Driving driving driving...oh and working on the house.

At least the clouds were pretty!


And the SUPER moon!


Pretty sunset on the drive south....


And now the thing I'm most proud of! When we went down the first time we noted the broken window with Walmart bag...yeah, classy :)
I had gone on line and learned how to replace a window and felt confident it was easy enough for me to do. So, off to lowes I went with a LONG list of thing to buy (new outlets to go from yellow to white for one thing). I came home with glass, the push tacks and the glazing.


And success!! In the process of replacing this glazing, more came off. Sigh. I still need to replace more, however, I was again behind the power curve and needed to head north. I did what I could this trip. I'm happy how it turned out and that I could complete the job without breaking MORE glass :)


Before in the tiny bath sink....


After a GOOD scrub with some scum cutter! Bad news with the chunk of drywall missing. They had installed an industrial hand soap dispenser using the industrial strength glue stick strips. That bad boy almost wouldn't come off with a hammer. I thought I had it coming off slow enough to not pull the wall apart...yeah, no. It's been patched and I'll sand and patch again on the next trip.

It was a great short weekend as Robin and Donald were in town on their way to a week on the beach. It was nice to see them and catch up a bit. I also got to meet Tina and her boyfriend. I missed meeting her brother and his family as they were delayed due to a missed flight. Bummer. Another time! We had to head home so we could grocery shop and do homework (her, not me!)


This is my traveling companion. Sigh. The good news is that I don't mind the quiet driving home...and she needed the sleep :) it is the weekend after all :)

Fun finds.

I thought I had "lost" this sign to someone else at TJ MAXX. Today I went looking for a purse and ended up wandering and found it in the clearance isle. Bonus!!


The purse I found. It's a little large however I'll work with it fir now.


Care to guess what this is?


It's a collapsible hamper and SCREEMs beach!!

Kitchen Planning

Before:

So the plan is to take out the wall and add some cabinets to make that area more of a peninsula. 

The order of cabinets is from top to bottom:

Leave original cabinet if feasible – if not replace with 30” double drawer unit

30” Slide in stove top

6” slide out spice rack unit

27” under counter microwave cabinet (not really another place to have one!)

24” double drawer unit

So that is the “plan” for now; we still have to price it out, get quotes, plans and figure out flooring underneath before moving forward with cabinets.  I like the wood look tile, hubby likes stone; neither of us like the price of stone for that size room!

I’m going down this weekend with some serious cleaners and will be scrubbing for a day and a half in there.  Who knows… if I’m lucky maybe after we look at it all again, we’ll consider just leaving the floors alone as they are in one piece and refinishing the few places that are pulling up on the parquet – and calling it a day until we move down there in our retirement.  That may be the most cost effective way to go at this point.  Time will tell.

Details to Liz's college trip

Mom and I had fun on our little trek to go take Elizabeth to her dorms. She's on the 2nd floor and I'm SO grateful it wasn't on the THIRD floor or I would have cried. There are no elevators in that apartment and you saw the amount of stuff in our car. I mean, really? WOW!

She called ONE friend to come help, however, turns out it was a very beefy boy who hauled up a LOT of stuff and I cheated by chucking clothing to her on the 2nd floor. Even her friend said it was impressive. I have encouraged her to "bag" her clothes while on the hanger, and boy does that come in handy for shot-put moves! I grabbed by the hanger, swung it a few times and heaved it to her on the floor - hit her and the railing every time. It was the LAST bag that didn't go so well. Why, do you as? Because it was a tiny bag - I almost tossed it straight up, but Lizzie did a stretch and caught it with ONE finger. Good girl!! I did have images of her clothing that was bagged from drawers (aka undies and bra's) floating down over the whole common area if she snagged THAT one with a single finger and ripped it open - hahahaha! In the end, mom and I managed to only have to take about 3 trips UP the stairs!

I have been cheating for these college years by sending her to school with fleece sheets - those things are wonderful when it comes to STRETCH! These are twin sheets that are now on a double bed and have also stretched to fit extra-long twins. They are AWESOME! I had her try them before we headed out to Wal-Mart - the ONLY place in town to shop, it would appear!! It was PACKED. We needed to pick up two garbage can for the bath and the kitchen (the LAST two room sized ones on the shelves, so we took them) a Swiffer mop for her kitchen and bath, and some cables for her gaming system. I asked if she had her cable "cable" and she wasn't sure but 80% positive - turns out she didn't have it. Whoops! Oh, well, she has movies on DVD and games to occupy what time she has between training. We also picked up some frozen veggies and fruits and veggies as they will only feed them while they train - so no weekends and one other day next week will be an "unfed" day. She's set. She has taquitos and if she can find an operational stove in another building (hers was under construction still) she also has some chicken breast filled with broccoli to eat (non-microwavable).

