Who Calling Catmom....

[Linda W]

Hi Michelle,

I just wanted to pop in to see how you are feeling. Any vacation plans this year??

Love, Linda
xoxoxox

 

[whitby_2773]

Date: 7/13/2009 3:30:25 PM
Author: Linda W
Hi Michelle,


I just wanted to pop in to see how you are feeling. Any vacation plans this year??


Love, Linda

xoxoxox

ditto this.

i haven''t wanted to invade your privacy, michelle, but have been wondering about you OFTEN.

update pls if you feel like it and don''t mind the intrusion.

 

[Catmom]

Hi Linda and whitby!! Thanks for asking and don''t worry, no intrusions. My life seems to be in a holding pattern right now, healthwise and travel wise. The tests showed that the device in my heart is still in place but it didn''t totally seal the hole. It still leaks around the edge of the device and that can allow unfiltered blood to escape. The good news is that it''s not a large enough leak that I would have to have a second device implanted immediately. I am being monitored to see if the leak gets any larger and if it does then I have to go back in for another device. It just seems so strange to me that they can put all these things in a heart. You would think there wasn''t that much room to keep putting stuff in there, LOL. Meanwhile I have to watch myself for straining, etc as that can open the shunting and allow for unstrained blood to escape and that''s not a good thing. The scary thing was that I had my first migraine since my initial procedure, over a year ago which means some unfiltered blood most likely got to my eyes and head. Yikes!

We are still trying to get a winter house in FL so we are trying to save and put the travel budget [and sparkly budget] towards that. It''s so hard right now because almost everything is a short sale. We''ve submitted offers on two short sales only to find out that we were the second ones in and our bids were close enough that they went with the first offers. We still could get the houses if the first offers fell through but again it''s a waiting game to see what happens. The few houses that are regular sales are up at very high prices even though it doesn''t make sense with the current market and the owners refuse to come down. Some of these houses have been on the market for months with no offers but still they refuse to lower their prices. My hubby has a conference down there in two weeks and is going to stay a couple extra days to look at a couple more houses. There''s one in the community we really like that looks like a great house and location but it''s listed way high for the market. We''ll have to see if the owners are realistic or not. We''re certainly not going to lose money just because we like a house.

I''ve been trying to keep my mind off it all and have been doing some renovations to our house up here. We''ve been stripping wallpaper and painting and putting in crown moulding. We also just had our deck redone. We have hardwood floors in the entire downstairs except the livingroom. Depending upon the house situation we want to extend the hardwood into the livingroom and have the rest of the floors refinished but if a house ever comes through we may hold off on that.

So that''s my life from the last few months. Really nothing exciting at all. How are you guys doing?? Anything exciting in your lives? Huh? Huh?

 

[whitby_2773]

hi michelle

love the sound of what you''re doing with your house- LOVE hardwood floors. i''m currently looking at this rug - what do you think?

please - no straining! and no more migraines! i admire your control re not worrying and you''re a great example of someone who rolls with life''s punches and makes lemonade when life gives them lemons! i love the idea of the florida house - actually, i love the idea of houses in general; i am a complete home body and would collect them if i could!

could you make a point of posting here if and when you make any progress on it? and some photos of your house renovations would be well received in *this* particular quarter, too...

what''s the next step with your heart device/valve/plug? (i know - not a plug - just a funny turn of phrase for something in one''s heart...) do you have more tests or check ups scheduled? pls keep us informed.

and i hope you have a lovely weekend

 

[Catmom]

Ooooooo, I REALLY like that rug. Where will you put it? I''m also very much a home body. I love decorating and HGTV is on practically 24/7! I would love to see pictures of your house.

My insanity began with my family room which had plaid wallpaper in it. I stripped it down and painted a darker fireplace wall and more neutral other walls. BUT.......then the hallway was off. It was painted a navy blue to match the wall paper so it had to be painted which meant all the way up the stairs and through out the upper hallway. Here is a before pic from Christmas showing the plaid wallpaper.

