So how'd the trip go? Which house are we going to buy? This is a tough decision. After mulling it over for a couple of days and going back and forth on it a few times, we're leaning more towards the Yreka house rather than Lake Shastina. It's never easy making a decision with so much at stake: money, comfort, safety, future housing market, day to day living, commute, etc. But this one is feeling more "right" the more we weigh the pros/cons.
I was hoping to have more to say on the issue, but my mind is still a little jumbled. Plus nap time just ended and I still need to find a dinner recipe for the chicken in the fridge. At least I got some pictures up!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
House Hunting Trip Photos
Here's some photos from our trip. We were a little inconsistent and didn't take pictures of some things we intended to, but here's what we ended up with!
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| Yreka House Hunting |
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
House Hunting Trip, Part I
We just got back from a very intense house hunting trip to Yreka, CA, our future home. A few things made this trip a little more involved than it would've been otherwise. For one, we weren't able to book it until a week before our planned departure. This made it cost prohibitive to pay out of pocket for Evalyn's ticket as well. Fortunately Grammum in PA was able to schedule time off to watch her while we were away. Another complication was being limited to only 3 airlines on which I could fly because of my late stage of pregnancy, 36 weeks. This prevented us from flying into Medford, OR, a 45 min drive from Yreka, and necessitated flying in and out of Sacramento, a 4 hour drive down I-5. But we persevered and this is what our itinerary looked like:
Weds 4PM: Leave for PA to drop Evalyn off at Grammum's (the same 3.5 hr drive we'd made 3 days earlier)
Weds 11:30 PM: Check into the Doubletree in Pittsburgh to sleep 5 hours and park our car before flying out the next morning.
Thurs AM: Fly 4.5 hours to Phoenix, wait an extra 2 hours for our delayed flight to Sacramento.
Thurs PM: Arrive around 1PM local time, get our rental car and start driving.
Thurs 7PM: After numerous bathroom stops for Holly and run around stops for Henry, we pull into the Best Western in Yreka. An hour later we had our reservations straightened out and settled into our 2 bedroom suite. Only we'd lost Matt's very essential Blackberry in the process and it took another hour to find it wedged between the seats where we'd both checked throughly at least 3 times! Panic over.
Thurs 10PM local time/1AM eastern: Finally fall asleep.
Friday 4:30 AM: Henry wakes up thoroughly refreshed and ready for the day. Matt wearily plugs him into the DVD player until I awake a couple of hours later to find a curious arrangement of kitchen utensils, kleenex and lamp shades.
Friday AM: After an omelet breakfast at Grandma's House, we drive around the hillside neighborhoods of Yreka enjoying the crisp morning air while awaiting our 9AM realtor appt.
Friday 9AM-4:30 PM: Teresa shows us 15 houses with a lunch break for sandwiches at the park. Henry becomes adept at helping us "find the door" as we exit the car. He also loves how prevalently people use rocks in their front landscapes. We narrow it down to 4 houses we'd like to walk-through again. Teresa is able to schedule 3 that evening and one the next morning.
Friday 4:30-6:30 PM: We take a much needed break and jump in the hotel swimming pool, which Henry loved of course.
Friday 6:30PM: Walk through 2 of the 3 houses while anxiously awaiting the arrival of my mom and sister who drove down from Salem, OR to stay the night and check things out with us. They make it in time to see the last house of the evening.
Friday almost 9PM: The town shuts down pretty early plus Henry is asleep, so Matt takes Henry to the hotel while the rest us bring back Round Table Pizza.
Friday close to midnight: After visiting and catching up, we finally turn out the lights (except for Heather who'd come down with a yucky cold virus and went to bed much earlier). Oh, I have to add that my wonderful mommy brought me flowers from her garden and even gave me a pedicure/foot massage for my poor unreachable feet!
Sat 6:30 AM: Henry wakes up for the day after only brief stirrings around 4:30 AM :)
Sat 8:30 AM: After a continental breakfast at the hotel we depart for the mornings house hunting in Lake Shastina, a planned golf course community 25 min southeast of Yreka. We meet Bruce and Sally who show us 5 houses, 2 of which we love love love. We then dashed back up to Yreka to meet Teresa at noon and see the 5th house from the day before. It was good to review it because we took it off our final list after seeing it again. We also snuck in the 3rd look at our first choice house in Yreka so my mom and sister could see it, too. Very patient owner. :)
Sat PM: Break for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, then a nap for Henry (all of us actually) and relaxed until Heather and Mom headed north around 4PM.
Sat 6:30PM: Dinner with Matt's future boss. Lovely brand new tapas style restaurant called The Silver Spoon. We sat in the patio area by the fountain and enjoyed the cool evening breeze and twinkling lights in the overhead tree. Only drawback was that Henry wanted to go to bed about 40 minutes after we got there, but we didn't leave until 2 hrs later. Delicious food though!
Sat 10PM: Sleep
Sun AM: Continental breakfast, hurried packing and checkout. We'd been debating whether to attend the Yreka Ward (3 mins up the hill) or Mt Shasta Ward (30-40 min down I-5) since they both met at 10AM. At the last minute we created Plan C and went to Yreka Ward first and slipped out as soon as Henry got restless, which wasn't very long after the Sacrament portion ended. We piled in the car and pulled up to "Mormon Way" in Mt. Shasta just in time to hear the strains of the closing hymn. We poked our heads in and talked with the bishop for a few minutes before taking off again to Lake Shastina for another walk through of our two favorite houses. Again, very helpful.
Sun PM: With heads full of decisions and numbers and kitchens and bedroom layouts, we drove south to Sacramento to spend the evening with Matt's Uncle Jack and his family. We hadn't seen them at Christmas so it was great catching up. Victoria is a few years younger than me and Allie is a senior in HS this year. Henry had a blast playing in a little wading pool and we all enjoyed a scrumptious farmers market fresh dinner of salad, corn on the cob and Chaka's Mmmm Sauce chicken, perfectly BBQd by Jack. After Matt and Uncle Jack returned from dropping off the rental car, we had vanilla ice cream topped with fresh O'Henry Peaches. There is definitely something to be said about living in the produce-basket of the country!
