The Flowers? Nah, Just The Irony of Ironies

Why, oh why did I have to go and cry about the flowers, of all things? So now I feel that a I am the butt of my own joke.

[insert sarcastic laugh here]

Two weeks ago when I was grieving about loosing this place I could not imagine what was and is yet to come... How terrible it would feel to watch the house being transformed under my very eyes in the ways we'd dreamed about when we purchased it, and to think that I may not get to enjoy all the wonderful new changes, that I'll just be forced hand them over to the buyer just because we cannot afford to live here. Yeah, I know, our own fault, buying this expensive house, BUT, on the other hand, had we not bought a house with great "flipping potential" we would be in much more trouble. We suspect that our other option, a 50K+ cheaper townhome, all redone (like we're doing this one) would be extremely hard to sell right now.

So, I know... positive attitude, blah, blah, blah, but when you see the new ceramic floors (no pictures just yet), these hardwood floors just uncovered in the living and dining rooms, stairs, and upstairs hallway:...the potential beauty of sanding and re-staining the kitchen cabinets, in addition to the 1200+ dollars just spent in brand new appliances for the kitchen (we're ordering them online -- much cheaper than buying in stores and much faster delivery)... it's all very painful. But I'm steeling myself, trying to feel a bit angry again so I'll have energy to go on, facing the endless cleaning, vacuuming, moving furniture and things around.

And these, BTW, are the flowers I was crying about (when I wrote that post, I didn't have a picture yet and used one from May): Pretty, right? But now, I look at them and can only feel the irony of the situation, so I go back inside to clean some more.

P.S.1 Please bear with me as I use this blog as a tool to cope and express my feelings as we undergo this period of transition that never ends. I know that it'll be all right in the end, but this thought doesn't make it any less painful, on the contrary.

P.S.2 In response to Prisca's lovely comment to the last post, I just wanted to clarify that we are obviously paying most of our friends (one of them, the most skilled and specialized refuses to be paid) and also helping one of them who didn't have any work this week. We cannot really afford any of this, BTW, but we need to do it, and of course helping our friends while paying less than we would for professional installation elsewhere makes much more sense (quite a bit of the money you pay for installation at these home improvement stores does NOT get to the installer. Two of our friends work as subcontractors under another subcontractor who is hired by yet another subcontractor representing the big chain store -- isn't that outrageous?).

--> If you live in the area and need professional, knowledgeable and affordable tile floor/ bathroom tile, etc, installation, do email me because I heartily recommend my friends!! And I'm obviously thankful for them as Prisca remarked. They are just coming over later today to finish the kitchen!

Gutted

That's how the small bathroom by the our bedroom has looked for five days now.
Today our friends began to work there, but not after a big setback because a plumbing puzzle -- how to fit in the new shower drain as well as the new shower -- that took all day. The kitchen is also undergoing a huge transformation. I hope to post pictures soon, in spite of the fact that I'm only using our video camera (which takes 3.2 megapixel photos) to take pictures. These here come to you as a courtesy of my friend's camera (her husband is helping us and he brought her camera with him yesterday).

I asked another friend to take the boys for the day and she thankfully did. I had a most chaotic morning, trying to empty all the cabinets while they sanded the lower ones and put the new countertop. My previously nice living and dining rooms are chaotic right now, with kitchen appliances, food, pots, pans, plates, strewn everywhere. While they were installing the countertop the new ceramic cooktop arrived, so they installed it. Poor K spent the day running from one home improvement store to another...

The boys will soon be home and we cannot cook, only in the microwave. We can only enter the kitchen tomorrow, but that doesn't make too much of a difference because the cabinets (which right now don't have any doors) still need to be sanded so we can put the stuff back.

This picture was taken yesterday and it shows how sanding will totally transform these ugly brown cabinets: A dream come true -- which I won't get to live, most probably, but that's the subject for another post.

Back on the Roller-Coaster

And this time, going down scarily fast...

Well, it turns out that less than 24h after my husband thought about that optimistic alternative that I blogged about, we found out that refinancing is not an option because K is leaving his job and won't qualify. The friend who warned us about this (and who used to be a mortgage broker) did tell us that there was another hopeful alternative -- talking to the bank and seeing whether something could be done, like recalculating the mortgage, taking PMI off, paying only interest, things like those. So... over the weekend we remained relatively hopeful about keeping the house.

Well, after talking to the bank yesterday, things look grim again. They're sending a package in the mail with the options (we don't know what they are, but probably not what we were looking for) and K called another number (for "loss mitig@tion") and the almost rude lady he talked to said bluntly that selling is what needs to be done. Nice. Helpful.

Last weekend, after I had already cried and grieved about the house, all I felt was anger and an urge to get rid of this place as soon as possible. I felt energized and wanted to get it ready to sell. On Tuesday evening, though, after a dentist visit with a friend whose son goes to school with our son, prompted K to think that we should keep Kelvin at the school he attends and thus, motivated him to think about ways to keep the house -- that's when he came up with the idea of refinancing that derailed us from our previous thoughts on preparing the house for sale and put our hopes and spirits up (I must say that this was good at least for having my party and also motivated us to spend Friday putting up photos and art on the walls -- my strongest wish since e moved in -- the photos wouldn't have gone up on the walls had we still thought that we were selling for sure because they're not very good for showings -- people will recognize you later which may feel strange).

Anyway... we're back to hurriedly preparing the house for sale. Major things have to be done, but I'll have to blog about this more later. Several other things and big decisions are going on as well... I'll be back later. Right now I'm neither angry nor broken hearted anymore, but I'm pretty sad, scared (of the many projects we have to tackle, fearing things might go wrong), and tired of having to live like this...

