On your marks...

Get set...

GO!

I feel like I'm in the middle of a marathon right now - a marathon that took off at closing February 29th (thanks to those who gave congrats), and the finish line is March 29th when we turn in our apartment keys. We are loving our new house. It sure has created one PACKED month, though (pun intended).

Lessons in de-winterizing:
After our closing last Friday, Dan had done enough research and felt confident that he could de-winterize the house himself. Everything he read said it was pretty easy, you just need some extra people around to watch. We got a couple of co-worker friends over to help, went around and closed all of the faucets and valves, and crossed our fingers. Dan started out slow and one of our friends noticed that the refrigerator valve was open - shooting water into the kitchen - so we stopped. Got that cleaned up... and went slow again.

Everything seemed to be good. I was watching the upstairs and one of those faucets was left on so I grabbed it quick. It's kind of scary to hear water slowly going through all the pipes and filling up the toilets. You wouldn't think so... but I was constantly thinking something was leaking. Once the water was on full-force, we went around and turned all the faucets on to let the air out and start water flowing. Pretty much a success - we had flowing water and working plumbing.

UNTIL... Dan was standing in the kitchen and still heard water flowing. Water going through the pipes? Water heater filling up? That thing is monster sized....who knows. He went downstairs to find our storage room (that holds the water heater - whose pressure valve wasn't closed - oops) FLOODED WITH WATER. Estimated about 25 gallons by the time Dan thought fast and borrowed a shop vac from a neighbor to clean up the flood. Whew.

Lesson #1 - make sure you have multiple people watching AT ALL TIMES.
Lesson #2 - make sure the pressure valve is closed on your water heater.
Lesson #3 - bring a honkin' shop vac with you - just in case.
You'll thank me later.


That night after working a half day, we put together all the supplies for an easy spaghetti dinner and hauled over to the house. We had our first meal there, and made sure everything was still hunky dory with the water situation.

Saturday:

We started cleaning with Dan's family... they loved the house and we got a little bit done. Dan completed his first home improvement project - installing little shelves in our kitchen false drawer fronts. They're way cool and he's way proud of them. ;) Since the picture was taken, we found handles to match our cabinets and installed those too.


Jen came over and helped me with paint colors. She was amazing. I gave her a tour and showed her the paint colors we were thinking about in the master bedroom - the only ones I had come up with after my near drowning in paint chips. She checked our bedroom fabrics with the colors, found similar colors that looked better, and came up with a whole scheme in about 10 minutes. We walked around the house carrying the scheme and it went with everything perfectly - bringing out every color in our kitchen counter top (the picture may not do it justice). Crazy how that worked out. The lightest green is essentially our current kitchen color that we're keeping. It's really not that light, as you can see from other kitchen photos.


Our new fridge was also delivered that afternoon. Perfect timing and we loooooove it.

Sunday:

We cleaned with my family and brought some things from their place including the exercise system... they loved the house, and we got a little bit done. There are still many more cleaning tasks on the list. I was also invaded Friday by some sort of sinus/sore throat issue that left me exhausted every 10 minutes I tried to clean.

All the cleaning tasks aside, the house really isn't dirty. The previous owners kept it pretty clean, but one big thing we're doing is washing all the walls to prep them for painting. Now that my energy is back for the most part, and I just have this stuffy nose to deal with, things are looking up.

The flowers above are a house-warming from my mom. Anyone know how to take care of African Violets?

Today:

This is the view of our apartment balcony, and it just keeps on coming. I think I've said before how much I love snow, so this is a winter happyland for me.

We primed the guest room the other day. We bought one gallon of paint with a primer to see how we like the paint brand and the color, and it looks great so far. We're going to try to get over to the house today and do a coat of the actual paint color. And if we can, get to Lowe's to buy the rest of our paint colors and primer. We'll see how the road officials like our determination. We'll see if Lowe's is even open.

Problem #1 - Dan and I have discovered that we are NOT house painters. Our ceiling trim-job shows it.
Problem #2 - WE DON'T OWN A SHOVEL. We've never had a need for a shovel, and now that we do they're stinkin' sold out like they're life-sustaining or something.

If you're so inclined, see if you can guess what rooms all of my paint colors will be used for. I would love to see what you think.

If you're in a winter happyland today, enjoy the day. Go out and play!