On spring and new opportunities

I realize my posts have been few and far between lately, except for over the ongoing saga with the slumlord next door (if you were wondering, the city's code inspection department finally decided to do their jobs and had ALL of the junk outside removed- wow, it only took two months!). I've been quiet because there's been a lot going on in my personal life, and well, this was supposed to be a blog about my house, not about ME.

Today's been a good day, though. I found some kindred spirits online, of all places. Finding community on the interwebs isn't a new concept to me; I was a 16 year old geek cruising a Smashing Pumpkins fan site's forums until 3:00 AM, after all. That community was very important at that time in my life, and I still call several people I met there good friends. A couple of years ago, I became involved in the Colorado political online community. I was a regular blogger on the Colorado version of DailyKos. But I left that world behind, and all of the friends I made through it, when I moved home just over a year ago.

Today, however, I found GenPink. I found it via decor8, which I read every day. Holly Becker of decor8 wrote today's post about the trials and tribulations of making your own first place, well, your own:

"For nearly two weeks, I pretty much stayed in my apartment depressed to the core. I cried and slept all day, remaining wide awake at night since I feared the bugs finding their way to my bed and coating me in my sleep like some weird Alfred Hitchcock-ish film. My friends kept calling and knocking on my door but I didn’t answer. I just cried over my ex-boyfriend, lack of employment, the list grew as I isolated myself. Then something in my head snapped. I woke up after two weeks of extreme poor-me syndrome and decided to kick my own self in the butt. I wasn’t about to make the first official month in my new apartment a miserable one. I opened all the shades, played some music, and decided to get a life. I couldn’t just lay there and cry over love lost and bugs found. Sure I lived in a crappy beat-up roach coach, and okay I had no job and no man, but I did have ME and that had to count for something. I also had a few bucks left in my savings account so I did what any sensible depressed girl wanting to make a change would do. I shopped. But not at the mall. I headed to the one store that always made me feel better. The hardware store....

It’s vital to live in a place that supports your emotional well-being. One that motivates you and keeps you focused on moving forward in life. If I hadn’t renovated my apartment back then, who knows what would have happened to me? I may have become consumed in pain, I could have fallen into a deep period of depression, who knows? And though I made the choice to purchase paint over groceries (I lived on ramen noodle for 3 months), all that renovating, cleaning, and decorating kept my spirits very high. It kept me busy. I had friends over frequently to help me, including the hot guy friend with his power tools. You find what needs to be done, take ownership over how your apartment looks and feels, ask for help, find cute boys to do the hard stuff, don’t diss the dollar store (and curbside finds) and skip a few meals sometimes to buy a can of paint if needed. When you put your all into something, when you sacrifice to have the things you want putting your entire heart (and sometimes your last $20) into fixing up your home - then your confidence starts to soar, you feel empowered, motivated, and that you are just one extremely unstoppable human being. You feel like an adult, and that’s a good feeling. Progress is power. It’s empowering to take control of what you can control and forget the rest."

This is what I've been grasping for, for awhile now. My house might not have roaches or holes in the walls, but I do have a hole in the ground for a deck, a backyard that floods every time it rains, a kitchen door that lets rain water in, etc. etc. etc. It's easy to feel overwhelmed when I'm not rich, and I'm alone.

But finally, spring is coming. It might even be just around the corner. Yesterday was a beautiful day, and I got some crafty things done around the house for the first time in months. Small things, sure, but things that had been on my to-do list for awhile. And it felt good. To quote Toby from The Office (another reason to love spring! New episodes next month!!!), "I'm gonna chase that feeling."

Still waiting.

Some two weeks later, I'm still waiting for all the crap at the house next door to be picked up. I'm waiting to pursue the issue with city council until after the election today; I don't want to keep emailing the guy I like if he's not going to win. I hope he does, though. I voted for him this morning.

I had hopes that this would all be resolved, because there have been people at the house working, constantly. Every day a different car is parked in the driveway. But the pile of crap outside remains. I was told today via email with the city's "Action Center" that Code Compliance had dropped the complaint, because they were told the property owner had hired someone to complete the pick up. Yeah, they picked up some of it, but not all of it. Why would the city just take a slumlord's word that he would get this done? Again, I keep coming back to the fact that the property owner is a prominent business man in town. Why do I have to keep prodding Code Compliance to complete their job??

I'm trying to get the straight story from the Action Center, and first thing tomorrow when I know who my city council person will be, I'll be emailing them the entire exchange. And if the candidate I voted for wins, I'll also be sending in pictures of every property this slumlord owns, because I believe he'll help me pursue substandard housing violations. If the other candidate wins, I'm not so sure I'll have help from my city council.

