Saturday, Here in the Park...

Today was Shopping-At-Home-Depot Day.  We spent 3 hours on our feet walking the store (thank you Vicodin!!).  Hubby actually pooped out before me today, which is VERY unusual. 

We got the light fixtures for outside the garage people door and the Porch.  We got the exhaust fan for the bathroom.  We got hinges for the 6 new interior doors (pooped out in the door-knob aisle).  We got frosted window film for the garage door windows.  We got a throw rug for the kitchen in front of the sink.  AND we got more SHELF LINER!!!!  Ha – you thought I was done didn’t you?  Well, so did I – until I opened one of the cabinets and found out that one of the types we had used curled up on us!  We will have NONE of that!  Turns out it was the cheap stuff. So I got more GOOD stuff.  I’m becoming an expert on shelf liner – if you need any advice, I’m the person to ask!

We also looked at rope lighting for the porch.  I’m a little concerned about the cord for the sets I’ve seen – it is big thick, heavy white cord which is going to be hanging down my brick wall to the outlet – it’s not going to be very easy to hide even if we run it down the corner.  I think I can come close to the length I need for the actual light-string, but I’m going to have to think about the whole cord thing.  I also think the cord part may not be long enough to make it to the outlet without an extension cord….  I may just have to go with Christmas lights instead of the fancy rope lighting.

We spent a lot of time in the lighting department.  Our Handyman guy said we need to be sure to get a light fixture for the garage that is rated for cold temps.  Hmmm…. Most fixtures say nothing about cold temps.  The clerk at HD said it has more to do with the type of florescent tubes than with the fixture itself.  We still need to do more research on this question. 

We looked at light fixtures for outside the big garage door.  The design of the fixture we like only has 1 bulb and we want 2.  The units with 2 bulbs are kind of boring and common.  So… no purchase of that yet. 

We also spent quite a bit of time looking at window film.  Who knew there were so many different types?!  We just tried it on 1 window, but so far we like it, so we’ll probably do the rest of the window tomorrow. 

Bathroom vanities.  HD doesn’t have the style I want in the size I need.  Lowe’s does.  It is the

ESTATE by RSI 25" White Boardwalk Bath Vanity with Top.    I’m going to get a medicine cabinet to match as well.  This comes with brushed nickel knobs which is what we are already going with on door hinges and knobs, so the faucet will be that as well. 

Doors.  We found the 6 panel replacement doors we need, but I need to find out if we should get the ones with pre-drilled door knob holes, or not.  

The other big event today was the hour-long phone conversation with the owner of Columbus Handyman.  He went over the details of the contract with us, and we discussed a few changes.  He will be sending us a final copy for another look-over tomorrow.  Once everything is approved, they can start working.  His 2 carpenter guys will need about 2 weeks in the house before the painter.  We will also have a "project manager" who will be on site at times.  After the painter is done, then we'll have the carpet installed.  So, we are probably looking at the month of April for all the work.  The plan was to be done with all the remodeling by May 1, and he seems to think this is doable.  

Sorry - no photos today.  I'll try to come up with some photos for you tomorrow!  Good night!

1 Week Anniversary

We celebrated our one week anniversary in the new house by not doing much.  We did unbox the new microwave and new coffee maker.  Hubby installed a new showerhead in the master bath.  He also did some weeding in the back yard.  I put shelf paper in the vanity in the master bath as well.  (I think I’m going to be doing shelf paper UNTIL I DIE!!!)  I also celebrated by taking a nap – my first nap on the new Porch furniture.

I’ve got photos to share today.  Let me warn you – between the cushions, the carpet and the curtains, we have 3 shades of green going in the room now, but can anyone really have too much green? 

As I mentioned yesterday, the furniture came in pieces.  Each piece was padded at the corners and at each point where there was either a built in bolt, or built in hole to bolt to.  Each of those pads had to be cut off.  The bolts had little protectors (dare I call them bolt condoms) that had to be unscrewed.   Here is a chair back for example:

One thing I did today was rearrange the furniture several different ways.  We started off with the loveseat “cornered” between the brick wall and the windows.  That made it difficult to get to the window. 

 Then I tried this arrangement:

The main problem with this arrangement was that the chair at the right totally blocked the view of the back yard and creek for the person sitting in the chair at the left… and the view is something we need to maximize.  So, I next came up with this:

Yes, the loveseat sticks out into the room, but this really maximizes the view from 3 of the 4 seats, and provides easy access to all blinds and windows for easy use.    I have a lamp that is made out of a birdhouse that I want to put on one of the tables – have to work on the other table.   I sort of expected Hubby not to like this arrangement, but he does like it!  YAY!  We may need to adjust the loveseat when we get the table and chairs, but that's not happening until May.  

Once I get my sewing room up and running, I will probably make some new throw pillows, and decorating certainly will help.  We had discussed a coffee table, but that might just clutter things up too much.  This set also comes with a footstool which we can order later if we decide we want one.  This is "Martha Stewart Living" by the way.  Of course there is a name label on each piece!  

So, that's it for today.  Happy Anniversary to US !!!

Day 7 - A Different Kind of Work

Today’s big activity involved the arrival of the wicker Porch furniture from Home Depot.  When we got up this morning, we checked the UPS tracking website, and it said the delivery was scheduled for today between 9 am and 7 pm - no more specific time than that.   So we sort of hurried up and went over to the new house earlier than we’d planned.  We took a bunch of stuff to do thinking it might be late afternoon before the UPS truck came. 

Well, much to our delight and surprise, the truck pulled up about 11:40.  The other part of the surprise was that all 5 items were in boxes and had to be assembled.  WHAT?  I thought it would come off the truck and go into the room and we’d cut off a few tags and be done!    Hubs and I then spent the next 3.5 hours assembling… and that doesn’t include all the time it took him to cut up all the boxes for recycling.  Loveseat, 2 chairs and 2 end tables. 

As it turns out, all of the the photos I took of the assembly process include Hubs, so I will try to get some furniture-only shots to post tomorrow.

I can, however, post our new forsythia plant that Hubs planted in the back today.  We actually got one for each yard and planted both today, so we’ll see which does better.

Tonight’s big shopping trip to Meijer included the purchase of a microwave and coffee maker.  We’re getting there!   We have not yet received the estimate from Columbus Handyman, so we have not finalized the carpet order yet.  I’m hoping that will come tomorrow or we will have to wait until next week.  As of now, no plans for the next 3 days.

Day 6 - Really even LESS House Work

Today’s activity at the new house involved having the Porch carpet professionally cleaned and de-spotted.  That took all of about 15 minutes, but I also got some very good free advice from the cleaner-man. 

We had an interesting conversation about the carpet samples that were out on the table.  He assured me that the Stainmaster carpet I was considering was very good carpet.  He strongly advised getting a very good pad because that extends the life of carpet.  He also confirmed my understanding that the darker (and more mottled) the carpet is, the less it shows wear.  Based on that conversation, I actually ended up choosing a darker shade on the sample board.  I went to the bottom row and picked the 2^nd from the right.  It’s called Day Dream. 

Our afternoon’s activity involved going to Lowe’s, meeting with Jerome, and actually getting the carpet ordered.  It turns out we need 1116 sq ft.  We are getting the best grade of carpet (Barefoot Manor) and the half-inch padding.  The total actually ended up being less than we expected, so we are totally ok with the carpet order.  The only thing that is up in the air is whether we are going to do that tear-out of the old, or whether we are going to pay them (about $300) to do the tear-out/take-away.   That decision will depend largely on when Columbus Handyman wants the old carpet out – before or after they construct and paint.  Jerome made the point that tearing out carpet can be very dusty, and if it is done after painting, then that dust sticks to freshly painted walls.  Jerome assures us that tear-out is very easy.  However, if our trash hauler insists it be cut into 3’ strips, that adds a new wrinkle to the process.  I don’t know that we want to be doing all that cutting.  I also don’t know that we want to be inhaling all that dust.  (Yes, I know there are masks.)  So, stay tuned for that decision.

We have not yet received the estimate from CH.  We hope to receive that tomorrow.  Also, we are told that our wicker furniture that is coming for the Porch is IN Columbus (shipped from Missouri).  We hope it will be delivered tomorrow!  When it arrives, you will get photos!

For the record, we got EXCELLENT customer service from Jerome.  When this is all over, I may write a letter to his boss praising him for restoring our faith in Lowe’s customer service. 

As of now, we have NO appointments for tomorrow, so we are going to take advantage of that to sleep in and do things at our own pace for the first time since this process started.

Day 5 - Closer on color choices

Today was much less “busy” than the last few have been, but we got a lot done.  Hubby finished dealing with the new mailbox, and we finally got done with shelf paper in the kitchen.  It’s a small kitchen – you wouldn’t think a simple thing like lining shelves and drawers would take so long, but it does!

