Happy Friday!

Hello all!

I hope you are staying warm. The wind is howling here and with the wind chill it's -7 F. Brrr!

Today is Day 3 of not smoking! Go me! I really hope I can stick with it and kick this habit. My head is in the game this time so I'm feeling confident. I want to give a big shout out to all my FB peeps! You guys rock! I truly appreciate your encouragement. Thank you. (((Big Hugs)))

We picked out our new range last weekend and it was delivered this week. We're getting there. Right now it is sitting in our sun room taunting me, but it's real purdy. =) We had a carpenter out to give us an estimate and his "off the top of my head" estimate was outrageous! He basically was quoting a week's worth of pay for a barely one day job. I don't think so! I think we're going to work on this ourselves with a friend's help to make the new cabinet door. That's the plan anyway. We'll be starting on that tomorrow.

Assuming our work on the kitchen is successful this weekend, I will be back with several cooking posts. Oh, how I miss having an oven that isn't possessed. I can't wait to bake some bread and sweet treats. A lasagna or some homemade mac and cheese wouldn't go amiss either. I've been scouring the interwebs for some new recipes and have a few lined up. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Yum!

On a completely different topic, I think I'd like to start some digital scrapbooking. Now that I have my nice camera, I'd like to do something with the pictures I've been taking. I heard about a software package on another blog, but when I checked it out it was a subscription type thing. They would send me a new disk every two months with new templates and charge me X amount each time. I don't really want to get into that sort of thing. I was looking for more of a one time purchase deal. If anyone has any recommendations that won't break the bank, I'm all ears.

What have you been up to?

Easy come, Easy go

I like having money in the bank, but I hate when we to have to spend it on not so fun stuff.

Saturday, I went to Lowes to pay for our two replacement windows and associated repairs due to rotten window frames. We knew we would have to do these windows and planned on doing it in the spring. However, once we could see daylight through the top of the frame, we knew we had to do it now before the snow flies. Then on Sunday our water heater died (after our showers, thankfully). It's being replaced today. Ugh, almost $2k out the door for these repairs.

Don't the house gods know that Christmas is coming and we have a vacation we want to plan so that we can escape the snow this winter?

Thank God for Dave Ramsey and our emergency fund.

Monday

Hello all!

I can't believe I've neglected my blog for this long, Yikes!

We've been quite busy with our front landscaping project over the past month or so. There's still plenty to do, but I've come to like and actually be pretty good at gardening so I'm excited to keep puttering around.

Here are some pics from a few weeks ago:

These were my daffodils along our front fence. The came up quite nicely.







We also ripped out several old shrubs at the foundation, but it doesn't seem that I have a pic that actually shows that, doh! I'll get one tonight.

Now that the daffoldils are passing, my day lilies and hydrangeas are starting to green up and mask the dying foliage. It's almost like I planned it that way, ;).

We had a nice weekend. Our usual Thursday date night got moved to Friday last week, so Michael and I went out to Foley's for dinner. It was yummy. I strayed from my usual fish dish, since I made Garlic Talapia the night before, and got a pastrami sandwich. I was not disappointed.

Then Saturday, we did some yard saling. It was fun, but we really should have gotten out there earlier. Most of the ones we hit, mainly just had kids stuff left by the time we got there. Saturday afternoon we headed over to C and S's for some hot dogs and beer. S got C an early birthday present of a kegerator so we were all breaking it in. =)

Sunday, we just chilled. We had some of the pancakes I made Satuday for breakfast. (It was such a huge batch, I made them all up and put the leftovers in the freezer.) I used a recipe I found at The Pioneer Woman. They are to die for! Then I made meatloaf for Sunday dinner using a family friend's recipe that I had been meaning to try. It was also a winner! It too was a big one for just the two of us so I made up two loaves and froze one. It hope it will still be as good when I go to use it later on.

Grilled chicken, potato salad and corn on the cob for dinner tonight!

Well, I'm off to finish up some things before I head home. Have a great day!

Green Thumbs and Frogs

Hello all,

I think my black thumb is turning a bit greener! Yay!

We had a great weekend of yard work and boy was it a workout. My legs are finally not so sore today, thank goodness!

As I mentioned, Michael was out with his buddy on Saturday so I had the day to myself. I went to Sears to check out the appliances. I found a freezer that will work for us, but then I thoroughly confused myself with the ovens and couldn't make up my mind so I just turned around and walked out. I really need to figure this out this week so I can have the installs done next week. Anyway, I came back home and was doing some weeding out front so that started our gardening weekend.

