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