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.

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 best laid plans...

Below is the email everyone got about the plans for our house.

Jesse and I have left the beach and bought our first house. We closed escrow last Thursday, March 26th. It's been a long and crazy process - it was a short sale - but we had a great team of pros behind us to shepherd us through.

The house is 820 square feet, stucco exterior, two bedrooms, one bathroom, with an attached single car garage. It sits on a canyon in a beautiful little neighborhood. It's located in City Heights (in the city of San Diego), which is an up-and-coming area with a TON of character.

The house itself is a fixer-upper. It's got a solid foundation, new windows and a new roof...other than that, it needs work. It doesn't have a kitchen yet, but our appliances arrive on Tuesday and we'll hopefully get our permits and be able to start work on the new layout of the kitchen and ordering new cabinets next week! A friend of ours who is a general contractor came over yesterday to help us firm up our plans and to give us a reality check about how much we should take on at once :) Luckily, there's a Home Depot just a couple of miles away!! (We've already made several trips...)

Here's all of the things we're planning for it:

Kitchen (new everything, move one wall, take out another)
Entire Interior (paint, flooring in bath/kitchen/dining, window treatments, etc.)
Bathroom (move a wall to make it bigger, move toilet and sink, new everything)
Master bedroom (make a new closet by expanding into the living room a few feet - creating a linen closet in the process)
Second bedroom (small addition behind garage to accommodate a new closet, other part of addition will be laundry room accessible from the garage)
Deck (build deck out into the canyon)
Exterior (patch stucco, new flashing for foundation, paint, trim, new front door)
Landscape (remove grass/weeds in front yard, replace with drought resistant plants and ground cover)
Garage (insulate, Sheetrock, add organizational elements)

It's pretty ambitious but don't worry - we're taking it step by step. We'll be doing bits and pieces with breaks in between each of them so we're not always living with drywall dust and debris.

Also, once the kitchen is in, we should be able to accommodate guests! Preference for the next year or so will go to anyone who brings tools with them :) As the crow flies, we're about nine miles from Pacific Beach...as the car drives, it's more like 14.

Here's a slightly older version of our plans -- we've changed just a couple of things since this draft.