New House

Ok. So here it is. A tour of the new house now that it's all shiny and finished. It took a lot of work to make this house feel like it home, but it really does now. It's a 1925 bungalow, so it has tons of character -- and a few issues. But we just love it. To say the last tenant had slacked on housekeeping is an understatement. We spent two whole days just cleaning. I don't think the tops of the doorways had been cleaned in years (mega-barf). But once we got it sparkling clean, we set about painting every room in the house except the bathroom. It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do.

A few other simple fixes, like blinds on the kitchen door rather than and safety-pinned fabric scrap, and putting frosted cling on the window in the shower (yeah, you read that right -- window. in. the. shower.) made a world of difference.

So here it is a quick before-and-after tour of our house. I have plenty of projects stashed to blog about, so I'll be back here a lot more now that we're all settled in.

Living Room (facing front door) Before

Living Room (facing front door) After Paint

Living Room (facing front door) Done

Living Room (from front door) Before

Living Room (from front door) After Paint

Living Room (from front door) Done

Living Room (facing guest room) Before

Living Room (facing guest room) After Paint

Living Room (facing guest room) Done

Guest Room Before

Difference Between Original Paint Color and What It Had Faded To

Guest Room After Paint

Guest Room Done

Guest Room Done

Bathroom Done

Bedroom Before (Yes, it was bright pink)

Bedroom After Paint (it's hard to tell here, but it's grey)

Bedroom After Paint

Bedroom Done (Penny Lane Approves)

Bedroom Done

Kitchen Before (Mint Green)

Kitchen After Paint

Kitchen Done

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After Paint

Kitchen Done

Kitchen Done

My Favorite Part of the Kitchen -- A Glass Built-in Cabinet

Look! I Found My Blog!

Alright, first of all, let's get the embarrassment out of the way. I have not blogged in more than seven months. Deplorable. I could give you all the excuses (i.e., school was crazy, graduating was crazy, job hunting was/is crazy) but I'll spare you. Let's be low-maintenance friends and pick up right where we left off.

So the big news is that Mike and I are moving this week. Yahoo! We found an adorable little 1920s bungalow for rent and snatched it up. No more sharing walls with weird neighbors who inevitably keep strange hours. The best part is that the house is right next door to some friends of ours--talk about a bonus.

We're staying here in Bloomington because Mike was accepted to graduate school, which means we'll be in this house for at least two years. I'm really looking forward to settling in somewhere and making it my own.

This is all by way of saying that you're going to see a lot of home improvement and project posts on here soon. I'm hoping to document it all here along with the usual (if there is such a thing for this blog). Let's just say there will be a lot of paint and DIY.

So thanks for coming back and here we go ...

10 things in my house that I wish I didn't need

1. A step stool: Only giants could reach our closet shelves
2. Acne spot treatment: Ugh
3. An iron: Because I hate to
4. Chocolate: Yes, I NEED it
5. Tampons: Self-explanatory
6. Cat grooming wipes: Please don't ask
7. Moving boxes: 4 apartments in 5 years
8. Doggie waste bags: Again, self-explanatory
9. About a half-ton of make up: Unfortunately, at my age, it has become a necessity
10. Carpet cleaner: Dogs puke ... and so do cats ... a lot

Finding my moment of calm

I know it's been awhile since I last posted -- an embarrassingly long while. In my defense, last semester did its best to break my spirit, and after it was over, I slept for about a month.

I'm back at it again, and I want to share one of my more geeky new pastimes. Earlier this winter, I noticed that we had a lot of birds, particularly some gorgeous cardinals and bluejays, living in the brush behind our apartment. With all of the snow we had in December, combined with the bitterly cold temperatures, I new that their food supply was probably scarce. So I pulled out an old elementary school craft project.

I made pinecone bird feeders. Laugh if you will, but it was actually a pretty fun holiday project. All you have to do is string up a pinecone with floral wire or string, spread peanut butter all over it, and then coat it with birdseed.

As you can see, it worked like a charm.

Our male cardinal friend

And his wife

Within about 24 hours, we had a pair of cardinals staking out our feeders and flitting around the brush. It seems like such a simple thing, but watching these birds has brought me more joy than I had anticipated. When you live in the middle of a college wasteland, it's nice to be reminded that nature is still out there.

Initially when I decided to start feeding the birds, I headed to Bloomington Hardware, because I new I'd find out more than I ever wanted to know -- and I was right.