The lillies that we planted are still looking a bit dreadful, but I'm just leaving them alone with the hope that all will be well next spring. I weeded around the light post and the dogwood tree and turned the mulch around and it looks like new. Then it was over to the front steps. They we full of weeds! How weeds grow in brick and concrete is beyond me, but I cleaned it all up and it looks really nice. Now, if I can just get the broken bricks fixed, I'll be in business. Oh, I know, maybe my brickie husband can do it! LOL, love ya babe! (In his defense, he's been working some crazy shifts and hours so he really hasn't had time to do it.)

On Sunday, we tore into the back yard and it looks awesome! With the help of M and S, we got a boat load done. We reclaimed our flowerbed from the crab grass that took over and S showed me that if we dig a little trench between the lawn and the flower bed that it will help keep the weeds from invading. It looks really nice too and like an actual flower bed. She also showed my where to trim the dead wood from the roses and just a bunch of other gardening type things that I should know. It's so awesome to have a MIL that is such a gardener!

Michael was a maniac with the sawsall. He cut down the three juniper bushes at the back foundation planting and then cut up the pine trees about 6 feet at the back property line so that you can see some of the tree trunk. We didn't lose any privacy by doing that since it's still all woods behind us, but it has made a nice area for a future shade garden and we gained back about four feet of yard. S said she had some hosta that we could have and I think it will look super nice in this flower bed-to-be. I think I'll just plant some annuals this year to fill in where the bushes came out since we might be doing the deck over in the fall so I don't want to waste any money on expensive perennials if they're just going to get pulled out or trampled during construction. M manned the wheelbarrow and made a gillion trips to the compost pile as S and I filled it up from all the weeding. She also helped Michael get the flag pole put up and we hung up the American flag as well as the Irish flag that C and S gave us with our last name crest in the white part. We've been waiting for a good breeze so that we can see the flags waving, but alas, so far they've just been hanging against the pole. I've got some pictures, but I don't have my camera with me to upload them, bummer. I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Thanks so much to M and S for all of your help!

Oh, one other tidbit....while I was weeding the front steps what do I see but a little frog jumping around at the base of the stairs. We also saw a bunch in the backyard on Sunday. I know it's an old wives tale, but maybe that's the start of something on our TTC journey. We shall see!

Catching up

Hello all!



Yet again I've been a crappy blogger. I haven't had much to post about so that's why I've been absent.

Let's see, what have we been up to?

Michael and I had a nice time in Maine for our anniversary. We went to Portland. There are a lot of cute shops and restaurants so we had fun checking them out and eating a bunch. We had lunch one day at DiMilo's. It's a floating restaurant and had really cool views of the harbor. The food was yummy. I'd go back there again. Generally we found the folks we encountered while strolling around to be a bit odd. They like to stare. We'd be walking down the street and people would be staring at us. We were beginning to get a complex about it, then just chalked it up to wierd Maine people. I was a spazz and forgot my camera so unfortunately, I have to pictures to share.

Last weekend we went up to Mum and Dad's to get some day lillies. Mum has tons of them and needed to divide them so she said we could come up and take a few clumps for our yard. We took two huge plants and were able to divide them into nine plants. We planted them along the split rail fence in the front yard. They looked pretty pathetic and floppy, but they are starting to perk up a bit now that they've been planted to about a week. I hope we didn't kill them, but we won't know until next spring since the season has passed for them this year. Fingers crossed!

I was going to make some of those cabbage rolls I told you about in a previous post for dinner on Tuesday. Well, I had everything all ready to go and then my cabbage didn't look so good. I was nervous since the turkey was the only meat I had thawed and now didn't know what we were going to do for dinner. I pulled out my trusty Fix it and Forget it crock pot cookbook and found a spaghetti sauce recipe that I could make with only a few substitutions. Well, it came out great! I was going to serve it with pasta, but we decided to have it with the left over rice from Monday night so basically we had the cabbage rolls without the cabbage. There was a lot of the sauce left over so we made these quesadilla/pizza things Wednesday night with it and cooked them up in the toaster oven. Those were yummy too. I just love it when you can get multiple meals out of one batch of cooking.

