We should start seeing some reduction in our monthly expenses now (at least until the house gets done). I called and put our Dish satellite service on "pause". It's $5 a month, so that is saving $80 a month. The lady I talked to on the phone was so nice. She was in Oklahoma and we had a good chat, LOL. We no longer will have a water/sewer bill, which will save at least $70 a month. Our car gas should go down (though I had to make 3 trips into town yesterday! 20 mile RT) now that DH won't be driving back and forth (at least once) every day. Our food bill is lower, due to eating lighter dinners. I'm guessing our electric will go down, too. It's a co-op we are on now, much cheaper and I don't think we will use as much in this shop as our house did. Plus, it's just two wall units blowing out the heat - not a big furnace system, using a bunch of electricity to blow the heat through the whole house heating vents. We'll see, I guess. The house will have a heat pump system, so should use much less electricity, from what I know of them. I remember my grandparents had one installed at their house and their electricity bill went down to very minimal.
In September I'm also going to do some more research and get DH's health insurance switched over to a cheaper (non ACA compliant) plan. They are short term, but can be renewed for up to a year, is what I'm reading. They are much much cheaper. I'm currently paying $560 a month for him and I'm certain it will go up when renewal time comes in November. According to what I am reading, with the tax penalty still in effect for this year, as long as he had Obamacare insurance for 9 months out of the year, we would not have to pay the penalty. So, I'll have the new insurance start Oct. 1. Even if I can save a couple hundred a month, that will be very nice.
So, the post office locked my box! Geez. I went in yesterday afternoon to pick up our mail and stop at the counter and let them know we just moved and will be getting our new mailbox set up this weekend. While I get that the PO box is free, because at the house in town we didn't have mail delivery, at least give me until the end of the day to address the issue. Apparently the new owner went in yesterday, before I did, so he could set up his free PO box with the address. So, they locked my box! They could have stuck a note in the mailbox saying we need to pay for it now, if we want to keep the box. Anyhow, she gave me a 10 day grace period on it. I'm going into the city tomorrow to deposit my settlement check, so I'll stop and get the mailbox we want and DH can get it put up this weekend. He wants to get the same mailbox as our 2 neighbors used, so they all match. I think eventually he's going to build us all a little covered timber mailbox thing that all our mailboxes can sit on and look nice and neat.
DH is excited - his drone is supposed to be delivered back today, all fixed up. Just in time to start recording the house build.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Closed
We got our house sale closed today. Whew. One less thing on my plate to worry about. I didn't even realize our realtor was coming out to the closing. Our agent on our other house 2 years ago did not do that. Still waiting for the check for my proceeds. She said it should be this afternoon and will call me when I can come and pick up. I'll be rich again - for one day LOL. 95% of it is going as a payment to pay down our shop construction loan. I had just hoped it could get transferred directly to my bank account, but I guess not. Now I'll have to make a trip into the city to get it deposited.
Our realtor texted me last night, asking if I could go back to the house and leave a key hidden because his lockbox wasn't working and they needed a key this morning in order to do the walk-through. So, I ran into town this morning and dropped that off. I guess his company switched to bluetooth lockboxes recently and these old type were supposed to work until the end of the month, so he didn't bother to replace it out, since we were closing before then. Anyhow, I guess he got it to work, which I guess explains why he needed to come out here - he had to pick up his box, anyway.
The framing on the house is slowly coming along. Only 2 guys working on it. So much for when the builder told us last month "I'm going to send a big crew and put it up fast". Next week, his son, who heads the framing part, said he'll be bringing his camper trailer to stay in while he works. So, maybe at least work will get started before 9:30 or 10am then.
They are getting the floor joists started today
This end of the house is the master bedroom and bath.
So far so good, with working at my desk in the shop. I can hear the construction a little, but it's no big deal. Just background noise. The internet here his working great. It's through the same telephone company we had in town, so I wasn't too worried about it.
Our realtor texted me last night, asking if I could go back to the house and leave a key hidden because his lockbox wasn't working and they needed a key this morning in order to do the walk-through. So, I ran into town this morning and dropped that off. I guess his company switched to bluetooth lockboxes recently and these old type were supposed to work until the end of the month, so he didn't bother to replace it out, since we were closing before then. Anyhow, I guess he got it to work, which I guess explains why he needed to come out here - he had to pick up his box, anyway.
The framing on the house is slowly coming along. Only 2 guys working on it. So much for when the builder told us last month "I'm going to send a big crew and put it up fast". Next week, his son, who heads the framing part, said he'll be bringing his camper trailer to stay in while he works. So, maybe at least work will get started before 9:30 or 10am then.
They are getting the floor joists started today
This end of the house is the master bedroom and bath.
