Every Time I Open The Door

...nothing new ever shows up.

If there is one problem I have learned from being on my own, it is that of;
what do I buy at the grocery store?

And that truthfully bothers me; what do people buy at the grocery store?! We just went shopping at Weis; I love Weis! It is all fairly cheap compared to some other bigger chains, you get great gas rewards, almost every thing is on sale in one manner or another, and it typically has everything I want or need. I just don't know what I want or need. I even went in there with a grocery list, I got maybe one or two items on it and then winged it from there. As it turns out, I am not much for planning grocery shopping.

Every two to three weeks I buy the same items, lots of meats and some veggies and the such in order to get us through the next few weeks.

Our entire food storage fits in one cabinet. 

Yup, there you go. The extent of our dry/canned foods.

Our freezer isn't any more interesting;

Thrilling; I know.

What exactly do people buy at grocery stores?! When I go to people's houses, I see freezers and cabinets chalk full of all kinds of goodies. We use it until our cabinets are bare and then we start over. Is there some sort of rotation buy before we run out policy that we are missing? Further more; are we shopping wrong?!

My next big question is;
What goes in the refrigerator?

I cannot tell you how many times I have stood in front of my fridge and wondered what could possibly go in it. What kinds of foods do people keep in their fridge? How do people keep so much in their fridges without it all getting spoiled? Why doesn't my fridge look like other people's? We use our fridge to hold condiments and drinks.

Case in point:

Sometimes my fridge houses left overs, right now it has drinks, some canned fruit, and I felt that the applesauce needed to be upgraded to fridge status. (I just got sick of it taking up room in my cabinet)

But no matter how many times I open and close those double doors, nothing new ever appears.

When I go to my parents house and open their fridge it is full; you can't stuff anything else in it without it busting at the seems and having to do one of those quick-peek-into-the-fridge-and-hope-it-doesn't-fall-out numbers. I have no fear of foods falling out of my fridge, I have no problem of finding space.

I have no problems;
& that IS my problem.

I realize I should be worried about fixing up the house or worried about how to decorate or maybe even worried about how our lawn grows; but darnnit, I am worried about what goes in my kitchen.

Is this a problem many first time home buyers without children run in to? Am I not at an age where my fridge, freezer, and cabinets should contain more then what is pictured here?

I think I will forever contemplate this. I think I will start trying to buy before running out. 

My goal for this shopping trip was $200 or under. We bought 61 items at $222 before savings. I scanned my Weis card and our list came down to $190 and some change. We saved 14% on our grocery bill. This is my grocery shopping game, to guess at how much I put in the cart and to find my "want to buy" number and come in below. I realize this probably isn't fun for most people, but I enjoy myself. It makes me feel better about spending nearly $200 on one cabinet full of food, part of a freezer, and none of a fridge.

Oh the worries of a first time home buyer..

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

...How does your garden grow?

Ever since I was little I wanted a garden. My Mother always had flowers and trees and bushes that she fought with; as though she was a wild jungle tamer. And sometimes our backyard did resemble that of a jungle, minus the snakes and deadly plethora of bugs/animals.

I do remember once I had claimed a bit of the yard as mine and I planted some plants; they may or may not have grown but I know that area has popped up a ton of Rose of Sharon. I vaguely recall that I don't like that plant, no matter how many you rip out, they all grow back.

I did a fair bit of back porch gardening; that is the kind of gardener I am. I am a greeny brown thumb. If it can go in a pot, doesn't grow weeds, I don't have to walk that far to get to it, I can dump water on it from a watering can, or I can tend to it in any other manner I will garden. To say the least, I'm not a gardener. I believe my older brother got that green thumb gene. But darnnit I try! Every year I would proclaim "I want to start a garden!" and every year I'd get bored and give up. You see, I love watching them sprout and grow an inch or two. Once they get out of that cute as a button stage, I get tired of them.

Lord help me, let's hope I'm better with children, ha!

This year, with having our house and all I decided that I wanted a garden (famous last words..I know). Ron has been semi excited about this, talking about the different tractor attachments and other assorted over priced dirt diggers. He just wants me to let him buy more play toys for him, i.e. tractors, lawn mowers, etc. Love him, but not that much, not yet. Maybe next year. Ha!

