Officially home owners

We closed on our house today!!! I just received a call from my buyer's agent that he has the keys. So we are officially home owners. Sean and I are quite excited about the house. On one hand we can't wait to move, on the other we will dearly miss all of our friends and the area. I never imagined that I would come to like this area as much as I do. Or that I would make the close friends I have!!! I'm completely torn and not quite really to say goodbye.

On another note stay tuned for future house updates including wall color choices, floor options, bathroom tile colors, etc.

Possible projects:
1. Paint walls
2. New flooring in kitchen, living room, and entry way.
3. New linoleum tiles in storage room.
4. New vanity in guest bath
5. Re-glaze tiles in both baths (hopefully so we won't have to re-tile)
6. Put in a bigger patio in the backyard
7. Raised beds for my garden next year.
8. New light fixtures
- Entry
- Dining
- Hallway
- bedrooms?
9. Window treatments. (currently super ugly drapes)
- shades
- curtains - maybe
10. Replace back door with french doors or sliding glass door

I'm sure I will come up with more later! So exciting!

A fabulous fried birthday

Sunday was Sean's 25th birthday! I told him that I would make him whatever he wanted for the entire day, food wise that is. So for breakfast he wanted to go to our local greasy spoon diner. They have fairly good and fairly cheap food. Sean had an egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast sandwich. I had the french toast. We course had ice coffee since they have excellent iced coffee!

For lunch we just had leftover from our dinner and Chili's the night before. Still tasty however. Now for dinner we went all out. Sean wanted Chicken fried steak with mash potatoes and cream gravy. I was absolutely terrified of messing this meal up so I did plenty of research and Sean even spoke with his mom about how she usually prepared it. Well with my recipes in hand and some help from Sean picking out the seasoning he wanted I jumped right in. Now keep in mind that I like to follow recipes to the T. I don't like to improvise and modify and I had never fried anything. Well even with my numerous handicaps the meal came out well! Sean thought it was pretty good so I'll consider it a success. I now feel more able to cook new things.

Below is the approximate recipe

Chicken Fried Steak
1 1/2 lbs Cube Steak (I didn't want to do the pounding)
2 eggs
1/2 Cup milk
2ish Cups Flour
Salt (~1/2 tsp)
Pepper (~ 3/4 tsp)
Cayenne Pepper (~ 1/2 tsp)
Garlic Salt (~1/2 tsp)
Paprika (~1/4 - 1/2 tsp)
Oil (enough for 1/4 - 1/2 inches in the bottom of pan)

In a shallow pie pan beat eggs and milk together. In another pie pan or bowl mix flour and seasonings. The amount of seasoning is up to you. Sean likes a lot of seasoning on things so I used quite a bit. Now sprinkle seasoning on each side of the steak. Again the amount and what is seasoning is up to you. Now one at a time dip the steak in the egg mixture allowing excess to drip off and put in flour mixture. Coat each side liberally with flour. For a thicker crispier outside repeat the egg and then flour steps. Meanwhile or in advance start heating the oil in the pan to fry. Be careful to get the oil hot enough but not so hot that is smokes. It should be popping a little but not smoking. On my stove I had the skillet a touch above medium. I think to get the best crust you should flour right before sticking it in the oil. I would also recommend only one piece at a time unless you're using a larger electric skillet. They need about 3-4 minutes per side. To keep warm while making the gravy I put them in the oven heated to 200 degrees on a broiler pan.

Cream gravy
~1/4 Cup grease from cooking steaks. (Keep as many bits as possible)
4-6 Tbsp flour mixture (leftover from steaks)
Milk (~1-2 cups)

Reheat oil on medium to medium low. Once oil is hot add flour. Mix well with whisk. Cook for 1-2 minutes to cook out flour favor. The flour is a thickening agent. So the consistency of the flour oil mixture should be a thick liquid. Pour in milk slowly stirring the entire time to avoid clumps. The amount of milk depends on the consistency you want. Cook 2-4 minutes to thicken. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Serve Steak with Gravy over top. Mashed potatoes are also good with this meal. :-)

Oh and no I won't make it for you. It will be at least several months before I make this again. To much effort and fat! Although quite tasty!

Fun at IKEA

On Saturday Dan, Shari, Sean and I met at Barnes and Noble to pick up our Harry Potter books and then headed down to Ikea. Sean and I wanted to look for bookcases and entertainment stands. Shari and Dan were looking for some organization stuff for their new apartment. We had fun wandering around the store and looking at all the crazy stuff they have. I found a new table for my craft room. See image above. The table height is adjustable. So I can make it counter height so I can stand to do certain things. I also got a barstool to go with it so I can sit if I want. The best part in it has a glass top and there is a 1 inch gap between the glass and the table so I can slide my pattern and my sketches in there so I can see them without cluttering up the top. Plus the legs have some store space. I'm super excited about it. Since we are in the process of moving I won't get to set it up until after we move. Also I got the barstool for 60% off since it was the last one in black since they were discontinuing that color.