So far so good, with working at my desk in the shop. I can hear the construction a little, but it's no big deal. Just background noise. The internet here his working great. It's through the same telephone company we had in town, so I wasn't too worried about it.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
A little money stuff
While it's dry and sunny today (and supposed to be for next 10 days at least), we did come up with a solution to see if it will help with the muddy paws on future rainy days. We have a water spigot right outside the shop door. I told DH to put a bunch of gravel all around the area in front of the door. We put a nozzle on the hose and will have them stand in the gravel to rinse off paws, before they come into the shop and we can then dry them off.
The 2 guys who started framing the house yesterday were complaining at the end of the day how far behind they are on jobs. The head guy said they are like 2 weeks behind schedule. Well........I can sure see why. Just in the last 2 days they have already lost almost a full days work! They didn't show up until 11 yesterday (and were done at 4:30). When they left they said they'd be here at 7:30 this morning. They just got here at 9:30.
The best part about being here is DH doesn't have to get up and drive over here early every morning! We didn't have to get up until 7am. No more 5 or 5:30 am. I hated that! LOL. Plus we will save some money on gas, too, now. He was filling up about once a week the past few months. Also, no more water/sewer bill. That was a minimum of $70 a month, higher in summer months.
I received a check in the mail for $12 from a class action law suit I registered for. I swear I had already gotten a check for this a year or so ago, but maybe not. We also saved $7 by taking our garbage can with us from old house to our new place. My company also funded our 401k for the year with matching and some profit sharing, so another $4335 was just added to my 401k account.
We haven't really been spending much on food, since we aren't having big full dinners. Did I mention DH has lost like 30 pounds? He was 198 this morning, so lost another few pounds. His jeans are hanging on him, so he has to keep wearing a belt now. I am down to 118, just about exactly where I like to be (I like 115, but I'll take it, since I was almost 130 before).
We're going to get a mailbox set up next week. I will not miss having a PO Box and having to go to the post office all the time to get mail. Plus, it's often been confusing ordering stuff online, with having both a PO Box and a physical address. Now, it will all be one and the same. And if I need to mail something for work (which is usually a couple of times per week) I don't have to get in my car and make a special trip to the post office. I can now just walk down the street a bit and put it in our mailbox.
I'm not really missing tv much, though I do have Netflix I can watch (still watching Heartland, on season 5 of 10). I think DH is missing it more than me. We will probably get our satellite service transferred over sometime soon, but not in any real hurry. I think he'll just put the tv up on a wall.
Our hot water heater not working again.......
The 2 guys who started framing the house yesterday were complaining at the end of the day how far behind they are on jobs. The head guy said they are like 2 weeks behind schedule. Well........I can sure see why. Just in the last 2 days they have already lost almost a full days work! They didn't show up until 11 yesterday (and were done at 4:30). When they left they said they'd be here at 7:30 this morning. They just got here at 9:30.
The best part about being here is DH doesn't have to get up and drive over here early every morning! We didn't have to get up until 7am. No more 5 or 5:30 am. I hated that! LOL. Plus we will save some money on gas, too, now. He was filling up about once a week the past few months. Also, no more water/sewer bill. That was a minimum of $70 a month, higher in summer months.
I received a check in the mail for $12 from a class action law suit I registered for. I swear I had already gotten a check for this a year or so ago, but maybe not. We also saved $7 by taking our garbage can with us from old house to our new place. My company also funded our 401k for the year with matching and some profit sharing, so another $4335 was just added to my 401k account.
We haven't really been spending much on food, since we aren't having big full dinners. Did I mention DH has lost like 30 pounds? He was 198 this morning, so lost another few pounds. His jeans are hanging on him, so he has to keep wearing a belt now. I am down to 118, just about exactly where I like to be (I like 115, but I'll take it, since I was almost 130 before).
We're going to get a mailbox set up next week. I will not miss having a PO Box and having to go to the post office all the time to get mail. Plus, it's often been confusing ordering stuff online, with having both a PO Box and a physical address. Now, it will all be one and the same. And if I need to mail something for work (which is usually a couple of times per week) I don't have to get in my car and make a special trip to the post office. I can now just walk down the street a bit and put it in our mailbox.
I'm not really missing tv much, though I do have Netflix I can watch (still watching Heartland, on season 5 of 10). I think DH is missing it more than me. We will probably get our satellite service transferred over sometime soon, but not in any real hurry. I think he'll just put the tv up on a wall.
Our hot water heater not working again.......
Monday, August 27, 2018
It's definitely a Monday
Monday morning means back to work! Sure didn't feel like I had 6 days off. I tried to look through my work emails every day, just to delete out the "junk" stuff I didn't need to respond to or follow up on. At least that got rid of some of it.
After weeks/months of no real rain it started raining last night and all morning. Just a light drizzle. The builder/framing crew were supposed to show up today to start framing house. 6 am DH gets a text asking if it's raining at our place, because it was pouring where they live an hour away. DH said just a light rain. Then at 8am the framing guy texts and asks same thing, which DH replied the same answer. 11 am they just showed up, LOL.