Mon AM: After a quick repack and stowage of Jack's gift of jam, we piled in Aunt Diane's car and headed to the airport. Our 1.5 hr flight to Las Vegas was a bit cramped as it was a "regional jet" with only 2 seats on either side of the aisle. Fortunately there were a couple of empty seats nearby so Henry scored his own, again (phew). The bad part was the 25 minute SCHEDULED layover and we came in 10 minutes late and in a B gate needing to depart from an A gate!! We barely barely made it after a strenuous walk/run/waddle and lucked out again to get a middle seat for Henry since the person occupying it was willing to move to another empty middle seat further up. (Amazing how the prospect of a squirming child, pregnant lady and broad-shouldered gentleman motivate people to flexibility.....)
Mon PM: Flying. 4.5 hours. Henry spilled half a waterbottle all over himself and seat within the first 20 min. He did watch some of the rented DVD player. After "reading" all his books and becoming bored of the two new toys Aunt Diane got him, he finally squirmed to sleep in Matt's arms for the last 1.5 of the flight. I finished knitting one arm of my baby girl sweater. (Though the bind off needs some help, Kellie.) Matt ran out of battery power watching the end of his Mission Impossible 3 DVD.
Mon 8PM eastern time: Arrive in Pittsburgh. Very last ones off the plane collecting Henry entertainment detritus. Gather luggage. Find taxi. Testily install Henry's carseat for the 5 min ride to the hotel parking lot to retrieve car (Okay so it was 10 minutes on a major hwy but the free hotel shuttle wouldn't have made us if we'd been willing to wait. I know, bad parents even contemplating not buckling our child.)
Mon 9PM: Buy gas and drive the 1.5 hrs along the PA Turnpike to Johnstown. One stop along Hwy 30 to buy pacis for Henry and contact lens solution for Holly.
Mon 11PM: Finally see our sleeping daughter's face again and get all teary eyed at how much we missed her.
Tues AM: Wake up to hugs and kisses from Evalyn. Throw her things in the car and reinstall carseat. Wave goodbye to Pappy and the dogs. Stop at Grammum's work to say goodbye. Get breakfast at Burger King. Drive home!!
Tues later AM: Follow the sign to "Lovely 6 mi" at the bottom of Babcock Mountain. We pass it every time we drive Hwy 56 and say we'll see where it goes but never do. It was lovely. And put us back on our way without getting lost. It was so pretty we'll have to do it again in the fall.
Tues 1:15 PM: Arrive home!! After 2 different rest stops and naps for everyone in shifts we finally made it back to our own home and beds. I napped while Matt entertained the kids outside. Our cat Jadie was happy to see us, but not nearly as desperate as previous absences thanks to the generous attentions of our neighbor Donna across the street.
Tues PM: Unpack, laundry, more naps, grocery store, late bedtime. Contemplate our future and how much house we can or can't afford.....
So we made it back home without having a baby. I followed my midwive's instructions to the T and drank so much water while flying and driving that taking breaks to move around wasn't a problem either! I still can't believe we did it. Two 6 hour flights sandwiched with 4 hour drives on either end, separated by 3 days. But I'm glad we did. Exhausted as we all are now that it's over, I'm glad we know the area and have some houses in mind. Much better this way than going out in October (with a newborn) back to back with moving a few weeks later or only going when we move in November and staying in temporary housing for a month or more while waiting to settle.
More thoughts on houses and the area in "Part II". Plus photos. Or for some great descriptions of the weekend from Heather's perspective, check out her blog entry.
Weds 4PM: Leave for PA to drop Evalyn off at Grammum's (the same 3.5 hr drive we'd made 3 days earlier)
Weds 11:30 PM: Check into the Doubletree in Pittsburgh to sleep 5 hours and park our car before flying out the next morning.
Thurs AM: Fly 4.5 hours to Phoenix, wait an extra 2 hours for our delayed flight to Sacramento.
Thurs PM: Arrive around 1PM local time, get our rental car and start driving.
Thurs 7PM: After numerous bathroom stops for Holly and run around stops for Henry, we pull into the Best Western in Yreka. An hour later we had our reservations straightened out and settled into our 2 bedroom suite. Only we'd lost Matt's very essential Blackberry in the process and it took another hour to find it wedged between the seats where we'd both checked throughly at least 3 times! Panic over.
Thurs 10PM local time/1AM eastern: Finally fall asleep.
Friday 4:30 AM: Henry wakes up thoroughly refreshed and ready for the day. Matt wearily plugs him into the DVD player until I awake a couple of hours later to find a curious arrangement of kitchen utensils, kleenex and lamp shades.
Friday AM: After an omelet breakfast at Grandma's House, we drive around the hillside neighborhoods of Yreka enjoying the crisp morning air while awaiting our 9AM realtor appt.
Friday 9AM-4:30 PM: Teresa shows us 15 houses with a lunch break for sandwiches at the park. Henry becomes adept at helping us "find the door" as we exit the car. He also loves how prevalently people use rocks in their front landscapes. We narrow it down to 4 houses we'd like to walk-through again. Teresa is able to schedule 3 that evening and one the next morning.
Friday 4:30-6:30 PM: We take a much needed break and jump in the hotel swimming pool, which Henry loved of course.
Friday 6:30PM: Walk through 2 of the 3 houses while anxiously awaiting the arrival of my mom and sister who drove down from Salem, OR to stay the night and check things out with us. They make it in time to see the last house of the evening.
Friday almost 9PM: The town shuts down pretty early plus Henry is asleep, so Matt takes Henry to the hotel while the rest us bring back Round Table Pizza.
Friday close to midnight: After visiting and catching up, we finally turn out the lights (except for Heather who'd come down with a yucky cold virus and went to bed much earlier). Oh, I have to add that my wonderful mommy brought me flowers from her garden and even gave me a pedicure/foot massage for my poor unreachable feet!
