Floorplans

Yesterday Bethany spent about 2 hours measuring everything and completing a floorplan and at the end of it she calculated the living space; 1450 square feet. Yep, we've been had, screwed by the man. We're a full 150 feet short of what our contract says that we bought, which is precisely why we should've calculated it BEFORE we offered.

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking, who cares 150 feet, well you're right, I really don't care about the extra footage that we had on Friday that disappeared when Bethany did her calculations, but it's the idea that it exists on paper someplace and that we signed our name to it. It's just one more reason that nobody is really looking out for you when you get into a house; especially not your realtor.

Anyhow, things here are progressing slowly if anything. Too much Tofurky this past weekend and plenty of naps. I'm almost done with the insulation and when I'm done I'll begin on doing the insulation under the house in the crawlspace, actually, I'll probably begin the vapor barrier. I've got two days of vacation left for the year and I fully expect to finish the year out at my present position even though I'm not happy there, so I'll most likely devote one of those days to working on the house. One thing that is almost done is my office. I started it awhile ago and installed my monitors on my desk, hooked up my new machine and put in a shelf about 10" from the ceiling. The idea of the shelf was to put my speakers and lay some of my unframed artwork and things that I didn't want to get too dusty up there. I was even going to use it as a home for my external drives but I couldn't find a firewire cable for less than $30. The only thing I need to finish is to get something to place my printer/fax machine on and possibly a wall mount for a television B's Dad gave us.

Good Neighborhood Signs

How can you tell if you're in a good neighborhood or a bad neighborhood? What are the signs? Some people might say that if you see a cop parked on your street everyday it is neither a good or a bad neighborhood, rather a neighborhood in transition. But the idea of a "good" or "bad" neighborhood is something that realtors harp on so they can extort more money from you doesn't seem to be too far from what I believe. Sure there is good and bad to everything and each word is subjective; but when I ask "would you rather spend time in an area with bars on the windows of houses you pass while walking or pass mr. or miss sprite-like neighbor who says "howdy neighbor" while raking his leaves. To be honest both of these situations scare me, but if I were to pick I would have to go with the dork across the street who's life might be similar to the world in The Truman Show.

I do like my neighborhood; though it is in the suburbs; about a mile from the beltway, it does have some niceties that I have come to appreciate. For instance I like the people that go for walks with their dogs in the park without leashes, I like the same people who decide it's time for a walk at midnight and prance around the neighborhood with their gloves and mittens on (not at the same time) with junior and I like the tall trees that line the yards of our neighbors, the absence of graffiti and crack whores on the corner by the bus stop are also pluses. I would say that it is a good neighborhood if given the chance. One sign however that may not be a sign of a 'good' neighborhood is a crowbar through your driver side window in your 2003 Honda Accord and shattered glass both inside and outside of your vehicle. Yes; it is real, and it happened not only to me and my Honda, but another Honda down the street and around the corner from me on the same night. I'm not saying that I live in a bad neighborhood, but I'm feeling though this incident has added more character to it than neighbor Truman raking his leaves.

Our Boring Blog by Brian and on occasion Bethany...

So I spoke with a friend of mine the other night and he mentioned to me about how he and his roommate were talking about boring blogs and our blog came to mind immediately. Take off your address and don't do any shots of your house from the street; no identifying factors which means that I'll have to remove the link to our house for our Labor Day part too. Thanks Jerkface, now I feel like I have to come up with things on an everyday basis to talk about so I don't bore you. 

Well there are plenty of things that need to be done with / to the house and everything seems to take on a life of it's own. Every moment that I don't spend working on the house I spend procrastinating or trying to figure out what would make the most sense to do next on our long list of things. We've been in this place for three months; and yes it is sorry that my last post was more than a month ago. In that time it's gotten a lot colder; we've turned on our furnace and found out that it does still work, we've also planted new grass and spent considerable time raking leaves down into the street. Getting ready for winter. I've found out that I've got a leak in the roof, I've ordered a 1/2 cord of firewood that was never delivered and installed weather stripping to the front door. Today, more work on the yard; raking and such. It's been rainy lately so there is a lot of dampness in the leaves which makes it impossible to blow leaves. I'm still working on my insulation in the attic; I haven't even touched the crawl space. We've built several fires in the fireplace and realized that it really doesn't add any warmth to the front room. If you think about it it makes sense; heat rises and when you've got a big hole in your roof called a 'chimney' it allows all the warm air to escape. Regardless, it's nice if only aesthetically to have a fire going in the front room. The first time we set it up it was a replay of our wedding night at the Jefferson hotel where we forgot to open the flue and wasn't evident until everything smelled like smoke and the lights became so foggy that we were bumping into the coffee table and walls when we walked to the kitchen to fetch another glass of wine. Well, I embellish; but not much. The stank from the smoke lasted for more than a couple of days. So maybe it's better that the fire wood was not delivered after all.