It's That Time Again

It's been a year since we moved into our little duplex, and now it's time to move back out.  For the second year in a row, the place where we live is being sold, so out we go. 

The new place is a single-unit house (yay!!) a little bit north of where we live now. The house is much larger than the duplex we're leaving (yay!!), with two bathrooms instead of one (yay!!) and three bedrooms, which means we get our craft room back (yay!!) 

The move isn't until May 4th, so for the time being we're packing and cleaning and packing and cleaning.  Moving has catharsis built-in: after all the stress of looking for a place, filling out applications, and figuring out the money for the deposits and first rent, at the end of the day there's good, hard work to burn off all that stress.  Yes, I'm one of those crazy people who enjoys the physical aspect of moving.  The best part, of course, is setting up house after it's all over. 

No, actually, I think the best part is sitting around with your tired, dusty friends at the end of moving day with pizza and cold beers, laughing about all the work.  Yes. 

So the garage is full of boxes already packed; and the house is torn apart and upside down.  There's a mountain of cleaning I want to do now that it would make no sense for me to do until the duplex is empty.  Somehow in the midst of it all I need to lay down fresh sod in the backyard (it's delivered, I just have to find time to do it before it dies), wash two dogs at least once each, and figure out where all the boxes are going to go once the garage is full. 

Obviously, there won't be much in the way of projects here for a little while longer,  but I'll have pics of the new place to share in a few weeks. 

Onward!  Work now, collapse on the floor later. 

CAT TAX

A Completed Hovercraft

Well, it took a little over 3 weeks, but the aforementioned indoor construction site is now a bathroom again,  complete with functional, brand-new shower.  You saw the gaping hole and wall innards;  here's what the new shower looks like:

I know, I know, you know what a shower looks like.  But seriously.

More blue stuff, yay!

This is the smallest bathroom I've had since like 2003.  It's plenty big enough to move around in; but it's kind of a bitch to photograph.

They left the cute little tile fixtures, yay!  I have to say, I wasn't all that excited about the sort of pale-sand-colored wall tile at first, but the more I live with it, the more I kind of love it.

What's Next? 

The living room, which means that the garage is actually next.  When we moved in, everybody just threw things into the garage at random, so the whole space is clogged, and there's no room to set up my little workshop yet.   There are a couple of boxes of things in the living room that need to go into the garage, but there's nowhere to put them. And there are a couple of pieces of furniture in the living room that need to be repaired and/or altered, but, again, no workshop yet. 

I know what I'll be doing this entire upcoming three-day weekend. 

Leafy Goodness

Work on the bathroom continues.  Thankfully, it's been operational for a few days now, and we're just waiting for the crew to come back towards the end of this week to finish the cosmetic details (trim, wall texture, paint).

Meanwhile, I thought I'd show off my favorite spot in the house:  the back patio.  It's nothing fancy, it's just relaxing, pretty, and unbelievably comfortable. 

Just enough shade, just enough light, and lots of turquoise and green.

I literally dumped all of my houseplants out here when we moved, since there wasn't enough space near the windows inside.

It was accidental, but the result is a soft, green patio space I LOVE to relax in in the evenings.

Daisy says hi.

I may hang one or two of the plants, just to keep the entire patio from happening on the ground.  Maybe a bell. 

Definitely some string lights. 

Further down the side yard (I promise I wasn't just backing down the property with a camera in hand, lol), it's...less attractive.  

Definitely in need of some hose management.  

Other than that...?  I haven't had a chance to even think about it yet. 

Turn and face the other way, and there's the yard. 

Shaded, green, sheltered, and quiet. 

The backyard is actually shaped like this, which is weird.  

But it's tiny, so, easy to mow.  (I mean, I don't have to mow it, but I imagine it's easy to do). 

The other day it rained, and this little green fox-face appeared in the algae on the wood of the fence near the patio area.  Hee! 

I was worried that my indoor plants wouldn't survive the transition to the patio, but not only have they all come through like champs, some are even thriving out there - including this wee Jade plant, which came completely out of its pot and was kicking around the floor of my car all afternoon, and which I just shoved back into the dirt with my thumb.  Just a few days later, and it's totally happy.  Yay! 

That's all the patio I've got for now; I'll be back soon with house pics, and maybe updates to the patio.  See ya! 

My Hovercraft Is Full of Construction Workers

Well, the move is complete.  Mostly. 95% of our stuff is at the new place, excepting only an empty aquarium and some tools from the garage.

The new house is lovely, albeit packed to the rafters with our stuff, and covered in concrete dust and huge pieces of cardboard taped to the floor.

Wait, what? 

It seems the drain line and P-trap under the bathtub, being 53 years old, rusted through at some point and collapsed, leaking into the ground below the foundation, and into the walls.  This was discovered by the clean-up crew the day before we moved in, who thought it was clogged until they sent a snake-o-scope (whatever it's called) down the drain to check it out and discovered that, well, it was pretty much fucked under there.

Not to worry!  Our new landlady and her awesome crew are ON IT, and it's being repaired as quickly as possible.  Over the weekend as we moved our things in, contractors and crew were demo-ing the old tub and shower enclosure, removing the rusted pipes and trap, removed water-damaged wooden framing, and replaced it with new wood.  The wet and rotting wood attracted termites at some point.  They're gone now, but just in case, there's a termite guy coming in a few days, after which the new plumbing will go in, and then a new tile shower surround.  Sylvan and I've been driving 20 miles south across the city to shower at the old house, which is inconvenient, but it's only for a few more days.

So, for lack of "omg isn't my new house beautiful" pictures, I give you:

My current shower, or rather, some of it.

1.  Termite-eaten wood

2.  Entrance to the World of Og

The original (1965) iron tub.  Such a shame.

Original vanity cabinet and faucet.  The sink I think was replaced sometime in the 80s, and the paper holder...who even knows.

(The dirt is new).

THESE ARE SO CUTE.

I think toothbrushes must've been much smaller 53 years ago.

I haven't seen a towel rack like this since the actual 80s.  SO CUTE.

I have some paste stuff that makes my car's headlights clear and sparkly.  I've been wondering if that stuff would work on these things.  Hm.

















You know what the best part of all this is?  I don't have to fix ANYTHING.  MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!


Well, that's all for now.  Pics of the finished bathroom, and of the rest of the house, will be coming soon.  For now, I leave you with this cat, who is just making himself at home and doesn't seem to care that nothing is unpacked and put away yet: