We went to the house today! We have to use a key now, they've installed a temporary front door lock and the garage. Our interior doors and our woodwork trim are stored in the garage. The walls are finished and textured, but not painted.

The front view, now that the pillars are there:


The interior doors:


The back view, with garage door installed:


View of the craft room doors (entrance and closet doors):


The living room fireplace and alcove:

Wow!

I was just asked to become a member of the Creative Team for The DigiChick.
I was thrilled and honored to be asked. I hope I can live up to their expectations. :)

Progress is a bit slow on the house, but that is to be expected now that we've hit the drywall stage. Everyone warned me, so now I"m warning you. I will updates with pictures every Sunday. :)

Here's the front porch - we have our pillars now! :) We also have our garage floor.







And oh yeah, I won 3rd place in the CK layout contest at CKC Bellevue this past weekend. :) That is, I won 3rd place in a contest at a scrapbooking convention in Bellevue, Washington. :)

Okay, okay, I've been negligent in updating the blog! :) Trust me, I haven't wanted to bore you.

They started drywalling on 10/25. Almost all the drywall is up, but the seams are not mudded and it's definitely not textured yet. :) Some of the light fixtures downstairs need to have drywall removed (they are marked to remove, except for one - we emailed the field manager on that one).

In 2 weeks, we'll need to have a key to get in. So in the next two weeks, we'll see the following happen:

- garage floor (cement) poured
- drywall, texture, and paint completed
- garage door installed
- locks installed
- hardwood flooring installed downstairs (i think)

What happens in two weeks, you ask? Well, that's when the cabinets arrive (kitchen, bathrooms, laundry), so the garage has to have a garage door that closes AND locks, so someone can't just drive up and steal all of our cabinets. And after that, all of the sinks and other fixtures start coming in, so it will be "secure time"...

Here's a couple of pictures from 10/29/06!

From the master bedroom, looking at the entry double doors (left) and the master bathroom door (right):



And from the larger lots/houses part of the subdivision, this is the model's home carpet and wood flooring. We didn't realize until a month ago that we'd picked the EXACT same carpet/color and wood flooring, so here's a sneak preview of what ours will look like:

Ah, quizzes....

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 90% Green Lantern 65% Hulk 45% Superman 40% Batman 35% Wonder Woman 30% Iron Man 30% Robin 20% Catwoman 20% Supergirl 20% The Flash 10%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

The siding on the front of the house is finished! Also on both sides, but not on the back of the house. The siding on the back won't be finished until all the drywall for the 2nd floor has been delivered through the craft room window (which still doesn't have a window installed because it's a delivery point). Once the drywall has been delivered, the window will be installed, and then the siding will be finished.

This is the standard non-painted color - we do have paint colors picked, but it will be a couple of weeks or more before it's painted.

We have a front door! :) It has been installed at long last!

We briefly chatted with a worker packing up (notice those two guys on top of our roof in the 2nd picture), and they said that the garage floor will be poured on Friday. They also said the siding probably won't be finished until they get all the sheetrock inside, which won't happen until after our "pre-drywall" inspection on Friday. This is where we basically approve all the outlet and jack locations before they put the drywall up.



And the front, with siding on the side and halfway up the front:

It's really starting to look like a house! :) We have siding on one side of the house, and they poured our front porch yesterday. We have our pre-drywall meeting with the field manager on Friday morning. After that, drywall baby! :) Then the serious interior work starts. And once they install the front door (hopefully this week), it will only be a matter of time before we'll need a key to see our house.

When my husband talked to the field manager yesterday, he said it sounded like the manager just got my email yesterday (I sent it last Thursday), and had not been aware that our front door (and our patio door) had not been installed. He's also going to get one of the extra ports moved, it was installed in the wrong place.

We might even get a garage floor this week - all the houses around us got one poured yesterday, but our garage was full of "stuff"....like they'd emptied out all the garages around us into OUR garage! Of course, our patio door is still in the garage as well, so the concrete pouring may be tied to getting that door installed first.

More appliance info:

Cooktop
Oven
Dishwasher
Microwave

:)

By special request, here's a couple views of the front of the house, both straight on and at a slight angle:

So, we finally ordered our refrigerator, washer, and dryer.

We went to Standard TV and Appliance (we visited them in late August to get an idea of products and prices) on Saturday.

This is the washer.
This is the current dryer, although that may change because of changes at Maytag. If we can't get that dryer, we'll get this one.
This is the refrigerator.

It will be so hard to live with the appliances in this apartment. I know, I'm whining, but I can't believe how used to our old fridge we were...and the fridge in this apartment is like going from "premium" to "subpar"....yecch!