Woke up, let the dogs out for peeing and of course their paws were totally muddy and dirty to clean off. Then fed the dogs and black dog promptly puked up all his food. He apparently just inhaled it as nothing was even chewed. He seems fine though. But, I had to clean that up. Not the best way to start out, eh?
Today was garbage pick up at our old house, so we set the can out (overfilled from moving) for one last pick up. Then I called and transferred to new address, which is on Thursday pick up, so they will pick up here again this week. Good, we have so much garbage generated here, too, from moving in!
We've been tweaking all the stuff in here to best utilize the space. It will help when we get some cabinets over and to the side of the washer and dryer and a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. We had an old small bookshelf that we set up on top of the stainless steel long table we are using for our kitchen. That helped give me lots more places to store foods. Yesterday we shifted some more bins around and made enough room to set up our small (5'x3') dining table. So now we have it all, LOL. A kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, office and living room. Haha! We're going to see if the bed from our queen bed is on will adjust out to a king size. I have this memory, when we set it up in our old house, that it was adjustable. Keeping fingers crossed it is and that would save us $50 to buy one for king sized.
We are both still very wore out. We did sleep in Fri, Sat and Sun, but still not caught up. DH was having fits this morning because of the mud outside and dealing with the dogs. It's only supposed to rain today and then be sunny and in the 70's the next 10 days. It will all dry back out quickly and we'll have a break from the mud we're dealing with today. Just not letting the dogs outside much today. They will survive.
Our tankless/propane water heater finally seems to be working since they guy came out again on Saturday. Thank goodness. That was getting really annoying. He'd work on it and it would work the rest of the day (like for 5 days in a row) and when we'd get up the next morning it wouldn't work again. But I do like the shower. It's nice a roomy, especially compared to what we've had to use the past almost 30 years! At our old old house it was a small corner unit shower stall that wasn't much more than 2ft x 2ft. Then at our house we just sold it was a tub/shower, but the tub was really narrow. Plus, I really like that we are once again on well water and not paying for it! (my last water/sewer bill was $107).
Just got word we are closing on our house on Wednesday. Just waiting to hear what time we are supposed to go. Buyer is signing at 11am.
Here's a funny. Talking with our neighbor here at new place the other day. He said "hey, I finally got to meet your old neighbor for the first time the other day.... Then our neighbor says "is he black?" DH and I just laughed and said "nope, he's just always filthy because he's a mechanic AND he apparently never takes a bath!!". Neighbor was like "ewww, I couldn't tell for sure!" LOL
Cooking has been ok so far. My little hot plate is working great for making DH's egg sandwich in the morning. Lunch is just sandwiches and chips (as it's been for DH since forever). For dinner, we've rediscovered pot pies! LOL. Plus they are small and fit in the tiny freezer good. We've had pot pies two nights, sandwiches one night. The other night I tried a Hormel microwave meatloaf - yuck. One night we had burgers from the next town and Friday DH had a big McD's lunch, so we just had cereal for dinner (that was the day I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't eat much). Tonight I'm making chili dogs and tomorrow I'm going to try eggs and bacon on my electric griddle. I think Wednesday night we might go out to eat and celebrate this house finally getting closed.
DH's drone got repaired and is on it's way back. Cost $100 to fix. He'd better be more careful from now on! But just in time to get it back, since they are starting on the house framing. I still can't believe there's really going to be a house one of these days....I had a dream last night about it. It was almost done and I was walking through it....it wasn't even like it really is, LOL. And the kitchen! Oh my! It has every appliance you could imagine and then some. I was walking around in awe, going "how did I get all this stuff?". The funny part is I don't even like to cook.....
After weeks/months of no real rain it started raining last night and all morning. Just a light drizzle. The builder/framing crew were supposed to show up today to start framing house. 6 am DH gets a text asking if it's raining at our place, because it was pouring where they live an hour away. DH said just a light rain. Then at 8am the framing guy texts and asks same thing, which DH replied the same answer. 11 am they just showed up, LOL.
Woke up, let the dogs out for peeing and of course their paws were totally muddy and dirty to clean off. Then fed the dogs and black dog promptly puked up all his food. He apparently just inhaled it as nothing was even chewed. He seems fine though. But, I had to clean that up. Not the best way to start out, eh?
Today was garbage pick up at our old house, so we set the can out (overfilled from moving) for one last pick up. Then I called and transferred to new address, which is on Thursday pick up, so they will pick up here again this week. Good, we have so much garbage generated here, too, from moving in!
We've been tweaking all the stuff in here to best utilize the space. It will help when we get some cabinets over and to the side of the washer and dryer and a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. We had an old small bookshelf that we set up on top of the stainless steel long table we are using for our kitchen. That helped give me lots more places to store foods. Yesterday we shifted some more bins around and made enough room to set up our small (5'x3') dining table. So now we have it all, LOL. A kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, office and living room. Haha! We're going to see if the bed from our queen bed is on will adjust out to a king size. I have this memory, when we set it up in our old house, that it was adjustable. Keeping fingers crossed it is and that would save us $50 to buy one for king sized.
