Friday, July 23, 2010

They say it's your bday (HIATUS)

Hi everyone! I'm taking a quick hiatus because there's some craziness going on in my neck of the woods. Today is my birthday along with the arrival of M's sister's new baby so there is plenty of celebrating to go around. Tomorrow we're headed up to the lake for a day of relaxation that cannot come fast enough.

Oh! You know the house hunting from the last post?!?! We picked one!!
I am so excited. The inspection is on Monday so if everyone can please cross their fingers that all goes well I would appreciate it. If/when that's finished the closing date is Aug. 25th.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone, I'll be back soon!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Moving up...eventually

I have to say, house hunting is an exhausting process. In my last post I mentioned how we've been looking since October. We were prepared and did a lot of research, even pinpointing the city and neighborhoods we'd love to put down roots. But trying to make this happen is a whole different ballgame. We loved the first house we looked at, but of course didn't want to put an offer on it because it was THE FIRST HOUSE and isn't that a big no-no? But we figured at least we knew what we really wanted and kept looking. Then the "perfect" house came on the market, we fell in love with it and found ourselves dreaming about it...then someone else put down an offer and bam! it was off the market.

Just like a new relationship...you fall head over heels with someone, but then they break your heart and there you are picking up the pieces when it hurts so bad. It makes it hard to love again because your guard is up and it's going to take some serious effort to knock it back down.

There was another house, what we've dubbed the "kitchen house" because this kitchen makes you so giddy and in love and wanting to have it's little kitchen babies. In reality the downstairs is amazing and perfect for entertaining, there's a great backyard and you think that's it. But the upstairs needs serious work, the master bath & closet will need to be completely redone and the owner is asking way too much money for the thing.

So we sat. We did all kinds of research on this house, the owner and why he didn't want to bring his price down. The word divorce was thrown around and after reading Dooce's posts on the crazy lady they bought from it made me almost run away screaming. But the kitchen, the beautiful kitchen with the sub zero fridge, the separate freezer, the double oven, the island that seats six.

...

Then yesterday we saw a different house. I was wary, thought "eh, I see so many things I'd like to change". But it's priced to sell, and those around here go within a week. And after spending almost an hour and a half touring the house I tentatively started warming up to it. The layout is perfect, the high vaulted ceilings, the master bedroom, the laundry chute, even the backyard. I want to get excited, but I'm so timid, worried my heart is going to get ripped out again.

Dream kitchen vs. decent kitchen w/amazing pantry
Landscaped backyard vs. larger slightly noisy backyard
Mirrored closets vs. california closet walk-ins
Xmas tree bay window vs. cascading staircase

Is one better? What can you upgrade for cheap and what's going to cost an arm and a leg to change? My head hurts. People normally get a starter home for their 1st but we're looking for a house we can settle down in. Put down roots, raise children. We're going to discuss this to death. I know that if either one of these houses is not the right one it will present itself to us but I don't know how much more I can handle. Pro-con lists will be my friend tonight, I can feel it. And hopefully we can both land comfortably on one side or the other.

Homeowners, how did you know your place was "the one"? Was there a feeling or did it take you a little time to know it was right?

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

"I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come on, Squishy. Come on, little Squishy. Ow. Bad Squishy, bad Squishy."

Sounds of water running.

Jaws dropping.

Feet hitting carpet...squishing.

Frantic phone calls.

Waiting what seems like hours, days.

Shop-vacs sucking.

Fans whirling.

Silence.

Last week my washer proceeded to flood. Well scratch that, let's start at the beginning. It all starts the same way, I start to remind M that it might be a good idea to wash his towels. He tells me that they are JUST FINE and I disagree saying they smell, which is apparently something only someone FEMALE can smell and ends with him relenting. To be nice I offer to let him use my washer & dryer because you don't actually have to pay for each use in quarters and we're on our merry way.

That is until this time. We put the towels in the washer and proceed to make dinner and once we eat I go to check on the laundry. That's when I hear water still running, see water in the bathroom and feel that squishy yucky (hot!) water under my feet. In that second I'm frozen until the only thing I can do is yell "M!!!!!" He runs for more towels, I call the emergency maintenance line for my apartments and then I wait. And wait. Stupid phone line is actually a pager so someone has to call me back. Luckily I get the call back soon but then proceed to wait until they finally show up.

But they did and were surprisingly helpful. One round of the shop-vac and them telling me how great it was that I caught the flooding early. Two days of fans drying out my carpet, I now have that sound of industrial strength fan buzzing through my ears at a moment's notice.

My poor downstairs neighbor was not nearly as fortunate. She wasn't home for most of it and the maintenance people had to poke holes in her ceiling to get the water to flow...and flow it certainly did. But we're now back to normal with no indication it happened in the first place.

Yikes, I don't know how people deal with this when they own their own home. Still wish we could find the perfect one, we've been on the search since October.

But in much happier news, have you voted for LiLu to be MTV's new Twitter Jockey?!?!

LiLu for MTV TJ

Please please vote for her, she's one of my first commenters on this blog and I love her dearly.
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