My Good Life

 I have neglected my blog for long enough; while Captain Grumpbump is out running morning errands, I'm taking the opportunity to unload everything that has been going on in the last two months.

We are almost three months into home ownership, and we are so in love with the house that's it is borderline embarrassing.  Capt. Grump has really blossomed into my very own handy man.  He finished painting the rest of the house (with the exception of the bathrooms) and now he's starting on painting all the doors.  Additionally, he fixed the master bathroom bath faucet (there were problems with the water pressure when we were taking a shower) and he installed blinds in the living room, guest bedroom, and the Capt's video room (formerly the second bedroom).

We added a few new (to us) fixtures to the house:  (1) barstools (we inherited them from a friend whose parents were moving); (2) side tables being used as nightstands in our bedroom (purchased off craigslist); (3) the previously mentioned china cabinet (great find on craigslist); (4) round wood end table (craiglist, again); (5) headboard for full bed (headboard was craiglist; the bed we bought new - both to furnish the guest room).

Finished Guest Room 

Barstools (a/k/a Delilah's favorite place to sleep)

China Cabinet with Capt's paintings

Our bedroom - this is one of the two "nightstands" I bought  off of craigslist

I am addicted to searching craiglist for furniture.  Right now, I'm on the hunt for outdoor patio furniture.  I'm having a harder time with this search than the others (I've had two failed attempts to buy) but that's part of the fun of it.

The opposite of fun, however, is what the Capt and I did last weekend.  The whole truth is that it started out with Delilahs.  For the record, I want it known that we never have these types of problems with Miss Macy, who is practically the perfect cat.

Portrait of a Perfect Cat

Troublemaker (yes, she's sitting with her tail IN THE WATER...WTF?)

The whole story starts with the issues we've had with Delilahs the last few weeks.  She constantly whimpers, whines, and chirps her demands to be let outdoors (basically, the front of the house).  We have also been subject to her vocalizations at ungodly times (3 and 4 o'clock in the morning - every morning).  The capper was when we let her to go out back and she hopped the fence and ended up in our neighbor's yard.  We had to come up with another plan.  Delilahs cannot be a free-roaming outdoor cat in our new space.   Many ideas were thrown about (and most of the solutions were fairly expensive - invisible fencing, netting for our existing backyard fencing) and the Capt and I decided on the cheapest "solution" - put Delilahs on a harness and use a tie-out in the front yard.

We put our plan into action last Saturday.  The only hitch was that the tie-out did not come with a corkscrew stake to put in the ground.  Capt. Grump improvised and used a curtain rod from the garage.  He staked it into the middle of one of the tree stumps in our front yard.  And then a few minutes later, we were frightened to see water pouring out of the side of the house and into the front yard.  The Capt ran to shut off the main water valve and we both realized that the curtain rod had most likely punctured the water line from the street to the house.

I started making phone calls to find a plumber to come out on a Saturday, while the Capt started digging out the tree stump (because we surmised that the plumber would need to get to the line that was broken underneath).  We quickly realized that we didn't have the tools necessary to dig out those stumps and so I was sent to search for a stump grinder.  My mind is reeling at this time because I'm figuring that this is going to cost us well above $500 for our stupid attempt to allow Delilahs access to the front yard.   I was lucky to end up with a great company agreeing to come out and remove both tree stumps for only $140!

Our stump-less front yard

The tree grinder guy only took 15 minutes to finish and then the plumber arrived shortly thereafter. He ended up re-routing the water line around where the stumps used to be.  Mr. plumber man said that the Capt's puncture was a one-in-a-million shot, which cost us $250 to fix.  That was hard to swallow but we had to do it.

Finally, we have not forgotten about the Delilahs.  She was still tethered to the tie-out while we trying to figure out who to call and she was startled by a garbage can lid being knocked over the wind.  She freaked out because she wanted to run but couldn't go that far because of the harness and lead and we watched in what seemed to be slow motion as she jumped and bucked and pulled against the tie-out until she frantically slipped out of the harness.  Luckily, she ran back to the house in her panic and I just brought her inside. At this point, my heart is pounding out of my chest, with the cat all freaked out and the thought of the major expense we were going to occur.

Delilah before the freak-out

I'll end this long story by saying that by the end of the day I was very happy with the look of our new front yard and satisfied that we didn't really spend that much money.  Of course, we are no closer to figuring out Delilah's issues with still wanting to be an outdoor cat.  I've decided that we should just kill Delilah's soul and force her to be indoors all the time, but the Capt has not seen the light on that issue and still talks to me about how we can help her.

I'm still knitting the Capt's afghan but I also finished a crocheted hat.  The hat is too big (typical) but I'm going to wet block it to see if it can be saved.  I'll post more about it later.