Our First Appliance Purchase

Our fridge went tits up on us. Well, half of it did. It was free though so it was no particular loss to us it just sucks needing to shell out $1,000 on demand.

The house did not have a fridge when we moved in. I can see that as being a hindrance to a potential buyer. A fridge is not cheap, they are also not easy to just move in. Lucky for us, when we rented in Lynnwood the landlord told us the fridge in the garage was left by the previous renter. He made it quite clear it was not his responsibility and he didn't care what we did with it. Well we used that sucker a lot and when we bought our house that needed a fridge we took it with us. We got 3 years and 2 months worth of fridge for free. It would have been rocking cool if it lasted a lot longer at the new place but, still. I should not complain. We learned the fridge was made in 1997. 

One day here on the island we had the power go on and off several times over the course of an hour. The next day I noticed the frozen blueberries in the freezer were no longer frozen. The day after that I realized my frozen chicken was very cold but not frozen. The day after that I realized the fridge was not cold and I went crazy. I put everything I could fit in a cooler and cleaned the fridge thinking that would help. Nope. James and I discussed how much we could afford. He guessed $500. Wah. Wah. It was very stressful. He didn't want to buy a new fridge, he didn't want to haul one in and another one out. He also didn't want to do all that hauling and have our cheap one expire in the next few years only to do it all again. Meanwhile I have hungry people to feed and am afraid to give them things from the fridge. 

Luckily he found one in Tacoma at the Sears outlet store. It had a dented handle and scratches down the sides. $1700 originally down to $923. Cha-Ching. It's a beauty. He and Will drive down to pick it up and after convincing our bank it wasn't a fraudulent purchase all while Will was freaking out in the store the fridge was ours. 

Once home though things really fell apart. My mother in law came over to watch the kids while James and I hauled this beast up two flights of stairs in the rain, in the cold and of course, in the dark. Kiki of course lost it. She panics when separated from me. Will wants to help and watch. We got the fridge up our deck stairs and I didn't die though I could have had the dolly slipped once. James and Diana were quite stressed. Then the fridge wouldn't fit through our front door so it had to be taken off. Then it wouldn't fit up our staircase so the handles of the fridge had to be removed. This business of removing seriously took half an hour and we ruined a screen and also have a few new scratches on our walls. Our house was cold as were the occupants. The fridge was wet and we tried two different ways of getting it up our stairs. Finally we just leaned it on its side and pushed it up the stairs. A good 45 minutes to haul something 30 feet. I know what your thinking. It did fit. Perfectly. No problems there. James and I dollied the old one down the stairs no prob. We pushed it onto the truck and nearly took out our stair railing. James also fell out of the truck and I grabbed him by his pant legs. He recovered but he was clearly over this fridge episode.

So there you have it. Being a homeowner is a never ending job.

Welcome To Our Home, Please Kill The Hobo Spiders

Holy Spider Central. I have now lost count of how many spiders we have killed.  Take note I said Kill. We have stopped rescuing them.  We kill on the spot now. We kill so many our son says he now kills things.
Yes I am bothered. No, I don't like it.  These spiders are HUGE.  They can hurt you. Most importantly though, they can hurt my children and therefore they must die.  Its a good freaking thing they are so big they are impossible to miss.  It sucks when you do kill one because they crunch.
We find them mostly downstairs.  I did find one upstairs, in my kitchen, dead. I was greatly offended.  My kitchen isn't the cleanest place but come on.  He was in the middle of my floor, dead.  I found one on my ceiling, my raised ceiling.  I was so pumped. I woke up before the kids. I was going to have coffee and look at the beautiful day and have nice quiet peace. Nope. Walked into my living room and bam, huge ass spider crawling along the ceiling.  Kissed my sweet morning and sleeping kids goodbye.  I got my broom out and actually broke it hitting the spider so hard with it.  Spider died and the kids did sleep, WIN! Tonight, James killed one when it crawled out from under the stove and booked it to our sweet boy who was playing with a box of goodies from grandma. It took James quite awhile to calm down from the horrible "what if" thoughts.
We find them all the time in the garage and the downstairs bathroom.  We are quite perplexed by how they are getting in. Ws it just a huge spider orgy in here while the place was vacant? Are they breeding in the trees and coming in? I tried looking up on Pinterest what they hate.  Lavender and peppermint was what I was told. Nope, fat lies. I have three fat spiders living IN my lavender bush.  Those ones are not hobo spiders so they get to live outside.  We bought a playhouse on CL that unfortunately was housing big spiders.  I doused it in peppermint oil and still find spiders in it. I just keep killing them.

