More open houses

We hit more open houses today. All I have to say is, never attempt a tampon change in an older home that doesn't have updated plumbing. It's really too bad cuz that house had potential. But, I'll never show my face in that place again. I seriously think Tom is ready to divorce me.

House hunting

(or haunting?)

Tom and I have been hitting open houses as much as we can and I thought I'd share our last house encounter.

As we're walking up to the house (which was an old 30's box style craftsman) there was a head stone in the front yard. I grabbed Tom and said, "We can't live here! Someone's buried in their front yard!" Tom said, "Ummmm...dipshit, it's a Halloween decoration." But, to my defense, this tombstone looked authentic. And, they had no other Halloween decorations around the yard or house so it looked as though it very well could have been someone's great Aunt buried right out in front. And I have been so out of sorts that I completely forgot Halloween is just around the corner.

So we enter the home and the agent greets us. It's toasty warm and had an adorable front room with a cute little kitty sleeping on the couch, which of course I had to pet. Then, we follow the agent into the kitchen and it's a disaster. It has this weird stand alone counter with these 2 gigantic barrel things underneath that were cracked and rusty. I say to Tom, "What the heck is this???" Tom sort of laughs and says, "Maybe they have coal heating." I say, "This is 2008! Who the hell heats their house with coal?!?" Tom gives me this weird look and I mumble some more nonsense about the bootleg kitchen as the agent takes us through to the basement.

There were so many rooms down there, none of which were finished and the agent explains to us that in the 40's this house was used as a boarding house for students. I peep my head into all the dark rooms each with a tiny window the size of a shoe box and said, "That's creepy! People actually lived in here? Could this be haunted?? This reminds me of the basement in Silence of the Lambs." The agent sort of laughs as Tom is now shuffling me rather quickly through the basement back up the stairs. We follow the agent up another flight to the 2nd floor.

We walk into the master bedroom which was pretty cool, tons of windows as well as this closed in porch with windows all around. I open the door to walk out onto the porch and after one step the floor buckles. Tom's about to follow me out and I yell, "Don't move! The floor's going to cave in!!!" Then I hop back into the bedroom and tell him how freaky that was and how I felt like I was going to fall to my death. By this time the agent has left the bedroom and Tom tells me to please just stop talking.

So now we enter the bathroom and it's as though it was never updated. Tiny tub, pedestal sink and cock eyed toilet. I ask, "Where's the master bathroom?" The agent says, "This is the only bathroom." Tom starts to thank the agent for his time but of course I interrupt and say, "I don't understand how a house this size can have only one bathroom! Or why wouldn't the owners at least update the one they have?" And that's when "the agent" says, "Well we've been here over 10 years with 2 kids and haven't had any problems!"

Holy shit. This guy owns the place. All of the things I had previously said start playing in my head and I feel like a complete and total ass. I quickly try to back track over the bathroom comment and tell him that since we moved from out of state, we plan on having a lot of out of town visitors and it's more challenging to share a bath when it's not family. I don't think it mattered though.

We say our goodbyes and the second we step outside I see the sign, FOR SALE BY OWNER. How the hell did I miss that coming in??? Tom then says, "OMG you are so f*cking embarrassing! Next time either keep your mouth shut or just assume that every open house we go into is shown by the owners. I can't BELIEVE the things you said in there!"

As we walked to the car Tom went over all of the things I said and I wanted to go back to the house and apologize to the guy. I probably would have if his shit splat house wasn't so outrageously overpriced.

frozen tid bits

I'm sorting through my box of unmentionables and I leave the bedroom for a few minutes and return to this:

That would be my strapless bra insert inside of Wrig's mouth. He now has a new toy. I'll throw some granny panties for Chum to play with so he's not left out.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon touring Open Houses in Queen Anne. One thing I noticed upon entering each home was that they were soooo warm! I couldn't believe how nice it felt to walk into a home and actually be able to take off your hat, scarf, gloves, etc. I made this comment to one of the showing agents and explained to him that the house we are renting is FREEZING all the time. He asked where it was and I told him and he knew exactly the house we were in and said that it's been on the market for about a year and he has shown it to several clients and that has been the biggest complaint! He said even in the warmer months, the house was still uncomfortably cold. As I type this right now my hands are are starting to tingle. For shits and giggles I took a photograph of the heater that I carry around with me that registers room temperature. He is the temp in the bathroom:


And here is the temp in what was going to be my Craft room/Guest room but decided that it's too uncomfortable for any human or beast to spend more than 7 seconds in here:


Wrigs has been so cold that he lets me bundle him up in his blanket.

He says, "Welcome back KBL!!"

And now for some warmth...

We spent Saturday afternoon with Karen, Gregg and David. We had such a great time and they were fantastic hosts and showed us their adorable, picturesque town. Wrigs even got a glimpse of Latte, their big fuzzy outdoor cat, but Latte was not as keen to make friends right away. He had to be pried from the deck and put inside. Poor guy! But it was quite entertaining to watch Gregg carry Latte like a sack of potatoes into the house. I'm sure many of you have seen the beautiful pictures Karen has posted of her neighborhood and views. They are even more breathtaking in person. Truly a house filled with and surrounded by love and warmth!!!

And for those of you who have been reading blogs for a while, do you know who I saw outside a coffee shop??? Liz from As The Tumor Turns. Crazy thing, this blogging world isn't it?

Karen and I went into this cute little bakery to get some dog treats for Wrigs and we both had a moment of hysterics. Here was their "Fresh Fruit" display at the bakery:


What do you think? Fail blog worthy???

Last night my girlfriend and I were WWW (webcamming with wine) and this is what happened as a result:

Her showing me some yoga poses because Tom told us we were going to get hunch backs from the way we were sitting. Her screen froze on this pose and it made me laugh soooo hard:


Then I was telling her how dirty my hair is (what riveting conversations!) and that I could pull out strands and they would just stick straight out. And here's exhibit A:


She was telling me to "phone home" after this.

Ok, the room has now warmed up to a balmy 58 degrees so I'm going to attempt a shower and a shampoo! Too bad these heaters aren't waterproof.

Just realized something...

Since 2001, here is an outline of our moves:

1)
2001: moved out of our cockroach filled apartment into our first condo in Chicago.

2) & 3)
2002: Tom gets transferred to Minneapolis. We live in corporate housing for almost 3 months then move into our home.

3) & 4)
2003: Tom gets transferred to S. Cal. We live in a co-workers vacant house in Claremont, CA for 2 months then we move into our townhome in Mission Viejo.

5)
2006: We outgrow the townhome and move into our home, still in Mission Viejo.

6)
2008: Here we are now in Seattle.

No wonder I never feel settled. And to think, we'll be moving AGAIN in less than 6 months. My goal is to live with the MINIMUM and be able to pack up all of our belongings into one small minivan (minus the furniture, and animals, and kitchen stuff).

The sun is peeping through the clouds right now so I am going to head outside and do some organizing in the garage. It's 59 degrees today and it actually feels warmer outside than it does in our house! I had a great morning that I must blog about at some point later today. It involved Wrigley and an old blind woman. Melted my heart!