That’s what Patrick is feeling like screaming at me lately. Though he doesn’t – he is way too sweet to do so. I do deserve it, though. I made plans several months ago to move out of this room, which is supposed to be a dining room, but, functions as my office. I decided that I would give this room to Patrick so that for the boys’ last few years here, at least, they could each have their own rooms. I have been wanting to give them their own rooms for a long time and it has just never worked out.

I think we have finally figured it out, though. Mark had built me a wall, blocking off the living room from this room and so, while doorless, it could function as a perfectly good bedroom. (And it will perfectly facilitate midnight kitchen raids for ravenously hungry teens, as well.) Mark is going to give up the space in the corner of the living room where he had his desk and computer and I will set up shop there. I’ll have my desk and one bookshelf. Now what to do with the rest of all this stuff?

Well, I figured, I’ve got plenty of boxes that I still haven’t been able to unpack since moving here in 2006 – and though I’ve missed ‘my stuff’ – I have managed fine without it. So I will just add some more stuff to the ‘Lisa’s packed up stuff’ section of the basement. I will leave out important business books, industry magazines, training materials, and of course all of my My Very Own Mail supplies. And maybe a few precious books that I just don’t want to be without. And the rest will just get packed up.

So why haven’t I just DONE IT, then? Well, have you ever seen the show about those people that hoard? I’m afraid I’m a wee bit like those people. In my defense, this room has never been set up or outfitted with enough shelves or furniture that could help me organize my stuff. But I am about as sentimental as they come. So anyhoo, my stuff is quite a mess. It’s overwhelming to try to figure out where to start. I have ’started’ a few times, but, haven’t gotten much done. Then life swings a curveball my way – migraines, sicknesses, and all the milliontyseventy obligations of family life…and then I don’t touch it for a week or two…or seven…

Read the rest of this entry »

This house. Oh, this house. I just got through telling you about the oh-so-loverly old kitchen appliances we have …and I go to take a shower and it is, yet again, tepid very quickly! This is a two story house with most of the house on the second floor. The garage is on the bottom floor and the water heater is in the garage. The kitchen sink is directly above the water heater – so you better be darn careful when you want to use hot water in the kitchen. We get scalded all. the. time.

Then you have the upstairs bathroom (well, there are two, but, one you can’t shower in – don’t get me started) and it is on the opposite end of the house from the kitchen. So the hot water heater is a good distance from the place where I would like some hot water to pour over my head and over my body and let me bask in its loveliness. So that loveliness doesn’t really happen. Unless, of course, you count the first forty-five seconds of the shower. (To be fair, it lasts a little longer than that, but, NOT MUCH! I am so not even kidding.

You cannot take a bath, because, by the time the bath would fill up – the water would be freezing cold. My daughter sometimes gives in and takes a bath in 2-3 inches of water, just because she really wants a bath. Oh boy, do I ever miss a good, hot bubble bath! (We’ve been here 3 1/2 years in this house.) So it’s a temperature problem, but, also a ‘water pressure’ problem. My husband tells me not to call it that, because, it’s not really water pressure. Very little water comes out very gently. I’m no plumber, but, I call that water pressure. And that is the main problem that the original owner, John, had so many plumbers out here for – and none of them could ever fix it.

So let’s get back to this afternoon, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »

I have no idea what’s wrong with these kiddos! They just don’t like our microwave oven. I mean, gosh! It’s only from 1987 – hahaha! Ok, truth be told, they don’t like any of our kitchen appliances …and more truth be told, neither do I! If there’s one thing this house has provided us, it is lots and lots of stuff to make fun of and carry on about!

Back to the crazy microwave – this thing does the funniest (oddest) things to our food. You have to be very watchful and careful and also quite ready to just completely throw away your popcorn when you’re making microwave popcorn. Let’s say you pop it for 3:33 (that’s the time we used in our microwave when I was growing up!) …and it doesn’t get all the way popped. So the next time you put it for just 3 minutes. And it burns! Less time – and it burns!! Or better yet – man, this one really baffles me – you put it in for some amount of time based on your last experience, and it not only burns it, but, it also doesn’t cook it! What? Yes. It’s the funniest thing! The bag puffs up a little bit, to maybe about half an inch – so you know that popcorn is not popped! But on the bottom layer – it’s burned! Isn’t that just the craziest thing?!

It’s just nuts. And the dishwasher is just as nutty. And the oven, oh gawd, don’t get me started on that damn thing! Bake cookies at my house? Yeah, pfft – good luck with that one! You can make dinner, without much trouble – but, baking – nah. That doesn’t turn out so well. And the refrigerator is like an old lemon car, falling apart here, there, and everywhere. LOL

The kids and I went digging around, looking at every corner of these things looking for the years they were made. I think I found a 1987 on the oven, as well. It’s kind of hard to tell, because, of the way the numbers are – it might not really be a 1987 at all. But if it is, I think I figured out that the man who built this house – the only previous owner, went on a ‘fix up the house’ shopping spree in 1987 and then was such a penny pincher, that he never did upgrade anything. I’m surprised, really, that the appliances aren’t older than they are. From the picture we’ve pieced together of this man, he was not really a ’spender’. I bet that year he just found some really good shopping deals and went for it! Or it might have been that his wife put her foot down. I can ’see’ the conversation in my mind.

“John, we’ve lived here for twenty-six years now! These appliances need to be updated! You’re just being silly! Now let’s go compare shopping prices and see what we can find! I’m not going to live with these rickety things anymore!”

He was so into football and his army buddies, that kitchen appliances just were not on his list of priorities. I know a guy (kinda well) who doesn’t like to spend money on needs *ahem* – he’d much rather spend money on wants. I was just explaining that to his son the other day. Maybe John was like that, too.

One thing that I know that he did, in fact, try to update – is the plumbing. From what I’ve been told, he had multiple people out here that tried to fix it. And I’ll tell you what – if there’s one thing that makes me move out of this house faster than anything, it’s gonna be the plumbing. The showers here just plain SUCK! When I was at a hotel last week, I just stood in that shower and enjoyed. every. single. minute. of it!!!! And then I took another – and then I took another!! Hahaha!

I don’t know, I was thinking about it, but, there are so many things I wanna do online. I wanna get that snazzy razzy Wordpress 2.5 on this blog and on Bookworm Broadcast and on Reliable Home Repair and Remodeling. And there are a million and one Hippie posts languishing in my head, as this place has been fairly neglected as of late. Oh, you noticed, did you? Well, heck – you think this place is neglected – my living room is stacked up with Christmas decorations!

Our living room is not exactly a room, yet. It is in mid-renovation, and the renovations are sort of – ok, completely – at a standstill. So the room is half torn up (half the pergo floor pulled up, half the door frames and stuff between the ceiling and wall taken off [what the heck is that called? some contractor's wife I am, huh? I'll think of it, gimme time! Besides, Mark'll be home soon - I'll just ask him, so there!]) and kind of just used for storage and stuff. The kids have their computer in there and I have a HUGE poinsetta in there, and a wooden rocking chair and that’s it. So don’t go thinking all my Christmas decorations are all up decorating my house or anything crazy like that! Sheesh! They’re piled up in neat piles on the floor in the corner of the room, on the hearth, and on the three card tables, ok? Good Heavens, whaddya think I am? A slouch?

So anyway, March 24th was Mark’s birthday and all he asked for was for those things to be boxed up. (It’s a thing with him, he buys himself CRAP all year, then doesn’t really let us buy him much for bday/Xmas.) And one thing after another happened last week that I didn’t get it done. Legitimate things. Really. I swear.

And I had SUCH a killer migraine on Sunday, that Monday I had the migraine hangover. Yesterday I have no excuse for whatsoever. Today I had some crazy TIRED attack, kinda like when you’re coming down with a sinus infection. Dead dog. That’s been me – all day. Weird.

Then about an hour ago, I took some Excedrin. Now I’m a bit hyped up. And I fully realize that I should get my ass in there and just clean up that stuff! But I have all these ideas in my head that neeeeeeed to be unleashed! I want to launch a hardcore social networking plan of attack for Mark’s site (listed above – Reliable…) and I also need to fix that site. First I got it WITHOUT the dashes – then I screwed up the WP install, royally. So I went ahead and bought the domain with the dashes, thinking that’d be better for SEO purposes, anyway. Mark and EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of his clients hate the dashes, with the burning, scorching heat of a thousand SUNS, though. So then I had a friend set up the UNDASHED site to redirect to the DASHED site and all was right in the world. Until a few weeks ago, when I noticed the redirected, dash-free domain was no longer redirecting. Gah. Back to square one.

However, I recently MANUALLY uploaded and installed WordPress on Bookworm. I even set up the freaking database all by myself! I was am so proud!!! And I figure that all that tinkering – successfully – could quite possibly mean that I could fix this whole RELIABLE REMODELING fiasco all by my smart self, too!

So there’s another cool online thing I wanna get to – and I’ve got several reviews to write. But alas, those bloody Christmas decorations are burning a hole into my back, screeching from the floor behind me – “Lisa, come now, come and box us up – hurry, get started, so then when he walks in and at least sees that you’ve begun, he’ll be so relieved…..Lisa, come….”

Damn holidays! I hate ‘em! We’re not getting these suckers out next year!

**UPDATE** I just got off the phone with Mark. He is at his brother’s house, helping him put up some CROWN MOULDING in the bathroom. Yes, folks – the stuff between the wall and the ceiling – CROWN MOULDING. Irritated I didn’t think of it on my own. Funny, though, that he mentions it before I get the chance to ask him. Or not. He is a contractor. So there you have it.

It’s driving me absolutely nutty having my living room in the basement, and having my living room half torn up and empty! I’m just getting so sick of it. It wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t have to go through the garage to get to the basement hangout room. I totally understand the reasoning for it – keeping it empty until we do the renovations so we don’t have a whole ton of furniture to move when it’s time to do the renovations. And so we don’t put off doing the renovations, because, we don’t feel like moving a ton of furniture. It’s just starting to really get to me. It would be nice to shop for some discount furniture and just get a couple of pieces, like maybe two soft chairs, so that we’d have someplace comfortable to sit up here, besides on our beds. We had a new thrift shop open up in town and it is huge. I’m keeping my eyes out there for some decent chairs. I’ll just be so glad when we can make this house our home. It sure would make this whole transition easier!

We moved from a house with two bathrooms to a house with three bathrooms, only to find that we can only use one! That is such s bummer! We can use the toilet and the sink in ours, but, we have to shower in the kids’/guest bathroom. And then there is a shower down in the basement. Mark has recently gotten that one working, but, I would love to have the one in our master bathroom working!

We have a really nice shower in there, too. It is stand-up shower, with no bath, and it is very large and looks like it would be very nice and comfy to shower in. And it would be easy to move around in – some stand-up showers are so tiny you can barely move. This is not like this at all. The only thing is that it doesn’t have a little seat in it – that would be really cool.

But we don’t even have the hardware in place right now for our shower. So I’ve been looking at some shower faucets online and I’ve found some really nice ones that I like.

Unfortunately, I think we actually have more of a problem than just needing the hardware. I can’t remember if it is a leak or what, I just know that I want to shower in my own room.

When we do finally get it working, I would love to have a hand-held shower head – those are so great!

I tell you what – if we got our own shower, and we could have a hand-held shower, I’d be one happy mama! I’d look like this guy: