Moving moving... moving...

I've decided to move and rent my house.  Partly financial, partly in hope of what else is to come in life.

This is a hard choice because I love having my own space and my own house.  Course it would help if I was there more often so I could get more done.  Since Jake and I have been serious I've spent more time at his place than at my own.  It's getting to be an expensive place to keep my belongings rather than my home.

Financially, in order to afford my new car, this makes sense too.  I can make a profit off of renting rather than just scraping by.  All in all, it makes sense.  Plus I'm renting to someone I know and trust so I'm not so worried about that.  Still, it is a bitter sweet.  I don't feel like I've been able to really settle my life somewhere.  I feel like I have been on the move or just not quite settled enough to really take a deep breath and relax.  I haven't felt like that in a long time.  So hopefully just a few more moves before I get that feeling.

So where am I going?  Theo will be vacationing with my parents for a while.  He'll be so pleased to be with my mom, whom he loves, and have a grand old time bullying my dad to put him outside on his tether so he can spend time communing with nature and possibly catching birds.  Whitman will be with me "at Caitlin's house".  My things will probably be all over the damn place again.  My parents will probably get some and I'll bring some to my sister's house.  Then I'll have some with me wherever I am at the moment (probably Jake's).  So again, unsettled.

Hopefully it isn't forever though.  My sister is going to go through some treatments so maybe I can help her out at home some.  Or at least not stress her out more.  That's the goal.

I have to say though, I am purging my stuff FOR SURE this time.  Where do I get this much stuff?  I have no idea.  I honestly think that some of my stuff gets together and buys the rest of my stuff a drink and then more stuff is born.  I would like to get rid of 2/3 of everything I own.  I am not really materialistic so I wonder where I got all this.  It will feel wonderful to shed myself of anything I haven't touched in the last year.  That's quite a bit of stuff.

I MUST do this because I am not moving all this crap again.  I HATE MOVING!  You wouldn't know it though since I end up doing it all the time it seems.

Anyway, here's to the future!  Homeless again!

The house!

I am thankful for my house.  I know it will never be completely done.  It will forever need work of some kind but I'm thankful I get to call it mine. It is mine to do with what I will and it feels very adult to own a home.  When did that happen?

Six months later and... MOVED IN!

The house.  It is sea worthy!

We first saw this place and it was a wreck and I can tell you I was not happy about it.  I walked in, looked around, and said hell no.  I did not want it.  All I saw was a lot of work that I am largely useless for.  I did not want to bite off more than I could chew.  At that point, I was ready to live in my car and be done with it. But my parents talked me into it and I'm glad they did.

After lots of work, thank you Mom and Dad, this place as turned into a cute little house.  Bought it in October and finally got to move in.  It is far from done but again, sea worthy!

While I was shooting videos for my certification, my family got together and just moved my things into the house.  That was so kind of them.  Honestly, if I didn't know it already, I have the best family in the world.  Or they were just tired of me things cluttering up their house haha.  But now, I think that they are wonderful and selfless.  I'm a lucky girl.

I don't know if the house will ever be free of projects, that's kind of what you get when you buy a house that is over 120 years old.  But I've grown to love it.  I love the floors.  My mom did a wonderful job staining them a dark walnut color that is beautiful.

Once I've actually unpacked everything, which is a process that is also never ending, I will post more pictures of the finished product.

Thoughts

I've said it before and I will say it again.  Daylight savings is like a kick in the gut.  I hate it so much.  Now my sleep is going to be really out of whack making it even harder for me to get it back on track.  Plus I'd rather have the sun up earlier when I'm getting up rather than it being up in the evening.  Why must we meddle with things we don't understand!  Isn't time one of those things us humans shouldn't be messing with?

Got a lot of good work done at the house.  Should be ready for move in next week.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I had hoped this weekend but the sanding and polishing the floors took longer than we thought.  Every project seems to.  After that I am just going to move in and continue to do small projects around the house.  I just so badly want to live there even if that means I'm still doing small projects while living here.  Honestly I don't think the house will ever be 100% done.

Happy birthday to Astrid, my partner in all things dog.  Just to let you know, I saw your comment on my last post and you're never too old to reach your potential.  You are an inspiration.

I got a second interview for Best Friends.  It is another phone interview on the 20th, which seems forever away.  The first interview was with the general HR person I guess and then she passed the information on to the Dogtown managers.  They contacted me by email last week to set up this second phone interview.  I have no idea what to expect but I think if this one goes well they'll invite me out for two weeks to do a trial period.  The thought of that requires me to do a lot of deep breathing to keep myself calm.

Angie did an announcement about it at the training apprentice meeting on Friday.  Man I'm going to feel horrible if I do end up leaving.  The people in that program are such a huge part of me feeling like I've made a place for myself.  For a long time I felt like I didn't have any connections to anyone until I joined that program and really let myself over to it.  I admire and love so many of the people I've met through the training program.  For the first time since high school I feel like I have people in my life that really know and care for me.  It means a lot to me and I don't contemplate leaving that lightly.

Plus, Angie has given so much to this program and found so many of us apprentices sticking around for more than six months and more than a year because of what she gives.  I have never found anything as rewarding as this and believe me I spent years looking.  Before I met Angie and started this program, being a dog trainer was just this silly little dream that no one really believed I'd really pursue.  But it was something I wanted so badly and something that gives real meaning to my life.  Without finding Lucky Dog University I wouldn't have gotten to do it and see my dream realized.  I am working to turn it into a career thanks to what I have learned and the path I've found.  I can't imagine leaving it all.

