The hills are alive...

... with the internets!  I have been dying to update, and first there was no internets, and no mobile internets, and then I couldn't find the right cords... anyway, we all know how moving goes.  We are back in action at last!  So here's all the news that's fit to print.  First, there was the move, and things looked a lot like this for a while:

In fact, it looked even worse than that, because our movers were terrible and their interest in helping us to move did not extend to anything "upstairs", and ended with collecting way too much money from us.  I've never hired a mover, and I thought we would go for it and hire the pros for this move, but it was not even close to worth it... we still had to call in friends to help (Thank you Jarrod!) and we didn't finish until close to 2:00 in the morning last Friday/Saturday.  Not so great, and not at all what we had in mind.  But it's done!  It's over!  We are here.

Now things are slowly taking shape.  We have pretty much set up the living room, the kitchen, the movie room and the bedroom.  Not in their final configurations by any means, but at least it's in a livable state.  We keep looking around and thinking that we are really excited about being here, and excited for it all to come together.  I am finding the tough part (as with most areas in my life) is being patient to get everything done... I want to just tear through and get it all done now, but that's incredibly unrealistic.  Instead, I am finding joy in hanging flower baskets on the porch and emptying another box.  And another box...

The real project has been the plumbing.  As was predicted by the pieces of ceiling that were laying on the floor and the water dripping from the living room ceiling, we have had to do some major plumbing work.  It started with new plumbing to the downstairs bathroom, inclusive of new faucets and handles for the sink and shower.  We are learning that the bad winterization was so pervasive that it cracked the inner workings of the faucets.  If you ever need to winterize, HIRE SOMEONE REPUTABLE!  Fortunately they weren't on our dime, but unfortunately the damage that they caused is... The kitchen has also been re-plumbed and we got a new faucet and sprayer there as well.  It is nice to start out with new stuff, but I would have gladly traded that for working plumbing.

Now, the plumbers are moving on to the second floor... they are working on an all new main stack from the basement through to the second level, and new plumbing for our master bath.  The toilet literally shot off of the ring when the water was turned back on, again as a result of bad winterization.  The main stack was due more to age than anything else, so I feel a little less salty about that.  They are also going to put in a shower, since right now it is only a bath, and again, new faucet for out horrible dusty rose sink. 

We did get to see some additional glimpses of old wallpaper as a result of the exploratory plumbing going on... 

Once the plumbing is done, I am hoping that we can move on to some of the cosmetic stuff we want to do.  I am thinking that I'll start working on my office, so that it can stop looking like this.

I decided not to put all of my books away on the shelves before painting, because frankly it will be much easier to move this stuff out of the way while it is still in boxes, rather than a bit at a time.  I am thinking about going bold with matte black walls and nice clean creamy white trim, with lots of brightly colored accents.  Anyone have any other thoughts?  I'd be glad to hear them...


Alright, that's PLENTY o'blog to get me caught up.  I promise to be less of a stranger going forward.  All systems are go!