So according to Camel, the only thing I knew how to do around the house was to put up garage door openers. I'm sure he only thinks that because of the fringe benefits that those skills once afforded me...many many years ago....sigh. Anyway, now that I have a house of my own and would like to save money by doing things myself, my repertoire has grown, in leaps and bounds actually. I've put in a new sump pump (man I would hate to be a plumber), I've dabbled in electrical stuff, new outlets and fixtures, I've installed a new garage organization system, I built a door for the crawl space under the solarium, and I've even started to patch up big drywall holes (I actually learned that skill from all the drunken holes I've had to help patch at HS school parties from my youth). The best thing about doing all this stuff is the tools. My latest addition is a jig saw. Its actually quite fun ripping through some plywood or metal. At some point I'd like to get a table saw but there's no place to put it. It'll probably have to wait until we move to a new house...one with a 2-car garage.
Next project:
Pouring a new concrete step....
Friday, April 04, 2008
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Good night sports teams
I am obviously what you would call a homer. No matter the sport, I will always root for the DC "area" team....that means Ravens and Orioles too. Regardless of that, I am going to swear off all sports for 2007. It is just too depressing seeing all my favorites go down in flames. Okay so the Terps are bowl eligible, but who cares.....the Caps can score on the power play now, but they are still at the bottom of the league...the Wizzz can't play defense....and the Skins...well due to the recent tragedy, I'll leave them alone today.
Alright, just to clarify, if my boss gives me the Skins 'Boys tix, I AM going.
Just to clarify...
Alright, just to clarify, if my boss gives me the Skins 'Boys tix, I AM going.
Just to clarify...
Closing out '07
So I was talking to $2 last night and made the comment that the year is coming to an end already. Life always seems to go so much quicker the older you get. Remember when summer vacation was so far away when you were in elementary school. Or when it took forever for Christmas break to come in college. Its been 12 years since I was at Maryland and my life has seemed to fly by in comparison to those 4+ years. (Yeah, it took me a + to finish school).
Anyway I started thinking about the past 12 months and how great its been, but all I could think of was the tragedy. Sean Taylor's murder. The fires in California. The tornadoes in Kansas. I tried to think about my wedding and how great that was, but then I think about 2 days later, the VA Tech deaths. This was so starting to depress me. Then I started thinking about Barney. No matter how bad the world seems to be, he always greets me the same way. Like he hasn't seen me in 10 years and he wants to make up for it in the next 5 mins. Its amazing how much fun and happiness he adds to $2's and my life. I can't even imagine what it will be like when we have children.
By the way, the family was encouraging us to have them soon and quickly...they hope for twins.
Crazy, but thats what family's for....
Anyway I started thinking about the past 12 months and how great its been, but all I could think of was the tragedy. Sean Taylor's murder. The fires in California. The tornadoes in Kansas. I tried to think about my wedding and how great that was, but then I think about 2 days later, the VA Tech deaths. This was so starting to depress me. Then I started thinking about Barney. No matter how bad the world seems to be, he always greets me the same way. Like he hasn't seen me in 10 years and he wants to make up for it in the next 5 mins. Its amazing how much fun and happiness he adds to $2's and my life. I can't even imagine what it will be like when we have children.
By the way, the family was encouraging us to have them soon and quickly...they hope for twins.
Crazy, but thats what family's for....
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Voyeurism...
My company is involved in mainly Wiretapping and Radio Interop stuff, but now we have a Video Surveillance system. Based on a coworkers suggestion, I was gonna buy this home camera system that I can access through the net to check up on Barney and stuff. Now all I have to do is find a suitable camera, maybe a wireless web-cam to set up in the house...I can get the software for free. I can check up on $2 when I'm on the road traveling. Make sure she's not having too much fun without me.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
New Toy....
I love the Wii...and now there's another reason...a wheel attachment for Mario Kart!!!!
Wheel Fun
How cool and useless is that!!!!
Wheel Fun
How cool and useless is that!!!!
Big Boy
I guess its been awhile since I said I would reopen the book to everyone...more than a month, but traveling takes a toll on me. I have no desire to get in front of a computer and blog. I should re-investigate the audio blog that MBM told me about years ago. That would make posting easy....sucks for you to suffer through my stream of consciousness ramblings, but eh, you make lemonade right?!?! So when we got him 2 months ago, I posted some pics of Barney and I think he weighed maybe 9 pounds. If you saw him today, he looks like a mini pony...probably weighing in at like 15lbs. Its strange to me how much he looks like he's grown when I leave for days at a time, much less the entire week. $2 didn't believe me until she came to Orlando for the weekend. I told her that wen she gets back home, Barns would look like he grew 10 feet. She was gone for 4 days and he looked like he gained 5 pounds. I wonder if this is gonna be what its like when we have kids. I am gonna hate traveling then, I'm sure. It sucks not to be around $2 and Barns, but I can't imagine not being around for my son or daughter.
Oh well, we've got another year of childless lives (if you don't count Mr. Barney) so we have some time to enjoy being married. =)
Oh well, we've got another year of childless lives (if you don't count Mr. Barney) so we have some time to enjoy being married. =)
Monday, October 01, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
House Update....
