Busy Bees

Sorry for the lack of progress updates on our work on the house. Charlotte got a pretty bad cold very suddenly Thursday night so the two of us have been staying away from the house. Dan's been working on it all morning while I:

• made our one week menu + (It really should last us two weeks, but sometimes my plans don't stretch as far as I want)
• went to Schnuck's (For groceries)
• went to Sam's Club (For items we buy in bulk, like milk)
• went to Jackman's Fabrics (For fabric for Buzz and Lindsey's baby blanket)
• filled up the Honda ($45 made me want to throw up)
• Copied our reciepts at FedEx Kinkos (I'm keep track of everything we spend on the house, in duplicate)

Needless to say it's been a very busy day. Also Charlotte and I have been jetting around town in the Civic instead of the Matrix so that Dan can use the room in the Matrix for hauling things if he has to. I'd be totally fine with it if the AC worked. We figured yesterday that it must need to be recharged or something. Since that's not a necessity it's put right at the very bottom of our list. Looks like the baby and I will be sweating it out this weekend.

Grins and Giggles

Because it's been awhile since I posted photos of my baby here they are for your pleasure: Thank you Grandma Denise. Daddy thought the dress looked great at church.
Here is Charlotte eating breakfast with her best friend sitting right next to her. This is her prefered way to eat breakfast.
Playing in the fountain at Tower Grove Park.
She found the bin under the sink in the bathroom and thought it would make a great seat. Climbing on the lion at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.Peaking through the lion's mane.

Kitchen Progress

Before our work:

Sorry this is the only one I could find that we took of the kitchen. It doesn't show much, but it does show some important parts. My favorite part is the parrot hanging in the corner. We decided that he needed to greet everyone while we're remodeling and is now hanging on our porch.

After day two of work:

This is the same angle as the one above. Dan seems to be inspecting that huge hole in the wall used to plumb the sink. If you'll notice the lower cabinets are gone. I'm proud to say that I'm the one that helped Dan take them down to the basement. It was tricky getting it down the hole to the back door, but we managed.

Here we see the wall further on. The wood pannelling has been taken of the bottom half of the walls. That's why it looks so funky right now.

Further down the wall to the corner we see the door to the pantry and the spot where the new LG fridge (that was delivered today!!!) will eventually reside.

This shot is taken from where Dan is standing in the photo above looking back to the hall.

This is the hardwood we exposed after ripping up the linoleum. You can't see it in the photo, but there's staples in the floor about every 3 inches. Who thought they needed to do that? They are really hard to get out. Guess who's project that is?

Looking at these pictures a few days later things don't even look the same anymore. The old stove was taken away when Slyman Bro's delivered our new stove and the wall cabinetry is also gone. Things are really moving around here!

Yeah! We Have Our House!

The closing was last Friday. And so was Dan's last final. It seems like all our stress has just melted away. What added to the wonderful weekend was that we had was Dan's parents coming into town. Not only did the stress go away, but we also go to have a real holiday. It was tons of fun. We went to the Samuel Cupples house, the St. Louis Art Museum (which had a quilt exhibition right then), the zoo, and a few really great restaurants in town. My favorite dinner was at Kabob International. It has excellent food. It really was stupendous having them here and Dan done and our house all wrapped into one great weekend. Dan's parents loved Charlotte and she loved them right back. She told them jokes and sang songs and just generally enjoyed all the wonderful attention she got to have all weekend. She fell asleep on the way to the airport when we dropped them off Monday and then when she woke up and they were gone she seemed as though she thought she'd lost her two best friends in the whole wide world. It was pretty funny.

Another great gift is that Dan is taking today off from work. Yeah! He wanted to give the woman in charge of him a day to get all his papers together so he can really jump right in when he goes in. That means that today he spent the morning being the most wonderful husband/father in the whole world. He cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, and even swept the floors. He picked up the front room. He gave Charlotte a bath and played with her so that I could get all my work done. I got to clean the bathroom, change the sheets on the beds, do laundry, and pick up both bedrooms all in peace! We got two or three days worth of work done before he left to help some friends pack up for their move to residency. Charlotte is taking a nap now and I'm basking in the greatness that is my family.

Yesterday, after dropping off Dan's parents we went back to our new house and tore up the kitchen flooring to expose the hardwood underneath. The sheet of linoleum was on top of plywood that had been stapled to the floor so it wasn't too hard to get it up. Now it'll just take a few days to get all the staples out of the floor. Who thought you needed to put them 3-4 inches apart? That person was crazy. It's going to take us a while. We have a lot of work to complete before my parents get here in a week and a half. I'll take photos today while I'm over there to post so everyone can see our progress.

