Ice Storm Damage, originally uploaded by punquin.

Since I’ve been so crazily busy, I am going to have to break all my updates up into several posts. Sheesh.

So, as I posted earlier this month, we know own the house we’ve been renting for a few months! Just before our early-occupancy contract ran out, we sold our townhouse for what I consider to be a really good price. Two days later, we went to settlement on the new house. It is a huge relief to have all of that past us. We were paying for both houses for a while.

Unfortunately, the money crunch has keep us from doing anything else to the house since our initial burst of upgrades (some painting, new appliances and hardwood floors). Now we don’t even know where to start! We’ve decided to get the landscaping taken care of before it gets too hot.

Our backyard barely has any grass… it is mostly weeds. There are tons of planters everywhere, and they are all filled with weeds. I am not a gardener, so I’m pretty overwhelmed. About all I can handle is digging a hole in the dirt and sticking a plant in it. Danny has lined up a lawn car company to change the lawn over to actual grass, but it is going to take 2 years! In the meantime, we need to have someone come out and mow, weed, re-mulch, and replace the pine in the front that was sheered when ice came crashing off our porch roof.

Another outdoor upgrade we are tackling is a fence. A white picket fence, to be exact, since that is what is required by the HOA. We had it designed right when we moved in – even gave them a deposit. But between not having the money to continue, and having a hard time tracking down our neighbors for their signatures, we hadn’t gotten very far. Danny finally caught our back neighbors at home for the last signature. Now we have to wait for the review board to approve our plans. after that, we can get the fence, and once it cures (or whatever it needs to do) we paint it (or have it painted… it is going to be a whole lot of fence.)

In June, we will take on a roommate. Our good friend Mike will be moving in. We have plenty of space, and having help with the mortgage is always good. We had dinner last night, and he is looking forward to playing with/walking the dogs. And, he is a tea-lover like me, so he was already planning all the tea we are going to try.

There is a lot on the inside of the house that I’d like to tackle. The guest room needs to have the ugly country-flowers wallpaper border remove, and the walls painted. I need to go to Ikea to get bedside table to match the bed and dresser, and I’d like to get new sheets and a comforter cover as well. Some art for the walls, then it will be good to go. Too bad we don’t have time to take care of ot before we have guests in a week. We’d have to go to Ikea this weekend, and I’m not sire that will be happening.

The front room of the main floor is still empty. It is supposed to be a formal living room, but we really aren’t formal living room type of people. We’d like to do a pub-style game room instead. We’d need a pool table (not sure if we can fit a regulation size in there), we have a dart board already, and we could get a bar table set of some sort. I’d like to paint the walls dark blue – a great contrast to the red of the dining room. Eventually, we could fill the walls with pub signs (I have added many to my wishlist). Danny has an empty fish tank that he’d like to get set up again, though we may switch out the shiny black base with a wooden stand to match any future furniture. Oo! Anyone want to buy me a jukebox?

This post is tasking forever to write, thanks to work. I think I’ll stop here.