to sleep perchance to dream

I have been on a mattress quest.  I currently have a queen bed, and with the alert that my grandmother and my aunt may be coming to visit in the next few months, I have decided to buy a king bed to move the current bed into the guest room. 

Truth number 1 about shopping for a mattress:  It is insanely fraught with too many options.  Memory foam, latex foam, pillow top, double-sided pillow top, individually wrapped coils, quilting, regular or low profile box spring, firm, medium, soft, plush, double plush, double dutch plush. 

Geez.  I just want a bed that makes me feel all warm and squishy and sleepy.  Which bed is that? 

The search has been doubly complicated by reading online reviews, listening to the advice of friends, and stumbling on this whole world of luxury mattresses that I never knew existed.  I thought the Westin Heavenly Bed was irrationally expensive with its $2,400 price tag, including frame, a mattress cover, and delivery.  Then I read about the Shifman, the Hydro, and all the mattresses that are hand sewn, cashmere covered, gold dipped, and stuffed with hand spun wool from the most beautiful and delicate of wool-bearing animals in the whole world.  Crap. 

I have discovered that some people pay $5,000, $15,000, even $30,000 for a mattress set.  Do they give you that much better of a sleep experience than a regular mattress?  Do they last forever?  Do they appreciate in value?  It is best not to even attempt to try one of these mattresses.  If they are better, a million times better than a regular mattress, then I will just be depressed that I will never own one.  Even if I won the lottery, I don't think I could bring myself to pay that much for a mattress. 

In my current economic downturn, I cannot imagine affording a mattress on the low end of the high-end mattress universe.  If I did buy one, I would expect it comes with my own personal on-call masseuse.  FOREVER.  And the masseuse would have to also do dishes, change my 8,900 thread count sheets, and shave my legs for me.  Seriously. 

So, maybe I will go on a mattress-trying excursion this weekend.  I am sure that actually trying a mattress is a better strategy than shopping online and reading mountains of mixed reviews. 

I am sleepy just thinking about it.

The First Christmas

This year Bhodi, Myrtle, Sombra, and I celebrated our first Christmas in the new house.  Technically, Sombra has had Christmas here before since he was the former owners' cat, but I imagine this was a little more dog-centric than he is used to. 

Thanks to Deirdre, I had a miniature tree with all the trimmings. 

Thanks to Sarah, I have more ornaments for future miniature trees, and I have a festive table cloth for my borrowed dining room table. 

Thanks to Grandmama, I had egg on toast with homemade salt risen bread for breakfast.  It was so good, I had it for lunch too!  I also have fun Christmas decorations that G send me years ago. 

Thanks to all my friends and family, I had lots of calls, cards, and Christmas wishes. 

Thanks to Bhodi and Myrtle, I had a great Christmas walk and Christmas nap snuggled up on the bed. 

All in all, the first Christmas was a nice one, even if I was far from home. 

So, goodnight all.  So ends another Merry Christmas. 

I have accomplished something....finally. I have procrastinated other things...as usual.

This weekend I decided to take a trip to the Ace Hardware, purveyor of all things needed for home repair.  Seriously, if you haven't been to an Ace lately, GO THERE NOW.  They have stuff you didn't even know you could buy, including the best shower head ever invented.  I mean it...the best shower head ever!   

I also visited the Allison Moore Garage Extravaganza Blowout Sale.  The previous owners left all kinds of things in that garage:  paint, nails, tacks, screws, latches for screen doors, hinges, and so many other things. 

My first amazing find was at Ace: beaded chain and a connector so I could fix my pull-switch light in the kitchen. That's right...that little chain you see on lamps, ceiling fans, etc...  They sell it by the foot for almost nothing. 

Another Ace find: Bathroom sink drain cover.  Now there is no more threat of toothbrush falling into the pipes. 

My last Ace purchase: Handsaw that cuts circles, angles, etc...:  Everyone needs one of these. It's like the saws all without a motor. 

Garage finds:  a straight cutting hand saw for bigger jobs,
plywood that will serve as the door to my hot water heater closet. 
trim pieces that will serve as the frame for the door.
A screw-in hole for my screen door hook. 

So, for about $8, I fixed a screen door latch, the light in the kitchen, and I am all geared up to replace the door/frame for the hot water heater as soon as I stop procrastinating and get that thing up.  I have a mental block about putting in that door.  As soon as I see my first horrible rat monster living in there, I am sure I will get right on that project.  I will even be able to paint it a color similar to my house color and will decorate it with the words "There is a hot water heater in here!!!" 

Name Suggestions So Far

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

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! 

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.  

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. 

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.