Pests

Anyone know what gets rid of moths? They are everywhere! I have all of our delicates and coats crammed into the cedar closet, because I am afraid to put anything where the moths can get to it. Anyone? Bueller?

One of those days...

Do you ever have one of those days where you just feel like crying? For no apparent reason?

And now I get to go home to this:

Is it normal when you read a blog and someone is all, 'Oh, I am just so beat from painting the bedroom, the hallway, and the dining room yesterday'? Am I just a lazy sack of shit or are those people single-minded freaks? I am excited if I get one box emptied and dinner cooked before 10pm every night.
I posted last Friday (or even the Friday before) that I hoped to get the hallway and the walls and ceiling of the dining room painted that weekend. Still not done. Mr.'s parents came up last Saturday, so I got nothing done. Sunday was big stuff moving day. The Sunday before was Oma's b-day, so dinner at my parents... Now this Saturday I am taking my dad's mom to lunch. She probably won't remember the next day, but what can you do? Maybe Sunday I will make a dent.

Random

Mister put the stool back together last night.

Now after all that work, it only runs once every thirty minutes instead of every three minutes. It just makes me crazy to think about all that water we are wasting. Don't you just love the pearlized seat and lid? Lovely, right? Better than the black seat on the basement stool.

Check out this crazy bug I saw last night.

I got all excited thinking I had just discovered some new, fab species of grasshopper/leaf-bug thingie. I ran to get my camera, telling Mr. "Oooh, I just found the coolest bug ever!". I get back over to him and show him the pics and he's all "Oh, that's a Katydid". Grrr... He knows everything. But don't tell him that. He thinks he's an idiot. No idea how he can possibly think that after all the money he has saved us by fixing everything in existence these past few weeks, but whatever...

Ooh, ooh! I order a new pepper mill from Oxo, cause mine is one of those crappy acrylic monsters that spews salt and pepper everywhere. I am in love! It is officially the coolest thing I own! Is it sad that I think my pepper mill is the coolest thing I own? Anywho... Check it out!

It has five different grind settings! Fancy-schmancy! It's bigger than I thought it would be, but I guess that makes it easier to hold and turn. It grinds so smooth, I can put tons of pepper on everything and my wrist doesn't hurt. It's fab!

Silly

A guy in my office sent this out. I thought it was pretty funny. It is supposed to have a little old lady waving her arm around in between each question, but I couldn't get her to follow me here.

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If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea....
does that mean that one out of five enjoys it?
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Why do croutons come in airtight packages?
Aren't they just stale bread to begin with?
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If people from Poland are called Poles,
then why aren't people from Holland called Holes?
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If it's true that we are here to help others,
then what exactly are the others here for?
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What hair color do they put on the driver's
licenses of bald men?
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.When you put the two words 'The' and
'IRS' together, it spells......................
'THEIRS'?
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Lunch

I was out for lunch today and stopped at a resale shop I had never been to. On Gravois near Sappington for any of you St. Louisans. The Exchange. Not a bad name, but they have been there since January and they don't have a sign up that is big enough to see from the road. I didn't even know it was there until Monday. The lady said it was a consignment/estate sales store. It seemed expensive. And not very well merchandised. The vignettes didn't flow and there were too many small clusters. All-in-all not worth a visit. I did however find a book. It was too expensive($5), but I bought it anyway. I couldn't resist.

It was printed in 1971. It is awesome. Check out these living rooms.

Lime green walls and matching drapes! A wood stove, rock walls, orange drapes, and a floor sconce!

But these don't hold a candle (hehe) to this couch!

I kinda want it... Sad, right?

Are you in the market for some wallpaper?

Here's a great before and after for you (I know you love them):

I definitely prefer the before, no?

More vintage disasters to come!

Hm. Where to begin. So, we have only owned our house since the 2nd. We have only been staying there since, um, maybe the 10th? In 20 days of ownership we have had:

1.) Two attempted, but inevitably cancelled, large item moving days.

2.) I forgot to have our water turned on over a holiday weekend, so we were without water for 6 days (luckily still sleeping at other house).

3.) I made 7 phone calls to AT & T about my internet service, none of which were fruitful, because; neither of our cell phones works reliably inside the house (I had to lean up against the window with them on speakerphone, which is tons of fun when you are talking to another country!) and the calls were inevitably all dropped. I finally talked to a girl from my work phone during the day and she was all "Sure, you can take care of all your registration from your work computer! No problem, do this!" And I was all "Grrrrr... How come none of you fuckers told me that during the last 6 calls! Arg!"

