The First Mouse near the House

I don't have any picture to go along with this post like I do with most other posts, but I thought it would be wise to at least chronicle a momentous event. Today, while grilling pizza on the grill (as if you grill it any other place), I noticed a black furry rodent scurrying around the back of our house. It came through the small patch of the Lilly of the Valley flowers, ran around the corner toward the porch, then disappeared through a small hole in the concrete steps that I previously hadn't noticed. I was speechless and was staring at the rodent. I quickly looked up at Annie and tried to wipe the startled look off my face before she could notice anything amiss, but it was too late. She noticed. I haven't seen a mouse with her before, and I can say I am proud she didn't scream, but she did seem disgusted. In fact, she kept saying, "That's disgusting," with heavy emphasis on the "gust." I hope the little critter wasn't too offended.  We later saw him scamper back the the Lilly of the Valley from whence he came.

After reading this, you're probably thinking, "Grilled pizza, how does that work?" I was just as skeptical, but it works—and it tastes amazing. I start with a dough ball that I buy from Lunds for 1.49. After forming the right shape by tossing the dough in the air like a pizza professional, I heavily oil the grill then drape the dough on the hot grates. After a few minutes, I flip the dough and add the sauce, cheese, and toppings. Within a total of 5-8 minutes, the pizza is done, and it tastes super-duper (as some nerdy home school kids I know would say). I know I said there wouldn't be any pictures in this post, but what the heck, here you go...

This was a nice margherita-esque pizza. Marinara sauce with sliced mozzarella, olives, and basil from the garden. The possibilities are endless.

-Daniel

Updated Home Video

Here is a video of the Updated Home.

It's been a while since we've posted anything on the blog. After about a month of being in the new home it is starting to look like a place where people live. We still need to hang most things on the walls, but overall the house looks great.

Annie's dad has spent many hours painting the walls and in some cases the ceilings in order to make the home feel warmer. The rust colored accent wall goes great with the brown in the dining and living room, and the odd shade of green that we probably wouldn't have normally picked works surprisingly well with the tile backsplash in the kitchen. Also, the newly painted white porch is much brighter and fresher looking then the worn, non painted wood that was in there before.

In addition to paint, we have also added furniture to fill in the house. Luckily we moved from a decent sized apartment into not to large of a house, so we didn't need to buy too much furniture. Mainly we wanted a large dining room table (So that we would have ample board game space) and a queen sized bed (The full was feeling small, especially when Leo was sleeping with us).

We also did a lot of work on the exterior of the house. Over memorial day weekend I got on the roof and removed four garbage bags worth of dead leaves and other detritus. The garden got a little freshening up with a new layer of mulch, and I planted my hops along with some vegetables.

You can see all of these updates in the video, so I won't post any pictures of them. Enjoy!

-Daniel

First Success. First Failure.

   Technically, I suppose the first success for the house would be the major cleaning Annie and her mom completed. However, I am going to stick with small house projects. Our first success was...a new toilet seat cover! Here is a pic of the old toilet seat.

                                                   (Old toilet seat cover...Yuck!)

   As you can see, the old toilet seat cover was wood. I don't know why they make toilet seat covers out of wood, it reminds me of an outhouse. Plus who knows how many people have pooped on that thing. Might as well get a new cover, right? We weren't sure if we got the right size, and I have never changed a toilet seat cover before, but after a little bit of laying on the bathroom floor, our toilet looked like it was originally supposed to look...beautiful.

                                                         (Amazing toilet seat)

   Now onto the first failure. It wasn't a big deal, we will just have to make a return trip to WalMart. I will probably not go to the WalMart on University Ave like we did to get this item. That place is one of the worst places on Earth. Although if you have enough patience it can be fairly entertaining. For example, on our last trip we got to see a really fat guy walking while holding his cell phone above his head as it rang over and over again. Shortly after that we saw some people almost kill each other over line position at the checkout, and to top it all off we got to see a guy get arrested for stealing a white vest. Still, I'd drive to the nearest WalMart in Iowa if it meant avoiding that WalMart.
   Where was I? Oh yeah. Our first failure was a poorly fitting dish drying rack. Bummer.

                                                         (That's not going to fit)

   If that is our biggest failure, I am going to count ourselves blessed.

   We did get a new table today too, but that doesn't come for several weeks. We measured it and I am pretty sure we can play a game of PowerGrid on it while also playing a game of Small World. So yeah, it's a pretty nice table.

-Daniel

We Got the Keys!

I know this entry is a little late but it has been a bit hectic the past few days and we only expect that to become a trend over the next couple weeks. On May 18th, 2012 we started our day by driving to a title company in Eagan and signing several documents. After a half hour or so and some polite small talk we had the keys to our first house. Well, technically we got a envelope filled with a ton of keys that we had no idea went to what door, but you get the point. After driving straight to the new place, we took this video. It is a tour and our first time being in the house as owners. Enjoy!