We are both still very wore out. We did sleep in Fri, Sat and Sun, but still not caught up. DH was having fits this morning because of the mud outside and dealing with the dogs. It's only supposed to rain today and then be sunny and in the 70's the next 10 days. It will all dry back out quickly and we'll have a break from the mud we're dealing with today. Just not letting the dogs outside much today. They will survive.
Our tankless/propane water heater finally seems to be working since they guy came out again on Saturday. Thank goodness. That was getting really annoying. He'd work on it and it would work the rest of the day (like for 5 days in a row) and when we'd get up the next morning it wouldn't work again. But I do like the shower. It's nice a roomy, especially compared to what we've had to use the past almost 30 years! At our old old house it was a small corner unit shower stall that wasn't much more than 2ft x 2ft. Then at our house we just sold it was a tub/shower, but the tub was really narrow. Plus, I really like that we are once again on well water and not paying for it! (my last water/sewer bill was $107).
Just got word we are closing on our house on Wednesday. Just waiting to hear what time we are supposed to go. Buyer is signing at 11am.
Here's a funny. Talking with our neighbor here at new place the other day. He said "hey, I finally got to meet your old neighbor for the first time the other day.... Then our neighbor says "is he black?" DH and I just laughed and said "nope, he's just always filthy because he's a mechanic AND he apparently never takes a bath!!". Neighbor was like "ewww, I couldn't tell for sure!" LOL
Cooking has been ok so far. My little hot plate is working great for making DH's egg sandwich in the morning. Lunch is just sandwiches and chips (as it's been for DH since forever). For dinner, we've rediscovered pot pies! LOL. Plus they are small and fit in the tiny freezer good. We've had pot pies two nights, sandwiches one night. The other night I tried a Hormel microwave meatloaf - yuck. One night we had burgers from the next town and Friday DH had a big McD's lunch, so we just had cereal for dinner (that was the day I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't eat much). Tonight I'm making chili dogs and tomorrow I'm going to try eggs and bacon on my electric griddle. I think Wednesday night we might go out to eat and celebrate this house finally getting closed.
DH's drone got repaired and is on it's way back. Cost $100 to fix. He'd better be more careful from now on! But just in time to get it back, since they are starting on the house framing. I still can't believe there's really going to be a house one of these days....I had a dream last night about it. It was almost done and I was walking through it....it wasn't even like it really is, LOL. And the kitchen! Oh my! It has every appliance you could imagine and then some. I was walking around in awe, going "how did I get all this stuff?". The funny part is I don't even like to cook.....
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Sit down and have a cup
Saturday morning cup of coffee view from the back patio :) (and yes, I like lots of creamer!)
Friday, August 24, 2018
A much better day
Aside from waking up not feeling well and spending half my morning in the bathroom....it turned out to be a good day. The appraisal finally got turned in first thing this morning and all was good. Appraised at what it needed to and no requirements for anything to be fixed/repaired. (the inspector thought they would call out the siding cracks). We are now supposed to close next Wednesday. A week late.
DD finally got her promotion to level 2. And not a super great raise, but ok. She also had two interviews with the big company her fiance works at and is still really hoping something turns up there. They are on a big hiring phase, so her chances sound pretty good, which would be even more money. Her DF is up for a promotion too, and should know soon.
And last but not least, just before 5pm a big truck showed up delivering the start of the house build lumber! Wooo! Construction to start on Monday.
We are trying to adjust to living in a shop. Not easy. Just not enough room. Plus we've been dealing with our tankless water heater (runs on propane) not working most of the time. The guy has been out every day trying to fix it. It would work for a bit, then off and on and then not work. No hot water at all this morning. They had a part overnighted and replaced it. Didn't help. Finally the service guy called up the manufacturer this morning and they fixed the problem. At least it's worked fine all day today, now.
I'm also not used to sleeping in a queen sized bed, especially since DH is a bed hog and one of our big dogs has always slept on the bed with us. We have a bit of room and our king sized mattress is 12 inches wider than a queen. We are thinking of just buying a cheap bed frame (they are like $50) to put our king mattress on. We don't have room, nor do we want, to use our king sleigh bed. It's too nice and is going to stay wrapped up in moving blankets until we get into our house.
I'm still exhausted and not feeling like I'm getting a chance to rest up yet. Hopefully, soon.
DD finally got her promotion to level 2. And not a super great raise, but ok. She also had two interviews with the big company her fiance works at and is still really hoping something turns up there. They are on a big hiring phase, so her chances sound pretty good, which would be even more money. Her DF is up for a promotion too, and should know soon.
And last but not least, just before 5pm a big truck showed up delivering the start of the house build lumber! Wooo! Construction to start on Monday.
We are trying to adjust to living in a shop. Not easy. Just not enough room. Plus we've been dealing with our tankless water heater (runs on propane) not working most of the time. The guy has been out every day trying to fix it. It would work for a bit, then off and on and then not work. No hot water at all this morning. They had a part overnighted and replaced it. Didn't help. Finally the service guy called up the manufacturer this morning and they fixed the problem. At least it's worked fine all day today, now.
I'm also not used to sleeping in a queen sized bed, especially since DH is a bed hog and one of our big dogs has always slept on the bed with us. We have a bit of room and our king sized mattress is 12 inches wider than a queen. We are thinking of just buying a cheap bed frame (they are like $50) to put our king mattress on. We don't have room, nor do we want, to use our king sleigh bed. It's too nice and is going to stay wrapped up in moving blankets until we get into our house.
I'm still exhausted and not feeling like I'm getting a chance to rest up yet. Hopefully, soon.
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Still waiting to close
I'm typing this from my iPad so bear with spelling errors. We have Internet and my computer is hooked up but I'm too wore out to sit at it. I'm propped up in bed with a heating pad on my back
We got moved yesterday using a moving company. Two guys and a truck showed up right on time and got it all done in 6 1/2 hours. It was so worth the cost it would have taken us probably 3 days of trips back and forth trying to do it ourselves and once appraisal is in we basically only have two days and be out by closing day on 3rd day
Our house was supposed to close today and it didn't. The appraisal was supposed to be turned in last Friday and it still hasn't. Now the buyers lender is saying VA is giving hermuntil 9/4 to submit it! That's almost 60 days since we went under contract! The contract gives them 15 days past the closing date of today to close, technically. But if appraisal isn't in until 4th. Of September and they have to give him 3 days to close after that, legally, then they'll be past the date. Just unbelievable. She did the appraisal on 8/1. We can't close on our construction loan for house until this closes. So now we have another 2+ week delay
So frustrating!
We got moved yesterday using a moving company. Two guys and a truck showed up right on time and got it all done in 6 1/2 hours. It was so worth the cost it would have taken us probably 3 days of trips back and forth trying to do it ourselves and once appraisal is in we basically only have two days and be out by closing day on 3rd day
Our house was supposed to close today and it didn't. The appraisal was supposed to be turned in last Friday and it still hasn't. Now the buyers lender is saying VA is giving hermuntil 9/4 to submit it! That's almost 60 days since we went under contract! The contract gives them 15 days past the closing date of today to close, technically. But if appraisal isn't in until 4th. Of September and they have to give him 3 days to close after that, legally, then they'll be past the date. Just unbelievable. She did the appraisal on 8/1. We can't close on our construction loan for house until this closes. So now we have another 2+ week delay
So frustrating!
Monday, August 20, 2018
Moving update
To say I am tired would be an understatement. Friday was a 12 hour day. We got everything from our current shop loaded and dropped off at the property. DH had rented a small forklift for loading and the builder had delivered a larger "telehandler" type forklift to our property. It took like 5 or 6 trips with the trailer. DH still needed to let the floor "cure" so he just set all the pallets on our house garage pad and out in the gravel area. We covered most of it with tarps. Because you know....it hasn't rained a drop in months, but of course it rained Friday. Saturday morning he called the guy he rented the forklift from (he just lives around the block) and when DH asked him how much he owed him, he said "nothing, don't worry about it". Nice :)
He was going to wait until Sunday to start moving all the stuff into the shop. Saturday morning we slept in a bit (that was nice!) and were just going out there to lay our the big piece of carpet we bought, to put in our sleeping/living area. Well, then he decided he'd start moving stuff in. We had bought some heavy weight flooring type paper (ram board) to lay underneath the pallets. 10 hours later we had most of it loaded inside. It's all completely stuffed in there, but DH ended up with a little bit more room than he thought he would have, so that helps. We slept in yesterday morning and he went out there by himself and did a bit more. I went out in the afternoon and helped him get our old t-bird car squeezed in as close to the pallets as possible. I'm not even taking a pic of it all. It's embarrassing, really how much "stuff" it all is. Old truck stuff, tons of old race car stuff, bins and more bins.
and mice are already chewing their way into the shop thru the corner of the garage doors! We set traps Saturday night before we left and caught one. This morning DH said two more were caught. Guess we'll be getting a shop cat.
Today he is out there waiting for a delivery and doing odds and ends. The phone/internet is supposed to get hooked up tomorrow. I'm home trying to finish up laundry (mostly just the bedding). Everything else is packed, other than the clothes, toiletries and food we need to take.
So, the appraisal on this house was supposed to get turned in Friday. It did not. So, obviously our closing is delayed at least a day now. I don't get it....she had a deadline to turn it in and just doesn't? She just gets to turn it in whenever she gets around to it?
Tomorrow the movers we hired are coming in the morning. Thank God we decided to do that! I don't think, well I know, we couldn't get all this furniture moved by ourselves as well as some heavy bins. Hopefully that all goes well. And the weather is cooling down to 68 today. So much nicer.
