Houses

Houses are buiildings. Houses aren't always home.

I would not want to live in the house beside which someone decided to sit on the curb and gulp down a handful of little alcohols, without even recycling their empties.

Random notes to people selling houses:

Do you own the world's biggest dog? Perhaps you should scoop up your yard before a scheduled showing, even if your yard is a concrete and dirt enclosure.

And maybe put away the world's biggest doggie water dish while you are at it. (And this wasn't even in the same house mentioned above!)

Maybe you could also sweep up the dead carpenter bees from your enclosed sun room, rather than have me ask you to do so. Maybe.

All those home shows that talk about de-personalizing your home are right, especially if your taste in decorating with photos includes photos of JFK that were put up while he was still a senator. Just sayin.

All those coconut husks drying in the basketball hoop aren't quaint; they are weird.

Tidy up your yard!

Invest in a good air cleanser. Or open some windows before the buyers get there.

Just some friendly tips from a prospective buyer that got a little worried at some of the houses today!

Goat House

I've been calling it "Goat House" because the yard seemed so huge from the photos online that the only way to deal with it would be to borrow goats from one of my knitting friends and stake them out here and there.

Turns out the yard isn't quite as huge as all that. It's big, but it's not scary-big. It definitely is more yard than I would like, but I can pave some of it in the time honored Hawaiian way. ;)

I met the current homeowner and two of her little cherubs. She's a bright, happy person who bought the house from a spinster lady who grew up in the house. The next owner will be the fourth owner in the past 100+ years. That's pretty cool.

The only real issue is that the front of the house is sagging slightly and I would prefer it be bolstered up somehow. And yet, I was so enchanted that I didn't take any photos while inside.

Otherwise, it's in good shape. The kitchen is great! There isn't much living space on the first floor, but it has a huge basement that I could stand upright in and a finished attic.

Currently mulling it over and planning to see a couple of other houses, too. I don't want to jump on anything. I figure at this point, I won't sign anything in time for the $8k tax credit anyway, so no rush.

HGRealLife

That is my version of HGTV. I started looking at houses in the area as a lark, mostly. So many cute places! Porches! Fireplaces! Yay!

And then I saw a couple of houses that were more, "Hm...I could probably live there..." and eventually, that became, "Why not?"

After a disastrous breakfast with one of the RIDs (a gentle hint: please do not run your finger around your plate and then lick off the syrup...omg, we're in a restaurant and that is so not hot, I don't even know where to go with that....), I went to an open house.

Cute little place, but waaaay too much back yard and need for updating. And then, I drove by the little place that I am calling Wisteria Lodge.

Wisteria Lodge is a Sherlock Holmes story and I do love Sherlock Holmes, especially as played by Jeremy Brett. But that has, aside from the name, nothing to do with this house. If you look at the photos of it on my flickr page, you will note that it needs some fixins. Ayup. Floors need to be redone, especially upstairs where it's just linoleum tile. The attic is unfinished; I do not think one is supposed to see each nail holding each bit of new roofing material sticking into the attic itself, but I may be wrong about that. Only Anna (a friend of mine from work whom I brought along) could stand upright in the basement, where the washer and dryer are located.

But it's very charming. The neighborhood is nice and it is completely landscaped. It comes with a riding lawn mower (hehehe) as well as a push mower and the storage shed in which to keep such things.

It also has central air. Wheeeee!

I'm going up to the state line early Saturday to look at a couple of houses up there. As one of my Wednesday knitter friends commented, they are both near the deer processing plant.

How convenient.

Lovely Day

If I were the kind of parent who goes for cutesy names, wouldn't that be a great name? "Hi, this is my daughter, Lovely Day. And her sister, Holly Day. And this is my son, PTO."


Going to meet up with one of the RIDs (random internet dudes) for breakfast in downtown Baltimore. According to Google, it will take me a half hour to get there, which surprises me. It took a little over an hour to get to DC last weekend and I didn't suppose I lived this far from downtown...but clearly, I do.

