I am still thinking of the grand prize in addition to having the name painted eternally on the entrance to the house. I will try to dream on a prize tonight and see what my mind comes up with.
I have consolidated the suggestions so far. Keep your suggestions coming. You can submit as many as you like. Having a deadline for this sort of thing seems the norm, so let's say the last day for submissions is Saturday, December 11. It's my dad's birthday and also gives anyone time to have a few good weekend benders to get the creative juices flowing.
Name so far:
The 1800 House
The Bhodi Adobe
Moore-rantia
The Manor
Allisonia
Eureka
GX47
Rattlesnake Ranch
Casa Colmena (beehive house)
A&B Ranch
Moore Estates
Waiting Dog Ranch
Walking Dog Ranch
Herbie
Xanadu
Character Commons
Lazy Dog Ranch
Sleeping Dog Ranch
Bhodi's Sigh
Bhodi Village
2 New Additions:
Rancho de Bhodi
Hacienda de Bhodi
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Photos
Okay. I finally took a few photos of the house. Maybe this will help with the naming contest.
I am still not sure what the grand prize will be, but it will include painting the name of the house on the left entry way shown below.
The next picture is a dark view of the dining room. Imagine it fully furnished with my random boxes put away. Thanks to Sarah and Alex for the dining room table on loan from the Noon estate!
Another outside area complete with sink. There is also a fountain that I will eventually restore to proper working order.
Living room fireplace. The sliding glass door takes you to the outside area above. On the right is the sunken bar area because these people had a mini fridge everywhere you go in this house. They liked their beer cold and they liked it NOW damnit!
I am still not sure what the grand prize will be, but it will include painting the name of the house on the left entry way shown below.
The next picture is a dark view of the dining room. Imagine it fully furnished with my random boxes put away. Thanks to Sarah and Alex for the dining room table on loan from the Noon estate!
Another outside area complete with sink. There is also a fountain that I will eventually restore to proper working order.
Living room fireplace. The sliding glass door takes you to the outside area above. On the right is the sunken bar area because these people had a mini fridge everywhere you go in this house. They liked their beer cold and they liked it NOW damnit!
Below is the view from the kitchen into the living room. You can see the beehive fireplace on the left and again the living room fireplace on the right.
Here is the entrance to the backyard between the house and the detached garage.
The master closet. I still don't have a dresser, so EVERYTHING is in here.
A little wooden bridge from one porch leading to a screened in porch that also has an access door from the master bedroom. Of course, I need to replace the screen, but that will happen someday.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Naming the Chateau and Uneventful Returns
It has come to my attention that I need to name my house. All good homes have a name...Tara, Gipsy House, The Old Malt House, Mount Vernon, Monticello.
While Kip has suggested Rattlesnake Ranch, I am not trying to bring that kind of energy into my place. What if all the rattlesnakes start moving here? We would certainly have to move.
With that said, I am taking suggestions for home names. The winner will get something. So, feel free to comment your name suggestions here. If you need additional information/photos/etc... to help you come up with the perfect home name, let me know.
Warm fuzzy weekend update: After my recent heaping pile of home repair, I was expecting to come home from Thanksgiving with some major thing in the process of breaking. Luckily, I arrived to tranquility and a Mr. Kitty. I picked up Bhodi and Myrtle last night, and we have all been hanging around, relaxing, and going for walks. For the weekend, it is nice to be a home owner.
While Kip has suggested Rattlesnake Ranch, I am not trying to bring that kind of energy into my place. What if all the rattlesnakes start moving here? We would certainly have to move.
With that said, I am taking suggestions for home names. The winner will get something. So, feel free to comment your name suggestions here. If you need additional information/photos/etc... to help you come up with the perfect home name, let me know.
Warm fuzzy weekend update: After my recent heaping pile of home repair, I was expecting to come home from Thanksgiving with some major thing in the process of breaking. Luckily, I arrived to tranquility and a Mr. Kitty. I picked up Bhodi and Myrtle last night, and we have all been hanging around, relaxing, and going for walks. For the weekend, it is nice to be a home owner.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Double Dutch Plumber
Every single time something is done to my house, I go back to my list to draw a line through that task. Unfortunately, I have had some mishaps that were unexpected and therefor not on the list. How am I supposed to have a false sense of accomplishment if I can't draw a line through an item on a piece of paper?
