Neverending
Tuesday, May 29, 2007

It has been a crazy and demanding last couple of days. Friday afternoon, Joen took a leave as we officially moved out of the apartment and spent our first night at our new house. Jeremy, Keith and Rashad helped us carry all the heavy stuff like the bed, drawers, and other furnishings and load into the U-Haul which we rented for the day. It took a good hognmur and a half to do all the loading-- all 4 guys busy with the heavy stuff while I busy'd myself with the little ones that fit inside the car. I can't tell you how many times we went up and down those 2 long flights of stairs. MENTAL NOTE: Next time we're renting an apartment, we should always take the bottom floor. Funny because our neighbor next door is also transferring. So she and her husband went up and down those stairs with Joen and I. Imagine all the mumbling we were doing. Hehe.

Our first night was lovely. Lots of boxes in our view but the room was a lot darker than our previous one so more conducive to our Zzzzs. We slept tired and spent. The next day, I started sorting the kitchen and bathrooms while Hoen took care of the TV assembly and computer. Bad news though-- the very room we chose for the office had the ONLY dead cable connector in the house. And since it was Memorial Day Holiday on Monday, we had to wait for the COX guy to come over today, Tuesday, to fix it. So for the entire weekend, while other people were splashing in pools and barbecuing, we were unpacking, cleaning, arranging stuff and doing the last batch of packing in the apartment. Just tonight, we were there to get all the other big stuff which would still fit inside the car. But most importantly, we swept the refrigerator off of our goodies. Tomorrow, we go back one last time to clean the apartment as stated in the agreement. Thursday, May 31, we turn the keys in and it's officially BYE BYE Biltmore apartments. Today, we went to the gym. We will miss it. We have gotten to know the people there and it's a pretty nice gym complete with 4 pools and a sauna. But all good things come to an end after all. Here's a pic of us at the apartment. So weird to see it in its nude and natural state. Hehe.

posted by maudester @ 10:00 PM   2 commentus maximus

Tick tock tick
Friday, May 25, 2007

Hoen had to take the afternoon today as he wasn't feeling well. Must've been the combination of the MMR shot and all the packing we have had to do. Today, we took 3 trips to the house to transport small stuff as well as remove the paint tapes in the basement. When we got back home, we unwired the pc whilst still hooking up Macjen to the internet in case we need to connect with the rest of the world. Hehe. If our backs, shoulders and arms could speak, they would be shrieking by now. But tomorrow is THE official move-in day and we're very glad to have several friends come and help us carry the heavy stuff such as the bed, sofa, la-z-boy and whatnot. Hoen and I will also be picking up the grill and ottoman we had purchased at NFM several weeks ago. From there, he and I will be convoy-ing since he will be U-Hauling while I stay close behind.

TOMORROW IS IT. GOODBYE APARTMENT LIVING. HELLO NON-STOP HOME EXPENSES. HEHE.

posted by maudester @ 12:02 AM   0 commentus maximus

I'm on crack!!!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

So the previous owners left their speakers and their wall mount er, thingy behind. At first, we thought what delightful freebies these are but Hoen took a closer look the other night. As I put on the tape, Hoen decided to take all of them down as they were rendered useless. So he slaved through the whole unscrewing and loosening. The problem was, the darned things grilled BIG holes on the walls. What's worse, the mount holder was adhered to the wall! Ack! Headache! As Hoen shook his head, I told him that maybe just as well since we were planning on starting our own anyway.

But don't these strip-offs just look horrible??

posted by maudester @ 10:10 PM   0 commentus maximus

No paint, no gain

Since Friday night, we have been devoting every ounce of our energy to painting. And boy is it fun, tiring, tedious and I must say, rewarding! We started at our bedroom since pretty much all the furnishings are there. It would be really hard to have to paint in a furnished room. I mean, all the moving would be very inconvenient.
Choosing the color for our room was quite easy. After consulting the feng shui wheel, we got a go on the sage blue-ish color. We both loved it and knew that was IT for us. So we applied the primer first which took us HOURS since we were newbies. But the taping was my favorite part. I mean, aligning everything? So right up my alley! Haha. Anyway, we were done with the room in I guess, 2 nights. We made the mistake of taking the tape off 12 hours after the paint so some of the paint came off as we were taking the tape off. But all is ok now, we remedied it pretty fast and everything (except one little chip by the window) can pass the HGTV test. What was bad though was that some of the paint had already been on the trimmings so we couldn't do anything about those. I guess the previous owners weren't painters as well. Hehe. What matters most is that we both fell MORE in love with the color. It was the perfect choice!
Yesterday, Monday, I started priming the basement while Joen was working. Same thing. There were already some paint on the ceiling and on the trimmings but we just have to let it go. Who's going to stare at those imperfections anyway? Today, I almost finished painting the entire basement gray. We decided on gray because the basement is going to be the "entertainment center". Riiiight, haha. But that's where all the TV and sound set-up will go, as well as our contemporary furniture so the gray makes things more sleek and chic. (I hope so!). I could feel my back muscles, my arms, my core and my neck get strained as I W'd my way around the basement. I told Joen how our 4-day workout weeks were helping us every time we paint. We have been so used to putting our bodies to the test that our painting nights might have made us tired but it hasn't broken our necks. Tomorrow, we remove the tapes at the basement and I'm sure there will be touch-ups here and there. Gray as a color over a white primer is very challenging as it gives a more translucent effect. The light can also be very deceiving so imperfections show up much later. But we both loved the turn-out and the color. Very cool indeed!

