... before I run off to work, a quick update:
I got the ER job! Full time, starting May 2nd! So excited to learn everything I'm going to learn there.
The flooring in the bedroom is in, just need to put down the quarter round and the piece for the doorway and it's DONE.
We have TWO pairs of mallards in our pond, they were double-dating for breakfast this morning. Plus we saw a giant blue heron the other morning, and some tadpoles sprouting legs :D
Almost ALL of the trees in the back of the property are black walnuts, so most of the acreage is a no-go for gardening. But we have other ideas, and I'll post about them when I have a bit more time.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Another weekend over
It went by waaayyy too fast, and I feel like we didn't get nearly enough done. I'm fighting a growing sense of panic with the realization that I have berry bushes, strawberry plants, asparagus, and more apple trees arriving this week, and no ground prepared for planting them. It looks like we're going to have to build raised beds... our soil is sticky, nasty, wet clay... not good at all for gardening. That's fine, but it's another time consuming (and expensive!) project that needs doing pretty much right now. *Takes a deep breath*. It will all get done, right?
We felled a few trees this past weekend, using the chainsaw my mother bought us as a housewarming present. It was certainly easier than using a bow saw, but still hard work! Honeybunch and I are both quite sore. We finished painting the kitchen this weekend too, and it is almost completely scrubbed down and ready to move into. I need to scrub one last cabinet and the fridge and we're set to go. For some reason other people's food grime grosses me out something awful, so I'm very happy to be rid of the sticky cabinets and crumbs in the drawers!
Before:
After!!
I think the red warmed the room up nicely!
The bedroom is painted and scrubbed, and I love how the color turned out. We bought the flooring to lay down this upcoming weekend. Honeybunch bought a miter saw and we're borrowing a friend's table saw to get it done.
Before:
After!
I had to hang these stained glass window ornaments as soon as I'd finished washing the windows. My aunt made them decades ago, and they have always meant "home" to me. And check out our outdoor firepit, we're ready for the first bonfire with friends now!
I work tonight, then have off tomorrow night and will begin painting the office upstairs. The ceiling, trim, and walls all need to be painted (why anyone would paint a room a nasty beige-y brown from floor to ceiling, I'll never know). Work again on Wednesday, then back to the house Thursday through Sunday to paint, lay flooring, cut up wood, and HOPEFULLY begin building raised beds if we can find affordable materials. I'm looking for corrugated metal roofing to avoid expensive cedar and toxic pressure-treated lumber... wish me luck!
We felled a few trees this past weekend, using the chainsaw my mother bought us as a housewarming present. It was certainly easier than using a bow saw, but still hard work! Honeybunch and I are both quite sore. We finished painting the kitchen this weekend too, and it is almost completely scrubbed down and ready to move into. I need to scrub one last cabinet and the fridge and we're set to go. For some reason other people's food grime grosses me out something awful, so I'm very happy to be rid of the sticky cabinets and crumbs in the drawers!
Before:
After!!
I think the red warmed the room up nicely!
The bedroom is painted and scrubbed, and I love how the color turned out. We bought the flooring to lay down this upcoming weekend. Honeybunch bought a miter saw and we're borrowing a friend's table saw to get it done.
Before:
After!
I had to hang these stained glass window ornaments as soon as I'd finished washing the windows. My aunt made them decades ago, and they have always meant "home" to me. And check out our outdoor firepit, we're ready for the first bonfire with friends now!
I work tonight, then have off tomorrow night and will begin painting the office upstairs. The ceiling, trim, and walls all need to be painted (why anyone would paint a room a nasty beige-y brown from floor to ceiling, I'll never know). Work again on Wednesday, then back to the house Thursday through Sunday to paint, lay flooring, cut up wood, and HOPEFULLY begin building raised beds if we can find affordable materials. I'm looking for corrugated metal roofing to avoid expensive cedar and toxic pressure-treated lumber... wish me luck!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
A busy week.
