Dreaming of Floyd

First of all, let me explain the title of this blog before anyone starts worrying that I am thinking of another guy. :) You see, in 15 days, we will be closing on our NEW HOUSE, which happens to be on a street called Floyd Place.
I used to think that I would be really sad to leave this rental house. It's the first house we called "home" in Colorado. This house rescued us from homelessness when we were crazy and stressed, moving from Kansas City without an actual address to give to the movers. My side of the family had our last real family Christmas in this house. We have hosted so many dinners, parties and barbecues, and housed countless numbers of visitors over the past two years. We have so many memories in this house, that it's hard to imagine living anywhere else.
I am a pretty sentimental person, so I think this move would have been a lot harder had our current landlord not intervened. About a month ago, he called and said that he was going to have his son in law put a new roof on the house. He mentioned numerous other assorted projects, including new counters in the kitchen and some new windows, but he implied that these could wait until we moved. We agreed to facilitate the roof and windows (which involved giving our house key to the handykid), not knowing what we were really getting in to.
B, our landord's son-in-law has been at our house for the past 2.5 weeks working dilligently on the roof. And the new roof looks great, I must say! However, the loose nails and tar paper that liter our deck and back yard are not so great. It appears that when he finished last Friday, doing a little pick-up was too much to handle. So we spent the weekend dodging said items on the deck and hoping that our dogs wouldn't come in the house with a bloody puncture wound until I just couldn't handle it any more. The yard hadn't been mowed in weeks and it was turning into a swamp. So i gave in and filled two trashbags full of roofing debris before I felt I could mow properly.
I am also not thrilled that B's air powered nail gun and other tools are residing in my garage spot. I'm sure I have grumbled about this a fair amount to way too many people, for which I humbly apologize. However, nothing set me off as much as B did yesterday when I got home from a not-so-great day at work. He informed me that the windows would not be ready until June 29, so he would be focusing his attention on the kitchen counters instead.
*****RANT ALERT*****
Ok, the roof was one thing, and the windows need to be done in a BAD way, but Matt and I did NOT sign on for having our kitchen torn apart while we are still paying rent and living inside this house. I was politely informed last night that I would need to remove everything from the counters by today or Wednesday so that he could begin work. He did not ask if this would be a bother to our lives or schedules even though I later volunteered the information that we would be heading out of town starting Wednesday. B also made a comment that it would be hard to do the windows with our stuff in front of them (living room and office). I really wanted to snidely remind him that we do in fact LIVE in the house, but I kept my cool and he left.
What is a girl to do when she had set aside the evening to finish a boat load of homework, and is suddenly told to spend that time packing up her kitchen instead? Naturally, I broke down and had a good cry. :) And I didn't pack a single thing last night. Today, he must have found other projects, but he wisely wasn't around when I got home.
Today Matt called our landlord, who is in Atlanta for a conference and didn't seem to want to be bothered by these issues. And we don't really have too much of a case to argue, since he somehow already knows that we will be heading to Kansas after work tomorrow. So tonight, we took everything off the kitchen counters and I packed up the china for the move to Floyd, in order avoid any chance of it being broken. I'm still not thrilled about the constant parade of people through the house (between the repairs and the rental showings.). But I know that when we move, WE will have control over what happens in our house, and that is an amazing revelation at this point.
I am hoping for some magical changes in the rental house when we get back, so that we can enjoy our last couple weeks in our first Colorado "home." Old counters out, new ones in and finished. Kitchen swept and cleaned like no one was even in there. Remaining mountains of roofing debris to magically disappearing from the yard. Garage spot clear and open for my car again. Garage door opener waiting for me on the new counter. And most importantly, for these household projects to be DONE until we are outta here. I laugh even as I type out this list of "hopes" for our return.
In the mean time, I will enjoy my time in Kansas and keep dreaming of Floyd when we get back! And I promise for a more uplifting blog (and maybe some recent photos) soon!