That darn Valgal...

She tagged me!

I have to list 5 weird things about me and tag 5 other people...

1. Only my head peeks out from the covers when I'm sleeping. Especially in the winter, I tend to "cocoon" and tuck the covers around my shoulders. That's because...
2. I'm a stomach sleeper. At least, I can only fall asleep that way.
3. I have a routine for drying off after I step out of the shower. *blush*
4. I *like* fruitcake. :)
5. I still eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a regular basis.

Okay, now to tag folks:

Becky
Diana
Shirley
Meghan
Trudi

"Remember" by Josh Groban, soundtrack of Troy

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me,
in your memory

Remember
when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me

I am the one star that keeps burning
so brightly
It is the last light
to fade into the rising sun

I'm with you
Whenever you tell
my story
For I am all I've done

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
in your memory

Remember me
I am the one voice in the cold wind
that whispers

And if you listen
you'll hear me call across the sky
As long as I still can reach out
and touch you
Then I will never die

Remember
I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember me...

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory

Remember
when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever

Remember me
Remember me
Remember... me...

Here's a look at my guy. He hated wearing the hard hat, but it was required to do the "structured wiring" around the house today, because folks were working on the house while we were there (normally we show up after they are gone for the day). :)

That was then (09/14/06):



This is now:



Don't know if you can tell the difference, but in the bottom picture, the door frame is wider. My husband and I realized this weekend that there was NO way there were going to be able to do the front door with our "upgrade" with the way it was framed, they had done it wrong. We promptly talked with the sales agent, who sent an email off to the field manager (on a Sunday, no less). Monday morning, when the field manager saw our email, he took a look and promptly had it dealt with. Of course, we also saw our front door (with the upgrade) sitting in the garage - I think they might have realized they had a problem when that arrived if we hadn't noticed it. :)

This is what our front door looks like. The old "frame" job was for just the door, and not the windows around it.

We have a ROOF! :)

No real good vantage point, but I tried! :)

At heart, I'm just simple when it comes to breakfast. Give me some cereal and some nonfat milk, I'm good to go. I just don't the bulk of my calories at the beginning of the day - I need some to get me started, but lunch is where I do a lot of eating (and is my downfall when switching to a healthier lifestyle).

How about you? What do you eat for breakfast?

TAGGED! My friend Diana (she's one of the links to the right) tagged me!

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to."

I'm listening to:

1. Celine Dion/Il Divo: "I Believe in You" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q_pjkuX7lA
2. Chicago: "Why Can't We?" from their latest album, Chicago 30
3. Lindsey Haun: "Broken" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlwMQBzfmc4
4. Christina Aguilera: "Back to Basics" album
5. Gladiator Soundtrack/Score
6. Natasha Bedingfield: "Unwritten"
7. Charlie Daniels: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

I know, an odd selection. :)

Now to tag 7 folks....

Becky

Not much new on the house, although the roofing supplies are on top of the roof.

We met some of our neighbors tonight, and they just happen to have a great view of our house right now, while the house next to ours isn't more than concrete forms. :) So here's a view of our house from their master bedroom balcony (theirs was our 2nd choice floor plan).



And the view from the street over.


Oh, I have a funny story. We're standing there in the middle of the street, chatting it up with the neighbors we just met, when a city police officer in a truck slows down and stops to chat with us. His first question, "So, standing around waiting to carve your initials in the wet cement, eh?" or something similar. We all profess innocence....although we may have thought about it (who hasn't) we would never do it. We had a nice chat for about 5-10 minutes, and then the nice officer continued his rounds around the neighborhood.

Ah, my 2nd post. Lots of stuff going on!

Up through Friday the 22nd, both my best friend and I were planning on heading to a scrapbooking retreat in Hood River. Yeah, she'd had some pretty serious ovarian pain, but she was of the belief that since it had taken them so long to get around to the pelvic ultrasound, it wasn't going to be likely that she'd be whisked into immediate surgery.

WRONG! Ultrasound was on Wednesday, Thursday she got the results: one cyst on the right ovary, and a indeterminate "mass" on the left ovary. So, she had an appointment on Friday at 5 p.m., which I went to her with (along with her husband and two kids). We surely thought that they'll set up surgery (if required) for next week.

WRONG!

The doctor did a quick look/see/feel, listened to her family history (her sister had problems with cysts and required a hysterectomy at 27), and said, "Surgery at noon on Saturday. Prepare for the worst case, that we'll have to do a hysterectomy."

