More blisters

My parents are back from Tucson. They have been gone since April, the beginning of the house hunting phase. They had not seen any of the houses I had looked at. I invited them up to view the big house. I was going to be in town for the end of Trevor's camp. They were coming through on their way to the beach. My wonderful girlfriend had Trevor all week and chauffeured him everywhere. He had a play date with a friend. He went to conditioning camp every day. She really ran him around on top of doing her own children. Today was the day to pick him up.





Riley was supposed to come with me, but he was exhausted by the farm weekend. Another trip this soon was more than he wanted to do. He wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep. I am pretty sure he just grew half an inch overnight. He got up for his morning pills and some cereal then went back to bed and slept another 4 hours. I left him behind as a result.





I had thought to take Riley up to his new high school and have him talk to a councilor about next year and his electives, but it can wait until August when the councilors are back in school. Today was their last day in the office for the summer.





Trevor learned the proper form to lift weights on the bar this week. Monday, he injured himself and pulled a muscle trying for 200. Today, having been shown proper technique by the coach, he lifted 300 pounds. He wants to sleep in tomorrow. He has conditioning and band practice for the fourth of July parade. Maybe early bed time will help get him up in time tomorrow. Wish me luck.





Meanwhile, on the way home, I arranged to look at a Viking stove top. I got a little lost so I had to call Riley and have him look up the address on the computer and talk me through from where I was driving to where I needed to be. I picked up the Viking gas cook top I saw on Craigslist. It is lovely. I could never afford a viking brand appliance if it weren't used. New this stove top runs $2200 starting. I paid $825. Tom didn't even blink when I had him look at the picture on line. He said get it. We had better get this house because now I am collecting appliances to go in it.


This six burner gas drop in cook top is gorgeous. Next week I am looking at Viking double ovens to match, have to have wall ovens if I am doing a cook top. Its going to be a show kitchen since I really don't cook. Tom will enjoy using it though. I just have to come up with a microwave for me.





Viking and Wolf are top appliances for high end homes and for the real chef. I am really thrilled at my purchase. The kitchen will live up to the quality of the house and neighborhood. The dishwasher is already stainless so it will match. We will eventually have to buy a fridge but we can make do for a while with the one we have.





I finishing up on our old house yard. The five yards of bark I ordered arrived. With my helpers we got it all spread. The weed bags were picked up by the garbage man at the same time. The boys stood and watched as the garbage man tossed each heavy bag as if it was full of light cotton balls. They were impressed at how he made those bags we had struggled to drag to the street look so light. I couldn't help watching either. We got back to work and finished spreading the bark in the yard in a few hours.





I wanted to stop by the new house and do some weeding in my new yard before meeting up with my girlfriend and retrieving Trevor. I payed off my helpers so I could leave and head north.


With Mom coming to see the house for the first time the next day, I wanted to try and give a good first impression. I brought my clippers and drove over to the new house where I worked on the mass of overgrowth for another four hours. I cleared enough around the house that there was good access to all the doors. It is still an out of control mess but I can see that I can get it done with time.





While working on the front yard I noticed the neighbor's gardener leaving. I stopped and asked him if he would bid me on how much it would cost to remove all the blackberries in the back and the ivy in the front. Half the drive is now covered with ivy growing out from the bank above the house. He said he would call his boss who would stop by a little later. I continued to work away at the brambles while I waited.





When the boss arrived, I showed him the lay of the land, which we could now see as I had cleared a small path to the back deck through the blackberries. As we walked I clipped. He turned to me and said in accented English that he had to tell me he had never met "An American white woman who worked as hard as I did" . The progress I had made was obvious. I told him I just wanted my movers to be able to reach the front door unimpeded. I did crack a smile. I almost asked if he had an opening on his crew as I needed a job.





Eventually I had to quit. It was after 6:00, I ached and had blisters on my hands. I notices my arms were all scraped up from the brambles, but I hadn't noticed while I was working. The rain and been intermittent so I was soaked through and filthy dirty. I headed out to retrieve Trevor from his play date and went over to my girlfriend's house for dinner. I had to change before I could sit on her furniture I was that dirty.





Tom joined us for dinner. He was tired from work so he only hung out for a short while before heading off to bed upstairs. I had brought him a package of books he had ordered on fuel cells. I thought he wanted to read his new material. He was snoring when I checked on him.





This morning Trevor was delivered to his last conditioning class for the week. I went back to the house to do a bit more weeding before my parents arrived for their first view. I picked up Trevor and did more weeding while we waited. My parents called around noon. They were almost in town and wanted to meet at a restaurant for lunch then follow us up to the house. We had a lovely buffet lunch, then headed to the house.





What can I say, the place is huge. It goes on and on; The big game room, all the decks, the dining area, the kitchen, the laundry, the living room area, the big windows. We hadn't even gotten to the bedrooms. Then there is the three car garage and the basement. For being abandoned for all this time, the house is still solid. No water was in the basement this time. No mold, which only makes me feel better about the construction of the house. Its a big solid home.





I think my parents liked it but were overwhelmed by the size. There is a lot of work to do. Once the yard is under control we can take it easy for a while, though. We wont start any projects immediately. We will want to study the lay out.





Mom thought I should leave the washer and dryer just off the kitchen. It does make for one level living when we are older. but I can always bring them back downstairs for that eventuality. Leave the plumbing in place so I can always put them back in. I do need a pantry though and that is the logical closet, or put the pantry out in the garage. So many choices, so many decisions.





The bid was $1850 to remove all the blackberries and ivy. $400 off if they don't have to drag the blackberries from the back yard up to the street to be hauled away. I am thinking I can do it myself, I will just get a dumpster delivered once I have enough clipped down to fill it. I made a big dent. Tom will have fun with his power tools and his giant steel bladed weed eater. I would like to put that money towards the appliances I am buying for the kitchen and the gas hook up. It would more than cover the costs of the used Viking stove top and double ovens, justifying the splurge.





There is a 50% discount to the cost of the gas hook up if we do the trenching ourselves; two feet deep, six inches wide with sand in the bottom to run the gas line from the street to the house. The gas company said it was $1700 because it was across the street, adding distance. One of the other homes looks like they are either repairing a sewer line or putting in gas just down the street. There is a trench being dug in their yard. We want to put in a gas fire place also.





We'll have to prioritize our projects. Tom might enjoy renting a small tractor and just bulldozing the back yard and digging that trench. There is an obvious spot to put it in at the side of the house, but first the brambles and ivy need to be removed.





I am getting excited. Our Realtor said this morning, when she unlocked the house so I could show my mom, the second bank had requested the same papers the first bank asked for, records of the seller's net worth. Copies had been delivered yesterday to the second bank, since the Realtors already had them in hand. That was a 7 to ten day window of processing last time. We are thinking this bank may be faster. I may have to move the move date one more time, but I am told there is great confidence that we will not be refused or turned down at this point. I am thinking two weeks and we will own that great big house.





Positive vibes, Baby. Positive vibes.