.....Its like I only update once every 30 days. .....here's one til mid July.
It's not because I don't want to, but there isn't much to say on a daily basis. Well, after a long 2 months, $2 and I have finally moved out of the in-laws and into our new place. It kinda sucks because we delayed any furniture delivery until next weekend so we could paint and rip out carpet. Oh well, the price to pay, but I think the house will look great once we are all done. One of the good things was that since we knew the carpet was coming out, we didn't care about covering floors or dripping paint...it was a paint fest. It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't paint the ceilings too...talk about sore triceps. I now know why they punish guys in the military by making them hold out their rifles at 90 degrees from their bodies. OUCH!!!
The carpet was a totally different animal. It was easy as pie to cut out, but man was it heavy. The rubber padding beneath it was even heavier, if you can believe it. After it was all out and the painting complete, the house had shed its wet dog smell. I thanked the previous owners for trying to make the house nicer by steaming the carpet, but in the end, it just smelled like older wet dog. Now it just smells like old, wet PAINT.
Overall, it was a good productive weekend and I can't wait til all of our stuff gets here. I am just tired of sleeping on an air mattress. Granted, I'd still probably feel just as sore and worn down if I had a real bed, but I also am without any TV until Friday. Talk about reliance...my life seems so boring without it =)
It's not because I don't want to, but there isn't much to say on a daily basis. Well, after a long 2 months, $2 and I have finally moved out of the in-laws and into our new place. It kinda sucks because we delayed any furniture delivery until next weekend so we could paint and rip out carpet. Oh well, the price to pay, but I think the house will look great once we are all done. One of the good things was that since we knew the carpet was coming out, we didn't care about covering floors or dripping paint...it was a paint fest. It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't paint the ceilings too...talk about sore triceps. I now know why they punish guys in the military by making them hold out their rifles at 90 degrees from their bodies. OUCH!!!
The carpet was a totally different animal. It was easy as pie to cut out, but man was it heavy. The rubber padding beneath it was even heavier, if you can believe it. After it was all out and the painting complete, the house had shed its wet dog smell. I thanked the previous owners for trying to make the house nicer by steaming the carpet, but in the end, it just smelled like older wet dog. Now it just smells like old, wet PAINT.
Overall, it was a good productive weekend and I can't wait til all of our stuff gets here. I am just tired of sleeping on an air mattress. Granted, I'd still probably feel just as sore and worn down if I had a real bed, but I also am without any TV until Friday. Talk about reliance...my life seems so boring without it =)
Thursday, May 24, 2007
New House...
For those of you interested, here are some other pictures of the new house. It is a page from the listing agent:
The Barn
Enjoy...
The Barn
Enjoy...
Wow...I almost forgot about you..
Geez, I haven't posted since before the wedding. Its been so hectic and stressful with moving out of one house, moving in with the in-laws, finding a new house, dealing with an incompetent loan processor. I sometimes felt like I didn't know which way was up. Married life is supposed to start off better than this...it HAS to!?!?! Okay, so I'm exaggerating a bit, but there were nights I couldn't sleep. Not so good. The good news is that we did find a house that we liked and the owners accepted an offer on it. We affectionately call it, "The Barn":
I found this house after my "dream home" went off the market while we were in Punta Cana on our honeymoon. We had even given that one a name, "The Chalet" because it looked like a chalet sitting on a mountaintop. I was already imagining myself at that first place with a new dog and all this great stuff I was gonna do in the backyard. Truth be told, we gave all the houses we liked names so we could keep them straight. We even called this one townhouse, the "Brownie" not because it was brown, but because the lady who owned it was baking brownies when we came to look at it. Okay, back to the story...
I was so depressed when I got home, but almost immediately looked on the Internet for any "different" homes. When my search came back with this one, I glanced at the front and almost didn't look. Normally agents who lists houses with just the front picture have something to hide inside. I thought this one would be one of those "look at me from the outside" places, but I was wrong, the listing agent actually put tons of pictures up. Once I saw the solarium, backyard, and kitchen, I definitely wanted to see it in person.
It is such a neat house. The one across the street was also for sale, but when I looked at that one, it was no contest. The owners of the other house hadn't done a thing since that one was built, while these owners had redone the kitchen, put in hardwood floors, replaced windows, tons of stuff, and they basically wanted the same price. No brainer. Because I had done most of the searching, (probably 25 houses at this point) I knew this was the place, but because $2 had only seen a couple up to this point, she wanted to see more. We saw 8 houses that day and none matched this one, but she wanted to go again that weekend. The following Saturday, we went to see townhouses. Coming from a townhouse, she didn't want to buy another, possibly smaller one. The difference was that these were around 2 years old and really nice. Even I knew she would want to see them...I saw these weeks before and could see myself living there. At the end of that day we had convinced ourselves that buying the townhouse was a good deal, but then we started to talk family. To get space for townhouses today, they tend to build UP rather than out. To get a square footage of more than 2000, they made 4 separate levels....thats a bunch of stairs. We didn't like the idea of climbing 20 stairs with a baby just to get to the kitchen, then 2 more flights of about 20 stairs each to get to the master suite. As you know, we talked ourselves out of that one. The only thing left to do was sleep on it and go see the houses a second time on Sunday.
