I don't watch much TV, mostly due to the fact that I don't have any cable, or any other kind of TV hook-up. Just DVDs, and those I watch mostly on my computer. This lack of TV has not kept me from becoming mildly (OK. totally) obsessed with a TV show.
I know TV and life are separate and that things on TV are not what happens in real life. The characters on this show are real though (sh*t up and don't tell me otherwise, pleeeeaaase), and I frequently talk about them as if they were real, mainly with fellow-obsessors.
I readily admit to this obsession, even though this show has quite a bit (OK. a LOT) of content that I find morally objectionable. And just so you know where exactly I draw my moral line, the show is Grey's Anatomy.
And now I have to go. The two-episode season finale is on tonight, and I have to find someone with a TV and cable so I can watch it.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
New Used Furniture
Furniture is insanely expensive. Who has the money to spend $500, $600, or even $1000 on a dining room table with chairs? My house came without furniture (which is OK), and I own very little furniture (bed, dresser, desk, office chair, wooden chair, two bookshelves). The large private University in town recently ended the spring semester, and the exodus of students left behind a lot of furniture. I've been craigslisting and garage sale-ing to find a dining room table with chairs, one or two couches, a coffee table, shelving and whatever other cool furniture I can find.
Yesterday I got a (potentially very) nice hutch/bar for the kitchen with some stools, a coffee table and a TV with a built-in DVD player - all for less than $100 (combined). The hutch needs a good cleaning, some paint and some refinishing, but I like it a lot. It's stored in someone's garage for the week, so no pictures yet, but I'll be sure to post some before and after pics. So exciting. I really enjoy refinishing/fixing up furniture.
I do still need a dining room table and a couch or two, but it's not super urgent, since I have about two weeks until I can move any furniture into the house.
Yesterday I got a (potentially very) nice hutch/bar for the kitchen with some stools, a coffee table and a TV with a built-in DVD player - all for less than $100 (combined). The hutch needs a good cleaning, some paint and some refinishing, but I like it a lot. It's stored in someone's garage for the week, so no pictures yet, but I'll be sure to post some before and after pics. So exciting. I really enjoy refinishing/fixing up furniture.
I do still need a dining room table and a couch or two, but it's not super urgent, since I have about two weeks until I can move any furniture into the house.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Mother of all To Do Lists
I like lists. I frequently make lists, and unless I lose them they usually come in handy. Most of my lists are small. groceries, clothes, household items, errands.
Now, however, I have to make a much bigger list.
Things I have to do/have done to make my new house livable.
-replace two windows in the kitchen
-refinish hardwood floor in living + dining room
-install lamps in every room
-install outlet covers on every outlet
-paint kitchen
-paint living room
-paint dining room
-paint bedroom x 3
-install kitchen cabinets and counter-top, and kitchen shelving
-install dishwasher
-install range hood (possibly with microwave)
-install light switches
-install thermostat(s)
-install heating vents
-buy and put in two doors
-till a portion of the garden to plant vegetables
-plant garden
-mow lawn and tame the crazy hedges
*-insulate attic, possibly the whole house
*-put up curtains/blinds
*-cosmetic touch-ups in the bathroom
*-replace washer & dryer
*-replace one outside door
*-paint front porch
*-find cheap furniture (craigslist, garage sales, unwanted furniture from the side of the road, etc.)
(items marked * are optional and/or non-urgent and may happen if there's room in the budget after all essentials have been completed)
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, and whatever it is, I hope it's not a big item.
Just looking at this list makes me want to curl up in a ball and go to sleep for a few weeks. I will hire someone else to do the bigger things (hardwood floors, kitchen, windows, insulation), but everything else will be done by me and my mother when she comes to visit. She's a good painter, and also much less messy than I am. She's also a very motivated person, and I know there won't be much idleness and relaxing until that list is worked off.
Now all I have to do is wait for closing day, and then the madness can commence.
Now, however, I have to make a much bigger list.
Things I have to do/have done to make my new house livable.
