A proper update
Nov. 18th, 2014 01:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeI've been having some internet issues. My new provider leaves something to be desired, alas. Connectivity problems aside, it's been a busy few weeks anyway.
I think I mentioned that the move went pretty well, overall. I haven't yet recovered from the exhaustion that came after a month of packing up the house, running the pets to and from various veterinarians, wrangling my parents, running back and forth to sign off on various papers for the house sale, and the actual move itself. That's not even counting all the unpacking I've been doing of late.
The house isn't completely unpacked. The previous tenants seem to have lived in squalor, from what I can tell, and never bothered cleaning up after themselves. They also left a day late (which luckily didn't affect me as I moved in on the 4th), which my landlord is using as an excuse for why the house wasn't professionally cleaned as he'd promised it would be before I moved in. Actually, he claims they did clean it, but the amount of dirt and stains in every single room of the house tells me that that is a dirty, dirty lie. (See what I did there?) The bathroom and kitchen in particular are filthy, and even though I've been diligently scrubbing away at them for nearly two weeks now, I think I will never be able to get the deeply set stains out of the various surfaces. Three applications of baking soda and vinegar and elbow grease haven't cleaned out the oven at all, and the shower stall is still covered in some sort of gross drips and soap scum and hard water stains after multiple attempts with various cleaners to get them out. It's really pretty revolting.
There are also a multitude of little things that need repairs (the sliding closet doors at the entrance, a broken window in the front, though it's double-paned so my house doesn't have extra ventilation, which is probably why no one has fixed it yet), and some broken shelves in the bedroom. Oh, and the electricity in the entire house except for the kitchen isn't up to code. I noticed when I moved in that several of the electrical outlets weren't grounded, so I asked my landlord to get it looked at. After several miscommunications he did finally get an electrician in, and the poor man was rather flummoxed at what he found. He was not only not able to fix the outlets that day (my landlord asked him for a quote on how much the entire job would cost), but the outlet he "tested" in the living room now no longer works. So we slid backward rather than making progress.
I got spoiled living in my own house. I became accustomed to just picking up the phone and calling a repair person when I needed something done. Now I have to harass my landlord, who doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to get anything fixed in the house. I realise that all these things cost money, but that's not my problem I pay a good amount of money in rent, so I don't think it's too much to ask that the electricity in the place be up to code.
Small problems with dirt and outstanding repairs aside, it's actually a great little house. It's smaller than the one I had in l'Ile Perrot, but the space is super functional. Whoever designed the house had a great eye for using available space for storage, so I have more linen space and cabinet space than I know what to do with. Okay, no, that's a lie, I have totally found a use for all of it, but it's a figure of speech. ;)
On the pet front, the cat has now completely settled into the house. She's grown a lot in the last three weeks since I got her spayed, and has gone from teensy kitten to rangy teenager. She's still pretty small, but at the time of her spaying the vet said she weighed six pounds. I figure she'll grow up to be about 10 pounds, so neither tiny nor huge. She's also chock full of personality, the way all cats are. She's incredibly playful, which isn't surprising given that she's only a little over six months old, and very very cuddly. Someone pointed out the other day how unusual it is that I manage to attract cats that are all incredibly cuddly and clingy, and at this point I think that there must be something about me that makes cats want to snuggle all the time. Well, I say that, but Octavia is often off and away doing Very Important Kitten Things, like racing around the house, playing with her ten billion cat toys, snacking on my plants (argh) or getting into things she shouldn't be getting into.
The dog is doing much better, now that we've been here for two weeks and I haven't left him to the wolves. :P I took him to his new vet the other day, and he's now got extra medication and supplements to help with his arthritis, and he already seems a lot more comfortable than he did last week. The fur hasn't grown back on his stomach where it was shaved for his ultrasound, which I am told is due to his thyroid condition. The vet tells me he's going to have to go through an entire growth-and-moult cycle before it will grow back, so the poor dog is going to have a cold tummy this winter. I'll probably have to dress him in a t-shirt or something so he doesn't get frostbitten. Oh, the irony of a husky having to be dressed in winter doggie clothes. XD
I've decided I'm definitely going to be checking out local shelters next year, to see if I can get some friends for the pets. Ottawa bylaws tell me that I'm not allowed to have more than three cats at a time, and if I have both cats and dogs it's a maximum of two dogs and three cats. If I only had dogs then the maximum I'd be allowed is three, but that point is entirely moot.
