let him run and sniff around.
He was a perfect angel after that. He follows us around submissively, seeks attention but doesn't demand it. He really liked it when I threw and bounced his rubber ball-- he'd take off after it and attack it until it stopped moving, then he'd lose interest in it completely until I threw it again. He didn't give me any problems at all when I took it away from him: even right out of his mouth (also a very good thing for dominance).
He sat in the living room with us and was nice and quiet watching tv. He didn't try to jump up on the furniture at all. I had to take him outside four or five times because he kept sniffing and wanting to mark his territory in the kitchen. Once he had calmed down a lot, I pulled out some training treats and within about ten-fifteen minutes got him to learn "Sit".
Bedtime was pretty interesting. Several sources I've read suggests you give the dog his own bed in your bedroom because they want to sleep with their "pack". We were originally planning on crate training him at night, but the crate we bought for $20 off Craigslist is really too small for him. So, I set up his doggie bed a few feet away from the bed and crossed my fingers he didn't have any accidents during the night. It took him a couple hours after we went to bed to really get settled in. We could hear him going around and sniffing through the room, and scratching, and licking himself (he sounds a lot like a pig and he is definitely not quiet about it). He didn't try to get into bed with us at all and eventually he figured out that the doggie bed was for him.
I think tonight we'll just have to exhuast him a little bit more so he settles down a lot quicker. We've gotten off on the right foot, set some good ground rules, he's picked up on them, and he's started bonding with both of us. I am totally thrilled with how much progress he's made in just one night!
Oct 23, 2008
Oct 19, 2008
Our New Addition
Well, it's something we've been talking about for at least two years and the time has finally come. We're getting a dog!
Rosko the "Pixer"
Rosko is a male boxer/pit bull mix we found at the San Diego County Animal Countrol shelter waaaay down in Bonita. He came in as a stray and has been there since August, so we don't really know anything about his background except he is about 6 months old, possibly a little older. Right now he weighs almost 42 pounds and comes up to a little above the knees. He may get a couple inches taller, and will definitely be filling out. (My guess is to about 60 pounds).
He was very well behaved at the shelter, even with all the stress and distractions going on. He didn't try to jump up on us at all, no signs of aggression, nervousness, nipping, or chewing. He wasn't overly eager for attention nor did he ignore us completely. He really liked running and chasing us around the pen, and even then he was a perfect little gentleman. And he looked very healthy: clear eyes, good teeth, healthy fur, no signs of having been in fights, no limping, etc.
We have to drive back down to Bonita Wednesday afternoon to pick him up. Unfortunately they couldn't get him in for neutering sooner than that and they wouldn't let us take him before the procedure was done.
We assume he is not housebroken and hasn't had any kind of training yet, so we'll be working on that and signing up for obedience classes within the next couple weeks. Scott is working on clearing out some space in the "storage" room behind the garage for him right now. We'll keep him there during the day for the first month or so until he's adjusted, then we'll give him free range between there and the backyard while we're at work.
Sep 22, 2008
House Diaries - Painting, Curtains, and Decor
Labor Day Weekend
This was a major painting weekend at the Snow residence. We both buckled down and knocked out the entire living room (all tan), the hallway (green), and two of the walls in the master bedroom (the red accent wall and the tan windowed wall next to it). The red wall took 3 coats of paint AFTER I put on the bubbblegum pink primer coat. Yes, it was literally bubblegum pink. I have the pictures.
I still definitely have to go back and do some major touch ups, especially where the paint peeled off with the stupid tape, but all-in-all we are a lot closer to being finished than we were before! Painting that still needs to be done: 4 of the 6 walls in the master bedroom plus the arch, the walls in Sarah's room, the yellow walls in the kitchen (behind the washer and dryer), the ceilings in the hallway, bathroom, and dining/kitchen, AND ALL the doors and trim... I guess we're about halfway there.
My favorite part of the weekend was the insane sales that Home Depot and Lowes were having on houseplants! I got three, two that are table plants and one big one that sits on the floor. Cheap terra cota become custom pottery after I painted them with extra wall paint to get a perfect match to our decor.
Scott installed a new sconce light in the hallway (SO much nicer than the one the house came with) AND an outdoor ceiling fan/light out on the back patio. We are officially set up to entertain past dusk now!
We took advantage of the living room being in compelte disarray to rearrange the furniture in there. It actually looks like all 3 bookcases have a valid place now and aren't just crammed in haphazardly because we have no place else to put them.
