So, after about 10 years of my dentist telling me that I have to get my wisdom teeth out, I finally decided to do it. I decided, like, two weeks ago that I should do it and I should do it soon as Alex is potentially going to be changing jobs – and therefore insurance – pretty soon. His current insurance plan covers 90% of wisdom teeth removal, which is pretty phenomenal from what I remember the last time I looked into it (like 5 years ago), so I figured that our coverage probably wouldn’t get better (and could possibly get worse) on a new plan so I might as well pull the trigger. That, and since I’m no longer pregnant but hoping to get pregnant again as soon as we can, I figured I should just get it done now. Also, my one tooth has started to come in on the front of my jaw and causes pain when I open my mouth really wide. I was prepared to ignore that (I mean, how often does one open their mouth really wide?), but then I saw the 90% coverage thing and I realized that I still had like $300 left in my flex spending account from last year (and my company gives me a grace period through March 15th to use it – rock!)… so the stars pretty much aligned for me having it done.
So yeah, I’m having my wisdom teeth ripped out of my head the day after tomorrow. I’m pretty much dreading this.
I mean, when you talk to people who’ve had their wisdom teeth out, they pretty much never have a happy story to share with you. It’s always, “I woke up!” or “I threw up for days!” or “I got dry socket and had to spray the holes in my mouth with saline!” What the hell, ew! By the way, “dry socket” is a combination of words that makes me immediately gag. EW.
I’m completely unprepared for this. I had to go to the dentist on Monday to get a panoramic xray and ended up getting a cleaning and a regular xray… which meant that they couldn’t do the pano-x-ray like I needed because insurance wouldn’t pay for 2 different kinds of x-rays done on the same day. Argh! What was annoying about that was I told the hygienist first thing that I needed the pano-x-ray and she then advised me to get the regular x-rays done because I was overdue and then at the end of the appointment she was the one that pointed out that the insurance wouldn’t pay for both done on one visit. Um… obnoxious. So now I have to go back to the dentist tomorrow and get a tiny filling done (uuuugh) and get the pano-x-ray. It’s kind of snowing hardcore right now and probably through the night, so I’m going to have to drive in snow on my lunch break to get this done tomorrow, which is super obnoxious. Hopefully the office won’t be closed because I need that x-ray, or I’m screwed. Oh, and also, it didn’t occur to me until today that I don’t have soft foods here for me to eat after the surgery is done and I really don’t want to have to run to Price Chopper in the snow. Yep, I’m screwed.
I’m pretty much dreading this.
I’m totally going to be this kid on Thursday:
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Filed under Health | Comment (0)Seriously, I’m pretty much done with this. As I type, I’m sitting here feeling dizzy and nauseous and a little bit in pain even though I’ve taken some pretty serious painkillers. I’ve been on antibiotics for a week now and I’m really ready to be done with feeling sick. It’s been a rough couple of weeks. First there was the initial shock of finding out that I’d miscarried, and the emotional pain that went along with it. Then there was the surgery the following Monday, followed by a few days of working from my couch while I tried to shake off the after effects of anesthesia and physically recovered. I went back to work last Thursday, but by late Friday afternoon I wasn’t feeling right.
Saturday started off crappy – I felt tired and was starting to feel what I thought were normal side effects from the surgery. I took some Advil and started to get ready for Carrie and John’s son’s baptism party. I was feeling really out of it, though, and didn’t remember that our super huge mirror that usually hung on the wall above my dresser was off the wall and propped up behind the dresser while we painted the bedroom. I moved the dresser to get out a pair of jeans and ended up smashing the huge mirror into a thousand pieces. I called Alex crying – it just seemed like a huge deal to me at the time and all I could think (besides how much cleaning up all of those tiny shards was going to suck) was that we really, really, really didn’t need 7 years of bad luck. Alex told me that I was being rediculous – all a broken mirror meant was you couldn’t use it anymore. I pulled myself together and finished getting ready and headed up to Clifton Park, pausing to layer on some extra strength Tylenol with my Advil.
As the day progressed, the pain I was feeling intensified. I ended up leaving the party early and went to my parents’ house. I spent most of the day on the couch or pacing when my pain got too much to bear laying still. I was getting frustrated that even though I was being diligent about taking my pain meds every four hours, I wasn’t feeling any better. I was feeling progressively worse.
