Housewarming

About a month after we moved in to our new house, we threw our housewarming party. We combined it with our annual crab feast and ended up inviting a ton of people. It was by far the biggest crab feast we've ever had, the first time we actually finished all of the crabs at the party.

We invited our usualy friend group, who always comes to these events. Kevin also extended the invitation to his new colleagues, who all came with their spouses. And we invited a few of our new neighbors which accidentally spiraled into inviting the whole neighborhood. Thankfully most of them were still out of town or otherwise busy due to summer vacation. But a few stopped by and it was nice to get to know them.

A bunch of people brought beer and wine, and we provided a keg and a cooler full of beer and soda. And even though people stayed up late playing beer pong, we almost ended the party with more alcohol than we started it with. We even gota fancy new cooler (full of Coronas).

The party was something of a whirlwind, and I wasn't really much help as a host in terms of cooking or cleaning. I tried to at least talk to everyone who stopped by, though, and it was nice to get to know some of the new neighbors.

The Monday after the party, we hauled the remainder of the keg up to the end of our driveway and invited our neighbors over to help us finish it. It was a nice, more low-key way to get to know some of them. Though the short notice did mean that even fewer people stopped by. But it was ultimately a very fun and successful housewarming party. It's been almost a month now, and Kevin is still working his way through the excess beer.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Once we got settled in our new house, we decided it was time to meet the neighbors. So one night after dinner we went out, armed with invitations to our house-warming party, to meet the other families on the cul-de-sac with us. We figured five households was a good start, and a decent number of people to invite to the party.

Everyone was very nice and welcoming, though four of the five houses belong to older couples. All of their kids were in their twenties and out of the house, except for the one high school senior (youngest of five). And then there's one oddball family with middle-school aged kids. Of the five families we met, two were planing to be out of town, but three said they'd drop by the party. That had been about what we'd been expecting, and it was nice to start meeting people and learning names.

We also learned about various social events. There's a semi-regular Wine Wednesday, a regular guys night every Thursday, a monthly ladies night out, and a bunch of parties throughout the year. Everyone kept telling us about the epic Halloween party; I'm eager to see how it stacks up against our Halloween party. One of the neighbors said she'd make sure we got on the various neighborhood email lists, and we thanked her.

By the time we got home, we had a couple of emails detailing the upcoming regularly scheduled events and introducing us to the neighborhood. Our friendly neighbor had also taken it upon herself to extend the invitation to our house warming party to the entire neighborhood, some 40-odd houses. So far only one of those households has RSVPed, so we don't really have any idea what to expect come Saturday.

On the bright side, we did get to attend a few events and start meeting more neighbors. The Wine Wednesday is hosted by one of the other pregnant couples. There were a lot of people there, too many for me to remember names. But I met both of the other pregnant ladies in the neighborhood, and they seem nice which is heartening. Both families already have toddlers, and there seem to be a lot of younger children around in general.

I'm actually glad we moved into such a welcoming, social neighborhood. Our housewarming party could get a bit insane, and we may actually run out of food for the first time in our hosting history. But it will be good to start socializing with people. According to everyone we've talked to, this is a neighborhood that likes to party hard. The people our age have told us they have a hard time keeping up with the empty-nesters, which makes sense. Hopefully it also means that Kevin and I will fit right in.

And now to hope that a reasonable number of people choose to attend the housewarming party this Saturday. It'll be good to meet more people; I just hate not knowing how many, exactly, are coming.

Moving

We had a full week between closing on the house and officially moving into it. We set it up this way mostly so we would have a full weekend to get settled. Instead of having the movers move everything on Saturday followed by a rush of unpacking on Sunday, we took things a little slower. Kevin took Friday off to be around while the movers came, and we had both Saturday and Sunday to get settled in the new house. Which is especially important since I'm currently out of PTO in anticipation of my maternity leave.

It also meant that we were able to use that gap week to start moving over the things we could move over. We did our entire kitchen this way, bringing plates and glasses slowly so we wouldn't worry about them breaking. We brought games and DVDs and clothes. As we decided that we wouldn't need things until after we moved, we took them to the new house. By the time the movers showed up on Friday, all that was left was furniture, cleaning supplies (which stayed behind another day) and a single suitcase with last minute clothes and toiletries.

It's actually a good thing we were able to get so much moved on our own, even if I spent the week in a haze of exhaustion. The movers had a hard time fitting the rest of our stuff in their truck. Which actually surprised me, because I don't think we have an inordinate amount of stuff for the size house we had. But it all fit in the end, so I suppose it doesn't really matter.

The other upside of moving things piecemeal is that the house was already almost put together by the time we officially moved in. Clothes were in closets, linens were folded, the kitchen was all set up. It didn't take us long at all to go through the remaining boxes and do a few loads of laundry and dishes. By the time we'd been in the house a week, the only thing left to do was hang pictures. And if we still need to hang those pictures nearly a month after we moved in, well, we made good progress for a while at least. The finishing touches will happen this weekend, or at least before our housewarming next weekend.

It's so nice to be settled in the new house. There are a few things that are already driving me bananas - the dishwasher is tiny and the kitchen in general is a bit shoddy. But for the most part I love it. My books are all out in common spaces now instead of hidden away in my office. Kevin has his own office, so I can use the living room without disturbing him. I'm even getting used to the longer commute. Now all we need to do is sell the townhouse and everything will be settled.

Thirty

I spent my thirtieth birthday moving into a new house and gestating my first kid. Which is pretty much exactly how I've been wanting to celebrate my thirtieth birthday for several years now. Well, maybe not the actively moving part. But it's nice to be looking forward to so much positive change during a milestone birthday. Also, I'm hoping that the round numbers will make it easier for me to remember my own and my kids' age in the decades to come.

We got the keys to our new house the day before my birthday, so we had planned to spend the day taking over things we didn't want to bother the official movers with. Things that were fragile or too hard to pack. We also took Kina over to the new house, since we had to get her out of the old house for a few showings.

The air conditioner was out at the new house, which killed some of our plans. We got a load of stuff moved over, but it was ultimately too hot (and I was too pregnant) for us to do too much. It was a good start, though.

In the evening, Kevin and I went out for a nice steak dinner, as we always do to celebrate birthdays. I almost ate too much, but managed to keep from feeling like I was going to explode. And I celebrated with a glass of wine, which I once again managed to nurse for about an hour. I'm really going to have to figure out how to hold on to that skill in the future.

All in all, it was a pretty low-key day. But, as I said, it's exactly what I wanted for my thirtieth. I'm really looking forward to the coming year, which promises to be both excellent and busy. And given that I'm posting this nearly three weeks after my birthday, you can tell that the business has already started.

Closing Time

Last Friday everything finally came together and we closed on our new house. Things didn't quite go as smoothly as we'd been hoping, but at the end of the day everything worked out.

The previous owner moved out the Sunday before we closed, so Kevin and our realtor were able to do a walkthrough on Monday to make sure everything was still working. Kevin said the house was a mess, but there was a cleaning service scheduled to come through on Tuesday. Then our realtor did one final walkthrough on Friday, about an hour before we signed all the papers. While the house had been cleaned, the air conditioner had stopped working.

Luckily, we caught the broken A/C before we signed anything. We were able to add a condition to get it fixed: the owner would hold $2000 in escrow to be used against repairs and we would use her warranty before calling in anyone else. Negotiating that stretched our closing out to almost 2 hours. Although we also had a whole lot of paperwork to go through. I must have signed or initialed 200 pieces of paper during the meeting. But by the end we got our keys and we were able to go see the house.

Without air conditioning, we didn't want to hang out too long. But we loaded the car with a few boxes, picked up sandwiches, and went over to the new house. Kevin brought a bottle of champagne, too, and I had a couple of sips to celebrate.

We aren't officially moving in until the 22nd. We hired movers to take all of our furniture, because we're past the point of bribing friends with pizza and beer to help us move. We just have too much stuff now. But we are trying to get a decent amount of moving done ourselves. There are things that are awkward or fragile to pack and easy enough for us to move. I'm actually amazed at how much progress we're making in these little trips. And it helps that we can unpack it all right and put it away immediately. I'm hoping it makes the entire process go smoother and faster.