 

[Catmom]

Here''s the after pic. We still have to replace the fireplace doors and do the crown moulding. I have to have fireplace doors because the cats will go into the fireplace if I can''t close it off.

 

[Catmom]

This is of my stairway and front hallway. As you can see the navy blue would just never have matched so out it went.

 

[Catmom]

Here''s another view.....

 

[Catmom]

Then my hubby went to Japan for a week and I decided I was going to do my dining room. It had a border at the top that needed to be stripped and it need a total paint job. Well the top layer of border came off but the paper layer was fused to the drywall and wouldn''t come off short of replacing the drywall so this was our solution. We''ve seen crown moulding done like this in many southern mansions and it worked great as a cover up here.

We replaced the art on the walls and I like how it came out.

 

[Catmom]

The other side. Now we have to do the same kind of moulding in the living room and repaint it before we can get the floor in. Then moulding in the hallway and family room. Then refinish the floors and we are done downstairs.

Don''t even get me started on the upstairs!

 

[Skippy123]

Catmom, love the new colors; your house looks fabulous!!! When can I go live with you?

Seriously I love it, fantastic!!!

 

[Catmom]

Thanks Steph!! Come on out any time!!!!!!!

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 7/20/2009 3:47:37 PM
Author: Catmom
Thanks Steph!! Come on out any time!!!!!!!

I would love that!!!! xoxo

 

[whitby_2773]

yes! terrific photos, michelle. i''m sorry i didnt respond before - i wanted to give you some photos of my house, but i just haven''t had a chance to take any yet - well, haven''t had a chance to make tim take some yet, if i was being strictly accurate.

i think there''s some of the outside in my WW thread maybe? i know i posted some on a thread about ''growing my own grass'' - lol. i''ll try to get some inside when i have a chance - haven''t forgotten!

so skip - when are we converging on michelle, hmmmm??

 

[Catmom]

I''ll have the wine waiting for you both!!

 

[whitby_2773]

i could do with one today - and it''s only 11.39am!

sheesh...

 

[whitby_2773]

michelle - i just realized, there's a few photos of the inside of my house on my WW thread. not a lot of really clear stuff there, but some - probably enough to give you a sense of my taste/style...

 

[Catmom]

Thanks whitby, I''ll have to go check it out!

 

[Catmom]

Hi whitby!!

Thanks for asking how I''m doing. Nothing new healthwise. I have to go in to the hospital for another TEE in April and we''ll see at that point whether the hole is the same, bigger or by some miracle finally closed. If it''s the same then I''ll keep having TEE''s to make sure it doesn''t get bigger. If it is bigger then I may face having to have a second device implanted next to the first device to close it off. The good news is that I haven''t had any PACs [premature Atrial Contractions] in a while so I''m off of that medication. Yay! How are you feeling? I was so happy to hear that you were doing better and to have you posting again on PS! We so missed you!

We called a timeout on the house reno''s during the holidays and are back at it the last couple of weeks. We''ve been doing a mini-makeover of my daughter''s bathroom. Painting, adding crown moulding, changing hardware and light fixtures etc. I''ll take some pictures for you when we get it done.

We''re also still looking for a house in FL. We''re going down there in a couple weeks and will resume the house hunt. I''m getting tired of looking though. It seems like we''ve been looking forever. Poor hubby has another trip to Japan and Korea and will be home for one day and then we go to FL. I don''t know how he does all that travelling!

That''s about it on the news front. Thanks for asking for an update!