On Tuesday I had the great fortune to arrive home to a pipe spraying water all over my outside patio. The PVC simply got to a point where it was tired of being a pipe and instead wanted to pursue a career as a Niagara Falls impersonator. Thankfully I didn't have to clean up the water because this particular problem happened outside...no damaged floors, no wet carpet, no row, row, row my boat inside the house.
Just like there is a thin line between love and hate, there is also a thin line between something covered by home warranty and something not covered by home warranty. Unfortunately, the home warranty does not cover outside pipes. After a day and a half of living without water in the house, Brian the Wonder Plumber came and fixed everything. New pipe, new elbow joint, new purple primer and glue, new lease on life. Needless to say, his repair worked a lot better than my 9:30 pm repair job from Tuesday night involving duct tape, glue, and lots of cursing.
After 30 minutes or so, I leave for work and decide to admire, once again, my new pipe. That's when I see the weeping water flowing down the outside of the wall. What? Weeping? AARRRGGGGGG. For a few minutes the wall and I sat together to weep. We talked, we wept, we wept some more. So, not only did the PVC fail, there was also some sort of leak inside the wall.
I placed another frantic call to Brian, plumber to the gods, and he skedaddled right back to the house, ripped a hole in the wall, and said, "Compression fittings. Stupid compression fittings." It seems the old owners were cheap and lazy and decided to connect their interior copper pipes with compression fittings instead of soldering the pipes together. In the plumbing world, this is evidently known as "a leak waiting to happen".
The beauty of it all, however, is that home warranty does cover pipes in the wall, even though they are only a few short inches away from pipes outside the wall. I got a double dose of plumber love for half the price. Another bonus...home warranty will pay to fix the hole in my wall. In the interim, if anyone asks I am going to say I punched that hole in the wall during my kung fu practice.
Tip of the day: When you are going out of town, turn your water off at the meter. If I hadn't been home when the pipe exploded, I would have flooded the entire county.
On Tuesday I had the great fortune to arrive home to a pipe spraying water all over my outside patio. The PVC simply got to a point where it was tired of being a pipe and instead wanted to pursue a career as a Niagara Falls impersonator. Thankfully I didn't have to clean up the water because this particular problem happened outside...no damaged floors, no wet carpet, no row, row, row my boat inside the house.
Just like there is a thin line between love and hate, there is also a thin line between something covered by home warranty and something not covered by home warranty. Unfortunately, the home warranty does not cover outside pipes. After a day and a half of living without water in the house, Brian the Wonder Plumber came and fixed everything. New pipe, new elbow joint, new purple primer and glue, new lease on life. Needless to say, his repair worked a lot better than my 9:30 pm repair job from Tuesday night involving duct tape, glue, and lots of cursing.
After 30 minutes or so, I leave for work and decide to admire, once again, my new pipe. That's when I see the weeping water flowing down the outside of the wall. What? Weeping? AARRRGGGGGG. For a few minutes the wall and I sat together to weep. We talked, we wept, we wept some more. So, not only did the PVC fail, there was also some sort of leak inside the wall.
I placed another frantic call to Brian, plumber to the gods, and he skedaddled right back to the house, ripped a hole in the wall, and said, "Compression fittings. Stupid compression fittings." It seems the old owners were cheap and lazy and decided to connect their interior copper pipes with compression fittings instead of soldering the pipes together. In the plumbing world, this is evidently known as "a leak waiting to happen".
The beauty of it all, however, is that home warranty does cover pipes in the wall, even though they are only a few short inches away from pipes outside the wall. I got a double dose of plumber love for half the price. Another bonus...home warranty will pay to fix the hole in my wall. In the interim, if anyone asks I am going to say I punched that hole in the wall during my kung fu practice.
Tip of the day: When you are going out of town, turn your water off at the meter. If I hadn't been home when the pipe exploded, I would have flooded the entire county.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
7 Things Down, 50 Zillion to Go
After having a small meltdown this week related to home repairs and my finances, I am finally starting to breathe again. Sort of. It helps that the heating/cooling people came this morning and fixed the bedroom heating and cooling unit. I have a brand new unit for free courtesy of my home warranty. One item scratched off my list.
