I think I found my new home!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Do you have vacation now or taken time off from work to catch up with your deployed appointment of house,

Today is a national holiday here so I'm off work for that. I took the rest of this week as vacation time.

[Jimbuna]

A good way to manage your time.

[Wolferz]

Ahh vacation... usually
2 weeks
2 short
2 tired
2 return
2 work
2 poor
not 2

But it's nice that you have time to twig your nest and get paid for it to boot.

[frau kaleun]

So much to do today!

First I needed to get the TVs set up since the cable installer is coming tomorrow and I've got stuff to do in the morning, like go to the post office and buy food. Speaking of which, I realized when I got up this morning and was absolutely starving that I hadn't really eaten anything since the french fries I got yesterday morning while waiting for Florence KY to wake up and realize I was in town and had money burning a hole in my pocket.

So, first things first. I knew I'd bagged up and brought over what little I had left in the apartment... ah yes...



Nothing like some dry, dusty, milkless high fiber to start off the day. TBH though I think I bought those to have on hand as a healthier alternative to cookies or the like when I was craving something small and sweet for a snack. So the lack of milk wasn't really that big a deal. And since I was ravenous, they could've been made of sawdust and probably would've still tasted pretty good. But on to business!

I realized yesterday that it was probably a bad idea leaving the chest in the office, since I would need to set up a tv in there and didn't really want to do that until the other bigger bits of furniture were firmly in place which couldn't happen with the chest in the way. So I decided to scoot it out of the office and put it... somewhere else. Where, exactly, I wasn't sure, but I figured I'd work that out once I got it out of the office.

Yeah, this is gonna be fun. There's no way I can carry it across that bit of hard flooring between the office door and everywhere else.



But wait! What's that I see? Is it a couple of cheap floor mats left behind by the previous owner, that might be very slide-y if turned upside down? Why yes, yes it is!







So, that's one problem solved. Now... where to stow the damn thing? Hey, how about right on the other side of the hard bit of flooring, where it can serve as a handy storage unit for all the blankets and winter sweaters my many nonexistent guests are always carrying when they don't show up at my door?



Well that'll certainly make it easier for the people who are coming to take it away to get it out my front door. And it only has to sit there for a week and a half before that happens. And I don't have anything else that has to go in that spot at the moment, so it seemed like a good idea.

Then I got to work setting up the living room tv:



Looking at that picture, I think there's only one conclusion we can draw: Frau Kaleun needs a much bigger living room tv. But since the chair I'd be watching this one from will only be sitting about 4 feet away from it, due to the many boxes filling up most of the rest of the room, this one will probably do for now. At least there'll be something to hook up to the cable box tomorrow.

And then it was time for lunch!



LaRosa's again, a calzone this time, plus a salad for later if I feel peckish this evening, or maybe tomorrow for lunch. Also: first sit-down meal eaten in the condo at a real table, sitting on a real chair. Those milestones just keep piling up, people!

Then it was back to the office. First I got the file cabinet and two bookcases sorted out, which means I finally have one wall of that room with everything where I intend for it to be for keeps.



Which means I can finally take my files out of those carrying crates and put them IN the cabinet, which I'd avoided doing because I kept moving the darn thing around so much and it was heavy enough with nothing in it.

And on to the office TV, which is now in place and ready for the cable installation:



Still need to set up the bedroom tv, but I don't have any real furniture for that, just something makeshift until I know for sure what I'm gonna do in there... and with no other furniture to speak of in the room getting that set up will not take very long. Probably do that later tonight or tomorrow afternoon before the installer gets here, I've got until at least 2 PM to get it done.

Now I'm gonna take a break and then start going through papers and mail and paying whatever bills need to be paid and balance my accounts and get caught up on all of that. THEN I can file all of that stuff away which will certainly simplify things on the office front, I've got so much paperwork and receipts and manuals and whatnot floating around in here that I haven't had time to go through and couldn't really file away because I wasn't sure where to put it and couldn't risk putting it somewhere and then forgetting what I did with it.

At least with the office somewhat sorted, I can start moving boxes of books in here and stacking them or even unpacking them using the two bookcases I've got up... which will clear up a LOT of space in the other rooms. So that's something. And it feels good to have at least a couple things where they are supposed to go.

[Sailor Steve]

The Chest: Brilliant solution! On the other hand those things are a whole lot lighter if you take the drawers out.

The Food: Always easier to work when you're not weak from hunger. I've done the "forgot to eat" thing more than once. It's never as much fun as it sounds.

The Books: It looks like you have an overhang that the shelves barely fit under. I'm not sure I could live without being able to use the top of the shelves for more books. At least it looks like you have room to lay some too-big-for-the-shelf superbooks up there.

The TVses: You have one for every major room in the house. You multitask much better than I do. One TV is all I need to watch stuff, and I can't have it as background. If I have something on it's so I can watch it. Of course I do all my watching on the monitor these days, so what do I know?

Anyway, LOOKIN' GOOD!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

The Chest: Brilliant solution! On the other hand those things are a whole lot lighter if you take the drawers out.

Yes, and fortunately that's usually an option with the home assembly jobs, and is with this one.

But the chest and TV just look so sad and lonely over there by themselves, lol. They'll be much happier when I get something along the rest of that wall. After measuring, I think I'm going to put one 31" bookcase between it and the corner to the right, then move the chest and TV over to the right against that. Then I can put a couple of the tall shallow 7-8" DVD/CD cases to the left of it, between it and the door, for DVDs. Or I could put the matching 15" bookcase there, we'll see how it goes. But that will take care of that wall, anyway.

On the opposite wall - around the corner from the bookcases I've already got - I can put 3 of the 31" cases, with a 15" case in the corner at an angle to "connect" them with the existing ones. Talos bless Ikea and their corner solutions.

I still don't know where I'll store CDs, but I don't really need them in the office since everything I have on CD has been ripped to my computer and I just listen to stuff on the computer if I want music here. But if I turn the dining room into a music room they would probably end up in there, I've already got storage boxes for them anyway, I'd just need something to put those in... probably some kind of media stand since my stereo would most likely end up in there. That's where I had them in the apt, on the shelves under the stereo on the cobbled together thing I've been using as a stereo stand for several years.

I am SO looking forward to unpacking all my books and sorting them and putting them on new shelves. With two shelves up it's all I can do not to start on it now, even though I know most of them would end up staying in boxes. And I've got so much other stuff that NEEDS doing before I even get to that. But the call of my Inner Librarian is very, very loud.

The Food: Always easier to work when you're not weak from hunger. I've done the "forgot to eat" thing more than once. It's never as much fun as it sounds.

I'm terrible about it. At times like this I'm lucky if I can remember to stop for one decent sized meal a day. Time just gets away from me and I feel hungry but I keep putting it off until I get "one more thing" done but that thing always leads to ten others and before I know it I'm dropping into bed and suddenly realize that my tummy is all rumbly. Hey, at least if I have hot takeout food delivered, it forces me to stop what I'm doing and eat something.

The Books: It looks like you have an overhang that the shelves barely fit under. I'm not sure I could live without being able to use the top of the shelves for more books. At least it looks like you have room to lay some too-big-for-the-shelf superbooks up there.

There's no overhang on the other wall that will be all bookcases, though, and Ikea has "add on" units that match their cases that give you another 12" of of storage space if your ceilings are high enough. Mine are without the overhang so I'm toying with that option where possible. The only drawback is that I really, really want to put cabinet lighting on top of the cases that will be plugged into the hotswitched wall outlet, so they would all come on and illuminate the cases when you walk in the room and flip the switch. Most of the time that would be the primary lighting in here, other than whatever I end up with as a desk lamp. I might put a nice table lamp on the file cabinet, I've got a borrowed one from work on there now and I kind of like having one there altho of course I'd put a lampshade on mine.

Anyway I can put them on the cases I've got, even with the overhang, but on the other wall... I think if I do the add-on units above the basic cases, there won't be room above them for the lights so I may not get the add-on units. In fact now that I think about it, I will need somewhere to put all my big action figures, I can't just leave Thor and Iron Man and Buzz Lightyear in a Staples box forever and since this is Geek Central for the condo they belong in here anyway.

I used to have them way up on top of the hutch over my old desk but I don't think that will be an option with his one, they wouldn't all fit up there anyway. And of course every time I bumped the desk some of them would fall over and the bookcases are a lot sturdier and will probably be anchored to the wall once I know for sure they are where I want them.

The TVses: You have one for every major room in the house. You multitask much better than I do. One TV is all I need to watch stuff, and I can't have it as background. If I have something on it's so I can watch it. Of course I do all my watching on the monitor these days, so what do I know?

Oh, see, I use the TV for background noise and "company" a lot of the time. At the moment I'm using internet radio on the computer because it's all I've got access to - the stereo that I brought over the first weekend after I closed got unhooked and scooted out of the way when we moved in all the big stuff. Now if I'm on the computer playing a game or doing something where sound is an integral part of the experience, I don't have the TV on - and usually I'm using headphones for the computer audio. But for anything else, yeah I like the TV on in the background. But I'm a born multitasker, if I don't have at least three things going at once I feel like something's not right, lol.

