Category Archives: home

Sink Drama

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This house has brought us lots of drama…but the sink was something we didn’t expect to be so difficult!

 

Mom....pick a faucet and lets go!

 

 

First we went to Lowes….which is where A had all that fun in the photo.  My mom and I went to get a sink and a faucet…b/c the countertop guy was waiting for the measurements so he could cut the top for the sink.  So we found the only 35″ stainless steel single bowl sink they sell.  It was “Elkay” which was recommended to us, and we brought that sucker home with a pretty Kohler faucet.

When we got into the house next, I found a “Stop Work Order” on the front door.  The city (or us) were very lucky I happened to want to let T out the front door b/c if I hadn’t, I would NEVER have seen this.  The front door is “just for looks” and pretty much never gets used.

Apparently, someone from the city came by and spied into our windows without telling anyone and saw that we removed the BROKEN SINK.  How dare we!

So now we needed a licensed plumber to install this sink.  What was that you say…..yup…$$$$$$$$$$.

He came…and opened the sink box that I was so proud of picking out all by myself for a STEAL of $199, and said…”uh Miss…this sink is missing all the brackets and I can’t do anything with it…sorry…replace it and call me to come back…”  True Story.

DAMMIT.  So I bundled A up and met Aunt D at Lowes to return the stupid sink and even better news…Guy at Lowes:  ” Miss, this is a horrible sink, and every box we have has a damaged sink inside.  I think you should let us order a better sink for you” There it is again…$$$$$$$$$.  So I need a sink right?!?!  I really wasn’t enjoying washing 4 bottles a day in the bathroom riddled with ants (for another post).  I agree to order a better sink.  They tell me it will arrive at your door in 2 days.  FF to the next morning, JUST KIDDING MISS……Can get it to the store in 5 days, and its going to cost more b/c its a rush.

Cue emergency freak out panic attack phone call to hard working busy in meetings husband.  He managed to find a sink online and ordered it from CA and had it at our door the following day by 12pm.  Pretty damn lucky I am!

I happen to love this sink.  I wasn’t sure I could love a sink this much, but I do.  I knew I could love bathtubs, and countertops, and floors, and shower heads & knobs, but kitchen sinks?  I sort of thought they were all the same….

Introducing…my pretty sink!

This was what we passed on…

Isn’t ours nicer?!

ok….soon there will be an update on our whole kitchen…

 

Saying goodbye to A’s first home…

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A’s first home was in Brooklyn.  She won’t remember anything about it, and at times, I would like to forget about it too, but really, aside from the drain fly infestation, loud downstairs tenant, breezy shower, tiny downstairs bathroom, dumb non-functioning garage, very difficult parking and stupid landlord, it was a good house.

It provided us with great memories of A’s first 7 months & I hope we never forget it.  I loved the paint colors we chose…and I loved the open yet separate living room/dining room.  I loved our big bedroom and A’s little nursery.  I loved the location near Auntie E.  I loved Food City our little grocery store, and that our walks in the morning took us to the water as we walked by mansions we could never afford but loved to look at.  I loved being able to let T out in the yard.  I loved that it was the LK’s first house and how all of our furniture and “stuff” from our tiny 1 br apt filled up the house.  I even loved the packing tape that was stuck on the LR walls from the HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner for the surprise party I threw my husband 2 weeks after we moved in.  I really loved the way our couch came in the house and out….through the window.  I loved how close it was to Auntie H.  Of course she never dropped S at our house when it was 15 minutes away…but we did see much more of her then!

A loved the house too.

Here’s some photos from our final day there.  She never knew there was so much open space!  (If only she knew at that time that space would be something she’d never want for again!)

Moved out…but not in

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The move went well.  We loaded the POD & now almost all of our stuff is in our driveway at the new house waiting for us to move in next weekend.  For now, that leaves us with an Aerobed & a portable crib, eating on the floor…well…doing everything on the floor really.  Not so good for the changing a moving baby part, but we’re gettin’ creative!  By creative, I mean I can change her “in motion”.  Fun times.

Lots of new stuff going on, including how A is now 7 months but I’m posting about that when we’re staying by Gramma’s later this week!

A has a bad cough and has to be on a nebulizer.  THAT SUCKS.  She hates it and screams and kicks and I think she said “I hate you Mom” but it was unclear as I held the mask over her face.

