Last Sunday night, the Phlegm Faery visited and left me bountiful gifts.
Now, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but Phlegm Faery, you can suck it!
Needless to say, last week was a rotten week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I pretty much didn't budge out of bed except maybe to sit on the sofa. And when I did that I was promptly told I needed to lie down and rest. I know Scoob was just trying to take care of me, but I couldn't seem to get him to understand that due to the bountiful gifts, I was practically drowning when I laid down. But I did start to feel marginally better by Wednesday night.
Also on Wednesday, I had an appointment with an OB/GYN at UNC Medical Center to discuss the fibroids and surgery. My next appointment is on December 9 for another ultrasound. The doctor wants to get a look at what's going on in there, and if it's just the one fibroid, she thinks they can take it out with laparoscopy, which would greatly reduce recovery time. Although she was also tossing around terms like endometriosis and ovarian cysts, which I'd just really rather not contemplate right now.
Also, also on Wednesday the La-Z-Boy reclining loveseat I bought a couple weeks ago arrived. (It is so comfy!) So a couple of things happened that convinced us to make this purchase. First, when we tried putting our old sofa from CA up in the bonus room, we found it was way too long and couldn't make it around the corners. Second, when my Aunt P had abdominal surgery last June, she said she was much more comfortable during recovery sleeping in a recliner rather than stretched out flat in a bed.
So, our CA sofa is definitely large. We purposely bought it oversized because Scoob and I like to lie down together when we watch movies. So I was thinking, if we need a smaller sofa for upstairs, we won't be able to lie together during movies anymore, but with a recliner, we can (nearly) lie together and still cuddle and snuggle. We were both pretty sold on the idea once we thought it through.
I missed out on joining our friends for Thanksgiving and meeting new people in the neighborhood, but Scoob went and being the thoughtful man that he is, brought me home a plate so I could still enjoy some turkey on Friday.
He also brought home a ton of cheese! We are wallowing in cheese. I had sent him over with a cheese plate with Brie, a cheddar with caramelized onions (Yum!), and some other semi-soft cheese I can no longer remember. He came home with the leftovers from those 3, plus 3 other leftover cheeses—a really nice smoked Gouda, some other unknown semi-soft cheese, and a block of Bleu, which I cannot touch. It's a good thing Scoob loves Bleu because the stuff makes me violently ill.
Anyhow, when we were shopping for the cheese plate, I bought a couple others for us to have at the house (another smoked Gouda and an Irish cheddar). Now I'm thinking I shouldn't have bothered. Anyhow, we're nearly out of crackers and now I'm searching for recipes involving cheese so we can use it all up before it goes bad.
Friday and Saturday I was feeling human again. I took it easy on Friday and Saturday I actually stepped out of the house for a few minutes to enjoy some of the sunshine. It's hard to believe it's almost December; it's been 70–75 and sunny. Sunday we ran a couple of light errands in nearby Apex and I even cooked up dinner. But today was really my first day feeling really good and like myself again. Still coughing a bit, but feeling so much better.
Scoob's having to work European hours the next couple of days, which is just wrong. His company needs to post some announcements to their websites for 9:00am in Europe so the poor guy has to be up at 2:00am here to do it. I know it'll be rough on him, so I'm doing what I can to smooth out anything else I can.
In other news, the crew for the trim work came back by this afternoon and finished up their punch list and the dishwasher repairman came by tonight and finished up the last of the repairs on the dishwasher. So yea! I know we've got the flooring crew coming back some time this week to finish the upstairs landing area and then the painting crew for touch ups (no idea when yet) and the landscape crew in a few weeks when they're out in the neighborhood for another contract.
I'm still a little amazed sometimes when we pull up to the house after being out, but it's finally starting to feel like we live here. I guess getting a good sick on in a new house helps to break it in. Scoob still feels like he's visiting, though.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Just a Quickie, with Pictures
So it's Friday and our dishwasher has been working for a week (woohoo!) though we are waiting for one more part to replace one that was damaged during repairs. In addition to finding our lawn mowin' muscles, Scoob has also found his weed whackin' muscles as he attacked some tall grass that could be cut with the mower.
The second half of this week has been a flurry of activity. On Wednesday the trim guy came by and started his fixes. Most of them are done, tough I may have to have him come out and redo a couple. Nothing major, just cosmetic tweaks.