Yesterday's adventure was marvelous. We each bought some nice yarn with which to make stuff and things. And several of us are going to make Citron from our acquisitions. Donna and Veronica have both already made one apiece, and Donna has cast on another one using Zauberball, which is what kicked off our road trip to PA.

More later...I must go throw on something suitable for breakfast in the big city.

Hugs and kisses, all y'all!

Yarn Diet Fail!

Although, to be fair, I don't think I called it a diet year and so, any dieting would be incidental anyway. Why, yes, I can justify my purchases.

Tomorrow morning it will be a yarn shop adventure for the Women of Wegman's once again! This time, our target is Sweitzer's Countryside Fibers in Pennsylvania.

I'm very excited about this. Veronica is picking me up, then we are going to Donna's to get her, meeting up with Renee and who-knows-who-all-else at a Starbucks in Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury! What a gloriously East Coasty name!

In any event, I love going around to these far-flung shops with my knitting friends. Not only are they a wonderful group, but it's great to feel connected to the area, and to a common interest.

I'm tired tonight because Anna and Kathy guilted me into exercising tonight. :( As I sat on the exercise bike, Pokewalker affixed to my shoelace for maximum levelling up, Kathy observed (and I paraphrase), "You really don't like exercise; I've never seen such a frown."

Tomorrow starts with the shopping, but it will end with cleaning. Melody has been shedding clumps of fur over everything, poor thing. :(

Saturday in the Park

A lovely day for a lovely drive down to DC to picnic in a park that I have never been to before with a random internet dude (hmmm. the acronym would be RID...which I find hilarious and shall use it now!). I picked the location, Meridian Hill Park, after consulting with Google for parks in which to picnic.

And it was a great picnicky park, folks spread blankets all over the bits of grass. RID and I snacked and chatted. Eventually, I wanted to go to Ray and Rane's to drop off the remaining maple cupcakes I'd made that morning because I was filled with thoughts of them while baking. :)

RID wanted to show me a place where the cherry blossoms were in bloom. Hah! Where have I heard that before? Erm...never, actually. Viewing the cherry blossoms is a big DC ritual, however, as there are updates on various websites that explain where the trees are in bloom at the moment and looking their best.

We drove (I followed him in Jane Grey) to a neighborhood called Kenwood, with an emergency stop for bacon at RID's favorite butcher shop. Apparently, I bring out the bacon in RIDs :) and he bought me some to take home. Heh! And then, we reached the neighborhood with the cherry trees.

Wow. Amazingly cool and beautiful. For some reason, the photo button isn't working now on this post, but you can wander to my Flickr page to see how lovely this place is. We walked up and down thru the neighborhood while petals fell like snow whenever the wind blew.

The real highlight of the entire day, though, was my rather impromptu visit with Ray and Rane and their cherubs. I sort of invited myself over, which is completely unlike me, but I really wanted to take them cupcakes. Ray picked up some Indian food and beer, and we sat around visiting until I reluctantly (and somewhat guiltily) left to come home. I've missed them and may invite myself to their place more often now!

Time for a Picnic

And possibly, for allergy meds :)

So far, Maryland hasn't kicked my butt with allergies the way Seattle did. When the weather began to change from cold to sunny, though, my internal barometer went nuts. Seems to have calmed down, though, thankfully.

Went out earlier this week for a manicure with Anna, followed up by a bunch of us going for pedicures in anticipation of the great weather this coming week. Post-pedicure, we then headed to Towson for Cheeeeeesecake Factory and shopping at Lush. I even drunk texted Broos, though it is not the same was when Candyce and I drunk text him. That said, I still got a perfunctory response from him, calling me a goober. :) Love ya, Broos!

In the Tomorrow's News Today category, I am going on a date tomorrow. We are meeting at a park to have a picnic. I made a batch of Emily's butter tarts, but my oven made them a ginormous fail. :( I'm too tired now to do something else, so I hope to have the energy in the morning to make some cupcakes instead.

Hope the weather's nice where you are, too!