By the time guests started arriving for my dad’s going away party, I was feeling really bad. I tried to not look as miserable ad I felt, but I don’t think I was terribly successful in that endeavor. A couple of hours later, I had to bail out early and Alex and I headed home.
When we got home, I popped a couple of Tylenol with codiene and layed on the sofa with Alex while we watched Netflix movies. I still wasn’t feeling any better. I whined and moaned as we layed there and Alex told me he wa calling my dr in the morning. Finally we decided to just go to bed. Alex gave me an Ambien in the hopes that I’d pass out and not feel any pain.
Unfortunately, that plan didn’t work out too well. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning in pain. I got up to go to the bathroom and ended up in so much pain that I actually screamed. Alex came rushing out to me and I started to pass out. I kept moaning, “we gotta go… we gotta go to the ER…”. Alex got me in the car and took me to Ellis.
The ER was not busy when we got to Ellis and I made it through triage and into a private room very quickly – which meant that I got morphine fairly quickly. I was incredibly thankful for that. I was comfortable there in my hospital gown on my bed, hooked up to an IV and getting good pain meds. I was sent for a CT scan which showed that I fortunately had no injury from my surgery, but that I was inflamed, which was evidence of an infection. They gave me antibiotics by IV and then sent me home with prescriptions for 2 different antibiotics and for Percocet for my pain.
I was so out of it from the infection and Percocet that I don’t remember much of Sunday or Monday. I followed up with my dr on Monday, who seemed pissy at the ER for some reason. I was still in a lot of pain then, but she wouldn’t give me anything else for pain because I was taking a lot already (2 Percocet every 4 hrs) and she felt that after the antibiotics started to kick in that I’d be in less pain. She was right. By Tuesday I was feeling better, but still pretty sick. I went back to work Wednesday, which was really too soon. At my follow up appointment with my doctor on Thursday afternoon, I was chastised for returning to work so soon and “ordered” to take the next day off of work and rest.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the couch the last couple of days, but I think I have this irrational expectation that I should instantly feel better after this investment of couch time. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. At this point, I really am (really!) “over” the whole miscarriage part of it. Because I’ve been so open with everyone about what’s been going on, I’ve been able to hear about other people’s experiences and been able to see how common it is, even among my friends, to go through this. What’s been really great to hear is how many of them have gone on very quickly to have successful pregnancies. So yeah, I’m over that part. What I’m really having a problem with now, is that I’m still feeling so incredibly crappy. I’m just done with this. I want to feel better and just move on at this point.
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Filed under Health | Comment (0)I haven’t posted publicly about it, but I found out I was pregnant in November. I was beyond thrilled and Alex and I were really excited for July, when our baby was expected to arrive. We slowly told family and friends as I neared the end of my first trimester and everything seemed fine. Well, today we received terrible, terrible news. Our baby had miscarried. It came as a complete shock as I’d never had a lot of pregnancy symptoms when the pregnancy was confirmed, and so there was no noticeable difference in how I’d been feeling. We found out when we went in for our twelve week ultrasound. I could tell right away that something was wrong. The tech couldn’t find anything and instantly looked worried. The images that I could see didn’t look right – what I recognized as the uterus didn’t look big enough, compared to the pictures that I’d been staring at online for weeks. Alex was oblivious to the fact that something was going wrong. He asked the tech what we were looking at and if it was too early to be able to make things out and her answers back to him confirmed my fears – she was red cheeked as she stammered something about the doctor needing to look at the images. We waited to see my doctor upstairs and when the nurse brought me directly to her office instead of the scale I really knew. The doctor came in and told us what I expected to hear by that point, that the ultrasound showed no heartbeat and that it didn’t measure up to the 12 week mark. She left us for a few minutes and I fell apart.
I’d been so excited for weeks for that appointment. All day today at work I was planning on how I was going to tell my boss and coming up with a maternity leave plan that I was super proud of. I had no expectation of anything but good news at this appointment, and so I was shocked. I couldn’t ask the doctor any questions and could only half listen as she explained that I would need to have surgery to remove the placenta and fetal remains. Apparently I’m looking at a good few weeks of unpleasantness, and then will need to wait for my body to get back to normal before we can even think about trying again. It’s so depressing.
