Winifred Manor

2011-09-06T22:25:00.005-05:00

We are married! We had the most perfect day for a most perfect wedding. We wish we could do it all over again. Nick and I are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family. The ceremony was beautiful, the food was tasty, the yard games were a hit, the photobooth was so entertaining and the dancing was rocking!

We even paid homage to our lovely home in our decor!

So what now? We can't get married every summer... so what project should be next on our list?

What happens when Hilary wants to start a "quick and easy paint project!"

2011-04-24T20:05:00.003-05:00

Our bathroom is ugly. The wainscoting is uneven and has screw holes, there are gaps between the floor trim, and there are even parts of the wall where the trim fell off and there is nothing but old paint and drywall. And that is only the start of how bad our bathroom is. We won't even talk about how everything is cramped on one wall, how the bathtub is too small, how the surround is discolored and how the marble doesn't match anything.

Without dropping five grand, we decided to spruce up the bathroom. Well, I decided to spruce up the bathroom, Nick went along with it. We figured a little spackle, paint and elbow grease could go a long way. The bathroom begged to differ.

First, the wainscoting that was crooked and uneven and cut incorrectly came off. The original plan was to take it off and just paint the wall. We then discovered that below the wainscoting was nothing but crumbling plaster. So now the wainscoting, however badly cut, will stay up. Bathroom: 1, Bundt: 0

Second, we decided that paint was still an option. So we removed the big mirror (half of the screws were stripped, FYI) so that if we were to ever get a new mirror we wouldn't have to repaint again or match samples. We wanted to do it RIGHT.

And this is what we found. A hole where the medicine cabin used to be... so much for an "quick, easy, weekend project-" eh? Bathroom: 2, Bundt: 0

SOOOOOO... now Nick has to patch the wall with drywall. AND THEN we can paint.

That's what we get for looking for a cheap and easy project. I guess it is still cheap, but who knows what else we might find. I am afraid to look.

Winifred Manor: 2 years later!

2011-04-10T20:28:00.012-05:00

We sure did slow down on showing pictures on the progress of our home! The guest room was finished in December 2009, yet we never posted any pictures of the final product.

Here is a picture update of our house after celebrating our second year!

The guest room (also known as Hilary's Craft Room) is completely finished now and looks great- well, it looks great when we take the time to clean out the junk that always seems to accumulate. We are going to add a ton of shelves to hold all of my crafting supplies!

We also rearranged the living room and got some new furniture, and added an electric fireplace to the dining room. Our bedroom has a nice little reading nook and my office is so much more useable! Our home feels even cozier now! It definitely is a home!

Happy Houseaversary!

2011-04-09T19:40:00.002-05:00

It is our second year Houseaversary today! We inadvertently celebrated it with a new faucet in our bathroom... sadly it wasn't because we wanted a new faucet but instead because our sink in the bathroom decided that it wanted to leak everywhere for no particular reason. Next weekend we are going to repair the rest of the bathroom, put on a fresh coat of paint and finally make it look nice! And it only took us two years!

We will post pictures soon! I can't wait for the project to be finished!

Helping our street

2011-04-03T14:51:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning, Hilary and I gathered with many of our neighbors to show support for a proposed project to revitalize the street corner of Ohio and Winifred. This hellish turn is plagued with blind spots, crazy intersection angles, and speeding drivers. It's an accident waiting to happen.

We waited for city officials to drive by in a bus, so we held signs that said "Please fix our street" and "Road of terror." Unfortunately, someone either thought we were demonstrating AGAINST something, or that we were a legitimate safety concern, because after twenty minutes of waiting with our signs, a police officer pulled up, got out of his vehicle, and starting talking to us.

Although polite and understanding, the officer explained that someone had called the non-emergency number on us and he came by to see what was the commotion. He stated he was concerned that the gawker effect (someone look at something out-of-the-ordinary) would cause an accident.

Eventually, he left, leaving us all with a sense of civic disobedience. We did not disband, and eventually the big moment arrived. The city officials (twenty or so minutes late) slowly drove by our intersection and continued down Ohio. A very anti-climatic finish to a Saturday morning.

Rising Waters

2011-03-30T21:02:00.004-05:00

The Mississippi is about to crest again. Of course we had to take a walk to see how high the water is getting. Poor Harriet Island is under water again.Harriet Island under water, March 29, 2011. (Click picture to enlarge)

Nick and I were being dorks the other day and watched two hours worth of PBS documentaries on St. Paul history. We learned that the Mississippi River, back in the beginning of Minnesota being a state, used to be really wide and shallow where downtown St. Paul is. They said that during a drought you could actually wade across it without a boat. There was also a neighborhood right on the banks called "Little Italy" which wasn't filled with Irish, but instead, Polish immigrants. At that time Harriet Island actually was an island but became landlocked when they built up the river to make it a major area for importing goods. It was super interesting!

A Winter Getaway, or "How to Avoid a Blizzard"

2011-03-01T21:15:00.000-06:00

Nick and I couldn't have chosen a better time to leave Minnesota's snowiest winter. We left for Arizona February 18th. We were greeted with rain and apparently it never rains this hard in Arizona. But it was all okay because that rain, was causing a blizzard of epic proportions back home. So we enjoyed the rain and even had the chance to soak up some rays while everyone was digging out for two days straight!
We took the Apache Trail around the Superstition Mountains for a day. It was the scariest drive ever but totally worth it! We saw some of the most beautiful scenery Nick or I have ever seen. We visited with his uncle, and ate a ton of great food with Nick's parents.

On our last day there we climbed Black Mountain and made it all the way to the top. It was a beautiful and sunny 65 degrees. It was a great view from the top!
But then we had to come home... and shovel what we had fallen while we were gone. I think we still couldn't have planned our trip any better!

Is it August Yet?

2011-01-30T10:49:00.002-06:00

Our wedding planning is coming along wonderfully! Is it August yet? Please? We basically have all of the pieces either done or on their way to being done. We are getting our cake from our local bakery and coffee shop, Jerabek's, and are really excited for the plan we have for the cake! We also just met with our officiant and are excited to have him do the ceremony.

I also looked in the farmer's almanac and it is promising sunshine, no humidity, below average temperatures and only 3 inches of rain in August, which is below normal. So it won't rain on our wedding day. It just won't! And it will be sunny and warm and not sweltering hot! Hehe.

We are getting so sick on winter. It just needs to be spring soon so we can build our new porch, enjoy the garden and look forward to August, 13th! We are getting ready to escape to Phoenix, Arizona in February. Hopefully once we get back the weather will start working on becoming spring-like. We can hope, right?

BLIZZARD!

2010-12-11T21:30:00.005-06:00

SNO-M-G! We got a record breaking amount of snow! It was fun for the first few minutes and then we realized that we had nowhere to actually put the snow. We literally have run out of places to shovel it!

Here is what we were doing the night before the blizzard. Notice the lack of knee-deep snow.And this is us half-way through the blizzard, optimistically hoping that if we start shoveling right away we won't have to shovel as much later on. It was a valiant effort but the snow was no match for us trying to be practical.

Oh, winter.

Neighborhood

2010-12-06T11:14:00.002-06:00

I just discovered today that we have a community center in our neighborhood! I can't believe that we have been here a year and a half and are now just discovering this! I am super excited because I had been wanting to join the YMCA again but it is so expensive and we only use it once a week if we are lucky. Now me and Nick can go to open swim and I can take free Zumba classes again! They also have a Spanish conversation circle for beginners and people who want to learn Spanish. I think I like our neighborhood even more now!

It is so nice to find things to do in the winter. We spend so much of our summer outside and taking walks in the park, so it is great to find a balance now that we can't be outside all the time! If only I had a greenhouse so I could do some winter gardening... hint hint, Nick, hint hint! At least now we can take classes to fill our time as we wait for Spring!

Moving on UP!

2010-11-22T20:42:00.003-06:00

It has been an exciting few months! Nick just got a new job where he can actually use the degree he worked five long years on! Nick got a job as a Tech Writer at LSS Data Systems. I will make him blog about what he does in his job since he hasn't updated our blog in a while! He loves his new job and I am so proud of him! He gets to wear a suit sometimes and not get all dirty and dusty like in his old job!

We also have speech starting up so we are going to be busy, busy, busy for the rest of the winter. Hopefully the winter will go by fast because come spring we will be nearing the final countdown of our big day!

The Westside

2010-11-10T20:47:00.006-06:00

After a year of living at Winifred Manor we have started to venture outside our weekend projects and constant yard work and into the neighborhood! We attended a block club party at our neighbor's house earlier in the month and attended one of our first neighborhood meetings! Going to the block meeting really affirmed our decision to move to the west side. Our neighbors are all so great! They really love the neighborhood and want it to be a great place to live. Some of our neighbors have had families living here for over one hundred years so it is really neat to hear the history of the neighborhood and try to imagine what it was like a century ago! Apparently there used a be a street car that came up from the Mississippi River into our neighborhood a long time ago, and the intersection closest to us was where they had to turn it around to help it up the hill. I really want to find old pictures now! I am such a geek. I love history!

We couldn't have picked a better neighborhood or moved here at a better time! Now that we aren't always working on the house it is nice to go for walks around the neighborhood and say hi to the neighbors!

Our Kittens! Meow!

2010-10-09T23:01:00.005-05:00

We are officially a four-cat household... our cat to people ratio has dramatically shifted!

We would like to introduce you to Shyla and Professor Catsby!

We wanted to adopt one of the kittens we had found and decided on the runt and little girl of the litter, Shyla. After moving Professor from the shed to the bathroom, and then after his brother, Charcoal aka Harry, was adopted, he seemed so lonely. We couldn't keep him quarantined in the bathroom, so we decided that although we had a household of female cats, that he could survive their domain!

He had always been the shy one, but really all he wanted was love. Shyla really missed her brother and they are such great buddies now!

Purrky and Smudgee have done so much better with the new kittens than I thought! They hiss every once in a while but are overall tolerant of the kittens and their mischief!

Pets for Adoption!

2010-07-25T18:50:00.004-05:00

We still have Professor Catsby waiting to be adopted. He's very shy at the moment, but also very very fuzzy. I'm positive he will make an excellent cat in a good home.

If anyone wants him, please contact us.

In other news, we visited the Flugtag down on Harriet Island and witnessed the record setting flight by Major Trouble and the Dirty Dixies! The event was free and a lot of fun, save for the sun burn many of our friends received.

In other news, by this Thursday the topper will be chopped up and hauled away by the garbage man. I'm excited to have a good portion of our lawn back.

Winifred Manor's Many, Many Pets!

2010-07-16T20:06:00.003-05:00

From birds enjoying our feeders, to mice that used to inhabit the house, to caterpillars we have raised and released back into the wild as butterflies, Winifred Manor has a lot of critters! The other day we even found a baby raccoon skittering through our yard. Our indoor pet, Purrky and Smudgee did not appreciate that very much. We even have had a skunk or two! For the city we sure do have a lot of wild life! I like to think of them as my own outdoor pets- well, maybe not the skunk!

I was outside gardening instead of working, which happens from time to time, and I see a little orange head with perked up ears dart behind the shed. I got really excited and thought we might have a baby fox! I am not sure why this excited me, but I was obviously going to go look. Instead of a fox, I found a litter of kittens!

After a few failed attempts at capturing the kittens, and learning that Mama Kitten is very friendly and loveable, we managed to get the kittens moved into the shed with the clever ploy of one of the kittens in a carrier to help Mama move everyone toward her trapped kitten. Mama Cat found a home at my mom's house and one of the orange kittens was adopted out.

Now we have three kittens to find home for- the fourth, a little torti is going to join our home in a week!

Anyone want a kitten? We have a black/gray guy named Charcoal, a shy, fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy orange guy named Professor Catsby and a very playful, roly poly guy who is orange and white named Little Rascal.

A Vacation from Winifred Manor

2010-07-15T20:22:00.002-05:00

Me and Nick just got back from a fantastic vacation to Southern California to see our friends, Sigrid and Dan get married in Long Beach! We had such a great time! We flew in on Thursday morning and arrived on the Queen Mary. The Queen Mary is an old ship that they docked and turned into a hotel. It is 1 1/2 Titanic's long! We explored the boat including going on a ghost tour. We headed to San Marino to attend the Groom's Dinner and drove through Pasadena. The next day we went to Malibu and drove the Pacific Coast Highway. Our friend Julie was also with us and took some fabulous pictures! We had so much fun playing in the waves!

We attended the beautiful wedding and enjoyed dancing the night away on the boat. We went to Disneyland the next day and then made our way to Beverly Hills! We ate lunch at the Ivy where all the stars eat, shopped Rodeo Drive and went to Hollywood to Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

We had such a great trip but it is good to be back! My garden was out of control with weeds so since I took the entire week off for vacation I spent the last few days doing nothing but weeding! Hopefully we can then enjoy the beautiful yard over the beautiful weekend before heading back to work!

