Kristel's Blog

Or does it still count because it was under the first & last rent game?  I think it counts because technically I paid months and months ago and the money isn’t coming out of my account this month.  What is coming out is mortgage.  I guess it’s better, right?  I mean, it counts as equity, and with all the work I’m doing, if it turns out I’m having issues affording it, which I doubt, I could sell the place, make a profit, and find somewhere a little happier on my budget.  However, I think I got one serious deal, since the other two that have recently gone up for sale in the complex are listed around $155,000.  Which in case you forgot, is the listing price of the other townhouse I looked at and decided it needed just as much work as the one I bought, if not more.

On another house-related note, Dad seems to be taking over.  Yes, this is probably a good thing, but it’s still a little annoying.  He’s booked people to paint and to rip out carpets and whatnot, which you knew about by now, and it’s just annoying because I’m paying for it, and it’s not like I have any say at this point.  Because let’s face it, if I throw a hissy fit, throw him out of the project, not only is he going to be angry and not speak to me for a little while at least, he won’t help me again, along with everyone else I alienated and all of a sudden I’m left doing reno by myself.  Not good.  And I am greatful he’s helping me out, I just wish I could have a more active role.  It is my house…  okay, so being a little immature here.  Moving on.

One of my customers had me link his son’s social networking site on every page.  I wasn’t happy about it, but I did it.  Son swore he would do stuff on his end and if I just added the link, it would get him [our customer] to the top of google.  I didn’t believe it.  I mean, seriously, you’re linking a site that is completely different, indexed under different key words, and adding this link will do it.  Hm.  Turns out I’m eating my words, and my dad lost $20 in a bet he made that this wouldn’t work.  Someone tell me how the hell this worked?!  Especially since we know his son couldn’t have touched our customer’s site since we have all the passwords.  The best theory we could come up with is the son has some sort of bot that’s been hitting the pages?  Well, that or ninjas.  Dad and I aren’t so great on the theory game.  Or apparently the google game.

Finished the stupid present I made for Michelle for Christmas.  Obviously it wasn’t done on time.  It had to have been the most frustrating and the most boring project I’ve ever knit.  The first half was boring.  The last two rows were a nightmare.  More than enough to count for half the project.  Now that it’s done it’s very cute, but was it worth it?  I’m thinking no.  Know you don’t care, it’s just that it’s finally done that I don’t want to have to look at it anymore, but have all this built up tension that’s meant to be shared.

Bought my paint last weekend of Feb.  They had a sale, which if you’ve ever been buying paint, you know that doesn’t happen often, and when you’re going to be painting most of a house, you know you need to buy it on sale.  It was 20% off, which you’d think wasn’t a spectacular sale, but I saved a good $300.  (that shows you just how much I spent on paint.)  Didn’t realize paint was so expensive.  I figured $50 a room… I was wrong.  Painter happens to be a scouter, and he swears he only paints neutral colours.  Guess we should keep him away from the red for the kitchen, eh?  (That’s a bold choice, even for me.  I’m nervous.)

Sunday School’s going good.  Since I made my main goal never to do colouring pages with the kids it does require some extra planning every week, but it seems to be paying off.  At least they pay attention 20 out of 30 minutes, and I’ve been told by some parents that their kids think I’m great.  Not like it was hard to follow Marnee though.  Found out today, erm, yesterday, that when she started 10 years ago, she started to take the kids out of anything church related.  Nothing for the bazar, very little in terms of a Christmas play, no helping with fundraising with a church luncheon, nothing.  There used to be 51 kids in the Sunday school, and now we’re just over a dozen.  Turns out I’m not the only one noticing a pattern here.  No wonder they’re projecting the church will be far too in debt in 4 – 5 years that we’re going to be closing our doors.  They formed a “visionary” committee last year… this year they still haven’t done anything other than go to other churches and see what they do and after the annual meeting last week they sent everyone a questionaire that we’re to fill out on how we think the church could be better.  So last year they had to ‘ve known that they were looking at 5 -6 years or so left, seriously, why wouldn’t you have done this last year?  Becuase you know it’s going to take another couple months for them to process all this information and then get their act together to present it at the next meeting.  Lovely.  Jeff, Joanna & I are trying to get the Sunday School more involved, and have us involved in the outreach and in our advertising.  Let’s face it, unless you have anything to offer the parents (ie an hour of silence) they aren’t going to come.  And if the kids had a horrible time colouring week after week, they’re not going to get the silence because the kid’s’ll have all that energy just built up and ready to explode once they’re in the car.  Anyways…