In case you are interested, here's the recipe as I made it:

1 pound ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 t. minced jarred garlic
2 t oregano
2 t Italian seasoning
1-2 pinches of red pepper flakes
2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 6 oz can of tomato paste

Brown the meat and onions with some olive oil in a skillet, transfer to your crock pot. Add in the other ingredients to the crock and give it a stir. Cook on low for 7-8 hours.

Michael is going to hang out with this buddy, C, tomorrow so I'm planning to check out some appliances in Sears. I think I've mentioned my crappy oven before, we are finally getting around to replacing it. We haven't really needed it over the summer but with fall approaching I want my oven back. I'd also like to get a new freezer for the basement. the one that the previous owners left us is kind of ancient - it works, but I don't think it's the most efficient since it's probably 25 years old. Massachusetts has a tax holiday coming up on the 16th so I'd like to get everything all picked out so that we can just go pay for it on that day to save the sales tax.

I'll be on vacation the week of the 18th and will be able to be home for the delivery of the oven and to have to plumber come and install it. I also want to have the electrician out to fix a plug that sizzled and died on us and also have him hang our chandelier in the dining room. I have my Nana and Papa's Waterford one that I've been dying to hang so this will be the prefect time to do all those sorts of things that are hard to do when we are both working full time.

My shipment from the Flyshop arrived Wednesday. I was so excited for my new ultimate duster, calendar and Flylady CD. Michael thought I was losing it when I was so happily opening the shipping box with a picture of the Flylady cartoon on it. Oh, well. It's the little things in life and if a feather duster and a CD with the FLY songs on it make me happy, so be it. =)

I guess that's all I have to say for now. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Yay for Friday!

I'm so happy it's Friday again. I just love short weeks! To make it even better I found 20 bucks in my pocket this morning when I put my jeans on. Gotta love that!

No big plans for the weekend. I'm sure we'll do something tonight, but I don't know what. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and thundering so I think I'll stay hunkered down in the house. DMil brought over my remaining china from the apartment the other day so I'll just plan to finish unpacking that. Sunday is supposed to be nice so hopefully we can cook out and do a little gardening.

I'd like to get a outside seating set for the deck. We have a dining table and chairs already that we put on the grass and I'd like to add some comfy living-room type seating on the deck as well so we can just hang out and put our feet up. I'm off to search the net...

Talk to you later! Have a great weekend!

Home Sweet Home

Hello all,

As promised, here are some pictures of our new home. I think there are some more I need to add, especially in the afters, but you will get the idea of what's been done since we bought the house.

We'd really like to thank everyone that helped us turn this house into a home. Mum, thanks for all the trim and door painting; Dad, thanks for hitting all those high spots and ceilings =); Mum, Dad and Sarah K, thanks for the lazy lasagna and spaghetti pie to make sure we ate something; Wendy, thanks for your superior taping skills and window and panelling painting in the kitchen; Mike, our little Donkey Apprentice, thanks for your help beheading the rocking horse, dismantling the vintage swing set and of course painting; Eamonn, thanks for my beautiful china closet and our wonderfully fancy digital thermostat - It works wonderfully, even though you needed to use my pink tool set ;); Sarah S, Mary and Sean, thank you for all of your help with all the packing and cleaning up our new yard - it's looking greener already so I better not touch anything ;) and last but not least, thank you Uncle Jimmy for all of your work on the side of the house - it looks amazing.

And of course, I want to thank my sweetie, Michael. You did an awesome job with everything! I <3 you!

I'd also like to give myself some props for replacing all of the door locks all by myself! Yay me!

Without further ado, please click below and watch the transformation! Enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I think I'm gonna save some dough!

Hi all,

So I took the commuter rail today for the first time. Wow! What a difference! Since we bought our new place, I had been driving to work and burning through gas like crazy, not to mention the $325 a month I pay for my parking spot at work. I decided that with $4/gallon gas prices looming, I needed to find an alternative. So I joined my fellow commuters on the train today. 23 minutes from the burbs to Boston. Woo hoo! My drive had been taking me 65-70 minutes each morning and about the same on the ride home. It was so nice to be able to sleep until 7, get ready and drive the 4 minutes to the station (it's just a little too far to walk it). I stepped off the train and had a nice walk to my office - it took about 8 minutes. It's a beautiful day so it was a pleasure to walk to work, until, like the klutz I am, I wiped out on some spilled coffee on the sidewalk. Luckily, I'm no worse for the wear and didn't get any of the coffee on me. So all and all, I'm very happy with my new alternative.

