I Gotta Believe!

Every year The Company flies out all of their SM's for a big company meeting so this Friday I'll be flying out to LA! Yay!

Each year there's a different theme to the meeting, with a big themed party at the end where we all have to dress up. This year theme is The Alphabets. Yeah... Interesting choice, I know. For the party we have to dress up as a pop cultural icon whose name starts with the same letter as ours (first or last). After some consideration I decided to dress up as...


Does the hat look familiar to you? No? Well, it's an official replica of the hat worn by the greatest rapper alive. Give up?


Parappa the Rappa!

My brother and I were HUGE fans of the game and he ordered the hat from Sony awhile back. I figured the hat, hair in pig tails, a blue shirt, a pair of jeans... Easiest costume so far! Well, there was that one year where the theme was Pajama Party, that was pretty easy.

I wonder if I still have my red sneakers somewhere...

Before and After Pt. 2: First Floor

So remember the very blue walls and the ugly, pee-stained, dog-smelling carpet? No?


Well, after weeks of back breaking labor (courtesy of my dad) I am proud to present to you my new living room/dining room!


Yay!!!

One room semi-done (those little blue marks on the wall are painter tape marking the areas that need some touch up) and... the rest of the house to go!

This room will probably stay like this for some time since neither of us own any grown up furniture and money for formal furniture that we don't really need at the moment is money we would rather spend on fixing up the parts of the house that we actually use. It might have made more sense to fix up the more useful rooms first but, psychologically, the main floor was the obvious choice. Now, when I walk in, I see this bright, clean room, not a dark, smelly, dirty space that makes me want to punch someone.

I Fear for the Children's Future

For lunch I like to get the Chic-Fil-A Kid's Meal. It's cheap and it fills me up enough until I can get some real food. I was looking at the bag recently and had to laugh a little when I saw this:


Do you see the fail? No? Take a closer look while keeping in mind that this is "David's" spelling test.


I wish all my spelling tests were that easy!

Money is Meaningless

I've spent the past two years being (somewhat) financially responsible and (semi) aggressively saving to buy a house. Now that that's done I feel kind of lost and my finance is in a bit of a shamble. I'm not too sure how much money I have in my checking and savings. I'm pretty sure I paid all of my bills on time and I haven't transferred any money to my savings account since, I don't know... June?

I need to get back on track but there's just this great sense of, "Meh."

Money has kind of lost its value to me. For example, this weekend I made an appointment at the dealer to get some maintenance work done on my car. I expected it to cost close to $300. Ouch, but not unheard of. I was emailed a coupon for 10% off but, on my way to the dealer I realized that I had forgotten to bring that coupon. Now, I could've turned around but I didn't want to, it was kind of late, and I would have to turn on the computer, wait for it to print, blah. I could've tried to talk the guy into giving me the discount by mentioning it, maybe ask to use their computer to pull up the coupon or something but... It wasn't worth it. $30 was not worth me making any kind of effort, at all. I didn't care.

Thankfully all I needed was an oil change and tire rotation which cost me less than $80.

I think I need a new goal to get me back on focus, you know, to make me appreciate the value of money again. I also need to sit down with Michael and plan out our joint finances. We're not doing 100% joint but we've agreed to go mostly joint and "share" the bills. I think step one will be to pay off his car. I really hate car payments and that will free up around $220 a month.

That being said, I will say it's kind of nice to not care about money. It's nice not stressing about every single purchase, wondering "Can I get this cheaper somewhere else?". Interest rates? Bang for the buck? ROI? Whatever. I've met people who hate money and I've always been like, "WTF? How can you hate money?!?!" but now, I kind of understand.

Money is Over Rated

Work is kind of intense right now and I will most likely be forced to pick up some over time. Now, logic tells me that I should be super excited about this. Opportunity for over time is extremely rare and any extra money is good, right?

Meh. I don't know about that.

