I win!

The refrigerator that came with this house su-ucks. It's much smaller than the one we left the buyers of the old house, but that's something I could have gotten used to. The worst part of this piece of shit is that it is indeed a piece of shit. It's falling apart and the fridge part cools unevenly. I've got shredded cheese covered in ice crystals in back and warm yogurt up front. Not cool. Hahahaha! Ahem.

I got a wild hair up my ass today and decided that I was going to go out and get a new refrigerator. I was online doing a little research and got an idea of what I wanted, so after Jim got home I hopped in the car to price check in person.

Home Depot's selection was sad. One (too small) bottom freezer on the showroom floor and not a salesperson in sight to help me. Fuck them. I was off to Best Buy.

I was helped 4 seconds after walking into the appliance section and they don't even work on commission! Best Buy Guy was very helpful and found me exactly what I wanted. I told him I still had two more places to check, but he might be seeing me before close.

He was quick to add that they price match. Good to know, Mr. Salesguy.

Next stop was Sears. I got my sexy washer and dryer from Sears, and have been happy with their service in the past, so I had to give them a chance at my cash.

I found the exact same refrigerator at Sears that I saw at Best Buy--but for way more. Yikes.

I let Sears Saleswoman in on the info, and she asked me if I had any proof. I thought she was being a bitch until she added that they will price match PLUS 10%. If there's one thing about me you need to know, it's that this girl likes a bargain. I somehow feel like I've actually accomplished something amazing when I save a few bucks.

Somehow the sale gets passed onto Nervous Guy, and I have him bring up the Best Buy website on their in store computer. We find the sale price, he prints it and we're in business.

I hate talking numbers because it seems so rude and weird, but I'm going to make an exception just this once.

After the price match and the extra 10% (plus 0% for 12 months!), I got a $2500(Sears' price) refrigerator for $1600. She's a beaut too. French door/bottom freezer drawer, water dispenser inside, foldy shelf things, stainless steel and it has that Energy Star rating. Yee Fucking Haw!

They're delivering it Monday.

I need a vacation after my vacation

We got back from vacation yesterday, and I am more than happy to be home. A few hours after we walked in the door, we had a bunch of people over for the 4th. It was fun, but now I am crazy tired.

Arizona was fun but exhausting. So much family to catch up with (I haven't seen most of them since my wedding 9 years ago, and some since I was about 8 years old).

The flight out there went fairly smoothly. I don't hate flying as much as I hate flying coach. Not that I know any differently. I've always had to sit in the cheap seats.

Stepping off the plane was predictably like stepping into an oven. 114 fucking degrees. Kiss my ass "dry heat", I thought I was going to disintegrate on the sidewalk after 5 minutes.

With apologies to anyone reading that lives in Arizona, I could never live out there. It's not just the oppressive heat. I don't think I could ever get used to the lack of green. I am by no means a nature girl, but all the sand and rocks and dust everywhere depressed me. It's like everything's permanently under construction.

Luckily everyone and everywhere in Arizona is required by law to have a swimming pool. I don't know if that's actually true, but it should be. Swimming everyday definitely took the edge off.

The wedding itself was really nice. I finally had a chance to relax. The girls stayed behind with my Aunt who came with us specifically to watch the girls during the wedding and reception. Let's just say I made the most of those child-free hours.

I got really really drunk. The kind of drunk that makes it alright to take off your shoes on the dancefloor and sing "I Will Survive" at the top of your lungs. The kind of drunk that preceeds asking the party bus driver where the stripper pole is. The kind of drunk that makes you think you can play pool with a couple of the groomsmen at the after party in a short dress and not really give a shit if everyone got a show.

The kind of drunk that makes a hangover a million times worse in the desert heat.

All in all, we had a good time and last night's get together was fun too. We always had 4th of July parties at our old house because we could see some fireworks from the comfort of our own yard. Luckily the new house is only a few blocks from another set of fireworks.

Jim got some painting done on the kitchen and hung some of our pictures while we were gone. The new house is slowly starting to feel more like home, save for our next big purchase: an obnoxiously large television. I can't wait to go shopping for that.

