Prompt

I'm going with a NaBloPoMo prompt today:

How did you end up where you're living right now? What factors will help you choose the next place you live?


I believe I chronicled our house hunt here, here, and here. To summarize, this house felt the most like home and was the closest to the complete package that we could get in our budget. Every project seemed doable, and they would be if we had the time and money to do them. Many unforeseen problems that always seem to happen with houses have tempered our joy of living here, but we're generally happy.

There are some factors in which this house is not ideal in the long run:

• It has three bedrooms, but they're on two different levels (one being the basement) and on opposite corners. This works okay with one child and maybe two, but not for long.
• The layout is a bit weird. I'm going to spare details on that because I don't want to go to complaining territory. Suffice it to say I can see why certain traditional layouts stand the test of time for family function.
• There are too many huge projects which might not be worth doing for how long we want to be here and for how much we could stand to gain on attempting them. Our main bathroom will need to be gutted; it's unlikely we'll ever take down the horrible paneling in the basement, but horrible it most certainly is; these windows, they're a curse. Etc.
• One-car garage. Actually, for us right now, and probably forever, no-car garage. Bleh.

So, my next house, in five years or so, must have:

• Budget-friendliness! Of course.
• Move-in readiness. We're just not fixer-uppers.
• Four bedrooms, all on the same floor and away from main living areas.
• Two-car garage.
• Good location, whatever that will mean at this unspecified time in the future.
• No mice, ever. 
• And on my "dare I hope?" list: a true master suite, kitchen with lots of counter space and a pantry (what a dream!), big back yard with a nice deck.

So, that's my wish list. My dream list would be much, much longer, but that's not the point. One thing I've learned as a grown-up is to think about what would be the least it would take to make me happy and then shoot a level or two higher than that. Life is too full of disappointments to have unrealistic goals.

No Whining

Making a point to post every day presents the danger of this blog becoming a place to do nothing but vent and whine. And while I could definitely come up with something to vent and whine about every day, I don't want that for this blog.

Therefore, I will not:

1. Even bring up the topic of sleep and how no one's getting nearly enough of it around here. 
2. Remind everyone that I know it will get better, but that doesn't really help me when all I can think to do is literally ram my head into a wall.
3. Even THINK about complaining that Erich seems to travel all the time and wonder why I ever complained about his absences BL (before Lily).
4. Mention that the sight of my house, everything out of place and still unfinished from having some work done a few weeks ago, makes me want to cower in a corner and sob a bit.

Whew, we can all be glad I'm not going to whine about any of that.

Instead, let's enjoy some pictures of autumnal beauty from before that cyclone came through and blew all the leaves off the trees:

Picture Unclear

You know these puzzles, where everything's scrambled but you can only move one piece at a time until you get everything in order?

Yeah, that's what my life feels like right now. Most of the time it's a fun challenge, but other times I start to wonder whether I'm just doing the same five moves over and over again and whether I'll ever finish.

In many ways, Erich and I complement each other extremely well, but, as I know I've said before, one thing that doesn't work out so perfectly is both of our tendencies toward procrastination. We're currently finding ourselves in a situation where we have to get a huge list of things done in a relatively short amount of time, so we have to kick our organization up into high gear. If getting ready for a baby didn't involve the physical rigors of pregnancy, this might be a bit easier, but never let it be said that I won't take the bad with the good!

We moved in early June, when I was about eight weeks pregnant. Now, I know I would have been slow to unpack even at my most vivacious, because I really hate moving and packing up and moving was exhausting, and living in a new house is overwhelming. But the stress of the first trimester meant I was even more exhausted than usual, needing at least a nap every day and feeling like a zombie regardless. As the exhaustion of the move wore off, we started to get discouraged about how much there was to do with the house, and how our priorities had to change. For example, the A/C stopped working and we had to decide when to get that fixed. (Luckily, it looks like we can put that off till next year.) Then Erich went to do a "simple" (haha) re-grout job on our downstairs shower and discovered mold. That shower is now demolished and we're thinking we could/should just redo the whole bathroom since we also hate the wallpaper. Luckily the toilet, sink/vanity and lighting are all new and fine.

Meanwhile, outside of the bathroom drama, which has extended to our upstairs bathroom as well with re-caulking, leaks, and an ornery toilet, we absolutely have to get our baby's room ready. It's currently set up as a guest/junk room. Even though Lily will probably sleep in our room for a few weeks or months, we need to get her room ready before she's born. But I can't do her room before I have places for the stuff that's in there! And here enters the puzzle. This is what I've been doing and plan to continue doing:

1. Organize all basement clutter into laundry room (in progress, going well)
2. Empty second bedroom of all non-baby-related items and throw away, give away, or integrate into organized laundry/storage room (in progress)
3. Uninstall shelves from second bedroom closet, move or store elsewhere
4. Patch holes from shelves and paint closet interior
5. Purchase and install new closet organization system
   

While this is happening, Erich will be doing the following:

1. Select and purchase tile, shower pan, and fixtures for shower
2. Remove wallpaper, patch drywall where necessary
3. While we're at it, remove horrible wallpaper from upstairs entryway, prime and paint everything
   
4. Install durock, cement, etc. to studs for shower
5. Install tile and fixtures, replace floor and ancient light switch
6. DONE. Easy, right? (Riiiight.)

Back to the baby's room:

1. Paint
2. Move queen bed to basement as temporary guest quarters for live-in help with newborn
3. Magically come up with baby furniture, assemble and arrange
4. Purchase and install closet doors
5. Supply baby

Meanwhile, we also hope to replace the carpet in the living room/dining room, master and second bedrooms with a hardwood laminate. It seems to make the most sense to do this before baby's arrival.

Baby's due in three and a half months. Erich is remodeling a bathroom while balancing a full-time job and two grad school classes. I plug along as much as I can, but I'm already feeling encumbered by my rapidly increasing size. We may be crazy to try to get so much done, but our motivation level is very high. We can do it!

(And if anyone wants to help, you know, we'll gladly accept. We're not too proud for help, oh no indeed!)

A/C Rant

As you all know, we moved this summer. And as you also probably know, it's been a very mild summer. When we moved, the high temperatures did not get above the low 70s, and we were glad for that. Then, in late June, the temperatures soared to the low 90s, and it was finally time to run the air conditioner. Erich had replaced the thermostat and programmed it. We flipped it to "Run" and the system whooshed on.

And it kept running and running, but it never got any cooler. That's when we knew there was a problem.

Since the seller (let's call him Mr. C for "curmudgeon") had certified in a signed document that the air conditioner was working during the last cooling season "to the best of his knowledge," we figured we could cash in on the home warranty from Home Warranty of America that came with the house. Incidentally, the garage door opener which had been working suddenly stopped working. Erich identified the problem as a stripped gear, undoubtedly owing to the advanced age of the mechanism. We had HWA contract people to fix the a/c and the garage door opener.

The HVAC guy they sent was a bit of a drama queen. He opened up the unit in our backyard and immediately asked me if we got a home inspector. Of course, yes. And did he tell us the a/c worked? Since I didn't remember him saying that it didn't work, I said yes. With a sigh, he declared, "It doesn't work. The freon is empty, which means there must be a leak." FRICK. He refilled the freon but wasn't authorized to do a leak check, so he couldn't guarantee how long the refill would last. I was at least temporarily satisfied because our house was finally being cooled. We also had the garage door fixed (for a $100 deductible) and it is still working fine.

About three weeks later, we came home from vacation and found that the air conditioner was not working. The HVAC Drama Queen had warned me that HWA probably wouldn't cover any repairs since the a/c never did work for us--it would be considered preexisting, and therefore not covered. So rather than contact HWA again, we went to our realtor. Understandably, she did not make this problem a high priority, so almost a week later, she talked to a rep at HWA. This rep told her that Mr. C's signed document claiming the a/c worked should be proof enough that this was not a preexisting problem.

HWA sent the same HVAC guy out again, who was authorized to do a leak check ONLY. He found the leak, but not before walking past me a few times saying, "Oh, this is going to be bad news for you guys!" Thanks, love the attitude. He informed me that it would cost us approximately $1800 to fix the leak and bring the whole system to updated efficiency standards. And he couldn't even refill the freon to give a poor pregnant lady a break without charging me a bunch of money. I sent him on his way.

We whined again to our realtor, who contacted HWA again and talked to the higher ups who claimed to have gone "to the top." They informed her that the broken air conditioner was a preexisting problem, and no signed documents would change their position on that, which contradicted what our realtor had previously been told. Any repairs would be completely out of our pockets. They also ever-so-kindly mentioned that they shouldn't have even covered the repair of the garage door opener since it was caused by rust damage, which is also preexisting. (Uh, no that was a stripped gear, you dingbat.)

Hearing this made me pretty much lose it. That's when it became utterly clear, and please pay close attention:

Home Warranty of America is a complete racket and a waste of money.