Financially, a few extra hundred dollars will not make a huge difference in my life. I can... pay my student loan off a few months early but the interest is tax deductible so what's the point? I can... put it in savings but I have enough money in there that a few hundred dollars wouldn't really be all that impactful. I mean, we are talking less than $500 here.

If I don't have to be responsible with it, I can spend it, right? I mean, I just bought a house, there are a million and one things I want to buy. But no! No I can't! This strong, strong force within me is telling me that it is absolutely WRONG to spend that extra money on anything. That all "free" money MUST be used to pay down debt/supplement savings. Only, you know... the previous paragraph about how insignificant that amount is to my financial life and... Well, you can see why I'm not excited about a few hundred dollars. Besides, have I mentioned that I'm already over worked? Yeah, I think I'd rather sleep in and do the laundry.

I think I'll use that money to start a "Get New Flooring" fund. That way, it's kind of like savings and spending... Get New Flooring savings goal will be around a thousand dollars so a a couple of hundred dollars would make a big impact.

So, this week, when I'm feeling tired, overworked, and like I want to punch someone in the face I'll just think of this:


And tell myself that it's all worth it. It's for the greater good.

My Own Personal Private Island

What originally retailed for $400 but was bought, brand new, for just $25?

Our new kitchen island!


There has been this intense internal struggle in my head over how to best utilize the space in the kitchen- small table and chair set vs. an island and pantry. The table and chairs won but we couldn't pass up the deal on the island. Besides, I am convinced, even if no else is, that I don't have enough cabinet space so I'm excited to have additional storage. Oh, and check this out:


It has a drop leaf on the back! It'll provide additional prep space and if I get some bar stools we can use it as an eating space. It's kind of like having a table and an island. Awesome!

Before and After Pt. 1: First Floor

Okay, so after a lot of hard work, I finally have some before and after pictures worth sharing!

Now, the house is no where near done and I feel the progress is coming along too slowly but I am happy with the results.

First, remember the garish blue walls? No? Well, they used to look like this:


Oh, I know what you're thinking. "What are you complaining about? The wall doesn't look that bad!" Well, trust me, it's horrible in person. The dark color makes the whole room feel very dark and all that blue is just suffocating.

Two gallons of paint later, the walls now looks like this:


It's lighter. It's brighter. I love it! I think... It does make me feel a bit like I'm living inside a giant honeydew melon. I think once we add some furniture, rugs, curtains, paintings, etc, it won't seem so melon like.

Now, on to the kitchen!

The old kitchen faucet was ugly and gross and chrome and gross and missing parts and gross. It was gross.


The spout part was so low it was really hard to do the dishes or fill up a Brita pitcher.

I wanted to replace it with a goose neck but they're pretty pricey and my mom brought up the good point that a goose neck faucet is better suited for deep sinks. Mine is so shallow it will just splash water everywhere. So instead of a goose neck, I got this:


It's like a baby goose neck. What do you call a baby goose? Gossling? Yeah, I think it's gossling. We'll just call it a gossling neck.

The biggest change to the kitchen, however, is the floor! The old flooring looked like this:


Dirty. Gross. Discolored.

When we moved in we discovered that it was three layers of vinyl. One yucky dirty layers of vinyl on top of each other. Originally we were thinking of tiles but very quickly realized it was a bit outside our budget. We thought we would have to cheap out and get sticky vinyls but my mom got us a really good deal on laminates so we decided to put laminates on the living room/dining room, the hallway, the foyer, maybe the bathroom, and the kitchen!


Finally! A room with clean floors!!!

I was afraid the laminates would clash with the cabinets but it doesn't look that bad!

Next on the list for the kitchen is procuring a table. I'm tired of literally eating over the sink. I have my eyes set on the Bjorkudden/Bertil.


We also need a new stove since the current one is broken but thankfully my siblings have offered to buy us a new one!

Love Hurts

Let me introduce you to the love of my life:


Yeah! I have a Wusthof!!!

