King George Roscoe P-Coltrane the First

King George Roscoe P-Coltrane the First
Viva and Jerry, from Viva and Jerry's Country Music Videos, love our little (relative term) basset hound. Jerry thinks he swaggers like a king, so we all started calling him King George. This is the picture we took of george this year (his crown is from BK) that we framed and gave to Viva and Jerry as a Christmas present.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Minnehaha Falls

Believe it or not, this is 5.5 miles from our house. It's hard to believe that this is really in an urban area. It's very close to the West side of the Mississippi river and is nearly across the river from the St. Paul Ford Plant, where they make Ford Rangers.

The same park also has a trolley, which if I am not mistaken, connects to the trolley line in the park by our house. It also has Longfellows house, which surprised me, I didn't know Longfellow resided in Minneapolis. Along with a home of the first settler of Minneapolis.

It was a very cute park. You can rent those funny little bikes that kind of look like an open four person car, that you'd see on Macinac Island (spelling?) They had a playground and a seafood restaurant (which I thought was odd). It was fun we walked around down the river and around the park for an hour or too before we returned home.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Loona Strikes Again

Just when I thought I was rid of our Loan Officer I get a call from her assisntant. Apparently the City Living Program needs a certificate saying we both went through the first time home buyers class, even though it was never mentioned and we closed without it, one month later its a necessity -- wow thanks. WHY IS THIS COMING UP NOW!? ARGH.

I went to the class, so its not a big deal they just had to contact the person who did the class for us and get her to send them another document, but still its really annoying that we are still dealing with this when we thought the deal was done - what are they going to do take our loan away!? Seriously. So needless to say the first call explaining that I had gone to it but that she'd only made out one certificate but that we'd both gone, I was civil. The second call from the assistant after she clarified that she did in fact need one form me too, I got agitated and explained that I didn't understand why this was coming up now and how they didn't know I needed this off the bat? She passed me to Loona and I had to hear the incredibly sweet voice, that still had that edge of attitude, that I never wanted to hear again. So I let Loona have it too and she took care of it because "she didn't want me to think that she wasn't trying to provide the best customer service possible." Hmm... wonder if that means that she read our critique of her. HA!

So they took care of it but did they even need to call me, couldn't they have immediately called Strickland and Associates and gotten it straight from me rather than bothering me first? That woman drives me nuts - she sent us the appraisal that we had paid for and with it two of her brochures and business cards - yeah, like I am passing those on, HA!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I have a new 2nd Cousin!

That's what you call it when your cousin has a baby, right? Who cares, because he's adorable!

Look at him! Little Rylen, welcome to the family! He was born Saturday September 20th @ 8:30 AM. He weighed 6lbs, 14 ozs, was 20 inches long and is as cute as can be! Congrats Jennie, Dave, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim!

Hope he likes his little Gophers shirts! Can't wait to see it all on him. (Ha, can't wait to buy more things for him since he's the only baby I have to spoil!) :)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Lovely Yard

Oh the yard...

<---(Front Before) So the yard will be the bane of our existence for a while. My mom came to town while my dad was working at the RNC for the AP. Her and the puppy, helped us do some major damage to our yard. The front yard is COMPLETELY leveled. Some things have returned so we will have to dig them back up but we plan to seed in the spring. (Front After--->)

The backyard still needs some major work - there's so many raised beds and wooden things they built I just don't know what we are going to do with it all. I think once we remove some of the raised beds, sweep the driveway and clean out the garage we might actually be able to park our car all the way back there. Just imagine a garage, the door doesn't go down, it might be too small for a car and it has the aroma of cat urine, but its a garage. :) HA! Actually, according to crazy lady it is the only garage that was still standing after the 1981 tornado went through our neighborhood and that's why the door doesn't work anymore because something got twisted by the wind. Whatever seems like there's tornado every 50 yrs. We read about them on the information boards in the park a few blocks from our house -- it has a timeline. (<---Back yard after my mom got to it.)
As for the yard we found a lot of interesting things. They used panyhose to tie back a LOT of things. So gross. The had broken birdbaths, pedestals, pots, plates, etc. EVERYWHERE. There's a place in the backyard that has soo much broken glass in it we might just have to dig the dirt out and throw it away. There's also random metal buried in the dirt. For example a 6 foot tall snow fence stake buried 5 feet deep -- that makes sense doesn't it? There's also metal wire fencing buried uber deep too. It's so deteriorated and deep though it was just breaking when i tried to pull it out so there's going to be a lot of digging in the backyard. They also built the raised beds, I mentioned earlier, and buried a tree 4 feet deep -- that's a quick way to kill a tree no wonder it looks like hell. My mom found army men and other action figures. There was also a ball some poor kid probably lost in the yard and never retrived because they probably thought the yard was haunted -- which if you told me I might actually believe because we found head stones!

