Chores and More Chores

Thank you, Abe & George, for having been great Presidents to our fledgling country; and for now indirectly being the source of a three day weekend. Well, three day weekend for government offices, banks, and some companies in the private sector (Steve's, but not mine).

In any case, our three day weekend consisted of alot of chores... more unpacking, shopping for house stuff, and gardening. Oh, and the Salvation Army came by yesterday to pick up more of our haven't-used-in-ages stuff, which you'd think we wouldn't have alot of anymore since we've moved 2x in the last six months. But we always seem to have stuff we'd like to give away.

Anyway, today, we hit Home Depot, Home Goods, and OSH. From Home Goods, we got a circular bathroom vanity mirror and some entryway rugs. We used a 20% "mover" coupon, which made our purchases even sweeter! For those of you looking for any type of mirror (or other houseware), I highly recommend discount stores, such as Home Goods, Ross, or Marshalls. The mirror we had been eyeing at Home Depot was $108, while the mirror we ended up with cost $49.99. Score!!!

We got some gardening stuff (e.g. weed whacker, garden hose, fertilizer, shovels, hoe, and kneeling pad) from OSH. We found OSH to be cheaper than Home Depot, so we've been going there for all hardware and gardening needs.

Since it was such a gorgeous day today, we decided to do some yardwork. Enter BAD allergies that even Allegra and Nasonex couldn't alleviate. After weeding the front lawn, I was like a faucet (yuck!)- so much so that Steve teasingly said that my allergies could be my "freepass" for never doing yardwork again. hehehe. To be honest, I actually enjoyed gardening. I never fancied it growing up when my parents would put my brother and me to work in the yard. But now, I actually find it relaxing. gasp. Wonders never cease when you're a homeowner.

Here's us weeding the front yard. The backyard, which will require more effort, will have to wait until next week.



Some aftershots:

We concluded our three day weekend by having a laid back dinner at Soups Sports Grill, which according to a Yelp reviewer, is owned by Jeff Suppan- who judging from all the St Louis Cardinal baseball paraphernelia, was (is?) a STL player. Steve & I didn't recognize his name, but then again, we're not big baseball fans.

Check out the middle photo. If you look closely, you'll see that the bar's background is actually made up of baseballs. I didn't notice this, but Steve picked up on it from across the room. Credit his ever-vigilant artist's eye.

Steve the Lawn Guy

So this is how the grass in our front lawn looked- since it hadn't been cut since probably before Escrow opened... which was in late November! YIKES!

Since Steve had had so much experience mowing neighbor's lawns as a kid growing up in Delaware, he graciously insisted on mowing ours... especially after getting a quote of $80/mo for a professional gardener.

And here he is cheerfully mowing our lawn for the first time last Sunday:

Forget It....

After yesterday's saga prepping and priming two rooms, we've decided we're going to hire someone to paint the house and do the crown molding.
Yes, we've cried uncle.

Fortunately, I came prepared and kept the phone number of a contractor a work colleague had referred. And even better, the guy is available to start a.s.a.p. Whewhewwww!!!

Our First Day at D.I.Y-ing

To save a few bucks, Steve and I decided to paint the house ourselves. Between the both of us, we have plenty of experience painting walls when we were younger. And of course, we have our trusty Home Improvement 1-2-3 book. No sweat....

Off we went to Home Depot, Walmart, and Osh. Took us several hours just to pick out basic and essential painting supplies- and this does not count the actual paint- which we decided to hold off on purchasing until the following day when we had more light.

We only started with the dining room and kitchen. Whoa! I had forgotten how time consuming it was to tape off all the trimmings and outlets. In order to save on time, we instituted a segregation of duties.... I took over the prepping of the walls, while Steve applied the primer.

Five hours later, at 10:30p.m., we were wiped and ready to call the next Paint Contractor in the Yellow Pages. We even - very briefly- entertained the idea of going to Home Depot to hire someone from their skilled booth area.

Anyway, we're going to evaluate our "options" (aka budget) and decide what to do before the weekend is over. After today, we're not feeling the urge to paint anymore.

Stay tuned......

Homeownership 101: Change Locks

While I was at work today (boo!), Steve went to our new house and changed the locks to the kitchen door. What made the task more onerous was the fact that the oh-so-considerate former owners could not locate the keys to the deadbolt or door knob, thereby eliminating our option to rekey. Poor Steve spent most of the afternoon trying to remove the door knob and deadbolt while the door was shut tight. Fortunately, he got it changed before sundown.

Here's a photo of him feeling a rush of adrenalin after checking off #1 in our #100 Things-to-Do-Before-Moving-In list


And here's me trying to contribute to home safety....

attempting to get the $4.97 Walmart timer to work on a lamp after a couple of failed attempts.
Since we're not moving into the house for another three weeks, we wanted some light inside to show outsiders/neighbors that it was already being occupied.