Not what we expected to hear. I went to the retreat by myself, arriving at about 8.

That in itself was an interesting experience. I've been to scrapbook retreats before, but never held by this company. A good 90% of the scrapbookers (everyone was paper scrapper except for me) were Creative Memories scrappers. Wow. It's been a long time since I've been around that much CM stuff. Two ladies completed 65 pages each! I think I mystified them with my style...and my laptop. Lots of questions about that! It didn't help that I was smack in the dead center of the room, so everyone could see the laptop and the external hard drive.

I completed two mini-albums, except for journaling. Page layout, pictures down, embellishments down. All total, (32) 8x8 pages with no journaling. :) I did mostly complete one digital layout (I really did expect to complete more, honest), but PSCS2 was just way too slow on the laptop.

This is the first of two posts this evening. :)

We visited the house today after I got home from my scrapbook retreat (that's the next post).

Since last Thrusday, we have windows installed in every room that is supposed to have one, except for my craft room. Our guest bath shower/tub combo and the tub & shower for the master bathroom are sitting in the garage, just waiting to be installed. We still have no roof shingles. They've also installed insulation and some white covering over the installation where the showers and tubs will go. Oh yeah, they've framed the area where the fireplace goes downstairs, so cool!

Here's a couple of pictures to tide you over:

We have a roof! No shingles yet, but we've got a roof and roof line. :)

Tomorrow, I'm headed out of town with my best friend to a scrapbook retreat. I'll be taking both paper and digital supplies, as I plan on doing lots of layouts for the two creative teams I'm on (Marsha Zepeda and Yvette Sanders), plus cards and maybe a couple of mini albums. Lofty goals, I guess, but you can never have enough pictures. :)

We have a 2nd floor! :) No roof yet, although I'm pretty sure they'll do that in the next day or so.

:)

The first floor is framed. Wow, it's going so fast!



And here's our front door, with my husband in the entryway:

We have flooring! Sorta... :)



Here's a closer look at the floor:

We stopped by the house today. We have FOUNDATION! :)

Some images from our Labor Day weekend vacation (Friday - Monday).


Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach


A seal yawning at the intertidal pool at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area.

We drove by the house again tonight (hey, it's been five days!) and they are just about ready to pour the concrete, as you can see from the concrete forms here:



I am so excited. We'll head back on Thursday evening or Friday morning to see if concrete has been poured and if the forms are off. We plan on going twice a week to keep up on progress.

Look what I did last night from the photos I took this weekend:



Rachael G. has posted the next sketch challenge at the Digi Chick:

8/29 Sketch Challenge

Join us and post in the sketch gallery here.

This is what our lot looks like now:



This will be the vantage point I will be taking blog pictures from, right in front of this "light pole" you can see in the bottom right. Cool, eh?

Looks like they are ready to put in the frame to pour the concrete for the foundation.

I'm off of work tomorrow, I'll be volunteering as a race official for the 25th annual Portland to Coast walk relay. On Saturday and Sunday, I'll be working on a couple of proposals for next year's STC conference.

Good news!

I made the creative team for Yvette Sanders, who sells kits at The Digi Chick and Scrap Outside the Box. She actually let us know on Friday, but didn't release the information publicly until today, so we had time to do at least one layout with her kits at TDC. Here's the first layout I did with her latest kit, Fresh Florals.




In other news, my friend Becky is back among the bloggers! I'm going to put a link here, but she'll also be a permanent link in the blog section to your right! :)

This is the last time our lot will look like this:



Tomorrow is the ground breaking, and by the 25th (Friday) we should have a foundation.
Yes, I will take pictures and keep everyone up to date.

This is what I've been listening to in the last week:

Chicago 30

I've seen Chicago in concert three times, once with Peter Cetera and twice without.

I honestly can't remember if anyone opened up for them the first time, right after Chicago 17 was released. It was 1985 and it was my first concert without my parents (my first concert was with my parents, Elton John's "Too Low for Zero" concert tour). The date of the concert is indelibly printed in my mind, as it is also the date I got my braces on - April 16, 1985.

The second time I saw Chicago, it was at the Oregon State Fair. They were on a double bill with Hall and Oates, and my husband and I had 4th row side section tickets. Unfortunately, they were also 5 feet in front of speakers... :) My husband will tell you I have HORRIBLE speaker karma...doesn't matter how good the seats are, the speakers will be right there (either above us or in front of us, or line of sight). The concert was still fabulous though, even though there was no Peter Cetera. I didn't know what to expect before seeing them, so it was all good.

