drewan | Entries tagged with house

We have a roommate again. My friend Del just moved back from living in Atlanta for a couple years. He moved there for a relationship and moved back when it ended. He's a good guy and great with Simon. He does smoke, but he doesn't complain about going outside.

I find it funny that when he moved away he gave us his bed, which we put in the empty bedroom. It's a very comfortable bed which we've slept on a few times for various reasons. So, now that he's moved in, he gets to sleep on his very own bed again. Almost like he planned it that way.

I don't know how long he'll be with us. The initial plan is that he can stay with us while he's looking for a job here, without rent. It's just really nice to have an extra pair of hands around the house to take care of Simon. For example, tonight Joe and I are going to a movie in Uptown with the Minneapolis Movie Bears, and I don't have to stop home first because Del is there to take care of Simon.

Before Del moved to Atlanta, he was already our house sitter for a couple years when ever we took longer vacation trips. He was really good with Gabby too.

Our old Black & Decker electric mower died on Sunday. I'd first noticed an odd smell, but I didn't immediately associate it with the mower. Then the mower stopped working. Dead.

I realized something had burned out in the electric motor. Not being a mechanical guy, I didn't think I could ever fix it. So I hopped in my car, rushed over to Home Depot, and picked up one of these.

When I got home, I plug the new mower in and nothing happened. WTF! Maybe it wasn't the mower after all! Maybe it was the plug, or the outlet. I took the extension cord over to another outlet and tried starting the old mower. It started... but it was bad. Something was definitely wrong. Then I plugged in the new mower and it purred like an electric grass eating kitten.

When we check the fuse box, we saw that the fuse was blown. We reset it and all was good.

Now I'm going to sell the old mower on Craigslist as is. Maybe someone will want it for parts.

Yesterday was both a good day and a bad day at the gym. The good... I bench pressed 100 pounds. This was with a barbell, not the machine. And my chest is feeling it right now. But the bad part was that I felt increasingly ill through out my workout. I think the combination of breakfast cereal, with an Omega 3 fish oil pill, and a pre-workout pear, didn't sit well in my stomach. My trainer described me as having turned very pale. We ended up cutting the session a bit short as a result.

My new workout day rule is "no fish oil pill within four hours prior to working out, and no eating within one hour prior to working out."

And I need to get back into doing good cardio every day. It just felt like my endurance was way down at the gym yesterday, even though I got a really good nights sleep.

Bonus Workout: Thankfully my energy levels and endurance were back up at the end of the day. I managed to rake the front yard last night before the rain came. That was actually a nice little workout. Of course, I managed to scrape off a layer of skin on my left hand on the top side at the base of my thumb. The strange thing was that I didn't feel it until I saw it. It was like "Hey... my hand feels a little weird. Look, I'm missing a patch of skin on my thumb. Oh, and now it hurts."

I'm hoping to have some time tonight to finish my front spring pickup. There are still some leaves and left over plant material amongst the rocks in the front and north side of the house

Well, I'd planned to do some work in the yard after work today, but the increasingly cloudy sky is indicating to me that I might not have the opportunity. Oh well.

I want to create a model of our home in one of those home decorating/remodeling software packages, but the couple that I've messed with were really hard. I have a lot of experience creating simple 3D objects, but I really mess up the models when precise measurements are an issue.

Hey... any of you good at creating software house models? Can I hire you?

Or... can anyone recommend a good software package to use?

Some of the software packages appear to offer suggests and help with redecorating suggestions.

I want to do this all via software first, so I can really play around with the possibilities.

'Power plants' in the basement heat up

After signing the purchase agreement (pending inspection) on Friday night, the next potential hurtle was the independent inspection on Sunday. Thankfully there were no problems with the inspection, so the purchase is now on track for November 17th.

The house is empty, but we still have some stuff in the garage to get rid of. Except for a few things like brooms and rakes, none of this stuff is worth moving to the new house. Thankfully the buyer agreed to keep the two big desks that are in the garage!

Does anyone know if Minneapolis garbage service will take old lawn mowers and grills (with the gas removed of course)?

We have two rose bushes in our backyard, and I've heard that I have to do something with them with the coming of winter. One friend said I should cut them short and them bury them in leaves before the snow. Another friend said I should bury them in leaves and then cut them short in the spring.

Anyone know what I should do? Thanks.

Pretty busy at work these days, but I wanted to jot down a couple of thoughts.

Gaylaxicon/Toronto
Yes, Gaylaxicon was fun. Like so many cons for me these days, it was less about the con itself and more about the friends we spent so much time with. There were definite problems with this con, especially the hotel itself (don't get me started on the ~~Tower of Terror~~ elevators!). We got into a nice weekend routine of going out with friends for meals and coming back to play card games and to just spend the day chit chatting.

