willowmeg | Entries tagged with house

Here's that update you were all* clearly clamoring for. ;)

On the house front: stress, but the good kind. Actually I think we're keeping the stress fairly well in hand - we're both putting a lot of effort into tracking and planning, so that we know which contractor is scheduled when and what installations to be prepared for. Our dear electrician friend has now spent 4 days working to get everything right in the place; the poorly wired fusebox and homebrew lighting connections in the basement were pretty straightforward to deal with, compared to figuring out what the two switches in the studio room do. (Answer: nothing! Well, one of them apparently does nothing at all; the other one, as we learned yesterday, controlled 4 outlets in that room AND all of the janky light fixtures on the laundry side of the basement. WHYYYY. So we had him wire the outlets to just be continuously on, and - presumably, I was at work at the time - had him add a switch in the basement. So now, neither studio switch does a thing! Yay?)

The kitchen/dining room is almost pulled together - painting is done, lighting is upgraded, stove is installed, flooring is...down, if not perfect. We had a hell of a time with it, thanks to a mysterious hump in the center of the floor. So it's technically done, but there are a few places where additional measures will be required - caulk to fill a gap here, glue to secure a board there, filler strip stuck in a crack, ugh, I don't know just make it so we don't trip and I'll stick a rug over the worst bit argh. Anyway, we should get the dishwasher by around the 10th and the fridge around the 17th, and that'll finally be done just in time to get moved in.

Next step is to move through the rest of the house, as quickly as possible, and paint all of the other rooms. The living room, studio and bedroom need to be painted before the 11th; Greg will be in Chicago from April 11-14 (though he says he may return on the 13th, possibly) and the carpet in those rooms will be installed on the 15th. By that time we will be 1 week from our move, OMG. and I have had no energy to effectively pack, beyond about 15 boxes of books and 4 boxes of random stupid decorative junk, because I've spent so much time assisting with the house. I really should have been tougher on myself, though.

I do plan to spend Greg's weekend out of town entirely in packing - it'll honestly be about the only chance to tear up everything in our apartment without feeling like I'm interfering with livability. THIS weekend should probably be spent in packing too - but I will be on housepainting duty. Seems the only way to get it all done in time will be to have us both painting different rooms simultaneously. Unfortunately I'll be pulled away from painting early on Sunday**, because I have other plans this weekend - and apparently every weekend from here through June...

...because I agreed to participate with the CGMC for their June show! They made a call for additional one-time participants, specifically "everyone, regardless of gender or orientation" to join for their Stonewall concert, which will be performed at my alma mater, in the same performance hall where I spent 4 years of my life. The chance to be on that stage again, and to sing with some of my best friends - well, I couldn't pass it up. Voice placement is this Sunday, followed by first rehearsal, and I'm glad I made the decision fairly last-minute, because OMG I am nervous! I know I'll "get in" - it's open placement, not an audition, but there's a fair chance that if my voice placement doesn't show me going low enough to sing with the Tenors, they'll relegate me to the Columbus Women's Chorus (which apparently performs 2 songs with CGMC in this show) and I won't technically be with my friends for the experience. Still a good group, I'm sure - but their rehearsal schedule is probably not the same, and it just adds to the unknowns in an already nerve-inducing situation. :/ Matt says he thinks I'll get Tenor without a problem, though, so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

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*"all": dearest Emily, Lurker #1 aka Bigfoot (because surely they exist??), and three very interested motes of dust. :D

**Also I'll have plans on Saturday - I'll paint in the AM, change into something nice at noon and go over to Yarnbyrds for High Tea. Robin invited me along with a small group (Joyce, Joann, and probably others from the knit/crochet nights that closed up in February) for a private get together, it should be lovely! Then at 4 I'll leave there, go back to the house, change again, and paint some more. :)

Current Mood: productive

So we bought our house!

