It's getting there, but damn Im tired of screwing and pounding

So last Saturday, we did nothing at all in regards to the TH. Both of us were beat and my legs were acting up. Not sure what's wrong with them but I'm keeping an eye on them to see if there's any changes for the worse on them. I suspect it's mostly because we've been eating out ALOT (which means much more salt than I normally would consume) and Ive been on my feet for hours at a shot. Im hoping by staying off them for a bit they'll get better. It's next to impossible though with a staircase to navigate on a daily basis. Anyhow, all of us really needed a rest so that's what we did (yeah the dog climbed behind hubby like that and just got that comfy all on her own).

Sunday...I'm blanking on. The camera date on the pix says we spent time in the TH though. I'm sure we hit WalMart for supplies but I cant be for certain whether it was before we went or after. More than likely it was after. I know we've practically been living there lately. Time was definitely spent in the TH though with me attempting to put together the kitchen (which was almost set to go until a couple of days ago..now I got loose ends all over my counters again). I'm sure Sunday was an 8 hour day here as well. I started putting the curtains up but discovered one of the packages of curtain rods for the bedroom was missing the brackets. It may have been that evening we went to Wally World for like the ba-zillionth time...this time for a new set of double rods (kept the first set as the rods themselves can be used separately on single brackets for in the spare room and the office). I have absolutely no idea why they called for a dual bar in there. There is only one pocket on the curtains and the valance is attached. You try and put a dual rod in there and the curtain wont wrap around the window and keep the light out. I did manange to organize quite a bit in the room (until we brought the stuff over from the apartment) and at least we had a nice place to sleep...and the bathroom was looking ok and even the office where hubby spent most of the day was coming together. At least the office was to the point where the Comcast installer could come in and do some work (remember the last entry said we rescheduled because he was running late and we really didnt have the place put together enough anyhow).

At least the most important rooms in my house were nearly set...well until Tuesday when we brought the rest of the stuff over and the other additional things we wanted that we got at Wally World. Now the sections pictured look a tad chaotic again. Just a tad though, not as bad as the storage room . The livingroom looks just as bad because many of our bookcases got ruined in the move. Granted they weren't the best quality but you do expect professionals to do a better job than they did. We're still finding hidden damages as well so it wasnt just the loaders and unloaders....it was packers as well. Needless to say I dont plan on using ANY of these companies again. Thankfully we have 9 months to file a claim, plenty of time to get everything at least checked out even if they dont get unpacked totally.

Monday. Comcast day-part deux. We got up at 6am so we could get some breakfast and go to WalMart for the curtain rods I needed and a few other things. While there I decided to get another valance for the kitchen window. I had 3 for the 3 windows but with as narrow as the side 2 are, it would have looked funky if there wasnt as much gathering at the top of the valances in the middle as the side windows. It took me about 30 minutes to put the second curtain up in the bedroom and about another hour or better to get the valances up. Why so long? Because Im terrified of using hubby's power tools so all building I do is done manually. I start a little hole with a nail and hammer, then I put each screw in by hand (hence the title of my blog....mmm hmm I KNEW what you were thinking...you pig!). It takes a while and I manage to work up a good sweat, but I get the satisfaction of doing it all by myself. Those window shades are really jacked bad and need to be cleaned off but that can wait for warmer weather. I'd love to replace them but that middle window is a bitch. The 2 on the sides are 23" and easy to find but that mashoogana one in the middle is 41". The 39" blinds are too small and the next size up is a 42". I could always get the 42" but then it means putting the brackets on the out side of the window frame and although I dont mind that, it's difficult with this window so we're gonna hit the blinds stores around the corner and see if they have one in the size we need. Oh...I managed to get my wedding corner set back up too. I was gonna set it up in the small foyer but I was afraid the door would get slammed on accident and something would fall and break so I relocated it to the dining area. The grey to the left is my stereo and where the plaque is on the right? Well underneath is where my music shelves are now.