Next up, the living room but that won't be happening soon since it's a pretty challenging job, what with the high ceilings and all. Also, it's about time we focus on the packing so that's what I'm going to be doing tomorrow.

Note: I PROMISE to do another pose of Joen and me next time. We were just too damned tired to even switch places. Haha

posted by maudester @ 9:29 PM   0 commentus maximus

Prime, prime Miss American prime
Friday, May 18, 2007

Today, we started applying the primer for the walls. We decide the other day to start with our bedroom instead of the living room because we still don't have the furniture for the living room. At least when we move in with the bed, we don't have to move it again just to paint. So we came up with a sage blue color for our room and ordered it at Home Depot. Anyway, since Hoen had to finish mowing the yard, I went ahead and started taping the trimmings. I actually like taping! Joen made it in time to finish up for me while I went ahead and got things ready.

We alternated between the brush and the roller (funny because today, for visa purposes, we had to get out blood drawn, get vaccinated with tetanus and injected with the TB test. Imagine how tired our arms were). I love love loved it! If only it didn't take so much time. But I believe we did a good job applying the primer today and the more we do it, the faster we'll be. I already cooked some yummy pork chops ahead so that when we got to the apartment, we could dig in to our hearts' content. We started about 6:45 pm and got finished around 3 hours after. That's JUST the bedroom. Haha! That's ok. We agreed to brave the painting come what may. Also, we were ONLY too happy to realize that having a small house meant lesser painting effort. Sweet lemon? Maybe. We're just thankful we have the time to do this.
*** Joen and I set aside some pants to be worn JUST for painting. I had planned on getting those painting outfits but nah, just picked the pair of jeans I haven't worn in a long time.

posted by maudester @ 10:09 PM   0 commentus maximus

Mow, mow, mow your lawn gently down the street

Yesterday, Hoen was FINALLY able to mow our lawn after itching to do it for so many days. See, our friend, Jeremy, who gave it to us decided to hand it over on Wednesday instead of Monday. What's more, he never really got to use this mower because it was just given to him as well. So we had to do some asking and some research over the brand. Luckily, this gal from Lowe's was very helpful. Our lawn is far from manicured but at least the dandelions have all been cut.

We also replaced the exterior and garage bulbs which have all gone out, save the porch light. We got these energy saving compact florescent bulbs, thanks to Bill Clinton's energy speech. Hehe. Anyway, as Joen took out the glass encasing which held the bulbs inside, he tilted it over to clean the glass from all the dust and whatnot. Little did he know that the glass plates were the types that came off so they went straight down to the pavement. One little shard chose to reroute to my right leg and make me its first casualty. Ouch. Just glad I didn't catch the bigger shards otherwise, stitches galore and that would have just been the WORST timing of all. Hoh well. At least our house now looks so much brighter and our house number, much more visible.

posted by maudester @ 9:51 PM   0 commentus maximus

Ze laundry room
Monday, May 14, 2007

Oh! And the laundry room which Joen forgot to show yesterday.

posted by maudester @ 1:47 PM   0 commentus maximus

Itube, youtube, Wetubed!

