Actually, I suppose I'm past the 'hunting' stage now - I hope. After looking at houses since the first weekend in March, I have a contract on a house. I'm currently going through all the inspection, appraisal, survey, etc, etc, processes involved in buying a house so of course nothing is final until all the paperwork is signed at closing. Still, I'm somewhat hopeful that things will work out.
So what's it like? Cool. It's bigger than my current house and sits at a great location. It's 10 miles closer to work than I am now and less than 5 miles from a light rail station. It's 1 story, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, with lots of nice features. Floors are wood with carpet in the bedrooms and in one of the living areas. The outside is nicely landscaped, so we'll have to see how well I do at keeping that up. The lot is smaller than my current one, but not a lot smaller.
I'm seriously excited about it, but then I look around me and the thought of packing and moving all my stuff is kind of depressing. Poor cat kids are going to be seriously traumatized. My old lady kids don't like changes in their lives. And I have a list longer than my arm of new furniture I want to get. Of course, I don't want to take some of my cat-clawed, late-graduate-student furniture to a new house. I need at least one new sofa set (2 living areas), at least one more recliner, a new bed, a new computer desk and chair, new bookshelves, an flat screen HD TV, a small dining table and chairs - to name some of the things I want. It's a good thing I worked my credit card balances down so low to qualify for good financing. Shopping!! Just the thought lifts my spirits.
So I'm good as long as I pretend I don't have to pack this place up. I haven't decided what to do with this place actually. I don't know whether to sell it or rent it out. If I rent it out I'll hire a management company to do that. Either way I need to have some work done on the place once it's empty. Painting at the very least. And the shrubbery in front is badly overgrown, thanks to recent rain.
I also have somehow accumulated plants that will need to be moved. 5 pots of aloe vera, 5 pots of small cacti and 7 pots of peach seedlings. That's actually kind of amazing for someone who doesn't grow things, as a rule. I did lose one of the little cacti I transplanted, but one out of 13 isn't too bad. The others seem to be doing well so far.
Now you know what I'll be doing with any and all my free time between now and closing in mid-June. Packing! I have plenty of lead time to pack, although I'll be out of town next Thursday through Sunday for a meeting. I should probably not procrastinate too long on it, though. It will be better to do it over time than rush it at the last minute.
So I'll let you know how things go. That's all for today.
I just had to share this. I've been outside this afternoon, mowing the lawn and watering stuff and trimming a few things. And of course, when I'm outside the cat-kids are outside. That black tom cat has been back around so they don't stay out there much when I'm not outside, but they've been out this afternoon.
Anyway, I came inside to clean up and glanced outside and started laughing at what I saw. A couple of years ago when my peach tree was full and overgrown, Zoe used to LOVE to lay out under the dragging branches and pretend to stalk birds. She was actually pretty visible, being mostly white, even when "hidden" in the thick branches, but she so thought she was a mighty huntress. One of the regrets I had about that tree dying was she really had no place to hide and play outside any more. Today when I looked out I saw this scene and had to take a picture of it.
Yes, Zoe was "hiding" among the mini-peach trees in the growing mini-peach orchard! There were three doves in the yard under the bird feeder (picture down below), and she was absolutely fixated on them, while "hiding" among the peach trees. I just had to laugh.
Those doves absolutely dis poor Zoe. She's so fat and slow, she can be laying on the edge of the porch, three feet from them, and they'll be foraging seeds there on the ground, completely unconcerned about her presence. They don't even leave if she gets up and starts stalking them. If she gets much inside the three foot range they'll fly away, but they certainly don't care if she's out laying on the patio. Still, she keeps trying to stalk them. And now apparently she has a new hiding place to stalk them from.
I really like my lawn when it's newly mowed. I wish the front yard was as thick and healthy as the back. My poor front yard is mostly weeds. Really the yard doesn't stand a chance despite TruGreen's best efforts. The neighbors on both sides make no attempt to grow grass, just let the weeds grow as they will, so everything blows into my yard. The back yard is behind a privacy fence, so it's a little easier to control.
Anyway, that's all today. Just had to share the pics of Zoe hunting.
There really is a reason why I shouldn't be allowed near growing things. I either kill them with too much attention, or kill them with too little attention. It's sad really because I love to grow things. I'm just not good at it. Which is kind of amazing considering I have sisters that could grow a rock if they wanted to. I must have missed out on that gene.
You know those little cacti I've been growing from seeds? I tried to drown them. Not intentionally. I was concerned that they weren't getting enough water because there were so many of them in that plastic pot. They didn't seem like they were plumping out when I watered them, so I kept watering them more and more. This week I watered them again on Thursday, and the water rose above the level of the dirt and stayed there!! Those baby cacti were sitting in a lake! I realized that the plastic pot had no holes in the bottom, so I bored a few through and the poor thing was still draining water into my sink on Saturday.