He was going to wait until Sunday to start moving all the stuff into the shop. Saturday morning we slept in a bit (that was nice!) and were just going out there to lay our the big piece of carpet we bought, to put in our sleeping/living area. Well, then he decided he'd start moving stuff in. We had bought some heavy weight flooring type paper (ram board) to lay underneath the pallets. 10 hours later we had most of it loaded inside. It's all completely stuffed in there, but DH ended up with a little bit more room than he thought he would have, so that helps. We slept in yesterday morning and he went out there by himself and did a bit more. I went out in the afternoon and helped him get our old t-bird car squeezed in as close to the pallets as possible. I'm not even taking a pic of it all. It's embarrassing, really how much "stuff" it all is. Old truck stuff, tons of old race car stuff, bins and more bins.
and mice are already chewing their way into the shop thru the corner of the garage doors! We set traps Saturday night before we left and caught one. This morning DH said two more were caught. Guess we'll be getting a shop cat.
Today he is out there waiting for a delivery and doing odds and ends. The phone/internet is supposed to get hooked up tomorrow. I'm home trying to finish up laundry (mostly just the bedding). Everything else is packed, other than the clothes, toiletries and food we need to take.
So, the appraisal on this house was supposed to get turned in Friday. It did not. So, obviously our closing is delayed at least a day now. I don't get it....she had a deadline to turn it in and just doesn't? She just gets to turn it in whenever she gets around to it?
Tomorrow the movers we hired are coming in the morning. Thank God we decided to do that! I don't think, well I know, we couldn't get all this furniture moved by ourselves as well as some heavy bins. Hopefully that all goes well. And the weather is cooling down to 68 today. So much nicer.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Thursday ramblings
One more day of work and then I am off through next week. Eek! DH was wondering if we could just take our garbage can with us, since we are transferring service. They said yes and doing that will save a $7 fee to deliver a new can.
It pays to shop around for pricing. A couple weeks ago I went and got new flooring and countertop bids. The flooring was $2000 less than the other one, plus for some reason our builder put in his cost estimates $2500 more than was our first bid, so actually I am getting that flooring number down to actual by a total of $4500. The second granite place was $3000 less, so that is good savings too. The flooring guy also gave me a bid on materials for our master tiled shower. I talked with builder about labor costs and he thinks we should be able to get it done for $2500 lower than what he put in for a number. He put in $7500! The materials (I'm using the porcelain planks that look like wood) came to $1160. I can't imagine over $6000 in labor to put in tile?!!!! How long could it possibly take to install tile planks in a master shower?
I had a phone call with my boss this morning. Big changes coming at work, being announced at a company meeting on Monday (that I won't be going to, since I'm in the middle of moving). We are dropping our huge mfg we rep and going with a smaller one. I guess this has been in the works for a good 6 months or so. We rep numerous small companies and the one big conglomerate. This will be a shift in focus - to concentrate more of our sales on the smaller mfgs (that we make a much better profit from). We have been with this big mfg for 7 years or so but apparently in the last couple of years they have gotten more and more difficult to work with and difficult to fulfill our orders with. Our inside and outside sales people spend almost all of their time on just this mfg and dealing with all the issues that come up. Even my boss spends a good majority of her day on this mfg. All in all it sounds like it might be for the better. We've guaranteed a set monthly payment for the next 3 years in our contract with this new company and with being able to focus more time on sales from our higher profit/smaller mfgs, we should actually make more money in the long run. Plus this new mfg we will be partnering with uses the same system we use, so that part should be pretty seamless and we should start seeing a lot more efficiencies in our employees day to day work load, as they aren't having to use two different ordering systems and aren't spending all day working through all of the issues from this other company. I'm sure there will be some transition headaches. Always something to deal with. I'm just really happy I don't have to learn a new system again.
DH just verified he now has forklifts lined up on both ends for loading/unloading all his pallets of stuff. God, he has so much crap. He swears he's going to start getting rid of it, after he has the big shop to fully utilize (ie after house is built). He'd better, but I'm not holding my breath. He really is a hoarder, when all is said and done. A very organized hoarder, but a hoarder nonetheless. I have already given DD permission, that if I die before he dies, when he dies, she has permission to just unload it all, for nothing, if she has to. To not feel like she has to try and sell it off piece by piece, etc. Just dump it. I really don't get how people want to keep stuff they never use and can't even get to, since it's all stacked up and stored. Why not have space you can use and enjoy and money from the stuff stored, that you can use for something you can use and enjoy? Makes no sense to me.
