Confessions Of A Landlord

Yep, I'm a landlord. It's not a part of life I'm pleased with and I can say that with even more vigor since last week's "vacation". We're only renting out our old house because we couldn't sell and you can read all about that saga here. Anyway, as you can probably tell from my last post I was pretty excited about this vacation and it started as planned. We ditched the kids and dogs with Grandma and then headed to our old homestead to clean out the pond, spray for bugs...a nice way of saying "check up on the renters who'd been living in our house for the past year." A quick check up to get our chores over with before kicking back for two weeks of vacation.

Then on our way to the house the renter calls to say they'd be moving out. Turns out they'd moved out 2 weeks before and it seems they just weren't going to tell us or pay us this months rent. It got better. When we arrived at the house we could see immediately it hadn't been cared for. The yard had never been mowed and as soon as I saw the backyard I started crying. Nature had taken it back. The inside was the same, dirty, never been cleaned, hole in the wall, nasty couches left behind, filthy walls, never cleaned toilets. We were shocked. I could go on and on but in an attempt to keep this short I can sum it up like this: I cried, we stressed, we opened a Lowes credit card so we could spend way more money than we actually have, and for 10 non-stop hours a day for the entire next week of our "vacation" we cleaned and painted and repaired. Now the inside of the house looks better than ever and I never want to see another paint brush for as long as I live. The rest is probably best left to before and after pictures. If you feel the need you can click any image to enlarge though it's not for the faint of heart on some of these.

Backyard Before. This is actually greatly improved from what we saw initially. When we saw it the entire yard was like that spot in the back corner with the fenced in pond area. The renter did knock most of it down with a weed eater but it still took a few days to fill the pond (it wasn't worth saving), cut down weeds and mow.

The Backyard After with mowing and edging and freshly filled pond. Even after all that work it still didn't look like the nice lush green yard we left behind.

We had new french doors put in after we moved in and now they're dog scratched and filthy. They looked the same before and after. Boo hissy.

Living Room before, complete with carpet stains and disgusting furniture and milk crates. I did get a cool giant emerald green 70's lamp out of the deal that's now on my piano. I suppose that's something of a plus.

Living Room after a fresh coat of neutral paint and carpet shampooing.

Laundry Room before. Ok, this room always needed some help. Other than my obnoxious bright orange paint it was already in need of a new floor.

Laundry Room After the fresh paint, new parquet linoleum floors and closets to make it a 3rd bedroom.

Dining Room Before. Yes that's yet another gross couch.

Dining Room After. Clearly I don't prefer neutrals for my own house but this house is looking clean and cute and good enough to rent (or sell!) The major house-wide scrub down didn't hurt either.

I don't have a before of the kitchen but wish I had one of the fridge, eck! But the after is nice.

Every light switch in the house was grimy as were almost all parts of every wall. This one just happened to be in the master bath, along with the gross shower below it. The shower was also leaking so badly we could here it as soon as we walked in the house. It was more like a gush than a leak.

Master Bath After. Hey, I'd actually use this bathroom again!

Man hand sized hole in the wall that used to be the boys room.

Boys Room after with patched wall and the closet doors we'd never gotten around to putting up the 4 years we lived there.

The nasty that was the Boys' Bathroom. I can't believe they had kids in this house!

A good scrub and a coat of paint to cover up my granny turquoise and the bathroom is back to spiffy.

I wish I had the pictures that we took right before we moved when we were trying to sell but they're MIA since my last computer crash. All of those bright colors actually looked cute instead of trashed out and the pond was surrounded by rocks and had a functioning fountain that was so nice to sit out next to. Not to mention my beautiful duckies that had to find a new home when we moved. Guess these people didn't share the same ideas on pond relaxation! In spite of it all my husband and I enjoyed each other. The building of the pergola must have been practice for this because we did good. There wasn't even one tiny little cat fight!

Taming The Rebel Pug In Style

The face of a satisfied customer

I didn't think I'd gone into Pug ownership unawares. I had done my research and read that they were notoriously difficult to housebreak. I decided that being home all the time I was up to the challenge. But for anyone who's contemplating a Pug, wherever you see "can be difficult to housebreak" read instead "probably will never be 100% housebroken!" About a month ago I was at wits end with Mr. Cash Pugface and his naughty pottying ways. So much so that I was on the edge of finding him a new home. I posted my exasperation at the fantastic Pug Village Forums and was greeted with wonderful ideas that might save my rescue puggie yet another relocation (and myself and the boys some big time heartbreak). I was told about belly bands. I jumped on Etsy and found a great seller, Do-Daa Doggie Apparel, who makes them in your choice of fabric so I ordered right away, you can also get matching bandannas! I just got them in the mail yesterday and am thrilled. I'm saying a little prayer that this does the trick (along with some other things I'm trying). When I first put one on Mr. Cash he ran around like his hind end was on fire but he's already warmed up to them and already thinks nothing of it being on.

