On a Roll

I was on quite a blogging roll there for a bit, and now I feel like I haven't posted in forever when it's only been about a week. Good for you guys right? I think maybe I've finally got this whole regularly updating thing down!

So remember that guy we found in our backyard? When I was raking the leaves, I found him a new best friend!

I wish his eye was actually glowing, but its just the reflection of the flash in the window.... I think I even like this guy better! I should really name them both.

in other great and exciting news, I got a job! I start next week, doing office work at a synagogue in West Hartford. Yay! I just now need to buy lots of skirts/dresses.

#58

This weekend Paul-John and I tackled #58: Paint and furnish the mudroom. This was a fairly easy project: painting a 5'x5' room doesn't take any time, and we had bought the coat hooks and chalkboard back when we had a zillion home depot and lowe's gift cards. The only thing that's missing is a place to put shoes, but since that really only requires cash and all the hard work is done, I'm marking this off as complete.

We based our color choice on the stone floor. (Also, please note, it is very hard to photograph such a small room well.)

Today's the Day!

Today I start my 101 things in 1,001 days challenge. Thats 143 weeks, or 2.75 years. On my list, Bold items will be tasks I have not yet done, italicized items will be tasks in progress, and regular type will be completed. I am really excited about starting this!

The toughest part about making the list was really thinking about what I want to do in three years. I wanted to keep the list to a certain criteria: either tasks that would stretch me in some way, or things that are fun that can be hard to make time for. As I said to my sister (who is trying to come up with her own list!) it was hard to stay away from chores and errands. So, wish me luck!

As far as our cold homestead is concerned, we will have heat soon! The wheels are in motion! Monday our decrepit, ancient boiler will be taken out and the crew (or person, I'm not sure) will do as much set up as possible. Tuesday the new one will be installed! While initially we wanted a boiler that would be efficient enough to earn us the federal tax credit, it turned out that those were considerably more expensive than we were expecting. So much so, that we are not sure if we would earn back the cost difference with the heat savings. So we are going with a boiler that is 85% efficient with a modulator. Our plumber told us that even though this boiler won't be as efficient as the 94% one, we will still be very happy with it and that it is still a huge upgrade from what we have now. Until then, it is electric blanket and down comforter.

Boiler Woes

Sometime last week, I can't remember exactly when, our boiler broke. (I have been saying "furnace" for four months. It turns out we don't have a furnace.) It must have been Wednesday night. By the time we got in contact with our home warranty provider (from here out reffered to as HWP) and they got in contact with the HVAC company who got in contact with us, the earliest they could see it was Tuesday. So the guy comes, he contacts HWP, they contact us. Turns out that there is a monetary limit on how much HWP will spend on repairs per item, and this repair went over that amount, which means HWP is just going to send us a check for the amount remaining available for our burner. It is not a lot of money.

Because we are not getting the service directly through HWP, we can choose to either just replace what broke or get an entirely new boiler. We also can shop around for quotes since we do not need to use whomever HWP sends over. The bad news to all of this is it's the middle of October and we have no heat. Not to mention that the quotes we have gotten are significantly more expensive than we were expecting. And tomorrow we have to shop around for a loan in order to actually have heat sometime this week. And yes, in a couple of nights it is supposed to be below 40 degrees. Awesome!

On vacation!

Apparently my triumphant return I heralded in my last post wasn't all that triumphant since almost a month has past without another post. However, it is now August, we are officially out of the apartment, and I am on vacation. July was a pretty crazy month. After we finished the painting, wallpapering and floors at the house we moved the minimum amount of stuff we needed into the house and really started to feel settled. I genuinely forgot how much stuff we had left in the apartment. After a couple weeks of taking it easy at the house, we finally got back to work at the apartment. The past week was really intense, with both Paul-John and I working full time and then spending a solid four or five hours packing, moving, or painting at the apartment. It was exhausting, but it feels so good to be finally done.

My vacation starting at 8:30pm EST on Saturday when I left work. Koncewicz is in town for the week, so we met up with him, Mike and Tim at the Dugout. Yesterday, my first full day of vacation, got off to a slow start. Paul-John and I slept in pretty late after hanging with the guys until 3am and spent most of the day running errands. I finally bought a good pair of shoes for our camping trip later this week, did some grocery shopping, and went to Sears Outlet to look for a microwave but didn't buy anything. We had a great lunch in downtown Newington at Goldburger - I had a burger with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, cheddar cheese, bacon, and ranch dressing for under $5.

At night, Tess and Koncewicz came over. Paul-John had bought some Powers Gold Label as a housewarming gift to ourselves and since we are now 100% here, we cracked it open. Not being much of a whiskey gal myself, I made sour mix for the first time which was super delicious and easy, which are the two main qualifications for anything I do in the kitchen. With a little convincing, we were able to get Paul-John to join us for some Scattegories.

My project for the rest of the week?

My triumphant return

I once again return from another absence from my wily blogging ways.  This occasion was much happier - busy due to painting, cleaning, packing, and having our first official party at the homestead.  In addition to being busy with house-stuffs, I don't really enjoy posts without photos, and the thing we used to load photos onto our computer got stolen along with all that other stuff that got stolen.  We just brought the computer over the house last night, and here is a photo of our dining room wallpaper (and me!):

OK, you can't see the pattern as much as I hoped, but it is great.  

Anyways, back to the first official party.  Although it was not the first time we had guests, it was our first real event and it was amazing.  As we suspected, our house is perfect for entertaining.  The menu was pretty simple - a couple grill choices, fruit salad, and beer from us; chips and brownies from some guests.  We just sat around the back patio until the fireworks started and then we sat at the edge of our driveway where we had a terrific view.  Here is a crappy photo from my cell phone:  

Not bad, eh?  I have already declared ownership of this holiday for the rest of the years we live in this house.

In the weeks leading up to the closing, I kept telling Paul-John that I wanted to get to work right away and do as much as possible as quickly as possible, because we have a lot to do before we can move in.  

It sounded like a great plan, but all day yesterday and all this morning all I wanted to do was to sit outside, smile and wave at anyone walking by, hoping they would ask if we were moving in so we could tell them we bought our first home.

Its Official!!

Paul-John and I are now officially homeowners!  Everything still feels very unreal for both of us still - but also very, very awesome.

Yesterday we did a final walk-through of the house, just to make sure nothing crazy had happened, at 9:30am and then made our way to the lawyer's for the actual closing.  While we were in the lobby we met the seller's agent and he was so unbelievable that I may dedicate a whole post to him later.  

We were done signing all the paperwork  by about 11am.  Paul-John was able to remain calm while I kept giving everybody high fives and dancing around.  Of course, we drove to the house and opened a bottle of champagne.  Later we went to our new local deli and ate lunch on our porch.  Paul-John did have to go back to work and I went to Sherwin-Williams and bought primer, paint and supplies, and ordered wallpaper.  Initially I want to get a lot done the first day, but it turns out I was way too excited to get any work done, but thats what Sunday-Wednesday will be, since I have time off from work.