So we took a video of the house for family and friends to see. I had to break it up into several parts for Youtube to accomodate them. Bien Venida!






posted by maudester @ 1:34 PM   0 commentus maximus

Ant now the ant is near

I hate roaches. But when I think of roaches, I am hardly affected. Ants are a totally different story for me. I think of ants and I get MAJOR goose bumps. That is why when we found out about the ants on the day of our final walk-through, we knew we had to take care of it right away. So last Saturday, instead of buying the usual ant killers, we got this ant bait that looks like a tiny little lego house that has a bit of ant poison in it. It attracts the ants so they take it with them and spread the poison around that it even kills the queen and the entire colony soon after. It's supposed to work in 24 hours. We placed three baits around the curb where their strategic spot is and crossed our fingers. So we checked the same time the next day. Indeed there were plenty ants outside these baits. at first they looked alive but they were in fact dead and other ants were crawling over them to get to the bait. This particular was the hot spot so more ants died there. Bravo! Now that we've taken care of that (or at least a big part of that) we're going to get the pest control solution to keep them away for good I hope.

posted by maudester @ 12:50 PM   0 commentus maximus

Aktibidades

Last Saturday, our big mission was to get measurements of the walls where we will be painting in order to know just how much of WHAT paint color we need around the house. With tape measure, a pen and paper at hand and with my reliable Macjen, Joen and I went from wall to wall (well, actually HE did) and after he plotted the numbers down on paper, I copied them to Macjen and made an object of it. Complete with colors! Hahaha!

We also realized that day that we had better start watering the plants right away lest we want our neighbors to think we are advocates for the El Nino which had started to exist on our lawn. So glass by glass, we went out and watered them withering looking bushes. As for the grass, well, Hoen was itching to mow it but without Jeremy's mower which he volunteered to give to us, we couldn't do anything. So after a lot of one-way conversations with the dandelions, we decided to do the watering tomorrow as it was getting late already and we were getting tremendously hungry. The frequent thunderstorms last week must've let the grass grow much faster. These days, it has been like Philippine temperature. We have been enjoying the 80s and 90s. Well at least, I have. We checked out our neighbors' landscaping and came up with ideas for the house. With the rest of the expenses that go inside the house, we can't do anything too beautiful outside because it can be a budget breaker, So maybe we can start something small and make it a major project spring of next year. We'll see.

The next day, Sunday, we had to leave the house early at 7:45 am because our new washer and dryer was going to be delivered between 8:30 and 10:30. I am not a morning person so my excitement was overshadowed by my grogginess. Even though I tried to catch up on a few winks, the airbed made for a poor substitute for our bed. So I walked downstairs and found the Best Buy guys installing our washer and dryer. Our 2 pretty laundry babies! So ... white and so... pure! Haha! They tested it for a while and since I really had to sleep again, we headed for the apartment. After church that afternoon, we set out to do some hardware shopping at Menard's instead of Lowe's because of the gift card we got from our lender. It may only have been $25 but any amount goes a long way for us. We bought a ladder, a garden hose, the knob, caulk, air filters, rags and other things. We also stopped by Bed Bath & Beyond to check some of the things we would and might be needing for the house soon. We dropped the items off at the house. While I tested the washer and dryer with some clothes I brought from the apartment, Joen set up the hose with the coiler which the old owners left. We worked on the hose together because the damned task was actually quite demanding. Hehe. He watered, I watered, the neighbors waved, we watered, the people jogged around, we watered, kids played and biked and we... well we watered. At least both the lawn and backyard have quenched their thirst. We wore the wrong things though, what with my pantaloons and slippers and Joen's WHITE slippers. Haha. Always a lesson learned along the way. We went back to the apartment feeling a little tired as it was an early and long day. But at least we are now more familiar with the house and we KIND OF know what we really want inside. FIRST UP, PAINT. That has to be done this week or during the weekend.

BIG BIG HEADSLAPPER FOR THE DAY: We should've bought the hose sprinkler. I mean I wanted to just go ahead and buy it and Joen wanted to test the knob first. I guess we'll be returning it now? Hehe. It was amusing to see Joen brave the calf-high grass in the backyard while some neighbor's sprinkler hissed adoringly by itself. Haha!

posted by maudester @ 10:26 AM   0 commentus maximus

Hack it! Hack it! (Hakut hakut)
Friday, May 11, 2007

After closing, Hoen and I went back to the apartment for Hoen to take a nap. I put together the kitchen stuff we don't use often so that we can start taking them to the house. I also gathered all those things I had previously packed so we could fit them all in the car. The primary reason we wanted to go to the house was to do some actual vertical measurements and guess what, WE FORGOT THE TAPE MEASURE!

posted by maudester @ 10:33 PM   0 commentus maximus

So poor yet so closed

We closed on the house today!!! A lot of people told us that closing was going to take hours of signing so Joen decided to take the afternoon off. There at the closing was our lender, Tahnee and a lady whom "the closer", Michelle Stark. Nancy was supposed to be there but she had to be at the house to make sure that our dishwasher (notice I said OUR this time, haha) was not leaking anymore, as well as our sink piping. The plumber made it there for a backjob which made it impossible for Nancy to be there during the closing.

