Channeling my Inner Fred

I am so happy we are having normal spring weather this weekend.   I spent a lot of time outside today to prep the yard in general but also for the upcoming grill-out on May 19.    I raked the backyard and the north side of the house primarily.  (Hence the channeling of my Dad.)    I still have more work to do in the front of the house to clean up the landscaping.    In total, 14 of the tall paper yard waste bags have been filled.    Gavin was cool and came up too and cleaned out all of the gutters.    He also helped with some of the yard work and he and I did some work behind the garage.    Past owners seemed to just throw things behind the garage and I'm trying to tidy it up.    There is a big pile of brush and branches, broken cinder blocks, pieces of old cement, and lots of leaves.    He and I handled some of the branches and raked up a bunch of leaves today.     He also dug out some erosion areas too so the gate to the fence by the garage now opens and shuts properly.    I want to make sure it worked well so if/when we get a dog, I can prove I have a secure backyard to a rescue society.   

It seems silly but I am incredibly sore from the yard work.    My legs are aching tonight.    Makes me feel old.    The yard work did lead to a little spat with Dan and he never came out to help me.    Toward the end of the evening I started hinting I could use help and he still didn't come to help me.    Now yes, it was my choice to spend a lot of time cleaning up the yard but it was something that needed to be done.   Past owners have not cleaned up leaves as they should have and I wanted to give our grass and other vegetation a better chance of thriving this summer.    He said he was on board for doing the mowing when it comes to yard work but it seems like this other work isn't appealing.    He just earned the opportunity to help me further behind the garage with clean up.    Ha. 

We dog-sat this weekend for Dan's Mom and her husband.    Despite their issues, they took a trip to Eastern Iowa so there dog Charlie stayed here Thursday night until Saturday night.   He's an easy dog.    He's pretty old so he basically laid around.    The cat was not happy at all to have another animal in the house.    She has a right to be uncomfortable due to the nature of the dogs at her past residence.   It still bums me out she was so pissy about it because introducing a corgi to the house may be difficult in the future. 

Dan's friend was able to come over and do more work with the house today too.    My closet is finished!    Well finished in the sense of carpentry.    He put up a bar so I can hang my clothes and did it in a thoughtful manner so the slanted ceiling won't be too stressed with the weight of my clothes.    I still need to get some shelving for the closet but it helped me better organize the bedroom.   All my clothes are now in the closet or in my dresser.    It looks much more tidy.    I also put away all my winter clothes and pulled out my summer clothes too.     I have a pile of things to donate and a pile of things to take to the local consignment store.   

I plan to spend tomorrow (Sunday) with a multitude of grading tasks.    I have 86 binders to grade for my health classes at ISU.    I also need to do about 55 rubrics for teaching assignments too.    I extended a deadline for PE unit plans so those will start to trickle in but I won't touch them until later next week.     I'm actually up to date with my DMACC grading...one class has to turn in a Diversity Handbook they create for a mock sport association but I only have like 10 students so those won't be too time intensive.    Needless to say, lots to do.   

The end of this semester is a little different as I am one of the department marshalls for graduation.    All faculty go through a rotation for helping with graduation.    I am borrowing a gown from the department (never got one since I didn't attend my graduate ceremony).    It is pretty old but looks pretty nifty.   I need to add some clasps to it because it doesn't stay shut.    I have an old cap to wear too (from department) but am curious to see if I can find a better tassel to wear with it. 

I am excited for the upcoming grill out at the house.     I am slowing buying things for it.    We bought the hamburger for it today.     I am buying things for Gavin's graduation party too.    On a psychological level, it's less of a blow to spread out the costs rather than buying everything all at once. 

I've also indulged in my guilty pleasure of attending concerts recently too.    Dan and I are seeing Everclear again in June.    We are also seeing Bush early in July.    Gavin, Dan, and I are seeing Godsmack and Shinedown at the end of July.    Thankfully the venues in Iowa are keeping the ticket prices affordable.   

Guess that's enough of an update for now.   

Making a House a Home

Greetings:

Overdue for an update so here are some recent events in no particular order:

• We hosted an Easter lunch at the house and it went very well.    The secret to things working smoothly?   Doing must of my food prep the night before.   I made the mashed potatoes and reheated them by baking them in the oven in the morning.    Made the Oreo dessert and lemon bars the night before.   Also made a double batch of pasta salad.    I had attending people bring sides and it really made the meal complete.   Baked the ham for 1.5 hours in the oven and let it hang out in the CrockPot prior to eating.    Mary gave us an eight foot table to have which gave us extra seating.   Shirley and Stewart brought their folding table and chairs too.   It was pretty easy to convert the living room into a dining room.  