Yup, you heard me right HEAD STONES (see photos). She was using them to keep the dirt in the raised beds in place. They're all imperfects I think but creepy none the less. One actually is complete another, doesn't have any writing and the more you look around the backyard the more you see pieces of polished granite etc. We are going to haul at least one of them to the front yard for halloween decoration and we are going to mound up the dirt like a body is buried there, I hope it creeps some little kids out it, like it creeps me out! But how do you get rid of them when halloween is over!? How do you get rid of any of it? We have so much dirt, rocks, paving stones, bricks - I don't know what we will do with any of it.

This lovely specimen is Japanese Knot Weed. It may be still sold at some garden centers, if you ever see it. Run from it screaming. It's an evil vile thing that some crazy people (previous owners) mistake as some wonderful hearty bamboo, that you could sell because its so grand. Bamboo does not grow in our climate. This crap is a weed. It's extremely invasive just a small portion of a root can grow into a huge plant. We have a huge clump of it in our back yard and our side yard and after looking it up on wikipedia after my mother's warning that it is an invasive exotic weed, I found out how difficult it is to get rid of. We cut it back and painted the stems with an herbicide (Ortho Weed-be-gone) and it still came back and that concetrate stuff usually kills anyhting. One website suggested digging what you could out, then covering the ground with a tarp to deprive it of sunlight, cutting it back when it grewback and painting it with weed-be-gone to get rid of it. Can you believe it? And I thought the raspberry bushes in our front yard were going to be a pain to get rid of.
In three days we managed to change the look of the property completely! All I have to say is THANK YOU MOMMY!!! And... When can you come back? HA! We haven't been as motivated since she left, she was so motivating seeing her tear up the yard. I must admit we almost miss some of the brush only because the back yard was more private and you couldn't see right into our front windows before. But I would never wish it back! I'd definetely say its one of the more impressive things we have done to the yard thus far - but then Mike and Jake will be replacing 1/2 of the roof this weekend -- which I think might trump the yard. Check out the before pics and semi-after pics in the slide shows on the right hand side. If I ever get around to taking more detailed shots of the house I will some up of the terrible wall paper, etc.
Stay tuned, there's always more to come! :)

Neighbor Gossip

So our neighbors and mail-woman are both nosy and informative. Well, the neighbors aren't really nosy but the mail lady is, but they all have good gossip to share.

First of all, everyone and their brother wanted to know if the rumor that we have a secret room in our house is true - Yes, it is true, I have seen it with my own eyes and it is CREEPY! There's a trap door in the floor or the first landing in the stairs to our attic. We don't know who put it there - but its great for getting at the plumbing in the bathroom. We also don't know how many people have owned our house - when I have some free time I'd like to research it, but for now... The story goes the people who lived in the house before Sharon used it. Not the wife, but the husband. Apparently, all that is down in that room is a step ladder (we saw that it's missing rungs) and a chair. The husband, who was a doctor, was also a drunk. His wife didn't like him drinking so he would hide up there and she had no clue where he was or that he was drinking - so she must not have known it existed. Apparently according to a neighbor, when Sharon and her husband (Jeffery) moved in she went down in there and pulled out both empty and full bottles of Wild Turkey Whiskey. How nuts is that!?

Then there's the pigeons. Sharon and Jeffery used to raise them -- in our ATTIC!! They actually let them in the house. At one point, our neighbors said there was as many as a few hundred! Jeffery, who apparently was very reclusive, really like animals so he would actually fill the drain spouts as if they were troughs for cattle full of bird seed! There's still seed in them and all over the floor of the attic (needless to say we also have mice because of the seed which we are trying to get rid of). We saw pigeon cages in the garage at one point and there still are about 3-6 that still hang around. There was a flock of like 15-20 when we first moved in but since we aren't feeding them like Sharon was I think they have almost all left. But how gross is that!? The mail lady said at one point when she would come to the front door to drop off the mail she would actually have to cover her head! Who raises pigeons!? They are some of the dirtiest grossest animals around. Hell, St. Paul wants to feed them birth control.