The big project on my list after painting was curtains. Scott had been complaining about our temporary paper blinds and lack of privacy, etc for a while. Curtains were a little bit of a sore spot with us since we had a very hard time agreeing on what they should look like. I prefer to match the contemporary theme we have going with the rest of the house: monotone, black, red, and brown. Scott wanted something with a little more life. I bought 17 yards of white sheer fabric from JoAnne's, thinking that would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was missing a power cord from the move so that project came to a screaming halt before I could even really get started.
The Next Weekend
I decided to try my luck for curtains at Bed Bath and Beyond, even though I had never seen anything I remotely liked before. I did stumble across these black, tan, and gold striped curtains that ended up working perfectly in the bedrooms. Scott got the curtain rods up and now we are both happy. I also found a red and a tan scarf to go over the living room window, and a matching red scarf to go over the dining room window once we get a rod that actually fits it.
On Thursday I went shopping with my friend Tiffany, Linens N Things in Vista just happened to be having a close out sale. Found a whole new bedset (red and brown) for $56, a black mirror set for above the couch, a couple picture frames, new candle centerpiece set for the coffee table, and a couple other things. Scott actually liked the stuff I picked out, much to my surprise.
Yesterday
I started hanging some of our pictures on Saturday, now that we have some painted walls. It got me focused on all the empty frames I have sitting around with no pictures to put in them. So, I went through our wedding disks and the other pictures I have on my computer and got everything sized to fit the frames I have available.
The big challenge was for these two L shaped collage frames my mum got me a million years ago. They are very cool looking (we had discovered them in Costco together back before she moved to Utah) BUT the picture openings are not anything close to standard picture size OR even standard picture dimensions. It required a lot of measuring, cropping, and copy pasting multiple photos into standard 4x6 and 5x7 sized images.
It was easy enough to print everything out through the do-it-yourself machines at Kinkos, and really it only cost about $30 for all of them. I was even able to scan our formal cruise picture that they refused to give me digital copy for so I could get it in a 5x7 rather than the 8x10 they gave me. (They wanted like $40 extra, it was ridiculous). Kinkos, btw, does not actively watch what you're doing to check for copyrights etc.
Scott was a little unhappy that I was "wasting" my time working on pictures when he felt getting the sheer curtains made was a more pressing need, so after I was done with Kinkos I headed over to Anna's Linens and VOILA: 4 sets of chocolate brown sheer curtains, 63" long (very hard to come by anywhere else) and matching chocolate brown curtains for the little kitchen window.
While I was there, I also had to grab two European pillows (now that we have European shams), some brown sheets to match our new bedset, there was this really nice painting on clearance that had all the right reds in it, etc etc.
Final trip for the day was to Target where I got a couple more frames and a BUNCH of red and brown candles. The whole house smells like apple and sandlewood now. I love it <3
SO. I've still got quite a bit more painting and hanging to do, but all in all, the house is FINALLY starting to come together! A couple more productive weekends like this month and we might be about ready to have our long-overdo housewarming party!
This was a major painting weekend at the Snow residence. We both buckled down and knocked out the entire living room (all tan), the hallway (green), and two of the walls in the master bedroom (the red accent wall and the tan windowed wall next to it). The red wall took 3 coats of paint AFTER I put on the bubbblegum pink primer coat. Yes, it was literally bubblegum pink. I have the pictures.
I still definitely have to go back and do some major touch ups, especially where the paint peeled off with the stupid tape, but all-in-all we are a lot closer to being finished than we were before! Painting that still needs to be done: 4 of the 6 walls in the master bedroom plus the arch, the walls in Sarah's room, the yellow walls in the kitchen (behind the washer and dryer), the ceilings in the hallway, bathroom, and dining/kitchen, AND ALL the doors and trim... I guess we're about halfway there.
My favorite part of the weekend was the insane sales that Home Depot and Lowes were having on houseplants! I got three, two that are table plants and one big one that sits on the floor. Cheap terra cota become custom pottery after I painted them with extra wall paint to get a perfect match to our decor.
Scott installed a new sconce light in the hallway (SO much nicer than the one the house came with) AND an outdoor ceiling fan/light out on the back patio. We are officially set up to entertain past dusk now!
We took advantage of the living room being in compelte disarray to rearrange the furniture in there. It actually looks like all 3 bookcases have a valid place now and aren't just crammed in haphazardly because we have no place else to put them.
