Dudes

Deuce and I have a play date with a woman from my high school and her 15 month old - we ran into each other at the children's museum and it was fun to catch up with her for 5 seconds before our kids ran in separate directions.

I'm so glad to be seeing an adult that's not related to me. DeuceDad and I have actually spent some time with friends lately, and that was much needed let me tell ya. It's creeping up on a year that we've lived here and we haven't expanded our social circle at all.

People need dudes!

I'm going to go make myself presentable. Wish me a well behaved child!

The movers are coming! The movers are coming!

I'm so happy to say that we have a date when we're moving into our house! Movers are doing their thing on July 31!

In the mean time, floors are being refinished (starting today, finished by Monday at the latest), we picked a tub and surround, and the kitchen and entry flooring is ordered and scheduled to be installed August 2!

We have a lot of work to do. But let's face it, most people end up moving into their "fixer upper" and living there while all the destruction is happening. We've had the benefit of being able to clean and fix a lot of things while living in relative comfort at my parents'.

Yes, that word was relative.

This week has been really stressful while Grandma Millie's funeral is being planned. But aside from the acute stress, there's a definite undercurrent of everyone needed some space. It's been a really good 3 months, but I think everyone will breathe a small sigh of relief when we can walk to the bathroom naked again.

Ah, naked.

Work 'til it hurts

Physical labor (or movement of any kind) is not on my to-do list most days from 8-5(ish). I go in to the office, sit at my desk, and occasionally walk to another person's office where I then sit down. Needless to say, after 3 days of lifting, ripping, pulling, prying, scrubbing, and constantly running up and down stairs, mommy's tired.

We're taking lots of before and after pictures, which I will share just as soon as we find the elusive computer-and-phone-cords box.

Until there are photos, allow me to step you through the high points.
Friday:
The closing was super easy and we didn't have that nerve-wracking "I'm signing my life away" feeling we had with the first house. Had a little lunch, called a flooring guy, took some before pictures, changed to work clothes. And then the fun began. The odor in the house improved immediately after the carpet was removed. I gave the bathrooms the once over. My mom brought dinner and we ate on the card table in the front yard. (In other words, we started classing up the neighborhood right away.) Eventually we couldn't stand tack strips any more and went home.

Saturday:
The sun rose on what would be a hot and humid, disorganized and, for me, somewhat demoralizing day. High of 94 with high humidity and no A/C. Awesome. We had a short term plan going in - focus on the main and upper floors, then move in and then do the lower floor (family room, office, 2nd bath). The plan was being adhered to until my boss showed up, started peeling old self-adhesive tiles off the downstairs bath and all but kidnapping me to Home Depot to buy tile. We wanted to tile the downstairs bath eventually, but he was there and volunteering and the new me does not turn down offers of help. Despite working through the worst part of the day (which we had intended to spend floating in the pool), it came out awesome and really gave us a leg up (ha ha pee joke) on fixing up that bathroom. The upstairs bathroom also got (re)scrubbed 3 times, and an entire bottle of Simple Green was used to get greasy mess of the kitchen. Fun was had by all. At about 9 we managed to get home and cool off in the pool.

Sunday:
So tired. Had to go to Lowe's for plumbing supplies which took about 2 hours in our exhausted state on a rainy early morning. DeuceDad grouted while my father attacked the dripping upstairs tub faucet. The grout went well and looks great. The bathroom... well let's just say my dad sawed 2 holes in walls, broke off one of the knobs, determined there are no shutoffs to anything (save the house) and no actual progress was made. The problem is now understood and a plan is in place. While he was back and forth to his house for tools, I decided to work on the lingering old-man-urine odor. The house has hot water baseboard heat and there is a heater next to the toilet. Probably a good candidate for a source of the smell. I took the cover off and almost got knocked on my kiester by how bad it smelled. I cleaned it with Clorox Cleanup with Bleach (not environmentally friendly, I know, but I needed to bring out the big guns). I scrubbed and rinsed for an hour, and the smell was better but not gone. I was nauseated from the pee smell, dizzy from the cleaner and generally disheartened by the thought that I now own a house that some old dude peed all over. We got more work done, but my heart just wasn't in it. Luckily, by best friend came by for dinner and some work, so while DeuceDad hayed mowed the lawn, she and I sang to the Boyz II Men greatest hits CD and put on the new kitchen cabinet knobs and papered the shelves.