-replace two windows in the kitchen
-refinish hardwood floor in living + dining room
-install lamps in every room
-install outlet covers on every outlet
-paint kitchen
-paint living room
-paint dining room
-paint bedroom x 3
-install kitchen cabinets and counter-top, and kitchen shelving
-install dishwasher
-install range hood (possibly with microwave)
-install light switches
-install thermostat(s)
-install heating vents
-buy and put in two doors
-till a portion of the garden to plant vegetables
-plant garden
-mow lawn and tame the crazy hedges
*-insulate attic, possibly the whole house
*-put up curtains/blinds
*-cosmetic touch-ups in the bathroom
*-replace washer & dryer
*-replace one outside door
*-paint front porch
*-find cheap furniture (craigslist, garage sales, unwanted furniture from the side of the road, etc.)
(items marked * are optional and/or non-urgent and may happen if there's room in the budget after all essentials have been completed)
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, and whatever it is, I hope it's not a big item.
Just looking at this list makes me want to curl up in a ball and go to sleep for a few weeks. I will hire someone else to do the bigger things (hardwood floors, kitchen, windows, insulation), but everything else will be done by me and my mother when she comes to visit. She's a good painter, and also much less messy than I am. She's also a very motivated person, and I know there won't be much idleness and relaxing until that list is worked off.
Now all I have to do is wait for closing day, and then the madness can commence.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Busy hands make pink dragons
That's right. I've taken my crocheting into the third dimension. I can only make so many potholders, so I found a pattern for a dragon here.
Dragon exploring the living room.
And exploring the jungle.
In the near future the pink dragon will be relocating to live with a three year-old, who will take much better care of it than I ever could, being at school all day and all..
The pieces of dragon.
Dragon exploring the living room.
And exploring the jungle.
In the near future the pink dragon will be relocating to live with a three year-old, who will take much better care of it than I ever could, being at school all day and all..
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Colliding Worlds
I live far away from my family (parents, siblings, extended family), and I visit them about once a year. It's almost as if I had two separate lives - my life here, and my life (for a few weeks each year) in yester-land, where my parents live. These worlds are about to collide. My mother is coming to here-and-now-land to help me move. 3.5 weeks with my mother in a world she barely knows.
I just made my mom sound like she lives in a mud hut somewhere (nothing wrong with that!!), which she doesn't. She lives in a modern, western country and leads a very nice life. She just isn't used to the hustle and bustle and overly consumerist culture of the US, and the one time she visited (for a weekend) she commented on how much open land there is here. She visited some of the more populated states in the union, and the open land she saw was just the land she could see from the highway. She also saw Boston and was highly unimpressed. I guess US cities are not very exciting when you live in a city that has remnants built 5-some-thousand years ago.
Nevertheless, I plan on showing my mom around this part of the country a little, and the following things are on my agenda of possible things to do (other than move to the new house, paint every room and furnish a house for about $23, of course)
-NYC (it's so different from where she lives, she just might find it impressive)
-Niagara Falls
-camping (a very un-yester-land-like thing to do)
And the countdown for my mother to arrive from yester-land has begun. T-15 days.
I just made my mom sound like she lives in a mud hut somewhere (nothing wrong with that!!), which she doesn't. She lives in a modern, western country and leads a very nice life. She just isn't used to the hustle and bustle and overly consumerist culture of the US, and the one time she visited (for a weekend) she commented on how much open land there is here. She visited some of the more populated states in the union, and the open land she saw was just the land she could see from the highway. She also saw Boston and was highly unimpressed. I guess US cities are not very exciting when you live in a city that has remnants built 5-some-thousand years ago.
Nevertheless, I plan on showing my mom around this part of the country a little, and the following things are on my agenda of possible things to do (other than move to the new house, paint every room and furnish a house for about $23, of course)
-NYC (it's so different from where she lives, she just might find it impressive)
-Niagara Falls
-camping (a very un-yester-land-like thing to do)
And the countdown for my mother to arrive from yester-land has begun. T-15 days.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Consumerism Americana
On Sunday I went to seven stores (craft store, clothing stores, grocery store). I was looking for a handful of very particular things and found most of them at the first store, and then spent 3 hours looking for that one last elusive item. At the end I had wasted 3 hours, had not found what I was looking for and was most likely responsible for the death of a tree somewhere with all the gas I wasted.
Aggravated at not being able to find that one thing I was looking for (blue, 4-ply, worsted-weight cotton yarn, I really, really needed some. go ahead. call me crazy.), I realized before going to bed, that there is probably no other place in the world with more stores and more stuff more readily available at all hours of the day, no matter the day of the week. The grocery store (which carries many things that are not in fact edible) is open 24 hours, and whatever you can't get there, your favorite, large, evil megastore probably carries it (and how dare they close the changing rooms after 11pm!!).
