Getting Unpacked.

Oh, we are living in an actual house. My joy knows no bounds.

Today is the first day that it really feels like a house, and not a huge messy project that I have to tackle. It also helps that as of today we have: internet, cable television, a California king sized bed, a beautiful new dresser and A WASHER AND A DRYER. I could die tonight the happiest woman on earth.

We still have to rent a truck tomorrow and get the rest of my junk out of mom and dad's house. Finally, mom will be rid of all of the things that I've begged her not to throw out. My old dolls, the wedding presents that I didn't have space for the first time around, and 20 years of journals detailing every injustice that I ever experienced at the hands of my parents or sister. It should be a good time. We'll also having our dining room tables here at the end of the day, which is awesome. I am hosting a dinner party, in fact, to celebrate!

Some of you may have heard, but we had the California branch of Thiel and Sons home repair out here this week. The lead engineer managed to mess up a wire, so last night we had one working outlet in the back half of the house. We had a lamp in the bathroom while we brushed our teeth, and then carried it out into the bedroom to get ready for bed. Thankfully, with some advice from the home office in Wisconsin, they were able to get everything working today. Between the new outlet covers, the new carpet and the fresh paint, this place looks like a whole new house. I love it so.

It's funny, because there is part of me that thinks "leave everything packed - it'll be less of a hassle if we have to move again." And then there is part of me that is like, "I love this place. I am never moving. They are going to have to carry me out on a stretcher. Let's fill every corner of this house with crap!" It still hasn't totally sunken in that this is my house and I own this place (maybe it will sink in when we make our first mortgage payment?)

The kitties have mostly adjusted. Thor is no longer living under the bed full time, and is eating normally. He still bolts at a loud noise though. Lulu is sweet as ever. After her door darting incident, I did upgrade her microchip protection, but otherwise, she is her normal little fat love of a self.

I promise pictures tomorrow once everything is in place. In the meanwhile, I need some sleep!

Not Love At First Sight.

She may not have lived in it very long, but Lula is ready and willing to protect her house.

Settling In.

Internet is still a little spotty, so here's a quick one.

The carpet went in today, to much fanfare. Now we can pull the rest of our stuff out of the garage. I can't wait to unpack the bags of clothes and purses. I've missed you, friends. The bed comes tomorrow, and I got a call that our dresser can be delivered this week. That just leaves the actual sleigh bed, and then all of the stuff at mom and dad's that we need to retrieve. And we have to order the washer and dryer. But the big stuff is done! And to mom's great joy, we have an estimate on getting our trees cared for.

Last night Tim and I had what is probably going to be our last LA weeknight date ever, due to the fact that he had to leave work at 4 to get there on time. We went and saw David Gray in concert at the Orpheum Theater, which was awesome. We had a nice dinner at Bottega Louie and cocktail at the Broadway Bar, and then had great seats from which to watch the fabulous show. I've wanted to see David Gray live and in concert for years now, and this was a great occasion. Unfortunately, we didn't get home until midnight, which was not a smart idea. But it was WORTH IT! (plus I bought the tickets back in July.)

The house is starting to come together, though every time I pull into the driveway I pinch myself with disbelief that I really live there. The family room is coming together with all of the furniture we poached from the Sorensons, and the kitchen is unpacked. I love the parquet floors and all of our nice windows and doors.

The kitties are still adjusting. Thor mostly lives under the bed during the day, but wanders around after it gets dark, crying and rubbing against our legs. Lulu alternates between just hanging out, and going on expeditions with her little "up tail." When she's excited, her tail trembles, and we call it up tail. She's very interested in any room with a closed door, including the garage. Bad news: on Sunday she darted out the front door while we were talking to a neighbor. Good news: she ran back in the house and seemed terrified by her encounter. They haven't yet had a Jonsey encounter, so we are still waiting on that.

No pictures yet - I promise we'll have something to show for ourselves on Saturday or Sunday!

Moved!

