amberica | Entries tagged with housing

The other evening I was out on the porch in the swing with Bonzo at my feet, just looking out over the meadow and relaxing, when suddenly Bonzo sat up and went, "Woof!" - which is pretty rare if you know this dog! I looked towards the woods where he was looking, and there was a deer just coming out of the trees and looking around! Bonzo gave another little woof and the deer slowly turned around and took her time going back into the woods. Jon told me that our neighbor Henry had told him that the deer were going to start coming out more and more and eating the flowers and acorns on the hill below our house.

I have seen a few cranes since we moved out here. One of them scared me half to death. I was down on the far side of the meadow looking through the grass and trees at the pond - I wanted to see if I could find the turtle I always see there - and a gigantic crane flew right up out of there where it was hidden and right over my head! They seem a lot bigger than you'd expect them to be when they are in flight - especially just a few feet away from you. I saw another one flying across the highway when I came home from work yesterday. They always seem to look like they are flying in slow motion, through molasses. It seems crazy that they can stay aloft at that speed.

I know they aren't herons because they fly with their necks way out in front of them. It looks bizarre. Makes me think about pterodacyls.

Current Location: Living Room

Inga called at about 7am on Wednesday morning and said she'd be in the cities by late afternoon, and would I be able to hang out? I was TOTALLY surprised (pleasantly!) and said sure! However, there was a lot going on that she had to attend to and things got a little beyond us, so we didn't end up getting together until Friday night. But that was really nice - she got to come up to the new house, see me and Jon, meet Bonzo, and just hang out and have a good old time. I let her crash in our guest room since it was pretty late by the time we finally met up, and it would be a long drive back to the friends' house in St. Paul where she had been staying on a loveseat. So I was really happy to offer up our spare bedroom. ^_^

We finished cleaning the old house today. Scrubbing, mopping, all that grand stuff. Bleh. But at least it is DONE now. The landlords there are SO hard to get a hold of, so I emailed them and said we are finishing the cleaning today, we are leaving the keys and garage door opener there, and I gave them our forwarding address and new home phone #. If I don't hear from them by the last day of this month, I'm going to call and call until I actually reach someone. No matter how eager I am to be DONE with dealing with those deadbeats, I'm not sacrificing the deposit!

Before going back to clean the old house, we dropped Bonzo off at the GROOMERS! Wheee!!! I'm so excited to see what he looks like under all that stinky moppy hair of his! I told them that they could trim him short everywhere, no feathering necessary, but that I just wanted to keep a little bit of the silky spaniel ears there. I'm going to pick him up in about an hour and I just can't WAIT to see how he looks!

Will post before-and-after pictures for SURE. This will be awesome. Too bad I can't post before-and-after SMELLS, cuz he was a stinky boy, and now he's going to smell just lovely and perfumed for at least a day or two, or until he rolls in something foul out in the meadow! LOL

OK, to recap: We closed on the new house on Friday morning. I headed to work, while Jon took the rest of the day off and moved 2 trailerloads of stuff out of the old house and into the new. After work, I helped move a third trailerload. Bear in mind - we have not "packed" much of anything into boxes yet! This was all big stuff like furniture! This activity continued throughout the weekend. We now have one big house with a lot of large furniture in the garage (and some that has been brought into the house), one smaller house that has a lot of non-packed things in it, and a lot of boxes that need to be filled and moved. ( Read more... )

So that's one more thing DONE off the list. The closing was this morning at 9:00 and took just one hour. Impressively quick.

*WHEW*

Grabbed an Egg McMuffin on the way home and ate it while Jon started disassembling the air hockey table to load it into the trailer. I guess he took the rest of today off, so a lot of moving will already be done by the time I leave work at 5:00.

Nice.

So now there is the stress of moving, then Burning Man is coming up, then the wedding, and THEN, sometime after September, I might be able to relax. But I'm not counting on it.

Current Location: At the office

We bought a new (riding) lawnmower today, which was a good and necessary purchase. It can have a plow attached for winter driveway-clearing, and it is going to be used as a regular tractor to pull the Bad(d)erpillar at Burning Man this summer. Jon assures me he will clean the air filter every day while we are out there. Hopefully it won't die.

