Imposter

The Imposter Little Mookie OK, so this is so unrelated to our house, but hubby found this imposter kitty on the web today.

This picture was taken in San Diego. It totally freaks me out because it is EXCATLY like Mookie, right down to the stripes around the eyes! Makes me wonder if Mookie sneaks out while I'm travelling and hangs out with his other family...

The REAL Little Mookie

The Weekend Update

This weekend brought a lot of progress, although we still don't feel like it...Tom is getting married in three and a half weeks and counting. We have several friends who will be flying in and would like to offer up a place to stay so we are kind of on a time limit at this point to get some of the things done.

First things first...the doors shut! For the most part. We have only put the foyer closet door, the full bathroom door, and the guest bedroom door on. Of these, only the guest bedroom and foyer closet doors close like they did before. Some of the full bathroom door screws still spin despite the #10 4 inch screws we used so we're going to have to come up with something new (darn me and my door experiments). The linen closet closes, but then randomly pops open. It's scared the bejesus out of me several times today!

Hubby took down the big beam running down the vaulted ceiling in the living room. When we purchased the house, the beam was falling down. It's only there for pure aesthetics, not functional use at all. After we bought the house, hubby pushed it back up and screwed it into the wall, but it had warped and wouldn't lay flush to the ceiling. Although we liked it, we decided to pull it down.

It made a big old crashing noise when it came down, very construction like. We thought it was a solid beam because hubby said it was so heavy when he was trying to push it up (I saw his ginormous muscles tremble at the effort), but when it came down, it was not solid. They made a casing and filled it with two by fours (which is what made it so heavy).

The only problem is, the crawl space in the attic does not go over to this portion of the ceiling. I think it's because there is no room between the roof and ceiling since it's vaulted. Hubby thinks it's just plain stupid.

So, in order to support our ceiling fan that we purchased, hubb will have to cut a big hole in the dry wall, install a support, patch it up, and then hang the ceiling fan. Good thing this all does not need to be accomplished to have people over! We can set up the living room whether this gets done in time or not...it has ended up on the bottom of the priority list for now.

I do have to admit, we're getting a lovely pile of junk in our backyard...1980's fans, yucky shelves, and panelling pieces. I wonder what will be next?

I got the trim in the Master Suite done (it came out wonderfully!), trimmed up most of my office (still have to work on the closet), and trimmed up the hall leading to the Master Suite.

Don't you think the green is much better than the peach? The door jambs and inside of the windows are done in what is called Smooth Coffee. Hubby thought of doing it in this dark color (there may be a little Queer Eye in him yet).

And yes, that's the door to our bedroom leaning against the wall covered in plastic. This was to protect it from the flying tile chips as hubby chipped it up from the hallway.

Hubby was able to get all the tile up in BOTH the foyer and Master Hall! Woohoo! We can now get the baseboards off, the carpet up and we'll be ready to order our bamboo flooring!

Another task that was accomplished this weekend is hubby took that nasty paneling off the wall in the Great Room! It has lightened up the room so incredibly much it's ridiculous. We can't believe what a difference it has made, what do you think?

This has been the easiest home improvement project yet. It took hubby all of two hours to get it all down (maybe less).

It seems who ever added the paneling, glued and stapled it on. We're going to have to buy wall texture in a can and try to cover it up. I swear this exists. It's a spray can and you just point and spray. We haven't tried it yet, but we'll let you know how it turns out.

Next on our list? Finish painting the Master Hall this week and then get that end wall painted so we can start the floor this weekend! Once the floor is completed we'll like we've accomplished something because we'll be able to finally get the living room set up and have company. It will be nice not to have to use our bedroom a living room too.

Then we have to buy new toilets and get them in (hopefully before our buddy's wedding so we have more than one toilet for guests. Hubby will then have to strip all the caulking in the Master Bathroom and re-caulk it so we can hopefully have more than one shower while we have guests.

While this is going on, I have to hurry up and pick some fabric so that MIL can make us curtains for the Great Room and possibly reupholster the cushions for the bay window.

Think we can get it done in time?

Here's a couple of random Little Mookie pictures from this weekend...he's trying to be sly and sneak out. Moving may have been bad, he's not as unsure of the unknown anymore and likes to explore a little too much. He's also fallen in love with the linen closet. Since the door pops open randomly, he has free access if he waits long enough and then he sneaks up on this shelf. I've almost locked him in a couple of times.