I feel betrayed. I don’t know by what – my body I guess. I feel stupid for believing that everything would, of course, be alright. I feel sad for the loss of our hopes for the summer. I feel dread for the next few weeks of unpleasantness. I feel worried that it will take months and months before we can start trying again. I’m worried that once we are able to start trying again, it will take us months and months before we are successful again. And I dread that if/when we are successful again, that we’ll go through this pain another time.
I remember that as we told people, I kept thinking that we were going against advice to hold off until we were out of the first trimester, “just in case”. We were so happy and excited, though, that keeping it to ourselves wasn’t an option. We’re not private people, Alex and I. That’s just not the way we are. And now that the worst has happened, I don’t feel terrible about having to tell people about it. I’d rather people know why I’m sad or looking depressed. I’d rather people know that we’ve had a loss than unknowingly insensitively ask us, “when are you having kids?” I’m an over-sharer with most things in my life, so I just didn’t see why this should be any different. And frankly, talking about it helps. If I couldn’t talk about it, I’d internalize and get extremely depressed – that’s just my nature.
I took all of my pregnancy books and the few baby things we were given over Christmas upstairs to the nursery where I put it in the closet and closed the door. That was really hard, but I needed to make sure that I didn’t have a bunch of “emotional triggers” laying around the house. I’m trying to stay positive and distract myself as much as possible and focus on the fact that we were able to achieve one time (and really quickly) – so we should be able to do it again. I can try and lose some weight in the meantime and the longer we wait the more we’ll have in savings (theoretically). I know, rationally, that there are a lot of positives that I can focus on, but it’s hard. Hard to see past the immense disappointment, sadness, and shock. Hard to not think of the next four or five months as time wasted – a terrible purgatory of waiting when it was supposed to be an exciting and happy time.
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Filed under Baby | Comment (0)I can’t believe that it’s already the middle of November – incredible! Since it’s our first Thanksgiving in our new house, Alex is adamant about having Thanksgiving at our house. My family was already planning on having Thanksgiving at their house, so we were planning on asking his family over for dinner and then have everyone over for dessert afterward. Unfortunately, he waited too long to ask Beck, Kevin and Nora were already had plans to have dinner at Kevin’s parents house. So, it will just be Alex’s parents and us for dinner at our house. It will still be a good time and will probably be less expensive and less work – so that’s good. We’ll have a full house, though, when my family and Beck and her family come over for dessert. That will be fun! I think that my big brother and his family are even coming up from South Carolina – so I really can’t wait for Thanksgiving Weekend!
I haven’t started planning AT ALL yet for Thanksgiving dinner, so I better get a move on. I saw a recipe for Roast Turkey with Truffle Gravy on Cooking Light – I might try that this year… if I can find or order Truffle Oil in time. I freaking love Truffle Oil. Mmmmmm…
If Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, then The Holidays must really be right around the corner. I think we’re planning on Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas Day with Alex’s family, and then going to PA to be with my PA family for a few days. We’ll need to be back before New Year’s Eve, though, since Alex is on call this year – so it looks like it will be a quiet New Year’s for me (which is A-OK with me, actually). The rest of this year is really going to fly by quickly – it will be 2010 before we know it!
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Filed under Holidays | Comment (1)So, the little weather app on my dashboard says that it’s 39 degrees outside and the little thermometer in my living room says it’s 51 degrees in here. I think it feels more like 39 degrees in here – I’m cold!!
When we discovered the leak from our boiler and called the plumber, I was definitely afraid that we were going to have to replace the whole thing. Afraid, but also hopeful; because if we had to replace the whole thing, then we wouldn’t have the scary possibility looming over our heads for who knows how long. We knew that the house had a 30 year old boiler when we bought it and it was working at the time of the house inspection but since it was so old I assumed we’d have to replace it at some point during our ownership of the house. Well, I mean, I hoped that it would make it, like, another 6 years at least because this is our “5 year plan” house. In 5 years, we’ll be out of debt (woohoo!!!) and since our debt payment is almost as much as our mortgage payment, we’ll be able to afford a nice house like ours in Nisky instead of a scrawny in need of a ton of repairs house like we could have gotten now. 5 year plan. 5 year plan.
