The Last Week in Pictures

By popular demand, a picture of Cheeba. The reason she's not on the blog more often is because every time I ask her to help, she doesn't respond. I think it's because she's deaf and can't hear my repeated requests but Jesse thinks she's ignoring me.
Regardless, she's still here...I guess the sign from a few posts ago has been working. I think Jesse's getting used to living with a cat -- actually, I would go as far as to say he is enjoying it.Jesse and Tanner started working on tasks you don't need permits for (due to the delay I'll speak of later) -- one of these being sanding down the scratch-coat of stucco that is one of the reasons for our neighborhood 'crackhouse' designation. When I say Jesse and Tanner, I mostly mean Tanner. I wasn't actually present (no spring break for me...) but when I came home, Tanner was on the ladder and Jesse was watching from the ground. All of the pictures seemed to confirm this -- I saw no pictures of Jesse working...
One of the things I know Jesse did that day was to take a lot of trips to Home Depot and Harbor Freight Tools. I know this because of all the receipts that were handed to me when I got home from work. I think Jesse wrote a bit about this in his last post.
Tanner seems happy to be covered in dust. At least we sprung for the fancy eye protection. The masks came with the house.
One of the things Cheeba does while she ignores me is sleep. Right next to one of our dish drying stations. Granted, it's in the sun - but really? She later moved onto the towel...it was washed and the drying station moved shortly thereafter.
Tanner (again) hard at work. I guess someone's got to take the pictures...
There was no lighting in the garage and we couldn't really go in there after sun down. Jesse assured me this was not because vampires patrolled our garage and even installed some lights to prove it. Now I'll go in there - but only with garlic cloves in my pockets and if he's within screaming distance.
Semi-finished window -- all sanded down and ready for the top coat of stucco.
One of our weekend projects was lighting and furniture for the master bedroom. I'll spare you the drama surrounding the furniture and let Jesse tell his story later (suffice it to say he narrowly avoided a fistfight with a bedroom set purveyor.) Below is our new ceiling light in the master bedroom and our new bed -- it has nightstands on either side. (We still don't have window coverings...baby steps.)
Our dresser with two great lighted globes from Ikea. Detail below.

Close-up of the ceiling fixture. You would think it would be easy to install -- no. Apparently, we do things differently here in America than they do in Ikea land and nothing quite matches up. Maybe it has less to do with xenophobia and more to do with the old house and old junction boxes not matching with 21st century junction boxes, but oh well. Regardless, Jesse and I had to make a trip to Lowe's for parts then he made another dusty plaster mess in the hallway and bedroom before making my pretty new lights glow.
Jesse's old lampshade for his squat light broke so he decided to be edgy and match it with a tall skinny shade. I think it works.
Cheeba doesn't like it when we move her perch.
Ahh - the only proof we have of Jesse working on the stucco. Apparently, the pH of stucco is pretty high - and most people know to wear gloves when handling it (according to the lovely gentleman at Lowe's upon examining Jesse's hands). Jesse went gloveless that day and has paid the price with peeling, bleeding leprosy-hands ever since.



In this next picture you can see the ceiling light for the hallway along with Jesse's dangling legs. The story here is that at around 11:00pm he decided he'd had enough and wasn't going to take it anymore. The bathroom door opened the wrong way and the switch for the light was on the wrong side. Much banging and dust and drilling ensued. Now we have a much more functional bathroom door and light fixture.

Where the old light switch was. Notice the hole on the other side of the wall. That's our linen closet. Apparently, someone wanted access and they wanted it quickly.
This wall is coming out anyway so we did a quick-fix patch.
Oooohhh Aaaahhhh - the new light switch. Good job, Jesse.

A great many things happened in the last week that were not photo-documented. Here's a quick list of what I can think of (apologies for the very sleepy prose):
- Jesse did six loads of laundry at the laundrymat
- We tried going to Crate and Barrel twice in two days -- the first time it was closing as we walked up (at 7:00pm!!!) and the second time was Easter. Who knew that Crate and Barrel were religious folks?
- All clothing put away - this included a huge purge and arguments about who is entitled to what closet space (dresser drawer score: Corinne - 7, Jesse - 3)
- Box wars. They seem to attack us everywhere. We were minding our own business on the sofa, talking to Jesse's dad when a whole column of them fell on top of us -- twice! They also jump out when you're not paying attention and trip you.
- Drafting guy. Jesse gave up on the drawings and we hired drafting guy to finish them for us. It was getting ridiculously time-consuming.
- Lowe's and the Big Orange Box - too many trips to count.
- Accounting system established. This is a ridiculous accounting system that a CPA would have a hard time following. But it works for me!
- Paint color wars. This time the foes are Jesse and I. We've yet to see who comes out on top.


All in all, we've gotten a lot of the nitty gritty things out of the way. I had taken last Friday off and we sat down, dug in, and compromised a lot. I guess that's what this is all about. Not my way, not his way -- our way. It's still going to take some getting used to - this whole 'sharing a space with someone ALL OF THE TIME' but I think we're doing pretty well so far.

But I'm pretty sure I'll win the paint color wars.

Organization Station

Jesse finished school at 1:00pm Thursday, giving him time to work on organizing the garage (refer to garage nightmare picture in previous post.) By the time I got home at 5:30, he had single handedly (actually, he used two hands) built and installed a shelving unit made of 2x4s and OSB (he gets made when I refer to it as plywood.) He had also cleaned off and moved into the garage an old well-built workbench that someone had tossed in the backyard some time ago. He was working on the free-standing shelving unit when I arrived - and quickly put me to work.
Here is the garage once we had a bunch of our useless crap on the shelves. Well - I wouldn't call our climbing ropes and helmets and such useless - they have actually has come in handy with saving us from taking deadly falls on more than one occasion. Regardless of my rambling, here it is:It may not look like much, but keep in mind we have all my friend Emi's worldly possessions in the garage along with much of our crap (and dishwasher...) Here is a close-up of Jesse's handiwork - and mine, too. He let me use his fancy drill and saw.Hopefully, once we have the storage in our house worked out and our deck built and our garage storage a little more finessed and Emi moves into her new apartment - we should be able to fit a car in there!

While I was at work, my knight in shining armor also installed a shelf above our closet! Soon we may even have a dresser and bedroom set! Once we have those, I may be able to get our suitcases out of the bedroom and into our (admittedly full) garage!

Jesse woke up bright and early on Friday to spend the morning at the City of San Diego Development Office where they coached him on how to obtain permits for all of the lovely work we're planning. They let him know how lucky he is to live in San Diego where there's a permit office staffed with such helpful folks...apparently, it's also staffed with folks who love to toot their own horns :)

Later in the morning, we went to the bank to set up our joint checking account, which will allow us to split household expenses and all of that nonsense a little easier. We then took a trip to Office Depot to buy a ledger so we can keep a record of who deposits what, who paid for what, and etc. Ah, book keeping - the not so fun side of owning a home.

Saturday we're having some folks over for drinks and snacks to celebrate the fact that we all made it through escrow intact - our Realtor (Ibanez), our Mortgage Planner (Jeremy), and the woman who made it all possible, Jenn (Jeremy's wife and my school/thesis savior.)

Keep your fingers crossed that we're able to get our permits on Monday!!!

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.'