Fourth of July!

2010-07-05T22:59:00.001-05:00

The fourth of July was another successful celebration at Winifred Manor! We enjoyed the amazing fireworks from the High Bridge with the Mississippi River and skyline as a backdrop!

Happy Birthday to Nick! What another great year!

Tying the Knot!

2010-06-13T14:02:00.007-05:00

On June 11th, 2010 in Duluth, MN, Nick finally popped the question! And of course my answer was yes! After eight years together we are finally getting married! Now begins the crazy adventure of planning a wedding!

Check out More Pictures HERE!

Check out our page on The Knot to hear the whole story! We might start a blog there as well!

Our baby chickadees!

2010-06-06T19:41:00.003-05:00

As we were putting up our retaining wall we noticed a black capped chickadee flying in and out of a bird house we had sitting next to our back steps, waiting to be put up when we had more time. Nick went over and found baby chickadees who had just hatched!

It was so much fun to watch the mommy and daddy chickadee fly back and forth between the yard and the bird house with warms and other treats for their babies.

When they left the nest one of the babies got stuck behind some discarded fencing. Me and Nick spent the evening trying to help him learn to fly! We succeeded though and he finally made it to the bushes where the rest of his family was!

Garden: 2010

2010-06-03T20:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of all of the plants we have in our garden this year! I tried to start my seeds early by hot housing them in a mini greenhouse. Some of them worked out great! The kohlrabi, corn, peas and beans worked great! After three tries I got the cucumber seedlings ready (I burnt the first two). None of my flowers worked either. The seedlings I did grow and trasnplant did great. I also bought all my tomatoes and peppers from my neighbors plant sale!

Here is the list:

Tomatos (apprx. eight different varieties)
Peppers (apprx. five different varieties)
Kohlrabi
Onions
Sweet Corn
Strawberries
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Peas
Beans
Pumpkins
Basil
Cilantro
Carrots
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Blackberries
Chives
Spearmint
Rosemary
Sage
Oregano

Mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm! I cannot wait until everything starts to produce!

Retaining Wall

2010-05-21T15:05:00.000-05:00

I took vacation Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week and erected a retaining wall.

Although I'm not finished yet, one wall is standing, and hopefully by Sunday the other half of the project will be as well.

I'd just like to thank everyone that helped on the project. I could not have been done without you.

Our First House-iversary!

2010-04-09T16:45:00.002-05:00

One year ago today we bought our house!

Happy House-iversary to us! Our Realtor even sent us an anniversary card!

I am not sure what we will do to celebrate, but I am sure we will come up with something!

I bought manure today! And it made me happy.

2010-04-07T21:07:00.002-05:00

Thank you Mother Nature for the most gorgeous, early Spring! Before the snow even melted I already had tulips sprouting from the bulbs I planted in the Fall. Everything is twice as big as it was last year at this time when we bought our house! I remember uncovering the beginnings of Lily's of the Valley and hostas, and as of right now they are at least 3-5 inches tall!

I began two, mini, indoor greenhouses to start my seedlings. Wow, did that thing work fast! I planted everything last Sunday and by this Sunday some of the plants were too tall for the clear plastic top. I have planted corn, cucumbers, beans, peas, sunflowers, kohlrabi and a mixture of flowers. I can't wait to get them in the garden! I also have carrots and onion bulbs to plant.

Me and Nick spent this evening tilling the vegetable garden and raking in manure. I never in my life thought that I would have to buy manure or be excited about it. Oh, the life of a gardener! We have a super busy weekend ahead of us, so hopefully by the middle of next week some of my seedlings that are getting too big for their containers will get put in the ground- especially the corn.

I am trying so hard to take it slow and wait, but I don't want to! My garden is at least six times bigger this year than last years already and I have never started so many things from seed before! At least this year I won't have 22 tomato plants. I hope that these seedling live, because if they do I will have so much variety in my garden.

Nick also started his yard project: the grass. We have a lot of new places to grass now that the pea-gravel pit is gone. Nick is really excited to start using his push mower again!

We have also started the process of finding a contractor for our driveway. Ugh. I already know this project will make me very cranky. I hate trying to get bids because I feel like I never know what I am talking about and I know that concrete is insanely expensive. But it needs to be done and once it is done we can put in the retaining wall which means a space for lovely flowers!

Winifred Manor's gone to the birds!

2010-03-31T21:25:00.001-05:00

Springtime sure has brought a lot of birds! We have been refilling out feeders almost everyday! The gold finches are always coming and the woodpeckers are also being seen more frequently (even thought they are here all winter).

Today we saw this guy, a red-bellied woodpecker (not my picture as my camera battery and card have mysteriously vanished, thanks to me putting it somewhere "safe")! Isn't he gorgeous! We always see downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers but this was our first sighting of this guy in a long time!

We have had a lot of Dark-eyed Juncos, Robins, Black-capped Chickadees and European Starlings. We are trying to add a variety of seed to attract other birds as well!

I love Spring and I love my yard and my birds!

Photo credit: http://hillsteadblog.wordpress.com

Spring at Winifred Manor!

2010-03-15T17:26:00.002-05:00

The official first day of spring doesn't start until March 21st. However, yesterday was what I would like to call the first day of spring at Winifred Manor. I hope that by calling it spring preemptively that Mother Nature will be happy and decide not to send a cold snap, April Showers will come earlier than expect and March will leave like a the lamb it started out as instead of as a lion.

I know I shouldn't be getting the garden ready yet, but I did survey the yard, which is surprisingly without snow. In the process of gathering pots that were left in strange places and were then buried by the snow, and filling the bird feeders, I noticed something happy! During the fall I planted tulip bulbs in the front garden and I saw that they are beginning to sprout! This made me look even closer at the garden to see that the Lily's of the Valley and some of my other perennials are starting to wake up too! So to celebrate that it is time to garden soon, I bought a new bird feeder!

We also went on a hike at Battle Creek Regional park. It was a little muddy but got me excited to start going hiking with Nick over the weekends.

I am going to keep my fingers crossed that it stays above freezing. I am also going to finally order my vegetable seeds from my mail order catalog. I want to start them inside and transplant them outside starting mid-May.

Oh, Gardening season! I am so excited to see you again!

A laundry room you can actually WALK IN! Well, almost

2010-03-07T17:41:00.003-06:00

Our laundry room upstairs is the greatest thing because we never have to haul laundry up and down the stairs and I never have to go into the basement like we did at Bay Street. Of course this doesn't mean that I do my laundry any more frequently (because I hate folding and hanging up clothes). We also can't really get into the laundry room. Our washer and dryer unit is placed smack-dab in the middle of the laundry room which leaves no room for cleaning products, baskets or a utility tub (which will be our next project... that and the dishwasher... which will be a HUGE project).

So we finally decided to do something about it. Well, I decided. Nick and his dad did the rest. I did pay for it though, so I think that is an adequate enough contribution. After two trips to Menards (man, did I miss that place!) and a few hours we realized WHY the old owners never moved the laundry machine where it should have been... and that reason was that it was a pain in the butt. We managed to re-vent everything and move it from the middle of the room, but it didn't quite get to go against the wall and is now at a 45 degree angle. The duct work needed to be longer so for now we can at least WALK into the room and use the shelves that were hidden behind the washer/dryer when it was in the middle of the room. The vent out the window is also a lot cleaner looking. We will finish the project later after speech is done.
More will come. Maybe even from Nick since he technically did the project. As well as pictures... soon. Maybe. If I can get my camera to work. Or find the battery. I promise. Really.

Busy, busy, busy

2010-03-01T17:35:00.003-06:00

Me and Nick apologize for not updating our blog for the past few months!

We have both been super busy coaching Speech at Eastview High School. Nick has been coaching four kids in the category of Creative Expression (the category we were both in when we were speechies oh-so-long-ago) and I have been coaching seven kids, six of them in the category of Original Oratory and one in Poetry. We have had a lot of fun coaching but it has eaten up a lot of our weekday nights and every Saturday since the end of January. I started the season even earlier and began coaching some of the traveling team starting in the fall. This is my second year and Nick's first year coaching.

We put a lot of our household projects on hold, but are starting up again and will start posting pictures (if I can get my camera to work after an incident involving my camera, a can of pop and the explosion of said can of pop in a vinyl purse).

Merry Christmas from Winifred Manor!

2009-12-25T20:12:00.000-06:00

Hilary and Nick want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

Guestroom in progress

2009-12-06T20:45:00.000-06:00

Our guestroom will soon be suitable for guests! The bright and loudly painted walls will soon be a soothing lavender. We are pretty sure that this process is going to take forever! We are going to have to prime everything- including the ceiling! The end result will be beautiful though.
Who wants to stay overnight in the beautiful new room?
prepping the room to be painted

Christmas is here!

2009-11-29T20:17:00.005-06:00

Winifred Manor is all decked out for Christmas! The tree is up! The gingerbread village is all set up and glittering with awesomeness- it is my favorite part of Christmas and it always makes me happy to unwrap each of the little gingerbread people and set them up! We are getting a wreath from the YMCA tree lot and we have lights in the windows. Our house is very festive and we are so excited to spend our first Christmas at Winifred Manor. Our tree looks a little bit small in the new place, but it is still a beautiful tree. Hopefully next year we can decorate the outside a little more. We don't have an electrical outlet outside which makes lighting up the outside of the house a little difficult. It still looks great though! I already have most of my presents bought and just waiting to be put under the tree.

Thanksgiving at Winifred Manor!

2009-11-26T12:43:00.002-06:00

We had our first Thanksgiving at Winifred Manor! It was a great success! We had a ton of food and family over! We are so thankful that we were able to spend the holiday at our new house!

The menu:
Turkey
Gravy
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Yams
Corn
Bread
Gingerbread
Chex mix
Pumpkin pie
Dutch Apple Pie
Veggies
chips

A new home for our cars!

2009-10-22T20:35:00.007-05:00

After a ton of stress and calling the city of St. Paul almost every day to figure out if we need a permit and getting a million different answers, we finally got it together! We knew that we needed a driveway before the ground froze and really should have started the process earlier. We are on a road that has a snow emergency on both sides and on the side street. We basically would have to park the next block down on snow emergencies, which would have been just plain awful! Luckily after many phone calls we got an answer and approval to our plan and began digging out a driveway and the place where our garage should go once the ground thaws this spring. We also got the pea gravel area cleared and the cracking cement work by our patio doors removed. I cannot wait until spring to get our yard put back together again!

Works in Progress

2009-10-11T22:22:00.010-05:00

We have a lot of little works in progress right now. I think I am ready to move my focus to the guest room, because it would be nice to be able to have visitors stay in style! After a weekend at a B&B I feel the need to get that room up to standards! Plus, I love decorating and I am starting to run out of places to decorate!

Over labor day weekend one of the most important pieces to getting the guest room in the right direction was putting on a door! There was never a door on the room, but we found a paneled door in the shed and Nick and his dad cut it down, while I supervised of course ;-) Obviously I didn't supervise, but I did praise them for their hard work!

I am hoping to get the guest room painted before November rolls around. The garden ended earlier than I thought it would because of the earliest snow me and Nick have ever experienced (the last time it snowed this early we weren't even born!), so I should be able to find some time one long weekend if I take a Friday off.

We are also in the process of getting the driveway space dug out, finishing getting handles on the cabinets and hopefully getting the laundry room rearranged and vented properly. So many projects, so little time! Have I mentioned that there are still a few random boxes to unpack! Oops!

95 is the way to be.

2009-10-08T18:54:00.003-05:00

We just purchased a new, high efficiency furnace. It's incredibly slick, and actually cost a lost less than I had originally thought. The cost was around $4000, and since it is energy efficient, we will be receiving 30% of that cost back from the federal government in the form of tax credits. Pretty slick, I'd say.

Our old furnace was a beast. It was a modern furnace, but 26 years old. A furnace filter usually needs to be replaced once a year. The filter we had was never replaced. Ever. 26 years of dust, hair, and anything else airborne was still in that filter. I'm glad I never saw it when Genz-Ryan removed it.

In it's place sits a brand new, 95% efficiency Lennox furnace. The main points about the new furnace is that it is quiet, uses a lot less energy, and has a continually running fan to filter the air inside the house. The fan is a huge plus, since we opted for the improved filter that removes 95% of everything foreign object in the air. The fan is running the air through the filter even when the furnace is not on. Since Hilary has allergies, this should reduce her symptoms when they flare up.

High efficiency furnaces has some interesting quirks to them though. A high efficiency furnace does not use the normal chimney stack in a home and the intake and exhaust are vented out of the side of the home. Our vents are near the garden, one pointing down and the other pointing straight out. In addition, they also creates condensation in the intake and exhaust, which would normally flow back into the furnace. Thankfully, they have to redirect it to a drain. In Winifred manor, there is no floor drain so a sanitary pump was installed to pump the water into a standard opening in the sewer pipe. It's rather neat, since there is now a clear hose full of water running up through the ceiling of the basement.

