Pack it up, Pack it in...

I've lived in my apartment for almost three years. This is the longest that I've lived anywhere since leaving home in 1997. Every semester in college, I would move to different room in the sorority house and then move out over the summer. So over time, I got to be a packing pro. And then I lived in a few apartments in Ames, did a 3 month at Elizabeth and JJ's (where I didn't unpack much) and moved in with Nikki for 18 months.
Since then, I've had an apartment for six months in West Des Moines and when it came time to leave there, professional movers packed and moved me. Really, really nice. And then when I left Lansing, just under three years ago, the professional movers came in again and packed up all my stuff and moved it again. They raced to see how fast they could pack it since there were four of them. They were done in an hour and a half. I haven't accumulated a ton of "personal stuff" since then, but I have picked up quite of bit of work related material. I have half a closet full, a filing cabinet and rolling cart. Seriously, several trees have been sacrificed on my behalf and in the name of insurance.
I feel so disorganized with this move and it's very frustrating. I typically just box my stuff up/or have it boxed up and run down my list of to do's. Then I'm off to destination B and settle in. I'm tired of having stuff at two places and just want it to move itself the 20 minutes across town. Hopefully in 24 - 36 hours I will feel much better about all of this. Or at least I'll have a box city on my hands. :)

Food Inc

Over the weekend, I rented Food, Inc. I found the movie interesting and it gave me something to think about regarding where my food comes from and my involvement in the process. After sleeping on it and giving it some more thought - I'm sad and disappointed in myself. Why? The way that I participate currently and the way that I was raised don't exactly match.

Let me explain.  Growing up my dad brought our milk home and I don't mean from the store, yes, I know this is not common. Up until I was about 2 and a half, he worked on a farm and just brought the milk home from the farm. After that he hauled milk for the almost 25 years and brought home almost every dairy product imaginable. The benefit? I knew where my dairy products were coming from, who was producing them, what their farms looked like, and how the process happened. I'd been on the farms when I'd traveled with my dad, met farmers, even been offered pets and I'd seen the processing plant. I also remember how often my dad tested this milk for bacteria and other issues - daily. So while I wasn't directly involved in the process, I imagine my parents felt comfortable about the start to finish of the dairy I consumed. And given the opportunity, I still will jump on the chance to get the products from them because I think the quality is better than anything I can find in the store. I'm also well aware that a lot of milk comes from the happy cows of California. Easily the number one producer of dairy in the country. Nowadays, when I go to the store, I have no clue how my milk gets there. None. It magically arrives on the shelf, I buy it and drink it. And repeat. I've switched to organic milk since the kind that I drink is local (by that I mean it's only a few hours away, and chances are good I could actually drive by their operation). I was encouraged to find out that Wal-Mart is no longer selling milk with rBST. While I don't shop at Wal-Mart, I can only imagine that other retailers will follow suit.

I could go on for days about different things from the movie that I'm concerned about - ammonia being used to "clean" or "purify" 70% of our meat from e coli and mad cow disease. Which after driving by some of the feed lots that I do, I somewhat understand. The entire segment on the larger chicken manufacturers/producers made me ill, but I feel pretty good about where my chicken comes from: http://www.smartchicken.com/ My reason for feeling good about this type of chicken is because Market to Market (Iowa produced PBS show) did a piece about this Nebraska based business a few years back and the owners gave the producers free access to anywhere in the factory from production line to kill floor. Nothing was off limits. That tells me that they are comfortable with their operation. I was so dismayed when I moved to MI a few years back and Smart Chicken wasn't available there. I looked yesterday and they now sell at the local Meijer's. I was also quite surprised to learn that the majority of soybeans come from only one manufacturer. How can that be legal? Wouldn't that be a monopoly?

