Our First House Guests

This week nothing happened, except the plumbing arrived in the mail (and has yet to be opened), and the "practice period" of our security system in which we are unmonitored ended. The real fun was this weekend.

This weekend we had our first house guests, which forced us to get our butts in gear with all the boxes. The plan was simple:  put together the bed, set up the bedroom, and move all the boxes out of the living room. And it was a success! Our guests had a place to sleep...

And alas our living room isn't a field of clutter and boxes...

There's actually a lot of space in the living room without all the boxes there, and there will be even more when we finally rip out the built in entertainment center (which is still serving as a storage unit). But don't think we actually spent the time to unpack the boxes, they're just in the office...

I did, however, manage to find the box that had my missing dresses. Apparently I had a box labeled "Purses," which, without digging through it, appeared to be stuffed with nothing but purses, but thankfully, my dresses were at the bottom. Look out Oviedo, you just got competition for best dressed! Derek's 2 Gator hoodies, are still missing.
 
The last of the progress this week happened after the guests left, when Derek got all his junk off of the patio...

Our patio is officially HUGE! At our old place, the table in the picture above took up at least 3/4 of the patio, now it's clearly too small for the space. In other news, while our guests were in town, we went to Canvas and Cheers and painted some fabulous new art for our house...

I still can't believe we painted these! In sum, we now have a place for friends to stay, we have the plumbing fixtures in the house (therefore removing further excuses), and we have a place that feels a little more like a home.

No Plumber's Crack = No Plumbing

Lots of things are happening around here, so much that I find it hard to post more than once a week. My triathlon training is in full swing, which limits my work, but you know I won't let that limit Derek's. :) Tuesday he got the permit to do the plumbing--no problem, and on Wednesday he got his new license with his new address (he had to go to the DMV because he has a commercial license). The most exciting part of the week was the arrival of our security system. We got our hopes up a few times when we came home to packages that ended up being another Amazon purchase, and imagine Derek's surprise when he came home to open this package...

But finally, on Friday it arrived! Saturday was Derek's day to begin the plumbing. We had it all planned out. I would be with friends all day as to not distract him, and he would be working away in the attic re-plumbing our house. But, alas, there seems to be a fatal flaw in this plan. It appears as if there must be the presence of a plumbers crack to get plumbing done, and unfortunately my husband's pants and underpants fit properly and do not cause plumber's crack.

On Friday, Derek told me that he most likely wouldn't be able to start because he needed to order the fittings online (where they are significantly cheaper), but I was assured that all the fittings would be counted and ordered, and that other plumbing related tasks would be completed. Derek, however, got a little side tracked. He must have been as excited as me about the security system, so he installed it...

He also decided that he needed to open his garage, which ment the garage door needed to be fixed. Fortunately, third times a charm...

So, by the end of the day, no plumbing related tasks had been completed, including counting and ordering the fittings. But it's ok, we still have Sunday. We can wake up early and get a bunch of stuff done...

It should not be legal see this time on your clock unless you are being kicked out of a bar. By this time, we had already been up for over an hour because this.....

was causing this.....

to bark and cry and run around like crazy. As a result, several hours of much needed sleep were lost, and we didn't get up until 11:00 today. But we were able to get some things done.  I worked in our closet. Yes, I said our closet.

We have been living together for 6 years, this is our 3rd place together, and this is the first time we will be sharing a closet. It's a bit scary. I kind of feel that "our," should never be followed by the word, "closet." It's nice to have everything organized though, and I finally emptied out the 2 lingering boxes in our room (don't let me fool you into the idea that those were the last 2 boxes in the house though). The closet, however, suddenly looks a lot smaller though...

Derek got some things done today too. He counted all the fittings, assured me that they will be ordered after I am done blogging, and made a plan of action to re-plumb the house. Now all that there is left to do is find him some ill fitting pants so the plan will work, and we'll be re-plumbed in no time!

Neighborly Love

Things have been rather uneventful here in Casa de Goodfriend. Perhaps the set up of the television and couch  was a bad idea. It makes it too easy to slack. This week I had something to do every day after work, and this week was also our anniversary and Derek's birthday, so nothing happened during the week. We did; however discover a common area that Lucy enjoyed playing in...

Saturday:

 

Over the past few weeks, we've come to know some of our neighbors. Next door on one side is a super friendly couple, who have grown children and take excellent care of their lawn. On the other side is another great couple, with 2 children--one in middle school, and one in high school. The wife in their family is super friendly and knows everyone on the planet. She was very excited when we moved in, and she promptly began informing everyone who drove by. Down the street is a state trooper who always parks his car in the driveway, and works nights. He's friendly and loves our dog. Across from him is a couple who bought their home in a similar condition to ours about 6 months ago. We enjoy sharing renovation stories with them. Across the street from us is an elderly couple who spends a majority of their time caring for their lawn. The husband is like a free security system. He can tell you when someone stopped by your house, and what they did. Then, there was the garage sale.....

Saturday was our community's semi-annual garage sale. We were going to go to the beach with the Dennis' for Derek's birthday, but I had some time before to explore the sales. The first house I went to was a few doors down at the end of our cul-de-sac. I looked down and saw a dog bumble bee costume. "Hmm," I thought to myself, "What a coincidence. Lucy had one of those that I recently donated to Goodwill." Next to it I noticed a TV Video poker game, "Odd, I just donated that exact same thing too." Then I noticed a stack of books, all of which I had also donated to Goodwill. What are the odds that someone bought all of my stuff? Low. What are the odds that this person stole the bag that I dropped off outside of the Oviedo Goodwill after hours and then put a for sale sticker on it at their garage sale? High. Now I know there are thieves in the neighborhood.