Hubby cleaned the oven, and we decided to get new drip pans for the stove.  We are not thrilled with the stove as we would prefer a glass top, but we are going to live with this for awhile, especially since we really don’t plan on doing much cooking over there for quite some time.  We do plan to get a microwave tho. 

I did more cleaning on the porch – I vacuumed all around the bottoms of the walls.  The boards are rough and sort of catch little webbies, and then Hubby vacuumed up higher where I couldn’t reach.  So that room is ready for the carpet cleaners tomorrow.  There are some unidentifiable brown spots on the carpet (Maggie?  Did you do that?), so hopefully those will come off, but mainly I’m getting it cleaned because of dog dander.  We’ve ordered wicker furniture from Home Depot, and that should be delivered later this week. 

Today’s visitor was the paint guy from Columbus Handyman.  He estimates the paint job for them, and then they add it to what yesterday’s guy provides.  We are still waiting for the total estimate which we should get tomorrow.  Hubs and I have made our guesses; we’ll see who comes closest. 

We had been seriously considering a textured paint with sand in it for the entry way.  Today’s paint guy really discouraged that.  He said it is very hard to make it look right around the edges.  He also said that it is virtually impossible to ever change it.  It doesn’t come off, and you can’t really paint over it enough to get rid of the sandy feel.  He also said it is like sandpaper and if you rub against it, it hurts!  He recommended a textured effect that comes from using dry-wall mud.  He called it a “knock-down” effect.  I guess it is what we’ve seen in Tuscan restaurants.  We will go with that – just need to pick the color now. 

Today, for your viewing pleasure, we have carpet and paint samples.  I have no idea what these colors will look like on your computer, so if you don't like them, please blame the computer or the camera and not us!

Our first pic tonight is of the carpet samples that we got from Lowe's.  (Yes, I know - let's not go there.)  We will be working with a man named Jerome who has PROMISED me that he will give us his undivided attention tomorrow and that we will be very happy with his customer service!  ( I think I terrorized him!)  Anyway, here's the sample card:

I laid it in a sun-beam just for you! Do you like that???    Anyway, we are looking at the middle row, and are sort of going back and forth between the 2 middle ones:  Tranquility and Admiring.  (Where do they get these names?)  The thing I like best about Tranquility is you can see more of the color variations in it.  However, Admiring is darker and so will not show the wear pattern in the high traffic areas quite as quickly or as much.  The more I think about it, the  more I lean towards Admiring.  Hubby says he likes both and doesn’t really care. 

Next, let's talk wall color.  Here are our choices for the living room and hallway:  

Here we have Sherwin Williams colors: Dromedary Camel and Crème.  The lighter will go on the bead board wainscoting and chair rail, and all the trim (baseboard, crown, doors, door frames) and the Camel will go on the non-bead board walls.  We will also use the Crème for trim and highlights in the bedrooms.  

Bedroom colors:

Classic Yellow is for my craft room – 2 walls will be bead board wainscoting.  Red Bay is for Hub’s Man Cave – 3 walls will be bead board wainscoting.  And Blue Cruise will be an accent wall in the master.  We don’t know yet if we will go with Crème in there or just keep the white since it is in such good shape and goes into the master bath as well. 

For the entry way, we have picked out Sedona Slate Porcelain tile:  

But we have not selected the tile for the bathrooms yet.  It will be something simple, I think.  

We have not really talked window-treatments too much yet.  We are sort of waiting to see how the paint turns out before we worry about that.  The drapes in the living room might actually go with the carpet and walls.  They are probably not what I would have chosen, but they are ok - we'll just have to see what they look like when the rest of the room is done.  The curtains for all 3 bedrooms will need to be replaced, so that is a job for later.  

I have one final picture to share tonight.  It is a pic of a "neighbor".  We are thrilled to have him living nearby and look forward to lots of visits by him:

Day 4 - Even Lighter House Work

First, I will apologize now for forgetting I promised to take photos of paint and carpet samples! 

I did, however, take photos of the clean garage in its “before” state, as well as the front door that neither of us like very much.  I’m fairly certain the door is original to the house which was built in 1973, but it looks like a door style that I would put in the ‘50s, but more of that later; I digress…

Not a whole lot of actual “work” got done today because there really isn’t too much left to do until we line up all the contractors to do the big stuff.  Even though we weren’t working, it was a very busy day full of lots and lots of information.

First came the meeting with the technician from Columbus Handyman.  He spent over 2 hours going through the house with us and discussing every little thing we wanted done.  Even at that, we forgot to mention at least 3 items to him.  We talked about paint, adding bead board, lighting, bathroom vanities… from one room to the next.  We started in the garage and worked our way from room to room with a very long list. 

At one time Hubby and I discussed the possibility of somehow fixing or covering the garage floor.  It’s not really too bad for a 40 year old garage floor, but it is somewhat pitted in the center from salt, and my fear is that it will just keep crumbling away until there is nothing left, unless we do something now to cover it or seal it, or otherwise repair it.  We’ve explored lots of options, and everything we’ve discussed is either too expensive (Nature Stone or those rubberized squares that snap together that they use in fancy car shops), or too time consuming like the DIY Epoxy treatment.   As of now, we’ve decided to stop worrying about the floor.  We do want to have the garage walls painted (not the paneling) – nothing fancy, just decent and durable.  Time wise, that is our first priority, and once that is done, we can put up shelves and start moving some things in from the storage unit.

Here is a "before" pic of the garage.  

We want to change out the ceiling fixture with a 4 tube light instead of the 2 tube fixture that is there now.  We will also put a similar new florescent fixture in the Pantry because the light fixture that is in there now actually overheated and went out the first day we were working in there.    We can’t have that!

A big discussion point with our technician was the front door.  He said that the door we have is no longer considered a standard size, so we may need to have a door custom designed to fit our opening.  Obviously that is going to be more expensive and time-consuming.  We were NOT happy to find this out!  However, neither of us like the doors and we are going to change them to something better.  Just about anything we could choose now would be better.  

Remember my mentioning our dissatisfaction with the customer service at Lowe's, well let's now add Home Depot to the list.  About 4:15 this afternoon, I called to talk to the man who works in the door department (called "millwork" at HD).  Of course, the man I'd talked to before wasn't in today, perhaps I could speak with someone else in that dept?  Oh... well, the other man back there left at 4 today.  Ok, so let me get this straight... it is 4:15 on a Monday afternoon, and you have NO ONE in the "millwork" department who can help me spend hundreds of dollars in your store for a set of new front doors?????  Are you KIDDING me?  AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Here are the "before" pics of the "dated" doors:

While this last photo is right here, I will mention that we finally found a decent mail box to replace this awkward little white one.  (No thanks to either Lowe's or Home Depot - we got this one at Meijer!)  The old one is up so high, that I can’t even get my hand down in it to make sure there isn’t anything small lurking in the bottom.  That is one job Hubby worked on today.  He got the new mailbox ready to hang.

We also had a long discussion with the CH guy about flooring for the entry way.  We are changing out what is there and putting in porcelain tile.  In light of the front door issues, he wanted us to be sure to talk to the flooring guy about how the thickness of the tile would affect the measurement and installation of the door.  Clearly all this door and floor stuff was new to us, and that’s why we are hiring professionals to do it all! 

Discussion proceeded about putting up bead board wainscoting – 1 wall in dining room, 2 walls in living room, 1-2 walls in Hubby’s Man Cave, and 2 walls in my Craft Room.  We are also going to do crown molding in the living and dining rooms. 

Then there are the doors…  This house has dark brown hollow core doors that were very popular in the ‘70s.  We have them in our current house as well.  I INTENSELY DISLIKE THEM – they really “date” the house.  We are switching them all out to 6 panel white doors.  (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 linen closet.)  So, at some point we will pick those up at HD – at least THEY are standard sizes – along with all the doorknobs and hinges for them.  We are also changing out the 4 closet bifold doors – from the dark brown ones to louvers (the ones that look like shutters). 

Then there are the bathrooms.  The hall bathroom doesn’t even have a vanity – it just has a plain sink hanging on the wall – the kind they have in old restaurant restrooms.  BLEH.  So… a new vanity for that bathroom.  We are still discussing the master.  There is a vanity in there, albeit old, but Hubby feels we can get away with just painting that one.  

After the CH guy left, our next door neighbor came over to give us a price quote on just the painting.  It sounds like his schedule is very busy, and I think CH can get us done faster, so that may be a big part of the decision.  We also like the idea of having 1 company coordinate all the construction/painting with the bead board, etc… However, if he can do the garage this week, we may have him just do that much.

Then came the flooring-measure guy from Lowe’s.  He had his computer and his fancy little laser-light-wall-measure thingy.  He wasn’t here long and didn’t say much.  We did have a short discussion about the possibility that there might be asbestos tile under the carpet, and if we rip it out ourselves, we don’t want to disturb it.   This possibility was brought to our attention by our neighbor who has heard stories of many homes in the ‘hood having the asbestos tile put in when the homes were built.  The Lowe’s guy said that Lowe’s will not let their installers touch anything asbestos.  So, now we need to find out more about that.

While all this paint and flooring stuff was happening that the new house, the lawn care crew showed up at the other house to mow.  I saw them go to the front door, so I had to jump in the car and run over there to let them know they were in the right place.  They did both yards in less than an hour - a job that would be an all-day event for Hubby with his push-mower.  I think this lawn care service is going to be well worth the money we pay them!

We got "home" about 5, after being "home" all day.  HA HA!  After doing a few things and watching the news we went out for a nice Chinese meal.  SMASH was on tonight - I couldn't miss that.  It's time for bed!  Tomorrow it is more paint-related stuff!!

Day 3 - Light House Work

Partly because today is Sunday and partly because we are tired and partly because there really isn't that much left to do right now, we didn't do much house work today.

Hubby did a final cleaning on the garage and damp-mopped the Pantry and both bathrooms.  He also replaced a toilet seat.  I didn't do much except unpack the stuff we bought in today's shopping excursion to Meijer - garden hose, toilet seat, vent covers kitchen trash can, more shelf liner and drawer organizers for kitchen - and of course, we had to buy some food while we were there!

I called a friend to come over.  After the grand tour, we had a thorough discussion of paint colors and carpet choices.  That was very helpful!  I love getting input from others.  I think we have nailed down most of our big choices.  Looks like we are going to go with Lowe's carpet after all.... as much as I don't want to...  *sigh*

Tomorrow will be a very busy day.  We've got 3 different people coming to the house to discuss painting and other jobs to be done, and the lawn care people will also be doing both yards!  WHEW!

I'll try to remember to take pics of paint and carpet samples tomorrow, for your viewing pleasure.

Day 2 - House Work

As promised yesterday, here are some photos of the Storage Room which we have named “The Pantry”.  This was one of 3 main selling features that led us to buy this house. 

The shelves are very sturdy, although they are unfinished.  We’ve discussed possibly painting them, but right now that is a fairly low priority since no one will see the room but us.  As long as everything in there is clean and stable, that’s really all we need.  The flooring is very nice ceramic tile.  

The number 1 main selling point of the house was the 3 season room on the back.  It is an add-on to the original home, but it was done very well.  The roof ties in nicely, and the room is very sturdy.  It measures 15.5' wide by 11.6' deep.  The carpet looked blue to me before, but now it looks more green in the daylight.  We expect to use this room a lot.  While it isn't air-conditioned, there is a large ceiling fan, and I think that with that on, and the A/C in the house on, it should stay cool enough out there - especially since it is on the north side of the house so it really doesn't get the direct sun all that much.  There is a heater on the wall which will be helpful in the late fall and early spring.  It is hard to tell how much we will be able to use it in winter.  The windows are sliders, and the right half of each one opens. Here are some photos of "The Porch":

Our plan as of now is to furnish this “Porch” with a table and chairs for meals and games, and then set up a seating area with wicker furniture.  We are considering a loveseat and 2 chairs with a couple of side tables for lamps.  

This is how the porch looks from the back yard:

The 3rd big selling item was the 2-car garage.  Sorry - no photos of that yet.  Picture an empty 2 car garage and you will pretty much have the image in your head.  The front wall of this garage has paneling (like the Pantry), but the side walls are white.  We plan to have those freshly painted.  Then we will either build or put up shelving for storage.  Hubby will also have a work bench at the front.  There is a people door as well that goes out the side of the house, and that needs to be painted as well.  

Today's tasks for me involved continuing work in the kitchen - putting liner in all the drawers and starting to work on the cabinets (until I ran out of liner).  Then I took apart our vacuum cleaner and cleaned it all out.  It had been used by workers in my parent's house, and it was clogged with a fine white powder.  After cleaning it all, I swept the Porch.  While I was working inside, Hubby was cleaning the garage.  He also installed a new deadbolt lock on the front door and fixed the lock on the Porch door which wasn't locking all the way.  