The mower was a good price because it was returned to the store and "rebuilt" - I can't remember which part was replaced, but I'm not too worried about it. It still has the manufacturer's 2-year warranty. And it really was a very good deal. Plus we got an additional 10% off by getting a charge card for the store. Before we checked out, we did one last run through the store to see if there was anything else we needed. I didn't think we would get anything else since we found out Fleet Farm actually offers wedding registries (!!!), so we will probably end up starting one of those later on. But then, at the back of the store, we found an air-hockey table that had been marked down from $329 to $169. Oh dear... Plus, it would be another 10% off with the new store credit account... which means that if we just got the mower for full price (which was still a bargain) and applied the 10% discount from that and the air-hockey table, the table ended up costing only $80 or $90! Ooohhhhh dear. Jon loves air hockey. This sale was in-store only and ends on April 2nd or until stock runs out... so if we waited and put it on the wedding registry, someone would have to want to spend $329 on it for us - not too likely. So we bought it. I figured $90 was a small enough price to pay for in-home air-hockey, and it will be perfect in the new rec room... Plus it will be an incentive for our friends to come visit us more often when we are living out in the boonies! Ha, ha!

So yeah. If you want to come over and play air hockey with me, feel free! We are setting it up in the dining room in this house tonight... I hope it's not too loud. I never even thought of that. Hmm...

Current Mood: weird

...that's right, the one I've been agonizing about. (Not so much on my LJ, but more in person and on the phone with family and friends.) Let me refresh your memory with a LINK.
( Would you care to read some more agonizing? )

This is the house Jon likes: Clicky

We drove by this on Sunday. It's a beautiful area, very "nature-y" and stuff. I think Jon is most gung-ho about the 4-stall garage - hah. I think he is going to email this to Angela so we can look inside it next weekend.

A few things concern me about it, though. It is older - most of the other houses we've seen have been built in the 90s, with a few in the 70s or 80s, too. It is in Forest Lake, MN, and we used the odometer on the way home to find out that it is about 25 miles from my work. Bleh. Yes, I know plenty of people commute into the cities from much further away than that, and I won't be at this job forever anyway, but it would still take a lot of getting used to. According to Google, the CLOSEST Target store is 10 miles away from Forest Lake. AAAUGH!! What would I do without a Target every 2 blocks?!? I don't know if I could survive!

The good news is that Jon is very handy around the house, of course, and would be able to do a lot of maintenence and fixing-up if necessary, which would save a lot of money if repairs had to be done... I really liked the gigantic 2-level deck overlooking the pond and golf course... I don't really like all those trees that were around it, but at least they were not totally crowding the house and "yard" - I have to put it in quotes because 2.8 acres is a little more than a "yard" - heheh.

Well, I'll be eager to see what it's like inside. Will probably mention something about it next week.

OMG I WANT THIS ONE THIS ONE THIS ONE!!!

OK, maybe not right now, but ( click here to read more... )

Current Mood: exhausted

I decided to come to work at 9 this morning instead of 8. Why? Because I was tired and cranky and didn't want to wake up in time to get here by 8. Plus, I reasoned to Jon as I was getting ready, I usually stay about 15-20 minutes late anyway, so it all evens out in the end. I think he is going back to work today, probably this afternoon. I invited him to come have lunch with me here in the cafeteria. I don't have any leftovers in the fridge at home and don't know if I feel like making something from scratch for lunch today.

And yet, even though I took my time waking up and made sure I felt nice and not-rushed when I left the house, something is not quite right. I got here just before 9am, and it's only 10am now! How can time move so slowly?? Seriously, to repeat something I said yesterday, what did I used to DO here???

On the playa, I spent a lot of time relaxing in the shade, walking the city, chatting with people, and COOKING! My favorite part of Burning Man is food preparation. I love feeding people! Our friend Jesse spent a lot of time at our camp letting me feed him, so that really made me happy. When we got home, I did a lot of cleaning and putting away and organizing and cooking and list-making. This makes me happy. This makes me feel productive.

When I am here in my office, I spend a lot of time waiting for someone to email me with something to do. I spend a lot of time biding time. I do petty things that end quickly. The projects I do have, I don't enjoy... not in the same way I enjoy feeding people ;)

To me, this all adds up to tell me that I should be a housewife! I would have no problem with running a household full-time, for no pay. (Although it would be really neat to get paid for it!) The way I see it, running a house is just like running any other small enterprise. You have to keep tabs on all kinds of inventory, pay bills, keep the place clean and organized, keep records, work with contractors, etc, etc, etc... And someday maybe, there would be kids to work into that mix. There's a big portion of the day - keeping up with those...

