Making Way For Baby…

This weekend, we took the first step toward preparing the nursery – we booted the dogs out of the dog room.

Smith is still kind of confused…

…but Sam has figured out what’s what pretty quick…

Ignore the chairs. They’re only acting as placeholders for some form or fashion of room dividers.

Another Way to Terrorize the Dogs…

I can only imagine the chaos that would be unleashed if we got our hands on one of these (sans the muzak):

Because You’ve Always Wanted a Secret Lair

Bookcase doors that can install into regular door openings.

How cool is that?

Productive Weekend

A lot got done in the McDougall household this weekend.

Saturday morning, I got up early and headed out to Walnut Creek for a morning of mountain biking.  Good thing I got out there early – the parking lot was maybe a quarter full when I arrived around 9:45, but by the time I came back around 11, it was packed full.

Later on in the day, I put up some shelving in the laundry room while the wife made curtain/drape/fabric things for the breakfast room windows.

Then, on Sunday, Jamie made lots of progress with the laundry, while I put up the massive 5′x4′ pegboard in the garage that I’d been avoiding dealing with since we moved in.

After that, it was on to boxes.  Somehow, since moving in, we had managed to acquire an absurd amount of cardboard.  Even after passing along packing boxes to friends, we still had the boxes for the fireplace logs and other items, as well as the box our TV came in.  The box so big that, no matter how you manipulated it, it would simply not fit into the Xterra.

Well, yesterday all those boxes met a rather crazed Matt wielding a box cutter and, when necessary, a back saw.  They were cut down into manageable pieces and then, with their attendant foam pieces, were borne away to an undisclosed apartment complex and relocated in a dumpster. 

The total effect – in the span of six or so hours, the two biggest obstacles to any progress in the garage were removed.

Sweet.

Pictures!

I finally unearthed the camera’s USB cable this evening, giving me the ability to upload some pictures I’ve taken of the house post-move.  We’re far from unpacked, but they are glimpses.

See to the right.  Go to Flickr.  Check out the photostream.  Enjoy.

Today’s the Day

Closing on the new house today.  Moving tomorrow.  Almost done.

The end is in sight, but I still have miles to go before I sleep.

Cruch Time

Six days until closing.

Eight days until the move.

Lots of packing to do…

New Pictures…

Yeah, so I’ve got a lot to post about, including a review of "Kingdom of Heaven", but for now, here are some pretty pictures to distract you.

We’re still on track to close on May 27th.

More pictures available HERE

Falling Tree, Hidden Neighbor

Saturday afternoon, Mrs. Doogs and I made what I reckon to be our 4,127th trip out to the new house.  We’re out there all the time, looking for new developments the way that news junkies prowl the internet, checking all the blogs and news sites for a new post, or an updated story.

For some lenght of time, these trips would be in vain – weeks would pass where no work appeared to have been done.  Recently, however, the case has been the opposite.  Every new visit yields some development – a graded yard, the installation of sprinklers, the presence of our real front door, the arrival of sod…or the theft of our bricks.

Saturday’s trip may have been the strangest yet, however. 

Pulling up in front of our house, we were shocked to see that one of our trees had fallen over.  Not a branch, but the whole friggin’ tree.  I would blame the future neighbor, but in this case the grading of the yard, the installation of the sprinkler system, and a hard north wind seem to be the culprits.  At least it was the smallest of the trees out front.

Perhaps more random than the collapsed tree, however, was the behavior of our future neighbor.  As we sat in the Pilot, staring at the unlikely sight of the horizontal tree, his front door opened and he emerged with his daughter.  Or maybe she was his niece – her disposition seemed altogether too sunny for her to be his progeny.  But I digress.  He stepped out onto his front porch and, spotting us, did about the lamest thing that a human being can do.

He hid behind his column.

Jamie and I both looked at each other.  Did we really just see him duck behind the column to hide from us?  The niece/daughter was just as confused – from where we watched she seemed to be asking something along the lines of "what are you doing hiding behind the column, idiot?"

I’ve had my share of people driving by and staring at my house in the last two months.  When the house was on the market, people would pass by slowly and gawk, or step out to take a flyer.  The times that I happened to be outside, sure, I might have ducked into the garage a time or two, acting intent on finding some tool or piece of yard equipment.  Othertimes, I’d just continue on doing what I was doing.  But I never once hid.

So that settles it, then.  Our future neighbor has complained about a retaining wall angling ever so slightly onto a useless side of his property.  He has stolen our bricks and used them to build planters in his front yard.  And now, he has hidden from us. 

I think it is time that he is officially labelled a lame-o (I would use stronger language, but you know, the kids…).

Loathe Thy Neighbor

We may still be a month away from moving into our new house, but that minor detail has not prevented me from already developing an antipathy for my neighbor-to-be.

The first pangs of dislike began a few weeks ago, when we were informed that said neighbor was raising a stink over a retaining wall that runs between our respective houses.  His issue was that the walls was running at an angle and onto his property.  Now, this could be a legitimate complaint, save for two things.

First – said retaining wall angles maybe two or three degrees over.

Second – said retaining wall is on the SIDE OF THE HOUSE, where nobody will ever be save to pass through to the backyard with a lawnmower.

In the scheme of things, a very slightly angled retaining wall is a trifle.  That my future neighbor raised a fuss over it did not do much to endear me to him.  Of course, it didn’t elicit open dislike, either.  No, there was no loathing, hostility, or ill-wishing on my part until this weekend.

So what happened to put this neighbor so squarely on my list of people I do not like (which is also populated by Sean Hannity, who should be crammed into a rocket and launched in the general direction of the sun)?

He put two brick planters in his yard.

What’s wrong with brick planters, you ask?  They are, after all, tasteful, as are the trees within the center of each.  What is wrong is that the bricks don’t match those of his house.  Actually, they match our house, from which half a pallet of bricks has mysteriously vanished.

The bastard stole our bricks!

I just…this is just wrong on so many levels.  First, its just plain inconsiderate.  Second, I know he’s doing it because he’s pissed off about the retaining wall, which is a pretty lame motive.  Third, its theft.  Fourth, since we still have a portion of the house waiting to be bricked, it may delay the completion date, if he took too many.  Fifth, I will have to live next to this jackass knowing that he stole my bricks, and will have to see those bricks every day.

Oh, sure, I could chalk it up as some misunderstanding, but I’m not.  This guy doesn’t like us because our house is taller than his.  He doesn’t like us because our bricks are more tasteful than his, and we have cooler trees in our front yard.  That’s why he stole our bricks, and planted trees inside them.

Hopefully, once the house on the other side of us is built, the people who move in will be decent folks, because I would really prefer not to live between two suckasses.