Cleaning the Rental

Today Harry and I didn’t get anything done in our new house, since we had to drive to the rental in Reseda and do some clean up. We had rented a steam cleaner at Ralphs yesterday and hoped to steam clean the office and Master Bedroom first. But when I tried in the morning, the steam cleaner just didn’t want to work. So we drove out to Reseda and exchanged the steam cleaner for a working one. Once we got to the Rental we moved the stuff that we hadn’t taken yesterday into the garage. After that was accomplished I started cleaning the laminate floors, while Harry gave the carpets a good vacuuming. Harry did a great job at prepping the carpets for the steam cleaning. After that Harry and I took turns steam cleaning room after room, when we were done the rooms looked fantastic.

After the steam cleaning we moved the stuff we no longer wanted to the curb. If everything goes according to plan that stuff should be picked up by the city on Monday or Tuesday, at least that what hasn’t been taken by people in the neighborhood. And as we were taking stuff out things were being removed from the pile. Our next door neighbors grabbed our dining table and chairs moments after we put them out there.

After we were done with that, Harry and I packed up my pick up truck with all the remaining stuff from the garage. The rest of the stuff that just didn’t want to fit in the truck went into my jeep. After that was done we drove out to our new house in Agua Dulce. Now all of our stuff has been moved. Tomorrow we will have to go back to pick up the recycling stuff and the stuff for charity and to give the keys back to our landlord.

It was a long and exhausting, but very successful day.

MOVING DAY!!!!!! (Remodeling Day - Twenty-Five)

The Day is finally here.. were are official moving too our new house. I didn't think this day would ever come. Though the new house isn't done with remodel or painting the major stuff has been done. I'm very excited to move in so this new house feels like our home, because so far it doesn't. Yes I go there everyday to work but then go back to the rental to sleep. I'm hoping with this move the house will actually feel like it's ours.

The day started with some more packing as I couldn't get it all done the day before. Harry had to run an errand while I went to Ralphs to rent a carpet steamer. Once Harry got back we headed to U-haul to pick up our truck at 10:30am. On the way there I realized that my drivers license had expired two day prior on my birthday and though I renewed it I hadn't gotten my new one yet. Was afraid I wasn't going to be able to rent it. So we get there and before we start I mention that my licenses had expired but is renewed and valid. She asked if I had anything to prove that and of course I didn't since I thought about it while driving there. Well they need a valid DL so I could not rend the U-haul. I then asked if Harry could rent it with his Austrian DL and she said no that he would need an international DL, which Harry then said.. "Oh I have one of those" and gave to the lady who said great this will work. As she was filling out the form she got an error and then informed us that he International DL had expired 3 months prior and we could not use it. Now we are screwed, as we can't rent the U-Haul without a valid DL. So I get on the phone and start calling and texting friends hoping one would be willing to come help us out. The folks I did get a hold of were either busy or working... so we hit another dead end. I then figured I'd go to the DMV and see if I could get proof that my license was valid. So Harry and I drove to the DMV, stood in line for about 15 minutes and got up to the counter. I explained my situation and she was happy to print me out a temp DL. So we headed back to the U-Haul and rented the truck. Now our schedule was off by an hour with this unexpected detour.. we were determined to get back on track.

As we were loading up the truck my friend Will came over to pick up a few items that we no longer wanted. Once he was done we finished packing up the truck. We got the 17' truck and got almost everything loaded. We had forgotten our tools so we couldn't dismantle the bed and we left a few odds and end that we would pick up tomorrow. We also packed up Harry's truck with some of the overflow. It took a lot longer to load the truck then I expected.. but then again it was just Harry and I. We got done around 3:30pm

