Violet (of course) had a good romp, cold or not.  

Calvin: not intrested in leaving the house, but wanted to take a peek. 

L.C. (a California cat) has her first experience with snow. 

Malcolm & Violet being lazy. (You can't really see it here, but Malcolm has is back leg on Violet.) :) 

Thanksgiving again, this is me and my partner Chuck. 

This is my Papa and I on Thanksgiving.  

It's Snowing...

And that Murry picture was from this morning, it continues to fall....

The first real snow. Murray is not a fan. 

This is the dysfunctional kitchen. Oh my gosh! ACK!!! 

Post move-in. As you can see, Malcolm is not terribly affected. He didn't leave the bed much the first couple of days, but overall took it pretty good. Certainly better than the other kids.

 

The kitchen in what will be my place (much later). "We have walls." 

The first snowflake. I couldn't get a great picture of it, but it was absolutely perfect. So much detail in such a tiny little thing.
 

For those of you that didn't get a chance to see it...this is Amy's SECOND stained glass piece. Isn't it fantastic?! 

My peeps... 

Who is happy to be married? These two, absolutely! Oh my gosh, aren't they the cutest ever?
 

My Kim & Chris friends...on their Wedding day! 

Violet - This picture says everything about her. She is in Murray on TOP of the window. 

This is what everything looked like when I got back from OC. What happened to all of the leaves? The Japanese Maple is on the far right. 

My favorite tree (early November), a Japanese Maple... 

The latest (and stupidest)...

Hello friends ~

I have been a bit remiss lately in updating the blog. The cold weather arrived here in Michigan and man; it makes for a slow-moving grumpy-Melissa time. Let’s see, to catch you up….

So I decided to not formally move in until I got back from my last OC trip. Less traumatic for the cats. Less rushed. Easier for the contractors.

So I go to OC, with plans of my painter working on the last two rooms in the rental (my temporary quarters.) Well, he never calls and then also never calls me back. Since I was busy with work-work, I didn’t have a chance to ride him. So I came home to no paint and not much of anything else done either.

So the state of the place at this point. The rental unit, where I am going to move in temporarily: 3 rooms painted (but need touch up). The bathroom completely unusable, since we took everything out to put in the shower. And we wanted to paint before putting all fixtures back in. The kitchen a catch-all disaster: tools, parts, dirty and in deep need of some wall finished.

On the other side. We have a living room where the ceiling drywall is almost done. But keep in mind the place if filthy. The dining room is still without ceiling and needs to have plumbing done for the upstairs before the ceiling goes in. (I am going to put in a laundry room and a rockin’ master bath.) The kitchen how has drywall, ceiling and walls and is in the midst of being taped. When I arrived back in Ypsi, the drywall wasn’t done. The bathroom is usable (no demolition in there, thank goodness.) It has a small old bathtub (no shower) and the radiator leaks all over the floor. But it’s the only room on this side that has a radiator hooked up, so at least there is some warmth.

The bathroom that works is as far away as you can get from the bedroom where I am temporarily quartered, basically its right next to it, but there is a big wall in the way.

So I get back into town and I putz around and DO NOT paint or generally get ready to move in. So what happens – well of course there is trauma. On Wednesday night last week it drops to 25 degrees. Wow. I mean that’s probably normal for here, but the prior weekend, I had been outside working in short sleeves, so there you go. 25 degrees means it’s freezing, which means all the pipes in Murray freeze – not good, not good. So Thursday I have to reprioritize, take the day off work and spend the WHOLE DAY, out in the (still) freezing cold, unfreezing all of the pipes and then draining Murray. Meanwhile, then moving into the disaster of a rental unit. Needless to say, for those of you that know me, this is NOT a way I like to live.

This last weekend, I primed the bathroom and worked on finishing the walls. (They were rough.) And it turns out that I haven’t painted anything for 15-20 years, so I am not all that great at it. And drywall patching, never done that. Also, not good at it. So it’s a slow process, if you couldn’t have guesses. Very soon I paint the bathroom, so we can get the fixtures back in and have a bathroom close to the living space.

So much for the grand flourish of an entrance to living in my first home. But things don’t tend to work the way you think they are going to, do they. J

mc

So much for...

...getting moved in this week. I realized why am I moving in right before I leave town? It's still messy and I don't want the cats wandering through the rubble. More time to go, but when I get back - better watch it. Boy, a house is an exercise in patience and adjusting deadlines. :) But it's all good; I am still tickled with it.

I hope all of you are happy and well. Thanks for the comments and the fun!

Lovely... 

I have moved Murray to the house - but I haven't moved in yet. I decided since I am going back to OC this week and I still have contractors coming and going, it would be best to just live in the yard. I am a Michigan resident now, check out the blue Michigan plate.