Sat 6:30 AM: Henry wakes up for the day after only brief stirrings around 4:30 AM :)
Sat 8:30 AM: After a continental breakfast at the hotel we depart for the mornings house hunting in Lake Shastina, a planned golf course community 25 min southeast of Yreka. We meet Bruce and Sally who show us 5 houses, 2 of which we love love love. We then dashed back up to Yreka to meet Teresa at noon and see the 5th house from the day before. It was good to review it because we took it off our final list after seeing it again. We also snuck in the 3rd look at our first choice house in Yreka so my mom and sister could see it, too. Very patient owner. :)
Sat PM: Break for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, then a nap for Henry (all of us actually) and relaxed until Heather and Mom headed north around 4PM.
Sat 6:30PM: Dinner with Matt's future boss. Lovely brand new tapas style restaurant called The Silver Spoon. We sat in the patio area by the fountain and enjoyed the cool evening breeze and twinkling lights in the overhead tree. Only drawback was that Henry wanted to go to bed about 40 minutes after we got there, but we didn't leave until 2 hrs later. Delicious food though!
Sat 10PM: Sleep
Sun AM: Continental breakfast, hurried packing and checkout. We'd been debating whether to attend the Yreka Ward (3 mins up the hill) or Mt Shasta Ward (30-40 min down I-5) since they both met at 10AM. At the last minute we created Plan C and went to Yreka Ward first and slipped out as soon as Henry got restless, which wasn't very long after the Sacrament portion ended. We piled in the car and pulled up to "Mormon Way" in Mt. Shasta just in time to hear the strains of the closing hymn. We poked our heads in and talked with the bishop for a few minutes before taking off again to Lake Shastina for another walk through of our two favorite houses. Again, very helpful.
Sun PM: With heads full of decisions and numbers and kitchens and bedroom layouts, we drove south to Sacramento to spend the evening with Matt's Uncle Jack and his family. We hadn't seen them at Christmas so it was great catching up. Victoria is a few years younger than me and Allie is a senior in HS this year. Henry had a blast playing in a little wading pool and we all enjoyed a scrumptious farmers market fresh dinner of salad, corn on the cob and Chaka's Mmmm Sauce chicken, perfectly BBQd by Jack. After Matt and Uncle Jack returned from dropping off the rental car, we had vanilla ice cream topped with fresh O'Henry Peaches. There is definitely something to be said about living in the produce-basket of the country!
Mon AM: After a quick repack and stowage of Jack's gift of jam, we piled in Aunt Diane's car and headed to the airport. Our 1.5 hr flight to Las Vegas was a bit cramped as it was a "regional jet" with only 2 seats on either side of the aisle. Fortunately there were a couple of empty seats nearby so Henry scored his own, again (phew). The bad part was the 25 minute SCHEDULED layover and we came in 10 minutes late and in a B gate needing to depart from an A gate!! We barely barely made it after a strenuous walk/run/waddle and lucked out again to get a middle seat for Henry since the person occupying it was willing to move to another empty middle seat further up. (Amazing how the prospect of a squirming child, pregnant lady and broad-shouldered gentleman motivate people to flexibility.....)
Mon PM: Flying. 4.5 hours. Henry spilled half a waterbottle all over himself and seat within the first 20 min. He did watch some of the rented DVD player. After "reading" all his books and becoming bored of the two new toys Aunt Diane got him, he finally squirmed to sleep in Matt's arms for the last 1.5 of the flight. I finished knitting one arm of my baby girl sweater. (Though the bind off needs some help, Kellie.) Matt ran out of battery power watching the end of his Mission Impossible 3 DVD.
Mon 8PM eastern time: Arrive in Pittsburgh. Very last ones off the plane collecting Henry entertainment detritus. Gather luggage. Find taxi. Testily install Henry's carseat for the 5 min ride to the hotel parking lot to retrieve car (Okay so it was 10 minutes on a major hwy but the free hotel shuttle wouldn't have made us if we'd been willing to wait. I know, bad parents even contemplating not buckling our child.)
Mon 9PM: Buy gas and drive the 1.5 hrs along the PA Turnpike to Johnstown. One stop along Hwy 30 to buy pacis for Henry and contact lens solution for Holly.
Mon 11PM: Finally see our sleeping daughter's face again and get all teary eyed at how much we missed her.
Tues AM: Wake up to hugs and kisses from Evalyn. Throw her things in the car and reinstall carseat. Wave goodbye to Pappy and the dogs. Stop at Grammum's work to say goodbye. Get breakfast at Burger King. Drive home!!
Tues later AM: Follow the sign to "Lovely 6 mi" at the bottom of Babcock Mountain. We pass it every time we drive Hwy 56 and say we'll see where it goes but never do. It was lovely. And put us back on our way without getting lost. It was so pretty we'll have to do it again in the fall.
Tues 1:15 PM: Arrive home!! After 2 different rest stops and naps for everyone in shifts we finally made it back to our own home and beds. I napped while Matt entertained the kids outside. Our cat Jadie was happy to see us, but not nearly as desperate as previous absences thanks to the generous attentions of our neighbor Donna across the street.
Tues PM: Unpack, laundry, more naps, grocery store, late bedtime. Contemplate our future and how much house we can or can't afford.....
So we made it back home without having a baby. I followed my midwive's instructions to the T and drank so much water while flying and driving that taking breaks to move around wasn't a problem either! I still can't believe we did it. Two 6 hour flights sandwiched with 4 hour drives on either end, separated by 3 days. But I'm glad we did. Exhausted as we all are now that it's over, I'm glad we know the area and have some houses in mind. Much better this way than going out in October (with a newborn) back to back with moving a few weeks later or only going when we move in November and staying in temporary housing for a month or more while waiting to settle.
More thoughts on houses and the area in "Part II". Plus photos. Or for some great descriptions of the weekend from Heather's perspective, check out her blog entry.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
"Did That Metal Part Fall Off Our Car?"