We also have a new rabbit friend. He appears everyday and hubby has named him White Rabbit. Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland everytime he says it...I just hope White Rabbit doesn't eat my plants when we get them all planted.

Hubby bought me a new hibiscus plant to go with the one in the yard (such a wonderful husband). I loved this one with the bright orange color and red center. I've never seen a hibiscus like this! We'll plant it when we start the yardwork, but it will live in its planter until then...

We're hoping to have our housewarming soon...hopefully in late September/early October...but may have to wait until after Tom's wedding.

Little Mookie Mishaps

So hubby has been chipping away at the tile, but you can't do it all in one day so there's been a bit of a construction zone mess with bits of concrete and tile all over the place.

We think Mookie is eating it and making himself sick. It all started with the first little puddle of kitty upchuck I found about a week ago. There was some film I had peeled off of a window. The previous owners had covered it with cheap tinting stickers and it's coming off so I took it off. I then neglectfully left it on the floor for Mookie to eat. He loves the noise and texture of that shopping bag plastic type stuff. I had assumed he had made himself sick because I was lazy. I promptly spent the day cuddling him and giving him treats because I felt bad.

The second insident was another puddle of kitty puke last week. I had thought this was a hairball since there was a lot of hair in it. I cleaned up and pampered my little kitty all day again.

Wednesday morning of last week, hubby woke up to find kitty dragging his A-hole on the carpet. Have you ever seen that carpet commerical (or is it rug cleaner?) where the little boy says, "Mommy, (dog's name here) learned a new trick!" and the dog is dragging his hinny on the carpet? Mookie was doing this, I didn't know this was a trick cats performed.

Friday morning of last week, while I was in Portland, OR for work, hubby woke up to find kitty had blown all his breakfast chunks. We can only assume he's eating the bits of rock laying all around from the tile removal project.


He made it through the weekend just fine and doesn't seem to be having any problems. We're hoping it's just some residual anxiety from the move...keep your fingers crossed!

Popcorn Ceilings and Door Mishaps

So where did we leave off? Ahhh yes. The Great Popcorn Ceiling Adventure. We started moving late Saturday, August 23, 2008. We were supposed to close escrow on Friday, August 22, 2008, but when we met with our realtor to do the final walk through, this is what we found...


The bank had decided to the the termite tenting the day before we were to close escrow. Per the termite company, the tent would not come off until Friday morning and we would not be allowed in until Saturday. This put a wrench in our first do-it-yourself project (DIY).

The first DIY project? Get rid of the popcorn ceilings in the Great Room, Master Suite, and Master Bedroom Hallway. Why only these places were popcorned, we'll never know.


So hubby and his buddy Peffernin decide that they are going to remove this wonderful popcorn off the ceilings. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, it's the textured ceilings that are supposed to "enhance" acoustic sounds. We're not sure if they do, but they sure are horrible looking (we're sorry if you have them and you like them, but each his own, right?).

We only had a limited time as hubby could not take time off work since he had just started his new job, so being one day behind, we were already stressed.

We've learned a big lesson in any DIY project. Prep time will take you three times as long as you think it will and actually do the project will take twice as long. The prepping for the scrapping was not done until late Saturday night so scrapping could not begin until Sunday.

So I went out and bought my boys respirators and full body coveralls. What I failed to realize is that was that the suits were not breathable and it was 80 degrees plus outside. The poor boys fried and sweated their way through the removal.

The ceilings came off very quickly and very easily. There was HUGE mess that needed to be cleaned up. Thankfully nothing had been moved in as of yet.

The following week, I took the week off of work and rolled up my sleeves and set to work on painting the Great Room thinking, "I can paint this whole house in a week, no problem!" No one had ever told us that painting was such hard work and took so much time. On HGTV it's done in a matter of hours!

Hubby spent that Monday after work cleaning up the mess and then Wednesday sanded the ceilings. What the amateurs didn't realize (and how stupid are we?) was that when you sanded the ceiling, the sanding dust went EVERYWHERE! There went all that hardwork of cleaning that Great Room. The sand got on the walls, windows, shelves, EVERYWHERE!

I had been painting the Master Suite and when I saw this huge mess in a room that both hubby and I had worked so hard on painting and cleaning up after the scraping, I had a mental breakdown. I told hubby , "Call Kevin (our realtor) and tell him we don't want the house. I can't do this, it's too much, it will never be clean and done!" and how I cried. I had spent the last 3 days getting up no later than 7 AM and working until no earlier than 12:30 AM (as late as 2:30 AM).