It pays to shop around for pricing. A couple weeks ago I went and got new flooring and countertop bids. The flooring was $2000 less than the other one, plus for some reason our builder put in his cost estimates $2500 more than was our first bid, so actually I am getting that flooring number down to actual by a total of $4500. The second granite place was $3000 less, so that is good savings too. The flooring guy also gave me a bid on materials for our master tiled shower. I talked with builder about labor costs and he thinks we should be able to get it done for $2500 lower than what he put in for a number. He put in $7500! The materials (I'm using the porcelain planks that look like wood) came to $1160. I can't imagine over $6000 in labor to put in tile?!!!! How long could it possibly take to install tile planks in a master shower?
I had a phone call with my boss this morning. Big changes coming at work, being announced at a company meeting on Monday (that I won't be going to, since I'm in the middle of moving). We are dropping our huge mfg we rep and going with a smaller one. I guess this has been in the works for a good 6 months or so. We rep numerous small companies and the one big conglomerate. This will be a shift in focus - to concentrate more of our sales on the smaller mfgs (that we make a much better profit from). We have been with this big mfg for 7 years or so but apparently in the last couple of years they have gotten more and more difficult to work with and difficult to fulfill our orders with. Our inside and outside sales people spend almost all of their time on just this mfg and dealing with all the issues that come up. Even my boss spends a good majority of her day on this mfg. All in all it sounds like it might be for the better. We've guaranteed a set monthly payment for the next 3 years in our contract with this new company and with being able to focus more time on sales from our higher profit/smaller mfgs, we should actually make more money in the long run. Plus this new mfg we will be partnering with uses the same system we use, so that part should be pretty seamless and we should start seeing a lot more efficiencies in our employees day to day work load, as they aren't having to use two different ordering systems and aren't spending all day working through all of the issues from this other company. I'm sure there will be some transition headaches. Always something to deal with. I'm just really happy I don't have to learn a new system again.
DH just verified he now has forklifts lined up on both ends for loading/unloading all his pallets of stuff. God, he has so much crap. He swears he's going to start getting rid of it, after he has the big shop to fully utilize (ie after house is built). He'd better, but I'm not holding my breath. He really is a hoarder, when all is said and done. A very organized hoarder, but a hoarder nonetheless. I have already given DD permission, that if I die before he dies, when he dies, she has permission to just unload it all, for nothing, if she has to. To not feel like she has to try and sell it off piece by piece, etc. Just dump it. I really don't get how people want to keep stuff they never use and can't even get to, since it's all stacked up and stored. Why not have space you can use and enjoy and money from the stuff stored, that you can use for something you can use and enjoy? Makes no sense to me.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Reflections
For some reason DH was thinking our closing date (which probably won't happen on that date anyway) of the 22nd was next Tuesday. He had me schedule the moving guys for next Monday. Then this morning he realized the 22nd is Wednesday, not Tuesday. Tuesday would be better for moving into the shop.....because the darn company doing the epoxy coating on our shop floor lied to us. DH had specifically asked the guy how soon we could get on the floor because we then right away had to start moving in. He said the next day. Well, when they started working on it Monday (they will be done today, a day early) they then said you should wait a week! DH was a bit mad. Anyhow, with being able to have the movers come Tuesday now, that gives the floor an extra day to cure.
It does look nice and shiny with the epoxy, but I wish DH had chosen the light tan color instead of the gray. Now he's wishing he had, too. It looks great, but the tan would have gone better with all our other colors. DH is a neat freak, so this shiny floor is just up his alley.
I just ordered my hot plate from Target. I had $5 gift card balance left, so got it for $12 and 2 day shipping so will be here on Friday. Thursday afternoon we are taking the pickup to the city to get the piece of carpet remnant and a small compact refrigerator. I ordered it online with Lowes for pickup, so that should save us time and I'm supposed to earn some ebates cash back.
Our older dog isn't limping anymore, so that is a big relief.
I did pick up some multi-vitamins, so I have started taking those. Trying to use up what is is my freezer and fridge, but DH never feels like eating much dinner by the time he gets home. The compact fridge will have a small freezer on top, so hopefully I can fit in what is left.
I just called phone company. They are hooking up phone/internet on Friday. I wanted to find out if we could keep our same landline# and also if I would take my modem with me. Answers yes to both.
I just ordered my hot plate from Target. I had $5 gift card balance left, so got it for $12 and 2 day shipping so will be here on Friday. Thursday afternoon we are taking the pickup to the city to get the piece of carpet remnant and a small compact refrigerator. I ordered it online with Lowes for pickup, so that should save us time and I'm supposed to earn some ebates cash back.
Our older dog isn't limping anymore, so that is a big relief.
I did pick up some multi-vitamins, so I have started taking those. Trying to use up what is is my freezer and fridge, but DH never feels like eating much dinner by the time he gets home. The compact fridge will have a small freezer on top, so hopefully I can fit in what is left.
I just called phone company. They are hooking up phone/internet on Friday. I wanted to find out if we could keep our same landline# and also if I would take my modem with me. Answers yes to both.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Got dirt?