The third time I saw Chicago, it was at the Clark County Amphitheatre in Vancouver, Washington. Fabulous show, lousy location. Horrible parking, sucky entrance policies (no umbrellas allowed but they only *ask* you whether you have a weapon), extremely expensive food and drink, plus some heavily intoxicated folks sitting right in front of us.

I'm helping out a friend in need.

A good scrapbooking buddy has been diagnosed with Stage 4 GI cancer. The local scrapbooking community is hosting a fundraising event called "Croppin' Out Cancer" and will have a flyer in the next week.

In the meantime, you can see the information here about why we are doing the event.

Rachel

Okay, okay, sorry, I've been a bad blogger! :)

My boss has been gone since last Friday, so I've been busy. We were supposed to go out of town last weekend, but we ended up just staying home. One of our cats has kitty acne, and that requires twice a day antibiotics (you try pulling the cat out from under the bed to give it medicine) and warm compress on the chin with medicated water.

On Sunday, we saw a few friends, went out to breakfast, met a couple of friends at the mall, helped one of them shop for clothes, and that was the extent of our socializing.

I'm getting together with a couple of friends this Friday to go scrapbooking, so I picked up some pictures I uploaded to Costco. Thinking about a theme album or a tag album...something like that. I picked up Memory Makers special issue on theme albums to help me out.

Congratulations to StaceyD and HaleyW, who answered the most trivia questions correctly last night in our Sixteen Candles Chick Flick Chat! :)

Next event:



Go to Digi Chick for more information on Friendship Day events: trading cards (ATCs), a scraplift challenge, and MORE!

Ah, it's Monday. :)

That means tomorrow is the Digi Chick "Chick Flick" night with the movie Sixteen Candles. Come on, you know it's a guilty pleasure and you probably watched this movie at least once when it originally came out... :)

I lost 1.5 lbs this week! Woohoo!

In other good news, my MMM entry is out the door! I always forget how much time doing that supply list can take. :)

Well, I finished my final MMM entry layout last night! Promptly uploaded the layouts to Costco, and will pick them up this afternoon after work.

Then my evening is full of idea forms (one for each layout), model releases (one for each child used in my layouts - only 2), supply lists (one for each layout), and packing it up for shipping.

It will go postal tomorrow.

In other news, the heat has leveled off and it's almost, but not quite, normal Oregon July weather.

Don't forget, watch Sixteen Candles this weekend and participate in our Chick Flick Chat at the Digi Chick on Tuesday!

Bad blogger!

Life has been pretty full. I've been attempting to finish up an entry for a layout contest, which needs to be postmarked by July 31st...I'm cutting it close, I hope to get it mailed out this Friday.

Life has also been hot, weather wise! Last Friday (the 21st), the city I'm living hit 108 degrees. Do I need to mention that our apartment has *NO* A/C? We spent Saturday and Sunday trucking around to various places, which all had A/C (our vehicles do too). We celebrated my sister's birthday (I won't mention the number, she's pretty sensitive about it) at my parents' house, which was also air conditioned. :) I will post a picture of me and my 6 month old niece later today or tomorrow.

We plan on going to the storage place on Saturday and moving all the stuff from the small 10x10 room into the big 10x20 room, so we only have "rent" for one room. It should just about fit.

I promise, I'll be a better blogger from now on...

I'm also doing the "Chick Walk Challenge" at the Digi Chick - proud member of the Blue Suede Walking Shoes here! :)

Darla Vasquez and I will be hosting the Digi Chick "Chick Flick Chat" next Tuesday, August 1. Watch Sixteen Candles (yeah, the 80s movie) and join us for a lively, entertaining chat!

This video is so inspirational.

Do not watch it without Kleenex close by. You can't say I didn't warn you.

Can

Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't posted all week long.

My new computer arrived, I went scrapping with friends, I worked....

I even applied for Robin Carlton's CT. Over 80 people applied, and we'll find out Monday morning what the results are.

I've been a busy scrapper this weekend. I was inspired by two things:

- Ali Edwards' new book, "A Designer's Eye: For Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper"
- The new charity mega kit from Guardian Peas, "Kaleidoscope of Hope"

Here are my layouts, all of my friend Lisa, her kids, and her significant other from the 4th of July holiday this year.


Credits can be seen here: Sweet Summer



Credits can be seen here: Haylee


Credits can be seen here: Summer Fun


Credits can be seen here: Kayaking

Straight from Diana's blog:

1. Do you like music videos on blogs? Why or why not?? I don't like them, because usually I'm already listening to music via iTunes when I go to blogs, and the music videos override my music.

2. What is your favorite all time song and why? "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion

3. What is your favorite current song and why? "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield - it just speaks to me right now.

4. Do you and your significant other have a "song"? "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" by Elton John (from Lion King). Lion King is our favorite movie to watch together, and this was also our "first dance" song at our wedding in 1999.

5. What song old or new best describes who you are? Currently, "Unwritten" describes me best.

Quick Update: We are now officially "home"less - as in we don't own a home. The transaction funded and recorded this afternoon, and my husband goes to pick up the check in an hour.

Sorry for being gone for the last week! Lots of stuff to get done to make sure the closing of the house went smoothly. We signed paperwork yesterday, and should get a call today (preferably) or tomorrow to come pick up our check for the proceeds from the house. Most of it goes promptly into a money market savings account for the new house, but there are some "immediate" needs that need to be taken care of. At any rate, we'll be locking away our 10% down payment.

Well, allergy season took a turn for the worse. Normally I don't have bad allergies, but on the 4th of July, I had a serious "attack." By serious, I mean that I could not keep my eyes open for longer than 2 seconds because they were watering so much...and my poor nose was running a long distance meet. :) Fortunately, someone had some OTC Chlor Trimeton, so I took it, laid down for a short nap, and when I woke up I could see again! In other medical news, my borderline anemia is not quite so borderline anymore. Guess it's time to see the doctor and check levels. I have been slacking on taking iron because it seemed as if it was gone, but I should have known that something was wrong when I couldn't donate blood.

This weekend, we'll be cleaning up the apartment and reconfiguring the bedroom. It's been driving me nuts, especially the location of the bed. We had them put it up against the wall so the boxes to unpack could go against the other wall, but that has turned out to be a bad decision. Plus I'm sure they put it back together not quite right...my husband's side of the mattress slopes toward the wall, and there's a huge gap between the top of the mattress and the frame. Silly little things like that.

Occasionally, I'm going to vent about apartment living. For the last 7 years, my husband and I have lived in houses, not apartments. This apartment living is an adjustment for us. For instance, most apartments are located at intersections of major roads. Not only is ours on a major road, our "den" window opens up to a major road that leads to the city airport and is a growing area (lots of condos/townhomes going up).

We are also on the first floor. That means that our apartment is "ground zero" for anyone wanting to burglarize or vandalize stuff. Our front passenger window just got dinged on Wednesday afternoon - I parked in our carport spot at 5:15 and there was no ding - came back out to the car at 6:15 and there's a crack in the window. Pretty high velocity impact. It's either schoolkids, teenagers, or someone who hates SUVs. Trust me, if it had happened while I was driving, I would have heard *that* crack. It almost went through the glass and it will likely spider sometime soon, meaning we get to replace the window. Ugh.

Last night's apartment fun? The folks in the apartment above us. We've nicknamed them the "Elephants" because every time they walk across the floor it's like a stomp. Well, they were "stomping" last night until 12:30 a.m. - and I get up at 6:30 in the morning. Yes, I'm just a little tired. :)

Ah! That was much cooler last night! A nice breeze came through, cooled off the entire apartment, made it very easy to go to sleep last night. :)

One of the most recent music purchases I made on CD was Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten." I saw the video on someone's blog, listened to the song, and figured the rest of the CD was worth checking out. Fairly decent album - there are only a couple tracks I tend to skip.

What is your most recent song/CD purchase?

Well, last night was pretty much our last visit to the "old" house. We emptied the refrigerator and freezer, we put some stuff in the trash, we did a walk-through to make sure we hadn't left any items of value behind (other than the refrigerator, washer, and dryer)...and now we're done! Today, Merry Maids is coming in to do a one-time cleanup of the interior, and on Friday ServiceMaster Clean is coming in to "professionally" clean the carpets as requested by the buyers. We'll go back one more time, just to take pictures of the interior and exterior of the house. This is more for our peace of mind, as it provides a record of what it looked like when we handed it over, so they can't come back a year from now and say it was trashed and try to get something out of us.

The back of my vehicle is filled with stuff to go to storage. Guess where we're headed tonight?

It's only supposed to be in the low 90s today. Big whoop! I won't be happy until the average temperature is in the mid-70s....this blazing heat in an apartment with no A/C is not good for a successful night's sleep. Ugh.

Moving is NOT FUN in record breaking heat. Yesterday, Portland smashed a record of 95 degrees with a temperature of 100 degrees - IN JUNE! Who'd have thought we'd need A/C in June?

Speaking of A/C - the apartment DOES NOT have it. Ugh. We're on the first floor, which means it isn't *that* bad, but because of the proximity to a major thoroughfare road, as well as to the covered carport spaces, we cannot leave our windows open to get a breeze in overnight. Well, at least not until we get some kind of dowel that will keep folks from trying to slide our window open to break into the apartment.

Tonight is the last night we'll be going to the "old" house. We're going to empty the refrigerator and freezer, plus take one more load to the dumpster. Tomorrow, Merry Maids comes in and does a thorough wipe down cleaning. Friday, ServiceMaster Clean comes in to clean the carpet. The carpet cleaning was requested in the repair addendum, so it has to be done. The house cleaning is on our dime, for *our* peace of mind. After Friday, we'll go back one more time, to take pictures of the state of the house. We don't want the buyers coming back in six months saying it was in "this state" when a few minutes snapping a bunch of photos on our digital camera will cover our butts. :)

One of my favorite 80s song is one I especially love to hear played on Fridays: Loverboy's "Workin' for the Weekend."

I hunted down the video at youtube.com, just for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5In4747n9YU

Didn't get quite as much done last night as I wanted to, but at least the office is mostly clean and unpacked, AND you can see the floor. A couple more things moved off the floor and we can even inflate the airbed for our guest tonight. :)

TOOT! I got an email from Ready, Set, Create e-zine about a submission I made. They want my layout about my husband and the time he used a "Little Bobcat" to move 5 cubic yards of river rock over to the side of our house. It was for their "Boys and Their Toys" page call. I'll be submitting more over the weekend, only if I've already created them and they match the existing calls.

Almost done unpacking! Just in time too, since one of our friends from Eugene is visiting this weekend. Her visit was great incentive to make sure we unpacked in a timely manner. Besides, I'm getting tired of catching on open box flaps... :)

This weekend, the two of us (my friend and me) will be going scrapbooking on Saturday with three other friends. Five of us all in one place, just to paper scrap. FUN FUN FUN! :)

I barely squeaked my entry for Week 2 into the gallery for the TDC "28 Days" challenge. Here it is:



I went to get my "must have" supplies out of the storage room last night. ARGH! One of the boxes is on the highest level, on the back wall of the storage room. I can NOT reach up that high. There is also a box with the acrylic paper trays somewhere in there...and I'm sure it's probably in the stack somewhere, but it shouldn't be...I did write "DO NOT STACK" on every side. Sigh. Ah well, my husband gets to help me find it tonight. :)

Phew!

Almost everything is out of the house. The only things left are the widescreen TV (ain't no way we were letting movers touch it), and some assorted items for Goodwill or another charity...and our bikes in the garage.

We'll be picking up the TV and the bikes today.

Well, the plumber didn't show up on either Friday OR Saturday. My husband called all the other plumbers in our area, and no one called him back. Guess I get to try again today.

The customer service rep from Milgard that I called last week did not call back either. So I called again today, asked what specific information I needed to have on hand to talk to her, and mentioned that I'd left a message last week. The receptionist said that if my rep did not call back by the end of today, to call back tomorrow and she'd get a supervisor to talk to me. We are the original owners, the window is less than 2 years old, and it is still under manufacturer's warranty. There should be no issues. We just need to get the ball rolling so the buyers know it is in process.

Speaking of the buyers, they tried to slip a couple of fast ones into the repair addendum. No way, no how. Remember that Milgard window? We were originally told that they would not include that in the repair addendum, because they didn't want to hold up the closing while it got fixed. Well, somewhere in translation, a window *above* the sliding glass door got turned into the sliding glass door seal repair on the addendum. Not only would that have required us to replace the sliding glass door, but it would have been expensive...and they got it wrong to boot! *mutter mutter grumble grumble* And they had the nerve to say that any bills due to the seal repair would be sent to us AFTER closing. Uh uh. Did the words "manufacturer's warranty" mean nothing to them? There is NO COST to them. Geez.

On a better note, we have unpacked the kitchen. Of course, we still have NOTHING in the fridge except for water, so we *have* to correct that issue tonight. We have a good head start on the office, and have made some headway in the bedroom.

Look what I got a photo of this morning! :)

He was in our neighbor's backyard across the street.



Well, today's the day! We pick up the keys to our new apartment right after work, then head to a banquet for the local chapter of STC. Gonna be a busy day!

