Life in abundance…

The painting was finished Friday. Well… the painting that needed to be done. There is one bedroom upstairs that does not have hardwood floors that can be painted this week. And the teeny foyer has tile and will also be done this week.

We rented the big ole orbital floor sander from Giant Big Box Hardware Store Friday night. The thing was AWESOME and it impressed all of our friends. It was so powerful that every time we turned it on, all the lights in the house flickered and all other powertools in operation ceased for a moment while the giant beast revved up.

But. The beast met it’s match. My husband.

You see, the Giant Big Box Hardware Store does 24 hour rentals, but I don’t think the “powers that be” in their corporation ever thought that the tool would be in operation for that long. Ha! We alternated operators so we wouldn’t have to rent it another day, and so the machine was kept on almost all day. We ran on pure adrenaline from the manly awesomeness of the giant sander. Vrrrrrooooommmm!

At hour 21 with 2 rooms left to do in medium grit and fine grit, the welding cracked.

It was a godsend. We were able to actually take a break to return the sander to the store and get another one, plus they gave us ANOTHER 24 hours free. Ahhh. Sleep. How I missed you.

After 2 days of sanding, sweeping, shop-vac-ing, & tack cloth-ing, the stain was ready to be applied. And I now feel like I have sawdust particles coming out of my pores, despite many failed attempts to cleanse my pores of the grime.

I was able to peek through the tarp to snap a picture of the first coat. (We had tarps up so we could be staining one room while prepping others at the same time and not get sawdust on the fresh stain).

It’s called “Colonial Maple.” If all goes well, another coat of stain will be applied tomorrow night and then two coats of polyurethane by Wednesday. The weather had been really humid here to the dry time is alot slower than normal.

I wish we had more time.

We closed on the house Monday afternoon!

The plan is to paint this week and for Keith to start refinishing the hardwood floors this weekend. We are moving in after the floors are done.

Hopefully we’ll be happy that we painted first, then refinished second. Oh well. Live and learn.

I wouldn’t say that the house is a “fixer-upper” rather, a home in need of some love. Granted, there are some serious home improvement projects that need to be done (think- rip out upstairs bathroom and completely redo because the tile is falling down), but that will come in time when we have an influx of cash to do it right. I refuse to spend money to put a “bandaid” on it. The previous owners were relocated over a year and a half ago, so the house has been vacant for quite some time. The gardens have been unattended, but thankfully we’ve had quite a bit of rain to sustain the flowers. And the weeds. Gotta do something about those.

But, first things first. Prep the walls for painting and paint. The appliances are going to be delivered on Friday, so I am hoping to have the kitchen painted by then. I’m painting above the wainscotting.

Sweet Pea’s room needs a good spackling job, which Keith began and I am working on today (after Sweet Pea wakes up from her nap). I’m doing random spackle jobs and more prepping so we can get as much painting done as possible. The prep work is was takes so long!

My friend Paula came yesterday afternoon to help out. I am so thankful for all our friends that are offering their time and talents. It definitely takes much longer to do ANYTHING when there’s a baby around… Sweet Pea started trying to crawl so we have to take breaks often when she “faceplants” on the floor and cries… so the support and help of friends is definitely priceless!

Yet again I am frustrated by my dog’s aggression towards my neighbors.

She was tied on the line out on the back deck, sunning herself like she loves to do.

The president of the condo association, a nosy woman in her 70’s who has never been particularly nice to me, walked behind our place to get to the flower bed on the end of our building (two units away).

Mercy went absolutely nuts, lunging off the deck steps (I only give her about 2 1/2 feet of slack off the deck because of this issue). Madame Presidente backs up to the fence (a good ten feet away), “apologizing” and muttering in that tone of voice that really says “you crazy yuppie and your stupid viscious dog,” about to trip over herself while scurrying past.

Once again, I yanked Mercy up the steps, probably looking like the crazed woman that my neighbor thinks I am. Is there any way to humanely bring a dog in who is totally losing it? I haven’t figured that out yet.

I don’t have the time or patience or need to reintroduce my neighbors to my dog. We’re moving in 2 weeks. At our new place, there will be introductions and training abound. And NOBODY will be walking through our backyard.

I get that Mercy is trying to protect us from the evil Madame Presidente, from cigarette smoke, from the other nosy neighbor who is incessantly “tinkering” on the building and near our entrance. I get that she flips out when people are encrouching on our “space” even though that “space” is really “common area”. Heck, I get mad when people walk  behind our deck. I don’t like the “common area” concept. I don’t like living in a condo. I am so thankful we are moving out of here. I’m about to lose it otherwise. I NEED SPACE.

Phew. Thanks for listening. I feel better now.

My life has been a giant to-do list lately. Mostly move related.

Finally, our condo is rented to a lovely couple who is getting married in the fall. They’ll be moving in shortly after we move out! We listed the property on Craigslist and utilized a free web program called V-Flyer to make a professional looking listing. It took 8 days to rent the place- and we didn’t have to spend any money for classified ads!

So now it’s full steam packing ahead. Stumbling over boxes, not being able to find anything. I’m sure you can relate.

And a little decor planning for the new place.

I found this cool site through Better Homes & Gardens that allows you to virtually arrange your furniture in your house. You input the room’s dimensions, add architectural elements like windows, doors, etc., and then add the furniture you have. Very fun. BHG has a variety of web programs to try out new color schemes, arranging your deck and yard… it’s quite easy to spend way to much time on there.

I get to buy appliances for the first time in my life this week! A fridge, stove, and hood. I just need to find someone who can install the hood. Is it complicated to put a vent through brick?

