house – Sabrina J-R

We’re Movin On Up…

..To the westside though…LOL. Go Jeffersons theme song!

We get possession of our house on November 5. We’re finally at the point where we can officially begin counting down the days. After 1+ year of lower level living, we’re finally going to be in our own place. I’ll have my bed back!!! You have no clue how much I’m looking forward to that. I’m also going to have a bedroom once again! My bed has been sitting in the garage, in pieces now, since Oct 28, 2007. And I’ve been sleeping on a futon. Not too much fun when your preggers, let me tell you!

We went to see the house today, with the parents. I see the workers will be working very hard in the next few months. At least the driveway and sidewalk is complete. The cabinets are in in the kitchen & bathroom. The fireplace has arrived. The shelving is in for the entertainment center. All internal doors are there (closets, bedrooms & pantry). There’s also a huge amount of sawdust kicking around too. It’ll be very nice to see the place sparkly and clean. If only they’d hurry with the stuccoing, that’ll make me very giddy.

I was initially disappointed by the official confirmation date of Nov 5. The estimated due date, when we’d purchased it months ago was for Sept 2. So, on paper, I should’ve had my place for 1 month already. However, God has His own timing, which is wayyyy more perfect than my own. Even though I can’t make sense of a 2 month delay, it’s not my place to worry about it. So I dismissed the disappointment, praised God for a date to work with and will at least be celebrating Christmas above ground this year! LOL.

Alrighty, time to hit the futon. I’ll be seeing the Dr tomorrow, who’s going to check to see if this baby is making any “progress” to the outside world. **shudders** …I’m not a fan of the poking and prodding and jabbing. But such is the life of a pregnant woman.

I Feel Like Doing A Duet With Céline Dion

**ahem** All by myself….Don’t wanna be….All by myself….Anymore….

LOL. If I thought I was a bit lonely before, it’s sure doesn’t compare to when Hubby goes out of town. He left Sat nite on some church business. He’s flying back first thing (well, first thing on that airline) Monday morning, and heading straight to work. Lucky for me, I have a doctor’s appointment that day, so I’ll get to see him before evening. I also have a wedding reception to attend later, so that’ll break up the day nicely. Ooh, adult interaction…should be fun. Baby will be staying home with Aunties.

I got my official insurance letter stating that my accident from 3 weeks ago wasn’t my fault and I don’t have to pay the deductible to get my repairs done. So yay! But yet, this same company is batty. I did file an injury claim, which is treated separately from the accident claim. The injury lady, however, has yet to actually chat with me. First, she started calling for me at my parents’ house. Hello?! I don’t live there–haven’t in years. Why is it that the other people in your office know where to find me, by you don’t?!?! Then, she mailed something out to me. Actually, not me, but to my parents’ house once again. Thankfully, I’m on good terms with the parentals and they pass on these messages and errant mail to me. The first line of the letter though made me wanna tap someone upside the head. Something about how they’ve been unable to reach my phone. Well, duh!–you haven’t been calling me, which is why you haven’t reached me! Anyhow, I’ve left a few messages for her. She’s got early office hours though, making our connections challenging. But I’ll press on.

Ultrasound was this past Thursday. Baby looks good. Unfortunately, I have no clue what gender Dookie actually is. That’s highly annoying right now, only because I’m trying to make plans. Specifically, clothing plans. I have a gazillion girls clothes. I’m also headed to the US in a couple weeks, with plenty of affordable shopping potential (hello, Ontario Mills!!!!). If it’s a boy, I’d like my son to be dressed handsomely for church. Boys clothes here tend to suck. If it’s a girl, then I really won’t need to spend much at all. There’s also the little detail a name. As fun as it is to design 2 names, it’s much easier to just pick the one. And, I just wanna know. Is that too much to ask??? Gender aside, Dookie is a mover. Moved throughout the entire ultrasound session. It was fun times to watch, let me tell you. Looks healthy (and big) thus far. Hopefully not too big. The size of my growing belly is worrying me though. I was not this big with Jamayia until like week 30 it seems. LOL. I’m currently at week 20 with this one. Yikes!

I’ve temporarily got my babysitter back. Uncle Sherwy is once again available in the afternoons to help me watch Pookie while I’m at work. Yay! They love each other so much–it’s so neat to watch.

The house is coming along. We had a nice visit with the designer at the builder’s design studio. It really wasn’t as expensively difficult as people made it out to be. It was all about making wise choices that worked for us. We came home and compared a few prices online. For example, the sink fixtures really didn’t add up to be heaps cheaper to DIY versus letting a pro handle it. Plus, we didn’t choose a truck-load of unnecessary upgrades either, which helped. Can’t wait to see the finished product though. Oh to be completed on time.

Random Scribbles

Today’s post title is borrowed for another blog I read. The following will just be a whole pile of random scribblage. I’m so backlogged in the blogging thing that I don’t even know where to begin. So, I figure let me just spit out whatever pops into my head.

