It's only been three months, no big deal.... in shiny things

And what’s suddenly pushing me to actually make an entry?? A long long overdue entry in my very very neglected Prosebox? Which I really do miss, despite totally ignoring it for, like, EVER??

Because it’s bedlam in here, that’s why!!! It’s seriously the only thing I can think of to do, other than playing yet another game of Majong. This would at least be a tad more productive. I’m at work, it’s actually quite busy (first days of fall classes, yippie), but I’m done with my currently pressing work. Until Monday. There’s a steady stream of students coming into the office with paperwork for the Ass’t Dean to sign, which Aggravation Receptionist has to take care of, but since my office opens on the main office I still hear all the coming and going. I’m kind of used to that, though. What’s really derailed me today is coming back from lunch to find Aggravation receptionist’s daughter, grandson, and little dog hanging out with her and yakking up a storm. Well, the dog isn’t yakking; the dog is a quite cute little Chihuahua who is oddly quiet. She actually was grand-dog sitting before I left for lunch because her daughter had just arrived from Raleigh and was going out to lunch with her dad, and the little dog has been perfectly behaved.

But realizing the gang was going to be camped out here, literally right in front of my door, having a grand old reunion, until AR finally leaves at 3:30… that just about pushed me over the edge. I finally shut my door, which I NEVER do- we’re very open-door here, which sometimes is a terrible thing. Half an hour later the Ass’t Dean, our boss, returned, and since his office is right beside mine I figured it might occur to them that they really needed to shut the fuck up a bit, and they actually did get quieter. But they’re still talking and the kid is sniffing NONSTOP and and and AAGGHHH!!!!!! The daughter has that horrible creaky voice/vocal fry affectation that makes me want to saw my ears off, and she speaks VERY VERY LOUDLY, which I think is part of the creaky voice thing - they’re always REALLY LOUD-

ANYWAY. I shut my door for awhile but opened it again after Ass’t Dean came back and they got a little quieter because I actually do need to be able to hear what’s going on out there, even if I don’t like it. But the bottom line is I can’t focus and I can’t concentrate and who needs to focus and concentrate to write a PB entry? Not me! Also it’s Friday afternoon.

We - as in Baker B and I, not “we” as in the office - have an awful lot going on lately, which I am also finding distracting. Our car - the 16-year-old Civic - is broken. It won’t start, and Baker B had noticed it smelling a little weird before it quit. Three years or so ago the alternator went out and it kind of did the same thing - and we had a rebuilt alternator put in. Also we got the battery charged up and it started again, so something’s draining the battery (which isn’t old). It won’t be a disaster if it’s the alternator - Baker B initially thought it was the transmission because it was also acting “weird” - that would have made it a goner, but the alternator was only I think $400 or so last time - I remember because I thought it was going to be $800 or more so I was pleased. But, it’s just something to have to DO. The guy we have work on it has had a sick kid so we’re just car-pooling for now.

Also, our furnace is broken. To be a little more specific, our furnace burst into flames a few months ago. On the exact same day the $6000 heat pump was being installed in the old trailer we rent to my niece. “Burst into flames” is a slight exaggeration, but it did catch fire inside. We called the emergency line in a panic, but by the time they’d called back it had burnt itself out. (I’d also had to climb up on the roof and peer into the chimney, because Baker B had just fallen off the back of a truck at work and seriously injured his wrist so was wearing a splint and couldn’t climb up there himself… I didn’t think it would bother me but let’s just say it’s been a long time since I climbed up on a roof, apparently, and it pretty much scared the shit out of me. But… I DID IT.) We’ve put off doing anything about it since we just spent $6000 on a heat pump but now we need to get someone to look at it… and nobody will look at it unless it’s half-full of kerosene (no idea why) .... and we have a little kerosene but it’s not half full and the kerosene people won’t just fill it half full, they want a specific amount specified and we’re idiots who have no idea how big the tank is and what will equal half a tank.... and we don’t want to just fill it all the way up because....

OMG. SOMEONE IS INTERESTED IN BUYING OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!

AND WE HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER HOUSE!!!!!!!!!! WHICH IS JUST SITTING THERE WAITING ON US!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .......largely because it is 90 years old and needs to be rewired.

But we don’t want to do anything about the furnace because if this person really is going to buy the house we want to see what she wants done if it’s got to be replaced. (I can’t imagine it won’t need to be replaced, after bursting into flames and burning inside for ages.)

All this has JUST happened, this whole moving thing. I have wanted to move for YEARS— our neighborhood was very nice when we moved in, 18 years ago, but now it is overrun by student rentals. And our house is terrible; there are SO many MAJOR things wrong with it. Every time I start whining about wanting to move, Baker B has insisted we can’t move, we have to wait till we retire and move to Asheville. Which will be 10 years or so. Which I found REALLY depressing and annoying. Then, a couple of weeks ago, out of the clear blue Baker B says, “I think we need to just sell our house as-is, and move!!!”

And I said, “WHAT IN THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN NAGGING YOU ABOUT FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS???!!!!!????”

No, I didn’t say that, but I did express severe shock that he’d all of a sudden changed his mind. Because he’s been adamant about not moving till we leave for good.

Anyhow, this is a VERY exciting turn of events, and although I feared that it was just the wine talking that night, the next day he was still all set to sell and move, and he’s remained on Team Get The Hell Out Of That House ever since. It makes sense- if we can get what we paid for it and the amount we spent fixing the foundation years ago, it would be worth it. If we got everything fixed that needs to be fixed, we wouldn’t get our money back and it would probably be hard to sell because it’s surrounded by student rentals now. No grown-ups are going to buy it.

We decided to put a bug in the guy who lives beside us’s ear, because he’s a Fixer and just replaced his entire deck by himself in like two days. And he’s renting the bottom part of his house and rented the whole thing via AirBnB over the summer while they drove across country. He could fix our house up and make a FORTUNE. So we mentioned it to him and he didn’t snap it up like we hoped (he’s very young and they just bought their house a year or so ago) … the next day he said his mother is REALLY interested. And last night Baker B had a long phone chat with her and I think we’ll be able to come to an agreement. OMG!!!

AND, finally..... MY HOUSE. That we are totally in loooooove with (very very bad if you’re looking to buy- first rule is you do NOT fall in looooooove with any house. That’s just asking for heartbreak). It’s 90 years old (EXACTLY what we said we are NOT going to do… buy an old house. Even though we looooooove old houses). It’s in town – we could walk to work. Okay, it’s at least a mile and maybe more but certainly doable and would be great in the stupid snowy icy winter. It’s got TONS of personality!! Wood floors!!!!!!!! Windows!!!!!!!!!!! The neighbors on either side are totally hidden by rhododendrons!!!!!! And..... right behind it is a huge wooded hill. Nothing but woods!!! (Yes, I am sure it will be developed at some point - no illusions there). We’ve seen the inspection and the only serious problem is the electric- which is quite serious and we’d be re-wiring immediately. There’s like one outlet in the livingroom and it is so weird looking that I stood there staring at it thinking, “what the heck is that??…OMG. An outlet????” I saw my grandfather’s similar-age house burn to the ground a few years ago and it was almost certainly the 90 year old wiring. BUT the other issues - a floor that is sagging a bit in one bedroom being the next biggest - are things we can honestly live with until we move to Asheville in 10 years. Or fix with minimal trouble.

Anyhow. I need to wrap this up but I will leave you with a picture of My House. And I totally agree that it is not a spectacular looking house on the outside and I’d probably not give it a second glance, had it not been very affordable (thanks, electric!!) And hopefully with all this excitement going on I’ll feel the urge to keep updating.

https://flic.kr/p/wGnubv

AAGGHHH - I would LOOOOVE to know why Flickr feels it necessary to totally change the way you share photos every few months so I can’t figure out how the hell to post a picture yet again – but you can click the link.