I guess we'll have to see what shakes out.  No one ever really knows where the path they are on is going to lead.  Which is terrifying but I think that we should strive to see it as exciting opportunity more than terrifying.

It's time to get my third tattoo I think.  I've wanted it for over a year I just haven't gotten around to scheduling an appointment for it.  I want "Not all those who wander are lost" (from Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien) on the side of my right foot.  I know it will hurt like the dickens but I really really want it.  I really never believed that tattoos are addicting but I guess they are because I have at least two more I want, including this one.  Then after that I really should be done because I'll have run out of really good places to put them.  Which is a shame.  My mother will be happy though.

In other news, I am all set to get my second certification through the CCPDT.  This one is the Knowledge and Skills certification so I have to upload a video of me actually training a dog.  I'm excited about that except for the fact that it was a nightmare getting myself signed up for it.

A while back my email was hacked and I lost a lot of emails I had been holding on to.  Course I didn't know what I had lost and what I hadn't.  So the cut off for signing up for this certification was March 2nd.  Come February 25th I went looking for the email they had sent me with my first certification in order to get the password to confirm I was eligible.  No email.  So I got to the website to request another one.  They say call this number and email this email.  So I call the number and leave a message and send an email.  No response.  The next day I call again.  No response... this goes on all week until I'm finally getting pissed off and contact the CCPDT directly.  No answer.  No call back.  Nothing.  I try this for a week and the deadline goes past and I still haven't heard back from anyone.  I was so mad.

Finally I heard back on March 4th with an email saying, sorry but the deadline has passed and we can't help you.  If I wasn't pissed before I certainly was then.  I went all they way to the president of the CCPDT about it because I shouldn't have to be punished for very poor customer service.  Keep in mind this is not the first problem I've had with them.  They wouldn't update my address for a while and had me in CT at one point.  Just stupid stuff like that.

They did put it right though so I'm all set to go for the KSA.  Astrid is also ready to go for it though she had a much easier time of getting set up.  She's the good one, haha.  So we're going to meet at some point this week and figure out how to do it.  We have three things to train with a dog and an owner then one thing to train a dog alone.  Should be lots of fun and hopefully we both get certified.

Anyway, I think that's about long enough.  I should probably pretend like I'm doing work even though it is so uninteresting.

Nearing the end

It has been a long road and I am never ever doing it again.

I am talking about remodeling a house of course.  But we are nearing the end which is exciting.  Things are starting to come together and it's starting to look like a liveable space.  We have had bad luck with the several people we've hired to help us though.  They keep getting sick and that has really delayed things.  We were supposed to put the kitchen together this weekend but the floor guy got sick and didn't lay the linoleum on Friday like we thought.  I try not to be too irritated but yeah I kind of am.

Things that were accomplished this past week was the wall patching and gutters.  I am not a fan of the gutters at all.  They were supposed to be the same green as the trim but turned out to be much lighter.  So we're going to have to paint them.  Really dislike the color they are now.  That will probably have to wait until spring though.

Since the wall patching was mostly done, we did get started painting.  My mom has been helping me pick out paint colors which has been exceedingly frustrating for me.  I am not really into colors and I don't have the patience to look at a zillion colors that start looking the same to me.  Plus I tend to like dark colors and apparently that is just really out of style for smaller rooms.  Whatever though, it's my house.

So I chose a dark maroonish reddish color for the dining room.  At first my mom just wanted to paint one wall that color as an accent but accent walls actually kind of drive me crazy.  I won out and we started painting the dining room.  I think it looks wonderful and that's all that really matters isn't it?

Before.

After.

See?  I think it looks pretty nice.  Very warm and vibrant.  And you can't get much worse than how it was.  In the before picture up there you can see that the dining room and living room are painted the same greenish minty color.  Not a bad color but WAY overused.  It's like walking into a dinner mint.  They painted the whole big space and ceiling that color.  Way too much.  So I think the red is a huge improvement.

We're going to paint the trim another white color too.  I haven't decided if the living room will be the same red color and then the arch in the middle will be an accent color.  I don't want to follow in the previous owners' footsteps and paint everything the same color.  Dull.  So we'll see what I feel like when that dining room is completely finished.

Hopefully soon we can get the kitchen in and the bathroom.  Then the floors need to be sanded and retouched.  Beautiful wooden floors that just need some tender loving care.  What am I saying?  The whole house needed some tender loving care.

God I can't wait to be done with this and move in.  Life will actually feel normal again.

Curious about the house?

I don't actually know if anyone is curious about the house but I realize I haven't updated about it in a while.  Probably because I'm busy a lot of the time and haven't been so in love with working on the house.

That said, my parents are lovely and much more talented than I am and have been making huge progress.  I have a hard time really helping out because sometimes I feel I can hardly be trusted with a hammer half the time.  Yes I have hammered my fingers many times during this remodel.  I shutter to think about what horrors I could accomplish with a table saw.

Anyway, update on the house:

As you should know, I decided to paint the outside trim a dark green.  I love that color and was very pleased.  However, my mom was very insistent that we needed more colors.  So a tannish/light green was added and then eventually a purple.  I am not a huge fan of purple and wasn't entirely tickled about it but my mom promises she'll repaint some of the purple green.  She went a little crazy with the purple if you ask me and I am not in love with it.  The front of the house is painted so it looks very nice.  Not the same in the back but we ran out of warm days to paint.  When it warms up a bit we'll finish up with the back.

Gutters are going on today!  FINALLY!  My house will be protected in the rain.  They will be the same dark green color as the trim.

Getting bids on the fence as we speak.  I refuse not to have a fence when I move in because I want to make sure Whitman is contained.  He's less likely to wander off than Gerani, surprisingly.  But he is much more likely to get into trouble than she is.  Although Whitman has really grown up and I don't think he'd bite anyone anymore, I still would rather do right by him and have him contained for his safety.

Inside has really come along.  The vents and what not from the new furnace have all been covered with drywall, thanks Dad!  Also walled off the door from the front bedroom to the kitchen to give us more wall space to work with.  We're getting those resurfaced either Friday or the beginning of next week.  We decided on linoleum for the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room.  It would take too much time to strip those floors back to the original wood.  That goes in on Thursday.  This weekend we're going to be putting in the cabinets and get the kitchen actually looking like a kitchen.

So it's actually coming right along and there should be big progress soon.  I'll start getting excited when it actually starts looking liveable.  Right now it still feels like a big project to me.

I'll be over there later today working so I'll take some pictures and post those later.  Anyone who wants to help with painting inside, I do plan on having a painting party not this weekend but next weekend.  Pizza and drinks provided!



I was reading this article from the Gazette online about researching the past of your house.  Very interesting and really something I want to do.  My house is over a hundred years old... about 120 years old I think... and must have some interesting history.  Once I actually move in and get my life settled I'm going to definitely look into doing some research on it.  Cool article.

Many wonderings

I haven't been doing a whole lot lately other than working and working on my house.  We're trying to get it up to snuff before an inspection on Monday of the construction loan.  Let's see, the heat went in and they were able to get a furnace in downstairs and run ducts up to the ceiling.  We need to enclose those ducks but I'm glad that they were able to get vents in.  Painting is ongoing.  The blue trim on the house is now becoming dark green.  I love it!  Can't wait for that to be done.  The new windows are in and the plumbing is mostly done.  I need to get some pictures and post them.  I just haven't gotten around to that.  A house down the street sold for almost double what I paid for mine so that's good to know.  If I can get this all fixed up and nice I should be able to make some money off of it.  That's not the point but that's good to know for sure.

In other news my phone stopped taking a charge and died.  Then one night it half charged so I spent the weekend jealously guarding my phone battery.  It always seems when suddenly you aren't able to use something like your phone, all of the sudden you need to make all these phone calls and check your email.  Being disconnected sucks.  What sucks more is when you lay down several hundred dollars for insurance and then when you go to use it you're told you don't have any insurance on your account.  Such bullshit because I did buy it and found the receipt to prove it.  Anyway, so I called them to say I needed another phone on Thursday I think it was and the guy told me that I could either spend several hundred dollars for another phone, be out of luck until April when I get my upgrade or buy a phone on eBay.  Talk about good customer service.  So Friday I called again and I was very pissed.  The guy explained to me that Verizon contracts insurance out to other companies so that there was no way for him to get to the insurance that I had purchased so I would have to contact the other company.  Then he couldn't tell me what that company was.  That's when I got mad and pretty much told him that it was their responsibility to honor any insurance that they sell in their store.  He folded like paper and sent me a phone for no charge.  I was so angry at them.  They just try to cheat people.  Anyone not paying attention would have been screwed there.  And for those of us who don't have any other phone besides the cell phone, it's not like we can go much longer than a couple of days without that phone.

The new phone came when I was at home for lunch but of course it takes forever to get a new phone organized the way you like it.  Now suddenly my Simcard isn't reading properly in the new phone so after work I am going to go in and make them fix it.  And heaven forbid anyone is mean to me I still have a lot of pent up poor customer service rage so they better watch it.  Normally I am very nice to people in customer service because I know what it's like to deal with problem people who are just assholes regardless.  But when I feel like someone is trying to pull a fast one on me I get rather grumpy.

Top it off I got a flat on Saturday morning.  Luckily it was at home and my phone had just enough charge to call my brother-in-law to help me fix it.  Yes I know how to change a flat.  I just physically do not have the strength to do it.  So I had to take my car in to get the snow tires put on (wishful thinking probably) and get the flat tire patched up.  Sadly, that meant I couldn't go to the mountains and chop down my Christmas tree like my family always does.  I hated missing that tradition.  But my parents brought a tree back for me.  I haven't decorated it yet but when I do it will actually start feeling a little bit more like Christmas.

I love seeing Christmas lights everywhere.  It just makes me so happy.  Though I have to say I HATE the big inflatable decorations.  They are so ugly!  Please, just don't put a giant inflatable Santa in your yard because it just makes me want to pop it, which isn't very Christmasy of me.  I've been listening to Christmas carols as much as possible.  Bing Crosby is the king of Christmas if you ask me.  I'll probably decorate the tree with White Christmas playing.  I love everything Christmas.  Most of my shopping is done too so that's nice.  More time I can spend working on my house/

Anyway, that's a good post for now.  I keep meaning to post then other things get in the way.  Like sleep.

Free time? What's that?

Things to do.  I've got a lot of them.  Updating my blog seems more fun though.

I went up to Denver this weekend to get a wood burning stove for my house.  Of course, as soon as I get home with the HUGE thing, I find out my aunt is offering me a free gas fireplace.  As much as I want the ambiance of wood burning, a gas fireplace would be more practical.  I wouldn't have to clean it and it would heat the house much better.  Problem is, can I get a gas line put there and can my family truck it to CO from St. Louis when they come to visit?  Dunno.  And of course I have this giant stove I just bought.  So... May resell that one and put in the gas if I can get the gas line put in.