You'll notice that Deuce didn't get mentioned in there. My mom watched him all weekend, which was wonderful because we got a lot done. But the weekend is my time with him. My dad put it into perspective saying that the faster we get our stuff done, the sooner we can all live under our very own roof again. He has a point. But I miss him... so tonight I am taking the night off. We're going to go for a walk and hang out together. Then tomorrow, back to the grindstone.

Wow, congrats if you read all that! As a special prize, I'm offering bags of vinyl flooring scraps that were used to line every shelf in the house!

Now may be the time when I question my sanity

A quick one before I leave for a long weekend of ripping up carpet, cleaning, sanding, painting...

Our first house was beautiful. All remodeled, move in condition.

The new place has a school-bus yellow eagle nailed above the garage.

I'm slightly daunted by the work we have ahead of us. I'll post again on Monday to share results, and hopefully some in-progress pics.

Every Mothers' Son

Driving my dad's truck
The tape player plays classics
Glad we're close again.

We're borrowing my dad's truck and trailer in case everything doesn't fit in the truck this weekend (we got the 26'-er, it might be close). I got in and the tape deck was playing Lynyrd Skynyrd - a tape recording of the vinyl of "A Second Helping" and "Gimme Back My Bullets." The tape picked up at "Every Mother's Son." I can sing along with a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd songs, but "Every Mother's Son" is one I actually like.

B-sides of classic rock albums always make me think of my dad. When I was a toddler, we called the radio the "boogie" and I loved when he would turn the music up and sing. Just blasting down the road in a pickup... good times.

I'm so happy to be living near my parents. Not just for the vinyl either.

(I swear I'll do the button again as soon as I have my computer back)

No birthday pics yet

I have to remember to bring the mini usb cable with us when we go to our house this weekend! I think my sister in law is going to fly here and pummel me if I don't get some pics up soon. Plus Deuce went in the pool for the first time and ate cake with chocolate frosting... so much to share!

I do owe an update on the house situation. Last Friday our agent agreed that we are sick of waiting for our stupid buyers and he set up a bunch of showings. The bad news is that no one from any of the showings is interested. The good news is the buyers supposedly got their mortgage commitment and the bank ordered the appraisal! The appraisal is the final hurdle. I called our agent this morning for an update and left a message. So more later on that.

In the mean time I have a ton of work to do. The new office is almost ready and I'll have my own office! I can't tell you how happy I'll be - I share an office with 5 other people right now!

Cross those fingers for good news today!

A mix of disappointment and anger

I haven't gone into a lot of detail on the sale of the house because it's been a stressful subject around DeuceFamily and I'm trying to keep it light here. But today brought deep disappointment and furious anger and I have to get it out.

The house shows well (or did before there were boxes strewn everywhere) and is in one of the few remaining hot real estate markets, and we had an excepted offer after 11 days. Great. DeuceDad and I haggled quite a bit with the buyers because they wanted cash at closing to pay their closing costs. We new that this was a risk because the property has to be appraised for the amount they want to finance in order to get the loan. But we figured we would know in 2 weeks tops, plus even the price we settled on is in line with what houses are going for in the neighborhood.

Yeah.

FOUR weeks later.

The generous amount of time we allowed them to get their mortgage commitment has come and gone, but we allowed additional time because they assured us (through their banker to their agent to our agent to us) that they were waiting for "paperwork." Four weeks later, we're sure that their is a bigger issue than paperwork.

And now we've lost 4 weeks.

And we have our mortgage commitment on Ugly House.

And our offer is contingent so it's not like we're trapped, but we want ugly house. It's a good opportunity for us.

The thing is that there is no recourse. We have no recourse at all whatsoever besides the fact that we get to keep their earnest money. And even in that respect we were way too flexible and accepted a deposit of only $200. So that's the booby prize for trying to be nice.

Oh, I'm a compassionate person, don't get me wrong. People lose jobs in the middle of a mortgage application and can't come through. That happened to us. But they strung us on for weeks and just didn't even try. Their application didn't get rejected, they never finished it!

I'm a fool. Next time, it's the standard 10% earnest deposit, and the standard times to get contingencies met or the buyers can forget it.

I'm so mad right now!

I don't actually feel better now, but now you know. Hopefully we'll celebrate soon. I'll let ya know.