When we did the walk-through before settlement last Friday, the furnace wasn't working. The oil tank had run dry (again), and we wrote up a contingency with the sellers that if after a delivery of oil the furnace still didn't work, they'd pay for the repairs since it was functional at the time of the inspection. So, oil was delivered on Tuesday, still doesn't work. Hoping it just needs a bit of maintainance (get the burner cleaned, etc). The seller is supposed to get someone out there to handle it today or tomorrow. Luckily the weather hasn't been too cold, so the plumbing is all in tact... but it surely is an inconvenience.
We finished painting the bedroom last night, and moved another carload of boxes in. Honeybunch bought a miter saw so we can tackle the installation of the laminate flooring. After we finished painting last night, we sat outside in the drizzling rain sipping a plastic cup of homemade wine and listening to the quiet. It is SO quiet out there. There are no busses, no highways, no neighbors or people talking loudly on their way home from the local bar at 2am... we didn't even see a single car drive past. All we heard was the rain, the creek, and the wind in the trees. It was blissful.
Tonight I work a 12-hour shift, then go directly to a hospital near the new house for an interview. I'm supposed to arrive in scrubs because I'll be shadowing a nurse in the ER... I don't know how long that will take, but I'm figuring that I'll crash out on the massage table at the new place with a space heater on rather than brave the hour drive back to the apartment after such a long day with no sleep. I'm really hoping that they offer me this job.
I'll update again after we've made some progress this weekend!
We finished painting the bedroom last night, and moved another carload of boxes in. Honeybunch bought a miter saw so we can tackle the installation of the laminate flooring. After we finished painting last night, we sat outside in the drizzling rain sipping a plastic cup of homemade wine and listening to the quiet. It is SO quiet out there. There are no busses, no highways, no neighbors or people talking loudly on their way home from the local bar at 2am... we didn't even see a single car drive past. All we heard was the rain, the creek, and the wind in the trees. It was blissful.
Tonight I work a 12-hour shift, then go directly to a hospital near the new house for an interview. I'm supposed to arrive in scrubs because I'll be shadowing a nurse in the ER... I don't know how long that will take, but I'm figuring that I'll crash out on the massage table at the new place with a space heater on rather than brave the hour drive back to the apartment after such a long day with no sleep. I'm really hoping that they offer me this job.
I'll update again after we've made some progress this weekend!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Homeowners!
Well it's Monday, and I return to work tonight after a weekend of working on our home. What an amazing feeling it is to put your own sweat and muscle into transforming a place into YOUR place.
My mother and sister joined us on Saturday to help tear out carpets and to see the place. They both love it and promise to be regular weekend visitors.
Apparently that's a paw paw tree!
Mallards that like to hang out in our pond, hoping for ducklings this Spring! We also saw turtles, and the sellers told us that blue herons like to frequent the pond as well.
It was so nice to just walk the grounds and listen to the babbling of the stream.
The first floor bedroom was our top priority. We tore up the carpet in here, next to go is the foam pad. We'll be ordering the laminate this week. We put on the first coat of paint, too.. I'll take photos when it's all done.
Our super fancy new reverse osmosis filter system, installed by Honeybunch under the kitchen sink.
We plan to paint the kitchen walls a deep crimson, leaving the ceiling and trim white.
I'm looking to find some metro-style shelving to put in the corner where that box is to expand our pantry space.
This room will probably serve as our dining room. We're going to paint it a bright happy green.
It also has a laundry space. We'll hang doors there after we install a washer and dryer.
The great room may stay the way it is, there is only a small section of wall that is not logs and we'll probably leave it that cream color for now. Before the end of summer we're going to put in a woodstove.
Overall, settlement was a bit of mess, with some hiccups on the seller's end. The furnace was not functional during our walk-through that morning, and it seems that the sellers let the oil tank run dry again. So we're getting oil delivered this Tuesday, and we wrote up a contingency at settlement that if the furnace doesn't work once we have oil in it, the sellers will pay to have it fixed. Luckily, the weather has not dipped below freezing, so all the plumbing is still in tact. Seeing just how much 200 gallons of oil costs was enough to make the investment in a woodstove all the more attractive.
We had heavy rain for two days before settlement, so we got to see just how wet the basement gets during such a storm. It wasn't bad at all, an inch of water in the deepest places, and by the next morning it was almost entirely dry. We'll probably put in a sump pump just to be on the safe side.
We took down one of the dead trees in the way of our future garden plot, with some elbow grease and a bow saw. We'll be borrowing a friend's chainsaw for the rest of them, but there was something deeply satisfying about felling a tree with your own muscle. We're going to have plenty of firewood for this fall and winter by the time we're done clearing the plot.
This week's priorities are scheduled around work, my interview for the ER nurse position, and a "yay, you bought a house!" party from our community here at our apartment. We're going to finish painting the bedroom, office, kitchen, and dining room. We're going to get the last of the foam pad up from all the formerly carpeted floors, and shop vac the heck out of the place. We're going to order the flooring for the bedroom and office, and possibly begin installing it this weekend. We're going to be sore, and it's going to be awesome.
Hurray for nesting!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Trauma!
I got a call to set up an interview at a hospital 20 minutes from the new house for a position as a nurse in their Emergency Room. It's a huge, 600+ bed hospital with a Level II Trauma Center. The prospect of training and working in that environment is very exciting to me. I figure that if a job is going to beat me up as badly as nursing does, it had better at least be exciting. They provide one-on-one orientation with an experience preceptor, lots of certifications and specialty training, etc... which is good given that I have only a bit over a year of acute care experience under my belt, and a tiny bit of self-doubt in the back of my mind about transitioning to emergency nursing so early in my career.
Despite that fact, my rational brain thinks I'll do well in the ER... this past year or so of working on telemetry/PCU has prepared me well, and I'm now truly confident in my abilities when it comes to handling crises. Bleeding out from the rectum with a blood pressure of 60/40? Severe crushing chest pain with a positive troponin and cool, clammy skin? Blood sugar of 35 and unresponsive despite multiple amps of D50?? I'm cool as a cucumber. Trauma is a different can of worms from what I'm accustomed to, but the principles are the same, and I have no problem handling large amount of blood and guts. I'm sure that with some training and time to adjust, I'll be able to do an excellent job of it.
I'm interviewing on St. Patrick's Day, and was told to wear scrubs so that I can shadow a nurse in the ER and get a feel for how it goes. I'm counting on the luck of the Irish to help me put my best foot forward after working a 12-hour shift the night before!
Despite that fact, my rational brain thinks I'll do well in the ER... this past year or so of working on telemetry/PCU has prepared me well, and I'm now truly confident in my abilities when it comes to handling crises. Bleeding out from the rectum with a blood pressure of 60/40? Severe crushing chest pain with a positive troponin and cool, clammy skin? Blood sugar of 35 and unresponsive despite multiple amps of D50?? I'm cool as a cucumber. Trauma is a different can of worms from what I'm accustomed to, but the principles are the same, and I have no problem handling large amount of blood and guts. I'm sure that with some training and time to adjust, I'll be able to do an excellent job of it.
I'm interviewing on St. Patrick's Day, and was told to wear scrubs so that I can shadow a nurse in the ER and get a feel for how it goes. I'm counting on the luck of the Irish to help me put my best foot forward after working a 12-hour shift the night before!
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Gathering supplies, and a sneak peek...
Today we took a road trip to the Tractor Supply (closest one is about 45 minutes from where we live now), with Good Neighbors in tow. We wanted to pick up a few things to prepare for the arrival of our chicks in early April, and price out some items that we'll need for the homestead. We came home with new muck boots, lopers, pruning shears, a saw, two large metal cans for feed, chick starter and grit, grit for the grown-up girls, pine bedding, and a wire egg basket (I'd been lusting after one for a while now... too often I end up carrying eggs in my hands and pockets and drop one or two trying to open the door!). We priced out chainsaws, fencing and t-posts, and garden carts.
I get so much more excited about going to the Tractor Supply than I do going to the mall. In fact, I hate going to the mall. Being surrounded by useless overpriced plastic crap and ugly clothes made by underpaid children in the third-world just depresses me. But Tractor Supply is full of useful things, many of which bear a "Made in USA" sticker. That makes me glad. Not to mention the tub full of baby ducklings, all yellow fuzz and tiny orange webbed feet sleeping in a pile under a heat lamp. I came very close to stuffing my sweater full of them and running out the door. The cuteness was unbearable.
The Tractor Supply also happens be only 15 minutes from the new house, so we obviously couldn't resist taking a little drive in the rain to see the place without snow for the first time. We walked the grounds a bit, feeling where the soil is boggy and where it is well drained, watched a mated pair of mallards float lazily in the pond, listened to the stream rush over the rocks, saw a trio of deer run through the woods and over the crest of the western hill. We found the remains of a wild turkey strewn about, its bones picked clean by whatever creature made it a meal, it's lovely feathers scattered in the grass and brush.
All were beautiful reminders of the kind of life we're going to live "out in the country". I felt a deep sense of peace walking those grounds. It also affirmed the fact that $400 in fencing we're going to need to keep our chickens and garden safe from the wildlife is a good investment. Here in the (urban)suburbs, hawks are only critters that really pose a threat to the girls, and our decoy owl has done a fine job of keeping them at bay. The biggest threat to our garden has been the digging of dogs in the raised beds (and slugs!). But at the new house the girls will brave a whole host of predators prowling the woods and fields. Rabbits and groundhogs will happily raid my carefully planned garden if given the chance. I am delighted with the bountiful wildlife we'll live with, but I'll be more delighted if they remain on the right side of a fence!
Five days until we go home.
I get so much more excited about going to the Tractor Supply than I do going to the mall. In fact, I hate going to the mall. Being surrounded by useless overpriced plastic crap and ugly clothes made by underpaid children in the third-world just depresses me. But Tractor Supply is full of useful things, many of which bear a "Made in USA" sticker. That makes me glad. Not to mention the tub full of baby ducklings, all yellow fuzz and tiny orange webbed feet sleeping in a pile under a heat lamp. I came very close to stuffing my sweater full of them and running out the door. The cuteness was unbearable.
The Tractor Supply also happens be only 15 minutes from the new house, so we obviously couldn't resist taking a little drive in the rain to see the place without snow for the first time. We walked the grounds a bit, feeling where the soil is boggy and where it is well drained, watched a mated pair of mallards float lazily in the pond, listened to the stream rush over the rocks, saw a trio of deer run through the woods and over the crest of the western hill. We found the remains of a wild turkey strewn about, its bones picked clean by whatever creature made it a meal, it's lovely feathers scattered in the grass and brush.
All were beautiful reminders of the kind of life we're going to live "out in the country". I felt a deep sense of peace walking those grounds. It also affirmed the fact that $400 in fencing we're going to need to keep our chickens and garden safe from the wildlife is a good investment. Here in the (urban)suburbs, hawks are only critters that really pose a threat to the girls, and our decoy owl has done a fine job of keeping them at bay. The biggest threat to our garden has been the digging of dogs in the raised beds (and slugs!). But at the new house the girls will brave a whole host of predators prowling the woods and fields. Rabbits and groundhogs will happily raid my carefully planned garden if given the chance. I am delighted with the bountiful wildlife we'll live with, but I'll be more delighted if they remain on the right side of a fence!
Five days until we go home.
Friday, March 04, 2011
A bit better...
This past week at work was very, very busy... but a bit less chaotic than the week before. I am grateful for that. I am still looking for work at other hospitals, ones closer to our soon-to-be homestead. I found one listing for a Labor and Delivery room nurse position... the chances of me even getting an interview as a green nurse are slim, but I remain hopeful.