Everything went smoothly, all parties involved were super nice and friendly (if perhaps the listing agent seemed a little out of touch; she was selling the home for her 98-year-old sister-in-law, I gather? But she was very nice, despite a general aura of cluelessness that went a long way to explain some of the various delays we experienced over the course of the sale)...We went back to Our New House after the initial home improvement store run, and spent a few minutes just marveling at the fact that we were finally free to experience being there. We sat on the floor in the living room, listening to the windstorm raging outside (and slamming all the soffit panels around in a way that was slightly disturbing - we'll have to fasten those in better) and exchanged big grins every time we heard a jet plane. :D

But after a bit, Greg had to get to work - his intention was to install new dual deadbolt and handle locksets on the front door, the rear door and the garage man door, as well as the wrought-iron security/storm doors at the front and rear, before we left that first night. Well - that didn't go quite as easily as he planned. He did manage to get both the house doors technically secure on our own keys by the time we finally left after 9 PM...but due to issue after issue with the doors, the locks, the shape of the strike plates, etc., he didn't get the last of the locks installed until sometime Sunday afternoon. And that isn't really even all of it, since the back storm door had a unique handle/lock style that he isn't sure if he can replace - for now, it's just got holes there to pull it open. Whoops.

In the meantime I did a lot of vacuuming inside, tested outlets, and tore down the unattractive and barely attached stone brick wallpaper in the kitchen to find a far more unattractive flowered vinyl paper underneath. Then on Sunday I worked from 11 to 8, just trying to scrape down that paper. I failed, mostly. This shit is indestructible. Around 3 (about a half hour after Greg left for the day, to go attend his biweekly D&D group) I broke down and had a bit of a screaming and crying fit. Every part of me hurt - the paper was fighting me at every turn, and the chemicals didn't seem to be helping any - I kept peeling back chunks of the wall's paint and gypsum layers instead of just the paper, when I could get purchase at all - and the worst part, my Bluetooth speaker wouldn't stay on for more than an hour per full charge. Dead silence is not the best for solitary, grueling physical work. :(

So I sobbed and sniffled for like 5 minutes, spouted a ton of terrible curse words at the kitchen, the speaker, the evil paper, and whatever blithering idiot in the 80s had decided to put it up in the first place...and then I rinsed my face off, got in my car, drove to the nearest Five Below and bought myself a speaker I could plug into my player with an AUX cable. Then I stopped for gas (a whole separate frustration requiring 2 stops and a bunch of red lights) and afterwards, I walked into a likely-looking Chinese takeout restaurant in the shopping strip behind the gas station, which I'm pretty sure will be our new go-to Chinese once we've moved. Back at the house, I sat at the sawhorse drafting table and ate some of the best General Tso's I've ever had - and then, I busted out the spare coffeemaker and the supplies I'd bought on Saturday, and fixed myself a small pot. I ate some chocolate with my coffee, started up my music again, and got back down to it.

By the time I left around 8 PM it had started unexpectedly snowing, big fat splatty flakes of half-sleet. I was exhausted, and my throat was starting to hurt. But I'd made some small progress, finally, so there was that.

Sometimes, you just have to have to pitch a fit before you can pick yourself up and keep going. :)

Closing is firmly scheduled for next Friday afternoon!!!
I'm gonna own a HOUSE! woo!

And thus begins the most stressful month of my husband's life...his run-down of his to-do list, broken down by days, ran through three pages of legal pad as of last night, and will be approximately two and a half weeks of jam-packed 8-hour workdays. We're estimating three weeks, to allow some wiggle room in case of hangups...and then we have to figure out the move itself.

( There will probably be a debate ahead, on that point. )

I've managed to finagle free or cheap assistance out of a few of the best contractors I work with, here, at least. It's a perk of the job - I have a 15-year relationship with an architect who will do up free blueprints for us and ensure we know where all the structural walls are, a massively experienced electrician who'll give us a great rate and highly personalized service, and a paving contractor who's promised to personally ensure we get the best deal possible on our needed driveway repair. And my company's Roofing Superintendent has promised to have his guys get up on the roof to do the minor caulking and painting Greg would have had to rent a ladder to do himself...we'll buy the materials, but they won't charge us for the work. The only contractor I don't already have an in for, really, is the plumber - and we have a ton of plumbing work to do over the next few weeks. So I'm using a service provided us by the home inspector, to match us with compatible contractors - not sure yet that I trust it, but they're prompt, I'll give them that. Within 3 minutes of my project request, 2 plumbers had contacted me to discuss the work...