What else has happened?  Um, does packing count?  What about tripping over packing?  I have a wide collection of colourful body markings now… and not the I heart Mom kind.  Only a couple more weeks.  I get possession a week from today!  I’m not sure how I’m going to sleep at camp.  The first night I rarely sleep much, but the second night’s usually good.  How am I going to be when I’m all hyper about getting possession?  (Oh, and let’s not forgetting being out of escrow)  I’m hoping that with more leaders we won’t play Tim’s card game.  Somehow I lose, end up with a huge amount of cards.  (Usually a penalty for asking a question, or not telling him to have a nice day.)  At least when that’s done I can pack my camp stuff.   Or shove it all in my pack, strap the sleeping bag to it and call it a day.  Yeah, let’s go with that.  I have to pack up all my winter gear for tomorrow, erm, tonight?  The cubs are supposed to pick out the winter clothes from the summer ones so that it’ll get drilled into them on what to bring to camp.  I know it sounds obvious, but apparently not.  Many forget to bring indoor shoes for the cabin with concrete floors.  Most forget to bring a warm hat or gloves.  Some come in a spring coat… which might be fine, but weather can have unexpected changes, and if you’re going to be outside all day, being cold not so fun.  Hope we don’t have to send anyone home b/c they forgot something essential that we didn’t bring an extra for.  I did do and send home a pack list though, with everything on it.  So there shouldn’t be any issues… well, if it was up to the kids.  Sometimes parents get involved, and then say, “hey, what on earth do you need 6 pairs of socks for for 3 days?” and then Johnny steps in a big puddle on the way in on Friday night, sleeps with another pair on because his feet got cold, forgot his waterproof, winter boots and ends up getting his feet soaked in the snow games the next day, after changing them in the process of putting his shoes back on steps in another puddle and then doesn’t have any more socks because he bunched the wet ones into a ball and shoved them to the bottom of the pack and are all still wet.

ok, so i’ve been posting (and knitting) for over an hour now, and it’s definitely time for bed.

Signed the mortgage today, and the line of credit.  So starting in a few weeks, I’m going to start owing the bank a lot of money.  Thankfully, I’m not going to have to pay it off all at once.    Went with a variable mortgage (it’s about 2% right now), weekly payments, over an amortization of 25 years.  (well, that’s a little less, since I’m paying weekly, it’s accelerated.  I’ll end up paying it off in just under 20 years or so.)  Line of credit I only have to pay the interest every month, but obviously it’s better for me if I pay whatever I can afford.

Packed the table linens today.  I didn’t seal the box though; I’m pretty sure I have a good couple loads left of random laundry that’s mostly sheets & towels, and I’m positive that there’ll be some linens in there.  There has to be a lot though, or I’ll have to put them in a smaller box, so I can use that box for bigger things.

Mom got me some elastic bands for work.  Hopefully that’ll help with packing the board games.  Wow packing all those will be fun… like one big jigsaw puzzle, with games and jigsaw puzzles.  Thankfully, new house has tons of storage and I can keep those downstairs and not in my bookshelf… which since I read too much is slowly overflowing into the bottom shelves.   Well, they were… but then they were packed.  Now I’m going a little crazy.  Bought a magazine though, maybe that’ll settle everything.

Have all the colours for my house picked out, aren’t you proud?   We’ll be painting 4 weeks from today.  I think I’m keeping ahead of the game, eh?  Also have my floors all picked out, on hold, and installation guys booked.  Leaving the linoleum though.  I want to put tile in there eventually, but that’s not in the budget since those floors are actually in pretty good shape, it’d just be a cosmetic thing instead of an omg-this-carpet-is-so-gross-i-think-i’m-going-to-wear-my-shoes.  Found this cool screen at home depot.  It pulls out from the side and locks in (with super-duper magnet strength, no really, it’s strong) at the other side.  Think roll-ey blinds, but horizontal, a screen, and with strong construction.  Was thinking it’d be good for my patio screen.  There’s actually a screen there now; both it and the door are in mediocre state right now (or that I remember…)  So I doubt it’ll be in the budget to fix them up now, especially since the neighbours tell us the doors are a funny size and you’d have to custom order a sliding door (I’m actually thinking french doors, with that sliding screen so I could have huge air flow) but it should be in the budget come time for warmer weather.  Which is good, because there’s no a/c.  I think I’ve been spoiled my whole life having a/c… and I’m pretty sure it’s not a habit that will go away.  Especially since I have a couple window ones.  If I put one in my bedroom and one in the kitchen, it should be decent if it gets that bad.  I wonder if any of my neighbours took the time and money to put in central air?  I’ll know soon enough; you can’t miss that hum.

Looking forward to having a patio.  Really looking forward to it.  I see myself working outside in nice weather, with just the screen door and my little dog running around.  Also looking forward to having a ceiling light in my bedroom.  Oh!  And a washer/dryer in my unit.  Oh, and let’s not forget the hardwood floors.  And an office.  I’ll never have to sleep in the same room with the mess on my desk that will inevitably will take over within 5 minutes of me moving in.  And a real guest room, where I won’t get any complaints of how hot/cold the solarium was last night, and wtf was I thinking by putting flannel sheets on/not giving you a blanket.  (For the record, I didn’t give you a blanket b/c I put the flannel sheets on.  Plus, you did have the cotton blanket on there, and I told you where the throw blankets are kept, and the coverlet was on there, you took it off!)  Well, that last might still happen, but you’ll have a window if you’re too hot, and the too cold thing won’t happen b/c Kristel’s naturally cold, and the heat will be up enough for that room to be warm.  Oh, and a door.  That’s nice, right?  Person on the couch won’t have a door, but let’s face it, you’re downstairs, the rest of us are up, so we won’t be in your hair, and you get your own (half) bathroom to yourself, whereas the rest of us have to share.

Was supposed to go out for Mom’s birthday dinner tomorrow; but she apparently was very ill this evening, so it doesn’t look like that’s happening.  And as much as I love her, I can’t help but think this is a good thing.  For 1, I haven’t bought Pepper a present for her to give to Mom.  2. Johnathon’s coming over tomorrow to play with Pepper while I pack, and the house should definitely have some food (kids do eat, right?) and something clean to eat off of, so I have some work to do tomorrow.  As much as it sickens me right now, my house is as bad as Michelle’s & I’s was in Ptbo.  It’s just impossible to keep the house clean, pack, and do all the house-buying errands, oh, and of course, work!

Speaking of house-buying errands (again…)  I have my mail set to forward, my phone/cable/internet’s been all set to move and the rogers guy is coming to hook it up on the 31st, the hydro’s been set, I’ve signed up with the gas company, Pepper’s license has been changed…   um… still have to call the insurance companies, doctor, dentist, allergist, vet’s office, magazine subscriptions, scouts canada,…  have to book the elevator.  Movers are booked, have to call new manager about my moving date there……….  and lots more, but this is all giving me a headache.

K, it’s midnight, should probably head to bed, or at least head off this couch and pack just one more thing…

It seems like the pile of boxes is getting bigger and bigger, but nothing’s actually disappearing.  But I guess that’s how it should be at this stage in the game?  B/c I’m packing the things I don’t need right now until after I move, and all the stuff I use is staying out until we get super close?

Thinking you guys probably shouldn’t come down on Mar 20th.  There’s going to be a lot of working going on at the new house that weekend, and several runs to the new house with not-packed stuff, though with your extra vehicles maybe that step would be seriously shortened, the games and stuff will all be packed; I’m trying to actually finish off a lot of my food so that I can fit it all in one box + the cooler… so there might not be a lot of food to feed you, and you’ll be hungry because you’ve been working!  We’re most likely going to painting, I’m sure my Mom (and prob my Dad too) will find things that I *need* to buy for the new house lol, so we might go out shopping for that.  Maybe a few doors will go up, um, I don’t know what all we’ll be doing.  You’re definitely welcome, but you’ll probably have more fun if you come down a couple weeks after I’ve moved into the new house, a lot of stuff is unpacked and there isn’t a lot of work to be done.