Then there's the woe is me my dead husband. If I had to hear about Sharon's dead husband (Jeffery) one more time I was going to hit her. It was always a sob story. Well my husband died, so I couldn't finish the roof. Well my dead husband this well my dead husband that -- I get it you are a widow. But she kept dropping it like he died last week like we should be shoveling pity all over her. It almost reminded me of Bonnie at Nielsen -- always breaking out the dead husband line when she wanted someone to take care of something for her: I missed a bill can you fix it for me because my husband died... a year ago!!! Anyhow the ironic part is apparently when he passed away she wasn't even living in this house, because they were separated preparing for a divorce. Wow, I feel really bad for you knowing you were trying to leave him, geesh! Esepcially since it seems like she's been with the other freak for at least 5 yrs which is right around when she would have left her first husband. When we got that bit of news I was astonished considering the way she was laying it on.

Then there's the yard. Apparently, she had people believing that it was all top class gardening - wait til you see the pictures. I guess Jeffery even considered himself a horticulturist - fat chance! My mom is a horticulturist and if she wasn't even willing to save anything - that speaks for what a shit show it really was. (Just wait I have pictures.) You should see the things they did. Three layers of wood that served no purpose. Many different types of weeds planted as plants. Our next door neighbors Viva and Jerry and the people who live above them (can't remember their names) showered praise upon us when we hacked it all out. Even the plant guy down the street, Dwight, said that he would have done it too (but not to tell Sharon that - like i talk to her on a regular basis?)

Apparently Sharon didn't get along with many people either. Dwight sounded scared of her. Viva apparently had many squabbles with her. And Sharon refered to the lady behind us as her "Fat bitch nemisis". There are all kinds of broken glass and plates by the back fence -- I am wondering if there was some kind of war going on? The lady is pretty wide though - I saw her in a tight biking outfit - yikes! I didn't know they made those in obese. So, compared to Sharon I think we will be great neighbors if they can handle loud music from time to time and a few too many maroon and gold decorations (which reminds me I have to find our MN flag).

Our First Home

Good god! I haven't posted since the day before we closed? GEESH. Well I guess I have a lot to catch everyone up on.

So, the day we closed Kevin and I went to the house to make sure everything was still in the same order as before. It was. (Although I think someone tried to clean, so some more crap was gone and some of the light bulbs were missing and maybe a door knob?)

So we show up to closing (Kevin and I) and we wait and wait and Mike isn't showing up so I call him... not only is he running behind but he's also lost so he showed up about a half an hour late sporting his pimp suit (Dropping a 1/4 of a million on a house might as well show up in the black Calvin Klein suit). But while I was waiting for him we got to see the previous owner walk up - WOW they were a pair of FREAKS!

Direct quote from Kevin, "I don't know if she knows what the word 'Bra' means." HA! So she's like 55-60 and so is he. She looks like a cross between a hippy and piece of white trash - i still haven't decided what term fits her better. He on the other hand just looks like a big dumb oaf. When he talks i feel like i am talking to a 5 year old and on top of it things kind of slur and I began to wonder if he was a drunk. Probably, later I found out that he returns to the cities every Tuesday night for a "meeting" -- AA anyone? All I know is they look like life has been rough on them and they both are major idiots so I don't feel so bad.

So while we are at closing Mike is seething because A) the previous owners were idiots and tried to fix things themselves but because they are so inept at life they made everything so much worse (you'll see from the photos) so he could barely sit on the other side of the table from them because every time she spoke to us he wanted to punch her. AND B) our loan officer is a complete idiot - she told me to get a check for $12,000 for closing because her estimates had us at paying $11,500 and this way if any was left over they'd write us a check. GUESS WHAT!? We owed $13,200 at closing and Mike had to leave closing to get another cashier's check because the difference between 12 Gs and what we owed was above the amount they could accept for a personal check. Need less to say Mike was pissed and not very nice on the loan officer review form we were given. So needless to say STAY FAR AWAY FROM LOONA ESPEDAL - she reminds me too much of the HP character who her name is eerily close too.

But the previous owner was a GEM! So she, I think, remarried to this piece of trash that she showed up to closing with. She owns a hobby farm (which we were going to sue her and put a lien on if she didn't show up to closing) out in the sticks where she has a bloodhound kennel. She sounds like she has all kinds of crap on the farm ATV, etc. Which is why she didn't have any money to pay the taxes or anything else on our house which is why it went into foreclosure by the time we were buying it. We think she must have taken a loan out on our house because she owed $199,000 on the house after owning it some 36 years. Anyhow she's nuts! I mean it literally. From what we heard after her first husband and mom died (right around the same time) she sort of started to lose it and make even less sense than before - which was 4-5 yrs ago so she's had time for her mental state to continue to disintegrate.