The big project on my list after painting was curtains. Scott had been complaining about our temporary paper blinds and lack of privacy, etc for a while. Curtains were a little bit of a sore spot with us since we had a very hard time agreeing on what they should look like. I prefer to match the contemporary theme we have going with the rest of the house: monotone, black, red, and brown. Scott wanted something with a little more life. I bought 17 yards of white sheer fabric from JoAnne's, thinking that would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was missing a power cord from the move so that project came to a screaming halt before I could even really get started.
The Next Weekend
I decided to try my luck for curtains at Bed Bath and Beyond, even though I had never seen anything I remotely liked before. I did stumble across these black, tan, and gold striped curtains that ended up working perfectly in the bedrooms. Scott got the curtain rods up and now we are both happy. I also found a red and a tan scarf to go over the living room window, and a matching red scarf to go over the dining room window once we get a rod that actually fits it.
On Thursday I went shopping with my friend Tiffany, Linens N Things in Vista just happened to be having a close out sale. Found a whole new bedset (red and brown) for $56, a black mirror set for above the couch, a couple picture frames, new candle centerpiece set for the coffee table, and a couple other things. Scott actually liked the stuff I picked out, much to my surprise.
Yesterday
I started hanging some of our pictures on Saturday, now that we have some painted walls. It got me focused on all the empty frames I have sitting around with no pictures to put in them. So, I went through our wedding disks and the other pictures I have on my computer and got everything sized to fit the frames I have available.
The big challenge was for these two L shaped collage frames my mum got me a million years ago. They are very cool looking (we had discovered them in Costco together back before she moved to Utah) BUT the picture openings are not anything close to standard picture size OR even standard picture dimensions. It required a lot of measuring, cropping, and copy pasting multiple photos into standard 4x6 and 5x7 sized images.
It was easy enough to print everything out through the do-it-yourself machines at Kinkos, and really it only cost about $30 for all of them. I was even able to scan our formal cruise picture that they refused to give me digital copy for so I could get it in a 5x7 rather than the 8x10 they gave me. (They wanted like $40 extra, it was ridiculous). Kinkos, btw, does not actively watch what you're doing to check for copyrights etc.
Scott was a little unhappy that I was "wasting" my time working on pictures when he felt getting the sheer curtains made was a more pressing need, so after I was done with Kinkos I headed over to Anna's Linens and VOILA: 4 sets of chocolate brown sheer curtains, 63" long (very hard to come by anywhere else) and matching chocolate brown curtains for the little kitchen window.
While I was there, I also had to grab two European pillows (now that we have European shams), some brown sheets to match our new bedset, there was this really nice painting on clearance that had all the right reds in it, etc etc.
Final trip for the day was to Target where I got a couple more frames and a BUNCH of red and brown candles. The whole house smells like apple and sandlewood now. I love it <3
SO. I've still got quite a bit more painting and hanging to do, but all in all, the house is FINALLY starting to come together! A couple more productive weekends like this month and we might be about ready to have our long-overdo housewarming party!
Jul 28, 2008
House Diaries - Bathroom
Our bathroom is (almost) finished!
We got the whole thing painted (minus the door/ceiling and a couple spots that need touch ups). Scott installed one of our two new cabinets. They will stretch across the entire wall behind the sink/toilet. <3
Colors:
We decided to paint the whole room the same color green we'll be doing in the hallway. We weren't sure how it would turn out since it is a pretty dark green and the room is small, but I am very glad we did. I LOVE it. The new cabinet and the clear shower doors help open the room up to balance the darker walls.
We had an interesting color dilemma because we wanted to do an interior design no-no and mix aged bronze finish (our new lights) with satin nickle (everything else). I bought dark brown towels, rug and candle to pull out the brown in the lights. Then I got some cream towels too to match the rest of our bathroom coordinates, which have aged bronze tops and cream marble-porceline looking bases. It's like mixing gold and silver: it can work so long as you have coordinates to tie them together.
I was surprised how well the green looks next to our orangish granite countertops. AND, just as I suspected, the brown and green are just fantastic together. I would still really like to paint the vanity a dark brown, but Scott is not convinced yet. The previous owners didn't refinish these with the rest of the house for whatever reason, and they are in definite need of a face lift.
We got the whole thing painted (minus the door/ceiling and a couple spots that need touch ups). Scott installed one of our two new cabinets. They will stretch across the entire wall behind the sink/toilet. <3
Colors:
We decided to paint the whole room the same color green we'll be doing in the hallway. We weren't sure how it would turn out since it is a pretty dark green and the room is small, but I am very glad we did. I LOVE it. The new cabinet and the clear shower doors help open the room up to balance the darker walls.
