My first insurance clame

It's summer time... and you know what they say: "Summer showers bring fall flowers". We have had a LOT of rain lately. my basement has leaked 3 times already, but I can handle that... This is what I would rather not have to handle:

It was Wednesday June 8th. I was sleeping down stairs because Monday and Tuesday were 90 degree days and my bedroom up stairs was boiling hot. I had dragged a mattress down in the living room and that's where I was sleeping. I woke up at about 1am to a horrible noise, hale. Hale on Hale street. for about 10 minutes or so it haled, it was loud, not huge but a lot of it and mixed with a lot of wind. it went from 80's to the 60's. after the hale it rained, actually it poured. I woke up once to a weird sound in the front of my house, I got up and opened the front door, yep, still poring... but somehow water was dripping between my front door and my storm door.... I went back to bed. I woke up once more and heard more dripping... sounded like the kitchen... couldn't be though, all the windows were shut... oh well... I was tired and was sure everything was fine.

When I got up in the morning I might have ran, I don't remember, but I ate breakfast, put Matilda out, packed my lunch, made coffee and got ready for work. I put Matilda in the cage and headed out the door. Froze. "drip" "drip" It was still raining but it was dripping on the floor by my table room window. I just stared at it for a while, put all my stuff down and found that it was coming from above the window, I looked up... A WET SPOT!! :( but it wasn't dripping from the wet spot, it was dripping from above the window... I got a towel and wiped it up and put a towel down to catch the rest of the drips.... Called my dad... He couldn't do anything... I couldn't do anything, of course the stupid rain was still coming down. I hated it. Sadly and in a much worse mood than I had been 5 minutes before I headed out to work. It didn't rain too much on the way... that was good. but when I got to work it started to pour again. Angry. But what could I do? I looked at the radar with despair and saw the HUGE storm system that had gone through and  the other huge one that was going to go through. What could I do? I called a roofer. Once it stopped raining I met up with him and was assured that yes, my roof really was leaking and needed repair. Hale damage he said.

Then I called the insurance person. They said they would call back the next day. in the mean time the roofer guys came and put a tarp on the roof. 2 nights ago it rained hard again and water came through a little anyway :( I guess the insurance is going to fix it but I still have a 1000 to pay. Their goes my extra fence painting money from Condor Capital.

Oh well... what can I do? Fix it I guess. I'm just worried.... Ryan my neighbor said that they re did the inside of that room before I looked at the house.... I'm guessing they just covered up that their was a problem and this exact same thing had already happened in the previous years... I have no opening to my addict above that room or the kitchen.... What else could have been covered up their? what else could have been covered up all over the house? My bath tub creeks when I stop on one spot.. like nothing is under their...The basement leaks and the cement stuff around the foundation is coming off although I did read that you don't even need that stuff...  I don't know what could happen. I live their.... and I wait.

Gardens and Flowers

Things are going good at the house. I haven't seen as many spiders, so that's nice. The air conditioner works, so that's good - it dosen't work too well for my bedroom however, I just dragged my double mattress down stairs to get out of the heat, I'd say it's about 20 degrees hotter up their & I value my sleep A LOT. I should probably get a window air conditioner up their, or I could just move a bed down to the computer room for the summer. I'm wondering what my electric bill will be with the air on - i'm guessing it will be similar to the gas bill during the winter.

I planted a garden - twice actually, but the second time did the truck and beans and peas are growing now -- nothing from the spinach or lettuce so far but it's only been 9 days, they may take longer. I also bought pepper plants and tomatoes, and they are doing well. I'm pretty exited about fresh veggies this summer.
I also got a hanging flower pot for my front porch & also found a rocking chair in the garbage on the porch - it looks very homey now :) I like it.
Another thing I really like about my house is all the great running routs I have. I have a nice 6.5 mile loop, a 7.5 mile loop, a 8 mile loop, a 9 mile loop a 10.3 mile loop, a 6 mile loop a 4 and a 5. pretty much anything I would want to do - most of them have hills or creek crossings to make things interesting.
I guess nothing else is really new with the house, I like the yard work, I want to get river rock for around the house and plant some bushes. I have killed the trees that were starting to grow again around my house, I think a few lived though and I will need to put the acid on those again. My basement is still leaking, I used the de humidifier down their to help dry everything up, but I didn't realize that once the tank filled up it kept going and over flowed -- so then re flooded my basement, that was nice. I still need to put my pannels up on the side of the house with the problems -- also still need gutters.... Always somethign to do! but it will be fun learning - I get great satisfaction from doing house hold chores and tasks although sometimes it is slightly over whelming - I did get my first hose, hose sprayer and hose holder that I attached to my house - I think they look nicer than the plastic roller things and it also only cost $5 which of course was a big selling point.

