hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Thanks yall!!!!
My little explorer is packed to the TOP with clothes, mostly, from my friend's house. There are only a few small things plus the dresser, file cabinet, small freezer (which we get to sell!) and my tack/supplements for the horse left. I need to work out when we'll go back for that stuff, but hopefully it will be this weekend, though I won't be able to go since JS is coming to town.

I don't mind paint, FEM, in fact, I enjoy it (weirdo, I know!), but this time was definitely a challenge! I'm really glad it all worked out, and I don't think the blue will be an issue.

Last night was a retirement dinner for one of the ladies that has worked here since the place opened 34 years ago. Dinner on the office is always good! And I have leftovers for lunch today! Nothing like leftover steak and potatoes for lunch. After I got back to GH's house we loaded more stuff into my truck and I prepped stuff before we finally got into the hot tub one more time. Man that thing helps me feel so much better! I sleep SO good after I get out of it, too. I told my BF that we just HAVE to get one, and I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I want a salt water one! It has to be possible somehow!

I'll rock out of here at about 2:30 today, and see how long it takes me to get up the highway. I think as long as I can avoid traffic it will only take about a half hour. I'll just have to plan my time accordingly. I REALLY hope they put an office space in for me when we move our other office because that will only be about 5 miles away! Way better than driving the 26+ it's going to take me to get to the main office!

I really can't wait to get back in there and start organizing things. On the to do list for this evening is getting the bed set up, checking the spackle in the office and sanding if it is ready or respackle if it's not, and getting the room taped. If I still have time left I'll start organizing clothes and the kitchen. Well, first the kitchen cabinets need to be cleaned. THEN I can start organizing! We'll see how far I can get for this evening. I'd like to make dinner at home, but we'll see how that goes. The BF has been pretty heavily leaning on eating out again lately. I had pizzas we could have had for dinner the other night, but he wanted to clean the oven first... I get that, but then it needs to be done so that we can eat!

Soooo that's about it. I do have some pictures, @sumi but I haven't gotten them onto a computer yet. I'll have to work on that. I took a video when we first got there, I need to see if I can pull some stills out of it of how everything was as original, and then get some shots when we redo things.

 

[sumi]

How's things going? You closer to getting settled in? I hope all is going well.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Self-professed picaholic here! Can't wait!

 

[Denim Deb]

I just waded thru a few pages of your journal, I didn't know you were moving! Congrats on the new place.

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks @Denim Deb I miss catching up on your journal, too!! I've been so consumed by the move that I haven't really had time to keep up with anyone else, and I miss yall!

I've taken a few pics, but I have to get them out of my phone!

Dang! It's amazing how much stuff we can get done in a short amount of time!

I got most of the kitchen unpacked last week. I shoved a lot onto a little butcher block top cart that I have, plus a small night stand type thing that we took from the other farm, and a smaller bookshelf that we shoved into the kitchen. Stuff was EVERYWHERE. But at least I found the table. JS came up for the weekend to work on people, and she suggested we put the entertainment center that they left into the kitchen for storage. PERFECT! That made life a lot easier! So we got those 2 small pieces out, and put in the entertainment center, and moved the dishwasher against the wall next to it and moved the bookcase to the side of the fridge and it helped SO much! I need to take fresh pictures of that so I can have before and afters.

Let's see, what else have we gotten done...
Replaced the lightbulb in the outside light (yay motion sensor light that works really well!)
The BF replaced the kitchen faucet so that it actually has water pressure
Moved the washer and dryer to the other side of the laundry room because it was STUPIDLY organized.
Rearranged most of the junk in the laundry "area" to accommodate moving the washer/dryer.
Scrubbed out the old fridge and the upright freezer because they had nasty spills ALL over them and stunk (I really hope the baking soda does it's job so we can plug them in SOON!)
Finished painting the office, and got the tape off the wall
Put up some hooks in the bathroom to hang towels on (because the only towel bar is IN the shower, and low enough that you'd get your towel wet taking a shower. Seriously, what did these people do?!)

I'm SO jonesing to get more projects done. I'm really itching to finish some things up, but we have a lot that needs to be done and the budget is SUPER right, which means we need to keep working as much as possible, which doesn't give us time to do the things we want to do... so yeah. Wheee fun times!

I'm slowly getting used to the pipes pinging (It sounds almost exactly like my jars pinging, so it makes me giggle!) and navigating to the bathroom, which can't have a nightlight because the only outlet to plug a nightlight in is attached to the light switch. For real. Dumbest thing ever.

We had our first snow fall on Saturday. It was beautiful, and we got about 4" which was a bit of a surprise. I didn't think it would stick that well, but it did. I loved seeing it, and was happy to be able to stay home and have people come over for sessions with JS! I just got to sit and watch it out the window! We weren't really prepared for anything, my snow brush was still at my friend's house, and we didn't have any salt, but we did have a shovel, not that it was really needed, a broom worked just fine. It's going to be interesting to see what happens this winter, I've noticed that winters when we have a wet fall and an early snowfall, we usually end up with a pretty serious storm later. Before that happens I HAVE to get a new vehicle with 4wd AND we've got to make a better driveway! Parking down a hill on dirt/gravel isn't going to cut it!

