House Project

As I have blogged about earlier, Eric and I are having to do some work on my house in order to get it on the market and hopefully sell! Well, that what we did all weekend.

We actually started on Friday by scoping out our desired appliances for the upgrade there. We actually lucked out and found some good deals! Kind of excited about that (though appliances still cost a pretty penny...). On a side note... anyone want to buy a fridge or glasstop stove?? Both are in great condition (they just weren't stainless). LOL

Saturday we started the painting. We have SO much painting to do. Well, actually, we starting the priming. I have some dark colors in the master bedroom and bath, so first we must prime. Man, primer has some fumes to make you lightheaded! And they linger! we also do some basic fall yard maintenance, just t keep it up for when it goes on the market. After all that fun, we went and bought the rest of the needed appliances. And also bought some new kitchen light fixtures. And some other things to make it look nice at the end of this whole thing.

Today we painted the kitchen and installed the light fixtures. I have to say, so far, I'm jealous of my own kitchen. It's a shame I'll never get to enjoy it. All this work for someone else to enjoy it. So sad.

Needless to say, I'll be spending most of this week painting at my house. I have to paint the living room, the hallway, the master bedroom and bathroom, and at least a couple of accent walls in the other two bedrooms. I don't think I'll ever understand why people can come into a house and imagine their own colors on the wall... why does everything have to be so neutral???

Anyway... as it all comes together, I'll post some 'after' pictures. It should look pretty good when all is said and done, complete with the staging. Probably look better than it ever did when I lived there. Again... so sad. Oh well. 'Tis life, I guess.

Halloween

It's Halloween!

Already??

Well, Mother Nature sure agrees with the time of year... but where has the year gone??

Last night, Eric and I actually dressed up and went to a couple of our friends' parties. And can you believe it - I didn't take a camera with me, so I have no pictures! But one of our friends sent a picture of us from last night, so you get to still see it for yourself. Eric dressed up as a South Beach DJ and I went as a safari girl/female version of Indiana Jones (complete with whip!). It was fun! And funny. LOL It was my first time really going out in awhile, so I made a point to thoroughly enjoy myself. Good times...

On that note, if any of you head out tonight, be safe!

Happy Halloween!

Just When I Thought I Could Relax...

So the moving is pretty much done (just some random things left in the garage), as is most of the cleaning, so I thought I could finally relax a little. You know, put my focus somewhere besides my house.

Wrong again.

We met with a realtor, and due the the pretty crappy sellers market, we've got some sprucing up to do before it even hits the market. So my time will still all be going to my house for the next couple of weeks.

Eric and I figured on some of the things, but others, though we discussed, we were hoping to get away with not doing until 3 months down the road (or more... or not at all) if the showings weren't going well. Basically, though, even though I'm in one of the better areas regarding sales, this past month in particular hit a wall for home sales.

Oh... and the fun part... we get to take some furniture BACK up to my house to stage it. She basically said vacant house aren't moving at all! So we'll take a mix of stuff back up, just enough to make it look nice, though I'm sure it won't look lived in. But that's what buyers want to see.

*sigh*

It's Great to be an Auburn Tiger!

On Sunday, when the new USA Today and AP polls came out, I was ecstatic that Auburn was ranked #3 in both of them. I don't think anyone imagined Auburn was going to be this good this year. Not that we we expecting a bad year... but 8-0?? Awesome!

I was even more thrilled to see the BCS poll come out today... Auburn ranked #1, baby! A tough schedule pays off (and beating another top 10 team last weekend helped). But wait... the last three weeks since the BCS first came out for the year, all the #1's have been beaten. Uh-oh... should I be worried? Is this a sign?

I don't know. All I know for sure is Cam Newton should win the Heisman! He is an amazing quarterback!! He's breaking records, left and right, and he does it all with a big ol' smile! You gotta love that...

Still have a few tough games ahead of us, including Bama (the original #1 to be knocked off). Hopefully, the team doesn't come out too confident for any of the games and let someone beat us that has no reason to beat us.

Regardless, it's great to be an Auburn Tiger! Especially this year!!

Stress. Yes, Stress!

I really think that I am more stressed being unemployed than I ever was employed. And it has nothing to do with being unemployed. It's the moving. It's taken over my life and quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of it. Literally.

I have stressed myself sick. I feel like I have flu like symptoms... but it's not the flu. The achiness is simply the stress and the head congestion and sinus pressure is mostly the time of the year... but also stress. I haven't been allowed to just sit still for awhile. I try to do that in the mornings a bit, but I get guilty twinge if I watch TV because 'there's stuff I need to do', so I can't enjoy my down time. I'm just going, going, going... and I don't like that. My body and mind can't handle that. I need my down time. It's very valuable to be and I've always cherished that time.