Finally, we have a brand new thermostat, which is operated by a touchscreen. It's pretty fancy, and we will be saving even more energy when I program the thing. That is a project coming soon.

So now I'm sitting here in a nice, warm house. I'm not even sure the furnace is running right now. It probably is, but the thing is so quiet I have to put my hand up to the vent to feel if air is passing through. Oh... Yep, it's running. Would it be crazy to wish for winter to really see the thing in action?

Putting the tomatoes and peppers to bed

2009-10-08T17:46:00.006-05:00

The early end of the planting season forced me to pick the rest of my tomatoes and peppers before temperatures drop below freezing this weekend. I spent all yesterday morning picking green tomatoes and ended up with an entire brown paper bag full! It is a shame they couldn't ripen on the vine. Luckily they will still ripen in the bag, and hopefully they didn't get too cold already. I also picked all the peppers that were left. I am going to dry them to use in soups for the winter. Does anyone want a bag of green tomatoes? I seriously have a ridiculous amount!

I don't know what I am going to do without my garden to occupy my time! I can bring my two herbs in but that isn't the same! I guess I need to start planning a timeline for next year's garden! I learned a lot from this years and hope to have so many more vegetables next year!

I should have kept track, but I definitely produced a ton of tomatoes! Each plant did really well, except the pots produced far less. Next year all the tomatoes go in the ground.

Sadly my pumpkins are nowhere near being ready, so next year I will need to plant much earlier. I think I need to try more gourds and squash next year. I will have to cultivate the area better though.

I think I will also diversify my peppers. I had all cayennes until the very end where the bell peppers finally produced.

Next year I want a ton more herbs. Hopefully the oregano and rosemary I have can last inside until next spring.

Until next year, I am putting away my vegetable garden tools. I still have a lot to do to prepare the yard for winter, so this isn't the last you will hear about our fantastic garden!

Chirstmas comes early!

2009-10-08T17:36:00.003-05:00

I don't know where the season of Autumn went, but it went right from being Summer to feeling like it was Winter! For the past week and a half our house has been freezing! The minute I get home it is bathrobe, slippers and blankets for me along with a nice cup of hot chocolate!

Luckily for us, Christmas came early, with a present to ourselves: a brand new, high efficieny, energy saving, non-smelly, safety approved, furnace! The house is now toasty warm, and of course, now it feels more like fall than winter outside, but we can manage ;-)

I am sure that Nick can write all about what our shiny new furnace does and all the fancy bells and whistles attached to it. We had it installed by Genz Ryan and they did a fantastic job and actually arrived on time, unlike most contractors! I let Nick write more about it though!

Decorating!

2009-10-03T20:27:00.002-05:00

Now that summer has wound down I have had the chance to do my favorite thing: decorating! Here are some of the newest, decorative additions to our house!

$50 richer and less one shed

2009-10-03T17:55:00.006-05:00

Goodbye old shed!!

We listed our tool shed on Craig's List so that we could prepare for our driveway so that we can finally have off street parking (which after getting two parking violations, is more than necessary, grrr). We knew there was no way we could move the shed ourselves, and it was inconviently right where the parking pad needed to go. We decided to list it for $75 plus you haul it, and got a staggering 43 offers! We had no clue that anyone would be willing to pay us and try to move that beast. We ended up having someone see if and he offered $50 so we took it because this shed would take a lot of work to get moved.

This morning he came by and three hours, part of the tree down, a trip to Menards and a lot of creative manuevering, the shed was off our hands!

I think we got the better deal ;-)

No eviction necessary

2009-09-20T17:42:00.002-05:00

Nick and his dad went up into the attic space to see if the squirrel family would kindly leave. However, there were no squirrels to be found! We are thinking the squirrel nest we saw is inbetween the original house and the newer addition which is only a part of the eaves but provides no access to the attic. We will definitely want to close up the area but luckily there are no squirrelies living in our attic!

Long overdue!

2009-09-19T18:22:00.002-05:00

We have a lot of updates coming! We will elaborate later because there have been tons of changes at Winifred! We have been busy, busy, busy! We even took our first vacation away from Winifred Manor and had a Labor Day barbeque for all of our friends!

We have done tons of gardening, the tomatoes are in full bloom and have produced over seven batches of salsa and spaghetti sauce and a pound of blanched tomatoes that we froze for the winter. I also did a ton of weeding and gardening and lopping of some of the overgrown trees.

Nick has been installing brand new hardware on all of the cabinets, the guest room actually has a door now and we installed a new light in the kitchen!

We finally got our homeowners credit. Now we are also preparing to get our new furnace, a driveway and to clean out the basement.

We also have been having some pest issues, namely mice (RIP Gus), but have eliminated the problem with a new footboard in our mudroom. Out next pest task is evicting a family (I assume it is a family, but maybe it is just one) of squirrels from our attic. Which hopefully does not end in hilarity or rabies shots. We will just have to see!

We no longer live in a fish bowl!

2009-08-18T22:16:00.004-05:00

When we moved in, one of the first things that we did was remove the very broken, plastic-y, dirty blinds from the kitchen. Then we realized that everyone could see into our house. But there were other, more important things to fix and make pretty. So we decided that we could live without them for a while... which meant that we were basically living in a fish bowl!

This weekend we finally went out and bought curtains! Of course the curtain rod we bought was broken (Thanks Wal Mart) so we had to return it and try again. But second time was a charm, and we installed them super quick and easy, and for under $40 including the curtains and the rod and hardware! And what a difference it makes! I think it makes the cats happy too because they don't feel like they have to guard the window anymore.

Gus has left the building

2009-08-18T21:06:00.003-05:00

I have found nothing in the traps, so I will only assume he left post-haste. Will shall watch for him in the gardens.

He got out... maybe?

2009-08-16T15:42:00.005-05:00

So either my cats are the worst attack-kitties ever, or Gus made is back into the garden where he belongs. My cats aren't paying any attention to the refrigerator or stove area where he was hiding, the pet safe trap isn't sprung and the snap trap in the cupboard hasn't caught anything- thank goodness! I told Nick that if we did catch Gus that he wasn't allowed to tell me, but I swear, he isn't lying and we really haven't caught him. Gus is a smart little guy, he wouldn't get snagged in a trap. I should really go out into my garden and look for him, then I can have a little relief that my little "pet" is okay. I felt so bad that when he startled me last night in the mud room that I startled him back and got him all discombobulated. Oh, Gus... I am sorry but you are cut off from the bird feed buffet. We can't have a repeat of last night again!

What an adventure!

In other pet news, we have two crysalis'. One will emerge in about 8 days and one will in nine days. I also have a new monarch egg that will hopefully hatch in a few days- I hope! It looks like a really new egg, but who knows if it will actually hatch or not.

He got in!

2009-08-16T00:14:00.004-05:00

Pet name, Gus; after treading out into the mud room, the little bugger scared Hilary, made her scream, which in turn made me try to scare Gus out of the mud room. Only, he went the wrong way and into our house and under our stove. We haven't seen the guy since, but we have set out traps (pet safe ones) so maybe he'll find his way into one. Or, the other likely scenario is that he is long gone already, living it up outside.

We'll keep you posted.

If you give a mouse a cookie

2009-08-13T11:41:00.002-05:00

We keep all of our bird seed in the back mud room, and discovered that a little something was nibbling at the bag and dragging bird seed around. We also discovered that there was a hole in the foot board we failed to plug up.

The other morning I went out the mud room to water and saw tail quickly scurry through the hole. Now each morning, I have been silently peeking into the mud room to see if Mr. Mousey is still there. Sure enough, EVERY morning, he is there, nibbling away- it is actually kind of a cute in a disease filled animal sort of way. We need to get a cover for our bird seed box, but also need to figure out if we can keep him out, period. We have been trying to stuff the hole with tin foil, but are apparently not doing a good enough job because he keeps getting in. I almost want to continue leaving out the bird seed to see if we have succeeded in plugging the hole. He hasn't come inside the house, thanks to some excellent guard kitties, but now I am afraid that if we get rid of the seed he might get hungry and stupid and try to, and I don't want my cats carrying around a dead mouse!

But you know what they say, if you give a mouse a cookie, he will ask for a glass of milk. What if he decides to bring the rest of his mousey friends into the mud room?

I don't want to trap him because I have seen his mousey face and he likes to hang out with me when I garden (I am not making this up! Every time I have been gardening, I have come across him and he just sits back and watches!).

So, this weekend I think we are going to replace the foot board of the door and see if that keeps him outside. If that doesn't work I will have to build him his own mouse house so he stops coming into mine! Just kidding, but hopefully it doesn't come to that!

Winifred Manor is expecting!

2009-08-11T08:50:00.014-05:00

We hatched two caterpillars around August 2nd! We have a ton of milkweed in our butterfly garden, but so many birds that ever egg that hatched was than eaten. We managed to get to eggs before they hatched and now have two baby caterpillars! Here is some great information about the butterfly life cycle. I am thinking these caterpillars are part of the 3rd generation this season. Once they turn into butterflies they will lay eggs which will than be the butterflies that will migrate South. Maybe we will find some more eggs!

Here they are a few days after they first hatched, on August 5th (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger):

Look at how tiny they are!! They have grown so big over the past week! Here they are on August 11th.

I am thinking that they will be getting into their J's soon. I hope they do because then I might be able to see them turn into a butterfly. Me and Nick are leaving for vacation on the 21st and might not be able to see them come out of their chrysalis' and get released... hopefully we can get pictures so we don't miss our babies first flight!

Flowers and visitors

2009-08-11T08:41:00.006-05:00

The flowers in the garden seem to be winding down. I am so glad I planted annuals in front of the house though, because those are still beautiful! Especially my Zinnias!

We also got a visitor to the yard! Isn't she pretty!

The vegetable garden is going, but slowly! I have had green tomatoes forever! The only ones that have actually turned ripe have had blossom rot :-( This morning though I finally saw that about three of my 100 tomatoes are starting to turn. My cayenne peppers are doing fantastic so garden salsa will happen soon! I even have my own onions! If only I had grown cilantro! Next year... next year!

I will have another vegetable garden update this weekend, and hopefully my first batch of salsa?

First Family Party: success!

2009-07-27T21:56:00.003-05:00

We finally unveiled the house to my side of the family two Sunday's ago. We had brunch for my grandpa's birthday courtesey of my brand new stove! The party went really well and the day was perfect for being outside in the garden! I want to thank all of my family for coming by, bringing food and presents! We were so excited to show off our home and host the party!

Our home is really feeling like ours now that we are getting all the details unpacked and finished. There is still so much to do but we have the rest of our lives to continuing working on it. Next on our list of things to do before fall:

-finishing putting up shelves/artwork
-getting a furnance/AC
-rearranging the laundry room before it gets cold
-getting a driveway

Our house rebate cannot come soon enough!

No More Pilot, We're Going to Burn...

2009-07-14T19:36:00.004-05:00

So, last Saturday our brand new oven arrived. With it's arrival meant the departure of our old, gross stove. This stove had pilot lights, it was that old.

For those of your unfamiliar with pilot lights, they are continuously burning flames underneath your stove top and underneath your oven. They use a small amount of gas to keep the flame going, and when you turn on your oven, the burners receive enough gas going to them that the gas pushes through a small tube to the pilot light, which ignites the gas, and then the burner. A oven with pilot lights is literally a series of tubes in order to operate.

New ovens use an electric spark to ignite the gas, which allows the oven to use less gas over it's lifetime. However, this adds a new type of energy to your oven; electricity. I started to wonder how we were going to plug in the oven. There is an outlet above the middle counter, but I think it would look tacky if there were two major appliances running to the counter above.

Luckily, when Hilary and I were cleaning around the oven, she noticed there was indeed an outlet near the baseboard behind the oven. We were in luck! The oven would merely be plugged in behind itself. The electric issue was resolved, and I replaced the outlet with a new one, along with adding a missing cover plate. I went with the cheapest plate available, somewhere around $1.

Anyway, the major task of making the oven functional was going to be hooking up the gas line. Gas can be very dangerous, and it seemed that we would need to call the energy company to see if they could install the oven for us. I called Xcel, and apparently they do not install gas lines. Weird, being that they SUPPLY us with natural gas. Oh well. Instead of calling a plumber, my father and I decided to tackle the project ourselves. It can't be that difficult, right?

If you are thinking "Don't play with gas, please, Nick!!!" I understand your concern, but actually gas work is so similar to plumbing, it can be done as long as your are VERY cautious. Plus, my father knows which measures to take to ensure safety.

With the old oven gone, we had a very long copper pipe to deal with. The pipe was too long to use with the new oven, since the hookup location is different on each stove. So, we headed to Menards. We bought an oven installation kit, which makes everything a little easier.