An old flame

When I moved back to my old home town, I ran into an old flame. I wasn't too interested in what they were saying and I ignored them for several weeks. Monday night I was out running errands and ran into this old flame again. The voice was so familiar. The musical sounds felt so right. And I was back in love.

WBER, who long have I loved you? Since I realized there was more to radio than AC/DC (Dad) or soft rock (Mom). You introduced me to new bands, you made me laugh. And I love to laugh. I know you had a life before me, ever since 1985 to be exact. And many people have loved you more than I. But I'm so glad you're back in my life. I don't like every song, or every DJ, but you challenge me and more often than not make me turn up the volume.

I have no euphemism

I have no "hunting" euphemism for signed purchase agreement. But we have one of those - yay! I've avoided celebrating because all the contingencies on the sale haven't been met so I'm not 100% confident that we're actually going to get this house. I'm going to be crushed if I don't, I won't even try to lie. But I'm not changing our address yet or anything.

It's a nice size house on a nice size lot in a nice neighborhood. There are lots of nice things about it.

And then there's the ugly.

It's painted dark brown with school bus yellow trim.

The living room/dining room carpet used to be burnt orange almost-shag and is now a filthy brown.

The family room carpet (and drapes) are cherry red with orange, gold and brown wallpaper. And paneling.

The switch cover in the upstairs bath has glitter in the material somehow.

We can see past the ugly to the generous square footage, easy open floor plan, ample storage, roomy lot and well kept neighbors. After our eyes adjust that is. But there's a lot of cosmetic work to do. We have a plan to do floors and walls (and cleaning) before we move in and save a few rooms for after we're living there. Long term, a new kitchen may be in our future. And a deck.

But for now, I'm trying to fool myself into being realistic that we're contingent and this whole thing might fall apart. I really really hope it doesn't though...

Friday Fill-Ins

I went down a really fun trail of blogs today that led me to Friday Fill-Ins.
I don't want to abandon Haiku Friday, but this seems fun too. I'm going to do last week's today and see how I like it.

I'll do this new-house theme based on the place we have an offer in on!

1. There is absolutely NO way you can get me to take my shoes off and walk on that old yucky carpet!
2. Not knowing where the weed whacker is reminds me that summer is almost here!
3. I cannot live without my rubber gloves.
4. Pulling out shrubs and scraping off tile are two things I'd like to try.
5. When life hands you lemons use them to deodorize the garbage disposal.
6. Listening to cicadas on hot summer mornings is my favorite childhood memory.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to (pretending this is Friday) getting a home inspection, tomorrow my plans include (pretending this is Saturday) going to our old house and Sunday, I want to pack boxes!

That was pretty fun. Not sure it's so fun that I would forgo Haiku Friday... we'll see.

A Buyer

Big news -- we signed an agreement to sell our house! A bittersweet day. I just hope the deal goes through. So much can happen before the inspection and the commitment letter. DeuceDad and I are trying to rein in the house shopping mania because in a week or so we'll know pretty much for sure if we have a deal. Until then it's not worth really committing.

Why so skeptical? Our buyer is asking for a lot of concessions, leading us to believe they're a little cash strapped. That means they may have a little harder time getting a mortgage, and the house is going to have to appraise a little higher than we're confident it's worth so they can borrow the whole amount. None of that is our problem unless it doesn't work out and then we lost at least a week if not more of marketing time. And then I'll be mad. And I don't want to be mad.

The thing about living in a small town is that everyone knows too much about everyone else's business. Our agent's cousin works at the bank where the buyers are applying for their loan and gave him a "reassuring feeling" that it will work out. God only knows what that means. Except that nobody's business is private in a small town.

So we're keeping our fingers crossed. We agreed to give them two weeks to get their commitment letter (generous considering their piddly earnest deposit). Two weeks of wondering/hoping/imaginary decorating a new house. My toes are crossed too.

Home is where the mower is

Going home tonight
To the house we own and love
So much to be done.

Sleeping in the same bed
Will be heavenly romance
No more Ward and June.

Paint the new porch trim
We won't enjoy our hard work
Fixing up to sell.

Mow the lawn and rake
The tulips have now bloomed
The yard will live on.

Not time to say 'bye
Enjoy the comfort. Privacy.
Come back on Sunday.

Thanks for reading. I don't have time to do the button (b/c I always mess it up and can't fool around with it today), so head over to A Mommy Story to check out better poets than I!

Camo for House Hunting

One should wear horizontal stripes while house hunting so as to look like a sided outbuilding.

