Sunday, June 29, 2008

H. A. W. T.

That stands for "it's one million degrees outside and I'm sweating my patootie off." Or something like that.

We hit 100 degrees yesterday. One hundred and it's not even July yet! Right now, according to PDX, it's 82 outside, but the thermometer we have here says it's 86. Whatever it is, it's hot. Really, really hot.

It's even hotter when you've decided not to drive today so you ride your bike to the farmer's market. Which wasn't bad at 10:15, but coming back at noon, it was really warm. Especially since coming home is uphill. Blech. But I made it, and now I'm trying to find something cold for lunch, and something cold to make for dinner. If it's 86 right now, I can only imagine how warm it will be when dinner time rolls around. No way am I turning on the stove.

I really need to do some work at the old house, too, but I'm sweating just sitting here. I can't imagine how bad I'd be sweating if I did some work. While I was hoping to do this stuff before Ricky got home, I think it will have to wait until this evening when the sun goes down and it cools off. One nice thing about Oregon, when the sun sets, it cools off rapidly. It should be rather pleasant come 9 oclock.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I love this house!!

While I hate the actual act of moving, I am so glad we did it. I love this house!
  • Two bathrooms!!
  • A real guest room.
  • An office that doesn't have to double as a guest room!
  • Double car garage (it seriously feels huge)
  • Yard is easier to care for
  • Our bedroom is the perfect size for us
  • More cabinets than I have stuff. I don't have to store serving dishes in the laundry room anymore!
  • More drawers than I know what to do with.
  • An awesome, huge living room - the entertainment center that felt so big at the old house looks tiny here.
  • Floors that are easy to clean.
  • It stays super cool (so far)
  • A garage door opener
  • Room in the "laundry room" (a corner of the garage) to sort laundry. I don't have to do it in the hallway anymore, woohoo!

I could go on and on, but there are so many reasons to love this house. After only a couple of days, I love it more than I ever loved our old house...and probably more than is reasonable for any sane person. Oh well!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

We've done moved!

We are in the new house. It is by no means completely set up, nor are we even completely finished moving out of the old house, but all the furniture has been moved, the clothes are here and, most importantly, the computer is moved and the cable hooked up!

We still have some work to do getting the old place ready for the renters. They move in July 9, so we have a some time, but not a lot. And somehow I've got to get these boxes unpacked and find a place for everything. Moving a 964 square foot house to a 1371 square foot house, that shouldn't be a problem, but it's all a little overwhelming right now.

Our living room currently looks like a living room in a college house. We bought a new couch but haven't gotten it yet, so right now we have a folding chair, a kitchen chair, two end tables, and a twin mattress in the living room in front of our tv. It's oh-so lovely and grown up looking.

Jacko is very confused. He kept whining last night and sitting in front of both the front door and the garage door. We finally figured out that he was ready to go home. Though he'd been to the new house several times before we moved in, we'd always come, stayed a while and left. He'll get used to it, but it's sad and at the same time kind of funny right now to see him so confused and wanting to leave.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

You know how sometimes you get really excited about something?

...and then you realize you have to put it on hold and it's a big bummer?

Yeah, that's me right now.

The plan had always been that when we moved into a bigger, more permanent house, we'd get better, more permanent living room furniture. We'd started looking and found what we wanted, we think...except that we've decided to put it on hold for a little while.

There are a lot of expenses associated with moving out of this house, renting it out, and moving into the new one. Obviously, paying those bills is more important than a new couch. Not to mention that things in my district are shaky at best. We almost had to start the new school year in debt, there have been a lot of cutbacks, and we're losing a very lucrative income tax. I haven't heard anything to make me think I may not have a job, but we've decided to play it safe and save save save on the offchance that something happens and I end up working fewer hours than we think I will.

Assuming all goes as planned with the job, we'll go into September with a nice size savings in our account and the ability to order the new living room furniture guilt and fear free. And I know it's only 10 weeks away...but still, I was so looking forward to it. Ah well, I've put up with the hand me downs for 5.5 years, what's another 2.5 months?

Thursday, June 5, 2008

We did it

Well, today was our closing. Sort of. We signed Monday and the sellers signed yesterday, but it was recorded today. As of today they are paying us rent to be in the house. We get the keys Monday. Wow, this is wonderful and scary and crazy and exciting all at the same time.

Tonight we went up to the house - our house! - and walked through with Nicole and Drew, the people we bought the house from. There were a few things they wanted to show us and teach us, namely how to care for the electronic air cleaner on the furnace and some info about the neighbors and neighborhood. It was nice to get all the little hints and tricks about the house, neighbors, and neighborhood, such as the fact that the fence slats in the chain link fence are treated in such a way that graffit comes off with a presser washer, and the garbage men and mailmen are feuding so the garbage man leaves the garbage cans in the way of the mailman and then the mailman gets mad so he moves it to the middle of the driveway. Fun stuff like that!

They are moving out Sunday, so Monday Nicole is going to call me when she's done cleaning and I'll go get the keys from her - and at the same time move some of our boxes up there to get them out of the way of the continued packing going on at our place. We've identified more things to be packed up that we won't need between now and the 21st, the first night we plan to spend at the new place, when we will officially be moved. Of course, after we chose the 21st as our moving date both sets of parents informed us that they'll be out of town, so it looks like it may be just Ricky and me that day, which means we really need to move as much as possible between now and then when his parents and mine are around to help out some. Hopefully we can move the furniture with just the two of us and manage not to kill each other in the process. If I post that night it means we were successful :-P

Add to that the fact that we have 4 days of school left and life is all kinds of wonderful and scary. I'm signed up for 13 credits this summer, 3 of which are a paper making class that takes 1 week and includes no homework, woohoo! I'm looking forward to the chance to be crafty for a while, and be paid to do it. Mostly, though, I'm looking forward to moving...I really can't wait. It's been a long time comin' and I'm so happy we're going to have more room and finally get real living room furniture!! The furniture people and interior decorator are coming out on the 14th to measure and then they make their pitch to us about what we should buy on the 15th.

I realize this got long and rambly. Oh well, that's what happens at nearly midnight in June.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

NUMB3RS

The numbers that are important to me right now

2 -sides of the house that still need to be painted
4 - rooms that we need to paint inside
6 - days of school left
17 - days till we move
27 - days till we'd like to have renters moving in
2 - rooms that still need to be cleaned thoroughly
1 - very messy craft table to be cleaned off

Everything in our life right now is focused on getting this house ready to rent and the new house ready to be moved into. We close on Thursday (a day early!) and take posession the following Monday, June 9. We hope to have everything moved in by June 21, which gives us a couple weeks to get this house put to rights before the renters move in.

Right now we have people scheduled to come look at the place tomorrow night, which means I should probably get off my duff and get back to cleaning/straightening/organizing. I'm trying to make it look as big as possible so they'll want to move in! We know they aren't looking anywhere else, and they want to sign a year lease, which is nice. So far this whole process has been very smooth, knock on wood. Let's hop it continues.