
the moving story: we are selling our home and going back to renting... in all honesty, we are relieved... no more basement sewers backing up and calling professionals to clean it out... no more paying ridiculously high property taxes... no more mortgage that keeps increasing instead of decreasing... no more squirrels eating their way to the kid's room... no more hallway roofs leaking whenever it rains... no more wood paneling in the living room... no more curtain rods falling off the fake wood moldings... no more begging ramel to mow the lawn or fix the garage....

of course, ramel and i will no longer have our spacious studios in the attic.... i will have my own studio in the room next to the living room... it hasn't a door so i can't hide away like now, but it will also mean no one will "miss mami"... there is an attic with two HUGE rooms but they are in dire need of cleaning and moving stuff around and out... this'll be our summer project... after its complete, ramel will have the biggest studio either of us has ever seen... when the kids get a wee older, i will move my studio to the attic too...

in the meantime, the kids will still share a room... the 3rd bedroom [my declared studio] is opposite of the house so its too far away for our small kiddos... the carpets were not in good condition... i went over to the new place and ripped out the carpet in the kid's room all by myself... no cutting the carpet in pieces, i just ripped it all out and rolled it away... i suffered the next day with pains...

the new place is much bigger than this one... the entire place needs carpeting ripped out... my mom and i tackled one room fairly fast... now there is the living room, dining room, and studio to do... tons of candle wax stains remain on the green dirty carpet.... and to realize that underneath, the ENTIRE floor is HARDWOOD! most people put on carpet to cover up hardwood that has been ruined, stained, or blotched with paint splatter from a bad paint job.... but these hardwood floors are in BEAUTIFUL condition!! it's going to look beautiful after tons of hard work...

the walls also need some tender, love, and care... no, i lie... they need a ton of soap, elbow grease, spackle, and a new coat of paint.... the kitchen was the worst... i scrubbed the walls so clean that there is probably a layer of paint
missing... i couldn't tell if the water was yellow from all the dirt or
part of paint job coming off [as the kitchen is yellow]... happily, the
floors are cleaned, the woodwork is cleaned as best as could be, and
the pantry is all fixed up and everything is rearranged to
greenbeanbaby perfection ;) still the process of cleaning had my gag reflexes going berserk....
i've been to that place cleaning nearly everyday... and there isn't heat there... the first day, i cleaned the kid's room without any hot water.... now we had to turn it off so the landlord could fix the water heater [as it's leaking tremendously].... i bought a new thermostat, a new toilet seat, and even a new dish rack... [yes, a new dish rack is an accomplishment!!!]... there was tons of furniture, nic nacs, papers, books, misc junk left at the house... and we've had to move it all... all the while, i have been packing up stuff HERE at the 46th street place... ramel drives the boxes over to the house.... a ton of work for sure...

after all the cleaning and packing, neither house is completely clean or ready.... that part is most frustrating... it has me worn... it has me backed up on artwork... i have 3 illustrations done with 3 more to do plus a book.... my emails are overflowing... i owe 3 people packages... and everywhere i look, SOMETHING has to be done... i hate knowing there is so much incompletion around here, ya know?! still, i am grateful for everyone's patience and encouraging words...
by february, we should be moved in... that's my goal.... and i hope to have everything unpacked and organized by the next day... hehe- just kidding.... i'd give us a week to clean it out :) so if the next few blogs are rants about cleaning and painting and aching backs, don't mind!!

what have you been up to?