First post from inside our new house, thanks to our pirated internet (thanks, neighbors!) There is still a little painting to be done, the carpet to be laid and cable and internet to be legally procured, but the house is done enough that Tim and I and the cats are once again proudly cohabitating. Some are prouder than others. Some are hiding under the bed with their tailes between their legs (Thor, not Tim.)

Lulu is SO excited. She has been racing around the house, looking in each corner and sniffing all of the smells. Then she'll look back at one of us like, "have you seen this yet? Look at the carpet in here!" Tim joked that she's not used to being on the ground floor - she's always been a penthouse cat. She is going to lose her mind in the morning when she can chirp at birds from the living room slider.

Last night Tim and I went and upgrade our phones, which for him is almost more exciting than buying a house. We're currently on the Verizon network, and we stuck with them to get Droids. You know what is more obnoxious than a dork with a new dork toy? Neither do I.

Today we started our unpacking. There isn't a lot we can do, since most of our house is carpet, and since we packed the garage pretty poorly - most of the boxes I wanted to unpack were buried behind the couch and underneath other things. We did clean the place as best we could today and did a lot of mopping and swiffering. Tim and I managed to drag the cat couch into the family room, and I unpacked my books. Because books are our friends. Also, our built in bookshelf is rad.

Dad came by and installed smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and then this afternoon we went out with Don and Eileen to shop for a new bedroom set. Thankfully, I have strong opinions about my mattresses (firm!) and my bedroom sets (sleigh bed, no foot board.) We managed to find both without a lot of hassle, and our purchases will be delivered shortly. We had a lovely dinner together and then I went home to pack up my things, and Tim went back to Jake's cto collect the cats. It's almost 11pm on Saturday night, but we're living in our new house!!!

Pictures to follow when the internet isn't so dangerously spotty.

You Choo-Choo Choose Me?

I am officially a taker of public transport, and a commuter into downtown LA! I picked up my metro pass on Monday and took my first train ride on Tuesday morning. I take the Metrolink to Union Station, and then the red line Metro to the 7th street station. From there, it's a quick walk of a couple of blocks (thankfully, past two Starbucks and a Coffee Bean, should I need a pick me up, after getting up in the pre-dawn hours.)

It's a pretty easy process, though not short by any means. I get on the train at 7:17 in Laguna Niguel, and walk into the office around 9am. I leave the office a little after 5 and am back in my car at 7. I'm hoping as I get more comfortable, I can just sleep on the way there, and then read or possibly do work on the way home. I haven't had any discussion yet with my workplace in terms of working from home one or two days a week or anything like that, but my boss is really great about respecting the work/life balance, so if the commute becomes a crushing issue, I assume she'll work with me as much as she can, as long as my work is being done properly. I love my job, and I want to keep it as long as I can. Right now we're putting together our annual campaign, and the stories about the kids we serve are really inspiring.

So, yesterday I read an entire book during my train ride. Today I got almost half way through Barbara Kingsolver's new novel, which is absolutely delicious. Today's train ride was slightly less awesome than yesterdays - we were delayed because of an accident, and I realized I'd left my cell phone charging on the downstairs counter. Oops. When we got off the train, the conductor said "make the rest of today a good one, and see you tomorrow," which made me smile. Then I spilled coffee down my shirt.

Things with the house are still moving along well. Tim and I went over last night around 8 to explore. We were able to turn some lights on throughout the house, but then the bedrooms we explored with flashlights. Like prowlers. Even in the half-dark, it looks amazing, and I can't wait to move in. The good news is that we're going to be able to start living there over the weekend, and are bringing the kitties too. As I told a friend - now I can have my junk throw haphazardly around my own house instead of my parents'. The carpet goes in on Tuesday, and then we'll be able to arrange the rest of the furniture. Most importantly, internet is installed this Friday so that we can check our email over the weekend! DirecTV next Wednesday. Hopefully this weekend we can go buy a new bedroom set and a washer and dryer to be delivered, and then we should be good to go. Until mom comes over and starts making me do yard work. Today she said I would have to buy a shovel. I don't quite know why - I don't intend on burying anyone in my backyard (YET.)