This weekend we enjoyed a nice vacation in western PA visiting family. The Chicago Baun's were also in town so we had 5 cousins under age 8 playing together and running around in the perfect weather. Saturday's high was 70 degrees with a lovely breeze and no humidity. It felt like heaven compared to the heat, drought and humidity of Washington. Not to mention the lush green grass and flowers everywhere you looked. It was shocking to realize that this is what our yard should look like this time of year, but didn't.
Other than keeping Henry from climbing through the neighbor's fence or running into the road at the end of the driveway or destroying rooms in the house that he shouldn't be playing it, it was quite a relaxing time. We also tested out Henry's new PeaPod Travel Tent that we bought after our miserable sleeping experiences in hotels on our last vacation. It works great. :) Saturday evening we enjoyed a BBQ chicken dinner including corn on the cob grown by a farmer down the road from where Matt grew up. Nothing like eating corn and tomatoes from a farm you drive past!
We took a short outing to a nearby park that has a duck pond. Grammum and the kids love to feed the ducks, and the ducks love to get fed! The nearby swing set and "sliding board" (as everyone in the family but me calls it) were also a big hit. Literally. Poor Henry was so excited he ran smack into Brett's head while he was swinging. It was one of those slow-motion moments where the second Henry ran away from me I could see the disaster about to strike but wasn't fast enough to avert it. Fortunately the tears didn't last long and there was no blood. Just a big bump on Henry's cheek and a sore spot on Brett's head. Before heading back we also stopped at a State Park up the road where the kids tried their hand at pumping an old-fashioned fountain.
Oh, so back to the title of this post. On our drive up Friday morning we stopped at the outlet stores in Hagerstown to pick up a couple of things. As we tried to leave the parking lot, there was a ginormous motorcyling event that was causing traffic to back up. All we could see were hundreds (literally) of bikers being led across our line of traffic while we sat there for what felt like 10 minutes. We realized a few things pretty quickly.
1) The guys directing traffic were motorcycle people and could care less how long the back-up of cars in the parking lot got.
2) Getting impatient and pulling out of line to go in the other lane of traffic after rolling down the window and yelling "Hey Buddy, what's going on here!" didn't accomplish much except learning that the road ahead that we wanted to turn on was indeed jammed with hundreds more bikers plus a firetruck.
3) The only way to escape the chaos was to either wait patiently or find our own way out.
Since it's obvious we weren't in a very patient mood (I'm blaming it on pregnancy hormones) we decided to find our own way out. After losing our spot in line, we circled back around and eyed up the grassy area between the parking lot and gas station. The 40 feet of dry grass looked smooth enough to get our trusty minivan across, we'd just have to be careful going over the curb on the other side. We thought about it for 20-30 seconds before I eased the car across and slowed down to go over the curb. Scrape! went the front end of the underside. Wham! went the back end of the car as the bumper came over the concrete.
We weren't quite sure if we'd damaged the car so we pulled over in the parking lot and looked back. There was a thin piece of metal something laying there, but another car (a real SUV mind you) had followed our lead and ran over whatever metal part it was. By this time our frenzied escape was seeming pretty foolish and all sorts of worst case scenarios of what I'd just done to the car were running through my head. Matt jumped out and checked under the car to see if anything was missing. (Not that you could really tell?!?) In the heat of the moment and the fact that a couple of police motorcycles had arrived in the parking lot we'd just left, Matt declared, "We're fine, let's go! We'll get it on the way back if we really need it!"
With that we sped off and moments later were zooming along I-70, feeling victorious that we'd outsmarted those annoying bikers. Until we hit some traffic and slowed down to a near stop. I was feeling pretty sheepish at this point. Good thing we'd saved all that time in the parking lot just to wade through more traffic not 5 minutes later! At least the car seems to have survived our impetuous maneuver without any lasting damage.
Other than keeping Henry from climbing through the neighbor's fence or running into the road at the end of the driveway or destroying rooms in the house that he shouldn't be playing it, it was quite a relaxing time. We also tested out Henry's new PeaPod Travel Tent that we bought after our miserable sleeping experiences in hotels on our last vacation. It works great. :) Saturday evening we enjoyed a BBQ chicken dinner including corn on the cob grown by a farmer down the road from where Matt grew up. Nothing like eating corn and tomatoes from a farm you drive past!
We took a short outing to a nearby park that has a duck pond. Grammum and the kids love to feed the ducks, and the ducks love to get fed! The nearby swing set and "sliding board" (as everyone in the family but me calls it) were also a big hit. Literally. Poor Henry was so excited he ran smack into Brett's head while he was swinging. It was one of those slow-motion moments where the second Henry ran away from me I could see the disaster about to strike but wasn't fast enough to avert it. Fortunately the tears didn't last long and there was no blood. Just a big bump on Henry's cheek and a sore spot on Brett's head. Before heading back we also stopped at a State Park up the road where the kids tried their hand at pumping an old-fashioned fountain.
Oh, so back to the title of this post. On our drive up Friday morning we stopped at the outlet stores in Hagerstown to pick up a couple of things. As we tried to leave the parking lot, there was a ginormous motorcyling event that was causing traffic to back up. All we could see were hundreds (literally) of bikers being led across our line of traffic while we sat there for what felt like 10 minutes. We realized a few things pretty quickly.
1) The guys directing traffic were motorcycle people and could care less how long the back-up of cars in the parking lot got.
2) Getting impatient and pulling out of line to go in the other lane of traffic after rolling down the window and yelling "Hey Buddy, what's going on here!" didn't accomplish much except learning that the road ahead that we wanted to turn on was indeed jammed with hundreds more bikers plus a firetruck.
3) The only way to escape the chaos was to either wait patiently or find our own way out.
Since it's obvious we weren't in a very patient mood (I'm blaming it on pregnancy hormones) we decided to find our own way out. After losing our spot in line, we circled back around and eyed up the grassy area between the parking lot and gas station. The 40 feet of dry grass looked smooth enough to get our trusty minivan across, we'd just have to be careful going over the curb on the other side. We thought about it for 20-30 seconds before I eased the car across and slowed down to go over the curb. Scrape! went the front end of the underside. Wham! went the back end of the car as the bumper came over the concrete.
