Lucky Charms Archaeologist

Because I have been literally running at 100% for more than a week now, trying to get this house put together and working, I have indulged the children with a few kid favorites that are usually off limits except for special occasions.  

They've had Bagel Bites, Pringles, and Lucky Charms.  Oh happy week for them!

No one told this kid how to eat Lucky Charms.  He figured out how to dig through the cereal, find the marshmallow treasures, eat those, and throw the rest across the room for Mom to clean up.  

What a natural!

House Adventures

There was a tree with very large fruit in the back.  We wondered what it was, as the fruit was very large.

So husband opened one up.  It is a lemon tree...inside a lemon from a lemon tree.

And I have spent much of the past week trying to keep the pool and spa from committing suicide.

I don't even want to admit to how the spa ended up empty...

Husband and I are trying very hard to learn how to take care of them but they are not being very helpful...

However, you should the see the arm muscles I am building from this whole adventure.  I am looking very toned...

Adventures in Settling In

While I was unpacking the bathroom the other day, Baby had escaped his handlers and had a water bottle in hand.  He poured it down a wall and on the carpet.  Which made a mess...and shorted out two electrical sockets in the bedroom, two in the bathroom, and possibly the light in the shower room.  

There were no sparks or anything.  Just no way to use the sockets.  We waited until everything dried and then threw the breakers.  No luck.  Then Husband opened up the wall and replaced the socket.  Still no luck.  Being brand new homeowners, we now have the option of calling an electrician.  Yay...?

***

I know I am amazingly strong.  Mentally.  Physically, on the other hand, I am a 90 pound weakling.  So when I casually opened the front door and pulled the doorknob right off the door, I became a little concerned.  No tiny thing like me should be pulling door knobs right off the door.  

I texted Husband.  He said he noticed that it was loose a few days ago and he would fix it.  Phew!  

***

I am sooooo grateful to have a handy husband. 

***

Somehow the vacuum in the pool got air in it so it makes a strangled, gagging noise every time it runs.  I'm betting our neighbors love us right now.

Having a handy husband only goes so far though.  He put it on my list to figure out how to fix the vacuum and take care of the pool.    

Sigh.  Where is a magic learning wand when you need one?

Oh wait...we have google.  Never mind.  I have no excuse.

***

The city fixed the water main problem that our paid-for-plumber most likely broke.  There were no complications, no need to jackhammer the driveway, and hopefully only a $100 charge. 

***

Still have the old house for a few more days.  I cleaned it out but the kids are finishing up school nearby so I stop by every day to check on things, get mail, etc.  I stopped by yesterday and our awful neighbor had cut down tree branches and thrown them on our side of the fence.  

He has done this before and I never confronted him about the rudeness of it.  I just picked up the branches and put them in our green waste.  More than once.  I'm kind of a pushover.  (Although I prefer to think of it as a natural skill left over from my journalism days...I love to watch to see how things will naturally unfold and think that intervening is cheating the natural results...odd but true...)  

One of the reasons we got serious about looking to move was because this guy was moving the renters out (who were fantastic neighbors for the years we lived there) and was moving himself in.  Having encountered him many times over the years, I told husband that I really, really did not want to be neighbors with this guy.  He had boundary issues that would drive me nuts - as I like to be non confrontational and he likes to be a terrible person and neighbor.

Some highlights (other than things like branches):

He would just walk in on the renters, whether they were sleeping on the couch or in the shower.  No call, no warning, no knock.  

He gave them five days to move out a year ago.  On Christmas Eve.  No because they had done anything wrong but because he had sold his other house and wanted to move into their house.  They were stunned.  A few days later, the person who was buying the house died of a heart attack.  Then he told the renters that they had to stay.  They demanded a new lease in writing.

On the day they were moving out (which was before the deadline) he started moving in!  The poor movers were trying to not move his stuff or trip over him and his wife, as our neighbors were trying to keep their stuff separate from their landlord's stuff and move out.  

He is awful to engage with.   

Well no more!  Yesterday, after I discovered the branches, he came over to ask for the owner's name of our house.  

I told him that I would give it to him.

But that he needed to removed the branches from our property.  I gave him a firm, but polite lesson in neighborliness.  "If you cut down some branches, you take care of them.  You do not chuck them over the fence onto the neighbor's property.  I expect you to remove them."  He finally agreed.  Reluctantly.

This morning, Husband stopped by to see if he had removed the branches.  (We are not talking one or two, we are talking a whole tree...).  He had not.  So Husband put them back onto his property.  

He came out of his house yelling and screaming crazy things.  

Thank goodness it was husband.  He told him to take care of the branches, to not throw them over, etc.  Husband was firm.  The guy was belligerent.  Wanted to tell on us to our owner.  Please.  Our owner is awesome.  And we have pretty much moved out.  Husband told him that he would call police if he threw stuff back over.  The man yelled and screamed some more.  

I have to go back to take out trashes today.  Considering his attitude, I may have to call the police.  Let's hope that the next renters will have more backbone than I and cut him off at the start and keep on him.  But I pity the person who has to deal with him.  Ugh.  I would not want his life review.

***

These are the adventures.  Other than that, we are still unpacking, still cleaning and sorting.  But we are still moving forward.  

Bonus Adventure

For two days, the two younger boys were at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They would have been really hard to keep safe during the move.

So Grandma and Grandpa kept them safe and out of the way.  They got spoiled and loved and returned.

On the first night they were back, we put the baby down for bed.  He cried.  He wasn't feeling great and the room was different.  We decided to give him a few minutes.

About two minutes later, the pitter patter of little feet came running down the hall to our bedroom.  It was Everett!

Why is this shocking?

Because he sleeps in a crib.  And, on his first night in the new home, he had figured out how to get out!

Husband and I were very concerned.  Apparently, Baby had figured out how to get the drop side down.

A few minutes later, I heard Husband moving furniture.  He turned the crib around so that the drop side was against the wall and the stationary tall side was facing out.  I lost a small storage drawer underneath but...

...your move, Houdini.  

Pool Time

We haven't heated the pool yet but it was 88 degrees yesterday (in March!) so we let the boys have fun.

How long did it take before these yay-hoos decided to try something ill-advised?

Ten minutes.  

Yeah.  I put the kibosh on this attempt.

Baby?  Not loving it!

But we did find something to interest him...

All my boys...

The Workers and the Chillers

Moving Adventures

We got the keys to the house and went over to check it out.  

That's when I realized the true condition of the kitchen.  Looks super pretty on the outside, was looking a little done on the inside.  I suspect a case of refacing.

Why I didn't open all the drawers and cabinets before and move their stuff aside, I don't know.  Politeness, I guess.  I opened a few, but apparently only the good ones.

Now, I know better.

Thank goodness I have a little experience with kitchens that need some TLC.

I went over to Lowe's, stocked up on scrapers, paint, brushes, rollers, drop cloths, etc.  I had many of these items already...but they were packed.

So with three days before move date, I rolled up my sleeves and threw in my sweat.

This is how it looked before I started.

Some drawers had contact paper residue and some drawers had peeling contact paper from the 80's and 90's.

Some cabinets looked like places where the juvenile delinquent spiders would hang out...

amid the peeling contact paper...

Some cabinets had this interesting vinyl covering which looked sturdy and clean...but was slightly bowed and missing sections of vinyl....

Seriously?  What is with the missing vinyl section?  Cut a rectangle and finish the job!

Some places were partially painted.  Uh...I think you missed a spot...

Lots and lots of peeling contact paper...from three different eras...

Super sketchy...

I pulled up contact paper, scraped the residue, painted first coats, got paint in my hair, worked, worked, worked.

And while I worked, Everett played.  He hung out in the kitchen, eating snacks and trying to paint too.  (I gave him a paintless roller and brush to work with.)  He hung out with Mater and a ball in the empty family room.

And then it was time to clean up and get lunch before we got the boys from school.  Except that I couldn't find the house keys to lock up.  For an hour, I searched an empty house.  I was ready to cry.  Was I going insane?  Ev had been within sight of me the whole time.  Where could the keys have gone?!

I finally had to leave to get boys.  Then I grabbed some food from home and took my little detectives back to the house to search.

Forty-five minutes later, James found the keys.  

Ev had thrown them away.  

Not in the trash bag I was using and had searched through used contact paper and paint detritus three different times.  No.  He threw them in a little trash can in a cabinet that had a single piece of paper towel wrapping in it.  I had searched the can several times.  But the keys were tucked under a fold of the trash bag.  

And all the while, Ev said nothing.    

*****

The next day, Ev and I returned to the house for second coats of paint.  

I, much wiser now, put all keys up on the counter.

I painted and waited for the appliance delivery.  And waited.  And waited.  When they finally came, I was in crunch time to pick the kids up.  I had an hour.  Could they do it?  They said they would try.

Great.

Except that they couldn't fit the washer and dryer through the bathroom doors so they had to take them around the side of the house and remove the laundry room door.  

Then the washer line (from the house) ended up leaking when they turned it on.  We would have to call a plumber.  Then they couldn't find all the parts.  But then they did.

Eventually they got the fridge hooked up and dryer working.  Washer would have to wait and I had to go.  I appreciated their hustle.  

I grabbed my purse, keys, and Ev.  But...I couldn't get the front door locked because in order to open the double doors, we had to drop a latch and I couldn't get it back up and out of the way of the deadbolt lock.  

Twenty minutes of pushing, grunting, and mormon swearing later, I gave up.  I raced to get the boys, got some lunch at home, then returned to see if James could help me jimmy the latch up.

He shoved and grunted.  We were both frustrated.  

Then (because our fingers were so dang sore) he got a broom handle and pushed up.  The latch slid up out of the way like it had never given us a moment of trouble.

*****

Moving day went well.  I was very organized, my body was cooperating, and the moving crew were hardworking.  

We nearly lost the piano twice (once into the pool!) but thankfully we only broke one goblet and the movers broke only one piece of glass for a coffee table.  It could have been much, much worse.

*****

The next day the plumber came to fix the issues. 

Just after they left, we got a visit from a city official about a broken valve to the sewer.  Apparently the plumber called it in.  Still in question is whether or not he broke it.  The city realized we just moved in and said they would fix it.  That was a surprise.  However, by fix it, it means they may have to jackhammer into the driveway.  

*****

So the cabinets need a third coat of paint and I can't put the dishes away until the paint sets.  I thought it would be a few days.  My MIL suggests maybe a few weeks.  Ugh.  But I think she is right.

But here is a snapshot of progress...

This is one of the scary cabinets, now plain white.  No place for teen spiders to hang out.  

And these are the freshly scraped and painted drawers.  An improvement, no? 

*****

Husband fell off a ladder yesterday, rolling his ankle.  I fell down one step, rolling mine.  I am better.  He is limping but moving.  

The bathroom shower area may be prone to mold, as we have taken a shower or two, it seems to be coming out.  The custom doors scrape the tile and need to be sanded down.  We have to put a custom door into the toilet area of the room (using curtains now), still need to get quotes on built ins in the living room and blowing out the tiny walk in pantry, and one door has fallen off its hinge in the blue room.

But we are in.  And moving forward.

The house looks like all the boxes vomited our belongings.  But...slowly it is coming together.

Moving is an adventure indeed.