We're In!

We're in! Which was no small feat given that we were locked out of our new house a few hours after taking possession. Oh yes. It was epic. We had to call a locksmith to break into our house on the very first night.

So, who's to blame, you ask? (Well, even if you don't care, I'll tell you.) It was truly a convergence of many unfortunate events. First, although Lew & I were handed a huge key chain full of keys during our walk-through, unbeknownst to us, the keys to all of the deadbolts (which are on every door) and the key to the front door were NOT on the key chain. Hence, we had one key too few for each and every locked door. Nice. Second, the front door key was left on the kitchen counter. There is some debate over who did this; however, the bottom line is that neither Lew nor I knew of the existence of said key. Third, during the closing we realized that we were missing the front door key. At this time I naively commented that we didn't have to go back to the house immediately because we had keys to all of the other locks (of course, I was unaware of the deadbolt situation).

Later that evening, I escorted Lew's grandparents to the house for a looksie. And that's when the other shoe fell - right before we were about to eat this fabulous meal prepared in our honor by my mother-in-law, Susan. This, of course, ruined the dinner. Lew & his dad, Brett, spent most of the evening at the house with a locksmith (named Adam Adam, seriously).

To add insult to injury, the next day we got a phone call from our real estate agent. Apparently, the cleaning crew (I use that term liberally since poor Susan spent all day cleaning the kitchen, again, on Saturday) saw the front door key lying on the kitchen counter & figured they'd lock up the house & place the key under the door mat. Of course, that's the one place that none of us thought to look. And, of course, the cleaners forgot to call anyone to let us know that's where they put the key. Ultimately, many hours, many gray hairs, and several hundreds of dollars later, we resolved the situation.


Here's the new pad. Unfortunately, this is an old picture (from the day we first saw the house.) But, hey, it looks pretty much the same. The yard is much greener though. Brett has spent countless hours preening our yard. Brett is amazing with yard work. He did, however, pull some vines off of our tree out front & threw them onto the road. I keep nagging Lew to remove them before we get the reputation of being the dirty neighbors. No one wants that!








Here's the Master Bedroom. Unfortunately, once again, this is an older picture (hence, not our stuff). I'll post some new pics once we get everything settled.







Susan has also been a God-send. While Lew & I were out shopping for cars, she spent all day Saturday cleaning and kashering the kitchen. (More to come on the car situation soon.) On Sunday, Saint Susan drove all the way to Cape May, NJ to pick up an amazing vintage Secretary's Desk that Lew bought me during our recent vacation. It's absolutely beautiful! (More on the desk & the Cape May trip soon.) Also, Susan spent a good chunk of time Sunday & Monday helping me unpack. Thanks to her help, we're about 80% unpacked. Yay!

Here's the fabulous deck & the back yard. It's heavenly! You can hear the birds chirping & the crickets cricketing. (Sidenote - Speaking of crickets - I was almost named Cricket because my mom went into labor while stepping on a cricket. The reason they went with Sarah? Because I was too quiet to be a Cricket - HA!) Speaking of heavenly, I've been sleeping like a baby (BTW - whoever came up with that expression is crazy) since I moved in on Monday. Part of it might be because of the exhaustion of moving, but I think it's also because the traffic noises in the city always interfered with my sleep. Yay to sweet, sweet sleep!

I'd better sign off for now. Many documents to review and many boxes to unpack before the day is done.

Craft This

Being crafty is definitely a double-edged sword. On one hand, you feel an amazing sense of accomplishment when you finish a project. On the other hand, you often feel an intense desire to procrastinate, and the subsequent guilt procrastination causes, throughout the duration of the project (unless you're one of those people who finishes a project promptly - if you are - you're no friend of mine).

After beginning and (temporarily) abandoning a photo framing project (but only after I bought about 100 frames off of Ebay), I decided to turn my attention to repainting the trim of our kitchen table & chairs. Little did I know how llllooooooonnnnngggg this type of thing takes. Because I'm going from a dark green to a white, it takes 3-4 coats of paint, plus 2 coats of varnish. So it takes me approximately 4 hours to paint one chair. Fab-u-lous. Needless to say, given that my days are already filled with work & packing, I haven't had an abundance of time to complete this project. Consequently, we now have 1 white chair, 1 semi-white chair (only 2 coats of white paint), 2 green chairs, and a green table.

Classy...

Here's my work in progress. It does look nice though, doesn't it?

Well, I'd better run - lots of packing to do...

What it feels like to be in an Alfred Hitchcock movie...

