Paintpalooza, Interrupted

Given that we planned to be holed up for the weekend due to Hurricane Irene, Dan and I figured it would be a good time to get some painting done. Before we got started on Saturday afternoon, Dan added a drain stopper to the bathroom sink and replaced part of the stopper mechanism underneath.

From there, he picked up some more paint supplies from Home Depot (battling the pre-Irene crowds) and then it was time for Paintpalooza to begin!

We decided to start with the bedroom. First step, wiping down the walls.

Followed by some taping. . .

. . . and then putting up primer. This was my first time with the paint roller, and I was super excited to get that rolling action going!

Dan took care of priming the trim.

Once we got going on priming the room, we really started to get into a groove. Despite the fact that heavy rain from Irene was pounding down outside, we had a nice little soundtrack of The Weepies and John Mayer going in the background. Everything felt happy and cozy in our soon-t0-be-freshly-painted bedroom. Paintpalooza was off to a good start.

At one point, Dan disappeared into the basement to rinse a brush in the utility sink. I kept painting away, singing along and perfectly content when I realized that Dan had been gone a little too long. When I came downstairs and called Dan's name, I heard a voice from the basement calling, "We have a problem." Uh oh. Being that it was pouring rain outside, I realized right away that the aforementioned problem had something to do with water. In the basement. And it was then that Paintpalooza abruptly came to an end.

This is the point the bedroom was at when things came to a halt. As I write on Monday evening, it still looks exactly the same.

Most of you know what happened the moment we abandoned the painting project for the weekend, but what you don't know is that I snagged some pictures. Yes, dear readers, I was thinking of you even in the immediate aftermath of my first basement leak crisis. Check in soon for the photo recap of all the soggy action.

The Belated Weekend Recap

We've had a very busy week. . . sorry that I'm behind on posts!

Last Saturday, we were extremely fortunate that Dan's Uncle John (along with Jen) came to help us out with our HVAC. He spent five hours helping us make some repairs and leveling the A/C unit in the back of the house (which was an extra nice thing to do considering that he had to go under the deck and be assaulted by drainage and mosquitoes). He also helped us take care of the sump pump drainage pipe so that it actually goes out into the yard and not under the deck!

We are so grateful for all the help we've received, whether it be help from friends with moving, some financial help from our parents, an upcoming trip that my mom and stepdad are making to help us with repairs, housewarming gifts, congratulatory cards, lots of good advice, or just kind souls listening to us wax on endlessly about our house projects. We are so blessed to have so many supportive family and friends willing to help us out and to celebrate with us. It might take an entire village (and a lot of patience and hard work), but we'll get this place how we want it soon enough!

In addition to playing around with paint colors and getting some help from Uncle John last weekend, Dan took care of a few minor repairs.

One minor annoyance in the basement was the door to our laundry area, which would not latch closed. It could be latched on the outside with a latch at the top of the door, but this was not much help if we were inside the laundry area and wanted to close the door behind us to keep the cats out. Dan took a metal file to the opening of the strike plate and. . . voila!. . . we can now close the door using the doorknob, inside or outside, no additional latch required!

While he was at it, Dan also made the same repair to the door of the basement bathroom, which would close but not very well. It also has an outside latch at the top of the door; in fact, we learned from the seller at closing that all of the basement doors have these outside latches because a previous owner used to run a daycare out of the house. Yet another interesting tidbit about our new home!

In the master bedroom, Dan took down all of the wire shelving in one of the closets (which left no room for a closet rod). It left behind a huge mess of nail holes, but last weekend he got all the nails and hooks removed and everything patched up.

One thing that's been annoying me since the day we moved in is a slight drip from the faucet of our kitchen sink. Dan took care of that on Sunday. It took two trips to Home Depot to find the right replacement part, and we had a scary moment there where the cold water wouldn't turn off at all(!), but all's well that ends well and we now have a drip-free kitchen sink.