The trees are alive

It has been fun this spring watching my yard and trees come alive, wondering what would grow.... so far I have violets, logs of yellow flowers, some white grassy flowers, something purple that hasen't bloomed yet & LOTS of yellow flowers AKA dandelions. Those I could do with out and must kill. Another thing I must kill is the trees along the side of the house and under the deck that looked quite dead a couple of weeks ago, but are now sprouting leaves and branches about as fast as the horrible dandelions. I really wish they had stayed dead. Now I must kill them and dig them out to make sure I have succeed. What a pain that will be.

I also planted a garden behind the garage with Missy and Ryan (Ryan tilled it up for me & I didn't need all the space so I figured they might as well plant stuff too) I still have to plant tomatoes and peppers, but the weather has been horribly unpredictable. One day it's 90 the next it's 40 and in the 30's at night.

I also survived 3 80+ days with out turning on the air. It sure did get hot up in my bed room, I suppose that is the disadvantage of having a bedroom in what use to be the addict.

I have enjoyed sitting out on my porch and reading with Matilda (she lays down and sleeps I read) I have also enjoyed my fence, it's so nice to just let Matilda out and it looks so nice now that it is painted. I did have someone steal Matildas little pink soccer ball, that makes me upset because they had to some into my fence to do it and she really liked that ball, it was the perfect size and we got it on our first Garagesale outing together.

I guess that is all, I haven't had any more leaks in the basement, I got the extra escrow money in my bank account, so that's nice, the spiders are alive and well, Matilda found a big one making a break for it to the bathroom, I was able to intercept that effort because of Matilda and that rebel spider is no longer living. Why can't they just understand English and stay in the basement like I keep telling the to do?

SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!!BUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DUST!!!!!!!!!! DIRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so it's spring. My fence is painted and the FHA inspector approved it. Not my painter guy is going to get payed  from the escrow account and so far it seems like I get the rest :) I was going to just put it twards my loan, but now I think i'll save it for a rainy day and use some for vacation. i've notices that rainy days come up pretty often when you own a home. My dad got me a lawn mower so i'm going to mow my lawn soon, pretty exited about that. Then I have to do the siding on one part of the house. I already got the wood and the painters painted it, I just have to cut it and put it on. shouldn't be too bad.
My heat bill was 380 last month -- totally lame because I asked them if it was right before and they said it was, but it wasn't. still advantages out to 150 per month, but this month my car insurance is dew, car license plate sticker & My dog ate a rope which cost 1100 in vet bills. Bad timing Nichr, bad timing.
One of my tiles is starting to come up I'm wondering why and thinking it might be because nothing in my house is level... not sure what to do about that. My next internal project will be to fix the basement, I'm afraid that that section of the house is sinking more, but I'm pretty sure its not, I'm just afraid... I need to do if for my piece of mind.
also i've been noticing that my house gets dusty really fast. I wonder why this is. maybe I need to change the furnace filter?
lastly, the bugs and spiders. I have killed several little critters with lots of little legs, they are very delicate little things and just a little gross. also I have found a couple other bugs in random places such as pill bugs, how the heck did they get it?! Also some spiders, 2 up stairs, 2 in the kitchen and One HUGE one in the bath tub. HUGE. like a wolf spider type. I was not happy to discover him. Not sure what to do about that or if it is normal. I need some bug killer. they must come from the basement. I declare war on them. We can not live peacefully in the house. they can be outside, that's fine, but not in the house. it's my house, I don't like them, they didn't spend 3 hours in closing to get the house, they didn't didn't search for a house for months and go through all the stress and expenses I did. They were NOT INVITED and must go. What to do, what to do? I guess I better spray around the house and close up all holes possible. also maybe work on that big hole, bomb the basement? gir. the problems that I did not think about....

So far so good

Everythign is going good with me and my little house. I still have some work to do, I got the yard raked up and flowers are starting to grow, I got all my blinds up, but still need curtains, I got a queen sized bed, i'm pretty exited about it. It's my first queen sized bed ever and it's SO confortable and big. My basement leaked the other day -- got to get those gutters on next month. My paint job will be happening next month as well. SHould be interesting to see how that works with the escrow money and all.  I am loving living alone and living in town. I love taking walks with Matilda and running to the store etc when I need to. I'm not afraid to get up at night anymore... No strange barking from Matilda, I think she is use to it as well. I had my birthday party at my house as well as my sisters & my moms... it works good for that. I love having people over...

