rug-a-dug-dug

As mentioned in a previous post, I had been looking for a black and white stripped area rug but hadn't had much luck.  Sites like Overstock have decent selections of rugs but nothing struck my eye - at least nothing within my budget.  I'm a member of thefoundary.com - a website that offers products at up to 70% off retail.  The daily selection is usually pretty random and consists of anything from cutlery to furniture to artwork.  It’s free to sign up for access to their site so give it a whirl!  If anything, it’s fun to browse through their interesting selection of pieces from up-and-coming designers, unique artisans, and even well known companies.

No, I don’t work for thefoundary.com but I DID purchase a living room rug from the site.  The rug we chose retails for over $1,000 but we got it for $310 – and that includes shipping.  And it’s an 8x10.  Even a thin 8x10 from Ikea would set you back over $300.  Needless to say, I jumped on it.  It wasn’t a striped rug that I had previously been searching for but it was black and white and had a classic pattern – houndstooth.  Like our sectional, men’s-suiting-inspired patterns tickle my fancy.  It hasn't arrived yet but I'm crossing my fingers and toes that it "goes" with our room.   Eh, if not, they offer free returns.  Until the rug arrives, here's a little taste of our new purchase:

We also hung a few pictures up on the bare wall behind the sectional.  James is already developing a hint of narcissism and looooves looking at himself.  If he is sitting with us on the couch, he practically does an owlish head spin just so he can get a glimpse of his picture on the wall.  If he is in his little wheely-chair-thingy, he will scoot across the room just to get a better view of his picture.  Despite being a little under the weather this week, he smiles and giggles each time he looks at it.  It’s pretty funny/weird.  Here is a pic of James enjoying his visit to the doctor and a pic of some pics. (Both are taken with my bberry so not the best quality.  Deal with it.  Oh, and the urine sample cup that James is playing with is clean and un-used so don't call DSS on me.)

We’ve also been doing more clean up in the backyard.  We don’t have much time to get anything accomplished during the week after James goes to bed and before the mosquitoes invade our space but we’re chipping away at it.  We got one of the huge briar bushes ripped out – no easy feat.  We started burning a bunch of the crap in a large drum barrel but the weather has been too hot/dry so we didn't burn much in fear of a spark getting away from us into the woods and burning the town down.  So, the briars are still in a heap waiting to be burned or dumped - but at least they're one step closer to being out of our life.  That also exposed the base of the giant pine tree – and exposed the fact that it had been attacked by termites and/or carpenter ants.  I don’t know how the tree is still standing and producing greenery at the top but it’s gotta go.  There are still more briars to be pulled out but Joe was yelled at by momma bird for getting too close to her nest full of eggs so we will probably hold off a bit longer to rip that bush out. There's way too much going on back there but I will try to organize some pictures to share at another time.

An area rug and a pile of dead briars doesn’t sound like much but it’s progress to us – especially considering the lack of any substantial time blocks that we’ve had to dedicate to the new house.  We'll continue to use any spare minutes we have to chip away at the yard before we lose the energy and enthusiasm to do so! 

Aside from the yard, a few other things on our semi-immediate agenda are:

• get wood burning insert installed
• build console table - to separate sofa from dining area and to provide another space for storage and lighting (and depending on how that turns out, maybe a smaller matching table to serve as a desk on the empty wall in the dining area?)
• hang new roman shades in James' room
• hang pictures/art in James' room
• make a drapery wall in our bedroom
• lose 50lbs.

...and on our not-so immediate agenda:

• paint and tweak kitchen cabinets
• remove wall paper and paint kitchen
• install new counters and backsplash in kitchen
• build a headboard
• do something about our ugly bedroom
• do something about our ugly downstairs bathroom
• do something about our ugly upstairs bathroom
• add a full dormer to the back of the house
• lose the 50lbs. that I put off losing from the other to-do-list

Check back in 2021 to see if half of this stuff has been accomplished.

week one.

