New Neighbors

We live on the corner, so we only have one next door neighbor. We don't know their names, but they are....how to say....good for blog postings? The dad is probably my parent's age and has met both of our fathers. As my dad worded it, "He's a good ole boy from the South". He actually tried to talk us out of buying our house because "others" were moving into the neighborhood, "you know, not of our kinfolk." You can read into that however you would like. He is very congenial to us. We can always count on him coming out of the house in his wife-beater and stonewashed jeans which is extremely complimentary to the robust shape and ruddy complexion.

Today we learned he has two daughters. The oldest, about our age, came out while Chris was power-washing the house. Being the friendly guy he is, he shouted hello. She gave a very condescending "hey" back. Trying to make friends, Chris pushed the conversation further. Noticing she was rather dressed up for 10am he asked, "Going somewhere fancy?"
"No. Just out."
"Okay." At this point Chris was going to let it go. But apparently she was not done with her snippity tone:
"So, you've been doing a lot of work for them?"
"uh, yeah?"
"That's good. The last people didn't really keep it up very well. I'm glad to see they hired someone to take care of the place."
Chris never did tell her he was man enough to work on his own house.

And for our last new neighbor, here is a picture of Mr. Long who we met at the park tonight. We apologize for the graininess, but it was taken on a cell phone!

It's Coming, Be Patient

I WILL post pics of the new house.....when it's ready. Chris has gone back to work now and I haven't stopped, so it's kinda hard to find time to unpack. As soon as I can get a shot of at least one room that doesn't look like a cardboard jungle, I will post a cool before and after shot. Okay? So thank you for the emails, comments, and Facebook messages, but I have not forgotten. They are coming.

For those of you still interested in a great new house story.....Thursday night was priceless. I came home from work about 7pm, still light out and the garage door opening wasn't working. The thing is only 3 weeks old, so there is no way the battery is dead. I was on the phone with Dad, who as the ever (please note Dad, I did not say over) protective father that he is, asked me to make sure no one was inside and had just cut the power. I wasn't scared or paranoid when I thought it was just a cheap, dead battery. Now, maybe a little. So I open the front door with my key (I know, it's sooo Stone Age! Next thing you know, I'll have to get off the couch to change the channel on the TV!) and Cally comes running out. Intact guard dog is always a good sign. So I check all the rooms and realize the power is out. I check the breaker, which is flipped to on. Hmmmm..... Then I check the water......also not on. This cannot be good.

So I call Chris and ever so sweetly and calmly ask if he did indeed switched the utilities into our name. "Oh Deya, they do that for you!"
"What?!?!"
"Yeah. Whenever they see a transfer of property ownership, they automatically switch it into your name."
"Um, I don't think so. What in the world would give you that idea?"
"That's how it works in Canada."
I very rationally and again calmly reminded him we live in America and that is indeed not how it works here. So four hours of sweet talking on the phone and $200 later, we had power and water.

Final score: New House-2 Chris-0 or USA-1 Chris-0
Either way, I think he needs a hug.

Chris' Everest

The last owners of our house decided to take all the light fixtures and ceiling fans with them as a parting gift. Apparently, the higher the cost of the fan, the better the instructions and assembling materials. Chris put together the first ceiling fan in the main room no problem. The next one, in our bedroom, was his Everest.
First of all, let me say that Chris is very handy and great at putting things together. What did not help the situation is that every bedroom is wired all weird. They all have the ceiling fan power going to the hole in the middle of the room and then the light power going to a hole two feet away. So poor Chris had to rewire the room first.He assembled (on the ceiling) and disassembled the wretched fan five times before we had to return it to the store. After returning it to Lowe's, he convinces the man to sell him the floor model- already assembled! They took it apart anyway. :( Once he got it home, he realized they forgot to give him the ceiling mount bracket, probably still attached to the store. Long story short, it took a total of 8 installs for our little fan to work! But it works!!! You can't live in Florida and not have a ceiling fan in your room. I'm pretty sure there are laws.

The Wooden Anniversary

Our 5th anniversary seemed like a big mile marker so we wanted to do something big to celebrate. For our first anniversary we got a dog, so we had to top that for sure. I consulted the traditional wedding gift list and it cited "wood" as the appropriate gift for 5 years. Wood? I don't see Chris excited about me buying an indoor tree as the last one was left with Dad when we moved to Florida along with my childhood cat. An outdoor tree wouldn't go over well with our HOA.....what's a girl to do? So you go all out or go home.................we bought a house! I waited to post this today as we finally closed on it this afternoon. It's exciting and scary as we are now officially responsible adults (I don't care, I still LOVE the Disney Channel). :) Chris' dad and his wife are here helping us fix up the house so I'll post pics once it's all fabulous.