Sunday:
Today Derek was bound and determined to fix our garage springs. He ordered them on Amazon a while ago, only to discover that the sizing instructions in the packaging were not as through as those in the online description. So, we returned those, and got new ones. He was hard at work for much of the day...

But unfortunately these springs aren't the right size either. It's a good thing amazon has easy returns. Later on in the day, the Rose's stopped by to check out the house and loan us some plumbing tools (like how I say us there as if I am going to be involved in the plumbing?)...

 Mike gave us some tips on pulling the permit, and hopefully, my next post will include a plumbing success story. Until then, If you need me, I'll be keeping an eye on the neighbor.

BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!

Much of this week was a blur. Knowing that we had an appointment for the carpet to be replaced on Friday morning, we spent countless hours scraping the popcorn off the ceilings in the bedrooms, and removing all the carpet. Not too exciting. Thursday did, however, have 2 funny moments.
Thursday:
Before work while I was brushing my teeth, Derek said, "I hope I don't wear my flip flops to work by accident. If I do, I'll end up having to come back home." To which I replied, "Just put on your sneakers right after you get dressed so you don't forget."
.....when I got to school, I realized I had worn my shower shoes to school AGAIN!!

Last week Derek said, "It's a good thing things at work are slow. Things aren't too strenuous now, which is good because I need to have energy to work here." To which I replied, "You better knock on wood because the moment things are about to hit the fan here, work will start asking for overtime and you'll be busy as ever."

On Thursday I received the following text from my husband:
"There needs to be a word for news that is good and bad at the same time. So we're going to be working til 5 the rest of the week and next. And working Saturday, not sure what time on that. I'm getting off at normal time today so I can do as much scraping of the ceiling as I can."

Good Best Friday:

The day I've been waiting for has finally arrived!!! The new carpet is here!!! Here are some before and afters...

Front Bedroom Before

Front Bedroom During

Front Bedroom After!

Middle Bedroom Before

Middle Bedroom During

Middle Bedroom After!

Office Before

Office During

Office After!

Master Bedroom Before

 

Master Bedroom During

Master Bedroom After!

How glorious it is to walk all over a whole lot of money! The whole family is in on the fun!

Carpet Angels

 But that wasn't all! Our friend/former roommate came over and put a window film over our windows so I can shower without my neighbors getting a free show, or having to have a garbage bag over the window!

Half of the window done. Who puts a window this big in a shower?!?!?!

Awesome Saturday:
Derek's birthday and our 2nd anniversary is next week, and for the first time I'm less than a week away and I don't have anything planned. I don't even have a card. Then an idea came to me! What does Derek want? Less work! He has to work all day today, so I hired a co-worker's high school son and his girlfriend and put them to work! Oh to be in high school! Their energy was unbounded! I made a list, and within the first hour and a half they had completed the whole thing and were asking for more to do. I was amazed! When Derek came home I was so excited. He walked in and was on the phone, so I dashed to him and covered his face until he was off. When I uncovered his eyes he was in awe. Instead of seeing this....

He saw this...

Ahhh!! This is no longer a dump! It's a home...our home. My bed is in my bedroom, and there is actually somewhere to sit in the living room! There's still a lot to do, but finally, we have a home.

Sunday:
There are an absurd number of light switches in this house. 42 to be exact, and many of the lights are controlled by 2 or 3 of them. Many of them don't work, but today Derek got to work on that, and we officially have light in this house! Derek let me put together the patio table, and it actually stands and is level!

It's been a wonderful weekend, and I'm looking forward to many more.

Rappers Make it Rain...We Make it Snow!

It's been an exciting and exhausting day. I started my morning by removing the wallpaper border in our bedroom. You know when you're playing Mario and you get to the level where you have to beat a super hard boss guy to move on? This wallpaper border is the boss level of wallpaper removal. We bought a wallpaper removal gel solution from my fav store, and a scoring tool and used it as directed, but the effect was less drastic than we had hoped. However, after 4 hours standing on a ladder and scraping the crap out of my walls, it's off! Derek spent his morning being a good daddy and putting in Lucy's dog door.

But, no day of work in this home is without it's surprise project that must be done ASAP. Do you notice how the white pipe threading and the medal ring are one piece in this new fixture...

Well, apparently when we bought this house, we got a 2 for 1 special!

Because this is our only working shower, this topped Derek's list. As a result of this find and the unexpected extra time the dog door took, Derek didn't have much time to scrape the popcorn off our bedroom ceiling. And there is officially a need to rush because today we got a call, and our carpet will be installed Friday! Woot woot! I have the day off, and it surely will be a Good Friday. So, desperate, Derek caved and let me help him with the popcorn ceiling. Now, the rappers might think it's cool to make it rain (and I'm down with that as long as I'm beneath them ;) ), but we like to make it snow...

And with 4 hands instead of 2, we got the master done today. Only 2 more rooms to do before Friday (the rest of the house will wait, we just didn't want to ruin our new carpet)!

In other news, the roof was completed today! It looks so fancy. They'll haul away the dumpster tomorrow.

But all that simply wasn't enough for us. After a field trip to both HD and Lowes and some dinner, we decided to rip out the carpet in the master bedroom.

Oh, the white haziness in that photo? Not a crappy camera, that's all the dust from the popcorn ceiling that's STILL in the air!
Now, it's time for a siesta because we're exhausted! Back to the grind tomorrow!