What Our Weekend Amounted To...

• Washer and Dryer installed.  I was very impressed with my handy husband.

Thats right!  We have clean laundry.  Do you see those buttons and those lights?  They make me smile.

• Dining room furniture assembled.  Again, very impressed with my handy husband.
• A lovely dinner at the Elk's for the bowling banquet.  Rich will tell ya, next year is his year.
• A whole lot of Cardboard wrangling.  Our recycling guy picks up this Friday, and he's gonna hate us.

One stack is broken down and is about knee high, we still need to breakdown the dining table boxes.  Supposedly we need to break down all the boxes and tie the cardboard before throwing it to the curb for recycling.  the stack will be as tall as me.

• Crawling under the house to check out the crawl space and see if I could find this 'leak' the cable guy said he saw.  I got real dirty and was pleased to see how dry the crawl space was, but couldn't find the leak.  I will put it on a list for a plumber to check out.

Supposidly there is a leak here, from what the cable guy said.  I didn't see anything and there wasn't any moisture hanging around, so who knows.  On a side note... I will not be making a trek into the crawl space again until i have some impressive knee pads.  That ground sucks to crawl around on.

• Poisoned a stump.  While I was all dirty I busted out the drill and did some damage to the black elm stump that tree guys said we should poison, after they cut it down.

Ya thats right, I was outside with my cordless drill at 0700 on Sunday morning.

• Watered the front lawn and beds there around the house.  We are yet to get a successful hose hook up (first no gasket in the hose, now we got some and they don't fit) so we are dealing w/ a leaky mess.  However,  I have managed to water the lawn/ beds for the last three days now.  So, we are hopeful all of the plants will survive/ thrive.

Me and this hose are getting to be very, very good friends.

• Massive yard clean up.  Rich was a raking madman and got the back yard cleaned so he could kill all the weeds and grass in the wrong places and prep for rota tilling the yard and seeding for grass.

This would be a picture of a sweaty, dirty, tired Richard, with his 16 bags of yard debris.  (He wasn't the most pleased that I wanted to take his picture at this time.)  Our trash service here doesn't have a green trash day or dump or anything for yard waste.  So we will be adding these bags into our trash each week until they are gone, or the next free dump day comes around.  Whichever happens first.

• Killing the backyard.  Rich managed to spray all the backyard with Roundup.  We are going to pick up some more today to do some spot spraying on really stubborn weeds (a.k.a Mustard and Dandelions).

One gallon of Roundup did a good job for a first round.  I already see things turning brown and wilting up.

• Dining Room cleaned and staged with the actually dinning room furniture.  This was one of those tasks that should of taken minutes instead took hours, courtesy of the hanging light being an ugly filthy mess.  Now at least its just ugly.

This room looks so bare without all the clutter.  I can't wait to get some things on the wall, a centerpiece for the table, spray paint the light fixture or replace it with some steal and start sourcing a side board from the thrift and consignment stores.

• Groceries!!!  We actually purchased groceries for the first time in weeks.  It felt so good to make sandwiches for lunch and eat a frozen lasagna for dinner.
• Found a solution for our big kitchen question.... where do we store the food?  This was a great solution for us that illuminated itself when the pocket door between the kitchen and dining room was closed off.

These shelves where previously in my office closet at the apartment.  Just another example of where placeholders are a good thing.  The white containers are Ikea that previously held bathroom stuff.  And its ridiculous, but it thrills me that we can hang our bananas.

Why do we not keep our food in the pantry, like any other American household?  It's as simple as our plates are too freakin big.  We have standard size upper cabinets in our kitchen and our large and in charge flatwear is too much for them.  So our dishes live in the pantry, sitting on top of some of the 85' of shelf liners I cut.

Of course there were a handful of other items that occurred.  Good news there is progress.  Actual progress we can see with our eyes and experience and enjoy.  That makes the aches and pains worth while.  We have one more weekend with me here and then i will gone for two weekends for my trip back east.  We are hopeful to get a lot more done before I have to bail on Rich for 10 days. 

Much Love- Shanna

One week down... a lifetime ahead

Well today marks one week in our new home.  (That doesn't mean we have actually cleaned and closed up the apartment yet.) 

So what has home ownership taught us so far...
-I am not a fan of piles of boxes and total chaos.  Surprise, surprise... I'm neurotic and want everything done now, even though it is completely impossible.  After a spill my guts moment on Tuesday night, I feel much better about the entire situation.
-Rich and I are still cheapos at heart.  Spending money for the house and the things we need is insane for us, even though we have been saving and budgeting toward this for the past year.
              -Refrigerator
              -Washer & Dryer
              -Garage Door Service
              -Dining Room Table
              -Tree service
-It is Spring in Reno.  It has snowed twice this week and had near 80 degree weather.

