Phew.
(... and watch out for that emotional crash ... if it were me I would be having a big one in three ... two ... one ... )
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Phew.
(... and watch out for that emotional crash ... if it were me I would be having a big one in three ... two ... one ... )
Good luck in your new place, Catrin.
Moving does take a lot out of you.
Yeah, both shoulders are complaining, throbbing a bit. Tomorrow is a REST day, and perhaps the next day - we shall see. I really would like to ride my bike Monday, and I am off work until Wednesday but we will see. I need to be well rested for my training group Tuesday morning.Quote:
Originally Posted by Owlie
I am a bit concerned about this... I've not been able to slow down since returning to town from my mom's funeral so we will see how the next week goes. I've only had two huge stressors at the same time.Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
I LOVE the new apartment! I hadn't realized how SMALL the last place was until now. No wonder it felt so confining! All of the boxes are unpacked outside of 3 and most of the empty boxes have been disposed of. All books are in their places (sort of) and all electronics up and running :) I just finished a beer and hope to get a good night's sleep!Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
Congratulations on the new digs, Catrin. Hope you feel all settled in soon -- moving is always unsettling for awhile -- and enjoy your new space.
Get some rest!
Congrats Catrin!! We just moved as well, LOVE the new place, feels like a clean slate.
Dear Lesley University,
Why is it taking over a week to get a copy of my transcript? Your slowness is the only thing holding up my professional license application. I received my transcript from ASU, 2,800 miles away in 6 days.
Dear face--
Please stop hurting. Barring that, please be something like a sinus infection or unhappy gums or from me clenching my jaw so much. I have prescription drug coverage. I don't have dental insurance any more. I can't afford for you to be a toothache or something resulting from that a cracked filling (which already happened once this summer).
Dear thieving jerk... please keep your sticky little fingers out of my garden. I worked very hard to plant all that and your stealing my first (and perhaps only...) nicely orange bell pepper doesn't exactly make my day.. My front yard is not a grocery store, a garden center (to you whom has in the past stolen my flowers and pots) or a furniture store (my nice little lounger).... stay out of my yard!!
Amen to that!Quote:
Originally Posted by Eden
Last year someone stole our funky little windmill/light from Ikea. People take produce and rip flowers out all the time. Last week some ladies in scrubs pushing wheelchairs/patients from a neighborhood care facility came to the door to confess that they had taken tomatoes previously and could they please have more. I was busy dealing with a problem and late-for-work and on the phone, so I was super-annoyed. In retrospect it is just rather puzzling behavior.
If we can garden, so can you!!
:eek::eek::eek: They had the unmitigated gall to ask for *more*!!!!
some folks will steal anything:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/arti...ed-4885784.php
Dear friends and colleagues,
Yes, we own a truck. A lovely Nissan four door truck, it is our only vehicle... please stop asking to borrow it!!! If you need to move grandmas dresser rent a Uhaul, it's only $19 a day. How would you feel if I asked to borrow your very nice Lexus for this evening since were going to the symphony and it would be a nicer choice for a dressy occasion??
Signed,
Buy you own!
My daughter had that issue. She finally decided to tell them they could, but she would appreciate it they paid the same rental fee as the U-Haul as well as return it with a full tank of gas. (And she always made sure the tank was nearly empty) Funny, she lost "friends" that she never liked anyway and others knew better than to ask.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pax
Pax, you need one of those bumper stickers. You know the one I mean.
Make sure you charge them the full U-Haul rate. That $19 a day does NOT include mileage, and the mileage rate is astronomical. It was like $60-70 just to haul a load of soil amendments and mulch from the Home Depot out to my house. I guess the home improvement stores rent trucks out now, but back then they didn't....
Dear Colleagues:
IRONY. You'd recognize it if you had been paying attention in school.
Speech-language pathologist with laryngitis.
Not humorous.
Not a really funny joke.
Irony.
Maybe it was covered at school on the same day as those pesky apostrophe rules.
Oh well. I took the day off and it is my birthday.
Dear who ever puts the signs on stop lights
I was riding my bike and needed to cross a very busy intersection with no bicycle lanes. It is the only route/intersection that allows me access to where I want to go. How do I do that when you have a sign showing the figure in the red circle with a slash going through it on every stoplight post in the intersection?