Oh, and yes, that is my bed but no, no I do not sleep with my knife. It's just where I had it because I dumped all my (shopping) bags in my bedroom. Just wanted to clarify that I'm not crazy.

It's a Grand Prix II. I really wanted the Ikon but those are like $200+. According to research the only difference between the two is the design. The Grand Prix has that thick bolster which makes it impossible to sharpen all the way to the edge. Over time the knife will not be able to cut flat against the board. The handle is also "cheap" meaning, it's plastic, not African blackwood, and there aren't any fancy rivets. I still really want the Ikon but this knife was only $60 on sale at the William Sonoma outlet so... It'll do for now.

Before using the knife I was gave Michael a safety lesson and explained that until he gets used to the SUPER AMAZING BLADE (OMG!!! It's life changing!) he has to be very careful not to cut himself. And, of course, what happens? Damn near sliced off a chunk of my pinky cleaning the blade. It's cool, I'm fine. I bled profusely for a bit but you know, the cut was so clean it didn't even hurt.

One day, after the house is settled and I don't need to save up for things like a couch or you know, floors, I will buy an Ikon. This knife will tide me over until then.

Next up on the Really Really REALLY Want List:


12" All-Clad Stainless Steel Fry Pan.

Still In Progress

Is painting supposed to be this time consuming? We're almost done, a few area needs a second coat but, for the most part, the blue is gone. Well, we still have a hallway but I'm trying to decide if I want to paint it the same shade or go with something different.

We're laying down laminates on Sunday so I was hoping to have the whole floor done before then but it's not going to happen. Oh well. I can't believe how long it's taking us, we didn't even do a good job. Yeah, we kind of half-assed it. I didn't bother filling in the nail holes and sanding down the hardened paint strips. We also didn't tape up the base board or the trim because those all needs to be repainted again.

Next up, the basement. I don't know that I want to paint the entire basement... Maybe just the stairwell. We'll see.

Ugly Blue Monster

I hate blue. I used to like blue but the first floor of our new house is painted in blue, like blue blue, like red white and blue, like blue. Every time I'm not there I think, "Maybe I can live with it... I don't know, throw in a lot of white, go for that Dutch china look maybe?


Or toile. I like toile...

But, no. Every time I walk through the door I just want to punch someone in the face. Who ever said blue is a calming color lied. So, no doubt the color had to go, the question is, what color should I use? I liked the idea of white but I was afraid it would be too high maintenance keeping it clean and bright. I was thinking of mint green but I was afraid it would be too candy colored. Likkle Girl mentioned apple white and that really stuck with me. I found a very pale shade of light green that I liked (June Vision from Behr). However, the living/dining room doesn't get as much light as I had thought so it just kind of looks like dirty white. Instead we went with the next darker shade, Feldspar.


I love the color.

I'm not tall enough to reach the ceiling so I tested it out on the bay window. I used the left over June Vision (I bought the $3 test sample) to paint the ceiling of the bay window area since it was an ugly shade of band aid beige. Painting the ceiling is a pain in the butt so the rest of the ceiling will probably stay white, though it is dirty and it is in satin so it does look kind of gross... Sigh, so much painting to be done...

I'm hoping to finish the entire floor (minus the kitchen) by end of tomorrow. I can't wait to get rid of all that blue!

Girly Fun Swap!!!

Michael's parents gave us a very heavy wooden... oh shoot, what do you call them... Curio cabinets? You know, those things that you put in your dining room to display and store all your nice China. It's very... wood-ish from what I remember, very um... big and brown and just screams LOOK AT ME, I AM MADE OF WOOD, not really my thing. Currently it's in the basement and it's so freaking heavy I don't know if it'll ever make it upstairs. We might just leave it in the guest bedroom.

My mom got excited when she saw it, "Oh! You can store all your nice dishes in there!" I replied, "Um... What nice dishes mom?" and she got kind of sad, like she was a bad mother for not ensuring that I had a set of nice dishes, you know, the nice set of China you're supposed to buy (or receive) when you get married and start your adult life. A set so nice that you never ever use it, not even for Thanksgiving.

