rosalicious

So the latest house saga is the kitchen wall we’re trying to take out.

We had a structural engineer come in last week and check it out because it’s a load-bearing wall and is also an original external wall made of brick. (While he was here he inspected our foundation too and thankfully, our 1923 house isn’t falling down! woot!) He drew up some design plans and gave us a recommendation for a contractor who specializes in restoration of older homes.

We had the contractor come out and give a looksee. When we got his bid several days later we about keeled over:

Guess how much. Seriously. Guess how much he bid to take out less than 6 feet of brick wall.

THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.

I know, right? Let’s all have a deep-bellied laugh together.

And NINE HUNDRED of that was to re-tile less than 2 square feet of slate tile, slate tile that WE are even providing.

‘Kay, let’s laugh some more.

Needless to say, we decided to get other bids.

God, y’all would not believe the character who just left our house tonight after giving us our next bid. We got his entire life story: why his wife left him, how his nephew is a coke head (but works for him), how one of his clients is allergic to teak and broke out in a rash on her assfrom sitting on something he built, how he demolished half of downtown Denver in the 80s, how he’s “a Christian man and ain’t passing the pearly gates knowing he ripped us off.”

Dude, you could be satan’s beer-gutted spawn for all we care: YOU BID TEN GRAND LOWER!

Still - we are getting more bids. If you guys know of anyone good, let me know! ;)

*   *   *

I put some “during” pictures of the house up on Flickr. Look at the set, not my photostream, as I positioned the “during” and/or “after” pics so you can better see the progress.

I am so tired of all my thoughts beginning with the words “I need to.” I am ready to get back into the “I want to” swing of things…

I want to drink coffee and leisurely read the paper.
I want to go for a bike ride.
I want to have a picnic in the park.
I want to go bowling.
I want to play disc golf.
I want to go for a hike.
I want to start drinking tequila at 2 pm in the afternoon.

None of my days lately are open books where possibilities are endless. Each day is packed to the gills with need-to-do stuff, each hour occupied by an errand, a chore, a project, a trip to the Big HD.

I know, cry me an effing river, rosalicious.

Still. I don’t feel like I have choices. I feel like I have “have tos.”

Regardless, this weekend was spectacularly productive. Last night at dinner I told Kev that the average person wouldn’t have accomplished as much as we had. And seriously, it’s true - Kev and I are both super hard workers. We don’t stop until we’re DONE (or until one finds out they don’t have enough of the right hardware to finish the master bedroom closet).

Check it:
- We bought a new couch, chair, and ottoman. And also, a new shower curtain.
- We hit up free mulch day and shoveled 50 lbs of mulch in the back of my Subaru.
- Kev ran 20 miles while I hauled away the hideous rocks that lined every single flower bed, dug up the area in front of the entire front porch, and spread mulch.
- We hung blinds.
- We organized the basement.
- We bought this dining room set.
- We went to a 30th birthday dinner.
- We tore out the master closet and replaced the fixtures.
- We weeded the entire yard.
- We mowed the entire yard.
- We painted a dresser.
- We made it so we can walk around the office where all the boxes of crap currently live.
- We put all the plants outside.
- We planted some herbs.
- We talked to a dude about a new mattress.
- We got cable and internet hooked up.
- We returned some shit at HD.

Are you impressed/exhausted/irritated yet, because I can KEEP GOING…

Only, I can’t. I am TIRED.

Goddamn, give this girl a cookie! Look how many times I’ve blogged this week! ;)

Ugh, so it’s Friday and I have a riveting evening of furniture shopping ahead. I am dreading it. FOR REAL. I love domesticity, but I do NOT enjoy shopping. And I do not usually enjoy shopping with the significant-other (or anyone else, for that fact!), especially for things like this where you could say we have different…ideas about how things should be/look/affect the environment. Getting the house together has been/is a true test! I do not have a boyfriend who doesn’t care about house things, that’s for sure. I don’t know whether to be thankful or bummed.

Hey look! my neighborhood is listed as a good (safe!) area to buy a house in this month’s 5280 magazine! And my street, Hayward, even got a shout-out! I am so PROUD. And so relieved. Cha-CHING!

Yeah, so Cha-CHING is right! We’ve been doing lots and lots and lots of BUYING. I just paid $100 for a custom address plaque (don’t tell Kevin) from Smith and Hawken. To my defense, you would too if you saw the cheesy plastic Home Depot-style house stickers that identify our very-special abode. The list of other things to buy is *this long*. Poor Kev is having a hard time with the consumption aspect, but I’m trying to convince him that this is our FIRST house and that consumption comes with the first house-territory.

Other than furniture shopping, tomorrow is Denver’s Free Mulch Day, to which I am driving the Subie and loading ‘er up with a big free pile of ground-up Christmas Trees! We also need to weed, mow grass, paint a dresser, hang blinds, organize the camping gear room, fix the armoire, install the closet, procure bookshelves, unpack the office, replace the basement stairs, paint the stairwell, run 20 miles (oh wait, that’s Kev) and go to a 30th birthday party.