Because the neighbors don't think we're weird enough already

Yesterday my husband finally got to use his Father's Day gift: a kick ass self-propelled lawnmower. Aren't I sweet? In case you might find the gift a bit self-serving, please know that I wanted and got a new vaccuum a few years ago as my Mother's Day gift.

It's all about practicality around here.

The grass was getting pretty long, especially with all the rain we've been getting so it was high time Jim got out there and did something about it. I was busy in the house putting away the last of the kitchen stuff. I took a break to peek out front to see how the mower was treating him, and saw this:



Something tells me we won't be getting any social calls from the neighbors for a while. At least until they figure out that, aside from my husband's obsessions with hats as of late, we are a fairly normal family.

This New House

My washer and dryer came yesterday (and so did I when I saw them!). I haven't been this tingly in my girl bits since I bought the Dyson.

Dryer goodness:


Washer love:



I've pretty much mapped out what colors are going in each room, and hopefully I can get all the painting done this weekend. The bedrooms aren't very big, and I think the prep work will be the biggest time suck of the project.

Master bedroom will have a muted aqua blue/brown color scheme. It's a seafoam-ish green now. The mirrored closet doors will, much to my husband's dismay, be replaced with trifold doors:



Mina's room is tan right now, but will be a pale pastel pink:



Audrey's room is a gorgeous blue, but I wanted to 'girl it up' a bit. It will be a light lavender:



The living room is an ATROCIOUS burgundy red--just cave like and wrong for the size of the space. I'm thinking of going against type and doing three walls in a creamy tan-like color, with an accent wall of chocolate brown opposite the fireplace (the girls are in the pictures to show scale, naturally):




The upstairs bathroom needs a whole gut and remodel. It's not that anythings broken. I just changed my mind about liking the wood plank walls. The tile is way 80's, and not in a good way. We're going to do white subway tile up the walls and white floor tile, maybe relocate the tub closer to the window and replace the vanity with two pedestal sinks. I'm thinking citrus orange for an accent color. Before we can rip apart the bathroom though, we have to put a shower in the downstairs half bath. Either that, or not mind hosing off in the backyard.:





Then, there's the kitchen. I wish I got a close up of the cool back splash tile. It's this swirly pattern of blues and some green--very fun. Not that I didn't know that this was our perfect house already, but to add to the serendipitous nature of this whole thing, one of my very best friends has the EXACT SAME tile in her bathroom! Crazy.
The row of cabinets over the peninsula there is coming out this weekend as are a small cabinet over the fridge. I think I'm going to go with a blue-tinted white for the kitchen walls, and maybe light/weathered looking white laminate on the floor.:




I'm going to be working my ass off this weekend, but at least this sweat equity is for our benefit as opposed to all the shit we put into our current house to sell it.

I got to meet our neighbor on the other side yesterday. A sweet elderly fellow who can't hear very well (probably a good thing considering how loud my family is).

He came over to let me know I left some lights on outside the night before. I thought he was complaining at first, but then he said he didn't want me "wasting any electricity". Unlike most people, I don't mind nosy neighbors. I AM a nosy neighbor. I see it as a kind of neighborhood watch thing. So long as he keeps his mouth shut about the goat sacrificing and midnight orgies, we'll get along fine.

I have yet to take my dogs over there. I should do that today so the boy dog can properly 'mark' every last blade of grass and the girl dog can run into the sliding glass door (her eyesight is not so great).

Work in progress photos coming this weekend!

Move in day approacheth and other weird shit

We close on our new house today!

I called the movers yesterday to set up a time to get the big stuff over there Monday, the 18th. I bought my new washer and dryer on Saturday--decided to go with the LG front loaders--on sale plus 0% financing did the trick. I bought our dining room table (well, really "eat in kitchen" table) and chairs on Sunday. Those were half off at Target--hooray!

All the utilities have been called, the cable/broadband guy is coming on Friday as are the storage unit people. I have a busy weekend of unloading ahead of me. In a way I don't even want to stupid units back (save for some photos and books). It's pretty interesting how much stuff we have done without since January. I plan on having a garage sale before the end of the summer.

And then there is all the painting I am facing. I actually enjoy painting. I didn't when we first bought our current house, and it showed. For some reason, in the last 6 1/2 years my painting skills improved and the fresh coat we through on there over the New Year's Eve holiday looks 100% better than the first.

