Afraid of Bugs – Tales from the Homestead of Casa Chihuahua

Disneyland Fix

After work friday night, I met Jesse down at Disneyland – so we could check out the recently updated and restored “It’s a Small World” ride.  The park wasn’t too crowded but there were still decent lines.  We got in around 8pm and did the castle walk through, Small World and of course Pirates. In between rides we also grabbed some popcorn – kindly made by this hard working Yeti.

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BTW Small World changes were actually nice – especially like the Pumba/Simba/Timon add – in Mary Blair style, but the “america room” was a tad creepy.

You would think after all my trips to DL and access to Disney stuff I wouldn’t fall for souveniors during a park drive-by but yes, i ended up shopping.  I bought a big orange hoodie before i even got into the park (i was cold, really) and also got a collectable small world park viynl.  I’ll post photos of it tomorrow.  I did pass on some really cute coffee mugs – next time.

This week…

Well, at least I know myself well enough to realize that for the moment I have zero motivation to work on the house when I come home from work.  Rolling in after 7pm and eating dinner tends to be followed by p.j.s and t.v. not overalls and painting.  Despite my hopes on Monday morning, we’ve made no progress this week in getting things settled – and i’m okay with that.

(Correction, just this morning I put away the baking pans that i unpacked last weekend and left sitting on the counter – Yah!! Progess!!??)

Although this weekend will be mixed with some office time – I’m hoping that Saturday is a uber-productive day and that we make a major dent in the chaos.

Everywhere I look.

Between the house and work – there are more than enough distractions to keep me from computer but felt it was time to catch up.  Saturday night we celebrated (with take-out Indian food) our third week in the house.  Being in the middle of it all and seeing it everyday makes the progress almost seem non-existent – but it is being made.  We sealed up our tub to stop the leaks in the wall, we built a ikea island in the kitchen to gain some valuable counter space, we set up the laundry area in the basement and have almost gotten all non-book/cd/dvd boxes out of the living room …..

….and last weekend we laid a new fake wood floor over the spooky floor that was in the dining/breakfast room.

We needed to cover the floor with something okay looking but temporary – until we do the big kitchen/dining room remodel – which could be at least 2 years away.  While getting our kitchen island at Ikea we got some click/lock flooring that was being discontinued – for next to nothing.  It sat for a week in the room to get acclimatize and this last weekend we went to work.  It took part of Saturday afternoon/eve and a bit of Sunday morning to finish – but it came out pretty good…we also hit home depot and got baseboards and shoe molding to finish it off.  We ran out of time and desire by Sunday afternoon (the Oscars were calling) so we’ll need to finish up next weekend with the molding, some wood putty and then a coat of white paint to finish off the room.

Here are a few shots.

Blurry photo of the dogs discovering the muddy backyard for the first time. Bob had a blast and didn’t want to come back in.

Jack and Jess assembling the island

the finished product  – the afternoon sunlight makes it look red for some reason, but its stainless.

Bob, Inca and Jess break open the first pack of flooring

Dogs wondering why they can’t go on the deck while Jess saws the first board.

looks a bit like the lodge from Twin Peaks…wow, that’s a lot of wood…

Flooring all in! yah!

next weekends project – the baseboards, molding and painting..

Happy Valentines!

A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks of being in the house (yes it’ll be 2 weeks tonight!!) but i still need to download my photos for a longer post…..

We had a nice day today – spent some time working on the house and walked down the street to the farmers market for a bit and ended up having a nice lunch at GOOD (jess treated me with a heart shaped doughnut from winchell’s too – a weakness, i admit)

It’s been a while since i’ve checked in on my list…as we’ve just been plugging away at stuff as it comes up.

• stain and urethane kitchen floors-done
  
• order appliances -done
• get 2 fans and 3 sconces-fans in, sconces undecided, home expo – out of business
  
• call a plumber-leaks fixed, cracked pipes replaced, dishwasher installed
  
• industrial cleaning of entire house -never really happened…just took a room at a time
  
• paint hallway and upstairs – done
  
• refinish the oak floors upstairs – some time in the future
  
• puppy proof the decks -still needs to be done
  
• get estimate for the den – estimate rcvd, probably do the work in april/may
  
• remove our trees – not done yet…
  
• clean chimney – still not done
  
• hvac (install new heater, ducts and a/c) - done and it works great
  
• create a remodel plan (bath/kitchen) and stick to it – no plan yet but did an emergency re-caulk today – also installed an vintage medicine cabinet as a temporary mirror
  
• windows (partial) - nothing replaced but they are secured for the moment…but several have been letting rain in so upgrades are overdue
  
• spaz out (daily occurrence) – has become the new normal
  
• sit perplexed for 3-4 minutes trying to remember what i’m forgetting – too busy to think about what i’ve forgotten to do…
  

A full week in the house!
I’m writing this on my iPhone…so it’s a bit tough…but we still haven’t set up our computers at home. Saturday night marked a full week in the house… And it’s been wonderful, strange, dirty and oddly peaceful. There’s too much to try and type with my thumbs but basically were in the house surrounded by boxes. The dogs have settled in nicely and we are making progress in getting the rooms cleaned and unpacked. We are having the plumbing fixed this week (finally) so things should run a bit better until we get around to remodelling. On a not so great note, my prius was hit the first night at the house…so it’s been in the shop for almost a week…
Will try to post the strange variety of photos from the week once my computer is all set up – hopefully tomorrow. In the meanwhile here are some sleepy dogs.

An outbreak can happen anywhere!

We ran a crazy race…but we made it!

Full recap later- but we’re completely in the house!!  We brought the last load of stuff over at 1:30 yesterday.

We managed to find the coffee maker and clean laundry so we’re good for a day or two before we need to maniacally start busting open boxes.

Dogs seem to be adjusting okay as well.