Have to admit I'm quite tired of unpacking. Seems as if it will never end lately, lol. However things are going so well here.
Our last home was in the middle of 2 hay fields with close neighbors, but not on top of us. For the last year or so 2 of those houses were essentially empty as they were being sold, so we more or less lived alone out there. Odd to think we had as many problems as we did there.
Thursday Joe went to remove the last of the trash and pick up a few remaining large items, one of which was our new grill. Would you believe the day ended with Joe calling the cops because someone stole our grill sometime btwn Sunday and Thursday?! Thankfully one of the neighbors in one of the houses being sold was there.. the cops questioned him and he all of a sudden remembered that there was a new grill in the garage that morning next to the lawnmower.. uh huh. We can't press charges as we got the grill back. Still not quite sure of the logic of that as the cop had to go and question this guy so that he 'remembered' the new grill out of nowhere. Ehh whatever.. it's safe with us now.
So far the new place is a completely different scenario. First off we're in close proximity to 3 other houses and I think there is a total of 5 or 6 families all together. Great thing though is the kids. JP had an absolute blast last night playing outside with them all. Joe was supervising, but thats ok.. gave me time to clean the kitchen without everyone underfoot. Today we had a problem with a truck Joe borrowed to do the last of the work on Thursday. It wouldn't start. Well one of the neighbors rebuilds cars and sells them so he was helping Joe get it started. First they thought it was battery cables being loose - nope, then the starter was the problem. Well our one neighbor gets under the truck and starts hammering at the starter I guess while telling Joe to turn the engine over. Brave, trusting man, lol. However while doing this he sees sparks and they realized the starter isn't shot.. its got loose wires... off this guy who barely knows us goes and gets what he needs to fix it.
heck in the old place I couldn't even get them to replace a washer on a faucet that was too tight for me to loosen.
Tomorrow I'm quite excited to go shopping with my mom for my dining room and living room drapes.. hoping they absorb some of the echo sounds we have from the hardwood floors, lol. I'll eventually post pics.. once the boxes are gone I think.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
New home, new start, old routines
August has been...interesting. In mid July we were told our home ( we rented) was finally being sold and that the closing was on 9/30/10. Ok no biggie and the new home process was started. Then, on July 31 we rcvd a letter stating the new owners wanted us out in 30 days. Nice. I thought that couldn't happen until the closing? Funny part is the closer we got to leaving the worse the house was getting fast. Almost like our things were holding it up? lol. I know the new owners are going to do a lot of modifications.. i hope they are really prepared for that house.. as far as I know there was never an inspection... and I think an inspection would all but condemn it.
It really was not a hardship to leave that house of horrors. The only reason we stayed so long was to improve our credit score before searching, so that we would have good options. So much for waiting for a better time, lol. After 2 very long and argumentative weeks we did find a place we both liked. For the last week I've been doing the bulk of moving while working as well. I'm not surprised that I'm so tired, lol.
The new place is bigger and to my joy.. has a dining room! Yay!!!! no more 3foot sq kitchen 'table' where you only had room for plates and cups. I also have a kitchen and bathroom circa 1950's complete with avocado green oven and pink tub and sink, lol. No more carpets, all hardwood floors and just nicely laid out and roomy. JP can run in circles from living room - to kitchen- to dining room - to living room and he's loving it, lol. His room is huge and I'm loving it as ALLLLL his toys except the train table will be in there.
It's also only a few miles from my mom... instead of being 30 minutes or so.. I'm now only about 6 minutes. She's alone now as her companion is having a lot of serious health issues and he's now in a nursing home. I like that I'm closer ..just in case. After last years huge snowstorms, I hated being so far away and not able to help... being this close ( i drive by on my way to and from work) makes me feel better.
In a previous life, many years ago, I had a small apartment with a dining room... and at the time was well known for calling people up and saying 'hey! I made some new recipes, c'mon over". Never huge parties, but frequent entertaining. I've missed that with the old house. It was just not easy to entertain with more then 1-2 extra people making it feel over crowded.
The new place is currently decorated in Early American Box.. but I knew I'd be doing an official 'Sunday Dinner' tonight, even if just for us. I had found a gorgeous dining table on craigslist and was set to go. We had my IL's up and they wanted to give us more time to settle in, but I told them I'd be making dinner anyway and there was more then enough. It was so nice to entertain again, lol...although I did forget to turn the oven off for a bit and couldn't figure out why the kitchen was still so hot, lol.