Well, don't worry mom 'cause I got some nice stuff in the mail!


Awhile back I blogged about how I decided to organize my jewelry collection. Likkle Girl, whose blog, style, and shopping luck I deeply admire (and envy!), liked one of my necklace and suggested a girly fun swap. OH HELL YEAH!~ Like I would turn down a guaranteed chance to receive something AMAZING.

She sent me these gorgeous set of small tea cup and saucer!


There is also a matching gray set. At first I wasn't going to unwrap the other and keep them in perfect moving ready condition. However, curiosity got the best of and I had to take a look that the rest. It's a set of four and they are so cute and adorable! I can't wait until my niece gets old enough for a tea party (Yay! Tea Party!). In the mean time, I think they're the perfect excuse to buy an espresso maker.

Bye Bye Carpet

So we're starting to set up in our new house and the first step was to remove the carpet on the main floor.


We discovered that the previous guy's dog LOVED pee-ing in the corner. The doggy pee smell diminished once we threw the carpet and padding out but a faint odor still lingers. Gross.

I'm still sold on the idea of having white floors but my mom won't hear of it. She's insisting we get laminates, won't consider anything else. She can insist all she wants but it's our house and I haven't heard her offering to pay for those laminates. Michael has suddenly developed a strong sense of pride for our house and he's reneged on his agreement to just go with the white floors for awhile. Granted, the floors, as is, does look kind of gross but, I don't know... Fill in the cracks, give it a good scrub, paint it... It could work, right?

Then again, if we know we're going to get laminates eventually, why not just get it done and over with before we start moving in furniture, right?

The stairs aren't that bad so I might just keep the stairs as is.


Okay, I mean, they look pretty bad now but, a good scrub, a new coat of paint... It'll be fine.

Drunken Noodles: 4912

After work, I was up until almost midnight pulling out carpet staples. The previous dude's giant dog must have peed, repeatedly, in the corner. The smell! Augh, the smell! The doggy pee smell decreased dramatically after we tossed the carpet but it still lingers. Maybe I should just pour bleach on the spots or something.

Anyway, I did take some pictures but left the camera at my new house. So... umm... (what pictures do I have saved in my file...) Let's talk about drunken noodles instead... Sure, why not!

Daria eats a lot of Asian food because she's not into glucose. Asian cuisine, by the way, is very awesome if you're in to any unique diets like veganism, raw foodism, anti-glucose-isms, and so forth. Since Daria had to catch a flight we didn't have much time and we went to the closest Thai place near her mother's house, 4912.

Their drunken noodle was one of the worst I've had.


Similar to Faang's drunken noodle they used minced chicken and threw in some tomatoes. Unlike Faang's, it wasn't even mediocre. It was way to soy sauce-y, very unpleasant. Well, on the plus side, the noodles were cooked well.

Sad

Today is the big day and I think I'm going to throw up. It's not too late to just cancel everything, is it?

Blerhg. What did I get myself into?

Well. Let's not talk or think about houses and home buying for the next two hours. Instead, I want to show you the greatest invention to come out in recent history. Are you ready for it?

Ta-da!


It's a slightly bigger grocery basket with wheels! The outer handle is long so that you can pull it behind you like a wagon! The inner handle is traditional basket length so that you can carry it, like a basket!

I'm not a fan of shopping carts. I'm more of a buy ingredients for a meal kind of shopper, not a buy grocery for the entire week kind. Carts are clunky and they get in your way and it's just stupid to push them along for a few stuff. then again, baskets can get heavy and when I see that Simply Lemonade is on sale for less than $2 it's a though choice. Do I want to lug that thing around the store or grab a cart? Hmmmm...

Now, I don't have to make that choice! Well, I wouldn't have to make that choice except I'm moving (Stupid house! Stupid decision!) and there isn't a Giant anywhere near my new place. Sad. So sad.

Goodbye awesome basket cart thing. We could've been the best of friends...