Other house news:

I spent much of this weekend shopping for lighting fixtures.  My mom took me down to the Habitat for Humanity warehouse thing downtown and we got some nice light fixtures down there for a good price.  I got tired of looking at them quickly though, especially because I thought a lot of the lights there were incredibly ugly.  Lots of brass and I think brass looks tacky.  So does everyone else really because they're taking them out of their houses as they remodel.  But I got two fans so that each bedroom can have a ceiling fan and a pretty nice chandelier for the dining room.  Then I trucked off to Home Depot to buy the rest of the light fixtures I needed so that the electrician can finish up.  I am worn out on shopping for lights.  I can only do things like that for so long before I burn out and get to the point where I don't care anymore.  Not the best thing when remodeling a house.

The heat now works.  That means we will be able to work there after the sun goes down.  It was bloody cold in the house so very little work was getting done.  Now that the electricity should be squared away and the heat is on, it will be much easier to work.  Next I just need to get the fence done so I can bring the dogs over while working.  That will make everything easier.

I just want the thing to be done, as I keep saying.  Anyone up for pizza and painting may be taken up on it.


My time this week is pretty much spoken for so I won't get much time to work on the house.  I am working and training almost every night.  Then on Thursday going to Twilight with friends.  Then on Friday I have a rescue meeting then my firearms course starts that evening.  I am so excited for this because it has been a long time coming but man it is going to make for a very long weekend.  It is from Friday at 6am to midnight, Saturday 8am to 10pm, and Sunday 8am to 6pm.  Talk about a crash course.  After this though I'll buy a gun, maybe two.  I want to be able to carry it in my car and have another to keep at home.  That also means getting two solid and easy safes as I do believe in owning a gun in a responsible way.

So although I may not be around on here much this week I'm still plugging away at life.

More house stuff

I admit I haven't been able to do too much at the house lately because I've been SO busy.  Maybe a little lazy too.  Though right now it is hard to get much done there because there is no electricity, no heat and no water.  The electrician has his work cut out for him so it is going to take him a couple more days to get the wiring straightened out and the electricity back on.  Everything is kind of waiting on that.  My dad is probably going to redo all of the plumbing because he is amazing.  And then we are getting the furnace in next week.  Good news with that is that they are going to put the furnace in the cellar instead of the ceiling so it is available for maintenance and such.  Vents will go in the ceiling so we'll have the stack against the wall in the living room.  The backyard isn't ready for a fence yet but we're almost there.  The two shacks in the back were demolished and taken down.  The one in the center we kept.  There is a lot of potential with that.  If I can safely get heat out there maybe I'll do an office out there.  Which would be a little strange but hey it's kind of cute.  The new porch looks great and I'm happy we went with concrete over wood because it will last longer.

A couple more pictures:

Porch before

Porch after

Sheds in the back

Goodbye shed on the left

Goodbye shed on the right

I want to add that I got my first piece of mail at the house a little while ago.  A gift from my aunt.  Thank you for the wall stencil Aunt Pam!  I can't wait to put it up.

I just want the house to be done so I can live there already.

My toes are freezing!

I got wonderful news in my email this morning.  Apparently a wealthy Nigerian businessman passed away recently and he has no family so he chose me as his sole beneficiary!  I can't believe it!  Millions for me to collect if I just send this very helpful but not so literate in English mystery person all of my personal information!  It is like winning a lottery I didn't enter!  ...  Please.  How do people fall for this?

In other news, I was up for most of the night with a twitchy leg.  It was quivering and twitching all night and kept waking me up.  It sounds like nothing until you're actually contemplating cutting your leg off so you can finally get some decent sleep.  I did find one position that was okay if I held my leg a certain way.  Then I would fall asleep and move so then of course in about 45 minutes I would wake up again.  It was still twitching a little on the way to work but now it has stopped.  Angie says I need to eat more bananas.  Usually I have about 6-10 bananas a week in my smoothies but I haven't made them this past week because I've been so tired and cold in the mornings.  So I need to get back into that and keep up with my smoothies.  That or cut off my leg.  Either or.

Speaking of being cold in the mornings, I am absolutely freezing right now.  Today is supposed to be 70 degrees so I am wearing a handkerchief skirt and my small slip on shoes and only brought a light jacket.  Since I park in my brother's garage my car stays fairly warm so that usually is enough to get through the morning chill.  Today however I took the dogs to LD and then stood outside chatting.  So that made me cold.  Then I blasted my heat in my car all the way to work so I was nice and toasty but then I get to the office and the AC is on to 60 degrees.  Doesn't sound cold but it is frigged because it blows right on me.  So I am sitting here shivering.  My toes are so cold.  I may go track down my sister and steal her sweater and put it on my feet for a while until the cold air cycles out of here.

It is true I would rather be cold than hot but that doesn't mean I enjoy being freezing cold while I'm sitting here pretending to work.  Even my fingers are cold!  I want a blanket!

The flu study at work is FINALLY over!  No more working Sundays.  No more dealing with the crazy flu people as much.  Thank goodness.  Since I worked yesterday I have tomorrow off!  YAY!  That is a good thing because I have about 15 things on my to do list that I can only do at home.  Since I spend the majority of my time outside of home that doesn't help me much.  And the best part, I get to sleep in tomorrow!  That means I'll probably wake up within half an hour of when my alarm would normally go off but it still counts because I won't have to listen to that damned alarm.  Days off are a blessing!  Though I still train in the evening so it is not a complete day off.  Still makes me happy though.