Hubby calmed me down, I took a breath, and got to work cleaning again. The next day, I started painting the ceilings. I completed half of the Great Room which still needed a second coat. This took me one full day. Once hubby got home from work that day, I demanded hubby finish the ceilings because I just couldn't take all the painting. The Master Suite wasn't done, the trim in the Great Room wasn't done, and my office still wasn't painted (nevermind the hallways, bathrooms, sunken room, and other bedrooms). My hands hurt like hell and the thought of painting one more ceiling killed me.

The rest of the week, hubby painted ceilings and I painted walls and trim. All went well. At the end of the week, all furniture was moved in. Everything except for the office furniture was put into the Sunken Room until the tile could be chipped up and the bamboo floors layed in the Great Room and hallways.

Little Mookie was also introduced into his new home. After some mild apprehension, he is running around like he owns this place too. As you can see, Little Mookie did not do much unpacking, but found some good places to nap...so happy we could oblige him!

All went well for a few weeks. Hubby started chipping away at the tiles and I finished the trim in the Great Room. Some new things were purchased including ceiling fans and many, many, many trips were made to Home Depot.

Then hubby went away to Baltimore, MD for our friend, Tom's Bachelor Party. While hubby was off having fun, I decided to paint the hallway that led to the other bedrooms, finish the trim in the Master Suite, and paint all the interior doors and jambs.

This brings up to the Great Door Mishap. So, thinking logically, "It's such a pain to try to paint these doors on the hinges and not get it on the carpet. These hinges are ugly and coated with paint anyway. I'll just take the doors off the hinges, buy new hinges, paint them and the jambs, and then re-hang the doors."

Totally logical, right? WRONG! I spent Friday night after hubby was dropped at the airport pulling all the doors off the hinges. These doors were HEAVY! They are probably the original doors and are solid wood! At least I was smart and ensured all the doors ended up with stickies noting which jamb they belonged to.

The big problem was that a lot of the screws securing the hinges to the jamb and door had been painted over so many times, the screw head was too covered in paint or they were painted firmly to the door. So what did I do? Why pried them off using the screwdriver as a lever of course. I just thought, "I'll buy longer screws to secure these back in place."

I then went to good 'ole Home Depot and purchased all new hinges, longer screws, and door stops for all the doors. Saturday was spent painting all the doors and hallway. On Sunday, I finished up some trim and second coated the hallway and then set to work rehanging the doors.

"How surprised hubby is going to be when I pick him up!"

After hanging the third door (ever try hanging a door by yourself? I don't suggest it), I gave up since none of the doors were closing. I consulted the Home Depot book and noted that the screws should not be spinning in place as the screws now were doing despite the longer screws. Since it was 8:30 PM and hubby was to be picked up in a couple of hours, all I could do was clean up the mess and try to think of a way to explain to hubby how I had just created more work for them.

After picking hubby up from the airport and explaining the good news that the hallway had been painted, but the bad news of the doors not closing when they are re-hung, I was told that hanging doors is hard and very precise. I said, "I think I've learned that now."

Hubby went to Home Depot, bought even longer screws and after I stripped even more screws, he explained using a power drill to tighten these screws was not a good idea. Screw them most of the way in, then do it by hand with a screwdriver.

That would have been helpful information BEFORE I had tightened three more screws and stripped them. Off to Home Depot they went to buy even longer screws...hopefully these work. The alternative is to fill the holes with epoxy, wait for it to dry and then screw new holes. Time consuming and a lot of effort.

What did I learn? Never do anything to the house without researching it first.

What did hubby learn? Never leave me alone in the house when a lot of work needs to be done.

The Cul de Sac House

After putting offers on two houses and losing them, one to a cash buyer, we finally found our home to be on a cul de sac in the San Diego neighborhood of North Clairemont. What everyone says about buying a house is true. It's scary, exciting, and stressful (especially for first time homebuyers). We didn't even know what was going on more than half the time! It's a scary move to clean out your savings account and be unsure of what you're going to do if something goes wrong.

We do have to give a shout out to Kevin Dalzell (of the Dalzell group) who was a very supportive realtor and dealt with all of my insistent questions well. Also on our list of is Todd Pianin and Gabbi Matz at Samuel Scott Financial Group who helped us secure our FHA, 30 year fixed loan. Although according to Todd, we have the credit scores of 80 year olds and would have had no problems getting a loan anywhere (but thank you both as you were answering our questions at 10 PM at night so we could sleep well).