I'm really excited about our new house. It'll be nice to have more land and privacy than we currently do in the townhome. And the living room won't be doubling as Kevin's office anymore, so we can spread out a bit more. Plus the kitchen is everything I ever wanted in a kitchen. Now we just have to move in and unpack, then we can start focusing on the kid.

On the Market

We finally got our house on the market. It's been a little over a month since we started working towards this goal. We probably would have hit it sooner if we hadn't had scheduling snafus with our contractors. But after weeks of packing and moving furniture and cleaning and watching our house slowly transform, we're finally ready to sell it.

The last push was particularly brutal. We got up early Saturday morning to buy the various things our stager told us to get (new towels, flowers, a welcome mat, etc). Then we had to get home to let the carpet installers in so they could finish the stairs. While they worked, Kevin and I cleaned the basement and he did some yard work. I tried to remember to take breaks while I cleaned the kitchen and found places for the things we had to hide.

Then I went shopping, because I've been in desperate need of a new bra for a little over a week now. By the time I got home, the heat had conspired drain the last of my energy. My plans to sweep and mop were thrown out the window in favor of recovering on the couch, especially since I had to stay up later than I'd intended. Kevin got a flat tire on the way to his baseball game, so I had to pick him up around 10.

The next morning we woke up as early as we could manage to finish getting the house ready. The cleaning seemed never-ending. It didn't help that I had to disappear at one point to get Kina to her grooming appointment, though it was necessary to have her out of the house one way or another.

Our realtor showed up a little before 11 and began shoving everything in cabinets. The blankets I'd carefully folded on the backs of the couches were hidden. Towels and soap were put away. Any trace of our pets had to be moved to the basement where they wouldn't be photographed. I never ended up finding the time to finish sweeping and mopping the main level.

The photographer came at 11, and we vacated while he took a bunch of pictures. It only took him 20 minutes or so to get everything done. Then we had to go deal with the flat tire of the night before.

When I finally got home, I basically collapsed on the bed.

But we managed to get everything done, or done enough. There's still some cleaning to be done. The sort of things that don't show up in pictures - toilets and showers. But at this point it's mostly a matter of maintaining the current state of the house while we cross our fingers for an offer.

It feels a bit like we've hit the eye of the hurricane. After weeks of working on the house in every spare moment, there's suddenly almost nothing to do. Hopefully that momentum we built up will carry me through making the bed and washing the dishes every day. But now there's almost nothing to do until we move to the new house in three weeks. I can only hope that we're under contract on the townhouse by then. It will certainly make life easier.

There's another whirlwind coming - one involving moving and unpacking. Then it will be all about outfitting a nursery and getting ready for the kid. I should probably look into signing up for a child birth class and other stuff like that. But for now I just want to enjoy the quiet. We haven't even made plans for the 4th of July, because all Kevin and I want to do this weekend is sit on the couch. And we certainly can't host anything at our place right now.

The heartening news is that I keep finding these pockets of quiet. Back in April I was sure that summer was going to be non-stop and that would turn into a nonstop life of childcare. But now I have a week or so of downtime. Hopefully this isn't the last rest I get before (or after) the kid comes.

Home Improvements

We got home from Las Vegas and immediately refocused on getting our house ready to sell. And I do mean immediately. The painters were able to start their work while we were still away, which meant that we came home to discover that the top floor of our house was unusable. Furniture was piled in the middle of each room, showers were taped off (they re-grouted for us), and plastic sheets covered everything. Not something you want to come home to in the middle of the night.

We spent a fitful night on the couch in the basement, being woken up periodically by the howls of our attention-deprived cat. After that we were at least able to get our bed back, though furniture has been shuffling around for the past couple of weeks. And I've used every shower in the house at one point.

We're close to done with the home improvements we needed to make before putting the house on the market, though. The cracks are all repaired. The lights are fixed. The walls are painted. The carpet is mostly installed. Now we're just waiting on carpet for the stairs and a steam cleaning of the basement. Then we need to go through and do a deep clean (dusting and mopping and all that fun stuff). But we're very close to actually getting our house on the market. I just hope that other people think the house looks as nice as we do and want to buy it quickly. It would be nice to not have to carry the double mortgage for too long.