We weren't quite sure if we'd damaged the car so we pulled over in the parking lot and looked back. There was a thin piece of metal something laying there, but another car (a real SUV mind you) had followed our lead and ran over whatever metal part it was. By this time our frenzied escape was seeming pretty foolish and all sorts of worst case scenarios of what I'd just done to the car were running through my head. Matt jumped out and checked under the car to see if anything was missing. (Not that you could really tell?!?) In the heat of the moment and the fact that a couple of police motorcycles had arrived in the parking lot we'd just left, Matt declared, "We're fine, let's go! We'll get it on the way back if we really need it!"
With that we sped off and moments later were zooming along I-70, feeling victorious that we'd outsmarted those annoying bikers. Until we hit some traffic and slowed down to a near stop. I was feeling pretty sheepish at this point. Good thing we'd saved all that time in the parking lot just to wade through more traffic not 5 minutes later! At least the car seems to have survived our impetuous maneuver without any lasting damage.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Progress by Photos
Here's some photos of some of our projects. I didn't have the camera out our charged for some of the more striking "before and after" shots, but here's a few. I'll post more and update this as we get more.
Sell This House
You know those HGTV shows where they walk through your house that needs to sell and point out all the things you need to fix and then a crew of highly competent, witty people come through and do 8 weekends worth or projects in 2 days? Well, as much as they tout it as reality TV, it sure ain't our reality!
We have had a steady stream of highly skilled and witty friends come to our house and help with numerous projects as well as child care. Thank you thank you! Our list has been shrinking steadily because of their generous sacrifice. We would still be mired in how to repair drywall books from the library otherwise. But the reality is there are not enough hours in the day or week to get our house "ready" by next week, which was our original goal.
So we're taking a step back, shooting for the first week of September and taking a slightly more sane approach to the rest of our list, mostly just paint and curb appeal at this point. And the curb appeal is the "funnest" part in my book. : )
Today I spent a marathon 1 hr and 15 min at Lowe's with my 2 children in one of those extra long 3-kid-seater carts. (This was after a 30 min Costco trip) My mission: match my pretty little gold-with-red-center 'mum blossoms to a red paint shade for the front door. Check. (Valspar 'Posh Red') Follow up on counter top side splash order. Check. (won't be in til tonight, so project pushed back) Make appt for storm door estimate. Check. (hopefully under $300 incl installation) Other than the shoe throwing and graham cracker dropping and high pitched scream sessions for their own amusement, my little dears behaved surprisingly well. We even managed a bathroom break (I had to ignore the "No Merchandise in Restroom" sign so I could keep Henry corralled). Evalyn LOVES the door and window display. She calls it her little house. She and Henry ran circles in and out of the doors for 10 minutes at least while the friendly "door man" was pulling up the info for me.
Let me just say how much I love Lowe's over Home Depot. Lowe's is clean, bright, easy to find what I need. 90% of the time I can find someone to help me. The checkout people are friendly and they give you free "paint keys" with each paint purchase. Their aisles are clearly labeled and contain helpful information for choosing products. Contrast this with Home Depot: crowded, tall metal stairs in the way, warehouse feel, labels and supplies not consistent, horrid check-out procedure (ie "self-checking"). Just yucky.
Of course I'm spoiled having both stores within easy driving distance. Although Lowe's is a bit further, my mood is always better when I finish a trip there rather than at Home Depot. Yes, Lowe's is marketed to women. And boy am I glad it is! If big box is the only option for some things, I'll choose Lowe's any day!!
We have had a steady stream of highly skilled and witty friends come to our house and help with numerous projects as well as child care. Thank you thank you! Our list has been shrinking steadily because of their generous sacrifice. We would still be mired in how to repair drywall books from the library otherwise. But the reality is there are not enough hours in the day or week to get our house "ready" by next week, which was our original goal.
So we're taking a step back, shooting for the first week of September and taking a slightly more sane approach to the rest of our list, mostly just paint and curb appeal at this point. And the curb appeal is the "funnest" part in my book. : )
Today I spent a marathon 1 hr and 15 min at Lowe's with my 2 children in one of those extra long 3-kid-seater carts. (This was after a 30 min Costco trip) My mission: match my pretty little gold-with-red-center 'mum blossoms to a red paint shade for the front door. Check. (Valspar 'Posh Red') Follow up on counter top side splash order. Check. (won't be in til tonight, so project pushed back) Make appt for storm door estimate. Check. (hopefully under $300 incl installation) Other than the shoe throwing and graham cracker dropping and high pitched scream sessions for their own amusement, my little dears behaved surprisingly well. We even managed a bathroom break (I had to ignore the "No Merchandise in Restroom" sign so I could keep Henry corralled). Evalyn LOVES the door and window display. She calls it her little house. She and Henry ran circles in and out of the doors for 10 minutes at least while the friendly "door man" was pulling up the info for me.
Let me just say how much I love Lowe's over Home Depot. Lowe's is clean, bright, easy to find what I need. 90% of the time I can find someone to help me. The checkout people are friendly and they give you free "paint keys" with each paint purchase. Their aisles are clearly labeled and contain helpful information for choosing products. Contrast this with Home Depot: crowded, tall metal stairs in the way, warehouse feel, labels and supplies not consistent, horrid check-out procedure (ie "self-checking"). Just yucky.
Of course I'm spoiled having both stores within easy driving distance. Although Lowe's is a bit further, my mood is always better when I finish a trip there rather than at Home Depot. Yes, Lowe's is marketed to women. And boy am I glad it is! If big box is the only option for some things, I'll choose Lowe's any day!!
Monday, August 13, 2007
[We've] Been Working Like A Dog....
(I apologize in advance for the travelogue nature of this post. It's the best I can do in my current state of fatigue!)
I'm almost too tired to post anything. It's been a marathon of a weekend in trying to get projects finished. Friday morning we drove to Annapolis for my 34 week midwife appt. It was the first one we'd been to as a family since the "tour" at the beginning. Baby is head down, so that is a nice thing to know.
