My Craptacular Maronda Home

If you read my previous post, you saw that I had some frozen pipes in this sub-zero Pittsburgh weather. Which leads me to discuss my house.

We bought our house from Maronda Builders a little over five years ago. We bought it for a number of reasons. We had just had a baby, and our current home's location wasn't exactly perfect for raising children. The plan that we looked at was in the general location of where we 'always wanted to live.' We bought our first house at a decent price, and knew we'd be able to make some money from it. So, we signed the papers. Now, the builder was definitely NOT the reason that we decided to purchase our home. We knew of problems with Maronda, but we liked the floorplan, it had a fantastic yard, and we could afford it.

We checked on the house's progress every weekend. Luckily, there was a person who just got a promotion - and he was in charge of the activities in our plan. Our home was the first that was 'his.' So he did pay attention to a bit of detail. Honestly, we haven't had any MAJOR problems. They DID forget to install one of our central cold air returns. When you would come up the basement stairs, it was just a huge wind tunnel. Now, for the pipes: Our pipe going to the kitchen sink did freeze one other time. I guess the problem is that this particular pipe must go through the garage a bit, and on the outer wall. Last time, my Brother In Law came over with a little torpedo heater, ran it in the garage, and all was good. This time, the sun helped. Plus, I ran the washer and dryer (I now have lots of clean clothes) and they eventually started running.

No wall or ceiling in my home is exactly straight. My neighbors have had worse problems. Very leaky roofs (because they didn't seal around the flashing correctly). Extremely squeaky floors. I have one neighbor who, after their yard was graded, ended up with a complete swamp. The light switch in my upstairs bathroom is backwards (the first switch should be the light - but it's the fan), my master bathroom sink had a leak from day one.

Even though there are all of these problems, I love my house. I love the size, the layout. I love the location. I love our yard. I wish I had more money to spend on it. I'd love hard wood floors, granite countertops and nothing bought at Ikea or Target. But I DO love it. And I truly love my neighborhood. There are about 74 homes in our neighborhood - it consists of four streets. Some of our best friends live here. And they were our best friends BEFORE we moved in. I'm so glad they followed! In fact, when we signed the papers to purchase our home, my husband called our very good friends and left a message on their machine. It was the classic song from Mr. Rogers, "Won't you be my neighbor?" We moved to the neighborhood in November, and they joined us in February. Our other friends lived in a townhouse for a few years, but were always looking to buy. They looked at private builders, land, and other communities. But I am SO happy that they ended up here in our neighborhood. They just had twins (this week!), and it will be great to watch them grow up.

So, I'm all about the silver lining when it comes to my house. And when I really think about it, I now live in one of those houses that I wanted when I was little. I remember passing homes in plans and thinking 'I wonder what it would be like to live there.' Well, now I know. It rocks.

Sometimes they're easy

Well, today really turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I had made an appointment to get my hair colored and cut at 10:00 this morning. And I was taking Chloe with me. Now, I knew that Chloe would be OK with waiting through just a hair cut. She's pretty darn good. But I wasn't so sure how a three year old would do waiting for over two hours in a small salon.

Now, the place that I get my hair cut is right next to the restaurant (Downey's House, just in case you're new here). The salon is called Hot Heads, and Jessica, the owner, is fantastic. And Chloe has been there a couple of times before. So, I go prepared. Portable DVD player with some Scooby Doo movies? Check. New 'Hello Kitty' doll house that the kids still have an interest in? Check. A lunch that Chloe packed for herself? Check. I have to say, she did fantastic. She danced, she chatted, she ate pudding. It didn't hurt that I've been explaining the whole 'Naughty and Nice' thing to her. She double checked tonight before bed to see if she's still on the nice list. She is.

BTW, I love, love, love my new hair. Short in the back, longer in the front (I like to call it the anti-mullet). The color is great. Or maybe I should say colors. My previous color was brown with some bright orange highlights, and a large chunk of orange in the front. The new color is all that plus some blonde streaks. Very punky. I like it. Just enough (ok, maybe more than enough) to make me stand out in the sea of suburban moms that live in my little plan of homes. Blending in is so boring.

