Things I Hate

Forsythia as trimmed bushes in the front yard.
Any sort of plant climbing the house.
Bushes in front of the porch.
Big traditional sunflowers in the front yard.

A little progress

The properties are being surveyed this morning for the easement issue.  I hope this gets resolved fully by the end of the week.  My husband is about to blow a gasket.

Although I swore I wasn't going to buy furniture until we closed, Saturday we went shopping and ended up buying three pieces for the house.  A vanity and seat for me, a very nice bench that matches the style of the house, and a computer desk for Dave.  All of them were cheaper than I expected so we did a good job there.  It all went right to storage.

I talked to Mom about the round paper lantern lamps I wanted for the living room and she talked me out of them.  I'll just buy something else modern looking when the time comes.

Gardening Plans

I've been thinking about what I can do with gardens now that I'm getting close to having a yard to garden in.  So far I've come up with three gardens I want.

The first is an herb garden.  I'd eventually like a raised garden done with bricks, and quartered.  I think next year I'll just do a circular garden, cut into quarters, with either grass or cobblestone dividers.  One quarter will be cooking herbs, one will be edible flowers, one will be for tea, and one for Elena.  I'll still have a few containers with herbs in them because there's no way I'm letting mint loose in my yard and in this climate rosemary needs to come indoors in the winter.

The second garden under consideration is a vegetable garden.  This one will happen and my husband will be in charge of prepping it.  He bought a lawn tractor with a rototiller attachment.  I'd like to plant things I currently cook with; tomatoes, garlic, green peppers, banana peppers, lettuce,  strawberries, and summer squash.

The third will be a shade garden way at the back of the property.  That's going to have to wait a few years until I see what the early spring conditions are like back there.  The current owners tell me that it gets really wet back there and I may have to consider putting in plants that can handle that sort of problem.  I figure there are enough wild spots in my area that have plants that something can be done.

We have a few other random plans for plants in the back yard.  There are a few hosta that need to be relocated for the herb garden to go where I want it.  I'll probably put those in containers for until I can get the shrubs ripped out of the front yard.  My husband wants to put raspberries in the triangle of yard between the house and the creek.  I'd like to put rhubarb along the garage because 2/3 of the family enjoys eating it raw.

I'll keep enough of my container garden to use to decorate the back deck.  The plain concrete pad can use some greenery.

Fixing the Easement Issue

Or, how many people does it take for Autumn to buy a house?

Instead of just signing off on permission for us to use the easement and right of way, the neighbor wants to sell the other half of the driveway to make it all one piece of property.  He's planning on moving in a year or so and figures it would be better for everyone to get this taken care of now.  The neighbor has his agent talking to the seller and the seller's agent.

I believe the count is now as follows:

4 lawyers
3 real estate agents
3 property owners
1 VA mortgage representative

And a partridge in a pear treeeeeee!

The Stairs with Bonus Floor Plan

The stairway in the new house is beautiful.  Although it does not have a runner on it right now, it still has eyelets that used to hold runner rods.  At some point, I would like to have a runner on the stairs again but something that fits the house and my ideas for a bit of a modern design.  The runners at Textile Trunk have a modern look but they are mostly antiques.  It's all out of my price range for now but I want to keep them in mind for down the road.

http://www.textiletrunk.com/html/the_textiles.php

Also, in browsing around the web, I found what looks almost exactly like the floorplan of the new house.  In our new house, the front door is in the middle of the front wall and it has a small vestibule.

http://www.antiquehome.org/House-Plans/1916-Sterling/Manor.htm

Waiting Game

Our lawyer says that she's ready, we're ready, and I think that the sellers are more than ready.  The survey has been fixed so the easement issue is resolved.  Now we're waiting on something from the bank's lawyer.  It's looking like we're not moving until September.

Since it's going to be a couple of weeks, I went out last night and actually bought groceries; mostly just fresh veggies and meat.  I've been trying to eat down our supplies so we don't have to move much food.  The frest stuff was out but the canned goods in the pantry are still over half there.

I'm ok with things not happening this week.  I refuse to move Saturday because it is SUNY Cortland move in weekend and that happens right outside my front door.  There are lines of cars all day long down all sides of the intersection.

Gears

Easement Issue Solved

I don't know how exactly, something to do with a survey, but the easement issue has been solved.  Our lawyer is waiting for the new paperwork and once she reviews that our closing can be scheduled. 