House sitter doubleedge was able to find rvrjoe775's passport and FedExed it to us, so we didn't have any problems getting back into the USA.

Dogs
Walking into the new house was kind of strange for me on Tuesday. One of the first things that I saw when I walked in the door was Kinney's food dish. I nearly lost it right then. I quickly excused my self to the bedroom for a bit. I'm really missing her, but I'm starting to find a new balance without her. We've hung Kinney's collar on the coat hook closest to the garage door so I can see something of hers.

I think Gabby is loving being the only dog in the house, though I think she is feeling too alone during the day. She is practically mad for attention when we get home. I wish I could bring her with me to work or something some days. We've been taking her for walks also, which we'd gotten out of the habit of doing for a while.

Houses
Joe's folks, along with his sister and two of her children, are arriving next week. They will be our first house guests in the new house.

We still don't have a working projector in the home theater. A couple weeks ago, Jon (the seller) sent in the project to be fixed by the manufacture. FedEx tried to deliver it back to us three days later. When Jon went to set it up it still didn't work. Turns out that the label had fallen off the box, and the label underneath was for the house, so FedEx just delivered it back to us. So now the manufacturer has the projector and we should have it back in a few days, hopefully. I'm looking forward to watching movies down there.

Work is getting pretty crazy. I've already been bringing some small projects home. I guess its time to bring more work home.

As for the old house, we've had one regular open house and one open house just for realtors. So nibbles yet, but there are two more open houses scheduled for this weekend. We haven't had the house inspected by the city inspector yet, but that is now scheduled for a week from today. I'm not expecting any problems. It's the unexpected stuff that scares the shit out of me.

We are slowly getting settled in the new house. Joe has done a great job of populating the bookshelves in the house. We've decided to not put all of our books out. I'm not sure if we're just going to keep the rest boxed, or if we'll just sell those off. I got the video game systems setup last night in the game room. Right after we got home on Tuesday, I spent the next hour and half mowing the yard. Damn, our new yard is big! We also have lots of flowers growing in the yard, that I have no idea how to handle. We need to buy a lawn sprinkler.

Current Mood: content

Old roommate, Erik (not

doubleedge) came over and worked really hard with Joe and I after work. Erik packed up all the cardboard in twine to get it ready for recycling tomorrow. Joe tore apart all of the remaining shelves and such in the house, and I carried all the pieces to the dumpster-in-a-bag. We've pretty much filled the bag, so I need to call them to have it picked up.

I need to find someone that can come in an steam clean the carpets before Saturday, preferably before Friday.

Erik thinks we're crazy for try to get the house on the market this fast. What I forgot to explain to him though is that I'm going to be in Cleveland next week for work, and spending that weekend in Toronto with Joe. So we really only have this week and weekend to work on the house. Yeah, maybe the house won't be perfect for the open house on Sunday, but it will still be great.

Shelly wants us to cover up the bad patch of grass in the front with mulch. Erik thinks that's a waste. I think we're going to do it just because its a quick solution and at least creates a better first impression than dirt.

We probably have another car load or two of misc. crap in the house to bring to the new house. We've gotten rid of 80% of the garage junk via the dumpster-in-a-bag, plus the help of two friends in Minneapolis who've let me put stuff in their recycling.

Still need to wash down the basement walls. I don't think we're going to repaint down there, at least not yet. If the house doesn't sell for a while we might have to put more time into it.

We just met with the realtor about getting our house on the market. Our to-do list is a little longer than I'd thought.

Here is the list:

Get EVERYTHING out, both in the house and the garage
Get trash but into Dumpster-In-A-Bag
Call Richfield to schedule inspector, before closing (ASAP)
Wood chip front yard near house, cedar mulch
Steam clean carpets
Get a big pot of flowers for the deck
Tape up master bedroom before Friday for Shelly to paint
Spray paint outlets and covers
Clean the fan
Clean walls in basement
Breakdown entertainment stand in living room, bookshelves in basement
Cleanup bathrooms

For reference: South Hennepin Recycling and Problem Waste Drop-off Center

We're back online!

This morning we put together out computer desks, then I setup the computer while Joe sorted books in the living room.

We're making progress with our unpacking.

A big thanks to davidschroth, lsanderson, Tong, doubleedge, romeoa, cpetego, Bill, Eric and Sam for getting us moved yesterday. You guys did an amazing job! And thanks to minnehaha K for helping us unpack our kitchen yesterday afternoon!