Kicking Off the Busy Season

The Saturday before Memorial Day was the busiest Saturday I've had in a long time. Which is appropriate as this is shaping up to be the busiest summer I've had in a long time.

We got up at 6 in the morning. Kevin re-stained the stairs to the backyard while I swept and mopped and generally got ready for the barbecue we were throwing that afternoon. Then it was off to the home inspection for our new home at 8:30.

The inspection went well. There were a few issues, but some of them were maintenance things (trimming back trees that were overhanging the roof) and some we had been expecting (the seller had already told us she wasn't replacing the stove top fan, thus implying that it was broken). For the most part everything is in working order. The furnace is old, but it's still working, so that's an upcoming expense that we just need to keep in mind.

We ended up leaving the inspection a tad early. We'd gone over most of the major things and our inspector said that from there on it was just a matter of checking outlets and light switches. We went to the grocery store by the new house to see what was in the shopping center and pick up some last minute food items for the barbecue. Then I dropped Kevin off at home and went to my sister-in-law's bridal shower.

I arrived at the bridal shower almost an hour late because we hadn't really known how long a home inspection takes. But I was still one of the first people there. We ate some food and chatted and played some games and watched the bride-to-be open presents. Then I had to duck out a little early to get back to my house before guests started arriving.

Two of our friends were coming from NYC by bus. As I was leaving the bridal showed, I actually ended up behind their bus at a stop light. But then I got stuck in the wrong lane because I didn't actually know where I was going. I ended up missing my turn to get back on the highway and had to loop around a little bit. It ended up working out, though, as I still got to the bus stop right as they were getting off the bus.

From then the day is a blur of food and friends. Everyone from the bridal shower came to the barbecue, as well as a bunch of local friends. All told we had over 30 people through our house that afternoon, making it one of the biggest parties we've thrown and justification for the bigger house we're buying.

Sunday was devoted to my sister-in-law's bachelorette party. Though I'm not drinking, I had a lot of fun touring various local cideries and distilleries with the group. I'm looking forward to going back to Catoctin Creek once I'm no longer pregnant. They've expanded since I was last there and have a pretty exciting tasting menu now. Afterwards we all went to an escape room in Alexandria, which was a ton of fun. We made it out with 5 minutes to spare, which I think means that the puzzle was the perfect amount of challenging. Then we got dinner and I left the group at a karaoke bar while I went to pick up Kevin. He had been planning to metro home from our friend's house, but with all the track work going on lately, the metro has gotten really unreliable. It might have taken him two hours to get home that way.

Monday was devoted to packing up our house in preparation for selling it. We need to clear out a lot of stuff before the open house so that it doesn't look too crammed. We packed up almost all of the books and games, along with the clothes we aren't expecting to wear until the weather turns colder. Then Kevin got a storage unit and started moving boxes over while I filled up trash bags with junks we don't need anymore and things we want to donate. It's amazing how much stuff we got rid of and how much stuff we still have. But it's also nice to get a jump start on the packing, even though we won't be moving for another month and a half. Hopefully we'll be able to keep chipping away at this a little bit at a time and avoid getting too overwhelmed.

Preparing to Sell

Once we knew I was pregnant, Kevin and I knew that we wanted to try and move into a bigger house by the time the kid came. Before he went to Hawaii we figured out what we could afford and looked at a few open houses. We developed a pretty good idea of what we wanted and what we could afford. But there wasn't much else we could do until he came home.

We hit the ground running when he did get home. We made a list of the work we knew needed to be done to the house (paint and new carpeting). We went to a few more open houses to make sure we were still on the same page. And then we met with a realtor to figure out some of the details.

The meeting left me reeling a little. It turns out there's a lot you need to do to get a house ready to sell. And considering that it takes 60 days to close we suddenly realized that we needed to move fast. Our to-do list exploded, our time frame shrank, and both of us are busy enough at work that we're not sure how it's going to all get done.