One of the things I'm really looking forward to about owning my own place is being able to fix thing when they break.  I'm a bit of a rules follower and one of the rules in the lease is that we're not supposed to fix things ourselves.  My husband calls the landlord's business office, sends letters with rent checks, and even catches the landlord in person and months later something might be done about the issue.  I really think I'd do well at fixing faucets, toilets, changing light fixtures, wallpapering, setting tile, and the like.  I'll need assistance with anything involving the basement but that's one of the things my husband is for.

Thistle

Plan B

Since we're not moving this weekend, I'm running away.

Well, mostly not really.  The Duckie and I are heading out of town this weekend to visit my grandparents.  I want a couple of days away from everything in Cortland and I haven't seen my grandparents since Christmas.

Before I had the Duckie, I used to take three day weekends once a month to get away to recharge.  I haven't needed to do that the past couple of years but I'm so stressed right now that I have to do something for my mental health.

Move Postponed

The driveway easement is complicating things so we will NOT be moving this weekend.  It's starting to sound like the big move will be in early September although our agent is still pushing for early occupancy.

Mom remembers my grandfather dealing with an easement just so it wouldn't be a problem later.  I'm a bit angry, quite stressed, and very tired.

The Returning Tempest

Tennis balls,
Triumphant crows,
Drum corp practice.

Half sided conversations,
accelerating buses,
decelerating bicycles.

Emergency sirens,
bookstore chatter,
foreign languages.

Hesitant traffic,
Frustrated car horns,
too loud iPods.

Or not...

I got word this morning that there's been a hitch in the process and we probably won't be closing this week.  Our real estate agent is looking into early occupancy but that's not a sure bet either. 

I'm working through my moving frustration by moving my desk one station over.

The anger over this latest delay is a little more difficult to deal with.  It's giving me a headache.

Any day now... literally

It could be tomorrow.  It could be Wednesday.  It's driving me crazy.  On the surface I'm okay but the background emotion in my head is tiring me out.  I think it's the same for t my husband and the Duckie.  We're all sleeping a lot and going to bed earlier.

Miss Duck has been falling asleep everywhere like she did when younger; floor of the car, bathroom floor, half on the couch, and sitting on the floor at the end of the couch.

I've told my husband that I don't want anyone setting up the kitchen other than me unless I'm telling them where to put things.  Well, unless they're left handed.  That includes him.  The only other kitchen that has ever made sense to me is my Aunt Marilee's kitchen and she's a left handed cook too.

It may not look it when you walk into the apartment but we're more than 2/3 packed.  I think we can reasonably be out of the apartment in a week.  In some rooms I'm down to labeling the boxes "kitchen: random stuff" or "living room: random decorative."

Note on the pictures....

The pictures of me on this blog and in my profile were taken by the Duckie.  She's 4.5 years old.  She is apparently one of only two people who can take good pictures of me.

Gathering the Troops

I'm very certain that we'll close on the house this week which means this coming weekend is the Big Move.  It's time to gather the troops. 

Help will be appreciated during the week for boxes and little stuff (email me) but the Big Move will be Saturday the 21st. We'll start 10 am at the apartment at 58 Prospect Terrace, Cortland, NY.  There will be coffee/soda/snacks available both there and at 24 Arthur Ave, Cortland, NY.  I'll have a moving truck so hopefully it will only take one or two trips.

Pizza party in our new gigantic back yard after the moving is done!

Living Room: I had a vision

It was family nap time and I was trying to fall asleep.  Visions of the house kept intruding and kept me awake.

So... Here's my vision for the entertaining half of the living room.

I'm thinking modern.  Our couch, for those who haven't seen it, is an adjustable lounger futon like the one here:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Manhattan-Convertible-Lounger-Khaki/5601765


It's a modern looking piece and I really like it.  So, I'm going to do the living room in black, grey, and tan.  The good news is that it's already our color scheme for our current living room!  We'll get a different area rug for the dining room and use the grey and black geometric in the entertaining area.  There is a cute black chair and a couple of modern paper lantern lamps at Big Lots that will complete the look. 

In my dream, we had a wall of black cube shelves for toys, books, and knick-knacks.  Grey and white bins for some stuff, others just with books.

Cube Shelving Example

The local discount hardware store had the entertainment center I want.

I can really see this coming together! 

