Day 133 - Lisa

Brazilian Koa - that be our new flooring come next weekend.  After much deliberation and worry about your costs we decided to go with laminate.  We had laminate flooring at our other house and it held up really well.  Hardwood would have been fine if it was a couple rooms but not the entire house as carpet is not not an option with all of my sinus and allergy problems.  Cannot wait to get rid of the nasty carpet and really badly stained floors.  Woohoo!  Going to be interesting to see the whole floor laid out as the pattern is very "animal" like as in a zebra or tiger strips.  Speaking of animals.  Poor sunii is feeling lonely as we are gone for really long stretches of time.  She's not used to that but her attention getting antics when we are home have been pretty funny.  She's sitting in a Staples Copier paper work so I've been calling her Copy Cat with the laser printing eyes!

Day 133 - Sis

Our plan for today was to check our two storage units and move somethings to the house.  There's room in the basement to store items that won't be used right away. This would cut down on some of the expense of hiring a moving company. So there we stood in the smaller unit and this was our take of the day, two folding chairs.  Can't even imagine how much we saved in moving costs!

Day 132 - Lisa

My co-worker, Carolina sent us this surprise today.  I had given her a basket of fruit when she bought her first home a couple months ago.  We've been on this house hunting journey together. Commiserating at work about all the trials of trying to buy a home.  Today she returned the expression of congratulations on being a home owner with this beautiful bouquet of fruit.  As sweet as she is.

Day 132 - Sis

Second day of the ice puddle saga.  Even more water; start to sweep again, towels are placed and I call Lisa.  She has the guy's number we need him to come out as soon as possible. He was there within an hour. Finds two or three reasons why the iceberg is there and gets to work.  He makes a trip to supply store for a hose, pump and new filter.  Old filter has not been changed for quite some time, maybe five years! Filters needs to be changed every three months, six at the longest. Of course not the kind you can just pick up at local hardware stores. Spends the day working and explaining to me what he has done and is doing. I nod my head when I think I'm understanding.  Oh and the ice was inside all the box that the hose was attached to so the AC is now the problem. He has gauges and a leak finder that's buzzing like crazy. He had hoped the work he had done would help or even fix the reason for the icing but nope, not enough. From eleven to 5 p.m. he worked and his charge was unbelievably reasonable and he will discount that charge when we put in the NEW AC!

Day 131 - Lisa

Today was a very long day.  Eleven hours at work and then six hours at the house afterwards.  My mom was already there keeping tabs on the renovations.  I'd lined up the plumber, electrician, tile setter, landscaper, septic tank maintenance and chimney sweep over the past two days.  LOL  The electrician wanted to keep working so we stayed so he could finish.  My mom and I are zombies at this point.

So here's some before and after pictures of the progress so far.  We have a long way to go; patching the ceiling holes, painting and flooring still need to be done but boy do we have lights now.  The house was very poorly lit but we changed all that today!  We plan to flip the rooms.  Use the dining room as a  small family room and use the living room as our dining room.

We won't talk about the AC unit though.  That was not so good.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Day 131 - Sis

Arrived at house, find a large puddle of water in basement. This is the culprit, now what do we do? The gas company guy arrives in the afternoon to turn gas on.  Very friendly man and we tell him about the puddle since he will be in that room where the puddle originated.  He tells us of a friend, licensed, bonded who does this work. Good guy and reasonable.  Puts in a call, gives us the number. So now we have an icemaker in the refrigerator and in the basement!

Day 130 - Sis

Well it took a while for the guys to find it but now we know where our septic tank is.  Won't be planting a garden in this area, unless it's stink weed!

Day 130 - Lisa

We had many different services come through the new house today;  septic tank man, electricity man, gas man, window man but the chimney sweep man wins the day.  When he finished the job he told my mom "I left my card on the mantle."  My mom went in and saw the below.  He left us a little Bert.  So cute!  Now that is an awesome way to keep your business in your customers mind.

Day 129 - Sis

Since I don't have car but have to be at the house tomorrow to meet multiple people for the different house projects, I will call a cab.  So here's the bags I must have so that I can carry food supplies, important papers, some with instructions from my daughter and a few odds and ends. I'm truly a bag lady, but not homeless!

Day 129 - Lisa

Typhoon Green!  We've learned about movement, flow and veins; who knew granite was so complicated and artsy.  Our sales person chose the word movement to describe the granite, I chose busy.  My mom said the she was not big on the swirls, the sales person said it had personality and flow.  We did a lot of eye rolling as our sales person did the wave describing the oceanic atmosphere within the rock. My cousin Sharon, a countertop expert, told us our piece was veiny, we called it the rock with the least amount of swirly movement.  LOL!

Day 128 - Sis

I have been noticing the effects of the pressure on myself and how draining it is to once again to own a home.  Apparently it is even harder on my daughter with her job and the added pressure of our house purchase, she is extremely tired. So tired, she doesn't have the energy to park the truck completely in this space.

Day 128 - Lisa

Poor mamacita needs some loving.  We haven't been home much.  Course this all the touching I can do.  I pet a bit more to the left or right and sunii, the Warrior Kitty emerges and sweet kitty goes out the door.  This is why I wake up in the morning with scratches and blood spots all over me.  LOL

Day 127 - Lisa

Poor mama!  She is wiped out!  I told my mom now I know the definition of "dog-tired" it's when you use a metal bar as a pillow cause you just cannot get up and move.  LOL

Day 127 - Sis

We drive up hoping things are okay at our seven door wonder of a house.  It is, phew.  Lisa places orange post-its identifying the problem on all doors.  New locksmith, same company, arrives. A little weird to see a tiny man with a Mohawk and a very heavy Russian accent. He was a little upset that his fellow countryman did such an incredibly horrible job, or let's clarify that, when you turned the knob on the garage door to the kitchen, it fell out. LOL He was seething because he said this guy was not qualified to do this big of a job and it's happened more than once. This has left Russian # 2 doing the clean-up and dealing with the wrath of the consumers.  Not us, we did not rake him over the coals or threaten any retributions for Russian # 1's ineptness. Our Sunday Russian did a very good job and we are quite satisfied with it. Guess that answers the question, "How many Russians does it take to change out doorknobs?"  To offset this near disaster project, the GAS stove was delivered and should be installed by our, "ceritified" plumber/electrician, after he puts in the gas line for it. Oh, he is a tall man, with just a slight accent and no attitude. I'm thrilled.;-)