House news:

Pretty much finished ripping up the flooring that needed to be ripped up.  Found some gnarly flooring under the carpet in the spare bedroom.  It made me laugh because I can't imagine anyone wanting that on their floors.  We'll be laying new carpet in the bedroom to cover this and then getting new linoleum in the bathroom, kitchen and laundry room.  Someday I'll lay down tile but for now, linoleum will do.

I spent a lot of time pulling nails and hooks and screws out of the walls this weekend.  It was astounding how much was in the walls and just randomly everywhere.  I would have loved to see what was going on when the previous owners lived there.  It must have been a hodge podge of just everything imaginable.

My mom has been working hard in the backyard to make it habitable.  I really want to get that done so that I can bring my dogs over more often.  If my dogs could be there more I could work on the house more because I wouldn't have to go home to take care of them every so often.  Right now though there is just so many nails and random junk around that it isn't safe.  Not to mention that the fencing is extremely unsafe.

This week a lot of stuff is really starting to happen at the house.  At this moment concrete is being poured for my new porch.  Cheaper than a wood porch and I won't have to replace it in a couple of years.  Also it will be nice to be able to use the front door again without climbing up and jumping out that huge hole.  Tomorrow the electrician will be rewiring from top to bottom so that we can use the electricity in the house without burning it down.  The sheds in the back will be getting bulldozed either tomorrow or the next day.  Then this weekend we will be scraping the outdoor trim and repainting that before it gets too cold.  Though... it is supposed to snow on Friday so we may have to put that off.  I am going to paint the trim that is blue now a dark green.  The gutters that we put on will also be a dark green.  That should all happen fairly quickly here.  And we have also made the decision to put in a furnace instead of doing electrical heating.  I kept going back and forth but at this point I just need to make a decision and get some heat in that house so that it isn't unbearable to work in.  Windows will be done hopefully next week or the week after.  We are still getting a couple of bids there to see what we can afford.

I feel like things are really starting to get going on the house, which is fun to see.  I feel overwhelmed by it and I've been so busy that I have hardly been able to do anything on it.  Thank God for my parents who have been there almost every day doing something.  They are incredible people and know MUCH more how to do this than I do.  I would be so lost without them.

Flooring in the walk in closet

Flooring in the bedroom

Dad hard at work

House snaps!

I have had no thoughts lately.  The thoughts that I do have run toward how tired I am.  What I wouldn't give to just have one day where I can do nothing but sleep.  Alas no.  I have too much work to do and a house to remodel.

I wanted to get a lot more of the remodel done but seems like it is going to be a slower process than I wanted.  Mostly for monetary reasons.  The big projects we absolutely have to get done are going to cost a lot of money.  I decided that I'll put off more in the kitchen in order to get new windows.  The house is going to be a bitch to heat so if I spend the money on the windows now I can save later hopefully.  One thing for sure, I can't keep the windows that are in it now.  I don't know how the people who had it before me lived.  They had no heat except for a wood burning stove and windows that probably give the same protection as plastic wrap.  They must have froze their asses off.  I am not that crazy so I need a heating system that works and windows that will hold that heat in.

Pictures of house and remodel...  Finally...

Backyard.  Demolition starts next week.

Looking in from the front door.  The arch is my favorite part!

Kitchen.  *Shutters*

Kitchen getting ripped out.

No more front porch.

I'm a home owner!

Finally!  It has been a long road.  I was just thinking about what I was doing a year ago and comparing it to where I am now.  I certainly wouldn't have guessed I'd own my own home.  Things change a lot in a year and we're not always aware that they are.  It's a strange thing.

At lunch today I signed my life away.  It was a huge stack of papers but it only too about half an hour to sign the whole thing.  Now that I own my own home you might think I understand what goes into purchasing a house but no, I still really have no idea.  I admit I relied heavily on my parents to figure it out for me.  I just signed the dotted lines.  Very adult of me I know but hey, it's complex.

So now a quaint two bedroom house is mine.  Granted I can't live in it until it is remodeled so it doesn't feel all that real at the moment.  Maybe when the remodel starts it will feel more real.  Or maybe when the remodel is finished.  Or maybe when I move in.  Or maybe when I've owned it for several years.  Or maybe when I'm ready to sell it will it finally sink in that I have a house.  Mine.  I could paint every inch of it black if I wanted to.

I am more excited about customizing it the way I want after my aunt's visit.  Seeing how excited she was made me excited too.  I can't wait for my wood burning stove and a cozy kitchen.  I didn't think those would be the two things that I would pick out.  Well yes to the stove but I didn't think I'd care as much about the kitchen.

I also can't wait to get the backyard perfect.  I'll have my fire pit set up and can you say smore roasting party?  YES!  And maybe a small garden where I can grow my own veggies.

... I really am much more domestic than I thought I was.  I guess that's not shocking considering I am such a home body.  I feel like pieces of me have just been waiting for this moment since I was independent enough to want it.  A place that was mine.  All mine.  Finally.

Going over there tonight so I'll take some pictures and post them.  We have to be sure to get the before and after pictures because I'm sure it will be quite a contrast.

Yay!  And you just know as soon as I get it all just perfect I'm having a party!  Oh yeah.

Whirlwind Weekend

That was a whirlwind weekend.  I need a couple of days to recover!  Good thing it is Columbus Day...  Wait... I'm at work...