Things you should know:

• Most birds just eat seed, but bluejays also store seed.
• As a result, bluejays tend to stake out a feeder as their own and bully the other birds.
• If you have a bluejay bully, set up a second feeder out of sight of the first.

I've use a seed mix for colorful birds, and they seemed to love it. But it felt implausible to keep refilling a bunch of pinecones all winters. Plus, it makes kind of a mess in the house, leaving peanut butter and birdseed everywhere.

So yesterday I took the leap and bought a 15" tube feeder for $7 from Petco. I filled it and hung it up last night, and this morning, voila!

He caught me staring

He's like a pool ball with wings

My fat little male cardinal popped right back up again. I haven't seen his wife yet, but I'm sure she'll be around soon.

The Holiday Battle

When you decide to get married, there are a lot of things to think about. Your mind is consumed by wedding planning, financial planning, and the euphoria of being a newlywed.

Never when I dreamt of my married life did I think about how much havoc holidays would wreak on our relationship. I dread the time of year that we have to sit down and decide where we're going to be on which holidays. It's a nightmare.

Every couple has the holiday battle, but I think we have a couple of weird factors that make it more complicated than average. First, Mike is an only child, so if we aren't with his parents on a holiday, they're alone. Get that? Alone. On a holiday. So with the decision to spend any holiday with my parents comes the guilt of knowing that his parents are going to be on their own. His parents aren't shy about telling us how much they miss us, so it just makes it that much harder.

Second, I have three siblings, none of whom are married and have in-laws to worry about. You would think that would make things easier, but you'd be wrong. Our nuclear family holidays are still intact and, I have to say, a whole hell of a lot of fun. My immediate family is going to get together on the exact holiday whether Mike and I are there or not, simply because they don't have anywhere else to be. So it isn't like we can just schedule a family holiday whenever. That would just mean my mom would have to host two holidays -- one with us and one without us.

Lastly, our parents live within driving distance of each other. Again, you would think that this would make things easier. Again, you would be wrong. See, if your parents live on opposite side of the country, you can simply go to one and not the other and that's that. Not when you live close together. When your parents live within driving distance of each other, you have to find a way to see both within the span of just a few days. But it gets worse. Our parents are within driving distance, but it's a four-hour drive. With a dog. Ugh.

We've come up with a rough plan of attack for the 2010 holiday season, but we both feel like we're getting shortchanged with our families. Maybe that's the best sign that it's actually fair. If neither of us is happy, we must have a least somewhat of a balance. I'm sure we'll change our plans again before it's all said and done, but so be it.

And as we slug it out, there's one thing that keeps coming to mind: If it's this bad now, what's going to happen when we have kids?

Are you kidding me?

OK, this is a total side note, but I have to vent for a second.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I love reality TV. Mostly because I love feeling superior to the freaks and psychos that agree to let people follow them around with cameras.

But here's what really kills me: The lack of common sense these people display.

For example, I'm currently watching and episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians (please feel free to judge me) in which Kourtney doesn't want to go into the drug store to by KY because she doesn't want the paparazzi to see what she's buying.

Ummm, hello. You're concerned that the paparazzi are going to see you so you're talking about how you don't want to buy lube IN FRONT OF A BUNCH OF TV CAMERAS?!? I mean, seriously? Seriously?

What is the matter with these people? This also goes back to my issue of people who agree to let cameras follow them around and then get pissed when paparazzi (a.k.a., people with cameras) follow them around. You don't get to invite people into your life and then expect everyone to respect your privacy. Is it right? Maybe not. Is it reality? Absolutely.

Vent over.

How I Know I'm Not Motivated By Money

Tonight I saw a preview for a movie with a pretty standard storyline: guy is super successful, guy has millions of dollars, guy thinks he has everything, guy meets girl, guy loves girl but girl doesn't love guy, guy realizes he doesn't have everything.

And it got me thinking -- I am not motivated by money. And this is how I know:

1. Even though I get paid hourly (and at a really good rate), I really hate the fact that I was at work for an extra two and a half hours on two different nights this week.
2. When I say, "I wouldn't do that for a million bucks," I almost always mean it.
3. No matter how much money I have, my favorite bottle of wine will still only be $9.
4. When I see really enormous houses, I always think about how long it would take to clean them really well. (I also think about the complications of cleaning when looking at vaulted ceilings.)
5. I'm in graduate school to be a librarian.