emailing the husband...

Pete and I both have professional types of corporate jobs, which leaves little time for the hours long AIM convos we used to have in the past. (Good old college days). Now days if we need to communicate during work its quick phone calls or one liner emails. I look forward to our commute home together because it gives us some uninterrupted time to just talk to each other.
Instead of just the little blurbs of insite to what is going on in the others head like our emails.

The following is an actual email exchange between us during work:


From: Eva
Sent: 12:52 PM
To: Peter
Subject: RE: RE:

What about this?

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Bordeaux-Camel-Loveseat/4612096/product.html

From: Peter
Sent: 1:33 PM
To: Eva

Are you talking about using the loveseat as chairs for the table? If so, I think that’s a really cool idea! It’s like having a booth at your house! If not, I have no idea where you would want to put it.

The other chairs are cool except the spindle legs are throwing me off. They’re also MDF!

From: Eva
Sent: 1:35 PM
To: Peter
Subject: RE: RE:

Yes, for the table! I think it would cool to have on the window side. I like that it is armless too!
The MDF really disappointed me about the chairs, as I thought they were really cool design.

(These chairs here, which I think with them now on sale its a much more reasonable price for a something that isn't solid wood)

From: Peter
Sent: 1:39 PM
To: Eva
Subject: RE: RE:

I think it is super cool which means you’ll probably start to not like it. Only thing is, I’m not sure what would go with it on the other side. Why not get two, one for each side? I know it’s a little expensive but only about $100 more than 2 chairs.

From: Eva
Sent: 1:41 PM
To: Peter
Subject: RE: RE:

I think one sided is better. One sided looks like we like unpredictable design. Two sided looks like we’re idiots that can’t figure out that couches don’t belong at the table.
I liked the green as well, but I think neutral is better in this case.

Your comment about me not liking it anymore made me chortle.

( Note: I am notorious for changing my mind! Especially with large purchases. One minute I'm all " Oh this is great" and the next I'm straight up " Meh, I think we could do better". This drives Pete nuts. )

From: Peter
Sent: 1:45 PM
To: Eva
Subject: RE: RE:

I like being an idiot, its part of my manly charm. Ok, we’ll I really like the couch idea but what the heck would go on the other side to look good with it? Even chairs of the same fabric would look good but that’s not easy to find.

Did you call EZPass?

From: Eva
Sent: 1:46 PM
To: Peter
Subject: RE: RE:

Where is Chalfont? I need this mirror…

From: Peter
Sent: 1:50 PM
To: Eva
Subject: RE: RE:

It’s a section of Philly near Center City. But that’s REALLY ugly!

From: Eva
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 1:54 PM
To: Peter
Subject: RE: RE:

If by ugly you mean awesome …

From: Peter
Sent: 1:55 PM
To: Eva
Subject: RE: RE:

Not really what I meant :)

From: Eva
Sent: 2:56 PM
To: Peter
Subject: RE: RE:

all my friends think the eagle mirror is ugly. So you win.

End of email exchange # 1

and the next week this is the email I get from Pete:

From: Peter

Sent: Tuesday

3:40 PM
To: Eva

Subject: Chairs

Hey,

I just tried calling you but you’re not able to answer your phone right now. We should really order those chairs if you want to order those chairs. I checked Macy’s and Overstock and both are still listed. But considering both are in clearance, we probably shouldn’t pussyfoot around anymore unless we might kick ourselves!

What do you think?

(Macy's chairs, which are a great price....)

From: Eva

Sent: Tuesday

4:17 PM
To:Peter
Subject: RE: Chairs

HEY!

Sorry missed your call

You’re going to hate me, but I no longer like the Macy’s chairs! Sorry.

From: Peter

Sent: Tuesday

4:20 PM
To: Eva

Subject: Chairs


OMG! Maybe this weekend I’ll just cutoff the legs of the table by about 15 inches so we can just sit on the floor.

I’m afraid to ask, but do you still like the couch? If yes, we should order it soon.

********************************************************************************

To sum it up... I still want the eagle mirror and we ordered the love seat from overstock! I am not so patiently awaiting its arrival...

Failing.

Full moment of Eva disclosure here.

I am not in any way shape or form some sort of over zealous type A organized young woman who only makes carefully thought out and well informed decisions. What I am is a fly by the seat of your pants type B Gemini who likes a whole lot of things and has a little bit of a tendency to get in over her head.