 

[whitby_2773]

more TEE procedures - what a pain! we say these types of things as tho they're nothing, but i know full well that, when you're laying on the table wishing you were virtually anywhere else, it's 'not nuthin'. so my thoughts are with you on this, michelle. xo

will love seeing the photos of your daughter's bathroom when you're done. i don't see us doing anything major on our house for another year - at which point we'll do a full re-paint - inside and out. i'd like to get some new blinds for a few rooms before then, and perhaps refinish the floor in our bedroom - but apart from that, not much. i *have*, however, thought about ripping out the heating system in our house. (we have ducted oil heating). i'm thinking about switching over to natural gas; our tank needs replacing, and i hate how oil heating stains everything over time. also - i can SMELL it - and i hate that. and on top of everything, the damn chimney runs straight through the center of the house, and it's housed in a space about 2 1/2 ft square - at least! so it breaks up every room through which it passes - like my upstairs family room, which it effectively divides in half. i want to get rid of it and reclaim that space. removing it would also allow me to knock out the wall between my kitchen and dining room and open up that space, which would be great. big, big, BIG job tho, so we'll see.

the florida search sounds exhausting. in fact - anything to do with real estate is exhausting in my opinion. are you after a house or an apartment? do pls keep me up to date on this search; tim and i have bought and sold many houses and i actually have a real interest in real estate - especially in areas with which i'm not familiar. michelle, which state do you live in? would florida be a big move geographically for you? are you looking for something that would be big enough to house family for vacations? i'd love to hear more about it all; florida is so beautiful - a wonderful place to go.

thanks for the update, michelle - and just by the way - what are you trying to hit your husband up for on your 30th anniversary? surely 30 years is worth something significant...surely?

love to you. xo

 

[Catmom]

Aww thanks whitby! I'm really beginning to hate those TEEs but I guess they are necessary. That would be cool if you could convert to gas heat and get rid of the chimney. It sounds like it would really open up more space for you. I'll be very interested to know how that goes and see the results!

The FL search is exhausting. We've put bids on several houses and lost out. They were short sales and even though we found out we had the highest bids we weren't the first bids in so we lost out. Very frustrating. We are trying to stay away from short sales now but that's so hard because practically every house for sale now is a short sale down there. Our intention is that for the next 5 years the house will be a vacation home and then when Jim retires in 5 years we may make the move permanent or not, lol. We've also talked about selling our house up here and buying a townhouse for when we are here and splitting the time here and in FL. Bottom line is we need a house down there first before we decide anything. The area we are looking in is the Fort Myers/Estero area. We just love it there. It really reminds us of where we live now so I would be very comfortable being alone for long periods of time when Jim is travelling for work. We were originally just going to look for a smaller ranch, downsizing and all that, but the house prices are so low that we've bid on some pretty large houses, lol. It has to be a gated community, have a screened in pool and backing on water. Other than that, we're not particular. Being that we're in the middle of another snow storm today, I'm more than ready to go down there!

ETA: oops, sorry, yes what I would dearly love for my 30th is quite substantial and pricey.

It's the most gorgeous 5 ct blue sapphire ring my jeweler has. It has 3 or so carats of diamonds and is in a simply stunning setting, sigh. I have a couple of my old pieces on consignment at my jewelers and I told hubby if they sold I would gladly chip in. I don't know if he's listening to me though.........sigh.

Love back at you,

Michelle

 

[Sparklelu]

Hello,
I am a newbie here and have followed your fab jewel collection in Catmom wanna play. Love your stuff!
Your jewelry taste is very similar to mine and if you care to share I would be happy to indulge you!
Just wondering... any luck on the house? I ask because I am in Cape Coral, on the other side of the bridge from Ft Myers and I see
from your posts that you have been down this way looking. We have been down here for 18 years. Moved from NYC when oldest 2 were 10 & 12. In the following yeras we had #3 who just celebrated his *gasp* 17th birthday. I am a 16 year breast cancer survivor.
The Cape as it is called is a buyers paradise have you looked here? There are some beautiful waterfront houses going for a song. Don't worry I'm not a reealtor, I teach middle school and my huband is retired NYPD and teaches High school and is a swimming coach.
Because I know you love a good sparkly, next time you are in Ft Myers stop on Mc Gregor Blvd and check out Mark Loren it is like a museum, he is amazing and so much fun to just look at his wonderful stuff. I had him make a piece for me with random jewels I had lying around and I love it. As a matter of fact, I was just there today and he repaired my vintage RHR. I just wanted to say hi!
Elisa