August 30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 13

Far away.

We are surrounded by mountains. These are to the East of us. The mountains to the West always have a blanket of marine layer just about to pour over them after heading off the Pacific Ocean.

The grass REALLY IS GREENER!

Dude.

We have a badass backyard.

When we first moved into the house we had a pond in the back. I was so looking forward to getting it all fixed up and running and the sound of the water and the frogs and possibly fish and… no. It was just one disaster after another. First the pump died so we had somebody come out to install a new one. (Actually, something good came out of that step! We bought the shopvac which we’ve since found a ton of uses for.) Then once it was all up and running and pretty and stuff it started leaking. And just GAH! We tried to track the leak, thought maybe it was just a hole in the lining, so one Saturday afternoon we started digging to find the hole and pretty soon the hole was four feet deep and five feet wide and IS THERE AN END TO THIS DAMN HOLE! And it’s not just the digging! There’s the ROCKS! There are SO. MANY. ROCKS.

Then it sat. For probably a month it sat.

We tossed around the idea of trying to fix it or just fill it up and sod over it or just throw a couple gallons of nitroglycerin in there and hope for a very strong wind to blow through and in the end sod seemed like the most logical, cost effective and dog friendly solution.

Ben spent a LOT of time over the next two or so weeks filling up the hole with trucks full of dirt, ripping out monster grass plants that were determined to stay, prepping the rock hard clay around the pond area and cussing. And buying tools. And sweating. He was dirty and sweaty and cussing and I have to admit here that a small part of me kind of liked coming home to that. heh ENOUGH OF THAT! Get your minds out of the gutter, people!

Finally, last week he was able to switch to topsoil and finished up prepping the area so that Saturday we could lay down the sod. And we did. We laid that sod GOOD. We kicked that sod’s ASS.

And I spent the next two days laying on my back and alternating between cooling pads, the massager and heavy doses of pain killers because, dude, that sod KICKED MY ASS. Did you know that a little roll of sod weighs over 50 pounds and we moved 15 of them from the pallet to the back of the truck, then the back of the truck to a spot in the backyard, then a spot in the backyard to where they were finally laid to rest for ALL OF ETERNITY. And they really have to guesstimate the weight because the wetter they are, the more they weigh and we had a few that were REALLY wet. So with the guestimate weight and the number of times we had to move it we lifted a combined total of 2250 POUNDS OF GRASS. And if that sentence were, like, you know, about “grass” *wink wink nudge nudge* I’d probably feel all happy right now but it wasn’t, it was, you know… GRASS. So after going to pick up the 2000th pound of grass I must have lifted wrong. Or maybe it was swinging the mallet into the four inch thick tree posts, all eight of them, so that I could pull them out of the ground. Or maybe it was the way I threw myself into the chair when I took a break but whatever it was, my ass: KICKED.

I’m okay now though because WE HAVE A BADASS BACKYARD.

Ben had to go yesterday and get one final roll of sod to fill in some of the edge spots and he’s been dilligently watching over it and watering it three times a day and it looks AWESOME. He’s also pulled out some more of the crappy looking plants and “installed” a new plant where the old waterfall used to be. He did a great job of building that place back up with rock and planted some ground cover there with PINK FLOWERS that will eventually “flow over” that rock and look beautiful.

When we first moved in I was SO in love with the backyard. I couldn’t imagine how it could possibly get any better but, MAN, has it gotten better. And I love it. And it’s only going to get better. And Ben has been the driving force. And have I written lately about how much I love that man?

If you don’t want to do something, one excuse is as good as another.

*deep breath*

I deactivated Intense Debate. It hurt my heart a little to do it because all the folks there have been REALLY AWESOME with my constant desire to FIX THIS! AND NOW THAT! But aflux’s load times with ID deactivated is MUCH better. Much.

Also, it was causing about 111 validation errors and apparently that’s like, really, really important to some anonymous people on the internet. *nods*

Unfortunately, the process to import all those comments back into the WordPress database via the control panel is causing a memory error and until I can call my host to have that fixed, they have all disappeared. If I get time I’ll do it today but I just wanted to let you all know I haven’t deleted you! Just kinda hidden you in the back of a closet till I can find the time to organize you all neatly again.

I also got rid if IZEA’s ad over there *points right*. It was a “test ad” that they used to create some data points. I will miss it though because it was bringing in some decent money but, meh. It was causing validation errors also, and again, VERY IMPORTANT to be XHTML compliant if the original theme developer puts a link there!

And yeah, I need to add some kind of styling to the tweets and delicious feeds but they’ve taken a pretty big back seat to all the damn house drama. I’ve neglected pretty much every online project and community over the last few weeks (excluding Twitter of course, I’m busy, not DEAD).