A terribly confused bicycle rider who can't cross the street legally! :confused:
the sign says no bike? I am confused. You are a wheeled vehicle, take your lane and cross just like the motored vehicles. I cross a six lane highway everyday. If the light is red I line up behind the car in front of me and cross like a car. If there are several cars waiting, I go to the front and usually stop between the first and second cars - on their right side I say usually because I try to see who has their blinker on to turn right. When the light turns green, proceed - do not hug the side of the road. give yourself plenty of space, the cars can drive a little slower until it is safe to pass you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kajero
sounds like we need a photo.... I agree with Sky King about how to handle it as a cyclist, but what happens if you are a pedestrian...... we've had situations like that around here, though they are temporary... but come on, close all 4 corners of an intersection for construction at the same time.... the planner for that one must *never* walk anywhere... when my husband complained that he couldn't get to the store to buy his lunch (it was near his work) they put up signs that said "Businesses are Open During Construction"....
Sky King is right about how to ride through an intersection ... you're a vehicle just like any other.
As far as pedestrians - I've never seen a sign like that at an intersection where the other side didn't have pedestrian facilities. So you just cross at the other side.
Now, I know plenty of roads and city streets that have no pedestrian facilities at all, and I just yesterday had to deal with some construction like Eden is talking about. But they don't have signs forbidding pedestrians to cross at both sides. Where there are no pedestrian facilities at all is almost easier - you wear your scrubby jeans and your hiking boots and expect to walk in the ditches, climb the banks, etc., but when there *is* a sidewalk but it's closed, typically you have no choice but the road, which can be super busy with no shoulder.
I think I have seen places where all 4 intersections are closed to peds - they want you to go down to a mid-block crosswalk light, often with some sort of center island or to a pedestrian over/under pass...
I just finished working on the map (I would have to ride 47 miles to get a photo.). Click on jpg to enlarge. Maybe I will drive out there. The drive is much shorter because I don't ride on the trails.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eden
Attachment 16750
The green line on Post Road is a trail out of Fort Snelling State Park. The trail picks up on the other side of the intersection.
The lanes going across the freeway are very, very busy. Post Road is another way to get to the airport.
There are no shoulders and the traffic lanes are extremely narrow. There is very little area between the stop signs and the stop lights.
I think this is a dangerous intersection so I really need to be aware of everything! I wonder how many drivers are aware of bicyclists because of the signs.
And then surprise, surprise. The same thing is at the entrance of the cemetery. There is no way to get from the bike lane into the cemetery. I didn't see much other way than to disobey the signs. There is a lot of construction so I hope it is only temporary.
I checked out google street view - from what I can see there's a sidewalk in the park, that may or may not be signed as a MUP (multi use path). Outside of the park there are no sidewalks or bike lanes in the area, unless they've been striped since the street views were made. In order to go across the bridge it is necessary that you use the street - the moment you decide to do that you are officially a vehicle, not a pedestrian, so the no ped crossing signs have no bearing on you as a cyclist - you are not disobeying the traffic laws. The best way to handle a situation like this one where he lanes are narrow is to simply take the middle of the lane- across the bridge no one has any business trying to share that lane with you, they can wait the few seconds it will take for you to cross safely. At the lights, the same - claim your space, use the lights the same as you would in a car. I can't see any other way unless you intend to ride in the grass...
Dear hubby,
I love you dearly, but WHY did you just give away that set of kitchen drawers? You were the one who suggested keeping them through the kitchen renovation, I agreed because we need them in the storage room later. And we really do need to have somewhere to keep our assorted cr*p while we turn the kitchen into a swath of desolation. Hello? Just because we were giving away the other cabinets doesn't mean the drawers we agreed that we NEEDED. Argh.
Dear self,
chill. It's just a set of drawers. I know it bugs you to have your neatly thought-out system fall apart the minute you turn your back, but really, it will all be ok. I swear.
I've been through a kitchen renovation. Find your happy place, it will be OK. :)
amy house renovation and hanging wall paper are two of the leading causes of divorce. I will never ever do either again with anyone excet a declared enemy. Just sayin.
I thought disagreement over finances was #1.Quote:
Originally Posted by marni
DH and I do fine with renos. Our idea of a fun date is Home Depot on a Friday night looking at sinks.
We do fine with renos. I let my partner decide everything and I do my best to stay out of the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
Finances we solved by splitting the bills and having separate bank accounts.
However, if we ever had to house hunt together I imagine blood would flow. Thankfully our house is almost paid for so we won't be going anywhere.
I contracted the remodeling of our bathroom out. It was cheaper than a split up. However we shopped together for the toilet, sink, vanity etc. It was a nightmare. After two years I still hate the toilet, but I got so darn tired of arguing! :mad: And of course, you use THAT every day.
