...my first snow as a homeowner.

I will start this off by informing/reminding the audience that even though I'm an urban girl, I grew up in Bucks Co., PA. While it was actually named after William Penn's home, Buckinghamshire, it more appropriately describes all the freakin' deer.  I grew up in an area that was equally suburban and rural. And when it snowed, it snowed. It would take me 15 minutes just to get dressed to go shovel the driveway. And then another hour or more to help do it.

Suffice it to say, I know snow. So when I looked out the window this morning and realized that there was about 3-4 inches of snow already, and it hadn't stopped coming down, I thought the prudent thing to do would be to go out and shovel before it go too bad. (Note - I have a raging head cold at the moment, so finding the motivation to actually get off the couch and go outside was nothing short of a Christmas miracle.)

I got out all my snow gear and got dressed. Took my handy new shovel (thanks Mom!) and headed out to brave the elements.

Apparently I thought I was going to be shoveling the entire street during a blizzard.

Ten minutes later I was back inside.

This is the entire area that I'm responsible for keeping clear:

Was so tempted to move my car into that open spot.

I've shoveled more snow off my parents' front porch. It took me longer to get dressed than it did to shovel my sidewalk. So I shoveled my neighbor's steps. And then a part of my other neighbor's sidewalk. Then I came back in and had to remove all the layers.

Now I'm going to curl up on the couch with my Slanket and a hot beverage, Netflix some "Spooks," and not shovel again until tonight. At which point I will probably just throw on a coat and boots.

Oh man, I just heard someone start up a snowblower. *sigh*

...my funny mom.

I have an unfinished follow-up to the wall paper post that I started on Sunday. My job is getting in the way of my blogging. *sigh*

In the meantime...yet another reason why my mother cracks me up. This is the tail end of a convesation my mom and I just had:

Mom: "Alright, I'll talk to you later. I have to go put out."
Me: "hee hee hee hee"
Mom: "I have to go re-stock. I can't say 'put out.'"
Me:  "hee hee hee hee"

This is almost as good as the time my grandmother announced to my mom and her friends that she got a hickey on her head.

...removing wallpaper. Or not.

A guide of things NOT to do when attempting to remove wallpaper.

1. Do not attempt to do any sort of manual labor after only consuming a mere 160 calories.

• This morning, I got up late and proceeded to go about my day shopping and running errands on an empty stomach. Baaad idea. No good can come of this. As a self-diagnosed "hypoglycemic," I should know better than this.
• When I finally did eat around 2:30, I filled up with...a can of soup. Then started to prep the bathroom for paper removal, which included removing a shelf system from behind the toilet (God only knows how they got it in there in the first place) - and this made me want to take a nap.
• Considering I didn't really do anything and was tired, I figured I was due for more food. A snack! A snack will do wonders! Filled to the brim with apples & peanut butter, I set off. It didn't work, 15 minutes into wall paper removal I was whiny and cranky and everything sucked. 

2. Do not attempt to remove wallpaper without reading up on the subject.

• Watching HGTV and TLC does not count as experience in removing wallpaper. I just went at it armed with a rented steamer, a very dangerous looking scoring tool, and a general idea of what to do.

The scoring tool is downright medieval.

And while I waited for the steamer to heat up, I "scored" the entire bathroom instead of testing a section that was somewhat out of sight.

• Somewhere along the way, I wasn't sure where the wallpaper ended and the sheet rock began.

3. Do not think that removing wallpaper is easy.

• Perhaps there are instances where this process is easy, but I had to go and try to remove textured AND painted wallpaper...that the aforementioned very dangerous scoring tool had trouble permeating.

After about an hour and the feeling that I was not only doing more damage than good, the bathroom was quickly becoming a "Project." I have enough Projects without adding a new one.

So as of right now, there's a bald spot in my bathroom. I have three options I'm willing to entertain - leave it as it and paint over it, cut a pice of wallpaper and put it up in the bald spot, or....put the damn shelf back and hope no one notices.

The bald spot.

...why my new house will not be home to children.

Aside from the fact that I just don't ever see myself reproducing (*shudder*), I apprently am not a baby-friendly person.