For an oven to be up to code, there needs to be a flexible gas line and a shutoff valve behind your stove. At Menards, the installation kit included the flex line. Plus, right below the kits on the shelf were the ball valves that would make the whole thing legal. We also put specially-approved Teflon tape into our cart. Finally, we bought a flaring tool that would be needed to connect the lines. A flaring tool is like a giant, top-shaped piece of metal that is forced into the end of the pipe. This causes the soft, copper metal to expand outward. The result is a pipe that has one end similar to that of the sound emitting end of a trumpet.

We went home and started working on the line. I descended into the basement, shut off the gas, and head back to the kitchen. The flaring tool we bought also came with a pipe cutter, so we cut the copper piping about half as short. My father and I decided to practice with the cutting tool, since we needed a very smooth cut to make the flaring tool work. However, after using the left over metal for practice, we found that the cutting blade was destroyed in the process. For tools, you really get what you pay for. Distraught, we took a look at the end still in the wall. Thankfully, our first cut was the best. It was smooth enough for the flaring tool to work. This meant we didn't need a second trip to Menard's.

So, we flared the end of the gas pipe to what we thought would be the perfect size. We placed the valve up to the pipe's end, and found it did indeed fit perfectly. We took the Teflon tape and wrapped it counter-clockwise against the threads of the valve, grabbed two wrenches, and tightly secured the valve to the pipe.

Since this was the first step (and hardest) of the oven, we decided to test for leaks and call it a night. For gas leaks, there is a special, soapy spray that you can buy. We sprayed the entire valve down and I turned on the gas downstairs. If there were any leaks, the soapy spray would generate large bubbles. Luckily, no bubbles appeared. The valve was securely in place, and we called it a night.

The next day, we had to buy a second adapter for the flex pipe. So, after the Menard's run, we had everything we needed to finish the process. We Teflon taped the two adapters, making sure to wrap the threads counter-clockwise at least three times. We took our two wrenches, and secured both adapters, one to the valve and one to the oven's back.

The flex-tubing was the easiest part. You need no Teflon tape (they say NOT to put it on) and you can almost hand tighten the bolts on the piping. We used a wrench to cinch each end down, and after tightening the last bolt, everything seemed good to go.

To make sure everything was good to go, I sprayed down pretty much the entire operation with the soapy spray. I turned on the gas from downstairs, and found no bubbles around any of the fittings. The oven was up!

We pushed the beast into place, drooling every inch since the oven looked better and better the more it was in it's rightful place. Once in place, we leveled the oven so that cakes would bake evenly and the burners would receive the same amount of gas from front to back.

To celebrate, I turned on all four burners and watched the blue fire dance around. After satiating my pyro urges, I allowed Hilary to operate the oven and cook some fish and chips.

Needless to say, we are very excited to have our new oven, and even more excited that we were able to install the beast all by ourselves. Of course, I thank my father for all the know-how and tools to help me do these projects.

Before and After: Hilary's Office

2009-07-12T21:24:00.006-05:00

Finally I have unpacked my office! I still have one box of miscellaneous junk I can't seem to figure out what to do with, but overall the office is complete! I have a great work station for paperwork and my laptop and have my desktop fully functioning! It is my girly-room in the house where I can have flowers and pink and everything else that makes me happy :-)

Before

After

Before and After: Stove!

2009-07-11T16:43:00.005-05:00

Our new stove was delivered today! Now that I am getting rid of the old one I have an awful story about the old stove. When we first moved in and were cleaning things from top to bottom we realized that the mice lived behind the stove, fridge and cupboard. As we got to cleaning we found out that they didn't just live behind the stove, they lived in the stove! We had mice, in our stove. We disinfected the crap out of that thing, but you can't really enjoy a meal knowing that mice lived where that meal was created. Ack. There was also only two temperatures, on and off, and no way to really adjust the burners.

I am so unbelievably excited to have a brand new stove! It is so exciting!

BEFORE

AFTER

The new stove is so lovely!

The love for my garden grows daily

2009-07-11T16:21:00.015-05:00

Every time I go into my garden, there is something new in bloom or growing! The newest addition to the garden are the coneflowers (above) which are in white and pink shades and everything in between! I took one of the pictures (the first) on a cloudy day and the other two on a super sunny day. They are really beautiful and seem to be lasting a really long time.

I also have roses on my American Beauty. I cut one and put it in a vase! They smell amazing!

I also discovered this really beautiful purple flower. It is some sort of Lily, I think, and is such a deep purple!

There are also a ton of other yard pictures in our album. I am trying to get some bird pictures. We have three types of woodpeckers that live in our yard. We have also had a few Cardinals. Our newest critter are gold finches! We bought a really cheap little feeder and they are already catching on! We need to get a bigger gold finch feeder that can feed more than two at once. We saw a really cool cooper feeder for finches at Menards and might have to splurge in a few weeks when I get paid again.

New things a-brewing

2009-07-07T23:23:00.003-05:00

We will have a rather large update on our house projects coming up shortly. We are very busy at the moment, but please be patient. :-)

Edit: Expect it Friday or Saturday.

4th of July at Winifred!

2009-07-05T16:57:00.003-05:00

We celebrated our first 4th of July at Winifred! We are a few blocks from the Taste of MN, so we got four nights of fireworks, the 4th of July being the best! We found a nice grassy area a block away to watch. It is right where they shoot them off so they are huge! The last night we tried to view them from the look out without the trees, and they were fantastic! We are definitely watching them from the lookout every night next year!

Overall we had a great little get together with our families as we celebrated the 4th and Nick's birthday! We ate and ate and ate and had a lot of fun enjoying our garden. It was the first 4th of July that we had rain, but luckily the flash-floods and downpour were over by the time we had our bbq!

Here is the fireworks from the view of the lookout with the skyline in the background. It doesn't do justice to how great they were!

Before and After: Bedroom

2009-06-21T20:38:00.026-05:00

The BEFORE

A before and after picture! The bedroom! Before it was dark and cold. Now it is a warm, serene retreat! It is one of my favorite rooms next to the dining room!

The AFTER

Garden pictures!

2009-06-19T15:28:00.009-05:00

Here are updated pictures of the garden. These are from the end of May. This weekend I will take more! The vegetable garden has grown considerably since then and there are a whole lot of other flowers and plants in bloom now! More picture can be found in our photo link on the side bar of our site. Here are some of my favorites!

Me and Nick went to Menards yesterday and bought a bunch more perennials and a few annuals for really cheap! I am planting them all tomorrow.

My Lillies of the Valley. They are sadly all done for the season now

Does anyone know what this flower is? All I know is that it is pretty and still around

My bleeding heart flowers

My vegetable garden. It is MUCH bigger now... and sadly, overcrowded

My first bouquet of the season from my garden!

Of Lawn Bags and Clogged Sinks

2009-06-14T21:05:00.002-05:00

My father has been feeling a lot better since his surgery, so he and my mother visited today and we worked a lot around the house.

Downstairs, after shaving one day, I noticed the sink was clogged. My heart sank. I did not feel like dealing with fixing a clogged sink, especially with water now sitting in the sink. However, I thought maybe if I left the water to sit, perhaps it would drain after a while. Maybe it was draining so slow I couldn't see it draining.

After two days, there was no progress on the draining, so after the weddings Hilary and I went to Saturday, we decided that the sink needed to be unclogged.

Sunday, my father came over, and we practically ignored the sink until they were about to leave. We had filled ourselves up with turkey burgers, so we were content to just work outside in the nice weather. Right before my parents left, we worked on the sink.

With a bucket under the sink, I undid the trap. My father and I were expecting the worse, but we did not find much. The stop in the sink has become stuck, and it would not budge. So, we undid the stop and jammed paper towel down the drain. We used a snake to push the towel through, as it came out where the trap should be and landed in the bucket. The towel was filthy, but it did the trick. After attaching the trap back, the drain is now working at max capacity.

People can finally wash their hands in the downstairs sink!!! WOO!!!

As for the outside, Hilary, my mother, my sister, and my father worked hard outside. We swept the sidewalk, removing all the dead leaves and hacking down some unruly plants. It now looks very nice, and when it rains, the rain will clean away the dirt rather than pool in places.

I removed large portions of the trees between our garden and the neighbor's house. They are all maple trees that have not been trimmed for a while. There were a lot, and I have not cut them all yet, but now we can actually see some of the plants on the outskirts of our garden. Hilary found a fantastic red flower which I'm sure she'll talk all about.

With all the weed pulling we did, the yard waste bin is completely full. There may be a little bit of room for some leaves, but that's about it. Waste pickup is not until Thursday, so I guess it's back to good, old-fashioned lawn bagging.

That container is not small either. We weeded. A lot.

Overdue apologies!

2009-06-10T20:05:00.003-05:00

I am so awful! I owe all of you so many pictures of what we have updated since moving in! I don't have my camera hooked up to the internet yet, but when I do, I will finally post pictures!

We have officially had the house for two whole months. It looks like a whole new home! I am finally starting to touch the nursery/guest room, and it should be painted within the next few weeks. It is way overdue that we finally hang our pictures and shelves as well!

What is also overdue is our housewarming party! I am thinking it will be the second week in July! I will keep you all updated!

Lawn mowing at its finest.

2009-06-07T15:47:00.004-05:00

I don't own a lawn mower yet, but I haphazardly started planting grass seed as soon as I moved in.

Well, with planted seed comes lawn, and soon that lawn needs a mowing. A week ago, I borrowed my father's lawnmower since my lawn needed mowing desperately. Well, there was a catch.

My car's trunk would and could not possible fit my father's Lawn-Boy. So, I had to place the mower in my trunk, partially shut the trunk door, and use bungee cords to strap the sucker down. Securing the mower was like a brain teaser. My trunk has few places to secure a bungee cord strap, and at the bottom of my car there is only a plastic bumper to latch onto. It took four cords and some twisting and turning, but finally my dad and I secured the mower down.

We even tied a red scarf to the end of the mower to make it legal for me to drive.

I maneuvered my way up from Eagan to St. Paul on 149 North. That road eventually turns into Smith Avenue, which is the High Bridge in St. Paul.

When I returned to my home, I kicked the mower into gear and mowed like a mad man. Eventually, I filled three lawn bags full of grass clippings. You should find this remarkable, since I have a small lawn. The grass was JUST THAT LONG.

Which leaves (no lawn bag filler pun intended) me my last problem, one in which I have found a solution. Our lawn was not well kept before we moved in. There seemed to be several autumns worth of leaves on the ground. After picking it all up, we literally filled our art house full of lawn bags. Roughly 20, to be exact (a sentence that should make your head spin).

Turns out, our garbage company, Veolia, has year-round lawn bag pick up for roughly $85 for the year. They dropped off a huge lawn waste container, and I'm set to mow my lawn time after time after time.

Problem is, now I need a own a mower.

Unpacking... still.

2009-06-01T14:17:00.002-05:00

This weekend I finally made a fairly good sized dent in the unpacking disaster that was the upstairs hallway.

Before I continue there are two things that need to be said: 1. I am a girl, therefore, I have a lot of clothes, 2. I am a girl with a shopping addiction, therfore, I have an obscene amount of clothes, and 3. I am a girl with a shopping addiction who hates to get rid of clothes, therefore, I have a ridiculously obscene amount of clothes.

I had been trying to unpacking my clothes and soon the entire upstairs was a conglomeration of multiple piles of clothes. I figured if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right and make sure that everything was organized. Sadly, I haven't had a lot of time on my hands lately, so the upstairs has been a danger-zone of hazardous clothing for weeks. This weekend I changed that!

The upstairs is still in various stages of unpacked, but now I have all my clothes put away and an entire bin of clothes to sell and donate. This is an extraordinary feat! I don't like to throw away clothes that still fit me because the way fashion goes, you never know when something will be "in" again! I did it though, I weeded through it all and am sadly parting with several outfits.

When I finally get my computer and office set up I will post pictures of how amazing this closet is. It is basically the closet of my dreams. A few more shelves and I will be a happy, happy camper.

I also started to unpack some of our books and hopefully we will soon have the entire upstairs landing/our book-nook, a mecca of all of our favorite books.

So, three weeks of unpacking and living at Winifred down... many more to go! Hopefully we get a bunch more unpacked before next week when we are having a garage sale!

Paint, clean, clean, new paint.

2009-05-29T22:32:00.002-05:00

I was roped into painting for a large majority of my evening today. Not that I mind. Actually, I enjoy, to some extent, the act of painting. It's refreshing in a way few things are. But if it wasn't so time consuming and such hard work, and such an expense at times, painting could almost be recreation. Almost.

But, alas, it is not.

The dream was that Tammy, Carol, myself, and Hilary would team up and use a paint sprayer to deal with the foyer, because it is a textured surface (It's made of swirls of plaster). One we loaded the sprayer, it was time to test the baby out.

The damn thing is loud, and seems to suck power like an arc-welder. It shot out an amazing amount of paint, and we were concerned at first because it seems Hilary and picked out the EXACT same color as what the foyer was previously. We could not tell what was and was not painted at first. The sprayer was holding strong, and the job was seeming to be over in just under an hour.

