let me into my house!!!!

Countertops and cabinets?
Check
Vinyl, laminate and carpet?
Check, check, check
Doors hung?
Check
Trim up?
Check?
All livable rooms painted?
Check
Appliances?
Tommorrow, Check
Back stoop and stairs to from garage to laundry room?
Check and Check.
Stairs finished
Well, sorta of check, I am staining it this weekend.
Electricity?
(gameshow buzzer sound)
Running water?
(gameshow buzzing sound)


Christmas?
Lovely, thank you.
Kiiten?
Doing okay but I miss her hideously.
Andrew?
Installed almost all the laminate floor in the study by himself and finished today. What a guy!
Me?
I'll get back to you on that.
j

All I want for Christmas is the plumber and the electrician

Well, we have things like toilets, sinks and a water heater in the house but they aren't installed and noooooooo sign of the electrician. All the vinyl is down, the kitchen cabinets and counters are done. All the upstairs doors and trim is done. Stairs are supposed to be finished by wednesday when carpet folks come to lay carpet in family room, stairs, second floor hall and master bedroom and closet. We'll see. Yesterday Andrew and I pumped the sump uh, hole empty of water in the basement where I got to meet Fred. Fred is the wolf spider that lives in one of the three tiles in our, ah, holde in the basement. Andrew named him Fred. He is larger than a quarter and smaller than a fifty cent piece and it doesn't matter what time of day you go down there. Fred is always sitting on his little tile. Andrew warns as we drop the pump in "don't agitate him" but, I think he is kind of cute. We also moved all the downstairs doors and trim to the house for our general carpenter to start on Monday. So Mom and Dad get most of their garage back. The big pole barn still looks like our apartment inside out. today we had adventures is laying laminate floor. We got a late start but didn't do too bad in the having to recut pieces department. Andrew used his table saw. We went slow and still have 2/3rds of the room to do but we don't feel frustrated and it is the last room in the house to get trimmed out. Because the room is pretty square from being new the sides are pretty even so that is helpful. Had a nice Christmas Eve steak and will hit the shower as soon as this is done. Andrew hasn't gotten his diploma in the mail and we are quite worried that with address change and all it won't get here. The dublin post office has once again hopelessly screwed up our mail...ah the joys of moving.

Anyway happy holidays and if you see Santa, put in a good word for our house...jules

Our Kitchen is beautiful.

The cabinets, floor and countertops are in. All that’s missing is the appliances. As the most completed room in the house, it gave me a lot of hope as to what the move-in version of the whole house will be. I will be posting pictures after Christmas.

So far we have the laminate in the dining, kitchen, hallway and foyer. Vinyl is down and all the vanities are in some procession of installation. The master bathroom is looking good too I must say. I spent yesterday adding a second coat to the master bedroom, the dark blue and creamy white trim and door go together well. The light we picked to hang in the foyer goes perfectly—and the window in the center of the house makes that whole area light and airy. This week I want to put a second coat of paint in the study (wow is it red!) and the family room. I’d also like to get the kitchen cabinets dust bustered. And at some point soon Andrew and I are going to attempt laying the laminate floor in the study. Staining the windows is just going to have to wait until we are in the house.

We have a long way to go yet, no light fixtures, no plumber and our garage door is messed up. Downstairs trim won’t go up till next week, the stairs aren’t finished out. I think by January 2 when Kitten must leave the kennel, I will be taking her to a friend’s house. Our mail is getting forwarded so I am going to stop by the apartment complex and see if they will open the mailbox for me. I am not going to the Dublin post office until after Christmas, I am not standing in line for an hour over their crossed wires.

We roll on...

Well things seem to be happening all at once and not at all. Good news is that despite some shedding and losing a little bit of weight. Kitten seems to be doing okay in the kennel. Andre visited her this morning and cuddled her for a while and has assured me to stop worrying.

The house is going along okay. We have gotten a lot painted and will paint the study tonight. I am also going to attempt to do a second coat on the master bedroom and family room this week. We have all of the kitchen cabinets in and man do we have a lot! Laminate is in the dining room and hallway. Andrew and I are going to attempt to lay the study laminate on Friday so wish us luck with that. We will have everything pretty much painted except for the two extra rooms and I am not going to worry about those until spring.