Which is why, when I saw this print on Etsy I fell in love.

Failing is OK.

Failing is part of life and how we grow as human beings. Failures give us funny stories to regal our friends with later and sobering moments that can haunt us forever. It happens to us. From the well groomed professional to the high school student because no one is immune from failing. Failure is not the same as giving up and failing meant you tried. And we all know that trying is the most important thing of all because without trying then you will have never known.

Try. and don't be afraid of failure. It won't bite you.

I promise.




Pete the husband explanation.

Pete is a wee bit of a Type A who has the need to always explain himself. He would like to point out that the semantics behind the sign are a little wrong, and that no one goes "Hmm be succesful or Fail? I'll choose the fail option". What the sign should say according to Pete is "Failure is a byproduct of trying" and that sometimes failing isn't a choice but just what happens despite our best efforts.

Then he walked away humming the Doogie Howser theme.

Beach House Bathroom- After!

Tiny bathrooms are tricky bastards.

For starters, they fool you into thinking that it is going to be mucho easy to renovate and face lift the whole thing on a small budget and short time line. After all, the floor is a mere 36 square feet how could it be anything more than the easiest thing you've ever done? HA! I tell you, HA!

Read about the bathroom renovation journey HERE.

The run down of the work was pretty much this for us. Spending 36 hours renovating without water, three day without a toilet and finally got a shower 3 sweaty days later... still Not anywhere close to being done.

However, despite our skanky smelling selves and the fact that I had to run down the street to McDonald's for a couple days when it was all said and done much later than our original timeline... I'm ultra thrilled with how the bathroom looks now.

Buzz words that I'd assign to the bathroom before: Lighthouse.
Buzz words I'd assign to the bathroom now: Modern, Spa Feel, Cottage, Beachy, Relaxing and Durable. You know I'm all about durable in our rental units.




I want to invite everyone over to see how awesome the bathroom looks now.

Beach Condo Bedroom, Part 3

After the marble tile was down with the dried grout I felt like crying with relief. We were almost done and could wrap up the condo improvements for a long time. Since there are no plans to do anything major down there until the Fall of 2011, which is our tentative time slated for the kitchen renovation. Until that point the only thing we want to do is spruce up the hallway, spiral stairs and installing a ceiling fan. All lovely small projects that leave plenty of time for enjoying the beach, instead of watching the good weather through a window.

One of my original reservations about the marble tiles was the "cool" feeling and colors they have. I thought it would clash with the warmer colors we already had on the walls. Now with the tiles down and furniture installed I'm pretty happy with how everything works together. The cool look of the tiles becomes an almost neutral on the floor, and I've been casually shopping around for a great jute rug to put down.

Most of our old bedroom set was re homed into the beach bedroom and as much as I did despise it at home I love it down there now! I feel like it fits with the casual nature of the room and helps to fill in the mass of empty wall space that was there. Before the bed and dresser was in the room, it had a tendency to look a little sparse...

Yay! A finished project!

five things answered

Last week Lisa of ...just over the river tagged me in a Q&A session..

1. What was your inspiration to first start blogging?

Our big crappy house and one formerly crappy house up for sale inspired me.

I realized that we'd done so much to our current house and yet, now that it was "done" I had trouble remembering all the little funny stories (like the time it rained on our heads) and how bad it really was at the beginning. Documenting everything that we did together on the new crappy house was going to be worth remembering to us someday... Since I can type a lot faster than my special printing/cursive hybrid handwriting and I no longer have study hall during which to write uninterrupted, I picked a blog over my old spiral bound notebook journals.


2. If there was a fire in your house, and you only had time to grab 4 things (excluding your family), what would they be?

Since I count my pets as family they are a given...

I'd grab
- my stack of journals.
- a WWII photo of my Grandfather
- my wedding ring
-the quilt my mom made me when I was a little girl

I'd be especially glad to watch my passport go up in flames. The damn picture is so hideous because the ink smeared during printing. I have trouble getting back in the country 50% of the time because it really doesn't look like me at all. (think Sloth from the Goonies)


3. If you were "forced" to take on another residence would it be a houseboat, a farm estate, a city apartment, a seaside home, or a one room cabin in the woods?

As much as I am a girl who needs her open space and loves old farms and the houses on them , I would have to say a seaside home. When I'm down the shore I feel happy and content. Give me a cottage buried in the scrub pines and a short walk to the beach!