By 930am or so I asked hubby if they were supposed to automatically reschedule us for installation of the cable or were we supposed to call? It must have been a good question because he called to make damn sure we were on the schedule and yes we were. By 1130am or so, there wasnt anyone at the TH yet. Hmmm last week's schedule was somewhere between 9-12 and when we rescheduled they were supposed to put us in the same time spot. I remember hubby saying to make it same time next week but make it Monday instead of Tuesday. So he calls again to find out where the hell the guy is because we've been at the TH since 830am and have other running that needs to be done. Oh yeah, we're on the schedule but we're *just now* told that it was for 12-3pm. It would have been nice to know this when hubby called the first time idiots! He told them to just get someone there as soon as possible. I know he was just waiting for another reschedule because he was gonna tell them sure but the installation damn well better be free. Shit...we coulda slept in some, something we both desparately need at this point. Hubby decided he needed to get the heck out of the TH for a bit so he left me there and headed back to the apartment to walk the pooch. Not 10-15 minutes after leaving the TH, the cable dude showed up. *shakes head*. I called hubby and handed my cell to the cable man and they talked a bit so all were on the same page (I dont trust my memory to be able to relay instructions....go figure I can remember stories from way back when but something told to me just a few days ago...nope, nadda chance). With his directions, the cable guy went to work getting things set up and I sat in the dinigroom and put together my new shelving unit for my music. I really could have used my old one as it wasnt overly wrecked but it was really too small for my needs now. I've got one now that mu music collection can grow into and right now it still has room for all my classical and other instrumental cds (Yanni, Lao Tizer, etc) as well. I'll have to get a pic of it later as Im too tired to be taking that staircase right now. In fact as soon as Im done here, Im headed to bed....a little early for a change.

We stayed at the apartment Monday night and got the rest of our stuff moved to the TH the next day. I was all hooked up and ready to go for Idol that night. WHOOT. We're still finding problems here. I had to have a repair guy in just the other day to get an estimate for the landlady on replacing the boards under my kitchen sink and the sink in the half bath. It looks like they'd had some water damage and failed to tell the leasing office. No damn surprise. Just yesterday a leak that was in the making erupted in the half bath so I had to tell the leasing office to add it to the list. Sad as we'd hoped (hubby, myself and the leasing office) it wouldnt need to be repaired too soon. AH well.

The kids are adjusting to the new digs ok...sorta. So long as they dont have to take the staircase for anything they're fine. It's funny, really. The dog has pretty much got the hang of going down the stairs....it's coming up that's the problem. Her legs are just too short and she has not enough muscle in the hind ones to get her fat butt up the stairs. She does try though. The cat's another matter. She's like me and doesnt like the stairs period. Im hoping she gets the hang of them soon. She's terrified of going down (I've got scratches on my thigh where she caught me with her hindlegs to prove it) and going up was a problem at first as well. As of today, she still squeals everytime we start to take her down (she really tries hard to carve us up too) so what we've started doing is leaving her at the halfway point so coming down doesnt look too scary as it isnt so high up and going up isnt a major struggle. Well she doesnt even attempt going down, just turns tail and makes her way up the stairs and gives me the stink eye when she arrives at the top. After the first night I ended up resorting to bringin up a bowl of water for both and the cat's dish of food so she wouldnt starve. I reckon she'd been without food or water for nearly 24 hrs at that point because her food downstairs wasnt disturbed which means she never left the second level all night. I figure the dog can and will make the trip downstairs a few times during the day and can eat and drink down there. The cat, on the other hand, is just too freaked to do so. The dog's used to stairs because there's a flight of them at the in-law's place and she's been there before. The cat has never seen a stair in her life. All 4 yrs of her life she's been in a house with no stairs and the only ones she's ever seen were through the cage door as she was being transported. I think this is my fault to be honest. Instead of releasing her downstairs and letting her explore on her own, I brought her straight up stairs and released her where her litter was going to be. I never even imagined that my cat would get traumatized by a set of stairs.

Hmmm. Now that I see it how they see it, I can see why it's scary. This pic of the stairs was clicked at about their head level looking down. No wonder neither likes it. I know I aint fond of it and my head sits a HELL of alot higher.

What else? Hmmm I know Im forgetting something yet for the life of me I cant remember what it was. I guess that means I better close this and get my butt to bed.