Yesterday was so beautiful out that I decided to "potter" around (instead of "putter"). I bought more pots and potting soil and transferred 15 of the cacti in that red plastic pot to three new pots. I left 13 cacti in their original home. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they survive the transplant. They look okay so far, but some of them didn't seem to have much root . . . or I didn't manage to take the root when I dug them up. Luckily it seems like cacti are pretty hardy because, as I said, they looked pretty good so far. I'll see how they do.
I also discovered that the tall stringy succulents (which I think will grow up to be aloe - kind of hard to tell at this point) have impressive roots. I transplanted one of those and it's roots almost circled the pot. I thought I wouldn't get it out without uprooting everything else in the pot, so I know I broke that root somewhat. So far it seems unfazed by that.
The other re-potting I did yesterday was one of the peach seedlings. When I was salvaging them from the yard I didn't have enough pots so two of them ended up in the same big pot. They're growing so fast though that I didn't want to leave two of them together. Yesterday I moved one to a separate pot. It looks like it survived that move just fine.
At any rate I keep trying to grow things despite my obvious lack of skill. I really hope the cacti survive. The mini peach orchard is doing extrememly well, but then they aren't counting on me to supply their water needs. So far I've only watered them when I transplanted them. The rest they've gotten from the rain we've been having.
Addy's being very needy this morning. She's sitting on my lap as I type this and uses her claws to let me know when I need to stop typing and supply strokes for awhile. Both cat kids were out in the yard while I was potting stuff yesterday. I also took the opportunity to dead-head the roses . . . or anyway start removing some of the more blown blooms. That at least allowed that bent branch to raise up off the ground so I won't have to move it to mow today. There are still a fair number of blooms on the red and the yellow is also blooming well. I'll have to plant roses at my new place if there are none there. I love roses. Of course I'll be planting a mini orchard of peaches too, unless I can give away little peach trees to relatives.
Yup. It's raining today. I mowed my lawn yesterday because they were calling for 80% chance of rain today. They called for possibly severe storms though and it's just been a nice steady rain with misty, drippy bouts in between. Not complaining, believe me. I'll take the steady mild rain over the frog-chokers that wash everything down the drain.
I'm actually mowing grass now rather than just weeds when I mow, so the grass is coming up nicely. Everything likes this wet weather, including my roses which are currently totally covered in blooms. The blooms are so heavy they're bending one limb down.
I'm taking a break from house hunting for a few weeks. I'm pretty set on what I want now, as far as features, size, etc. We decided to take a break because I really want to buy in June. Finding something now would not put me buying in June. So we decided to start again in May. This weekend, I've been doing my usual puttering around the house . . . and cringing when I think about packing all this stuff to move. I think I'll spend the next several weekends starting to clean out, and throw out, everything I don't plan on moving. I'm also looking around at my early-graduate-student furniture and thinking I'm going to be purchasing a good bit of furniture for my new house. Good thing I've gotten my credit card balances down so low right now.
I'm also noticing that I'll have to have some repair work done on this house before I sell it, if I decide to sell it. At the very least it needs to be painted throughout. There are also some minor cracks showing which I'll have to have looked at. I've had the foundation checked and been told that the foundation is fine, so just a normal amount of settling is probably making the cracks show up, but I'll have to get them looked at.
I'm cripping around the house right now because I pulled a muscle in my back this morning lifting cat litter. Yes, yes, I know the proper way to lift things. I just don't always use it. And usually when I don't, I regret it, like this morning. Hopefully it will be okay enough to exercise this afternoon. I've been using my little exercise machines three times per week since February 1st, so I don't want to break my routine. It's too easy to break it and not go back to doing it. So I'm diligently exercising. I want to be at least cardiovascularly fit before I go hiking this summer, even if my weight is too high. The weight is another matter I'll have to work on, but that's going to require a diet change, which is more work than the exercising.
The cat-kids are pretty lazy today. Yesterday they were outside wandering the backyard for a bit. This picture was from yesterday morning, before I got the grass mowed, and you can see that it needs it. It's nice and green and growing fast.
I guess that's all today. Laundry calls.
Have I mentioned before how much I like Spring? Green growing things. Flowers blooming everywhere. This is by far my favorite time of year, even if I have to mow my lawn a lot (yes, I'll be doing that again today). We got a lot of rain again this week, with the tornado storms that came through, so weed and grass growth is immense. I was lucky not to be affected by any of the 11-15 tornadoes that came through Tuesday, other than to be evacuated from my office which is on an outside wall and has windows. I was a little nervous driving home and not knowing what to expect to see, since all I knew was tornadoes had been on the ground in my city. So many homes were damaged or destroyed completely. Yes, I've seriously been counting my blessings this week.