When we went to Wal-Mart I wanted to find a pot to transplant my sun flower. I got the tiny pot with the bag of seeds at the Dollar Store. Now that's my kind of gardening. It did grow! Out of five seeds one out grew the rest. I was rooting for the little flower, I set him on my windowsill in the kitchen, I watered him and I protected him from the cat that wanted to gnaw on its little leaves. I put up barriers against the dog that wanted to sniff at it and ultimately make it meet an untimely death.

Bad Animals:

Wait a minute...those aren't mine. They cannot possibly be. That dog you see right there, she terrorizes that poor kitty you see sleeping soundly right next to her. I have looked over and seen that very cats head in that very dogs mouth. Both of them dig through my trash, try to eat my flowers, tear apart our house. Something is very wrong here.

But as I was saying. I was looking for flowers pots; I got some bright yellow 5 cup plastic pots for $1 each. Got three of those. I got a bag of soil, a 72 pot green house (with the most annoying soil rounds I have ever met), and some seeds.

My list includes:

Tomato's. What kind? I don't know..
Oregano (I'm fairly certain seeds should not be allowed to be that small)!
Zinnias
Shasta Daisy
Lettuce
Dwarf Sunflower
Red Potato

On Sunday 4/10/2011 I proclaimed that I was going to go out and garden! I assembled all my stuff, the seeds, the pots, the dirt, a container for water, my green house, scissors, measuring cup, water for me, two red potatoes, a knife, and a fork!

I was set! I was determined! And...I had fun! I plopped my butt down in the driveway and I transplanted my sunflower and added more seeds to its pot. I filled two more pots with ground and added Zinnias to one and Shasta Daisies to the other. I plumped up the dirt rounds in the green house and planted my tomato, oregano, and lettuce.

Then I got to the potatoes. I've only ever grown potatoes once; in a giant pot at my parents house. I was little. I don't remember how I grew them.

So I got my big pot, it's blue, its pretty. I put a brick in the bottom, so it doesn't blow off the front porch where I have found it a home. I put in ground and realized I did not have enough dirt, so I searched around the yard for more soil and I found some! I cut the eyes off the potatoes and stuck those suckers in the ground, watered them, and shoved them out front. Who knows if they'll grow.

My three pots: 

 
You see that little plant right there? That is my hard work! I love that little plant. And yes, that is my dish drying rack. You see, I don't do dishes, I give them to the dog to lick (whose coming for dinner?!). Okay, so I don't wash dishes that way. And my dish rack usually has dishes in it, that were washed with soap. But I don't know what to do with these pots.

Why?

I'll tell you why...

You see that TINY little pot sitting on that TINY little windowsill? That's why. That pot contains more sunflower seeds.

I need bigger windowsills; I dream of being one of those women who gardens at her kitchen window. I want to find a long pot to put my oregano in when it sprouts, screw putting it outdoors; that is not my vision.

I don't know if I will ever get any of my flowers/veggies put into the ground. I might just put them in bigger and bigger pots until they fulfill their duties as leafy plants. I've got a front porch that is not being used and an abundance of sunlight.

My green house is sitting in the unfinished sun room, I opened the blinds to two windows hoping the sun will come in.

If I were to leave them in the main house; that evil evil dog would eat them. Although, I do have to hand it to her, she was trying to dig holes in the yard for her own garden...at least that is what I'm going to let myself believe.

I will update my progress as a gardener as time passes; I do have some more of those tiny pots to grab from my parents house. I love those things!

I Love Being Nerdy

I started school at the start of April, so I can keep working on getting my geek degree. I mean my Associates in Accounting. With the start of a new school and semester I wanted to get everything in order to bring my desk up from my parents house and put it into the sun room my office. I had been dreaming of a nice wood floor in there to go along with my heavier then bricks desk and credenza. Oh yes, how flashy, a credenza.

Off to Home Depot we had gone a couple days earlier and I poured over the prices and colors of pergo wood flooring. The choice between .97 cents a sq ft or .97 cents a sq ft was such a hard decision, so I moved onto the color situation. I had my heart set on a dark cherry but kept convincing myself that I needed a lighter color like a light oak. At the very last minute I decided on Estate Cherry. Gorgeous! We got five boxes and one 8 foot piece of trim (they were out).

