BUSY! We bought a house! As exciting as that may sound, it’s been completely exhausting. We went out on the first Saturday of May to look at about 6 houses. We just wanted to get a feel for what was out there and never thought we’d find anything to make an offer on, but we were wrong. The last house we looked at, we immediately fell in love with. We thought about it for the rest of the weekend and decided to make an offer Sunday night. After going back and forth with the sellers, our offer was accepted on the Monday and then started our process of pure hell.

Starting with the inspection. We knew we were buying an older home that had dated wallpaper, popcorn ceilings and hideous paint colors… but we never imagined the items that came up on the inspection report. The electric wasn’t up to code, the HVAC unit was 20+ years old and leaking air, there were gas leaks and the chimney was pulling away from the house. We immediately went into panic mode! We went to the sellers with a list of items that needed to be repaired. This ended up being practically everything that was on the inspection report!  Might as well as for it all and go from there, right?

We loved the house, but we were also ready to walk if the major repairs weren’t going to be done. It’s a buyers market right now and if they didn’t want to do the repairs, we knew we could find a house that didn’t have massive cosmetic work that needed to be done as well as somewhere where the fireplace wasn’t going to end up falling into the house at some point!

The sellers were difficult to work with.  Example:  There were electric receptacles that were loose and we asked them to have them tightened by the electrician since he was already going to be there to do other work, their response was (and I quote), “Buyer is welcome to tighten these receptacles as desired after closing.  Seller will leave a screwdriver in garage for this purpose.”  Seriously?  Are we 12?  Pete’s response (equally as immature), “Buyer reserves the right to withdraw offer if work not completed by a qualified electrician and purchase house which does not require integrated screwdriver in order to ensure correct electrical operation and safety of family and pets.”  (lawl/smiley face, I love my husband!)

They originally told us the GFCI outlets weren’t in the house when they bought it and they weren’t going to have them installed now. Well guess what, the house was built in 1986 and GFCI’s were required on homes in North Carolina as of 1975 (gotta love Google!).  So Mr. and Mrs. Seller, that would mean that the electric in your house is not up to code and if you don’t fix it for us now, you will have to disclose it to other potential buyers. They decided to get it fixed.  Your chimney not being structurally sound isn’t going to help you sell the house any faster either.  They fixed that too.

Cost them over $3000 for repairs, so good thing we had an inspector that was so thorough because we need that cash to remove the disgusting popcorn ceiling and 1980’s flower wallpaper that someone once thought was a wonderful idea.  Not to mention the painted over pale green grass texture wallpaper in the living room.  The 1970’s hospital look was apparently very popular those days.  We had the ceiling tested for asbestos as well, which they didn’t like.  They thought we were being too picky.  If there are other items in your house that are not up to code, there is nothing that says the contractor who originally built the house didn’t spray your ceiling with 10 year old material.  Luckily for them there was no asbestos in the ceiling, unfortunate for us because we now will have to remove it ourselves since it falls under the “cosmetic” category now instead of the “could kill us” category.

So now that everything is over with the arguing back and forth about who’s going to fix what and whether or not a screwdriver is required to sell the house, it’s nearly ours.  We close on Thursday and I can not be happier to be done with these people!

Needless to say, we will be spending every waking moment for the next few months taking down that disgusting ceiling, removing wallpaper, painting, sanding, sweating, swearing, yelling at eachother, bleeding, getting drunk, eating too much, going to the hardware store every 5 seconds, crying at bank statements and then more swearing.  Following it all up with a great big sigh of relief, a feeling of accomplishment and adding massive value into a house that we brought up into the current decade all on our own.  All in all, we’re looking forward to all of it!

As for the bento blog, can’t say when I’ll be starting it all again.  I’m hoping it won’t take too long to get back into some sort of a routine.

As for all the repair work and house stuff, I’m going be updating our personal website with info on the renovations.

May the force be with us…

We rent. So we can’t dig a garden. It sucks! But I came up with a plan a couple of weeks ago to still have my garden and keep the grass in tact. I decided I’d keep everything in pots. Not only will it keep the landlord happy but I can also take the plants with me once we move.

My mom helped me when she was here and we planted 3 different types of tomatoes, green peppers, banana peppers, lettuce and strawberries.

Here is what they looked like when we first re-potted.

1st day of re-potting the seedlings

I took new pictures today (2 weeks later) and the difference is amazing. I’ve never had much of a green thumb when we lived in Florida, I think because it was just so damn hot! But I’m having much better luck up here.  I even have a strawberry that is ready to be picked!

Day 23 - Strawberry ready for pickin'

Day 23 - Tomato plant

In hopes of not losing my many wonderful subscribers I want to let everyone know what is happening on my side of the world.

After coming home from visiting family we found out that hubby needed surgery on a growth near his brain.  He had the surgery last Wednesday and only just got out of the hospital on Saturday.  So far it looks like they were able to remove the entire tumor and it was benign, but we still need to wait for everything to heal to find out if there is anything left and if his hormone levels will go back to normal.

It’s been a very trying week for both of us since we were told 3 months ago that medication would reduce the size and surgery would not be necessary.  He is recovering brilliantly and we are hopeful that all will be better soon, but it may be something he will have to keep a close eye on for the rest of his life.  It’s strange how things can change at a drop of a hat.  It definitely made us both realize what’s important.

I should be back to bentoing and blogging in the next coming week.  Right now, as you all can understand, I need to focus on him and getting him back to good health.  Wishing you all a wonderful week and of course, happy bentoing!!

My mom is coming in from FL today then we are out of town for a couple of weeks so I’ll be taking a little bloggin break.  Stay tuned in April as we feature some new bentos, recipes, bento gear and even some new amigurumi I’ve been working on!

Hope everyone has a great rest of March and see you all in April !!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day with the one you love.

As a little V-day pressie to me, I snatched up my first woot shirt.  I love it!  This could get dangerous though…

Went out yesterday and got my hair all did up.  In a fit of boredom and the need of something different I went massively dark.  Doesn’t look too bad I think but still getting used to it

So in looking for a cute little bento pic to pop on the last post, I came across this awesome site.

shirt.woot!

They sell a new tee everyday for CHEAP!  They have really cute designs in looking at past products but once the day is up, forget it!  Well, almost.  If you miss it first day, you can still get it — just will be more cash and will still only be available for a limited time.  Read the FAQ’s.  Seen that Shirts on Sale has some of the past tees.

Keep this one on the daily check list if you are a t-shirt junkie like Pete and I.

Today’s shirt:

Obviously not applicable for anyone in our household.  But still, cute!  Can’t wait to snag my 1st  one!

We woke up today to snow!  It’s still coming down but so far we have about 4 inches.  Neither of us have lived somewhere with snow in a very long time so we’re like kids today!  It’s awesome.  Jake’s not too impressed… we’ve hardly been able to drag him out in it.  First time in his life he’s ever seeing it.  He walks into it and he looks at me as if saying “What the hell Mom, it’s cold and wet out here, let’s go back in!!!”  … man – I don’t blame him!!

So Pete came home last week and told me that his boss is getting everyone new iPhones for their business lines.  Immediately I was jealous, but I can’t really say too much about it when #1, the phone is free… and #2, my ass ain’t working right now.  But still.. massively jealous!

So my little brain started grinding and I began to form a cunning plan.  I figured out that if Pete uses his work mobil for everything and gets rid of his personal mobile that we can save a buncha money a month!  So I concocted a little spreadsheet showing the price of the iPhone along with the AT&T plan cost for only me, minus the amount we would be saving monthly getting rid of the Sprint service.  I had a pretty good case and once I showed it to him, he really couldn’t argue.  So off to the Apple Store we went and I came home with this little beauty (shown with the case I also got).

The shame of the matter is… I got it before Pete technically got his because he can’t go pick it up until Wednesday!  But the shame and guilt vanished once I started downloading apps.  I’m in love!  Last.fm app rocks!  Plus I found this cool app that shows food additives so I can look up what might be animal derived products when I’m at the grocery store or buying shampoo, etc.  It’s the small things that excite me and with my iPhone I think I’ll be finding something new everyday to send my heart a flutter!!

On a whole other note all together…. Kudos go out to Pete for passing his VMware exam!!!  So proud of him.  Passed it on Saturday with only a 4 day training course from Tuesday to Friday.  He tried to explain some of it to me but it’s way over my head.  All I can think is if people are willing to pay chunky salaries plus the fact that only about 25,000 people worldwide have the certification, then it must be pretty darn spiffy!

I <3 my hubby and my iphone.  Life is good.

So I hurt my back pretty bad yesterday.  I went to pick up our dog (which is only 20 pounds) and felt a bit of a spasm.  It felt weird but not too bad, so I worked out on the treadmill for about 30 minutes doing intervals of sprints and fast walking.  Got off the treadmill and could barely move.  I debated going to the ER for the entire day until about 9pm when I laid on the couch for a bit with the heating pad and then couldn’t get back up.  The pain was excruciating!  Finally after an hour of screaming and crying and with a lot of Pete’s help I was finally able to get up and into the car.

I waited 3 hours to see the doctor and was with him for 10 minutes!  But he gave me some good pain killers and muscle relaxers, which put me to sleep instantly.  First time in ages I slept through the night and slept past 8am.  Feeling a bit better this morning but not going to rush anything.  Going to be a nice easy day for me!  I’ve been fueled on adrenaline for the past 3 days trying to get this house back in order after the holidays and I think I’ve been over working myself a bit too much.  I’m not superwoman, though I try to pretend I am.  Time for a rest!!