Another thing I'm grateful for is that I'm not an allergy sufferer during the Spring. To be suffering when it's this nice outside would be a shame. The guy in the office next to me - bless his heart! It's a rough time of year for him. I have a few allergies, but luckily not to growing things apparently. I have an allergic reaction to most types of beer, some wines and some hard liquors. Which can be a pain in the ass, but at least I'll never be an alcoholic.
This morning I have the house opened up and the cat kids are laying inside, watching carefully for any birds that might try to encroach on their domain. They're perfectly happy to watch from inside the house, Addy on the couch and Zoe in the doorway. Not spoiled, those two old ladies. Nope, not much.
The house hunting is going fine. I looked at 6 more houses last weekend, and 6 more yesterday. I'm taking notes or I'd never remember what features were in what house. Interestingly, several of the houses I've looked at are within spitting distance of the baseball and football stadiums here. I saw one house I really liked yesterday, with lots of cool built-ins (one whole wall of built in bookcases). But the place is 3500 square feet! What in the world would I and two cats do with 3500 square feet of house? It had 5 bedrooms, 3 living areas, a nice open kitchen, big yard. Maybe someone will buy it so I won't be tempted.
My problem really is that I want a house that I don't have to put any work into - no painting or having to replacing flooring/carpet, kitchen appliances, etc. But realistically, I'd need to buy a new house for that to be true. And I don't really want a new house on a tiny lot with no landscaping at all. I kind of like the older neighborhoods with trees and a little breathing room. So I guess right now I'll keep looking.
I'm going to mow my lawn as soon as the grass is dry enough. There was seriously heavy dew this morning. I dead-headed the roses this morning, taking off the remains of the big red blooms which bloomed before the little red ones, and the yellow blooms. They suffered somewhat from the storms, but ragged roses was really the only affect I had (lucky!). The little red ones are now blooming like crazy (see above), and the little peach seedlings are growing well also. I'm growing a mini peach forest. My aloe vera are perking up also. *happy sigh* I love Spring!
Sadly it doesn't look like I'll have any nesting birds this year. I haven't seen any swallows or finches. And I just went and looked, and startled away a female finch! Maybe I will have nesting birds. One of the houses I looked at yesterday had a swallow nest and swallows working on it, so it made me think that it was time for them to be returning to nest. Since I hadn't seen either the swallows or finches at all yet, I thought maybe the business with the snake last year had made the finches decide to nest elsewhere this year. I'm encouraged to see the little female finch. Maybe they'll nest there again after all.
That's it for today. Got a few things to do today before the grass dries enough for me to mow.
It's another spectacularly gorgeous Sunday. I'm doing Sunday chores, but also kicking back a little since I mowed yesterday. Yes, I've now mowed my yard three times this year, and it's still March! The grass is still working to gain a foothold, while the weeds are going gangbusters.
My rose bush is a mutant creature, I've decided. When I planted it 10 years ago, it had the most gorgeous huge, deep red roses. A few years ago certain parts of the plant began to put out small clusters of paler red roses with fewer petals. Now it's definitely a plant with a split personality. The right side has long runner-type branches, with small pale green leaves and it puts out clusters of small pale red roses. The left side has mostly larger, deeper green-to-reddish leaves and it puts out the original, big, full, deep red roses. You can pretty well see it's split personality from this picture, and see also that my smaller yellow rose is still surviving after last summer.
Both sides of the red rose are covered with buds right now so the whole bush should be in bloom soon. In this picture below you can see the difference bud types with clusters of tiny buds on the right and single larger buds on the left. The runner-types are encroaching onto the left side also. I wonder if one day I'll lose the big deep red roses completely.
The trees are all leafing out so soon I'll have my privacy back. When the trees are bare my neighbors with 2 story houses can look down into my back yard. When the trees have leaves they can't. Needless to say, I like leaves.