...Columbus Day is a stupid holiday!  I didn't want it off anyway!  It's not like he did anything important.

So this weekend started out with a double puppy class for me because a few people missed last class so I was kind enough to come in and do a quick catch up for them.  It's not something I mind doing at all but I do tend to get irritated when people ask me to do them and then don't show up.  Luckily that didn't happen this time and they showed up.  I can tell they haven't been practicing much at home (yes your trainer can tell when you don't practice) but they seem engaged in class so they come out on the positive client list anyway.

After class I went home and put together a shopping list.  Since it is getting cooler I am breaking out the crock-pot.  I like the idea of putting together crock-pot meals six to eight at a time and freezing them.  That way in the morning before I leave for work I can pop them in the crock-pot and they're cooked by the time I get home.  See, in the interest of eating better I'm coming up with an effective plan of attack against the nights were I tend to eat poorly, coming off of my 13 hour day where I am just TOO EXHAUSTED to even contemplate cooking.  Enter the crock-pot in all it's crocky glory.  Of course for this plan to work I have to do a lot of meal preparation all at once on days where I have time.  This is the first time I've done it so we'll see how it turns out.  Anyway, I got my shopping list together and took off to shop.  I don't tend to shop in bulk so it seemed like a lot of food to me.  On the plus side, I did get to push around the cart and I did do some cart riding doing the empty aisles.  You have to make shopping fun.

I returned home with all of my fresh purchases and yes I carried them all into the house at once.  Second trips are for babies!  I got to chopping and filling bags and then I realized that there was stuff I was missing.  Damn it!  The shopping list I worked off of wasn't complete.  After I got done cursing I called my sister and bribed her with some Margarita Cupcakes to get me the missing items.  Which she did because she's the best.

And yes, I did say Margarita Cupcakes.  Caught that did you?  Yep, I totally made Margarita Cupcakes from scratch.  And they turned out WONDERFUL!  Yes I did have to resort to calling my mother to find out what the heck lime zest was (I will never hear the end of that.) but it was worth it for the complete scrumptiousness of the cupcakes.

After a long day of chopping and crying over the onions (first time chopping onions has made me cry) I trucked off to Angie's house to see her new DVD.  Very exciting!  Raising an Off Leash Puppy which she knows a lot about since she has a wonderful dog Owen to prove it.  Someday I'll be as cool as Angie.  It was well past my bedtime by the time I got home.

So as you can see I already had a busy Saturday.  Bring on Sunday.

It began with a family brunch which has become a regular affair.  My Aunt Kim was visiting from St. Louis and it was very good to see her.  I do miss my crazy St. Louis family.  After that I managed to herd her, my mom and my dad over to the house I'm buying so we could go over just how much needed to be done and what needed to be done first.  That is a whole different post.  I'm actually starting to get excited about how cute this house is going to turn out to be.

Then we were joined there by my besties Caitlin and Kathleen.  Caitlin of course lives in the Springs and had seen the outside of the house but Kathleen hadn't seen it at all.  She stopped here in her treck across the country with her mom to kind of check it out.  I hope she decides to move back here from Ohio!  I wanted a three bedroom house so both Caitlin and Kathleen could live with me but that didn't work out.  I love them both and hopefully one of them can move in once this house is finished.

Then we went down to Manitou for some lunch.  There is this incredible Middle Eastern cafe there with some of the best falafel I have ever had.  Not only is falafel yummy but it is so fun to say.  Falafel.  FA-LA-FEL!  Great word.  Did some quick walking in Manitou then we were off to meet my mom and aunt at Lowes to look at paint colors and such. 

Aunt Kim is an interior decorator and has some serious talent.  I will have to fly her out again when the house is finished so she can decorate it.  Between her, Kathleen and my mom we were able to get a nice pallet that I can use throughout the house.  It is very earthy and natural, which I love.  We also picked out some tile to frame the tile already in the house around where my wood burning stove is going to be.

Then we went back to my brother's house where there was pizza had and a movie watched.  Long ass weekend.

And now the first week of the flu shot study is starting which means for the rest of the week I have to be at work by 6:30am and I have to work on Sunday.  *sigh*

Under Contract!

I'm behind on posting again.  That does seem to happen.

Big news anyway.  As most of you know, I am under contract on a house.  FINALLY!  This has not been an easy or short process.  I made offers on... three houses for a total of 5 offers before I found this one.  It's a cute little two bedroom house that needs some tender loving care.  I like the area; in fact it is less than a block from one of the other houses I put an offer on is.

I admit when I first saw it I was like "hell no."  It requires work... a lot of work.  I so wanted a house I could just move in to.  I love my brother and adore him even more for letting me stay with him but I want my own space.  I'm sure he's thinking the same thing.

What needs to be done?

• New Furnace as the house does not currently have heat.
• All New Electrical so the house doesn't burn down once I buy it.
• Redone Kitchen because I can't even bare the thought of using it right now.  The refrigerator is in the laundry room at the moment and pretty much ever inch of the kitchen is unusable.
• Plumbing in the bathroom could use updating.
• Floors need to be resanded and polished and the carpet in one bedroom needs to be replaced.
• Gutters are a nice thing to have in working order.
• The Front Stoop is a little rickety.
• Wood Fencing is important with my dogs.  On that note the whole backyard needs to be picked up.
• Paint is always a must.
• A Million Little Things that I'm sure I'll be completely overwhelmed with later.

