A Busy Weekend And The Other Half

We celebrated my dad's 50th birthday on Sunday afternoon, and then our niece's 5th in the evening! A busy birthday day! Here's my dad's cake:

We also had a tear off crew come and start pulling all the drywall out of our new house on Sunday! I remembered to take pictures after they moved all their tools/stuff in!

So here's the extra bedroom: 

And a blurry picture of the other side:

The only bathroom:

And the tub (notice the brown strips of wood the previous owner added to the doors?):

And the master bedroom I couldn't take a picture of the closet as the guy was in there tearing it apart!:

They should be finished today and then we can work on getting the drywall reinstalled and making it into a home!

My New Backyard

This is the enclosed back patio we will be taking down and rebuilding:

This backyard looks overgrown and uncared for:

It once was very nice:

It even had a pond!

The patio coverings are all different:

2 metal awnings from a mobile home, and a wooden one all mashed together here:

The backyard even has another enclosed place for a jacuzzi that works but is all crackled so we won't be keeping it:

I cannot wait until winter when we most likely will be living there and can make it nice again!

Half Of My New House!

We just got our keys yesterday at 2:30! It needs some major remodeling. Here's the kitchen:

The living room floor carpet didn't look like this when we put the offer in! We were actually sitting on the bare carpet at that time! About 99% of the stains are from the renters! Cat pee, dog pee and very dirty feet. They attempted to clean the spots before they left but it didn't do anything. It smelled so awful and I cannot see how people can live like that! And they did this all in a little over 1 month!

We pulled the carpet out and as we were pulling the padding out, we discovered some lovely linoleum underneath! I say lovely because even though it is hideous, it extends to cover the whole house!!!! Even the pee carpet in the bedrooms has linoleum underneath! I am so thankful because that means the pee didn't soak into the concrete!

I found a "lovely" broom that flutters as you sweep and swept up this pile just from the living room! Do you see why I despise carpet??? You cannot ever clean it! Achoo!

The kitchen had some post opening thingy going on which must have been all the rage back in the day when everyone wished they were in jail or missed stair railings way to much. These came out right after the carpet. This whole wall will be disappearing. My personal view on the whole blocking off the kitchen thing is it's the most disrespectful thing on the planet to completely close off the person cooking to the rest of the house and other people like they're supposed to be hidden or something and not welcome to join the conversation going on in the living room. It annoys me to have a kitchen blocked off completely, so bye bye wall!

Can you imagine this living room in pink carpet? Yup! That is the color of some of the fibers sticking to the tack strips! So this "cute" linoleum was first, then they got sick of it, and covered it with pink carpet. The new owners must have replaced that with the grayish carpet when they moved in 6 years ago and we're just going to take it all out! 

Here's the view from the front door looking towards the garage door in the kitchen:

And another view of the kitchen so you can see the different linoleum style in the kitchen, front entryway and bathroom.

I am so excited to finally get my new house! I will show you more later!

New House? And Animal Thoughts.

I spent all day yesterday cleaning our condo. We have the appraiser coming today. I somehow mixed up the days of the inspection and appraiser. The people buying the condo will be coming to inspect on Friday. I want the condo to look like new again so the appraiser will appraise it for a higher number and the people buying it will still like it and see exactly how new everything is. I was washing appliances, organizing, wiping walls and door jams, and anything else I could think of as well as the regular deep cleaning I normally do. I feel like my condo is fresh and sanitized. I love my house to be clean. I can just relax and enjoy it for a few days! I will be scrambling tomorrow to scrub it all down again for the people coming on Friday!

I am wondering if we'll still be getting our keys to the house today. We still don't know who will be giving the keys to us! I'm sure we'll be trading out the locks right away though because I don't trust those renters to not come back after all the damage they've done.

I am so anxious just waiting  to see who has the keys from the renters, or where they are. I cannot wait to get them! I plan on taking Cruizer to see his new house, but I do have to admit I'm a little nervous if he might get sick from the animals who were there because they were not well cared for.