I want to feel dirty and busy and happy. I want to be out in the sun during the day. I don't want to have to wear clothes that need ironing and shoes with heels every day, only to change into my "real" clothes when I get back home to my "real" life. I don't want to HAVE to wear makeup every day. I want to be able to wear as much or as little clothing or makeup as I want to feel happy. Sometimes I want to pile on so much makeup I look ridiculous but feel "pretty". Sometimes I don't want to wear a shirt. Or bra. Or pants or ANYTHING. Sometimes I want my hair to be all crazy looking. Sometimes I want to just wake up and wash my body and call it good for the day.

I want to have more time to be able to plan meals. I want to share more recipes with my relatives. I want to dance while I walk. I want to have more moments in the day where I have to stop... and LOOK... and say, "Holy shit, look at THAT!"... EVERY day.

Done rambling. Transmission end.

Current Mood: discontent

We skipped the Temple Burn so we could leave on Sunday afternoon instead of Monday morning. Took 3 days driving home instead of 2. Very nice and easy.

Got home Tuesday at about 6:00, and took the loaded-down car straight to the new house where we unloaded everything in the garage. Picked up the cats after that. Went to bed.

The rest of the week was moving crap into the new house. I still have quite a bit of stuff in my apartment, but I still have 3 weeks to move it. I doubt it will take me longer than the remainder of this week plus the weekend for the large things.

Jon just needs to get the piano moved out of his place and he will be done there. He has 2 prospective buyers already - one is the father of his neighbor (he wants to buy it for his OTHER son!), and the manager of the trailer park has expressed interest in buying it directly, although he would probably get a lesser price for it that way. Either way, he will do fine.

Back at work this morning. 296 emails. 3 voicemails. Tired. I feel strange. This is not fun. I should have eased back into this with a couple half-days, but I already lost all my PTO when I switched from C&W to Veritas. So I was already on unpaid time off most of last week. I can't afford any more of that.

It's only been 2 hours. What did I used to DO here? What am I doing??

Current Mood: uncomfortable

So. Remember how just a short while back in my apartment building there were TWO fire alarms within 6 weeks? Both late at night, and both HIGHLY annoying? Well there were. Trust me. I don't want to mess around with linking to them, but they are there.

That did not happen last night. Nothing bad did. BUT. This morning, I got up and walked into the bathroom to take a shower as I do every day. I pulled back the shower curtain and EEK!!!! the tub was full of backup!! There was all this yucky murky water, about 1/3 tub full, and it had all kinds of black crud and crumbs of crap in it. Ewww. For a split second I thought it was a bath I had taken and forgotten to drain, but then I remembered that the last time I took a bath was on Sunday night, and I had taken a shower Monday morning, so that wasn't the case. And drainage was fine on Monday morning. So all this backup happened sometime between Monday and this morning.

I was not happy to see this. I was already running later than I wanted this morning. So I had to grab some shampoo and go wash my hair in the kitchen sink with the sprayer, and then I went and did a quick sponge-bath in the bathroom sink. Grrr. Got dressed and all that jazz. Tried unsuccessfully to use the plunger on the bathtub drain. Nothing. When I finally left for work, I swung by the rental office to mention the problem, but no one was there!! And it was after 8! So I came to work and tried calling the office again. No answer!!! I left a voicemail about the drainage issue, and told them to feel free to just go in there and look at it if they need to... Although I suspect it's probably a bigger issue than just my tub.

I guess I'll see what happens when I go home for lunch today...

But yeah, this is another reason why I guess I'm not TOO sad about leaving this building... although overall, it's been a really pleasant place to live, and I'll miss the pool, even though I never used it much.

Then again.... what if the new house has even MORE issues?? (>_<) D'oh.

Current Mood: annoyed

I don't know what reminded me of this, but I want to write it down so I don't forget. There is a house half a block away and across the street from our new house (well, the one we'll be renting and MAYBE buying in the future), and this other place recently got sold for - I kid you not - $449,000!!!!!1111oneoneone omgwtfbbq!!!!

It's nothing special! It's just a 1-story rambler with a double garage! Ack! I mean, it looks like it's a pretty nice place, and it's got a nice yard and stuff... But W-O-W.

frino just told me that the nicer houses in the little town where she lives right now are $80-$100K!!! Someone smack this town!! What is the DEAL with these prices?!!! I bet I could go just 20 miles away and pay half that for the same home. Then again, I wouldn't be as close to the Cities, and I guess that's something you pay more for.

Eek.

Last night I was woken up at about 3:00 am. The fire alarms in my apartment building were going off, and so was my smoke detector. This happened several weeks ago at about 11:00 pm, just as I was going to bed. Last time, I crabbily wandered out into the parking lot in my pajamas with all the other tenants, waited for the fire department to show up, and then went back in when they told us it was just a faulty detector that caused that alarms to go off.

This time, I was DEAD asleep, and not at all pleased. I live on the ground floor, and my patio door opens right onto the grass, and then I can take a few steps into the lot. I scowled to myself, still half-asleep, and decided to stay in my bed. If there was a real fire, I'd get up and throw on a robe and go out my patio door. But until I smelled smoke or heard people outside yelling about flames, I was going to stay put. Plus, I was sleeping naked and did not particularly feel like putting anything on if I didn't have to.

So I stayed in bed scowling at the noise. I saw the lights of the fire engine flashing through my blinds when it arrived. I heard firemen go stomping up the stairs. I continued to scowl.

Then the alarms stopped honking, and my smoke detector stopped squealing outside my bedroom door. I didn't hear any sounds of panic. I didn't smell smoke. I stayed in my warm bed, waiting for a signal. A few minutes later, through my bedroom window, I heard a fireman go back outside and tell the suckers out in the parking lot that they could go back inside. That was all I needed to hear. It was now after 4:00 am, and I fell back asleep immediately.

This is ridiculous. I swear it has only been about 6 weeks since the last time this happened... Yeah, that's right... last time it happened the night before I started my new position here at work, and that was June 16th. I am SO glad to be moving out of that building soon. Overall, it's been a nice place to live, but now that I know I'm going to be moving into the house on Lydia Avenue, I'm feeling less and less satisfied with my little apartment. It's just like when I got the promotion - in the weeks before I transferred over to the new position, I found myself starting to dislike my old position a lot, even though I had previously liked it. I guess when I know for sure that I won't have to deal with something in the near future, I stop being vigilant about seeing the good in it. Huh. Interesting.

Current Mood: cranky

Jon showed me today that to get even a halfway decent house, you have to spend about a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS. And no, that is not an exaggeration. It is ridiculous. Apparently prices just skyrocketed in very recent time, and it is STUPID. Even with a 30 year mortgage and a $200K house, you would have to pay $1600 a month JUST for the mortgage payments! And then there are all the utilities and maintenance, let's throw about $400 out for that, and FOOM! There goes a couple THOUSAND dollars EVERY SINGLE MONTH!!!!

Stupid stupid stupid.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: My refrigerator is making that funny noise again

Not that many people read this on a regular basis, but for those of you who do, here is the latest news of my situation:

I will be shutting off my internet tomorrow - Thursday, September 30th, 2004 - loading my truck on Friday, and moving to the Twin Cities on Saturday. Due to the "job transition" time, I will most likely not have internet service again until November at the EARLIEST, quite possibly much later since I need to get settled into my new home, new job, and new budget. Plus, once I pay off my car in December, I will have a lot more money available, and I should be due for a raise by then anyway if I take the job that is on the table in front of me right now. More about that another time.

However, I will be checking my email from time to time, either at the Library or at

zebracar's house, and I will TRY to post on here if I can, but no promises on that. I also don't know what my phone number will be, since Verizon says they will change it within 10 minutes of the time I call them to request a number change, and I don't want to do that until I am set in my new place, so anyone who wants to reach me will have to email me, send an offline message on Yahoo (not guaranteed to get it though), or call my old Fargo number up until sometime next week probably. I will be emailing people once I get the new number, and let you know what it and my new address are so you can bring me wine and cheese.

I have been craving wine for a couple weeks now... especially Merlot.... and now for almost a week I have also been craving cheese.... any kind of cheese.... mmmm, cheese. Maybe goat cheese... or really anything I guess. I don't even care anymore. I just don't want to buy any right before I move!