• It's been a hectic few weeks since traveling for work.    I still have plenty of grading to do this weekend.   I also had my health fair event at a local elementary school on March 28th.   It went very well though but it always feels so stressful the day before and the day of the event.    I also volunteered some time the first week of April for a local youth event that reaches all seventh graders in the three local counties.    I worked in the tobacco room again so kids could learn about the risks and see cadaver lungs of healthy versus smoking people.    On the second day I led a Jeopardy game about the use of social media.   Each year I'm like "ugh, why did I agree to volunteer when I could be grading" but after I put in the time I'm glad I did so.   

• On Friday (yesterday) I hired professional movers to take several things from Ankeny and bring them to the house in Ames.    They moved my treadmill (now in basement), loveseat (in living room), my table/desk (in basement-storage), the king bed (in master bedroom), my recliner (front porch), and my dresser (Gavin's room).    I don't know where my loveseat will end up as it cannot stay in my living room and I don't know what we'll do with the recliner.    I may put my loveseat on the front porch as ghetto as that sounds as it would be nice to sit out there in the summer and read.    

• Before the movers arrived, Dan and I spent about two hours at the apartment and packed up my SUV and his truck.   My bedroom and closet are now empty.   We also packed up my "office" too.   I cannot hang up my clothes yet at the house because we need to install closet rods in my walk-in closet.   It should be done this week.   Other upcoming tasks for the house:
• trees trimmed later in April if we ever actually have spring weather
• organize office area, it's boxes and chaos
• organize "man cave"---Dan's job 
• get split box spring for Gavin's room 
• get quote for adding gravel to our driveway 
• get a grill 

• We set a date for a "Wahoo we don't live in Ankeny and Newton" party in May.   We'll host the event on May 19th.    I ordered some invites for it.    Excited to show off the house and by that point it should be put together fairly nicely.    We are going to grill burgers and hot dogs and provide some sides.  I also placed an order today for Gavin's graduation party announcements.

Guess that's enough of an update for now!    Time to do some grading.  Here are some pictures from the Easter lunch as my offspring passed out right after eating.    He cozied up with the stuffed bunny Jude received  from his grandma.  

    

Back to Iowa

Greetings:

I've traveled to Nashville, been professionally developed, and am back in Iowa again.   I admit before leaving I was no longer thrilled with the notion of leaving town with all the house stuff taking place.   I stuck with my plans though and took off a few days early with a colleague that works in Des Moines in the area of public health.   We left on Saturday morning but took off later than planned due to the weather and road conditions.   We drove to Tennessee which took about 11 or so hours.    She travels the way I do and we barely made any stops.   Our first planned stop was at a state park called the "Land Between the Lakes" and it was pretty cool.   We also stopped at Clarksville to their original train station.   That was more of a stop for her as she thought it was cool to see a location related to the Monkees song "Last Train from Clarksville". 

We stayed at a hotel in the college area of Nashville and just settled in the first night.    A Chili's was across the street so we didn't try to find any local, unique eateries.    She got a really nice hotel room that basically served as an apartment.   It had a full kitchen.    Considering I was "tagging along" I volunteered and slept on the sleeper sofa.   The next day (Sunday), we went to Lynchburg TN to see the Jack Daniel's Distillery.   I don't like that kind of alcohol but it was actually a really good tour.   The place has really neat history in relation to the start of creating whiskey, Prohibition, and how the production enlarged to meet the world's needs.    The tour ended with a tasting of five types of their whiskey.   We did some tourist shopping after that and went back to Nashville.    We purposely took back roads to avoid the  heavy traffic and drove by a new development with houses starting at 500K.   And they were having open houses.   Jess decided we should stop and look at one.    It was a very awkward walk through the house but was neat to see what 750K would buy down there.   (FYI, they don't build many houses with basements.   I think that's weird because they do get tornadoes.)    I'm pretty sure the realtor thought we were lesbians or something. 

We went to a local place for supper called BrickTops because we thought it was casual.  It was not.    But it was a really good meal.    I was able to get deviled eggs for an appetizer with "millionaire bacon".   It is the best bacon I've ever had as it goes through stages of being cooked, coated with brown sugar, cooked, brown sugar, etc.    After a heavy appetizer I got a basic salad but we ended up sharing an ice cream sundae.   

On Monday we went to the city's wax museum.   It had a heavy focus on country music (of course) but it was cool.    It was also a bit creepy at times too.   It included some cool historical artists too.    We went back into Nashville  afterwards and found the American Pickers location in the city.   The TV show is quite deceiving.    It made it sound like they bought an entire old factory but the old building is actually a fancy strip mall and the Antique Archeology is just one of the stores.   It had a lot of artifacts they've picked on the show and the usual magnets, t-shirts, etc.    We decided to head back to hotel as we both needed to do some work and some pre-conference stuff.   

Tuesday was the first official day of the conference.   It was the  SHAPE annual conference.   (Society of Health and Physical Educators).    The highlight seminars for me were related to me teaching pre-service how to teach health.    I also went to some cricket activities as they are trying to bring that sport into the USA.    Jess is originally from England so she's a big cricket fan.   The lead speaker for the day was a educator from the Bronx that helped solve a food dessert issue in the area by having kids plant gardens for the school and community.    He did well to outline what needs to be fixed in society and how teachers fit into that picture.    Wednesday was another day of seminars too and then I made my way to the airport to fly back to Iowa. 

The flight out of Nashville was a bit stressful because we left late.  It wasn't a big deal for me because I ensured I had a decent layover at the next location but a lot of people were panicking as they were going to miss connecting flights.    The flight was fully booked too and they started making announcements early that not all carry-on luggage would fit on the plane.   They were encouraging people to check bags (free of charge) so I decided to volunteer my roller bag.    Very few were willing to do so and by the time they were boarding the last two zones on the plane, they announced that all remaining bags had to be checked so people were pissed off.    I got to Atlanta though (only took 20 minutes).   It was an odd flight pattern---Nashville to Atlanta to Des Moines but it was a cheap flight.   The flight to Des Moines was also fully booked which many people said was odd for a such a late flight at night on a Wednesday.    I got into Des Moines at 11pm and Dan picked me up.   We were up late though because I had to stop at my apartment in Ankeny to get my vehicle and when we got to Ames I needed to stay up to eat.   I was starving.   

I was back to work on Thursday and the rest of the week ended well.   The conference itself wasn't as good as past conferences unfortunately but I did learn some new things.   I saw/met more people from Iowa than I expected too.   The venue for the conference was too big in a sense with how spread out things were but I guess too big rather than too small.   The venue didn't have options for food and lunch either.   There were a lot of hungry health and PE teachers walking around.    The location for the conference next year is Miami!    Doubtful I'll go, but it's under consideration. 

I'll be spending this weekend grading a lot.   I have about 400 assignments to grade for ISU alone.   Weee! 

Here are some pics from my adventures in the South:

926 Grand Avenue---Time for an Update

I am blogging from a couch in my house!   Mind you the living room is in disarray but nevertheless, I'm watching TV and relaxing. 

We moved Dan into the house on March 3-4 and it was a lot of hard work but the process went well.    He wasn't as prepared as I wanted him to be and he did have to scramble a bit before we showed up to start moving things.    I bit my tongue because I had warned him for weeks/months to start packing and cleaning.   On Saturday we used our own vehicles.    Gavin had a friend join us and was able to borrow a different friend's truck.   Gavin and his buddy were essential with how much they lifted and moved.    We did have a "keys locked in a truck" situation but worked through it. 

On Sunday it was primarily Dan and I and we had a box truck rented from my realty company.    We emptied the rest of his apartment.    We still had 1/3 of the truck to fill so we went to my place next in Ankeny and filled it all the way.    I was able to pull a lot from my storage unit and we put some shelf units in the truck too.    I had a decent amount of boxes packed too that got loaded.     During the late afternoon and into the evening we unloaded the box truck in Ames.   We had some people visit the house too (Dan's Mom and her husband, and Shirley & Stewart).    Shirley was cool and helped unload the truck for a bit.    Stewart kind of nit-picked the house and it's apparent he doesn't like my choice of a home.   Oh well, it's my house and not his.    Dan's friend (and past roommate) did a lot of repair in the house too over that weekend.   We needed a basement step fixed as well as a piece of furniture that was damaged in the move.   He also did some stabilization of our stairs that lead to the 2nd floor.   He's coming again on March 17-18 to do some more tasks in the house like putting our TVs up on the walls and putting a rod up in my closet so I can hang clothes. 

Over the past weeks we've unpacked and cleaned a lot in the house.    Here are the major accomplishments:

• Deep freeze was delivered and is running nicely in the basement...with nothing in it
• Mediacom came and at first had issues with setting up our cable and Internet; the contractor came 12 hours later with a Plan B and it worked out!   Cable and Internet in the house!
• had a locksmith company come to the house and we have logical locks now---previous owners had different keys for the front versus the back.   
• I bought shelves for the pantry and for storage in the basement---put them together and organized both areas.    The kitchen overall is done and just needs my items added to it in May.
• I somewhat organized Jude's room as his items were packed by what seemed like a drunk person.   I went through all his clothes to create a donation pile, consignment pile, current use pile, and future use pile.  
• Gavin and friends have been able to take unneeded items (usually in bad shape) and empty cardboard boxes to a pal's place outside Ankeny to be burned---very handy as we don't have a lot of space for garbage to be laying around.  
• Dan hooked up his washer and dryer and I've used them quite a bit.   It's weird how you get used to a certain type of appliances.    I don't mind his but they aren't as great as the ones in my apartment.   
• Dan's ex gave him his cat back earlier than we expected.    Jinx is now a fixture in our house and he's been an easy pet.   Apparently she's acting a lot different (in a good way) as it was customary for her to hide a lot and avoid people.   She's like attached to me if I'm home and is very social now.    I think she's comfortable not having a house full of animals.    
• I repaired the ceiling in Dan's closet and he was able to hang his clothes tonight and get more stuff put away.     
• I bought a new vacuum and it's been glorious cleaning up parts of the house.    I am anxious to clean the windows and window sills and the vacuum will be very handy.   It is a Hoover vacuum and it has pet features.   (Yes because of the cat but also because of a future Corgi.) 
• The last task we've done was in the 2nd floor bathroom as shower curtains are finally hung and the room can be used now.    We had only been using the first floor shower and Dan would prefer to be using the 2nd floor shower.    Eventually the basement shower/bathroom will be my bathroom.   

Upcoming duties and tasks are:

• Buy a new furnace filter
• Need another shelf in the pantry and another set in the basement
• Need to buy a split box spring for Gavin's room 
• Update driver's license

On top of all this change, I scheduled a conference next week so I'll be leaving Iowa to visit Nashville, TN.   The annual SHAPE conference is taking place at that location.    (Society of Health and Physical Educators)    A past student and now professional colleague is going as well as we are driving together on Saturday.    She plans to stay through the next Saturday and I will be coming back to Iowa on Wednesday.    I get to fly back.    Sigh.    I have to be thoughtful about how I pack to get there, what I buy there, and how to get it all back when I fly back to Iowa.   

I guess that's enough of an update.    And yes, Jinx runs around like a psycho in the middle of the night.    I'm usually up anyway so she has an audience. 

T-Minus 3 Days

It's a start to a big week!  On Tuesday morning, we have our final walk through of the house to ensure it is in the same state it was presented when I first made my offer on the place.    There have been repair people in the house so I'm hoping the floors still look decent.    Last Tuesday, the sewer was officially fixed so when we walk through in a couple days I plan on flushing toilets and having faucets run while we are there.    I know the sewer is fine now but it will still give me piece of mind.   It ended up costing the seller closer to 16K to fix the sewer.

The roof on the garage was completed on Thursday.    It too ended up being a bit more expensive for the seller but oh well.    The next part with the garage would be to add a garage door opener.    That will be Dan's task and Dan's bill though.  

On Wednesday at 3:30pm, I have my closing meeting with the bank to get possession of the house.    I also get to write them a large check for my down payment.  The meeting ends with me getting the abstract for the house and the keys.     I'll be getting a safety deposit box at the bank for the abstract.   If you lose it or it is destroyed it costs thousands to get it replaced.     We are also planning to get house re-keyed, new locks.    I'll probably do that during Spring Break.    I'm not super worried since the seller moved out a long time ago. 

Speaking of the seller....I got more of the story of why the house was vacant for so long.    Apparently the seller (in Australia) bought the house for their child that was supposed to attend ISU.    They tried attending but didn't even make it a full semester.    They left and went back to Australia.    So the house is in great shape because it was barely lived in even with this seller.    I'm still confused as to why such a big house was purchased for one person.  

On Saturday we'll start the move of Dan from Newton to Ames.    We are handling it with our own vehicles on Saturday and we'll have a box truck on Sunday.   Thankfully we have the box truck Sunday as it will likely rain all day.    He may be fully out of the apartment by Sunday and he'll have a couple weeks to clean well.    He is away behind in packing.   I told him that we are not coming on Saturday to pack for him.    He needs to be ready for us to put things on trucks.   

