Busy

Sorry for the lack of posts. I know all 3 of you are dying to see that bathroom. Well, you will have to wait a little longer. I have been busy at work, most recently this……

Just in case you were wondering, we have been topping out in the upper 90’s. That’s Fahrenheit. Any little waves in the picture are a combination of heat waves and stink waves from me.

This has left little time for house stuff. The bathroom still has to be painted, which is what I need to do this weekend. It has taken a while to get the baseboards situated, and fix the walls to get them ready to be painted. It sort of bums me out to pain, knowing that the walls will be messed up again when we have the tile redone in the shower, but I guess it would be worse to have everything in different shades of white. So tacky!

The plumbing issue from before has been resolved. Apparently, when our Arizona room was built many moons ago, they put the slab right over the clean-out for the sewer. I know when I do something, I really enjoy half-assing it to screw the next people, don’t you?

As a result, the sewer from the house to the street has been backing up for years, and got to the breaking point when we bought it. Yay for us! My dad found the sewer pipe, along with some lovely sewer water, and a plumber was able to install a new clean out and snake the entire sewer line. No more backups in the house, but some back-ups in our financial situation. Why didn’t anyone tell me that home ownership was going to be so totally awesome?

Oh yeah, and to top it all off, we are meeting all kinds of people when we walk Rey. Every person says “Are you the ones who bought the house across from the park? Welcome to the neighborhood. You know, that used to be a rental.” And then they squish up their face. Uh, ok? Looks like I should make a shirt that says “I bought a house that was a rental! Back off or I will turn your house into a rental, too!”

Sewer, I don't even know her!



Details to come, but let's just say we are having some plumbing problems. While I was at work yesterday, my Dad dug a 15 foot long, one foot wide, 2 foot deep trench. And yes, that is pee (and other stuff) water and our sewer line. As my sister, Katie, would say, Eiwee.

Liar No More

Pictures! Finally.

New floors with baseboards. The baseboards had to be glued because of the plaster walls. The smallest masonry bit is 1/8", which is huge, so we opted to glue.

Pissed off cats.

Planted yard. It looks much better than these pictures. I swear. It is also more pokey than it appears.

Rey on the patio. Right now he is sitting on the floor next to me. The cat puffiness is going doen, but I am still keeping him on a leash in the house. He stinks.

Housework and Yardwork and Dogs, Oh My!

This was an extremely busy weekend. I know that I have been promising to post pictures of the floor….and I will. I have even taken some. But we have been a bit pre-occupied this weekend. Because we are complete nutbags, we have added Rey the Golden Retriever to our family. Next time I say that I want a dog, someone slap me. He is very cute, but our life has turned upside down in one day. It is exhausting taking him out, walking him twice a day, brushing him, getting him used to us, learning what to even do with a dog, keeping him behind the baby gate, feeling guilty for keeping him behind the baby gate, and giving extra hugs to the cats while they learn to accept him. He came from a family that adopted him through rescue 3 years ago. Recently he bit their 18 month old, so they decided to re-home him. He is 5. He is actually a really good boy. Once we get over the whole “Holy shit, we have a dog, WTF were we thinking” thing, I am sure we will all be fine. Just look at him!



Other undertakings this weekend were going to my co-worker Alex’s house. He and his wife, Donna, let us take a bunch of volunteers and cuttings from their desert garden. Then I planted everything in the front yard. Exhausting! But it looks WAY better than just rocks. I will take a picture of this as well, but from my track record, I won’t be offended if you call me a liar.

Home Improvement

The floors are almost done! Steve and his parents started them on Friday, and we finished up on Saturday. The only thing left are the baseboards, which is a story for later. I'll post pictures once the baseboards are up. It looks really good, but brings out the shittiness of the bathroom even more. Now I am REALLY anxious to do the bathroom. Only two more weeks until dad comes down.