In other news, OMG this unicorn hoodie project looks AMAZING. Photos to come by next Monday at latest; my friend will come try it on tomorrow, and I'll take a ton of show-off shots with him modeling it. And he and I will be taking a short road trip tomorrow, too - a guy out in Newark is selling a fantastic commercial wine rack that I desperately want for my basement. M's car is big enough to load the thing, so I'll take his assistance and company as fair payment for the week of intensive sewing work. :)

Current Mood: excited

Okay, I realize it's been far, far too long between updates here. It's possibly a little unfair of me to friend people and then just lurk on my Reading Page for all their updates...I'm still unconvinced that anyone will find my prattling interesting here, anyway.

Oh well.

So, the house purchase is still not finalized, but is drawing ever nearer. We unfortunately didn't make it through Seller's Bank approval stage (it's a short sale) before the government shutdown went into effect - and as it turned out, it wasn't "seller's bank" we were waiting for, as had been previously explained to me; it was HUD, solely because the seller had fucked up a reverse mortgage. Whatever, I know I can't explain it properly, but it was a whole *thing* and thanks to D***** T**** we had the pleasure of waiting an extra six weeks before we knew if we could make the purchase. UGH. Once that finally went through, though, things started to move along more quickly - at this point we're down to waiting on my bank's appraisal and the final loan lockdown. So we may close as early as next Tuesday.

ONE WEEK OMG
or, more realistically because shit tends to drag, TWO WEEKS OMG

I can't believe I'm finally going to be a homeowner at the ripe age of forty-one... ;D

Well, that's that over with then! I hope everyone here in DW land has had a merry, happy, peaceful whatever-they-celebrate.

( We had a trip to my in-laws' in Chicago, which is often a stressful experience. )

( But Mom had planned this year's Eve dinner to serve 17 people... )

So: stress and hassle and fatigue.

( Which wasn't helped by the fact that I managed to slice my hand open... )

( Christmas morning itself was mainly unremarkable. )

In other, more important news: it should be perhaps 10 days or less (? depending on what day the final offer was submitted to seller's lender) before we know for sure if we're going to get the house we're trying to buy. I have, perhaps unfortunately, not restrained my internal overconfidence on this deal. Of course it could all go sour and we could lose the place, but all the signs point to Yes unless someone on the far end of that deal is just being impressively capricious and greedy. I've visualized every inch of that house with our stuff in it - I've done test floor plans, made wishlists, and even got a rough idea of paint colors we'll want (to minimize the effects of the dusty rose carpeting we won't have the means to change out for at least a few years) - G and I have discussed at length the various projects he'll have on his list to build from scratch, and even a future addition to convert the screened patio into a fully insulated sunroom for plants and a hot tub. This place will be less than 10 minutes' drive from my workplace, will cost us over $400 less every month for our total loan/property tax/insurance payment than we currently pay every month for rent and renters' insurance, has the extra bathroom and the two car garage we need plus a generous amount of off-street parking for visitors, and will give us plenty of space for us and all our Crap(tm) without being Too Much space to easily maintain. And there will be so much privacy! I haven't been onsite long enough to tell exactly how much airport noise we'll have there - but with both sets of my grandparents having lived in areas with very present jet noise, I automatically associate those sounds with calm and peace. Even if we turn out to be directly under a main takeoff or landing path (for those that don't know, my workplace is in a commercial building just bordering the airport), it will be tons more pleasant than the continual sirens of emergency vehicles on the main thoroughfare where we currently live, and the thumping club music from what used to be a church across the street...
I WANT THE HOUSE NOW. GIMME GIMME GIMME.
ahem.
Fingers crossed, yes? :)