Click Here for Video-It's on YouTube.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. It was a busy day closing on our new house. I worked until 3:30am the previous night and so was fairly tired at closing. It is somewhat of a blur at this point. Annie's mom came over soon after getting the keys and we started cleaning the house. Here are some photo's of the action.

                                                  (Annie working on the Sink)

             (Mysterious stranger dusting (Annie's mom said she didn't want to be on the blog.))

I cleaned a little but was primarily driving to and fro picking up supplies and Arby's salads for lunch (We wanted to eat healthy because we went to the Nook for dinner). I did, however, plant my two hop plants in the backyard. Did I mention it was stinking hot outside? I got really sweaty. First I had to drive the hop plants over from the apartment. Here is a pic of that sweet ride.

                           (The hops and I going for a cruise-they went out the sunroof!)

I am not sure if they are going to make it, it was pretty hot that day and the rootball came apart pretty badly when I planted them, but we'll see what happens. Hops are suppose to be hearty. See what you think...

                       (The hops are the things around the dowel.)

Well, that's all for now, I am sure there will be more to come soon!

-Daniel

Let the Packing Begin

  The 6th of May, 2012. A day that will live in infamy. Just twenty-four hours after the fun and revelry of Cinco de Mayo, Annie and I started packing. We still have a comfortable amount of time to get this task accomplished and yet we have already packed a decent amount of items. We started in the bedroom.

                                       (Annie getting packing started in the bedroom)

   The cats were very curious and explored the new real-estate previously occupied by several books.  Leo approved of the vantage point, although he did not approve of Jasper being in the slot beneath him.

                                                  (Leo and Jasper on the bookshelf)

   Another shot of the cats. It's really hard to get them both to look at the camera at the same time. I accomplished this by making very loud meowing noises, and even then it took several pictures to get  this money shot. I'm sure the elderly woman, Pat, who lives upstairs is also excited for us to move.

(Leo and Jasper on the bookshelf II)

                                        
   After clearing most of the books and random items from the bedroom we had some fajitas. Then we decided to start packing the front closet, but then I was on the computer and saw Dairy Queen has a new Confetti Cake Blizzard, and so we went and got two small blizzards. After spending an hour or so of being really full and lethargic, we started packing the front closet. I knew we had a lot of games, but I was still startled by how much room they occupied. I guess that's what happens when you work at a game store.

(The board games patiently waiting to be packed)

                                         

   Well, that's all for now. Annie is still putting the finishing touches on packing the front closet but we've made good progress. It will be nice having plenty of time to move and only having to move all this crap only 1.2 miles away (I have measured it with our cars odometer).

-Daniel

Leo Getting Ready for the Move

Just thought we'd post a quick blog entry showing how Leo, our beloved feline friend, is preparing for the move. As you can see in this video, Leo is inspecting all of our boxes to ensure they are of proper construction.

Enjoy!

-Daniel and Annie

Menards Trip 7 of 12,349

Despite our lack of actually moving into the new house, I have somehow managed to make 7 or so trips to Menards already. Usually I do this during my free time when not at work and I am not looking for anything in particular. I simply start at one end of the store, then meander aisle by aisle looking at all of the beautiful projects as I daydream about how they could be used to amplify the beauty of our already beautiful home. Today (I'll call this trip seven even though it is just an estimate) was the result of different conditions.

Annie and I were in Hudson getting our new car repaired (again) and found ourselves stranded in a town that was not designed with the walker in mind. Naturally the best option (even if Hudson had a bustling transit system) was to walk to the nearest Menards and wander the glistening aisles. While we looked at just about everything in the store (we had to burn 3 hours) I only ended up taking a picture in the lighting department. We are planning on changing the light fixture in the bathroom a little after we move in, and there were definitely plenty of options.
                                                      

(Any gazing toward the heavens. No wait, that's just a neon sign)

Below I took a picture of a likely candidate. It was about 60 bucks which is less then we were originally thinking about, so that would be a plus. Ironically the picture has poor lighting despite being in a department where you wouldn't expect that to be a problem. The sun is simply too powerful.
                                                       

(Possible light fixture for bathroom)

Until next time!
-Daniel

And so the Blog Begins...

Early in the spring of 2012, my wife Annie and I decided to embark upon a search for our first home. After mentally preparing ourselves for a long and arduous adventure, we (with the help of our friendly Realtors) scoured St. Paul for the house that fit us best. To our great surprise we purchased a home within a week of beginning our search.

This blog is open for anyone to peruse, however the primary reason for it's existence is to serve Annie and me as an easily accessible record of our first home.

Enjoy!

-Daniel