The next day, we went back, saw the 18 TOTAL stairs for the 4 levels in this house, and knew it was the one. We put in an offer and after a round of give and take, the owners agreed and we've got a new house. The owners have been pretty nice, even volunteering to fix things from the Home Inspection that we didn't even ask them to do. Only real headaches have come from the mortgage people.
By the way, if any of you see fit to do business with Navy Federal Credit Union, please avoid one particular employee: Bernadette Gavino. It seems that all of the employees covering her accounts while she was away a month ago were very helpful and knowledgeable. Bernadette on the other hand, seems to get lost in her own office walking from her desk to the fax machine. The other day she gave us a scare. She called $2 to tell her that the appraisal price was $10k less than the contract sales price. We were freaking out!!!! I told $2 to call her back and get the actual number and not the "difference". As it turns out, the appraisal was $2k more than the contract price, stupid Bernadette didn't look at the contract, but at the number we asked to be approved for. What a hosebag. How do you not know the sales price...you are preparing the loan for the underwriters you moron!!! I called my cousin and he even told me that when he faxed her the contract, he even wrote out all the important number on the cover page in case she couldn't read them. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!
This is gonna be the slowest 30 days of my life....
Oh yeah, I told a couple people already, but mark your calendars early. Party at the new house Sept 1st...Labor Day weekend. We are using the caterer that we did NOT use for the wedding...they still have our deposit so we aren't gonna waste it. Hope to see you there.
I found this house after my "dream home" went off the market while we were in Punta Cana on our honeymoon. We had even given that one a name, "The Chalet" because it looked like a chalet sitting on a mountaintop. I was already imagining myself at that first place with a new dog and all this great stuff I was gonna do in the backyard. Truth be told, we gave all the houses we liked names so we could keep them straight. We even called this one townhouse, the "Brownie" not because it was brown, but because the lady who owned it was baking brownies when we came to look at it. Okay, back to the story...
I was so depressed when I got home, but almost immediately looked on the Internet for any "different" homes. When my search came back with this one, I glanced at the front and almost didn't look. Normally agents who lists houses with just the front picture have something to hide inside. I thought this one would be one of those "look at me from the outside" places, but I was wrong, the listing agent actually put tons of pictures up. Once I saw the solarium, backyard, and kitchen, I definitely wanted to see it in person.
It is such a neat house. The one across the street was also for sale, but when I looked at that one, it was no contest. The owners of the other house hadn't done a thing since that one was built, while these owners had redone the kitchen, put in hardwood floors, replaced windows, tons of stuff, and they basically wanted the same price. No brainer. Because I had done most of the searching, (probably 25 houses at this point) I knew this was the place, but because $2 had only seen a couple up to this point, she wanted to see more. We saw 8 houses that day and none matched this one, but she wanted to go again that weekend. The following Saturday, we went to see townhouses. Coming from a townhouse, she didn't want to buy another, possibly smaller one. The difference was that these were around 2 years old and really nice. Even I knew she would want to see them...I saw these weeks before and could see myself living there. At the end of that day we had convinced ourselves that buying the townhouse was a good deal, but then we started to talk family. To get space for townhouses today, they tend to build UP rather than out. To get a square footage of more than 2000, they made 4 separate levels....thats a bunch of stairs. We didn't like the idea of climbing 20 stairs with a baby just to get to the kitchen, then 2 more flights of about 20 stairs each to get to the master suite. As you know, we talked ourselves out of that one. The only thing left to do was sleep on it and go see the houses a second time on Sunday.
The next day, we went back, saw the 18 TOTAL stairs for the 4 levels in this house, and knew it was the one. We put in an offer and after a round of give and take, the owners agreed and we've got a new house. The owners have been pretty nice, even volunteering to fix things from the Home Inspection that we didn't even ask them to do. Only real headaches have come from the mortgage people.
By the way, if any of you see fit to do business with Navy Federal Credit Union, please avoid one particular employee: Bernadette Gavino. It seems that all of the employees covering her accounts while she was away a month ago were very helpful and knowledgeable. Bernadette on the other hand, seems to get lost in her own office walking from her desk to the fax machine. The other day she gave us a scare. She called $2 to tell her that the appraisal price was $10k less than the contract sales price. We were freaking out!!!! I told $2 to call her back and get the actual number and not the "difference". As it turns out, the appraisal was $2k more than the contract price, stupid Bernadette didn't look at the contract, but at the number we asked to be approved for. What a hosebag. How do you not know the sales price...you are preparing the loan for the underwriters you moron!!! I called my cousin and he even told me that when he faxed her the contract, he even wrote out all the important number on the cover page in case she couldn't read them. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!
This is gonna be the slowest 30 days of my life....
Oh yeah, I told a couple people already, but mark your calendars early. Party at the new house Sept 1st...Labor Day weekend. We are using the caterer that we did NOT use for the wedding...they still have our deposit so we aren't gonna waste it. Hope to see you there.
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