One of the things that really frustrated me was seeing this overweight family saying they could not afford to eat healthy food. It's cheaper to do the dollar menu at the local fast food place. Come on. Give me a break. Heck it'd be cheaper to make a box of mac and cheese. (Healthier, no.) Or buy a loaf of bread and some lunch meat when you average the cost out over a few meals - amazingly, I can do math. I didn't exactly grow up in a weathly family as a kid, but my parents were smart enough to figure out how to plant a garden.  A packet of seeds doesn't cost that much and could yield quite a bit.  Also, call me crazy, but if you don't want tons and tons of something, maybe you and a friend could split a package of seeds? Or if you're like me and don't have the space to plant a garden, try container gardening. Here's a quick list of some of the stuff I remember us growing over the years: grapes (annual), raspberries (annual), tomatoes (annual), rhubarb (annual), plums, peppers (annual), corn, potatoes, watermelons, carrots, radishes, green beans, peas, cucumbers, and lettuce. And then there's two crazy processes called canning and freezing. OMG! Also, eating out when I was growing up was a luxury and was pretty rare.

p.s. Do you like the photo? It's from a local place called Brewburgers that was on the Food Network. And no I didn't eat all that cheese.

exterior shots

Here are some exterior shots of the house:

The little window is my kitchen window, over the sink. I'm excited to go from, no garage to two car attached garage - just in time for winter. :)

This deck is a pretty good size. My realtor told me that if I want, I can put steps down to the grassy area, though right now there really isn't anywhere that I need to go. Maybe if the commercial lot gets developed into something like a strip mall, or if I frequently start walking to the strip mall on the next block over I will see a need for adding steps.

Amanda and Ellie came to visit on the night of my closing and brought me this flowering plant. My green thumb is pretty brown, but I've managed to keep this alive for almost a week now. My problem is that plants don't talk, so I forget to water them. We'll see if this makes it through week two.

Splash of Color

Friday, I woke up, got dressed and headed to Home Depot to buy paint. I'd done enough research to determine what colors I wanted the bathrooms painted. I figured that I could get both bathrooms painted on Friday. I grabbed my paint chips and headed to the paint counter and talked with the woman there about what I wanted. She told me with a bathroom, I might be able to get away with a quart per bathroom. SCORE!! While she was mixing up my paint, I assembled my supplies - Killz, brushes, rollers, trays, drop cloth, tape, edgers, etc. I grabbed my paint cans picked up my ladder and left the store
I also decided that I need to not go to Home Depot looking like complete and total crap. There were hot guys everywhere and I looked homeless in my old, paint-friendly attire. Okay, I probably didn't look homeless, but I certainly didn't look cute.
So, I after a stop at Target for snacks, it was off to the new home to get to work. Um, yeah, I forgot about how long it would take to tape off the room. The amount of time to tape everything off....forever. All the stupid corners. Once I got that done, the Killz went on quickly. Next I moved on to the paint. For this bathroom, I was going to use asparugus. Hmm...things turned out less than spectacular and I've decided that I need another coat of this paint before I'll be putting pictures up. I finished around 4 and headed back to my apartment so that I could shower up and head to Urbandale.

I got started on the third floor bathroom a bit later today than anticipated. I attended a going away party last night for Kaylen. (She works on the play 101 Dalmatians - if it's coming to a city near you, go check it out.) I was moving with the speed of a sloth this morning. Once I taped off the bathroom this afternoon, I added the Killz. It was time for the paint. One big bonus of the upstairs bathroom - it has a window. I was getting such a headache on Friday from the fumes that I kept having to stop and leave the room. I cracked the window during when I was applying the Killz. For the upstairs bathroom, the paint color is called "Embellished Blue" but it's practically Tiffany Box Blue. Love this color, and can't wait to get some accents. I almost got this completed with one coat before running out of paint. Just need to finish the corners and such and behind the stupid toilet. I realize I should have removed it, but that would most likely end poorly for me. I should have some more photos in a few days. :) And I have some pics of the exterior, but my camera is in my car, and it's FA-Reeezing here, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

So today i bought a house

Today I closed on my new home, which was very exciting!!!  I took the day off, which turned out to be very smart, because my closing got moved from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Since I had the morning free, I decided to kill some time by heading to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to check out their goods. If you've never been to a ReStore before, it's kind of an adventure, you never know what you're going to get. They have a collection of items that have been donated from both your average homeowner as well as contractors and businesses. So, if you want say, beige, but don't need it to be a specific shade of beige they may or may not have enough of it for you depending on how much you need. They also have some appliances etc. I was mainly going to check out their paint supplies and also see what kind of ceiling fans they had. I got lost on my way there. I thought I would be super cool and not use Carmen the Garmin to get there. I knew it was near the CASA office. So I got a bit lost, which was okay, I had time. Plus, I got to see some of Omaha that I don't normally see, and eventually busted Carmen out to find my way. The store ended up being a bust for what I was looking for, they had a crapload of wood stain, but since my flooring is fake wood, no dice. I texted my sister in an effort to convince her to buy a couch that would match the one that she owns and probably doesn't like much. She declined. So I headed home to kill some time.

And then finally, two rolled around and it was time to sign my life away. Paper after paper, document after document. They probably could have snuck something in there and said, "Here's where you give us your 401K." and I would have just said, "Where do I sign and initial?" After all that, I got the keys!!!! Yay! I made a quick stop at my friend Jessica's and then headed over to my new townhouse. Which I apparently forgot to take a picture of the outside. Doh.

Tomorrow I begin the painting of the bathrooms. And next weekend is the painting of the living room/dining room area.

Lists, Lists, Lists

I am more than willing to admit, that I am perpetual listmaker. I'm probably a bit OCD about it if I were to be completely honest. Back in college, I used to seperate my lists into quadrants - school, Theta, personal, misc (random category of the moment). Now, when I've got a long to do list, I break it down into - home/around the house, work, financial, personal (i.e. gifts to buy, pick up drycleaning, etc.)
Currently, I've got a growing list all about moving. Things I need to start thinking about getting done. I'm very excited that with this move I don't need to get new doctors, normally that's always an item on my list.
Yesterday, I called and got the new utilities at the house switched into my name so that the cleaners could come in and clean in exchange for a $50 gift certificate.
I'm up to about 20 items with my list. A  lot of it involves changing my address, switching and canceling service from one location to the next. And then packing, cleaning, and getting rid of things. When you move, what's the thing that you always forget to do?
And now, I'm off to look at paint colors.

And then I went for it...

So I decided to go with the "more expensive one." While I didn't like that it had been lived in before (biggest downer for a new complex for me). I did like that I'd get a little bit of a yard, and a bigger deck. And I liked the dining room area, and that it comes with blinds - which apparently aren't cheap. (So I'm told, I've never bought them.). I requested in my offer that it be cleaned. And then put some other junk in my offer.

The place comes with a 1 year interior warranty and 10 year exterior warranty. I had lunch today with my boss and some agents. I mentioned that I was going to be making an offer on a townhouse tonight and the one agent mentioned my builder and that they were having money problems. YIKES!!! I should start reading the newspaper or really watch the news everyday or something.  Um, hmmm....that's not cool. Chances are good that my first offer will of course - be rejected. And that's making me question what I want to do. Not because it'll be rejected but because I now have addtional information that I didn't previously have which I feel gives me more room to negotiate. I really like this townhouse, but I can walk away. There's other options out there in my price range. Sucks though, thought that I was done looking.

And then there were two...

So the search for "the place" has come down to the final two. I've decided on a townhouse development out west. Within that development I'm trying to decide which one of two places I want. Both are three stories, with two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and two car garages and have the same square footage. Oh, and all my appliance (washer, dryer, fridge, stove/range, dishwasher and microwave) are included. Both kitchens include a small island area. The first floor - bottom level is the garage, the second/middle floor is the kitchen, living room, pantry and a full bathroom. And the third floor is the two bedrooms (same size) with another full bathroom and the laundry room.

