Hair: Fixed!

Yesterday I called desperately for an appointment to get my hair fixed, but each place I called said they were booked. Okay, so maybe I only called two places... but when one salon screws up your hair, you tend to get a little persnickety about who you want to fix it. Anyhoo, the second salon I called, O'Hair Salon & Spa, had a slot open today.


Having to wait another day to fix the atrocity upon my head was tough, but I managed to pull through. Besides, I had a good feeling about this place. They have a decent website, and are located in the Kentlands- a not too shitty part of town. When I got there I filled out a little form and the receptionist gave me a little tour, ending at the salon. The woman who did my hair, Stacey, was super nice. And she reaffirmed my belief that the haircut I was given on Monday was clearly meant for a soccer mom. Long story short, she snipped away and this is what I left with:

Nice and short! Just like I wanted. And Stacey says it's total bullshit that I can't have short hair just because it's fine. I like Stacey. She knows what I want to hear.

I also left with a couple of new products to try out: a thickening serum and a pomade. I am so stoked. The only downside of having short hair is that I have to go back every 5 weeks or so for a trim (before I would just chop off a few inches every six months). The big question is whether or not I'll still love it a month from now. I bet I will.

There is Such a Thing as Too Nice

I have a complete inability to say what I'm thinking, or even express a real opinion most times. This can really be problematic, especially when getting a haircut.

Today I went for a haircut, and since I am too afraid to hurt the stylists feelings, it turned out horrible. I had looked through a magazine, and picked the exact cut I wanted. I went to the salon, magazine in hand- I've been to this salon a few times, and had good experiences there. I showed the girl the picture. "Hmm," she said disapprovingly, "I don't think this style is right for your hair type." She asked if there were some other pictures I liked, so I showed her a couple more. She looked at my hair for a minute, and started to explain what she wanted to do. As soon as the word "bob" left her mouth, I stopped her, "I don't want a bob." I had a bob my freshman year of high school (after a stylist at Fantastic Sam's grossly misinterpreted a picture I showed her) and my brother told me I looked like a penis. I had a bob again my senior year when I needed to cut off a lot of damaged hair, and hated it. And finally, when I was 20 another woman gave me a bob after I specifically said NO BOB. What is it with hair stylists defaulting to the bob every time I want to cut my hair short!?

I politely explained that I have had my hair "bobbed" before, and didn't like it. The cut makes me look so pie-faced it's silly. She came back with oh, I'm thinking of something a little different, and it will be layered, and don't worry. 45 minutes later I had a bob. And she had blown the edges out, making me look even too cutsie for an episode of fucking Full House. Shit. She must have seen a glimmer of uncertainty in my eye, because she told me that she had "texturized" the ends so that it would still look okay if I didn't feel like blowing it out. All I could do was squeak out a meek, "Thanks, it looks great." I mean, it did look nice... it was just too high maintenance for me, and way too white bread.

I went home figuring that if I washed and styled it my own way, everything would be fine. Nothing could be further from the truth. I soaked my hair, and blew it dry normally, and it looks so terrible that I want to cry. There is no way I can feel good about this. If I don't style it the way it was, it looks terrible. If I do style it the way it was, I'll need to trade in all my Volcom t-shirts for lavender twinsets.

Now I just have to find a nice hat to wear until I find another place to fix this mess. And the next time someone mentions the word "bob" I am going to scream and run in the opposite direction.

Almost There

We took possession of our new home on Friday. Three days and $188 later, we are still not done cleaning. We have managed to complete the following:

The kitchen is clean, including the laundry area.
The entire house is vacuumed thoroughly.
The carpets were cleaned (as best they could be).
The master bath is about 80% clean.
The 2nd bath is about 50% clean.
The walls and doors have been wiped down on the first floor.

The rest can be done after we've moved in. Right now the house is livable, and mostly sanitized. The list of things yet to be done is as follows:

We need to finish cleaning the bathrooms.
The windows need cleaning.
The rest of the walls/doors/door jambs need wiping down.
The banister needs a cleaning.
The kitchen counter and both bathtubs need to be re-caulked.

I think we can knock these out after work over the next couple days- the windows will take a while, but everything else is pretty small beans. Not bad.

When I first totalled up our receipts, $188 seemed like a lot. But considering it included 3 new toilet seats, a Rug Doctor rental, a sponge mop, and all these...



That's really not too much.
I'm so exhausted. I'm going to bed early, and hoping tomorrow will be a slow day at work.

An Open Letter...

An Open Letter to the Previous Occupants of Our Home:

Dear Alleged Drug Manufacturers,

You guys were disturbingly filthy. I'm going to assume that you were in a constant state of fucked-the-shit-up during your stay here, because normal people could not possible live like this. First, it's obvious the microwave had never been cleaned. Ever.

We were able to clean the front after lots of scrubbing with a toothbrush, but the top required the help of a razor blade.

See that glob of goo? What the hell is that? Need a closer look?

I just threw up a little. Seriously, how the hell did you do that in less that two years!?

The oven presented a new challenge.

We're still working on the burner grates, which are likely never going to be fully "clean" again.

We were wondering what the goo was on the side of the oven- Scott guessed boxed mashed potatoes, I think it's gravy. Are we close? And what's up with the floor- do you have something against Swiffers?

We found this stain on the living room floor, surrounded by cigarette burns. Those ashtrays can be tricky sometimes.

Ahhh! We haven't started cleaning the bathrooms yet, as we've been awaiting a hazmat team. Do you happen to know the shelf life of the hepatitis virus? Just curious...

The upstairs hall presented another question: what's with this dribbly trail leading from the master bedroom all the way down the stairs?

I find it hard to believe anyone could be so consistently drippy for such a distance, which makes me think it's dog pee. It must be hard to wake up from a drug induced coma just to walk the dog.

But I think our biggest question is what is that brownish-reddish crap that seems to be everywhere? We found it splattered in the following locations: vertical blinds, sprinklers in the kitchen and living room, kitchen ceiling vents, dining room windows, stove, sliding doors, kitchen ceiling, several outlets and a few light switches. If we had know how prolific that shit was, we'd have taken some pictures... It was everywhere. Did your meth lab explode? The goo did sort of resemble cough syrup. Especially the goo on the stove. Hmm.

Well in any case, after two long days of scrubbing, we've nearly made the kitchen habitable. Congratulations, fuckheads. You've become my go-to example of why drugs are bad. I'm going to show those pictures to my kid as I explain why there are no victimless crimes (not that we're said victims- but their landlord sure was).

Sincerely,

Scott and Amanda

Home Inspection Complete!

Today we had our home inspection! And our closing has been scheduled for next Friday- just twenty days from when we first saw the house. The whole thing moved pretty smoothly and quickly, and was a lot easier than we thought it would be. We credit much of this ease to our awesome real estate agent, Julie Saxon of Macintosh Realty.

For anyone who feels intimidated by buying a place for the first time let me tell you, it was so easy. Here is my summary of events: First we found a house on January 27th. Then we contacted a real estate agent (Julie) that night, and she put us in contact with a lender (who we also talked to that night). On the 28th, we met with both those ladies, and signed several papers. There were a few phone calls over the next couple weeks, where Julie would tell us everything was going great. Eventually Julie told us to make an appointment for a home inspection, and gave us some names to choose from. She was there for the inspection, and now she will take care of our appraisal. We just show up for the closing on Friday. That's it- easy peasy! Apparently this is a great time to buy, with all the foreclosures going on and such- especially if it's your first place and don't have to worry about selling your own place.

Anyhoo, today was the inspection and we took pictures! Here is our new place- keep in mind we only have the top two levels (the bottom level is someone else's house).

And from the side:

Our inspection began on the deck, in the closet that houses the furnace and water heater. We learned two things: drug dealers do not use furnace filters (so we have to have the furnace serviced and cleaned), and the drug dealers were making some money on the side stealing scrap copper. Business must have been bad.




But the view off to the side is nice...




Then we moved inside to the kitchen, where Larry Hood (the inspector, duh) checked out the electric stuff


And our washer and dryer
And the rest of the kitchen, including all the appliances and cabinets.



We looked at the downstairs powder room (you can't see the skeeviness in the photo, but trust me it's there).
I feel like I should also note the state of the carpet- it pretty much looks like this everywhere.
And check out our view from the living room. There's a big park across the street, so we're hoping nothing will be built there for as long as we own the place.


We also have an actual dining area- which means we'll have a place to put our table! And there's Julie our real estate agent. We like her bunches.

Next we went upstairs. The view from the master bedroom is the same as the living room, but one floor higher. Very nice.

And we'll have separate closets- one comes with two pairs of broken sunglasses!

The master bath will be Scott's bathroom




And mine will be the one in the hall.



My bathroom comes with what appears to be gum on the floor.


There are two other bedrooms, but they are tiny and difficult to photograph, so just know that they exist. One will be my knitting room, and the other will be Scott's office/guest room.
Here I am on the stairs.




And here we both are- two gooney homeowners (almost).


We're pretty stoked. After the inspection (which turned up no major problems), the place doesn't seem as bad as when we first saw it. In fact, after a good scrubbing it won't be any worse than our apartment now. I guess that's it for now... I'll update again when we close!