Update

Just an update on our house. For those of you who can count, you may be wondering why I didn't post something like, "Yeah, we have our house!" last Tuesday. That's because we don't actually have it yet. The stinking day we were supposed to close the selling agent decided it would be a good time to tell us that he found out 10 days previous that the copper pipes and electrical had been stolen out of the basement! We didn't close Tuesday. We're closing tomorrow with $1000 knocked off the price. It's fair and the people who matter are OK with it so I don't really care. In fact I don't have it in me to care about that right now. Tomorrow is also Dan's last final for the first year of medical school. I haven't really talked to him in about a week now and when I asked if he wanted Charlotte and I to bring him lunch today he said he was sorry, but didn't really have the time. Also, I've been scrambling trying to get all the stuff we were going to have delivered to the house re-routed and find new delivery times. Also I've changed all the utilities into our names as of tomorrow. And finally I have a 14 month old baby that's pretty much wanting to play all the time. Turns out that copper piping isn't that high on my list at the moment. I'm sure it'll sift up there when I want to, I don't know, take a bath, wash my hands, turn on a light, or flush a tiolett in the new place, but until then I'm just letting it go.

Fresh Fruit

Today I went to the Soulard market for the first time. I stinkin love St. Louis! There are some major awesome perks to living in a metropolitain area. Today I bought:

A watermellon
A pineapple
7 bananas
A bunch of grapes

They were all great quality and I had absolutely awesome customer service. I only spent $8.

Yellow

Sometimes I wonder how on earth such an assertive woman like my mother and a confident man like my father ever raised such a wimpy woman like myself.

One of the guys that lives below us came to our door at the beginning of winter asking us if he could pay us to use our washer and dryer in the basement. He only has a bike and it was a snowy winter so we said, sure. Our arrangement was that he would use the washer and dryer on Sundays so that all my stuff would be out of there and that he would pay us $5 for each time he used them. Well, he didn't really pay $5 every time, but that wasn't a big deal to me. It's not like we're doing this to make money. We were doing him a favor. He's still using them now, even though it's spring, but again, not a big deal. Then the past couple of weeks he's been using them on days other than Sunday. He's left his stuff in the washer and dryer and I've had to move it over in order to use my own machines. It was annoying, but I didn't say anything. Then, today, a Tuesday mind you, he moved my clothing over from the washer to the dryer in order to use the machines.

I found my nice Anthropologie dress with the silk trim in the pile on top of the dryer. He did not look at the tag on that rather expensive dress before just throwing it into the dryer. And it's not even his day to use it! I called my mom so, so mad and she told me I had to go talk to the boy and ask what he was going to do about it. That's an expensive dress and it's not like I can afford to replace it.

I gathered up all my courage and outrage and walked down to the front door. I rang. The other roommate answered the door. This threw me off. I was expecting to talk to the perpetrator of the "crime." Instead I told the roommate the situation and asked if he would please tell Andrew that I needed to talk to him when he got home. Then the roommate said, "Oh! I moved the laundry over for him. I'm so sorry!" I had no idea what to say to this turn of events so then I said (and this is where I totally let myself down), "Well, accidents happen." Then I started to cry just a little bit from frustration, and confusion, and surprise. So then he said, "Let me give you a hug." So the guy that just ruined my dress gave me a hug. A hug! I had no idea how to get the conversation back in the right direction so I left. Ack! I'm such a big wimp.

PS. Luckily I came back upstairs and worked a little on the dress and it looks like it'll still be OK. The silk isn't as pretty as it used to be, but it's not really "ruined" anymore. Man I'm such a wimp.

The Countdown

6 days until we close on our house
9 days until Dan's done with his first year of med school

I'm not sure which he's more excited about. I'm certainly excited for both! Since Dan's doing summer research it's not like he'll really have a great summer break, which makes the being-done-with-the-first-year-of-med-school a little less exciting. Don't get me wrong though, we'll be 1/4 of the way through the first phase. Yippee! Also, I realized the other night that I'll be in the neighborhood of 32 by the time we're done with this whole thing so that put a damper on my enthusiasm.

As for the house Dan has planned out everything as far as he possibly can without acutally getting inside and doing some work. Last night he was ruminating over countertops and wall color for the kitchen. We can't chose those until we know if we're going to be able to salvage the hardwood floors in there or put in tiles. This didn't stop him from trying to chose anyway. Finally I had to look him in the eyes and tell him to stop. He realized that he's gone as far as he can go right now.

I'm not sure if he really can be excited about either prospect right now though because he has so much studying and learning left to do. He has 5 hours of lecture today. He's gonna come home exhausted.

Red Hot

So the common idea about red heads is that they also have a red hot temper. Do I believe this? I don't know. Is it right about me? Again, the jury is still out. I'd like to think that it isn't the case. I'd like to think that I'm a fairly mellow person. Then something comes along to disturb my calm. It is then that I am confronted with what I will do.

I've learned that even though I may feel unable to control my anger, I can completely control my actions and words. Past experience has displayed in detail the shattering consequences my angry words can create. It is much harder to pick up the pieces of a negative situation gone much worse thanks to me, than it is to just let the dust settle and look at the picture as a whole.

