The Fastest 3 Minutes in Blog Posting

Here are a million photos in an attempt to catch everyone up on what's going on. Rather than going through all the boring diatribe of how we made each purchase, you get my version of performance art. Posting pictures and throwing out words at them. Enjoy.

Picture 1: We purchased three filing cabinets complete with keys. These will help me to organize the many pieces of paperwork that are cluttering our kitchen counter and study floor. I have yet to actual file anything but it's nice to know that I can.

Pictures 2 and 3: We finally bought a bed to replace that horrific IKEA one. It was about $300 cheaper than expected and suits us very well. The only problem at the moment is the kittens constantly scratch the surface every time they climb on and off. You can also see a fairly simple rug that we bought from Target. We are hoping that this keeps the kittens from demolishing our refinished hardwood floors.

Picture 4: This is Laura's new 'vanity' that we've put in the guest bedroom. It will serve as both her place of beautification and work desk. Somehow we managed to fit this into the front seat of her car but that is another story for another time.

Picture 5: We finally broke down and bought a nice 22" TV for the living room to replace the 14" debacle that we previously had set up. It looks nice and makes lazy moments that much better.

Pictures 6 through 9: You may remember just how disgusting the upstairs bathroom was when we moved in. After repeated efforts to clean the shower doors, we decided to rip them out and instead put up a shower curtain. We've installed a towel rack, a hand towel fixture, purchased a new bathmat, and replaced the old calcium fortified bath fixtures. I re-caulked the tub as well, although we may be forced to pull that out and replace it with 100% silicon caulk if it breaks down like the basement bathroom.

Pictures 10, 15 and 16: We bought this armoire off of craigslist with the intention of putting it next to the fireplace in our bedroom. It is enormous and possibly 1/2" too big for that space. For the time being it is downstairs in the living room until we can recruit some strong people to help us carry it upstairs. However, it may just remain downstairs as a coat closet if we can find a different armoire for upstairs.

Pictures 11 and 12: I just bought this table today. It's a zinc-topped console table that will likely reside next to the fireplace in our dining room. I'm not sure what we will do with it but I love these kinds of tables and hadn't spent money in the past half hour, so...

Pictures 13 and 14: Our new (by new I mean used) sofa. We bought it for $200 off craigslist thinking the kittens will tear apart anything we buy right now. It's fairly comfortable although the center sinks in a little more than the outside.

Pictures 16 through 18: On a whim Laura and I thought we'd learn how to tile, starting with the downstairs bar. Sadly, it took about 3 hours to decide on a tile pattern that will cost more than it probably should. Hopefully it all goes well and we're pleased with the final product. These are just potential layouts, but ultimately we'll need some black border and trim pieces before we're ready to lay the tile and grout.

A is for Absence...

and apathy. There is a direct correlation between the two. My general apathy has led to an absence of new postings to this blog. So if absence makes the heart grow fonder, what does apathy do to the body? I should probably not stick around to find out.

But in all seriousness, I will make a good faith effort to revitalize the blog...starting this weekend. Laura and I haven't taken any recent pictures but we are now the proud owners of a new TV (upgrade from 14" to 22"), a slightly used sofa, and an armoire that's too big for any nook or cranny.

The house is actually clean for once thanks to Laura and we've pulled out all of the old, moldy fixtures in the upstairs bathroom. I've re-caulked both tubs at this point but was duped by the DAP kitchen and bath caulk. Instead of curing and leaving us with nice clean tub edges, the caulk chose to break down again into paste upon contact with water. A few quick google searches taught us that 1) this is not an uncommon problem with this brand of caulk, and 2) we will have to pull out all of the new caulk and replace it with 100% silicon caulk. This means that I spent perhaps $40 and two days so that I could pay ACE hardware another $15. Sweet.

I have now worked out a system with Wells Fargo bank where they will pull bi-weekly mortgage payments from my bank account directly. This ensures that 1) I will never make a late payment, and 2) interest payments on the mortgage will drastically decrease over the life of the mortgage. Our next goal is to save up enough money each year that we can make an extra payment or two directly to the principal. It's not essential but definitely desireable.

There are loads of other things that Laura and I have talked about for the house, but they escape me at the moment. I'm sure they'll trickle out over the course of the next few weeks. And we haven't yet rented the basement. Hopefully that will happen sometime in the next month or two. For the time being, making the mortgage payments has been a non-issue.

I feel as if this post has been boring, so here's a joke. A bear walks into a bar and sits down. He says to the bartender, "I'll have...a beer." The bartender says, "Why the pause?" The bear looks down at his hands and after a few minutes responds, "What? These? I was born with them."

Get it? Pause...Paws. Hilarious.