I have to get the living room and all three bedrooms painted before the movers bring all of our shit over there. The kitchen, bathroom and basement can wait for another day.

We're also having the front of the house landscaped. There is a grading issue right up next to the house, and needs to be taken care of. Luckily we have a friend who happens to be a landscaper and will do it for a lot less than having to hire a bunch of strangers.

Oh, and I have to have some minor surgery on the 22nd.

I won't go into minute detail about what is up, but let's just say there are some unwelcome guests hanging out in my uterus and they are aren't things that will eventually be asking me to fill their sippy cups 87,000 times a day.

It's not the most convenient time for this to go down, but what can ya' do? The best part of all of this is I get to channel Jerri Blank every time I tell someone about it, "I have to go get my uterus scraped." Classic.

Don't worry. I'll be sure to blog all about it. Aren't you excited?

Why my husband gets to buy an obnoxiously large television

I went in to talk to our mortgage broker yesterday to hash out the details of our new home loan. He is such a great guy. He shops at our comic book store, I cut the whole family's hair, and his wife is our attorney. It's so great to have friends in high places.

I was a little nervous to find out what our new payment would be. We are moving from one of the least desirable neighborhoods in town to a much nicer area. I made peace with the fact that our property taxes would be much higher than they are now and that our house payment would reflect that. Also our new house, while not some giant McMansion in a swanky subdivision, cost considerably more than our house now.

The Jeffersons vibe wore off once I sat down and did the math in my head--or so I thought.

The other day I made a call over to the tax assessor to get the scoop on my new tax bill. I could have cried tears of joy when she gave me the number. Our new tax bill will not be the thousand (or higher) more a year than I thought, but a mere few hundred. High fives all around!

Then yesterday's meeting at the bank was on the docket, and again (being the crazed worrier that I am), I got that sick feeling in my stomach thinking about how we were going to swing a bigger mortgage payment. I could always go back to work, but childcare ate up so much of my income when I was working that it felt like walking up the down escalator.

Then Mr. Awesomekickass Bank Guy laid it on me, and my jaw hit the desk.

He looked worried. "Are you alright? Is this higher than you were expecting?"

I regained my composure, stopped myself from jumping over the desk, and told him that it was NO WHERE NEAR what I thought we would be paying.

In the last 5 years or so, I've made it a point to pay just a bit more than what the payment ticket states. There are boxes to check to indicate where the overage should go. Sometimes I checked "principle" and sometimes I checked "escrow" (to cover increases in property taxes). It's not much, but after a few years, it makes a difference. I did the same thing with my car payment and got it paid off a year early. It got to the point where I didn't even think about the little bit extra I paid each month. I just worked it into the budget.

So, he shows me the number again. I am stunned.

Our payment is going up $55. FIFTY FIVE DOLLARS.

With the proceeds from the sale of our current house, we'll have enough left (after closing costs, realtor commission, and the down payment on the new house) to pay off the credit cards completely and get the immediate need items (washer/dryer, paint, dining room table, etc.). All this and our payment is only going up less than a hundred dollars a month.

I'm still in shock.

And now, onto the more important stuff

I'm still riding the adrenaline high (and the hangover low) of having my house sold.

GodDAMN am I a happy camper!

The couple that bought it has a 5 year old son and are engaged. It's good to know a growing family is moving in and not some investor who might chop it up into apartments like happens to so many old houses around here.

It only took a few hours of back and forth haggling, but it was relatively painless compared to the first round of bullshit we went through a few weeks back.

We will close on our new house June 5th and close on this one June 28th, which gives us a good three weeks of moving time.

It was so weird to wake up this morning and not have to immediately start picking up and cleaning. Good thing too because the celebratory vodka tonics last night would have made the task most unpleasant.

The best part, and solid proof of how much of a total June Cleaver I have become, is that I am beyond excited to go buy a new washer and dryer. I know I want high efficiency front loaders, but that's about it. I went online yesterday to price compare not realizing just how many different brands there were.

So, it's down to you: the handful of people who might happen to be reading this schlock. Pimp me some washer and dryer combos. I need guidance here.

Just remember, choose wisely. You don't want me cursing your name every time I sort my laundry.