Let's just start over...

I want to be perfectly clear...I hate my furniture. I HATE it. There are certain pieces that I like, but even they need work. All of our stuff is an accumulation of pieces we've collected over the years that we've been married. I've never been able to go out and buy all the stuff I wanted all at once. It's going to happen one day. I swear it! I'm going to have a yard sale one day, but instead of putting items in the yard, I'm going to let people walk through and make offers on anything they see. That's how much I hate it all.

And another thing...I want to completely rip out the disgusting (and I mean disgusting) carpet in the former office and bedroom. Thank you previous owners for leaving us with a pile of crap. Everyone may comment about how pretty this house was when you had it, but I know what it is REALLY like. Polish a turd and it's still a turd.

Here's why I'm growing increasingly pissed off as I think about this. This is what we moved into:

1. No insulation—What?! Are you kidding? It doesn't help that you lied to us about how much you spend on gas and heating this house in the winter time, but the fact that paid $15,000 to renovate the kitchen instead of paying $800 to insulate the floors blows my mind. Priorities, people. Priorities.

2. Paint job—Horrendous (seriously! Did you run out of paint in the living room, or did you honestly think a 2 inch gap of white between the molding and the wall color looked good?) Not everyone may like the colors I've chosen, but at least they can't complain about the paint not covering.

3. Giant cracks in the plaster—look, I know this house is somewhere around 110 years old, but really people, finding a giant hole in the dining room on the day I move in does not make a happy Jewel.)

4. Carpet—*vomit* do I really need to mention the carpet again? It's the reason the doors on those rooms stay shut until we can find the time to refinish the floors. Thank God the rest of the house is hardwood.

5. Electrical work—Who puts a breaker box BEHIND a refrigerator that's framed by cabinets? Morons. Not to mention it's against code. It's an enormous pain in the butt to pull that mammoth of a fridge out any time there's an issue. I'll say it again....Morons.

I will give you this. You had really pretty furniture that covered up most of these problems. Unfortunately, I can't afford to buy new furniture right now because our money goes into fixing all this crap. So again....Thanks.

Don't get me wrong, with all of its problems, I still love this house. I like the layout, the renovated kitchen IS nice, and it's incredibly spacious. But putting make-up on a warthog doesn't make it pretty. And now thanks to this horrible experience, I doubt we will be purchasing another home for a while. I think my husband is committed to being a life long renter.

On a brighter note, I finished the elephant yesterday. We've dubbed him Elliot. Original, I know.

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Time to vent...

I'm buying a gun and a giant man-eating dog. Then I'm putting up a sign that says "Trespassers will be shot and/or eaten." That's right, people...someone stole some things out of my car. Looking at the big picture, I didn't lose a lot. It could have been much worse. All that was missing was my iPod nano and my make-up bag (but seriously, WHO steals someone else's make-up?) It's well over $300 worth of stuff, but they didn't do any damage and thank goodness I didn't leave anything more expensive in there. What really bothers me is losing my sense of security. My car was parked at the back of my house which is located a block away from a police station. Just for the record, my car door was unlocked and the reason I leave it unlocked is because I considered it a blessing to feel safe enough to do so. The thought of someone coming onto my property and rifling through my belongings still leaves me with mixed feelings of being angry and creeped out. So, I went to the store and bought more flood lights to put around the back of the house, locked the doors on the vehicles and double locked my garage. The neighbors have been notified and now anytime Molly (my neighbor's german shepherd) barks, I'm going outside with a baseball bat and a telephone. Consider yourselves warned, people! I swing first and ask questions later ;)

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