Everything she talked about I had to will my self not to roll my eyes or smart off to her. She talked about the custom (shitty and ugly) door they put in the back -- yes thank you if I ever want to replace it (which I will) I have to either replace it with another custom way too large back door or fill in some of the space and re-stucco it. Or all the electrical they re-did -- You put in aluminum wire you dumb ass! The guy piped in and was saying how he made custom insulation things for the basement windows for the window, "You know you can use those if you'd like." No shit?! I just bought them! Or the tiling don't even get me started on the tiling. The garden -- I had my mom identify it -- IT'S ALL FREAKING WEEDS! Oh but we could sell the special bamboo in the back of the yard and make money if we wanted to - it's not bamboo its Japanese Knot Weed and its nearly impossible to get rid of (more to come in the future about our crusade against the evil knot weed.) Yeah, thanks.

The whole time she was acting like she was doing a real big favor for us. It was irritating the hell out of me and Mike. I pretended like it wasn't happening and continued to be sweet and responsive because I wanted to get this over with, Mike he just turned red and didn't say anything. I mean she was trying to force her contractors on us. Call these people and just tell them it was Sharon Quam's house they'll know exactly who you are and what's going on. Oh call these people they gave us an estimate for the back half of the roof (that we now have to replace) they'll give you a good price if you mention your in Jeffery Quam's house... UGH! They just kept going on and on I am like I didn't even want to meet you let alone talk to you can't you just shut up so that we can close on this damn house!? My god I wanted I just wanted it to end. And Mike had to run to the bank so Kevin went with and they left me alone with the poor closing agent and the two freaks. I think closing agent was as freaked out by the crazies as much as i was.

Whatever, we closed and all is history. Except the crazies dropped some paper work off the next Tuesday while i was home alone. The crazy chick hugged me! I was like I really don't want to hug you can you just give me what you want to give me so I can lock the doors and windows and go back to cleaning? Too this day I fear them.

So we moved everything the next weekend. And I started cleaning. I spent ALL DAY Friday just washing the floors upstairs. Nothing else, it took me all day. I admit there's so much junk downstairs I still have only washed the floors in the front sun room. It took me a week to clean and organize the kitchen. There was mouse poop everywhere and four years of dust. Plus 4 years of people tracking in dirt from showings - ugh it was a mess. Plus I don't think they were cleanli-folk, I can tell that from the pigeons - don't worry I will get to neighbor gossip soon. Lets just say I don't know when the last time some things were cleaned and some things still haven't gotten clean and I think it will take me months to get it to my standards because the basement and attic are gross and creepy.

So far though the office is nearly organized - we still have to find a place to put some of the things that used to be in my desk which we gave to Tracy. We got a nice rug in it too (Thanks Brandon! We just used our gift card you gave us from IKEA, for our wedding, to get it.) The bedroom is almost there - I have been lazy and haven't put away all of my things yet. The kitchen is nearly there, I just have to wash the floor better when I wash all the floors on the first floor. The bathroom - ugh mess, I did a quick clean but I am putting off the hard core clean because its just and old cruddy bathroom that will just hopefully go away before I have to clean it - right Mike? :)

The buffet is all full of all of our neat pieces that we have collected since the wedding - although we did find out that half of our champagne flutes are the wrong kind -- this is why we should have opened all of it when it got shipped to us from Marshall Fields but someone thought that was a bad idea because it was all packaged up why unpackage it -- All I have to say is I TOLD YOU SO! :) HA! But that was one of the worst things we have un-covered while unpacking. Mike lost a Belvedere glass shot glass bowl (fill with ice and matching shot glasses) and I lost a hand me down glass candy bowl which i had two of. So we're going to go talk to Marshall Fields soon and hopefully they will exchange them for us. Keep your fingers crossed.

The front sunroom is set up for TV watching but it needs a rug. We also need a rug in the bedroom and the living room once it has more furniture. We found an absolutely perfect rug that we both love (believe it or not we both agreed on it) but its pricey as hell and the wrong size - why are american rugs all the same size!? Jake I believe is completely moved in. So at least someone is, although we moved all his stuff from one of his closets out when we started pulling cable the other day -- yeah something to keep in mind when buying an old home -- does it have cable jacks? Because if not guess who gets to pull the cable - You! Lame. Oh well it seems to be going semi-ok. Better than it being all on the outside of the house like Dish Network wanted to do.

There's a lot less but we are making progress -- SLOWLY but surely.