It was incredibly stressful for a while. I was already wondering if we could actually get into a new house in time to prepare for the baby, or if there would end up being a major crunch. But we made a to do list, and we've slowly been knocking things off of it all weekend. Most of the work right now is packing up stuff we don't need to get ready for an open house. This includes my library, a bunch of clothes, and a surprising amount of furniture and kitchen stuff.

At the moment our house is a mess of boxes and trash bags. Despite the way it looks, we've made good progress this weekend, and we're much more confident about our time table. The goal is to have the open house in three weeks, or at least be ready to. We won't put the house on the market until we're ready to make an offer, because we're expecting it to sell very quickly. But we want to be ready to pull that trigger at a moment's notice.

Now we just have to hope that everything else comes together. The goal is to be in a new place by August, which would then give us two months to unpack and prepare for the baby. Which should be enough time. If we can't get our act together, then it isn't the end of the world. We can have a kid in our current house, we'd just have to forfeit the guest room to do it. But we could make it work. I just hope we can get this all settled before hand.

New Water Heater

One of the unmistakable signs of adulthood is getting really excited about large appliances. Kevin and I have been talking about getting a new water heater for years. Literally. The one we had held just about enough water for one of my showers. Kevin takes shorter showers, so he never had an issue. And for a long time he didn't believe that we did have an issue.

But I finally convinced him, and a few weeks ago I came home to discover that he'd gone ahead and bought a new water heater and gotten it installed while I was at work. Best Valentines Day surprise ever. Except maybe for that time he conspired with my mom and flew across the country to surprise me. What I'm saying is that I let out a very similar squeal and did that same dance when I saw the new water heater.

Life has definitely improved since the new water heater got installed. I don't have to get up half an hour before my alarm to run the hot water so I can be assured of a hot shower anymore. God, I already can't believe that was an actual thing I was doing. Moreover, the hot water doesn't suddenly cut out while I still have conditioner in my hair. I can actually fill up the tub and take baths. Our dishwasher has miraculously become a lot more efficient. No more baked on food if we don't wash the dishes before sticking them in the dishwasher anymore, which sort of defeats the whole purpose. It's almost like we got two new appliances for the price of one (and I'm sure the washer is working better, too).

The point is that we should have done this years ago.

And hopefully this will motivate us to tackle the rest of the house to-do list.

Plumbing Problems

Several weeks ago, Kevin noticed that the toilet on the main floor was leaking. There was a hairline crack in the mechanism that indicates that the tank is full. It wasn't closing fully, so water was just running through continuously. He shut off the toilet until he had time to deal with it, and we just used the other toilets for a while. One of the perks of having multiple bathrooms is that it's not the end of the world when one of them breaks. (One of the downsides is that you have to clean all of them).

When he found the time over the weekend, Kevin got the replacement pump and set about installing it in the toilet. This shouldn't be all that difficult, but it turned out to be. First, unscrewing the original pump turned out to be a two-person job. I had to hold it still so it wouldn't just spin around and around. There must be an easier way to do this, but we probably didn't have the right tools. Then things didn't quite match and what had been a steady leak inside the toilet that could simply be turned off, turned into a slow but steady leak into a bowl underneath the toilet.

I'm not sure where this leak was coming from, as I know almost nothing about plumbing (I know some very basic things from the day I spent hooking up a water cooling tank thing in my undergrad lab, but it was mostly following instructions from someone else because I was small enough to fit in the corner with the piping). At any rate, we lived with that for a few days, hoping to get a plumber in after our Halloween party.

But then the leak got worse. A lot worse. Whereas the bowl underneath the toilet had previously needed emptying every day or so, it now filled up twice an hour. It wasn't the sort of thing we could leave overnight, let alone while we were hosting a huge party.

This was on Thursday night. Guests were due to begin arriving Friday evening with the big party taking up most of Saturday. Kevin called a plumber hoping to get the toilet fixed as soon as possible. The earliest the guy could make it out was Friday morning. And since the leak was bad enough that we couldn't leave it, we turned off water to the entire house.

Friday morning was not fun. I'd filled some water bottle with water the night before and made sure the tea kettle was full, but there's only so much you can do. I couldn't shower in the morning, and I ended up taking my toothbrush to work with me, trying not to breath anyone on the metro. Thankfully we got it fixed in time for the party, only for the next plumbing disaster to pop up.

