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altarflameI was a whirlwind of productivity today. It was a nice change from being a heap of frustrated confusion (i.e., sitting at the computer for HOURS and HOURS combing real estate and conversion van options and making budgets in Excel).
-De-cluttered the entire main part of the house
-Swept all the tile
-Mopped all the tile but the dining room
-Vaccumed all of the living room and hallway
-emptied and refilled the dishwasher
-cleared off and scrubbed the dining table
-scrubbed the counters
That was with a lot of help and cooperation from older children. Also...
-made out checks and put them in the mail, for my last surgeon, Homestead Hospital's pathology lab, Newton-Wellesley Hospital's pathology lab, and PATH's upcoming campout
-sent emails I've been avoiding, including RSVP'ing to said campout and assuring certain people I am still alive
-ordered the Nicoletta Ceccoli print. Yeah, that's right, I spent $300 on a 14x14 lithograph. This astounds even me. But we budgeted in advance for it, and I think it's worth it. Combined with the bills I paid (which totalled almost thirteen thousand dollars) and the PATH fee (a "mere" $50), I was feeling faint by the time I had a kid come to the door selling magazines for a cause. But I got 2 years of Ranger Rick on the grounds that it's for homeschooling and we used to love getting Your Big Backyard.
We had GREAT homeschool time...we worked in their science journals, doing things like counting breaths and heartbeats at rest and after 3 minutes of jumping jacks, and making finger (ink) and lip (makeup) prints of three of us, to compare, on paper. I love that guided science journal book SO MUCH.
I made risotto with mushrooms for lunch, and the kids who don't like mushrooms had peanuts with it.
Then we walked to Spellbound Books for game night, since we didn't have the van. This, people, is over 3 miles away and something I've never considered before. It worked out GREAT though. When we first started out, I knew the first 3/4 mile or so would be through a pretty nice, well established residential neighborhood, and I told the kids, "Maybe we'll buy a house on the way." "Really?" Annie asked, to which I replied, "Well, I've got the checkbook with me." and then we all laughed a lot.
But I did see a house that could be "The one". It's a place I've walked past and thought was nice years ago, and according to the realtor has a lot of the things we're looking for: enough square footage, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms plus more than one central living area, a dining room separate from the kitchen, nice kitchen in general (big enough, updated), big old bathtub in the master, a ton of windows and french doors letting in LOTS of light, no carpet, and a good enough yard. Also...unbelievable price. It's a foreclosure. Totally within our budget: I was psyched. This could be a way to stay in Homestead!
BUT. The realtor was confused by the square footage of the lot seeming smaller in listed number than what she saw when she looked at the place. We got home and went to a .gov site we use that lists lot sizes, has aerial views of everywhere with property lines, tells appraised values, etc, and...first of all it's listed as a 3/2, not a 4/2. Second, the property line, from the street to the back of the property? It's like 10 feet over from where it should be, and runs RIGHT THROUGH the driveway, house, shed and fence. As if the people next door actually own that sliver of everything. What the hell? It explains why the number of square feet in the yard doesn't match up with how the yard looks, at least. So anyway we want to see it to see if it's 3 or 4 bedrooms, and also talk about this with the bank that owns it. I guess we might end up needing a real estate attorney and a surveyor, if we go through with this particular place...Other than this confusion, the only cons with the place are that one bedroom has unfinished (well, terazzo) floors because they had to tear up the carpet, and it doesn't have a garage, which Grant was hoping for. But, it has a shed, which might be able to serve the same purpose (wood working material storage). And the appraised value and neighbors' homes' values are definitely significantly above asking price.
Spellbound Books, though, yeah - when we first got there, a family I know from years ago at my old church, who lives just a couple of blocks away but I somehow never see, was coming out. It was nice catching up. Then while I was in there, a friend of mine called on the phone, and it was a Very Good Thing. This friend is 1. An x-girlfriend of Grant's, 2. An x-enemy of my sister's, 3. Someone who I feel I know inside and out and who understands me better than the vast majority of people, 4. Someone I almost never talk to, even though we both live here in town, and 5. Probably doing and being exactly what and who I would be, if I didn't have kids.
She's also the x-roomate of one of my best friends from middle school and the fiance of my sister's math tutor. Ah, small town living.
It's nice to get an invite from somebody who is cool with me stopping in for tea at midnight or one in the morning, since that's something I can actually do. By myself.
I am really, really sick of pee and poop. Today I changed a poopy diaper of Elise's, got pee from a wet one on my shirt somehow, cleaned Jake's poop off of the carpet and him, cleaned Isaac's poop off the bathroom floor, him, and the side of the tub, dealt with Jake peeing in his jeans and then stripping naked save for a tshirt in Spellbound, dealt with Aaron peeing in his jeans and then being humiliated and hiding in his room under the covers because he never does that, and found shorts of one of the little boys' in the bathroom with mystery poop in them as I couldn't recall who'd been wearing them. I don't get it; Isaac has been potty trained for, oh, almost two years now, and Jake has been using the potty at least most of the time since October. Aaron of course is like 4 years out of diapers now. What the hell. This is why I absolutely refuse to even entertain the NOTION of a dog for at least another year or so. You know how much totally "Extra" laundry that is, just for today? Above and beyond all regular wear of clothes, towels, diapers or bedding? Argh.
If I can make the next few days as productive as today was, I'll have a lot less stress in my life...some of my goals involve sending out another batch of mail, but personal this time, paying off some more debts, continuing in the science journal vein, researching and seeing this house, making sure to read to all of my younger kids as much as I used to read to the older ones at their ages, and sleeping more.
I guess I should get on that.
-De-cluttered the entire main part of the house
-Swept all the tile
-Mopped all the tile but the dining room
-Vaccumed all of the living room and hallway
-emptied and refilled the dishwasher
-cleared off and scrubbed the dining table
-scrubbed the counters
That was with a lot of help and cooperation from older children. Also...
-made out checks and put them in the mail, for my last surgeon, Homestead Hospital's pathology lab, Newton-Wellesley Hospital's pathology lab, and PATH's upcoming campout
-sent emails I've been avoiding, including RSVP'ing to said campout and assuring certain people I am still alive
-ordered the Nicoletta Ceccoli print. Yeah, that's right, I spent $300 on a 14x14 lithograph. This astounds even me. But we budgeted in advance for it, and I think it's worth it. Combined with the bills I paid (which totalled almost thirteen thousand dollars) and the PATH fee (a "mere" $50), I was feeling faint by the time I had a kid come to the door selling magazines for a cause. But I got 2 years of Ranger Rick on the grounds that it's for homeschooling and we used to love getting Your Big Backyard.
We had GREAT homeschool time...we worked in their science journals, doing things like counting breaths and heartbeats at rest and after 3 minutes of jumping jacks, and making finger (ink) and lip (makeup) prints of three of us, to compare, on paper. I love that guided science journal book SO MUCH.
I made risotto with mushrooms for lunch, and the kids who don't like mushrooms had peanuts with it.
Then we walked to Spellbound Books for game night, since we didn't have the van. This, people, is over 3 miles away and something I've never considered before. It worked out GREAT though. When we first started out, I knew the first 3/4 mile or so would be through a pretty nice, well established residential neighborhood, and I told the kids, "Maybe we'll buy a house on the way." "Really?" Annie asked, to which I replied, "Well, I've got the checkbook with me." and then we all laughed a lot.
But I did see a house that could be "The one". It's a place I've walked past and thought was nice years ago, and according to the realtor has a lot of the things we're looking for: enough square footage, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms plus more than one central living area, a dining room separate from the kitchen, nice kitchen in general (big enough, updated), big old bathtub in the master, a ton of windows and french doors letting in LOTS of light, no carpet, and a good enough yard. Also...unbelievable price. It's a foreclosure. Totally within our budget: I was psyched. This could be a way to stay in Homestead!
BUT. The realtor was confused by the square footage of the lot seeming smaller in listed number than what she saw when she looked at the place. We got home and went to a .gov site we use that lists lot sizes, has aerial views of everywhere with property lines, tells appraised values, etc, and...first of all it's listed as a 3/2, not a 4/2. Second, the property line, from the street to the back of the property? It's like 10 feet over from where it should be, and runs RIGHT THROUGH the driveway, house, shed and fence. As if the people next door actually own that sliver of everything. What the hell? It explains why the number of square feet in the yard doesn't match up with how the yard looks, at least. So anyway we want to see it to see if it's 3 or 4 bedrooms, and also talk about this with the bank that owns it. I guess we might end up needing a real estate attorney and a surveyor, if we go through with this particular place...Other than this confusion, the only cons with the place are that one bedroom has unfinished (well, terazzo) floors because they had to tear up the carpet, and it doesn't have a garage, which Grant was hoping for. But, it has a shed, which might be able to serve the same purpose (wood working material storage). And the appraised value and neighbors' homes' values are definitely significantly above asking price.
Spellbound Books, though, yeah - when we first got there, a family I know from years ago at my old church, who lives just a couple of blocks away but I somehow never see, was coming out. It was nice catching up. Then while I was in there, a friend of mine called on the phone, and it was a Very Good Thing. This friend is 1. An x-girlfriend of Grant's, 2. An x-enemy of my sister's, 3. Someone who I feel I know inside and out and who understands me better than the vast majority of people, 4. Someone I almost never talk to, even though we both live here in town, and 5. Probably doing and being exactly what and who I would be, if I didn't have kids.
She's also the x-roomate of one of my best friends from middle school and the fiance of my sister's math tutor. Ah, small town living.
It's nice to get an invite from somebody who is cool with me stopping in for tea at midnight or one in the morning, since that's something I can actually do. By myself.
I am really, really sick of pee and poop. Today I changed a poopy diaper of Elise's, got pee from a wet one on my shirt somehow, cleaned Jake's poop off of the carpet and him, cleaned Isaac's poop off the bathroom floor, him, and the side of the tub, dealt with Jake peeing in his jeans and then stripping naked save for a tshirt in Spellbound, dealt with Aaron peeing in his jeans and then being humiliated and hiding in his room under the covers because he never does that, and found shorts of one of the little boys' in the bathroom with mystery poop in them as I couldn't recall who'd been wearing them. I don't get it; Isaac has been potty trained for, oh, almost two years now, and Jake has been using the potty at least most of the time since October. Aaron of course is like 4 years out of diapers now. What the hell. This is why I absolutely refuse to even entertain the NOTION of a dog for at least another year or so. You know how much totally "Extra" laundry that is, just for today? Above and beyond all regular wear of clothes, towels, diapers or bedding? Argh.
If I can make the next few days as productive as today was, I'll have a lot less stress in my life...some of my goals involve sending out another batch of mail, but personal this time, paying off some more debts, continuing in the science journal vein, researching and seeing this house, making sure to read to all of my younger kids as much as I used to read to the older ones at their ages, and sleeping more.
I guess I should get on that.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 07:57 am (UTC)Its easier to stay inert though:p
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 11:48 am (UTC)Joan had diarriah (sp?) that resulted in diapers, Daniel had an accident in the bath tub, Luke pooped twice. Some days I totally feel knee high in bodily fluids.
(paige)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 01:34 pm (UTC)As long as you're at it, can you please resolve the Tibet Conflict and the Iraq War?
Seriously, I think you're superwoman. I'm proud of myself because in the past three days, I've changed my address with my credit card companies and gotten one (very small) garden bed prepped for more dirt and plants. You definitely win. ;)
But yay for paying off bills! I bet that felt fantastic, even if it did make your head spin from writing checks that big.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 07:07 pm (UTC)I wanted to tell you that I tried your banana bread recipe last night, and I'm told it was absolutely delicious. I have a bad cold and can't taste a darn thing, but the texture was great, and it felt good going down. lol We didn't have flaxseed, and I was too sick to travel out to get some, so we substituted bran, and it worked perfectly. Thanks again!
no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 10:31 pm (UTC)Whether or not the property line is an issue on the house you're looking at might depend partly on how well you get along with the neighbors on that side. They may just be content to let things go on they way they have in the past.