4. If money was no object, what would be the next house or decor project that you would tackle be and describe!

I'd completely renovate the Wee house, top to bottom with a team of contractors. Staring down the time line of getting that place livable is freaking me out a teeny bit sometimes. It is going to take us fo-r-ever on our own.

If I really had the money (think lots of millions), I'd renovate this crumbling old stone mansion in Radnor, PA that U used to drive past it on the way to work. It is a staggeringly grand old place in need of massive repairs.

5. Name something you wish you had more time for.

Reading and hanging out with my nephew. Reading is my favorite past time hands down. Even wining over eating cheese and drinking wine! However, it can be hard to find time to just sit down with a good book lately. And really, my nephew is just my favorite little dude.



Tagees-

a) Post your answer to the 5 questions on your blog.
b) Ask 5 questions (can be your own or some repeats).
c) Tag a few other bloggers.
d) After you post your answers, come back and comment with a link to your post.


Questions (I'm using some repeats!)-
1. What was your inspiration to first start blogging?
2. If there was a fire in your house, and you only had time to grab 4 things (excluding your family), what would they be?
3. If income was not a factor, what would be your dream job?
4. If money was no object, what would be the next house or decor project that you would tackle be and describe!
5. Name one place you've always dreamed of traveling to.

Tagging:

1. nota over at a.nota.potamus
2. Kelli @ Kelli Belli Jelli
3. Mary Grace of White Waxflower

Beach Condo Bedroom- Part 2, Vol 2

This spring the time had come...

We had to replace the old blue carpet in the beach house bedroom because it was way past usable prime. And unlike with Joan Rivers, no amount of tightening or more steam cleaning was going to work on this old bag. Worn, lumpy, stained and painted- the carpet was everything a carpet shouldn't be. So we got right to work with ripping the carpet out the minute the bathroom of the beach house was finished.

What material to put back was a big question that we debated on for a long time prior to use starting the tear out. Carpet was eliminated from the running right away. Despite its cheaper price tag (if we shopped around for a good deal) and potential for DIY installation we passed due to the frequency of which it might have to be replaced. More money in the long run adding up and more lbs of carpet trash in landfills. No thanks! Also, for the rental factor and my clumsiness factor, I'd like to have something that I can sweep/wipe clean and is durable to a high traffic rental season.

Laminate flooring was the next option. We were leaning toward a nice faux wood look to match what is downstairs. Although the downstairs isn't wearing as great as we thought, we're still quite happy with it. We found a laminate product that fit our needs and was going to cost us about $900-ish. I could be off on my estimate because it has been awhile...

Tile was the final option. We both liked how durable tile would be, and how it had the potential to never have to re-do the floor ever again during our ownership. Plus, on hot summer days a cool tile floor feels heavenly. Add in that our friend who manages a stone store had a great deal on commercial grade marble floor tile... Even with the cost of the tiles, grout, cement board and additional plywood we had to put down everything was still going to come in hundreds cheaper than laminate.

When I can take money off the bottom line of the beach house improvements without sacrificing the the, I'm completely down with it. Although this time I think the dollars saved weren't quite worth the extra effort we had to put forth for the tile. I had my doubts about the time and effort it is going to take to for installation from the beginning. I can tell you that in this case, listening to my gut and paying a little bit more might have been worth it to save myself frustration and time.

I'm going to skip a whole lot of talking (err typing) here and sum everything up as fast as I can. It was a HELLACIOUS effort to get the tiles installed and while now I do really like them, I'm still not entirely sure if it was all worth it. Due to the location of the condo on the third floor of a building with no elevator meant a lot of effort to get the tile, plywood and cement board up. A spiral staircase inside the condo meant that the bedroom couldn't be cleared out completely because there was no room downstairs to store anything, and we couldn't get everything out of the window without help. We had to constantly shift the big bedroom items around to work, and it slowed us down considerably. Installation of the times and grouting, once we got to that point, was a freaking breeze.

Pictures of the results coming soon...

Its hot out.

Building a garage in 94+ degree heat in the middle of July- Not the smartest move. Currently fantasizing about the blizzards we had this winter.

Beach Bedroom...first edition

It is back down the beach for today's blog post! Time to show off the changes we've made to upstairs of our beach condo over the five years of our ownership.