This weekend, everyone here is holed up anticipating the approach of Hurricane Irene, so we're hoping it will be a good chance to get some more work done. Dan's making a run to Home Depot now to pick up some paint. We're hoping to get started on some painting in the bedroom and the dining room. I'm very excited to get started on something that has more to do with decorating than with fixing or cleaning things!

Color Contemplation

Before I begin discussing paint, it is very important for you to know that I have been waiting approximately 15 years to paint walls. I'm pretty sure that I asked my mom if I could paint the walls of my bedroom in high school. Ever since then, I've contemplated painting the walls of my apartments but it either wasn't allowed or didn't seem worth it. I am, therefore, simply elated that I now have my own walls in my own house that I can paint however I like. I have decided to not be afraid and to put color in pretty much every room!

Dan plays around with the many, many paint chips we've accumulated over the last few weeks

Over the weekend, I got started by putting up a few sample colors on the walls.

Putting up primer to prep for testing a new blue in the bedroom

Which one will it be? (Actually, they both look poopy brown in this picture, but the paint was still wet and I assure you the colors look much better in person!)

I got a little overzealous with this one. I love red but this one was too much even for me!

If we can manage to clear our calendar, we're hoping to have a bit of a Paintpalooza this weekend. One upside to the stalling of the floor refinishing is that we can paint without being overly stressed about getting paint on the floors, so we figure we might as well take advantage of the time and get some colors up. We're "testing" samples in several rooms and have been contemplating colors this week. I'm so excited to cover our walls in a fresh, clean coat of paint and to add some personality to our space!

Floor Update

So. . . the floor guy called and rescheduled. For a week from today. We were also informed that most jobs are booked a month to a month and a half in advance, which would mean it could be October until our floors are done (for the other estimates that we got, in most cases they could start in a couple of weeks). The thought that our floors might not be done until October makes me want to run at breakneck speed to the nearest hotel and refuse to come out until winter.

We're tentatively keeping the appointment, but right now, we're on to researching Plan B, which is to remove the paint from the floors ourselves and then bring in someone to do the refinishing. There are a number of ways we can remove the paint (or, if push comes shove, hire someone just to do the paint stripping), so we have to research all the options and, of course, make sure we are taking all the proper precautions.

Weekend updates coming soon. For now, I'm ready for an evening during which I think about anything but the house. Instead, I vote for tea. And Trader Joe's old-fashioned graham crackers. And a cheesy movie. I'll try to post some updates (complete with pics) in the next day or two!

Judgment Day

Today is the day that we are scheduled to have the-floor-guy-who-should-know-what-he-is-doing come to take a look at our floors and give us an estimate. Please keep your fingers crossed that a) he does show up and that we like him, b) he really does know what he is doing, c) he gives us a reasonable price, and d) he can get started, like, tomorrow. Or at least in the next couple of weeks.

If he doesn't work out, we do have a plan B (and even a plan C and a plan D), so I'm not in a panic. Still, it would be extra awesome to get this done already, so I will now openly beg the Universe: Please, please let this work out!

Dear Sellers

Dear Sellers,

In most respects, I am a compassionate person. I am no angel, but I try to do the right thing, to practice empathy, to give people the benefit of the doubt. I try to remember that, being recently divorced, you were probably in a state of emotional turmoil. That having four boys must have been a major handful. That perhaps you did not have the money to keep things up as you wanted to. These are the things I tell myself in my kinder, gentler moments.

And yet, as I uncover more and more things in this house, I can't help asking myself, "What is wrong with you?!?" When I ran into you last week and you asked me how things were going, I wondered what I was supposed to say. Should I tell you that things would be going a lot better if the house hadn't been left a disgusting mess? That we might be unpacked by now if we hadn't had to immediately remove the urine-soaked carpet that you left behind? That we haven't been able to stop wondering how you prepared food in that kitchen or took a shower in that disgusting tub?

And then, yesterday, a new discovery that has to make me wonder exactly what you were thinking. After wondering what makes it so buggy in our backyard, we discovered that the drain from the sump pump, which is supposed to direct water away from the house, is actually directing the water right under our deck, resulting in a continuous pool of standing water. Even more baffling is that there apparently was an effort to drain the water out further into the yard, but there was a critical element missing. . . there was the original pipe leading from the house, and another one leading out further into the yard, but they were not connected. At all. In fact, they were several inches from each other, as though the water from one pipe would just jump into the next one rather than dumping out right next to the house. Honestly, I don't understand why you even bothered.

We fixed it with a quick trip to Home Depot and a few minutes. Just like we've fixed so many things here that were neither time-consuming nor expensive. Like putting in a new air filter, which probably had not been done in many years. And taking a scrub brush to the toilet. And remember that kitchen hardware you left behind, all the drawer handles neatly wrapped in their original packaging with screws included? Turns out, all you have to do is open up the plastic and use a screwdriver to put the handles on. In case you weren't sure.

In the end, while standing next to you in the natural foods store, my compassionate, polite side took over. I told you that things were slow going, but that we were getting settled in. I told you about some mail we had received for you and left it for you to pick up the next day. I wished you well and went back to picking up items off the shelves.

But I have to tell you, there are moments in my head where that scene plays out quite differently. Here's hoping that, the next time I see you (which I inevitably will in this small town), my kinder, gentler self continues to keep the other parts of me in check.

Our First Leak

So let's face it. . . this house was bound to have a leak, right? I figured that, if there was going to be one, it was most likely going to be from either the skylight or the window box in the kitchen. Sure enough, we had a super hard rain a couple of weeks ago and noticed the water trickling down above our kitchen sink.

Granted, we would prefer that our house fall under the banner of "no leaks," but if we had to have one, this was a pretty good one to have. It is a) not the roof, b) not in the basement, c) not the skylight, and d) not from plumbing or a major appliance. It only leaks a bit onto the windowsill, and it's in the kitchen, and it can probably be easily repaired with a bit of caulking, so these are also good things. And, as an added bonus, it only happened this one time. Despite the fact that we have been soaked with torrential downpours the last couple of weeks, it hasn't happened since. There must have been something about the wind-downpour combination that made it happen that day, so we're hoping it's not likely to happen again (though we'll still fix it, of course).

In extra good news, with all the crazy rain we've had, if there was going to be another leak, I'm pretty sure we would have found it now. So far, we are dry and clear. Whew.

What's Lurking Behind

Every time Dan and I begin to clean or fix something, we always have a cringing moment where we hold our breath and wait to see what we might find. So far, we've found lead paint under the carpets and the grease behind the stove. In the heater's humidifier, we found a moldy filter that hadn't been changed in several years (extra gross, and luckily, we have not yet turned the humidifier on).

There was the dishwasher, behind which we found bottle caps, matchbox cars, and magnetic letters. I'm still trying to figure out how those got back there.

Behind the washer and dryer, we found the usual suspects: socks, lint, dust. But we also found candy wrappers, a mummified orange peel, and a dessicated banana peel. Ewww!

At this point, we've just about pulled up and pulled out everything, so we're hoping there won't be any more major surprises (or old food). We're in a bit of a lull with the house projects until we make some progress on the floors, but for the most part, the cleaning is done, and we're gearing up to start painting soon. And in good news, the heating element for the oven arrived and Dan put it in place, so now it appears that all of our kitchen appliances are working--yay!

Accentuate the Positive

I feel as though I have spent way too much time complaining and focusing on the negative things about our house. In case anyone's been wondering. . . yes, we knew what we were getting ourselves into. It probably seems like our house is just falling apart, but really it's just a lot of little stuff (and a LOT of cleaning), along with a few major things (like a really old furnace) that we were aware of before we took the leap. This isn't to say that we don't likely have some "surprises" lurking somewhere, but even given everything, we are certain we got a great deal on this house and that it will soon be the perfect place for us!

