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January 14, 2005
Friday's Misc. & Etc.
--To clarify, the big chunk o' tree didn't fall because of high winds or anything nasty like that. It was a dead, rotten, hollow tree half that had gotten so waterlogged from all the rain we've gotten that it just split & fell due to its weight. It had been looking unstable for a while, to the point that I'd gotten leery of standing under it....even though that was one of Sollie's favorite pee spots. I'd been bugging Mike to call the landlord to come & cut it before it fell on the power line this winter, but he thought it wasn't going to come down anytime soon. (Oh hush, the times when I'm right & he's wrong are so rare that I have to rub it in a little.) Anyway, as you can see, it was a pretty big chunk o' tree. The photo's a little dark, but I couldn't wait any later to take it because I had to leave to go.........
--Look at the new house my daughter & SIL are buying. The house inspector they'd hired was doing his inspection yesterday morning, so I tagged along just so I could finally get a good look at their house. Pretty nice for subdivision housing, though I was laughing to myself on the way there because I was thinking it was one of those subdivisions that you wouldn't want to try to find your house in after you'd had a few. Mike calls them 'cookie-cutter' houses. But it'll make a good first home for them. Not wanting to be an interfering MIL, I kept most of my negative comments to myself. Like how the drywall finishers did a pretty shitty job running the corner bead. I've been in and around construction for most of my adult life, and I know what it's supposed to look like. I even did a bit of drywall finishing back in the day when I was much younger (though no one would teach me how to walk on drywall stilts because, well, I was pregnant at the time). Which will prolly come in handy because.....
--We're getting more serious about looking for a new house, new to us I mean. We've pretty much ruled out the new houses we've seen.....kitchens just aren't big enough in the new ones. We both want a big kitchen because we both like to cook.....and for some reason, our kitchen seems to be the heart of our house. Everyone just seems to congregate there, so we'd like to find one big & open enough that we aren't all tripping over each other and the dogs. Plus, we're looking in areas that have the best investment potential, i.e., likely to be re-zoned commercial or to be developed. Which also means older houses, and to be in our price range, prolly a fixer-upper. Not that big of deal as long as they're structurally sound. Mike has a lot of construction experience back in the day, and two of his brothers are pretty handy at that kind of thing. (Right Bill?) Plus, my other BIL has a heating/AC business and has always been good to help out his wife's lil sister. We may be calling on them to help a brother out, because......
--We've found this house that looks like it might need a bit of work. I'm not sure we can swing it financially, though it's priced under market value. It's close enough to where Mike works that he could walk to work most days, and in an area that will prolly go commercial in 5-10 years. But one of the first things it would have to have is new paint. I call it the 'Pepto-Bismol' house, though Mike says it looks like someone drank Pepto, then drank coffee, then threw up. It's a positively putrid pink, with bright fuschia trim and shutters. It's hideous. I can't imagine the person who would look at that and think that was attractive. But. It has potential. It's a two-story psuedo-plantation style house, paint it white w/dark green trim and shutters, replace the sagging privacy fence with a new, neat & trim white one and it would be very nice. At least on the outside. I haven't seen the inside yet, and given the hideous outside colors I shudder to think what the inside looks like. So it's still in the maybe column, as is the big A-frame out by the airport that I'm planning to drive by & take a gander at today.
--Finally, for something completely different, take a look at Sassy and her new chewtoy. I'm not telling who the political figure represented is because I'd prefer to avoid Google. But I think you can see it well enough to figure it out.
Heh.
Posted by Rita at January 14, 2005 09:39 AM
Comments
Wow. Mega-update. :-)
And Sassy has no taste. Honestly, would you want that man in your mouth?
Wait. That sounds dirty.
Posted by: Keith at January 15, 2005 06:19 AM
I don't know what architects are thinking when they design a house with a small kitchen. I've seen new houses that are huge - except the kitchen where not more than one person can stand in it at a time.
One of my pet-sitting customers has a really nice three bedroom house, but the kitchen is so small, and the organization of where the appliances are at is so bad, that it is obvious a single person, who eats out for every meal, designed it!
Posted by: bogie at January 15, 2005 06:43 AM
Oh I dunno Keith. It was kinda fun watching her chew on his head. Unfortunately, the paint started coming off after she'd chewed on it a while, so we had to throw it away. Much like its namesake, the chewtoy was most dangerous when wet.
I suspect you're correct Bogie. Almost all the new houses we're seeing have tiny kitchens & bedrooms, and huge living/family rooms. Our living room is primarily used by the dogs to sleep in, so we really don't need all that space.
Posted by: rita at January 15, 2005 07:32 AM