Didn’t I say I was going to end this post?  Hm, definitely bedtime.  But maybe I throw some throw blankets in a box.

The boxes that is.  I really have to pack, clean, & purge the storage closet because it’s getting very annoying to have to climb over boxes to get to the kitchen, move a bunch to use the table, try not to knock any over to get to the bathroom…  Again, must finish the storage closet so that I can pack them all in there, to the ceiling if I have to.  I’m actually impressed with myself that I have so much packed by this point.   But there’s only 6 weeks until moving date; and this work thing during the week means that I don’t want to do anything on a weeknight, so that leaves only weekends; but I’m at camp second weekend in march, so that brings it down to 5 weekends, and let’s face it, I’ll be at the new house the last two weekends doing work so it’ll be ready to move into, so that brings me down to 3 weekends to pack… so really, by this point, I should have packed so much more!… oh, and let’s not forget all the other stuff that has to happen within the next two weeks or so, so I might not have this coming weekend for packing either…  (the “other stuff” being mostly notifications: the electric and telephone companies and getting all that set up, change of address/mail forwarding with the post office, dentists, doctors, lawyers, banks, insurance & getting me set up with the new plan, the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency), vehicle registration/licensing, the vet, the electric chip that’s in Pepper people, booking the elevator, … um, you get the point by now, right?)

While I was typing the first paragraph, Pepper destroyed a whole ball of yarn.  Thankfully it was your standard 4-ply, cotton, $2.00/ball kind, so I’m not worried.  At least it kept her occupied.  Hmmm… wonder if I should be checking what she’s destroying now…  oh, not destroying, just carrying around my sock.  It could be worse, my super came to the door the other day, and Pepper comes and greets her with my most scandalous (aka big girl) panties in her mouth.  I’m not sure I could’ve turned a darker shade of red.  Yesterday she killed a whole deck of cards.  She had killer fun though.  The deck did not.

Scouting’s going well.  We’re up to four cubs, and with the bring-a-friend at the end of March, we might get more.  Unfortunately, I won’t be there for bring-a-friend night.  It’s the night right before moving day, and it really seems smarter to not go and make sure everything’s all set and ready to go, Pepper’s at my parents, etc.

Speaking of Pepper staying at my ‘rents, the vet tells me she’s probably been acting out and being more skittish than normal because everything hasn’t been normal — I’m making a lot of noise, filling boxes, and then piling them in what used to be empty space.  We planned for Pepper to stay at Joanna’s, since her son, Johnathon, absolutely loves Pepper and really wants to look after her.  But the vet says that having her somewhere for the night that she knows will be much better for her than having her stay somewhere she doesn’t, especially with her going into a new house.  It makes sense, but now I feel bad because I’m going to have to tell John-John sorry, that’s not happening, and he’s really looking forward to it.  I wonder if there’s a compromise here?  Like maybe since he’d be at school for the majority of the time watching her anyways, he could watch her for a few hours on a weeknight/weekend so I can pack?

I really should do some work, and get some lunch…

Obviously it’s my current address showing at the top, and not the new one. My new house is in the grouping of four at the right, the furthest one in!

Click here.

Hm, maybe posting my current address & a look at my new address online probably isn’t the smartest move… but I’m doing it anyways.

Picked out my carpet for the upstairs stairs, upstairs hallway, office & guest bed.  I decided to go against the one I really liked, even though it was scotch guarded and softer, and prettier…. but the difference between the one I chose and the one I wanted would be a good $600 – $800; and with that kind of money I could replace a window or two that need to be done, or a new front door, or a new sliding door, maybe a water softener or furnace…. not to mention some various projects that’ll need to be done that I don’t know about yet.  And the carpet I chose isn’t bad.  It’s just not as nice.  But if I clean up any messes on the carpet right away, I won’t have to worry about not scotch guarding it.