I strongly urge anyone who's reading this and selling their home to stay as far away from the home warranty racket as you can. It is worthless and the people are extremely rude. Why should they be polite or attempt to keep anyone satisfied when they already have their money? What good did it do them to inform us they shouldn't have covered a $200 repair that we still had to pay $100 for? If I had known they saw that as charity, we would have canceled the warranty right then and gotten a brand new garage door opener for about as much as it cost to repair it.

You may be asking the question, "What about the inspector? Why didn't he find this problem?" And you are right to ask that. We have come to find out that because it was 60 degrees out when we had the home inspected, the inspector couldn't test the a/c because it was below 65 and to test it could have damage the compressor. Thanks to the bleeping time of year we bought our house, we couldn't have known the a/c didn't work and couldn't have demanded Mr. C fix it before closing.

Our last hope was to send an inquiry to the attorneys, to see if we had any right to demand anything from Mr. C for his busted air conditioner. That query sat in their offices for three weeks until today when they finally informed Erich that we would have to start a lawsuit to get any money out of anyone. This does not surprise me, but it sucks nonetheless.

This topic is so infuriating and upsetting, I'd better wrap it up before I become little more than a damp, quivering mass on the floor. I decided today that I really, really cannot take this heat and humidity and wait for fall. It could very well stay this hot through October, and I'm not becoming any less of a human furnace. So, with a baby on the way and numerous other plans for our stretched budget, we have to bite the bullet and get a new air conditioner (and completely replace a shower, but that's another story).

Renters, count your blessings. And everyone: never forget,

HOME WARRANTY OF AMERICA IS A BAD COMPANY AND A WASTE OF MONEY.

Holy Moly! I Have a Blog!

It has been over a month since my last entry. That's a bit weak, even for me. It just feels weird to think of blogging when I'm still living out of boxes. Actually, I'm pretty much just walking around boxes filled with non-essentials by now. The stuff I need to live is put away. I really need to get to work on unpacking much more purposefully, but it's just so hot.

Oh yeah, the move went well, the closing is...over, the best thing about it. We have our house and we still like it. We have fresh paint in some rooms and dire need of paint in others. We discovered a few days ago, when it finally got hot in this part of the country, that our A/C does not actually cool the house. It runs, it blows, but no coolness. Luckily, it turns out our house came with a warranty, so it should be covered. And once it's less than 80 degrees in here, well THEN I shall get to work on unpacking in earnest. Mmhmm. Yep.

But that's also why we got a house with a basement. It's about 75 down there, so we're not doing too bad. That's cool enough to play Wii (which Erich got me for my birthday a month ago... gee, it HAS been a long time!) and ignore boxes!

This week brings Music Camp at church--a new and improved Singing School! Remember Singing School? I was such a young, unmarried blogger then. Sigh.

Almost-Our House, Part 3: The Downstairs

Time to go down to the basement!

The open, turning staircase is rather inviting.

At the landing, we can see a glimpse of the casual living space.

Now down the stairs, we have a good view of the fireplace.

Now I'm standing on the fireplace facing the stairs. The back of the house is to my right. You can see that the bathroom light is on to the right of this bookcase.

Now I'm standing on the fireplace in the corner.

Now I've turned toward the left. You can see the extensive family room with a wetbar at the end and an opening to the laundry room. The berber carpet is relatively new and the drywall ceiling has recessed lighting. Unfortunately, not all the wall are drywall. That will be a fun project for later! Let us now visit the least-glamorous room in the house. The laundry room!

Here's a view from the doorway. Good, spacious and finished laundry room!

This is standing by the washer and turned right. There's a hanging bar! I haven't had that since I moved out of my parents' house. Hooray! Just barely off the right edge of the photo, there's a folding door that hides the water heater and furnace.

Close to the laundry room door, another folding door opens to unfinished storage space under the stairs. The water heater and furnace are behind me in this photo.

Now I'm standing by the wet bar, facing the back of the house. Those window treatments will be gone even faster than the paneling.

Blinds open, this is the back door. The window on the left is the third bedroom.

I've turned to the left. The sliding glass door is to my right, the fireplace is behind me. The left doorway is to the bathroom, the right is to the third bedroom.

A peak in the bathroom reveals a shower, a toilet and a vanity which is larger and apparently newer than the one upstairs. Oh, and wallpaper. Its removal is not urgent, but it will happen sooner or later.

And here is the view from the door of the third bedroom. It really doesn't feel like a basement bedroom, and that's nice.

And here's a view from the inside, looking out the windows.

And that's pretty much it!

Almost-Our House, Part 2: The Back

I open with this picture. This is the dining room light fixture. I don't like it, but I love this photograph. I wasn't even trying to be artsy or anything; I just like the way it turned out. Thank you, camera!

Okay, I'm standing in the middle of the living room, facing the front of the house.

Now I've turned to the right, and you can see how the living room is a bit wider than you might first think. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the back of the upstairs from the entryway, so you have to use your imagination. We are already calling this the "piano nook," because it is really the only interior wall that makes any sense to put the piano. The coat closet is on the other side of the short wall on the left.

Now I've stepped closer to the piano nook to get a better view of the extent of the dining room. It's really not large, and considering the lack of table space in the kitchen (on the other side of that white wall), I'm surprised that doesn't bother me, but it truly doesn't. We'll just get a nice big dining set for our next house.

Here's this dark photo with me standing near the dining room table. Off the frame is the rest of the desk under the window and little TV stand. This would be a nice sitting area for us.

Here's a closer view of the deck/balcony. The vertical strip things (can't remember what they're called) are too far apart for current code, but that can be dealt with until we eventually replace and enlarge the deck.

And now I'm standing on the deck looking in.

And here's a view of the deck from the ground. The sliding door on the left goes to the living room; on the right is the master bedroom. It's time to visit that bedroom.

My back is to the front of the house and I'm standing in the doorway to the master bedroom. The sliding glass door is on the right.

Now my back is to the sliding glass door. We have a queen-size bed, as is the one pictured, so it will definitely fit easily.

Now I've turned to the left. The small closet you can see has a counterpart facing it. The light you see is coming from the bathroom, which is also accessible to the hall and is the only upstairs bathroom.

This is a view of the floorspace, standing near the bed. The closets and bathroom door are to my right. The bedroom door is also on the right, further back.

This is the view out the window.

And out the door.

And now I'm facing the doorway, and this is the hallway. You can see the second bedroom at the end of it, the bathroom door is just outside the master bedroom door, the linen closet is beyond that, and the basement door is the last door on the right before the second bedroom.

This is the view of the upstairs bathroom from the master bedroom, standing between the closets.

And this is the view from the hallway. Yes, it's small, but much like with the dining room, I find myself oddly not caring. It's a compromise, but there's no such thing as a compromise-free home.

Almost-Our House, Part 1: The Front

These following posts are experimental (a.k.a. probably pretty boring, but it's my blog, so there). I hope to properly order tons of photos I took at the inspection of the new place so that one could get a good idea of the layout. We shall see if it actually works. Also, this will function as the "before" photos--before we get in and make it our own!

I'm standing on the front porch, looking out.

Now I've turned around and am facing the front door.

This is the front door. I'm standing on the edge of the parquet floor of the entryway, which curves around to the entrance of the kitchen, which is just to the left of the edge of the photo.

I have turned slightly to the right. Behind the wall of the entryway is the door to the second bedroom. Let us enter.

This bedroom is currently an office. I am now facing the front of the house.


Turning to the right.

And to the right again. This shelving area will be returned to its former closet-y glory. Now we will turn slightly to the right again to walk out of the second bedroom and return to my position at the edge of the entryway.

This is turning to the right from the previous shot from this position. The open basement door blocks the doorway to the second bedroom. You can see the linen closet just to the right of the basement door in the hallway. The mirrored coat closet faces the front door. In the reflection, you can see the dull light of the second bedroom, blocked by the basement door.

Now I'm standing by the basement door and facing the front of the house. See the kitchen? Let's go in.

Standing in the kitchen doorway, I'm turned to the left. The longterm plan for this wall is to cut it down and put in a peninsula with built-in cabinets. You can see the door to the garage on the right.

I've turned to the right, and the garage door is now open (okay, this was actually taken a different day). The amount of cabinet space is not impressive, but they are new and therefore include a whole bank of drawers. I really, REALLY appreciate drawers since I've been living with only three tiny ones in my kitchen for the last year and a half. There's a microwave on top of the fridge. That's just not right. The view out that window is the same as the view from the front porch and from the second bedroom window, for we are still facing the front of the house.

I'm now standing by the garage door and fridge, facing the back of the house.

Turning to the left, observing the wall that is not long for this world. (Of course, we'll have to save up the cash over time to actually do the project. Not even counting the mortgage, buying a house is expensive!)

Turning left again. Here you can see where parquet meets carpet in the entryway and a hint of the basement door. You can also see Erich's diligent note-taking.

Turning leftward again. The stove is the oldest appliance in the kitchen by far. Do you think a microwave/vent hood combo would fit above it? Really, do you? Prove you've read this much by answering my question. Go on... prove it!