On being a good property owner.

I have just about had it with the slumlords who own the house next door to me. As I wrote about before, the renters moved out a few weeks ago. Ever since, there has been a large pile of Stuff in the alley (outdoor table, folding chairs, futon frame, charcoal grill, boxes of clothes and paper items, etc.), a pile of stuff on the side of the house (two side tables, linens, more boxes of stuff, a gallon of gasoline, a license plate that has since been stolen), and a recliner sitting in the front yard.

I called in a code violation on it over a week ago. I finally heard back from the city's Action Center, and they said they were immediately turning the violation over to the city's contractor, because they knew this homeowner would not take care of the situation himself. They typically give the property owners ten days to respond to the violation, and then the city turns the issue over to a contractor, and they have ten days to clean it up. But apparently the city's code compliance division is just SO familiar with my neighbor, that they already know it's worthless to contact him.

They own TEN houses in my neighborhood alone. They own over twenty city-wide. They paid less than $30,000 for all of them in the late 1990s, and paid as little as $5000 or $10,000 for a few of them. And they live in a $300,000 home in my city's poshest neighborhood. And he owns a prominent local event ticketing website. And he is a son of a former football coach at the University of Oklahoma. So, I just wonder if the city gives him a pass or two because he's obviously such a big wig.

I've been in contact with my city council person about this issue. Basically, I'm really, really tired of having to call code on this house. I know now that it wasn't the renters' fault, it was the property owner's fault. Starting last summer, I've called countless times. All of the complaints were over items left outside that don't belong outside. I don't understand why the city can't, somehow, further penalize the homeowner for these repeated violations. I'm also trying to pursue a "substandard housing" violation against them, because of several exterior cosmetic problems with the house. It's a slum, basically. And anyone can see that. But it's difficult to get the city to do anything about it.

I've also contacted my council person's election opponent. We're having elections for city council next week, and I thought it would only be fair to give him a chance to respond, and see what he suggested I do. I liked his response much better, and he'll be getting my vote next week. He suggested "making demands on the property owner" and "documenting the violations and then educating" the property owner "as to the financial loss he might sustain" if he continues to violate city code. Sounds good to me! I'm waiting for his response as to how exactly we go about this.

In the mean time, I've called the property owner myself. Yes. Twice. Once last week. I got the number from the For Rent sign that was in the yard. (I could also easily obtain it by googling his name.) Last week I asked very nicely when they were planning on removing the garbage, and his wife told me it would be taken care of that day. That was last Friday. I called again today and wasn't so nice. I feel bad about it, but these people are obviously jerks. I let them know that I had city council investigating what could be done, and that I would be photographing every property they own in my neighborhood to document possible claims for "substandard housing" violations. They've already rented the house out again, and have had someone over there making interior repairs for the past two days, and not one bit of garbage has been removed. I've also seen the owner's wife, the woman I spoke to, at the house twice, and she also couldn't be bothered to even put the boxes of trash in the polycart. (Also, did I mention she's driven TWO different huge, expensive SUVs to the property?) I fear they are just hoping the new renters take care of all the garbage at their new house, or maybe they think the new renters will want to use the garbage furniture that's been sitting out in the rain and elements for nearly two weeks now. That's not going to happen, because I'm fairly sure the person they've rented to is a young man in a wheelchair. Obviously they are taking advantage of low income, even *disabled* renters. (Nevermind that the house is NOT accessible, as every entrance point is accessed via STAIRS. What they plan on doing about this is beyond me- their solution will probably just be a sheet of plywood thrown over the stairs.)

I am also considering forming some sort of "young homeowner's association" in my neighborhood to combat these problems. There are quite a few young people who've purchased homes in my neighborhood in the past few years, and I'd like to see us all work together to help make the neighborhood a better place. Most of the "problem houses" are rented, and I don't fault the students or lower income residents who live there. It's a landlord problem. I'm discussing how to maybe start such a group with my council person, as well.

I'll be out taking pictures of the ten houses he owns this evening. I'm curious to see exactly what state some of them are in, because most of the pictures on the county assessor's website are three years old.

Resolved!

That if I can't do a "big" project this spring, I will do a couple small ones!

Paint is cheap. Painting is easy. Therefore, I am going to paint my kitchen and office this spring and/or summer, and finally be done painting EVERY room in my house.

I wanted to wait to do my kitchen until I got new cabinets, but that's a long ways off. And I really can't stand the pukey tan color its currently painted. The kitchen will be aqua. I think it will look so much bigger in a brighter color.

