Uncertainty

When life gives you that certain little, “Oh, you look mighty comfortable, why don’t I go ahead and kick you in the balls!” May the fourth be with you.

We may be moving. Again. Like, real soon. If there is anything I despise, it is moving. Oh, the packing is easy enough, but the actual moving of stuff is just, well, annoying. I have a feeling we’ll be getting rid of even more stuff than we did last time not because we don’t want it anymore but because we just don’t want to have to move it.

May the fourth be with you.

When paying rent, our landlord informed me that circumstances might be changing really soon and he would need to move back in to his house. Which is where we live. Which means we would have to move out. Which means maybe our next living arrangement will have to be [gasp] an apartment.

May the fourth be with you.

Can we find something that takes both dogs and cats and still be affordable? What about the chickens? What if we have to eat eggs bought from the store?

May the fourth be with you.

But then I tell myself there is no use worrying about the future. If you do, you’ll forget to live in the now. Tomorrow will come, but today will disappear into yesterday. So May the fourth be with you.

Abscess

Today is my day off. Naturally I’m working.

I’m not going to complain about it, but instead of packing up the last of our stuff we want to keep from the old house and bringing it over, I’m working. A coworker had to call in due to an emergency dental surgery and being only three of us receptionist and two working at a time, I’m it. It’s no big deal, as we could definitely use the money, and I did lose a day last week to go to a family reunion, so I’ll take it. However, I would like to finally rid myself of the abscess known as the old house.

The house was auctioned last Friday, and being no bidders, went back to the bank. Well, actually the bank said that the house had sold, but the trustee company said that nobody bid on it and the bank now owns it and we have twenty days to get our stuff out. To be honest, we got most of it already, with the exception of the garage sale contents and our tables, but really, were only interested in getting the tables and a few of the gardening chemicals from the pantry. And of course the deck boards, as we’ve decided to rip up the deck and take the wood for other projects. Oh, and some irises and a rosemary or two and a little tree in the front yard we planted a few years ago.

So instead it looks like work. I’m not sure if I’ll get a lunch today or not, and by that an unpaid lunch break rather than simply work and get paid to eat, in which I’ll be able to stop by the old house to help my husband with whatever I can. Honestly, I really want it to be the last day I have to go to that house. If the bank wanted it back so bad, now it’s theirs and they can have it.

Let's Finish This Already

While we mostly moved a few weeks ago, we are still living out of boxes. I’m ready to unpack now.

Yes, there are a few things at the old house we still need to get. For one thing, our lawnmower. I mean, it’s not like we’ve got a lot of lawn to mow here, but still, it’d be nice to have it here so we can mow down the patch of weeds that is referred to as a lawn in the backyard. It would also be nice to get our fish moved over and everything else we want here, like the vegetable garden stuff we are taking, herbs and strawberries, and all of the garden pots.

I’m also ready to get the ceilings painted in the office and boys’s room and finish painting the bathrooms, I just don’t want to be the one to do it. I know it has to be done and that the longer we wait the more we’ll simply be okay with how it looks. While I was reading the boys a bedtime story the other night I looked up at stared at the Hail Hitler painted on the ceiling and thought, “Well, it isn’t that noticeable.” Okay, now I know we need to paint over it soon.

I guess I am just tired of everything looking like we are ready to move again, because I don’t want to do that for a long time to come. Things like hanging pictures on the walls and books and bookcases that make a difference. The personal touches that make a house a home. After being here a few weeks now, I’m ready to leave the old house behind us and start living in this one.

Last Loads

We’re getting to the point where we only have a couple more loads of stuff to get at the old house. Honestly, I’m ready to be done moving and start living.

The plan today is to take both cars and the trailer and pick up everything we are keeping and bring it back here, which mostly entails to outside and garage stuff. There are a few odds and ends inside, but not much, just the fish tank, one of the sewing machines, and a few things in the kitchen and office. I just hope we can get everything we need moved over today, or at least a majority of it. I can always go there after work tomorrow for the inside stuff we can’t move today.

So, outside we need to bring over all of our potted plants and pots, the whiskey barrel fish pond and whiskey barrel strawberries, Buddha and other decorations, wheel barrel, and the rest of the chicken stuff, especially the extra roof sheet to fix the damaged section from the move. Ugh, the coop. Yes, we still need to fix the chicken coop too. I guess with all of the outdoor moving of stuff we’ll be ready to finally tackle the coop when we get back.