If there is a next time I will I insist on picking out everything myself. He will not be invited along!
We got bogged down just picking everything out! It's not that we had trouble agreeing on stuff, there's just so much of it, from so many different sources, and you have to be in one store imagining how their stuff is going to look in the same room with the stuff you looked at in another store across town three days ago. Aaaaugh. Maybe it will finally happen next year.
I absolutely hate anything to do with picking out stuff for the house. Of course, I like nice stuff, but for so long I abdicated all of this to DH. He knew everything about houses when we got married and I had no involvement at all with picking out things like window treatments and flooring until very recently. When I finally went with him, to pick out stuff for our bathroom and kitchen remodel in this house, we were so rushed (it was after work) and everything we picked was not available, so we ended up choosing the same counters and cabinets for the bathroom as in the kitchen. It doesn't look bad, just the same, which is boring. And, when presented with the blueprints for the bathroom, I said, "yea, fine," and I hate one of the design features. Me looking at a blueprint is like a blind man trying to read print! And while I love our huge shower with a bench, I am afraid not having a tub in the master bath might hurt us when we go to sell. I hate making long, drawn out decisions, and when I shop, I see what I like and buy. Generally, when I have ideas about what to do, they are right, but then I let DH or a professional take over. I do like shopping for furniture, though.
We luckily have somewhat the same taste when it comes to redecorating, so no big fights, though we do regularly disagree. We landed on a nifty solution for this kitchen, since we ended up spending so much time discussing which one of the two countertops/dresser fronts/yadda yadda we liked did we actually want to BUY - he got the final say on the fronts, I got the final say on the counter tops, he got the backsplash, I got the wall colour, etc.
Our kitchen is a 'swath of desolation' as well. The living/dining and spare bedroom are also, because they will get new flooring. The rest of the house looks like a unit on Storage Wars, piled with everything.
Most people can't believe that we would live in a house with kitchen walls made of cardboard for a year and a half...we took out the old cabinets and there were no walls back there. It was open to the studs--we covered most of it with some cheapie whiteboard stuff but there was a little open space at the top and above the fridge. It didn't bother me until the cat went in there and came out filthy. So Brewer closed it up with pieces of cardboard boxes. Of course it doesn't look great, but I can be content thinking of my foremothers with dirt floors and no plumbing. Cardboard walls are better than no walls at all, right?
In the living room, when we moved in and ripped out the dog pee carpet, the subfloor looked ok and we had the surface finished. The cats have now customized the surface to the point of splintering, which I also kind of didn't mind but I kept my path to the rugs when I walked around barefooted.
The last time anyone worked on the house, we had gone to Switzerland to visit my dad and when we got home completely exhausted and found the house a complete disaster, I thought I might need to be placed on a 72 hour psych hold, so I haven't been too eager to make another run at it.
The tide turned when I got to coveting a new piano, found what I wanted, and Brewer loved it too...of course it makes sense to replace the flooring BEFORE bringing a piano in, and of course it makes sense to destroy the kitchen at the same time--Brewer knows I may never agree to it otherwise--and I'm already overly busy and a little coo-coo adjusting to my new job, so going completely out of my mind seems unlikely. So here we are.
Oh yeah. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by malkin
I only just this minute got a call from IKEA, who will be delivering our new kitchen stuff ASAP. But they weren't supposed to come for another hour, so I had to run around and find rugs for them to trample in on. And doing anything at this point involves shifting piles of other stuff. So finding a rug involved pulling it out from under the stove (as we've been using it to pull the stove around between uses), which involved moving the coffee percolator and water boiler which were balanced on top of the stove, which was pretty impossible because there was nowhere else to put them as the dining table is also our functioning kitchen counter and is half covered with assorted small stuff. Which may have something to do with the fact that dh gave away that set of drawers...
And lugging a packet of new flooring out of the way so that it doesn't get boxed in by 3 tonnes of IKEA-ware, I neatly managed to put in a huge scratch in the livingroom parquet flooring. Yippee.
And so it goes, indeed.
I'm actually so early on in the process that I'm looking forward to it, but I'm pretty sure that three weeks from now when we feel that we should have been done and still have siding to put up and drawer handles to attach and so on and so on that I will be wondering what possessed us to ever start.
eta: I didn't mean siding, I meant trim. Don't really know the proper terms in English.