4.) The sink in the kitchen clogged up. After 12 hours, a half-day vacation, a borrowed power washer, a borrowed cutter(an orange hosey-thing to attach to the power washer), and 12,000 gallons of black, rusty, 60-year-old cast-iron pipe and food goop (yum!), Mister finally located the culprit. 60 years worth of S.O.S. pad build-up. I don't say it enough, but I love my fiance!

5.)The toilet in the master bath would not stop running every three minutes, no matter what we tried, so Mr. took it apart.

It has looked like this for 5 days now, because it is so old you cannot buy parts for it. Good thing my man is a jimmy-rigging expert! It has taken five trips to the hardware store, but he thinks today's purchase will fix the problem. (Fingers crossed.) Oh, and we can't just buy a new toilet, because the style equivalent is only available through Kohler and is $800.00. See that beautiful art deco tank? Apparently our old house is trendy!

6.) So while that toilet was out of commission we started using the other main floor bathroom, which is a half with wood floors and lovely plastic mint green swirly tile. Yay! Somehow in using this toilet, we upset the house and the floor in the basement began to leak under said bathroom. I went home at lunch yesterday because I left a window open and it was supposed to storm. I walk in to find the dog has broken free from her room and has eaten more boxes! And Mister's gum! So, I had to clean all that up and when I went to put her back in the room, I noticed a steady drip from the ceiling. I called Mr. and when he got home he went to work on yet another problem. This is what he found under the press board tiles.

Concrete!! And not like "Oh, our house was a slab and they decided to put a basement in" concrete. See those red things? Those are ceiling girders or whatever they call them. Why in the hell would you concrete in the ceiling? WHY??? Now I cannot have another phone jack upstairs. I cannot have grounded electric sockets. I cannot have plumbing that works!!!! Grrrrr again. So now he is going to have to rip out the lovely, plastic tile and go in from the wall of the bathroom. Oh well, gives me an excuse to rip it all out! One bleak ray of sunshine...

7.) We have to do our business in the basement bathroom which looks like this:

Yes, that is a urinal. In my house. This bathroom also has a walk-in shower. With a duck shower curtain. Not like cute little yellow rubber duckies(which my apt. bathroom was totally decked out in like 5 years ago, embarrassing? You decide.), but mallards, wood ducks, and something else. They are labeled. Learn while you pee!

Junk-y Goodness...

Check out all the fun antique crap we inherited along with the house, a "cabin", and four acres....

This cabin was supposedly the first residence on this property. It had been in the family for four generations. It's a bit sad that out of four kids, no one wanted to keep such a unique home.

This is just the stuff outside, in the woods. It doesn't include all the loveliness that was hiding in here:

This toolshed was jam-packed with rusty, rotting, and otherwise useless "treasures". Isn't it amazing how people can work up the energy to take all their good stuff with them, but cannot be bothered to clean up after themselves? I suppose we could have written junk clean-out into the contract, but Mr. was convinced he would find some great shining gem in the piles of decaying debris. Nope.

Flowers

I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home from work and I picked up a bouquet for literally the first time ever. I was inspired by the beautiful flowers Kim at NewlyWoodwards is growing with her super green thumb!I wanted to brighten up my yucky, in-progress house. Well she was definitely right in saying it is much easier to put just a couple flowers in each vase than to arrange an entire tableau. Here is my first attempt at flower arranging:



Pretty sad, no? Makes me wish I had the rest of my vases to spread them out a bit more. Martha Stewart I am not...

Slacker

The title of this post describes me to a T. (Why do people say that? Why not "to an X"? I am sure there is an explanation. If you know it, please, do tell!) We have had our house since the 2nd of July and all I have managed to do is pick the paint for the ceilings/radiators, the living room, and for the dining room. Pick them, not start painting them. That would involve actual work and there is always an excuse to put off actual work. Last Saturday my excuse involved driving to my parents house to pick up the drop cloths, the Wagner power painter (for aforementioned radiators), and to let the dog get some energy out, then going to Lowe's for ferns and Home Depot for paint. I still have not used the dropcloths or the Wagner. Or the paint. The ferns are hung on my front porch, though! Yay for the little things. So, my goal for this weekend is to paint the hallway connecting the dining and living rooms and to paint the ceiling in the dining room. Any more than that and I will feel overwhelmed. But hopefully I will be productive and get more done than that.

Hmmm...

Well, I had a post planned with lots of pics of the new house, but blogger won't upload my photos.... bastards...

Etsy Find

How absolutely beautiful are these pillows by missmosh on etsy.com?

I love, love, love that she focuses on eco-friendly fabrics, too! There are other

options besides the rosettes, but I am completely taken with them...

Click on the pics for links to each listings. She has better quality photos in her shop!