Sometimes I feel like such a stuck up snob thinking I'm better at caring for my animals then some people, but I always think right after at how easy it is to just bathe your dog and clean up their poop or messes. It's not that hard to brush them either! Dogs and cats tend to love any kind of attention as long as it doesn't hurt them! I had 4 cats at one time before and cannot remember a time when my house smelled so awful of cat. I kept my cats bathed (ouch!) and I tried to keep their litter box clean which I'll admit was hard while I was working and had 4 cats using it, but the smell never permeated the entire house!!! It's impossible to just blame an animal if your house smells because it's entirely your fault if it does! I will admit we had 4 cats, 2 dogs, 10 lovebirds, 1 canary and a fish tank all at the same time in a musty mobile home and the only time my house smelled like animal was when my older cat had a bladder infection and was (TMI) peeing out blood until the medication healed her. I cleaned every spot where she had an accident. It's not that hard! I was working full time too! The only way a house smells  is when you get too lazy to clean up after your animals and neglect their needs. I think to be a responsible pet owner is to be one who keeps their home clean. I became overwhelmed with all the animals about 5 years ago and realized they didn't have the life I dreamed of them having with me working such long hours so I found places for all of them except Cruizer. We had raised Cruizer from a small puppy and my husband was attached to him. So he stayed and is awfully spoiled.

I love petting a clean dog! I gave Cruizer a bath yesterday. Have you ever witnessed a dog right after a bath? It's hilarious! Right after you finish drying them off, they streak around the house like a bee just stung them on the butt and act like a crazy lunatic! Tongue hanging out, gigantic smile, ears flapping just galloping and slip sliding all over the place running about 50 miles and hour! It is a hilarious sight to see! I think they love getting baths even though they look at you with sad eyes the entire time you're bathing them thinking you're trying to drown them! Either that, or they're celebrating the fact you didn't drown them!!! :-D

Thoughts Of Dog Stuff

Since we will be moving soon, I have to think about where will I place all the dog stuff? It has worked out great here to put his bed and toy basket under the stairs where he really enjoys it:

He fluffs his bed a lot and will empty the toy basket one at a time until he finds the toy he wants to play with.

I also have to think of where to keep his dog food and bowls. They have been in the downstairs bathroom here for a while.

I guess once we have the whole house torn apart, we will be able to plan a spot for him.

A House? And I'm Grumpy

We might own a house on Wednesday! We signed the rest of the paperwork yesterday and did the final walk through! Wednesday if all goes well, we'll get the keys!

But what a disappointment! Right after we put an offer in, and it got accepted, the owners rented it out to 3 people- a couple and their older grown son. They have inside dogs and an inside only cat. The first time we walked through, the house was fine and they were keeping it clean and were even cleaning the weeds up and raking. So we were impressed. Yesterday during the final walk through, the house has a nasty smell to it. Like unwashed body and dog pee. The cat has marked his territory all over the inside of the back slider glass door and I'm sure everywhere else. They didn't replace burned out bulbs as they burnt out so it was dark in there and I didn't feel like touching the handle to roll up the security windows to get some light in. It smells really bad. They also lost the screen door key. While walking through the backyard, I noticed they attempted to trim the fruit trees but ended up hacking them. They now look like little bushes. If there was any fruit growing on them, for sure there isn't any now. The jacuzzi outside which has always been full of fresh clean water but we don't know if it works, they decided to take the lid off and let the water evaporate so it is now a mosquito hatchery. What a disappointment!

I was planning if our condo sells that I wouldn't have a problem living in there until we finish fixing it up, but I will definitely not be considering it anymore.

I do still like the house. We have all kinds of dreams and plans on how to make it great, but it kind of has a bad start of sad feelings partly because it is not the same house we put the offer in for. The bones and structure are there but someone else has put their mark on it to make an impact on what they think a house or yard should look like even though it wasn't their own.

We will have to correct it and I hope I can fix the trees if they weren't too badly mauled! Why oh why do people do things like this? I guess we could have put up a big stink about the owners putting renters in after they accepted the offer especially because we know the house had been empty for at least a year before, so I guess it's partly our fault, but it really isn't our house until we get the keys.

We were planning on replacing the drywall already for the walls, but my husband was going to maybe keep the ceiling drywall but I told him yesterday it won't be possible because of the smell now. It's all coming out no exceptions. I am so happy they will be out Tuesday. I hope they don't trash it more before then!