Sorry it's been a while. I've been working like a maniac this week. In addition, I've also felt the urge to make a trillion appointments: with every doctor I've ever had in the city and every friend I haven't seen in more than a couple weeks. If you didn't know any better, you'd think I was moving across the country, not just to the suburbs. However, I'm sure that accomplishing these little things will be a tad more difficult when I move to suburbia. It's sooo easy to walk to the doctor's office a block away on my way into work. Anyway, now it's 7 a.m. & I'm already procrastinating. But, since I haven't posted in a week, I feel like this is a worthy waste of time.

Last Friday night I went to see KT Tunstall in concert at the Borgata in AC (that's Atlantic City, NJ for those of you who are not "up" on the East Coast lingo). She was a really entertaining performer - very funny in between songs, energetic on stage, and theatrical. She changed guitars in between each song (loved, loved, loved the rhinestone guitar). And, she did this cool thing where she would record the first part of her song, and then sing the rest of the song with herself as back-up. (Also, one of her band members came out with a washboard tie which he played throughout one of the songs - sooo funny!) Although I didn't take any pictures because, come on, no concert pictures turn out very well, I found a couple of her on the web.

Here she is on her most recent album cover (Drastic Fantastic) with one of her flashy guitars. She wore these same ankle boots for her show.

Here she is with her band. Her fiance, the drummer, is the one with the pencil moustache to the right.

Although KT put on a good show, it was an odd scene. Instead of standing up & dancing throughout the show, everyone sat politely in their seats. Bizzare! I felt like I was in some sort of a lecture hall.

After the concert, my lady friends (Colleen & Kristina) & I crashed at the tres chic Days Inn. Nothing like sleeping in a smoking room with questionable sanitation. But, it was the right price & right next to the Boardwalk, which gave us the chance to walk on the beach before heading home on Sat. morning. Unfortunately, our walk was cut short when we were attacked by seagulls. Seriously. As Kristina was enjoying her morning donut, this seagull swooped down & grabbed it right from her hand. Thereafter we watched, in horror, as all of the other seagulls attacked the seagull with the donut. It freaked us out so much that we had to head back to Philly immediately.

Speaking of the NJ Shore - Lew & I are heading to beautiful Cape May this Monday for a mini-vacation right before our closing/move. We're staying in the Stonewall Jackson Suite in this cute little bed & breakfast right in the middle of the fun part of this quaint Victorian community. (By the way, doesn't it seem odd that a bed & breakfast in NJ would name a Suite after a Confederate General?) Hopefully the seagulls there will be a little more civilized.

Cityfied

True story. I'm on the phone with my sister-in-law, Emily, who lives in po-dunk-ville Iowa, when she suddenly exclaims - "Oh my God. There are two barns on fire!" Right as I was mocking her for living in a place where barns even exist, she passed the fire department (I use that term liberally - it's really just another barn) where - get this - there's a fire truck refilling with water. I had NO idea such rudimentary fire trucks even existed anymore. I immediately envision one of those old black-and-white movies with a line of men passing buckets down the row to put out a fire. Don't get me wrong, it makes logical sense since many people in po-dunk-ville drink well water (which, after doing environmental litigation, really gives me the heebie jeebies); however, it's still a very foreign concept to me. Apparently, I'm no longer a country girl. For better or worse, I've been cityfied.

Living vicariously

Life has a funny (and not ha, ha funny) way of screwing with you. As Murphy's law would have it, the day after I started this blog...and about a million nesting-related projects...I got SLAMMED with work. Alas, this means I may not be posting on my blog as much as I would like (to your disappointment, I'm sure). However, surely I'll need to vent & take a hiatus every once and a while.

Lew & I have postponed our summer vacation to save for the new house. (Lew might take issue with how well I have, in fact, accomplished this "saving" thing.) Therefore, I have been forced to live vicariously through others' vacations. Thanks to my friends who have posted vacay photos on Facebook, I've traveled all around the world (without any nasty jetlag). My brother, JT, just sent me these pics from his recent trip to Colorado.

Aren't they amazing?!? Both JT & I inherited our grandfather, Bus's, love for photography. JT even developed his own pictures at one point, which is pretty cool (but requires waaaayyyyy too much effort/patience for me). Given my need for instant gratification, I doubt I'll ever surpass a nice digital camera. Who else out there takes pics? Do you prefer a specific type of camera?

Opening statement...

Welcome friends, fam, & voyeurs to my new blog. Given that Lew & I are 17 days away from closing on our first home (you guessed it - in the 'burbs), I figured this was an appropriate time to start my blogging activities. That way, those of you at home, can follow along as Lew & I dive into suburban bliss. Here's a little preview of what's to come at 135 Drakes Drum Drive (yes, even the address is adorable).

The (soon-to-be) New Schlossberg Home

Lew in the kitchen - you may now ooohh and ahhh over all of our new appliances!

And the piece de la resistance...the jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom.