3 Rooms Down - 7 To Go...

So, today I've spent the whole day since getting home from work, cleaning my downstairs family room. Just one big room down here, the only room with remaining furniture. :)

So it's been a lot of vacuuming and dusting and moving things around and more vacuuming.

In fact, I'm not entirely done yet but needed a break.

I also did the small bathroom down here. Well, just the floor actually, still need to do the dreaded toilet cleaning and maybe the windows. There's a stand up shower stall there, too, but we have never used it. In fact the drain is taped over, because we've (I guess I need to stop saying "we" eh?) got the cat's litter box in there. Seemed a logical place for it. But with a roommate in my future that may need to change. Plus I'd prefer The Boy not get in there and play in the catbox. I'm sort of thinking to put the box in the laundry room and maybe put a cat-flap in the door.

I still have to put The Boy's crib back together - it's in pieces where EL's friends moved it downstairs and left it disassembled - because he'll be sleeping down here with me for the short term future until I get him a real kid's bed and clean up his bedroom. That's next.


It's been raining, snowing, and sleeting for the last few hours here, not a whole lot of accumulation, but it'll be a pain in the ass driving to work tomorrow in the Mustang GT.

Ironically, not sure I posted this yet, but the "winterbeater" car I bought - a '93 All Wheel Drive Eclipse GSX Turbo - is currently not driveable. Something's up with the alternator or charging system, not sure what, but it's not charging at all, I almost got stranded at Wal-Mart about 2 weeks ago because I drove out there and didn't realize it wasn't charging until I noticed as I pulled in that stepping on the brake (brake light turning on) was making the radio cut out. :)

So I had to get someone to push me to restart it, and drove it back home with the headlights off, barely made it, got to the point if I'd step on the brake, the engine would stall, which made things pretty interesting trying to slow down to not run a red light, but keep rolling so I could pop start it again when it went green...LOL.


I also had to quick post about my amazing cookware deals. About 2 weeks ago, wandering through Wegmans's (big ass grocery store here) I saw a cool stir-fry pan. But it was like $32 and I figured I could get one cheaper elsewhere. Well, last night I went to Wegmans' after work to get food for The Boy and some other stuff, and I figured, screw it, why not just buy the thing.

Woohoo! It was on sale, as a "discontinued item" for $8.50. Marked down 75%. So I looked around a bit, and there were several other items like that...ended up getting the stir fry pan, two skillets, saucepan with lid, and roasting pan with rack - $220 worth of Cuisinart brand nonstick cookware for about $50. Woot for me!

So then of course I came home and cleaned out my kitchen, put away my new stuff, and reorganized where everything (that she left me, that is) was. I never liked the way she had the kitchen set up - too much junk on the counter near the stove, so there was no good place to do food prep. Not anymore.


Last bit of news, looks like things are on track for me to get my mortgage. I opted for an interest-only mortgage for the first 5 years. Means the payment will be like $200/mo cheaper than it is currently, though of course in 5 years it goes up significantly. But odds are I will not be here that long, or will just refinance again if I am. Bit of a risk if home values tank and/or interest rates start climbing out of control, but a good bet in the short term.

I am going to have to pay PMI, though, and I won't have any equity to take out as cash. This I thought would NOT be the case, but that's because EL had misinformed me as to the amount of the appraisal we got last year when we refinanced at that time.

She'd been telling me the house appraised at $220k which seemed way high to me. But she kept assuring me it was, etc.etc. So, since I only needed $158k of mortgage, it was going to be below 85% and I wouldn't need the PMI. But....last night looking for some proof of insurance paperwork, I found the freakin' appraisal from Oct 2003 - 190k! DAMMIT.

I'll still get the mortgage, but will have to pay the PMI, which is another $60/mo I was hoping to avoid. And I won't have room to take any cash out. So, no furniture in my near future, it looks like. Pasteboard bedroom set, here I come!