I'm still here.

Nope, this is not an April Fool's joke. So where have I been? Well, suffice it to say that it's been a VERY eventful last few months, but not the good kind of eventful. Without going into all of the rather unpleasant details, we're hoping to put the past 3 months behind and move on to better times. Needless to say, everything house-wise got put completely on hold, but now that spring is looming, we're hoping to get back on track soon with a few projects:

1. Deep spring cleaning. Next week I have a crew coming to do a deep cleaning. I'm going with a place highly rated on Angie's List so hopefully we will be pleased with the results. I was planning on taking off a week from work to do this myself, but it's honestly really something I don't mind spending a few bucks on. Speaking of Angie's List, I've been pretty happy with every vendor I've found on there. It's a very easy way to do research and find prospective contractors and get reviews all in one place. So far I've found it well worth whatever it is that I pay for it.

2. Replace the nasty carpet in my office. Due to some of the whirlwind of events of the last few months, we now have a dog, Peanut. And the cats are enjoying an extended vacation with my parents out in the 'burbs. Peanut is a very enthusiastic and energetic Jack Russell terrier. with LOTS of energy to burn. Unfortunately, as a result of some of the stress the household has been under, she's been having some accidents. Mostly in my office. So it's basically this kind of disgusting den of dog pee right now. I've been cleaning the carpet with carpet shampoo after every incident, but I'm sure it's not good for whatever's beneath the rug. My plan is to rip up the carpet (it was super nasty when we moved in and I've planned on removing it anyway) wand install laminate bamboo flooring in there. She won't pee on the hardwood floors, so my plan is to put some throw rugs that can be easily tossed in the washing machine. I'm still debating if laminate is the right way to go. I like the way it looks, but I also use the room as a sort of greenhouse, so I'm constantly watering plants in there. Getting water on laminate is not good... but I think it will be okay as long as I clean it up right away if there's a spill. Thoughts?

3. Get front porch steps fixed. So our stairs are made out of concrete cinderblocks and the bottom step is totally crumbling and breaking. I'm in the process of getting estimates to either just fix that step or possibly replace the whole thing with non-cinderblocks. I don't really love the way the cinderblocks look, and I don't think they have a particularly long lifespan. Not sure if the bottom stair was just due to break this year, or if it was as a result of the salt we put on the steps. Anyway, they need to be fixed.