Squrrles were in my house

Well I have learned a lot about my little house since I moved in. One neighbor told me that the deck is brand new and the old one was in bad shape, he said that they re did the floors down stairs and also the cling in the "dining room" Another neighbor told me that in August of last year they had to exterminate a bunch of squirrels that got in through the roof and had to replace the ceiling and dry wall in the stair way because of them. She said that they flushed them all out and their was a army of homeless squirrels running down the street, I guess they just kept on coming out... I"m really hoping that they closed the squirrel door up. It seems like my neighbors were very interested in my house, because both of them actually talked to the people that came to work on it.
Yesterday I was cleaning up dog poop in the yard and kept finding weird stuff laying around. I found a berried grill poker, a golf ball a bouncy ball, bunch of garbage... My lawn is going to need some work -- But it will be fun & Jer will help me, he already had ideas for it. I want to plant lilock trees and maybe one more tree, maybe a maple, not sure.
Another kind of funny thing that happened was my Nicor gas bill. I got it and it was a estimated one for $50ish, so I called and the lady and she said that they did  a reading but they had to ajust it because of when I bought it, I guess figuring out who owed what... She said that that reading was really high though and the bill might be around $300, This made me really un happy, that was a LOT. She looked into the history of the bills and said that they we usually high around that time of year. So, I figured I wouldn't be having much extra money and better get a room mate. Then we had a blizzard, and before the blizzard hit I went out and got a bottle of expanding fome, I sealed up all the holes in the basement, even crawled in the crawl space which was really scary, I calked all the windows up and added a door strip, then I got clear calk and sealed the windows shut. I was ready for the snow, but was still sad about my bill (i'll get back to that later). The blizzard hit, once I found out I would not have to go to work the next day I invited Missy and Ryan and their dogs over for a blizzard party. we had pizza and wine and hung out, the dogs had fun... it was a good night. The next day I lazed around, had breakfast and then wend out to dig out. Wow, 2.5' of snow in my drive way. Thankfully one neighbor did the side walk and Missy and Ryan helped me with the drive way, I would have been over their all day if it weren't for them. Then, it got cold, VERY cold. I smelled gas outside, called Nicor they came out and sure enough I had a leak, they fixed it. Then about 3 weeks later the snow melted and it rained -- my basement did not flood!!! Good little basement. The nicor people came out to do another reading on my request, they wrote me a letter and according to them their bill of $50 something was correct, and my next bill would be similar. I guess keeping my house at 60 degrees was paying off, my cold nose as I fall asleep, my cold feet as I watch TV, and all the after shower shivering... Maybe all that was  a little over kill.

clack clack clack

So, my house is starting to scare me -- I have noticed it before, but now it's getting to me. I woke up last night to noises again. "clack clack clack" it sounded like someone had 2 drum sticks (not the bones, but the ones people use to play drums with) and they were hitting them together. It was not random, but the start and end times were random -- right when I was ready to sleep again it would start and my heart would start to race. I know it's nothing, but my stupid imagination will not believe me. I see little glowing eyes in the dark, monsters in the closet, dark figures standing in the corners...I try to push these thoughts away but it is getting harder with these noises. I was just getting comfortable staying alone and now this is really bothering me. The thing is, I KNOW it's nothing, it's probably something like the water heater in the basement echoing, or even the fridge, I know it makes a sound, maybe since the house is so quite at night, the sound travels up to me, but it still makes my heart jump and my mind stay alert. "clack clack clack" .................."clack, clack, clack"

