#7 - No More Butts

There are a lot of people here in my neighborhood that drive me insane: the ice cream truck men (there are three different ones!) with their loud kinder-muzak and diesel generators, the kids with their $500 cars, with the $3000 subwoofer, the kids in the street playing bball, the people who just can't figure out what day trash day is and what day recycling day is... Well, I could go on and on.

But the worst of them are by far, the smokers.  The smokers who stand in front of my house, or nearby, and flick their butts into the street, and the parking area.  And trash too.  But mostly butts.  They are everywhere - the parking area, my garden, my yard, the street, the sidewalk.  Its disgusting.  And, I can't for the life of me figure out why its not acceptable to toss your Burger King cup on the street, but its totally cool to flick a burning death ember.

I've tried, oh lord I have tried, to get the neighbors to not do this, but it has been an utter disaster.  The only time I had marginal success was with a guy down the street who had a crush on me and wanted to win me over.  And even then, I'm pretty sure he flicked when I wasn't around.

So, here's to #7 - coming out of my house and appreciating the garden, the sidewalk and the street, without cursing about the nasty butts.

4 Days Until Closing

Well, it appears that our new house is hurricane and earthquake proof.  I can't tell you how very glad I am that the week of East Coast destruction happened the week before we close, and not after we close.  We haven't actually gotten into the house yet (Final walk-thru is Wed) but we inspected it from the outside yesterday.  No siding was off, no shingles were laying around, and it looked like the basement was dry.  That's pretty damn good - there was over seven inches of rain there on Sunday.

I'm pretty brain dead right now - there is SO much going on.  We close on Friday.  We have showings this week starting tomorrow.  I've started changing addresses.  BF is making appointments.  Work is totally annoying.  Insurance company is being a pain in the ass.  Paperwork is flying.  Email box is cluttered.  You get the picture, and I know you've all been there too (or are going to be there very, very soon.)

So, because I have only a few brain cells left, here are some final pictures!

She's done!  Just waiting for that grass to come in

Landscaping in

More landscaping - with natives!

Dining room.   A little dark, but you can sorta see the floor and lighting 

Living room

My bare footies in the silky new carpet

Bathtub.  I guess its time to get some bubble bath.

Shower & private bathroom.

Master sink - i'll try to get some better pix

Family room.  Shiny shiny.

Wood Steps - it wasn't quite dry, but the PM ripped out the caution tape
and let us go up anyway

I know that we were really fortunate to not suffer any damage to either one of our homes.  I hope that all my blogger friends fared as well - and if you didn't, I hope that your insurance company and PM resolves it quickly and painlessly.

#8 - Disaster-Proof (cross fingers)

Those of you who live on the east coast may have noticed something amiss on Tuesday, as the earth shook beneath your feet while you were simultaneously looking at the severe thunderstorm warnings for Thursday and tracking the biggest monster of a hurricane we have seen in a century.  Yes indeedy.  Its Armageddon out there.

And so far, our Ravenna is holding up.

The earthquake did no visible damage - our project manager told us that the house was built to withstand at least the amount of shaking we experienced.  So, earthquake proof?  <check>

Floodproof?  <check>  With 2 sump pumps, good grading and good soils underneath, we haven't seen a drop of water anywhere on the property, despite the fact that we have had almost a foot more rain than is normal for this time of year.  And we've got another foot of water coming as we welcome Irene to our coastline.

Unfortunately, I expect some wind damage this weekend to both my homes.  Winds are predicted to be sustained at up to 60 mph here, with gusts of 75mph.  That's enough to do some serious damage to newly planted trees, not to mention siding and shingles.  But those things can be fixed easily, and are expected in weather conditions that are going to be so severe.

I hope that all my blogger friends take precautions and stay safe as the hurricane blows by.  This hurricane is not a joke, and we will probably be talking about it for a very long time to come.

#9 - Laundry Tub

I know, I know - I've got a gourmet kitchen, and a basement I can rollerskate in, and a giant bathtub and hardwood floors and a front porch and yet I pick "laundry tub" as #9?  Yes.  Yes I did.

We actually chose to install the tub in the garage, rather than upstairs in the laundry room.  Fact is, I need a place to dump stinky wet kayaking gear BEFORE it enters the house.  A laundry tub upstairs made no sense to me at all - I would have to take muddy, gross things over the hardwood floors, up the steps, across the new carpet and into the laundry room, all the while, dripping mud and gook and lord knows what.