So that's the update from these parts. Hope yall are doin well!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Holy cow you've been busy! But, I know it's all a labor of love! It's so exciting making a place your own.

Yep - gotta get those pictures for us!

 

[sumi]

You're making good progress! Can't wait to see the pics

 

[baymule]

If the baking soda does'n't get the smell out, use vinegar. It sounds like y'all have you work cut out for you, but when it belongs to YOU, the work is easier to do.

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't remember, do you have a woodstove or fireplace in this house? If so, ashes are great to use on ice. You just want to make sure you don't track it I the house!

 

[hqueen13]

@baymule that was my next go to. I might make the BF spray it with bleach. I can't touch bleach, I end up bleaching things that shouldn't be, so he'll have to do it. They still smelled yesterday! I REALLY need to get at least one of them plugged in because our little freezer above the fridge is OVER full! That and I REALLY need to get my little freezer from GH's house because it's got all my other FOOD in it!

@Denim Deb I'll have to remember that. We haven't burned much yet because the BF hasn't had much time to check the chimney's good and get a chimney brush in there. He did go buy some of those duralogs or whatever they're called cause he just HAD to light a fire, LOL

Yesterday I got a few more things unpacked. A couple more boxes off the floor of the basement. I found the attachment for the dishwasher to hook it to the sink so that was good, now I can run that when it's full which will probably be tonight! I also found a couple of other things that I needed to have, so that was a good thing. I also mopped the kitchen floor and cleaned up the rug that we had outside the door in the old house and put it inside the door in the kitchen so there is something durable enough to wipe your feet on. I'm SO glad to have that done so that we'll stop tracking in so bad on the (mostly) white kitchen floor. I also found the magic erasers, so I got the black marks off the floor, and I also managed to get some of the stink bug poop spots off a couple of my lamp shades. Drives me nuts! I really hope this house doesn't have them so bad as the farm house did!

Late in the evening the BF wanted to relax, and he ended up nodding off in the chair, so I got up and started futzing with the curtains that I have. I want to remake the roman shades that I made for the other house because these windows are really leaky. I think I can do it, but it's going to take some finagling to figure it out. I also hung the valences in the office because that's the whole reason I chose the paint color. They look good, of course I have to adjust them because they're not quite the right size, but they look great with the paint. Now I have to decide what color the roman shades are going to be (I had both a green one, and cream ones in the other house with the same valences). The only issue with the valences that I have is that I ended up with 2 different dye lots of the same paisley fabric. One dye lot is darker, which I like, and the other is lighter. The lighter one almost washes out, which I don't like, but I have more of that fabric (there were 2 windows made with it). I'm supposed to chat with my mom today to try to figure out what to do about these, and which color to with for the roman shades. I can get more of the green fabric, but I think the cream will look better, so I have to figure out the math to see if I've got enough of the cream to actually remake them. I also have to talk to her about what to do about the valences for the bedroom because I don't have a whole lot of fabric. I need to see if I can find some other patterns to do things a little different than I did in the other house.

My realtor called last night to check in on us, which was nice. He and I talked about the coal stove, which isn't going to fit in his house, even though he hoped it would. I need to figure out how to sell it, and get good money for it. It's COMPLETE. There is only a little bit of rust, and mostly on one of the extra attachment pieces. Otherwise, it's in GREAT shape, although I think they might have done something to it where the coal is supposed to go in because there's something blocking the trap door there. I'd like to get it figured out so that we can get it OUT of the basement. It's awesome and all, but I just don't have a use for it! I also have a lot of other things that I need to sort through to figure out what to do. I told my mom that I'm afraid I'll watch antiques road show in 2 years and find out something I threw away was worth $10,000! Seriously, they have such strange stuff in here and I just can't figure out if it's worth a lot or nothing!

Now that I've got things in a little better order, I'm hoping to be able to bring the cats home on Friday morning. I'm tired of worrying about what the BF's dad is going to do to them (he stuck Spec in the garage, where he's NEVER been before and where there's a TON of CRAP all over the place that he could either hurt himself on or get sick from eating just because the cat got sick. The cats are stressed, and his dad is freaking out about it, so of course, that makes them worse and so they get sick more). I really wanted them there sooner, but things just haven't worked out. I just need to make sure that I have everything organized and can get everything from their house because they don't keep things neat at all and the cat's stuff is probably spread all over the place.

I'm sitting in the other office today wasting time to make a few extra dollars so I can keep my hours up so my paycheck is big so I can keep paying off the bills and have a little to keep working on the house! This is the other reason I need to get some of the junk in the house SOLD so we can use that $$ to pay for things for the house!

That's about all that there is. I hope to have some time to get a few things done this evening. We'll see how things go and what time the BF gets off of work. Hmm, maybe he'll be ok if I drive the pickup down and he meets me so that we can pick up some of this other furniture and stuff that we have at all the various places. Then I'd have to figure out what to do about dinner though... Hmm....