The office, I'm not sure yet. I've got a couple gallons leftover of the beige I used in the living room, dining room, and hallway. So I could just use that. Or I could come up with something new and different. I have no idea what, though.

Other small projects to consider: updating the drawer hardware in the hallway, fixing/painting the door to the water heater closet, and painting and prepping the closets for closet rehauls a la The Container Store.

They're gone!

I do believe that at some point during this past weekend, my neighbors moved out! They left behind a recliner in the front yard, and a futon frame, "patio" table and chairs in the back yard! Oh, and the swan figurines are still on their front porch.

I'm wondering, should I freecycle these items for them? Maybe I'll wait a few days... But I really don't think they're coming back for any of it.

Here's hoping that even worse neighbors don't move in soon. And here's hoping that the slumlord who owns the place spiffs it up a little before new renters do move in.


In other news, I am having some artwork commissioned for my living room! Yes, commissioned. I'll call it that. I'm expecting some Lichtenstein-inspired paintings on vinyl records. Pretty cool, huh? I can't wait to see them! My friend Paul is painting them, and you can see a test run of his interpretation of Lichtenstein here.

Oh and... All of the projects that I possibly had planned for this spring are hereby ON HOLD. The taxman raped me this year. Because I was stupid and filled out my W-4 for my second job incorrectly, so I guess in this instance I was asking for it. Those little economic stimulus checks we're all supposed to get will just barely cover what I owe the feds, and the two states of which I was a resident in 2007. Live and learn, I suppose. In the meantime I'm just going to save my money, and maybe this summer I can do it up big with an even nicer dishwasher, screen door (or two), and new deck. Sometimes I feel like an ant climbing a mountain, living in this house. It's very hard for a goal-oriented person such as myself, to have to keep postponing these things due to issues like taxes, unexpected ice storms, etc.

And yeah, it would still be nice to have a house husband. Even if he only just stuck around long enough to clean my gutters. (....No pun intended? I think?)

New bathroom hardware

Last week I got my hardware in from rejuvenation.com. I'm pretty pleased with the results!


Here is a close-up of the knobs, which are black glass.


And here's a shot of them with the new switchplate cover, which is an oil-rubbed bronze finish.


I think they're a classy addition to the bathroom, and definitely add some "gravitas" to an otherwise girly and very light space. I am still on the hunt for a new towel ring and towel bar.

In other random news, the house to the east of me has a "for rent" sign out. Looks like I'll be getting new neighbors soon. I've got half a mind to call the number on the sign, and ask when they plan on moving their branches from the ice storm. There are still several *huge* branches that fell in their yard during the storm, that are all right up against my fence. Considering our recent fire danger, it's kind of dangerous! I'd also like to ask if they plan on making the necessary repairs to the house before new renters move in. They have an exterior door on their kitchen like I do, but this door is a wood door that is obviously not meant to be an exterior door. It is painted in white paint that is obviously not meant to be weather-proof exterior paint. The paint has chipped into large sections that run the length of the door, and they're completely loose from the door, so they actually flap in the wind. It's quite ugly, and very visible from my front porch. The un-protected wood door is a lovely termite draw, roughly ten feet from my house.

Holy renovation, batman

Via livejournal's saucyhelp community, check out the vertical house. Truly inspiring.

Obsessed with!

This!

It's from etsy seller almost famous. The Royal Tenenbaums is one of my most favorite films, and these two characters are some of my most favorite characters from any film, ever. This could work in my dining room. I'm not sure where, or how, but GOSH I really want it.

Dining goodness!

I bought the table! It's mine! I love it. Here are some pictures of it in my dining room.

Quite a steal, I'd say, for only $115. And it's in really good condition. Only a couple water rings and other marks on the table top. It feels like a *real* table, compared to what I had before. It's also the perfect size for the room. I'm finding that to be maybe not such a coincidence- I realized the other day that all of my vintage MCM furniture is the perfect scale for my built-in-1950 house. I think I'd have a tough time maintaining the appropriate scale if I were buying all new, contemporary furniture.

Anyways, now the real fun begins. I want to recover the chairs, obviously. That icky brown leather doesn't do much for me. I'm having a tough time finding a fabric I like in an upholstery weight. So far the only contender is this print by Alexander Henry:

And I'm not sure I even like it all that much. It's hard to tell if the green would be right. I'm trying to make everything go with this marimekko fabric I have hanging on the walls:

I really want something BRIGHT on the chairs, so preferably it would be white, aqua, or lime green, or a mix of these three. Some brown as an accent would be okay. I guess I'll keep looking!