Some sort of flowering pear tree in our backyard. 

-Our neighborhood has a lot of birds and you can hear them from everywhere.
-Window coverings are not to be taken for granted.  (The house has none, the shop has blinds.)

My white trash solution... push pins and some left over mosquito net sheers that we used at the wedding.  It is getting the job done for now :).  (Another fun fact- all of our windows are wide like this.  I have curtain rods galore, just none long enough for these bad boys.)

-Bathroom vent fans are not to be taken for granted. 

What is this?  This is a close up of the droplets on our ceiling in our master bath after taking a shower (that is when we have hot water).  Even with the window open and the door open that room is just too small for that much steam not to condense.  Adding a bathroom fan is itching to be at the top of our list.

-Place holders are a good thing. It seems all of our possessions have now become place holders, as nothing we own is quite right for the space.

Overhead lights are not to be taken for granted. (None in the living room or master bedroom.)

-Measure twice doesn't necessarily work when you don't account for doors, either of them.

Our spiffy washer and dryer are yet to be hooked up.  We were clever and took the bi fold doors off to get the washer and dryer in the hall closet.  Yesterday I discovered, if the bi folds are on, you can't open the doors for the appliances... We are hoping they are ridiculously quiet when running.

-Home warranties are a good thing.  This weekend we will be calling for a plumber to address a hot water heater that won't stay hot, a leak in the crawl space and a repair on our garbage disposal (that is if YouTube and I can't get it grinding as needed.)

Our hot water heater is built into the wall in the guest bedroom.  The little red reset button has been getting a work out from us.  We both have had some showers on the chilly side as we race to get shampoo out of our hair and rinsed down before we freeze.

I know you want pictures of the yard.  Well, I'm getting to that.  Tonight was the first night I didn't do anything house related.  I caught up on emails and blogs and TV shows Rich has no interest in.  (While Rich is at the Elk's club, in tie and jacket, attending our friend Lynn's initiation into the Elks, as her sponsor.)

-Much Love, Shanna

So now that we're home owners...

I wouldn't say that the first 48 hours of home ownership have been all that life changing.  Actually it has been pretty much no time spent at the house.

What has this weekend been about?  Packing!


Much thanks to Rich's boss Natalie for the piles of boxes she has given us for the move.  We haven't had to source a single box as of yet.  Natalie also has given us some bar height stools that we will be putting to good use in the new place.

I'm sitting in a pile of boxes right now and I've eaten take out or in a resteraunt every meal for the last 3 days since the kitchen is being packed and the fridge is lacking in any food that doesn't qualify as a condiment or ewww.

Saturday we went on a quest for a refrigerator.  We had already determined we were going to go new with the fridge- no Craigs List like the washer and dryer.  And we had already scoped out Sears scratch and dent, RC Wileys and every department store/ appliance joint that I could find on line to look for deals and available models.  So yesterday morning we had one last place to check out and Best Buy made a good showing but... in the end Lowes won out. 
We decided on a counter depth beauty from Frigidaire.  We know that everyone is really into the french door frige with the freezers on the bottom.  Rich and I just aren't there.  This is our first frige so we will learn what works with it and doesn't for future frige purchases. 

Frigidaire Gallery 22.6 Cu. Ft. Side-by-Side Counter-Depth Refrigerator  It will be delivered this Saturday. Pic from here. 

Our Lowes time Saturday was well spent.  Not only a refrigerator was purchased but some cleaning supplies for the new house and drumroll please... a pressure washer.  To begin to tame the outdoors of the new house we bought a pressure washer. Which I think if you ask Rich what we did yesterday the only thing he will be able to tell you is we bought a pressure washer.

Troy-Bilt 2700 PSI 2.3 GPM Gas Pressure Washer.  Rich is very excited to get it out of the box and up and running.  The dirty house and concrete don't stand a chance once he gets started.  Pic from here

Lowes wasn't the only stop on our list Saturday.  We went to a local nursery called Rail City Garden Center.  Our lovely Realtor Pam Reese recommended them.  This place is pretty neato- filled with any garden/ yard/ landscape goodies you could want.  Veggies, flowers, coy fish, mulch made from Cocoa shells- they have it all.  Including a puppy running around to greet everyone. 

We set up an apt with a guy named Paul.  Paul will be coming out to the house to provide a 'landscape consultation'.  In other words Paul will tell us what kind of trees we have and all the plants around the house.  Paul will be able to let us know if anything is diseased and needs to go.  Paul will be able to tell us what we need to do with the stumps in the backyard (I think there are 3 or maybe 7).  Paul will be able to get us a plan of attack to get grass growing in the backyard.  As you can see we have high hopes for Paul and his abilities to answer all our questions and basically provide us a Backyard 101 lesson.

I haven't shared outside pictures with you as of yet.  This would be in part to "Spring" in Reno includes snow flurries that have provided some chilly temperatures and some grey dismal days. When I get pictures in the sun you will have a back yard for your viewing pleasure.

This week has a bunch on deck.  Packing- we are hoping to get movers on Friday so we have the weekend to settle in.  We need to get the trash service set up and the internet/ phone service.  NO CABLE at the new place! (and we are happy about this)  We are pretty excited about the transition and are working like crazy to get things packed ready to roll.

The adventure has begun.

Much Love- Shanna

Our house

Rich and I have found house.  Not only have we found a house, but put in an offer had it accepted, and actually bought it!
So let me introduce you to our house.  She is a 35 year old beauty that has weathered the years with a few bumps and bruises but overall has some great bones for us to work with.  (Ironically, this is the same thing Rich said when we got married.)
Let me give you a tour...

Walking up to the front door around the garage, you have a cute little entry with landscape that needs some love. 

Walking up to the front door. This landscape includes a Charlie Brownish tree, that will be going sooner than later due to its proximity to house.

Open the front door and walk on in. There isn't a formal entryway or foyer, but it is a nice welcome into the house.  

The Entry Way.  There is a storage closest on the right and coat closet on the left. The big mass of bricks is the back of the fireplace. To the left from here is the living room, to the right is the kitchen, dining room, and family room.

So let's look to the left....  The living room. 

The Living Room.  These lovely railings are going to have to go but the sunken living room is a great big space (not as big as the picture makes it seem, but big none the less). Of course we don't have any furniture to fill it but one day it will be home to the TV and coach potato inactivity.

Now to the right from the entry.... The Dining Room, Family Room and Kitchen.

Dining Room. With a pocket door into the kitchen.

The Family Room.  Yes... that is a weirdo cat door built into the sliding door, odd wooden shutters on the sliding door and a lighting fixture with a fan that is so low I can actually stick my hands in it, so ya all of that is going to go.

The Kitchen. It is currently sporting some lovely laminate countertops that look like 'butcher block'. Currently there is no fridge, as we have to buy one. We like the layout, but this room will need alot of TLC down the road. We are excited to get into the space and see how we use it and star imagining its grand future state. Also, straight ahead that is a door to the garage.

The wood burning fireplace. As of right now it woud be a no no to use due to some cracks in the terra cotta chimney lining. We will look into solutions for this down the road, as well as, cleaning up the brick and working out a solution for that brass fireplace surround.

So now to the back half of the house... Back the hallway you have a Master Bedroom with an on suite bathroom, two bedrooms, hall bathroom and a laundry closet.

The Master Bedroom. It is sporting a wall length closet with wooden built in shelves. I'm standing outside the doorway to the master bathroom. No pics of that as of yet but I'm sure as we make improvements you will see some of its lovely flaws features.

The back hallway.  This picture makes it look way longer than it is. First on the right is the hall laundry closet, then on the left the hall bath, then on the right the entry to the house, then on the left the HVAC closet, then bedroom #2 and at the far end the third bedroom.

The Hall Bathroom. It is a good space with outdated fixtures. This will be an area that needs some love, as it will be used by all guests at our house. I'm ok with me living with 'less than pretty' but I really don't want to advertise it to all guests.

The third of the bedrooms. Bedroom #2 and #3 rooms are pretty much the same. Bedroom #2 will be the guest room and it is slightly smaller, due to the width of the hallway. Bedroom #3 will be my office once we move in. The built-ins in the closet will be housing all of my crafty/ arty supplies.

Well that pretty much covers the interior tour of our first house.  She's got some potential, right?  Some other items to note... the sellers painted all the walls in the house and intalled all new carpet- nice clean slate for us to start off with.  There is a two car garage attached to the kitchen.  There is attic space above the garage as well as shelving and some cabinetry in the garage. 

Rich and I are very excited about moving into our first house.  Tomorrow morning we are going to go up and do some cleaning and get things ready to move on in.  If we get movers lined up we will move in next weekend. 

Now all the work to turn this house into our home begins.  Next up... A tour of the exterior quarter acre where these crazy kids are setting down roots.  And an introduction to the main attraction of our backyard.

Much Love- Shanna