House hunting is not for the faint of heart and that's the truth. We have been to several showings and open houses and have gathered some tips for house hunters.

• DO take care of your feet. Keep your shoes on unless directed otherwise. Wear closed toe shoes where there may be septic issues, flocks of geese, or dogs.
  
• DO approach the home slowly. Employ the element of surprise.
• DON'T panic if the big one is getting away. Another trophy is out there.
  
• DO know the locals. Have the name of an agent you are "working with". This will spare you the hard sell. DON'T put down your Grandma's number. They may actually call the agent you've listed.
  
• DO travel in pairs if you bring a child with you. One adult can stay with the child who has invariably fallen asleep while the other looks inside. DON'T WAKE A SLEEPING CHILD UP TO LOOK AT A HOUSE!
• DO identify the home's food source. Grocery: if you would drive across town to go to a better store, this isn't the neighborhood for you.
  
• DON'T poke the bears by laughing at the creepy art on the walls. Likewise, don't "ew" at the carpet in the bathroom (sorry to any carpeted-bathroom readers). Laughing and "ew"ing are considered rude. (Who knew?)
• DO study the lay of the land. Visually inspect the driveways for junked cars and the neighborhood daycare for barbed wire fences.
  

With that basic set of rules, prospective buyers will avoid frustration and embarrassing faux pas. Have fun out there!

S-NAP!

T-36 hours until new daycare/job and I can't take it any more.

Deuce still hasn't cut those teeth, the teething tablets gave him diarhea, he's not sleeping so neither am I, and he's just yelling/screaming/fussing constantly. And I mean constantly. I love him, and I feel bad for him, and it's out of his control and I know this change plus the teething (oh, and the contact dermatitis I gave him by switching to Tide with Bleach Alternative) are driving him crazy. I feel like a terrible mom for making him so dependent on me while I've been home, and like an even worse mom for going back to work full time. I love him and none of this is his fault. I'm not angry at him. I JUST NEED A BREAK.

In less than 2 days I have to move back in with my parents, start him at a new day care, and go back to work at a job I'm not sure I can do. I'm rewashing every piece of fabric in the house so he can touch things without itching. I am vacating in the middle of it all to allow for showings. I'm trying to be the appropriate amount of sad/happy to be moving depending on the audience. I'm saying goodbye. We'll see these people, but it will be different. Bad different.

I'm just sick of feeling like nothing's good enough. The house needs work. The house is dirty. The house is cluttered. I'm not sad enough to be leaving. I'm not happy enough to be moving "home." I'm not prepared for my new job. We don't have any money. I'm late for everything. I look like shit. And the crazy part is I've been HOME for FIVE WEEKS. Shouldn't I have it together already?! Gah!!

I should probably delete this because I sound like a crazy person, but it's all what I'm feeling right now. So there. Truth in blogging. The ugly side. Please don't send CPS. Deuce is fed, bathed, binked, and in his father's arms. I have lots of help. I just needed to vent.

Deuce's new dudes

The daycare visit went swimmingly today, which means Deuce officially has new dudes!

They break the ages up differently than I've seen elsewhere. Typically babies are in a NB-2YO or NB-1YO/walking room. This is a crawling-18MO room. Interesting. He's going to be the youngest one in there, so I worry about him from that standpoint, but the younguns usually get a little extra attention (in our experience) so that will work in his favor.

Oh, and did I mention I'm going to miss him?

So everything is a go for me starting work next Monday. I'm excited, nervous, the whole nine, probably the same as anyone would feel in this situation.

I got some cool new scrapbooking stuff today - The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Word. Journaling is so tough for me, and a friend said this will help. I bought it with a 55 (% off coupon) at AC Moore. Have you ever even heard of such a thing?! Unprecidented. I wish I had gotten to frame it. I have a coupon problem.

So far so good

Deuce has been handling part one of the move so well. He's cool like that.

We've been at my parents' for the weekend accomplishing scads of to-do list items. They've been babysitting him and they are awesome for it. We couldn't have done a quarter of what we did with him in tow. Plus he'd be miserable and I'm just not that into making him miserable (wierd, I know).

But (you knew there would be a but), he sleeps like double-s h i double-t shit in the pack-n-play. I haven't slept more that 2 hours straight the last two nights. It's brutal. Next weekend we'll have the crib.