The Bathroom Issue

We’re moving to a house with one bathroom upstairs from an apartment with one full and one half bath. There is a small linen closet in the hallway but I’m sure I’m going to have to buy some cabinets for the bathroom. I have stuff, my husband has stuff, and my daughter has stuff even though she’s only four and a half. I'll leave some of the extra bathroom stuff for my brother but there will still be a lot left.

Fortunately, the bathroom is huge. It’s probably bigger than both of the apartment’s bathrooms put together. There’s space for some modular shelves and cabinets as well as maybe a vanity for myself.

Hmm… or maybe I’ll put a vanity and my jewelry armoire in the bedroom so I can do makeup and earrings when someone else is in the bathroom.

The process so far...

Early this summer we had an incident in our apartment building that tipped me over the edge as far as moving goes. I had to get us out of this apartment and into someplace else. I initially started looking at apartments believing that it would cost us less to get into an apartment than a house. I couldn’t find an apartment the size we needed in a decent location for anything near what we could afford.


At that point my husband started looking at mortgage rates and estimated payments for house prices in our town. He pointed out that with a Veteran’s loan we wouldn’t need much money up front if we could afford the monthly costs. We started seriously looking at houses what we thought was our price range. I had developed a minimum and maximum cost based on what I thought we could afford and what I was willing to deal with.

After looking at a few “no way, no how” houses, we found a gorgeous split level ranch in wonderful shape. It was in a nice neighborhood and was snapped up the next day by a woman looking for a house for her retirement. We learned from that house that we needed to be able to immediately put in an offer, we needed our own real estate agent, and I was more flexible with house styles than I thought.

My husband then got the ball rolling with the Veterans Administration and finding a real estate agent. I would like to mention at this point that I have anxiety issues that make it difficult for me to reasonably deal with a paperwork and negotiations around buying a house. After we got our own real estate agent, http://www.tompkinscortlandrealestate.com/ , I started looking at listings online. I would email my husband and the agent the urls and the times I was available. They would arrange everything else. It’s a good thing our agent had a great sense of humor, every viewing had half of our family with us. We looked at about a dozen houses when we found The House.

On June 20th we had looked at two other houses before walking into the backyard of a traditional 1920’s four square style house. I was willing to forgive quite a bit in the house to get the yard; it was huge and looked like a park. The inside of the house was better and better the more we saw. The décor is dated but the house was clean, in great condition, and there had been a ton of updates done to it. Wiring, insulation, windows, stair rails, to name a few. The layout of the house felt like home to me; it was the mirror image of my father’s house.

On June 21st we signed the offer. Our real estate agent has been awesome at pushing this along, coordinating with everyone, and generally advocating for us. We will have the closing in less than two months after we signed the offer. There were three other factors in this happening so quickly; I could immediately lay my hands on almost every piece of documentation requested, everyone accepted scans of documents and signatures, and very little mail was sent through the post office.

Decorating Plans: The Dining Room

For the most part, I want to decorate the dining room with things we already have.  The wallpaper is an ok green so that can stay for a while.  I want to move in NOW, not wait until the whole inside of the house is redecorated.

On the large interior wall I think I'm going to get a large wrought-iron looking curtain rod and hang the quilt my step-mother made for me.  It's a gorgeous flower applique in blue and green on white and will look wonderful displayed.  The opposite wall has a large window where I'm planning on putting my big plant stand.  Live green plants and flowers to go with the quilt.  I'll probably put bookshelves on either side of the plant stand.

We'll have to put the black and grey geometric area rug we alreay have in the center of the dining room to cover the soft wood floor there.  It won't match but I can start looking for a better rug.

Window treatments will probably be converted bed sheets for a while but I should be able to get a nice green to match everything else.  I'm thinking about hitting a couple of antique stores to see if I can find some cool doorknobs for holdbacks.

Heard at Work

"Craigslist doesn't count as a spelling dictionary!"

Decorating Plans: The Duckie's Room

When we starting looking at houses, we told the Duckie that we would paint her room what ever color she wanted.  She wants pink.

My current idea is to paint two facing walls a dark pink and the other two light pink.  One of the dark pink walls will have a large section of chalkboard painted on to it.  I think a nice big white mirror would look nice on the other pink wall but that might be the one that has the built in shelves.  I think the shelves and window trim will be white.

She's excited about having two windows.  I wonder if they still sell the princess curtains she has on her window at our apartment?