And so, I'd like to take some time away from all the negatives and tell you a few things I'm really loving about our place so far.

1. Our Neighbors
Our house is one of about six or seven clustered together right across from the elementary school. It's nice because this grouping instantly creates a little boundary to our block and gives some definition to who our most immediate neighbors are. We've already met most of them, and they have all been so nice. I have never been greeted so warmly by my neighbors or felt that they were more eager to meet us! You can tell that people really love being here, and it's been so nice to be welcomed into the fold.

2. Our Finished Basement
For the last four years, I have been waiting for a place to put the litterboxes besides our office. Hallelujah, is it nice to have a place to tuck those things away! The storage is awesome, too, and Dan is so excited to have a space down there where he can have his own quiet writing nook.

3. Our Trees
In our last place, we looked out the window and saw either the wooden fence surrounding our porch or the back parking lot. In the apartment before that, we had an equally stunning view of a busy street and a billboard. Here, even though our yard is small, I look out my window in the backyard and I can see trees! And squirrels! And lightning bugs! Trees were high on my list of things I really wanted, and it makes my heart so happy to look out the window and see so much green.

4. Our Creaky Floors
I suppose this is something that should fall on the "negative" side, but for me hearing occasional creaks on the wood floors reminds me that I live in an old house with so much history. I love imagining what it must have been like when the house first went up in 1928, and who its first inhabitants were, and thinking about all the people and families who have called this place home. At some point, we're hoping we can do some digging around at the Borough office and see if we can find out more about the history of our house!

5. Our Town
I've said it so many times and I'm sure I'll say it again, but we just love Media and would have been heartbroken to leave it behind. Every time we walk out our front door and realize we are only a couple of blocks away from the library, or our favorite pizza place, or a cozy coffee shop, or Trader Joe's, we can't believe that we actually get to live here for good! We feel so fortunate that this lovely little town is going to be our home for many years to come.

Happy Birthday, Dan!

When I asked Dan what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said, "I'd like to hang out in a house that's all fixed up, but that probably won't happen." And, indeed, that did not happen. Still, we took a bit of a break from all the house chores to have some down time and celebrate with a DQ ice cream cake!

Aside from finishing up the kitchen cleaning, we didn't get much else done, though Dan did pull up some of the leftover carpet padding and tacking on the floors upstairs. Sunday was a super rainy day, so it was the perfect day to lounge, and it was nice to spend some time doing normal things like making dinner, reading, and enjoying a cup of coffee.

We'll be back to work ASAP, but given that today is Dan's birthday, I'd say he more than deserves a day off. And I'll probably take the day off too, because of course he'll need my help finishing off that cake! Happy birthday, Dan!

YES!

After three weeks of cleaning and disinfecting and degreasing, after replacing and repairing appliances, after fixing drawers and reattaching cabinet doors, after enduring sights and smells no civilized person should have to endure, I am happy to say that the kitchen is finally clean. And unpacked. And a perfectly sanitized, unsmelly, suitable place to eat food.

It's a little hard to capture in photos how much progress we've made, but believe me when I say that it feels like a totally different place. I spent hours and hours and hours working on this room unsure that I would ever be able to stand it, and it turns out that, once it's clean, it's not so bad.

Elsie seems to approve

We've still got one cabinet door missing, but at least it's only one!

We might actually eat in here now!

We still have lots of work to do, and it's not exactly the kitchen of my dreams, but I seriously feel like my quality of life in my house has risen about ten times over. I feel so much better about things even though the rest of the house continues to sit in boxes until we finally tackle the floors. Getting this kitchen into a usable state is, by far, my biggest accomplishment so far since we moved in, and I'm so glad to finally have made progress on something after spending weeks in there!

Dan and I never got around to seeing "Harry Potter" for the second time last weekend, so we're headed there tonight. I'm definitely celebrating with some popcorn for dinner! :)

We Almost Had a Working Kitchen. . . .

