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01-26-06
01-24-06
Tonight we went to the house and started the primer coat in the living room (click the Flickr link above), then tomorrow it should be covered and ready for paint. I decided to paint the living room the same color as our old bedroom in Seattle - that yellowy light khaki green. Now I need to find a place that can match it (I am going to Sherwin-Williams tomorrow).
Tomorrow, depending on if we get help, we will also clean up the floors (AJ I looked for Rejuvenate at Home Depot and, alas, I think it's only in the States, or limited stores).
Also went downstairs and talked to Tara and Martin, our neighbors, who have cable internet and a router, so once again we can share internet with our wireless cards, which ROCKS, especially since the gas company is making us pay a $290 security deposit since we have no previous credit up here. Stupid. But anyway this means that we should just be able to plug in and be connected right away.
We still need volunteers for tomorrow night.... AND this weekend. BIG TIME.
• link
01-22-06
Update
So it's Sunday, and since we last spoke Sean and I took all of the staples out of the wood floors and took two car loads of small boxes over yesterday.
Tonight we drove a load of boxes over to the house with Uncle Pete, while he assessed the work ahead. The living room will be simply primered and painted over the paneling, not mudded first. This is still going to be attempted before we move in. The wood floors need to be cleaned then polished with Murphy's Oil Soap (or similar) then they're done! I need to pack all the house stuff. I need to find a job. I need to pick out a color for the living room and for once I am completely baffled and uninspired. My current thought is mustard (the color, not the food). But with the dark wood floors, I dunno. None of our living room furniture has any rhyme or reason - each piece is a different color - so there's really nothing to match there. I do think I'll leave the floor boards white. We wanna get the 3.5" tall floor boards so they can add some accent.
Also need to hook up power, hydro, and internet with nothing to deposit. And change our address again.
The bedrooms have a different panel under the wallpaper. I think we'll be able to just peel the wallpaper off it it, then primer and paint as well, but that will come much later. Like, maybe after Sean and I both know we're working the next month (Sean's February job fell through). It's really funny buying five gallons of primer and paint and floor boards and having no idea what we're eating next month. Funny ha ha.
• link
P.S. Paint volunteers: tentatively scheduled for Tuesday night.
01-20-06
Sorry. I'm here.
First, I headed out
the door without the measuring tape OR the camera. No bother, I would
shop at Motherhood, go back home, yadda yadda. I shopped all I could,
but their stock was SUCKY and all I really set out to buy was a black
collared shirt (for work) and they didn't have ANY, so I left. And headed
towards the new house! I got about a mile before I realized OH YEAH I
had to go home first and get the camera and measuring tape.
I got home, grabbed that stuff, and headed back over to the new house. Now keep in mind this is like a 30+ minute drive - worse in afternoon traffic. Once I got to the house? I realized that I left the new house key SITTING ON THE DISHWASHER at our place. And there I was already at the house. I made a feeble attempt to take some outside shots and headed over to the Starbucks to drop off my resume (we'll see) and then drove back home, only I ended up on some back road that took me into downtown Vancouver, and I got my directions confused EVEN THOUGH THE SUN WAS, IN FACT, SETTING IN THE WEST and drove around downtown for about 30 more minutes just trying to figure out how to get home. Yes I've lived here for 5 months now.
Once home, I called Sean at work just to tell him what an airhead I was that day, then headed BACK OUT to finally get in the house and take some damn pictures. I was also HUNGRY so I went to work on the way and got my first paycheck and deposited it, then drove alllllllllll the way back over to SFU (the new house) but right before the house: Oooh! McDonald's! What a great idea!! I usually eat at McD's once a year but so far in this pregnancy it's been three times. THREE TIMES including tonight. IT COULD BE WORSE, PEOPLE. So I get my McDonald's and pull out of the drive-thru and that's when it hits me.
THE NEW HOUSE KEY IS STILL SITTING ON THE BLOODY FRICK-NICKIN DISHWASHER.
So of course I call Sean (hey!! we got cell phones this week!) and he laughs at me, then I call Nick and he KINDLY agrees to meet me at the house just to let me in. He was THIRTY minutes away.
Oh and did I tell you our deposit check bounced? Isn't that great? We deposited an American check and TD Canada Trust thought to put a hold on it for FIFTEEN business days.
FIFTEEN.
