angela_o

 The process continues to move merrily along. I don't know if anyone is actually interested, but it's good for me to put everything down. Here's the latest status update:

1. Siding finished
2. Roof replaced (And let me just say it's amazing how quickly a roof can be torn off and replaced.  Less than two days!)
3. Furniture purchased for all 4 kids rooms (Finished this today)
4. Downstairs family room furniture ordered
5. Master bath gutted and plumbing and electrical redone
6. Fixtures in for master bath (including the clawfoot tub!!)
7. Hardwoods in bedrooms installed and finished
8. Inside light fixtures replaced in three rooms
9. New washer and dryer ordered (scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday of next week)
10. Ceiling fan on screened in porch replaced

Still to be done:

1. Siding painted
2. Gutters and gutter guards installed
3. Master bathroom finished
4. Painting of nine rooms
5. Picking out formal living room furniture
6. Quote from the glass guy on a shower door for the freestanding MB shower and for replacing the glass in the door from the family room to the porch
7. Order new mattresses (I'm fairly sure what I'm going to get, it's just a question of physically making the order)
8. New vanities and countertops installed in 3 bathrooms

Possible future additions:
1. New dining room furniture (I want an Arts and Crafts table and sideboard.  The previous owners had a beautiful set that I tried to buy, but they  didn't want to sell and I can't find what I want in any store.  It's definitely going to be a process!)
2. A rug for my study (I'm thinking the Adeline from Pottery Barn in the green)
3. New television, television stand, and surround sound system for the upstairs family room

I've discovered that I'm really good at spending money, which doesn't technically come as a surprise, but I have to remind myself that this merry round of purchasing must come to an end soon.  It is exciting seeing it all start to come together though.  We're looking at moving in the first week of April!

In other exciting news, J has been accepted at four schools so far.  We have eight more to hear from over the next two weeks.

For those of you following along at home, the renovations are coming along.  Of course, you start out saying "I'm just going to do a few things...." and it snowballs from there.  That being said, here's what's happening.

1. New vanities and stone countertops for three of the bathrooms ordered.
2. Siding being replaced. (They're almost halfway done.)
3. Colors chosen for the inside rooms that are being repainted.
4. Hardwoods laid in the second floor bedrooms (sanding and finishing starts tomorrow).
5. Fixtures for the renovation of the master bathroom ordered. (I'm getting a clawfoot bathtub!!!)
6. Tile purchased for the renovation of the master bathroom.
7. New outside light fixtures chosen.

I'm meeting the contractor tomorrow to order the new windows that are going to go above the clawfoot tub.  New toilets also need to be ordered and I might get that taken care of as well while we're at Lowe's.  I'm also making progress on the furniture front, but that's much slower going. I've been to 5 furniture stores recently and I have to say that I'm not impressed with the quality of furniture being made these days.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Have I started packing yet, you ask?  Why, no.  No, I haven't.  But I did put out 3 big black garbage bags of clothes for donation this morning. It's a start right?

 I picked up the keys to the new house on Tuesday.  It still doesn't feel real that we have a new house. Since we're having a fair amount of work done on it (new siding and roof, replacing carpeting in the 2nd floor bedrooms with hardwoods, updating some of the bathrooms, and other miscellaneous things), we won't be moving in until probably sometime in late March which adds to the feeling of unreality.  

But, in the meantime, I have contractors.  What a bizarre concept!  I've also found that you have to suddenly make a ton of decisions.  Want to re-side the house?  Great, but that means that you need to pick the color that you want the siding painted because that choice determines the color of the shingles.  (For the record, I think I'm going with a slate gray for the siding with bright white for the trim and cadet blue for the doors and shutters with 30 year architectural shingles in shades of gray).  Want to update the bathrooms?  No problem, but you need to pick the vanity styles and colors and pick what kind of marble you want for the counters because there's at least a three week lead time for the order to be filled.  Want to repaint the kids rooms?  Great, but, they need to pick their colors.  

Question for the FL, what is your favorite room color and why?  Bonus points if you can link to a sample.

Decisions, decisions!!!  I'm trying to stay focused on the fact that getting it all done before we move is the smart thing because the impetus to fix things drops off precipitously once the boxes get unpacked.

In other news, E is still at school and it's been six weeks.  We're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.  His spring break is in two weeks, so that's the next major milestone.

 I don't get sick very often, but apparently I decide to make up for lack of quantity by an increase in intensity.  It's been a week since I came down with the upper respiratory infection of evil complete with my first fever in literally years and I'm slowly returning to something approaching normal.  Of course, I've lost my senses of taste and smell, so normal is a relative term, but I'm no longer bedridden and the fever seems to be gone, so I'm viewing that as progress.