As if doing the floors didn't make us sore enough, we decided to go on a sunset horseback ride. It was fun. Slow, but fun. Sometimes it is good to have visitors from out of town because you do more of the touristy things in town that you would otherwise miss out on.

It's Just Like It, But Different.......

And cheaper. Things have been really busy with the house. It seams like we are always fixing something, or buying stuff to fix something. Despite all this, I was able to paint the aloe painting that I wanted to rip off of Crate and Barrel. Now remember, I have not painted in about 12 years. If I were to do this over again, I would do it differently. I like the original one better, but I also enjoy saving $200, which by the way, was promptly spent on new bathroom flooring and dryer vent cover. Ugh.

Theirs....

Mine. It is way darker then the original, but I guess it is a more accurate portrayal of the dead/dying aloe in our yard. Sorry for the bad camera phone picture.

B-R-A-D-L-E-Y

Sweet Sixteen. Not bad for a small MVC team. I don't know if they will make it any further, but now at least people I work with know that I went to a real school.

News Flash!

For those of you who were worried about a Friday during Lent and St. Patrick's Day being one in the same, worry no more. The good old U.S. Catholicism "special dispesation" has come to the rescue! You can eat corned beef! Or, you can not follow Lent, or go to church at all, like me, and eat whatever the H-E-double hockey sticks you want!

Where are you Norm Abrams?

We are venturing into the home improvement realm. No sooner did we move in that we decided to spend even more money and make some “improvements.” Today, a crazy semi-retired brotherly duo is starting the patio. Tonight, we are going to get ourselves a Lowes card and do some damage. Currently, we have “stained” concrete floors in the hall, front room, and kitchen. It is really a stained slab. You can see the old glue marks. You also can see every dusty footprint you track trough the house after coming in from outside. So, we are going to put in engineered hardwoods (can’t have REAL ones because of the slab). While we are getting no payments or interest for a year and 10% off, we are going to get a new toilet and sink for the bathroom. The tile around the tub will have to wait until we win the lottery or we go back to medieval times and stop bothering with pesky showers. I can’t post pictures yet because we only have a two-pronged outlet in the office. I guess I will take some and get them transferred to a CD at Walgreens and the post them. Any excuse to go to Walgreens.

Looks Like We Need A Will

Well, we are officially home owners, or glorified rent payers, whichever you prefer. We brought a couple of car loads over last night and really started going through the house. It is not quite as nice as we first thought it was, but it has good bones. It is more of a fix up than we thought, but cosmetic only. This actually makes me feel better because I thought we were being house wusses by getting a nice house. Now that it is just nice on the surface and secretly crappy, it makes me feel better. We will move the rest of our stuff over in the next couple of nights, and then movers on Monday. The cats are already getting a little nervous. They know boxes mean moving. At least this time they won't have to be in the car for 14 hours, but I am sure that Roxy will be a complete bitch about it anyway. :)

Another Idea

Ok, so I was thinking of joining business with pleasure and embroidering tyvek men on a t-shirt. Too weird?

No News is Gnus.

Everything with the house is progressing nicely. We should be closing three weeks from today and moving about a week after that. We went this past weekend to measure the rooms and doors to make sure that our crap, and any other crap that we buy in the next three weeks, fits. It just so happens that it all will fit, so I expect the house to be craptacular!

I have not done any knitting at all. I think it is because I know we are moving, which means that I have to clean the apartment to get our deposit back. This will require all of my mental energy. Nothing is worse than having to take care of a dirty oven when you want to move on! So, this is my excuse for sitting on my butt each and every night for the past couple of weeks. It is also my excuse for not cleaning at all. I mean, I am going to have to REALLY clean in a few weeks, so in all reality, other than clean sheets and a clean toilet (sometimes), what else do we need?

