Crisis Averted

So we were kind of freaking out yesterday about the new carpet. It leaves black marks on our feet, and black marks all over Little Girl. Sad face!! Also, we noticed that we're not feeling that great -- scratchy throats, allergies/asthma symptoms, etc. Yikes. We thought maybe it was just us and the stress of the move, but our friend came over last night and sat in our apartment for less than an hour, and said her throat hurt. So we googled and discovered it was likely the VOCs. VOCs are Volatile Organic Compounds, which are in a lot of things, but mostly carpet, paint, etc. We were kindof freaking out -- okay okay, really freaking out about the fact that Lucia's room is the smelliest (in terms of new carpet smell -- not just dirty diapers!). So we put her in the portable crib last night in the living room. She was slightly confused but doesn't really care where she is anytime after 8 p.m., she just wants to go to bed. She's like me that way.

We talked about moving out; some other things haven't gone exactly perfectly during the move-in process. Of course I cried and was worried sick over the health effects of all of us. But we really like the place, and our landlord has been receptive (and is talking with the carpet manufacturer about the black marks).

This morning I talked with our Environmental Health expert at work coincidentally, because I was supposed to have a meeting with her today, and because of aforementioned freaking out, I took the day off to deal with the situation. She recommended getting an air purifier with an activated carbon filter. So off to Lowe's I went, and purchased this one. Yes, it's expensive, but I didn't want to risk it, ok?

Since running it all day (it even has a remote!), the place is far less smelly and we're feeling better. We walked around our neighborhood tonight and we're making progress slowly on unpacking, and I think everything's going to be OK.

Phew.

Finally online again!

We have been siphoning off Whole Food's wireless network for a while which has been slow and intermittent. Today a repair man from AT&T hooked the building onto their network again since the cables got cut some time before we moved in. (!)
He was also very kind to fix the outlets inside for free, they had been painted over and rendered useless in several other ways.

As Heather mentioned in the previous post, the carpets have been a disaster. They are brand new so they have that VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) related new-carpet-stink, but they also give us dirty feet.

Check out this photo on the right, it shows one washed foot and one that has been walking around for two hours inside the apartment..
I worry about the fumes from the carpets the most since my throat is constantly sore and I am worried that Lucia may be harmed also, she play all day so close to the carpets, but I take comfort in the fact that the landlord has been very responsive and I believe the matter will be solved within a week or two. I am also happy we got an air cleaner today with an active coal filter and an HEPA filter. It seems to work pretty well, it took most of the VOC stink out of Lucia's room – in addition to that other stink.

The apartment is still a mess, but we keep emptying boxes so we should be done soon. We even made dinner here for the first time today!

Unpacking

Who knew unpacking could be so fun when you've got a crawling baby that puts everything in her mouth? This morning I told her no when she tried to get into the potted plant (again) and she actually took off crawling faster. Not good. I'm generally feeling pretty overwhelmed with packing and while we think we're going to love our new place, it's hard to be in love with it when it's boxes galore and it's impossible to find anything. Sad face.

Goodbye Mountain View Apartment

So we're moving out tomorrow. While I'm really excited to be moving to a bigger place, I'm also feeling reflective and a teensy sentimental for our old place, despite it's problems.

We moved here when we had been married for just 4 months. We moved out of my first apartment in San Francisco, which was an amazing amazing amazing (yes, it bears repeating) penthouse apartment that was about 800 square feet. It was one giant room, with French doors leading to the bedroom. Unfortunately, Pete the night owl would want to stay up late and do stuff, and since I was commuting 80 miles round trip for my job, I had to get up insanely early every day, so I wanted to go to bed early. This proved to be a challenge. Also, Pete had no where to work -- I had cleaned out a huge closet for him and we made it his office, but that didn't really work, since it was only about three feet wide. I still think it was very generous of me to give up closet space.

Anyway, so our criteria in looking for our apartment in 2007 was: 2BR, closer to my office, and maybe a pool and fitness center. After a frustrating search by me (since Pete was in the city) after work and on the weekends for both of us, we found this place. It had kind of a retro 70s feel, which we later discovered was in fact just because they did a haphazard job of "remodeling."

We moved in June 2007. We also started receiving crazy amounts of wedding presents at this time, and we bought our new table and chairs, and our sofabed then. We were thrilled to have two bedrooms; Pete had a real office, and our apartment had full doors so I could just go to bed early and he could stay up as late as he wanted (something he still enjoys doing, despite my prodding).

We experienced a 5.6 earthquake here in October of 2007, where I was terrified to discover our walls move like a parallelogram; we went to our wedding and to the dude ranch and to Detroit, all while living in this apartment. We also had some scary interactions with shady neighbors and I fell in love with He-Man the cat.

