Reconfirming My Fear of Clowns

In honor of Halloween, we've been netflixing scary movies. Both Poltergeist and Saw had evil clowns, which just goes to show that nothing good can ever come from having a clown around. So there.

I'm experiencing a surge in productivity with regards to preparing things for our move. We've coated the floor with a glossy sealant. I called and got both puppies into the groomers and reserved a Uhaul truck. This way the dogs will be out of the way when we are loading things up and into the new house. Plus, they should look and smell better than when we dropped them off.

For all those that love a bargain...I got 20 cents knocked off the rate per mile on the truck due to a bad experience that I had last time at Uhaul. I mentioned that we were going out of our way (by a mile) to avoid a different Uhaul store (with the bad service) and he appreciated that we were staying with the company and offering his store our services.

Chocolatey goodness

I did the painting. I'm quite proud of this. I did the priming, too. On areas where we left the trim (laundry room, bathroom, hall closet) I had Jeremiah cut in. We will be painting (I will be painting) the walls and Jeremiah will be putting up trim. Tearing down the old trim made painting so much easier because I could paint right up to the wall and all the paint that is on them will be covered when we do the wall work. I love, love, love the new floor!

Floored

Carpet - gone. Adhesive - sort of gone. Paint spatters from the horrible paint job - did our best. We rented the sander. We did more of the adhesive/paint remover. We truly did our best. Then we swept, vacuumed, mopped, and finally I could apply the primer/bonding adhesive. I've also included two fabulous shots of our ancient oven and a picture of me reading (probably some warning about chemicals, paint fumes, etc.).

Here we have a gorgeous close up of the CLOCK on the stove and a picture from farther away so you can truly appreciate the ugliness of our stove/oven.

Yep. Dangerous chemicals & paint.
Primer/bonding layer
The Sandman

One sticky and mean motor scooter

Repeat the following phrase: I will NEVER use linoleum anywhere in my house EVER.
That adhesive gunk underneath does not come up at all. We used harsh chemicals. Actually, Jeremiah used the harsh chemicals. I patched up the concrete (wearing a mask, of course) in other spots of the house. The chemicals tore up the top layer of adhesive, but left us with a tacky layer of funk. I checked websites. One stated that this (the laying of the linoleum) is the one time that you hope the workers skimped and didn't do an effective job because it makes tearing it up easier. Yeah, this might be the one place where they didn't skimp on quality. Tons of glue. I've included some pictures of this craptastic process, as well as my handy patchwork. I've found my niche with the patching, I tell ya. I'm the Rainman of patching. Just give me that flat thing, some patch stuff and my ipod and I just go.

The photos show the layer of adhesive, me picking up the adhesive layer after Jer has put the chemicals on it, covered it with plastic, and scraped it loose, one picture of the sticky funky goo, and then of course, my handi-patchwork.

Outside pictures

So pretty!

On the outside looking in and vice versa

One of my favorite things about the house is the low-maintenance front yard with beautiful cacti. After I snapped the picture of the saguaro, a flicker flew out of one of the holes! The backyard is also looking lush and green! I can't wait to add more plants.

Even more pictures...and some ch ch ch ch cheap vinyl

As Jeremiah tackled the carpet, I headed to the kitchen to try and pull up the linoleum flooring. I pulled it up all right, but it left an ENTIRE LAYER of funky adhesive. This would turn out to be the biggest pain thus far.

More pics

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

So the very night that we got the keys, we started tearing up the carpet. It was in nearly mint condish, but with two dogs, a cat, allergies, and asthma, it simply had to go. When I say we tore up the carpet, I actually mean Jeremiah. I took pictures and sat with the dogs. I did help haul away the padding. Go me. Here are some pictures of the process.

Longest five months EVER

This was an extremely long process, so I'm just going to give the condensed version.
In the Spring Jeremiah and I began looking for a house. I'm going to be honest. I am extremely picky and very cheap. I knew what I wanted and how much I would spend. In early June, we found the perfect house. It was only a mile from our current dwelling, near the bike trail, it had a pool, and enough room to spread out a bit.



I put in a bid. After about a week, in late June, the owners accepted the bid. In early July, we found out the first bank accepted the bid. In mid-July, we found out that the second bank accepted the bid as well. In August, we waited. At the end of August, we were told the closing date would be September 25. We had the inspection and appraisal (the house appraised for $20,000 more than my bid - Yay!). We waited. The 25th came. It went. No house. I signed papers the following Tuesday and we were to get the keys on Friday. No keys. No house. In fact, I found out the next week that I would have to resign all the papers. They had to file for an extension. If you are keeping track, it is now the first week of October. Then the second week. I resigned. Still thinking something else would go wrong. Got a late night call from the mortgage guy. He needed more papers signed and faxed back to him. More waiting. Finally, on Wednesday, October 14, we got the house! This is the first post of many to document our new home - my first time as a homeowner.