I am also starting to see some light at the end of my tree limb, weed, crazy yard tunnel. A great guy named Jim has been showing some yard love at my house. Jim is the type of guy who sees what the tree wants and does it. He thinks of the emotional baggage that comes with a misplaced rosebush and doesn't hesitate to say, "Let's rip it out."
Really? We can rip it out? Phew. I thought the world was going to end if I ripped it out.
Jim is a yard magician, the Yard Whisperer, the friend to tree and cactus alike. While I hesitated to hire someone to landscape my house and help me get control of this yard, I honestly don't know when I would have the time because I'm so busy trying to keep random shit working. It's kind of hard to do yard work when I'm trying to keep the hot water heater from burning my house down. Fire and destruction or pulling weeds? Tough call.
Thanks to Jim, I can mark several things off my list, including:
Landscape
Landscape More
Landscape Again
Cut tree from above fireplace
The total is now 5 things off the list.
Kip saved the day this weekend by scratching off the 6th thing on my list: haul broken outside furniture left here by the former evil spawns of Satan to the dump. Thanks Kip. Goodbye double lounge chair thing that has been in my way and bothering me for months.
Tomorrow I will mark off item 7: replace broken hot water heater. Once again, free hot water heater a la home warranty. Unfortunately, I will have to shell out some cash to avoid future home-burning-down issues. The cash outlay definitely adds to the feeling that I am hemorrhaging money faster than they can print it.
When will I have to stop paying for unexpected stuff? Never? Crap.
I am also starting to see some light at the end of my tree limb, weed, crazy yard tunnel. A great guy named Jim has been showing some yard love at my house. Jim is the type of guy who sees what the tree wants and does it. He thinks of the emotional baggage that comes with a misplaced rosebush and doesn't hesitate to say, "Let's rip it out."
Really? We can rip it out? Phew. I thought the world was going to end if I ripped it out.
Jim is a yard magician, the Yard Whisperer, the friend to tree and cactus alike. While I hesitated to hire someone to landscape my house and help me get control of this yard, I honestly don't know when I would have the time because I'm so busy trying to keep random shit working. It's kind of hard to do yard work when I'm trying to keep the hot water heater from burning my house down. Fire and destruction or pulling weeds? Tough call.
Thanks to Jim, I can mark several things off my list, including:
Landscape
Landscape More
Landscape Again
Cut tree from above fireplace
The total is now 5 things off the list.
Kip saved the day this weekend by scratching off the 6th thing on my list: haul broken outside furniture left here by the former evil spawns of Satan to the dump. Thanks Kip. Goodbye double lounge chair thing that has been in my way and bothering me for months.
Tomorrow I will mark off item 7: replace broken hot water heater. Once again, free hot water heater a la home warranty. Unfortunately, I will have to shell out some cash to avoid future home-burning-down issues. The cash outlay definitely adds to the feeling that I am hemorrhaging money faster than they can print it.
When will I have to stop paying for unexpected stuff? Never? Crap.
Friday, November 5, 2010
The List. The Ever-Growing List
I have an ongoing list of things to deal with related to my house. This list is in addition to the normal things that must be done, like cleaning the floor or using the vacuum. Some of the things are not pressing but need to be done at some point. Other things are improvements that I may or may not get to in the distant future. I would cry but I'm too busy continuously adding things to the list that I don't have time to cry.
I have contacted the Oxford English Dictionary people to explain that the following list should be the new official definition of "home ownership":
Replace hot water heater
Redo tile in guest shower
Replace screens in 3 windows, 2 doors
Overhead lighting in living room
Replace garage door
Haul broken outside furniture to dump
Cat door to save cat from being eaten by dogs
Remove wallpaper
Remove popcorn ceiling
Reseal tile in kitchen
Have carpet cleaned
Chimney Sweep
Order fire wood
New flooring in guest area
Repaint everywhere
Buy furniture (which has its own sub-list)
Replace guest toilet
Reseal pool
Landscape
Landscape more
Landscape again
Remove weird carpet glued to bar area
French doors, 2 places
Install wood stove
Have furnace checked
Order propane
Get rid of awful curtains
Re screen porch
Fix door on screened-in porch
Organize crap in garage left by old owners
Go through boxes of cleaners, sealing goop, etc... left by old owners
Remove bizarre kitchen shelf feature
Get ac unit in bedroom fixed
Replace door in back
Get file cabinet to organize mountains of home-related paperwork
Sand and reseal counter top
Replace kitchen sink
Order size-appropriate fireplace screens
WTF with the weird electrical outlet in the middle of my floor?