Sean was a little annoyed that I got a desk and we didn't get anything that we were looking for. None of the bookcase were quite what we were looking for. Neither were the entertainment tables. I also picked up some glass containers for sugar and flour as well as a magnetic metal strip for knives. I want to hang it on the side of a cabinet by the sink. Knife blocks just take up too much space and seem a little unsanitary.

They are actually going to open an Ikea on the north side of Cincinnati in the fall so I should be able to go back for more home stuff after we get settled in our new house. Also Libby was telling me that there is a Pottery Barn outlet near Beavercreek that often has good stuff. It will be nice to have some extra cabinet space so I can get more dishes for entertaining and stuff. I just love kitchen stuff!

Going back to my childhood

Last night to celebrate Sean and Dan birthday's we met some friends for dinner at The Border Cafe and then saw Transformers. It was great to see everyone and catch-up and the food was pretty good. Although not the best Mexican I've had, it took care of my craving for the moment. Plus no meal can be truly bad with a margaritas and guacamole.

Then most of us headed to the movie theater. Let me preference this review with, I hadn't seen any previews for Transformers and had no expectation about it. Also I'll add that I generally like movies based on comic books, with the exception of the Spiderman movies....the actor who plays Peter really annoys me. Well anyways I LOVED IT! I thought it was absolutely hilarious and entertaining. I will grant you that it had some disjointed parts but overall I thought the plot was good and the corniness was at the right level. I think the movie transported me back to watching cartoons as a child. It almost felt like a kids cartoon the way it was slightly over the top and the dialog was corny. At one point during the movie I leaned over to Sean and said "They are so shiny." Anyways I was extremely entertained and amused! It could have been my mood last night or the lack of sleep or perhaps the fat overload from mexican but I was the only one who really like it! Mostly everyone else thought it was pretty good but could have been better. Dan has a nice review on his blog.

Fun with Purses

For my birthday Shari and Robyn got my a gift certificate to 1154 Lill which is a store that you can build custom purses. Last night we went down there to create the purse! We had tons of fun picking out fabrics and putting them together to build the perfect purse. I swear I was in purse heaven and it was so hard to narrow things down to the final purse (shown above). I really think I could have designed at 3-4 more purses from all the different fabrics I liked.
Unfortunately it will take until Aug 18th to get the purse so it is being shipped to the new house. So I promised to take and send photos of it when it arrives. I also promised to bring when I return to the Boston area for Shari's wedding in October. I seriously can't wait to get the purse. I feel quite inspired to open my own create your custom purse shop some day.

Well after designing and purchasing the awesome purse we heading over to The Upper Crust for some delicious pizza and of course more girl talk! We topped the evening off with ice cream from J.P. Licks in Davis square. I got some excellent cookie dough ice cream. I forgot how much I love cookie dough. It really might be my next food kick.....of course that might not be ideal for my waist line. It is a good thing that Edy's make a double churned light with the dough!

I will of course post some more picture of the PURSE when it comes! I'm so excited!!!

a few more house updates

I heard from my buyer's agent Bob today and things are still going smoothly. They are treating and retesting the well to clear up the bacteria problem. The air conditioner will be serviced this week. The only other thing we asked them to fix was the radon issue. The level was 4.3 which is only .3 above the tolerance. We asked the seller to install a system to reduce the level. They had a previous test which was below the tolerance. They got another quote for the system installation. So we'll see what happens with that. Sean and I weren't that concerned about that so if won't install it, it won't be a deal breaker. So all it all things are looking good to close at the end of July.

One other interesting note.....The large 6.6 acre property behind us is owned by the chief of police! I guess we won't be having any wild and crazy parties! We can't actually see his house from our yard......so maybe only quiet wild parties.

Things are coming together

I just wanted to give everyone an update on how things are going for the move. I heard from the guy in Ohio and they are going to offer me a job. So I'll get to stay with my current company and just transfer. This is excellent news and exactly what I was hoping for!!!

On the house front, things are still going as planned. There were only a few minor issues that we are asking to be fixed before we close. I haven't heard the sellers response yet but I'm figuring no new is probably good news. I'm going to call my buyer's agent today and get an update.

We discovered that we already paid our last month's rent so we are pretty much all set with our current house. We are solving the fence issue by throwing a fence removal bbq in a couple of weeks. Thank goodness for good friends who are willing to help in exchange for beer and food.

We still have a lot of stuff to accomplish before the movers come and a lot of people to spend some time with some I imagine this time will fly by way to quickly!

More fence rental fun!

This morning I woke up grumpy. My allergies are driving me nuts so I couldn't breathe I didn't get enough sleep and I really didn't have time to walk Quincy. I decided however that for my sanity it would be better to be late to work and walk Quincy anyway. So we are walking along and he decides he needs to poop. I of course forgot a sack. So I try and stop him but he digs his heels in. Of course the spot he picks is in someones yard and on a busier street in my neighborhood. So Not only do I not have a sack 3 cars go by. Quite embarrassing! After we return home I get a sack and get into my car and drive back to the scene of the crime to pick it up. Of course this had to happen just down the street from my landlord's house. Who is taking out his trash at the time. So finish and turn the car around thinking this is a good time to try and reason with him about the fence. Why I thought this was a good idea I don't know but anyway..... I pull up and explain what I was doing which he sort of gives me a weird look and laughs. I then proceed to ask him about putting a top bar on the fence, since I understood that that was his concern. Well apparently what he is concerned about is someone suing him if they get hurt on the fence. Apparently he talked to him insurance guy about it. So I then ask him if he could just get him tenets to sign a release form or put it in the lease. He doesn't want to mess with it. The only way he would have been okay with us leaving the fence was if we had found a tenet to rent the place that had dogs and wanted the fence.