This past Saturday 4/9/2011 Ron and I started working on the sun room office. This time I can truly say that we worked on it; well, somewhat. I guess I'm still just an accessory. Ha.

Before

The room did have carpet down, it was only glued down with some nails here and there. The dust it left behind, yuck! We got a wet/dry vac and sucked it all up!

Don't mind the blinds; you see, we got a puppy (4 months old in December, walker coonhound) whom I decided we needed ASAP on a whim. We had no crate for her so I would lock her in the room while I went to work. She decided to redecorate as you can see. It is okay though, those blinds barely worked and were so gunked up. I was planning on taking them out anyways.

This is the progress so far:

This is the first time Ron has put in a floating floor. He learned some trial and error with it. Such as; the obnoxious little metal tool you buy to help pound the joints into place so they click and lock, well it was too heavy and would scuff up the boards! We had an extra piece..ok so it wasn't extra per se but it was one we didn't need, so he butted it up against the boards and used that to help them along. Problem solved!

Isn't the color gorgeous!?

He did some more on Sunday 4/10/2011, and we are nearing the end of me having a pretty new floor!

I'm in love <3

Life Happens

It seems like I took a hiatus from the blog, I wish I had some new pictures to post or some new demolition to post, but I don't. Life is happening all around us and to us. There is SO much going on and going wrong at the moment.

Our truck took a dump; for lack of better terminology. For two months we dealt with trying to get it fixed before just buying a brand new Escape. Along with a brand new car comes the brand new worry of another bill; but a bill that has gotten us out of such a mess. A blessing in disguise, we may look back on this and be thankful. Ha.

He works a lot, there is no way to get around it but work comes first; house comes second. He isn't a super hero and I am still just a girl who doesn't know how to demo a house or rebuild. I wish I could be super house demo girl or something. Although our puppy is trying to do demo work for us, one chair rung at a time. Nom.Nom.Nom.

We are getting married! Thinking, dreaming, worrying, and stressing over the upcoming wedding has had my mind else where. I want to get our house done but I'd rather be picking out flower arrangements. When I get frustrated with one, I kick back into "let's fix up the house!" gear and that turns to frustration quick. It's a no win but both will be accomplished.

It has been raining harshly here within the last few weeks; with rain storms comes learning your house's faults. Our house weeps for our love and by weeps, I mean literally cries streams of water down our basement walls into self wallowing pools of wobbly concrete and another big project to undertake fairly soon.

Oh Money Fairy; where are you?!

The weather has finally turned, we can feel Spring trying to make its arrival. We hope Spring has made its arrival. With the up coming warm weather Ron will be taking out the bathroom window and we will be patching that up in order to start putting the tub in. In reality, it is all a fairly simple process, you build a few walls, put in a tub, put in your toilet, slap down some tile, make sure your lightening works, and shove in a vanity. Oh if only...

The project that comes next or first or during is re-piping the house. Anyone ever play that plumber game where you have to keep putting the plumbing into the right place before the green goo gets you? That is the image I've got in my head.

Once the bathroom is in, the make shift closet (aka our current bathroom) is going be demolished and we will put the washer and dryer there. With shelves. And plenty of space to actually do laundry.

We will be putting the bedroom upstairs together. Gosh, after sleeping in the livingroom for so long, I'm not sure I can muster having to trip walk down the stairs every morning. Maybe we should consider putting the bedroom in the livingroom and the livingroom in the bedroom? Ha!

When Putting In A Bathroom, Rip Apart The Room Above It - Part 1

The first issue we had to tackle in our house was the lack of shower. Now, we do have a bathtub upstairs but it is not really suitable to take a shower in. The water always, no matter how short of time it is off, spits out a bunch of orange gunk and then continues to spit out flakes of what I assume is rust. It's either that or there are oompa loompas with dandruff in our pipes, but I digress.

In male logic and logic that I am sure makes sense to builders and remodelers everywhere, Ron decided we needed (and by we, I mean he) to start ripping the bedroom right above it apart. It gave great access from the first floor to the second and we (again, he, though I do recall helping. Sorta.) ran wires for some sort of eletrical thing.

Now, this bedroom upstairs is a decently sized room, it contains odd angles and a drop ceiling. First order of business was to drop - the drop ceiling.

This is what a drop ceiling looks like when dropped. The rails came out too, no worries.