Speaking of the office & guest bed, thinking I’m going to paint them the same colour.  I like the colour I chose, and it goes nice with the carpet, so that’s how that’s going to go.  Haven’t settled on my kitchen or master colour yet.  Getting so many different views on how I should go.  Some are saying, take your living room colour and go down to the lightest shade for the hallway and up a shade for the kitchen.  And then others are saying, you chose them from a book where they colour coordinated them for you, so pick one of the four colours for your kitchen.  And then even more others are saying, pink!!!  I told Dad the colour for the accent wall; he’s telling me it’s too bright, it’s going to look horrible, what are you doing?!  Your house is going to look like a circus tent with all those colours!  I told him, it’s red, it’s actually not a bright-red, but a little more muted.  Plus, accent walls are supposed to be just that: accented!!!  And he’s saying, no, they’re meant to contrast.  Um… aren’t we saying the same thing here?  And wouldn’t red contrast?  I think though that this is one thing he isn’t going to talk me out of.

Made cookies on my pizza stone last night and oooooh are they good!  I swear, same recipe, and they taste better than when done on a cookie sheet.  Yeah, it takes a little longer in the oven.  And yeah, taking the pan out to let the cookies cool on it (so they’re nice and crispy on the bottom) was more of a pain than on a cookie sheet, if only because you need two hands to do it.  But so worth it.

I’ve been writing this post for almost three hours.  Ok, so I’ve been doing a lot more than just writing this post, but still… it’s time to publish.

I’m off of Bell, finally!  (Bell is a phone/internet/satellite tv company for those of you who don’t know.)  I’m not noticing any difference in speed with Rogers, but maybe I will once it hits dinner time, people come home and then surf the web before moving on to whatever it is that other people do.  (Personally, I knit.  But then, does it still count as surfing the web if while I’m knitting,  I check my email, read the news, look up new patterns, surf the… oh, yeah, I guess it does.)  The guy was here for about half an hour.  Blew a breaker, but that’s all been fixed.  Wonder when Bell’s going to call me for their modem?  They certainly haven’t called me to get me to reconsider about leaving them.  Maybe when I’m feeling adventurous I’ll give them a call… but I can’t recall the last time I felt that way.  No wait, I totally do.  It was when Zoe, Gavin & I were coming home, and there was like 4 feet of snow on the lawn, and I decided to try and walk through it.  It was so worth it.  Hm, that’s still not very adventurous.  Ok, so how about when I get the nerve to go skydiving, I’ll give them a call as I jump from the plane.

They’re doing a lot of work on the apartment next door.  The people moved out and now they’re getting ready for more people to come in.  Standard painting, fixing things up, etc.  They even are replacing the kitchen cabinets.  Wow.  Lucky tenants?  Certainly not lucky me.  I’m leaving, and it’s loud.  But the good news is, it won’t be loud much longer, and I won’t be living here too much longer either.

Starting to accumulate a lot of boxes.  So many that stacking them infront of my kitchen table, now no longer is convenient.  This weekend I’m going to finish cleaning out my storage closet so that I can start stacking them in there.  Well, hopefully.  It’s either there or in the solarium where it’d be out of the way, but it wouldn’t be if someone’s sleeping in that bed.  (Unless you don’t mind having boxes stacked on top of you?)

Decided on the carpet for my new house.  It’s a brown. Was going to go lighter, but it’s cheaper to get what’s in stock, and there’s a good $600 between the one I chose the one I really, really, really wanted.  But with that kind of money, I can replace at least one of the windows that need to be done, and we all know there’s going to be other expenses that we find out after I move in.  So that’s what’s happening.  My Mom thinks I should go with the one I really liked, especially since it’s scotch guarded, but this one’ll do.  Plus it looks nice with my hardwood.  Still looking into prices on front doors & new locks.  A nice front door isn’t cheap, but it’s something I *need* the instant we get possession.  Well, nice enough.  I’m hoping for one with a bit of a window, not necessary for it to be usable (ie openable, clearly you can see through it or it wouldn’t be a window) so that I can see who comes to the door, and peep holes are annoying, and very unfriendly.  Turns out I’m responsible for my doors & windows, and as such, they can be any colour.  Most people keep theirs white or brown.  I’m certainly keeping my windows that way, but not so sure about my door.  Will think about it.