Man, looking at that now I'm wondering why I went for this house.  Because it sure will be cute when I'm finished with it.  We close October 5th.  Then I'll have a home.  Though I won't be able to move in for another month or two.  Still, not enjoying the homeless thing.

Life is a playground bully

I kind of feel as though Life is a playground bully.  I'm getting really tired of having what I want dangled in front of me then getting it yanked away.  Especially when that leaves a whole lot up in the air and unsettled.  I'm a fairly easy going person but I like to have my space all settled.  When that is gone I get fairly stressed out.

So you can imagine I'm fairly stressed out at the moment.  My foundation of home is fractured at the moment.  I had to be out of the Manitou house at the end of August.  It was sad to go but even worse because I didn't have a place of my own TO go.  I'm not on the street or anything but I had hoped to have my own house lined up.  Life has been pretty cruel about that though.  I haven't built up enough house hunting karma apparently.

The end of August rolled around (which by the way did August go by SUPER fast or what?) and my life is in upheaval.  Most of my belongings are at my parents' house.  Some is with me at my brother's house.  My dogs are with me.  My cat is with my parents.  And my sanity is gone.  Ug.  Just being so spread out is stressful.  Again, I depend a lot on having my own space to come home to for sanity.  I've always been a little protective of my space and a things and I'm also a bit of a homebody.  I feel like I've been tossed into the ocean and only have what I was able to paddle to and grab.  It's really not that bad.  My things are all safe and I have a roof over my head.  My brother has been very gracious and my parents are spoiling Theo rotten so I don't really have a lot to complain about.  Still...  meh!

Here's what's going on with the house situation.  I put an offer in on the house downtown that I loved and it was accepted.  I did a little dance when I heard that you can imagine.  That was on a Friday.  However, for some reason the seller said that they couldn't sign until Monday.  That was a little sketchy but I was so excited I didn't think much about it.  Monday rolled around and we didn't hear anything from the seller or agent.  Waited... waited... waited...  Nothing.  Then I got worried.  I nagged the crap out of my own agent and we finally heard that the seller had spent the weekend looking at other offers even though they had already accepted mine.  Well they ended up counter offering one of those offers and went under contract there.  Assholes.

That really upset me and we're going to put in a complaint with the ethical board because my agent was pretty sure that the listing agent was double dipping, getting one of his buyers under contract with his seller.  Just a real jerk thing to do.  It didn't help that the house stayed on the website my agent made for me that pulls all the houses currently listed for sale in the city.  At first I was pretty sure it was just tormenting me but it didn't change from "Active".  Finally I asked my agent to look into that and it turned out that they'd chased off the buyer they'd screwed me over for.  Not surprising because I already know they're jerks.  Being jerks, they got greedy and are now asking for an as is offer, meaning they are no longer going to fix the roof.  And they're not going any lower than the price they've listed.

As much as I don't like those people, I want that house.  I love that house.  So we just put in another offer on it.  The chance of getting it is small because they know we were mad after their previous treatment and I can't guarantee that those people are at all sane or honorable.  But, if we lose out this time I'll know I made every effort and hopefully can move on better.  I've been hung up on that house for a while and been uninterested in looking at anything else.  If I lose out I'll know I went as far as I was willing to go with that and hopefully something else will catch my eye eventually.

It's just... a headache.  Buying a house is a headache.  Moving is a headache.  It is all a headache.

Where to live?

As many of you know, I have begun my search for a house to buy.  Yes buy.  As in own.  As in mine.  As in pay a whole lot of money for then freak out about.  Confession: it wasn't my idea.  If you had asked me 6 months ago about buying a house I would have laughed.  Me?  Buy a house?  Laughable.  Insane.  Crazy talk.  I would have told you that is just one of my mother's crazy projects she gets into.

And at first, that's all it was.  I begrudgingly gave in to go see a couple of houses with my mom.  "I'll just go look," I thought.  "There' no harm in that."  I should have remembered how I came to acquire Whitman.  There is no such thing as "just looking".  Gradually I began to see the possibility there.  I could own a house for less than I pay renting.  Why throw my money into someone else's pocket when I could be putting it toward my own house?  So when renting stopped making sense I found myself seriously looking for a house.

Well it has all snowballed into quite a project.  When my realtor, Javier, got involved the shit got real.  Let me tell you, he's a God-send.  I would have probably gone bat-shit crazy way before this if not for Javier.  He's really helped out.  I'm sure is thinking "Jesus woman just pick one!" in his head, but he's been very nice about it.  I figure if you're picky about one thing in life, it should be the house you buy.  I just hope I find one that fits me before Javier kills me in my sleep.

So what am I looking for?  I'm not sure.  Here are a few things I pulled out of the bag:

• Big backyard: A must have when you have two large dogs.
• Bedrooms bigger than a postage stamp: Part of being an adult in my head is that I don't have to sleep on a twin bed anymore.  Maybe having room to walk around on the floor around my bed would be nice too.
• Avoid suburbia: I hate the neighborhoods where your square house is just like your neighbor's house and your square yard is just like your neighbor's yard.  There is no soul in that kind of living.  So all neighborhoods like the ones out on Powers where it is "house house house househousehousehouse..." are out.
• It can't be way out in the boonies:  I'd like to be able to get to town/work with no longer than a 15 minute drive.  Fountain is out.
• West over East: I'm a westside girl.  What can I say?
• A house with a little character never hurt anyone:  I hate the houses that are just so boring you can barely walk through without going into a coma.  I want a house with a little heart and individuality.
• Not falling down: Sure that's always a good rule.  But what I mean is I don't want to buy a house that I am then going to have to strip down and redo everything.  Replacing things here and there, fine.  A complete rehaul?  Not really no.  I am just not that handy and not that into remodeling.
• Safe area: I shouldn't have to say I don't want to live in an area of town that I'd just scurry into my house,  throw the 12 deadbolts and never leave.  I want to be safe.