Sewage Anyone?

Moving in to this house has been a battering of projects. They are not "oh, we will do this eventually" projects. They are "we have to do this NOW" projects.

We are trying to finish up the laundry room project so we can have hot and clean water. Also, so we can do our laundry. You can't wash your hands here, you can't get water from the sink to cook with, you can't do dishes and we can't do laundry. No baths for my filthy kids. No shower for James to take before going to work. We are camping.

Our friend James tiled our floor for us. He wasn't supposed to do it by himself but that's what wound up happening. My James was busy packing and unpacking. Word to the wise, moving with a 7 month old is gonna s l o w you down. James did a great job tiling, it looks real nice. Now my James has to get it sealed, grouted, water heater installed, and install the washer and dryer.

Okay, so what about the other projects? Well, a few posts ago I told you I spotted mold on the ceiling of the garage. Yeah. It's gotten worse. James made a rule that no one uses that bathroom. Well, someone, I won't name names, broke his rule. So instead of pulling out the trees growing into our foundation, instead of fixing our stairs, instead of creating a deer proof fence, instead of anything else, we must now open a can of worms and fix it. A nasty, potentially barfy, can of worms. Oh. Joy. Just in time for summer!

Goodnight Raccoons

The other day our dog Allie took of chasing two gigantic raccoons. We called her off of them immediately because we saw them before she did and so we knew what she was up to.

I noticed our neighbors had a heavy duty, sorta intense garbage system. It looked like it would repel bears but I knew it was to keep the coons away.

Our friends were over last night helping us settle in for our first official night of residing in our new home. I was telling them that I hoped to not hear any weird noises in the night. I must have set the stage for a unique night with that remark.

As James and the kids settled in for the night and everyone drifted off to sleep I started hearing noises. Crashing noises. Not loud and sorta subtle. I thought it was deer eating my plants but I knew all the plants were safe. I couldn't sleep because I could hear something. James finally heard it too and decided something was on the deck. For now our beds are in the living room. We are waiting for the bedrooms to be painted and carpeted. So we peaked out the blinds but saw nothing. I didn't think coons ate plants so I drifted off to sleep.

I was awoken later by James. He was by the door to the deck shining a light out on the deck. I asked what was going on. He told me that he was awoken by a coon scratching at the door trying to get in. WTF. These assholes climbed our stairs, climbed up the railings and entered the deck domain. Its not an inviting deck for critters. Theres no staircase to it. you gotta want to get up there. The door on the deck into the house happens to have bad scratch marks on it from what I thought was a cat. Maybe a dog. Perhaps a coon. It's on the inside too, but only the stain is worn down. No scratches.

So here's James, half naked, flashlight in one hand, plunger in the other, door open, kids sleeping, middle of the night, trying to scare off some coons that have no fear. He's trying so hard to be quiet and get them off our deck. He shuts the door dragging with him a box, takes a step and lands on a squeaky rubber chicken. Luckily, no one stirs.

In the morning I see the box. It's been torn open and ransacked for birdseed. Dammit. How do people have bird feeders? The only things that get my seed are fat squirrels and now fat coons. I got on Pinterest and found out what coons hate. As soon as I can get to Costco I am buying cinnamon, black pepper and Epsom salt. It's on coons, it's on.

Goodbye House

I am going to miss this house. Sometimes I see Will in parts of the house and I think I could burst into tears.

We became a family under this roof. Both kids were brought home to this house. Will learned how to be a boy here. So many, many memories are about to be taken away.

As I pack the house I simply can't imagine anyone else living here before or after us. I walk through the rooms and I wonder what great experiences were held here. I wonder if other kids will live here. I really wonder if anyone will have it as good here as we did.

It's kinda sad leaving the house your boy grew up in. The only house your daughter has ever known. The living room they play in everyday. The room your boy slept in on his own. The window that watched so many things come and go. The yard you played and gardened in so many times. The kitchen your boy demolished. The bathtub you bathed your children in. It's so sad to see it go.

