New House, Vol. 6

...and then I came home from work one day and I had no roof!

The only thing left standing is the chimney and this toilet. Poor workers need a place to pee, after all:

New House, Vol. 5

Roof Tearoff. Can you see in this photo how bowed the back roof was?

I'm a Rebel Dottie, A Loner

They're doing some work on my building...and this dear folks, is the most rebellious thing I have ever done in my life:

More Mass-Textomy

Don't let the pink ribbon fool you.

Cancer

So my mom basically lives with me now. She's having her chemo at Abbott, which is only a mile away. Here's how much she loves me:

New House, Vol. 4

Now, why would I need a husband when all my friends already have one?

New House, Vol. 3

Me, having a Carol-Burnett-having-a-Gone-With-The-Wind-moment:

New House, Vol. 2

If you can try to match these up with yesterday's post - these are the corresponding 'during' photos to go with. They're not after photos by any means...

Kitchen (please note the ONLY insulation in the walls was this thin layer of tar paper):

Entryway (a different view, from the bedroom looking out the door (the pink cabinets are in the garage now):

Demolition of the plaster and lathe in the bathroom:

Bathroom:

View of the entrances to the tiny bedroom (now open to the entryway and the bathroom door):

Stay tuned!

New House

So I bought a house.

Why, you may ask? Why would I move from a SAFE 2nd floor walk-up apartment that I LOVE, that only costs me $800 a month in rent, that is in the PERFECT location in the best neighborhood in all of South Minneapolis?

Because I went to my mom's over Christmas break, watched a million back-to-back episodes of Property Brothers and Tiny House Nation and Rehab Addict that's why. That's why on a whim the very day that I got home I bought a 684 square foot fixer-upper. 

This week I'm just going to post photos of my house project. I haven't been writing much lately because if I'm not in Mexico or at my full-time job or caring for those who have cancer (my mom), I'm over at this house trying to be as helpful as a 5'2" woman with no experience in such things and a car-accident back can be. 

The back of the house:

Kitchen:

Front entryway:

Bathroom (please note the 4' clawfoot bathtub that had to be cut into the tile in the wall because the bathroom is only 3'9" wide):

From the living room through the dining room and into the kitchen:

From the dining room into the front bedroom and the bathroom:

Anyway, the house is great and could have been moved into as-is, but I decided that the roof was too saggy and needed to be replaced (see photo 1) and the layout of the house is inefficient and that I wanted to add an adorable 2nd floor loft and I had been watching all those shows, so here we are. 

Stay tuned...

Baffoon Bombs it on the Beach

In Cancun the water is pretty choppy and so in the swimming areas they have these great big giantic ropes so that if you start to get tired, or are swept out to sea you can grab onto one rather than trying to swim back to shore which won't work anyway and will probably kill you.

Anyway, one day I went for a run and happened upon a wedding just near a couple of the ropes. 

I jumped over the first one, turned toward the camera and threw my arms in the air in an attempt to photo-bomb a shot of the bride and groom.

Success! 

Hilarious!

BAM! 

...I forgot about the second rope and it got me right in the knees and I face planted in the sand. Hard.

That's whatcha get.

Great Mexican Road Trip

Well...not really. But I've never been to Belize. And so when all my friends went home yesterday from Cancun I rented a car and started driving. Belize is about five hours away and along the way I stopped and visited the ruins at Tulum and Coba. 

When I left the car rental shop, I rolled down the windows (manually, of course) to let the wind blow through my hair. The freedom! A single American blonde woman traveler just rented a car to drive around in it! Look everybody! Look at me!! 

Immediately on the right hand side of the road was a taco stand and I was starving. So I pulled over into a parking lot. This kind of stuff is fun for me because:

1) I love food

2) It forces me to speak in Spanish

3) It's a mini spontaneous and very safe adventure

4) I love food

So I ordered up two tacos and they fried them right there in front of me. I loaded up on the pico de gallo. "muy picante?" I asked, "medio" they said and then I asked "por Mexicanos...or por Noruegas?"and they laughed! They laughed at my joke! Everybody! Look at me!!

I paid them $1.75 and then stood there and ate the tacos with my new side-of-the-road-taco-stand friends like a real local person. 

I thanked them and went to get in my manual stick shift Mexican rental car.

Which I realized had one of those funny reverse situations.

You know, where you can't really just put the car in reverse? You have to perform a pushing motion on the stick and then move it. But that didn't work. I tried for several minutes, while all of my new side-of-the-road-taco-stand friends watched in confusion. ...But wasn't she a single American blonde woman traveler? Shouldn't she be able to put a car in reverse?

---

I rolled down my window again (manually, of course) and yelled: "POR FAVOR! AYUDAME!!" and one of my side-of-the-road-taco-stand friends came running over, reached across my dumbfounded face and pulled up on this silly lever and slipped 'er into reverse.

And then I drove away, the wind in my hair once again.

The Mexican Chevy Aveo: Man's most complicated car