No new pictires to post - just my regular stupid stories!

Monday Monday.

I did not go to work today - there is a lot to be done for OUR NEW HOUSE!

I went over early to talk to the painter and just go over some of the areas of the house where the current finish is not so great. They are going to do their best to make sure the texture of the walls is smooth all throughout the house - whether it's on top of the old wallpaper in the bedroom, or the stripped walls of the guest bathroom, or the weird spots in the hallway where someone did a poor job patching drywall. I also found out that they put a third guy on the job, so they may be done as soon as Thursday (which means that we could move a lot of things in over the weekend.)

Then I went to the metro station and bought my rail pass - I'll be taking the train to Union Station, and then the subway from Union Station to downtown LA so that I can stay with Big Brothers Big Sisters. I love my job, I love my coworkers, I love downtown LA, so I am going to make the train commute work for as long as I can.

THEN mom and I dropped Sara off from work, and then went and had Pedros for lunch. We got to chat with all of the other angels about our new house. THEN mom and I went and bought carpet. We were total studs about it. We went to the place that Rita recommended, and the guy was kind enough to grab some samples and come and measure our house right away. I thought we'd go with a gray blue or blue carpet, but we ended up picking a green. It'll look nice with our furniture and is very pretty in the late afternoon sunlight. It's called Billard Table. Hopefully they can get it in next week.

It was a pretty smooth day. I feel like I got a lot of tasks out of the way! And now, I am off to my massage.

Here are a couple of pictures of the house and yard.

Another shot of out front.

My future cat, Jonsey.

Birdhouse in the backyard.

A note from Jennifer, with a visual representation of the wrens that live in the bird house.

The family room - it's a mess!

For those who don't remember, or who have never gazed upon its beauty - the cat couch!

Moved.

We did it! We managed to get out of our apartment without anything getting broken or anyone getting killed or maimed (I was the one most likely to start maiming people.) It's certainly been a long week - I had my two wonderful 12 hour days, heavy on the manual labor, and then woke up on Saturday needing to get my butt in gear as fast as possible.

Our moving crew was absolutely fabulous and didn't complain too much about trying to get our furniture out to the truck. We don't have a lot of things as it were, because we did live in a 500 square foot apartment, but most of our furniture is oversized. It took Jake and Dana about four tries to correctly angle the couch and get it out of the elevator. Unpacking was even easier, as we just brought stuff down the ramp and organized it in the garage (correction: Dad told everyone where they should put things. He is an excellent manager.) Some of the crew took off after that point (they were missed!) and Tim, Ed, Dad and I went over to Jan and Jim's to repossess the cat couch. Moving that down the hall was QUITE the adventure.

The house itself is even cuter than I remember, though definitely in need of a fresh coat of paint and some new carpet. The painters started yesterday and by the time we arrived at 3, they'd already scraped all of the popcorn off the ceilings. The two guys who are there are super nice - when we pulled up they were blasting Mexican oomp-pa-pa music and one guy was singing along at the top of his lungs. Another funny - we are painting Wolfie's room yellow, just as a pre-emptive measure. I was asking Juan what he thought, and he was like, "is the baby a boy or a girl?" and I was like "there is no baby." It took a couple of tries for us to connect on the fact that Wolfie is at present, a hypothetical. But Juan thinks yellow is good either way.

After we got unpacked, Tim and Ed were my heroes and took the truck back. Mom had a BBQ for the outstanding players of the day - Don and Eileen and Jan and Jim came over to hang out, and we stuffed ourselves, drank, and hollered any time the trick or treaters came to the door. It was a really nice way to end a long day.

And then I slept for 12 hours straight. Today, I am heading over to Jake's to watch part of the Packers game while snuggling my cat children. Tim and I joked last night that it'll be good for them to see me, lest they begin to wonder if their parents are in the middle of an acrimonious divorce. And then, party at the Parms. The good news is, I took Monday off. The better news is, I have a massage appointment on Monday and a spa gift certificate to use!!!