In an attempt to be somewhat productive, I was thinking of being the ultimate cheapskate and rip off a painting from Crate and Barrel by making it myself instead of paying $300 for it. I mean, it is 4 ft x 4 ft, but $300? I can so do it myself. Plus, making things yourself is ALWAYS cheaper, right? Kind of like sweaters. All I need is canvas, acrylic paint, gesso, some brushes, and some sort of time machine to transport me back to my junior year of high school, which is the last time I painted. Fun times ahead.

I can do this...easy, right?

Ketchup, Catch Up, Catsup

I thought I would take this lull in the house drama to finally sort of catch up on the knitting stuff. Although, I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of my socks that I made, but I guess that will make me keep posting. Ok, so these are not in any particular order. For those of you who find this extremely boring, suck it up.

This is from my mom's 50th birthday party. I made the crown out of wired Christmas ribbon that was on sale at JoAnn Fabrics. It is based on the crepe paper crown from Alterknits. I first tried with crepe paper, but either I have ginormous man hands that crush everything I touch, or those with opposable thumbs are not supposed to knit with crepe paper, because it kept ripping and was extremely frustrating. Knitting with wired ribbon is also frustrating, but you can throw it at things when you get pissed and it doesn't rip.


The pattern is the Opera Scarf that is free on the Blue Sky Alpaca website. I used size 8's and Classic Elite Inca Alpaca. I kept sneezing when I knit this. Surprise, surprise, I sneeze when I wear it too.


Felted cloche from the Pick Up Sticks pattern. Cascade 220. Size 11's. The pattern called for size 10's, and because I knit loose, I should have used 9's, but I was being cheap and used 11's that I already had, and it is too wide and too short because I ran out of yarn and had to decrease the crown early. I am supposed to make one of these for each of my sisters. Um.....yeah. That might take a while. Like until next winter. Sorry.

Marzan watchcap the I made for Steve. Size 7 circulars. Mission Falls 1812 wool (best yarn EVER). The pattern is written for a pin head. Literally. Your head has to be like 7 inches around to wear it as written. This had to be reknit once to make it wider, and then ripped back and reknit to make it deeper. At least it fits now.

Scarf for Kali for a trade. I don't want to give it all away. Classic Elite MarlLa on 15's. I bought a bunch of this. I think this scarf will only take 2 skeins. I might make one for myself because I like it so much.


Sweater from Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits. Manos yarn. Size 8's maybe? This is ok. Not really my favorite. I guess it will be a Sunday Trader Joe's sweater. I thought that it would get more "filled in" when I washed it, but it is still sort of breezy. I need to take a picture of me wearing it to see what other people's opinion is.


Finally, I have pulled out the Green Machine Blanket again to think about getting ready to start knitting on it some more. I am freaking out about money because of the house, and I thought that I should probably finish this because it is $200 woth of yarn that is just sitting in a bag. Plus, it is sort of housewares, so it will be good for the house, right? That is of course until one of our little hairball cats pukes on it. At least it won't show stains.Phew, that was exhausting. Hopefully I have learned my lesson about procrastination, but somehow I don't think so.

Tucson, we have liftoff

They actually accepted our offer. Crazy. I am freaking out about affording it, but really, it is not problem at all. If the inspection goes well Wednesday, then we will close on March 1. We will have to spend some money up front for a fridge and an electric dryer (ours is gas, and it will be cheaper to buy a new dryer than run a gas line), and we want to put in a patio. If anyone knows of a concrete guy in Tucson, let me know! We were going to put in flagstone, but I think it will be better to do a stamped concrete patio that looks like flagstone. We have to find a balance between a job well done and cost. The rest of the landscaping may take a while, as well as furniture for the front room. The good thing is, people at work have offered to let us come to their yards to dig up some plants and take cuttings, so we should at least be able to spice up the front a bit. Please keep your fingers crossed just in case.........

OFFER

We put an offer on the definite maybe house, so i guess it is more like amaybe definite house. The wet noodle submitted the bid today, and they need to respond one way or another by 1pm tomorrow. Here are some pictures. Keep your fingers crossed.

