My Part-Time Job, Or, House Updates

As you might haven noticed, it’s been a bit quiet around the New House on the Blog.  While I’d like to say we were sneaky and hid away at a secret bungalow on the beach, that’s just in my dreams.

Because you see, I’ve got a part-time job.

I usually get to work at about 7:30 in the morning, and get off at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Add on 30 minutes for drive time, and I get home at 5:00PM.  And while I wish my day ended then, as soon as I pull into our driveway, I’m re-energized.  I run upstairs to get changed, and then it’s off to my part time job.

If Only Life Came With An Instruction Manual

When we were getting ready to sign the papers for the house, my father sat me down and decided that we needed to have one of those “Father-Son” talks.  Thankfully, this talk didn’t start out with the phrase “Son, I think it’s time we talk about where babies come from…”  Instead, he took a very somber tone, looked me straight in the eyes, and said “There is something very important that you must remember when you sign your paperwork for the house.  It’s one of those things that I wish we would have known, and I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did.”

I was on the edge of my seat with bated breath, wondering what wisdom was going to be imparted to me.  Something that would save me money?  Some deep hidden secret of the adult world that was akin to finding the Holy Grail (a la Indiana Jones style)?  The answer to LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, and EVERYTHING (which we have already learned, thanks to Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” and Google)?

THE SUSPENSE WAS KILLING ME!

“I need your undivided attention,” he told me.

Oh, you’ve got it.

“Make sure you get the code to the garage door opener on the outside.”

Wait.

That’s it?

Seriously?

Where was the directions to the fountain of youth, the key to tripling the value of our house, THE SECRET GOLD TREASURE BURIED DEEP UNDERNEATH THE BASEMENT?  That was IT?

Unexplained Questions

This past weekend brought a lot of great opportunities to get some good solid work done on the house.  However, now that we finally reached decent weather, most of those opportunities were subsituted spending our time outside trying to get some color on our pasty-white legs and enjoying driving with the windows down.  Yet I developed an inner dialogue of many unanswered questions.  Here are just a few of them.

Spring Cleaning, Part One

Spring is a time of renewing.  Of refreshing.  Of rebirth.

It’s also a time when you get to see what havoc Mother Nature wreaked on your lawn during the cold dead of winter.  And when you purchase a house that has been unoccupied for about a year previous to when you inhabit it, you get to see Mother Nature in her full, unadulterated glory.

The To-Do List

Now that we’ve officially been homeowners for over a month, we’re finally getting to the point where we can realisitically take a look around our house and start scheming (before, it was only dreaming).

Owning a house is a lot like a relationship with  a significant other.  At first, you view them from afar, and are intrigued because something catches your eye.  The way the light bounces off the nooks, corners, and curves.  The way the image stays in your mind for hours after you see it.  You finally make an effort to get to know them better, view them a bit more closely.  You finally muster up the courage to emotionally invest, and you are delightfully pleased to see what you’ve found.  You make the big step, want to take things a bit further, and they accept.  All the sudden, you’re in a honeymoon stage (or puppy love stage) where everything is wonderful.  They are the most perfect thing you have ever met or set eyes upon.

They’re Growing!!!!

There is beauty all around, you just have to look for the details.

As Brandt has said before in an earlier post, when we first got our house we didn’t couldn’t see much of the yard because of the snow. Now that spring is finally here, (I’m scared to say it because you never know in Michigan) we seen some things growing, or in some cases for us, things not growing at all.

A Photographic Diversion

Here’s an excerpt from a conversation that Ashley and I had approximately 4-5 months ago.

Ashley: We should get some pictures, just you and I.

Brandt: Well, we got that nice tripod, and we got your camera, and you got Photoshop.  We can probably get it printed all nice and what not at Wal-Mart or something, and we’re good, right?

Ashley: No.  I want REAL pictures.  Do you realize we haven’t had pictures taken since we got married!  That was almost 4 yrs ago!

Brandt: So we can do it ourselves!

Ashley: We’re getting something a bit nicer.  I’ve already got clothes picked out for you.  Oh, and I need to go shopping.

Brandt: Great.

Ashley: Don’t you roll your eyes at me.  You get your geeky tech stuff, I get my pictures.

Cleaning Out My Drawers

Slowly but surely we’re chipping away at the unpacking that still needs to be accomplished.  I think one of the things that was told to me, but that I didn’t believe, was just how long it was going to take to unpack.  I have the feeling we’re going to be BFF’s with our local Salvation Army since we’re going to be donating a full ton of clothing and other junk there.  And one of the things that has fueled our unpacking isn’t so much the desire to get organized, but the desire to have clean clothes for work.  I come home and change into the same house-work pants and sweatshirt every night, and I could care less how much dust and soil and grime is on them, as long as they don’t stink.  But for work?  I really don’t care, but my co-workers might.

How’s THAT for keeping it real?

I Got Worms

Well, kind of.

When we toured the house for the first time, it was winter.  No big deal.  We tried to see as much as we could, but it was kind of pointless.  We barely could find where our property line was.

Once we finally signed the paperwork, the snow had started melting and we started getting a good view of our little piece of the earth that we purchased.  Aside from “ooing” and “ahhing” over the actual house on the property, we finally could see what we were working with for our lawn.

So You Want a Tour, Eh?

This week has been one exhausting week.  I mentioned previously how I made a huge mistake by going cheap and NOT renting a U-Haul.  I also made the mistake of not being on my “A” game and getting the power turned on, which put us way behind the 8-ball as far as moving into our house was concerned.  Well, we’ve been living in 2 worlds this past week.  Like a super-spy, a la Arnold Schwarzenegger in “True Lies.”  Or Hannah Montana.  Anyways, we’ve had half of our stuff in our house, half in our apartment, and this past week literally every single night we’ve been moving stuff.  We usually get home from work between 5:00 and 5:30, and haven’t collapsed into bed exhausted until 11:30-12:00 at night.  We both work, so we’re up at about 6:00 AM, so it’s been a long week.