1 Things NOT to forget

As a new home owner I have discovered that I now have a lot more to remember & worry about. This morning I was up and out of bed at 4:20am -- I had already layed out my running clothes and shoes so getting ready was quicker then usual. I piled on my base layers, Running pants, my long sleeved wisking shirt, my short sleeved shirt, then my fleece, I let Matilda outside and made My Waffle, as I put on my shoes I ate my waffle. I then realized it was only 4:35, I had time -- so I sat down and read some papers -- before I knew it my five extra minutes were passed. I put on my cote, hat, head band, Ipod, running watch, glowing arm band and gloves, put Matilda in her cage, turned off all but one light and headed out the door. I stopped to check that the door was locked and headed to the garage, opened the garage & got about half way to my car, reached in my pocked for my keys and OH CRAP!!!!!!!!! I had forgotten my keys -- not only my car keys, but my HOUSE key!!! My ONLY house key!!!!!! I headed to my only faulty window -- I couldn't get the screen off -- I called my sister to tell her I would not be running endless I could get back into my house -- I headed back to the window and remembered all the other windows I had broken into in the past (I have a long history of forgetting keys) So, with a new confidence I gently attached my window. I got the screen off -- then started gigling the window -- It didn't give right away and I was thinking I was out of luck -- I couldn't think of any other options that didn't involve actually breaking something, so I gigled harder, the little key I had stuck in the lock to make it stay finally fell off, the window was open & my dog was barking ferociously in her cage (good dog!) I started to go to the garage to find something to stand on, but relized that I did not have anything, so I took a running start and leaped, I made it in enough to pull myself up the rest of the way -- as I was halfway in, my feet flalying around outside the window, a car drove by -- i'm guessing they did not see because the Police never showed up.... I knocked over a picture that had been on the ledge, but everything else was ok -- I was in! I apologized to Matilda, grabbed my keys and jumped in the car. Some how I still made it in time.
Guess what I'm doing after work? Yes -- your right, I"m going to get more keys made & a new lock for my window!

Getting Use to it all

I have lived alone for a whole week + now, and I must say, it is starting to grow on me. I do what ever I want to do -- I clean, organize, I leave when I want to I return when I want to. I need not ask anyone what I should do or when I should do something because their is on one to ask (except Matilda and she is  very agreeable) I eat when and what I like, I turn the heat up and down when I want to, the only laundry in the machine is my own, no one leaves dirty dishes laying around (because I never do) no one leaves a mess in the bathroom (because I don't) I go to sleep when I want and no one makes noise to wake me, I wake up when I want because no one gets up before I do. I shop when I want to and my food is never eaten by anyone but myself endless I give it to some one else. Things are always how I have left them, I can keep my things anywhere I want to and they will never be moved endless I move them. If I wish to walk from the bathroom to the bedroom naked after a shower, no one is their to care (except I can't right now because I need blinds in the hall way). I do not have cable yet because I am waiting to see how my bills work out, so I find myself reading a lot more, which is good.
My home is getting very organized, this week I got 2 end tables and a coffee table that has storage, so no I have more places to put things & keep them more organized. I still need a queen bedroom set and chairs for my kitchen table, as well as 2 wing chairs for the front room, but other than that my home is pretty well furnished. I really can't complain -- Living alone may not be the most economical, but I am enjoying it. I may need to get a room mate to help pay the bills, but i'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

My new life -- Living alone

For the first time I stayed in my house alone with Matilda. I got to the house around 2pm after going shopping. A few friends stopped by to see the house, but they were gone by 4pm. I decided to go for a run -- I mapped out a rout and headed out, somehow I missed my turn and ended up going down the same road for a long time till I decided I better go back, it ended up being about a 5.5 mile run, not long, but at least I got out. I ran a mile then walked a mile next with Matilda -- She had had to stay home while I ran 5.5 miles, and surprisingly did not chew anything. On our way out the neighbor across the street was outside. I went over and introduced myself. when I shook his hand Matilda growled fearsly... I guess she didn't like someone touching me... I do hope that she does not start acting too aggressive. I made soup for dinner & watched a little bit of Bat Man, Next I started writing in my journal -- it was a new years resolution to write more, so I got it all caught up. Then I read a couple of chapters in a book I am reading and then it was 8:30 -- time to get ready for bed. At first I was really lonely and sad then I started to get use to being alone in the house again. When I was a kid I would spend lots of time alone in my room -- what was so different now? Sure, no parents were down stairs, because I was actually down stairs, but it wasn't really all that different. I decided to let Matilda sleep with me so that I would feel safer, I didn't sleep too well and I don't think she did ether, the house was very creaky, and cars drove by, trains went by and I did not have shades in my bedroom yet so I saw lights from the cars.
Then it was 4:07 am and a alarm was going off down stairs -- i don't know why. I went down to turn it off, let Matilda out and then tried to go back to sleep, I could not because of all the strange noises I heard.

I got up at 4:30am and grabbed a little something to eat, collected my stuff for boot & headed out. My garage light did not work so I just took my truck because it was in the driveway. It was a short drive their, I didn't mind the drive. After it was over I headed back -- put Matilda out, but she just wanted to bark at the neighbors. I brought her in and she went to the hall way window and barked. She was creeping me out. I showered and got ready for work, got some lunch & coffee packed caged Matilda and headed out to open the garage. It was frozen shut however so I had to take my truck AGAIN.

That is my first living alone experience -- I'm not so sure about it, It's a little scary.