While the kids napped we packed and loaded a bunch of stuff to take over to the storage unit. When naps were over we made a big family trip out of it, the kids even helping a bit. Every time we drive past ezStorage Evalyn says "Is that where my toys are?" Now she knows what's on the inside, too. They both had fun riding on the empty carts after unloading and looking out the 5th floor window at the view below.
That evening a friend from church (David who also helped the previous Saturday) came by with drywall tools to patch several holes and rough spots in our upstairs. He brought two of his kids along and even though they're a few years older (6 and 8) they all had a great time playing and getting muddy. It was almost like having cousins over! We all ate pizza a bit later and the kids watched a movie while the Dad's finished upstairs. It was a late bedtime!
Saturday was Yard Sale Day. My neighbor had suggested doing a multi-family moving sale/yard sale along with one of her friends a few weeks ago. It was good motivation to get rid of extra stuff, but as it turned out, my neighbor had the most things to sell! It was fun to make the signs and put them up, and then people actually came. I was sad to sell my stereo that I bought from my work earnings in college, but the CD player had stopped working reliably and it was just taking up space. $15 was all I got for it though. sigh. David and family also came back to finish up the drywall repair and to frame in the A/C wall unit.
After the garage sale was officially over and packed up, I was so tired I could hardly move. The new carpet was supposed to be installed that day too, but they had to reschedule for Monday. Matt had already moved all the furniture outside and into the front room so the house was in a crazy state. The good news was that Matt was able to get the trim painted that night while I turned in early.
Sunday was a well deserved day of rest. After church we ALL napped until 4PM! That never happens. The evening finished with a farewell party for some dear friends who are moving to Utah. We'll sure miss the Lambert's!! It was a weird feeling, too knowing that "we'll be next" to leave our little ward family/social group at church.
Today Matt called off work so we could knock a few more projects out. I left for Lowe's at 7:30AM to buy a dishwasher and a few supplies. While I was gone, the carpet guys arrived and were finishing up by the time I returned. We installed our window boxes (sort of, needs some adjustment). Matt mowed/cut the grass and replaced the kitchen ceiling tiles while I packed some more boxes/decluttered and readied the playroom to be turned back into a bedroom so we could work on the upstairs tonight and tomorrow. Oh, we also moved all the furniture back into the newly carpeted back room.
This evening, our longtime friend Frank came over and helped install the new dishwasher. It looks fabulous! Can't wait to run a load of dished in it, there are certainly plenty that've piled up while we've been working away! It's a Maytag, white finish. I would've preferred black or stainless steel, but the black ones in stock just didn't have the features I liked. So white it is.
After a marathon crib disassembly, move, and reassembly, the kids finally went to bed just after 9:30. Their schedule is so off!! Matt is sanding/spackling upstairs in preparation for painting and I should be upstairs, too, packing some more boxes to make room for tomorrow's project and more friends (the Graff's) who are coming to help paint again.
Whew! Just a one more week (we hope) and we'll finally be ready to list the house. I don't think we can handle much more of this marathon anyway! We are so so grateful for all the help and babysitting that our wonderful friends are providing for us. We couldn't do it otherwise!!
I'm almost too tired to post anything. It's been a marathon of a weekend in trying to get projects finished. Friday morning we drove to Annapolis for my 34 week midwife appt. It was the first one we'd been to as a family since the "tour" at the beginning. Baby is head down, so that is a nice thing to know.
While the kids napped we packed and loaded a bunch of stuff to take over to the storage unit. When naps were over we made a big family trip out of it, the kids even helping a bit. Every time we drive past ezStorage Evalyn says "Is that where my toys are?" Now she knows what's on the inside, too. They both had fun riding on the empty carts after unloading and looking out the 5th floor window at the view below.
That evening a friend from church (David who also helped the previous Saturday) came by with drywall tools to patch several holes and rough spots in our upstairs. He brought two of his kids along and even though they're a few years older (6 and 8) they all had a great time playing and getting muddy. It was almost like having cousins over! We all ate pizza a bit later and the kids watched a movie while the Dad's finished upstairs. It was a late bedtime!
Saturday was Yard Sale Day. My neighbor had suggested doing a multi-family moving sale/yard sale along with one of her friends a few weeks ago. It was good motivation to get rid of extra stuff, but as it turned out, my neighbor had the most things to sell! It was fun to make the signs and put them up, and then people actually came. I was sad to sell my stereo that I bought from my work earnings in college, but the CD player had stopped working reliably and it was just taking up space. $15 was all I got for it though. sigh. David and family also came back to finish up the drywall repair and to frame in the A/C wall unit.
After the garage sale was officially over and packed up, I was so tired I could hardly move. The new carpet was supposed to be installed that day too, but they had to reschedule for Monday. Matt had already moved all the furniture outside and into the front room so the house was in a crazy state. The good news was that Matt was able to get the trim painted that night while I turned in early.
Sunday was a well deserved day of rest. After church we ALL napped until 4PM! That never happens. The evening finished with a farewell party for some dear friends who are moving to Utah. We'll sure miss the Lambert's!! It was a weird feeling, too knowing that "we'll be next" to leave our little ward family/social group at church.
Today Matt called off work so we could knock a few more projects out. I left for Lowe's at 7:30AM to buy a dishwasher and a few supplies. While I was gone, the carpet guys arrived and were finishing up by the time I returned. We installed our window boxes (sort of, needs some adjustment). Matt mowed/cut the grass and replaced the kitchen ceiling tiles while I packed some more boxes/decluttered and readied the playroom to be turned back into a bedroom so we could work on the upstairs tonight and tomorrow. Oh, we also moved all the furniture back into the newly carpeted back room.
This evening, our longtime friend Frank came over and helped install the new dishwasher. It looks fabulous! Can't wait to run a load of dished in it, there are certainly plenty that've piled up while we've been working away! It's a Maytag, white finish. I would've preferred black or stainless steel, but the black ones in stock just didn't have the features I liked. So white it is.