I figure I'll save $308.40/month. As I mentioned, my parking is $325, gas is $46.60/week (for now), so that's $511.40 a month. My train pass will be $163/month + parking at the station will be $40/month = $203/month. (I'm not going to count the gas to get to the station since it is so minimal.) That's a nice chunk of change I'll be saving. Yay me! And I know Michael will be happy about it too.

On another note, the side of the house project is finished on the outside so now we have a pile of construction debris to dispose of. We were thinking of getting a dumpster, but that just seemed to be a little bit of overkill since we don't have enough to fill it. Luckily, we got a postcard in our mail from a junk removal service. I called them last night and their prices are based on how much you fill up the truck, so if we fill 1/4 or 1/2 a truck that's all we pay for and they'll take anything as long as it's not a flammable liquid. So, we scheduled them to come out on Saturday for a quote and if it's agreeable, then they'll take the stuff right then. It's great because we can also have them take the old washer, AC and swing set that the sellers left. I hope it all works out.

Well, that's all for now. I promise I'll get cracking on the pictures for you all and post them this week. TTYL!

I'm Back!

Hello all!

I'm back at work today. As you know, I was on vacation last week to deal with the move and all the unpacking. I must say, it all went really well! We've got just about everything unpacked, our new fridge was delivered, and it's really feeling like home. We have a few things left at the apartment, but I plan to pick up as much as I can on my way home today and the rest tomorrow if it doesn't all fit in the beetle.

We've got to get our fish over to the house too. I'm not sure how to do that without completely messing up the tank. We've let the water go down a bit so I'm hoping that we can move it over and then just top off the tank with treated water. We were originally going to put the tank in the living room, but I think that it might be a bit tight so I think Fatty, Dotty and Oscar will be living in the office.

We've got most of the before and after pictures taken so I plan to put together one of those montage thingys for you all to see. I hope to do that this week.

We've met a few of the neighbors and they are all very nice and happy to see another young couple in the neighborhood. Slowly the street is turning to folks like us or couples with young children so I'm sure we'll be very happy there for a long time. The house next door is vacant as the owner went into a nursing home, so hopefully that will be occupied/sold soon.

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to catch up on your blogs! =)

7 and 1/2 hours left...

My vacation will be starting st the end of the day! Yippee! Well, sort of. The moving trucks are coming on Monday to clear out the apartment and head over to the house. We're very excited about that, but it means we'll have a gillion boxes to now unpack, ugh. I must say that it will be a relief once this move is complete. It will be so nice to be able to sit on our couch again and watch TV at the end of the day and sleep in our real bed. (We've been sleeping on the guest bed that we brought over.) I hope to get the kitchen squared away as far as the unpacking goes early in the week so that we can have a home cooked meal. All the take out we've been having is getting old, not to mention expensive.

Michael and I are going to go to Home Depot tonight to get the remaining paint we need and also pick out our new kitchen appliances. We were going to wait on the appliances, but have decided to just go ahead since we're already hemorrhaging money. After hearing the vintage copper tone fridge moan and groan and give off heat we decided to go for it. The oven is also a disaster. It too is vintage copper tone and last Saturday when we were heating up a casserole that Mum and Dad brought over, it popped and scared the crap out of us. I had been preheating the oven and the bottom broiler came on with its pilots and it seemed like the top oven was working too. Little did we know that the pilot for the top oven hadn't lit right away so the oven was filling with gas and then when the pilot did come on, it popped and the door bounced open a little. To get to the point, basically, there was an explosion in the oven. Thankfully nothing bad happened except for our hearts skipping a beat. We decided then that we needed those new appliances and figured we may as well get the new cook top too. (We haven't tried that yet, but the way things are going , I don't really want to.)

Well, I've got to get back to work so I can get out of here at 5 o'clock today. I'll write more next week when I have some time (and my desk).

Happy Friday and I hope you all have a super duper weekend! Yes, I said super duper and I am a complete dork and damn proud of it! =)

We're almost there!

Hi everybody!

We closed on the house last Wednesday! Whoo hooooo! Grumpy played his usual antics right up until the end saying he wasn't going to sell the house. Our attorney, K, told him he "wouldn't put up with one minute of his bullsh*t." *insert thumbs up here* When Grumpy came into the office he was quiet as a church mouse and didn't make any fuss. Michael and I realized later that his antics are completely sexist. He will only make a fuss around women and won't make a peep in front of men. *eyeroll*. Anyway, we never have to see that guy again and we have a house!!!

