Ayn's Multiple World

Getting through Monday ... hard to concentrate

Good morning. This is me. We're back up in the workshop and its a little chilly right now. There are only a few people in this morning so far. Today is the first day that it snowed, so I expect things to be a little slow first thing. Hmm, there's been a couple of phone calls already. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe snow changes things up a bit for everyone. I also think that being the First of December is important because something is changing with the transportation.

I started an entry back at home from yesterday that didn't get posted. There was something wrong with my Internet connection. I did get cable TV so it's not that my bill wasn't paid. I will post the other entry either tonight when I get back on line, or tomorrow when I get back to the center after having brought home the other flash drive. Just gotta remember all that right?

Hmm, I think I'm ok ... I had to do something special with that new ride system. Noone explained that to me, but one of the Mom's gave me a head's up. That doesn't seem too bad. But, I think the clients are going to have to keep that card without losing it during the day or whenever ... Ok, nothing for me to worry about ... that seems more like a Sister headache.

I'm not sure how far I got last night, but I don't think that I explained stuff about being in the new house. I might have gotten as far as explaining that we had a fairly nice drie out. There was a couple minutes of friction, but then that went away and everything was smooth. I'm not sure how much I can get into it this morning from this spot, but maybe a little? On the car ride in we were thinking of the house, but we were frozen as to particular thoughts. Maybe more time went into concentrating because of the fresh snow. I was very aware of my speed and the fact I haven't really had to check out yet the new car's brakes in the wet snowy stuff.

We had started I think talking about last night after we got home from the house showing and after we'd stopped for a late lunch at an Irish Pub Rich wanted to try. That was really nice. We had a grilled cheese and tomato soup and we sat right next to a nice roaring fire. It was very romantic. That might have had something to do though with having a couple of Bloody Mary's. Unfortunately, Rich asked afterward and it turned out the drinks were double shots and cost $8.50 a piece. Ouch! That's no way to save for the new house. BUT, it was very nice.

As it turned out there wasn't any playing around time, but we sat together and watched a couple of shows. I think I would have preferred to keep thinkin about the house and the computer, but Rich pulled us aside and said that we could obsess more later on. *Sigh* No rest for the weary.

We watched last night a couple of West Wings and we watched a special that Rich knew about. And had taped so we could watch it without commercials. It was called Elf and it had Will Ferrel. I liked it very much as did our system. We had a hard time waiting for him to fast forward to get back to the show. We ended up laying on two separate couches, but we were engaged in something else than the house.

One of the things that I did as a last point of the last entry was total up how much money it would cost to get all the extras that we liked. There was a lot of stuff. The big ticket items were the design on the front of the house, a walk-out basement, and a third garage. Then there was a mid-level like the fireplace and getting all cherry cabinets, and then some little stuff like appliances, floor, and counter surfaces. If you haven't read the last entry ... all the extras come to $404,000. I was hoping to get it down a little because of specials the place offers, but we'd have to see how that goes. I haven't yet done anything to figure out how much the extra mortage would cost, but I'm thinking now that 30 years is going to be over $2000. Some would depend on how we set it up.

We didn't talk a whole lot on the way home, because I was trying feel myself through the experience we'd just been on, but ... there's hope. I asked Rich and he didn' say yes outward, but he started helping me set up conditions. Basically, what we asked him was how much he'd liked the house and if we couldn't work on it as our dream house. The first condtion that he set was that even though we would want to be saving money he would have to be allowed to go fishing at least 25-26 times. I'm thinking that's going to add up, but for this part ... I was thinking ... nope, I wouldn't argue with you going out fishing. I figured that mayb about half those trips I would go with him, but then the other half I was going to luxuriate in the new place. I would have to keep in mind that if he askd, that I should almost always take fishing over staying home no matter how wonderful, because that would be some very special time with Rich. I'd put that need of both ours ahead of this other need.

We talked about housekeeping and all and I told Rich that we would become domesticated ... basically, we would learn to cook again and we'd do most of the picking up and laundry, etc. I told him, we could even mow the lawn and do some gardening, but we reminded him too that he liked taking care of a certain rose bush. Ok, maybe we are now really jumping ahead. But, I think we'll keep on this track until we get back to the office. It's about 8:30 am and we've had it nice most of the morning, because our loud client just walked in the door. That was a nice 1/2 hour that some of the other clients commented on as well. It's so relaxed before she gets here. People just do their thing. Hmm, more stuff between staff and phones. But, in general just some loose chatter with the clients. Someone needed to show me her new boots, someone wanted me to know what time it was for the driver and someone else wanted to tell me about who he likes. There's more, but you get the general idea, right?

Maybe we'll close down now ... there's only 3-4 minutes before the sisters are expected back. I don't know if it won't be a little different with it being snow out there. But, better close than wait til they are here. So for now ... bye!


WooHOO!!! We’re back! We will be spending a little time before starting work to explain where we are at with the new place. It’s just that it’s such a special time because we walked in with Rich for the first time in the house and it was a very good meeting.

