8 posts tagged “house”

I'll never buy it for my home (it won't fit in size or with anything else I own), but I liked this - probably a sign that my taste is deteriorating but the table oddly made me happy. I like the curves.

No, it's not a Roomba. We have something better: a Dolphin!

Yesterday, we bought a Dolphin pool cleaner because neither M or I are very good about sweeping the pool in the winter and we don't want algae to build up. The Dolphin does all the work for us. It sweeps up the leaves and pine needles that have sunk to the bottom and scales the walls up to the waterline. It even carefully negotiated the pool stairs and figured out that it curved at the corner. We never have to sweep our pool again.

It's almost meditative to watch the Dolphin slowly move around the pool. It started by figuring out the dimensions of the pool, the length, the width, the height of the water, and by finding the stairs and figuring out where it curves, and then it slowly zigzags around the pool, cheerfully plodding along, making a nice clean track through the dirt.

Our pool will be sparkling clean. We love it, especially since the water is 40 degrees right now.

Today is a better day although I am tired. I'm not sure why I'm so sleepy except that I feel like I don't have enough time to do what I need to do and wonder where my free time went.... Actually, I wonder where my energy went.

Our bathroom is taking shape. We now have a tub! The rest of the room looks a little bit like a haunted house because it's stripped down to the wood frame. Before the tub was in we could peer down into the crawlspace below and it looked a little ghastly. M even threatened to send me down into the crawlspace to help with grounding our electrical outlets. So now we have a tub. It's big and very deep, no bubbles. I'm very excited.

And no scary crawlspace entrance in the haunted bathroom. This is a good thing.

Life in general has been so busy and so good that it was inevitable that a bad day would hit when I least expected it. Not enough sleep. Errands I don't want to do. Conversations I don't want to have. A trip to the doctor who neglected to call in a prescription. And on top of it all, bad plumbing.

These are the days that are supposed to make me savor the good days.

M and I have started merrily lurking on the neighborhood email list. Yes, I said neighborhood email list. The local gossip is digitizing! Of course, we in the south end of the neighborhood email while I heard that our northern neighbors prefer old fashioned newsletters.

People email about safety incidents, contractor referrals, garage sales, and local community concerns. I learned that the local Italian grocery store is in trouble due to lease issues with the landlord; that someone's baby stroller was stolen; a development is in the works near the NW corner of the neighborhood, where we could get the plans, how it could negatively impact us, and where to voice our concerns to the city; that a house in the area is going for sale; who knows a good masseuse; someone has three kittens up for adoption; and about issues with the neighborhood park.

Some of it is actually very useful although some of it is a little odd. It's a glimpse into the future, nosey, mad suburbanites M and I are fated to become.

The park sandbox has become an obsessive topic:

• the sand is too fine and creates dust clouds which is unhealthy for small children to breathe
  
• the sand grains themselves are not of the same size, are not perfectly rounded, and the sand is therefore too coarse for small children to play in
  
• the sand is strangely and eerily reflective (?!)
  
• the wood that contains the sand splinters and can poke through the sandals and feet of small children (this one sounded most reasonable because it did cut into her sandal).

I can't tell if they're nuts or if they're right. The desire to troll is strong but they successfully petitioned the city to change the sand so I guess they were right. Besides, they're feeling awful powerful right now - so it's best not to mess with them.

The first morning we woke up in the house, my husband did not recognize his surroundings and his first thought was, "Oh, my God, what did [madtypist] get us into?"

I thought this bore recording because ultimately I will use it in the future - for what purpose - good or bad - I cannot say.

Well, the move did go very smoothly. Not only were our movers strong and smart, but they were very quick. They shaved almost half of the cost from the original estimate, and they were just plain nice to work with. We are buried in boxes, but beginning to see the floor again, and are presently immersed in innumerable, mundane household details, such as debating whether to buy a new first aid kit or dive into the pile, and searching for a voltometer so we can install a ceiling light - yes, our house has electricity but needs light! - without electrocuting ourselves.

*sigh*

Will be back when I have less mundane news to report.

A side project that I'm embarking on as we update the house is to try to make the house more "green" or more environmentally friendly.

Here are a few links that a friend of mine recommended as I think about how to set about doing this.

Greener Choices
Global Green
Eco-Labels
Think Green Building
Tree Hugger

I haven't visited these sites yet but am just compiling a list which I will have easy access to and which I will update as I find more resources on the web.

We are officially mad suburbanites! Buying a house in the Bay Area is positively insane but at the same time we're excited, anxious, and proud of our little house. Over the next few weeks, as soon as we scoot out the last remnants of the seller's stuff, we're going to knock off tv antennas, tent our house, pump it full of poison gases, rip out the carpet, tear off the wallpaper, repair and refinish the hardwood floors and slap on new paint inside and out. In short, not that we were ever wild but we are becoming domesticated, interested and even excited over such things as appliances, sofas, and even patio furniture.

Growing up is an evil process. Soon we shall lose our hearts and heads to Prop 13 and become card-carrying Republicans.

Update: We stopped by the house. We have barely closed escrow and somehow we already have junk mail there.