Yesterday I mailed the check for our first year of homeowners insurance. I feel like a real grown up now. Today I will choose a company for our garbage collection and set up an account with them. We'll set up our electricity and internet accounts, get a cashier's check for the closing costs, and we're good to go. This next week is going to feel like a very, very long week. I can't believe it's all really happening for us.
I'm going to try out the Mother Earth News online Garden Planner and see how I like it. They have a free 30-day trial offer, and I figure I could use all the help I can get. This is the first time that I'll be gardening long enough in one place to employ crop rotation... and while it's a simple enough concept, I really do need to be organized enough to know what I planted where for several years back in history. I enjoy the process of taking a pencil to graph paper, but in my quest to stay organized as we make our fresh start, I am willing to employ some technology if it proves useful.
Tonight we're going to make a decision about what flooring we want to install in those rooms with carpet (yuck!), and I'll probably order our reverse osmosis water filter system as well (lead levels in the water are higher than they should be, as to be expected in an old house with older plumbing). I am very curious as to whether the manual water pump out in the barn is functional or not. The home inspector said (after glancing at it... we didn't get the barn inspected) that it appeared to be of a design that returns all the water from the pipe back down underground after you close the pump to prevent it from freezing. It would be lovely if that pump worked, as it would save us the trouble of lugging water out to the barn every morning!
Once we close, we're going to collect water samples from that pump (if it works), as well as the pond, to send for analysis. This will let us know if the pump water is safe to give our animals, and if the pond water is safe for stocking with fish and waterfowl. We'll also send soil samples for analysis of nutrients, and to look for trace heavy metals (just in case), before we choose where we plant our fruit trees and garden, and if we till the soil directly or build raised beds with screened top soil. I'm hoping we'll be able to dig into the soil itself, as topsoil is expensive as heck to buy. We'll also need to find a source for high quality compost, as we have none to work into the soil this first year. I'm hoping that won't be too difficult, given the number of farms in the area.
I can't wait to get started on all of these projects... only 7 more days until it can begin. And only 16 days until the Vernal Equinox. Life is good, folks.
Yesterday I mailed the check for our first year of homeowners insurance. I feel like a real grown up now. Today I will choose a company for our garbage collection and set up an account with them. We'll set up our electricity and internet accounts, get a cashier's check for the closing costs, and we're good to go. This next week is going to feel like a very, very long week. I can't believe it's all really happening for us.
I'm going to try out the Mother Earth News online Garden Planner and see how I like it. They have a free 30-day trial offer, and I figure I could use all the help I can get. This is the first time that I'll be gardening long enough in one place to employ crop rotation... and while it's a simple enough concept, I really do need to be organized enough to know what I planted where for several years back in history. I enjoy the process of taking a pencil to graph paper, but in my quest to stay organized as we make our fresh start, I am willing to employ some technology if it proves useful.
Tonight we're going to make a decision about what flooring we want to install in those rooms with carpet (yuck!), and I'll probably order our reverse osmosis water filter system as well (lead levels in the water are higher than they should be, as to be expected in an old house with older plumbing). I am very curious as to whether the manual water pump out in the barn is functional or not. The home inspector said (after glancing at it... we didn't get the barn inspected) that it appeared to be of a design that returns all the water from the pipe back down underground after you close the pump to prevent it from freezing. It would be lovely if that pump worked, as it would save us the trouble of lugging water out to the barn every morning!
Once we close, we're going to collect water samples from that pump (if it works), as well as the pond, to send for analysis. This will let us know if the pump water is safe to give our animals, and if the pond water is safe for stocking with fish and waterfowl. We'll also send soil samples for analysis of nutrients, and to look for trace heavy metals (just in case), before we choose where we plant our fruit trees and garden, and if we till the soil directly or build raised beds with screened top soil. I'm hoping we'll be able to dig into the soil itself, as topsoil is expensive as heck to buy. We'll also need to find a source for high quality compost, as we have none to work into the soil this first year. I'm hoping that won't be too difficult, given the number of farms in the area.
I can't wait to get started on all of these projects... only 7 more days until it can begin. And only 16 days until the Vernal Equinox. Life is good, folks.
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