And the floor guys started their work on Wednesday. That has been more involved (and stinky). Wednesday morning we emptied the house of furniture and they puttied and sanded and applied polyurethane to all the problem spots and had to completely cut out and replace one board. Thursday they came by in the morning and afternoon to sand and apply 2 more coats of ploy to the spots. And today they've just left from buffing and and applying poly to the entire downstairs floor.
They'll come back and do the upstairs landing next week, which I'm grateful for because otherwise I'd be stuck in an upstairs bedroom for 5–6 hours, this way I'm just stuck upstairs and can at least use the bathroom. Thank goodness the plumber came by and fixed the toilet that had started leaking yesterday! I tell ya', if it's not one thing it's another.
Scoob has the day off and is out gallivanting around with a friend while I'm trapped upstairs. I hope he's having a good time because he has been working hard this week what with all the mowing (he finished the 2 side yards) and whacking and furniture moving (for the floors). All that and he even cooked dinner twice this past week! I know! Aliens!
Actually, we'd had a bit of a tiff about the division of labor around the house, and even though we didn't reach a verbal agreement, I am thankful to know through his actions that he has heard my concerns. He even asked me to teach him how to use the new washer/dryer. (I still suspect aliens.)
Our peaceful little plot has been quite noisy the last few days what with all the sanding and sawing and stuff. But the evenings have also gotten noisier. One of the reasons we chose this lot was that the lot next to it has an Aqua (the local water/sewer utility company) building on it and will never be developed. We call it the pump house, though we don't really know it's purpose.
Anyhow, the other night I noticed an engine running. It sounded like a Genny and at first I thought it was coming from one of the other houses under construction, which would make sense. I know they're digging out a basement over there and we were supposed to have rain, so yeah, running a Genny for a sump pump makes total sense.
But it's not raining anymore and the motor has been running for 3 days. We think it's coming from the pump house now instead of a construction site. We had been assured the pump house wouldn't be noticeable and that there wouldn't be any noise coming from it. Which was one of the reasons I agreed to build the house in a mirror image from the original floor plans, placing our bedroom as the closest room to the pump house.
Scoob couldn't sleep last night, though I didn't have a problem. If it were switching on and off through the night, then I'd have a problem. Anyhow, I'm calling the property management group today to see if something is actually wrong over there, or if we'll be living with this noise.
I'll leave you with some random pictures we snapped our first few days here. (Because someone—MOM—demanded pictures!)
The second half of this week has been a flurry of activity. On Wednesday the trim guy came by and started his fixes. Most of them are done, tough I may have to have him come out and redo a couple. Nothing major, just cosmetic tweaks.
And the floor guys started their work on Wednesday. That has been more involved (and stinky). Wednesday morning we emptied the house of furniture and they puttied and sanded and applied polyurethane to all the problem spots and had to completely cut out and replace one board. Thursday they came by in the morning and afternoon to sand and apply 2 more coats of ploy to the spots. And today they've just left from buffing and and applying poly to the entire downstairs floor.
They'll come back and do the upstairs landing next week, which I'm grateful for because otherwise I'd be stuck in an upstairs bedroom for 5–6 hours, this way I'm just stuck upstairs and can at least use the bathroom. Thank goodness the plumber came by and fixed the toilet that had started leaking yesterday! I tell ya', if it's not one thing it's another.
Scoob has the day off and is out gallivanting around with a friend while I'm trapped upstairs. I hope he's having a good time because he has been working hard this week what with all the mowing (he finished the 2 side yards) and whacking and furniture moving (for the floors). All that and he even cooked dinner twice this past week! I know! Aliens!
Actually, we'd had a bit of a tiff about the division of labor around the house, and even though we didn't reach a verbal agreement, I am thankful to know through his actions that he has heard my concerns. He even asked me to teach him how to use the new washer/dryer. (I still suspect aliens.)
Our peaceful little plot has been quite noisy the last few days what with all the sanding and sawing and stuff. But the evenings have also gotten noisier. One of the reasons we chose this lot was that the lot next to it has an Aqua (the local water/sewer utility company) building on it and will never be developed. We call it the pump house, though we don't really know it's purpose.
Anyhow, the other night I noticed an engine running. It sounded like a Genny and at first I thought it was coming from one of the other houses under construction, which would make sense. I know they're digging out a basement over there and we were supposed to have rain, so yeah, running a Genny for a sump pump makes total sense.