After a marathon crib disassembly, move, and reassembly, the kids finally went to bed just after 9:30. Their schedule is so off!! Matt is sanding/spackling upstairs in preparation for painting and I should be upstairs, too, packing some more boxes to make room for tomorrow's project and more friends (the Graff's) who are coming to help paint again.
Whew! Just a one more week (we hope) and we'll finally be ready to list the house. I don't think we can handle much more of this marathon anyway! We are so so grateful for all the help and babysitting that our wonderful friends are providing for us. We couldn't do it otherwise!!
Monday, August 06, 2007
How Does Our Garden Grow?
Not very well lately. We planted a small garden this year, one Early Girl tomato (nice and meaty), one cherry tomato (100 Something...), two cucumbers, two zucchinis (wish I'd done one yellow summer squash as well), two cantaloupes (shriveled up after awhile) a row of corn (needed more nutrients and water(!!) to flourish) and a hill of watermelons. The peas and carrots never really came up from the seeds we planted.
Despite fencing-in the garden to keep cat, kids and the occasional bunny at bay, my dear children managed to pull the only largish watermelon off the vine prematurely, pick most of the large green tomatoes and snap a couple ends off the climbing cukes. Sigh. The cherry tomatoes are doing well though. Our corn stalks will make great Halloween decor, crispy and yellow although it's not even September!
We've had a rather dry summer and since most gardeners/farmers out here don't irrigate and I've been lazy at watering, the garden hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. But it's been good to eat the few harvests and Evalyn and Henry have sure enjoyed it!! There's a neat feeling to eat food that you grew yourself, or rather that the dirt and sun and rain grew in our case. I feel like the parable of the unwise steward or something where they plant the seeds but don't watch over the crops very well. Maybe I just combined two parables in that analogy.... I don't think any thieves would want to break in and steal our crops though.
(I forgot to post this last Monday when I wrote it!)
Despite fencing-in the garden to keep cat, kids and the occasional bunny at bay, my dear children managed to pull the only largish watermelon off the vine prematurely, pick most of the large green tomatoes and snap a couple ends off the climbing cukes. Sigh. The cherry tomatoes are doing well though. Our corn stalks will make great Halloween decor, crispy and yellow although it's not even September!
We've had a rather dry summer and since most gardeners/farmers out here don't irrigate and I've been lazy at watering, the garden hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. But it's been good to eat the few harvests and Evalyn and Henry have sure enjoyed it!! There's a neat feeling to eat food that you grew yourself, or rather that the dirt and sun and rain grew in our case. I feel like the parable of the unwise steward or something where they plant the seeds but don't watch over the crops very well. Maybe I just combined two parables in that analogy.... I don't think any thieves would want to break in and steal our crops though.
(I forgot to post this last Monday when I wrote it!)
Sunday, August 05, 2007
The Work Day
This past Saturday we scheduled a work day and invited friends from church and nearby to come over and help with painting and various tasks. We're hoping to list our house by the 3rd of 4th week of August, but there is a lot to do! It's a little awkward asking for help, but fortunately our friends were willing. : )
In the morning, Matt, Ryan and David fixed the carport soffit, sanded and painted the carport railings and posts, and painted the exposed foundation brick a nice shade of gray that matches the siding almost perfectly. The kids played inside and out while I readied the front room for taping and painting.
Mid-day after the kids were down for naps, another Ryan stopped by and helped with room prep. When the outside team finished and David left, Matt and Ryan came in and helped tape and move furniture around. Both Ryan's left at that point and we started the paint rolling. Then Bro. Schmoldt showed up just in time to do the edge painting up high where the roller didn't reach. Earlier in the week we had more help from our Home Teacher and his wife and another couple in painting the back room and kitchen trim. It was quite efficient indeed and we felt grateful to have so much help getting things accomplished in half the time!
Our list is still long but it feels good to be crossing things off. As always there are things we're finally getting around to doing that we intended to do when we first moved it. Like installing a new dishwasher. Painting the bathroom. Powerwashing the siding. At least we'll get to enjoy the new dishwasher for a couple of months! It feels weird to have all the family pics off the walls and books packed away. Slowly the house will be less ours and more someone elses as we get ready to list it.
In the morning, Matt, Ryan and David fixed the carport soffit, sanded and painted the carport railings and posts, and painted the exposed foundation brick a nice shade of gray that matches the siding almost perfectly. The kids played inside and out while I readied the front room for taping and painting.
Mid-day after the kids were down for naps, another Ryan stopped by and helped with room prep. When the outside team finished and David left, Matt and Ryan came in and helped tape and move furniture around. Both Ryan's left at that point and we started the paint rolling. Then Bro. Schmoldt showed up just in time to do the edge painting up high where the roller didn't reach. Earlier in the week we had more help from our Home Teacher and his wife and another couple in painting the back room and kitchen trim. It was quite efficient indeed and we felt grateful to have so much help getting things accomplished in half the time!
Our list is still long but it feels good to be crossing things off. As always there are things we're finally getting around to doing that we intended to do when we first moved it. Like installing a new dishwasher. Painting the bathroom. Powerwashing the siding. At least we'll get to enjoy the new dishwasher for a couple of months! It feels weird to have all the family pics off the walls and books packed away. Slowly the house will be less ours and more someone elses as we get ready to list it.
Henry v. The Cabinet
The other day I walked into the family room to check on Henry. This is what I found:
Notice the right hand side of the door is missing part of it's frame. Yes, it's on the left side of the door now! (I removed the precariously balanced glass before grabbing the camera.) Normally these doors are kept locked. That's why we bought this particular model from IKEA, to keep our electronics in working condition. : ) The key lock he broke a week or so ago from pulling too hard. So I put another type of child lock on the handles. The child lock held, but not the wood frame!
Henry was shoving small objects into the VCR compartment as fast as he could, like a chipmunk in the fall or something.... Fortunately I was able to extract the toys without too much trouble.
My only option after this incident (that I could see) was to remove the broken door, detach the VCR/DVD combo, and stick it high on the shelf to keep it out of reach. It just baffled me that his drive to play with the VCR slot would be so strong as to pull and pull until the door broke!