Our neighbors are even sad to see us go. I hoped it wouldn't be so hard. Keely will never remember this place and Will in time may forget. He came into his own here. So many fun, awesome and joyous times were held here. I feel like I am leaving a part of my soul here. A huge chapter is closing. I am getting older. I am excited about our new place. Really, I am. It's going to be such fun. This place though will always be so special to me and I thank it so much for being so good to us.

Where Is Frank?

I knew yesterday I would have to get to the house early. I did not realize I would have to go tearing out of here like a mad woman.

I was awake and laying with the kids. Will woke up wondering where his daddy was. I told him he was working and he cried for a minute. He then told me to get up, put my boobies away (I am nursing Keely), put my eyes in (my contact lenses) and brush my teeth. With that said I was up and at em. I got a call from James but he hung up. Next thing I knew I had a voicemail from a number I didn't know. I listened. It was Frank from Home Depot saying he would be catching a ferry and get to us between 9 and 11. I called back immediately. You see we went with the Oak Harbor Home Depot specifically because they were not going to charge us for them taking the ferry. Here they are now taking the ferry! He assured me there would be no charge to us. The island guy was too busy to do it so he got the job. He said he would be on the 8:30 ferry. That's when panic really set in. It was 7:15. I had to leave in 45 minutes. I told Will we needed to bust a move to meet Frank at the new house. He told me he loved Frank.

The kids needed diaper changes, dressing, breakfast, Allie needed food, a potty, I needed to get dressed, pack the car still and have coffee. My mom was going to ride with us and she was still in Ballard. 45 minutes was not going to be enough. I flew through everything. No coffee. Allie didn't eat but she peed. Will ate breakfast in the car and I managed to pack a few things in a cooler. My mom said she would catch a later ferry.

We made the ferry. We got to the house with Frank. We were greeted by two small yapping dogs in our driveway. They belong to the 5 pack beer guy. They remained on our property for a good portion of the day. I took Frank in and showed him where to measure. I asked him if he thought it was the carpet that stunk. He had this funny look on his face that he was clearly uncomfortable. He told me I needed to paint the floorboards with something called Kilz. He said it would lock out the odor and other animals wouldn't pick up the scent. That's kinda where he really got me. Allie won't pee in a house but other animals we may own might AND people who visit may have an animal that will. Done. Decided.

Frank was telling me about his buddies truck that had been stolen. He was going to finish up here and go get the truck. Quite unprofessional but if that Kilz stuff works great. We wanted to know how much it would be for Home Depot to rip and remove the carpet but we had to change our tune. Frank said they wouldn't put that stuff on for you. They would rip out the old, put in the new and the funk would always be there. Well, for that cost I am making sure that funk is gone. My mom ripped out the carpet in all three rooms. That stuff is so heavy. It was so gross. I rolled the carpet and saw it was stained with orange/brown circles everywhere. It was so filthy. We were thinking we would just carpet clean the place. Then we decided to just buck up and re carpet. Wow. Yes. That carpet needed to go ASAP. After Frank left to go rescue his buddies truck Will must have asked me 100 times where Frank was.

Mom Of The Year

The honor does not go to me though I did try to take it. It goes to my mom. She removed the correctly guessed bat. She nearly barfed.

We took all the food out of the kitchen. I told her she could take the kids for a car ride but she had me take them. I tried to offer her anything she might need. I told her there was a pile of boxes in the corner, pointed out the paper towels and the disinfectant wipes. She insisted she was fine. So, the kids and I headed out for paint. Specifically, Kilz paint, we are dealing with the wrath of animal odor in this place.

10 minutes into driving I get a call from my mom. I am a little worried she is calling for back up or calling to ask where something is. I answer and she tells me the deed is done. She said she put a box under the light fixture and it plopped right in. She said the smell was horrific and she thinks it could be why the house smelled in the first place. I asked where it currently was and she informed me it was on the deck. I also asked if she took a picture for our viewers. She told me I could do that when I got home. A few minutes later my phone buzzed and it was a picture of the bat with flies around it. A stylist couldn't have done a better job. That picture can't help giving the willy's.