Anyway, LOOKIN' GOOD!

Thanks! Just don't look at the man behind the curtain! Or the three hundred unpacked boxes scattered all over the rest of the condo!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

But that will take care of that wall, anyway.

It's cool you have it all planned out, at least one wall. I'm stuck waiting for them to remodel this place before I go buy the two more bookcases I want. I have a special DVD rack that just happens to fit perfectly in the little hall between my bedroom and bathroom.

I still don't know where I'll store CDs, but I don't really need them in the office since everything I have on CD has been ripped to my computer and I just listen to stuff on the computer if I want music here.

Same here. All my CDs live in boxes in the closet.

But the call of my Inner Librarian is very, very loud.

I question whether I really need two new cases. It still won't be enough and the plan has always been to read books and then give them away. Still, plans never seem to work out, so who knows?

Time just gets away from me and I feel hungry but I keep putting it off until I get "one more thing" done but that thing always leads to ten others and before I know it I'm dropping into bed and suddenly realize that my tummy is all rumbly.

The four years I worked at the book warehouse I had trouble with my weight. No matter how hard I worked I just couldn't seem to get rid of it. Then I worked four years driving skiers around and I started losing weight. I finally realized that at the warehouse I would eat breakfast, get a burrito off the truck, go out to lunch, eat another snack at break time and then go home and have dinner. Driving I would get a sandwich and soda at 7-11 at 0300 and then head for my first pickup. After three trips up the mountain I would start to get hungry. I would chide myself for eating when I was just sitting all day (the carrying luggage part didn't count), then realize it was 1300 and I hadn't eaten for ten hours! I wish I could go do that again.

Ikea has "add on" units that match their cases that give you another 12" of of storage space if your ceilings are high enough.

I use cheap bookends for the tops.

The only drawback is that I really, really want to put cabinet lighting on top of the cases that will be plugged into the hotswitched wall outlet, so they would all come on and illuminate the cases when you walk in the room and flip the switch.

That sounds cool. Not something I would do, but still cool. I used to have a favorite lamp. It was extendable, and pressure-screwed to the floor and ceiling. It had three lamps at different levels. Two made for good backlighting and the third was just the right height for reading.

Thor and Iron Man and Buzz Lightyear in a Staples box forever and since this is Geek Central for the condo they belong in here anyway.

The only action figures I own are a Green Arrow and Black Canary I picked up back in my comic-shop days. They live in boxes though, since I found I don't really care as much as I did at the time.

Oh, see, I use the TV for background noise and "company" a lot of the time.

I've never been able to do that. I listen to an album on my first trip through Subsim every morning, and then kick myself because I didn't hear half of it, and I put in music so I can listen to it. Then again I'm so tired these days that if do nothing but listen I'll fall asleep and miss it anyway.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Thanks! Just don't look at the man behind the curtain! Or the three hundred unpacked boxes scattered all over the rest of the condo!

Oh and if you need a toilet, there's a bucket in the corner. Just be sure to dump it into the crawlspace when you're done.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I question whether I really need two new cases

See, I never question whether or not I need new bookcases. The problem always was: where to put them? Now I least I don't have that problem... until I run out of shelf space again. That could take a while. Well, we'll see what happens when I get all the books unpacked. They were split up between so many different cases in two different rooms before, I have no idea how much actual shelf space they'll take up when they're all together. Mostly together, as I will probably put martial arts books in the "training room" I'm planning for the upstairs and possibly put the music books on a little shelf I've got set aside for the music room if and when that ever happens. But those are a very small percentage of what I've got.

I use cheap bookends for the tops.

That's what I've always done, just used the top of a bookcase as an additional shelf if possible. It leaves open the possibility of putting things besides books up there, and bookends are cheap if you want to put books all the way across.

That sounds cool. Not something I would do, but still cool.

The reason I want to do it in here is that there is no overhead light and once it gets dark out I think it will be hard to really see what's on the shelves with just a lamp in one spot that's all the way across the room from one of the cases. I'll have a lamp on the desk but I only turn that on when I'm reading or writing something at the desk itself. I like the idea of flipping the switch and having what are essentially small spotlights shining down the front of each case. It will light up the majority of the room but not be a big glaring light that's being reflected by my computer monitor.