The thing that drew us to this house was that it is much larger (almost 1000 square feet larger) than the other houses we looked at as well as it has a true master suite, not a 11 x 12 room with a closet bathroom and tiny closet attached to it. It's an old house, built in 1959 and has at least three additions that have been added over the years.

The house is 2097 square feet, 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom, single story home. It has a large wrap around yard and is close to canyons with trails for hiking and biking. It's still close enough to the coast to keep it fairly cool; however, the weather will be warmer in the summer and colder in the winter than our little apartment in Point Loma was.

We think we got a good deal although we spent a lot more than we had thought we would. We just go so much more for a little bit more money. It was a bank owned foreclosure, but is in relatively good shape with only cosmetic things that need fixing.

The upside? fixed up, the house will gain instant equity.

The downside? There are a few:

1. Housing prices will most likely continue to drop for at LEAST the next year (maybe two).

2. Since it's been empty so long, the yard is dead except for our hibiscus bush (yeah) and our bouganville plant (double yeah).

3. We only have one working toilet.

4. The master shower needs to be recaulked, so we only have one shower working which is down an alternate hallway from our bedroom.

5. It looks like someone's 12 year old daughter who loves My Little Ponies decorated the house (and we're not joking).

To illustrate our point, here are several pictures of the house before we moved in:

As you walk into the house, you are greeted with this "Great Room" which will become our living room/dining room. We believe half of this room was added on. Yes folks, that's midnight blue carpet with yellow and purple walls and you can't quite see it, but popcorn ceilings.

As you look to your right, there is the first hallway which is part of the original house. This leads to the full bath, foyer closet, linen closet, and 3 bedrooms. Yes, the hallway is sky blue with a purple wall at the end, but look! No popcorn ceilings!

When you walk into the Great Room and look directly to your left, you see the family room (or sunken room as we call it since it's a step down). This room was also an addition and has a wood burning stove in it. This will become a nice reading/breakfast nook one day. Like the outdoor tile and Ruby Tuesday's light fixture?

While standing and looking directly at the Sunken Room, if you look to your left again, the entrance to the kitchen and on to the two car garage (that's the open door in the picture. As you can see, the kitchen needs some updating, but all in good time. Ugh! That tile!

Once you exit the kitchen and go down the first hall on your left, you are lead to the full bath (first door on the left). Look at that lovely tile. Say, "Hi," to MIL and thank her for us for cleaning that bathroom! And look! There's more of that lovely tile!

The first door on your right is the guest bedroom, check out that paint job. That is a wallpaper border just above those shelves! Like the contrasting colors? This room doesn't have any doors on the closet (we did not think you'd be interested in a picture of that).

As you continue down the hall, the second door on your left is the foyer closet and the third door on your left is the linen closet. Like the combination of wall paper and contact paper?

The last door on your right is what will one day become the nursery (don't get too excited, this room won't be touched for at LEAST another year).

The last door on your left leads to my office and that other door in the office? Well that leads to the half bath. There's another door in the half bath that leads to the Master Bedroom Hallway. This means our house does a giant circle. Little Mookie is loving it! For some reason we didn't take a before picture of the office, but it was just a plain white room, the only room in the house not painted at all!

OK, if you retreat back down the hallway to the Great Room and go down the second hallways (Master Bedroom Hallway), you pass French doors on your left which leads to the bistro area (this will most likely become hubby's Tiki Lounge). The door on your right leads to that half bath. The door at the end of the hallway leads to our Master Suite! You really get to see the purple in the walls in this hallway! Can you see the tile?

The Master Suite is complete with a walk-in closet and bathroom! *sigh* Yes the walls are peach, but I've already painted it...there are no after pictures as of yet. The Master Suite was also an addition.

Which brings us to the worst part of the house. We don't know what these people were thinking with this bathroom! Look at that shower! It's more like a kiddie pool! We're going to rip this out and we're thinking, standing shower and then a jacuzzi tub!

If you retreat back to the Great Room and exit via the sliding glass door, you see a covered deck and large wrap around yard (the yard might as well be 2 acres by San Diego standards). Like I said, it's dead and we have a lot to do...

And here's our front door! That bench is gone along with two or three others that were laying around.

So that's it, the before tour. Keep checking back for after updates...next installment, the great popcorn ceiling adventure and I break all the doors!