People are drunk enough at Hallowiener that something usually breaks. This is just part of throwing the party. One year I shattered a glass. One year someone kicked a hole in our wall. This year someone dropped a glass in the sink, resulting in a garbage disposal full of glass shards. I got as many out as I could, but a few had fallen beyond my reach. I made the executive decision to just not deal with it that night, and told people not to use the garbage disposal.

Life without a garbage disposal isn't quite as difficult as I feared. I kept having to remind myself that I couldn't use it, but peeling potatoes into the garbage can instead of the sink isn't really that much of a burden. Between the minimal impact the lack of disposal had on our life, and all the other clean up from the party, it took us a week to actually deal with the broken disposal. I was worried we'd have to call in a plumber again, but it turned out to be a pretty easy fix. All in all it only cost about $7 for a specific Allen wrench.

Now we're just crossing our fingers that the law of threes doesn't apply here. I really don't want to deal with another plumbing problem in the coming weeks.

Spring Shopping Spree

The weather finally warmed up this weekend, and for some reason it put me in the mood to go shopping. This doesn't happen very often, but there were things I'd been meaning to buy for a while, so I took advantage of the mood and ended up getting a lot of stuff.

I finally bought a table lamp and completed the room that it's taken us the longest to furnish. We bought the couch and tables back in January when we knew Kevin's family would be coming to stay with us. It ended up being a bit too dark to read on the couches at night, though it's been perfect for hanging out with guests. I'm glad this room is finally finished.

I also bought new drip pans, making me feel like an adult. Our old drip pans have been a mess since we moved in, and the kitchen never quite looked clean. I tried everything, from magic erasers to steel wool to soaking them to wrapping them in aluminum foil. Then a discovered that a brand new set costs less than $15. If I'd known this a year ago, I could have saved a lot of time and money.

Shiny!

I also bought a new purse that I'm really excited about. For a long time I had a massive purse for work, so I could cart my laptop back and forth. Then my new job provided me with an enormous laptop that was too big for that purse. So I've been using a backpack, and I ran to Target to get a new purse for work. Unfortunately, that purse ended up being too small to hold a novel. So every day I was carrying the backpack, a purse, and whatever book I was reading. Not ideal. Then I found this purse at JCPenny, and it's perfect. Not only is it big enough for everything I want to carry without looking too massive, it's purple!

Furnished House

Back in July, I said I'd post pictures of the house once we were moved in. Well it turns out that unpacking is a lengthy process. And then furnishing the house takes a while, too. And keeping it clean is just an endless job. But the house is finally in a state I'm proud of, mostly because I spent all afternoon cleaning so I could get some decent pictures. Anyway, this is what our house looks like now that we're actually living in it.

I got my desk set up in my office and bought a new bookcase that's waiting to be filled.

The other side of my office is my library.

Our bedroom actually has a bed, and we've got nightstands. I even added some color to the wall.

But on the other side of the room, you can see that there are still a few things I need to hang. This moving in is a long process

Downstairs we have a kitchen that actually looks like someone uses it. You can tell by all the counter space we've managed to convert into storage space.

But we still have plenty of room to work on the other counter

Our main living room is split so Kevin can use half of it as his office. We've flipped this recently, so no one's actually seen this layout yet. We also bought a cabinet to display our various chotchkies, though we need to organize it a bit better.

The reason for the flip is that we've actually begun to furnish the other side of the room. It's still a bit lacking, but I have a designated place to read now.

And in the dining room, we bought a cabinet for all our glassware. We have a ridiculous amount of glassware.

The layout downstairs has also changed a bit since we had any visitors. Mostly because we moved that green couch upstairs.

And once more, we're left with part of a room that still needs to be furnished. I'm thinking of getting a card table so I have a place to do puzzles.

It's actually starting to look like a real home. Now I just need to finish hanging pictures. In the meantime, I'm hoping I can keep this place clean.