Dan and I were so excited to finally have the elements of a working kitchen: new fridge, new dishwasher, a clean stove and cabinets. Then, while Dan was cleaning the oven, he noticed that one of the heating elements was hot. Unfortunately, it shouldn't have been hot since the oven hadn't been on for over 12 hours. And that's how we discovered that we have a broken heating element.
The good news is that it's an easy fix. Dan took the old one out. . .

and now we just have to wait for the new one to arrive. Unfortunately, that won't be for at least another week, which means we'll be without a stove for at least another week. I am so ready for home-cooked meals and so tired of the microwave and take-out, so this is definitely a bummer. Oh, well. Two steps forward, one step back, but we'll get there!

The Floor Guys

As soon as Dan and I confirmed that we had lead paint on our floors upstairs, we knew that we were going to have to be careful about who we hired to do the sanding and refinishing. Since we decided to go ahead and get estimates, the people we've contacted have basically fallen into three camps:

1) The Blank Starers
These are the guys who come highly recommended on Angie's List, respond to our inquiry right away, show up on time, seem to be knowledgable, and give us a great price. Then, when we ask them about how they will handle the lead paint, they give us a blank stare, followed by comments about how they will put tape over the vents and blow the dust out the window. Um, no.

2) The "No Way"ers
These are the guys who respond with, "Sorry, we don't do that." No further explanation--or if there is an explanation, it basically amounts to something along the lines that dealing with lead paint is just not worth what they would have to spend on the equipment needed, or that they only do floor installations but not refinishing. The e-mail equivalent of a "Hell no."

3) The "I Just Like Extra Pieces of Paper"ers
These are the guys who have gone to the trouble of getting EPA-certified to deal with lead but apparently have no real intention of putting that cerification to use. They can do it, but they don't want to do it. Which makes me wonder why they bothered to get certified in the first place.

We've put out over a dozen inquiries and have found one and only one company that is certified by the EPA to deal with lead, that does floor refinishing, and that was willing to schedule a time to come out for an estimate. However, even when I scheduled that appointment, the receptionist I talked to said, "He [the guy who does the floors] is certified to deal with lead but I don't know if he likes to deal with it." So she was going to check with him and let me know if for some reason he wouldn't do it. So now we're just keeping our fingers crossed that the appointment for the estimate (which is scheduled for the 22nd) will still stand.

We're going to keep digging around so we're not hanging all our hopes on one company (and so we can get more than one estimate), but right now it's hard to be too hopeful about finding someone else who can do it. We can't believe how hard this has been given that a) there are literally thousands of EPA-certified companies in the Philly area (but not many of them do floor refinishing) and b) the majority of the homes in this area are older, meaning that there's lots of lead paint out there and that we cannot be the only ones with this problem. I suppose people either hire the "blank starers" or just put down carpet.

I, for one, am not ready to admit defeat. I did not buy a 1928 house with original wood floors to cover them in carpet, always knowing that beautiful floors are lying somewhere underneath all the carpet and paint. In a metro area of over 6 million people, there has got to be at least one person out there who will refinish our floors the right way, and we will find that person!

Until that happens, this whole thing has got us pretty frustrated and stressed out. Could we please at least get this part started so we can hold out hope that one day we will be sleeping in an actual bedroom and not on the dining room floor? Sigh.

Weekend Recap: The Never-Ending Kitchen Cleaning

I spent most of the the weekend (still) cleaning the kitchen. I am so tired of cleaning the kitchen. Thankfully, Dan jumped in to help me (he's been tackling a number of other things), and we finally made some good progress.

To start, Dan took care of reattaching cabinet doors, fixing/putting back drawers, and making sure everything has hardware! We still have one doorless cabinet, but other than that, we finally have doors and drawers that are intact. Woohoo!