I can't wait to post the pics for you all to see! The before and afters are awesome! We finished up the living room last night. It went from boring beige with dark wood trim and paneling to a pretty light apple green and marshmallowy white trim and paneling. It looks sooo good and so fresh and young. The room is so much brighter. The dining room is a pretty light coral color with the marshmallow trim. It's almost finished, we just need to finish up around the ceiling and baseboards. The kitchen looks amazing. We painted the cabinets and paneling with the marshmallow and spray painted the hardware with gold. The walls above the paneling are a pale yellow. I haven't decided on a color for our room yet, but I think I'll pick a neutral color so that it will go with my ever changing bed linens. So we're almost there. Just the bedroom and the rest of the first floor hall and we'll be finished! I'm so excited! The upstairs is all white and looks freshly painted, so we're going to leave that alone for now.

Michael and Uncle J made the run to Home Depot today to get the supplies for the side of the house project of taking out the door and replacing the windows and demolishing the wacky stairs. They headed out around 7 this morning so I can't wait to see the progress when I get home from work. (Yes I'm at work this week, ugh.)

I'll be off next week to really work my magic organizing everything and decorating. Ooooooo, I can't wait! We're moving in on Monday. It can't get here soon enough!

Well, I've got to get some work done. Talk to you soon!

It's almost time...

...to buy a house! Yippee! Wednesday can't get here fast enough! We'll be closing at 2pm. I can hardly stand the wait!

I kept waking up last night thinking that the movers were at our house and I had nothing packed. The movers aren't coming until May 12th, so I think I'm a bit paranoid, LOL. I got some more packing done on Saturday and took the curtains down in most of the rooms and washed them. I just left the living room and dining room ones up for now so that we'll still have some privacy since our current place is so close to the street.

I called and set up our utilities too. We're going to be without internet from Wednesday until Saturday, but I think I'll be able to survive since we'll be busy cleaning and painting. =) The cable company is coming on Saturday to hook up the cable and internet. We have DSL from Verizon now, but they don't offer it in our new town. They have Fios. That was going to cost $139/mo! OMG! So, needless to say, we're switching to the cable modem instead.

Well, I have to get back to work and get the payroll finished. TTYL!

Finally!

I can breathe a sigh of relief now. I just got the final commitment letter from the bank. Thank goodness! I was really going to tear someone's head off if I didn't get it today.

I think it's time for a little....

Grumble...

I'm am a bit PO'd today so please excuse my rant.

As you know we are buying our first house. Michael and I had submitted all of our paperwork to the mortgage compnay weeks ago. All of our finances are in order and the bank agrees. However, we had to file a time extension with the seller for the mortgage commitment because the appraiser sucks. We should have had the letter last week on Friday, but the bank needed additional comps so we moved the deadline to this Friday - tomorrow. I still don't have the freaking letter! GRRRRR!!!! I just sent basically a WTH email to the mortgage guy and the loan processor. Now I'm very nervous that we won't be able to close on Wednesday. Everyone has told us that these things happen, but come on. I wouldn't be as upset if the closing was weeks away, but it's in six days. - 4 business days.

It just figures. We waited until we had a good downpayment so that we could be responsible buyers and now we get a higher interst rate and all this BS. All of the people in MA that bought houses a few years ago with the low rates and 0% down are now getting screwed and foreclosed on and that is causing our problem. I don't necessarily blame these buyers because some of the banks were very tricky and deceptive and that's what caused this whole economy disaster. Our bank says MA is a declining market and they're clamping down on the appriasals. If they just looked in the f%$#ing newspaper they would see that the land alone for this property is worth more than we are mortgaging.

OK, my blood pressure is going through the roof and I'm about to crack teeth since I'm clenching my jaw because I'm so mad, so I'd better end my carrying on and chill out. Sorry for the grumbling post, but I needed the vent.

I'll come back later and write about my nice night last night having dinner with Mum and Dad. =)

TTYL!

Making Progress,Congrats and Happy Birthday!

Hello all!