And have I mentioned that I've been sucked into the Facebook vortex lately? I've chatted with people I went to grade school with, went to high school with, and people who I worked with at TGI Fridays in the airport. Crazy. As I speed even closer to 40 years old, I look back and realize that I really have learned something from every single person that I've met. Which is probably why I'm so twisted now (just kidding!)

More later!

I'm ready to get back in the groove

Well, we've (almost) made it through the long holiday weekend! Our Thanksgiving was fantastic. Baby brother and family came over for breakfast and, if a may say so myself, I made the most kick-ass bacon I've ever tasted. Whenever I cook ANYTHING right, it's a big deal. And it's not that I cook things and screw them up, necessarily. It's that I just don't cook things. Theory is that the more great successes I have, the more I may want to cook. So far, that hasn't really happened.

Anyway, Thanksgiving at the restaurant was great. It was fantastic to have everybody there (except for my BIL Dave, who is recovering from DOUBLE knee surgery) and the gigantic table in the middle of the table was overwhelming. There we were, all sitting at the one table (pretty much). That's the first time that ever happened. And I think it's the first time we all ate Thanksgiving Dinner from actual plates instead of disposable.

Right now I'm in the middle of kids birthday party mayhem. One yesterday at Giggles And Smiles at the mall. The Saturday after Thanksgiving. At the Mall. And one there today, too. The mall wasn't too bad yesterday when I got there, and I actually got a little bit of shopping done. But an hour later it had gotten crazy. So I grabbed the laptop and sat in the food court (Yeah! for free wi-fi) and got some work done. Today the party is at 4:00, which is the same time as the Steeler Game. So, I'm hoping it's not as crazy in there today.

So, enjoy your Sunday! Kids have one more day off school tomorrow, but I'll be working. Hopefully we get the Christmas decorations up today/tomorrow. We're starting to look like slackers. I promise to try for a more meaningful post tomorrow. Really. It will be thought-provoking and possible introspective. I think.

I shouldn't be doing this...

Right now I'm supposed to be cleaning my office. I am oh so good at procrastination. The papers are everywhere, kids books on the floor and there are two CD/DVD organizers laying on my desk just waiting to be filled. Everything that needs to go in them is scattered. All over. Oh well.

I have just a few little notes about life over the past week or so. Maybe I'll go in chronological order:

Last Saturday my hubby went to the Pitt game. Home opener. He had a great time and took a cab home. The next day he shows me this beer coozy (you know, to wrap around it and keep it cold). But this one doesn't just say 'Pitt' on it. No...this is a super fantastic invention. And I can't believe that I didn't think of it. It has two really strong magnets on the back of it, and they're covered with a piece of pleather. That way, when you're tailgating you can just put it on the car. It actually holds en entire full can of beer. So simple.........




Sunday night I had girl's night out. Nice dinner at the Grand Concourse, drinks outside at Bar Louie, and then a jaunt into the South Side and we headed to Dee's Cafe. Felt good to get back to drinking and smoking...no matter how bad it might be for me. For just those mere 8 hours I had no responsibility. Nice. Of course, there were 6 moms. What did we (mostly) talk about? Kids and kid/family related stuff.

OK, while I was writing this post here's what happened: I had Chloe (2) come up to me and say 'turds.' She did not have a diaper on. So, I asked "Where?", and she led me to the family room. Diaper on the floor, full o' turds. At least none had wondered onto the carpet. So, I did the whole potty-diaper change thing with her. Then Becca (4) wanted a peanut butter sandwich. Cut into a circle. Of course, then Chloe wants one, too. So I made two peanut butter sandwiches. The point is, if you're reading this you would imagine that I'm sitting at my computer just typing away. Not exactly.

Well, I'll have to catch up on some more later....I'm actually going to start to clean! By the way, if you're looking for Halloween shirts, I've started a new blog at halloweentees.wordpress.com
I've picked out shirts that I like. The one is quite funny, and I think I'm actually going to purchase it. Here's the link: 333 Half Evil