On March 9th, Dan has the day off from work so he'll be at the house all day.   He is having his Mediacom cable set-up that day and we are having our deep freeze delivered that day from Lowes.   Depending on cost and time, we may have a locksmith come that day too for changing the locks on the house.    I bought a deep freeze the other day as it was one of the "big" things I wanted to get for the house and get into our basement soon.    

I may move some things this weekend too but it won't be anything major since Gavin and I will still live here into May.    I may have some bookcases get loaded and things like that.    

Next "big" thing to do is get some quotes for tree trimming.    

That's the update!

Moving Closer to a Closing Date

Greetings:

I received confirmation that my mortgage has moved to the closing process.    I have officially done all the "homework" I needed to make the bank and underwriter happy.    Closing date is still set for February 28th. 

I found out that Roto Rooter is starting work tomorrow (Feb 13) on redoing the sewer line.     The garage roof will be done this week too but likely later in the week as it should be in the upper 30s or lower 40s so the snow should melt off said roof.    Either way, both processes need to be done by Feb 21. 

I'm not quite sure when I need to officially pay the down payment.   The money is sitting in my new Wells Fargo account.   State Farm still needs to come in and look at my fire place too.   Dan hasn't given his landlord notice yet either but can at any time.    I set the date for the electric, water, sewer to be put in my name for the residence.    We will put the gas in Dan's name because he's using the same company in Newton and just needs to change the addresses.    He's looking into options with his cable and Internet.    If there isn't a fee to just cancel the cable, we are going to do that.   But if there is a fee to cancel the cable early, we'll keep it for a bit.    Have to have Internet though.   

We have also picked a local garbage company too.    I feel like such an adult organizing all these utility services.    I'm used to them all being included with rent.   

Work is going quite well for both institutions.   I have 90 students turning in an assignment this Friday though so I'll start having digital piles of grading to deal with.   I'm also working extra hours for DMACC this month because our coaching classes weren't properly staffed.    I'm not thrilled to be working almost every weekend but hey, it's money. 

I have been working out almost every M, W, and F with the Exercise Clinic at work (ISU).    I am very pleased with my progress with weight lifting.    I'm making great gains with my upper body but do need to do more cardio.   I do end up working out on some Tuesdays and Thursdays too because of the class I teach for future PE teachers.    I've been making them try different group fitness classes.    I see the upcoming move as a workout too as there will be lots of loading/unloading vehicles and using stairs at the new house.    Functional fitness!   I'm more excited about it than Dan. 

Very excited to see some family this weekend and have some fun!

The Sewer on Grand Avenue....Not so Grand

Ah yes, much has transpired since my last blog entry about becoming a homeowner.     Had I written this a couple days ago, I would have been in more of a panic.   Alas, things are going in my favor so I'm feeling pretty good about the house.  

So on Friday last week, my agent sent a document to the seller's agent specifying we wanted the garage roof inspected as well as the sewer line scoped.     They had three days to say yes, no, or negotiate.   By day 4, my agent had to pester them a bit for an answer.   They agreed to have a construction company come to look at the roof and have Roto Rooter scope the sewer line.     The construction company checked and did a quote for the garage roof.    I was expecting to just do a quote for patching the hole but turns out the whole roof should be redone.    They will do so by the end of February.    $1600 covered by the seller.    

Onto the sewer....we didn't get an immediate answer about it.     My agent decided to contact Roto Rooter and thankfully the secretary was forthcoming about the news.    Sewer line = yikes.   We new about this for a period of time and the seller did not know we were aware of the news.    Finally on Wednesday night, the seller's agent communicated the news and told my agent they would be covering the full cost of replacement which is at least $14,200.  We are still rather shocked they didn't do something different but grateful for their decision.    We thought one of the following was going to happen:

1)  they try to negotiate and get me to pay part of the bill "if you want the house so bad, pay for half of the new sewer"

2) they could have pulled the house off the market, fixed the sewer, and put it back on the market for a higher price.    They may have offered to me first but it would have likely been out of my price range by that point.   

The bank ordered the appraisal of the house/property today.   I guess that happens in a two week time frame.  The new garage roof and sewer line are to be completed by February 21, a week before my closing date.   It's supposed to give me time to go and inspect the work to be sure I'm happy with it.    

My agent informs me that it is now the lull in the process because everything that needs to be done is not in my power.  I really won't be busy with things and meetings again until the end of February.  

Regardless of the recent drama, we are still on track for a February 28 closing date.    Dan hasn't informed his landlord yet about moving by the end of March but can likely do so soon.   

I am more than ready for my excursion to Osceola to take in The Thunder from Down Under.    Bronzed men dancing and alcohol.    Yes please.    

That's all with my update for now!