I made some great progress with the packing last night. My MIL, SR (I'll use two initials here since I refer to alot of S's), came over to help. I got all of the snowglobes all packed up and we got almost all of the china cabinet done. We did pack all of the things that I'll bring up to Mum and Dad's, but there are a couple of things left to pack, probably a box worth. We would have done it last night, but we were swimming in boxes and we're getting stuck since there was no room to move around, LOL. Since most of these things we packed are breakable, I didn't want to stack the boxes so they are all on the floor and under the table. The way the table legs are, it's hard to stick them underneath, they still stick out. After Mum and Dad's anniversary party this weekend, I'll be able to bring the boxes of the most fragile/sentimental up to their house. I just don't want to bring them before since they have a small house too and we don't need to have them in the way of the party guests.

I think I will move the packing operation up to the guest room tonight. I'll be able to pack up the stuffed animals, books and craft and office supplies that are in there. There isn't too much else to pack in there except for the extra bed linens. The clothes that are in the closet will just get transferred on their hangers to one of the cars on moving day to I don't have to worry about those.

One another note, I would like to send my most heartfelt best wishes and congratulations to W and C! They had their baby boy on Monday! I can't wait to meet little N. I spoke to C last night and he said everyone is doing well. I could tell that he was just bursting - the proud new Papa!! He said he is the cutest thing ever. I called Michael to tell him and even though he was working and had his mask on, I could hear him hooting and Yippee-ing! I think "Uncle" Michael is just as excited as C!

And last but not least, I would like to with my Uncle J a very Happy Birthday! And yes, you are still 30 years older than me, wink, wink! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Packing

Hello all!

I took a suvey of the house last night to see what really needs to be packed up for the move. I know I'm probably terribly underestimating, but, I don't think it's going to be that bad. Here's what I've come up with:

Living Room: a few knick knacks, the fish supplies for the tank and the toss pillows and throws. (We're going to move the fish tank ourselves).

Dining Room: a few knock knacks, the snowglobe collection, the china cabinet contents, the table linens.

Kitchen: Pots and Pans, plates, glasses, utensils, table linens, dish towels, cleaning supplies and maybe a few non-perishable food items if we don't finish them off before we move.

Office: Computer, monitor, printer, desk accessories, modem.

Guest room: Video games, books, stuffed animals, craft supplies, bed linens.

Master Bedroom: Bed linens, my shoes and hanging clothes, my make up and hair stuff, a few little knick knacks and picture frames.

Bathroom: Towels, toiletries, shower curtains, bath rugs.

Throughout the house: Curtains, hanging pictures and mirrors.

The rest of the things are can't be packed, like the sofas and tables and such, so I think it won't be too bad. And the movers said we don't have to empty our dressers as long as we just have clothes in them. Yippee!

I plan on purging through a bunch of stuff so that I'm not bringing any clutter to the new house. The main area to purge through is my clothes. It's good that we're moving as the seasons are changing so I can go through last year's spring/summer things and get rid of anything that doesn't work for me anymore. I'll do the same with my winter things. I know there are some sweaters in my drawer that I didn't wear at all this year, so I think it's safe to say I can get rid of them. I'm sure there are some things in my kitchen too that I can pass along. My bff, T, said she'd take any kitchen things we didn't need anymore so I'll need to set aside a box for her.

Wish me luck and if you have any tips, please pass them along!

Army of Inspectors

Hello,

It's Monday again. Where do the weekends go? Ours was busy busy!

We had the home inspections on Saturday. Man, were they thorough! But I suppose that's what we pay for. There was a little bit of lead paint on the outside of the house, but thankfully, nothing inside. The home inspection revealed some issues with the deck, garage and wacky stairs on the side of the house going up to the second floor. Apparently, the deck and stairs were not made from pressure treated wood and were improperly flashed, so they are rotting. The wacky stairs need to come down completely because they were not secured to the house correctly and could come tumbling down. I'd be fine with them coming down even if they were stable because they make me nervous that someone could sneak into the house upstairs.

I just sent the lead report off to an abatement company and hope to have a quote tomorrow or Wednesday. As for the carpentry issues, Michael, C and Uncle J all agree that it's probably going to cost $8k-10k. I hope we can negotiate with the sellers to have them do some of the work or at least take this amount off of the price. Michael is going to call some contractors today to do the gut check to make sure we're not too far off.

Otherwise, the other issues that were raised we nothing too big. They are things that we could take care of ourselves and with the help of the army of union construction guys that we know. I think that we have all of the trades covered except for a plumber. We've got to work on that one, though thankfully there are no plumbing issues that were found.