Looking forward to having a garden out front.  I don’t think I’m going to sod, no matter what Dad says, I think it’ll be nice to have some flowers.  Not sure what kind to plant, but I think that’s something you decide around mother’s day anyways.  Well, unless I want to plant spring bulbs, but I think they need to be planted in the fall, right?  Hm, haven’t had my own garden… wait, no I did, but I just grew pumpkins & forget me nots, and I was 8, so let’s face it, Mom pretty much decides for you at that age, and then lets you think you chose.

Finished a scarf I started with some sock yarn.  It is possibly the ugliest scarf I have ever made.  I thought the colours in the yarn were fantastic… turns out, they aren’t so much, especially with the way they ordered the stripes.  Gross.  To make it big enough for anyone over 4 though I’d have to add another ball of yarn.  Is that happening?  Nope, it’s ugly, and not worth it.  In fact, seriously considering just pitching it.

Anyways, probably should get back to work!

The townhouse has been listed as “sold”!  Hooray!  That means there’s no more stupid conditions to go over, sign off on, etc.  I’m soooo happy.  This means that, no matter what, the house is mine.  Well, on the closing date a week and a month today.  I’m going camping with our cubs the weekend before closing.  Hopefully nothing goes wrong and they need to get a hold of me, because there’s no cell reception out at Barber.  But I don’t think anything would go wrong that weekend, though, because from what I’ve heard, it all goes wrong on closing day.  At least Barber has a phone if I needed to call, and my parents know where it is if they have to come out and get me.

On a side note, my living room is slowly filling up with more boxes.  I packed up all my books over the weekend (6 boxes!!!)  I’m thinking of moving onto my linen closet next.  At least packing all the tablecloths (who really needs a tablecloth for 2 months?) and after you guys visit (if you do) I’ll pack all the extra sheets, pillows, etc.  Though the throw pillows might be packed before you get here.  There’s only so many weekends between now and moving day, and some of them I can’t pack on.  Dad’s insisting that I will need “the family” to come over and help me pack that last weekend.  I’m insisting “no!”  Mom’s agreeing with me.  We’re both a little annoyed that he keeps trying to get family members booked for that weekend.  It’ll all be packed if it kills me by the Saturday morning.  Speaking of packing… starting to run out of boxes… again.  Great.  Maybe I’ll see if we can pick some up when we’re out putting a deposit down on my flooring.

It’s getting really hard to tell myself that I’m moving in over a month and a half.  I want to pack everything up now and be done with it.  Problem is, you can’t just do that when you’re going to be here for at least a month.  Surely I’ll be living out of boxes for at least a couple weeks at the new house, so I don’t want to spend a month or so here.  But I guess there are things I can pack now; like the dvd’s, maybe some of the computer games, the stand mixer, summer clothes, formal clothes, the craft stuff, maybe everything but one binder of my sheet music…. guess you don’t need to see this list, eh?

Switched to Rogers for my phone.  They were in the building, and offered me a really big discount, so I took it.  They’re coming to install tomorrow, because somehow they managed to talk me into installing it now instead of waiting a month and a week and continuing to pay Bell $120 a month, even after calling them every other month to fix whatever problem there is on my bill.  (Plus the whole bundling thing saves me some more too)  I know there’s probably better choices, but nearly all aren’t available in my area, nor the one I’m moving to.

Pepper learned to “Come” this week!!!  Okay, so she doesn’t do it if there happens to be a better offer elsewhere, but at least it works for getting her out of the backyard.  Wondering now if we should sign her up for level 2 of obedience classes… but I’m not sure.  For one, it costs $175.  For two, it took us several months after classes just to get the recall.  For three, most in level 2 are tricks or advanced techniques of level 1.  So the real question is, do I want to spend all that money to teach pepper some extra tricks, or just be happy that she knows “drop it”, “come”, & “sit”?