But it's not raining anymore and the motor has been running for 3 days. We think it's coming from the pump house now instead of a construction site. We had been assured the pump house wouldn't be noticeable and that there wouldn't be any noise coming from it. Which was one of the reasons I agreed to build the house in a mirror image from the original floor plans, placing our bedroom as the closest room to the pump house.
Scoob couldn't sleep last night, though I didn't have a problem. If it were switching on and off through the night, then I'd have a problem. Anyhow, I'm calling the property management group today to see if something is actually wrong over there, or if we'll be living with this noise.
I'll leave you with some random pictures we snapped our first few days here. (Because someone—MOM—demanded pictures!)
Scoob preparing to open Pandora's box.
Not too bad (if I say so myself);
we had some shifting, which was expected, but nothing major.
we had some shifting, which was expected, but nothing major.
The builder left us a framed drawing of the finished house, a bottle of wine (and a corksrew!) and cards to send out with our new address on them and the drawing.
I only have about 5 of these addressed and none of them mailed. I got some crazy idea about doing the Christmas cards at the same time and then I just stopped.
I only have about 5 of these addressed and none of them mailed. I got some crazy idea about doing the Christmas cards at the same time and then I just stopped.
The chairs and nesting tables I bought last April in their intended home. Don't worry, I didn't suddenly turn into Minnie Pearl; I cut the tags off. Eventually.
I really like the way the kitchen turned out.
It's a little dark, but here's the front porch and door lit up at night.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Dishwasher Drama
Oh dear. I feel like we've been playing How Many Ways Can a Dishwasher Break since we moved in. We've been here 3 weeks and we're still waiting for a working dishwasher.
When I first tried running a load of dishes 3 weeks ago I could not get water into the unit. Then I remembered the water line had been shutoff on the clothes washer, so I checked on the dishwasher. Sure enough.
Okay, now with the water valve open I still couldn't get water to the unit, so the vendor I purchased the dishwasher from called a repair company and they said they would be here in 5 days. Okay. The night before the appointment they call and say they don't service Pittsboro. You think they might have mentioned that when taking the appointment. So then the vendor found an alternate repair company.
That repair man got here last Wednesday and found a loose electrical connection in the dishwasher and voila! We had water! About 20 to 30 minutes after the repairman left, I walked into the kitchen to start dinner and discovered my kitchen floor (kitchen hardwood floor, I might ad) was covered in water. Oh yeah, we had water now.
The repairman made it back to the house on Monday, pulled the machine from under the counter and found that the drain pipe had not been connected to the drain line. Huh? How do you miss that? Apparently, whoever installed the unit mistook the condensation hose for a drain hose and hooked that up to the drain line instead. We also discovered just how much water had been dumped/leaked.
Scary stuff.
So I had the repairman leave the dishwasher exactly as he found it because the builder and the plumber who installed the unit were coming by in the morning and I wanted them to see it. The tradesman who finished the hardwood floors came with them. They all assured us that once the water dried out there would be no long-term damage and the floorboards, where they've begun to warp and buckle, would return to normal. Huh, really?
I decided to verify that through a 3rd party and whaadaya know, that's right. Apparently, when it comes to mold, it's the slow leaks over time that you have to worry about, not the gushers that get taken care of right away. Well, at least that's one less thing to worry about.
So anyhow, they switch the drain line and hook it up to the drain pipe and start the dishwasher. We're all standing around chatting when Scoob notices that a couple of the guys are now standing in a puddle of water. What the heck? And no one can figure out where it is coming from. So I call the repairman out. Again.
He made it out the same day, Tuesday, and found that the drain line was perforated and was spraying jets of water. You have got to be kidding me, right? But no. No one was messing with me. The repairman taped up the holes and tested the machine again, because with the track record so far, he's thinking he'd better cover all the bases. No more leaks. Thank god.
So he ordered a new drain hose and I'm still waiting for a dishwasher. He's supposed to be by this evening with the part, but in the meantime, it's day 25 without a dishwasher.
When I first tried running a load of dishes 3 weeks ago I could not get water into the unit. Then I remembered the water line had been shutoff on the clothes washer, so I checked on the dishwasher. Sure enough.
Okay, now with the water valve open I still couldn't get water to the unit, so the vendor I purchased the dishwasher from called a repair company and they said they would be here in 5 days. Okay. The night before the appointment they call and say they don't service Pittsboro. You think they might have mentioned that when taking the appointment. So then the vendor found an alternate repair company.