We also are having a radon inspection done. That will be completed this afternoon and then we'll get that report today or tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be any issues there. The radon guy couldn't say for sure without doing the test, but he thought we'd be in the clear given the other inspections he's done in the area.

So, it's all moving along. I need to talk to our realtor and give K a call to see how we should proceed.

I'll keep you posted!

It's raining, boo!

Hi everybody,

What a crappy day outside. It's grey and rainy. It was actually snowing a little this morning too. I actually had to pull out my snow brush to clear off my car. WTH? I'm so ready for spring!

I'm going over the see "our" house tonight and show it to Mum and Dad. I say "our" house, because I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. We need to get through the inspections first, and Michael keeps reminding me that we might find out that something is wrong with the house and we have to be willing to walk away. He's always good like that to keep me grounded. Thanks, Baby! While my intelligent self totally agrees with him, the "I-can't wait-to-decorate-and-all-that-other-fun-stuff" side of me is going crazy here! =) I was able to schedule the inspections for this Saturday which works out great since Michael won't be working so he can be there too.

Right now, I'm up to my eyeballs dealing with mortgage people. I'm not convinced that they are any better than some used car salesmen. Thankfully, our attorney, K, recommended someone to me who does not seem to fall into that category. He's really trying to save us money and so far, seems to be quoting the best rates. A couple other people are quoting me rates and then I say that I can get a better rate and then they come down with theirs. Sneaky! I think it will all turn out well. I don't think we could have timed this better, with yesterday's fed rate drop and such. Fingers crossed!

JD and I had a fun night on Monday. We went out to Sonny's and then to the Blarney. It was awfully quiet at both places. I think people were still recovering from the parade on Sunday. Neither of us went so we were ready to party, but oh, well. We still had fun.

I finally finished the company financials today. Thank Goodness! They really seemed to drag out this month, I don't know why. I think it's partially due to my mind being all over the place thinking about house any baby stuff that I couldn't really concentrate. Well, they're done now and that's all that really matters.

That's about all for now. I need to go see the IT guys about my computer display before he leaves.

TTYL!

We got it!

We got a house!! Yippee! Michael and I had our offer accepted on the house in C. I'm so excited I could burst! Of course we have to have all of the inspections done, but still, OMG! Yay! I knew everything would come together. We have to schedule the home inspection and then we'll be doing the P&S at the end of the month and then closing at the end of April. I hope it all goes well. This house has so much potential and will be really cute once we put our mark on it.

That's all for now. I'll be back more later...

Oh, I almost forgot...Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Did I find it? I think I might have!

Hello out there!

So Dad and I checked out the houses on Saturday. We only ended up seeing two of them since the one in Q went under agreement. Well, the first one was a mess. It really caught us off guard since the pictures on line looked nice. The house was empty except for a lonely cat. Someone must be coming by to feed it since there was a bowl of food on the floor. It was all just really odd. There were a mess of beer bottles on the kitchen counter and there were several punch marks in the doors. Needless to say, we walked out as quickly as we walked in. The second house was much nicer. It too was empty, but was very well maintained. Unfortunately, it was a little too small and it didn't have a dining room. I know that's not a priority for most people my age, but since I have my Nana and Papa's dining room set that I really love, I want a dining room for it.

Yesterday was much better. I went to check out a house in C that just came on. It's really cute and has a great yard and is at the end of a cul de sac. The neighborhood seemed nice and the best part is that it's only a hop skip and jump from my brother and sil's house. Yippee! Michael was working so I went to see it myself. When I told him about it he said to make an offer but I just can't bring myself to make that big of a purchase without him seeing it. So we're going to try to see it again on Saturday and then maybe make an offer! I'm so excited.

Last night, I went out with S and D to meet up with J, who is home from Iraq on leave! It was so good to see him and T. I hope they have a great time together while his is home. Then, thankfully, he should be home for good in July.

Tonight, JD is coming over and we're going to hang out. I realized on my drive to work that I didn't defrost anything for dinner so I'll have to pick something up on my way home. Of course, maybe we'll get some take out or something. We'll see. It will be good to catch up with her and have some girl time.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting with JS again for another dose of acupuncture after work. It seems to be going really well and I'm hopeful that I won't need to find another RE because I won't need it. Fingers crossed!

I'm starving so I need to go grab lunch. I'll keep you posted on the house. TTYL!