So we were off.. I drove the U-Haul and Harry drove his truck. Along the way Harry stopped to pick up some lunch as we were starving. I got to the house about 15 minutes before him. We ate lunch and did a few things around the house. We hooked up our TV to Direct TV and with a little assistance got that all working. We watched a little bit a TV before heading out to unload the truck. We first unloaded stuff to our back deck that we knew was going into the house. We then drove the truck over to the garage to unload stuff that will be either in my Toy Room or storage. It was night fall when we finally got done. We had some dinner and watched some TV. Since we haven't gotten our mattress for our new bed we just put on the floor the queen mattress of our old bed, now the guest bed.. it was a long day but things are finally coming together

Final Packing Day

Today was spent packing up the old rental.. all day long we packed and packed and packed. This was all the stuff that we kept around while we were living there and man was there a lot. I didn't expect so many boxes but it never stopped. By the end of the day I was about 90% packed but I was still disappointed as I wanted everything packed and ready to go for tomorrow. Oh well you could only do so much and man am I'm tired.. tomorrow is going to be a very long day...

Remodeling - Day Twenty-Four

Today we got an early start as we had a ton of things to accomplish. So we loaded up the truck and headed out to our house, and got there a little before 10 am. Harry started by finishing the paint job on the door jam of the office door, while I did some touch up work on the office closet. Once that was done I put the doors back on the office closet, and oh was that fun.. not a good way to start the morning. I finally got the doors on I moved on to putting the new silver door knobs on the office door.

Harry then moved on to taking off the door of the linen closet so he could paint it. Once the first coat was done he took the hardware outside to spray paint silver. After he did that he helped me "attempt" to put the office door back on. It took a few tries as the hinges were first on wrong, then backwards.. but we finally got it to work.

After the office door was put back up, Harry started painting the door jam of the linen closet and than put up a second coat on the door of the linen closet itself. After that it was time for lunch... we were so tired of out food eating it the past month we opted for Denny's.

After we had gotten back form lunch, I got busy with some touch up work while Harry finished the the second coat of paint on the door jam of the linen closet. I then started to put the doors of the closet in the guest room back in. And like the office doors it presented itself as a challenge but I finally got them on and looking good.

Once Harry was done with the linen closet door he moved on to the door of the guest bedroom. He removed it and painted his first coat. While that dried he took the hardware outside and spray painted it. While the first coat of paint was drying we tried to put out the screen door, as I wanted to start bringing in some of the furniture that we purchased a few weeks back. We had the hardest time with the screen door and my tempter had gotten the better of me and if you know me that doesn't happen often but I ripped the screen door from the track and broke one of the wheels. But it was still usable so all wasn't lose.

We then took Harry's truck to the garage and loaded up some of the furniture.. yes our property is that big that we drove to the garage from the back door. We loaded in the couch and as we were walking in the screen door got tangled in my feet so I tossed it aside (kind of forcefully) and sure enough it hit the side of the deck and tore a huge hole in it. So now we have to buy a new screen door for the back door. So it took about four trips back and forth before we got all the furniture in. It's finally starting to feel like our house.

After that Harry put a second coat of paint on the door of the guest bedroom, since he was running out of daylight that was going to be the last thing we did for the night.

This was a tough day.. it was my Birthday and though I got Birthday tweets, and facebook greetings and a few calls this day wasn't that great. I was super tired and not feeling great and my emotions went up and down all day long. I so didn't want to be doing this on my birthday but knew we had to do this in order for us to move in on Friday. I'd be in a crappy mood and then get a call or tweet and be happy, then something stupid would happen and my mood would change. I just think 24 days of remodeling and painting is taking it's toll on me. I can't wait for this to be done soon.

My 39th Birthday

It's my 39th birthday today and we have been so busy with the house that we didn't plan anything. My mood went up and down all day long. I was not happy that I had to paint for the 24th day, it was very frustrating having to be there all day. All the big stuff had been done so it was baseboards, doors, door trim and touch ups and it's very tedious work. I knew we had to be there because we plan on moving in on Friday and the place is far from being ready.. but it didn't make being there any better... but I did have moments of happiness when I would get birthday Tweets or wishes on facebook. And I'm happy to say that I got a ton of them so that was nice. I also got calls from my mom, dad, and brother along with text from my sister in law and calls from friends Darla and Will. So it wasn't all bad.. just not the way you want to spend your birthday. We did plan to go out afterwards for a birthday dinner but we got out so late and both were so tired we decided to not go out. :( Oh well... Next year will be the big 40 and I'm going to have an AWESOME party.