Home Improved

We made our very first home improvement over the weekend. It wasn't anything huge, just installing a shelf, but it was nice to be able to just do it without having to consult a landlord or worry about the possibility of forfeiting a security deposit. And now I have a place to put my purse when I get home from work!

Natural Disasters

While on vacation last week I completely missed the earthquake that hit DC. I came back to work to find a whole lot of emails about it. Apparently my building was evacuated and everyone got to go home early. Except the earthquake affected public transportation so a lot of people ended up with 4-5 hour commutes home.

We have a bit of damage that needs to be evaluated in our home. Hopefully there's nothing too serious. There are a bunch of cracks in the walls, but it could just be paint and dry wall damage. Fingers crossed.

Hurricane Irene interfered somewhat with our drive home from Lake Placid. We came down I-87 initially, but ending up driving west to Harrisburg, PA to avoid the storm for as long as possible. That's quite a bit out of the way, considering that the initial plan had been to come down the Jersey Turnpike. Oh well, we did make it home.

We actually didn't encounter the storm until the very last hour of our drive across Maryland. It never got worse than a heavy rainstorm (we live pretty far inland). The Safeway told a different story, though. I went to pick up some food, since we'd been out of town for a week. Despite the fact that it wasn't supposed to really get that bad where we lived (heavy rain over night and early Sunday morning) you'd have thought the world was ending. There was no water in the store. I got the last carton of eggs and the last loaf of bread. The only milk left was whole milk.

As predicted the storm wasn't that bad. We briefly lost power overnight, but wouldn't have known if we hadn't needed to reset the clocks. By the time I woke up and looked outside on Sunday the sun was shining.

Frankly, I'm disappointed. I'm a little sad I missed the earthquake, especially since I lived in LA for four years and never felt one there either. I definitely would have felt this one. Though I am glad I didn't have to deal with the awful commute that followed the earthquake. Instead I was playing losing Settlers of Catan again. The hurricane wasn't even the heaviest rainstorm I've seen. Even my brother, who is stationed on the North Carolina coast, summed it up with "I've seen worse blizzards"

I know other areas were hit harder. And we still need to assess the earthquake damage, which could very well be extensive and costly. But I expected more from the end-of-the-world predictions I was hearing.

Musty Old Books

Back in the 1940s, after he came home from WWII, my grandfather joined a book club. Once a month he received a gorgeous, classic novel. He was a part of this club for years and accumulated dozens of books. All are wonderfully bound and amazingly cared for. Each one has his name and the date he received it, which adds a nice bit of family history to this set of books.

Gorgeous old book from 1948

My mom inherited the books after my grandfather died. They were displayed during my childhood, but after my parents divorced my mom didn't have enough room anymore. Most of the books have been sitting in boxes for the last decade or so. A handful did make it onto shelves, and in high school I picked up Pride and Prejudice.

I remember my mom making me swear up and down that I would take exquisite care of the book. I had always read a lot. My house was packed to overflowing with books and my parents were always willing to buy me more. But this was the first time I really felt reverence for a book. I worshiped it.

These aren't just books. They aren't just old books. They belonged to my grandfather, a man I have exactly one memory of. Reading these books makes me feel a bit more connected to my own family history. They are books that my grandfather read. Not just stories, but the actual books. My mom read them, I've read a few, and I hope that my kids will read them someday.

When Boyfriend and I bought our house, I was able to claim one of the rooms as a library/office for myself. I began hinting heavily that I wanted the books. At my mom's house they're living in boxes, but I have room to display them. A classic collection like this needs to be sitting on a shelf, not in boxes.

As a birthday surprise, my mom sent me two of the books. It's even more special because this copy of Pride and Prejudice was my introduction to Jane Austen, as it was my mom's before me. Now I just need to find spots for these books on my extensive reading list. In the meantime, at least they have a place in my library

Awesome birthday present

Last Update For a Bit

Life is incredibly busy. Work is finally under control, but now the move is taking up all my time. As always, I put off packing longer than I should have. So now I get to spend all week packing and taking stuff over to the new house. Saturday is the main moving day, with the truck and Boyfriend's buddies to help lift stuff. We have to get the carpets cleaned at the new place before we move and the old place after we move (joy). The washer/dryer is being delivered, and there are probably about ten more Target/Bed, Bath, and Beyond runs in the near future. So until we're all settled in the new place, I doubt I'll be updating this blog very much. I will be back sometime next week. Possibly the week after. Probably with more pictures of the house.

