Home Sweet Home Redux

Sorry for all the house posts lately, but i'm sure you can understand that not only is it a huge deal for me, but it's also been consuming my every waking hour lately.

So...we're in. We're 90% unpacked. 4 of our 7 rooms have furniture. The dining room, living room and 2nd spare room will have to wait until we can scrounge up some money to fill them.

I actually love having lots of extra space. It feels so good to b-r-e-a-t-h-e.

The fence has been started. The dogs have tried to escape from the yard a few times. Hopefully Mat will be able to finish the fence tomorrow and if not then my dad will come back up next weekend to finish it.

The appliances are here....they look awesome in the kitchen. I haven't even tried the controversial smooth-top stove. Quite frankly, i'm not even going to let the thought of whether or not i made the right decision ruin my new-house-happiness.

I am loving going to bed and waking up to the sounds of crickets and birds chirping. Living downtown, all you go to bed to and wake up to are loud, intoxicated people and the overwhlemingly loud airconditioning system from Place Bell.

There are a few more things on my immediate wish list but i'm hoping to get those in the next day or two. I also want to do some painting (of the walls) but for the first time ever, the colours are not popping into my head. It's always been that i will walk into a room and know what colour it should be painted. Not here. All of the rooms are neutral tones which look fine, and i normally paint in neutral tones. I think the problem is that they're the right colours, just not the right shade but i feel silly buying gallons of paint just one or two shades darker than what's already there. hmmm....

Other than that, there's nothing to complain about. It feels great.

Oh, and pictures will come once i've unpacked the camera....this might take a while.....

We got the keys

Somebody pinch me




Better yet, someone get me a beer.

Breathing a little easier

~PHEW~

I think the worst is over.

Mat and i met with the lawyer yesterday to pay her and sign our life away.

I was still overwhelmed, on edge, stressed, drained and maybe a tad crusty.

Not to mention that i drank nearly half a vial of rescue remedy (which has always helped me deal with stress in the past) only to have no effect on me yesterday. Yesterday was a whole other level of stress...

I was certainly not myself.

Earlier, i called our bank to tell them the dilemma of needing to make an extremely large purchase on our debit card that was exceeding the daily limit. She told us how we could go around it by maxing out our daily debit limit as well as making a cash withdrawl to compensate for the remaining amount that we couldn't cover on our debit. You see, with my bank there are 2 daily limits: one for your direct debit and one for cash withdrawl.

~phew~

Mat was able to buy all 4 money orders (because they too have a max), and we were off to the laywers.

While at the lawyers, she was running through all the papers with us. It's amazing the amount of trust i put in someone whom i've never met before. She told us to sign here, here, here and here. Here and here aaannnd here, and here and here and here and here. oh, and date it here and here......and here.

I did it all without reading it. (god i can be so naiive) but she would briefly tell us what it was we were signing "so this is for your title insurance" "so this one says that you agree for us to represent you" blah blah blah. I was so tired from being stressed yesterday that i couldn't even make myself care anymore or stress anymore. You see, it turns out that bank accounts aren't the only ones with daily limits...i had reached my stress limit for the day!

There was one part where i thought i should question some numbers (btw, when you're buying a house there are about, oh let's see, a million different numbers and figures). While she was flipping through all of the pages for us to sign, i thought i saw that our mortgage was for a total of 223,000. I asked her why our mortgage was less than the actual price of the house. She started to explain to me (in somewhat of a condescending tone - for which i couldn't blame her cause here i am, the property virgin and here she is the older, wiser, real estate lawyer) that the mortgage is never the total amount of the house because you have to have your own downpayment. I explained to her that we didn't make a downpayment because we got a 0% downpayment mortgage (a new Canadian mortgage product that just came out less than a year ago which was the only thing that made it posible for us to purchase a house). Anyway, turns out my eyes were playing tricks on me and the total mortgage amount was 233,000. I apologised and said i had mis-read it (how could i not when she was flipping through the papers like the office was on fire?). She looked at me and in a sarcastic tone asked "are we good now?". Then she felt the need to add "wow, you're a lovely shade of pink there Rosealind" (btw, my name is not pronounced Rosealind. it's ROZalind). Thanks. Thanks a lot. Thanks for hitting me when i'm already down. Thanks for making me come thisclose to crying in your office. That's exactly what i needed today of all days when it seemed like nothing else could go wrong. Thanks. I would also like to add that this was not a pms day. It was just a really shitty day.

So, now we hold our breath and wait for the insurance broker to give us some insurance so that we can get the keys tomorrow.

