Import/Export

We did the majority of our move today. We had lots of fam & friends help, so it went super quick this time. So nice. We still have the apartment until Wednesday, though, so we're sleeping here for the next few nights. Figure less dust in the lungs is a positive thing. We're going to try to bust out a few more projects--dust removal at the top of the list, before we start having to sleep in the living room of our new home.

We need to paint, make a carpet choice and wait probably a couple weeks for it to arrive and be installed before we can turn our attention to the common rooms. So, until the bedrooms are move-in ready, we'll be living on the bare, dusty particle board underlayment in the living room! Ick. The good news--at least it's not the old carpet!

Throughout the course of moving today, it appears that we have imported the nasty little circling flies that have been inhabiting our apartment deck to the house. I found some in the living room this evening. Super annoying. Maybe they just live everywhere around here and came in while we had the doors wide open during the move today.

Then, after getting out of the shower tonight, I walk into the apt living room to find a snail cruising toward the kitchen!?? So weird. I have no idea what it latched onto or where, but we sure have enough at the house that I'm not sorry to see one exported!

While I'm on the subject of the house, I'm pretty sure we're due for a progress update. Let's see, we...

• Retextured the ceilings. We used a guy Raf's parents had worked with on their new (old) home. He was great, and the price was right!
• Tore out all the carpets. Great news: the disgusting, unlivable smell is GONE. YAY!! You have no idea how relieved we were that the smell left with the carpets. Side note, though--have you ever removed carpets? It's the most repulsive thing I have ever experienced. I have yet another reason to hate carpeting--the filth that drops through over the years and lives underneath it. ICK! No wonder why people have so many respiratory issues! Hence the dust I've been complaining about. We finally finished the first full sweep of the house tonight, and I'm planning to take the vacuum over tomorrow. I hope it works. Cross your fingers.
• Began patching holes and cracks. Raf's become quite the pro. Though through the course of patching everything, he's now decided he wants to make all the walls flat, because he hates that the texture of his patches doesn't match the current texture of the walls. Woah Tiger...one huge project at a time!
• Primered the bedrooms. Raf's brother, Pete, came over one night last week to help him tackle that project.
• Purchased new (to us) appliances. Got a rockin deal through Craigslist on a very lightly used fridge, washer and dryer. The washer we had at the house was fine, but the dryer is from the 1800s and a bit of a fire hazard. Our agent mentioned something about a "sparking issue" that the PG&E guy pointed out to him...and that was enough for us! And about the fridge--the good news is that it fits in the space in the kitchen. The bad news is you can't have the fridge in place and turn the overhead light off! Ugh. So, once we track down a Skil Saw, we'll be removing the edge of the beloved orange countertops so that there's enough space to operate the ill-placed light switch.
• Started watering the yard! Some things have perked up considerably. Others, not so much.
• Cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned some more. Mom came down to help us work on the house last weekend. It was awesome, except for the two hours on Mother's Day morning when we left her alone during our engagement shoot and she cleaned the entire bathroom by herself. I'm a horrible child. But the bathroom looks great! I'll even use it now.
• Tore out the old kitchen cabinet paper and replaced it with new non-adhesive washable stuff. Now I won't mind putting my dishes in the cabinets. Once I finish putting in the new lining, that is. This was another project with mom. It's amazing how long this takes to complete, by the way.

That's all I can think of at the moment. But it sure doesn't seem like much for the last week and a half! (Especially considering I took 2 days off this week.) I guess I do need to factor in all the packing on the apt end. We really need another good 6 hours in the day. Especially now that Raf is starting his year-end busy season. (He's sitting next to me working right now.)

Oh! That's what I forgot--we've also been SHOPPING! And, my goodness, it's time consuming! I think we FINALLY picked our style/brand of carpet, now we just need to choose the color. We have a few swatches at the house now, so hopefully we'll have that decision made by Monday. Makes me question all the paint options we tested and narrowed down over the last couple days, though...we totally forgot to consider the floor color they'd be up against. Ugh!

We've also been checking out wood floors for a few weeks now. We thought we finally had it narrowed down to "The One" today...until we decided to stop by one more place on our way home to compare prices. The guy there showed us another brand that has similar styling and construction, but was significantly cheaper than the quote on The One. We took 4 samples to the house today and we're now totally over The One! We're now leaning toward a 7" wide plank with a strong red undertone. The red makes us both nervous--you never know what it's going to look like once you multiply it by 1200sf--but it has really good life to it, so it looks like we've got a strong new contender.

I'm exhausted just reliving the shopping! I hate it. This is why I hesitate to pursue a left-brained career. I feel like I'm always pleased with my end result, but I agonize over the decision making process. The smallest (and largest) decisions take me FOR-EV-ER! I wish I had that natural intuition where I could just walk into a store (without magazine clippings) and say, "I want that one, and that one, and that one--where do I sign?" Oh well. Embrace your own reality, right?