AMERICA. Heard of it??
I had two interviews this week. One was for telligence.com which sounded bad and was much, much worse. They run all the sex hotlines all over US & Canada (any city with a population over 300,000, they're there). I woulda been working graveyard getting credit card numbers for those calls. Woo. It was a big recruiting party and I knew it would suck. So I ate three of the sandwiches.
The next afternoon I had an interview with a recruiting firm which basically informed me that I'm pretty much hosed looking for a job right now. Any employer, whether contract or not, can fire someone for any reason (or even no reason) within 90 days. So from this point on, anyone can hire me, figure out that I'm pregnant in that 90 days, then fire me.
Isn't this fun? Let's stop our lives and say goodbye to our life in Seattle because Lord knows we can't have a family there, and let's move to Canada where they have free health coverage (which is actually $100 a month) and they pay a year maternity leave (IF YOU WORK 600 HOURS and even then you get 50% of what you made for that next year. $8.50 an hour? = $4.25 an hour for that year. Whoops, my bad. Starbucks has only given me an average of 30 hours a week so let's make that $4.25 an hour for 30 hours average for a year.)
Aren't we so smart and responsible?!?
Next week is my last week at the Starbucks I'm currently employed at. I have no idea what's after that, but the recruiting interview sure didn't get me cheered up.
AND I SWEAR TO GOD IF ANY OF YOU SEND ME AN E-MAIL TELLING ME TO DO WEB DESIGN OR DELIVER PIZZAS OR PREGNANT P0RN OR ANY OTHER IDEA I WILL DISOWN YOU.
I type that? Then people send me ideas. Totally serious.
• link
Earlier January 2006 entries
 |
Reilly
and Miranda
have been helping us paint and clean for the past two nights. Their
help has been immense. Tomorrow I have one more coat of paint to apply to the living room, two more floors to clean, and Sean still needs to build the fish tank stand. Oh yeah and we need to rent a truck. So if anyone feels like painting on a Friday night, give me a holler! We have two people on board to help us Saturday, and two more for Sunday. Not exactly the team we were hoping for, but hopefully others will just show up as needed. Looks like my transfer to the Brentwood Mall Starbucks is going through. It can't be applied until the week after next, so I will be at the old place cleaning and the new place unpacking instead of working next week. I need a day off to sleep and not do much. I'm planning it for Wednesday, barring any complications. Oh, sweet, sweet Wednesday. • link |
01-24-06
Tonight we went to the house and started the primer coat in the living room (click the Flickr link above), then tomorrow it should be covered and ready for paint. I decided to paint the living room the same color as our old bedroom in Seattle - that yellowy light khaki green. Now I need to find a place that can match it (I am going to Sherwin-Williams tomorrow).
Tomorrow, depending on if we get help, we will also clean up the floors (AJ I looked for Rejuvenate at Home Depot and, alas, I think it's only in the States, or limited stores).
Also went downstairs and talked to Tara and Martin, our neighbors, who have cable internet and a router, so once again we can share internet with our wireless cards, which ROCKS, especially since the gas company is making us pay a $290 security deposit since we have no previous credit up here. Stupid. But anyway this means that we should just be able to plug in and be connected right away.
We still need volunteers for tomorrow night.... AND this weekend. BIG TIME.
• link
01-22-06
Update
So it's Sunday, and since we last spoke Sean and I took all of the staples out of the wood floors and took two car loads of small boxes over yesterday.
Tonight we drove a load of boxes over to the house with Uncle Pete, while he assessed the work ahead. The living room will be simply primered and painted over the paneling, not mudded first. This is still going to be attempted before we move in. The wood floors need to be cleaned then polished with Murphy's Oil Soap (or similar) then they're done! I need to pack all the house stuff. I need to find a job. I need to pick out a color for the living room and for once I am completely baffled and uninspired. My current thought is mustard (the color, not the food). But with the dark wood floors, I dunno. None of our living room furniture has any rhyme or reason - each piece is a different color - so there's really nothing to match there. I do think I'll leave the floor boards white. We wanna get the 3.5" tall floor boards so they can add some accent.
Also need to hook up power, hydro, and internet with nothing to deposit. And change our address again.
The bedrooms have a different panel under the wallpaper. I think we'll be able to just peel the wallpaper off it it, then primer and paint as well, but that will come much later. Like, maybe after Sean and I both know we're working the next month (Sean's February job fell through). It's really funny buying five gallons of primer and paint and floor boards and having no idea what we're eating next month. Funny ha ha.
• link
P.S. Paint volunteers: tentatively scheduled for Tuesday night.
01-20-06
Sorry. I'm here.
 Our bedroom |
The
house is coming right along! Sean ripped up the carpeting in the
living room and both upper bedrooms, and Nick (landlord) will pick
it up and haul it away this weekend. It's still a bit messy, but
Sean thinks it will take minimal work to get it looking lovely. I made THREE attempts to go to the house today. I was SO looking forward to today, because it was my special Friday when I would work a short shift, come home and take the longest nap I wanted, then I would use the rest of my Christmas store credit from Mom for Motherhood Maternity to buy some shirts, then I'd go to the house and take all the pictures I wanted, and take measurements, and see how it looked. This was the plan. My pregnancy hormones had other plans. |
I got home, grabbed that stuff, and headed back over to the new house. Now keep in mind this is like a 30+ minute drive - worse in afternoon traffic. Once I got to the house? I realized that I left the new house key SITTING ON THE DISHWASHER at our place. And there I was already at the house. I made a feeble attempt to take some outside shots and headed over to the Starbucks to drop off my resume (we'll see) and then drove back home, only I ended up on some back road that took me into downtown Vancouver, and I got my directions confused EVEN THOUGH THE SUN WAS, IN FACT, SETTING IN THE WEST and drove around downtown for about 30 more minutes just trying to figure out how to get home. Yes I've lived here for 5 months now.
Once home, I called Sean at work just to tell him what an airhead I was that day, then headed BACK OUT to finally get in the house and take some damn pictures. I was also HUNGRY so I went to work on the way and got my first paycheck and deposited it, then drove alllllllllll the way back over to SFU (the new house) but right before the house: Oooh! McDonald's! What a great idea!! I usually eat at McD's once a year but so far in this pregnancy it's been three times. THREE TIMES including tonight. IT COULD BE WORSE, PEOPLE. So I get my McDonald's and pull out of the drive-thru and that's when it hits me.
THE NEW HOUSE KEY IS STILL SITTING ON THE BLOODY FRICK-NICKIN DISHWASHER.
So of course I call Sean (hey!! we got cell phones this week!) and he laughs at me, then I call Nick and he KINDLY agrees to meet me at the house just to let me in. He was THIRTY minutes away.
Oh and did I tell you our deposit check bounced? Isn't that great? We deposited an American check and TD Canada Trust thought to put a hold on it for FIFTEEN business days.
FIFTEEN.
AMERICA. Heard of it??
I had two interviews this week. One was for telligence.com which sounded bad and was much, much worse. They run all the sex hotlines all over US & Canada (any city with a population over 300,000, they're there). I woulda been working graveyard getting credit card numbers for those calls. Woo. It was a big recruiting party and I knew it would suck. So I ate three of the sandwiches.
The next afternoon I had an interview with a recruiting firm which basically informed me that I'm pretty much hosed looking for a job right now. Any employer, whether contract or not, can fire someone for any reason (or even no reason) within 90 days. So from this point on, anyone can hire me, figure out that I'm pregnant in that 90 days, then fire me.
Isn't this fun? Let's stop our lives and say goodbye to our life in Seattle because Lord knows we can't have a family there, and let's move to Canada where they have free health coverage (which is actually $100 a month) and they pay a year maternity leave (IF YOU WORK 600 HOURS and even then you get 50% of what you made for that next year. $8.50 an hour? = $4.25 an hour for that year. Whoops, my bad. Starbucks has only given me an average of 30 hours a week so let's make that $4.25 an hour for 30 hours average for a year.)
Aren't we so smart and responsible?!?
Next week is my last week at the Starbucks I'm currently employed at. I have no idea what's after that, but the recruiting interview sure didn't get me cheered up.
AND I SWEAR TO GOD IF ANY OF YOU SEND ME AN E-MAIL TELLING ME TO DO WEB DESIGN OR DELIVER PIZZAS OR PREGNANT P0RN OR ANY OTHER IDEA I WILL DISOWN YOU.
I type that? Then people send me ideas. Totally serious.
• link
Earlier January 2006 entries