We’ve officially been living in the new house for a week now and things are slowly finding their place.  We have most of our essentials unpacked and organized but the garage is still full of bags and miscellaneous boxes - which clearly aren’t filled with anything important considering I have no idea what’s in them.  I should probably do myself a favor and just move all of that stuff to the top of the driveway for the trash men to take but let’s get real – I’ll probably unpack that stuff in a few years, wonder how I lived without it, and clutter my closets with it all

Aside from closet doors, proper window treatments, and some wall art, James’ room is a project no longer on our to-do list.  All of the furniture is from his old room and we just replaced the red shag rug from C&B outlet with a larger, cheaper, navy blue rug from Ikea. Area rugs are generally pretty expensive – especially if you’re looking for one of decent quality.  This cheapo from Ikea seems fairly sturdy and doesn’t shed – and I won’t freak out about any stains (i.e. puke/poop/pee).  If we had a bottomless bank account, I probably would have paid more for a larger rug but this one works.  We were surprised at how large his room really is – especially compared to his old room.  We chuckled when we saw that the larger rug still left a lot of bare floor, but, whatevs. 

The previous owners turned this bedrooms’ closet into a mini-office/desk area so the bi-fold doors were removed and stored in the basement.  Since the old doors are ugly and would require me carrying them up from the basement, and because we don’t store knives and poison in James’ closet, I’m fine with keeping it open for now.  As for window treatments – I was initially planning on making my own but then, for several reasons (one being that I don’t know how to make window treatments) I decided to search for navy blue roman shades.  Those can get fairly pricey too.  I found these cheapies on JCPenney.com but since I can’t see the true color/quality, I might hold off until I find some that I can actually see before purchasing.  (No matter how simple the process, I hate returning stuff.)

Our new bed was delivered last week and it is friggin’ amazing.  Since our new bedroom has a lot more space, we upgraded to a king sized bed.  If you don’t already have one, I urge you to go get one right now.  I have never been a good sleeper but this past week has been an absolute snooze-fest - the non-boring, awesome, restful kind.  Despite the previous mattress was one I bought for like 100bucks when I lived in California 8 years ago, I never really felt like it was all that bad – and hopefully any future guests that will have the pleasure of sleeping on it won’t either.  BUT, within minutes of lying in our new bed, I knew I had been depriving myself years of restful sleep.  Anyways…as you can see from the wooden shutters, fugly plastic blinds, tacky bi-fold doors, and random furniture, we haven’t done anything to our bedroom yet.  It’s sufficient for now so we’ll tackle once we have some loot saved up.  I want to make a wall of drapes to hide the off-centered, too-small window behind the bed.  We also have plans to build our own headboard.  A new dresser(s) is on the wish list too.  Oh, and James’ old rug is temporarily at the foot of our bed until we can find/afford a neutral rug to take its place.

Our old bed is now in one of the upstairs bedrooms and, like I said above, it really isn’t that bad so feel free to come visit and spend the night!  (Please note that the entry fee to our lovely home is a bag of groceries.  Cash is also welcomed.)  Unless we have guests, we don’t have a need to even go upstairs and, therefore, have no need to make any improvements just yet.  Eventually, our plan is to bump out the roof and add a full dormer to the back of the house – maintain the front lines of the house while still adding tons of more space to the two upstairs bedrooms and bathroom.  For now, an already owned bed plus and already owned chair and ottoman equals a free guest room.  There are few pics in this entry that emphasize the fact that I don't iron - this being one:

Back downstairs, I just hung some curtains and Joe replaced the light in the dining area – both were improvements that cost less than $20 but made a huge difference. 

There are still roller shades on the windows but I’ll probably remove those once we confirm how much sunlight that room gets at all times during the day.  There are plenty of trees and shrubs around the house and because we’re set back from the road, I’m not concerned about privacy.  If we need to keep those for light-blocking purposes, I’ll probably just get the most inexpensive white roman shades to cover them.  While the curtains were super cheap, they surprisingly have a decent weight to them and can also keep out some light and peeping Toms if necessary.  The curtains are also loveable because they are clean, crisp, and can be easily thrown in the laundry with some bleach whenever they need to be freshened up. OK, to those with superior attention to detail, all curtains are the same length.  I hemmed them all myself (ahem, with hem tape) but got lazy and didn’t iron the pair in the middle.  I’m hoping gravity removes the wrinkles and brings them all to the same length for me.  For now, the gorgeous yellow chair I snagged from Marshalls will attempt to mask my laziness. 

