Hiatus

Yes, I have been on a hiatus. I assure you it was not intentional, it was coincidental with a lot going on in our lives. It's been a busy fall so far as we have been adjusting to our new schedule after summer. Our biggest news is that we moved into a new house which really took up the majority of our time. So we no longer live next to Nana and Papa but we now live less than 1.5 miles down the street. I have found it is not nearly as convenient as being next door but that's life. Plus with us vacating the house we were in for the past 4-1/2 years it left the door open (literally) for my brother and sister in law to come to town. So they too participated in the dreaded moving activity. So on October 3rd, with torrential downpours, we had our hired movers take our heavier belongings and bring them to our new house. Then it took us about two more weeks to get the rest of our crap out of the old house. Then my brother and sister in law painted and prepped the house for their arrival which just happened over the weekend with a Uhaul rental and many hours of manpower and oh by the way did I mention that my brother also broke his foot and was not able to help at all? Yes a whole different post I suppose but suffice to say he broke it and the guy who owns a truck and has moved everyone he knows at one point in his life was left incapacitated to move himself. But his actions were paid forward and the dozens he had helped did return the favor and they got moved in. So now everyone has moved. It was like a giant game of chess involving packing tape, boxes and paint.

We are starting to settle in and find the idiosyncrasies of our new house. It is a beauty of a house too and we pretty much stole it away from the previous owners. They are going through a very nasty divorce and had to unload it quickly. Truth be told we have heard more than our share of stories about how terrible they were to each other in those final weeks even after he had moved out. But, their misfortune was our gain and we are finding we have more storage than we will (hopefully) ever need as well as more hard wood to sweep than I care to think about. I love the house, the kitchen is to die for and everything in it is top of the line. Though what we are finding is that with top of the line items, come top of the line price tags.

First they took the speakers out of the wall that went with their surround sound. It was an exclusion in the purchase and sale so it didn't exactly take us by surprise. But now I have four little holes with speaker wires sticking out that need a home. We researched the systems out there and for a mere $4K we could have their exact system put back into the house. Um no, I would rather eat for a year or send my kid to daycare for 5 months thank you very much.

Next they took the fridge. Okay again it was an exclusion in our purchase and sale but I didn't think she would actually take it because they were both renting (in different locations obviously) and don't rentals usually come with a fridge? Anyway, the fridge was gone and we needed a new one. So we went to scratch and dent central in Braintree which I love and found the most beautiful black double door top with freezer drawer bottom fridge. We love it except that it sounds like small freight train coming into the station when the compressor kicks on. So of course it is under warranty and the appliance pros will be coming out this week to look at it.

Lastly, the cooktop. It's such a different idea to have a cooktop separate from the oven. A foreign concept to me but apparently a very popular idea since we have now seen them sold everywhere. Why you ask? Oh because the previous owner broke the glass on the top of the cooktop apparently sometime between the home inspection and the closing. (Biotch) So while the burners still work the owners manual highly discourages using these broken burners because boil overs or spillage could result in ruining the entire range. So we have researched our options on replacement cooktops. For a mere $800 we could have a new Jenn Aire stove top. Um no. That is about 4 months of preschool tuition or a month and a half of daycare. So again, the appliance pros can come out and insert a new glass top if only we can now just figure out where the alleged sticker is on this unit where the model and serial number reside.

So the lesson learned is that top of the line appliances cost you much more when they break. The end.