Possibly the greatest achievement, and the thing that makes me a teensy sentimental, is that we made and grew Lucia here. We made those funny videos and had her and brought her home here. This is where it all happened. The pictures of me pregnant in front of the stove. Bringing Lucia up the stairs for the first time; here. All here.

I never thought this would be the place for all of that; I'm excited to see what the next chapter of our lives and the next apartment will bring.

Our Four-Legged Problem Child

Mrs. B is really acting up these days. Peeing on the carpet or worse, pooping on the carpet nearly every day. We suspect she's freaking out because of the move, and while we're sympathetic, this is not cool. Pete's been using our mini-carpet cleaner on the space below his desk every day. She peed in front of the sofa the other day, right after I got up to get something. She's pissed at us for not paying enough attention to her, we suspect. We've tried to give her lots of love, but I also think she's a little miffed she has to share us with Lucia. Whenever Mrs. B acts up, the remedy is always the same: more activity, more structure. We're going for the same walk every day this week, albeit a longer walk in the evenings. When we move Sunday, we'll map out a walk for her, and take her on it several times a day so she feels comfortable and safe. I'd hate for our new place to smell like pee.

Sunday drive with Mattias

Not easy taking a good picture when driving on a twisty road..
We took a drive up in the hills near Saratoga today, it was really hot, so we kept the convertible top up. Next time I think we need to do this later in the day or when it is not so hot.
I hope Mattias's Porsche is ready then too.

New street

Our new apartment is the one with the red car parked out side. (Click on the picture)

We're moving out!

The first load was finally underway today, but when I got to the new place the key didn't work. We had been given the wrong key! A couple of phone calls and a few minutes later the manager came over with the right one and things went pretty smooth from there. We are planning on driving over a few more loads this weekend and get as much done as possible sooner rather than later.

We're Moving!

We found a 3BR, 2BA apartment that we LOVE. It's in Redwood City, which is closer to San Francisco. We'll live near the downtown area, so we can walk to the train station, grocery store (Whole Foods across the street) and well, everything. We move on the 24th. Holla if you want our new address!

We'll post some pictures of the packing process tonight.

Breaking News!

Lucia ate carrots tonight!!! She seemed to actually enjoy them! WOO WOO! (picture to come)

We'll Have The Bananas

Lucia is a maniac, in constant motion and we think, part monkey. She is quite the climber, and she's fearless. Yikes.

However, she seems to be stuck in the eating solid food category of development. As in, she will only eat bananas. Not bananas and oatmeal. Not bananas and rice. Bananas. Not the jar kind. Homemade only.

The hilarious thing is we've been having a bit of a tough time with Baylee, AKA Mrs. B. She's our own Biggest Loser, going from 28 lbs to uh, 18. She's really thin. We've had her checked for many many many things, and the vets are perplexed. I fed her tonight, and she covered it up with a dishtowel (we had it on the floor cause she did the same thing last night -- tried to move imaginary dirt over it to hide it). But tonight I noticed that not only did she not come back to eat it, but she didn't seem interested at all. And then I remembered that she didn't want to eat this morning. This is Mrs. B we're talking about -- the most beggy, food-obsessed dog out there. She once ate a dead crow off the street. Another time she ate a hoagie that had been hit by a car and had a perfectly clean tire track through it, but was otherwise fully intact. That was her Christmas, I tell you.

So the hand-wringing starts, and I'm whipping up into a lather over how my dog is gonna die. But then I remembered that she too likes bananas. So I gave her four of Lucia's banana ice cubes (our preferred storage method), baby oatmeal and baby rice. She ate three helpings. Gobbled it down and wagged her tail.

So bananas, it is.

New tires!

Okey, the old tires were old, they leaked air and had zero grip in the rain, but I figured since there will be no more rain here until November the tires would last one last season.
Certain other people got a bit nervous reading the previous blog post so I finally bit the bullet and got the new tires on today and to my surprise the biggest difference was how quiet the car is now – I bet 5 to 10 dB! and it also feels a lot smoother. Totally unexpected. Car transformed.
I got the job done thanks to our awesome next door neighbor Chris, who drove my car to and from the shop and incidentally also hooked me up with some amazing new types of Pepsi that has natural sugar and all natural ingredients! Wow!

Suspension update 2

I picked up my car Friday afternoon and was very eager to feel the difference. Unfortunately it was raining, so I had to be extremely careful since my tires are so old and crusty. I kept off the highways but I still got a good sense of the change from before I turned the car in.
Previous handling was soft, it absorbed most bumps as a good boat or Buick would do, now things are a bit more firm, maybe a little bumpy, but not harsh. Steering is a lot more direct and the car doesn't roll or feel spongy when I turn in. I also had to get it aligned because all the bushings were changed, which probably improved things a bit also.
Too bad my tires are so slick in the rain, I spun every time I started from a stand still, in second gear!

Art time with the Hansens

Playing with my new computer tonight, drawing on the wacom it is hard to see who went to art school...