That repair man got here last Wednesday and found a loose electrical connection in the dishwasher and voila! We had water! About 20 to 30 minutes after the repairman left, I walked into the kitchen to start dinner and discovered my kitchen floor (kitchen hardwood floor, I might ad) was covered in water. Oh yeah, we had water now.
The repairman made it back to the house on Monday, pulled the machine from under the counter and found that the drain pipe had not been connected to the drain line. Huh? How do you miss that? Apparently, whoever installed the unit mistook the condensation hose for a drain hose and hooked that up to the drain line instead. We also discovered just how much water had been dumped/leaked.
Scary stuff.
So I had the repairman leave the dishwasher exactly as he found it because the builder and the plumber who installed the unit were coming by in the morning and I wanted them to see it. The tradesman who finished the hardwood floors came with them. They all assured us that once the water dried out there would be no long-term damage and the floorboards, where they've begun to warp and buckle, would return to normal. Huh, really?
I decided to verify that through a 3rd party and whaadaya know, that's right. Apparently, when it comes to mold, it's the slow leaks over time that you have to worry about, not the gushers that get taken care of right away. Well, at least that's one less thing to worry about.
So anyhow, they switch the drain line and hook it up to the drain pipe and start the dishwasher. We're all standing around chatting when Scoob notices that a couple of the guys are now standing in a puddle of water. What the heck? And no one can figure out where it is coming from. So I call the repairman out. Again.
He made it out the same day, Tuesday, and found that the drain line was perforated and was spraying jets of water. You have got to be kidding me, right? But no. No one was messing with me. The repairman taped up the holes and tested the machine again, because with the track record so far, he's thinking he'd better cover all the bases. No more leaks. Thank god.
So he ordered a new drain hose and I'm still waiting for a dishwasher. He's supposed to be by this evening with the part, but in the meantime, it's day 25 without a dishwasher.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Lawn Mowin' Muscles
We've been discussing lawnmowers for some time now. Debating the pros and cons of various kinds. We finally narrowed it down to an electric mower (my pick) or an old-fashioned push mower (Scoob's pick). I won. Heh.
Well, I was all excited when our lawnmower arrived by FedEx last Friday, then my sister asked me an interesting question. Has Scoob ever mowed a lawn before?
We tackled the lawn on Sunday. Turns out the answer was a resounding NO!
Let's overlook my stick-people drawing skills and say this is our lawn.
The black rectangle would be the house, the gray is the driveway and front walk, the black is the public road, and the green is, you guessed it, the lawn. There's a culvert (that they laid sod in!) by the public road, and two trees (in orange below) to mow around. And there's a gradual slope to the main lawn (arrow).
So here's the path Scoob started mowing with.
And that's about where I made him stop and took over to demonstrate how to mow a lawn. I tried very, very hard not to laugh. VERY hard. After I tried very, very hard not to get pissed when he dragged the electrical cord through my rose bushes! AAaarrgg! I'd rather let the deer have them than let them get destroyed that way!
Yeah, so here's my mowing path—mostly parallel lines, mostly moving away from the electrical outlet and cord.
And Scoob took over for the rest of the main lawn. All in all it took about 2½ hours. Scoob decided it's much more trouble than it's worth, but I appreciated the fact that I could actually SEE the result of our labor. I will say, the landscaper put in waaay more sod than we agreed on and when we have the time, energy, and money I want to change some of it out for flower beds.
Once I thought about it, I realized the last lawn I can recollect mowing was in Canyonville, OR (and it has been about 30 years since we lived there) compared to Scoob's never-in-my-life, so it was basically the blind leading the blind out there. But we got the job done. Mostly. We didn't mow the 2 little side yards.
Anyhow, my lawn-mowing muscles (pretty much my arse and my back between the shoulder blades) were sore Monday and Tuesday. We'll have to keep our lawn mowing muscles in shape.
Well, I was all excited when our lawnmower arrived by FedEx last Friday, then my sister asked me an interesting question. Has Scoob ever mowed a lawn before?
We tackled the lawn on Sunday. Turns out the answer was a resounding NO!
Let's overlook my stick-people drawing skills and say this is our lawn.
So here's the path Scoob started mowing with.
And that's about where I made him stop and took over to demonstrate how to mow a lawn. I tried very, very hard not to laugh. VERY hard. After I tried very, very hard not to get pissed when he dragged the electrical cord through my rose bushes! AAaarrgg! I'd rather let the deer have them than let them get destroyed that way!