And then Eric tries to get me out of the house because he thinks I need it. I don't need it. Nor do I want it. I understand his intentions are good, but I just want my 'me' time! There are some things I'd like to do right here in the house that would leave me completely content. Let me just chill on the couch. Let me work on something that benefits me, and only me. Let me do something to pamper myself. I don't need to leave the house to get myself in a relaxation mode. In fact, I'll do much better not leaving the house (so long as it doesn't mean working on the house). I'm not that person that has to be constantly doing something to be happy. In fact, that makes me very UNhappy!

*sigh*

I know this seems like a bunch of bitching and whining at this point. This blog seems to be full of it lately. It has just been a very frustrating month of being unemployed. And unlike my previous unemployment, someone sees me day to day and just wants to make sure I don't get bored or depressed while unemployed. But the fact of the matter it, as long as the unemployment is short lived, I'm fine with it. It gives me a chance to do things for me that I don't normally get to do. This particular time, it was moving to start with, with the down time to follow. Unfortunately, the moving took much longer than anticipated and just became a stressful event. And no down time to date.

I NEED my down time!

One Month Down...

Today marks one month since my last day of employment. As much as I'd love to say 'all is well', it's not. Well, on the job front, at least.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the two prospective employers, both of which I've had two interviews with as well as post interview follow-up. I tried touching base at the end of last week - one had the decision maker out of the office all week and the other, my contact was at a conference a majority of the week. So no luck there.

So I wait.

Granted, I've kept plenty busy with the moving and all. I actually wouldn't mind a little actual down time before getting a job. But I'd at least like to know something's coming. Hopefully I'll hear more this week!

Moving is a Total Drag

Moving really sucks. I'm not sure when or how I would've gotten moved out of my house if I wasn't unemployed. I thought I could knock it out in a week. WRONG!!

Granted, I've had no real deadline. Yes, I want to get it on the market or rented. But there's no one standing over me, telling me I have to be out by a certain date. Except Eric. And he adds a whole other level of stress to the situation. I've never had more tension in my neck and shoulders caused by pure stress as I have the past few weeks. To him, it should be a cut and dry, in and out process. But he also has half the amount of stuff I have - every place he's lived before the current house has been a fraction of the size of my house, PLUS, he's moved a lot in the past decade... I've moved ONCE... into my house! Well, not entirely true... I moved from Atlanta, to an apartment in Indy, where within the first 6 months, a signed a contract for my house. So I was pretty much ready to go by the time the house was built 6 months later.

He argues that I've know about this for nearly a year and should have been able to have this done awhile back. But then it goes back to the fact that I still have a lot of stuff and even with being unemployed and nothing else to focus on for three weeks, it's still taking time. Every weekend from Christmas until the wedding, and even through last month, I/we had something going on. So what was I supposed to do - take time off work? Not hold commitments to friend on the weekends? Completely drain myself of all energy and happiness right before the wedding? It wasn't that I didn't want to get moved... I just didn't have the massive chunk of time to do what I'm doing now.

And I'm still not done. All the big stuff has been moved. Now I have all the remnants... the things scattered on the floor that are waiting for their fate to be decided. Is it something that just didn't fit in a previous box? Something put aside for Goodwill? Or is it just something to be thrown away? Then there's the cleaning... (mental note - rearrange furniture more often). But at least that's easy as to what gets cleaned up... EVERYTHING!

The good news through all of this... I AM going through things. Five trips to Goodwill so far, and there's at least one, if not two more trips to come. And there's been three weeks of a very packed 90 gallon trash bin, as well. So there will be less stuff for next time we move!

Jags Beat Colts!!

The Jags did it again... they pulled out an upset over the Colts!

Somehow, they are able to do this against the Colts on a semi-regular basis. And it amazes me every time. My Jags looked awful the previous two weeks, coming into this game with just one win over Denver. I was excited that they were keeping this game so close, then got even more excited when they were up with 2 minutes to go.

But then Peyton did his thing and drove it down the field for a touchdown to tie it up. His only mistake was that he left time on the clock. All David Garrard had to do was move it close enough for the amazing Josh Scobee to kick a field goal, which he did from 59 yards out as time expired. Again. Though this time it was a longer kick - 3rd longest last second winning field goal in NFL history (who keeps all these random stats that they can throw them out so quickly??). Last time he did this against the Colts it was on the Colts' home field. This time it was in front of a home crowd.

Go Jaguars!