We’re still waiting for our sofa and ottoman to be delivered so our old love seat is here in the interim.  The only other thing we purchased for this room was the corner TV stand from Mill Stores.  I love that place.  I’m still trying to decide which I love more - the smell of the store or the sweet old men that work there. Maybe it’s the sweet smell of the old men?  Anyways, the stand is still waiting to be stained dark but because an entire bottle of polyurethane spilled in the back of my Jeep, I’m still mad at that project and will tackle at a later date. 

Scroll on and off the pics below to see the previous owners' space transform into ours:

That’s about it for now.  The pool is gone and we've managed to take apart most of the deck - so we have some major yard work/torture sessions coming up.  We originally decided that Joe was in charge of the outside of the house and I was in charge of the inside BUT after discovering poison ivy around the property, he’s trying to weasel his way out of that agreement.  Stay tuned to see who wins that war.

home sweet home

We have our house!  Because our renters aren't moving into my condo until June, we have a few more weeks before we need to move ALL of our belongings.  Now that we officially own the house, it’s painful to go back to the condo.  We are in love with our house and are sad when we have to leave it.  We’ve already made several trips over and fall more in love with it each time we pull in the driveway.  There's some painting going on this week so the plan is to move the rest of our belongings once that job is done.  If it wasn’t for our attempt to keep our son from huffing paint fumes, we’d have moved in immediately after signing the papers and getting a hold of our keys. We hope to be all moved in by next weekend – or at least have enough in the house to allow us to sleep, shower, eat, and clothe ourselves without too much difficulty.

After moving everything we had stored at my parents’ house, we spent most of the weekend tending to the pool.  As I’ve mentioned before, the house came equipped with a lovely (read: unwanted) above-ground pool in the back yard.  Within minutes of sending out a mass message looking for takers, it was claimed.  The weather was beautiful this past weekend so it was a pleasure to be outside - but uncovering and attempting to drain a pool is the last way I would have chosen to spend the days.  OK, so my Dad and Joe did most of the dirty work but I made sure to stay close by so I could bark alternative ways to do whatever the hell it was that they were doing.  In less than two days, the pool was completely drained.  It’s amazing what two garden hoses and some sucking can do.  I can’t wait to wave goodbye to “our” pool – but I must admit that I’m petrified to see what the back yard is going to look like once it’s gone.  I’ll just cross my fingers for more sunny days that can be enjoyed outside, shoveling rocks and sand, and filling in a potential ditch left by the pool.

I didn’t get a chance to take any pics once the cover was off and the water was almost completely drained but here are two from the beginning of the shitty draining process:

Other than filling our garage with miscellaneous boxes and prepping the pool for removal, Joe and Steve fixed the automatic garage door opener thingy, we installed our new washer and dryer in the laundry room, and I raked up a couple bags of leaves/vines/brush.  Yes, I raked up a few bags…Joe just grabbed the rake when he saw that the camera was out.  Scandalous.

I hope to share a few before/after pics of the inside of the house once the painting is completed later this week.  In the meantime, here’s one of James’ checking out his new room.  He likes it...but already told me to get a move on burning the lace curtains.

…and the token family shot…

Oh...Johnny and Christian stopped by to check out our new digs too.  Pretty standard weekend.  They’re amazing friends.

yard crasher wanted

I stopped by our soon-to-be new house yesterday morning before work to take some measurements and deal with a few other things.  I finally got a chance to take a good look (and some pics) of the yard now that all of the snow has melted, the sun was out, we weren't pressed for time, and we weren't pre-occupied with dealings inside of the house.  What did I find?  I found that it's going to need a lot of love. 

There's a huge above-ground pool that we knew we wanted to get rid of from the first day we saw the house.  There's also a pool-deck attached (?) to the eyesore that joins to the regular deck-deck.  I'm not an above-ground pool expert but it looks like its fairly new and in good condition, as is the pool deck.  We don't want to deal with the maintenance and safety issues that go along with having a pool.  I'd probably be able to deal if it was an in-ground, lagoon style pool with natural stone and landscaping around it but, it's far from that.  Don't get me wrong, it's nice - we just feel that having that much more lawn space for our family to run around would be a better use of space.  I've heard from numerous sources that we can post it on craigslist for free and someone will quickly come and claim it...but we've also been advised that we can get some loot for it.  Know anyone that needs a pool and wants to come disassemble and take off our hands???  Here's a crappy picture of half the pool and a part of the adjoining deck.  I think that gas-tank-looking thing has something to do with the water filter.  I'm not sure what that post in the foreground is but I'm sure I can unearth that and find a constructive use for it.