Of course, to put another kink in the situation, the landlord is coming by with an electrician to change out the 40 amp breaker to the range, which has a 50 amp plug. Basically, they are coming out to fix the whole situation of not being able to use the oven and the stovetop at the same time without the breaker tripping. Hopefully it’ll be as simple as my husband’s dad made it sound. But this means we’ll have to clean up the area around the breaker box too.

Alas, time to stop blogging and start getting stuff done. Getting up so late isn’t making this task any easier. Perhaps a lazy day will be better. Perhaps, but then we’ll still have all the stuff at the other house we want to have here.

Coop Moving Day: Part 2

Operation Move Coop: Complete. Operation According to Plan: Not so much.

First of all, I need to say a huge thank you to our friends Rob and Erik and Pjaye for all their help. There is simply no way we could have done it without all of you. Second of all, I need to say a huge apology to the three of you for all the crap you put up with, only some of which was literal. And third I need to apologize to everybody and myself for forgetting my camera at home so there was no documentation of the whole debacle.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, this is what went down. I got to the house, let out the chickens and started digging out the trench around the coop so we could possibly lift it up and into the trailer. Easy, right? Except for the fact that this thing was way overbuilt (we’re talking exceeding standards for homes in hurricane country here) which, of course, added to the weight of the whole thing. However, after the trench was dug and it was physically possible, however somewhat improbable, to lift it up and out of the trench, we screwed on a couple pieces of the deck (may as well get some more use out of it, right?) onto the sides of the coop to use as lifting bars. Easier said than done. Oh, the bars went up without a hitch, it was simply a matter of trying to figure out the right height for lifting that made this task ever so exciting. However, once a height was finally decided up after moving and screwing it into place each time, we started the moving process. At which point, of course, we ran into another kink. Dirt.

While everyone was trying to figure out how to lift it up and over the dirt mound the coop was catching on, I grabbed a shovel and started scooping out the extra to level out the ground. I should have done this to begin with but I didn’t think it would be that much of an obstacle. I was wrong. After that we were able to move it rather well to the edge of the wall and into the trailer… at first.

Of course there was another obstacle to overcome, because that’s how we roll. This time it was the trailer, which measured on the inside is six feet two inches wide. However, what they failed to mention is that it has these inch and a half eyelets for the chains that hold the backdoor of the trailer. Figures. Needless to say the coop wasn’t going to go in without some alterations. We ripped off the wire mesh around the front which kept catching, but that wasn’t enough. So my husband went over to the neighbors house, grabbed a saw and our friend Erik started notching out everywhere the coop would run into the eyelets. Success! Shoved in the coop, locked up the backdoor, and our friend Rob tried over and over to get the trailer out of the backyard through the gate, but kept getting stuck in the mud. After some ingenuity on his part involving old firewood for traction, he finally got it out and we were ready to get it onto the road and to the new house.

Now, during most of this we had the boys, as their mom had a class to go to, so PJaye spent most of the time with them. Thankfully they weren’t too bad. However, trying to focus on the coop with three of the nine chickens on the loose and two kids asking, “Daddy Cory, are you done yet? Daddy Cory, can I pet the chickens? Daddy Cory, what are you doing? Daddy Cory Daddy Cory Daddy Cory!!!” was an adventure all in itself.

On the road we only had one minor incident involving the plastic roof, some of which caught wind and snapped off, but fortunately only a small part. The ride was fairly smooth after that, but we were going slightly under the speed limit to prevent another roof incident. Once we got to the house, everyone helped with backing it into place while I got the boys all situated in their room. It was practically off the trailer by the time I got out to help them set it into place, but not quite. Two more notches needed to be put in, the ones in the front of the coop that were already inside before we realized there would be a problem. After that we pushed it out and pretty much decided wherever it landed would be where it’ll stay.

In our haste, we forgot the chickens at the old house. Okay, so really we knew we’d end up having to go back anyway, so we left them in the dog kennel where they were all sleeping. In the meantime I had to staple the mesh back onto the part we ripped it off from and screw the door back on and the boys’s mom picked them up so we finally went back to the old house around 9:30pm, loaded up the girls and all their stuff, headed back to our house, plopped them onto the roosts, locked the doors, and went inside to strip off all our nasty, muddy, stinky clothes and went to bed. If only this was the end. We’ve still got to coyote proof the coop now, but that can wait until tomorrow.