By the way, did I mention?!

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS! We got keys yesterday and found a reason to get over to the house last night and took some clothes and food over with us. There is SO MUCH I want to write about the process of buying our first home. SO. FUCKING. MUCH. But today I need to just concentrate on getting work done, then getting home to pack the last of the stuff up before the movers come tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday, all!

Das Ende.

Tonight we spent an hour and a half signing the final paperwork for the house which means NO MORE HOOPS!! YAY! The papers should arrive at the title company Monday morning then Countrywide can fund and we’ll get keys either Monday or Tuesday. I was REALLY hoping that we would get to move this weekend and have next week to unpack while Cassidy is at her Nana and Papa’s but I guess we’ll make it work.

OMG WE JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE.

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement in the comments of the last post. I REALLY needed to remember that there was actually reason for all this misery because I was being a whiny brat.

Now I’m going to go drink a glass of wine. Or nine.

Stress: The confusion created when one’s mind overrides the body’s basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it.

If you ever get the idea to buy a house let me just give you some advise right now: DON’T.

If anybody told me that it was going to be an stressful as it is, I don’t know that I’d have followed through. It’s one fucking hoop to jump through after the other, which in normal circumstances wouldn’t be so bad, and I’m so over hoops. And it’s not just, “Oh hey, we have this hoop we want you to jump through.” Instead it’s, “Hey we have this flaming hoop and we need you to jump through it backwards while doing a headstand on a three legged retarded giraffe, okay? No biggie. But if you could just get that done 10 minutes ago and fax me the proof? THANKS!”

We were supposed to close yesterday but instead we were thrown this curve ball and it’s been hoop after hoop after hoop today, and assuming that no other bullshit hoops get thrown in our path, we should be able to sign by Friday. Please keep your fingers crossed for us… We really need the extra love right now.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

So we recieved a ‘Verbal’ acceptance on the house. That means we got it but I’m not going to bank or count on anythng till we have some papers in hand to sign from the bank. We also recieved the Section 1 inspection that the bank had done not long ago and there were some possible troublesome items that will have to be looked into farther on Wednesday when we have our own inspection.

I just wanted to let you all know what was going on on THAT front. So far so good, and when I know more, I’ll let you know too!

But that’s not what I sat down to write about.

Ben and I are SO HAPPY about this house. And even if we don’t get THIS HOUSE and it ends up being another one, we’ll still be SO HAPPY because eventually we WILL find The One. And it WILL probably be in Morgan Hill or Gilroy. And goddamnit I wish people would stop making this ALL ABOUT THAT LAST POINT.

Of the 40 people I’ve told about ths house, 32 of them responded with:

- Wow, that’s so far.
- That’s a LONG drive.
- Gilroy is so far away.
- Man, you’re going to get tired of that drive.

And seriously people, JUST STOP. When a woman tells you she’s pregnant you don’t respond with “OMG you’re going to get FAT!”. If you did she’d probably smack you upside the head. I don’t know why some of you think that it’s okay to respond to such life changing event, like buying your first home, in such a negative way. PLEASE DON’T DIRECT YOUR NEGATIVITY AT ME.

The thing I don’t get is that a lot, if not all of these people know how Ben and I met. How he used to drive 1000 miles a WEEK to see me. How he’d leave work at 3:00PM on a Wednesday, drive 240 miles to eat dinner with me, sleep, then wake up at 4:00AM to drive 240 miles back home to work. Then he’d be back again on Friday night and gone again Monday morning. 1000 miles a WEEK. To see me. You think he’s going to let a 20 mile commute keep him from something he loves? Something he want’s so badly? If you do, you really don’t know either of us as well as you think.

My dad and Cherie have been SO helpful in this process. Seriously, we would not be where we are now in this process without their constant guidance, support, and 10 billion emails and phone calls back and forth. He’s voiced his opinion about my commute, but also been SO POSITIVE and suportive and encouraging. THAT is what I want. I want people to, of course, DISCUSS the issues with me but STOP making it all about how sorry I’m going to be when I have to drive to work every day. For the record, as soon as the inspections are passed and we are a positive go on the house, I’m going to seriously start looking for jobs in either that area or southern San Jose.

Yes, we are going into this whole home buying thing blind, but we aren’t complete fools. We have REALLY thought out the pros and cons of moving farther south then we already are. We have spent many long discussions hammering out these details and thinking this stuff through and please, JUST BE HAPPY FOR US.

PS – This is not directed to any of my online girls, you all rock hardcore and have been so supportive. This is people in real life that have been, in general, not very thoughtful when reacting to the news.

*Title quote: Thich Nhat Hanh