My mom always told me to ask myself, "What do I want the result to be from this action or these words?" I know I'm angry when the answer to that is to just zing the other person. In the end that doesn't get me anywhere near where I'd like to be in any situation.

That's the little lecture I give to myself whenever I feel myself wanting to respond to anyone in anger. I may end up saying the exact same thing to them later I may decide to say something completely different or even nothing at all. But, when I do it with a level head I get much better results 100% of the time.

Which makes me curious, do most people consider themselves level headed? Do most people I know consider me level headed? (Please don't answer that one. It would be embarrassing either way you answered.) Does my pep talk make me have less of a temper or merely help me to control the temper that I do have? What are some other things people tell themselves to keep from saying things they'll regret?

Stormy Weather

Yesterday I got all the laundry done. I cleaned the house. I changed the sheets on the bed. I went to bed with the confidence that I would be able to go to play group today without anything weighing on my mind. I got up this morning ready to go walk Grant's Trail.


Now we're in the middle of a thunder storm.


How am I going to fill Charlotte's day now? I got everything done yesterday! I'm taking this as a lesson for the future. Never get everything done in one day. You must save some for tomorrow. Just in case.

Gross. No, Really Gross

Charlotte sometimes grosses me out.

Her new favorite toy is the plunger.

Not the new, unused plunger.

The old, used gross plunger.



So if you come over to our home and are greeted by the plunger at the top of the stairs just realize it's the only place I can keep it away from her single minded pursuit to carry it everywhere.

Gross.

A True Mother's Day

My husband is awesome! I got the best gift for Mother's Day. He made a special breakfast, lunch and dinner and did all the dishes. He also did the dishes from our little get together Saturday night. I was pampered all day.

You know who else was pampered all day? Charlotte. She had a little cold Saturday night, but then woke up Sunday with a full blown double barrel snot nose, cough and ickiness. Right after breakfast I was holding her and she barfed down the side of my arm, dress and nylons. We decided not to take her to church.

She ended up feeling much better by the end of the day so all in all it was a great Mother's Day.

Recommend

Dear City of St. Louis,

Your building inspector Shar0n is AMAZING! She gave me all the information I need to know so that we can do the work on our house and get into it and get an occupancy permit. She was SUPER helpful. She also said that she wouldn't do an inspection right now, since we're not actually occupying our house until a month or so after the closing date. That means we could get a refund! When I called City Hall yesterday to try and get the paperwork started on the refund guess what? She had already done it for me! A city employee that went above and beyond! I'm so greatful! Thank you so much Shar0n and St. Louis!

Thanks,
A Happy Citizen

Complaint

Dear Insurance Company,

If someone calls you to get an insurance quote that means they are a potnential customer. If you treat them like they're an idiot you wont get their business. If you patiently let them explain their situation to the fullest and do not interrupt them mid sentence when they're trying to explain something the said future customer will be much happier. Future customers can always find somewhere else to take their business.

On top of that, if said future customer's father is an insurance salesman then she will know something of what you're trying to get at. She may be trying to help get herself a discount that she knows she might qualify for if you enter it in right. If you don't let her answer your questions to the fullest and call her, "honey" like she's an idiot then she wont be giving you the business that you want.

Other insurance agents know all this. Other agencies are very helpful when potnetial customers call on the phone. They will get my upmost attention!

Sincerely,
Your ex-future customer

Tagged: House Edition

So Heather tagged me to fill this out for the house that we're going to have so here goes.....

My favorite things around the house….

My favorite thing about my kitchen is the new cabinetry that we're going to put in! We just purchased it and it's coming the Friday after we close on the house! Also we bought a new stainless steel fridge that was on an awesome deal! The kitchen is going to be awesome.

My favorite thing about my family room is hmm... well there isn't a favorite thing about it yet. I guess I could say the fireplace, but it's got this weird surround. We did find out that the fireplaces in the house were coal burning, not wood burning which is why they're all so shallow. Interesting little fact.

My favorite thing about my living room is… we don’t have one. So I'll do my favorite thing about our foyer. It has this awesome built in bench that is part of the banister going down the stairs. It's super cool and really beautiful. Well, it will be beautiful when we're done with it.

My favorite thing about our dining room is the bay window over the backyard. Also I really love the fireplace in that room.

My favorite thing about my laundry room is well, we don't technically have a laundry room. The washer/dryer hook-ups are in the basement. But they're right next to this funny bathroom in the basement. There's a shower surround (not inside a room mind you, just the surround sitting out on it's own) that works, but who takes a shower in the dirty basement? Also next to the shower is a room with a toilet and sink. So weird, but also pretty funny.

My favorite thing about my bedroom is... also nothing favorite about it yet.

My favorite thing about my bathroom is the new tile we're putting up on the floor and in the shower surround. It's gonna be awesome.

My most favorite thing about my house is that it is ours and we can paint or decorate however we want.

Also something cool we found out about the house is it has a great slate roof. I like that. A Lot.