DON’T YOU WANT TO BE ME?!

For the past few weeks I have been riveted by Crystal’s “Crazy Chronicles” on her blog. Seriously, I check everyday, waiting for the newest installment to come out.

Wow. It is amazing what this chick has been through and I just want to hug her, and then beg her to keep telling her story because it just so damn juicy.

(Oh, and apologize for likening her to Lifetime TV.)

(And probably also for using her difficult life experiences for my own selfish entertainment.)

It was exactly this time last year that I became really, really sick.

Only, in the end I wasn’t exactly sick, per se. I just had really really realllllllly bad allergies. For the first time ever.

It was super horrible for me, as I didn’t even think to suspect I had allergies (and horrific sinus problems as a result). I thought something was seriously wrong with me. Lots of people did.

(You can read the entire story here.)

Anyway, fast forward to today…I feel great! But that’s because I began taking action weeks ago. I have been using a sinus rinse and flonase, taking Claritin, seeing my acupuncturist, and taking Chinese herbs to boost my immune system. I feel a little bit of sinus and ear pressure, but nothing major. And DEFINITELY no dizzy/floaty/balloon head this time around.

Though if you’ll excuse me, right now I am going to go rap on some wood so hard it makes my knuckles bleed…

I do NOT want to go through what I went through last spring.

Hopefully I won’t have to.

Don’t keel over when you hear this, but this morning I awoke at 6 am and went for a 4 mile run. No joke! Well, I maybe ran for a little over 3, walked the rest. Y’all should know that I am NOT a morning exerciser, nor am I a morning person in general. So you see, this is big news in an otherwise all-Home-Depot-all-the-time world.

And….my pants are all tight! One might think that working like a dog for weeks on end and schlepping shit around and moving and whatnot would burn the calories, but alas, that is not true. Throw in take-out and bar food and beer and mindlessly shoving in the first thing in sight while standing at the counter contemplating your next project, and whammo! Five el-bees gained, just like that.

So I am on the D & E train…Diet and Exercise. Now that things are *kind of* settling down a bit on the home front (though don’t expect an invite to my housewarming party anytime soon), I am reinspired to stop thinking about house so much and start thinking about ME.

But did you know we are now 3 blocks from an awesome lake? (Whatevs, the house-thinking isn’t going to stop…) It’s really quite lovely and pleasant and I enjoyed checking out my new ‘hood on this morning’s run, which I hadn’t really had a chance to do on foot yet. And there are all kinds of outdoor concerts and festivals there in summer, and it’s going to be a great place to walk Milo and Millie!

(Milo and Millie being the names I want to give our yet-to-be adopted puppies, though Kev nixed those names and thought they were lame. I also like Harper and Juniper, though Harper is a name I’d like to name a yet-to-be-birthed baby girl…)

In any case, I am finally feeling rather normal-lifed again, despite having 2 hours to get a couch out of our rental that neither of us can move or know what to do with (we are seriously contemplating demolishing it, sounds kind of fun, huh?) and dying plants in the backyard that have nowhere to go. Oh yes, please pass me another brewski. The low-cal kind.

Just popping in real quick for what’s become my Monday-only blog posting tradition ;)

(Hopefully that’ll change here soon.)

But in the meantime: I went to Chicago last week! I partied like a crazy woman into the wee hours! I ate deep dish pizza! I met Nilsa, who is awesome!

AND

We painted! We refinished the wood floors! We had a yard sale! WE MOVED. Lordy. We have finnnnnnnaalllllllly moved!

My life is complete and utter chaos right now. I am actually enjoying being at work today, where my office is organized and clean and there is internet access and a functional kitchen and a sense of normalcy.

Everything else is all boxes and crap strewn everywhere and a rental that needs to be cleaned and rotting food in the fridge and a fish tank that hasn’t been sold yet because Craigslist is full of flakey people who can’t spell properly in their emails.

Weee! Sounds fun….n’t.

But we’re getting there, my friends. Lights, tunnels…soon I will be back here, continuing to regale you with tales of my Denver shenanigans*.

Soon.

[*OK, OK, here's a quick one to hold you over. Who is the rockstar who whipped up food to take to a dinner party on Saturday night, stayed out until 2 having wine with girlfriends at my fave bar (Vita) and still got up at 7 am to orchestrate a yard sale AND move our entire house? Awww yeah. And I barely complained ;)]

Y’all, I’m beat. And it’s only Monday!

WAIT, didn’t my last blog post start that way??

It’s no joke, I am so busy right now I can’t even see straight. In fact, I am so busy I could even CRY. Only, there is no crying in house painting/remodeling so I took the night off tonight and went to LoLa with Kev for margaritas instead. And now I am relaxing in PJs on the couch watching The Hills. It feels really really luxurious.