So what's the difference? Well....price of course and several other things.

On the plus side of the cheaper one:
-It's cheaper
-New, never been lived in before
-Larger pantry
-Larger kitchen
-Lots of nearby parking if people come to visit - not really a big plus, kinda minor.

On the negative side of the cheaper one:
-It's part of a 10 plex, so there's only windows on one side
-Smaller deck, overlooks the garage and currently open lot which will eventually be other townhomes.
-Lower grade carpet    
-Uses non-oak laminate in the kitchen, bathrooms, entry and laundry rooms. I'd rather have tile in some of these areas - that's not an option in either. I see this as a plus/minus

On the plus side for the more expensive one...
-Designated dining room area alcove
-Larger deck
-Only part of a four plex, so only neighbors on two sides and windows on two sides.
-Slightly upgraded carpet
-Comes with blinds
-My realtor also told me this one would have better resale value, not really a big concern for me since most likely my company will eventually move me and purchase my townhome.
-Oak laminate - I'm not really sure how crazy I am about this stuff, but apparently this is a plus, again, I'd probably want to replace some of this again, maybe plus/minus?

On the negative side for the more expensive one:
-Previously rented, i.e. not new
-Smaller kitchen
-The deck looks out onto an open lot which is going to be commercially developed
-The stovetop appeared to have "something" on it - i.e. near the burner it looks burnt - I can't explain it.

Ah, decisions, decisions...

Weird recycling

So, in the summer of 2000, I called home to chat with my parents and they told me that they were tearing down my childhood home to build a new house.  They recycled a bunch of the brick from the 100 year old house, which was used on their basement/garage, reused some ledges from the windows as thresholds for doors and kept the stained glass. Additionally, they kept three inside doors. One for them, and one for my sister and me. I don't currently have my door in my possession and I've been trying to figure out what on earth I'm going to do with it. For the longest time, I was thinking coffee table. But it would be the longest coffee table ever.
But here's the thing. The dining table I have now I'm not really a fan of, it was passed down from my sister's friend (well, mine too), Kristin. I appreciated it at the time and I love free stuff, but not really me. So I was surfing the internet and thinking. These are around 7 foot doors. And then I found this link: http://designspongeshop.com/tablediy.pdf. That doesn't look to difficult. The door shouldn't need a ton of rehab work. The hardest part is going to be getting the hundred year plus old handle off. OH and attaching the legs. Minor detail, right. But should be a fun project in the future. And then I can get some fun chairs to go with it. Woot!

New Dishes

I know, what an exciting topic for my first entry, right? The dishes that I've been using for years and years (circa December 2001) are not very exciting, were not picked by me and are not a complete set. They were hand-me-downs from my sister, Elizabeth. Yes, I know I'm 30. And I'm well aware that somewhere along the way I should have picked up my own adult dishes. It's not like I've been eating on paper plates for the last 7.5 years. And when you live alone, is it really necessary to have service for eight? Probably not. But anyway, the other week, I was online at Younkers looking for who knows what, when I stumbled across these Laurie Gates dishes. I discovered they would look fabulous with another set of plates that I had previously found at Crate and Barrel (below left). So I figured after I got back from Vegas and my work trip to Michigan I would bite the bullet and head to Younkers and buy some new dinnerware and order the plates from Crate and Barrel. Didn't want to be ordering things from C&B when I wasn't going to be home - the UPS guy already hates me. Stopped at Younkers today and picked up the first set. Holy heck are they heavy. And then came home to order the dishes from C&B, AAACK, they're out of stock online, so now I have to figure out an alternate plan. On the left is the plate that I wanted from C&B and on the right is the plates that Younkers sells as coordinating with my actual plates.... I guess the other one is okay, but i like the Crate and Barrel one better - it's not so busy. Plus it was cheaper and I'm all about a good deal!