Yeah, so here's my mowing path—mostly parallel lines, mostly moving away from the electrical outlet and cord.
And Scoob took over for the rest of the main lawn. All in all it took about 2½ hours. Scoob decided it's much more trouble than it's worth, but I appreciated the fact that I could actually SEE the result of our labor. I will say, the landscaper put in waaay more sod than we agreed on and when we have the time, energy, and money I want to change some of it out for flower beds.
Once I thought about it, I realized the last lawn I can recollect mowing was in Canyonville, OR (and it has been about 30 years since we lived there) compared to Scoob's never-in-my-life, so it was basically the blind leading the blind out there. But we got the job done. Mostly. We didn't mow the 2 little side yards.
Anyhow, my lawn-mowing muscles (pretty much my arse and my back between the shoulder blades) were sore Monday and Tuesday. We'll have to keep our lawn mowing muscles in shape.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Do Overs!
(Do overs, part deux!) I wrote this on Saturday from my iPad but ran into problems when trying to post it.
So I wrote a blog post the other night (Wednesday). Spent an hour and a half on it actually. Then when I went to preview it, it was lost. POOF!
It was the first time I tried posting from my iPad. So I'm going to try it again. This time I'll be sure to copy the post before I try to publish it, just in case.
So, the iPad. Scoob got me an iPad as a thank you for doing most of the work on the house. I wasn't expecting, but I didn't turn him down. :)
We're sort of settling in. But we have had a few major obstacles. There were a couple of safety issues with how the steam shower was installed, and we're working on getting those corrected We're going on 3 weeks and we still don't have a working dishwasher. Well, a repairman came out on Wednesday and got it running, but when I walked into the kitch about 20 minutes later I found my hardwood kitchen floor covered in water. The repairman is coming back out on Monday. Not sure what to do about the floor though. I hunk we cleaned it all up quickly but a few of the boards are swelling and buckling.
The other major item is the hardwood floors. Apart from the recent water damage, there are several areas on the floor that weren't sanded smooth before they were sealed and there are a lot of rough knots. I didn't expect the knots to be totally smooth, but I also didn't expect to cut my foot (not a huge gash mind you, but more than a papercut) and I didn't expect to shred 3 pairs of socks. in addition to that there are a few spots where paint and mud were inadvertently sealed onto the floor.
The hardwood guy was out on Thursday and said he would need to sand the rough areas and the places with the paint and mud. Then he would need to reveal the entire floor with 3 coats of polyurethane, or whatever it is they use. We'll have to essentially move out for this to happen. We've been talking with the builders about this and I'm not sure how it is all going to play out.
I'm not happy about it, but it is what it is and we'll do what we need to to get it fixed. I will say I much more calm about it today than I was on Thursday, so maybe it's a good thing that post got lost. The hardwood guy threw me for a loop when I showed him some stains in the upstairs hallway where something was clearly spilled on the raw boards before the sealant was applied and he replied, "Well, can't you just live with it?". Ooooookay. Well, yes. Yes, I could just live with it if there weren't all these other issues with the floors and if we hadn't spent what we did to build the house.
I was just really taken aback by his attitude. Everyone else hat has been out to the house to correct or fix items has been very agreeable and seemed to take pride in their work. Not this guy. It was clear when he walked in the door that he wasn't really listening and thought I was crazy for pointing out the things I was pointing out.
Anyhow, I'm not as peeved as I was earlier in the week. It's an incontinence and certainly not what we were planning on after moving in, but I try to stay focused on the big picture and not get caught up in the irritating details.
So I wrote a blog post the other night (Wednesday). Spent an hour and a half on it actually. Then when I went to preview it, it was lost. POOF!
It was the first time I tried posting from my iPad. So I'm going to try it again. This time I'll be sure to copy the post before I try to publish it, just in case.
So, the iPad. Scoob got me an iPad as a thank you for doing most of the work on the house. I wasn't expecting, but I didn't turn him down. :)
We're sort of settling in. But we have had a few major obstacles. There were a couple of safety issues with how the steam shower was installed, and we're working on getting those corrected We're going on 3 weeks and we still don't have a working dishwasher. Well, a repairman came out on Wednesday and got it running, but when I walked into the kitch about 20 minutes later I found my hardwood kitchen floor covered in water. The repairman is coming back out on Monday. Not sure what to do about the floor though. I hunk we cleaned it all up quickly but a few of the boards are swelling and buckling.
