An "Odyssey" delays picture updates

Progress has been slow but steady at the house (more slow it feels like somedays!) but sadly I can't share any pics because our laptop suddenly started trying to install a program called Odyssey Client that neither of us tried to download and even though we got it uninstalled, nothing has worked right since. Aaron has to start up the desktop and do a little reconfiguring before I'll have picture uploading capabilities.

We figured out at least a temporary fix to our bedroom furniture problem, with Aaron's long-low dresser against the left side of the back wall, taking up about half of it. Snuggled beside that is our bed, leaving me a nice narrow 20" or so gap between the register and the bed edge. It's not ideal, but it doesn't block doors or leave things in likely "stubbed toe" zones. I'm not sure if it will work in winter when the register is trying to kick out major heat (maybe for once I'll be the one that needs less covers in bed!) but for now it should work fine.

And life continues in the Land of "Nothing's Simple." What should have been an easy decorative curtain rod install that took maybe 20 minutes on the long side became an all-evening event as we struggled with a finicky finial which turned out to be factory faulty. We had to go back to the store, return it, and bring home two more (another for the LR, as we were installing the bedroom's) which we checked for functionality before purchasing. It was so late by the time we got home that we just got the rod *mostly* up and hung a big red sheet over it so I wouldn't get disturbed by early morning light. Finding curtains that are the right size and/or the right style has been quite a chore - nice looking things don't often come in the 63" length, and I don't have the patience right now to hem up the 84" to size!

Aaron is actually currently working at low capacity because his heroic efforts with so many things (toilets, drywall, appliances) caught up with him and he's got a nasty case of tendonitis in his right arm/wrist that requires a brace for at least one week. He's stuck at home because of it, but also unable to make major progress because of it! His focus for the week will be continuing to unpack and organize. My focus will be trying to keep a sense of humor in the midst of all these setbacks and the insanity of new homeownership!

Just an update

I figure it's been a week, you guys deserve some of the pics I fished off the camera, and hear a little about how we are doing.

Shady spent the first couple days cooped up in our hall bathroom, because it was the safest place to contain her. Even as "safest place," it was still a cluttered mess:

Whenever I came into visit, she was feeling quite needy, though she handled the move alot better than other cats I've known and loved! Like a little kid, she says "Momma, pick me up!"


Here is our nice but not glamous new livingroom on the first night. It actually hasn't changed much since that night, since there wasn't much to put away. I wish we could get new furniture that matched and looked a little less "college," but for now I guess I'll have to settle for spending money on more important things - like finishing the walls and floors!


I mentioned when we moved in that we were having trouble... well here is one thing that was easy to photograph. Our fridge didn't fit where it should. Not the kind of problem we expect to have, we measured the spot. But we measured at a natural sort of eye-high spot, and it turns out our wall is crooked and it was too narrow at the bottom. So it was just shy of fitting:


So Aaron actually had to take out the two cabinets:

And move them just two inches or so to the left. Somehow I forgot to get a pic, but now our fridge is back where it should be. The wall cabinets have a 2 inch gap between the soffet and the wall, and there is a slanted gap on the right side w/our wonky wall.

And because I'm a big dork, I had to take a pic of the first meal we cooked on our new stove (just spaghetti in meat sauce, since we didn't have the energy for something more interesting):

A thoroughly unsuccessful evening

Yesterday was just "one of those days" - We spent a good long while at Lowe's trying to get supplies - a new baseboard unit for the dining room, new cords for the dryer and our new range, some smaller items. Well come to find out when we get home that every item that we tried to use/install last night was somehow wrong. The baseboard was dinged up, the cord for the range had to be a 3 wire, not a 4 wire, the fitting Aaron grabbed for our Pur filter was actually labelled "garden hose" in small letters and wouldn't work. Overall, no "project" items got done and we both felt very tired and dejected.

Today we hope for better results, Aaron is going to return the many wrong/injured parts and with luck tonight will be the night for installing the baseboard and getting our stove officially up and running. Wish us luck, it sure looks like we need it!!

Well we are moved in...

That's really about all we can say is official or complete. We passed in the keys to the apartment and we officially live only at our little house in Brooktondale. Our appliances aren't fully installed, our walls and floors aren't entirely finished. We have a working toilet and a working shower but they are in two different bathrooms. So many things went wrong over this very long weekend (4 day for Aaron that was supposed to be a regular 2 day, 5 day for me that was supposed to be a 4 day) but nothing critical broke or exploded. We live there, the dogs and cat seem to like it, and we at least are enjoying the privacy and less-stress of having only one residence.

Photos will follow soon, I think, and more stories but for now, just know that we live there and we managed the move without killing each other or taking a sledgehammer to our new home for all the trouble it's caused.