Tomorrow, I stay home and supervise the movers packing all of the rest of our stuff. Plus I get to deal with a plumber and an appliance repair man (for repairs requested on the house in the repair addendum). Fun fun fun! :)

I made it to the 2nd round of the CT search for DigiChick Designer Heather Roselli! :)

Because of all the moving stuff this week, I downloaded her kit and promptly did my layout, even though it wasn't due until 8 p.m. Friday. Tonight, we sort stuff for the movers (needs packing, we are moving it ourselves, post it notes on more stuff), tomorrow night we go get the keys for our apartment and then go to a banquet, and Friday night I could conceivably be without Internet connection! *gasp*

The appraiser came at 7:30 this morning - we were gone by 6:45. Of course, that's much later than we normally get out of the house (6:15), but we still got out before they got there.

Oh yeah, here's the layout I did for Round 2! :)



Supplies:

Heather Roselli, "Simply Delightful" kit
Virtual Photographer, Sepia filter
Atomic Cupcake, Wild Tear action
Font: CaslonNo540SwaD

I did it!

I exercised last night at the gym. One down, two to go this week! :) Turns out, our athletic club has upgraded the machines so that there are flat panel tvs in front of a lot of the machines, with a remote control that has a headphone jack. Those 25 minutes went by in a flash last night, since I was watching "While You Were Out" on TLC (the episode with Roger Clemens). I plan on walking around the building at work at least once today - twice if I'm inspired. :D

We haven't gotten the official repair addendum, but we've been told they are asking for two repairs, one that we expected (gas stove problem) and one that we didn't (drip from connection to water meter down in the crawl space). Guess we'll see if they ask for anything else - it's not like there could really be much wrong with a less than 2 year old home. :)

Things are moving really fast!

We did some last minute errands yesterday to make moving easier this weekend. Picked up some bright neon post it notes to mark what stays, what *we* are moving, what goes to the apartment, and what goes into storage. That way, the movers know what to pack on Friday, and what to move on Saturday. They will bring two trucks on Saturday, and one will go to storage room(s) and one to the apartment.

So, I've probably mentioned that our buyers haven't set the home inspection. :) Well, we got a call at 9 a.m. this morning from our agent, and the inspection is scheduled for 2 p.m. TODAY! Talk about short notice! The house is certainly not "show home" clean, as we have post it notes stuck all over the house, boxes leaning up against walls, and we might have left a dish or two in the sink instead of in the dishwasher. The crawl space access is not accessible without moving "stuff" in the hall closet, which we did not get a chance to do - we were waiting for notice before doing that. Guess they'll just have to deal with it...

We met with a couple of friends yesterday for dinner, and arranged for one of those friends to stay with us on the 24th. She'll get to sleep on our newly acquired queen size Aerobed from Costco, because we really didn't expect guests. She'll be going scrapbooking with me.

Starting tomorrow, it's 28 days to July 4th! I have committed to a challenge on the Digi Chick to do something related to weight loss for the next 28 days.

They say it takes 21 days to form or break a habit. Well, I’m going to use the next 28 days
to form a new habit: exercise! I admit, I’ve gotten out of the habit. My biggest exercise is
walking around the office during the day, or walking to and from the car at home and
work. This does not give me near enough exercise.

I am so out of shape.

I’ve gained weight.

I’m a size 18 in pants and skirts purely because of my stomach. My legs *swim* in pants
that size, but the fabric holds on to my “football” stomach like a banana peel on a banana.
Wearing clothes this big makes me feel HUGE, like an overstuffed sausage.

I’m a size 18 in shirts as well. And my bra size? It's way too big. This is
unacceptable. I’m wearing XXL in t-shirts purely because of the size of my chest.

Here it is, almost summer, and I am in the worst shape I’ve been in since 2002.

My goal for the next 28 days:

Exercise 30 minutes three times a week, no matter what day it is (weekend or not).

There are no excuses, not even moving.

I will take my bicycle to the shop for a tune-up.

I will ride my bicycle to work at least once in the next 28 days. More if I feel like it, but I
must do it at least once.

There are no excuses.

I will form a life-changing habit, regardless of whether I lose any weight. I will not allow
weight gain to torpedo my exercise habit, I will use it as incentive to accomplish my goal.

One of my friends, Lisa, graduated from the local community college last night with an Associate of Science Transfer Degree (she can transfer into any Oregon 4 year university with the first two years done).

I'd say she was pretty happy to have this first phase done - off she goes to Portland State University in the fall!

Week 1 on Weight Watchers ended yesterday, with a *3* lb loss! :)

Yes, I'm back on the WW wagon. Not only do I feel out of shape, I seem to be out of breath just walking up the stairs. And next year is my 20 year high school reunion! EEK! I intend on getting in shape and healthy for myself, but a little incentive doesn't hurt. :D

No home inspection yet. The movers came yesterday to look over the house for a packing/moving estimate. Looks like it will take 6 hours (or less) to pack up the rest of our stuff, and about 7.5 (or less) hours to move it the next day. They'll actually have two trucks on moving day - one that goes to the storage room and one that goes to the apartment. Since it's such a long drive one way, it's more efficient to pack both up at the same time then just head for their final destination.