Coop Moving Day

Today we are moving the coop along with a couple good friends. If only it would be as easy as it sounds.

Here’s the thing you see. We built this coop to be, well, massive. I wanted to be able to walk into it for cleaning purposes and that has been great… while the coop is in one location. However, now that it is time to move it to another house there are a few logistical issues and kinks to work out. Fortunately they shouldn’t be too much, but still, they are kinks nonetheless.

So our plan is to screw onto the four outside corners of the coop lifting bars so we can (in theory) easily lift the coop into and out of the trailer we’re renting from U-Haul. I’m going to be doing this, along with shoveling out around the outside and inside of the coop to ensure a smooth transition, as well as scuttling the chickens into Lucy’s old dog kennel from when she was a puppy and trying to remember to bring their food, a hose and their feeder and waterer. To top it all off we’ll be doing this with the boys, so perhaps I’ll have them help me with some of the tasks.

However, before I can even go over to the old house to get the coop ready for moving, I have to prepare the are the coop is going to go. This wouldn’t be such an issue if my husband and I could agree on a location. While I think it should go in facing West along our side fence, he thinks it should be facing South along the back “fence” area. We don’t really have a fence here, only the remnants of where some metal hog fencing used to be. My main concern is that our backyard gets full sun all day, something I can’t wait to test on vegetables that desperately need to be planted, but not so great for chickens. We’ll see. More than likely it’ll end up facing South not because I’ll give in but because he’ll probably be right about the aesthetics.

Honestly I can’t wait to have the girls here as I’m tired of worrying about them, not that I really have much to worry about as all of our old neighbors love the chickens. The new ones behind where we used to live have kids who chicken watch throughout the day, prompting them to decide to get chickens of their own soon. I’m pretty sure they’re just going to convert the old shed into a henhouse and attach a run to it since it is practically ready for it as the previous tenants cut a small hole in the side for their guard Chihuahuas. I wish I was joking about this.

So wish us luck! Hopefully by the end of the day the girls will be safely in their new home surrounded by yet another threat to their existence… coyotes. I wonder if throwing some of Lucy’s poop around the fence line will stop any of them from encroaching too close to the coop? I suppose time will only tell. And a little internet research.

Neighbors

Yesterday was probably the oddest day of my life. We actually met neighbors… a lot of them.

Okay, so we had been in our old house for over thirteen years and met two neighbors; the one to our left and the one to our right. That’s about it. Oh sure, we’ve seen others, but as far as having actual conversations, those two are it. Yesterday as my husband and I were unloading yet another load, one of the neighbors a couple houses down from us came up and introduced herself and we struck up a conversation, along with her husband and one of her four kids. Then we took Lucy for a walk. I couldn’t tell you how many people we had to stop and talk to during our short walk around the neighborhood before getting the mail, but I know that everybody was super friendly and practically everyone had dogs and all wanted to say hello to ours. Quite honestly it was rather refreshing to see that neighbors really do exist.

At first I was a little creeped out by it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is going to be nice. Seeing people actually use their front porches, kids riding their bikes with abandon in the middle of the street, coyotes howling at night. Okay, so that last part, while I like the thought of hearing them, does give me some worry about the cats accidentally getting out and the chickens when we move them over tomorrow, but we have a plan to make the coop a little more secure than it is currently. I mean, we built the thing to withstand 200 mile per hour winds and raccoons, not coyotes.

Anyway, I think it will be nice living in an actual neighborhood, one where we can actually walk without fear of getting run over by cars and that actually has sidewalks and streetlights. And so far the people we’ve met have been great, which I was a little worried about. Considering they had their suspicions about the previous tenants being, well, slobs, I know that we will be better neighbors to them. Yes, I think this is exactly what we need at this point in our lives.

Unpacking

Finally I feel like I am beginning to unbox our lives. Unfortunately there is still a large part that needs to be packed and moved over… including the chickens.

So I have a plan for today, and that is to unpack and set up the boys’s room, unpack the kitchen, and get a longer hose for the refrigerator’s ice maker because my little brain wasn’t thinking when I got one that was obviously way too short yesterday. Of course, my brain was also operating on practically nothing when I bought the hose because my attempt at eating breakfast at work was foiled by an influx of telephone calls and a person dropping off a dead lady’s dog that was supposed to be in Texas but was found broken and bruised in her abandoned house’s yard by the neighbor. Yes, Macho is back at the clinic. My granola bar lunch I was looking forward too wasn’t going to help the matter either. Hmmm… perhaps this is why I’ve lost twenty-five pounds since I started working again?

Ah, the joys of unpacking stuff. First you have to locate the items you are looking for and then you have to figure out where in the hell you are going to put them because after nearly fourteen years of this stuff practically not moving much you suddenly have to find new places to put them. This is especially true in our awkwardly designed kitchen/dining room. I mean, what is the point of having a new kitchen if it has less storage than something built in the 50s? Of course, I think the revert back to basics approach versus the Every-Kitchen-Needs-To-Be-Huge Phase must have been on the builder’s mind a decade ago. Especially considering the smaller size of the house, it’s gotta be a starter or ender home. Which is fine because ninety percent of the time it is just the two of us, and the boys really don’t have a whole lot in the way of toys or possessions that aren’t ours from our childhoods (or the desperate attempts to hold onto them) so really it is just going to be a matter of what do we need and what can we live without.

Alas, I suppose I should begin getting the boys’s room in order for them since they’ll be here tomorrow. I wouldn’t want their first impression of the house to be, “I’d rather go back to the homeless shelter, it’s not as ghetto.” Of course, the boys are going to be in for a big surprise because their mom is moving this weekend into their new home, which is going to be super exciting for all involved. I’m sure it’ll be nice to finally be back on her own, though maybe a little daunting at first. And to finally be able to unpack her life as well. Good luck, Miss R.!

Moving Day

Today is the day of the big move. The universe has decided it must rain all day long.

Besides the fact that we are completely unprepared to move, a large part of me still doesn’t believe that we spent our last night in this house already. Of course, once the beds are moved to the new house I’m sure reality will set in. But really, as long as the new house has a mattress and a coffee maker and some clothes I should be good.

Alas, time to get ready to get stuff moved. It is quite possible this will be the first post not to make it on the day I wrote it, which means I will have offset an over 500 continuous days of blogging. Oh well, the sacrifices we make when there are other priorities. At least I was able to write it, which is really what this whole experiment is about.

Assembling

Yesterday while the cable guy, gas guy and carpet cleaner guy were all doing their thing, I was busy assembling a wardrobe and transforming it into a pantry. Actually, transform isn’t the right word since we’re just using it as such.

When a functional piece of furniture can be purposed for something else, that is great. Take, for instance the Dombas Wardrobe from IKEA. Yes, there are mostly shelves on one side, but that one side can hold a lot of stuff that an otherwise cabinet-lacking kitchen couldn’t hold. And the other side, while meant for hanging clothes, will be perfect to store brooms, mops and Lucy’s food container. I tempted to see if the ironing board will also fit inside.

As for assembling the piece, IKEA has great no-word instructions that are easy to follow and I was able to pick up the flat-packed boxes and put it together myself. Oh, I’m sure it would’ve gone by faster had there been another person helping, but I had to be there while the cable guy and gas guy were doing their thing anyway. By the time the carpet guy showed up I was cleaning off small appliances and putting them on the shelves.

We’ve been using an open air wire storage rack for the small appliances, but I’m thinking that having them inside the cabinet will dramatically cut down on the cleaning and dust they accumulated on the rack. Besides, it looks cleaner. Of course, after I finally assembled the piece and put it where I thought we should put it, another question arose; do we even need the wire rack in the kitchen anymore? Alas, the answer will probably be no, in which case, I’m going to move the pantry onto another wall to make more space for the dining table.

So while it doesn’t seem like a lot was accomplished yesterday, we now have heat and hot water, internet (our biggest priority!), and clean (but still slightly stained) carpets. All in all the house is finally ready to be moved into. Except for the bathrooms and the office ceiling, all of which still require painting. Ugh.

Annoyed

Today is packed with stuff I need to get done and the place to do it is the new house. Naturally there would be a problem.

With all that is going on with the move and the busyness that is ensuing with all that entails, there isn’t much room for inconvenience. Especially when the inconvenience comes in the form of an email from the college I’m scheduled to start attending saying that, yet again, they need more information for my financial aid. Honestly, I filled out and turned in every possible piece of paperwork so I haven’t the slightest clue what they could be missing.