When we got all her stuff into her apartment, we headed to Fuzzies Taco Shop for an early dinner. We left her in a "dump and run" and left her at her dorm to settle in. Kidding, we took final pictures, hugged and then headed home.

Lizzie's first day of Sophomore year

Lizzie's first day of Sophomore year. Ok not really. She's going to school two weeks early to train to be a CL (community leader - what used to be resident advisors in my day)


The car is JAM packed!!


Only one seat for Liz. Good thing she's tiny!!


Her dorm main building Southern Pines.


Lizzie by her building.


Me crying over Lizzie going back to school.


Nawh. She's going to have another glorious adventurous year in college! Have fun and be good Lizzie!!

Angela's first say as a Sophomore.

Happy Angie!


Goofy child ;)


I don't think that she's that thrilled to be heading to school - haM


Have a great day at school!!

the conjecture house was VERY close to the reality of what the reality is.

 Original conjecture can be seen here: http://donnasworddoodles.blogspot.com/2014/07/conjectures.html

the FUNNY thing?  the floor in the tiny bathroom is the VERY Same style as what is ours - how very fun!

The Beach House, aka Tiny House, aka The Pee House

After much ado and waiting I finally got THE call from the sheriffs office at about 11am on Tuesday AFTER I had called the office there on Friday about the paperwork that wasn't there AND Monday to see if the papers had gone out (they had). Turns out that the sheriff didn't know who to call because the paperwork being weird. I haven't see the actual paperwork, just the cover letter.

So I was in a training seminar while this was going on behind the scenes and the lawyer was emailing me granted she finally sent it to home AND work but I wasn't able to get email at either place. No reception with AT&T anywhere on base in a building! Ugh. If it wasn't so inexpensive with unlimited data I swear I would drop them!

So... Phone call at 11am. I told the sheriff I live 5 hrs north...and was informed they only do these on the mornings...ugh! So we scheduled it for 10:30am Wednesday and Liz and I packed. Angela opted to stay with friends die to band camp. We tried to tell her she could skip camp for two days, but she wasn't convinced :( boo!!

AND Thursday is the first day if school here. Yeah, fun timing, eh? I knew even if I changed locks quick and dashed home we would only have time to drive home and do practice, no time for shopping so we dashed out and picked up her "first day of school" outfit. She was jazzed.

Then on the road south!
When we pulled in that evening the house was quiet and appeared empty so we checked the front door. Locked. Checked the side door on the carport. Unlocked!

These are pure before pictures. Nothing was touched.
The dining alcove right off the carport


Looking to the kitchen from the side door


The kitchen. Oh yeah, there was food in the sink (noodles) an apple on the sink...flies everywhere.


Oil in pans still....


On past the fridge and looking at the front door. They are all open due to the cat/dog urine smell. Coat closet is what you're seeing on the left...


Looking through the door to the living room. Oh yeah, that's a queen mattress and a partially filled cup of soda.


And bags of partially eaten food.... And the back door and plastic bag on the window. Pallets and tarps is the theme in the back yard.


Onward down the hall and looking into the tiny bathroom. Gaggy shower curtain AND a washcloth too!


They really did like bears - there was build a bear stuff all over.





Standing in the tub looking at the corner cabinet in the corner. They have a small drop from door on the bottom for a laundry shoot effect to the laundry hamper in the cabinet. Kinda cute :)


Ok across the hall again yo the first bedroom on the back of the house. Aka the bunk bed room.


Closet in that room


The second room on the back, tarps on the clothes line outside too!


Going around the room.


Closet. Doors got the closets are in the outside shed from what Liz said.


The master


Master has doors on it.


Looking towards the 1/2 bath.


I love the tile work in here!


This one has cabinets in the corner too


This was all the night we got there.

Dirty freezer:


Gaggy fridge:


AFTER!! Turned out to be a very nice fridge under all the grundge.


The kitchen partially cleaned.


You know I didn't even notice the pot hanging there still. I went into this cleaning job trying to salvage all the stuff that looked good enough to send to goodwill. Honestly? I gave up by now and put a lot into a bag and took it the curb.


The windows are original as are the locks.


The lights are recessed.


Old fashioned air vents for sure.


The shower cleaned up a bit.


The sink after a scrub...the white in it before was all toothpaste. Gag!


The bedrooms don't really change much.


Living room sans mattress.





The pile at the curb. The city has been called for Friday pickup. Yikes!!


And, I also pulled all the vines down too.


The sheriff came by, did his walk through and will finish his paperwork and we completed the lock change and went on his way. After that it was all done, we went back to Sally's to shower. Liz said she'd prefers baths...I told her she could go back over and bathe. She would have none of it. Ha!