Coughing my way to the weekend

Still not entirely better, but working on it. And moving furniture around in my free time. The floor will be leveled on Wednesday, so I have to take everything out of the living room/dining nook/kitchen. No small task. I think some stuff is going out in the hallway outside my apartment. The rest will be stacked to the ceiling in one of the rooms with carpet. Theoretically, I will have flooring put down this weekend. But....there is always a 'but,' so I'll believe it when I see it. Then, I will lay down on it and cry tears of joy...but I'll wipe them up quickly to avoid floor damage. And then - I'll unpack, take stuff out of storage, re-arrange, give away unwanted furniture, purchase needed furniture, install a pocket door, fix the washer/dryer closet, build in-the-wall shelves, paint walls aplenty, and sigh a great big sigh. So close, but yet...

I had originally planned to have everything 'done' in the place by the end of this month. I'm guessing I'm not going to make it. Things always take longer than I think they will. But - spring is coming - a great time to paint with the windows open, hunt yard sales for cool furniture, and take a break outside when home repair gets overwhelming. I think things are going to get better. Back me up on this. And get ready for paint and drywall parties. :)

Cough cough

Umm.....still no floor. But - some stories to tell anyway. The flooring has been ordered...and I'm praying that it arrives soon and that J, the flooring man, can come put it in pronto. It will be fabulous...and it doesn't sound as neat now that it's getting warmer, but the floor will be heated from underneath. So - although I live in a hobbit hole, it will not be a hobbit hole where you have cold feet. Hooray! So, back to the new floor - it is one of the ones you see in the picture here. But I'm not telling you which one. You'll have to wait for the grand unveiling. And please - no voting. I couldn't take the rejection right now. :)

For starters, I've been sick...sicker than sick. Nothing like running a 101 degree fever and feeling nauseous to ruin a perfectly good (i.e. warm) weekend. That really bummed me out. The only time I left the house was to go to R's to get some food...in between the waves of nausea. Here's the array of drugs I was taking. Now - normally, I try to get by on my colds with some OJ and a box of tissues. I don't really believe in gorging myself on pills and potions. But I couldn't move....eat...or talk without the assistance of all that stuff. Really, really sick.

I did manage one trip to a certain un-named big box home improvement retailer. I was there 'improving my home improvement.' See, the trouble is that I had to rip my old cabinets out from the wall a few months ago and now I'm wondering if they can manage another move to the bedrooms for the floor to be installed and then be put back together again. These cabinets weren't really made for this. So, off I went to investigate the cost of just starting over. Dan the old guy cabinet man was there and talked to me and Steve-o about cabinets. We must have looked like a sorry pair because he was telling us about how he bought his first house and just bought one or two cabinets at first and then bought a new one with every paycheck. He suggested we could do that too. He also spent a good deal of time trying to convince us that we could have a fancy looking kitchen by adding little do-dads here and there...but not spending much money. And pointing out that we could take brochures and samples...because they were free and would be very helpful in designing our new kitchen by ourselves. That way, we didn't need to pay the store the 70 bucks to do it for us. Very sweet guy. I just wish I didn't appear to be as frugal as I really am. Does the average person not ask how much stuff costs? Maybe in the DC suburbs, they don't. Anyway, Dan the old guy cabinet man was very nice. But I was feeling lightheaded again, so we had to go.

That was pretty much my weekend. I spent my awake time drugging myself up...and my asleep time having weird hazy dreams about flooring and cabinets and construction guys taking over my life. I was so out of it, I didn't even find time to worry about paint colors. :)

No news is...bad news!

I haven't been posting - because - sadly enough - there is nothing to post about....at least not in house news. And no news is bad news in this situation. Still no floor. Still a chilly house. Still living on food I can microwave. Still waiting.

Floor guy - where oh where are you? You were so nice and attentive in the beginning, I wanted to send you a fruit basket. But now you shun me. Oh, floor man - why do you torment me so?! Arg.

So long to communal living

So, I've had about enough of roommates. One or two might not be too bad. But three....or 4...well, that's overkill. The low rent that comes with high density group living can be a very handy benefit (i.e. cheap cheap). But when you're living somewhere because your regular housing is MIA, then it's a whole different story.

I need to vent some frustrations, so I can move on. So...today...a list of the things I am grateful for, now that my stint as a group house crasher is over:

1. No more labeling all food items for fear that a cheap roommate will 'accidentally' drink my 30 dollar bottle of wine when they always buy the 2-buck-chuck. "Oh, that was yours?" Perhaps his vision was blurry from all the alcohol he'd already consumed that day.

2. No more cleaning up after other people's messes....milk left out over night, wrappers on the counter, dirty dishes sitting around for days, overflowing garbage cans, etc. That tofurkey wrapper...not yours? yeah - it must belong to one of the carnivores in the house. Sure...

3. No more heading downstairs to do laundry and encountering a little 'action' going on in the basement bedroom....with the door open. No one needs to see that....or hear it.

4. No more people who think they are so earthy that they don't need to deal with their intense body odor. I would argue that they do....for the sake of earth's creatures...like other people.

5. No more cold showers in the morning, when everyone else has beaten me to the bathroom. Sleeping in shouldn't be punished like this! :)

6. No more people who just step over (or onto) the mail that came through the door slot instead of picking it up and putting it on a flat surface...like a table or some similar object. What a concept! I know, it's hard to grasp. Putting effort into picking things up...nah!

7. No more hoping other people aren't home, just so you can reheat you leftover chinese in peace.

8. No more arguments about depriving people of their rights to an equal and appropriate fridge territory...or some similar dramatic claim.

9. No more annoying my poor friends with my constant stories of the latest thing so-and-so did, or said. Thanks - you've been super tolerant of me!

10. No more need for lists like this! Hooray!

Aaahhh, I feel better already. Now, I'll just puncture a few tires, and I'll be downright jolly!