We had an interesting color dilemma because we wanted to do an interior design no-no and mix aged bronze finish (our new lights) with satin nickle (everything else). I bought dark brown towels, rug and candle to pull out the brown in the lights. Then I got some cream towels too to match the rest of our bathroom coordinates, which have aged bronze tops and cream marble-porceline looking bases. It's like mixing gold and silver: it can work so long as you have coordinates to tie them together.
I was surprised how well the green looks next to our orangish granite countertops. AND, just as I suspected, the brown and green are just fantastic together. I would still really like to paint the vanity a dark brown, but Scott is not convinced yet. The previous owners didn't refinish these with the rest of the house for whatever reason, and they are in definite need of a face lift.
May 27, 2008
House Diaries - Week 3 & 4 Recap
Decided to roll Week 3 and 4 Recap together since there isn't a whole lot to report.
Lots of progress in the yard. Both lemon trees, both orange tress, and the kumquat tree have all been tamed AND sprayed.
Scott took out a couple of the rose bushes and rebuilt one of the planters to make room for an eventual-pathway. He also took out some random tree that was planted in a really awkward spot- we had no idea what it was, but we knew it attracted a lot of bugs. I have decided that when the time comes, I will empty out the planters entirely and plant from scratch- front and back (which means no more rosemary bush). I'm not sure what kind of flowers I'll put in instead. I think I'd like to put lilies in the front under the window (where the rosemary bush is now). Maybe snap dragons along the driveway. Scott is pretty adamant that he doesn't want any climbing vines- so no jasmine or honey suckle :\
The lawn is finally looking like a lawn again! Scott had to fix the sprinklers (a couple of times). Luckily he is Mr. Handyman and it was no big deal for him. We haven't even done any reseeding or fertilizing yet, so once we do hopefully it will be really gorgeous.
Measure Twice, Cut Once. Or even better: make sure you have all the parts you need before you take apart the bathroom sink. Scott got really ambitious last week when I was taking my final and decided to replace our bathroom faucet with the nice one my mum sent us. Unfortunately, he didn't know that we were missing the base plate for it until AFTER he had taken apart the existing faucet.
We went to look for it on the manufacturer's website, but it said that they didn't make the part in the finish we need. Scott was really annoyed, and emailed them about it. He got a very apologetic response the next day and was assured that they would send out the needed part at no cost: which is Sweeeet. Until we get that part though, we do not have a working bathroom sink. (It would have been way more work to put the old one back on than it would be to just brush our teeth in the kitchen for a few days). Hopefully it will be here soon!
Repaint? We've been using those paper temporary blinds since we moved in and I've been putting off getting real curtains. It makes sense to paint first, so you only have to hang the curtains once. The temporary blinds, however, are starting to metaphorically wear thin.
The living room technically is painted. The only problem is Scott really does not love the color. It's too yellow for him. Something more tan-colored would be much better, and I am feeling the same way. BUT that would mean repainting the living room (which means moving my 20 gallon fish tank AGAIN, and repacking the bookshelves that I just unpacked this weekend AGAIN, and uninstalling the washer and dryer in the kitchen to get in behind it.)
Whatever we do though, we need to get started soon because the bathroom needs to get finished ASAP. We have unpainted sections of the wall in there (where the old broken mirror was) and the repeated exposure to moisture is not going to be good. Not to mention we really need to get new cabinetry so we can finish unpacking the bathroom (there is no place to put any of our stuff right now), and get our new hardware hung.
I think I'll swing by Home Depot and pick up some of those paint cards and we will deliberate. Maybe we can pick out our new colors and go wall by wall rather than room by room- and get the walls with windows done first.
Lots of progress in the yard. Both lemon trees, both orange tress, and the kumquat tree have all been tamed AND sprayed.
Scott took out a couple of the rose bushes and rebuilt one of the planters to make room for an eventual-pathway. He also took out some random tree that was planted in a really awkward spot- we had no idea what it was, but we knew it attracted a lot of bugs. I have decided that when the time comes, I will empty out the planters entirely and plant from scratch- front and back (which means no more rosemary bush). I'm not sure what kind of flowers I'll put in instead. I think I'd like to put lilies in the front under the window (where the rosemary bush is now). Maybe snap dragons along the driveway. Scott is pretty adamant that he doesn't want any climbing vines- so no jasmine or honey suckle :\
The lawn is finally looking like a lawn again! Scott had to fix the sprinklers (a couple of times). Luckily he is Mr. Handyman and it was no big deal for him. We haven't even done any reseeding or fertilizing yet, so once we do hopefully it will be really gorgeous.
Measure Twice, Cut Once. Or even better: make sure you have all the parts you need before you take apart the bathroom sink. Scott got really ambitious last week when I was taking my final and decided to replace our bathroom faucet with the nice one my mum sent us. Unfortunately, he didn't know that we were missing the base plate for it until AFTER he had taken apart the existing faucet.
We went to look for it on the manufacturer's website, but it said that they didn't make the part in the finish we need. Scott was really annoyed, and emailed them about it. He got a very apologetic response the next day and was assured that they would send out the needed part at no cost: which is Sweeeet. Until we get that part though, we do not have a working bathroom sink. (It would have been way more work to put the old one back on than it would be to just brush our teeth in the kitchen for a few days). Hopefully it will be here soon!
Repaint? We've been using those paper temporary blinds since we moved in and I've been putting off getting real curtains. It makes sense to paint first, so you only have to hang the curtains once. The temporary blinds, however, are starting to metaphorically wear thin.
The living room technically is painted. The only problem is Scott really does not love the color. It's too yellow for him. Something more tan-colored would be much better, and I am feeling the same way. BUT that would mean repainting the living room (which means moving my 20 gallon fish tank AGAIN, and repacking the bookshelves that I just unpacked this weekend AGAIN, and uninstalling the washer and dryer in the kitchen to get in behind it.)
Whatever we do though, we need to get started soon because the bathroom needs to get finished ASAP. We have unpainted sections of the wall in there (where the old broken mirror was) and the repeated exposure to moisture is not going to be good. Not to mention we really need to get new cabinetry so we can finish unpacking the bathroom (there is no place to put any of our stuff right now), and get our new hardware hung.
I think I'll swing by Home Depot and pick up some of those paint cards and we will deliberate. Maybe we can pick out our new colors and go wall by wall rather than room by room- and get the walls with windows done first.
May 19, 2008
99 percentile
Last weekend I got to talking to my father in law about our SAT and ACT scores. So, for the first time in I-don't-know-how-many years I opened up my old file box, blew the dust off the envelope, and took a second look at the scores from my junior year of high school.
I knew I scored really well in English. I had forgotten just how well. Top 99 percentile in all the English and Reading sections.
I was thinking a little bit a couple days ago about what this means, and it makes me smile:
If you were to take 100 people who took the ACTs in 2002, and put us all in a room together, odds are I would be the top person in that room.
Sweeet.
I knew I scored really well in English. I had forgotten just how well. Top 99 percentile in all the English and Reading sections.
I was thinking a little bit a couple days ago about what this means, and it makes me smile:
If you were to take 100 people who took the ACTs in 2002, and put us all in a room together, odds are I would be the top person in that room.
Sweeet.
May 12, 2008
House Diaries - Week Two Recap
Life needed to return to some semblance of "normal" this week. No more half days or days off (although I did skip astronomy on Tuesday night). Normal is a misnomer, however, because we've actually been living in TOTAL CHAOS.
Everything is somewhere out in a box in the garage. Don't ask me where. Don't ask Scott where. Neither of us has a clue.
I am so sick of fast food. Our entire kitchen was pretty much still at the apartment, so we've been eating out for every lunch and every dinner this week. Killer Pizza from Mars, Carls Jr, Burger King, Boston Market, Sbarros, etc. Last night we finally went grocery shopping and got some easy food that will fit in our little temporary mini-fridge. Thank god
Scott is the best husband. He, his dad, and Bryce went over to the apartment on Saturday morning and finished packing and moving everything over so I could sleep in (getting up an hour earlier everyday has been taking its toll on me). He's been such a pro through this whole move. <3
We have internets again! The cable guy came over Saturday morning (while I was sleeping in). It took him like 4 hours and apparently it was set up in a way that completely defies logic and will require Scott eventually crawling up in the attick to rewire, but we have cable/internet! It is significantly faster than Time Warner in our apartment (TimeWarner sucks). I'll be stopping by the Apple store after work today to pick up an Airport Extreme to make it even faster ^_^
The BBQ has been christened. Since we couldn't go to Karl Strauss' Beerfest with Sarah and Sandra on Saturday, they brought Beerfest to us. We broke in the built-in grill in the backyard with New York steaks, boiled corn on the cob, and not one- but TWO chocolate cakes. It was awesome. They also brought us Tiki torches and much needed cleaning supplies.
We finally found our fridge! The space available for our fridge is really awkward: only 66 1/2" tall, and 32 1/4" wide. We were hoping to find a fridge with 20 or 21 cubic feet so that we won't feel inclined to replace it once we have kids. At Lowe's we found one that was almost perfect: perfect size, stainless steel, if only it weren't for this awful GREY trim! Apparently last year's model came with black trim, but they changed it this year. I told the sales lady that was pretty stupid of them, and she agreed.
We were almost resigned to taking it anyway, but we decided to go check out one last appliance store that is tucked away in a side street near Car Country Carlsbad. I can't even remember what it was called but this place was pretty great. We found a fridge with perfect dimensions, stainless steel, and only 18.2 cubic feet. It was a little smaller than what we wanted, but unless we tear out the cabinets that is really as good as we can make it. Scott and I each walked by and picked it out separately, actually, which pretty much decided us. The best part is that it was about $200 cheaper than the grey fridge.
Scott's dad pointed out also that it would be very easy to compensate for the size by getting a cheap freezer off Craigslist to put in the garage (and if it's in the garage it really doesn't matter what color it is). He bought the fridge for us as a house warming gift, which is super awesome. It's being delivered next Saturday, so we just need to hold out in our mini fridge for another week!
The Yard is (being) Tamed. We have all kinds of fruit trees and herbs and roses but everything is crazy overgrown and wild and dying. I pruned our huge rosemary bush- enough to give us a supply that would last us years to come. Scott took a chainsaw to the brown/droopy fronds of the two huge queen palms out front.
I tried to prune the rose bushes in the backyard. One in particular is currently six or seven feet high, about five feet across, and FILLED with earwigs (YUCK). I quickly realized my attempts were futile and am more inclined than ever to tear all the rose bushes out alltogether and start over with smaller, easier to maintain flowers. We pruned down the kumquat tree as well so it is no longer hanging onto the bar.
We picked up all the fruit that had dropped and started rotting on the ground- hopefully that will help keep the bugs down. We probably would have continued with the lemon trees except our huge green waste trash can was packed full already.
On the Drawing Board...
Scott wants to try to get things organized to a point where we are only tackling one project at a time rather than splitting our energy/resources in a hundred different directions. So, the rest of this week is going to be largely dedicated to getting OUT of chaos! We'll need to get (mostly) unpacked so we can have our garage back. The painting isn't done, but at this point it just isn't feasible to wait until its finished. We'll have to go room by room a little later on.
Top Priorities of this Week:
-Clean out the apartment. We still have some food in the fridge and I think some more kitchen stuff over there. Scott is planning on picking it up during his lunch break in the next couple of days and going through the final walk through.
-Get unpacked! We'll need to get a variety of those plastic food containers to keep the cockroaches out of our cupboards. We'll probably need to go find things like additional shelving, hooks, etc to help keep things organized. (We have significantly less storage in this place than we did in our apartment.)
Secondary Priorities: (these will probably carry over into the next couple of weeks)
-Fix the rest of our cabinet hinges and install the new cabinet hardware
-Prune the lemon trees
-Take out the rose bushes
-Pest Control. Spray the fruit trees, cut down on the snail population
-Get our new security system installed
-Outdoor lighting
-Find some new electric plate/light plate covers
-Paint the bathroom so we can hang the new hardware (towel rack, etc)
-Find curtains
-and much, much more...
Everything is somewhere out in a box in the garage. Don't ask me where. Don't ask Scott where. Neither of us has a clue.
I am so sick of fast food. Our entire kitchen was pretty much still at the apartment, so we've been eating out for every lunch and every dinner this week. Killer Pizza from Mars, Carls Jr, Burger King, Boston Market, Sbarros, etc. Last night we finally went grocery shopping and got some easy food that will fit in our little temporary mini-fridge. Thank god
Scott is the best husband. He, his dad, and Bryce went over to the apartment on Saturday morning and finished packing and moving everything over so I could sleep in (getting up an hour earlier everyday has been taking its toll on me). He's been such a pro through this whole move. <3
We have internets again! The cable guy came over Saturday morning (while I was sleeping in). It took him like 4 hours and apparently it was set up in a way that completely defies logic and will require Scott eventually crawling up in the attick to rewire, but we have cable/internet! It is significantly faster than Time Warner in our apartment (TimeWarner sucks). I'll be stopping by the Apple store after work today to pick up an Airport Extreme to make it even faster ^_^
The BBQ has been christened. Since we couldn't go to Karl Strauss' Beerfest with Sarah and Sandra on Saturday, they brought Beerfest to us. We broke in the built-in grill in the backyard with New York steaks, boiled corn on the cob, and not one- but TWO chocolate cakes. It was awesome. They also brought us Tiki torches and much needed cleaning supplies.