In some ways it doesn't seem like we got much done, but we are taking our time so that we don't burn out.  We had lunch there and then headed to Lowe's for what turned out to be a series of frustrations.  Right now, we are not happy with Lowe's Customer Service - especially in their flooring department.  Today there were 2 clerks there, but they were so busy chatting with each other that they didn't seem to have time to wait on us.  We ended up leaving the department due to their inattention and will probably take our carpet business elsewhere.  I had already scheduled to have the house measured for carpet on Monday afternoon, but we will probably cancel that now.  We ran into something similar in the paint department with 2 employees who were so engrossed in their discussion that it seemed an imposition for them to wait on us.  One clerk was interrupted in talking with Hubby by a phone call, and instead of returning to Hubby's conversation once the interruption ended, he went back to talking with his co-worker.  Likewise we walked away from that department with some of our questions unanswered.  

Somehow we still managed to spend over $200 on miscellany, and we didn't even have the energy to get everything on our list.

My allergies have been driving me crazy for 2 days.  It is hard to tell how much is from the blooming trees and how much is because there was a dog living in the house.  We are not getting the carpets cleaned because we're replacing them all except the Porch.  I may end up getting the Porch carpet cleaned because of the dog.  

More sleep tonight, more work tomorrow....

  

Must See!

If you have not yet had the pleasure of viewing penguins live on your computer screen, you simply MUST visit this website: Penguin Cam  at Sea World in San Diego.

I will warn you - it can be addicting!!!  I believe the cam is on 24/7, but there are times during the day when "the kids" are more active - like when the habitat is being cleaned and they are being fed.

I believe there are 5 species of penguins in this exhibit, and you can read about them on the website.   One of the person who answers questions in the text section said that all of these particular animals were born in the exhibit.

Enjoy!!!!

The Big Day

Today was the big day we’ve been anxiously anticipating since mid-February.  Today was Closing Day for our new house!  Our meeting was at 8:30 am at the title company, and all the papers had been signed before 9 am. 

Our seller is moving to another home in the area, and was also closing on his new home today, so he had signed all our papers yesterday, so he could attend his own signing.  The moving truck was scheduled to arrive at our new house to pick up our seller’s furnishings at about 10 am.  We were told we could go in any time, but we chose to give him his space so he could get moved out without us breathing down his neck.  We took advantage of the delay to have a leisurely breakfast and then make a trip to Home Depot for, among other things, a new garbage can.  So that is the first official new purchase for the new house!

We finally went to the house at 1 pm and entered for the first time as owners!!  It was very exciting to put the key in the door and walk in!  A number of other keys and the garage door remotes were waiting for us on the kitchen counter.  We unloaded the car of our garbage can, some folding chairs and our big shop-vac.  Then we went back to the old house for another load.

After grabbing a light lunch, we returned to the house with a card table, an interior vacuum cleaner and a couple boxes of supplies: paper towels, TP, soap, cleaning supplies, disposable cups and plates, etc…

It wasn’t too long before we were greeted by Betty, our neighbor to the east.  She is a very spry and “with it” 80something widow.  She had actually helped our seller pack and move, and she came in to finish getting the rest of his food from the fridge.  He had left a vacuum cleaner too, but we told her it wasn’t necessary that they clean – we would do it.  She visited for a few minutes.  Both times we’ve met her we’ve been very impressed by her, and I’m sure she is going to be a great neighbor!!!

After Betty left, we got busy on cleaning projects.  Hubby started in the room that we are now calling “The Pantry”.  It is actually a very nice sized storage room with built-in shelves on 2 walls which is accessed through the laundry room.  This is also where the water heater and the fuse box are, and there is a wash-tub sink in there as well.  (Stay tuned for photos tomorrow!) 

I got busy on the kitchen.  After doing a very basic cleaning of the counters, I worked on washing out the fridge/freezer.  While we were working, our neighbor to the west popped in.  His name is Al, and he is a middle-aged fellow who had his dog Wander with him.  Wander is quite elderly and has a nasty looking tumor on her hind leg.  She was very sweet, and greeted us for some “pets”, and then the 2 were on their way.  Al happens to own a painting company, and we told him we would love for him to bid on our interior painting job.

A little later, we were greeted once again – this time by the lawn care people that we are going to hire to take care of the new yard.  The man and his wife came to look at the yard and discuss everything we want done.  They walked around the yard with us and made some suggestions about the landscaping.  They will also be helping with the yard at the old house – it’s just too much for Hubby to do it all.   

Today we worked until about 6 pm, and then we headed back to the old house for dinner.  We were both exhausted and decided to call it a day.  We are going to be very sure that we pace ourselves so that we don’t over-do it. 

We are both very relieved that everything went so well today, and we’re looking forward to more new-house-fun tomorrow.  One of the items on tomorrow’s agenda is cleaning the garage!  WOO HOO!!!