So in the garage it will stay.

No more will I have paint in my kitchen or bathroom sinks!  No more will I have to soak kayaking gear in my bathtub!  Oh!  Even nasty cat boxes might benefit from the tub!

And so, Laundry Tub, you are my #9.

#10 - Kitchen Storage Extravaganza

I have managed to overlook many of my townhome's shortcomings because of my very affordable mortgage and some of its nicer features, like the big backyard (for a townhouse) and the gorgeous sunsets.

But when BF moved in, this became a serious problem:

Tiny fridge, overfilled beyond capacity with healthy food.
And beer, and cheesecake.  Perhaps I'd have more room
without the beer and cheesecake (perfect together).

My "pantry".  In a real kitchen, a cabinet like this would store
big pots and pans.  Without any other storage, my pots and pans are
hanging on the walls and precariously perched on the tiny fridge.
Try as I might, there is zero way to organize this disaster and find where
that weird smell is coming from (rotting potatoes).

In my NEW house, I will have what, 8 or 9 cabinets this size, with pull out drawers, and a corner storage do-hickey and 42" high cabinets and a PANTRY.  An honest to god pantry, with a door, and shelves, where canned goods can live out their days happily organized.

Ravenna Pantry!  How will I ever fill this much space?
Beer and cheesecake will only do so much.

So, #10 - Kitchen storage space.  It will solve all of my problems and I will live happily ever after.

Or, it will just make dinner at home a less frustrating experience.  But, either one is a step up from where we are now!

Less than 2 weeks to go

We have less than 2 weeks to go until we close on our new home.  I'm in total denial.  It doesn't seem real.

On Friday after work, we went up to see the house.  It had been several weeks since I had been able to see the inside of it and I was really excited.  I hadn't seen the wood floors, or the carpet, or the appliances....  Unfortunately, my PM called right as I was leaving work with some mildly bad news.  The tradesmen had just put a coat of stain on the steps and had taped it off - so we could still see the downstairs, but upstairs was off limits until the stain was dry.  A day later.  :(

So, I still haven't seen the upstairs with carpet and finished plumbing!  But regardless, here are some updates from the first floor perspective:

Driveway and sidewalk were poured early in the week.  BF was there when it was wet and neglected to carve our initials in!  Boo.  The shutters are painted, the electricity is on, lights are working and its like a real house!!  They also painted the concrete at the bottom of the house to match the siding color.

Wood floors are in, and they look great.  Right now there is vinyl down on top of them all, we had to peel it back here to see what they look like.  Its still a bit difficult to see how the floors and cabinets are going to look together because of that, but its really nice that they are taking such care to make sure the floors aren't damaged as they finish up all the other details.

Pantry shelves are in!  I'm assuming shelving has been completed throughout the upstairs too, but couldn't check.

This is the alternative placement for the built in microwave if you get a gas range.  I think it will actually work out well here - its right next to the fridge and I can nuke something while BF is working at the stove or vice versa.  With the microwave right above the stove, sometimes things get a bit hectic (note vinyl covering right up to cabinets).  We also got a microwave upgrade, by 2 levels.  Apparently, GE had run out of the standard microwave that comes with the stainless package, and the first upgrade after that, so we got the 2nd upgrade.

I'm starting to warm up to the laminate color, but its still not shiny and fancy.  We are still holding out to upgrade to quartz.  Someday.

Gas range is in, dishwasher is in - all we need now is the replacement door for that one in the corner there...

Stained steps!  They look a bit messy right now - they still have to finish up the details and put the white paint on.

Next week, the landscaping will go in (more about that later) and some final inspections.  We'll have our final walkthrough the wednesday after next!

I wanted to do a top 30 countdown, but have been way too busy and distracted.   Perhaps I'll try a top 10  over the next 12 days.

Verizon Strike Out?

Hey fellow bloggers!  Has anyone who is moving in the August & September timeframe tried to schedule their Verizon hookup yet?  There is a strike here in the northeast that I had heard was only going to disrupt landline service.  Since we didn't opt for a real phone, I've ignored it and beeped happily at the striking Verizon workers. 

However, the BF is having trouble getting through to Verizon to schedule our Fios service for tv and internet and has read somewhere (reddit?) that Verizon is telling people that it will be December before any new hookups can be made.  Perhaps Fios counts as landline service.

You can never believe what you read on the internet, unless its Ryan bloggers, so I thought I would ask if any of you have successfully scheduled or gotten Verizon Fios service...