Finally it happened. Today, at 3:00 pm...i received an email that we have insurance...or so i think...we'll find out for sure tomorrow when we get the keys or don't get the keys at 4:00...

In any case, the worst is over so i'm a wee bit more relaxed.

p.s. i called home depot and they said they called the warehouse and they promise that the stove will be delivered on saturday.

Deep Breath in, and exhale.....

*hhhhhUUUUUUUUhhhhhhhhh* *hhhhhhhAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhh*

not helping a whole lot.

I thought i was ready. I thought i was super organized. I thought i was on top of it all.

"not until i'm done with you" said my first-time-homeowner devil sitting on my shoulder.

Our house closes in 2 days....TWO days!!

we are aaaallll packed. we gave away a ton of stuff. i felt relieved to get things done. The only thing i was worrying about was money. We have enough but it's such a huge amount of money at once that it just scares me and there's nothing i can do to make myself feel better about it.

That was 2 days ago, and i was dealing ok with that amount of stress...

Yesterday: we get off the phone with the lawyer. She tells us the amount we owe her today. $3099.00 *GULP* ok, so it's more than i thought, but we're still in the black. Then she mentions at the end of her call haphazardly: "oh, and i need proof of insurance before i can hand over the keys".

HUH?

why am i learning about this today, at 5:30 pm 3 days before we close??

why didn't someone tell me insurance was a necessity before we can get the keys??

i was in the middle of getting insurance but there were questions i couldn't answer and thought i would submit it once we were moved in.

ok...so scramble.....desperately email my agent asking him all the questions i can't answer.

Desperately call my dad grilling him on all of the questions my agent can't answer.

finish filling out the form...fax to insurance company....and wait....

i can hear my heart pounding. I'm shaking. i can't concentrate. i'm worried and i'm about to throw up.

Then...mat goes today to get the money order and is told that the amount exceeds the daily limit....faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak

THEN....we get a call from the appliance delivery company saying they have our fridge but they don't have our stove, so we should follow up with home depot and check the status.....

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Finally, i called our mortgage lady at the bank just to talk and make sure i haven't missed anything else. everything is peachy according to her. I ask about the $2000 deposit that i made when we bought the house that i was told i would get back and she said that the amount would have been deducted from the lawyers fees. My ears perked "so you mean instead of $3099.00 it will be $1099.00??" The mortgage lady said: no, it would have been $5099.00 originally.

oh



my

god




HOW can the fees be so much???

I was counting on that $2000 like you wouldn't believe.

HOW CAN IT BE THAT MUCH??

that doesn't even include our first mortgage payment

are you f*king kidding me right now???


Deep breath in, deep breath in.....


still not working....my stomach is in knots

Slow Me Down

That's the name of a new song by Emmy Rossum.

Not only do i love it, but it's exactly how i've been feeling these last few weeks. Maybe that's the reason for me loving it...i dunno.

You can hear a short clip of it on her myspace here: http://www.myspace.com/emmyrossum

She's putting out an itunes bundle on July 31st with this song and 2 others as well as an 18 minute documentary on the making of the album.

My excitement may or may not have something to do with the fact that my brother is the producer of this album and co-wrote all of the songs as well as mixed and engineered them. (sorry if that's not 100% factual, but that's what i understand).


*insert proud little sister grin here*


Let me know what you think of the songs :)

Life is good

This is going to be short and sweet.

I love life right now. I have so many wonderful things going on that most days i'm over-stimulated with excitement.

Mat and i have spent that last 2 weekends packing up our apartment. Although i can't believe how much STUFF we have, it feels awesome to give a bunch of it away. Packing has also forced me to do things that i've been putting off like: going though bags of papers that were on the desk, as well as the file folders and shredding old bills. We bought a cute little shredder that cross-cuts and also destroys credit cards and media...it took a while to shred all of the stuff we had (3 garbage bags later) but it felt amazing not having to take all that crap to our new house.

We've also filled the trunk of Mat's car full of stuff to giveaway to goodwill. That also feels good. Not necessarily because we're "donating", but because it's clearing our space and our heads of stuff we don't use and certainly don't need.

My philosophy of sorts for moving into the new house is to keep it clean and simple. I think we felt we had to move because our space was too small (which it is, when you have 2 adults and 2 dogs living in a one-bedroom apartment), but now i think if we had gone through all of our stuff and thrown out and given away as much as we have, we wouldn't have felt so rushed to buy a house. The fact is, when you're not forced to do something, then you rarely do it, which is the case with us.

I'm so excited that i will be able to enjoy summer mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights in my backyard on my new patio set.

I'm thrilled that i will be able to have people over to my place and not send mat into the bedroom to watch tv.

I'm ecstatic that visitors will be able to stay over at our place in comfort with their own rooms and beds.

I can't wait to host people for bbq's, and dinner parties.

I'm just so happy that the doggies will have their own space and freedom in our large-for-a-townhouse backyard.

Furthermore, it seems as though love is in the air. Maybe i'm just imagining things, or maybe it's just the beautiful summer days making everyone feel all lovey-dovey, but it seems like a ton of people i know are in love and loving life as well. It's...great.

Lastly, i'm excited more and more each day about getting married. For those of you who know me, i can seee your eyes rolling into the back of your heads, but i am, ok? When Mat and i first got engaged, i was excited, but part of me was also very calm since the wedding is a year and a half away. Now we are approaching the one-year away mark which means i'll be able to start shopping for my dress and sending out save the date cards and all of the other wonderful, glorious things that wedding planning entails. AND...it's MY wedding...finally :)

Ok, a few more things to be happy for, and i'm done:

I can't wait to start some projects in our house like painting a few rooms, creating a dining room, putting down hardwood, installing a fireplace, creating a guest room and an office and a workout space and a sewing and knitting space.

I can't wait to start gardening and planning out the landscaping for both the front yard and the backyard.

I can't wait to buy potted plants for the entrance way and the walk way. I can't wait to buy hanging baskets for the porch and the garage and the side of the house.

I. just. can't. wait.

yay! life is good :)

(ok, sorry this wasn't "short" but it was sweet, don't you think :))

Back from the Batch Biatch!

Edited to add pics :)

I'm back from the Big and Beautiful Batchawana!

It wasn't long enough considering it takes a day to get there and a day to get back, but it's always worth the drive.

Amazingly, i took 80 pictures which is highly unusual for me because i rarely take pictures (i mostly enjoy smiling for them) and even more unusual for such a high ratio of pictures-to-vacation-days. However, i have been inspired by all of you and your wonderful photography abilities. PLUS i had several adorable subjects: mainly my 2.5 year old niece, Fiona and my doggies...hehehe.

I can't post them just yet cause they need a bit of cleaning up. I had the wrong setting on my camera when i took the outdoor pics and they all have a blue haze on them.

The trip was good. Mat and i didn't fight one little bit on the car ride there. Except for when i got mad at him because i specifically asked him to make me a salmon sandwich and he made TUNA because he didn't want salmon. I don't care what YOU want, i asked for salmon! If i knew you were going to disobey me, i would have made my own sandwich! Anyway, the tuna was ok, but not what i was hoping for. The doggies were good, sleeping the whole way in the car, and we only stopped 2 or 3 times.

When we arrived in the Batch at my brother's and sister's cottage, we were given the whole guest house to ourselves. It's awesome and the perfect way to spend a vacation. Not to be mean, but it's so nice not to have to share living quarters with anyone except your dearly beloved. The guest house is one huge room: think cozy loft apartment. Mat and i were able to sleep-in without the noise of anyone else waking us up, sneak away for afternoon naps, and put the doggies away when they were tired or needed a break from the sun and sand.

I got a lot of knitting done! I'm still working on my very first project (a winter scarf) but it's coming along nicely. I would say i'm about half way done for the super long length that i want.

Sarah: I started reading eat, pray, love. I'm not very far into it, but so far it's an easy read. I'm not sure if i like her "funniness" because it comes across as forced and i've certainly read way funnier things on people's blogs. Also, i couldn't really get into it because i was concentrating too much on someone who stayed at the cottage who said how much she LOOOOOOVED it, and i wasn't thrilled that this person was there, so i think it was affecting how much i was loving it too....more of that later....

What else...the weather wasn't perfect. We had a few cloudy days and a few sunny ones but i did get sun burned on the first day which was somewhat cloudy, so that's ok. We did almost all of the things i usually do when i'm at the cottage: take many trips to Agawa which is a store that sells native arts and crafts etc. I love that place. It IS Batchawana. They now have an online store at http://www.pancakebay.com/ it's not the same as the store because you don't get the smell of leather and rabbit furs nor do you get the sweet sound of native throat singing and drums. I bought a total of 30 maple sugar candies at 50 cents a pop...expensive, but worth it. 20 of them i shared with everyone, while i kept 10 in the car for myself and Mat (sorry Stu...).