Remodeling - Day Twenty-Three

Today we got our usual start and left the rental in Reseda around 10 am. Shortly before 11 am we got to our house. We managed to find some space in the garage for the stuff we had transported to the house. After we were done with that we started another day of painting. I'm sooooooo tired of painting!!!!!

First on the list was some touch up work in the guest room. Harry managed to touch up the most of the spots that needed touching up before running out of paint. Guess we should have gotten a gallon of the accent paint instead of just a quart. Going to have to buy another quart...

The next thing on the agenda was to paint the door of the office and the door jam in the same white as the baseboards. Harry started on that project while I did a ton of touch up work in the living and dining room, mostly floor boards and ceiling.

About mid day Harry and I left to pick up more painting supplies and also we wanted to get some silver door knobs at Lowe’s. While we were out we picked up lunch as well.

After lunch I continued with the touch ups work in living, dining and TV room, while Harry put a second coat on the office door and on the door jam. While he did this I went out back to spray paint the door hinges and screws silver to make them the same as the new door knobs. We didn't want to have to buy all new hinges and figured this was the best solution as both Harry and I hate the gold/brass color. And I have to say they turned out pretty nice. By the time we ran out of daylight we were had spray painted all the screws and hinges for the office door.

Once we were home and ate some dinner we headed out to Staples to pick up our office desks. We did some research online and found a desk that we both liked.

Today also marks the one month anniversary of the day that we got the keys to the house ... and still we haven’t moved in !!!

One of these days!!!!

Remodeling - Day Twenty-Two

Today started our day pretty much at the usual time. We packed up the truck and headed out around 10 am and got to the house shortly before 11 am. We just finished unpacking the truck when I got a phone call from Direct TV asking us if they could stop by earlier. Of course we said yes. Shortly after that our contractor arrived and started with the finishing touches.

While I was dealing with the guys from Direct TV, Harry started painting the inside of the closet in our office. To amuse himself he wrote a message on the inside of the closet. Once I was done dealing with the guys from Direct TV I joined me in the office and started working on some touch up work. The Direct TV guys were done quickly. They couldn’t hook up the receivers, since our TV's were still at the rental, so we will have to do it ourselves, which shouldn't be a problem.

By the time we were finished with the office our contractor let us know that he was finished as well and was ready to leave. He will most likely be back in a couple of weeks for Phase 2 of the remodel (Guest Bathroom, Kitchen and Toy Room). But before that happens Harry and I have to reassess the money situation as this phase one remodel cost us more then we had planned as we never planned to put a $6000 hardwood floor in.

After Danny had left, Harry and I and drove to Palmdale to pick up a few supplies at Home Depot. While we were out we picked up lunch as well. We got back and saw that Daisy had left her paw prints on the freshly painted windowsill. Luckily the paint was already dry when she got up there and we just wiped it clean. What is funny is her paws were on every windowsill on every window she could look out of.

After lunch I went into the living / dining room to deal with more touch up work, while Harry went into the guest room and started painting the inside of the closet in there.

So we are getting closer to finishing and it can't come soon enough.. now it's time for the time consuming little detail stuff.

Guess that's it for today.. seems like this is all I every blog about these days but to be truthful this is truly all I have been doing for the past month.

Day of Rest... yeah right!!!!

Today we took the day off from remodeling. Every week we need at least one day to recoup.. but we did anything but rest. We are so busy with the new house that we forget that we still have a ton of stuff here at our rental that needs to be packed up. So we spent today packing, catching up on emails, trying to watch some TV but feeling guilty because of all the stuff that still needs to be packed. I can't wait till this is all over...