I've never had this happen before so  I'm not sure if it's the infection or the antibiotic that's caused the loss of smell and taste.  Whatever caused it, I hope the situation resolves soon. Eating is a chore when you can't taste or smell.

2011 is looking like an interesting year so far. Here's a brief summation.

1.  E went back to school on the 6th and is still there.  At the very least he'll make it longer than he did the first go round.   Although E being back at school means that my anxiety level has risen.  I've had a lot of stress dreams in the last three weeks.

2.  My laptop died last weekend.  That means that all the downloaded fic that I accumulated into handy-dandy text files over the years may be lost to me forever. Not to mention my iTunes library.   It also means that I have to decide whether to get another Dell or make the switch to Mac.  Have I mentioned that I don't find Mac crazily intuitive like everyone claims it to be?  But, the more stable operating system and lack of viruses is quite appealing.  

3.  We're buying a new house.  Closing is in less than 2 weeks and it's more than twice the size of our current house.  I'm going to have a sitting room of my own.  I'm thinking of acquiring a chaise lounge.  Decadence for reading appeals to me!  Of course, the much larger house size also means that I will need to acquire quite a lot of new furniture.  More decisions!!  And that's not counting picking the colors of the new siding which in turn determine the color of the new roof.

4.  New house means that we'll be moving, probably sometime in March after the roofing and siding are done.  I can't begin to convey the amount of stuff that's in my current house.  We've lived here nearly 17 years and six people accumulate a *lot* of stuff.  Being in the new place is a very happy thought.  All that must be done to get to that point?  Not nearly so happy a thought.

5. J got her first college acceptance.  It's not to her first choice school, but knowing that someone wants her takes a lot of the pressure off. Now we just have to wait to hear from the other 11 schools she applied to.  

6.  I've come down with some respiratory/flu-like bug which has given me a voice that my mother likened to "a blues singer who's a heavy smoker".

On the whole, more positive than negative.  How's 2011 treating the rest of you so far?

 So much for my good intentions to post more regularly this year.  2010 has proven to be challenging thus far, but thankfully not as stress inducing as the last quarter of 2009.  2010 has brought ongoing uncertainties with E's health, the question as to which college he's going to attend in the fall, the beginning of J's college search, and myriad other kid-related issues.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg folks.  But, I'm trying to not succumb to anxiety, with varying degrees of success.  

At this very moment I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to go to bed when I have to get up at 3:45 to get ready to leave for the airport.  A 6:10 flight is an ugly thing!  Particularly when traveling with kids.  But, at the end of a very long day of traveling, I should be unpacking with a view from my lanai very similar to that of my userpic.  Here's to a relatively smooth day of traveling!

Aloha everyone!

I'm trying not to fall behind in posting this year which means that it's time for an update.  I seem to be tending to the YA so far.  I'm not sure what that says about my current state of mind.  I'm setting a goal for myself of ten books a month.  That appears eminently doable this month, but we'll see what develops later in the year.  Life has had a habit of throwing me lots of curveballs in recent months.

( And without further ado, books 3 through 7... )

 And the YA jaunt continues.  We all knew that high school has more than one similarity to hell.  But, what happens when your best friend sells her soul to the devil in order to become more popular?  Read Devilish by Maureen Johnson and find out.  

In other news, I saw three movies this past week which might be some sort of record for me.  The Princess and the Frog was delightful and I recommend it.  Sherlock Holmes was visually appealing, but mediocre even with good performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, and Avatar in 3D was much better than I expected it to be.  Anything else that's out in theaters now that you'd recommend?  In the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit that I plan on seeing Leap Year when it opens.  I have a completely illogical love for Matthew Goode.

A new year, a new 50 books in one year challenge.  In an effort to live up to one of my resolutions by being better at recording my books read, here's the first title of 2010.  As you might have noticed, I'm on a bit of YA kick right now.

1.  Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater.  Music, true love, faeries, and other elements of the supernatural.  Stiefvater knows how to write a compelling story.  I'll be looking for the sequel to this one.

I've been remiss about updating and I apologize for letting them accumulate.  Here' the rest of what I read this year.   One of my resolutions is to not let so much time go by without updating my books.  It was a slow year for me, but E being so sick really threw the latter quarter of the year into flux.  This is a pretty bare bones list, so feel free to inquire about any particular title that you'd like to know more about.

( Books 67-95 )