Movin' to 1601

This will be a collaborative post throughout the entire weekend of our continued rehab of the house and moving in on Saturday. The roof trusses have been supported; our friend Kevin had a crew of guys who busted their butt and got it done in a day, so the roof is ready to go. We also finished removing the fake fireplace and the rest of the wood paneling, the living room wall is completely clear.

Thursday night we got a lot of painting done; we had someone start painting earlier in the week, but he wasn't getting the job done real well, so we (well, T.J. - Jen hates to paint!) took over the job. As of Friday morning, we have bedrooms 1 and 2 painted fully (a sandy tan), bedroom 3 needs one more coat ("mauvey tan" according to Jen), the office/spare room is done, and there's a coat on the south walls in the living room and dining room, plus the entire hall (a greyish/blue, although it is tough to see). Jen got the rest of the old drapes down, and removed grates that the paranoid old lady had put on every door - it looks much better without the grates on there.

Of course... just as things were looking good at 1601, the condo goes haywire. We got home at 11 Thursday night, and flushed the toilet... and it clogs. Unfortunately this time, plunging the toilet didn't clear the clog - it pushed sewage water into BOTH bathtubs. Letting it sit and hoping it would clear itself overnight didn't do the trick, either. So we have two bathrooms that smell like a sewer treatment plant and a plumber coming over this morning. Hopefully this is NOT a sign of how things are going to go this weekend.

UPDATE: The move was successful if not exhausting. I forgot how much crap I had, not to mention all of Jen's stuff. we got 90% of it on the Lukes' Landscaping box truck. Mike and I loaded about half the stuff from the condo and got a helping hand from one of the guys he works with. Poor Dave ended up being late to a BBQ and it was his birthday to boot, but he made the process soooo much easier. We got everything packed and there with only two minor mishaps: first, I wasn't paying attention and was moving a box that was light and had pillows on top, and mistakenly thought it would have nothing breakable in it. Whoops - these oversized wine/martini glasses I bought Jen for us to decorate after the wedding are now in the recycle bin. Second, despite a good showing by Mike and I fitting everything in there as efficiently as possible, there was one soft cooler that didn't have anything supporting it and was pretty much going to fall over as soon as we hit the gas. Since we couldn't get back to it, I tried chest-passing a few blankets back there to keep it up. Bad move, at least when there's a bed frame sticking out, and its metal corner digs into your forearm. Blood everywhere, for the next 30 minutes, and soon to be a permanent scar as a reminder how unfun it is to move.

So our crew got everything moved in, in the one main trip, plus a second trip to get a grill from Lyn's and a kitchen table from Julie, and a third trip on Sunday by Jen and I to get the last few things from the condo and from our storage. It's a little tight in here now, but we'll get it organized over the next couple of weeks. Lyn got us some stuff from Costco, Jen scooted out after the main load was emptied on Saturday to hit a baby shower, and Opre and I went to get the grill/table, while Luke stayed behind and had a landscape crew come through and pretty much nuke the bushes and wood deck in the front of the house. It looks soooo much better cleared out in the front than it did with all the bushes. Corrine and Schaen stopped by, and John and Cheryl FINALLY made it over after saying they'd be there in the morning. We were able to make some semblance of the living room so that we could at least relax a bit, waiting for Jen to get home from a never-ending Cuban baby shower that was still going after 5 hours. By that time I was pretty much beat, so after some grilling and champagne with them, it was bedtime - our first night in the new house! Thanks to everyone who helped!!

House Construction (Destruction?)

Well we're in, so now the fun starts! We got a full day in on Sunday and a pretty good night in on Tuesday, although we're exhausted right now. We also have someone in there painting and got our friend Kevin to get some guys up there and do some repairs in the attic, so things are moving along. On Sunday, despite some torrential rain, we started taking down some of the tacky 70's wood paneling. It brightened the room up right away, as the wood and fireplace duet made the room feel smaller - although removing some of the 30 year old curtains probably helped too. Zoe was not a lot of help.

On Tuesday, T.J. cleaned up outside and kept removing the the wood paneling, while Jen took on the faux fireplace. Whomever put the darn thing in there really did a job - the fake brick facade concealed a mountain of cinderblocks, with some quickcrete in the openings for good measure. So Jen got to work (and has the blisters to show for it) getting through about 2/3rds of the concrete monstrosity before T.J. finished it off. Of course, we didn't have much of a plan for disposal, so while some of the debris made it back to our condo's dumpster, there's still a heap of concrete (and a layer of dust) laying on the floor. Can't wait for tomorrow... It looks a lot more open than it did before, with the fireplace and the wood paneling having both been scrapped.

The new house... almost... and we're in!!

*Almost* there... a snafu in the mortgage application led to the closing being rescheduled for Tuesday, but God (and Countrywide) willing we'll be finalizing today. More updates tonight, hopefully with pictures!
UPDATE: The underwriters at Countrywide are a bunch of incompetent JO's, we're up to lunch on Wednesday and we still are waiting on them. Unbelievable, they still hadn't given a final review approval to a few things (like our marriage certificate) and it's getting ridiculous. We're hoping by this afternoon...
UPDATE II: Signed the documents last night, should have the sellers sign this morning and finish the transaction by lunchtime. What an exhausting day yesterday was, and we didn't even get the keys to boot. Jen and I went to bed before 9:30...
AND FINALLY
...We're in!! We got it!!! Click on the title above for the Google Map of the house. After a good deal of hassle, the keys were in our hands by 4pm. T.J. ran a few errands (including getting a microwave off craigslists for $20) and got stuff from the house, including one doggie, and met Jen at the house. We got ready and then walked into 1601 as ours for the first time.

There's a kitchen that needs some updating, a dining room, a living room with a fake fireplace that might not be real, but might be a little tough to move since it seems like it's made out of real brick. Off the living room is a small den that likely used to be a Florida room, with a side office/bedroom off it and a laundry room. The master bedroom faces the street, with what seems like the original bathroom. There's a second and third bedroom on the west side of the house, facing into the backyard and towards the water.

Ahhh the backyard. We have 33' of waterfront, with a dock that needs some new boards. Zoe loved having the yard but totally wanted to go in the water; at one point she snuck over to the neighbor's dock, so we had to build a temporary fence to keep her in. We loved being able to sit on the dock and dangle our feet over the water, even if Jen swore she would never go in (ha ha riiight!) because there were fish swimming all over like crazed poissons after happy hour. The front yard also offers a lot of space, and there's a side part of the yard that, once redone, will be nice. And one of the biggest selling points is that it is on a cul-de-sac AND is right across from a big park with a playground, baseball diamond, and basketball court. For where it is east of 95 and on the water, it offers a lot of land/space.

We had our first meal - delivery by Dominos, with some champagne (thanks Jules!) on the dock as the sun set. Not a bad start to many good days and nights with family/friends in that backyard. Click here for the entire album of pictures from the house.

Welcome to the 5PM SMWR blog

OK here goes nothing... not exactly sure *what* this is going to turn into, but we needed a space to publish the honeymoon recap and other stuff, so let's see what happens. Below is our little honeymoon journal, some stuff from Phillies games, and some other stuff. Stay tuned for plenty of updates, especially with the house. If you have an RSS/Atom feed use this feed URL: http://5pmsmwr.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Link to the Rehearsal Dinner Presentation

Right click here, or on the title above, and choose "Save Target As" and then save the .avi file to your computer. Trying to play it off the website without saving it to your local machine can cause your computer to crash. The file is 30 minutes long and 273 mb so it's going to take some time to download - about 5 minutes on a cable modem with a strong signal.

UPDATE: looks like this isn't playable in Windows Media Player or QuickTime. I'm looking to see if there's a DivX plug-in to use, but in the meantime, you can try VLC Media Player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html I use this for all my video files and it works great. Email me with any questions, and if i can find the DivX this week I will repost. Mac users you're on your own, link to any necessary downloads in the comments section if you find something that works.