The other major item is the hardwood floors. Apart from the recent water damage, there are several areas on the floor that weren't sanded smooth before they were sealed and there are a lot of rough knots. I didn't expect the knots to be totally smooth, but I also didn't expect to cut my foot (not a huge gash mind you, but more than a papercut) and I didn't expect to shred 3 pairs of socks. in addition to that there are a few spots where paint and mud were inadvertently sealed onto the floor.
The hardwood guy was out on Thursday and said he would need to sand the rough areas and the places with the paint and mud. Then he would need to reveal the entire floor with 3 coats of polyurethane, or whatever it is they use. We'll have to essentially move out for this to happen. We've been talking with the builders about this and I'm not sure how it is all going to play out.
I'm not happy about it, but it is what it is and we'll do what we need to to get it fixed. I will say I much more calm about it today than I was on Thursday, so maybe it's a good thing that post got lost. The hardwood guy threw me for a loop when I showed him some stains in the upstairs hallway where something was clearly spilled on the raw boards before the sealant was applied and he replied, "Well, can't you just live with it?". Ooooookay. Well, yes. Yes, I could just live with it if there weren't all these other issues with the floors and if we hadn't spent what we did to build the house.
I was just really taken aback by his attitude. Everyone else hat has been out to the house to correct or fix items has been very agreeable and seemed to take pride in their work. Not this guy. It was clear when he walked in the door that he wasn't really listening and thought I was crazy for pointing out the things I was pointing out.
Anyhow, I'm not as peeved as I was earlier in the week. It's an incontinence and certainly not what we were planning on after moving in, but I try to stay focused on the big picture and not get caught up in the irritating details.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Testing
I had a chat with my sister today and sent her a link to the blog. She asked how she could be notified when I added a post to the blog, so I'm testing out an email notification add-on.
If you look to the bottom right, you should see a "follow by email" header, and below that a place to enter your email address. If I post, you'll receive an email; if I don't, then no email. At least that's the theory. So now I'm testing it out. I'm curious to see if it's just a notification that's sent or if the entire post comes through in email.
If you look to the bottom right, you should see a "follow by email" header, and below that a place to enter your email address. If I post, you'll receive an email; if I don't, then no email. At least that's the theory. So now I'm testing it out. I'm curious to see if it's just a notification that's sent or if the entire post comes through in email.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween!
I wanted to wish someone a Happy Halloween, because Lord only knows there's not a soul to be found here. Our friends came by for an hour or so this evening to check out the area rugs we picked up last weekend (third times the charm!), but other than that, we haven't seen any signs of life. But then again, we didn't really expect to. So the upside is that I didn't buy a ton of candy that would now need to be eaten.
So the rugs. This is the third time we've bought area rugs, but I like these and I'm keeping them. The other 2 times I returned them. The living room rug is 8' x 12' and a sage-y green. I did not like it in the store. It was a very yellow green under the flourescent lights, but in the house I can hardly tell it's green at all. It looks more gray/silver and it has a nice textured pattern. We also bought a 5' x 8' brown shaggy rug with a greenish tint to it for in front of the door. The brown will be good for masking dirt in the entry way.
I'm really stoked about the rugs because we only spent $120 for the both of them! I know! We got them at Lowe's. It seems that when the carpet manufacturer only has a little carpet (not enough for a whole room or house) left on a roll, they use it to make area rugs that are dirt cheap when compared to true rugs. The 8' x 12' was $88. 8'x 10' area rugs were going for $268-300. And this way, if a rug gets stained, barfed on (and it will happen), or otherwise ruined, I won't blow a gasket.
I also bought a couple of bar height chairs from Overstock for the island. They're dark brown with a low back. The back just barely extends over the top of the island and the dark brown just sort of fades into the cabinetry when they aren't being used so it doesn't look all cluttered. Exactly what I wanted them to do. I need to order 2 more while they still have them in stock.
We're still trolling furniture stores on the weekends. We found a place called Whitley out in Zebulon, NC last weekend that we'll need to go back to. We got there about 15 minutes before closing so we really didn't get to see much and the showroom is a full city block and 2 stories. Like Powell's. But with furniture. We did see some promising things, so we'll definitely go back. And they just started a promotion... no interest until 2016. I'll try to restrain myself and just stick to the priorities... like a bed for mom to sleep on when she comes out.