New House!

We got the keys to our new house yesterday. I took a bunch of pictures, but I'm not great at picture-taking. Also I was drinking champagne while doing this. That certainly didn't help.

From the front door of the house. You can see the kitchen on the left and the living room in the back

Another look at the entrance way. That's the front door on the right and a nice big closet on the left

Kitchen! I like the huge window

Another view of the kitchen. Also Boyfriend, with the champagne we're about to drink

More kitchen.

A close up of the black splash. This seems to be the thing to do, so I did it. Isn't it pretty, though?

The dining/living room area. There's a step down to the living room

Living room from a different angle. You can also see the door to the backyard and the curtains that the previous owners left behind.

Dining room from the living room. I'm not good at taking reasonable pictures that show off a space, so I went for lots

Backyard! It has a patio and all sorts of plants we have to take care of. Apparently we got some tomato plants and an herb garden. Beyond the gate is a big park with lots of walking trails and some baseball fields. Part of what makes this location so great.

Bathroom #1, on the main floor

The basement area. 

The basement from another angle

The closet under the stairs is entirely paneled in cedar. Apparently this is good for fur coats. We're going to use it for alcohol, though.

Laundry room. We did not get a washer/dryer. But we did get an American flag

Apparently there was some leftover granite/cabinetry from the kitchen remodel

Bathroom #2, downstairs. This one has a full shower

More storage under the stairs. There's some lovely artwork on the inside of that cabinet done by the previous kids. We'll probably paint over it soon.

Heading upstairs. That weird rod in the middle is for the stairs to the attic. There are no pictures of the attic because it's not terribly exciting. But we have one! And it's awesome!

Bedroom #1. This will actually be my office/library. I'm so excited to have a library.

Bedroom #2. This will be the guest bedroom. All of the rooms upstairs have ceiling fans, which is definitely a nice feature. Also, the window in this bedroom and the last look over the front of the house

Bedroom #2 from another angle. It's bigger, so it got two pictures

Bathroom #3. This is for the two bedrooms I just showed you. What on earth am I going to do with all these bathrooms?

Master bedroom from one side. These windows look off the back of the house into that park

Master bedroom from the other side. Also the closet and vanity

Master closet. It's bigger than this picture makes it look

Master bathroom. I want to tear that glass door off and replace it with something easier to clean. But that's not a top priority (Buying a washer/dryer is the top priority)

Another view of the bathroom, taken from the second closet in the master bedroom. That's right, we have his and her closets. Except that one is twice as big as the other, so it won't actually work out that way.

And that's all the pictures. I may post more after we actually move in and it's not just empty rooms

Problem Solved

The bathtub in our apartment has become the bane of my existence.  No matter what I do, I can never seem to get it clean.  There's a layer of dirt that has basically become part of the tub.  I have spent countless hours fighting with the grit and grime that have molded to it.  I've tried scrubbing bubbles, 409, and bleach.  I even bought some special mildew busting stuff.  I've used sponges, cloths, and steel wool.  I had some success with a Magic Eraser, but after I scrubbed straight through one I had only managed to clean about a square inch of the tub.  And now that nice, white square inch mocks me.

Boyfriend has no idea, of course.  He doesn't even seem to be aware that showers need to be cleaned, or that ours is frighteningly dirty.

He did manage to solve my problem, though.

On Saturday morning, Boyfriend woke me up as he was on his way out.  The tub had cracked and we could no longer use it without flooding the apartment below us.  Despite the early hour and the prospect of not being able to take a shower that day, my heart soared. We were getting a new tub!

The clean and sparkling tub was installed today.  I can once again clean the bathroom without becoming completely demoralized.

I think I'm going to miss having a landlord when the day comes that I have to deal with this sort of thing by myself.  On the other hand, the new house has three showers.  So if one of them does break, I won't have to go an entire weekend without a shower because the one I have isn't usable.