However, today is already busy with cable guy, carpet cleaners, natural gas, unpacking and assembling a pantry because we are moving into a house with less cabinets and drawers than our current house, something neither of us thought possible. Alas, it was an excuse to go to IKEA, where today while the random people will be doing their jobs I’ll attempt turning a wardrobe into said pantry. The plan should work, but if it doesn’t then it will either end up in the garage or the boys’s room. Hey, for $49.99 I couldn’t pass up the deal for that much extra storage space in a house severely lacking it.

I just hope I can focus on the task at hand and not dwell on the fact that this whole financial aid fiasco is really starting to piss me off. Actually it started to piss me off in February after the third attempt fell through because the deadline had passed before they informed me I needed to fill out another form for more information that was out of date because the deadline had already passed. I take that back, I wasn’t pissed, I was simply annoyed.

Timing

You know when the stars are all in alignment and everything goes perfectly according to plan? I don’t.

We are moving this weekend and there are a few hindrances to compete with. First, I work Saturday, but fortunately only until two in the afternoon. Second, most of our friends who were going to help us move can’t for legitimate reasons. Third, I really don’t want to move. I’m sure that once we actually start loading stuff into the U-Haul and take it over to the new house it’ll be different, but for now I just really don’t want to do it. The task seems far too daunting, especially considering how ill-prepared we really are.

Let’s take, for example, our decision to paint on Mother’s Day. Not the greatest plan. Nor the fact that so many of our friends and family have birthdays in May. Ugh. This is why we wanted to move in March. Oh well, at least we have lots of boxes. I just can’t wait until tomorrow when we have the carpets cleaned so we can actually start moving stuff into place. Of course, the cable guy and natural gas person will be out tomorrow too, so my plan is to start putting the kitchen together as much as I can. Priorities, right?

So while the actual move has been poorly timed, getting everybody we need out to the house to make it livable on the same day will hopefully work out well. Of course, I really hope the gas guy doesn’t ask where the furnace is because I haven’t a clue.

Stress

This whole moving thing is stressing us out. It’s also stressing the dog out.

Our dog Lucy is her very own Itchy & Scratchy Show. She seems to be constantly scratching herself due to her chronic allergies. Fortunately our latest regimen seems to be stopping most of that scratching from breaking her skin and causing yeast infections that make her whole situation ten times worse. However, I have a feeling that most of her scratching of late is stress related. She has a keen sense that things are different and she doesn’t quite know what to make of it all. Hopefully next weekend won’t be too hectic for her when we actually move into the new house.

The stress on our end is that we haven’t been able to move over much until the garage no longer smells like cigarette smoke and the carpets have been cleaned. Well, the garage is almost there and the carpets get cleaned Thursday. I have a feeling I’ll be loading up the Blazer with as much as it’ll fit after work today and heading over to stack it into the garage before finishing up the paint. I’m really not looking forward to painting the ceiling in the office. Or the bathrooms. Or moving in general for that matter.

My husband thinks we’ll be able to move over the furnishings and most of the stuff on Saturday and the chicken coop on Sunday, so I’ll try to be optimistic about that. Try, because we all know how optimistic I am not normally.

Painting

Yesterday my husband and I along with our friend and two of her nieces started painting. I say started because every room in the house needs to be painted.

I’m going to go ahead and admit it, I’m sore. I’m achy all over and feel like crap. And on top of that we still have an assload of painting to do this week before the big move Sunday. While the plan is to go over to the house to paint more after work, part of me really just wants to crawl back into bed.

Alas, the move is quickly approaching and we want to make sure the house is ready to receive us. Unfortunately the sheer amount of paint needed far exceeded my original estimates. So we will grudgingly continue until it is complete.

Load by Load

This eventual move seems to be consuming not only my life but my blog. I’m sorry, but here’s more.

The plan was to move this upcoming weekend, but I have a feeling it’ll be just painting instead. Probably a good idea since it’s supposed to rain. Then again, when isn’t it supposed to rain here in the Northwest?

I figure that since I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets I can start moving over nonessentials and pretty much anything that will stay in the garage. Okay, so perhaps I should try to deodorize the garage first since the smell is ass nasty and seems to be getting worse every time I go over there. Ugh. I guess that means I will have to do that too.

Alas, until the move and probably well after, it’ll be a load by load affair, taking over whatever will fit into the Blazer whenever we go. I suppose that means the big move will have to wait until the following weekend.

Gross

After work yesterday I picked up the boys and went over to the new house to start patching nail holes and clean out the cabinets. I got as far as the kitchen.