But anyway, back to the boiler. When the plumber came out and gave us the diagnosis, I was kind of relieved. I was also happy to hear that with tax credits and rebates from the utility company we’d be getting a high efficiency boiler for less than the price of a normal one – and that both of those prices were much less than I feared. So wee!! New boiler – oh, and since our hot water heater was also wicked old and had no “medium” setting (turn it down to conserve energy and get no hot water! turn it back and get scalding hot water right away!), we decided to replace the hot water heater at the same time. So that’s all well and good… but the first appointment that the plumber had to do the install wasn’t until November 2nd and 3rd. So that sucks.
“But,” we thought, “it hasn’t been that cold this fall – in fact, it was pretty hot in September. So October should be pretty mild – we’ll be fine without heat in October.” I don’t know why I didn’t think of that October before we moved up to NY when there was an epic snowstorm that paralyzed the Capital District. Luckily, it’s just been “on the cold side”. Unfortunately, “on the cold side” feels pretty darn cold when you can’t turn on the heat. Plenty of my friends haven’t turned on their heat yet because they don’t want to pay for heat in October – and I’m sure that if we had the option, we wouldn’t have ours on either. But not having the option sucks.
We’ve been drinking tea and layering clothes. Last night I went to bed wearing leggings, a long sleeved t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and two pairs of socks. I also warmed the bed with a heating pad before I climbed in. Alex thought I was crazy – he wore shorts. We’ve also been building fires now that we’ve had the fireplace cleaned and inspected. It’s Alex’s favorite new thing. He just loves to build and prod and poke a fire. Oh, and throw crap in it. I had flowers that were past their prime – he threw them in the fire. We ate brownies on paper plates in the living room – he threw the paper plates in the fire. He was so excited about the fire that he wanted me to take a picture of it. So I did. Actually, I took a few pictures and a video. Here’s the video, for your viewing pleasure. Doesn’t that just look warm?
I wish I was warm right now. Sigh. To bed!
Popularity: 85% [?]
Filed under house | Comment (0)I decided to revamp the look of my website this weekend, since I’d resolved to finally move to a new webhost as my hosting fee was coming due. I’ve recently become kind of obsessed with owls (random) so I decided to go with a fall-like owl theme. I couldn’t find any pre-made wordpress themes that fit the bill, so I found a theme and modified the heck out of it with the help of firebug and istockphoto. I’m pretty pleased with the results. I know that probably zero people will ever see it, but since I do this site for no one but myself, that’s A-OK with me. 
As it often happens when I revamp my site, I started to get all reminiscent about the beginnings of my blog. I visited the Internet Wayback Machine at archive.org and typed in aliwolly.com. The earliest iteration that popped up was from December 2004 – my pink landing page, which linked out to my photo albums (the older ones were self-hosted) and my blogger blog. So that was fun to poke around in, but then I thought, “Huh. 2004? That’s the earliest?” Then I remembered that my original website was hosted on my PC and used dyndns.com to point a url to my PC’s IP. Yep, turns out I’ve been a geek for a long time. So I threw aliwolly.homeip.net into the wayback machine and found a version of my blog from 2002: pre-blogger. I probably originally built the site in Sept 2001 on tripod.com before I moved it to my PC. It’s completely intriguing that there’s this internet archive project out there and that something as insignificant as my website is archived in it. I guess, so far as websites go, mine could be considered pretty old – “online since 2001!” – but I can’t imagine that it’s interesting to anyone but me.
My old posts are endlessly fascinating to me. I decided to look back at October 2002 – I was pretty verbose that month with 42 posts! – and laughed my ass off reading my posts from 10/13/02. The first one relates a story about a Pizzaria Uno’s dining experience and me pulling a typical Ali move and speaking without thinking. Telling your waiter that your leftover pizza would “smell like ass” is apparently a good way to get it taken off the bill (and embarrass everyone you’re dining with). The second post is about the time that I learned the expression, “Soup to Nuts” in one of my grad school classes – but thought the prof said, “Soupy Nuts” and suppressed giggles ensued. Actually, the whole month of October that year has some pretty good posts – I wish I could get back to writing like that again. Lately work is just all-encompassing and I am so tired by the time I shake work out of my head that I just go to bed. Sigh. Speaking of… Goodnight!