As soon as we get the projector back, and we're back from our Toronto trip, y'all (and your S.O.s) are invited over for a small party.

We still have a tiny bit of stuff left at the old house which we'll sort out today and tomorrow. doubleedge is going to the old house tomorrow to help clean, and then we should be able to get the house on the market this week. Yay!

We invited a few friends over to the new house tonight to check it out. While demonstrating the theater, the bulb in the projector burned out. Doh!

Maybe this is good. It will keep us from getting to distracted while we should be working on moving.

EDIT: I should add that Jon, the seller, came over a little while later to look at the projector. Since he is the dealer, he'll handle getting a replacement bulb for us. It's still under warrenty. We should have it in a couple of days.

The house is now ours, completely. The signing this morning wasn't as tedious as I was expecting, and we had a nice visit with the sellers.

I'm working this afternoon, but Joe is taking the rest of the week off to start moving stuff in his car. I'll be taking car load over tonight and Thursday afternoon.

doubleedge told us this morning that he's decided not to move with us. He's moving in with his friend "bulls eye" instead. This will be good for Eric, hopefully.

We'd like to find a new roommate sometime this summer. It just really helps to have an extra person around to help with the house and the dogs. Plus, the rent money is nice.

Current Mood: happy

Here's this weeks schedule:

Pre-Wednesday: Complete as much packing as possible. Measure furniture.

Wednesday: 9am final walk through of the new house, followed by the signing. Hopefully we'll get keys right away. I'd love it if some of our close friends had some time to come over and help us figure out where to put furniture.

Thursday: Painting my office in the new house. Maybe move some cloths and miscellaneous stuff over. Finalize furniture plan. Make sure all the furniture in the old house is prepared to move.

Friday: Furniture movers show up promptly at 8am to move furniture.

Saturday: We pick up the rental truck at 7am. We have to return it at 2pm. This is where we need lots volunteer help.

Sunday: Move what ever is left over. Hopefully this will just be small stuff. Start cleaning out the old house and getting it ready to sell. We could use some friendly help with this also.

Hopefully we can get the house ready to sell by the next week and get it on the market asap.

Have I ever mentioned that I have dust allergies? While working in the basement this past month, I usually wear a dust mark. This helps in most cases, but not while working on the bar.

Our bar area was long ago abandoned to the clutter. It's a large horizontal surface, which is the natural breeding ground for clutter. And with clutter comes it's parasite, dust.

We've packed a lot of boxes this past month, but we're not completely packed yet. I don't even think we'll be completely packed when we have the moving truck. I fear that we're running to the end of usable boxes. We might have to unpack some of the books and such at the new house, then bring the boxes back and pack up the remaining stuff.

We've also gotten to the point of packing boxes of miscellaneous stuff. It's unavoidable. There are only so many categories you can group objects into.

I'm trying to get a rental truck scheduled for our moving weekend. We already have furniture movers schedule for Friday, but we won't be having them move any of the boxes and small stuff. So, we need to book a truck.

I haven't had much time to look. I'm about to fly out to Cleveland for a business trip for a couple of days. Hopefully I can get this scheduled remotely, or maybe Joe can do it.

I haven't looked to much. What do y'all think of Budget Truck Rental?

Hey

musicbearmn? are you available on June 3 or 4 to help drive the truck? If not, anyone else good at driving large vehicles?

So, we're now officially looking for volunteers to help load and unload boxes and stuff on June 3 and 4 (assuming we get the truck).

We'll also be moving over car loads of stuff on June 1 and 2. If anyone want to come and help with that, that would be great too.

We need to hire a moving truck to move our boxes (we have movers coming to move most of the furniture). Can anyone recommend a rental truck service?

Do you think I should repaint this room real quick before we move in? I'm thinking I could rush in and paint on Thursday, and then be ready to move in on Friday. Anyone want to help?

I need to get some curtains also. The "frog curtains" are not part of the purchase deal.

EDIT: Be nice to the room folks. It was designed by a 13 year old girl. No need to burn it.

Anyone want to come help me move boxes to the garage on Wednesday night?

The house is starting to fill up with piles of boxes. I want to move them out to the garage so that we still have room to function in the house.

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drewan

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A look into Drewan's mind

Entries tagged with house

Roommate Again

Mower trouble

Feeling ooky at the gym and spring cleanup

Rain out

Model House

Home Power Plants

Progress

Cold Roses

A rambling update about our trip, missing Kinney, and our houses.

Progress

HELP!

We've moved!

There's no light...

Time to move in!

Moving Schedule

Achew!

Did I mention we're moving?

Rent a truck?

Just a little bit of painting to be done...

Staging