Later that day Daddy came home and saw the aftermath. He turned to Henry with a smiling scowl and said "Henry, how am I supposed to watch Spiderman now?" (Note: This is the original Spidey series from the 70's that he bought on DVD off of eBay. Live Action, not animated.) Evalyn thought this was pretty funny. The last couple of nights she'll be sitting on the couch and see the banished player on the shelf. Then she turns to Matt and says in the same tone he used with Henry "Matt, how are you supposed to watch Spiderman?" (She has this thing about calling her daddy "Matt" about as frequently as she says Daddy or Dad). Talk about a precocious child!
So we still have Tivo to keep the kids occupied when needed. No slots in that machine that Henry's discovered yet. Someone suggested getting a broken VCR at a thrift store for him to play with. That would certainly occupy the busy fellow for awhile!
I've been very lax with TV watching lately. From being just plain tired to trying to get various decluttering and "house for sale prep" tasks, plus having toys packed away and headed for the storage unit, the TV has been on a lot more. I should come up with better ways of occupying them I suppose...
Notice the right hand side of the door is missing part of it's frame. Yes, it's on the left side of the door now! (I removed the precariously balanced glass before grabbing the camera.) Normally these doors are kept locked. That's why we bought this particular model from IKEA, to keep our electronics in working condition. : ) The key lock he broke a week or so ago from pulling too hard. So I put another type of child lock on the handles. The child lock held, but not the wood frame!
Henry was shoving small objects into the VCR compartment as fast as he could, like a chipmunk in the fall or something.... Fortunately I was able to extract the toys without too much trouble.
My only option after this incident (that I could see) was to remove the broken door, detach the VCR/DVD combo, and stick it high on the shelf to keep it out of reach. It just baffled me that his drive to play with the VCR slot would be so strong as to pull and pull until the door broke!
Later that day Daddy came home and saw the aftermath. He turned to Henry with a smiling scowl and said "Henry, how am I supposed to watch Spiderman now?" (Note: This is the original Spidey series from the 70's that he bought on DVD off of eBay. Live Action, not animated.) Evalyn thought this was pretty funny. The last couple of nights she'll be sitting on the couch and see the banished player on the shelf. Then she turns to Matt and says in the same tone he used with Henry "Matt, how are you supposed to watch Spiderman?" (She has this thing about calling her daddy "Matt" about as frequently as she says Daddy or Dad). Talk about a precocious child!
So we still have Tivo to keep the kids occupied when needed. No slots in that machine that Henry's discovered yet. Someone suggested getting a broken VCR at a thrift store for him to play with. That would certainly occupy the busy fellow for awhile!
I've been very lax with TV watching lately. From being just plain tired to trying to get various decluttering and "house for sale prep" tasks, plus having toys packed away and headed for the storage unit, the TV has been on a lot more. I should come up with better ways of occupying them I suppose...
Friday, August 03, 2007
A Move Is In Our Future....
A major development in our family has been underway for several weeks now. Matt had applied for a job back in April. It's with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) so sometimes government jobs can take awhile. Since Matt has applied for various federal jobs over the last couple of years, we weren't quite sure what to expect. After the 2nd phone interview they called back to fly him out for an "in-person" interview the middle of July. From the title of the post I'm sure you can guess that they selected him for the job and he's accepted! We had to wait a couple more weeks for it to be approved by "Washington"/Dept of Interior (DOI), which they did, so now it is really really official.
Where is this new job? Across the country in Yreka, CA (pronounced why-reek-a). It's a small town of ~8,000 on the CA/OR border along I-5 near Mt. Shasta. The position is for a Public Relations Officer to work with local communities/stakeholders on issues with the Klamath River.
Some things were looking forward to: It's a gov't PR position in a conservation field. It's close to fly fishing, mountains, etc and in a non-humid climate that gets four seasons. It's small-town living where we've imagined we'd like to live at some point. Matt and I would still have family "close" by (4.5 hrs north to my parents/sister, 4 hrs south to Matt's uncles). The Church is relatively strong there and we'd be 45 minutes to the Medford Oregon Temple.
Some things we're not looking forward to: We'll be uprooting our little family and taking a risk that we'll like it there. We won't be a 3.5 hour drive from Grammum and Pappy anymore. We may find small-town life too stagnant after living in a vibrant metropolitan area where everything is close-by. The cost of living is a little better but we won't really know how it all balances out until we're actually living there. We'll be saying good-bye to so many wonderful friends and leaving the place we've been since we met and married five years ago.
As November looms closer I'm sure we'll be more wistful with the inevitable goodbyes. But for now we're gearing up for sell-the-house mode. Oh, and to have a baby before we move, too. Eeeks!!
Where is this new job? Across the country in Yreka, CA (pronounced why-reek-a). It's a small town of ~8,000 on the CA/OR border along I-5 near Mt. Shasta. The position is for a Public Relations Officer to work with local communities/stakeholders on issues with the Klamath River.
Some things were looking forward to: It's a gov't PR position in a conservation field. It's close to fly fishing, mountains, etc and in a non-humid climate that gets four seasons. It's small-town living where we've imagined we'd like to live at some point. Matt and I would still have family "close" by (4.5 hrs north to my parents/sister, 4 hrs south to Matt's uncles). The Church is relatively strong there and we'd be 45 minutes to the Medford Oregon Temple.
Some things we're not looking forward to: We'll be uprooting our little family and taking a risk that we'll like it there. We won't be a 3.5 hour drive from Grammum and Pappy anymore. We may find small-town life too stagnant after living in a vibrant metropolitan area where everything is close-by. The cost of living is a little better but we won't really know how it all balances out until we're actually living there. We'll be saying good-bye to so many wonderful friends and leaving the place we've been since we met and married five years ago.
As November looms closer I'm sure we'll be more wistful with the inevitable goodbyes. But for now we're gearing up for sell-the-house mode. Oh, and to have a baby before we move, too. Eeeks!!
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