In order to transform the cabinets from something from my nightmares to something I'll put my dishes in, I undertook a four-step process of a) cleaning/degreasing with Krud Kutter, b) wiping down everything with a vinegar solution, c) cleaning with disinfecting wipes for good measure, and d) lining everything with contact paper. After about 100 years of cleaning, we have finally made some progress.

"But Jenn," you may be thinking, "this room looks like a disaster!" Yet, if you look more carefully you will see that there are some dishes in the cabinets! Yay! This is HUGE progress from my previous unwillingness to even touch them. Between that, the clean stove, and the new fridge and dishwasher, we are finally well on our way to a usable kitchen!

Of course, we still have lots more to do when it comes to unpacking and organizing. . .

. . . but we're getting there!

Weekend Recap: Lots of Visitors

This weekend was a busy one, and an exhausting one, and it was punctuated by lots of servicemen coming in and out of our house! Not everything went quite as smoothly as we hoped, but so far we seem to have averted disaster. . . .

On Saturday, the HVAC guy was scheduled to show up between 2 and 4. At about 3:55, he finally came. We were scared of this visit, knowing that our system is old and that the sellers were lousy at maintaining a house. As the service guy cleaned our system, there were lots of "Oh my God"s. . . which I would have chalked up to drama on his part except I know how many times we have said that about other things we've found. It appears that our system has not been serviced in many years, which is not too surprising (we were anticipating this, which is one of the reasons we had someone come out only a couple of weeks after we bought the house). We got a couple minor repairs and a cleaning done (that poor guy had quite a job to do), and there don't appear to any major issues, but as he reminded us, the system is 17 years old and is likely to be on its last leg. Of course, we already knew this, but we are tired and at this point would prefer to just stick our heads in the sand about it. The good news is that it works for now, so we'll just keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way!

On Saturday, we were also scheduled to have our dishwasher delivered between 4 and 8. At 7:45, we started to worry that it wasn't coming, and at 8:00, I made some calls. The dishwasher (and its deliverymen) finally showed up around 8:45, at which time I was already showered, in pajamas, and very much ready for bed after an exhausting day. There was a moment where we thought the dishwasher might not fit, which was scary, and then once they got it in, they ran into a couple issues. Apparently our countertop is sagging--not enough that it's putting weight on the dishwasher, but enough that they noticed it while putting in the dishwasher. In addition to that, they were only able to mount the dishwaser on one side because they kept hitting tile on the other, so they couldn't screw it in. Yet again, we were reminded of the fact that much of our kitchen is old and crappy. Nonetheless, we are very excited to have a beautiful new dishwasher--yay!

On Saturday, we were supposed to have someone come to give us a quote for refinishing the floors, but somehow there was some miscommunication and he rescheduled for Sunday. Another person who was supposed to come Sunday called us to cancel after looking more carefully at the e-mail we sent him and realizing that we have lead paint, which he is not equipped to handle. So we made zero progress on the floor refinishing on Saturday, though we did get two quotes yesterday. On the upside, they both gave us quotes to refinish the whole house (both upstairs and down) in a price range that we can handle. On the downside, they seemed to have no awareness of how to properly handle lead paint despite the fact that we made it very clear from the beginning that we have lead painted floors. And so, we are back to the drawing board.

The floor situation is extra frustrating because we feel as though the entire house is being held hostage until we get that sorted out. We don't want to move anything upstairs, so we're stuck sleeping in the dining room, and we don't want to unpack much because it will all have to be moved once the floors get done. The quotes we got this weekend made us think that we might be able to afford to get both the upstairs and the downstairs done, but we're not sure since clearly the whole lead situation was not factored into the price, even though it just means an extra piece of equipment (a HEPA vacuum attached to the sander). Until we know what the price might be, we don't really want to unpack much downstairs, either, because we might go ahead and get that done, too. So we are just stuck waiting. And searching for someone who knows what the heck they're doing with an old painted floor.