I’m not sure what possesses people to put nail holes in the wall unevenly spaced about every six inches apart on average. It wasn’t all that noticeable until I looked at the walls with all the spackle. Of course, I’m not sure what possesses people to make the paint color and design choices the former tenants did either, but I attribute that to their love of Nascar and all things Dale Earnhardt.

While the walls certainly had their fair share of issues, the insides of the cabinets are white. I’m sorry, but white never looks clean to me. I used up almost half a bottle of Lysol Kitchen Cleaner cleaning and wiping down every square inch of those cabinets. Well, every square inch I could reach as two of the cabinets that should’ve been corner cabinets with corner cabinet doors instead of a large amount of wasted space since even with my long arms I was unable to reach the far end of them. Balls. That, and they had this nasty black film all over. I had to clean every part twice just to get it all. But in the process found the missing cable outlets and smoke detector!

I also found myself wanting to simply live with some of the paint choices simply because the task of all that painting is beginning to feel much more daunting than originally planned. Even the green in the living room is starting to look appealing. Hell, I could probably live with the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese walls that are the kitchen. Of course, while we don’t have to be out of this house for quite some time, we are paying rent at the new house and I’m ready to leave this chapter of our lives behind us.

The boys loved running around the empty house and playing in the backyard which still had the swing-set, for now. It’s just another thing that is up in the air as far as if it’ll stay or not. They also had fun picking up fir cones and putting them in the empty birdbath that may or may not be staying as well. While exploring the backyard with them I was trying to visualize exactly where the chicken coop and garden boxes will go and realized just how disgusting parts of this yard really are. Oh well, at least it’s small.

Then there is the garage, otherwise known as the Cigarette-Smoking-Room. Internet research doesn’t help much in this matter, but I’m going to try a fogger that supposedly will help eliminate the toxins associated with third-hand smoke. My eyes are still itching from just walking in there. Of course, the only product out there that guarantees to eliminate these odors is apparently not sold in stores and mostly to hotels and rental car companies, so we’ll see if the product I can pick up at the local hardware store will work or not.

Alas, so much work, so little time, and hopefully this Thursday we can get the carpet cleaners out to clean the carpets. I’m not expecting any miracles as far as stain removal, but I’m hoping to at least get them clean because they are most definitely the grossest part of the house. But I have to admit that the smell in the garage takes a very close second place.

Planning Room Layouts

With the move getting closer and closer I’ve been planning where to put what. I’m running into walls… literally.

The two bedrooms are the same size as the craft room is here, but for some reason they look so much smaller. Perhaps it is the dark blue walls or the fact that the windows are smaller. Or maybe it is because empty spaces can sometimes appear smaller than they are. Then again, it is possible my mind is simply playing tricks because the ceilings are about six inches lower than our current ceiling, creating a more closed-in look. Whatever the reason, I’m having a hard time imagining our stuff in that house.

I guess the only way I’m going to figure out if it will work is to actually have the stuff in the house and play with it. Oh, sure, I could create a grid paper diagram of the house and cut out grid paper furniture to scale and fiddle with layout that way, but that doesn’t necessarily work well for aesthetic reasons, just a general idea. My brain can do that. Alas, there are still items I’m not sure what we’re going to do with. However, with more time to decide, I’m sure that we’ll either figure out whether or not something will work in the new place or have to be set aside for a garage sale.

Paint

We’ve really got to move into the new house, but first we have to paint. I don’t think there is a single wall that doesn’t need it in the entire house.

I suppose the task of painting wouldn’t seem so daunting if that was all we had to do, but alas, there is an assload of prep-work that needs to be done first. Holes patched, some the size of a fist curiously, and texture reapplied to the walls that won’t be covered by, say, a bookcase, picture or art. I can’t imagine this part to be too difficult, but coming from a house where there is so much paint on the walls the texture is practically nonexistent I don’t have much experience in the matter.

