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