If I was l iving in my hometown, yester-ville, my search for navy blue cotton yarn would have looked something like this:
Walk out the front door, take the bike if the weather is nice, otherwise walk into the town center. This involves walking across a bridge over river and walking up the cobble-stoned market square, which has probably been some sort of market square for many centuries (Roman artifacts that back to 3500BC, the town was first mentioned in records almost 800 years ago). Then I go into the old alley ways of the city, which house most of the stores and restaurants in this part of town. The craft store is next to a church, and a real bell rings when I walk in the door (the bell is rigged to the door with a pulley of some sort). The store is probably about 20x30 feet, and the walls are lined with wooden cubbyhole-shelves filled with balls of yarn. After asking for blue cotton yarn the lady either shakes her head and offers me some other shades of blue, or immediately pulls out a ball of navy blue cotton yarn. Then she writes a receipt by hand, asks me if I need a bag, and if yes, put the yarn in a paper bag. I leave with my yarn, pass by a church, walk down the market square, maybe have some ice cream, walk over the bridge, walk by another church, walk by the brewery and arrive back home after a 10 minute walk.
And, of course, the store is closed on Sundays, and after 5pm Monday through Friday, and after noon on Saturday, and during lunch. Wait. WHAT? That's it? I can only shop during business hours? Yes, and on weekends people go and see things like this:
Snow-covered flower pasture on a mountain just outside of yester-ville (April 2007)
Aggravated at not being able to find that one thing I was looking for (blue, 4-ply, worsted-weight cotton yarn, I really, really needed some. go ahead. call me crazy.), I realized before going to bed, that there is probably no other place in the world with more stores and more stuff more readily available at all hours of the day, no matter the day of the week. The grocery store (which carries many things that are not in fact edible) is open 24 hours, and whatever you can't get there, your favorite, large, evil megastore probably carries it (and how dare they close the changing rooms after 11pm!!).
If I was l iving in my hometown, yester-ville, my search for navy blue cotton yarn would have looked something like this:
Walk out the front door, take the bike if the weather is nice, otherwise walk into the town center. This involves walking across a bridge over river and walking up the cobble-stoned market square, which has probably been some sort of market square for many centuries (Roman artifacts that back to 3500BC, the town was first mentioned in records almost 800 years ago). Then I go into the old alley ways of the city, which house most of the stores and restaurants in this part of town. The craft store is next to a church, and a real bell rings when I walk in the door (the bell is rigged to the door with a pulley of some sort). The store is probably about 20x30 feet, and the walls are lined with wooden cubbyhole-shelves filled with balls of yarn. After asking for blue cotton yarn the lady either shakes her head and offers me some other shades of blue, or immediately pulls out a ball of navy blue cotton yarn. Then she writes a receipt by hand, asks me if I need a bag, and if yes, put the yarn in a paper bag. I leave with my yarn, pass by a church, walk down the market square, maybe have some ice cream, walk over the bridge, walk by another church, walk by the brewery and arrive back home after a 10 minute walk.
And, of course, the store is closed on Sundays, and after 5pm Monday through Friday, and after noon on Saturday, and during lunch. Wait. WHAT? That's it? I can only shop during business hours? Yes, and on weekends people go and see things like this:
Snow-covered flower pasture on a mountain just outside of yester-ville (April 2007)Saturday, May 2, 2009
Let me know if you need any help...
In less than two weeks I will be the proud owner of this 89 year-old house - an 89 year-old house that needs some TLC (read: for at least a couple of months, every free minute and spare penny will be spent on renovations).So far project house has taken up very little of my time. Over the last 4 weeks I have done the following:
- Finding a realtor: 1 hour (thanks to some awesome friends)
- Looking for a house before putting a (winning) bid on one: 5 hours
- Buying appliances: 3 hours
- Picking out kitchen cabinets and countertop: 10 hours
- Picking out colors, er, 200 different swatches of sample colors for all the rooms: 1 hour
- Search the internet for various ideas for cabinets, colors, etc.: 3 hours
Unfortunately (or fortunately, since I'm really excited) all this is about to hit the fan. Closing day is less than 2 weeks away and I had better hit the ground running! I hope the people who have offered to help (mainly with painting) realize I plan on taking every last one of them up on their offers of help.
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