So that is the excitement in the household here. The other thing is we have accepted a full price offer on our condo and are hoping to close July 31st. If that happens, we will be homeless unless we camp in our new backyard in 110+ weather while we fix up the inside. I will not live in the awful condition those renters have created.

I am happy to finally have a backyard soon because I promised Cruizer he'd have a yard with grass again before he died. I will be able to keep that promise!

New Paddle?

The flower turned out to be a paddle!

Well, I guess it's happy? Did it grow roots? It has me so confused!

Out Of Food

Here's all the dog had of his food this morning:

We are completely out of dog food. We tried to buy more last night and Target was out and we didn't want to buy another brand because he's used to his favorite Purina Dog Chow.

 

So I made him breakfast this morning:

Bread, eggs, banana and the rest of his food. He loved it so much he didn't even chew it! He swallowed it whole! I'm waiting and hoping he doesn't puke it all up! He's so full he's burping.

 

Guess we'll have to go to the store today!

 

Today is my brother's birthday! Happy Birthday!

My Juicer Part Arrived!

I got a juicer at the end of May. I used it once and while I was washing it, I noticed the auger had a spot that was peeling off.

And it had an air bubble that looked like it was going to keep peeling off in my food. So I called the company and had to email them some pictures...

And yesterday morning, this came!

Ta Da!

Now I can go back to learning how to juice!

Baby Bird!

You might notice what looks like 2 "land mines" in the dog park?

Well, one of them is a tiny baby bird!

It's so itty bitty and very good at hiding!

I remember my husband saying something about Cruizer finding a baby bird in the dog park the other day but he just smelled it. And sure enough, today he smelled it up so good, it flapped it's wings and I finally saw the baby bird! It is so clumsy and baby-ish! I hope it finishes growing it's flight feathers soon so it can get away! What a sad place to grow up! I am so surprised it hasn't been eaten or stepped on yet with all the dogs and people who go in there!

Surprise Flower

Imagine my surprise the other day when I was looking out the window and saw this growing on my prickly pear cuttings! Who would have thought it would happily grow a flower while it's still trying to grow roots? I just might have 1 prickly pear fruit! I'm excited!

And on the other hand, my Calla Lilly's have started to go dormant for the year! I always get excited when this happens because while I love the look of this plant while it's so lush and green, I really don't have room for any pot on my patio so as soon as it dies off, I can stack another pot on top of it and condense everything! I'm not sure if that's ok for the dormant roots, but they always come back with no problem every year!

I am getting excited waiting for a yard and a garden! Everything will have space to be then!

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day!

So

Happy Father's Day

to all the dads out there!

 

Flag Day

Happy Flag Day!

Since it's flag day, I found all my flags:

It seems I always have an audience!

The big one with the white edges needed the edges sewn up.

Then I put it in the window!

It looks backwards in the picture but if you're standing outside, it is the right way.

 

Did you know to hang a flag the blue should always be in the upper left when placed in a window or hung anywhere. You should never put the blue under the stripes or the upper right except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/more/displayonly.htm

 

 

My Dog's A Weirdo

Anybody else have a dog who does this?

He amuses me everytime he does this!

And here I thought the stairs were annoying! I guess I've never used them the way they were supposed to be used!

June Garden

This is what my garden looked like the last time you saw it:

This is what it looks like right now:

 

Some changes, The rosemary went from this:

To this:

And one of my date palms was mad at being transplanted, so it died. I planted a chopped up prickly pear from the top of a plant where the bottom half was dead! It was either that or watch it die a slow murderous death! I picked out the best 3 pieces to plant and figured I had 3 shots at this. If one takes, beautiful! I love how cactus's are so easy to regrow!

I'm getting excited waiting for a backyard. Then all my plants will be happy because I'll be planting many of them in the ground.

 

Gas!!!!!

Anyone know why the stove is in my living room?

Well because it's not here nor will it go back.

Because of this!!!! We got gas! It's somewhat free because it's included in our HOA.

Here's what my kitchen looks like now!

And the gas is on! I was so excited to share my news, I took pictures before washing the dust off!

We have gas flowing through the lines!

I assure you, I washed it and I've baked cookies already to celebrate! It works!!!