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Filed under meta | Comments (2)It was the first week of school in my sophomore year, which was my first year in the High School at Shen. The Shen High School was a large two story building and I was nervous about finding my classes in the confusing two story building. The first few days were stressful for me and I was very glad when the first Friday of the school year rolled around. An entire weekend of freedom stretched before me and it started off that afternoon with the annual “country fair” at the Shen Methodist Church, which was right behind my house. The fair was nothing special, but it was something that we got excited to go to as kids because it was so close by and there were games (every year one of us won a goldfish) and you could buy fudge and baked goods and candy.
Beck walked home with me that day after school so that we could go to the fair together. As we walked by the football field we started to hear music – the opening chords of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” by The Beatles. There were two guys walking up ahead of us carrying a boom box (is that really what they were called?!) and blasting Beatles music. Since they couldn’t us, Beck and I started to dance to the music as we walked along. I remember I didn’t even know that it was The Beatles that were playing at that time – Beck had to tell me what we were listening to. We laughed to ourselves as we walked and danced along, and then we heard one of the guys say to the other something like, “… I think I left the batteries in my locker…” and when they turned around to head back towards the high school we immediately composed ourselves and walked normally, completely ignoring them as they walked past us.
The second they passed us and could no longer see us, we started dancing again. We were having so much fun grooving to the music as we walked along that we didn’t even realize that the music wasn’t fading away. Suddenly the two guys were walking with their arms over our shoulders introducing themselves as Doug and Doug. We were appropriately mortified. They were also heading to the country fair at the church and were apparently Beatles fans. They were listening to “the blue album” – 1967-70 (disc 2). I loved every song that I heard as we continued to walk towards the fair and my obsession with The Beatles had begun.
I bought my first Beatles recording that night in the basement tag sale at the fair at the church. Rummaging through the piles of tapes for sale for $.25, I found an extended play cassette tape of the blue album. It didn’t have a case, but the song titles were printed on the outside of the cassette. I gladly paid my quarter for it and it became my sole source of entertainment for the next few weeks. I began to notice The Beatles everywhere – songs in commercials, new albums being released, “Beatles Sundays” on the Oldies Station on the radio. I taped the songs as they came on the radio station and my collection grew. I went to the library and borrowed books on The Beatles to feed my obsession. I bought “Live at the BBC” when it was released (I vividly remember reading the booklet that came with that CD during Biology instead of paying attention to class). I wrote lyrics to Beatles songs all over my brown grocery bag textbook covers. I convinced Mr Golden one of my World Cult/World Lit teachers to let me do my term paper on The Beatles. I bought enough Beatles t-shirts for every day of the week… and pretty much wore them every day of the week. I had coffee mugs, posters, puzzles, blankets, every album on CD, a few actual vinyl albums… I was a girl obsessed.
My obsession didn’t survive much into the college years. I, of course, was always a huge fan of The Beatles, but I started to listen to other music (gasp!) and focused my obsessions elsewhere. But lately, with all of the Beatles press – the new Rock Band game, the release of the remastered albums – I can feel the tug of the obsession. They’ve become the only thing playing on my iPhone and even though I’ve never played any version of Rock Band, I want the new game. I know that I won’t become obsessed again in the way that I was in High School (there’s been something else occupying the number one obsession slot in my mind for the last year and a half or so), but I’m having fun rediscovering a band that consumed me for almost four years half a lifetime ago.
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Where I'd Rather Be...
I think it’s time to take a vacation. Or at least a day or two off. Or a few hours (which is what I did today). I think that all of us in my department could use a little time away from the office to try and relax – maybe actually release the tension in my shoulders.
Summers at my job are characterized by frantic, cranky customers, stressed out, cranky coworkers, and a stuffy, oppressive office (because the air conditioner is perpetually broken). On top of all that, I’m dealing with a new boss (again), new employees (who, thankfully are catching on quick but it’s still always a lot of work), new(ish) products, and a larger and more complex workload than ever before. My employees are all busting their butts and burnt out and I feel like I’m forever waiting for the next problem to arise. Things that seem slightly annoying during other times of the year are suddenly life or death situations. People that usually get along become short with each other and conflicts are a more common occurrence. There’s no time to get away from your desk, no time to take a break… no time to breathe. The stress and tension combined with the ceaseless heat makes for a pressure cooker like environment. Needless to say, I can’t wait for the fall!