Then, the problems started, and soon brought our idea to a halt.

Tammy ended up finding herself being sprinkled upon, and the ceiling was receiving a fine powdering of paint particles. The sprayer, not only being noisy and powerful, had the knack of constant and devastating over-spray. This was not going to work in the close confines of the entry way. Then, Tammy noticed another problem. The paint started to run, badly.

"Well, we'd have to go over EVERYTHING with a roller anyway."

So, the electric sprayer was put to rest, and I decided to hell with it. All the taping was done, I was going to paint this foyer, even into the wee hours of the night.

I picked up my roller, and changed our light brown foyer into a basket-weave-colored foyer.

It came from our FRONT LAWN!!!!

2009-05-25T23:27:00.003-05:00

*Start ominous tones and creepy strings*

I cleaned out the pond in front of our house yesterday. This pond is small, but has had leaves decomposing in it quite some time. Which means the water was pitch black. Not a good thing.

I dug around under the depths, clearing up rocks and gravel. Dead leaves piled up next to the pond.

Then, I noticed things wiggle just below the water surface. They were clear and had long tails, as though they were trying to grab onto something solid.

Edit: They were clear, larva looking things. They were rather large (about the size of a caterpillar) and you could see all their muscles working through their skin. They had very long tails that must keep them latched to something, or else to eat. I'm not sure. They were disgusting.

There were lots of them, so I hauled the pond up and moved to the sewer.

I now have a dry basin which in the future I can put water in.

You neighborhood friendly salesmen.

2009-05-25T23:06:00.002-05:00

So, we now have an alarm system. $2200 worth of alarm system. The cost? $150.

The only catch is, other than paying the alarm system's monthly fee, is that we need to advertise we have the alarm system. Sounds like a plan, right?

This all came around from a social young salesman who seemed very eager to give us a system. Yes, I'm sure he has a quota, but for a sound piece of mind in the city, the small monthly fee is hard to beat, plus all the equipment for free!

We had four door sensors installed (one for each door leading out of our house) and a glass-breakage detection sensor located in the middle of the house. It's designed to recognize the sound of breaking glass and trip the alarm. Since I do not personally trust the locks on the windows, I felt this was a better detector over the more common motion sensor.

These detectors were given to us free of charge because we are on a corner lot and have a frequently used road (there is a bus line on it). All we have to do is have a minimally sized sign in the front of our house. The security company said they were forgoing a television ad campaign and instead were focusing on installing systems in neighborhoods to see if the trend grew from there.

I think it's a smart strategy.

We were lucky enough to have a same-day install just before our party, and the installer seemed unsure of what to think of me. I was hanging around in my Gamecube shirt (basically my pajama shirt) and was lazily watching television. When the guy entered, he looked to be around his late twenty's. He must not own his own home either, due to the questions he asked me.

"So... how old are you?"
"22, why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing... just..." He paused. "So, is this your parent's house, or do you own it? Or what?"
"It's my house. I own it."
He seemed a little shocked, or at least did not suspect that answer. "So, are you married?"
"Oh, no. Not yet."

So, after that, I watched him install the system. He asked about if I was thinking about getting married, and what I majored in. I could tell he was a little nerdy, like myself, so we had a good time talking, so he was a little puzzled that I fixed computers, but had an English/Cultural Studies major.

"Yeah, not many people get that either..." I said to him.

Catty

2009-05-25T22:53:00.003-05:00

I just posted a blog, but had to blog about this:

We have a lot of yard cats around the neighborhood. Almost every night we have been awoken by a howl outside and a response of our cats, Purrky and Smudgee, in the upstairs window yowling back, sometimes hissing and then accidentally attacking each other. They are getting used to it now and luckily aren't attacking each other because they are scared, but this evening there was a black and white cat outside the patio door and Purrky got so angry! She decided to pounce on Smudgee but then realized that this cat outside was the problem, not her sister, so she took action! The cat went away but she has now taken post in front of the door and has been there for three hours, just watching, and waiting for the cats return. She won't let no yard cat push her around. They are so funny!

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-25T22:35:00.009-05:00

For our long, Memorial day weekend we had soooo many plans. And then I got sick and the plans came to a halt. Being overly ambitious I was really hoping to get a ton of things unpacked, the garden completely finished (transplanting some potted veggies and the seedlings into a new spot), the pond drained, cleaned and get a fountain to work for it and then have an extraordinary, awesome barbecue for Nick's graduation and Memorial day.

Because I have been a coughing, disgusting, wheezy mess since last Wednesday, I tabled most of the garden work. Nick, wonderfully, cleaned out the disgusting pond (there was something living in it!), and we realized that we can't get a fountain or pump to work because the only power source is behind the house. So that got tabled as well. I did some research though and found one that might work that is solar powered, so hopefully we can do that another one of these weekends. We did fix up the benches and bought cushions so that we can enjoy our garden though!

I got a lot of the downstairs unpacked and then randomly, on a whim, we got a security system installed in our house for a great price! I am sure that Nick will blog all about it though! And suddenly, before we knew it, it was time for our barbecue!

So, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but we did have a fantastic get together! Thanks to the Voysey-Olson's we had steak, corn and Cajun sausages. Our other guests also contributed to our spread. I made barbecue chicken with Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce (which was delicious!) and a creamy Italian pasta salad. We also had lemonade, ice tea, strawberry and orange ice cream floats, chips, salsa, brownies! It was amazing! So much eating occurred! I ever felt better for the duration of the party. We played Guitar Hero and yard games and had a really fun time!

Here are some pictures of us playing Swedish lawn games and enjoying our yard!

Our team lost.... the other team thought I was playing purposefully bad to benefit their team.

They celebrated their victory!

I decided to join in!

Sarah commended me being a double agent.... I really wasn't, but a good double agent goes with the flow ;-) I really did suck at the game THAT bad.

Ryan enjoyed our hammock

Hanging out in the garden

Sitting upon the throne.

2009-05-21T21:43:00.003-05:00

My father and I, along with help from Zane, have finished the upstairs toilet. It is fully functional and solidly placed to boot. The last modifications we needed to do to the toilet was chalk it to the floor, get a replacement seal-valve, and put on a toilet seat. Roughly a week ago, when Hilary was off in Duluth resting and relaxing, those jobs were completed.

Incidentally, Hilary also returned home to find my computer fully operational in its desk. I don't believe I need to tell anyone why this would be a surprising development...

Anyway, this weekend's going to be a huge project weekend, so we'll keep you informed!

Hilary's Garden is an Excellent Garden!

2009-05-21T19:30:00.006-05:00

I finally got my vegetable garden planted and by the weekend everything, including the last of the seedlings, should be in place. In true Hilary-fashion, I went a little overboard... oopsies! I spent way too much at Home Depot, where I meant to buy mostly flowers, but instead came back with seedlings galore. Ironically, I came home to a sign on the corner of my street that said "Plant Sale" with a big arrow. Right down my street my neighbor had a plant sale of seedlings she grew from her greenhouse. Live and learn! Next year I buy from her!

Here is a run down of my vegetable/fruit garden:

17 tomato plants, including a yellow pear, better boy, heirloom and Rutgers. One of my tomatoes is in a Topsy Turvey, you know, the upside planters As Seen On TV! It is pretty cool actually! I also might have more to add to the tomato count. I have a pot of some seeds I planted early on that has about fifteen sprouts... I am pretty sure they are tomatoes as well. Oops!
11 peppers, including cayenne, bell peppers in both yellow and green, and hot peppers
100+ sugar snap peas, all started from seeds. They are doing really well!
a lot of lettuce... I sorta threw an entire seed pack of lettuce into a huge planter and now I cannot count it all... I am think I need to do a transplant because they are not spaced out at all
15 or so pumpkins, which also need to be transplanted asap. They are pumpkin pie pumpkins, I think. I should have labeled them better as well!
a rhubarb patch
a raspberry patch
Rosemary and Italian Oregano
1 melon (the rest drowned)
20-30 onions

I am currently germinating seeds for kohlrabi, purple onions, yellow tomatoes and summer squash. The summer squash is doing the best. The other ones probably won't harvest, but I will see what I can do.

What I have learned: 1. I need to spread out my plants better, 2. I need to plan my plants before I buy because then I end up with 17 tomato seedlings, 3. I need to start germinating earlier, 4. I need a bigger place for my vegetables!

I am worried because one of my peppers is very much dying and some of my tomatoes are getting yellow around the leaves... I don't know if it is because it was so hot and windy or if is because the soil (Miracle Gro brand) had too much fertilizer? I will have to look it up.

My next project after getting the vegetables all planted and growing is to figure out all my perennials. I find new ones every day. So far in the walking garden I have: hostas of many types, a bleeding heart, Lillie's of the valley and lilacs. Those are the only ones I can really name. I borrowed a book from Nick's mom and will hopefully by able to label the rest soon!

Winifred Manor gets Connected!

2009-05-20T12:56:00.002-05:00

Me and Nick have been itching to post but have been disconnected from the internet since last week. Today Comcast is coming to save the day and will get Winifred connected to the real world! We have so much to update you on!

The garden is looking fantastic! I planted my vegetable garden and it is slightly overwhelming... I think I went overboard. I went to Home Depot to buy annuals to add some color to the walking garden and ended up with 17 tomatoe plants. Oops. I don't know how I did that. I will post more about it and pictures later!

Since last updates we have a beautifully painted bedroom and my office is really pretty and freshly painted to be girly and pink. The furniture is all here but in disarray. The kitties also are moved in and still slightly confused- more so by the many cats that live in our yard.

Hopefully we can give a real, substantial update soon!

We are HOME!

2009-05-12T18:53:00.003-05:00

We are officially living at Winifred now! I wanted to update sooner but we have really patchy internet access until we get our Comcast changed over in a week.

We moved everything on Saturday- luckily it didn't rain! We thought we were brilliant by not using a Uhaul- you know, to save money- but learned that the lack-of-moving-van meant a lack-of-motivation-for-packing. We were not packed completely on Saturday and ended up moving things with my mom's car and my Beetle back and forth a bajillion times. There are actually a few things still over at Bay street! We have TONS to unpack... or more like sort since we didn't pack very much before the move.

Luckily the kitchen and bedroom are unpacked and functional. It is so great to have a large kitchen! I have an entire drawer just for meauring cups and spoons! Haha! We will see how long that lasts. Everything is good but we still have a bathroom issue. The upstairs toilet isn't finished yet so we can use the upstairs to shower and the downstairs for everything else since there is no shower there. It should hopefully be done soon.

I am happy to report that I am never moving again and once I unpack will be a very happy camper. I am really excited to go through everything and get rid of the junk we accumulated over that Bay street. I am suprised by how much stuff fit into that apartment!

Once we get internet, have some more unpacked and I am not behind on case noting I will update on all the other improvements we did before the move, including pictures of the newly painted office and bedroom! They are both very pretty. And hopefully, soon, we will be announcing our housewarming party!

We can't wait to have people start visiting!

My lawn

2009-05-05T22:57:00.004-05:00

The biggest thing I really wanted when I lived at Bay Street was a thick, green lawn. I really enjoy having a nice lawn, and it took a little extra effort to finally have a decent one at Bay Street. So, when I arrived at Winifred, I figured I would have a nice lawn when I arrived. Well, I was wrong.

The back area, if you take a gander at the "Before" pictures was a dirt infested pit. Well, I have been hard at work fertilizing, watering, and seeding a new lawn for the back yard. This weekend, that is what I spent the majority of my time working on; a new lawn.

I will have pictures tomorrow of my lawn, but I must comment that my quick visit tonight made me very happy. My lawn is growing fast and strong. So, I'm confident by the end of this summer I will have a solid lawn.

Unfortunately, I have only made that lawn a small portion of the entire land...

Pictures!

2009-05-05T22:47:00.003-05:00

I just added photos to the last few blogs! There are even more in our picture links on the side bar!

The upstairs is starting to get done, so I should have some more "After" pictures soon! The most new pictures are in our Yard album! Enjoy!

Weekend Update: Gardening and Yard

2009-05-05T14:07:00.010-05:00

This was a really busy weekend! It started early on Friday and went all the way until Sunday evening. I almost gave myself a concussion while trying to plant my vegetable seeds, completed painting the upstairs hallway, learned that de-dandelion-ing the yard is a daunting task and enjoyed the Cinco de Mayo festival down the street from us. It was a very eventful weekend! The weather was so great that we had to spend most of it outdoors!

Each weekend the yard has become nicer and cleaner... it actually looks like a garden now! The grass in the back is coming along well and hopefully in a few more weeks it will be looking more like a lawn than a patch of dirt. I cannot wait to remove the large pile of pea rock from the yard so we can lay down more grass and plant some apple trees. Our garden is beautiful but what are yard is really missing is more trees.