We have reserved an apartment, and will get the keys on June 15th (next Thursday).

Good thing, since my husband booked the movers for the 17th (Saturday). I just realized that it is the same day as my nephew's 2nd birthday party, but we'll work around that. I may end up going while he deals with the movers.

I'm looking forward to being closer to work. The apartment is within a mile of work, which means I *could* ride my bike during the summer months. I may just do that, while we still have access to the showers here at work. The apartment is also less than 2 miles from the gym/athletic club, so we may end up biking there too.

It's been a LONG weekend!

On Friday afternoon, at 4:15 p.m., my agent called to let me know that they wanted the house. Unfortunately, the husband of the couple was still at work and would be there until 1o p.m., so they would sign the paperwork the next morning. No problem.

Saturday morning, we ran a whole bunch of errands over on that side of town: moved a load into storage, got a second storage unit for furniture (um yeah, the first one was filling up fast with just boxes), deposited some checks in the bank. All the while, we figured we'd get a call and we could head straight over to the real estate office and get the paperwork over with. We even called our agent twice - no "news" from the buyer's agent. So, we left for home around 2:30 p.m., and pretty much figured that since we weren't hearing anything, that the buyers jerked us around yet once again and that we needed to rev up the marketing on the house.

Around 9 p.m. last night, my agent called --- good news! The buyers had signed our counter offer earlier in the day. Our agent got the paperwork this morning via email and sent it to us. Lo and behold, it turns out that the buyers signed the counter offer at 2 p.m.! I'm not very happy with the buyer's agent - they let us stew for hours thinking that something had gone wrong.

We have an apartment complex sorta lined up, but my husband wants to check into long term executive suite type rentals. So, we'll delay for a day or two on applying for an apartment, while he checks it out. I think he'll find out we can't have 3 cats in one of those places - but he needs to find it out his way. :) Plus, it will be good to wait just a day or two to make sure that the buyers don't back out, given the last 10 days.

Today, we took another load to the storage room and did some more errands, then cleaned out the fridge, did some laundry, and just sat and relaxed and watched television. Kinda nice! :)

Still waiting to know if our house is sold, or if they are going to counteroffer, or if they are going to back out. Stay tuned, it should all be over by 5 p.m. Pacific. :)

In better news, I'm on day 3 of Weight Watchers online. I've done well at keeping within my points, resisting temptation, and trying to drink more water. Some of the tricks I use to keep myself on track:

- Make Kool Aid with Splenda. I hate plain water all the time, and this makes it easy to get water down.

- Have options at work other than vending machines. Thankfully, work has several refrigerators, so there is room to put some groceries. And unlike other workplaces, I rarely get my food stolen. :)

I'm going scrapbooking tonight with my best friend. I'll be leaving work early so I can pick her up and take her home to get her supplies. Then we'll head over to the store and scrap our little hearts out. Well, I might scrap...I think I'll just be happy to get "out" and socialize. :)

Well, not the update I expected to post, but better than nothing:

The buyers asked for a 24 hour extension on our counter offer. Turns out that they were outside our house for 2.5 hours trying to get their boat (must be a land yacht) to go up the driveway. Something about the motor being too large. While they are deciding what to do (back out, find an older house with more land, find a newer house with more land and no HOA), they need time. Apparently one of the kids got sick, and the husband had to go to work, so our deadline of 5 p.m. PST today is too fast.

We gave them the 24 hour extension. No harm done.

I just hope to be giving better news tomorrow. Right now I'm just disappointed to not have it over with, one way or the other.

So, I got home last night and found out that the buyers have "unofficially" accepted the offer, but they wanted to check *one* more thing out: they wanted to drive their truck (with boat in tow) to our house, and back it up the driveway. The reason? They want to see if the tow hitch bottoms out on the driveway. Ooookay....whatever....just don't back out on buying the house. :)

Right now we are waiting to hear from my agent, who is supposed to hear from their agent when they are done. Presumably, if the driveway is acceptable, the agent and buyers are together and can sign the counteroffer and get it back to my agent ASAP. After all, they want the house to close *5* weeks from today. That's not a lot of time to get an inspector in, much less fix anything (not that there is anything to fix). We need to line up an apartment, turn on/off utilities and all that stuff...we need some closure man! :)