Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Useless

Tuesday.

It's my only day off this week, and I'm determined to enjoy it, or at least make it useful. I've already done the floors and the litter box, and the two loads of laundry that needed doing. The dishes are washed, the baby is bathed, and I'm feeling good about myself.

And this, I've learned, is where my husband and I differ. I'm one of those people that agonizes over the stuff that needs to be done, so in order to enjoy my day, I have to tackle all that crap first and get it out of the way. Wil would rather go and enjoy himself and then come back and deal with the crap later. How does he do it? How can he look around the living room and see the toys scattered from one end to the other, the dog hair tumbleweeds collecting in the corners, the mountain of bills on the desk, or the pile of dishes in the sink, and not be overwhelmed. If I left them there, I'd agonize all day about the mess I left behind.

Just an observation, no real revelation there or anything. I guess I'm just trying to come to grips with the fact that we function differently, and even though it drives me crazy, it's just the way he is.

We want to move so badly that it's driving us crazy. The only problem is, there's very little that we can afford. The average house in this town is going for $250,000. Isn't that a little ridiculous for just a little three bedroom older home? I thought so too. It's amazing how much property values around here have soared just in the last couple of years. When I bought this house back in '98 I paid $57,000 for it. Now it's worth nearly double that. And the vacant lots that used to go for about 5 or 6 thousand are now $35,000.

We found one house that we both sort of like. It's not the outside of our price range, and it's older, but it's very unique. (that can either be read as cool, or troublesome, I'm not sure yet) It needs aesthetic work. The carpets are ugly and the vinyl floors just suck, but that's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. The cool thing about the house is that it's two-story. That's rare down here. It has a fenced yard, so my dog has running room that she doesn't have now, and it has two porches and a balcony off the master bedroom. The kitchen is not exactly the kitchen of my dreams, but it's not tiny, so it has potential.

We can either make an offer on that house, or we can consider building a new home and have exactly what we want. Of course, building sounds like the better option, but the prospect of finding decent land is bleak. I just don't want to pay $40,000 for a lot in the boonies that has to have well water and septic and is 40 miles from anything civilized.

I don't know. I'm so impulsive sometimes that I just jump on the first thing that comes along. I don't want to do that with the house. This is where I'm thankful for my husband that drags his feet all the time. It keeps me from making a lot of poor decisions.

But enough of the new house stuff. Today I have to go buy shingles for the house we live in. With any luck, I just might have a roof again before hurricane season. Yippie! And the lawn guy comes today to tear down the jungle that used to be our yard. Our lawn mower bit the dust and seems to be beyond repair. Of course, in the time it took us to determine that, and to finally give in and call the lawn service, the grass turned into some sort of big green beast that's threatening to take over the entire house.

My Mom just called and wants to meet us for lunch here in the next hour. Yay! I love free lunch.

And I can afford to spoil myself a little.

Here are the latest numbers:
Weight: 166.5 lbs
Bust: 38"
Waist: 35"
Hips: 41"

Not much change in the inches department, but this is the lowest my weight has been in about two years. I'm feeling very proud of myself, and very determined to stick with my diet.
It's amazing what a difference it can make to simply eat healthy foods and correct portions. Other than that, I'm doing very little differently than before.

Stay tuned, tonight I'll try and post my recipe for a really yummy lasagna dish that is filling and incredibly light.

1 Comments:

At 11:29 PM, Blogger Laura said...

sounds like you're having fun and stuff. okay, with Wil, here's the deal -- I am the Wil in this relationship, I think. Mess doesn't bother me until it starts to cross into "too much". Also, if I don't feel like doing something at all, then I'll do a really crappy job of it and it will take all day. If I do feel like doing something, I get it done superfast and super good. I can get more housework done in an evening of feeling like it than I can in an entire day of not, but trudging through.

but that's me. Free lunch is good, yay! I'd say go for the house that needs work, since it really may cost you more from the ground up. What we did was go under contract (or you could just do a letter of intent which gives more leeway) and then get the thing inspected. Housemaster is good and nationwide. Then make your decision.

Part of what we did was arrange with the seller that if we back out of the contract due to excessive expensive work that needs to be done, then we would give them the inspection for their trouble.

why is a two story house so rare? Hurricanes?

 

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