That being said, I've found three houses I could see myself in.  The first was a little house on Lark St.  I would have needed to do some work to it but it was cute, had a little character and had a great big yard for the dogs.  I made a low offer on it just to see and passed up on the counter offer.  Then there was the house on Polk St.  Across from a part and very cute.  The downstairs needed to be remodeled and the previous owners had dug a huge hole in the backyard because... well they wanted a giant sink back there.  That one would have been a lot of work but I was charmed by it.  We made an offer but they wanted us to come up more.  Then we were about to make a second offer when I got approved the the better loan but then it went under contract.  Someone is paying way too much for that house let me tell you.

Now we are in the negotiation stages of another house.  This one is closer to downtown, which I love.  It's the biggest that I've looked at and move in ready. 

The foundation was a little off but nothing you wouldn't expect with a 100 year old house.  We made an offer and they counter offered.  While I was deciding on that my dad had one of his friends inspect the roof and found out the roof was uninsurable.  So I was not going under contract with a roof that would cost me an arm and a leg to fix.  I counter offered their counter offer that they fix the roof.  I'm waiting to hear on that.  I really hope they go for it but something tells me they could find a buyer for that house that doesn't look at the roof first (don't know who would be that stupid but I guess those people are out there).  I'm having a hard time with that because the house is perfect.  As soon as I walked in I just fell in love with it and said, "Yes, make an offer."  It gave me that excited twitter.  I'll be really sad if it doesn't go through but I am trying to prepare myself for that.

*sigh*

The whole thing is getting old though.  I'm really just ready to find a house and be done with it.  My lease is up at the end of the month and I had hoped that we could either extend that or at least know what house I was going to before I was homeless.  Okay not homeless, I can move in with my parents, brother or sister.  Brother most likely.  Still, I'm used to having my own space now.  I so don't want to live with my parents.  And my sister, God love her, I don't think their house has enough room for me and my kiddos.  So brother it is.  This process has been taking up so much of my time and energy that I haven't been able to focus on much else.  It is one of those take-over-your-life-kind-of-projects.

I just want a house though!  Is that too much to ask!?  I don't like to have everything up in the air so much.  Still, it has to work itself out sometime.  I'll find a house somewhere.  I swear to gosh!

Morning Thoughts

For the past two mornings I have been up by 6:15 am.  That doesn't necessary mean I'm awake though.  I feel like I only spent about 3 hours actually awake yesterday and the rest was zombie Allison doing an impersonation of me.  My sleep schedule has been a little out of wack and I'm feeling it.  And here's the torturous thing, I am the receptionist for a behavioral sleep medicine doctor and there is a sleep lab attached to that.  So when I'm stumbling around at the office in the morning I'm around these nice quiet sleep study rooms with fluffy bed and dim lights.  It is torture!  Half the time I just want to crawl into them and take a nap.  They look so inviting...  *sigh*  It's really just mean is what it is.  Course, they do provide nifty coffee machines which I worship at so I guess it's a double sided sword.

I'm trying to decide what to do with my living situation.  I'm waiting to qualify for another better loan to see if I can get this house I really want.  My lease is also up at the end of the month (Happy August!) so I need to decide what to do about that.  I'd love to stay there because I love the house.  If I could afford that house all problems would be solved and I'd be a happy camper.  Alas it is way out of my price range.  So we have to decide if we will sign another lease and then have one of my roommate's brothers take over for me when I'm ready to move into my own house or we find another place to crash for a while until I can figure out the whole buying a house thing.  I'll probably beg a room from my brother if he can stand to live with my dogs and cat.  As much as I love them, I don't want to live with my parents and my sister's house would feel a little too crowded.  I need to call my landlord today which means I need to talk to my roommate.  We haven't seen much of each other lately, which sucks.  We've been two ships passing in the night.  When I leave in the morning she's asleep and half the time when she get's home at night I'm asleep.  When we are home together at the same time often I am downstairs because it's too bloody hot upstairs.  I don't know how she lives up there without melting away.  Anyway, I hope we continue to live together because she's a rockin' roommate.  I'm sure I'm much harder to live with than she is haha!  Loves you Caitlin.

Everyone knows that I'd rather be cold than hot.  So it sucks that at home I'm always hot but then at work the AC blows right on me and I freeze to death.  There is no middle ground.  That's because summer sucks and I'm really just ready for Fall and Winter now.  They're the best months anyway.

Oh hey the Olympics are going on.  Yay Olympics.  Okay I have to admit I'm not all that excited.  I much prefer the Winter Olympics.  But still, I don't get all that excited either way.  Go them.  I'm sure it feels wonderful to go to the Olympics.  Hey when I was a kid all my Barbies were Olympians.  But it is hard to be excited when it is all they way in London.  I'm sure the people of London are very excited, which they should be.  I'd be excited if the Olympics were in Denver.  I do admit that I am keeping up with the Olympic news though but that might be because I'm a news junkie.  The Olympics can be counted on for something new every hour or two so I appreciate it.  Like did you see?  Those shocking badminton players throwing matches!  OMG!  Olympic drama.

Well I should probably stop sitting here nursing my coffee and actually get to work.  *Sigh*