Before I get any more pets, though, I want to take Sergent to obedience classes and work on a few things that could use improvement, particularly his recall and his down-stay, both of which leave a lot to be desired. I'd love to be able to confidently walk him off-leash, which isn't the case right now. Heck, if I find I really enjoy the classes, I might even go a step further and take classes on how to become a trainer. It's something I've always had a latent interest in, and now(ish) seems as good a time as any to look into that.
Actually, it seems like I have many more plans and notions than I have the time, money and energy for these days. It might be because I now have the illusion that I have lots more time on my hands, now that I'm not spending two days a week commuting to and from Ottawa. Also, because no one else is telling me how I need to spend my time and money anymore, I think I'm a little giddy with the possibilities. I'm actually in the process of making myself a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, which I think will be fun. I did it a few years ago, and while I didn't finish everything on that list, it was pretty motivating. Last year's project of learning to cook better is still on the table, and much more likely to happen now that my entire household doesn't dislike my cooking (given that it's just me eating the food now).
The goal is to become a little more self-sufficient and learn some basic skills. I'd love to be able to do minor repairs and installations on my own without constantly having to either beg my handy friends to help me (I love you guys!), especially since I now live in a different city from most of the people I know, or else paying a fortune for someone to come do it for me.
I don't know where I'm going to find the time and energy to do all the things that are crowding around in my brain. Likely I'm going to have to prioritise and maybe leave some of them for later, even if I'm excited about them now.
Yes, I know, most of you are rolling your eyes and thinking something along the lines of: "Great. Phnee is on another self-improvement kick." What can I say? If at first you don't succeed try, try again. After all, there is a lot about myself I need to work on. I do think that, on the whole, I've improved at least a little as a person in the 12 (nearly 13!) years since I started this journal. That being said, there is a whole lot of room for improvement.
Anyway, I'm going to stop here, because this entry has gotten huge without my noticing. I'll try to update a bit more regularly, but no promises. :)
I think I mentioned that the move went pretty well, overall. I haven't yet recovered from the exhaustion that came after a month of packing up the house, running the pets to and from various veterinarians, wrangling my parents, running back and forth to sign off on various papers for the house sale, and the actual move itself. That's not even counting all the unpacking I've been doing of late.
The house isn't completely unpacked. The previous tenants seem to have lived in squalor, from what I can tell, and never bothered cleaning up after themselves. They also left a day late (which luckily didn't affect me as I moved in on the 4th), which my landlord is using as an excuse for why the house wasn't professionally cleaned as he'd promised it would be before I moved in. Actually, he claims they did clean it, but the amount of dirt and stains in every single room of the house tells me that that is a dirty, dirty lie. (See what I did there?) The bathroom and kitchen in particular are filthy, and even though I've been diligently scrubbing away at them for nearly two weeks now, I think I will never be able to get the deeply set stains out of the various surfaces. Three applications of baking soda and vinegar and elbow grease haven't cleaned out the oven at all, and the shower stall is still covered in some sort of gross drips and soap scum and hard water stains after multiple attempts with various cleaners to get them out. It's really pretty revolting.
There are also a multitude of little things that need repairs (the sliding closet doors at the entrance, a broken window in the front, though it's double-paned so my house doesn't have extra ventilation, which is probably why no one has fixed it yet), and some broken shelves in the bedroom. Oh, and the electricity in the entire house except for the kitchen isn't up to code. I noticed when I moved in that several of the electrical outlets weren't grounded, so I asked my landlord to get it looked at. After several miscommunications he did finally get an electrician in, and the poor man was rather flummoxed at what he found. He was not only not able to fix the outlets that day (my landlord asked him for a quote on how much the entire job would cost), but the outlet he "tested" in the living room now no longer works. So we slid backward rather than making progress.
I got spoiled living in my own house. I became accustomed to just picking up the phone and calling a repair person when I needed something done. Now I have to harass my landlord, who doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to get anything fixed in the house. I realise that all these things cost money, but that's not my problem I pay a good amount of money in rent, so I don't think it's too much to ask that the electricity in the place be up to code.
