One Small Step for Man
Effective July 1st of this year, a new law in Colorado allows two unmarried people to enter into a "Designated Beneficiaries" agreement, allowing each other to inherit one another's property and life insurance benefits, make end-of-life, organ donation, and other medical decisions, visit one another in the hospital, sue for wrongful death, etc. While it doesn't provide for a majority of the rights and privileges a legal marriage would, it still helps establish and protect at least a handful of very important ones.
Last week Shasta and I filed ours with the Clerk and Recorder. We each have our own copy in our files at home, too. Eventually I will need to write up a will, and certainly once we have a child we'll need to take several additional steps to protect our rights and responsibilities in that respect; but, it's so very nice to know that if something were to happen to either of us, we could see one another in the hospital and protect one another's interests and wishes as married couples are able to.
Way to go, Colorado. Between this and the Second Parent Adoption Laws passed in 2007, you are becoming a much safer state for me and my little family to reside in. ♥ Keep it up.
In other news, we made a couple new acquisitions for the house: a $60 window-mount air conditioner for our bedroom (JOY!!!!!) and this beautiful DOUBLE OVEN stove from a couple up in Brighton:
It's a Maytag Gemini in stainless steel ... smooth glass cooktop, push-button controls, and two... count them, TWO... glorious ovens. The little top one is actually what we'll be using the most. Takes half the time to preheat, and uses less energy to cook stuff. I'm actually almost disappointed we'll be in Texas for Thanksgiving! Heh. But hopefully we'll be able to host Christmas this year at our house and I can make a turkey and bake pies at the same time!! HEE.
Not to mention it looks really awesome under our stainless microwave. Now to obtain a matching dishwasher and refrigerator... I'm not super picky about the dishwasher as long as it cleans well (maybe Shasta will actually let us use it! :P ) but I have my heart set on a french-door stainless refrigerator, which I know is going to cost us. Still, I can be patient. >D I think it will be worth it.
Also this weekend, we bought the little media cabinet we've been eyeing at Lowe's for months now for our family room, as well as getting a piece of plywood cut to fit the top of the dog cage. I've draped a tablecloth over the plywood for now, so that the cage is covered and blends into the room a little better; we're going to take the old pet-crate-bed thing off of it and turn it into a nice little table area. I'll get some photos once the media unit is put together and in place. :) Another craigslist find: a brushed nickel ceiling fan to replace the broken gold one in the living room. We shut off the power yesterday and climbed up there to remove the old broken one. As soon as we get a new down-pole for the new one we'll put it up there, which will be so nice to finally have a working fan in that room -- it gets really hot in there some days.
Have I mentioned how much I HEART Craigslist? Seriously.
Shasta's family came into town on Saturday night, so we drove wayyyyy out to her brother Marvin's house to spend some time with them. Her mom, dad, brother Jacob, Jacob's kids Tess and Briley, and her brother Melvin's son Troy all showed up, so it was a totally full house! On Sunday Jacob, Tess and Marvin came to our house and helped us drive to Brighton to pick up the stove in Jacob's big pickup truck, which was very nice of them... although we had to take the toll road and we were in two cars so I think we'll have to pay a $24 toll bill. Pfft.
I think we're going to spend some more time with her family this week (they don't leave until Wednesday) so hopefully I'll bring my camera and get shots of everybody. :)
Today the roofing guys should finish our roof. They started it Friday, did a little work on Saturday and left early (probably because it was going to rain, though I think they could have worked longer than they did...) and then didn't come at all yesterday, so they'd better show up today. :P But, once the roof is done I can call the appraiser and have him come do his thing, so we can move forward with the refi at LAST. *sigh*
We're also hoping to pull off a neighborhood garage sale the second weekend in August, so we can empty out our overstuffed garage of all the things neither of us need anymore and maybe, just maybe, make space in there for our cars. :P
So, lots of progress! The house really looks and feels like a house now. ♥ It's just the kind of house Shasta and I both really wanted to live in, ever since we were kids... the kind that we always thought it would be awesome to grow up in if our parents had had the resources. It makes me so happy to think that we'll be able to raise our own little kid in a house like this. HEE.