Anyway, Tahnee and Michelle were very concise and straight to the point that everything took place no more than 45 minutes! We were ready to walk out of the office and get in the car when we forgot the most crucial part- the HANDING OF THE KEYS! Just in time Nancy arrived, panting nevertheless, and she told us that the backjob was taken care of and that there were absolutely no leaks anymore. She then handed us the keys (right, Nancy? *wink wink*) and that sealed the deal. She was very generous to give us some thoughtful gifts, my favorite being the M decor. How thoughtful. Here we are, OFFICIAL homeowners now. Whooppeee!

posted by maudester @ 10:23 PM   0 commentus maximus

Moonwalkthrough
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

We just had our Final Walk-through today. Nancy was there and boy, were we glad because she really had an eye for teeny weeny details. Here are several things we noticed when we got there.

1) The rainshower head was removed. Well, too bad. I guess we just need to get our own.
2) Two bulbs in the Master's vanity aren't working. (not a problem at all plus, we saw two unused bulbs in the drawer)
3) They left the TV mount in the Master's bedroom. They might come back before closing to remove those but if they don't, we appreciate the freebie.
4) They left the entertainment system mounts AS WELL AS THE SPEAKERS. Again, they might remove them before closing but if they don't, we appreciate the "gift"
5) All 5 fixes indicated by the inspector were taken care of.
6) There's a subtle pink-ish spill on the living room carpet. Not a biggie at all.
7) The place was clean just not spotless. Which is fine with us since I'm going to do some cleaning anyway.
8) The screen door leading to the deck doesn't lock. Not really a major issue since we'll be using the glass door to close most of the time especially with my dust allergy.
9) Yey! More space in the fridge!!
10) Double Yey! Faster heating oventop!!
11) The owners left their shaver! Hahaha!
12) The carpet was just cleaned. I love love LOVE the carpet!
13) We had no idea how to wire the speakers to OUR future entertainment system since all the wires are concealed in some dry wall. Nancy will call the owner and ask.
14) They left the keys, garage door codes and security codes manual.
15) There were a lot of ants in the front lawn. Will find the colony and make sure they don't get inside the house.
16) They left their hose coiler. But they might just take it with them before closing.
17) All the dog poop is gone!
18) We have a "secret room." Hehe
19) They retained all the storage in the garage



And the ONE major thing we discovered was THE DISHWASHER AND SINK PIPE LEAKED!!

Huge Uh-oh. If anything has to do with water, it's always a major worry. So Nancy says it has to be repaired or replaced before closing.



posted by maudester @ 4:26 PM   0 commentus maximus

Cleaning and Packing!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

There is a rule to be followed when you're trying to declutter all your stuff. It is the KEEP, DONATE, TOSS rule and that's exactly what I did yesterday. It was not just Spring Cleaning day, it was time-to-get-rid-of-stuff-never-worn-within-the-past-year day. It was the first day of May and now that we're mere weeks away from moving out, it was the perfect time to get started.

I started off by stashing away all our winter clothes (read: THICK) into these huge plastic containers and placed them together with the rest of our "for moving" stuff which are now still grouped together right in front of our fireplace. Then I went and replaced them with all our summer and spring clothes. After which, it was time for the huge chin rubbing feat. Which ones to keep and which ones to toss out or donate. Everytime we're getting ready to go somewhere, Joen always tells me to "Please think na what you're going to wear" because he has seen me in my closet staring element. And it took a lot of staring, prancing, folding and refolding to finally decide which fabric souls get to remain in our closet. The TOSS/DONATE pile was getting higher and higher! Just as well. Why keep clothes we found neither the time nor excuse to wear? Next up, shoes. It was very uplifting to finally sort out all our shoes AWAY from the shoe rack. I paired everything together, got rid of the undesirables and placed them in plastics sacks and stacked them on top of our For Moving pile. I packed up all our picture frames and un-albumed wedding pictures (reminder to self) as well as all our books, magazines and DVDs. Good thing I've held off on the book buying lately because it was just box after box after box. See all those shoe boxes? I don't know why didn't get rid of them ages ago when they were rendered useless by our nine dollar shoe rack.

What's just two paragraphs worth of blogging was actually a whole day event. Today, time to dive in to my girlie stuff. My husband has it easy. He doesn't have to worry about his stuff because he trusts my judgment. But that's not saying he has lesser stuff than me because he has LOTS more clothes than I do! Look at our closet. I can see the wall behind it now! And we've freed up what, dozens of hangers! Hurrah! I LOVE moving out. It feels like detoxifying really.

So there. For days until we move out, this is what we (read: I) will be doing. Wish me all the luck and none of the sneezing because all this dust is really starting to get to me.

posted by maudester @ 11:05 AM   0 commentus maximus