New Recipe

My boss made this Amish Friendship Bread and brought it in to work with the extra starters. I tried it and thought it was simply OK, but I took a starter anyway. The dough takes ten days to ferment, or whatever it does, and of course that tenth day we were staying at the new house. We still don't have everything moved and I had to run to the grocery store for the things I had forgotten to bring. I even had to buy new baking pans! But it was totally worth it. It turned our great! I chose Vanilla Pudding and I added pecans to the mix and on top. I also used McCormicks Cinnamon Sugar instead of just cinnamon in the mix and as the cinnamon sugar combination they say is optional. I also mixed it all in a metal bowl with a metal spoon(*gasp*) which apparently is a no-no, but it didn't catch fire or anything dramatic. I kept one of the starters for myself and I think next time I will try Banana Pudding with pecans and see how that tastes. I also did not use the 1/2 tsp. of salt they call for.

Amish Friendship Bread

Do not use any type of metal bowl or spoon for mixing.
Do not refrigerate; it is normal for the batter to bubble, rise, and ferment.

Day 1 – Do nothing. (This is the day you receive your starter.)
Day 2 – Mush the bag.
Day 3 – Mush the bag.

Day 4 – Mush the bag.
Day 5 – Mush the bag.
Day 6 – Add to bag: 1 c. flour, 1 c. sugar, 1 c. milk. Mush the bag.
Day 7 – Mush the bag.
Day 8 – Mush the bag.
Day 9 – Mush the bag.
Day 10 – Pour batter out of bag into a non-metal bowl.
Add 1 ½ c. each of milk, flour, and sugar. Mix well.
Measure 1 c. batter into 4 separate gallon size zipper bags.
Give starter bags to friends along with a revised copy of this recipe.

Preheat oven to 325°.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 c. sugar, 2 c. flour, ½ tsp. baking powder, 1 large (5.1 oz.) box of instant pudding (pudding flavor will determine flavor of bread), ½ tsp. salt, and 2 tsp. cinnamon (optional). Mix well.

In the bowl with the starter batter add 3 eggs, 1 c. oil, ½ c. milk, 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix well.

Optional: In a small bowl, mix ½ c. sugar and 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon to dust pans and top of bread.

Grease pans (2 large loaf or 3 smaller pans). Use above mixture to coat pans. Pour batter into pans, adding remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture on top.

Bake 1 hour at 325°.

Try getting creative with your mix! Add raisins, chocolate, Heath chunks, toffee, even marshmallows for a taste and a recipe that's all your own! Yum!

Here is the recipe for the starter (from allrecipes.com), in case you don't have any friends passing them around.

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 cups white sugar, divided
3 cups milk

DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes.
In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar.
Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added.
Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture.
Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly.
Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.
On days 2 through 4; stir starter with a spoon.
Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.
Days 6 through 9; stir only.
Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.
Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).

Weekend Update

I signed up for Internet service that was supposed to start on Friday. Unfortunately, the representative neglected to tell me I would need a "dummy" log-in code to set up my modem and did not give me a 24/7 customer service #. So I am still without home internet service. Lovely. One of these days everything will fall into place.

I started deciding on colors for the dining room and living room this weekend. I know I want a pale yellow in the dining room and a tan that will coordinate in the living room, but there are soooo many options!! In our old house I just picked some colors, bought the paint and went to town, but I ended up hating the colors in both bedrooms. So this time I bought those fancy-schmancy tester cans. Good thing too... The color I picked out of this book, Sherwin-Williams Bagel, was seriously pink and yucky on the wall.

The pictures not great, it actually doesn't look to bad in this pic., but that may be the flash. It is really a pinky beige and I need something to coordinate with the yellowy-cream in the dining room.

An older man that I work with recommended Valspar Churchill Hotel Wheat, so I went and bought a tester. I love it! It is very creamy and neutral. I may decide that it is too pale once I get the rooms done, but it is perfect for now.

They almost look like the same color in the separate photos, but the wall shot with the paint smudges on the large blog shows the variation in better contrast. The walls in both the dining and the living room were a dull gray. Yuck! The house is sooo dark, it's surrounded by trees, and this bland color was not helping brighten things up at all. The funny thing is, when my grandparents came to see the house, my grandpa says "This is such a friendly color!". Really? Gray is friendly? I like a nice gray for a bedroom or a light-filled bathroom, but not for a dark living space. I need to bring some light into the space!

Debbie Does Cakes

You have to check out this woman's cakes! They are brilliant!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debbiedoescakesnet/

Muppet Patriotism

I know this is a week late, but I just saw it here and had to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDA9NbPAK8o&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcakewrecks%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2Fsearch%3Fupdated%2Dmax%3D2009%2D07%2D07T09%253A30%253A00%2D04%253A00&feature=player_embedded


Somebody needs to tell me how to put the full video screen up!

