So I haven't been on this thing in a while, and people are starting to ask questions.
We've just been very busy this summer. I placed both the girls in a summer pre-school, which took them a few weeks to get used to but have now grown to love it and look forward to it. We began house hunting, mostly to get the $8,000 tax credit :) My accountant said we needed to buy a house this year. So we looked and submitted some offers, and looked some more.. it was exhausting to drive here and there and try to check neighborhoods and schools and house designs. But then we received a call that our offer had been accepted, the offer on the SECOND house that we looked at (not the 20-30 that we continued to look at). After much legal hassle and financial business we signed all the papers and the house was officially ours.
All the while my mom was in town so ofcourse we were busy running around buying school stuff for the kids, and well just buying anything that my meager income cannot afford. Once we got the house ofcourse we had the inspector come and he found a water leak, and the siding is some kind of bad siding (we knew about that before purchasing).. So I had my uncle, he's a plumber, come and look for the water leak.. which he decided was the pipe from the water main to the house, and ofcourse it runs under about 65ft of concrete driveway. So obviously we are currently looking for the cheapest pipe drillers in town, so far we got an estimate of $14.95 per foot, which comes to around $1,000.
It turns out the house we bought uses gas, which we've never dealt with before so I spent a day monkeying around with the hot water tank trying to get the water hot.. Little did I know that you actually have to light the fire, but thankfully a very nice and chipper man from NW Natural came and showed me how everything worked, and even how to turn on the fire place (thank god, heaven knows I never would have figured it out!) Even out dryer runs on gas, and our furnace too.. which is good in the long run because Julius wants a put in a gas stove, so atleast the lines are already there.
The siding that needs to be replaced in LP siding, there are a few parts that need to be redone, and eventually the whole house will need to be changed. Which runs about $9,000, plus the people to go up there and paint after we get the new siding on. That will have to wait for next year, because we just don't have the money sitting around to do it.
The house itself was a shortsale, and it was in severe need of a scrubbing. We're talking they must have had a dozen cats, and never vacuumed before. So I hired a cleaning company to clean from the top down, including cupboards, carpets, and toilets. They did a decent job, but not what I think $250 should have gotten me (but then I am very frugal, and they did spend a good 5 hours on it).
My mom and I spent about 4 days repainting the girls' room to pink, which turned out very nice but extremely time consuming. Then we spent another day scrubbing all the kitchen, living/dining, stairwell, and hall with TSP to prepare it for painting. Thank goodness my uncle owns a paint sprayer, because I don't know how we would ever have reached the 16 ft ceiling we have in the dining area. So we took two days and plastic-ed everything, what an ordeal that was.. you never realize how many light fixtures and outlets and just how much plastic you need to cover all those cupboards until you actually do it, lets just say in tape alone we spent $50..
We did score some awesome furniture, even though Julius doesn't really care for it. So we are pretty much set on furniture. We even moved alot of stuff already but it's the small stuff that is remaining that is killing me.
Keep in mind that during this time I started school again, which I am full time this year so it's been wild, I have also been searching for some sort of childcare for the girls during my classes. My uncle came and did the painting after Julius and I chose something we thought we could live with. I went there today, and almost fainted. It's completely YELLOW! I'm talking like pale lemon.. not at all what the paint sample looked like. It's crazy because the hall and kitchen look exactly like the sample, but the living and dining are yellow.. I pray that the couch will look okay in there. I just couldn't believe how yellow it is... wow. But maybe I will get used to it (if not I guess I could paint it again.. or maybe an accent wall or something..)
So today is Wednesday, I have a class tonight and two tomorrow.. We are out of here by Sunday and that includes cleaning everything and having the carpets cleaned. I don't know how I will ever get sleep and just the thought of sitting here typing this while I should be doing something more productive is killing me... I just keep telling myself that I need to get through this week, just this one week and the rest can unravel as needed.
Then we just found out yesterday that Julius' dad passed away, so he will be flying back to the Philippines to help his family take care of everything. Which is crazy, we don't have the money to pay for it so we're going to put it on the credit card, if we ever get the card, because Julius lost his card last week so he had them issue him a new one... and it's yet to arrive. But he's hoping to fly out on Friday.. which then we have a passport issue because you're not allowed to fly within 6 months of the expiration date, and his expires in January. Which has been a huge hassle, to apply by mail it takes 6 months (obviously no time for that), and to apply in person it takes 7 working days, which Monday is a holiday.. which puts him flying back on the 9th of Sept -should by some grace of god everything work out and the passport be back in time- If not he won't be allowed to return to the US until his passport is renewed. Add to all that confusion the fact that his boss wanted him to be back in the office by Sept 7th. So yea, it's not looking good. And I really didn't want to leave him going on his own, I mean I feel as a wife I should be there for such a loss, but there is just no way we can afford to send four people, I would miss school, Alexa would miss school.. how on earth can I work that out?? It's just got us in a pickle!
So yea, that is about what I have been doing this last month and half.. it's been a whirlwind experience and Julius and I agree that we are not moving for atleast 3 years, unless we should win the lotto or become the beneficiary of a mansion.