We've also been stocking the pantry. We've hit the local grocery store and found our nearest Trader Joe's. We also found an Asian grocery store (smelled just like Ranch 99 in Fremont when we walked in) and a Middle Eastern market. So, we may have to drive into Raleigh for it, but we'll be able to find most of the things we're used to. Oh, and we stopped in at A Southern Season for lunch. Their foodstuffs in the store are usually over priced in my opinion, but they have an awesome cheese counter and the attached restaurant is reasonably priced and the food is tasty. We had brunch and I ordered a 2-eggs breakfast with grits and Scoob had a BLT, but the T was a fried green tomato. Yup, we're in the south. We also found our nearest DMV and are studying up for our Drivers License test.
No news on the CA condo; that one buyer who seemed really motivated never replied. So we're waiting and hoping it moves quickly. On the health front I did see my new primary care last week and she put in a referral to gynecology for the surgery. Of course insurance is confused, saying didn't you just do all this? And we did. But in California. Also trying to get my medical records from California. I didn't pick them up before I left because I didn't want to misplace them during the moving confusion. So I emailed the doctor's office and I specifically said I was in North Carolina. So the nurse writes back saying if I just come in to reception, they'll get my records for me. Yeah. So now they're mailing me a form to complete (because they don't have an electronic version) and I'll send it back, then they'll mail my records. Bah! At any rate, I'm still waiting for a call back from insurance, so it isn't as if it's holding things up.
We had our first frost last night and I'm worried about my roses. I'm wondering if I should at least get an old sheet to drape over them tonight, but I've no idea if it will help them or not. Oh, cool. I just checked the weather and it's now not supposed to freeze.
We'll be having a parade of vendors and sub-contractors through the house this week fixing up items on our 30-day punch list (we'll also have a 90-day and 1-year) punch list. The plumber has already been out a couple times to fix a leaking toilet tank and make some adjustments to the steam shower (O.M.G. I love that thing! By far the best splurge I've ever made.). They had originally mounted the controls on the outside of the shower stall, which meant I had to open the door and let out all the steam in order to adjust the temperature or turn it off. Now that it's on the inside I've learned that the control panel is also the thermostat. Ha! No wonder it would never stop producing steam before; it wanted to heat the shower up to 100 but since it was out in the main room it always registered 68 or so. So it kept kicking out steam trying to get to 100. I'll have to let the plumber know when he comes back out again.
I was also having issues with getting scalded in the shower. Turns out that a small steam shower like ours should have a diffuser head to direct steam away from someone seated in the shower. So he's looking into that, but he did discover that he had mounted the existing head upside down and now that it's on correctly I'm having a lot less issue with the scalding, though it does still happen.
The granite folks came out today to clean up some grease pencil marks that I could not get off the granite in the laundry room and I'm expecting the cabinetry guys tomorrow morning. Flooring and the electrician on Thursday, and trim work on Friday. I'm really trying not to be a nit picky bitch, but we've just built this house. It wasn't cheap, and we shouldn't have to settle for some of these things—like tearing up 3 pairs of socks because the knots in the hardwood floors were not sanded down smooth, or having to retrieve a reluctant cat from under the upstairs fiberglass tub (that was fun!) because the doors to the crawl spaces don't latch. All in all though, we're very happy with the house.
I've sort of settled into a rhythm working from home, but I'm sure when the vendor work is finished up I'll be able to establish a more regular routine once those interruptions are gone. In the meantime I'll be putting in some extra hours this week to get some things done that absolutely need to be wrapped up on Friday. But it sure is nice not to have to face all that traffic once the work day is done.
So the rugs. This is the third time we've bought area rugs, but I like these and I'm keeping them. The other 2 times I returned them. The living room rug is 8' x 12' and a sage-y green. I did not like it in the store. It was a very yellow green under the flourescent lights, but in the house I can hardly tell it's green at all. It looks more gray/silver and it has a nice textured pattern. We also bought a 5' x 8' brown shaggy rug with a greenish tint to it for in front of the door. The brown will be good for masking dirt in the entry way.
I'm really stoked about the rugs because we only spent $120 for the both of them! I know! We got them at Lowe's. It seems that when the carpet manufacturer only has a little carpet (not enough for a whole room or house) left on a roll, they use it to make area rugs that are dirt cheap when compared to true rugs. The 8' x 12' was $88. 8'x 10' area rugs were going for $268-300. And this way, if a rug gets stained, barfed on (and it will happen), or otherwise ruined, I won't blow a gasket.