Freecycled my textbooks today; okay, not the computer-related or the astronomy, but the physics, chemistry, anthro, sociology, business, etc. all left.  Freecycle is an awesome thing.  Seriously, go to their website, find one in your area, and use it.  It’s awesome.  Everything is free, people get what they need, and you get rid of what you don’t.  I wish I had more stuff to freecycle… but I’ll probably find some while packing.

As for the service contract, after lots of phone calls, hours of waiting, and I’m sure lots of work on Stan’s behalf, we finally got our hands on the correct paperwork.  Read it over, everything looks fine.  There is a lien on the property for a little over $500, though.  I’m not sure if I’ll end up paying it, or whether it comes out of the seller’s money when I buy it.  Asked Stan; he’ll either tell me or tell me to ask my lawyer.

My apartment’s been rented.  They came through for a second viewing tonight to show her mother.  Then they had to take pictures to email to his mother.  Then they wanted to measure… but forgot the measuring tape.  I would’ve offered, but Clara made a comment to me that, “Sometimes they forget that people currently live here” and then told them she’d see if she could get them a floor plan.  Apparently they’ve lived either at her parents or his for their relationship (they look about my age, didn’t look for a wedding ring) and now finally getting their own place.  Pepper was of course soooooo excited.  So I had to hold her/have her on her leash for the time they were here.

Oh!  My yarn that I ordered before I bought the house came today.  I’m so excited, it’s so pretty!  When I’m done, I’ll post my project on here, and not just on Ravelry.

I think that’s it for tonight.  Have to work to get customer off my back.  Even though I’ve been working on getting her site working all today, if it’s not up by tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll start getting some threats.  This would be sooooo much easier if I was allowed to make the site dynamic, but they don’t want to pay for that and it’s not in our budget to convert them for free.

Ok, so I know I’d said that I’d keep up with posting a little better, but you know, a week isn’t too bad.

Michelle & Marisa came down for the weekend.  We had a fun time around the boxes I’d already packed.  The roast we had from Supperworks was amazing!  We also picked up the board game of Ticket to Ride b/c it turns out Michelle and I are pretty much the only ones who enjoy playing on the xbox.  Oh well, now we can play with more than 3 people!  Oh, and we started playing with the double 18 dominos.  (I think our version is a variant of mexican train.  We change the rules a little, and pull 21 tiles since we are starting with 18’s…)  We got through 3 hands (of the 20 hands to complete the game) in about 2 hours… and stopped.  I think Michelle and I are the only ones patient enough to play one game of dominos that takes hours on end with tiles with an insane number of dots on them.  I tried to get them to mix in Munchkin with the dominos, but that didn’t go over well.  (I thought go up a level means you can play an extra tile on  your turn but apparently they weren’t into that, or the extra time, or in Marisa’s case, learning 2 games at once.)

I guess I should probably get into the topic of the post, eh?  So Condo Corp…

I picked up the paperwork from the condo corp on Friday.  Seemed pretty cool that the property manager was only 2 doors down from me, so if I had an issue, she’d be there.  (It’d be a bad thing if I planned on being an issue, but I’m not, so it’s a good thing.)  So picked up the paperwork, and today, met with my lawyer to go over it.  We just skimmed through it, deciding that for him to go line by line would cost $800, and since we could probably pick out the major issues, it’d be be better for us to read it over throughally, and then call him with any questions.  The biggest issue with the paperwork is that they didn’t give me a status certificate.  This is a BIG no-no.  Especially since that’s what I had 10 days to approve.  They gave all the other paperwork though… sort of.  All of the past financial statements are dated in 2008.  And, to make it worse, the reserve fund for the condo corp was under $20,000.  This should definitely be larger for a corp with approx 40 units, each paying $200 a month, and $17,000 of it is supposed to go in the reserve every month.  What could they possibly do that they cleared out the entire reserve?

My lawyer told me to request a status certificate and current financial statements.  So I did.  Stan’s working with the other realator right now.  All I’ve heard is that there doesn’t seem to be any paperwork from 2009.  Hmmmm….  Not sure this is something I should get myself into, no matter how perfect the location seems to be, and how much the house meets my needs…  We’re going to find out from Stan what’s going on at some point, and see what he thinks.  Paul definitely doesn’t think I should go for it if they don’t have the proper paperwork; his words were something along the lines of, “If this is how they manage their company, how do you know they’ll take care of any issues you might have?”

Pepper’s feeling better.  She’s completely wired, possibly even a little stir crazy.  I’ve taken her cone off pretty much all day without supervision.  The insision’s looking good, we’ll see if I get told off by the vet because she’s been licking it behind my back or not.

Been cleaning my apartment.  Giving my super notice tomorrow, so in case she’s going to do an inspection, I want it looking at least somewhat decent.  There’s going to be laundry on the floor because I have to do laundry, but it’s not too bad otherwise.  Maybe I’ll clean my bedroom closet, and then mess it up by putting the laundry on the floor.  Will have to remind myself though that the clothes on the floor aren’t clean…

It’s hard to clean and pack at the same time, but if I’m going to put stuff away, I might as well put that stuff in boxes.  At least the stuff I don’t use on a regular basis anyways.  So now, while I think I’m cleaning, all I see is boxes.  The good (or bad?) news is that I’m running out of boxes.  Soon I’ll have to stop.  Debating packing up all my yarn or not.  Will I knit between now and the end of March?  Definitely.  Will I finish all my current wip’s?  Um, including the blanket, probably not.  Not including it?  Probably… but will I decide to work on the blanket, or go onto a new project?  Hm… I bought new yarn before I bought the house, and while it isn’t here yet, I’m sure I’ll be itching to use it.  But, if I do pack it up, that’s one less thing to pack in March, and it’s not like it’s going to be in a storage locker, at the edge of town, and I’d have to take 2 buses to get there…  so maybe I will.

Had my bank appointment today.  Mortgage was approved, and we worked out for me to have a line of credit to do some home improvements, and when I’m done, they’ll send someone in to reevaluate the house, and then they can work that into my mortgage, or I could just pay it back.  So that part’s all set.  Next week is the lawyer’s appointment.  We’re just going over the purchase agreement, and he’ll do his stuff regarding the land transfer, the deed, etc.  Two weeks before I’m out of escrow, I have to go back into the bank to sign all the paperwork, it gets forwarded to my lawyer, and we go from there.  Buying a house requires an unbelievable amount of $$$ saved up beforehand and way too many meetings!

Down to my last box of Scout Popcorn!  Hooray!  It’s good, but I bought waaaay too much.  Oh!  Thinking of my microwave (the link is scout popcorn == microwave popcorn == cooks in the microwave)  new house as a spot for it off the counter!  Hooray.

Can’t wait to move.  Check out the countdown for time left.  It’s set for the last Monday in March.  Obviously, the truck hasn’t been booked yet.  But that’s something I can work out later.

Are you supposed to throw a going-away party and a housewarming party?  Obviously they’d been like a month apart, if not more, but still…  I think the housewarming party will happen for sure, not to sure about the going-away, unless it’s a going-away-and-we’ll-help-you-pack party the last weekend I’m here.  I was looking online at someone’s housewarming, and they had done huge renovations (way above the renovations I’m doing) and their housewarming was set up with every room having a different set of snacks per room, and they had a huge collage of before & after photos in each room too.  It was very cool the way they had displayed everything.  Is that happening at mine?  Well, there’ll be snacks, but knowing me, they’ll all be on the coffee table, and there’ll be just a handfull of before/after pictures per room and they’ll be on the nearest flat surface.  oh, and unlike theirs, mine’s likely to be a 1 – 4 affair instead of a 2pm to 2am drinking extravaganza!  (Well, unless you’re visiting from out of town and spending the night…)

Not finished my knitting for this weekend.  I have a bag and a scarf to finish.  They’re both about 70% done right now.  Not sure they’ll make it.  It’s getting difficult to clean, pack, work, take care of Pepper, and go to all these meetings… knitting’s taking a back seat.  The bag will probably be done, but the scarf is a fingering weight, and it has like 80 some stitches per row, so it’s taking forever.  Probably should go work on that now since it’s not like I’m doing anything productive.