When people talk about the charm of a house and the personality, they think of the funny little quirks that you run into and the way the house creeks and sighs. When we think about the charm and personality of our house; we think hippies, the 70's, and smoke clouds so thick you can't breathe or see. What brings us to this crazy image?

One might suggest the old as dirt marijuana Ron found in the drop ceiling.

I don't think we laughed so hard as we did finding that. There were two bags in there. Just by touching the bags, the contents basically turned to what can only resemble dirt. Our biggest question was; how do you forget and leave behind that much marijuana?

If the owners would like it back, they will have to dig through our outside burn barrel, as I am sure its been burned to ash many times over now. I instantly (after taking a picture; of course) took it outside, dumped the bags in, dumped in the trash, lit the trash and walked off. Makes us wonder; what else will we find in the ceilings/walls/crawl spaces of our charming little home?

Next came taking the awful paneling off of the walls. We were getting bare and naked, up close and personal with our walls.

The next to go was that carpet, it was dirty, it was gross. Ron cut it and we rolled it up. The problem we faced was this; the carpet was heavy. Really heavy. The backdoor was too far away and the front door was too far from the back yard. What do you do when you just don't know what to do?!

Ah, you take out the window, stuff the rolled up rug out the opening and you shove, and shove, and shove, and shove some more. You talk to it, you yell at it, you even curse a little and you continue to shove, and shove, and shove. Eventually it will get through the window at which point you need to stick your head in awe and pray it doesn't rip the gutters off the house on the way down. Commence throwing the rest of everything in the room out the same window.

Once that ordeal is over, head downstairs, grab something to drink and call it a productive day!

What Makes A Home?

This yellow house sits atop a road named after the stars. Weighing in at 1.5 stories tall, attached sun porch, and wrap around drive way it would make the perfect home for someone looking for - the perfect home. Sure, you can't actually get to the front door without trampling on grass, and sure it looks bigger on the outside, but it is cozy.

I am sure everybody has heard of the phrase "the house has charm" or "well your house just has a lot of personality". Our house, though it has both, is sort of behind on the times. It is as though the memo was sent out but the house never got it. There was no "welcome to the 21st century dear home!", this house was built in 1948 and it was stuck in 1948. (I've got psychedelic red carpets upstairs to prove it too).

If you want ample closet space; this home is not for you. If you would like a shower; this home is not for you. If you would like an oven that works right; this home is not for you. Do you enjoy correct plumbing and wiring? If so, this home is not for you.

But is IS livable. The carpet is fluffy, the walls are standing, there is no drug paraphernalia hidden within the walls.

There is a lot of bad I could say about this house, but it is not "bad", it is good because it is a learning experience, it is life. Real life. It contains the items that we will fix or change.

This blog is about our home. There will be pictures and there will be explanations. There will be "WOW" moments and "WTF?!" moments. But as we go through and redo the entire house, the personality and the charm will start to change. It will start to become who we are, not who the house is or was.

One Lesson Learned

When we first started looking for a home we never expected to find one. It may seem like an un-well thought out plan, but it worked for us. Knowing you cannot afford much and knowing what you can get for what you cannot afford go hand in hand. There's only so many ways to spin an option before it becomes all wound up; we did a lot of spinning and we worked out a lot of equations. That proverbial brick wall that stands in front of some people? We met it, we faced it, and we left our forehead imprints in it. If you would like to become a gambler, start by buying a house. I can gurantee that you will have thrown your money into some tricky situations, that pins and needles will become the new ground under your feet, and even try as you might; you can still lose. I do not ever want to go house hunting again. Ever. Period.

We found our house though. Bless its little yellow heart. Neither one of us are very determined and at that point will power and determination were foreign concepts. We just wanted something; indefinate rejection, a happy outcome, a slight glimmer of hope, anything that would either open the door or nail it shut. If there is one major key factor here, it is to find a determined realtor, one that truly wants to sell a house, make sure his customers are happy, and one who is hell bent on making sure all other realtors and sellers in the process get on the same page. Had we not had that gumption backing us, we'd still be at square one.

Our house is yellow. It lacks insulation. It's rather drafty and cold. There is no shower. The wiring is scarey. The water is smelly. We sleep on an air mattress. We have no furnite. And the mailbox is rusty. But this is our home. This is our charming little house, in the middle of no where.