Initially we were thinking of getting various paints and painting each room differently, but now we’re thinking a 5-gallon bucket of a neutral color will make it easiest. Hell, I’d live with the colors that are up on the walls now if I could, but trust me when I take pictures and show ya’ll it will be plainly obvious why pea green, baby-shit orange and battleship grey do not complement each other. I’m sure the previous tenants thought that peas and carrots would go together, but I find it difficult to trust their judgment when there was a wall of Dale Earnhardt memorabilia (okay, so ripped and taped pages from magazines and newspapers) in the living room covering up the vaulted wall of the green, and the impractical ability to walk into the kitchen without nearly impaling yourself because it was so jam-packed (and not at all packed for moving) with crap that the nasty orange was only visible in patches. This is saying a lot about the orange because I love orange. My phone is orange, my stainless steel water bottle is orange, my favorite market bag our friend Sarah made me is orange, our office is orange (burnt mandarin), and a lot of my fabric stash has orange in it. I don’t love the orange kitchen, which is sad because it would require minimal touch ups only if we were to keep it. They did, after all, leave the extra paint in the garage.

We could even use up some of the paint we have from painting here, but there isn’t enough to paint an entire room. That and we bought bolder, darker colors that would work for this house because it has so much natural light but would be unusable in the new house because of its lack of light. As much as I despise white walls, I’d rather have that than the cave of navy blue that is the master bathroom. At the same time, the only color I do like, even though it makes the hallway look dark, is that battleship grey, so perhaps bold doesn’t need to be shied away from, just carefully planned. Ugh, I just really want this move to be over with already!

Keys to Change

Yesterday we did the walk through with the landlord and got the keys. To say I have mixed emotions would be an understatement.

It was apparent from the moment I arrived that he wasn’t too pleased with the previous tenants who, by the way, are friends of his. My husband was already on the scene and they were talking in what was a very empty garage, missing a few components he said would be staying because they were his. Mainly I’m talking about the two workbenches that were in the garage. Funnily, they didn’t take the shed or their garden boxes, but he was going to find out why later that day and figured they could stay if we’d use them. Part of me is hoping that this is the case. The shed may not be much to look at, but outside storage for the lawn tools, mower and chicken feed and supplies would definitely be a plus.

Trust me when I say there WILL be Before and After pictures of this place. The people who lived there before had put so many holes in the walls both big and small there might be some integrity issues to worry about. And there is a missing door and hole in another door, light fixtures that had been cut with tape covering the switches and smoke detectors ripped from the ceiling, all of which he said he would take care of. He seemed especially worried about the cut light fixture and said he’d get an electrician out right away to take a look at it because of the fire hazard it would pose. I mean, the guy has a vested interest in the house because he does plan on moving back in after his mom passes away, so I believe him when he says he’ll fix the stuff he says he will.

Fortunately a majority of the work is cosmetic, like painting over the Pea Green living room and Carrot Orange kitchen/dining room. The carpets are nasty, but we did walk through while they were covered in dirt and grime from not being vacuumed and cleaned. I hope that they clean up somewhat, but part of me thinks it’ll be a lost cause. Fortunately the vinyl flooring in the kitchen, entry and bathrooms are all in extremely good condition and even remind of the slate tiles we put in the half bathroom last year. However, there is enough Pergo flooring to redo the entry and the landlord gave us complete permission to install it there if we chose to do so! I wish it was enough to do the entire living room.

Alas, while I was a little nervous just a few short minutes ago when I started writing all this down, that has changed to excitement. Excitement over the possibilities. Excitement over the challenges. Excitement over the chance to have a fresh start. Now if only we could get our good friend Sarah or my cousin Amanda, who actually has a degree in Interior Design, to help us out in exchange for cakes, that’d be great.

Auction Day Postponed

Just when plans are in place and everything is going according to plan, something crazy happens. Sometimes crazy can be a good thing.

Yesterday my husband, out of morbid curiosity, decided to call the bank to find out who the new owner of the house was. They informed him that the auction has been postponed until May 20th and not to be surprise if in May the bank decides to postpone it yet again. With this news the stress of trying to move over this and the following two weekends is out, especially since they are all incredibly busy. Still, I want to start getting stuff moved over as soon as humanly possibly, or at the very least make sure we have every room painted before moving in.

We’re still waiting to hear back from the landlord on whether or not the tenants that were supposed to be out yesterday are in fact out. If not, we told him that we’d hold off until May 1st if that worked for him. May as well try and save half a month’s rent if we can, right? However, part of me just wants to start getting everything ready now even though the timing isn’t particularly the greatest because I’m tired of waiting in this limbo known as foreclosure. I’m tired of coming home expecting an eviction notice to be up on the door. I’m tired of the uncertainty.

In the meantime, I’m going to rest a little easier knowing that we’ve got at least another month and a half to get everything out and moved. And that we won’t have to pack all of the garage sale stuff with us.