Exhibit A:
I tried to order woven blinds last night, and was told that I couldn't because the company wasn't taking orders due to a customer service issue relating to cord control and safety concerns. So owing to the fact that I didn't see any problems with the cords as they were...I'm apparently not baby-friendly.
(What? Do parents really not know how to keep a cord out of a baby's reach?? Come on. The sales lady and I bonded over this...her rationale, she survived just fine with cords the way they are. Right on lady. Right on.)

Don't do this.

Exhibit B:
I think this is fucking hilarious and I would totally use it. (I also have been trying to figure out a way to attach a swiffer to our cats' tails. What? I hate dusting.)


Baby Mop from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

...picking out a new color for the bathroom.

So, I figured that the bathroom, like my bedroom, would get an instantaneous "makeover" since it was one of the rooms I was not making any major changes to (at least not yet). It's compeltely liveable, laid out well, nothing's terribly annoying about it...except the painted wallpaper. And it wasn't like the previous owners were lazy and just painted over exisitng wallpaper, no they bought the type of wallpaper that you paint:

Close-up of textured wallpaper I have to look at everyday.

So I've decided it must come down, regardless of how good a job they did putting it up. And it will be painted. But that's where I"m a bit stuck. I know the general color family I want to paint it:

Towels that inspired the color palette.

Paints that I have chosen. Yup...brown.

So, I don't know which shade to go with. The ones on the left & middle (I hate my shitty camera!!) are cooler shades of browns, the one on the right are warmer. I don't like the top three or four of the warmer tones, but maybe one of the the bottom two? I'm worried it will be too dark, this is the room in question:

The floors are light, the doors are white, the sink cabinet is white, the shower curtain is white, the cover for the World's Most Inappropriately Sized Radiator is white, too...so maybe a darker brown will be ok? The window should let in a lot more light once I take the damn aluminum awning off.

Thoughts?

...being a real South Philly resident.

So...after many years of being a "resident" of Philadelphia, I broke down and became an actual resident of Philadelphia. Complete with new car registration and everything. This is what greeted me when I got home tonight:

This can only mean one thing...

...unrestricted parking!!

Now, if we can only do something about those old fuckers and their Bingo nights. 

Oh...and a sign I'm definitely in South Philly...this is also what I came home to tonight:

That is my door on the left. I share that awful awning with my neighbors. And now, it would seem, we share some tasteful Christams lights.

...the first month.

It's been a month since I moved into the house. Actually, it's been a little over a month, but things have been so hella crazy that I haven't had time to finish this post.  The first month has been interesting, to say the least.

There was the washing machine incident, which is mostly fixed at this point. At least I can at wash my laundry, if I can't quite dry it mechanically.  Then there is my ghetto internet solution. I will figure this out...maybe there will be a killer deal on a new router this Black Friday and I can join the land of WiFi once again.

I had some friends over and we tried out a few new bars, though I've yet to really try the restaurant and take-out scene. But that will come soon enough, which brings me to my next point - renovations. Or rather, the lack thereof. My kitchen is still fully intact.

I really hoped to have made some progress on the demolition front, but I've been preoccupied with things like roof leaks and not having an electrical outlet in the bathroom. In light of any major updates...here is my first round of (very lame) Before & After pics.

Master bedroom:
I bascially just painted. I haven't gotten around to doing much decorating, but those curtains came down mighty fast. I did not kneel on the ground to get the exact same perspective as the shot from the real estate listing to get the full effect...but whatever. You get the idea..it's not cream anymore.







The bathroom:
Again, not much done here except removal of ugly shower curtain, rugs, and valance. You can't see it from this picture, but that is wallpaper that's been painted. Textured painted wallpaper.
And I really wish you could see the old shower curtain, it has dolphins with little wave cutouts on it. Hopefully I will get rid of the World's Most Inappropriately Sized Radiator soon. But not before the wallpaper comes down and I paint.

That's pretty much it. Every other room is lacking any kind of update of any kind.

I'd like to say that my feelings toward the house and moving have warmed up in the past few weeks...but they really haven't. I still have lukewarm feelings that verge on contempt, but I'm working through them. Mostly aided by glasses of Riesling and chocolate.


EDIT: I removed the tables because apparently, the "preview" function in blogger sucks and I did not realize they were all on top of each other. :|