We finally found our fridge! The space available for our fridge is really awkward: only 66 1/2" tall, and 32 1/4" wide. We were hoping to find a fridge with 20 or 21 cubic feet so that we won't feel inclined to replace it once we have kids. At Lowe's we found one that was almost perfect: perfect size, stainless steel, if only it weren't for this awful GREY trim! Apparently last year's model came with black trim, but they changed it this year. I told the sales lady that was pretty stupid of them, and she agreed.
We were almost resigned to taking it anyway, but we decided to go check out one last appliance store that is tucked away in a side street near Car Country Carlsbad. I can't even remember what it was called but this place was pretty great. We found a fridge with perfect dimensions, stainless steel, and only 18.2 cubic feet. It was a little smaller than what we wanted, but unless we tear out the cabinets that is really as good as we can make it. Scott and I each walked by and picked it out separately, actually, which pretty much decided us. The best part is that it was about $200 cheaper than the grey fridge.
Scott's dad pointed out also that it would be very easy to compensate for the size by getting a cheap freezer off Craigslist to put in the garage (and if it's in the garage it really doesn't matter what color it is). He bought the fridge for us as a house warming gift, which is super awesome. It's being delivered next Saturday, so we just need to hold out in our mini fridge for another week!
The Yard is (being) Tamed. We have all kinds of fruit trees and herbs and roses but everything is crazy overgrown and wild and dying. I pruned our huge rosemary bush- enough to give us a supply that would last us years to come. Scott took a chainsaw to the brown/droopy fronds of the two huge queen palms out front.
I tried to prune the rose bushes in the backyard. One in particular is currently six or seven feet high, about five feet across, and FILLED with earwigs (YUCK). I quickly realized my attempts were futile and am more inclined than ever to tear all the rose bushes out alltogether and start over with smaller, easier to maintain flowers. We pruned down the kumquat tree as well so it is no longer hanging onto the bar.
We picked up all the fruit that had dropped and started rotting on the ground- hopefully that will help keep the bugs down. We probably would have continued with the lemon trees except our huge green waste trash can was packed full already.
On the Drawing Board...
Scott wants to try to get things organized to a point where we are only tackling one project at a time rather than splitting our energy/resources in a hundred different directions. So, the rest of this week is going to be largely dedicated to getting OUT of chaos! We'll need to get (mostly) unpacked so we can have our garage back. The painting isn't done, but at this point it just isn't feasible to wait until its finished. We'll have to go room by room a little later on.
Top Priorities of this Week:
-Clean out the apartment. We still have some food in the fridge and I think some more kitchen stuff over there. Scott is planning on picking it up during his lunch break in the next couple of days and going through the final walk through.
-Get unpacked! We'll need to get a variety of those plastic food containers to keep the cockroaches out of our cupboards. We'll probably need to go find things like additional shelving, hooks, etc to help keep things organized. (We have significantly less storage in this place than we did in our apartment.)
Secondary Priorities: (these will probably carry over into the next couple of weeks)
-Fix the rest of our cabinet hinges and install the new cabinet hardware
-Prune the lemon trees
-Take out the rose bushes
-Pest Control. Spray the fruit trees, cut down on the snail population
-Get our new security system installed
-Outdoor lighting
-Find some new electric plate/light plate covers
-Paint the bathroom so we can hang the new hardware (towel rack, etc)
-Find curtains
-and much, much more...
May 5, 2008
House Diaries - Week One Recap
Our first week owning the house was spent almost exclusively painting, cleaning, packing, and moving. I took half days for most of the week, and Friday off entirely, but still didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to.
First thing Saturday morning, ChemDry came and cleaned the carpets in the bedrooms. He did a fantastic job getting out all the awful stains we thought were a lost cause. When I could look at them without getting the creepy-crawlies anymore I realized how glad I was we didn't skimp on that.
Scott explored the attick and found quite a collection of Mexican porn and a lungful of fiberglass insulation. He also found a whole bunch of cockroaches and saw a few blackwidows.
D&S Termite came to do the chemical treatment required for our loan. At first the guy thought we were selling the house and he offered to caulk up the termite evidence: "so the buyers would never know". After we explained that WE, in fact, are the buyers, he became more than helpful. He showed Scott how he could do the same kind of chemical treatment himself with a 3/8 drill bit and some WD40, and he even sprayed our cockroaches at no extra charge. The rest of the day turned into a packing extraveganza and wild goose chase for a rental truck.
Speaking of which, I definitely recommend Penske over Uhaul- they were much better prepared to handle our needs (even without a reservation), the truck was brand new and easy to handle-- (I got to drive it down the block) ^_^, and the prices were good. We rented a 16', and figured we more than saved in time/gas what we would have spent moving in Scott's pickup. It was well worth it.
Sunday was our BIG moving day. Scott and Bryce got all of our furniture, clothes, and most of our belongings over. Wrestling the couch into the living room turned into a far greater challenge than originally anticipated, moving my aquarium was an entirely separate debauchle, but the day closed with no real incident and we were able to pass our first- exhuasted- night in our new home.
First thing Saturday morning, ChemDry came and cleaned the carpets in the bedrooms. He did a fantastic job getting out all the awful stains we thought were a lost cause. When I could look at them without getting the creepy-crawlies anymore I realized how glad I was we didn't skimp on that.
Scott explored the attick and found quite a collection of Mexican porn and a lungful of fiberglass insulation. He also found a whole bunch of cockroaches and saw a few blackwidows.
D&S Termite came to do the chemical treatment required for our loan. At first the guy thought we were selling the house and he offered to caulk up the termite evidence: "so the buyers would never know". After we explained that WE, in fact, are the buyers, he became more than helpful. He showed Scott how he could do the same kind of chemical treatment himself with a 3/8 drill bit and some WD40, and he even sprayed our cockroaches at no extra charge. The rest of the day turned into a packing extraveganza and wild goose chase for a rental truck.
Speaking of which, I definitely recommend Penske over Uhaul- they were much better prepared to handle our needs (even without a reservation), the truck was brand new and easy to handle-- (I got to drive it down the block) ^_^, and the prices were good. We rented a 16', and figured we more than saved in time/gas what we would have spent moving in Scott's pickup. It was well worth it.
Sunday was our BIG moving day. Scott and Bryce got all of our furniture, clothes, and most of our belongings over. Wrestling the couch into the living room turned into a far greater challenge than originally anticipated, moving my aquarium was an entirely separate debauchle, but the day closed with no real incident and we were able to pass our first- exhuasted- night in our new home.
Apr 30, 2008
House Diaries - Day 1
After three separate delays spanning nearly three weeks, our escrow finally closed yesterday!
At 2:00, I was hosting an Online Seminar for about 40 clients when my coworker bursts in the room to make the announcement. Needless to say, the question and answer session of this webinar was particularly short.
We have a neat calendar for the next two weeks, complete with an aggressive agenda to get the house painted, moved in, and all set up. Last night we were supposed to have washed down the walls, prepped, and painted the ceilings of the Master Bedroom, Second Bedroom, Living Room, and Hallway. Even after leaving work early and skipping my Tuesday night class, almost none of this got done! I found myself elbows deep in scraping cracked/peeling paint from the window sills instead.
Scott set to work removing the copious amounts of nails/screws/broken curtain rods from the walls. We realized very quickly that even if we both took work off competely for the rest of the week, we still wouldn't get the whole house painted before we move in.
So, we resigned ourselves instead to dine on costco pizza and tepid tap water on the kitchen floor with his dad.
What we Accomplished:
At 2:00, I was hosting an Online Seminar for about 40 clients when my coworker bursts in the room to make the announcement. Needless to say, the question and answer session of this webinar was particularly short.
We have a neat calendar for the next two weeks, complete with an aggressive agenda to get the house painted, moved in, and all set up. Last night we were supposed to have washed down the walls, prepped, and painted the ceilings of the Master Bedroom, Second Bedroom, Living Room, and Hallway. Even after leaving work early and skipping my Tuesday night class, almost none of this got done! I found myself elbows deep in scraping cracked/peeling paint from the window sills instead.
Scott set to work removing the copious amounts of nails/screws/broken curtain rods from the walls. We realized very quickly that even if we both took work off competely for the rest of the week, we still wouldn't get the whole house painted before we move in.
So, we resigned ourselves instead to dine on costco pizza and tepid tap water on the kitchen floor with his dad.
What we Accomplished:
- Scott will have 7 years bad luck times 1000. He broke the bathroom mirror into dozens of tiny pieces while taking it out. The moral of this story: don't GLUE your mirrors to the wall!
- Scott's dad should have auditioned for the Matrix. While knocking out the garage wall, he dodged a falling two-by-four garnishing 3" nails with death-defying speed.
- Scott is an engineering genius. He was able to snap the studs in the wall they knocked out using only a tow strap and a two-by-four (and NO truck). He attributes his success to a scene in the early Planet of the Apes when Coronel Taylor breaks out of his holding cell.
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