So the guys did the living room floor today and did some demolition in the kitchen--removed the whiteboard and the cardboard, leaving the walls--well, wall-less. Kind hearted Brewer didn't want to leave them in jail upstairs, so he moved everything away from the wall-less side making it impossible for a cat to get in up there. So imagine our surprise when we hear a plaintive mewing from the cellar. We discover a hole in the kitchen floor, just big enough for a cat to get through.
Getting into the cellar is complicated by the fact that the entrance is a door in the floor which is of course covered by furniture that belongs everywhere else. *eye roll*
All's well that ends well and that silly cat is back upstairs with his brothers, where I believe he will be staying until the work is all done and cleaned up.
Aw :-)
Our Lyra just disappears outside in a huff through her cat flap whenever the noisy people start. Sometimes she'll just sit outside looking in, looking indignant. She also goes around complaining when we move her food bowls, again.
We managed to lay most of the new kitchen floor last night. I would be more pleased about it if it weren't for the fact that it's identical to the old floor, which we only pulled up because there would be gaps in it once we installed the new kitchen furniture, plus some minor damage in a corner. So now we've spent 4 hours, sweating and cussing, and the result is a lovely new floor that looks, well, just like the old one, only a little bit more of it.
I'm very pleased that I got to receive the IKEA stuff, though. I spent a full and happy hour organizing it into neat piles, according to when we'll need it :p without my guys around who would just laugh at me.
More fun household stuff.
On August 14 our go to contractor came to begin to rebuild one of the 2 small decks we have. We were on the way to the airport for our trip to Italy when dh's phone rang. The deck AND the steps leading to it, as well as the side of the house around the slider to the steps are rotted through. It was so bad, he didn't have time to continue what was supposed to be a one week job. He came back last week and we now have demolished the deck and it is not being rebuilt. He is rebuilding the walls on 2 sides, taking out the sliders in the living rm and dining rm, and just putting up a wall in both places. Both of these rooms already have plenty of light, and. Our patio in the back is totally different and looks much better!
The down side is we will most likely have unpainted drywall ( and hopefully not boards) for my birthday celebration on the 9th. No one I have to impress is attending, but... Hope it's going to be done for Thanksgiving.
We figured out we've spent 11k a year since we've lived in this house on home repair. Of course, some was the original kitchen and baths remodel, but we've done 2 roofs (don't ask), doors, 33 windows, carpet in the lower level, new hot water heater, painting, and landscaping. The chimney still needs to be fixed. Our contractor says he's never seen a house so poorly built except one from the 1880s.
This is what I get for wanting to move out of my Stepford neighborhood, which is looking pretty good right now.
Reading all these posts about household remodeling and repair, I am even happier that we no longer own a home. We had owned a total of five homes and one condo over the years since we married in 1985 until earlier this year. Now we are house-free and living on the payments from our condo (we sold but did owner financing) and some savings until the balloon payment on the condo comes due (4.5 years unless they pay it off early) and until we start drawing on our retirement investments and/or drawing social security.
We are renting the home we are in (a nice furnished home of friends who are cruising on their sailboat) for very little and thus able to travel frequently. Next year we will probably move to a full-time traveling lifestyle, though we're still undecided about whether we'll buy an RV or continue to go with VRBOs -- monthly rentals are often quite reasonable.
We are enjoying having minimal home and yard maintenance requirements and will have even less once we're no longer in this rental. It's a different lifestyle, to be sure. The downside is not knowing many people in our immediate community and not having any community "roots" so to speak. Most of our friends and family are in NC and Ohio, with a few scattered all over the US. But it's a nice change of pace from a home and yard and all that entails.
Eventually I suspect we'll buy a place again to use as a base, but it may be a condo or townhouse to keep maintenance to a minimum and so we can continue to travel frequently without as many worries about security and upkeep. We know quite a few folks now who snowbird (either in the US or internationally) to avoid winters in the colder states, and that sounds pretty good to us.
For right now, though, we have no desire to become homeowners again anytime soon. We see all the headaches my folks are having with their home and their vacation cabin -- like crankin's experience, there always seems to be something major needing repaired or replaced. And then there's the yard upkeep. We've done extensive work in my folks' two yards and my DH's folks' yard this year to help them out as they've all gotten nearly too old to keep up with it. At least as long as we have parents still living in homes with yards, we have NO desire for our own. We'd rather be riding our bikes, hiking, sightseeing, or doing pretty much anything else.