If I decide to use the tops of some of the cases for "display" purposes I may also put some LED lights along the top that shine up so Buzz and Thor can be seen in all their glory. On a related note, I probably need to stay off the Ikea website for a while, because it keeps giving me too many ideas that I don't have time for right now.

Originally Posted by Red October1984

Oh and if you need a toilet, there's a bucket in the corner. Just be sure to dump it into the crawlspace when you're done.

Lol, with three bathrooms I have no shortage of toilets. What I don't have are freakin' trash cans! I now have three times as many places where I'm likely to end up with trash in my hand and in need of some place to toss it, and so far I only have trash cans in the two bathrooms I actually use. My kitchen trash can is out on the patio because I need to rinse out the liner and I thought it would be easiest to put some dish detergent in the there and then run a little water into it from the spigot out there and swish it around good and then just dump it down the drain in the driveway. But of course I haven't gotten to that yet, I've just been opening a trash bag and tucking it down inside a box sitting on the kitchen floor.

[Red October1984]

I need a new bookcase bad. I'm switching rooms in the house this summer and I'll finally have enough room for my books. I have book lining the back of my shelf, on top of that layer, in front of that line and on top of the second one to the point that I can't fit anything more in there. I have books hanging on by a thread...and I keep getting more.

I have to stack them beside my shelf now.

Frau, there's tons of things you can use for trash cans. You just need a bit of redneck ingenuity. If there's a way, we'll find it. (There are actually people within 15 minutes of my house that use buckets as toilets...They live down by the sewage lagoon of all places. )

I recommend a two layered plastic bag attached to a bent coat hangar. Bend it in a circle and wrap the bags around it like the rim of a can. If you want you could make a frame too....but it's probably easier just to hang it somewhere easily accessible. It makes for a quick, easy, disposable trash can.

[frau kaleun]

Oh, I'm real good at making do with what's on hand. Right now I tend to just hang a bag on whatever's handy and toss stuff in there. I've got a plastic grocery bag hanging out of one corner of a drawer next to my desk right now, because I'm going through receipts and paperwork and mail and deciding what can be tossed and what needs to be kept and filed away somewhere.

The problem is not that I don't have trash cans, it's that there are only three that are unpacked AND I know where they are. And one of them is out on the patio waiting to be rinsed out, so that's inconvenient. The other two are in two of the bathrooms and they are not so convenient when I'm several rooms away trying to get something done and suddenly find my hands full of stuff that needs to be thrown out.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

See, I never question whether or not I need new bookcases.

I wouldn't either, except for the part where ten of the things wouldn't hold the books I currently have in boxes. What I need to do is get rid of the books I don't need. I promised myself that I was going to read the books I picked up while working at the book warehouse and then get rid of them. That was fifteen years ago, and I've read maybe one percent of them.

I've just been opening a trash bag and tucking it down inside a box sitting on the kitchen floor.

I have a small trash can by my model building table and a medium one by the computer. None in the bathroom. I used to have a big 13-gallon can with a lid for the kitchen, but it disappeared during my last bout with rental storage (I think my old roommate ended up with it - we shared a storage space for a few months). I've been using a big kitchen bag on the floor for almost two years now, since I didn't have a car to go to Wal*Mart. Now I'm wating on this remodelling thing. I don't even put it in a box.

[frau kaleun]

Went to the post office this morning and sent the keys back Express Mail, with delivery guaranteed for tomorrow.

Then I swung by Walmart to pick up some eats and drinks and few other things... saw this as I was in the housewares section looking for shelf liner.



Apparently the local merchants have already been informed of my prowess in the kitchen.

Got home around noon and ate a little something and got things ready for the cable installation and now I'm just sitting here waiting on them to call to say they're on their way. The window was 2-3 PM and I've heard nothing yet, they were supposed to call 1/2 hour before arrival so I'm getting a little antsy. I'm trying to remember if there was supposed to be some kind of confirmation other than today's phone call but I don't think so, at any rate I haven't gotten anything.

I am so tired, I feel like I could lay down and not get up for a week. When I got up this morning even just moving was a chore. No, scratch that, just standing straight up was a chore. Taking a shower didn't help either. All I want to do right now is go to sleep, c'mon Mr. Cable Installer, let's get this over with. FRAU KALEUN IS GETTING CRANKY AND NEEDS A NAP!

Edit: Yay! He just called and will be here in about 15 minutes.

[Jimbuna]

Another result then

Just think, in no time at all you'll be all done and everything will have been worthwhile...or so the saying goes

[Wolferz]

It's all good. Unless the cable guy is named Larry or Jim Carrey or Larry Carrey.