Fifteen hellish workdays left ’till Labor Day!
Popularity: 12% [?]
Filed under work | Comment (0)…Since I’ve posted. LIke, months. And I got yelled at for that. Sorry! So here’s what’s been going on:
The house
Our move into our house went smoothly – it felt like I packed for months before the move and yet I still was rushing around during the last hours before we had folks there to help us. Who am I kidding? We still weren’t totally packed when we were moving – we were throwing stuff in garbage bags and laundry baskets as usual. Sigh. At least this was the last time we’ll be moving for a long time! AND next time we’re totally hiring movers.
We’ve been here for two months now and we’ve got our kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, and bedroom completely settled furniture wise. Our family room is mostly set up with our futon and old TV in the armoire and some bookcases. I’m thinking that room will seem in transition for a while – we don’t use it right now and it will likely become a playroom someday. The other two bedrooms are also just waiting for something. The one bedroom that has two windows and a built in dresser in the cedar lined closet is completely empty. I call that one the nursery. Alex pretends he doesn’t hear me.
The other bedroom just has some things in it that really need to get stored in the attic – which is accessed through the stairs in the back of the closet in that room. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with that room. I could put a desk/worktable up there to organize my paper crafting things. Or I could put a bed in there to make it a guest room – we’d REALLY like to get a new mattress/boxspring set (so sad that ours is totally beat after only four years) and we could set up our current mattress and boxspring in there on a metal bedframe and do something creative for a headboard (or seek out an inexpensive queen bedroom set on craigslist). It would be nice to have a queen sized bed in our guest room – but then, the room is the smallest of the bedrooms, so a queen sized bed may be too big for in there. Also, no one visits us. Ever. We could seek out a twin bed for that room (or take the spare lofted twin that the folks are trying to get rid of) instead – then I’d be able to still put a crafting type setup in there and we’ll eventually need a twin bed down the road (again, Alex pretends not to hear me when I say that…).
We haven’t started to paint yet – mostly because we’ve never taken the time to figure out what we want to do paint-wise. That’s the next project – expect posts with pictures soon – hear that Aunt Anne? 
Other Stuff
Well, I’m thirty now – which means I’m officially old. Awesome. I had an excellent birthday, involving surprise cube decorations and bagels at work, a trip to the Apple Store (yay! Apple Store!), a serenade by a gorilla while at lunch at the mall, cake from Villa Italia, watching “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at my favorite movie theater, fireworks in the rain, and then drinks and snacks at Aperitivo.
Our two year anniversary was on Monday – we’re an old married couple now. LOL. We saw Coldplay at SPAC, which was really the first time we’d listened to Coldplay, but we’re both kind of fans now. We had a really great night – it was awesome to have a date night, especially doing something out of the ordinary.
We lost a cat for a week – our little white cat Finnegan went missing last Sunday. I’m not sure how, but the both of them got out late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. I didn’t realize it until that morning when I was making a pitcher of Cherry Lime drink (from Target – hella, hella good) at the kitchen sink and heard meowing outside. I went to the door and let Fiona in. We couldn’t find Finn at all that day – and he didn’t turn up all week. I put up posters and posted a Lost listing on Craigslist and went out looking for him but there was no sign of him. I thought he was dead or lost forever. In fact, I considered getting a kitten yesterday – but I waited because Alex wasn’t around and I didn’t want to pick out a new cat without him. I was at the computer late last night/very early this morning when Fiona went to the porch and started to hiss at something. Alex was out having a guys night with his friends and I was home alone, so Fiona going to the porch and hissing FREAKED me out. I pretended to be brave and went to the porch and shooed her inside – that’s when I heard meowing from outside the door. I opened it and Finnegan ran in. I was so happy I cried. He was so happy it sounded like he was crying. He was so skinny and he ran immediately to the food and water. Fiona was freaked out and hissed at him – she still isn’t used to him yet. I hope she recognizes him soon – it makes me sad that she’s hissing at him and apparently doesn’t remember him when he obviously remembers us since he came home to us. I’m just so glad to have him home!