I feel like I have to make an obligatory disclaimer here, the condo is a summer rental and is a extra drain on our twenty something finances. Please don't think this is some sort of cash cow condo, we pay a mortgage on the place and while the rental income helps so much the condo does not come close to "paying for itself"during the season. That being said, is the reason why condo doesn't look exactly as the beach home in my dreams because of the rental and financial roadblocks. We try to make the condo look as good as possible with a combination of DIY ability, frugal design and durability. Sorry, I have this insane need to explain myself all the time... ( and to why our beach condo isn't design magazine ready)

The bedroom was in dire need of a makeover. Looking past the outdated all baby blue interior there was a window that wouldn't open at all and was completely salt film encrusted which created a haze all over the glass. Even on the most lovely of sunny spring days you couldn't even tell because it just looked gloomy inside the room because of the hazy window. Every exterior window and door down there needs to be hurricane rated, so we got the name of a trust worthy glass guy and made an appointment to get the window replaced.

What a difference the new window made! Sunshine! Breeze! No more horrible whistling sound every time the wind blew by....The new window kicked up the desire to redo the rest of the bedroom, so we made that our Fall 2008 project.

Kicking off the project we started with addressing the fact that the room is a big ol' boring rectangle. We wanted to come up with something that would help to add character to our 1984 condo construction. At first we debated adding stripes to the room, but then nixed that idea quickly when we couldn't quite figure out how to stripe the room- all the room? horizontal? vertical? We decided on adding an accent wall of color on the window wall, to help draw your eye toward the window and break up the longer side walls. As an extra touch and to everything look a little more finished we choose to trim out the window and all the doors in the room. Using the trim blocks we were able to "cheat" and didn't have to miter any corner cuts.

To keep with the colors downstairs we decided to once again to draw inspiration from the beach with the sand and sea but to keep it neutral and from screaming "BEEEEAAACCCCCHHHHH" A new flush mount fan got hardwired to the ceiling properly, unlike the previous fan which was haphazardly stuck on up there. For us ceiling fans are a must have down at the beach. Nothing is better than letting the cooler salt air circulate around a house and the place can get kinda stifling without a breeze sometimes

We replaced the horrible mattresses, both were horrible 5" thick motel special, with a new full size from Ikea and our Queen mattress from home. Despite the hilarity that was us carrying up and then pulling a queen mattress through the window of the bedroom from the deck below, it was worth all the effort! Blissful wonderful sleep now belonged to us and our guests.


In order to free up some floor space we took out one of the worlds heaviest and ugliest dressers. The second one stayed in the room as a place holder for a little while longer. We found the little tv table labeled as a coffee table in the Ikea Last Chance section.

At this point the budget was tapped out and we still had the ugly blue carpet left staring us back in the face. Even though we really wanted to tear it out and replace it then we had to wait. It would be annoying to do so because the carpet was pretty gross. The best solution for that was to steam clean it and just hope that was enough to help get it through another year.

No more FB games!

I have a problem. I might be slightly obsessed with playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. In fact, I might be spending all my free time and an hour or two every night playing this stupid game. It could even be so bad that I see exploding gems when I close my eyes to go to sleep at night. My recent obsession with this game might explain why my posts have been a little light lately.

So I'm quitting. Cold turkey. No more game.

under the bed reveal...

Hey everyone!

Yesterday Jeannine over at Small and Chic in Cville (http://smallchic.blogspot.com/) did a fun post about what is currently under a couple of different home blogger beds. Check out her fantastic blog to see all the fun answers, as well as her new adorable squirrel statuette. Read on if you want to gawk at her awesome sense of style and oh-so-chic use of space in a small condo.

Looking at the other pictures and reading the rest of the responses I definitely felt a twinge of jealousy over the fact that Kasey could say there was nothing under her bed! There will never be nothing under my bed cause it seems like there will always be dust underneath it. I so wish that I was as seemingly organized as Jeannine, or had a clean white space to crash down on. Jane's bed looks like a freaking cloud made for the best dreams you've ever had!

My answer is so typical Eva- Long winded and peppered with a few lame (awesome) jokes. I make sure there is a back story and embellishment for everything, always making things more complicated and longer than they need to be. I'm the the one who has a random dyer ball that seems to have traveled upstairs far far away from the actual dryer. The bedroom does not look like a restful cloud full of wonderfulness... sigh.