As you might notice from the picture, the pool sits a bit lower than the rest of the yard, sunken in, if you will.  I'm not sure what we will find underneath the pool but I'm guessing it won't be heaps of cash and jewels.  Our initial thought was to extend that brick path and/or make a stone walkway from the deck that leads to a stone patio area, firepit and all that jazz - some place other than the deck to sit and enjoy the privacy and silence of our backyard.  I've all but got those plans drawn up in my head already so it won't be long before Joe's beautiful hands will be caked in dirt and covered in callouses.  I'm pretty sure I'll be busy taking care of James and cooking dinner during that project.

The next eyesore might need our attention before the pool.  I don't know much anything about plants.  We have noticed tons of this crap as we've driven through the area and it looks similar to my hair in the morning (and most of the day): a tangled shit show.  There is some behind the stone wall at my parents' house and, as my Mum will attest, once you try to trim it back, it just grows twice as fast.  You can't really tell from the picture but it has weaved its way up that huge tree and is probably suffocating the poor thing.  We're gonna need to rip those suckers up from the roots so they have no chance of survival.  I might even help Joe with that project just for the pure gratification that will come along with seeing that mess go.  Like the pool, we won't know what will be left once we clear this area out.  Maybe we will count on hitting the lottery and being able to level the entire backyard or bumping into Ahmed Hassan during one of our trips to the hardware store.

There are mature trees surrounding the entire property but to clearly identify our property's perimeter, I was thinking of planting big green things to act as a fence - mainly on the left side of the house where the property line isn't so clear.  I figured that would look nicer, softer and more natural than a true fence.

Aside from a little cleaning up, the frontyard shouldn't suck up to much of our money or Joe's time.  Like I said, I know nothing about plants but those bushes shrubs trees things appear to be in good condition.  At the very least, it doesn't seem as though these plants will strangle and murder the surrounding plant life.  I'll probably be forced to clean up the stuff lining the driveway since I'll see it everyday and the fact that there are still fall leaves mixed in will drive me insane.

Even with the pool, there is a decent amount of grass space that will need to be mowed.  Once the pool finds a better home, Joe will probably get his wish for a riding mower.  Oh, and since the house is set back from the road and the driveway is pretty long, a standard snow-blower probably wouldn't be too efficient.  If Joe behaves himself, he can get a riding mower AND plow attachment.  If you're looking to give one those away for free, you know where to reach me.

(Note:  If you know of anyone that wants the pool let me know!  Feel free to post tips and realistic suggestions as well!)

my first place

After 18 years of living in my parents' house, 4 years of living away at school, 2 years of bouncing around California, and 2 years of renting back in Mass., I finally purchased my own place in June 2007.  It has served me well over the past several years.  Going through the whole process of purchasing a property was a great learning experience, as were the years that followed.  I've always been mindful of finances but having a monthly mortgage payment made me even more so.  The responsibilities that come along with owning are obviously great, but I felt as though those responsibilities were rewards for a lot of hard work and mostly good decisions.

I lucked out and didn't have any work to do once I moved into my new nest.  The three-family house was recently renovated and my unit wasn't anything fancy but it more than met my needs for that stage of my life.

The kitchen was clean - that was more than I can say for most of the other places I looked at.  I'll miss the gas stove - our new house has electric.  Boo.  The rest of the kitchen was new-n-nice but not really my style.  I knew I was only going to be spending a few years in this condo so I never intended on throwing money into upgrades.  My first purchase for the new house was a new washer/dryer.  Despite the fact that I rarely do laundry, they are two of the loves of my life.  After much debate, we decided to leave them for our new tenants.  Oh, I didn't mention that?  Long story but we took my condo off the market and will be renting it out instead.  Um, that wasn't a long story at all - it was actually pretty damn short.  I have faith that I will find a new washer and dryer that I will love equally as much and that Joe will use as much as he did these ones.  Besides, they look so happy and at-home where they are now.  I wouldn't want to ruin that for them.  (See them over there in that precious little pantry nook?  They are Whirlpool Duets in case you were wondering.)

Another one of the few purchases I made for my new place was a dining room table.  I've never needed one before but now that I officially had a dining room, it seemed like a good time to get one.  With the help of a friend's employee discount, I got this beauty along with it's bench counterpart.  This sucker is NOT staying.  I'd throw this thing on my back and carry it to each new place we move if I have to.  (I can say that because I don't plan on moving again.  Moving sucks.  Our new house is perfect and has plenty of room to grow.)  The dining room also has a nice built-in that stored tons of booze.  These old houses have great character and I'm glad they maintained all the original woodwork and charm when they made renovations.  They even kept that stained-glass window...love it.  The guy that lived on the 3rd floor removed his and replaced it with a fugly casement window.  I have no idea why.  He's an odd bird...and might be a candidate for his own designated blog post. Unless something ridiculously awesome was on TV, I ate dinner in here every night...until a few months ago when it became a landing ground for a carseat, diaper bag, mail, jackets, and storage boxes.  Here's the dining room and my Big Sur - paired with two super-old chairs that came from my grandparent's house. 

When there was a ridiculously good show on and it was before 8pm on a school night, I'd watch it in my living room.  This was the only room that I made any real changes to since I moved in.  Nothing major - I just painted the walls a warm tan to keep my place from looking too crack-house-ish.  (The walls in the kitchen, bath, and hallway are light light cream and the dining room and bedrooms are a light light grey.)  The trunk is another find from my grandparent's house - I just got a piece of glass cut to put on top for added stability and protection.  The big couch was put together inside of the condo.  It was too big to fit up the narrow, winding staircase - although the movers tried and managed to bust holes in three walls and rip the original couch.  Luckily, the store replaced the couch and had a company come and actually put it together for me.  I can't wait to take a hacksaw to that thing once we are ready to move out.  The matching loveseat was already moved out when this picture was taken.  The brown chair/ottoman is coming with us.  It won't go with our new living room scheme but its comfy as hell and, aside from where the cats scratched it up, it's pretty pretty.  We'll probably put it in one of our two guest bedrooms until future offspring force us to chuck it.  Oh, and those windows let in tons of light and allowed me to snoop on my neighbors for hours of entertainment.

I moved into this place on July 1, 2007.  I think it was the hottest day of the year - at least it seemed that way.  After lugging boxes and furniture up a few flights of stairs a few trillion times, I made a deal with myself that I would unpack just until 7pm and then reward myself with a relaxing bath in my new jacuzzi tub.  7pm rolled around, I filled up the tub with the hottest water possible and eased myself into the water.  Just before I pushed the button to activate the jets, I had a brilliant idea to put a few drops of moisturizing body wash into the water.  I turned on the jets, laid back, and less than 4 seconds later realized I was overflowing the tub with suds and water.  I immediately got out and spent the next 45 minutes cleaning soap and water off my bathroom floor and trying to wash away a tub full of bubbles.  I cried and went to bed.

That leaves the two bedrooms.  I tried to keep my bedroom as simple as possible.  I hate clutter.  Yeh, I have three piles of both clean and dirty clothes on the floor right now, but I hate clutter.  My bedroom doesn't look like anything special but it is special.  I got engaged in this room, I'm pretty sure James was conceived in this room, my water broke in this room, and I've cuddled with my fiance and son in this room.

Then there's the second bedroom.  Throughout the past 3.5 years, this room has been a roommate's bedroom, a guest room, a closet, an office, a giant coat rack, and James' room.  Again, we kept this room pretty simple.  The memories we will forever have of our little guy playing, sleeping, pooping, singing, dancing, screaming, and laughing have better served us than fancy nursery decor ever will.  Also, we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl so everything stayed neutral.  I have big plans for his new bedroom though.

So there it is, my first place.  It has been a pleasure living in you but I'm beyond excited to move and get started on our first place.