Livin' for the Weekend

Dan and I have been anxious to get to this weekend, not because we will have lots of time to relax, but because we are anxious to get some things done! Our roster for the weekend is pretty busy, and we're going to have a number of things going on.

Later today, our new dishwasher is being delivered (hooray!), and we are also having someone come to inspect the HVAC system, which we are sure is going to at least need some routine servicing. In addition to that, someone is coming this evening to give us a quote for the refinishing of our floors upstairs, and we have two others coming to give us quotes tomorrow.

In between appointments, I'm hoping to keep tackling the kitchen, so hopefully we'll make more progress with cleaning, lining cabinets/drawers as needed, and getting some more things unpacked. We also might try to tackle reattaching cabinet doors, fixing the tracks on some of the falling drawers, and replacing missing hardware, but we'll see how much time we have.

I hope that we might also get to some things in the basement. Dan shampooed the carpets down there on Thursday night, but we still need to clean the laundry area, and at some point we really must brave cleaning the basement bathroom (after the upstairs bath and the kitchen, I think we've had about all we can take, so we've been ignoring that for now).

Aside from more cleaning inside, we've got to take care of some things outside. . . namely, mowing the lawn! We haven't bought a mower yet, but our friends a couple of blocks away kindly offered us theirs to borrow, so hopefully we can take care of that soon!

I'm not sure how much of this we'll actually get done, but I'm hoping to at least touch on these things in the next two days. Luckily, we'll still be able to have some fun this weekend. We're going to a friend's house tomorrow for her son's birthday, and at some point we hope to reward our hard work with a second trip to see "Harry Potter" before it leaves theaters. Yay!

And now off to work. . . .

The Grody Room

I have to tell you that, in all honesty, I really don't like a lot of things about my kitchen right now. Things are slowly getting better, but I just can't shake the feeling that it is icky. The stove was a greasy nightmare, and the fridge smelled like spoiled milk, and the dishwasher is black inside, and some of the cabinets are falling apart, and it's proving to be difficult/almost impossible to get the countertop grout clean of grease, and the grey grout makes the tiles look dirty even if I do get them clean, and the floor was cheaply (and rather poorly) done, and I don't like the white square vinyl, and I hate the fluorescent lighting.

On top of that, right now our backyard is really buggy (due to, I think, a combination of needing to cut grass/cut back brush and the fact that it is really damp outside our basement door in an exterior stairwell), so if we open the back door of the house (off the kitchen) we end up with several mosquitoes in the room. Lovely.

None of this exactly adds up to "a place where I would like to prepare and eat food." I know it will get better, but quite frankly, I'm getting really tired of cleaning it. I just want to wave a magic wand and have the damn thing livable already.

Granted, it is much, much better. There is, of course, the addition of the shiny new fridge, and we have gotten a significant amount of cleaning done. Even after my several hour battle with the stove, however, our stove top still looked icky. Thankfully, thanks to the suggestion of a friend, Dan took a razor to it and finally got it looking pretty close to new!

In continuing kitchen sagas, Dan and I couldn't help but notice that, even after my best efforts to clean the stove and the areas around it, the kitchen still smelled like old grease. It occurred to me that part of the problem was likely that there was lots of grease that we couldn't see, and that there was a good chance this grease was behind and/or on the sides of the stove. As terrified as I was to even think of what we might find, I suggested to Dan that we should probably pull the stove out from the wall.

While I was over at our apartment on Sunday finishing up some cleaning, Dan decided to tackle pulling the stove out by himself, which is one of the bravest things I can imagine as I was filled with horror just thinking about it. When he called to tell me what I found, he said, "I almost threw up." And believe me, if Dan almost threw up, then I definitely would have lost my entire lunch, hands down, without question.

This is a picture of what Dan found after he had already given it one good wipe down.

