Ethan and Katie's Adventures in Living…Together

After much debate, we finally decided to hire painters to do the outside of the house.  Hundreds of paint samples and mock-ups later, we landed on a dark tan with brown accents or as Sherwin-Williams calls it, Roycroft Suede.  We gave the painters the name and paint # and let ‘em loose.   That evening, Ethan texted me  “garage is painted”.  I responded “do you like it?”  Crickets…  So I called and asked.  He said “ummmm, I want to get your opinion on it.”  Not a good sign.   Here is what I showed up to…it’s DayGlo Orange.  We could walk out at night and feel safe since we had the sun in our backyard.

Shining Bright Through the Night

Our painters are obviously color blind, right?  That’s what we decided too.  Someone’s about to get fired for having to redo our garage at no charge.  After we peeled our eyes away from the giant Cheeto, we ran to the store to get the RIGHT paint samples mixed to test on the house, so we could prove to the painters that they should consider switching careers.  At the end of the day, our house looked like an artist’s palette, but we felt confident that the color on our garage, of the orange family, did not even come close to matching the one we wanted, of the brown family.

Next day, Ethan calls the painters to read them the riot act and after some back and forth we learn that the the color on our garage is…just a primer.  Sigh of relief (and cue tail between the legs).  But really…a) who uses a bright orange primer and b) doesn’t tell the homeowners?

Here’s a link to some pictures from the move-in – at least there’s an appearance that it’s progressing, albeit slowly.

Pics from the Move!

And one pic of me working hard (I’m sure Katie is somewhere slaving away here as I eat pita chips and hummus and gab on the couch):

Working hard - wondering what I'm listening to or watching (or eating?) that's making me make that expression...

Thoughts?

So over the course of the move-in, I discovered a lovely number of…let’s call them “endearing qualities” that the house has. Most significant among these were a LOT of leaks.

• The faucet leak in the garage? Not too big a deal – except that the plumbing fixture that someone installed seems to have not existed elsewhere in this dimension, making replacement parts a challenge…
• Leak in the hose bib out front? Doesn’t LOOK like a big deal, if only I could figure out how to isolate and turn off water to it…
• Leak on the shower valve? Not too big a deal, should be able to replace that…open up access door in back, look for shutoff…

WHICH is when I noticed Niagara Falls streaming down the inside of the wall.

This may be more challenging than I thought.

So I started getting contractor quotes – sudden expenditures in the 4 digit range never settle well with me, particularly when we’ve got other fixes and improvements on the horizon.

Who knew Realtor Matt would be my knight in shining armor? (as a man, can I call another man that?) Matt reminded me that the escrow company had bought this “warranty” for the house, which might just cover any little issues. I called the warranty company, and within 30 minutes had an appointment for the next day to have a plumber come and fix EVERYTHING (including the broken garbage disposal!), for just $60!!!

Now all I have to do is sit around for 5 hours today and wait for him to come.

Can I start telling people I’m going to meet them within a 4 hour window, see how that goes?

AND I’m debating whether to spend the $75 to have someone fix it, or just open up my handy Reader’s Digest How to Fix Everything book and have at it myself – what do you think?

As an aside, the new disposal is just sitting there on the dining room table, begging me to open it…

OK, so I KNOW we haven’t posted over the weekend, but we’ve been busy with the move. Saturday was a LONG day, starting around 6:30AM and finishing late in the evening (with a much deserved bourbon on ice – Basil Hayden, if you must know). Sunday was similarly long, with trips to Costco, Target, and the Farmer’s Market, all designed to stock up the house.

In between, we found many new “projects” we’re going to have to work on, as well as a number of “fixes” that will need pretty quick attention (e.g. there appears to be a leak inside a wall, behind the shower – more on this later).

So I PROMISE a more lengthy post later today or tomorrow, which will include pictures from the move-in, and how the house looks now (generally disheveled, but livable – much like my grunge days).

In the meantime, I hope you’ll settle for these pics from Costco…Costco, you say? Yes – have you ever seen Costco right before it opens? I hadn’t…but apparently there is a daily melee that occurs just as the rolling entrance doors open up…

This is what Costco looks like JUST before it opens - something like the start of the Tour de France, only with shopping carts

Quick lunch trip to Lowe’s – this is what I came to buy:

Not thrilling...a doorstop and a garage clicker

But this is what I REALLY wanted to buy!

It will be mine, OH YES, it will be mine!

Tomorrow is the big move-in day! Our handy cleaning service arrived early this morning, most likely happy to find that the main part of the house really did need much work, other than a light dusting of the newly stained floors and some bathroom cleaning. Any happiness they may have felt at finding the main house so clean may have evaporated when I showed them the garage, which included enough cobwebs that it looked like the giant spider scene from Lord of the Rings, as WELL as the strangely placed urinal next to the water heater (I’m pretty sure there was a spoiled banana peel in there too, but I decided to let them verify that for themselves).

Assuming that the gas company came and turned everything on, we’re good to go for tomorrow, which will include a bevy of house appointments:

9AM Movers arrive at old apartment

9AM Trash haulers arrive at new house (through some fancy black hole science, I will magically appear at both locations simultaneously)

12-4PM DirecTV shows up

2-3PM Cable shows the upper hand by only needing an hour window to do their work (Internet!)

AND at some unknown point, Sears will show up with our fridge (they seem to find enjoyment in keeping the timing a surprise…)

Stay tuned for pics from the move-in!