Care to share what you have living under your bed? Am I the only who used the under bed storage as an answer to lack of closet space? I think its pretty interesting and reveals a bit about the person when they answer this question!

De-blued beach condo

I decided that I'm calling this set of pictures the first and second editions, as I still have lots of big ideas rattling about in the head about how the room should look as an official after. Who knows when that will happen, but we're scheduling a kitchen face lift for Fall of 2011 and I'm thinking at that point I'll tackle the living room again.

In May of 2006 was when we decided to jazz up the living room from its formally drab and blue existence. It was going to be one of our first normal-ish rooms to re-do together, as at this point the W-town house was in full one renovation mode.

Without the aid of design magazines or blogs we plunged right into the big chain hardware stores and made choices based on what we liked. Which is how we ended up with neutral walls covered in a sea salt and pale sand colors. The border ended up being a necessity, as when the poorly done chair rail was pulled off, off came decent chunk of drywall cause someone had used glue as well as nails in the installation of the rail. In order to cover that boo-boo up with what we had available to us, and a wallpaper border was our cheapest best bet.

Pete and his friend Steve ripped out the blue carpet one warm May morning. While they did that and installed the new laminate wood flooring, I went out shopping at the outlets. In my defense the condo can get very small very fast with three full sized adults working on the same area, with getting in each others way. Plus, this was before I became magically handy and really into DIY. Funny how the memory works as I remember all the mundane details of that day. Down to what I was wearing, driving and what I bought as an early birthday present to myself.

The table was a hand me down from Pete's parents, even though it was too big for the space it ended up a nice place holder for a few years. The large size of it gave a us a good dumping ground for things coming into the condo. The rest of the living room re-do was rounded out with a craiglisted sofa sleeper, ikea chair and rug from Marshall's.

After a year or so of the living room looking one way, we changed a few things up in the winter of 2008. Mainly the lame vertical blinds. I hated those freaking things. So a nice and simple rod from Ikea was added and we popped on the curtains that used to be in front of our bedroom closets. I love a good multi-tasking home item!

You'll noticed that we significantly upgraded the TV as well. The big screen was Pete's old college tv, and had been previously residing in our bedroom at home before we brought it on over the beach condo. Three floors. A million pounds. The TV would not have gotten up to the condo had it not been for an extremely kind neighbor who offered to help in the parking lot.


Enter May of 2010. The red couch from craigslist was dead. Super duper dead. As in it would limp down in a weird and broken angle. We had planned for this and brought over our craiglisted Ikea sectional that had lived at our house for a year and half. The Ikea sectional sleeper was purchased with the intention of living out its final years down the beach. I love it for there, the bed is super spacious and makes for awesome naps.

The curtains are a great pair from Ikea, $15 and they do a fantastic job of blocking the light while adding privacy. They are a really heavy, beachy knit that looks a little like a soft burlap. We also decided it was time to down-size the table, having gotten feedback from renters that the table was a little bit too large for their needs. Which is how we ended up with this table from Sears. After buying we did a little comparison shopping and this set really suited our needs and budget best. The tv was a great deal that we couldn't pass up, as we've been looking for a LONG time for a low profile for this place since the downstairs is tight on space I also always worried about the old tv falling off the stand and hurting someone since it was so heavy, despite the fact that we strapped it to the wall. The new tv was $400 for 40"! It is an LCD that we found on clearance at Sears and thought would be perfect for the beach condo.

Now, I know- it looks a little bare down here. That would be for two reasons. One is that we clear the place out in the rental season, keeping the clutter to a minimum helps to keep the place cleaner for the season. The second reason is that this photo was taken mid afternoon after an exuasting long weekend of working on the place and I was the crankiest person alive. I'm pretty sure that I said something along the lines of " Just take the *bleeping* pictures. I don't give a *bleep* that it looks empty." Sigh, I should never ever forgo my morning coffee.

That is the updated, de-blued beach condo downstairs...

The Third Door Upstairs Before...

Welcome back to our humble beach abode. Why don't you go on up the stairs? And I'll show you a visual DIY don't on the way up. This would be the stairwell in all its blue carpet and high wall glory. That would be a beach towel that was stretched and hung on a frame. Next to the beach towell please notice the jaunty piece of giant fake seaweed accented by two stuffed fish backpacks.

Believe it or not, it took me two years to convince Pete to let me throw them out... I kept knocking them off the wall in hope of spontaneous breakage.

And then, you enter the bedroom. Where the color baby blue came to die.

General themes (yes, plural) of the condo- Lots o' Blue, Lighthouse and Cows.

During and first edition Afters are coming up next...

The 3rd door downstairs- Before!

The condo is a small one bedroom a block and a half from the beach. You can see the water from the balcony if it is the middle of winter and you lean over the edge and stare at about an inch of a blue speck between buildings. Instant water view listing status!!

The view from when you walk in from the day Pete closed. It is apparently fairly common for most vacation homes to come fully furnished. We had no idea to what extent this meant for us. Well, our seller lady left us EVERYTHING including the kitchen sink. Quite helpful at first, as we didn't have the extra money to buy anything that it might need.


A closer look at the living room area...


On the side wall are two closets, one we keep stocked with our personal items and gets locked during the rental season. The other holds our ancient washer and dryer.


And looking into the kitchen. Pete liked this place for its two story design. He felt like the stairs helped to give a nice separation of space between to the distinct living spaces. Most one bedroom units on the island have a one floor layout, so this was just something a little different.

The 3rd door...

Hey, guess who has two thumbs and owes everyone pictures of the finished bathroom in the beach condo? and tiled bedroom floor? This girl. (Picture me with my weirdo thumbs hitched up and pointing toward my face)

Guess who never got to take good pictures of those two rooms because of time constraints and a camera battery running out of juice?

Yup. Me again.

I decided that in honor of the hottest week of life ever I'd like to try cooling down with a little sea breeze and share some never before seen Before and After pictures on here.

Pictures of the Third Door, which is located on the third floor of 123rd street. I kid you not, actual address.

Let us flash back to 2005 shall we?

It is the weekend after Labor Day. The sun is shining and I'm enjoying a relatively empty beach as I read the latest Harry Potter ( # 6 Half Blood Prince) for the second time as my then boyfriend is at closing for our new beach condo.

When the closing is done I reluctantly put down my book and walk over to the condo. I've never seen the place before as Pete picked it out by himself and he wanted to surprise me with it...

First thought "There is a whole lotta blue in here"
Second thought "I can't even count how many fake plants there are in here"

.....

Stay tuned for pictures...

swell..tering...

The temperature is set to skyrocket to 101 today here in South Jersey. Now, I know all my south and desert located readers are likely scoffing at me because they are used to higher temps but I'm from NEW JERSEY PEOPLE!

We have humidity and this weather messes melts our orange dyed skin and high hair poofs. Just kidding, I'm not orange and have flat hair. I am not however, kidding about being totally unaccustomed to these super high temperatures of 95 degrees and up. They make me stupid as the heat invades my brain and stops complete thoughts from being formed. I can't be the only one who really feels herself dumb down as the temperature climbs up right?

All I can think about is getting one of these bad boys....


and maybe one of these...

I swear, I'll go bathe in ice cubes and come back with some sort of interesting post soon....

Oh, and we had a fabulous 4th, watching the fireworks on the beach at Margate. Only a few block away from the fabulous Lucy the Elephant!! Picture added to prove that not everyone from NJ is tan, although my husband is certainly looking pretty crisped here. All natural though. He gets tan from 10 min outside with SPF 100 on.

Happy Fourth Weekend!

There is no other place on earth that has a bigger claim to my heart on the 4th of July than the Jersey Shore. Growing up I was at shore for every 4th for who knows how many years... At 27 I've likely spent more 4ths with my toes in the sand, salt in my hair and the sun shining above than anywhere else in the world. And I really couldn't imagine it any other way.

Thanks for being you Jersey Shore.

and to everyone- have a super safe Fourth of July!! Remember Fireworks are for ohhhing and ahhhing, not holding!

* photo credit is due to Kamila Harris

College Rental Update

We passed our rental inspection for the college rental.

Phew.

All that is left there is installing our awesome new $150 Craigslist fridge, finish painting over the barely covered tony the tiger stripes and get the carpets cleaned. All easy enough stuff and we've been rabid animal attack free so far! I can't wait to just get this place behind us so we can really start to work on the garage this summer. Juggling multiple projects and properties can get tiring sometimes. While it can be nice to have a broad range of stuff to do it can also be really frustrating to have to hit the brakes on a rolling project to focus on something else more important or time sensitive.

I'd share picture of the rental, but I don't know if anyone really wants to see tobacco stained windows and stained carpet...