Remove weird half-wall stupid bedroom thingy
Fix pocket door
Skylight handle?
Trim tree from over fireplace
Pump for fountain
Tear down fake room lean-to thing
Goodbye fake well
More outside lighting
Outdoor shower area
Fix fence
Fix sun-shade area
Rotten porch beams
Descale toilet bowl rings
Replace guest sink faucet
Rat traps
I have contacted the Oxford English Dictionary people to explain that the following list should be the new official definition of "home ownership":
Replace hot water heater
Redo tile in guest shower
Replace screens in 3 windows, 2 doors
Overhead lighting in living room
Replace garage door
Haul broken outside furniture to dump
Cat door to save cat from being eaten by dogs
Remove wallpaper
Remove popcorn ceiling
Reseal tile in kitchen
Have carpet cleaned
Chimney Sweep
Order fire wood
New flooring in guest area
Repaint everywhere
Buy furniture (which has its own sub-list)
Replace guest toilet
Reseal pool
Landscape
Landscape more
Landscape again
Remove weird carpet glued to bar area
French doors, 2 places
Install wood stove
Have furnace checked
Order propane
Get rid of awful curtains
Re screen porch
Fix door on screened-in porch
Organize crap in garage left by old owners
Go through boxes of cleaners, sealing goop, etc... left by old owners
Remove bizarre kitchen shelf feature
Get ac unit in bedroom fixed
Replace door in back
Get file cabinet to organize mountains of home-related paperwork
Sand and reseal counter top
Replace kitchen sink
Order size-appropriate fireplace screens
WTF with the weird electrical outlet in the middle of my floor?
Remove weird half-wall stupid bedroom thingy
Fix pocket door
Skylight handle?
Trim tree from over fireplace
Pump for fountain
Tear down fake room lean-to thing
Goodbye fake well
More outside lighting
Outdoor shower area
Fix fence
Fix sun-shade area
Rotten porch beams
Descale toilet bowl rings
Replace guest sink faucet
Rat traps
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Reason 5,678 Why I Hate the Former Owners
Yesterday morning the shower in my bathroom refused to get hot. Yes. Yes, I did let it run for a while. Nothing. I moved the shower knob around. Nothing. I stood there praying. Nothing.
Logically, I knew it wasn't the hot water heater. It couldn't have been because the rest of the house has hot water. It must be the stupid knob. Stupid, stupid, stupid knob.
There must have been indications before that the knob had failure tendencies. Much like other things that were either broken by the owners after my home inspection or that were about to break but they didn't say anything, the knob must have been on their "I hope she doesn't notice and ask us to fix it" list. Bastard. Cruel, old, decrepit bastards. (I realize how irrational that is. Maybe they didn't know. That is what my rational mind says. However, my former-owner-hating mind says they knew and decided to say 'screw it. not my problem anymore.')
So, in the midst of one of the busiest weeks at work, I will have to figure out how to change a shower faucet knobymajig. The upside to all of this is I get to use the guest bathroom. It is a good quality control step to make sure that shower is in proper working order. If that fails, though, I am in a world of shower-less hurt because there are only 2 bathroom. I can't abandon that one and move on to the third.
Logically, I knew it wasn't the hot water heater. It couldn't have been because the rest of the house has hot water. It must be the stupid knob. Stupid, stupid, stupid knob.
There must have been indications before that the knob had failure tendencies. Much like other things that were either broken by the owners after my home inspection or that were about to break but they didn't say anything, the knob must have been on their "I hope she doesn't notice and ask us to fix it" list. Bastard. Cruel, old, decrepit bastards. (I realize how irrational that is. Maybe they didn't know. That is what my rational mind says. However, my former-owner-hating mind says they knew and decided to say 'screw it. not my problem anymore.')
So, in the midst of one of the busiest weeks at work, I will have to figure out how to change a shower faucet knobymajig. The upside to all of this is I get to use the guest bathroom. It is a good quality control step to make sure that shower is in proper working order. If that fails, though, I am in a world of shower-less hurt because there are only 2 bathroom. I can't abandon that one and move on to the third.
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