With the help of my lovely friend Jessica I planted my climbing rose bush... How many people does it take to plant a rose bush? The answer is: Not Hilary. We walked around the yard aimlessly for like an hour (okay, more like ten minutes) trying to find a sunny place that my rose bush could climb. Without Jessica's help it would never have been planted. Finally when we do get it planted it is not deep enough. So Nick has to come to the rescue. Hilarity and a second try at planting it ensured, and we finally got it planted! At least I was able to cover the hole with dirt!

I also started my vegetable garden. In the process my head and a cabinet in the shed got in a fight and after seeing stars, blood shed (seriously!), tears and an icepack I was back to work. I decided that this year I am going to have a potted vegetable garden since I am not sure where I want my permanent vegetable garden to be. I figured this way I could try growing from seeds more and control the garden a little better. I have sugar snap peas, pumpkins, melons and tomatoes. I planted a few last week but I am pretty sure they drown in last week's rainfall. I tried them again this week and will have to wait and see if they worl. The pumpkins will be moved into the yard once they get bigger. In the yard I also planted rhubarb and raspberries from some seedlings that Nick's mom brough over. In a few more weeks I am going to buy some tomatoes and will hopefully have a successful garden!

My brothers were over all weekend and were really helpful to me and Nick. They worked on de-dandelion-ing our yard. We don't want to use weed killer becasue our grass is still growing so we decided to go at it the natural way by digging them out at the roots... after working all day, there were still dandelions left. In fact, I am pretty sure they were reproducing as we were weeding. It is looking a little better now.

After a long, hard weekend, I was able to relax on the hammock for a little while and enjoy our yard!

Living Green Expo

2009-05-02T19:50:00.010-05:00

Today me, Nick and my brothers went to the Living Green Expo at the State Fair grounds. It was a collection of booths and exhibits on how to make your life, garden and home more friendly to the environment. Going green is super cost effective and is worth the time and investment not only for you wallet, but for our world and natural resources. Tyler called me a hippy, which is kinda true, but whatever!

My main purpose for going was that I wanted to learn how Nick and I could start a compost pile. We have so much gardening space that a compost pile would really help our garden, especially the vegetable garden, and would cut down on waste. Hopefully once we are all moved in and unpacked we can get one up and running.

The other main thing I wanted to get information about was a rainwater collector. Instead of getting water for the yard and garden directly from the city (and thus having a higher water bill each month), you can collect rainwater and reuse it for around the house. We saw basic ones that are big blue, recycled plastic, barrels that weren't very nice looking. Then we found one that can be made to look like your house, with trim and wood and a hand pump. They were more costly but were the nicest looking and can also be attached to the gutters, which will keep the water from puddling near your foundation. In the long run the rainwater collector pays for itself and saves water. This will be a project for down the road, but would be a great, green addition to the yard.

Nick's purpose for going was that he wanted to learn everything, and also scope out potential jobs. Nick wants to get a wind turbine so we can use our own wind energy. He got a lot of good ideas and wants to build his own. My ideas is that we should start small and see if we can build one that can power the pump for our pond since there is no electrical source near our pond. We'll update everyone and see if we can make it happen!

The highlight for me was getting a free native plant. Native plants to the area are integral to having healthy soil because they have an extensive root system which keeps the ground fertile. I am silly, and dorky, but plants make me really happy! So all day I was smiley because I was carrying around my cute little plant. I also got a bunch of packets of seeds for free which also excited me. I will have to find a place to plant them!

It was a really fun time. Even Tyler and Dylan enjoyed themselves. We also got reusable shopping bags that we are going to try utilizing so we can cut down on extra bags each shopping trip- especially since we are going to be buying more groceries and cooking at home instead of going out now that we have the house to work on. Once we move in we are changing all of our lightbulbs to CFLs, and once we buy the new furnace we will get an energy efficient one. we also learned of places that reclaims wood work, hardware and doors from old homes and resells them, so we might have some luck there when we start trying to restore the house, but that won't be for a while. Hopefully we will have some more green-updates soon!

The First Party at Winifred

2009-05-01T23:00:00.004-05:00

We had our first party at Winifred! Our friend from High School, Emily, and her boyfriend were in town fro Oklahoma so we through a small little get together complete with a bonfire and hot dogs. It was a really fun time! We have already learned that no matter what we do, people will congregate to our kitchen. In our old apartment the kitchen was super tiny but everyone always stood around in it talking. Sure enough, the kitchen was where most everyone hung out. We will definitely need to get a small table for it.

I was really nervous to show people the place since I had spent all morning painting and the place is not finished yet, but everyone seemed to like it and were impressed by how much we have done. I can't wait until we get it furnished and decorated!

Overall, I will say that the first get together at Winifred was a success! I am super excited for our housewarming party... date TBD.

Pictures to come soon. Toilet almost ready for use.

2009-04-29T00:13:00.003-05:00

So, the plumbing in the upstairs is almost finished. By almost, I really mean its finished, save for a few cosmetic things.

Last Sunday, my father and I finished grounding the toilet to the newly secured closet flange. This baby ain't moving anytime soon. We lifted the original flange to be flush (no pun intended) with the marble floor, so when we secured the toilet, the wax ring that goes underneath would be level with everything else.

However, before any of the toilet fun could happen, we replaced the shut off valve and changed its location. Originally, the valve was inside the wall. Well, my father instructed me in the art of sweating copper tubing so we could extend the piping so the valve would be outside the wall. Sweating piping is a interesting, if not dangerous, endeavor. It involves tubes, flux, a blow torch, and solder.

First, before any fitting, you must shut off your water. Next, you clean every pipe end you are connecting. You clean it and sand it, so the copper is shiny. This is important for a good seal. Moving on, you need to make sure the pipe is dry inside. Otherwise, you cannot heat the solder up hot enough for it to work. My father told me an interesting tip. To make sure your pipe is dry, jam white bread in the plumbing. It not only blocks any water from seeping forward, it dries the pipe and disintegrates in water when you are finished with your work. Bread has been a trade tool for ages. Clever, no?

We, unfortunately, did not have any white bread at our disposal. So, we created a heat shield out of tin. The heat shield worked for the most part... Let's say, for now, that the valve was sweated properly. When you are sweating, you apply flux to the ends you want to connect. Then, after fitting the pipes together, you place the blow torch at the connection point of both pipes. You place the solder opposite the blow torch, so the solder is only touching the heated pipe, not the fire directly. As soon as the pipe reaches a certain temperature, the solder melts and spreads quickly into the gap, where the flux is. Then, you're done. The pipes are sealed together, and no water's going to be leaking out.

However, with a blow torch near the wall, things heated up. I noticed smoke coming from other wall openings near where we were sweating the pipe. Uh, oh... perhaps the heat shield didn't work so well after all... My dad and I quickly ran to the laundry room (adjecant the bathroom) and ripped down the latace work on the wall (for viewing the bathroom pipes, I assume). We looked. And we were releived. There was no insulation in this wall, and the smoke was coming from some charred paper on the dry wall. Dry wall is mostly chaulk, and does not burn so easily. We were saved... from almost having to battle a fire.

With one scare only comes another. When my father was moving the toilet, he injured his back. He was hurting pretty bad Monday... but today says he's feeling a little better. With all the help my parents (and Hilary's parents, and Tammy, and her brothers, and Sean), I would like to say thank you right now. Hilary and I are very blessed to have such supportive family and friends. My father will be better sooner than later, but with this set back, we'll be sure to be all around more careful from now on.

Despite these two shocks, we in fact have a toilet upstairs. Unfortantely, it is not fully finished. We attached the toilet, shimmed it so it was rock solid, and installed a new flusher, but the flusher was an out-of-box failure and we need to chaulk around the edge of the toilet to keep the shims in place. As soon as those two things are finished, the bathroom upstairs will be in better working order than when Hilary and I first arrived to Winifred Manor.

Though, to celebrate the flange and toilet placement, my father and I did a ceremonial first flush. Just because we could.

Finally packing... it is about time!

2009-04-26T21:55:00.002-05:00

So, the question of the week is, "When are you moving?!" Good question, good question! I wish I knew the answer! I think we finally might have an idea though!

I had started packing up some things a month ago when we were waiting on bank approval, hoping that packing would show the universe that the deal needed to go through! But since then I haven't touched a box. I have looked at them several times and pondered packing, but that has been about it. Looking at boxes is not the same as physically putting things into them.

So tonight, since I was banned from working on the house today by certain people *ahem*, I decided that in order to feel productive that we should pack a few boxes! I am proud to say that we have officially moved three boxes to Winifred. Woohoo!

We are hoping that mega-moving day will be on Saturday May, 9th. Anyone want to lend some sweat and muscles to the cause? Please? We are slowly moving some smaller things, but won't move the necessities such as dishes, bed and clothes until that weekend. Then we will officially be living in our first home!

Outlets covers and light switch covers and rosebushes! OH MY!

2009-04-24T22:30:00.010-05:00

Tonight Nick and his dad were working on replacing all of our outlets, for safety and for pretty-factor, and Nick's mom was vacuuming, so I volunteered to go buy the electrical outlet and light switch covers, because I love shopping- and it was kind of like decorating, which I am so ready for! I already knew exactly what I wanted for the dining room and found them instantly. The living room was another story all togehter, and we won't even begin to talk about the kitchen.

When I get to the section there is an entire wall of outlet and light switch covers before me, ranging anywhere from $1.99 each to $14.99 a piece. I stood in front of the massive collection of covers, trying to figure out how, without anyone's assistance, I can choose the perfect ones. These are choices I am going to have to live with every time I plug in an appliance or switch on a light! I haven't been this decisive since... well, since yesterday when I bought new shoes... which in the end I decided I don't like as much as I thought. Maybe I am still scarred from the yellow paint fiasco. I really didn't want to buy the wrong covers!

First I called Nick, whining about not knowing what to get. Then I called my mom trying to convince myself which covers to get by listing off all my choices to her. After a half hour of deliberation (at least) standing in front of this mecca of outlet covers, I finally was feeling okay with what I was going to purchase. For the living room I bought one fancy light switch cover and some stylish, white, outlet covers with a doubled edge. I couldn't even begin to decide on the kitchen, so that will wait until another day when I have some decision-making support.

After the light switch fiasco I was feeling overwhelmed and unproductive (who knew that so much energy could go into picking out outlet covers?!) so I pickedup more primer and painting supplies. As I meandered to the checkout looking for something that I could decide on easily, I saw that rose bushes were on sale with a rebate! So of course, I had to buy one because 1.) I can't resist a good deal, 2.) it is a rosebush, do I need another reason, 3.)I really want to garden and 4.) what is there to decide?! It is a rose bush!

So to make up for the overwhelmingness of outlets, I bought myself roses... now I need to learn how to take care of them! Once I find out I will let you, our friends, family and faithful readers, know too!

Here is the finished product of my lightswitch buying skills and Nick's new found skills in electrical!

Water and electricity do not mix. (No, I was not killed)

2009-04-24T22:11:00.004-05:00

So, after some subtle hints from H, I realized I haven't posted in a while. Here's the main scoop as to what my father and I have been working on.

Off and on I've been working outside to fix some problems around the house. First, we had so many box elder bugs around that house that it was slightly ridiculous. So, Sunday evening I took a large vat of insecticide--with spray nozzle and all--and created a moat around the house. After several sprays, multitudes of box elder bugs sprung up from the siding and ground. They started to move very slowly, until finally, I didn't see any bugs around. That problem was solved.

The next large thing Hilary and I did, along with her brothers and help from Sean, was to remove large quantities of leaves that had piled up from last fall. There were a lot to rake up. So much so, we have 12 leave bags, packed full, sitting in our future tiki bar (also known as the art building, for now). That was a haul, especially since we worked from about 8PM to about 9:30PM to pack up the leaves before any potential rain.

The main thing my father and I have been working on is the upstairs bathroom. After finishing the main level's bathroom, we decided to continue the streak and move upstairs. Well, we knew the toilet upstairs was loose, and the drains were clogged, but we had no idea how much of a pain we were getting into.

First, we needed to shut off the water to the toilet, so we could operate on it. There was a problem. We could not find the shut off valve. It's a simple little lever near the back of the toilet, how hard could it be to find it? Turns out, during the "construction" of the upstairs bathroom, the shut off valve had been placed in the wall.

Not a problem, my father and I thought. There is wood paneling that encompasses the bottom of the wall. There should be a removable wood piece near the toilet and bath called an access panel. Well, someone with a nail gun had a one-man stand against such logical notions, because we had to remove six or seven nails before the access panel was free to move.

We shut off the water. We started to drain the toilet (bailing it out with a Great-Stuff cap and an empty paint can...) and figured out the previous tenants had solved their running toilet with shoe string to stop the rubber plunger inside... Let's just say those strings were not their original color.