New Baby: Things are progressing nicely on this front. We’re currently in week 16. It’s fantastic to have some energy back. This time around, though, things have been tougher physically. With #1, pregnancy seemed to be a breeze. But life was also different for me back then. Now I’m busy keeping up with Jamayia, and she only moves in fast forward mode it seems. One super cool thing (sorta) is that my previous maternity wear doesn’t fit. It’s all too big!! Imagine that. Since proper fit is important (Thanks, Stacy & Clinton), I’ve had to do a bit of shopping for myself. Can’t roll into Cali naked after all. No names yet for this one. She/He has earned the nickname of “Dookie” though. Why? Well, Jamayia was “Pookie” and Jono thought that Dookie would work, since we can’t use Pookie anymore. Isn’t he cute??
New House: Things here are slowly plodding ahead. We have an appointment with the design studio in a couple weeks to pick some interior stuff for the house. We also have the “pleasure” of going appliance & furniture shopping. I wish we also had the pleasure of an unlimited bank account too, right now! But alas, we’ll take things one day at a time and try not to get carried away.
Current Work: Life at the Baby Bin Boutique is going good. I’m having fun. Lots of fantastic product in store right now too. There are big plans ahead for BBB. Stay tuned to the website for more details.
Future Work: **sigh** This point, I don’t know too much about. My mom has generously offered to retire and help take care of the kids. Believe it or not, she is old enough to retire. She’s been working at her place for 35 yrs (yikes!!!) and she’s earned some much needed R&R. Although, caring for 2 kids full time isn’t exactly what I’d call R&R…LOL. Mom’s big concern is that we have the necessary finance to not be struggling. It’s not so much that she’s trying to force me back into the workforce, but she just wants us to be comfortable. She also wants to ensure that I have time out for myself and doing something that I’d enjoy. But, this is where I’m stuck. What do I enjoy doing?? I’d really love to work from home. I’d love to have flexibility to choose my own hours from week to week. I have no deep, dark desire to see my little creation grow into some massive international conglomerate with me as CEO. Back to the most important question though–what do I enjoy doing?? I don’t really have an answer right now. I’ll have to keep thinking and praying about it.

And in a large nutshell, that’s what’s up over here. Still laughing at how life is turning out. I’m just glad I’m not the One in control of all this. I’m quite content to be buckled in for the ride.

Ha Ha–It’s Been Longer Than I Thought

Wow…I knew it had been a while since my last post, but not this long. That was the beginning of March already. Time sure does fly.

Lots has been going on with us…. Like, we have an estimated date of when we’re finally leaving the basement. Looking at late summer, early fall. Yay! Translation=we have a house!!

The new baby also arrives in early fall. Translation=I’m pregnant!

We’ve been healthy–praise the Lord! We’ve been doing well. The car’s a little testy, but nothing over the top. Although, it’s agreed that we’re going to need something bigger with 2 kids now. **sigh**…anyone giving away F-R-E-E vans?? LOL. Doesn’t hurt to ask, right? The worst you can tell me is no.

Alrighty, and that’s all I have time for in this edition of update. I’m trying to get back on the blogging track. I’ve missed posting as much as you’ve missed reading.

They’ve Lost Their Minds

I almost couldn’t believe a story I read in the paper this morning. It was about former grow op houses and how they’re listed on the market as sellable homes. The specific example the paper had used was a house I’d seen listed a few weeks back. It’s a big house, about 2000 sq ft, with double attached garage. It’s in the Garden City area of the city. It is older. But the pictures were atrocious, to say the least. The house was a downright mess. The amount of mould in the place was disturbing through my computer monitor, let alone to envision seeing this place in person. There was mold everywhere…and I do mean everywhere!!! In fact, the house was in such horrendous condition that it stated in the listing that the home was not available for showings. Only the potential buyer would have the chance to walk through the home after their offer was accepted. Oh, and the appropriate hazardous attire would be issued for this walk-through. Now, if a house is in such horrid shape that it would be a danger to my health to walk through it, it should just be free, right? Right?!

So, it was listed for $120,000. We were joking around when we’d seen the listing about how we could probably get it for like under $100k and then use the rest of our money to completely demolish and start from scratch. I refuse to mess with mould. And, being a former grow op, who knows what other kind of surprises were hidden in the foundation and other necessary areas of the house itself?

Well, turns out the listing realtor got over 1500 phone calls about this house. He had a total of 61 offers… No, not six point one, but sixty-one!!! It finally sold for the grand total of $191,000. That’s what, not 70,000 over list price, right? All for a crappy house, literally.

And that’s what made me mad today. At the moment I’m homeless, largely in part to these types of over-offering people. (Thank God I’m not shelterless though!!!) But houses that are many a times over priced are being outbid for ridiculous amounts. And there are actually people out there willing to pay some amount that’s substancially above list price. Why?? Because they can?? But the kicker is that you then have to turn around and do renovations of some sort in the house. Our grow op winner could just give me the 71,000 dollars he’s/she’s got kicking around and I could buy a nice, and CLEAN, piece of land and build a fantastic house.

What is this world coming to?