I am pretty happy with our color choice, especially the cloth, the master bedroom and the bathroom. It’s been very helpful that Andrew has had a lot of time off to coincide with his Christmas break. Today doors and trim start going upstairs and hopefully the electrician will come soon and start putting in light fixtures. Carpet won’t get installed until after the first of the year, and we still don’t have toilets, or the master bath tub tiled so we got a way to go.

Brinks installs the security keypad tomorrow, and Sears delivers appliances on Thursday. I have a couple more things to pick up for Christmas and have a light work week so we are (for the moment) rolling right along.

Happy Holidays

Well friends I haven’t written in well over a month for a mix of reasons. First, our drywaller was weeks late getting to the house and I was too demoralized towards the end of November to write about how God only knew when we were going to move into the house. Talk about bad attitude, I had one. Then I have been busy. At the last minute I was invited by the system to attend a Gaming Symposium in Chicago which focused on gamer culture and what libraries can learn from it in terms of service, programming, and appeal. It was extremely interesting. I had a great roommate with me and we enjoyed a lovely Italian dinner and gawked at an 8 floor Saks.

When I returned (I was supposed to be on vacation that week but waived the first two days for the trip) I immediately set to work packing packing and preparing to move—not into the house, but Mom and Dad’s. It was a four day process and on Monday past Andrew vaccummed and turned in our keys. I have little hope of retaining much of our deposit as a result of some unfortunate incidents with drywall but hope to get reimbursed the rent money we paid in advance for days we weren’t living there.

So we packed up to Mom and Dad’s. Dad Andrew and Andrew’s friend Kevin did the moving. The white pole barn is chock full of boxes and furniture. I am very afraid for my audiobooks and dvds in the little red barn with these horribly low temperatures but there is nothing for it. They will either warm up and be okay or they will be ruined. The most stressful aspect came from the least considered corner—Kitten! We think that even though Chubby was long gone from the house, she could still smell him and tracked through the house sniffing the carpet and the furniture and she just went, well, she went crazed. Absolutely crazed. She would not settle down and would not stop yowling as if she were gearing up for a fight. She kept Andrew and I up all night and ate a whole in Mom and Dad’s garbage bag, ate some left over Salisbury steak and then promptly threw it up.

By Monday evening there was no other recourse we could take, we had to board her. It breaks my heart but she is better off there and goodness knows we are too. She’ll be there total, probably two weeks.

As I write this Andrew is spending his third day off in a row painting the house. The drywall was officially done on Sunday and Dad, my Uncle, and Andrew have been painting and primering away. Since I have had to work all week my contribution has been getting supplies. We will have most of the house painted except for the two second bedrooms but since we are waiting to floor those too we aren’t going to worry about it. I’m very happy with the colors we have chosen so far. We are still split on the family room color which will most likely be me and a friend’s project tomorrow. The downstairs kitchen cabinets have been installed and boy do the look nice. We aren’t going to be hurting for space that’s for sure. The vinyl will be put down today and tomorrow and our laminate has been delivered to acclimate for flooring this weekend. By this time next week all the floor should be in with the exception of the study which Andrew and I are going to try to do ourselves. Our garage door is in but the opener isn’t installed. Things are moving along.


In other news, Andrew passed his second quarter of paramedic school with flying colors and should be receiving his diploma in the mail sometime next week. His Christmas break hasn’t been much of a break but it’s nice to not worry while I am at work, knowing that he and Dad are there getting things done. I think my biggest pre-move projects will be painting the family room and touching up the other rooms, plus I want to stain all the wooden window sills, oak for upstairs and cherry for downstairs. Plus those will need two coats of poly.

The only other news I can think of is that I resigned from my Linworth job at the end of November. The new house is going to take a lot of time and it was just time to reprioritize. We aren’t sending out Christmas cards this year but maybe I will send something out once we are settled in.

Depending on how well I can get my act together I may post pictures of the inside of the house around Christmas.

Thanks for being so patient and all of your kind thoughts, Jules