Small problems with dirt and outstanding repairs aside, it's actually a great little house. It's smaller than the one I had in l'Ile Perrot, but the space is super functional. Whoever designed the house had a great eye for using available space for storage, so I have more linen space and cabinet space than I know what to do with. Okay, no, that's a lie, I have totally found a use for all of it, but it's a figure of speech. ;)
On the pet front, the cat has now completely settled into the house. She's grown a lot in the last three weeks since I got her spayed, and has gone from teensy kitten to rangy teenager. She's still pretty small, but at the time of her spaying the vet said she weighed six pounds. I figure she'll grow up to be about 10 pounds, so neither tiny nor huge. She's also chock full of personality, the way all cats are. She's incredibly playful, which isn't surprising given that she's only a little over six months old, and very very cuddly. Someone pointed out the other day how unusual it is that I manage to attract cats that are all incredibly cuddly and clingy, and at this point I think that there must be something about me that makes cats want to snuggle all the time. Well, I say that, but Octavia is often off and away doing Very Important Kitten Things, like racing around the house, playing with her ten billion cat toys, snacking on my plants (argh) or getting into things she shouldn't be getting into.
The dog is doing much better, now that we've been here for two weeks and I haven't left him to the wolves. :P I took him to his new vet the other day, and he's now got extra medication and supplements to help with his arthritis, and he already seems a lot more comfortable than he did last week. The fur hasn't grown back on his stomach where it was shaved for his ultrasound, which I am told is due to his thyroid condition. The vet tells me he's going to have to go through an entire growth-and-moult cycle before it will grow back, so the poor dog is going to have a cold tummy this winter. I'll probably have to dress him in a t-shirt or something so he doesn't get frostbitten. Oh, the irony of a husky having to be dressed in winter doggie clothes. XD
I've decided I'm definitely going to be checking out local shelters next year, to see if I can get some friends for the pets. Ottawa bylaws tell me that I'm not allowed to have more than three cats at a time, and if I have both cats and dogs it's a maximum of two dogs and three cats. If I only had dogs then the maximum I'd be allowed is three, but that point is entirely moot.
Before I get any more pets, though, I want to take Sergent to obedience classes and work on a few things that could use improvement, particularly his recall and his down-stay, both of which leave a lot to be desired. I'd love to be able to confidently walk him off-leash, which isn't the case right now. Heck, if I find I really enjoy the classes, I might even go a step further and take classes on how to become a trainer. It's something I've always had a latent interest in, and now(ish) seems as good a time as any to look into that.
Actually, it seems like I have many more plans and notions than I have the time, money and energy for these days. It might be because I now have the illusion that I have lots more time on my hands, now that I'm not spending two days a week commuting to and from Ottawa. Also, because no one else is telling me how I need to spend my time and money anymore, I think I'm a little giddy with the possibilities. I'm actually in the process of making myself a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, which I think will be fun. I did it a few years ago, and while I didn't finish everything on that list, it was pretty motivating. Last year's project of learning to cook better is still on the table, and much more likely to happen now that my entire household doesn't dislike my cooking (given that it's just me eating the food now).
The goal is to become a little more self-sufficient and learn some basic skills. I'd love to be able to do minor repairs and installations on my own without constantly having to either beg my handy friends to help me (I love you guys!), especially since I now live in a different city from most of the people I know, or else paying a fortune for someone to come do it for me.
I don't know where I'm going to find the time and energy to do all the things that are crowding around in my brain. Likely I'm going to have to prioritise and maybe leave some of them for later, even if I'm excited about them now.
Yes, I know, most of you are rolling your eyes and thinking something along the lines of: "Great. Phnee is on another self-improvement kick." What can I say? If at first you don't succeed try, try again. After all, there is a lot about myself I need to work on. I do think that, on the whole, I've improved at least a little as a person in the 12 (nearly 13!) years since I started this journal. That being said, there is a whole lot of room for improvement.
Anyway, I'm going to stop here, because this entry has gotten huge without my noticing. I'll try to update a bit more regularly, but no promises. :)
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no subject
Date: 2014-11-18 03:05 pm (UTC)So glad you are happy in your little house. Do keep bugging about the wiring, though; could be a fire hazard.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-20 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-20 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-20 05:09 am (UTC)But yes, do keep making noise about the electricity, because that stuff is a fire hazard.