I'll Be Here Awhile
Title courtesy of 311. I've seen them too many times to count, and severely busted up my knee at one of their shows. Severely as in I needed to have knee surgery a few days after the show. It was a fun time. I had to explain to everyone, like nurses, doctors, my parents, friends and relatives, how I hurt myself. And this was back in like 1997, so it was pre-"Love Song" from 50 First Dates. Anyway, the conversations would usually go something like this:
Them: How'd you hurt yourself?
Me: At a concert, jumping around like an idiot.
Them: Who'd you see?
Me: 311.
Them: Who?
And now imagine that dialog going on about 50 times. That was fun. I still can't go to a concert, especially a 311 concert without my parents imploring me not to jump around like an idiot. I'm sure I've told this story before, but its always a fun one, so my apologies if it's repetative.
Anyway, so its been awhile, I know. A month or so I think, which is pretty bad of me. I'm going to go with the old standby excuses that life and work and everything in between has been crazy busy and I've barely had the time to sleep at night, get everything done during the day and cram everything else into the time that I'm not working, let alone a second to think about blogging here. Between work and the house I haven't really had a moment to think. Seriously. My weekends aren't my own anymore and they're far from relaxing. They're all about trips to Lowe's and Home Depot and getting everything I can think of under the sun accomplished in whatever short amount of time the weekend holds for me.
So first things first. The big one. The house. I have to admit, its coming along nicely. We officially moved in two weeks or so ago, in the midst of the painter doing all of his work, which made for a messy move, mostly in that dust got onto everything under the sun! But once the painting was done a few days later it looked amazing. Its amazing what ripping up some hideous, painted over wallpaper can do to the look of the place. On top of that, having the wood floors sanded, stained and coated has made a ton of difference as well. We re-carpeted in the den and the master bedroom as well, because they both sorely needed it. The shag carpet that kicked up dust when you stepped on it in the bedroom had to go in the worst way. So a few rooms repainted, new carpets, newly refinished wood floors, new TV... all of that have definitely helped make us feel better about the place. It still needs a ton of work, but at least now we're not embarrassed to have people come over and show them the place. Its definitely starting to feel like home, which is a good feeling.
Next up we want to redo the half bathroom we have off the den. The old carpet in the den actually extended into the bathroom. Yes, carpet in a bathroom. Disgusting! Anyway, we had them rip that up when we replaced the den carpet and having no carpet and just some ancient ugly ass tiles in there make the bathroom look a million times worse. I can't wait to redo it, and since its such a small bathroom we should be able to do it for super cheap. I hope. That's next up on our plates.
We're also completely ripping out and replacing the central air and heating system in the house. The house has a gas furnace, and blown hot air for heat instead of radiators and baseboard heating that I'm used to. On top of the heating system, which I swear is either original, or at least 30 years old, they attached a central air system to blow cold air out of the existing registers at the floor of each room. Aside from the fact that it looks like the air system was cobbled together by someone like Rube Goldberg there is no way that the system will ever keep us cool in the summer. Its simple physics really. Hot air rises, so having the air come out at your feet is never really a problem because it'll eventually rise up and heat the room. Cold air descends, so having the air come out at your feet will do very little to cool you off. Our feet will get cold, and thats about it. Plus, the ducts suck, are in desperate need of being cleaned, and just don't have the power to get air around to cool us off.
Solution, we're replacing the heating system in a week and a half with a much more energy effective unit. It'll use a ton less power and less gas as well, so that will save us. As for the AC system, once our tax refund comes through, we'll be pumping that into the central air system. Thankfully we get a new first time home buyer tax credit. Its not really a credit, more like an interest free loan that we have to pay back over 15 years, but hey, its money now, I'll take it.
And now we're onto the TV. Right after my birthday, with Best Buy gift cards in my hand I bought a new TV for our den. A 46 inch Samsung Series 6 LCD TV. I hooked it up the day that cable came to hook up our boxes, cable modem and whatnot, and holy crap, its awesome. The picture is so clear and crisp and sharp, its like nothing I've never seen before. Its amazing. Blu ray movies look a million times better than they did on my older 32 inch LCD. Regular HD TV looks insane too. I love it. Now I just need to get my new home theater receiver and speakers hooked up and I'll be in business! Best Buy came last Sunday to mount it to the wall. They did a great job, but it was a little too high up on the wall for my tastes, so the next day I took it off and remounted it myself, which had me kicking myself for even paying them to come and mount it in the first place. We also mounted my 32 inch in our bedroom and that looks good on the wall.
So all in all, its all house, all the time. Everyone says to me, "Welcome to home ownership!" and yeah, I get it. But its all good. I complain, but its nothing too bad. Its exhausting, but rewarding.
Alright, enough for now. Peace.