I have a pragmatic attitude toward this, Emily. DH used to get upset, but doesn't anymore. At least not like he used to. We chose to move here rather impulsively. We had never owned a house more than 10 years old. This house was about 25 when we bought it; we were enamored of the uniqueness of a contemporary home in this area (which fits us much better, actually. I cannot stand traditional style furniture) and the neighborhood itself, with a community pond. We knew we would do the remodel when we moved in and it was fine. Everything was done on time and no catastrophes. The only catastrophe was the first roof we put on; 2 years later we had 20 inches of snow on the roof, ice dams, and water pouring in the kitchen and dining room. The house has unusual roof lines and we needed a real expert to figure out how to stop this. I could not imagine living in an apartment at this stage of my life, or maybe ever. We eventually will move to a townhome or condo, if we can find one that meets our requirements, which is hard in this area. I am not ready to get rid of all of my sports stuff, in 4-5 years. We don't want to move to the city, either. We may expand our search to a few other surrounding towns, but we also might end up just buying a smaller house and contract out all of the outside work; we don't have a lawn now, which was a requirement, after the last house, but we do have landscaping. I hate gardening, DH likes it, though. DH is hesitant about sharing any walls with neighbors.
We know we won't ever be snowbirds, as we like winter sports too much. I wouldn't be adverse to a longer trip back to AZ in the winter, but no second home there. We've actually thought of buying 2 smaller places, one around here, and one out in the Berkshires, which is really a 4 season sport/cultural place, still in Massachusetts (although people from NYC seem to think otherwise!). And none of this has affected our ability to ride or do other stuff. We've always had people do our outdoor yard work, until we moved here. My motto is to outsource everything, if you can afford it.
I just am not that enamored of any of the home "planning" things, whether it be a major remodel or a small thing, the way some women get crazy about "design." I've become more participatory in the past few years, as I've ended up with things I don't like due my own laziness over this stuff. I think this started out as a "I hate womanly things" kind of rant when I was a young married person, and I was more than happy to let DH handle it all, as he *knew* about window treatments and such when he was 23 :eek:. I'll never forget when the woman came to our second home with the "book" of window treatments after we moved in. When I said "Oh, you're here to see my husband," she truly did not know what to say. I was 8 months pregnant and more worried about starting the new school year and being about to give birth in the same time frame!
Yup - we own three homes (that we do not rent out). I wouldn't have things any other way! Our primary home is a 1950s ranch that we have had quite a lot of work done to, and I love. Our second home in Maine is a 1980s chalet where we have also done a bunch of work (ourselves on that one). We love it so much we have decided that we can't possibly sell it - too much of us in it. And our third is a three season camp in VT built in the 70s. That one needs A LOT of work, but we enjoy that sort of effort.Quote:
Originally Posted by emily_in_nc
Funny story. Two years after we bought the house in Maine, we were building a reasonably significant addition. It was to have a cathedral ceiling (14 feet) with a center ridge beam. We were setting the rafters with DH on the ladder and me passing the rafters up to him to set. He set one, decided he didn't like the way it fit, and asked me for another. The next thing I remember, I was sitting on the step of the shed with my hand on my head, which was GUSHING blood. The rafter (a 10x12) had fallen from 14 feet and hit me in the head :eek:. It didn't knock me out, but did require 9 staples to close (that is another story). So, that house, literally, is our blood sweat and tears :D.
Different wants/needs for everyone! I am lucky that despte trying to kill me once, DH and I can do those kinds of projects together (and live to tell about it!).
SheFly
I think one reason I'm glad for our "no house" lifestyle now is that we built three houses over the years (one a starter home and two custom homes later). We did all of the landscaping on each and a lot of interior work (painting, etc.) We had gardens and worked on the house or yard ALL the time. We have always been frugal and have rarely hired out any work, inside or outside the home. DH doesn't like having workers around, and I could never have a housekeeper for this reason (until we lived in the condo in Belize and housekeepers came with our HOA -- he still didn't like their weekly visits, but I did!)
I think we just really burned out on all that is entailed in being a homeowner. Don't get me wrong; I love not sharing walls or floors with neighbors and the privacy of a house, but there are many tradeoffs. It's kind of a "been there, done that, time for another phase of life" now for us. We are so enjoying having fewer possessions, only one car (but six bikes!) and being able to pick up and go wherever, whenever without being tied to a house and yard.
We love nature and woods and as a result, I can't ever say we'll never buy another home on acreage and make a wonderful place for ourselves (and work ourselves to death, as we have in the past), but I'm beginning to think we're past the ages to do that again, especially since we're no longer working and can finally travel the way we always wanted to.