I’m researching dog-containment systems (aka the invisible fence type deal) for Mercy, but we will probably be doing some cheap snow fencing for the first year. I just like to plan ahead… logistically and financially.

I’ve been weeding through the different things we want/ need to do to the house and phasing it out. We need to paint NOW, but we don’t need new bedroom linens immediately. Unfortunately, the linens in a bedroom affect the wall colors, so it looks like we’ll be going quite neutral for now. The bathroom needs some work but it works until we have a influx of cash to redo it. The floors should be refinished but that may or may not happen based on how quickly we paint.

In the midst of the above mentioned chaos, I’ve been enjoying walking to the gym as often as I can, since we are currently only a block away. Once we move, we’ll have to drive 2.6 miles to get there. Working out has been my sanity.

What helps you keep your sanity?

Ahhh… garden dreams….

Keith shot this photo in the lovely town of Lewiston, NY, about a month ago. I love it! The bright colors, the white picket fence, the whole package.

Little did we know that one week after seeing these beautiful blooms that we would have found a home for us, and one with fabulous gardens too! So next spring, we will have beautiful tulips blooming in our own yard!

Now, what to do about Mercy and the gardens… and the not-completely-fenced-in-yard.

I took this photo in Lewiston, NY on May 17th because I thought it was crazy that gas there was $3.99/gal. It was over 5 cents more than where we live. Today, June 15th, we visited the same area and I saw prices of $4.27/ gal. In our town it is around $4.20/ gal.

This is an increase of between 26 and 28 cents over the course of 30 days.

There is no way that “increased demand” could cause an increase of this magnitude in such a short period of time. The only way that could be the culprit to these recent spike in prices is if there were suddenly a billion people who had never previously used oil appear on the earth.

Can somebody say “price manipulation?”

We need answers and solutions NOW.

Sound off here.

We’ve found a home and we are going to be moving! We are very excited, to say the least, and very busy. Cleaning up the condo, packing when we can… and all the million papers, documents, & insurances we need to get taken care of in the mean time. Our closing date is in mid-July.

At last, a garden to call our own.

My hourglass sweater is complete, and I am waiting for the weather to cooperate for an outdoor photoshoot!
In the mean time, I have decided that a “sanity” project is needed for me during this transitional time.

Daphne’s Baby Cape is back on the needles, the, uh, correct size needles I mean.

Garter Stitch. All garter stitch. Doesn’t get any better than this.

Except for the fact that I may run out of yarn. Ravelry talk points out that 3 skeins of Cascade 220 will NOT be enough, despite what the pattern says. Hopefully I can get ahold of a fourth skein.

I can pause in the middle of a row and not worry about messing up anything. It’s also great Stanley Cup playoff knitting too.

GTG! The puck drops soon!

Have you ever heard of GasBuddy.com? It’s this sweet site that allows you to punch in your zip code and it will then show you the gas prices at various stations all around your area.

Even though a penny less a gallon realistically only saves me about 11 cents (I have a 12 gallon tank car) it’s the psychological aspect of “sticking it to the gas man.” Or something.

Speaking of gas and cars and such… has anyone revisited the idea of being a one-car family?

We have casually considered it… I’m a stay-at-home-mom with a 6 month old so I am not carting people around to various activities. My ventures out of the house consist of the grocery store, bible study (which is now done for the summer),  a moms group (also done for the summer) and Babies R Us once a month for diapers. I go to the gym a lot too, but we usually walk there since it’s 2 blocks away.

I don’t go out and drive for the heck of it, especially now, and if I am sitting at home, not going places to conserve gas, then why in the world do I have a car? Granted, it is convenient. And nice. And the way we’ve always done things. But I am starting to wonder if it’s really necessary…

Any frugal thoughts? Gas/car related or otherwise?

And I think she likes it! I know I do.

It’s the Cabled Coat with Hood from Debbie Bliss’ Baby Cashmerino book. This pattern was the reason I bought the book!

The specs:

Size: 6-9 months

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash DK in Cornflower (I couldn’t spring for cashmere when I knew there would be spit up on it!)

Needles: Size 3 addi’s- the pattern said that you would need size 2 and 3, but nowhere in the pattern did I see any indication to use the size 2’s… so I just used the 3’s.

Started: January 2008

Finished: May 2008

I love this coat. I am SO happy that we have a little bit of a cold spell here in late May so that Sweet Pea can wear this!

The 6-9 month size should, by all indications, fit her throughout next winter, due to the longer style of the coat.

I do no have any buttons for this yet, because I am a little nervous about the choking hazard it would pose. I plan on waiting until Sweet Pea is past the put-everything-in-your-mouth stage before buying buttons. I also had not sewn the pocket linings down when I took the above photos.. I’ll get to that soon…

Cabling without a cable needle is a must for this project and a new skill that I have mastered after finishing this!

And we got to show it off last week at my cousin’s lacrosse game:

Thanks for your support on my last post! Ahhh child rearing…

What about dog rearing? It is Dogs on Thursday, you know. And I have a dog in need of some intervention. Dog Whisperer, are you out there???

She’s generally a happy dog, but she HATE HATE HATES my neighbor. A lot. I think she would bite him if she got near enough. I’m not sure why; he is 75-ish and smokes- the smoking bit is one of Mercy’s phobias, remember? But seriously, it’s embarrassing. And I don’t know what to do.

Mercy doesn’t seem phased at all by this afternoon’s “barking mad” incident. my neighbor was out puttering in front of the condo and Mercy was having NONE of that. She sounded like she wanted to rip him up! Fortunately she couldn’t, and didn’t, as I promptly brought her inside.

The “sun spot” is back and she  couldn’t be happier.

It’s tough to stay mad at her. Especially when she looks like this.