I've started serious house hunting. I've looked at 11 houses in the last 3 weekends. I'm actually more seeing things I don't want rather than things I do want. I have figured out though that I want a big kitchen and an open floor plan so I can see from the kitchen out into the living areas. I don't have a preference for wood floors or carpet, although the carpets I've seen so far would all have to be replaced. I don't have a preference for 1 or 2 story, although you can get more square footage on current small lots if you do 2 story. I don't have a preference for a pool or no pool. Nice to have one, but lots of work to maintain. I'm leaning toward a split floor plan with the master bedroom separate from the others. Either the master downstairs with the others upstairs or vice verso, or the master on one end of the house and the other bedrooms on the other end. I don't mind Home Owners Association fees, within reason. (<300/year). I saw a house yesterday that had HOA fees of $900/year. No location or house is worth $900/year HOA fees. I'd prefer to have some yard. I don't think I've looked at anything that's been on more that 0.15 acre. My current house sits on 0.2 acres. Of course my current house is about 1480 square feet. The ones I've been looking at are 2200 - 3200 square feet. It's interesting to think my little house would fit twice into some of these I'm looking at. It's not really the square footage that I'm interested in. It's the floor plan. Some of the big ones waste so much space.
At any rate, it looks like I'm getting serious about buying a house. Then I'll have to decide whether to sell this one or rent it. I really hate the thought of moving, but I kind of like the thought of creating my space in a bigger place. As I'm looking at houses, I think about what I would put where if it were my house. Most of the places a lot of my current stuff just doesn't fit into. Looks like I'll also be buying furniture.
That's about it today. Gotta do some puttering.
I've been puttering today. Or at least I've been puttering this afternoon. This morning I was cleaning in case my sister and brother-in-law came by the house on their way to east Texas. Like everything that you leave until the last minute, the house cleaning didn't go smoothly. My vacuum cleaner wouldn't pick up!
The vacuum cleaner came on when I hit the switch and seemed to be pulling but the roller brush wouldn't turn, so it wouldn't sweep anything up into the cleaner. I've replaced the belt on that cleaner before so I was pretty sure that a broken belt was the problem, but this morning I didn't have time to mess with it. So I pulled a little canister vacuum cleaner out of the garage and use that. That little canister cleaner had 10 years of dust on it. It's been in the garage since I moved into the house so I wasn't sure it would even work, but it did. I have to tell you, that little cleaner probably was okay in an apartment with so-so carpet. In my house with thick carpeting, I worked myself to a frazzle just getting the house vacuumed. I now remember why I bought the heavy duty upright after I moved in here. It's been spoiling me big time.
Anyway, after going to lunch with my sister and bro-in-law I came home and my handy-woman gene kicked in. I happened to have another belt for the upright because they come in packages of 2. So I took the upright vacuum apart and replaced the belt. I think this will be the last time I'll be able to repair it though. There's a broken part that holds the roller brush in place and although I got the belt replaced and the parts back where they belong, I think it won't hold forever, and certainly won't hold if I take it apart again. Since the broken piece braces the brush, which is very taut with the belt in place, I don't think even epoxy would hold the piece in place if I tried gluing it. Currently it's mostly held in place by the rest of the vacuum cleaner structure, but I don't think it's a long term fix. Next time it breaks it'll be time for a new vacuum cleaner. Which is okay. It's 10 years old.
I figure it never hurts to pull a broken item apart and see if you can fix it. For one thing, it's broken and I'm going to throw it away anyway. If I can't fix it, I haven't hurt it any more than it was before I started. And if I can fix it I feel very competent. I won't mention that I just happen to like taking things apart to see how they work. Mostly I limit myself to broken things and can keep from taking working things apart.
I mowed and weed whacked on Friday afternoon. The grass is seriously coming up now. Thursday evening I transplanted 4 more peach seedlings out of the yard into pots, so I now have a mini-orchard starting in pots on my patio. I suppose you could consider 7 peach tree seedlings a mini-orchard. I also officially moved the aloe vera from their rolling winter platform to the back and front patios.
Along with my other puttering today I sprayed some wasps who were starting nests in the bird boxes out front. I need to get up there before the birds start nesting with some Bounce sheets to keep the wasps away. I planned to do it later today, but I think I may have puttered myself out now. I'm feeling unmotivated after fixing the vacuum cleaner. Partly because my hands hurt from holding the broken roller brush brace in place while I worked to snap the rest of the vacuum cleaner back together. I think I'll take a break and go watch some TV. Plus Addy is demanding attention. Time to feed her or end up with scars.
I'm seriously excited about it, but then I look around me and the thought of packing and moving all my stuff is kind of depressing. Poor cat kids are going to be seriously traumatized. My old lady kids don't like changes in their lives. And I have a list longer than my arm of new furniture I want to get. Of course, I don't want to take some of my cat-clawed, late-graduate-student furniture to a new house. I need at least one new sofa set (2 living areas), at least one more recliner, a new bed, a new computer desk and chair, new bookshelves, an flat screen HD TV, a small dining table and chairs - to name some of the things I want. It's a good thing I worked my credit card balances down so low to qualify for good financing. Shopping!! Just the thought lifts my spirits.