With the toilet removed, we figured out why the toilet was loose. The closet flange was broken, purposefully, because the marble had not been properly cut to fit the entire flange in. SO! The placement bolts that hold the toilet firmly to the ground were not properly secured, because the installers expected a hunk of marble and some concrete to hold the mounting bolt in place. It probably did for a while, but the other side of the flange could not hold out for any longer, broke, and dislodged the entire toilet.

We ripped the old flange off, but now we have to cut out the remain plastic from the inside of the pipe in order to glue another flange down. So, that's were we are with that.

However, we did snake out the clog in the bathtub/sink. Those appliances work quite well now. These are all minor things compared to what we had initailly expected. Since we had low water pressure, we figured we would need new plumbing upstairs. Thankfully, that was not the case.

As of today, the toilet is still off of the pipes and there is a towel clogging any sewer gas that may want to travel up the pipe into the upstairs bathroom.

In order to do something more minor, my father, Hilary, and I decided to work on electricity, while my mother diligently vacuumed the upstairs. Hilary's mission was to pick out outlet covers, and me and my father's mission was to replace the old outlets with new ones. For the record, electricity and water do not mix, so we decided to work on them on two separate days.

Also for the record, if you need new outlets because your old ones are broken/painted over/hideous, do everyone a favor and BUY NEW ONES. Menard's has a 10 pack for $3.39. That's about 34 cents an outlet. In white, off-white, or black. How rocking is that?

Anyway, I figured out which circuit breakers went to which outlets. It's a tangled web of madness, so I won't elaborate any further on that. However, I will say that installing outlets is fairly simple. Unscrew the plate, unscrew the outlet, unscrew the screws that hold the wires to the outlet, and then redo those three steps in reverse order, and screwing instead of unscrewing. Hilary came back with outlet covers, which I'm sure she'll post pictures of. They are very nice, and made our living room one step closer to being complete!

Rodent count, update.

2009-04-24T22:10:00.002-05:00

So, today we caught another mouse.

Snapper traps: 4 dead, 1 wounded.

About our House

2009-04-21T14:09:00.004-05:00

Silly enough, we have not written a blog about the details of our house! We were so caught up in updating, painting, repairing and fixing we never gave you a descriptive picture of our new home.

Our house was built in 1903 (so maybe we have a ghost or two, who knows!). Interesting factoid of the day: there are still the remnants of the gas light fixtures in some of the rooms. When it was first built the house didn't have electricity and used gas lights to light the home.

It is located in the Cherokee Heights neighborhood of St. Paul, which is considered the West side. If you walk a block north you overlook the Mississippi River, Harriet Island and the marina below. During the summer you can walk to Harriet Island or just sit in the backyard to enjoy music and fireworks. The neighborhood is really nice with a lot of homes that have been recently renovated back to their time-era.

The house is a 2-story home with three bedrooms (one on the main floor), an office (upstairs), a laundry room (upstairs), two bathrooms (one up, one down), a dining room, kitchen and living room. We have a full basement, but like most St. Paul basements it is slightly scary. The total above ground square feet is 1,582.

When the last owners bought the house it was a duplex. They renovated it to make it a single family home. You can still try to picture what it looked like as a duplex. The previous owner turned the upstairs kitchen into the laundry room. Downstairs there used to be two bedrooms and a galley kitchen, but they expanded the kitchen to be larger by getting rid of the other bedroom.

The previous owner had a summary of the house and the abstract of all the owners, so hopefully we will get that one day and I can tell you more about the history of our home!

Weekend Two: Summary

2009-04-19T21:32:00.014-05:00

What a busy weekend at Winifred! We have officially had the house for ten days. In ten days, with the help of our fabulous family and friends, we have:

brightened up the entire downstairs
gone to Menards at least 15 times
bought 8-gallons and 2-quarts of paint and 1-gallon of primer
killed four mice
painted all the trim in the living room white
painted the living room and added an accent wall
took down and cleaned the blinds in the living room
removed the old, dirty blinds in the kitchen
painted the stair rail white and began the trim in the entry way
primed and painted the wainscoting in the dining room white
painted the dining room green and the accent wall yellow, and then repainted it a paler yellow which was much more suitable
spray painted the cold air return vent cover
painted the heat vents white
painted the entire kitchen including the trim
cleaned and degreased the three ceiling fans
scrubbed and degreased all of the cabinets (inside and out), including most of the tops (we still have half the tops to go)
cleaned the stove, including the inside, broiler and under the burners
scrubbed the tile in the kitchen- every inch!
vacuumed and dusted the entire downstairs
replaced all the smoke detectors
spackled all nail holes
scrubbed down the entire downstairs bathroom
fixed the downstairs toilet
had a couch delivered and brought over our dining room table, picnic table and grill
filled every hole or crack to the house to keep away our rodent friends
sprayed the entire house for insects and other pests
raked the entire lawn
disposed of 12 50-gallon bags of leaves
removed all the bed frames from the lawn
collected all the solar lights to replace broken ones and reposition them
began renovating the broken toilet and plumbing in the upstairs
fixed all water pressure problems
dusted and removed cobwebs upstairs
primed all the baseboards in the upstairs landing to be painted
laid down grass seed
planted seeds for the vegetable garden
learned a lot about plumbing
fell fast asleep each time we have hit the pillow
made our house start to feel like "ours!"

I am sure there is more, but I am to tired to wrack my brain! This picture basically sums up our exhaustion!

Me and Nick both want to thank everyone who has helped, especially our family who have been giving up their weekends to help us get our house up and running! We can't even begin to thank our families enough! Weekend three, here we come!

Be sure to check out all of our online picture albums located on the right sidebar of the page or just click here to view them all!

How does your garden grow?

2009-04-18T20:17:00.010-05:00

We just finished a marathon, tweleve hour day, at Winifred. I am sunburnt and super tired so instead of giving you a summary of the entire day (I will summarize the weekend tomorrow) I want to tell you about my garden! Once the inside of the house is done I can guarantee that I will be spending a majority of ny time outside in our magnificent yard.

I worked really hard on the garden today. I worked outside so long that I now have my first sunburn of the season. Tyler and Dylan did a lot of raking and leaf disposing early in the morning while I worked on degreasing the top cabinets and fan blades in the kitchen while my mom and Tammie finished painting the kitchen for me (which is done except for the trim, and which now looks amazing!). I wanted to get out and enjoy the weather and get away from the tops of those cabinets, so I went oustide and started raking all the leaves. I thought it would be an easy task. I was wrong.

The problem I ran into is that there is woodchips every where and rock paths which made sweeping and raking the leaves difficult. Did I mention that our yard is really, really large? I was outside raking for the entire afternoon into the early evening. I did take a few breaks. I worked on collecting all the solar lights to see which ones work and which ones don't- we have so many! I am excited to rearrange them throughout the yard Dylan and I also got rid of the head and foot boards that were being used as garden ornamentation. They just weren't my style. They were very difficult to get out of the ground! I think me and Dylan both have blisters now.

The bed frames all moved out of the garden.

Despite the blister, sunburn and aching back, it was really fun to find a garden under all the leaves and debris! It was really rewarding to start to see progress. We uncovered a ton of perennials and shoots that are starting to come up! Every time I start raking I found more signs of life! It was so much fun- like a scavenger hunt. I can't wait until the bloom.

One of my discoveries underneath the leaves!

By the end of the day we bagged the rest of the piles of leaves and 12 50-gallon yard bags later, we are still not done! It is supposed to rain tomorrow so at least we got the majority of leaves and dead brush cleaned up! Hopefully the rain will bring some shoots from a few more bulbs! Next sunny day I will take pictures of the garden and the soon-to-be flowers!

You can see more yard pictures in my Picasa Web Album

Ants

2009-04-17T22:23:00.002-05:00

We have ants. Big, black ones. Lame.

Smoke alarms and you.

2009-04-16T22:21:00.008-05:00

Okay, safety is an important issue when living in a home. Feeling safe is a very comforting feeling, and knowing you can let your guard down relieves stress.

However, there is a fine line between safe and ridiculous. There comes a point when you just start to wonder.

When Hilary and I were visiting Winifred, we heard chirping everywhere we went. These were not baby birds. No, they were the poor, pitiful chirps of smoke detectors... er... alarms, wondering why attention was not paid to them. One of the first things I did when we started working on the home was to remove all the old smoke alarms in the house.

Winifred has 13 rooms. A basement, two entry ways, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, an office, two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and a laundry room. I counted eleven smoke alarms within this household. The only rooms that did not have a smoke alarm was the dining room, the office, and the laundry room. If you do the math, that does not add up. Yes, there were two smoke alarms in the kitchen. Only one of the smoke alarms are hardwired, so that means ten smoke alarms, most of them with low batteries.

When I bought the appropriate amount of smoke alarms (six or so), I read that smoke alarms will not operate with chirping batteries... This, folks, is safety turning into the ridiculous.

Me, and the smoke alarms. In face, this is only eight of them. I missed removing one before the photo, and another I had no idea it was in the back stairwell. Ignore the look on my face.
Here is a properly installed (link to pdf) smoke alarm. It's between 4 to 12 inches away from the ceiling (since it could not be installed in the middle of the ceiling). The alarm is also four feet away from any doors or windows.
Here is the ideal location for a smoke alarm.
For the record, I plan to replace any and all batteries if need be. That's just how I roll.

"Just Enough Yellow" was really just enough!

2009-04-16T20:04:00.005-05:00

Yesterday while I worked late, Nick and his parents, along with our friend, Sean, were at the house scrubbing the floors and the stove (there was actually a stove under all that dirt!), monkeying around with the plumbing and working in the garden. Since I lost yesterday to work, I planned on taking a half day at work and going to paint... well, work got busy and that never happened, so I didn't make it back to the house until the evening.

I did make progress though (although not as much as I had planned) and I am happy to report that in addition to the living room, the dining room is complete! I repainted the "Sunstraw" yellow with a color called "Just Enough Yellow" which totally lived up to its name- it really was just enough! It looks really great now and not like a crayola crayon! Pictures to come soon.

I took a little garden break while the first coat was drying and planted a few seeds in some of the many, many pots in the yard. I couldn't resist buying a few seeds to see if I could start my own seedlings to put in my garden when it is officially planting time and we have the yard ready. I bought some sugar snap peas, cantaloupes, heirloom tomatoes, golden tomatoes and pumpkin seeds. I planted a few peas, the herilooms and some of the cataloupes and left them in the mudroom so they stay warm at night. Once I get more soil I will plant the rest and cross my fingers I can get the seedlings started... if I succeed I will save a ton of money! The seeds came to around four dollars all together, where each seedling at the store would be around that price. I hope they grow! I have so much gardening to do! Once we get the inside cleaned up I will be outdoors all the time! I am also anxiously awaiting the arrival of what I think are tulips- as I said, I have so much to learn about gardening!

I am taking the rest of the night to watch HGTV and eat a home-cooked meal instead of fast food and take out! Tomorrow me and Nick's sister, Emily, are going to start painting the kitchen! I am really undecided as to which walls are going to be painted. Hopefully they won't be another "sunstraw yellow" mistake!

Water Works

2009-04-15T23:36:00.002-05:00

So, the inspector made sure that we noticed our water problem. It was not a large problem, but one that seemed inconvenient. In the main, upstairs bath, if you flush the toilet and moved to wash your hands, the facet's pressure dipped to practically nothing.

Hmm... That's not good. Especially if you want to take a shower, and you have several drips to wash yourself under. Although Hilary and I remained optimistic, we were unsure how we would solve the problem when we came to it.

April 9th, we close on the house.

Shortly thereafter, I decide to put in a lawn. (it's mostly leaves, pea rock, and dead plants) As you must with all lawns, I tried to watering it. Thus, I needed to turn on the water to the hose. This is a relatively simple task. There is a ball valve that needs to be turned. As soon as I find and turn the valve, I notice the water meter shooting up like crazy.

I run outside, to find a jet of water shooting out of the spigot. Someone had forgot to drain the spigot for over the winter time. A bad thing to forget, because the spigot had burst near the valve outside the house.

My father had the tools and parts to repair it, but from a strong jet shooting out of the pipe came a weak drip from the end of the hose. We were still having pressure issues!!!

We determined Winifred has complete copper tubing. This is a very good thing. Lead pipes work well, but there is the possibility of lead contamination. Galvanized pipes work in the beginning, but quickly deteriorate and fail, causing large amounts of water damage. So, copper pipes were the hallmark for good plumbing, until recently when plastic pipes work even better.

When today came, we decided to find out what was wrong. We knew the spigot for the hose was the first stop in the plumbing, so a blockage or pressure problem had to come before that. After thinking it was possibly a bad water meter, we found a gate valve that had been partially closed.

Hmm... We open the gate valve completely, and viola! We have constant, strong pressure everywhere! Why had they lowered the pressure to their piping system?

Turns out it was simple toilet flushing mechanisms that made them lower their pressure and making taking a shower a huge pain. The lower bathroom's toliet continually runs when it has full pressure. A $4.99 toliet repair kit would fix that problem in an instant...

However, the upstairs bathroom's toliet is another matter. Since it is loose at the moment, it leaks when it has full pressure and is flushed. Another problem, yes, but easily solved.

So, our inspector was right that it may be a huge problem. May being the keyword. We found that we had excellent plumbing all along. It was other circumstances that kept us fretting about what we were going to do about that pressure.

Living Room and Dining Room: "Before and After" and some really yellow paint

2009-04-14T22:08:00.013-05:00

Everyone has been asking for updated pictures so here they are! We have the living room complete and are almost done with the dining room... we need to buy a different color paint for the accent wall because it did not turn out at all!

Here is the living room. Above is what it looked like "Before." The walls were a dirty beige color and the trim was a reddish-brownish-mauve. Here is the after, which looks so much prettier!

The walls make the room so much brighter now!

Next we have the dining room. Here was the "Before." The wainscoting was all wood and dirty and the color was super dark. I sadly don't have much of an after because we are repainting the yellow. It was WAY too yellow, but look at the green! It turned out magnificent!

The green turned out so beautiful! It is totally what I wanted it to be!

The yellow on the other hand turned out awful. It looks like sunshine threw up all over my accent wall. It is going to be changed to a much lighter, neutral cream. The green is too amazing to have to share its glory with another bright color. I will be painting it tomorrow. Hopefully it will turn out better the second time around! It is really too bad that paint is so expensive! Maybe we will find a way to use the yellow paint somewhere else... perhaps the art shed?

And because I can't describe how happy I am about my green wall, I have a picture that sums it all up (Note that my shirt is the same color as the yellow wall... you think I would have realized that sooner and stopped myself before the yellow got out of control!):

The first visit to our new home, Pt. 3: The view

2009-04-14T22:01:00.006-05:00

So, to end the first tour we had of our new house.

Here is the view of the side of the lawn looking from the office window. That is Winifred Street, and our neighbor.
Here is the view from Hilary's office window. You can plainly see the two sheds we have. The left one has power to it. :-)
And, of course, here is one of Winifred's selling points. There is downtown St. Paul, as seen from Hilary's office window. One day, we're going to expand the window to be huge to fully appreciate that view. It looks even cooler during nighttime.

Hmmm... that is yellow.

2009-04-14T14:04:00.003-05:00

So here is the blog where I start to have second thoughts... not about the house, but about a color choice.

As I said, my dining room is lime green. I LOVE the lime green. It looks really sharp. We did an accent wall in the dining room that was supposed to be "sunstraw" which is a goldenrod yellow. I really liked it last night in the dark. I saw it today in the daylight and suddenly I am not so sure. It looks really, REALLY yellow. Crayola Crayon style yellow. Once I get the second coat on and add a shelf or two to the wall I think it will look much better. I am definitely having second thoughts though. At least I can paint over it if I don't warm up to it! I am sure in a few more blogs I will be raving about how much I like the yellow. Right now, I am not so sure.

The camera battery was dead so I will try to get a picture soon once that second coat is done.

An update unrelated to mice

2009-04-13T22:09:00.004-05:00

Nick likes to write about catching mice... because he is a boy, and boys like that kind of thing.

I am a girl, and I like paint and hate mice. So now it is time for my girly-update:

Our dining room is the coolest, prettiest room ever! It is is lime green. And it is amazing. I will post pictures and you will all see that it isn't nearly as scary as it sounds! I had a vision and it totally lived up to it! Everytime I go into the dining room I am happy! Tomorrow I will finish the second coat and we will officially have two rooms complete. Pictures to come soon!

The first visit to our new home, Pt. 2: The "Before"

2009-04-13T22:04:00.009-05:00

Pictures!!!
This is part two of our first visit. We were very surprised by the cleaning job the previous owners did. They cleaned the place out pretty thoroughly (even though we'll clean it twice more, just for our comfort).
This first picture is of the large window in the living room. The brown trim was the first thing we decided to get rid of. Dark colors make a room seem smaller, while lighter tones make it feel larger.Here is where my television is going to go.

This was the baby's room, and there is an impressive paint job covering the walls and ceiling. This is the first bedroom we saw, and it is on the main level.
This is the dining room attached to the living room. The small hole is a port to the kitchen, so people can converse between the two rooms. We plan on making that hole larger someday.
Here is the cabinets in the kitchen. We have PLENTY of space to entertain guests.
The other side of the kitchen. Starting where you are from the above picture, you take a left and look at the picture below. The fridge is nice, but the oven is going to go soon.
Here is the full kitchen looking from the slider door.
Starting where you are from the picture above, if you head left you'll find the entrance to the bathroom on the main level. There is also a door that leads into the bedroom from that bathroom as well.
This is the bathroom in a nutshell. It's a 1/2 bath, so that means no shower/tub.
This is Hilary's office on the second floor. Near the first bathroom is the second flight of stairs (the place used to be a duplex). This room is right near that stairwell. Out that window you can see downtown St. Paul. I'll post about our view from the second story later.
Next to the office is the laundry room. It's nice that it's upstairs. The washer/dryer needs to be relocated to a better spot.
This is the main bathroom. It also needs the most work. The room lacks proper ventilation and could use some new trim pretty much everywhere.
That little port is the rooms only ventilation...
This is going to be my office. It is also the only room with white trim... which annoys Hilary, because it's the only room that could have kept the black trim...
Here is our master bedroom, complete with French style doors. It's one of the selling points of the house. It's a very large room.
This is the large hallway area we plan to make into a library/sitting area. Some window expansions would do the room some good. That's for down the road.

Anyway, this is the before pictures! The after pictures will be posted soon. We're well on our way for the first level. Now, we just need to start to paint all that black trim. It's everywhere!!! We're looking for volunteers!

Rodent count, update.

2009-04-13T21:56:00.004-05:00

Today we scored two more mice on the clamp traps. The clamp traps have been doing all the work! I have four traps total, placed around where the mice leave signs. The two clamp traps have the highest score, while the TomCats (traps with swirly blades that are disposable) have zero kills.

So...
Clamp traps: 5 (4 dead, 1 wounded)
TomCats: 0
Mice: One bag of grass seed....

Weekend 1: summary

2009-04-13T11:13:00.009-05:00

We worked all weekend on the house. One weekend down... several thousand more to go!

Starting on Friday we made our first trip to Menards- one of many! With the help of our friend Sean, we cleaned the ceiling fans- so disgusting, dusted all the base boards and sills and began painting all of the base boards and window frames a nice white. The old color was a brownish-reddish-mauvish color that made the room really dark.

Later in the evening Nick got off of work and the parents showed up to help us. Both my mom and Nick's mom scrubbed the kitchen and the rest of the downstairs until it began to sparkle! Nick and his dad worked on getting all the old smoke alarms collected so we could install all brand new ones. I had my brothers dust all of the upstairs- a project that won't start for a while. My mom also brought by a wonderful housewarming gift: a brand new Oreck vacuum! I took a much needed break and bought everyone pizza. Everyone was working so hard! We continued our work, I learned to spackle and we called it a night around 10 p.m.

Saturday started early, at 8 a.m. and didn't end until 10:30 at night. We made our second trip to Menards (followed later by a third trip for more paint). We finished painting all the baseboards and doors in the living room, began the baseboards and railings in the entry way and the wainscoting in the dining room. My type-A perfectionism came into play as I tried to get every crack in the wainscoting coverd with the paint! It was driving me crazy! While I was hemming and hawing over my paint job, my mom helped paint the living room walls, which look amazing! I finished out the day by painting an accent wall in the living room and sadly ran out of paint before it was finished. I tried to use every last drop, but to no avail, we would need more paint. Nick worked on installing all the new smoke detectos and carbon monoxide detectors. My brother Dylan came to help as well and Nick and Dylan worked on washing all the screens for the windows, painting the heat grates and laying down grass seed in the yard.

Sunday was Easter so we didn't start until after our family get together. We made our fourth trip to Menards to get more paint! I underestimated how much paint we would use! Nick did a second coat on the accent wall and I started painting our dining room lime green. It sounds scary but looks really great! The dining room should be finished sometime this week!

Weekend 1 Recap:
4 trips to Menards
7 gallons of paint bought
4 pizzas eaten
1 room completed (living room)
I still have paint in my hair

Rodent count.

2009-04-12T22:01:00.008-05:00

I'm sorry to say it, but there are mice in the house.

We have set up traps in order to eliminate them. On April 12th, we had three in the traps.

Me: 2 dead, 1 wounded.
Mice: One bag of grass seed.

The first visit to our new home, Pt. 1

2009-04-12T21:01:00.018-05:00

Here is photos from our first visit to our new home. These are all "Before" pictures.

There is yet a "Sold" sign on the listing sign, so we had to make our own.

After making the signs, we set about getting photos in front of our new entrance.
Our realitor is in the middle. She lives only a couple of blocks away! Proof that the neighborhood is nice.
Next, we surveyed our lawn. The lot is considered a lot and a half, which means plenty of space for entertaining guests and having bonfires! It is also a corner lot, so we only have one neighbor to the side of us.
Here from looking at the front corner of the lawn.
Here is look at that corner from the side of the house.
Here is looking at the complete side of the lawn from backyard.

Here is look at the back of the house. There are three doors. The one to the farthest right leads into a mud room. The slider leads into the kitchen. The furthest left door does not open, and it is walled off inside. So, one weekend we'll have to eliminate that door. We have the siding so the back will look seamless.

This is our two sheds. One is a utility shed, the other is an art shed, complete with four different colored walls and electricity.

The inside will be continued later... in Part 2

A story about our house hunting rollercoaster!

2009-04-12T10:32:00.003-05:00

Getting our house was a crazy, rollercoaster adventure. And nothing like what they show you on HGTV.

It all started Sunday, February 8th. On a whim we had decided that week that we wanted to start house hunting. After crunching some numbers and googling the area we wanted we decided to go see two houses in West St. Paul. The first house was super cute but way too small and the yard was not right for us. The second one was beautiful... on the outside. They had a beautiful door with a great window. That is the only good thing we can say about that house. The inside was that of a horror movie. There was the scariest "finished" basement we had ever seen and the upstairs was a shoddy edition that looked like Willy Wonka created it.

So we started getting a listing of all the houses in the West St. Paul, Homecroft and Cherokee heights area of St. Paul. We had made an appointment to get preapproved so we held off on house hunting until then. Before we could get approved, the house on Winifred went down in price by $20,000 It was a house we had been watching on the listings. We asked to see it immediately because it looked too good to be true. We toured it on Feb. 21st and fell in love with it, and the next day told our relator that we wanted to make a bid. After a mad scramble to get the parent's approval (which we got!), we got preapproved for our mortgage and that day we made an offer! And the first of many waiting games began. A bidding war ensued and we had to up our bid.

On March 2nd we found out that we were out bid. I cried. And then we started our search again. That next weekend we saw so many houses that all blur together into a mess of awfulness. Leaky roofs. Scary bathrooms. Awful yards. Disgusting everything. Did we mention how cold it was? Most of these houses were vacant and the heat was so low that it was warmer outside than it was inside!

And then suddenly, on March 12th we got great news! The house on Winifred was back on the market! We made an appointment to see it one more time along with a few other homes. On March 15th we made an offer... again. And by the beginning of the week we had an accepted offer! They wouldn't cover all of our closing costs, which was another stressful point, but we managed to scrape together the money!

And then the waiting game began... again. We waited so long that the first date we set for closing passed. The house was a short sale, which is where the bank that owns it sells it for less than the mortgage owed. So basically, the bank loses a lot of money, but saves some by not going through a lengthy, costly, foreclosure. There were two mortgages on this house so we had to get two bank approvals in order to go through with everything. We waited, waited and waited and finally got the first bank approval. We went through with the insepection (where there were no surprises: we needed a new furnace, some plumbing and a mouse trap), even though there was a chance that it could all fall through and we would lose our money. The house was a few weeks before its redemption period, and if we waited any longer the house was going to go into foreclosure, and we would most likely end up losing it.

So the week of closing came and I became increasingly crabby and Nick continued to wait patiently. We were closing on Thursday, April 9th and each day we waited and heard no response from the second mortgage. Finally, on the morning of closing at around eleven o'clock we got verbal approval and were able to close on the house!

As of Thursday, April 9th at 4:00 the house was officially ours! And thus... the adventure continues!

We have started to Blog, about starting our house!

2009-04-11T22:51:00.002-05:00

We have started a blog about how we are updating our house to make it our own!

It's pretty simple. Before and after, and bam, we have a chronicling of our very first home.

We closed on our little house on April 9th, 2009. We purchased the house for a whopping $94,000.
The yard is huge for its location near the city. It's a lot and a half. We are very excited to get started working on it!!

For our first weekend, we started painting the living room and dining room. As soon as pictures are available, we'll describe what we did in detail!