But still, I am TI-YURD. I haven’t sat down in any place except my car and work for DAYS.

Things are good, mostly. I am just extremely slammed at work and if we’re not working at our places of employment, we’re working our asses off on the house…and on top of all of it, I am still trying to cram my normal life shit in. Not to mention, I am in Chicago for the rest of the week for work….

Although, I am kinda psyched for Chicago! I get to take a break from house stuff, watch all the bad TV I want in my hotel room, eat out on the company dime, party with my fave conference peeps, and meet Nilsa! ;)

So bear with me. I am not a very good blogger right now. But rest assured, I love you all just the same. xoxo.

God, I’m beat. And it’s only Monday!

We had ourselves one busy little weekend! Friday night I was set loose in a room full of 500+ bottles of wine for the tasting at the DAM Uncorked event. After my teeth damn near turned purple from the copious amounts of vino I poured into my maw, I ran into the valedictorian of my high school in VA (yes, I know…’tis a small world). Towards the end of the evening, after a martini at Dazzle put her over the edge, I was helping her to the bathroom for a little puke sesh. See? That is the fallback of being valedictorian (and, subsequently, a doctor) - no time was spent honing that tolerance! If she had started drinking at the age of 14 as I did, instead of doing all that studying, maybe she would be a little more experienced by now!

(Dear god, and I can’t remember if I told her about this blog - YIKES! Oh well, if so, this is payback for telling me she thought I would never have scored a man as “respectable-looking” as Kev. Oh yes, she went there.)

Saturday morning we were up at the crack, per usual, with visions of flat white ceiling paint in our heads. We spent the day with our necks crooked up and our hangovers (well, mine anyway) kickin’. After all the ceilings were done, we packed up and came home to shower for an engagement party Saturday night. I drank 4 glasses of wine at the party and felt NOTHING.

On Sunday Kev went for an 18-mile run, god bless him, while I wielded my magic with my new best friend, the paint brush. The living/dining room is now a lovely shade of gray, while the color in the office is not quite so lucky. It kind of resembles what one might find in a baby’s diaper, though should you come over to my house, let’s give you a more pleasant reference: it looks the color of peanut butter.

You do like peanut butter, don’t you?

Here’s a little rosalicious trivia for you:

Rosie is not my real name.

Really!

But I am going to brave the stalkers and the Googlers and the IRS and tell you all what my name really is. Because I love you THAT much.

It’s Rosanna.

That’s right, like Rosanna Arquette, RosannaRosannaDanna, and Rosanna the Maid from Real Housewives of NYC (oh my god, I am seriously obsessed with that show, kill me now.)

Oh alright, it’s not that exciting. But it’s something that a lot of people just don’t know. I mean, no one I know calls me that (barring a few non-close family members) and I don’t put it on my business cards all professional-like or anything.

It’s not that I dislike the name, in fact, I like it. But that wasn’t always the case. The name Rosie wasn’t a cutesy pet nickname that someone gave to me because I was a little redheaded girl. Oh no, I picked out the name Rosie myself. Because I hated the name Rosanna.

Rosie wasn’t even my first choice. Oh no, that honor went to the name Roxy. Oh yes, ROXY. I was in 4th or 5th grade and I was hellbent on changing my name to Roxy. Sassy, huh? In fact, last night at Ladies’ Craft Night one of my favorite ladies (I immediately adored this woman the second I met her) kept calling me Roxy. “Roxy, will you pass the glue gun?” “Roxy, your flower looks so good!”

(I didn’t correct her. Maybe there is a Roxy in me afterall!)

Anyway, all of this to make me wonder: is changing your name a coming-of-age thing? Because today while IMing with my little sister, she randomly burst forth with this little nugget:

Sophie: I’m going by Sofie now.

Me: Really? Because I am going by Rosy now!

Sophie: Really? Cool

Me: Ha ha, just kidding. Why?

Sophie: I dunno, just got sick of ph

So yeah, wow. The next thing you know I am going to be running to 7-11 to buy “Sofie” wine coolers! :)

It’s pretty cool for her to be an age now that I can remember so clearly. She just texted me from a Carrie Underwood concert and I can remember being all ga-ga when I was 12 over teen idols NKOTB. (Hey! There’s a chance she can too. Can you say REUNION TOUR?)

Sophie is coming out to visit this summer all by herself, and I can’t wait! She is not a little kid anymore. It’s going to be a lot of fun! Well, provided she doesn’t cop attitude. I did A LOT of that at 12.

Back to Ladies Craft Night! I came home last night grinning from ear to ear from such an awesome evening. These women are fabulous! Beautiful, smart, funny, talented, and very interesting. I have crushes on all of them. And they all live in my neighborhood. It felt so good to feel like a part of the ‘hood, especially with the recent purchase…not only did we buy a cute house, but we bought into a terrific sense of community as well!

You can never have too many wonderful ladyfriends. That’s one thing I will always be thankful to my mama for for teaching me!