We had some trouble
Sep 13, 2005 The Story of My Life
What’s Long and Low and Getting Lonelier?
These days, ranch houses are an endangered species. Once the revered symbol of postwar prosperity, these rectangular houses, with their rec rooms and picture windows and skinny wrought-iron balustrades, are now as dated as Melmac. In this one neighborhood, at least 100 ranch houses have been torn down in the last eight years, replaced by today’s dream, the multistoried, Palladian-windowed, double-height-ceilinged, great-roomed mansionette: Tara on a quarter-acre lot. When the ranch houses were first built in Braes Heights, they cost $5,900. The house that will replace the Calkinses’ is already on the market for $519,000.
The appraiser from FHA told our loan officer that he didn’t think we could afford the house with all the rehabs we’d need to do and she told him that we were actually planning on keeping the kitchen etc. the way they are.
It’s interesting. My sister loaned me a couple of old house beautiful-type magazines from the mid-50s and in those they recommend “beautifying” 1920s built-in shelves by putting paneling over them. And walling up arches for a more “sleek” and “modern” look. Horrors! That’s how we’re looking at this ranch but I guess the rest of the world hasn’t caught up with us yet!
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The hurricane wasn’t Ellen’s fault
Sep 13, 2005 Feminism/Politics
This bit of satire has gotten a lot of play sometimes mistakenly reported as serious news (because really, is it that hard to believe that Roberts would say that? No, of course not). But it turns out — and this isn’t satire — it’s actually the fault of single mothers.
Think Progress debunks some of the right-wing myths but the single mom one isn’t out there so I guess it’s true.
So you hear that? Marry up!
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Katrina asked how Noah was doing
Sep 13, 2005 Parenting
He’s handling this move (so far) much better than other people in the family (namely me) and it’s a testament to how much he’s matured in the past couple of years. I think it’s helped that he’s been so involved in everything just because it’s easier to take him (and Madison) along than it is to find childcare. Also he’s been privvy to all of our dinnertable discussions about why this house, why not that one.
We’re going to paint his room right away and we’re going to paint it the same color as the one he has now to make it easier (and because we like the color so much). We let him pick out which room he wanted since they’re all about the same size. I thought he’d pick the one with access to a bathroom, which would have been fine since he will be a teenager in five years anyway but he didn’t. Maybe we’ll switch it out when he gets to be that age.
I was thinking last night how the new house has bedrooms that are as small as the ones we have now (we’re gaining a little more than 300 square feet, all of it in the living areas) and how that will work primarily because our kids are so widely spaced. We’ll never have more than one teenager in the house at any given time and I think that’ll make things much easier. When Madison is 13, Noah will be 20. I’m hoping he’ll be a help either via email or in person so that when Madison is fed up with me she can call her sympathetic brother.
Speaking of the teen years, I’m listening to 80s music while I’m sorting out the kitchen and it’s making me very happy. Ultravox, Siouxsie, Grandmaster Flash. It makes it just a little more fun to pack.
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I hate being broke
Sep 13, 2005 The Story of My Life
What I hate even more is NOT being broke except for the promised checks that haven’t arrived. Damn freelancing.
The Orkin guy (who was awfully cute, I must add) came by to spray per the termite inspection we had and as I suspected, we have no termites or carpenter ants. But he had to spray because our closing depended on it. As I handed him the check, thereby depleting our account, which is unaccustomed to all of these weird expenses (I-beams, bags of dirt to put around the foundation, spraying for bugs that aren’t there) I thought, “Well, if I scrounge around for some change we can buy eggs and have pancakes for the next couple of dinners.” Then I would have winked at him since he was so cute and all but thought better of it.
I’d say the budgeting is due to poor planning on our part except that you know, the check has purportedly been in the mail now for the past two weeks. Last I heard it was DEFINITELY leaving the bank on Saturday — cross my heart and hope to die. If that’s true, it should be here tomorrow, I guess. Brett gets paid on the 15th, I should get a regularly scheduled check on the 15th, too. The movers are coming on the 16th and we’ll lock the doors behind us here by Sunday night.
My gosh, I’m starting to get all weepy about leaving here. Good thing I keep slamming my hip into the (new) counter top to remind me of why I want to move so badly but still. This was our first house — nice little house. We brought Madison home here. This house has been good to us.
It’s actually kind of good that we’re scrambling a bit for money here at the end because it’s helping create hostile feelings for this house. (I know it’s not entirely the house’s fault but you gotta blame somebody and it’s easier if you can target inanimate objects since they don’t argue with you about their culpability. Besides which the house did trick us into putting in I-beams we don’t need and spraying for ants that don’t exist. I’d say our hostility is warranted.)
Once we move I’m going to start Once-a-month (or maybe twice-a-month) cooking and I’m convinced it’s going to CHANGE MY LIFE. Way more than that bossy Fly Lady. (I despise the Fly Lady and her relentless emails.) But once-a-month cooking will actually mean we can stop eating out so damn much thereby making up the difference in house payments AND the food tastes better. I’ve always coveted a small stand-alone freezer and now I shall finally have one! (I’d be rubbing my hands together greedily except I need them to type.) To take my mind off of the move, I’ve been reading cookbooks and fantasizing about having neat rows of plastic bags filled with homemade goodness all nicely marked with a Sharpie pen.
Picture it! Brett comes home from work — I’m tired, he’s tired. Who wants to cook? Not us! But no fear — the freezer is full! And in an hour we sit down to a delicious, nutritious and frugal meal! What bliss!
The other thing I want to do once we move is start using the family Parsha postings with Noah. I’ve been feeling like we could all use a little more Higher Power around here especially since Katrina. It’s interesting that events that make you question the presence of a loving God also make you want that presence so much more.
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Thank you Drublood!
Sep 12, 2005 Read/heard/seen
New Orleans blog: Looka! They’re trying to wash us away.
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Tags: New Orleans