I know I’ve been going on about stuff before and after being at the house, but right now I’d like to really concentrate on just being there with Rich. I think we explained already the part of driving around the place … It’s really not a very big place … there are 227 lots that will be sold for homes. They say about 50% is sold already and the sales lady – Libby says they might sell the model home in about 2 years. It could be more or less, but we let them know we might be interested in that model if we were going to need waiting for a while. Rich said that about broke her heart, but there was nothing we could do. We don’t have any idea how long it would take something to come about. Obviously, we’re going to want sooner than later, but we have to play the cards we are dealt.

I think I started to talk about before … as to Rich’s position. We’ll continue from there. After stopping by the sales office and letting them know we would like to walk around it by ourselves, we were free to do so without any problems. Someone came inside for a few moments – someone else looking, but she was by herself and didn’t stay for long. Rich and I walked the path that I first had when entering the house so that in order we saw the foyer, L.R., Dining Room, ½ bath, office, family room, kitchen and nook, laundry room, back stairs, master room and bath, and then bedrooms 2, 3 & 4 before going down the front stairs.

While we walked this particular path, I tried to point out all the nuances. Rich had let me know that it was ok for me to give him the full tour and add all the extras. He went into at least the first part though with the reservation that we’d have to make a million on the lottery first. I really wasn’t going to put up with that kind of discussion though and I asked him to put it aside. I told him we weren’t going to worry about the specifics yet, we were just trying to gauge if he could love the house as much as I did.

As we walked all the flourishes were added. I think the point I finally got him to smile brightly was because I got into the huge bath and I showed him how it fit TWO people. Ahh My heart flutters now just thinking of it. Rich was trying to say that the house was too big, but then we were telling him about how necessary all the spaces were and it would be filled up. We spent more time down in the family room, and then we spent a long time in the master bedroom, the upper hall and the kitchen. If there were chairs or beds or stools to sit on, we did. We wanted Rich to get a sense of standing in any given room and becoming comfortable with it.

I think it was the times sitting at the island with him leaning on the kitchen sink, and then again us sitting in front of the windows in the family room challenging him to turn around and see what we were seeing was the best. The view from the family room was so pristine uh. It leaves me disjointed mentally. We sat in front of the tall windows next to the fireplace and we saw when looking up the balcony and our dreams for the official library/loft and we saw the office, living room, dining room foyer and kitchen/nook – all with a sweeping slight turn of the head.

I can remember Rich saying you don’t have to tell me I know exactly why you love this house. But, for the most part he was referring it to a castle. He pointed out the windows and fireplace and pillars and wood, and added a few more things. Everything he said was true of course … I loved it for that much and for that much more. I told him the reason the house works even as large as it was was because so many of the rooms were open … it’s not as if you were going in and out of rooms as much as you never really left them due to the openness. So you were gaining value of all these different rooms while sitting in one. It was a visual smorgasbord.

I wanted to stay there all day. Hhehe the sales lady did eventually come by and suggest that we could do the same. But, we had to say that Rich most likely couldn’t do that. I was very glad though for the times that we got him to slow down and just start talking about everything. We admitted as he suggested that this was Buckingham Palace, but instead of emphasizing the Queen of the Manor, we talked about him being the King. I think he really needed that time to feel himself taking up the space. Some of the more obvious problems coming to his mind we reassured him of those solutions. He said I could see us – you’d be upstairs and I would be downstairs and … Oh NO!!! That’s not true!

Then I explained to him how I’d come to the decision that we should share the office and the library. I told him my plans about having a credenza and hutch on one wall for the big computer, sort of like the one at my office, but nicer, and then there would be a fairly large size desk for a laptop and whatever and there would be overstuffed chairs to sit down and drink our brandy like in his beloved show Boston Legal. I think both of us had to come to that point. I told him that while he was there he would have the desk and I would have the credenza and hutch for the big computer. He could always of course use my computer and I could use the desk, but primarily it would be his desk, but both of our offices. I made sure to point out the size and how large and accommodating the room could be. He seemed to appreciate that.

I think now looking at the diagram, I would have the credenza against the west wall and then on the SE corner opposite the door, we would put in at an angle his desk, so we could use up the long space, and we’d put a couple chairs so that someone could sit opposite the chairs, but the bigger deal would be the opposite N and NE corners where we would have the big overstuffed chairs under the window. This would be to talk casually about business. There would always be in mind that there were at least 2-4 people in the office, but it would also be comfortable for 1-2.

He said that we’d have to add on another 20-30,000 for the work to be done in the library upstairs. I talked to Libby about it when she came to check on us. She said that we’d take pictures before the wallboard went up to figure out where everything was. I guess we don’t get floor plans, though that would seem silly not to, especially for closing, but that we’d take plenty of pictures for an outside builder. She says that people do that often enough, but she didn’t seem particularly to know of anyone who’d had the idea of making the room over the family room into a loft – especially a loft library. I’m thinking at this point – we might not put in the big table, but rather, we’d build out the shelves. Pretty much then the west wall would be just railings looking down on the family room and there would be a bench seat maybe in front of them where books could go underneath the two foot seat and there would be a long cushion on the seat. This would pretty much be an open 8-10 foot wall space.

Ok, here is about where we get lost, but then it gets to be going home time so we figure we’ll post, right?

posted by Ann Marie @ 12/01/2008 04:10:00 PM Comments: 0