Front of the house Front Room

Kitchen. It has been redone, except those are the original cabinets.

Arizona Room. The laundry room is though the doors.
Bedroom #3. This used to be the garage.
The original two other bedrooms are identical and look like this.
Bathroom. Only one. The pink tile will have to go eventually, but at least it is in good shape.
BackYard. WAY too big. This will take some work.

No Progress

The wet noodle still has not gotten us a list of additional houses. On top of that, I am freaking out about mortgages and interest rates, and crap like that. I feel like no matter what we do we are getting screwed. I guess to put it in Steve's academic terms, we are having congnative dissonance. See? The word "screwed" is so much better. Anyway, I think the plan is, we are going to look at a couple more houses tomorrow, and if all seems lost, we are going to put a bid on the definite maybe house. After, of course, we look at it again and take some pictures, at which time I am sure someone else will put in a bid, and we will be living in my car. Why did I ever want a house? Oh yeah, that's right, I smoke crack.

The Search Begins: Part 1

Ok, so this past weekend, faced with our New Year's resolution and the reality that our lease is up the end of March and they need 60 days notice of us moving out, we sucked it up and got a real estate agent. And then we looked at houses. I think we have seen 7 so far, and only one is a definite maybe. All the houses in our price range suck. It makes me sad that two professional people with no kids and very minimal debt can't afford something that has washer and dryer hookups INSIDE the house. I can't imagine what people are going through who are way less fortunate than us.

The definite maybe is across the street from a small park. It is mostly redone, is on 0.25 acre dirt lot, and has central air too, which believe it or not, is not that common in older homes here. The garage was turned into a 3rd bedroom, which is weird, and there is only one bathroom. However, the W/D is inside, which is enough for me to make me want to buy it. Steve wants to look at a couple more houses this week before we make an offer. Mr. Procrastinator thinks there is loads of time now that the market has slowed. I hope he likes the decorating I will do to our carboard box that we are going to have to live in.

We are scheduled to look at a couple more places on Wednesday. Our relator is nice and knowledgeable, but it is like pulling teeth to get her to give advice, recommend, properties, areas, etc. All the houses we have seen have been our suggestion. Supposedly she is going to get together a llist for us tomorrow. I'm intersted to see what she comes up with.

HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

We're back!

I had typed this whole thing about Christmas, and then Word closed with an error, and I can’t recover it. Here’s the low down…..everyone had colds; the sun sets at noon back home…this turns me into a narcoleptic; went downtown to eat at Roy’s (Awesome. So Awesome. And very gluten-free conscious for Katie) and shop at Nordstrom and Banana Republic (overwhelming), but on separate days; my nephew can say “wow” over, and over, and over again; Katie and I made Mexican food for Christmas dinner instead of the traditional stuff; didn’t knit. That’s about it. I leave you with these….

The boys, Winnie and Reggie. These are my parent’s dogs, a cairn terrier and a schnoodle, both rescues.

Downtown, kitty-corner from Roy’s. I took this to prove I did something other than sit on my ass.

My grandpa wearing my felted cloche. Both he and my step-mom look like Hummel figurines in this hat. Hilarious.

Perfect Timing

We finally got the part from Dell, and the computer is fixed! Of course, this is just in time for Christmas, so no real posts until we get home from Chicago....except maybe with pictures from my new, super-sweet Razr phone. Hopefully this Christmas won't be a hectic one. I made it a point to keep knitting to a minimum (only for one aunt...will share later). Last year I made all of my immediate family knitted items. 10 scarves. 1 pair of slippers. 1 "dog" suit for my nephew. I knitted about 30 hours a week for four months. Lace. Cables. Ribs. My brother-in-law lost his scarf before he even got home. Home being two blocks away. Oh well. I have learned my lesson. I plan on doing a little photo montage of all the things that have happened in the last month. Until then, Happy Winter!

Taken with my new phone. I am goign to eat me one of these tonight!