Funny Website

I found this today. Hilarious.

Just saw this...

.... here and thought it was adorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc

I don't know how to make the video screen appear.

Babies

The IT manager at my work and his wife have been trying to get pregnant for some time now and they recently found out they were successful! They went in for an ultrasound yesterday to find out the gender. Can you guess what it is?

The ultrasound technician drew(?) in the little buttcheeks, which I think is the best part. hehe.

Phonophone II

How freaking cool is this?



I want one! It holds your ipod and somehow magnifies the sound from your earbuds.

Somebody find me a cheaper option! I cannot believe that no one has come up with this idea before now. It's seriously equal parts hilarious and brilliant....

Weekend Recap

Thursday I took a half-day from work so we could sign the papers for the new house. We had to get it done early because we went to the Willie Nelson, John Mellancamp, and Bob Dylan show that evening. I love Willie Nelson, but he is not really a loud, outdoor venue kind of artist. John Mellancamp has never wowed me as an artist, but I have to say, he puts on a fantastic show! He is very high energy and bounces around quite a bit. My mom told us that he is only like 5'4", does anybody know if this is true? He definitely looked small, but we were pretty far away.


Friday we didn't get much done... Lolled around for a while, took the dining room table out to the new house, then we went to the 1st Annual Crawfish Cookout at Off Broadway. They had all-you-can-eat crawfish, cookies, corn, and gumbo. Yum! There were a ton of people... obviously. Free food brings out the masses. There were three bands, two were great. The first band was a bit strange. They formed a conga line from the dressing room and chanted "Going to the beach" and stomped around the bar for like four minutes... The were all wearing swim trunks and 60's style beach get ups and they were all covered in glitter. You could see their trail all the way through the building... Very interesting. I forgot my camera or I would have some very weird photos.

Saturday we went out to the house to start cleaning and realized we had no water! Everyone kept saying "Did you call the electric company?" Nobody ever mentioned the water company, which is funny, because my fiance works there, so you would think somebody would have mentioned it. Nope. No water. Then our podunk water company decided to take Monday as a holiday as well... So we may have water this evening... Finally! Saturday evening we walked up the hill to the park above our old house and watched the county fireworks. I love bright flashes of light as much as the next girl, but what a waste of tax payers dollars....

I think real estate agents should be required to hand out a generic instruction form of things you need to do.

1. Make sure you have enough money for $3000+ suprises before/during closing.
2. Contact your insurance agent.
3. Contact your utility companies: water, electric, gas, cable, DSL, telephone, sewer, trash, etc... some will take a few days or weeks to begin service.

Sunday, we took jugs of water out with us to at least wash our hands and such. Our house has a cistern attached to the gutter system and the old owners had it cross-connected to the potable water for the house. So, if there had been a leak, we would have been drinking stagnant cistern water. Gross, right? So Mister had to cut all the pipes apart and re-weld them with copper, which took three trips to the hardware store. It's a good thing he is handy. I couldn't use the bathroom, since we had no water, so I kept having to go to the QT down the road. Tons of fun...

Yesterday my mom and her parents came out to see the house. My grandpa loved it, but grandma didn't seem so sure. It needs work, which I guess is easier for guys to overlook. We got the flors buffed in the living room, but that about all. Hopefully, when we have water and I can pee whenever I want, margheritas will make things go much smoother.

Does anyone know how to paint behind a radiator? The one in the dining room sits close enough to the wall to prevent a roller from fitting, but no so close that it will hide what I don't paint. Grrr...

Hopefully, one of these days, the house will feel like home. For now though, I am wishing we never bought it.

Last Minute Problems

We are supposed to close on our house tomorrow afternoon at 2pm. Today at 12:30 pm the mortgage lender calls and says there is a problem. Apparently the appraiser (two weeks ago) decided that in order for them to loan us the money, the downspouts and gutters need to be replaced. The appraisal reviewer missed that when approving the loan. (Although, they approved the loan 2 months ago, so I don't really understand all of this anyway.) We now have to escrow 1.5 times the money they think it will cost to fix the gutters and they will release the money to us when the work is done. Problem is, it is going to cost us $200 to escrow the money. I know it is silly to get upset about $200, but that is just more money on top of the deposit and closing costs and survey fees and who knows what else. Most people to not have infinite funds. What happens to those people who can just barely afford the down payment and then one day before closing the lender or the title company goes, "By the way, give us $1000 more". I guess it would be irresponsible to go into such a major situation with no rainy day money, but I am sure people do it. I am just lucky my fiance has a good job and is responsible, otherwise I'd be screwed.