Oh and one little P.S. -- Excellent sex last night. >D
Last week Shasta and I filed ours with the Clerk and Recorder. We each have our own copy in our files at home, too. Eventually I will need to write up a will, and certainly once we have a child we'll need to take several additional steps to protect our rights and responsibilities in that respect; but, it's so very nice to know that if something were to happen to either of us, we could see one another in the hospital and protect one another's interests and wishes as married couples are able to.
Way to go, Colorado. Between this and the Second Parent Adoption Laws passed in 2007, you are becoming a much safer state for me and my little family to reside in. ♥ Keep it up.
In other news, we made a couple new acquisitions for the house: a $60 window-mount air conditioner for our bedroom (JOY!!!!!) and this beautiful DOUBLE OVEN stove from a couple up in Brighton:
It's a Maytag Gemini in stainless steel ... smooth glass cooktop, push-button controls, and two... count them, TWO... glorious ovens. The little top one is actually what we'll be using the most. Takes half the time to preheat, and uses less energy to cook stuff. I'm actually almost disappointed we'll be in Texas for Thanksgiving! Heh. But hopefully we'll be able to host Christmas this year at our house and I can make a turkey and bake pies at the same time!! HEE.
Not to mention it looks really awesome under our stainless microwave. Now to obtain a matching dishwasher and refrigerator... I'm not super picky about the dishwasher as long as it cleans well (maybe Shasta will actually let us use it! :P ) but I have my heart set on a french-door stainless refrigerator, which I know is going to cost us. Still, I can be patient. >D I think it will be worth it.
Also this weekend, we bought the little media cabinet we've been eyeing at Lowe's for months now for our family room, as well as getting a piece of plywood cut to fit the top of the dog cage. I've draped a tablecloth over the plywood for now, so that the cage is covered and blends into the room a little better; we're going to take the old pet-crate-bed thing off of it and turn it into a nice little table area. I'll get some photos once the media unit is put together and in place. :) Another craigslist find: a brushed nickel ceiling fan to replace the broken gold one in the living room. We shut off the power yesterday and climbed up there to remove the old broken one. As soon as we get a new down-pole for the new one we'll put it up there, which will be so nice to finally have a working fan in that room -- it gets really hot in there some days.
Have I mentioned how much I HEART Craigslist? Seriously.
Shasta's family came into town on Saturday night, so we drove wayyyyy out to her brother Marvin's house to spend some time with them. Her mom, dad, brother Jacob, Jacob's kids Tess and Briley, and her brother Melvin's son Troy all showed up, so it was a totally full house! On Sunday Jacob, Tess and Marvin came to our house and helped us drive to Brighton to pick up the stove in Jacob's big pickup truck, which was very nice of them... although we had to take the toll road and we were in two cars so I think we'll have to pay a $24 toll bill. Pfft.
I think we're going to spend some more time with her family this week (they don't leave until Wednesday) so hopefully I'll bring my camera and get shots of everybody. :)
Today the roofing guys should finish our roof. They started it Friday, did a little work on Saturday and left early (probably because it was going to rain, though I think they could have worked longer than they did...) and then didn't come at all yesterday, so they'd better show up today. :P But, once the roof is done I can call the appraiser and have him come do his thing, so we can move forward with the refi at LAST. *sigh*
We're also hoping to pull off a neighborhood garage sale the second weekend in August, so we can empty out our overstuffed garage of all the things neither of us need anymore and maybe, just maybe, make space in there for our cars. :P
So, lots of progress! The house really looks and feels like a house now. ♥ It's just the kind of house Shasta and I both really wanted to live in, ever since we were kids... the kind that we always thought it would be awesome to grow up in if our parents had had the resources. It makes me so happy to think that we'll be able to raise our own little kid in a house like this. HEE.
Oh and one little P.S. -- Excellent sex last night. >D