Belly Band and Bandanna by Do-Daa Doggie Apparel on Etsy (click here for your own!)

Belly Bands by Do-Daa Doggie Apparel on Etsy (click here for your own!)

Blogging Blues

Ugh, my blog writing skills are atrophying with disuse. And since I wasn't overflowing with skills to begin with I'm in trouble! When I was blogging nearly every day my mind was whirring all the time with ideas of what and how to write. Now I sit down every week or so and try to drum up ways to talk about stuff. It's not that there's a lack of stuff, it's just hard to get started! When Mr. Golden Curls starts school next month I'm hoping to move the personal stuff to a new blog and revamp this blog to be all crafting all the time. I'm waiting until then because I don't want to miss out on this last little bit, starting Kindergarten is such a fantastically huge milestone that would be a perfect opener for the new blog, and because then I'll have all of this fantastic free time in which to play to my hearts content. (comments to the contrary are completely unwelcome, I hope to continue with my delusion at least a few weeks into the school year.)

Holy Giant Pergola Batman!

My bitty monkeys enjoying the newest shady spot in our backyard

The Bohemian and I have been together some time now. We've been married nearly 8 years and we dated for 6 before that. In all those 14 years of working together to make a relationship work, of giving and taking and compromise and forgiveness and sticking by each other it's only been in the very recent years that we've been able to even drive past a Lowes without launching into a fight that puts the World Wars to shame. I'm very proud of us though because this weekend we put up this Pergola and didn't kill each other or curse the fact that the other was born! Thanks to my folks for this awesome housewarming gift, I'm so excited when I get to de-bland our suburban cookie cutter and this is fantastic! Next project: build out the slab to accommodate the pergola, wish us luck!

The Summer Crazies: Vacation Bible School

The lovely pots my boys painted for me at Vacation Bible School.

The summer has been crazy, as usual, and flying by at lightening speed. My husband's a youth director so that means summertime is even busier than any other and he'll spend weeks at a time at various church camps. During one of those weeks the boys got to go to their first ever Vacation Bible School! I loved it because it gave me 3 hours of peace and freedom a day and then I loved it because they had so much fun...for the most part.


The first day at drop off Mr. Golden Curls went into his class like it was no big deal, which was a very big deal for him because he's the one that balks at anything new. Lil' Spitfire on the other hand stopped dead in his tracks in the doorway of his class then went running up the hall saying "I don't even like this place!" Amazingly, Spitfire is the one who, from that point on, LOVED going to VBS. It was the last thing he talked about at night and the first thing when he woke "Do we get to go back again today?!" Golden Curls took the opposite approach and for the first two days I received calls from the director telling me he was pitching an all out fit about not getting to run around doing what ever he felt like doing. After an at home remedy he stopped with the fits but finished out the week with grumpy complaints "I don't like... I don't want to..." to whatever they happened to be doing. I'm putting his kindergarten teachers on my prayer list ASAP!

Lil' Spitfire and Mr. Golden Curls at the final performance. Lil' Spitfire loved the dancing and music. He was a little disappointed he didn't get to do his from the stage so he snuck up there when his teachers weren't looking. Can you tell Mr. Golden Curls spotted the camera immediately? He's seen one a time or two and the whole performance for him was spent trying to get me to take his picture!

Lock The Door, It's The Ice Cream Man

I'm a nostalgic gal so when I heard the adorable tinkling of music that is a sure sign the ice cream man is in the area I was so disappointed when I didn't have any cash on me. That is until he drove by in this van. No joke, this is a picture of the actual ice cream truck. The other side is plastered with stickers of the goodies he sells surrounding a window cut out of the side. Classy! Needless to say the boys will not be learning the joys of the ice cream man anytime in the near future.

A Fresh New Blog

There once was a time when I thought I'd never have even one blog and now I'm starting a second one, crazy! This is where I will one day move all my personal blog posts, stuff about the kids, the fam, my silly obsession of a Pug, my slightly neurotic herding dog, and my super hero husband. That way I can separate my craft biz blog from my personal life that, unbelievably, not everyone may be interested in reading. That blog move will happen when I have time to make my other blog focus totally on my new business and scrapbooking. At this rate that could be some time from now...like when my 3 and 5 year old graduate college! For now you can read my hodge podge of family, crafts, scrapbooking, and my paper craft shop endeavor, The Beehive, at The Beehive blog here.