Tomorrow we're going to see his new day care! I think it's going to be really nice there and I know he's going to have fun. I am worried about the transition from all mommy all the time to strangers all day, but he's friendly, and I'm sure he'll do fine.

He's good like that.

#1 reason for the move

My to do list long
My temper so short and quick
Moving is a pain

Prioritizing
and asking for help will make
the work easier

Excitement of the
new jobs, new home, family
new and old friends and...

Wegmans!! How I love
the store, the products, the name.
Fresh and delicious!

Convenient! Happy!
Olive bar! A fish counter!
Yum! Need I say more?

Grocery shopping
is made fun again. Crazy,
but I love Wegmans.

Things that are not easy

1. Cutting teeth
Deuce still doesn't have his top teeth yet. I miss daycare.

2. Leaving "home"
DeuceDad got the job!!! In the same breath as being happy that we're moving to, oh, say, a county that offers a job other than the one I was let go from, we're also sad to be leaving. And DeuceDad is really sad to be moving 3 hours from his parents. Not that I blame him. I have the best MIL/DIL relationship that a MIL/DIL can have. Even FIL and I have a mutual (dis?)respect for each other that makes his company downright tolerable. And that's nothing compared to DeuceDad's really outstanding relationships with his parents.

His Grandpa Joe always said ("my grandpappy Ole Reliable used to say, uh, say, I don't reckon I ever told you about Ole Reliable..."), anyway, Grandpa Joe used to say that this is a great place to live if you can make a living. Unfortunately, I did not choose a profession condusive to making a living in rural America. And so, we're moving away from our first house, and the IL's home on the river.

3. Doing justice to the ILs when you're so happy!!

I haven't been within 200 miles of my high school best friend in 10 years. We're so excited that our ring tones for each other are Peaches 'N Herb singing "Reunited". I can't wait!!! I'm excited to be near my parents again, but that's a very long post re: relationships w/ parents that I am not up to right now.

4. Scoring a job over the phone

You read that right - I got a job off a phone interview tonight!!!! It's actually doing something I've never done before (web apps in Java), and the owner knows and doesn't care. I'll have a 1 month, 3 month and 6 month review to make sure I'm coming up to speed, which I don't think will be a huge problem b/c he's personally training me for the first week. It happened so fast I can't even believe it!

DeuceFamily doesn't always do things the easy way, but we get it done!

Argh!

I missed the phone call! The place DeuceDad's been interviewing with called this afternoon and I didn't get home in time to give him the message.

I left the house this morning so that I wouldn't just sit around and obsess. It worked, but now I'm super obsessed! We would know by now if I had stayed home! Argh!

DeuceDad thinks this is the height of humor.

I am drinking beer.

Today was productive otherwise, and I checked tons of great books out of the library, including Simple Scrapbooks Scrapbooking Made Easy. One of the minds behind this is Stacy Julian (Altogether Too Happy link on my side bar). I only got as far as page 3 before I had to run upstairs and scraplift a page. I think this is going to be a gold mine.

Well, we'll know tomorrow. Pray for us, please!

Naps are for babies, Mom

Deuce refused to nap this morning which isn't a great sign for our day. I can't wait for this freaking tooth to cut though and life to return to normal. He is down now though and if I'm lucky I'll get another 30 minutes out of him.

In the mean time I swept about 3 cubic feet of sand out of the driveway and filed/threw out/recycled about 2 reams of paper I had in various piles. I had convinced myself that these piles were strategic. I was kidding myself.

I am so overwhelmed by the amount of housework that needs doing. The worst part is that we're suspended in time waiting for DeuceDad to hear back about the job. I can't even begin to focus on anything else. I have done some scrapping in an effort to get some "alone" time that doesn't involve shopping (have I mentioned unemployment is cramping my style a little?). But last night I couldn't even move in the office and I'm now back to the point I was at weeks (months?) ago of being overwhelmed and needing to make a list. If I can find my Palm I'll be in business.

I think I need a spring cleaning plan, broken down into chunks that I can handle. If anyone else is in this predicament, let me NOT recommend FlyLady. I "know" (on mom chat boards) lots of SAHMs that love her, but I can't justify the sink shining thing. Even if you substitute some other chore for sink shining I just can do it. I can't live with the hard and fast rule that every item must be spit shined and in its place before I can sleep. I love sleep too much for that.

Balance I must find. And fast. I hear him stirring...