To back up a bit, it's kind of ironic that I was looking for a house that I didn't have to put any work into. Or at least that's what I blatantly stated when I started house hunting. And I ended up having the interior of the new house completely re-done. I couldn't help it. I fell for this house big time, pretty much as soon as I saw it. It's such a cool house. This picture of Addy at the back door gives you a feel for what the early morning light is like in that second living area. And then as I began to change things the changes became a boulder that just kept rolling and gaining momentum. Before I even put the contract on it, I knew I wanted to have the entire interior painted, but as I looked at other things I kept thinking, 'I should have the tiles re-done in the bathrooms before I move in'. Then 'I really should replace this carpet before I move in'. After all, I said I'd do the carpet in the old house immediately after buying it and it took me 9 years! I knew if I moved in first it would get postponed indefinitely. So I decided to do those things before moving in, but I hadn't planned to do the wood floors. Then the Saturday after closing I came over, and the kitchen floor (which is wood) was destroyed from water leaking from the refrigerator connection. The damage had been hidden by the previous owner's refrigerator, plus when they pulled it out, the tap no longer turned off and had been dripping continuously onto the floor. I couldn't patch just that section because the floor in the kitchen is contiguous with the floor in the second living area. It would look patched! So I gave up and replaced all the wood flooring in the house too. Total interior re-do. I have to say though, I'm very pleased with my house now. Plus I hired a landscaping company to mow and weed whack and trim the shrubbery, basically to keep it landscaped, so that makes me even happier with the house. Coming home on Thursday and having it all neat and trimmed is wonderful.
So what's going on with the old house? Well, I hate to admit it but that lawn I was so proud of is totally dead. I simply didn't have time to go down and water routinely and it's been hot and dry. I hired a leasing agent, but so far the place is still empty. I had the interior repainted and the exterior cleaned up a bit last month so I'm hoping it will rent now. It's simply a sad case of bad timing that I started trying to rent it about the time the housing market softened up and people started buying houses again rather than renting. My agent says we've had a couple of applications for renting, but not from anyone who he would recommend I rent to. So we'll see if it rents now that it's cleaned up a bit. I still go down there periodically and mow the weeds, since the grass is basically all dead.So that's what's been going on. The cats are finally completely settled in. As you can see Zoe likes the rugs on the floor of the pantry. Zoe has also located a wonderful hiding place outside in the backyard under one of the bigger shrubs where she is really completely hidden despite her color. She lays out there for hours on end watching the birds. So both cat-girls have their favorite places and have made it their house.
I'm having family over for Thanksgiving, so I'll probably tell all about that in the next post. See ya then.
