Pictures!

Okay - here it is - what you've been waiting for.
The picture of our house.
Just know that it doesn't look very pretty now...but it will.

Sorry about my car in the way - I was too lazy to move it.
Here's what it will look like when we're done with it (courtesy of Jesse's mad Photoshop skillz):

*This does not include the fabulous landscaping I plan on doing.

Wednesday was all Jesse - I had a book group to go to (the author joined us by phone!).
He stopped at the Big Orange Box (Home Depot/BOB) to purchase a weed whacker, which he insists on calling a 'string trimmer,' so that we could work on the front lawn. Our friend, Robert, was kind enough to lend us a lawn mower and an edger to help with the process.

When we bought the house there were knee high weeds in the front. They were the first things to go. Now, equipped with a WEED WHACKER and an edger, we (the Royal We) were able to get the lawn, er-dirt, looking MUCH better. In fact, he made it look down right beautiful.

While we were working out front, a new neighbor even stopped by - Mike, from the beautiful corner house. He let us know that the neighborhood (Islenair [Eye-len-air]) had a nickname for our house. It has affectionately been known as the 'Crack House.'
We plan on turning it into the Mac House (get it - McDaniels - Mac...)

Here are a few more pictures followed by a story.

This is our (very full) garage. One day we hope to be able to fit a car in there with all of our crap.

Our first yard waste container. This is just from the first 'weed mowing.'
After Jesse's work on Wednesday, the bucket is now full.

Our kitchen with fancy new range and microwave. Notice the cooler - it is where about half of my perishable items went bad while waiting for our new refrigerator. Also notice that the "Over the Range" microwave is not anywhere near "Over the Range."

Our 'counter top' that we borrowed from my work:

The countertop that nothing clean may sit on:*The chair was a gift from the previous owner. It is full of dust and dirt and who-knows-what. Cheeba loves it.

And now for the story!

Jesse is, of course, not used to living with a cat. I have a cat who is not just a cat - she is a special cat. She's deaf and about 50% blind. She gets around perfectly and is her happy little cute cat self BUT if she were to get outside - being that we live on a canyon - she most likely would not survive long enough to be found.

I've had Cheeba since Spring 2002. I love this cat. Love.

Our first day at the house, though, Jesse kept leaving the door open. I let him know (politely - the first time) that he could not leave the door open as Cheeba may go exploring and never come back. The warnings got progressively less polite throughout the day as I kept finding the door open.

Finally, late into the evening [read: dark outside], I went into the kitchen and the door was OPEN. I couldn't find Cheeba anywhere. Screaming ensued.

We found her (sleeping) - but that wasn't the point. Here's what I said:

Jesse, do you watch the office?
Sometimes.
Well, do you know why Angela broke up with Dwight?
No.
He accidentally killed her cat. And even though it was an accident and he felt really really badly about it, and even though she still loved him very much, every time she looked at him she saw her dead cat and so she broke up with him.
Oh. I think I get the point. Will you make me a sign so I stop leaving the door open?
Yes.

Lastly, here is a picture of our living room, which is one of the places in our house that makes me believe that we'll 'get there.'

The first days

Coming home from work Monday was quite a change - my commute has been reduced from 20-25 minutes down to about 10-15. Quite nice, actually.

I came home to grossness so I decided to clean clean and clean some more. I also needed to figure out a way to have a kitchen without using the kitchen. Our sink, cupboards and counter tops are quite nasty - and we'll be starting our renovations with the kitchen anyway - so we've decided not to store anything in the kitchen. I borrowed some folding tables from work to give me 'counter space' and borrowed some shelving units from friends for our 'pantry' and storage areas in our living room.


Notice the martini glasses are on the top shelf.

All evening, Jesse had been at his old apartment loading up the truck and cleaning. He was on his way home and I was starving so we decided to meet in Mission Valley at the Home Depot to get temporary window coverings then go out to dinner. You may not know this but I get pretty cranky when I'm hungry. Needless to say the Home Depot trip was a disaster and we did not get any window coverings.

Home we went with the intention of unloading, cleaning up a bit, and hitting the hay.

I was cleaning away when Jesse came into the room and said, "Corinne! It's 12:30!!" Umm...crap. Another night with little to no sleep.


Tuesday began innocently enough. Jesse toasted me an english muffin and brought it to me in bed. He went off to school and I got up to wait for our appliances, which were being delivered. In the mean time...clean, organize, clean, organize, repeat some more.

Our appliances arrived - the lovely five burner Jenn-Air stove was hooked up, the dishwasher was stored securely in the garage to await the completion of our kitchen, and the over-the-range microwave was added to our appliance-covered folding table. Now for the refrigerator. Hmmm...it won't fit through the door to the kitchen.

Through the turmoil of buying the house, I've tried to adopt a c'est la vie attitude about things (well, tried to...ha!), so I told them to put it next to the TV in the living room :)


From left to right (some of which you can't see) it goes: storage boxes full of things we don't need immediately, chair, shelves full of cleaning products, television, refrigerator, front door.

The wall perpendicular to that has all of the shelving seen above.

Ahhhh.

I also finally got to tackle the second bedroom (Cheeba's room) - which was disgusting - and set up Jesse's office in there. He came home from getting the last load of his things around 10 pm (he had estimated his time of arrival as 6 pm...), unloaded everthing, then started on his four hours worth of homework. He gave up after about an hour (around 12:30 am) and set his alarm for 4:30 am to get up and finish. The sleeplessness continues...

That's it so far! Our next steps are to get the permits for the kitchen and to make the exterior look a bit better (pictures soon). Jesse's got spring break all next week so hopefully we'll be able to start on the kitchen!!!