AAAAH! Dan said there were actually bits of food in a lot of the grease (gag!). I can hardly even look at this picture, and I'm so glad I wasn't there to see it. Luckily, since it wasn't cooked on like the other grease, it came off pretty easily and is now finally clean. And, with that, the ever-persistent old grease smell in our kitchen is almost completely gone (we still have some cleaning of the cabinets to do, and it will probably need some more airing out before we get rid of the smell entirely). So disgusting. I find it extra unfair that there is so much animal fat in our kitchen and we are vegetarians!

All of this has left me feeling like the kitchen is just a horrible place to be. The other night, Dan and I were eating ice cream and I told him we had to have it in the living room because I didn't want to eat it in "the grody room." As we get it cleaner and cleaner, my feelings are slowly shifting, and I know soon enough it will be just fine, but I am really anxious to get to that point. This whole my-kitchen-induces-nausea thing just hasn't been working for me. Yuck.

Something Shiny and New

There are many things about our old house that I love, but with all the things we're cleaning and fixing, it was definitely exciting to see the Sears truck pull up on Sunday with our brand new refrigerator inside!

Goodbye, old stinky ugly fridge!

Shiny new fridge for the kitchen--hooray!

Where'd All This Stuff Come From?

After we got everything moved in on Saturday and returned the truck, we walked in the front door into this:

As we were unloading, we didn't really have much of a system for where to put things (not having had time to really think about it), so it was kind of a disaster. Not only did we have random boxes everywhere, but we had also put the kitchen table in the front room for everyone to eat pizza at after we moved, so we even had furniture in the wrong place!

When we were unloading, we also didn't want to move anything upstairs because of the whole floor situation. We've known that we are probably going to have to either refinish the upstairs floors or lay down carpet, so we figured it didn't make much sense to put things up there until we get that sorted out and decide when we want to move forward.

So. . . in the meantime, this is our bedroom (a.k.a. the dining room). So cozy and inviting, isn't it?

Over the weekend, we were too exhausted to get much done, so most of the boxes just sat in our living room, pretty much guaranteeing that it became difficult to walk anywhere or find anything. On Monday night, after being unable to locate my packed underwear (though luckily I had a couple extra pairs handy), we decided enough was enough and finally got around to sorting boxes and getting some space cleared.

We're still sleeping in the dining room, but at least we can get upstairs to the bathroom without any serious tripping hazards. And the TV is set up, so we can now begin inaugural viewings of "Harry Potter" in the new house. We must celebrate the small victories when we can, right?

Goodbye, Apartment

On Saturday, Dan and I packed up the apartment and, with the help of some awesome friends, made our way with a truck full of stuff over to Front Street. Things went pretty smoothly: our truck was there as promised (we have not always been so lucky), the actual move only took two and a half hours, and we finished up by 11:45, missing the hottest part of the day. As our stuff slowly disappeared bit by bit from the apartment, the cats appeared a little confused but seemed to take it in stride.

A relaxed Elsie dozes in the sun

Nessa hangs out in the cat bed

Hey. . . where did everything go?

I can't say that I was terribly sad to say goodbye to this place. We primarily chose it for the location, which was great, and it was clean and everything worked fine, but it did have some features that I bid an enthusiastic farewell to.

This terrible, purplish, multicolored industrial-grade carpet is definitely something I could have done without. I did what I could with an area rug, but it always bugged me.

This tiny, TINY kitchen. Dan and I couldn't really be in here together at the same time. See the black dishwasher to the right of the sink? When I opened it to load or unload, the door blocked things so that I couldn't get to the sink--or half of the cupboards--without standing on my tiptoes and reaching so much that I sometimes hurt my back. I will definitely NOT miss that.

Obviously, this sign is in need of some TLC, but I must say that I will not miss having an address that reads "314 Rear." Every time I spoke my address aloud and said "rear," it just didn't feel right. Because nobody wants to say, "Oh, I live in the rear." I'm just sayin'.

Ironically, after living in the Rear, we now live on Front Street. I'll consider that be a sign that, in true Jeffersons style, we are movin' on up.