Thats another nice thing about this apartment. Heat and hot water are included- yippee! in the old house I all but stopped cooking because the hot water leak in the bathtub drained the propane ( water heater was a propane heated version). Our monthly bill was about $150 a month for propane. Now I can cook all I want with the propane.
oh and for any that know my stories about the kitchen in the old place? there is NO CARPETING in this kitchen! I have a normal kitchen floor again and its great :)
tonight I made:
an appetizer tray of:celery and blue cheese dressing/assorted olives/tomato and feta bruschetta
main course was:
lasagna
tossed salad
peas and onions with prosciutto
dessert was brownies and cookies provided by my MIL
it was a very nice dinner and Joe enjoyed it so much he suggested his parents come up every Sunday - yeaaaah.. both his mom and I looked at him and told him he was nuts, lol. I do however plan to have a nice Sunday dinner each week unless we are invited out otherwise, lol.
my meal plan for next Sunday is in progress.... right now it's:
Crusted Salmon with mustard
and that's about it at the moment, lol. I want to avoid stopping for any additional ingredients so thats part of my challenge. I think my side dish will be a basic tossed salad with another pasta salad of some sort. I tossed the rice I had at the old place... but rice is inexpensive. Oh wait! I have a seasoned tube of wild rice! that's a perfect compliment to salmon. I've invite my mom over for next week and think I'll also ask my SIL and niece. The piece of salmon i have is huge, so thats not a problem. there is a farmers market down the road on thurs evenings...maybe i'll find an inexpensive veggie side dish idea.
It really was not a hardship to leave that house of horrors. The only reason we stayed so long was to improve our credit score before searching, so that we would have good options. So much for waiting for a better time, lol. After 2 very long and argumentative weeks we did find a place we both liked. For the last week I've been doing the bulk of moving while working as well. I'm not surprised that I'm so tired, lol.
The new place is bigger and to my joy.. has a dining room! Yay!!!! no more 3foot sq kitchen 'table' where you only had room for plates and cups. I also have a kitchen and bathroom circa 1950's complete with avocado green oven and pink tub and sink, lol. No more carpets, all hardwood floors and just nicely laid out and roomy. JP can run in circles from living room - to kitchen- to dining room - to living room and he's loving it, lol. His room is huge and I'm loving it as ALLLLL his toys except the train table will be in there.
It's also only a few miles from my mom... instead of being 30 minutes or so.. I'm now only about 6 minutes. She's alone now as her companion is having a lot of serious health issues and he's now in a nursing home. I like that I'm closer ..just in case. After last years huge snowstorms, I hated being so far away and not able to help... being this close ( i drive by on my way to and from work) makes me feel better.
In a previous life, many years ago, I had a small apartment with a dining room... and at the time was well known for calling people up and saying 'hey! I made some new recipes, c'mon over". Never huge parties, but frequent entertaining. I've missed that with the old house. It was just not easy to entertain with more then 1-2 extra people making it feel over crowded.
The new place is currently decorated in Early American Box.. but I knew I'd be doing an official 'Sunday Dinner' tonight, even if just for us. I had found a gorgeous dining table on craigslist and was set to go. We had my IL's up and they wanted to give us more time to settle in, but I told them I'd be making dinner anyway and there was more then enough. It was so nice to entertain again, lol...although I did forget to turn the oven off for a bit and couldn't figure out why the kitchen was still so hot, lol.
Thats another nice thing about this apartment. Heat and hot water are included- yippee! in the old house I all but stopped cooking because the hot water leak in the bathtub drained the propane ( water heater was a propane heated version). Our monthly bill was about $150 a month for propane. Now I can cook all I want with the propane.
oh and for any that know my stories about the kitchen in the old place? there is NO CARPETING in this kitchen! I have a normal kitchen floor again and its great :)
tonight I made:
an appetizer tray of:celery and blue cheese dressing/assorted olives/tomato and feta bruschetta
main course was:
lasagna
tossed salad
peas and onions with prosciutto
dessert was brownies and cookies provided by my MIL
it was a very nice dinner and Joe enjoyed it so much he suggested his parents come up every Sunday - yeaaaah.. both his mom and I looked at him and told him he was nuts, lol. I do however plan to have a nice Sunday dinner each week unless we are invited out otherwise, lol.
my meal plan for next Sunday is in progress.... right now it's:
Crusted Salmon with mustard
and that's about it at the moment, lol. I want to avoid stopping for any additional ingredients so thats part of my challenge. I think my side dish will be a basic tossed salad with another pasta salad of some sort. I tossed the rice I had at the old place... but rice is inexpensive. Oh wait! I have a seasoned tube of wild rice! that's a perfect compliment to salmon. I've invite my mom over for next week and think I'll also ask my SIL and niece. The piece of salmon i have is huge, so thats not a problem. there is a farmers market down the road on thurs evenings...maybe i'll find an inexpensive veggie side dish idea.
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