Potential craigslist dining table, part deux

Look what I found.... Again! It's a different one, and this one looks better.



It's listed for $115. The chairs are kind of oddball, with three without arms and one with. Obviously some have gone missing or been broken, over the years. But, if the set is in as good of condition as it looks in the ad, I would be willing to put some work into it, if need be. Refinishing, reupholstering. It's quite a bit bigger than the dining table I have now, and I'm not sure how I'd feel about so much dark wood in the room, since the walls are beige and chocolate brown. I might paint the whole thing white. Would that be a sin? I've painted all the other mid-century tables I have in my house, so maybe that's just like, "my thing."

I'm going to look at it this afternoon, with a truck in tow! So if I like it, I'm getting it.

All quiet on the home front.

I just thought I'd check in and say that I am, in fact, alive. Other things besides the house have been on my mind lately, that's all. I'm struggling with trying to decide whether or not to go to graduate school next fall. I'd much rather spend my days fantasizing about new furniture and remodels, believe me.

And a quick note, in that vein: I'm still considering getting a new dishwasher soon. I'm also considering a small "retail therapy" shopping trip to Rejuvenation, for some switchplate covers and new house numbers. Just some small little things to spruce the place up.

Bathroom paint: part deux

Tomorrow I tackle the second coat in the bathroom. My motto this time is: Tape tha Shit Out the Motherf-cker. I think it was so exhausting last time because I had to go around so much *stuff* on the walls, that it was all very painstaking and slow going. Well, I've covered just about everything in there with tape, so I am ready to paint with abandon. I hope that makes it quicker and easier, at least.

I'm learning from experience in other ways, too. I checked my supplies tonight and did my last minute trip to Ace *tonight*, so I wouldn't have to tomorrow morning. I've got everything laid out, set up, and ready to go.

I'm also going to work in sections this time. I'm going to start with the tops of the walls, since they're heavily textured. I will finish that before I even think about starting the lower half of the walls, which are covered in that weird vinyl thing. I might not even do that part tomorrow, depending on when I finish the top half and how tired I am.

I'm ready to have it finished!!

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Okay, that's enough about the ice storm. My pile of branches (which I will take a picture of this weekend) will most likely sit in front of my house for a month or longer, as the city tries to find a private contractor to handle the $8.2 million worth of damage in my city alone (FEMA says it's equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane and Bush says we're a federal disaster area), so I will just have to live with it for awhile!

But look what I found on etsy.

This item is from another recently featured seller on decor8. I think this would look excellent in my living room! Maybe if it's still available after Christmas I will treat myself.

Ohh, there was another one I liked that she had for sale but it sold out yesterday! Darnit.

This is my last week at work until 2008, and I'll have plenty to do around the house during the break. If the weather cooperates, I'll do that second coat of paint in the bathroom. I'd also like to go to this cool looking local hardware store we have in town, because I think they sell the hardware I want for my bathroom. And if Santa is very nice to me, I just *might* be getting a new dishwasher soon.

Backyard, post-ice

The major clean-up is all done. Here's what remains of my backyard.

I wanted to take a picture of "the pile" out front, but it started getting too dark. It's easily as tall as me, though (and I'm 5'2"). I'm really lucky that it wasn't any worse than this. I'm considering my options on the fence. It would be great to have a privacy fence on that side (you can see my view beyond the fence is not that great), but I don't know if I have the money for that now. Replacing the chainlink won't be expensive, though.

Oh, and my power came back on Friday night. So it was almost six full days without power. The house was 40 degrees on the inside when my thermostat kicked back on. It had warmed up to 70 about four hours later.

Still waiting.

108 hours. No electricity. No sign of electricity trucks even in the neighborhood. At this point, my reaction is wavering between rage and amusement. I don't know whether to punch something and scream, or roll on the floor in insane laughter. I'm the only one left at my workplace who doesn't have power.

108 hours.

We're still supposed to get that snowstorm today, but after watching the weather, I think it might just be more of a rain event. And there could be freezing rain.

I went inside my house last night to check things out, with a huge industrial flashlight so I could see. Everything inside looks fine. I had some water collected in my bathroom cabinet, under the sink pipes, but I think it was just condensation. That pipe does that sometimes in normal weather. I wiped it down and put a towel down there, and with the water running, I can't feel anything coming out of the pipe, so I don't think it's a leak. If it is, it's just a very tiny one and not a big deal.

My neighborhood is nearly deserted. It's like a ghost town.