So basically I think he is mad that we didn't help him find a tenet, because now he has to find one himself! He tried to give us any incentive by putting in our lease renewal that he would knock money off our last month's rent if we found a new tenet. I'm sorry it is not our job to find a new renter. He got quite grumpy with me during this conversation. I could just tell by his facial expression and movements that he was mad. I then made him more mad I think by asking for a copy of our lease since Sean and I miss placed our copy. Part of me really want to say screw you about the fence if it isn't in our lease agreement. However Sean I think is to honest for that.

I'm just so angry about having to take an improvement to the property down! What do you think are the chance of someone suing him because they hurt themselves on the fence. I mean couldn't someone just as easily slip and fall in the bath tub and sue him for that. If fact that probably more likely since the tub doesn't have any preventive mat or stickers for more traction. I've whacked my head on the pedestal sink sweeping up cat litter in our half bath, perhaps I should sue him for that!

I think I'm done ranting, at least for the moment!

A wonderful wedding

I'm finally posting a few photos from John and Megan's wedding! Aren't they cute! Next photo is John surrounded by Meg's sorority sisters. Last one is their beautiful cake.

Tomato Tomado

I love tomatos!!! So this year I planted 3 different varietes of tomato plants in big pots. I wasn't sure how well they would do but they are growing gang busters. They are huge! The cherry tomato plant already has some little green guys on it! I'm so excited I can't wait for them to rippen. So this year tomatos, next year maybe lots of other veggies....or maybe just tons of tomatos!

Fun with Bleach!

So we hit a small snag with the well for the house. The water sample tested positive for Coliform (Various types of bacteria). So to disinfect the well it has to be bleached. The procedure itself is fairly simple but sort of a pain. We are going to ask the current home owners to do this and then we will have the water retested. Honestly I would think they would want to do this because currently they are drinking and using infected water. Chances are that the bacteria isn't enough to make them or anyone sick but if it increased it would. Hopefully this treatment will fix the problem and we won't have to do anything else. Otherwise all the other inspections so far have shown no major problems just some minor stuff. I'll keep everyone posted but so far it looks like we are still a go for closing on July 31st!

rental fun....

So apparently we agreed to take down the fence when we moved out if that is what the landlord wanted. I don't recall to agreeing to this....I may try and look it up in our lease..... Anyways he apparently want us to take the fence down. We made an improvement to the property and he wants us to remove it! What a pain in the butt!!! I can't possibly see why the fence would be a bad thing or a turnoff to potential renters. Especially if those renters also have dogs. I mean I know it isn't the pretty fence and it doesn't have a top bar on the chain link but still, it does its job. It keeps Quincy in and would definitely keep small children in. What more could you want from a rental. He is apparently concerned about the lack of top bar and the look. You don't rent a place because everything is perfect and beautiful you rent a place because it fits your needs. He could install a top bar if he wanted to! But no we have to remove the fence.

Sean thinks the man that installed will be willing to come back and remove it for free if he can keep the materials. I have my doubts that he will do it for free since it will be several hours of labor to take the fence down. Plus I think some of the posts are stuck in with concrete. I'm just really annoyed that we have to remove the fence! It just seems pointless and dumb to me. I would think most renters would like the idea of the fence. Although New Englanders don't seem to be quite and into fences and people in the west. Sorry I just needed to rant!

Now I feel more motivate to help find a renter that has a dog so I won't have to take the fence down! So know anyone looking to rent a 3 bedroom house in MA?

Getting closer to being home owners

The inspection went really well on the house. Only some small minor problems. Like some nails on the roof, and GSI outlets should be installed in the kitchen and bathrooms (the ones with the red and black buttons). He recommended insulation under the floor in the crawl space. Some all really minor stuff, which is really good. We still have the well inspector and termite guy. It is looking good. I'm so excted!

Soon to be home owners!

We have the house under contract! We were able to workout a deal with the sellers after several back and fourths. So baring any problems with the inspections and appraisal....We are HOME OWNERS!

Sean and I are super excited! I'll keep you all post about that and my job. I should find out whether they are going to give me an offer next week. It seemed very promising after my interview yesterday so keep your fingers crossed (mentally of course....cause that could get painful otherwise)

Big developments in Kateland

Sean and I put an offer on a house today! We have already received a counter offer which we are mauling over tonight. We are super exicited about the house! It is a brick ranch with 2000 sq ft. So plenty big for our little family of 4. Above are a few pictures of the house. First is the front of the house, second part of the kitchen plus Bob our buyer's agent, and third the family room. I'll keep everyone posted on what happens.

Also tomorrow is my interview with the Dayton office of my current company. So wish me luck! I really want this to workout because job hunting sucks and I'm really exicited about the position.