My head is still spinning

What a short but productive weekend in Chicago.  It left me very overwhelmed, but ready to make lists, contact people, and get going on the house NOW.

Friday morning CP had to work- but at least it was from “home” (the extended stay hotel).  I didn’t want to bother him too much so I headed to a nearby Forest Preserve for a 5 mile walk/run workout.  It was already super hot and I forgot water so towards the end it was definitely more of a walk, but a good workout nonetheless.  Thank goodness for all of the trees as the shade helped a lot.

Great view for the beginning of the workout

Later on in the day we met with a loan officer to figure out our options for improvements to the house, then headed downtown on the train to meet up with friends and their twins, then have dinner with my parents.

Saturday morning CP and I headed to the house with my parents to meet with a plumber, an electrician, two hardwood flooring people, and an HVAC person.  Oh and for me and my mom to see our new house for the first time.  :-)  I’m not going to lie, the two hours in the house left my head spinning.  So much to do, so many different contractors to coordinate.  Overall, the layout of the house is great, the rooms are big, and the neighborhood is nice.  Once we do some painting, take down a lot of wallpaper, put our furniture in, and get the house updated to 2012 it will feel more like home.  We also have A LOT of yardwork to do.

Afterwards we headed to a huge appliance store and because my head was still spinning, I wasn’t much help.  Thank goodness my dad stepped in with all of the appliance measurements and the research that he did online.  We then purchased a new cooktop (CP is very excited about the 5 burners instead of the usual 4), a double oven, dishwasher, fridge, washer, and dryer.  Yeah, it was an expensive day.  But since the appliances aren’t working, it was necessary.  We decided to go with all stainless steel because eventually if we bump out the kitchen we may want an oven with a range instead of two separate appliances, but hopefully we can resuse a lot of what we bought.  And if we don’t reuse it stainless steel is something that everyone wants in their kitchen.

The bad news is that we couldn’t find a cooktop that fits in the current counter cutout.  They just don’t make that size anymore (it’s tiny).  Soooo we are going to have to redo the kitchen a bit more than we had hoped.  Instead of just painting the yellow metal cabinets (yikes) and dealing with the Formica counters until our redo, we will be installing granite counters, a new stainless steel sink, and a new faucet.  Since we just did this in our rental place out west last year we knew that it wouldn’t be too expensive, but it’s a couple thousand that we hadn’t counted on spending.  Hopefully between the new counters/sink/floor (we will refinish the hardwood below the laminate) and painting the metal cabinets the kitchen will look a whole lot better.

I had an uneventful flight back to CT yesterday, and soon after arriving home I was on the road driving up to NH to take care of my FIL and his wife’s four cats.  The drive wouldn’t have been so bad other than the fact that it was pouring rain for an hour of the drive when I was on windy, hilly two lane roads in VT.  I had my wipers going as fast as possible and my max speed was 40 as I was in no mood to kill myself.  After getting past the torrential rain obstacle, I then felt like I was part of the game Frogger as I swerved on back roads to avoid hitting frogs that had death wishes.  So much fun.

I am a big lover of animals, but I will never own a cat.  I know that cat owners feel like dogs are nasty, but to me, cats are nasty.  Cleaning up hair balls and cleaning out cat litter is about as disgusting to me as eating pig vomit.  It’s just not my cup of tea.  Plus cat litter makes the house smell and cats track it through the house on their paws.  Eww.  Anyway, the cats are all fine and will be very happy to have their parents home this week.  And I am happy to be back home (at least for the next three weeks).

How was your weekend?