The city has announced they will be picking limbs up for the next TWO MONTHS. You only have to put them within five feet of the curb, and they can be as long as 12 feet. This is good. I already have most everything from the front dragged to the curb, and I don't think there's anything dangling in the trees in the front.


Maybe today. Maybe today is the day and my power will come back on.

Approaching 84 hours without electricity.

I am still one of my town's thousands of people without power. My sister got her power back last night, and she lives only one block north and two blocks east of me. So hopefully today will be the day. It had better be, at least, because the snowstorm arrives tomorrow.

I had an extremely kind offer from an old, old friend to help clean up my yard. Her brother is assembling a crew and will be helping people out, free of charge. I feel strange about practically begging people for help, but sometimes leaning on others is a necessary part of life.

This is why I will need so much help. I took these pictures Monday afternoon, when the ice was still on the trees. And the damage is WORSE now, keep in mind. I haven't seen it since the ice has melted, and I kind of don't want to.

Looking at the front yard from the side of the house. The front is not nearly as bad as the back and won't take long to clean up (still though, it's worse now than in these photos.)

The backyard.

I'm very lucky that these limbs never collapsed on my line and ripped my meter box off. That happened to a friend of mine who lives a block north of me.

Stupid ice storm.

I haven't had power at my house since Sunday night at 11:00 PM. I've lost one whole tree in my backyard, and most of the other two. The front yard isn't so bad. So far no structural damage to the house, as far as I can tell. There was no freezing rain today, but it rained all day long. So not only is my backyard full of tree limbs and parts, it's also flooded. I've been staying at my parents' house, because they have power.

If I think too much about the clean-up that awaits me, I feel paralyzed. So I'm trying not to do that. I'll do what I can, when I can. The house will eventually warm back up (it's hovering around 40 degrees right now). New food will fill the fridge. Everything will be okay.

This town looks like a warzone, though. Last I checked, still over 24,000 without power. And I'm one of them.



This has been a very trying first year as a home-owner.

Ice Storm 2007!

These little ice storms are a different experience when you're a home-owner!! I've got nearly half an inch of ice outside. It's been *thundering and lightning* and raining ice at the same time! It started yesterday and will continue through the night tonight. I've got my first "snow day" off work tomorrow for the first time in over two years! I lived in Denver for a couple of years before moving back home last January, and not once during our fourteen to eighteen inch snow-blizzard storms did I get one snow day! Ahhh, it's good to be back home, where people are wusses about ice and snow. :) And I can laugh at all of them, with my mad ice-scraping skills and treacherous road driving skills.

But anyways, I've lost power five or six times tonight. It just flickers off and flickers back on. My trees are coated in ice, as are my gutters. I've heard a couple mysterious thumps, so I'm hoping I haven't lost any big limbs.

Before the storm arrived Friday night, I did manage to finally get some raking done! I hadn't raked leaves since I was a teenager, when I used to help out my mom. I forgot how tiring it is! With the aid of two friends, I finished the backyard. Twelve bags of leaves!! I didn't even get to the front yard, where the leaves are still ankle-deep and now frozen over. And, I still have my pumpkins... from Halloween... on my front porch and they're also frozen solid.

Everything should clear up by the middle of this week, then I can *finally* start Christmas shopping.

Eek! Etsy lust!

This item is from a featured seller on decor8!



Ohmygosh I want that birdie soooo bad for my dining room!!! There is a whole mess of cute and unique things in this seller's etsy store! Like...



And...



I bought some stripa shelves at Ikea to hang in my dining room to display things on, but I haven't hung them yet because I don't have anything to display! And I want just the RIGHT grouping of items, you know? Things that I love.

Grr, if it weren't Christmas season, I'd splurge on these items right now! Maybe I will anyways. My present to myself. :)

Contemplating a "holiday" party.

I'm a little scared to have another big party at my house. This is why.




That's what was left of my deck after my housewarming party in July. I know it wasn't my guests' fault (OH! She Who Shall Not Be Named is apparently not a realtor for the same prestigious brokerage anymore...I can't find her on the website. I assumed she would quit her job and begin life as a Fat Housewife [yeah, I said it, you should see all the Lane Bryant and fat underwear catalogs I get here for her] as soon as she unloaded this house.), but... Still. Scared.

Here's my tree! A lame picture of it, with the lights in my living room off. It is very difficult to photograph a silver tinsel tree when it's all lit up in broad daylight! Especially with my crappy camera. (Attn, Santa: please bring new digital camera this year.) It is a completely secular tree, well, as secular as a "Christmas" tree can get, anyways. Santa sits on top of it.


Dante keeps knocking the ornaments off and chasing them all over the house.