Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Happy Anniversary to Us!

It's hard to believe that Michael and I have been married now for 3 years!
I know everyone says this but the time really has flown by!
And to celebrate, because we can't do anything half-way, because we can't possibly have just bought a house with a fenced in yarn without it being put to use, and because we both love and miss our childhood dogs (all dogs go to heaven, right Mocha and Rascal?), 

we adopted a puppy!
 Blog-readers, meet little (ha, for now!) Miss Frieda.
We adopted her Saturday after scouring the adoption events at about 5 nearby pet superstores.

 She nibbles of course, but really is a sweetie; which was really the main reason we decided on her. Of all the puppies we looked at on that long, long Saturday (have any of you shopped with Michael lately?), she was the sweetest. 


 She and Pepin have already become quite accustomed to the other and Pep is starting to lure her around the house in a play-chase. Unfortunately, Frieda occasionally gets a little nip on Pep but Pep is quick to let her know and they go back to the chase. 


 Frieda is still a young girl, only 8 weeks old and already 11 pounds, which means she'll be a big girl, probably 60-70 pounds when she's finally finished growing. 


 We were told that the mother was a purebred boxer (which is really only noticeable in the brindle colored spots) and their best guess for the father was a Saint Bernard mix. But after spending some time with her we've started to notice that she naturally points quite often and without informing the vet of this little fact yesterday, she pointed out that Frieda bears some resemblance to an English Pointer puppy which we are thinking seems more probable than Saint Bernard. 


 She has some adorable spots below her fur that will sadly disappear when her shaved spot from her spaying surgery grows back.


 Oh, and there was some lobster in the Anniversary deal as well -- my favorite!


 On Sunday, Frieda offered her abilities in dragging around fencing supplies.


 It was a hot day here in St Louis though so she spent most of the say either in the cool shade or in the sunroom.


And Michael's foot has quickly become her favorite pillow during her many daily naps.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Vogler Visit-A-Palooza

My Mom, Malena, my Dad, and all of his tools arrived just about two weeks ago.  

 Give my dad a week and his tools (and 24 hr access to the house that you're not evening living in yet) and before you know it, 


 Every pipe that runs though your basement will be found lying on the floor of said basement.


 Yup, every one. 


 And you'll find him tinkering with the circuit box. 


 This is our pretty new plumbing stack. This wasn't courtesy of my dad but of the sellers and a great plumber.


 Here are more pipes lying in the (one full) bathroom floor.


 And just when we get on a roll (in this case, tearing down the kitchen soffit and just about to slice his ear open)


 Michael comes home and informs you that his car is "broken",


 As in, makes a grating noise every time he tries to brake. So they spend the next couple hours taking off tires,


 And having the car fall off the jack (but thankfully, hot hurting anyone aside form a few scrapes), and eventually getting it fixed (Michael now knows how to change brakes!).


 Malena made herself at home, as always.


 And right when we were getting into the plumbing groove, I had a freak accident where I dropped a piece of copper pipe that I was in the process of cutting on the spigot of our hot water heater. Water surged out of the heater and it was unusable for the next 3 or so days that it took us to locate a new spigot and a tap to make some new threads. 


 The soffit is almost gone!


 And on to the most dreaded part of the week (as soon as we were able to find another strapping young man to help us), moving my 500lb mixer into the basement. 


 Smooth so far


 There's bits of kitchen debris in the wheelburrow, lumber for our raised-bed garden and a big mixer all occupying our back yard.


 The scariest part, down the stairs.


 Mischief managed


 And there's a mixer in my basement! (and new copper pipe behind!)


 Hello best friend. Too bad I have no oven to bake anything I make in you.


 Later on: stretching and petting 


 And more petting


 Why won't anyone play wiffle ball with me?


 It's didn't take long for Malena to usurp the couch.


 Raised-bed garden going in


 And 8 heirloom tomato plants to go in the garden.


 We had another puppy visitor, I just had to see Fozzie (and Carolyn) before the move to DC.


 Slowly, slowly filling up.


And on our last night together, Malena got to go to a restaurant with and clean all of those yummy plates.

Thank you SO MUCH Mom and Dad! Without you coming out to visit, we'd have no garden planted and terrible water pressure!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Video Tour

I hate, hate, HATE hearing audio of my own voice so I am honestly  not even going to watch through this video.

Someone will tell me if I sound like an idiot, right?



Ok, I did look through it quickly. Sorry for any ensuing motion-sickness and for the muffled audio around minute 6.

Job #1: change locks

Hello again!

I am trying desperately at the moment to upload a full house tour for everyone to see but for some reason, our MacBook isn't allowing the connection to may camera for that purpose. 

So, instead I will be updating you slowing on the progress we've made so far. It's been a hectic couple of weeks (as you all can imagine) and I will say that DIY home renovation is not for the faint of heart. I think that the only reason I am OK with having a huge hole-to-be-patched in my wall is because drywall and works-in-progress were a common part of my childhood in a 1870's farmhouse that was (and still is, kinda) mid-rehab.

Our main goal is to have the stuff ripped out that needs to be ripped out (mostly, the kitchen) by the time my parents get here so that we can start with a clean slate and focus on adding things back in while they're here. But, I digress...

Keys!

 These are all of the keys bequeathed to us upon taking possession of our new house.

That's 6 keys for 4 entrances and the worst part is that two of the doors didn't have real deadbolts. And to add insult to injury, the non-deadbolts also required a key to unlock from the inside. So, not only were we not really all that protected from intrusion but if we were to have a fire or emergency near the one door with a thumb lock, we would be stuck inside until we could manage to find the one key out of six that worked. 

And that's not mentioning the fact that the previous owners of the house were in it since the 1960's, making it very possible that someone on the street is still in possession of  a key to our house. 

Do I really need to say here that our first weekend project as homeowners was to change the locks?



 This back french door (leading into the sunroom) was one of the two requiring a new hold for the deadbolt. 


 The side door required the same treatment but unfortunately, the more cheaply-made-than-expected guide that we purchased to help place the hole wasn't working by this time and the drill bit that came with the inferior guide had warped, leaving us with a terribly ripped apart door.


Oh well, it works for now and you can really only see a bit of the raw wood peaking through at the top of the lock. There will be wood filling and staining later on to match the door but that doesn't need to happen yet. 

The best part: Every deadbolt uses the same key. And, we can easily change the locks to a new key whenever we feel like it (go out of town, give the pet-sitter a key, change the locks when you get home).

Phew! Project # 1 down, 3241 to go.