What I Learned This Week

When life hands you lemons...

...do not do the "Master Cleanse".

Put them in your liquor drink instead.

For this delicious recipe check out Cookie Kate. 

Happy Friday Hon! 

Appraise The Work

As soon as the wires were up and our back yard didn't look like this anymore, our mortgage broker ordered the appraisal. 

The appraiser came and Mr. C was kind enough to escort him through the house. Our mortgage gall suggested that he be here instead of us in case the appraiser had any structural/rehab questions (& probably so I didn't say truthful crazy things like our foundation was made of diamonds and our paint laced with gold in hopes of persuasion in our favor). 

So, I did what I could. I cleaned the house and in hopes that the appraiser was a fan of 'merica, I hung up our flag. 

We ended up just over where we had hoped to be which is awesome and means maybe the flag worked. (Thanks again Mike & Sunshine for the house warming present!)

Next stop, the permanent loan closing. Hold on to your seats kids, I know this is getting almost too exciting to handle!

The Wire (s)

The wire saga has finally come to an end. You first read about it here. Then again here.

A brief recap: The wires that were hanging off of the side of our house had to be hooked up to one of the electric poles on either side of our house. Sounds simple enough but, this couldn't happen until our neighbors signed the waiver that said wires could cross the plane of their property.

Until the wires were taken care of the appraisal was pushed back and so was our ability to convert from a construction loan and into a permanent loan.

We needed the owners of two houses next to us to sign off on the waiver. The electrician failed to obtain the signatures during the (actual) construction phase so Mr. C asked that we get involved and be "neighborly". Unfortunately, the task wasn't as simple as knocking on the door and asking for a cup of sugar. Both houses are rented out so tracking down the owners was our first hurdle. (Thank goodness for the internet and a girlfriend who knows her way around it.) Getting the owners to return a phone call or respond to a letter was a whole other saga and physically obtaining the signatures was the worst. One out of three of the property owners was particularly awful to deal with. But, after I established contact and after Mr. C bribed each and every one of them (seriously! this is what our world has come to?!) we finally were free and clear to have the electrical company, BGE, come out and do the install. 

Here is an old picture of  what the wires looked like for the past 6 months. 

Now, the view looks a little more like this. 

Wait. Where'd the wires go? Confused? Yeah, well, apparently the wires were installed on the "wrong" (South) side of the house because the signatures that we received were from the neighbors on the North side. 

So BGE came, scoped the scene, said "nope", and left. The electrician had to come back to move the wires from one side of the house to the other. 

Another request that BGE made was to make provisions so they could get their 25ft ladder out the back of our house. With the tiny back patio and a fence something creative had to be done. So Mr. C cut out a gate in the (once solid) privacy fence.

The gate opens up into the neighbor's back patio. No need to ever open that thing again so we have since put locks on it. It's not exactly what we wanted but, hey, it got the job done. 

Not only did the wires near the roof have to be moved but so did the electrical box.

After this mess...

... was all cleaned up.

And moved over.

BGE was asked back out to the house and the wires (finally) were installed.

Three cheers now, HIP HIP HURRAY!

It is hard to believe that this seemingly simple task could've been so drawn out and frustrating. 

If I were to share any advise to fellow renovating, home owners, I would say to get going on projects that involve neighbors, city permits, electrical companies in the beginning of the renovation process, (& by get going, I mean full court press). You never know what kind of snags you may end up with along the way.

Never thought we'd be so happy to see some wires in the air.  

 

 After all, where else are the birds supposed to sit in Charm City?

Help! I've Fallen...

... and I am trying to get back up. Clearly, I have fallen off of the posting train. My apologies if any of you out there are still reading (or trying to).

What the heck happened? Well...

Frustratingly, all things house related (wires, electricity, closing, etc) took a serious halt through the December and most of January. In the past week we finally powered through all of that nonsense. (I will divulge details & pictures soon.)

While we were waiting to move things along on the housing front the holidays came and went. Actually, right before the holidays was my birthday. Disclosure: I do not make a big deal about my birthday and prefer everyone else follows suite. The people out there who insist force others to participate in their "birthday week" (or month-yikes!) make absolutely no sense to me. You are not that cool "princess". But, for that night H did just that, he made me feel pretty special. He took me out to a fancy, French restaurant here in Charm City that was beautiful and delicious! 

He also surprised the hell out of me by giving me this bad boy.

I have been dreaming of a big-girl camera for a couple of years now but, had no expectation of receiving one anytime soon. SPOILED! Thank you H! xo

This is where things started going downhill for me. I am pretty sure it is a combination of a lot of things but, here are the top three: 

• First, I.MISS.MY.FAMILY!!! & I.MISS.MY.FRIENDS!!!
• Second, I finally understand why so many people out here dislike winter. It is because east coast winters suck: Cold. Grey. Dirty. Dark. Rain. = Blechh!                                   NOT like J Hole: White. Soft. Fluffy. Activity-filled. Beauty=Amazing!
• Third, I have not been exercising. At least not more than a walk a day with Miss Maui and a day (maybe two) at the gym. We all know that exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. 

Then came Christmas. I was having a particularly difficult time getting into "the spirit" this year (see reasons above) and was hoping to have a little help in that department when we traveled town to Lynchburg. I fondly refer to H's home town as "Pleasantville" and the past few years we have spent Christmas there with H's family. It has been great, we have shared a lot of laughs, and had an all around good time. 

Little did we know, this year, Christmas was canceled in Pleasantville. (For a multitude of reasons that are not mine to divulge.)

After that (not so fun) trip we decided to spend a quiet, uneventful night at home for NYE. Which, would have been perfect had we not gotten into a tiff at 11:58. 

Lesson: Breathe. Then live, learn, & don't sweat the small stuff.

Into 2013 we dove, trying to make the start of this year better than the end of last. It has been slowly but, steadily progressing in that direction. As soon as this awful football season is over (7 hours and counting) I am hoping to start focusing on my goals and what will make me happy. In case you're wondering, this is how I feel about living in Baltimore while the dirty birds are in the Super Bowl.

My new approach at turning things around for myself is this: Perspective is instrumental. Energy is powerful. Align those two in a positive way and (sing it with me now) every little thing is gonna be alright!