I also bought a pair of mukluks. I desperately needed a pair of winter boots and although these aren't hip and pretty, i think they'll do the job. They are tall, brown leather boots with a big, thick rubber sole that comes up over the sides of the boot a bit. They are lined with sheepskin and lace up the front. I think they'll work better than any other boot i've owned...they'd better!

We also managed to take a trip over to the island and another trip to the sandy beach across from the poplar motel. We had 2 campfires and roasted marshmallows and made smores...mmmm....we ate like kings thanks to Stu's cheffing.

Can you believe that i did not drink one glass of water the entire time? I kid you not. Seriously...all i had to drink for the entire 5 days was coffee and beer and the occasional glass of wine. How i'm not dehydrated, i have no idea. And i had lots of beer. I almost polished off a 2-4 by myself. How i can fit into my clothes today? also have no idea....strange. meh.

So would you like me to tell you about this woman who was staying at the cottage at the same time as me? There's really not much to tell, so it shouldn't take long. She's my sister-in-law's cousin. She's 40ish - ? She's born and raised in California. She just spent 6 months in India learning how to bring meditation to the west. I find her phony to say the least. I don't know her very well, but i just find that she tries too hard. But the real reason why i don't particularly care for her is because she treats me like i'm 8 years old. Hello...i'm 26, and quite frankly you're treading on my territory here in the great north miss california who thinks 20 degrees celsius is cold and bugs can be averted without using bug spray. So ya, she treats me like i'm 8. Quite condescending and i'm pretty sure i don't act like i'm 8. So on top of her being phony 24/7, she did things like this to me during her stay:

background: all of the food in the cottage is for everyone. no one has their "own" stuff cause my bro bought it all and divies up the amount (or so i was told).

scenario: 3rd day at cottage. lunch time. phony one (henceforth referred to as L) in the kitchen making lunch. roz enters kitchen to also make lunch.

unfolding of events:
roz: (to no one in particular) looking at the bowl holding 6 avocados "i wonder if the avocados are ripe"
L: "no, i don't' think they are"
roz: picking one up to look at it. avocados are dark dark green (almost black) and soft "um, yup, i think they're ripe. i'm going to make guacamole"
L: "i don't think there's enough"
roz: staring at the bowl of 6 avocados "oh, are these for a recipe?"
L: "no, but i eat them like, every day for every meal" (which she does. she helps herself to one avocado every lunch and dinner).
roz: "well i just need one to make guacamole"
L: clearly not listening and only concerned about having enough avocados for herself "Well, can you at least leave One or Two???"
roz: slowing down her speech so that L can hear her "i saaaaaid.....i'm only using ooooonnnnneee"
L: no response.

Then THIS happens (can you tell i'm still peeved??)

As i'm in the middle of making my guacamole, she comes over, TAKES THE FORK I'M USING out of the bowl, and says "i know it's not ready yet, but i'm just going to take a bit for my sandwich" W.T.F???? Excuse me? did you just take the fork i was using away from me and help yourself to MY lunch??? is it ok for me to just pick up your sandwich and take a bite?? no, i don't think so.

So you see, this is how she treated me the whole time. On top of that, she doesn't eat "real" food so she never helped in making the communal meals like lunch and dinner. I helped a bit (Stu did 99.99% of meal prepping and cooking) but i cleared the table and washed the dishes every night. L did nothing. She made her own meals, ate WITH us, and then left her dirty dishes for me to clean. thanks. you're a great guest. btw: when she did wash some of the dishes she used, they were still dirty. i guess she hasn't realized that when you're cottaging, dishes don't get washed in a dishwasher.

Oh, and did i mention that she did nothing except type on her laptop? She even claimed one of the chairs in the cottage as "hers". A big armrest which she not only hogged, but asked me to vacate so that she could work on her laptop. give me a break lady. go home already.

Further, she would not stop complaining about all of the bug bites she got. The only problem was that she refused to use bug repellent. She insisted on using her hippie, all natural, lemon grass "bug spray" which clearly does NOTHING because she was covered in bites. I tried to tell her that those natural things do nothing and that you have to use a bug spray with deet. Mat, Stu and I had no bug bites....hmm....

Anyway, it's just too bad that she was there the entire time i was.

There were a few things that I was not able to do on this trip such as waterskiing (kinda chilly), Salsburger Hoff – an amazing German restaurant that we go to at least once a year, visit my “original” cottage, and fishing. I’m blaming it on the fact that our trip was too short…

So i think that's all for now. I will edit this post if i think of anything else, and i will also post some pics once i've cleaned them up.

later gaters!