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Mountain - You are Terminated (HBR1.com - I.D.M. Tranceponder)

I am not feeling well. Rather distraught, actually. I thought I was angry, but now I'm not sure if it's that or frustration or sadness or WHAT. Maybe boredom? Somehow it always seems that I tend to go a little bonkers on my days off (like today) when I don't have an extremely rigid schedule to stick to. I almost prefer being at work to days like this.

I just want to get OUT OF HERE. When I say that, I don't know if I mean out of this room, out of this town, out of this life or what. I just feel like somehow I need to escape something. It is a distressing feeling. I don't feel hopeless, but more like I am fully capable of doing what I need to do for myself but I CAN'T because I am trying not to upset any other balances that may hinge on any of my personal actions. Does that even make sense???

Honestly, I don't really think I even have a point here. I just feel so generally frustrated and upset that I need to vent a little bit, and this was pretty handy since I am dinking around on the computer ALL THE TIME anyway.

I felt really bad this weekend when Jon was here. I got that same feeling that I get once in a while that I'm just not very much fun for him. He denies that, but what if he is just being polite? What if he is IN denial and doesn't realize how dull I really am compared to someone like him??? Seriously, what can he see in me? What is so appealing about me? He is so creative and colorful in his life, and I am just so boring and bookish and DULL. I still wonder if he really even knows me. What he thinks he knows about me. What he has fooled himself into believing about me.

Why do I still find myself plagued by these same doubts again and again? Why don't they stop? Why do I feel so insecure regarding him and me? Why haven't I felt this pathetic in relation to anyone else EVER?? God I wish it would stop. I want everything to go away. I want to start over somewhere. Maybe it will help if I can get my own place sometime hopefully soon. I am really a pretty private person, I like having my private space and all that. Maybe that day will come again soon. Maybe when that happens I will be able to get everything back in perspective. All I feel like doing lately is just holing up in my room, hiding out in my own little space. Hell, that's really all I've felt like doing since I moved in here. It's the closest I can get to having my "own place" right now. It's not that I have a problem with Inga, she's a great girl, but somehow I can't seem to funtcion properly unless I'm alone a hell of a lot of the time.

Where am I going with all this? I just seem to keep rambling on and on with no end in sight. I'm sure I'll stop typing soon, since I have to go to bed like 10 minutes ago.

I found 7 apartments on Apartments.com in Roseville and New Brighton so far. They are really nice. Some of them are almost what I'd call amazing. A few are 2-bdrm 1.5-bath, but no 2-baths. Still, all under $900. I have also been tossing around the idea of still getting a place all by myself. Inga suggested both of us moving into her friend's old place but it's an older place in Minneapolis, which I'd really like to avoid if possible. Her original plan was to go to the cities after school anyway, I had made up my mind to go to the cities quite a while ago independently too... Maybe it would be better if we did just split our paths this fall and strike out seperately? I have a specific area I would prefer to be in so that I can be closer to Jon and closer to the job I hope to get in Shoreview. Plus, I really do like the northern suburbs... it's a pleasant area! Inga has her people and her connections down there that might be in different areas, and that's ok too. I guess she has her reasons for wanting to be in certain places, and I'm not going to force her to stay away from those. I don't know. We'll have to talk more about it and figure out what would work best.

Well, I better get to bed. I have to work Friday-Monday and then I get Tuesday off. I hate these stupid working weekends. At least I get paid tomorrow. *sigh*...

Good night world.

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amberica

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Page Summary

Animals
Interesting weekend so far
Busy weekend
Closed on the house
New Toys
The House in Forest Lake
The house Jon likes
Pretty pretty houses
Decompression sickness
Not only back, but at work too
Why I'm glad to be moving soon
No point, I was just thinking of this
Fire drill
Stupid houses
Wine. Wine and cheese.
Not happy

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Page generated Jan. 13th, 2026 11:21 am

Left Brain, Right Brain

My Psychic Hokey-Pokey

Entries tagged with housing

Animals

Interesting weekend so far

Busy weekend

Closed on the house

New Toys

The House in Forest Lake

The house Jon likes

Pretty pretty houses

Decompression sickness

Not only back, but at work too

Why I'm glad to be moving soon

No point, I was just thinking of this

Fire drill

Stupid houses

Wine. Wine and cheese.

Not happy