She DOES say MAMA!!  So yea, she said Dada first, so what…she says Mama now and it melts me!  I know she has no idea what she’s doing and I DON’T CARE!  She’s getting very good at the imitation thing.  She’s pulling up on everything, which means she’s falling down everywhere, although she’s gotten much more sturdy on her feet in the last week.  Since we’ve pretty much moved everything out of the house, she has a lot of room to crawl around which she is loving.  She doesn’t have much to grab onto, but never fear, she grabs the walls and climbs up there!  I’m really excited we have no stairs in the new place, one less thing for me to think about!

A’s not really allowed in the new place yet, there’s lots of dust and debris everywhere, so here’s a photo of where she’s been spending most of her days lately!

I think we’re going to have to hide our keys soon….

In other news, her tooth is huge.  ok, not huge, but very sharp.  Since it started to come like 2 months ago, it sort of stopped progressing, and just stayed “almost there”…but yesterday, my pretty, cranky, hungry girl and I were keeping busy while we listened to the world’s longest window demonstration, and I put my hand to her face and SHE BIT ME!  With a sharp tooth!  Its crazy, and it freaks me out a little.

Off to load the car with more stuff and get moving before miss A gets up for the day.

7 month post next up.

What a mess!

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Here’s part of what’s been keeping us out of the blogging world the past few weeks.

Our new house!

I’m in love – even though its been a LOT of work so far, and it’s going to be A LOT more work…I don’t care…and as crazy as the old lady who wanted to sell/didn’t want to sell/wanted to sell/didn’t want to sell/refused to leave/finally sold, I’m crazier, and I’m never leaving!  A’s totally going to have to tie me up and drag me out!  She said she’s cool with that.

Here’s a before tour:

View 1: Dining Room

More Dining Room

 

ok, that’s the dining room.  Check out the SWEET paneling!  its gone now, but what’s NOT gone is the awesome ceiling with all those pretty highhats.  These people loved lights.  The only thing they loved more than lights, is light switches.  You can only see about half of the highhats in this photo, but there are 6 light switches.  Some work for the living room, some operate only 1 light, most we’ll never know what they do!  One thing I do know now is how freaking expensive highhat replacements are.  If we had to replace all of them in the house, I’d have to figure out how to breast feed 7 months later because we’d have no more money left for A’s food!

Living Room

Living Room facing foyer

This is the living room, as seen from the foyer.  Holy mirrors batman!  I love them.  They’re so 70’s and I’m going to channel Tim Gunn and make it work.  There’s certainly no hiding from yourself in this house!  Also, the floors were originally covered with a sexy white stained up carpet, but the other LK works very fast, and it was pulled up before I could pull out the camera!

Master Bedroom

Here’s the master bedroom.  All I can say is padded wall.  I don’t know who these people think they are, telling us we’re so crazy we need padded walls, but the biggest surprise came when we pulled down that padding.  There are 2 windows behind there!  Light!!  Some more fun can be seen where the old owners decorated AROUND their furniture.  I am pretty sure that any furniture they had, remained in place for 40 years.  You can see the outline of the dresser & nightstand that was wallpapered around!  Oh yea – and on the top left, there’s the start of the best closet system I could want in my house!  There are closets for EVERYTHING here!

A's room!

Moldy wall around the AC unit….now GONE!  A’s not going to know what to do with so much space!  Her room now is pretty tiny, and she never really gets to play in there.  I think I’m going to take some inspiration from future husband M’s room since A had such a great time playing in there last week!  Now where will I ever find a “dreidel dreidel” singing teddy bear and a yodeling sheep?!

A's Bathroom

Fun huh!!  This….has not changed! A gets to enjoy this pretty funky bathroom in all its 70’s glory for a while.  I think with a few trips to HomeGoods, I can make this more “fun” than “funny”.

Guest Room

Pretty pretty formica right?!  There was similar furniture in A’s room too.  These took an entire weekend to take apart and throw away.  Good thing our city has unlimited bulk pickup!  In this particular room there were 3 separate cabinets specially designed for a TV.  Why???  Oh yea, behind this, on the right side of the photo, they covered up another window!

Kitchen

More Kitchen

Oh my new old kitchen!  The first photo is a real before, the second is my start to priming!  We ordered new countertops and are going all white.  Thats right Auntie E – more of mommy taking the color out of A’s life.  I need a blank canvas before I can think about color!  The floors are staying and so are the appliances except the oven.  We’ll call them oldies but goodies!