I also bought a couple of bar height chairs from Overstock for the island. They're dark brown with a low back. The back just barely extends over the top of the island and the dark brown just sort of fades into the cabinetry when they aren't being used so it doesn't look all cluttered. Exactly what I wanted them to do. I need to order 2 more while they still have them in stock.
We're still trolling furniture stores on the weekends. We found a place called Whitley out in Zebulon, NC last weekend that we'll need to go back to. We got there about 15 minutes before closing so we really didn't get to see much and the showroom is a full city block and 2 stories. Like Powell's. But with furniture. We did see some promising things, so we'll definitely go back. And they just started a promotion... no interest until 2016. I'll try to restrain myself and just stick to the priorities... like a bed for mom to sleep on when she comes out.
We've also been stocking the pantry. We've hit the local grocery store and found our nearest Trader Joe's. We also found an Asian grocery store (smelled just like Ranch 99 in Fremont when we walked in) and a Middle Eastern market. So, we may have to drive into Raleigh for it, but we'll be able to find most of the things we're used to. Oh, and we stopped in at A Southern Season for lunch. Their foodstuffs in the store are usually over priced in my opinion, but they have an awesome cheese counter and the attached restaurant is reasonably priced and the food is tasty. We had brunch and I ordered a 2-eggs breakfast with grits and Scoob had a BLT, but the T was a fried green tomato. Yup, we're in the south. We also found our nearest DMV and are studying up for our Drivers License test.
No news on the CA condo; that one buyer who seemed really motivated never replied. So we're waiting and hoping it moves quickly. On the health front I did see my new primary care last week and she put in a referral to gynecology for the surgery. Of course insurance is confused, saying didn't you just do all this? And we did. But in California. Also trying to get my medical records from California. I didn't pick them up before I left because I didn't want to misplace them during the moving confusion. So I emailed the doctor's office and I specifically said I was in North Carolina. So the nurse writes back saying if I just come in to reception, they'll get my records for me. Yeah. So now they're mailing me a form to complete (because they don't have an electronic version) and I'll send it back, then they'll mail my records. Bah! At any rate, I'm still waiting for a call back from insurance, so it isn't as if it's holding things up.
We had our first frost last night and I'm worried about my roses. I'm wondering if I should at least get an old sheet to drape over them tonight, but I've no idea if it will help them or not. Oh, cool. I just checked the weather and it's now not supposed to freeze.
We'll be having a parade of vendors and sub-contractors through the house this week fixing up items on our 30-day punch list (we'll also have a 90-day and 1-year) punch list. The plumber has already been out a couple times to fix a leaking toilet tank and make some adjustments to the steam shower (O.M.G. I love that thing! By far the best splurge I've ever made.). They had originally mounted the controls on the outside of the shower stall, which meant I had to open the door and let out all the steam in order to adjust the temperature or turn it off. Now that it's on the inside I've learned that the control panel is also the thermostat. Ha! No wonder it would never stop producing steam before; it wanted to heat the shower up to 100 but since it was out in the main room it always registered 68 or so. So it kept kicking out steam trying to get to 100. I'll have to let the plumber know when he comes back out again.
I was also having issues with getting scalded in the shower. Turns out that a small steam shower like ours should have a diffuser head to direct steam away from someone seated in the shower. So he's looking into that, but he did discover that he had mounted the existing head upside down and now that it's on correctly I'm having a lot less issue with the scalding, though it does still happen.
The granite folks came out today to clean up some grease pencil marks that I could not get off the granite in the laundry room and I'm expecting the cabinetry guys tomorrow morning. Flooring and the electrician on Thursday, and trim work on Friday. I'm really trying not to be a nit picky bitch, but we've just built this house. It wasn't cheap, and we shouldn't have to settle for some of these things—like tearing up 3 pairs of socks because the knots in the hardwood floors were not sanded down smooth, or having to retrieve a reluctant cat from under the upstairs fiberglass tub (that was fun!) because the doors to the crawl spaces don't latch. All in all though, we're very happy with the house.
I've sort of settled into a rhythm working from home, but I'm sure when the vendor work is finished up I'll be able to establish a more regular routine once those interruptions are gone. In the meantime I'll be putting in some extra hours this week to get some things done that absolutely need to be wrapped up on Friday. But it sure is nice not to have to face all that traffic once the work day is done.
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