What about the positive attitude change that I "announced" a while back? Well, I am doing my best to keep positive. We have already found a nice townhome to rent and they do have openings coming up in August and September and I keep trying to think of how much easier and less stressful life will be if we live within our means. I am trying. Frustrating thoughts do come up more often than I'd like though... Hopefully blogging will help me deal with that. Thanks for listening.

Test Cleaning!

For some reason I really do enjoy cleaning the house, although the inertia to get started gets the better of me and I only do it in spurts. Well, this cool product that I'm about to review is supposed to help make cleaning much more convenient and hassle free and it does!!

If you like the "parent product" you will love this new option to clean bathroom tubs, sinks, vanity tops, and other washable surfaces in the house. You don't need to use paper towels and/or a brush or sponge, you just attach the product-infused "spongy" pouch to the soft scrubber, add some water and it will foam when you rub it in the surface to be cleaned. The smell is nice and fresh and the firm, yet soft, flexible, reusable scrubber (which is also green, my favorite color!) is easy on hands and helpful to clean tricky surfaces such as faucets. All you have to do when you're done scrubbing is rinse with water! I wish I could post pictures, but my camera is dead and I have to figure out how to download the photos from my video camera (I took some photos when I was cleaning my bathroom sink :-).

Oh, and last but not least, the product's website is offering a 2.75 off coupon this month!

This review was sponsored (with a gift certificate to this store) by:

Celebrating Birthday and Graduation -- Photos Galore!

Last Saturday night we threw a party to celebrate my birthday and also my graduation, since I had not been able to do that earlier because we traveled to Brazil soon after commencement. I decided to do it only last week so I didn't really plan too much, which was good. A good friend helped me by preparing sandwiches and I made salsa, a cake and other desserts. I had bought graduation decorations and we used those too. It was lots of fun and I'm sharing (thanks to another friend and her camera because we haven't decided yet which camera we want -- we're returning the one I got for my b-day) a bunch of photos. Enjoy!

We held the party outside in out back patio (we don't have central air conditioner and the house was hot as an oven, except for a window unite working full force in the dining room and helping cool the kitchen and living room). We moved the futon there, folding chairs, and our two folding tables. The weather was wonderful, cool, breezy and there were no mosquitoes!!

Here's a picture of half (OK, more than half) of the folks who were there:

The other half:(we had almost 40 people!)

Some of the food:

The cake:(I bought the pan months ago for 3.99 -- I figured it was worth spending that even if I was going

to use it only once. I'm keeping it for Kelvin and Linton's graduations, though! :-)

Oh, and that's my actual tassel!

Getting ready to blow the candle:

Being silly with two of my gifts:

(both given by a dear friend who is shoe obsessed -- the shoe is not my style at all, BTW, but don't go tell her, OK? I'll wear it a few times so she'll see it, I'm OK with that [wearing things that I don't much like]):

And here you can see some of the desserts better...... and the happy 37 year old who finally holds a Ph.D. (and a colorful candle whose wax she clumsily just sprinkled all over the cake)
It was lots of fun!

This Made My Day, I Mean, Night

I heart parodies, and I'm actually very good at writing them. I used to do it all the time with two of my best girl friends (who happen to be twins) during high school and even our college years. I actually felt like writing a parody of a Brazilian song by Chico Buarque on the day of my defense last May. Too bad I only had the idea, but not the time to complete it (song parodies were always our forte).

Anyway, I cannot believe I hadn't heard of this book until today (via Anjali, and by proxy, Laura -- thanks my friends!) because it's positively brilliant! Goodnight Moon is one of our favorites here at home (and you may, or may not know, sometimes I really do not write as much as I should about me as I should in this here old blog) and even more so because I'm passionate about children's books in general.

So, do check Goodnight Bush's website and its facebook photos. I was particularly tickled by the seal portrayed below (I'm also an ardent fan of Stephen Colbert, although I can probably count with my hands the number of times I watched his show -- we can only do it online).
I really want to buy this book!

We Have Other Alternatives!

I am thrilled to report that we are thinking of other alternatives to selling the house.

The main one would be refinancing it so we can lower the mortgage payment by eliminating PMI by paying more of the principal. The truth is that it would be nearly impossible to do all the renovations that still need to be done so we can put the house on the market until the end of the month. Moreover, if we lower the monthly payment, the difference between a rental and the mortgage payment won't be that great.

I feel very relieved. And I need to go to bed right now because it's much too late.

Unexpected Birthday Present

No, it was not the camera that K gave me (which did surprise me and we really need one because ours died)...

It was my third nephew, who gets to share his birthday with me (and with his great-grandmother, my husband's grandma) because he was born at 11:30 pm. I only learned now because in Texas where he was born it's an hour earlier and they just called my MIL who, in turn, chatted with me on Skype. Oh yeah, and my nephew also shares part of my name (the last few letters), which is also pretty cool!

I think it was very nice of him to come today because other boys in the family have refused for years to share birthdays with family members. His dad, "K3," was born one day after his paternal grandmother and my first nephew D was born the day after my mother-in-law's birthday. Linton refused to share his birthday both with his paternal grandpa and his dad (who was also born three days after his dad's birthday). Thanks!

So, my dear nephew, I love you very much already (I'm tearing up just saying that and thinking of that newborn baby) and I can't wait to meet you. Tomorrow (ok, today, it's past midnight) I'll get to see your photo and I'm sure I'll be moved to tears again. I know you're going to be very beautiful and I hope you have hair, but maybe you won't have any, like three of your cousins (only your youngest cousin M had hair). One day we'll play together and have fun because your aunt here loves her nephews so very much and she misses her baby sons already. In less than a month you'll meet us all and I can't wait to hold you and kiss you. And maybe someday we'll share a birthday cake and blow our candles together, OK? I'll give you the first piece.