There’s probably about a million other things I can write about, but I think that’s about enough of an update for now. I’m hoping to begin posting more regularly – I promise!
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Filed under cats, house | Comment (0)
Our House
Is a very very very fine house.
I actually severely dislike that song. It is so gay. Also it bothers me that the two cats are in the yard. I mean, that means they’re outdoor cats because you can’t fence in cats and so they’ll probably get diseases and die or get hit by cars and die or get eaten and die. And no one likes a dead cat.
So yeah. We’re buying a house! Yay!!! We’re actually pretty far into “the process” but I just haven’t posted yet and I figured it’s about time I get around to it as I know that a year or so from now I’m going to want to go back in the archives of my blog and read what I wrote and think, “gee, wasn’t I so naive?!” So… We picked up “house shopping” after we got back from Dubai almost a month ago and, like I expected we would after spending money on vacation and feeling guilty about it, we found our house on our first outing out.
Our Realtor had plans the first weekend after we returned from Dubai, but I was antsy in my pantsy about getting out and looking at houses again, so we decided that I’d go without Alex the following Monday night while he was at Paramedic school. Alex’s mom, Patty, came along with us (since I can’t be trusted to remember details about things or notice important house condition stuff) and we looked at 4 or 5 houses that night. The first few were pretty scary and I was beginning to feel a little hopeless about our efforts that evening, but then we walked through the house on Bradley Blvd.
The hardwood floors were gleaming. The living room was huge. The dining room was open to the kitchen where the was a breakfast bar area. The kitchen had a separate cooktop and wall oven – perfect for my bad back. There were two full bathrooms, three nice sized bedrooms, a full attic and basement, and a family room off of the kitchen. Rare for Schenectady, there was also a ginormous over-sized attached two car garage. But to top it all off, it was sitting at the top of a hill, overlooking Central Park with a view of the lake. As our Realtor put it, it was “the find of the century”. He suggested that I call Alex and tell him to meet us there after paramedic school. Alex loved it too. We made an offer the next day and had it accepted the day after that.
We’ve had the inspection already and are following up on a few things – the house has a slate roof and the section over the front of the family room appears to have been tarred at some point, so we’re getting an estimate to see how much it would be to fix that. Also, the family room is on a separate zone of heat and when we were there for the inspection we couldn’t make the heat come on, so we’re trying to figure out what’s going on there as well. The final thing that came up during the inspection was a situation with the neighbors… They put up a fence that attaches to our house and garage and fences in part of our yard. Our attorney wrote to the seller’s attorney and asked them to get the neighbors to move the fence back to the property line. So hopefully all of that goes well.
Beyond that, things are progressing with the bank and we have a quote for home owners insurance, so we’re “homework-free” for now. The target date for our closing is May 20th and I know that will come up quick. I hope that there are no bumps in the road over the next three weeks and that we’re able to close on time so that we can move in during Memorial Day weekend – that’d be ideal.
So right now we’re researching appliances and trying to make lists of all the things that we’ll need as first time home owners. It’s all very exciting. And scary. I freaked out twice this week already – first over thinking that we’ll need like three times as much as I thought for the closing (which totally turned out to not be the case) and second because a guy that works for me and just bought a house with an older furnace (like we’re doing) woke up yesterday morning to find that his central air/heat wasn’t working. Hearing about that lead me to freak out over hte fact that we’re using all of our savings towards buying the house and that we won’t have a big emergency fund for something like that. Our furnace is definitely old so that worries me – although the home inspector said that our boiler is a “cast iron beast” that, while the life expectancy is only 30 years or so usually, he’s seen some like ours that have lasted 50 years, so hopefully the odds are with us there. I’m sure that wasn’t the last of my freakouts before closing. Poor Alex – he’s a freaking saint for dealing with me.
I hope everything works out. I hope all of my calculations and projections are correct and we do fine with the monthly expenses. I hope our neighbors don’t suck. I hope the place isn’t randomly haunted… I hope the next few weeks go by quickly – I wish I could just fast forward to the part where we’re already moved in and settled in and enjoying our house.
Exciting. Scary. Exciting.
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