Last Friday it was realized we are going to have some excess fill dirt. DH asked the excavator owner if he needs fill for another job? oh sure he does..........but he wants to charge US to haul it out and then he'll charge his other customer for the material and to haul it in! DH contacted another excavator guy and he said said thing. Seriously? You are getting free material (that you will make money off of) and want us to pay you?
So, DH walked down to the folks building on lot 7. Way back when were were looking at these properties it was lot 7 that was for sale (as well as lot 1) and the one we went to look at. It is actually 3 acres (the others are 2 acres) but it is a very long triangle shaped lot. Not very much building area at all, in order to build both a shop and a house a lot of fill would need to be brought in one part of it where it has a big dip. That would cost quite a bit extra to have fill brought in. We decided against this lot, ended up finding our our lot (#3) might be for sale and got it instead. DH had heard they also plan to build a shop at some point and obviously the only spot left to build it is in the big dip, that would need to be filled up.....DH asked them if they needed any fill dirt? Yes, they do! DH said, well, you can have all my leftover fill, you'll just have to pay the excavator guy (we used same guy) to haul it down to your lot. They were thrilled and said yes. Excavator guy not so much....haha....he couldn't triple dip on the money!
Yesterday - the epoxy flooring guys are getting started. They have to clean the floor, then I guess they grind it. Then coat it with the epoxy. The whole project is supposed to take 4 days, but yesterday it sounded like they would have it done in 3 days, since prepping the floor didn't take as long as they estimated. DH lined up renting a local forklift from the guy two streets over, for loading our pallets here at house and lined up another one for at the shop to unload. The propane guys are supposed to be back today to install the propane heaters. Excavating employee guy is fiddling farting.....he apparently gave his notice to his boss, so of course now he's on short term-itits. Who knows when our site work will end up getting all done.
We decided to hire some movers to help move all the house stuff. There is just no way DH and I can lift all this buy ourselves. Especially furniture and some of the heavy bins. Two guys with a moving truck are coming Monday at 9am. For all the shop and garage stuff (that quite a bit is still on pallets from first move) DH is borrowing a friends trailer. He has a dump trailer like we do, except his has fold down sides, so it will be easy for DH to load onto it with a forklift (that we are renting from another neighbor). So nice of this guy to loan the trailer. He is one of my favorite people. He's the one who cut up all our trees into lumber. I've got most of the house all boxed up
This morning DH went to the dump to take all the construction trash that he's been loading in his dump trailer. Now he's got an empty trailer again. He's going to load it with as much stuff from our shop here at the house, as he can, then pull the tarp over and just store it at the property for now (ie less stuff we will need to find room for in our new shop). He's also got a flatbed type car trailer that he is going to do the same with. Hopefully with a nice tarp over it (temporarily) it won't look like a pile of junk sitting at our property.
So, DH walked down to the folks building on lot 7. Way back when were were looking at these properties it was lot 7 that was for sale (as well as lot 1) and the one we went to look at. It is actually 3 acres (the others are 2 acres) but it is a very long triangle shaped lot. Not very much building area at all, in order to build both a shop and a house a lot of fill would need to be brought in one part of it where it has a big dip. That would cost quite a bit extra to have fill brought in. We decided against this lot, ended up finding our our lot (#3) might be for sale and got it instead. DH had heard they also plan to build a shop at some point and obviously the only spot left to build it is in the big dip, that would need to be filled up.....DH asked them if they needed any fill dirt? Yes, they do! DH said, well, you can have all my leftover fill, you'll just have to pay the excavator guy (we used same guy) to haul it down to your lot. They were thrilled and said yes. Excavator guy not so much....haha....he couldn't triple dip on the money!
Yesterday - the epoxy flooring guys are getting started. They have to clean the floor, then I guess they grind it. Then coat it with the epoxy. The whole project is supposed to take 4 days, but yesterday it sounded like they would have it done in 3 days, since prepping the floor didn't take as long as they estimated. DH lined up renting a local forklift from the guy two streets over, for loading our pallets here at house and lined up another one for at the shop to unload. The propane guys are supposed to be back today to install the propane heaters. Excavating employee guy is fiddling farting.....he apparently gave his notice to his boss, so of course now he's on short term-itits. Who knows when our site work will end up getting all done.
We decided to hire some movers to help move all the house stuff. There is just no way DH and I can lift all this buy ourselves. Especially furniture and some of the heavy bins. Two guys with a moving truck are coming Monday at 9am. For all the shop and garage stuff (that quite a bit is still on pallets from first move) DH is borrowing a friends trailer. He has a dump trailer like we do, except his has fold down sides, so it will be easy for DH to load onto it with a forklift (that we are renting from another neighbor). So nice of this guy to loan the trailer. He is one of my favorite people. He's the one who cut up all our trees into lumber. I've got most of the house all boxed up
This morning DH went to the dump to take all the construction trash that he's been loading in his dump trailer. Now he's got an empty trailer again. He's going to load it with as much stuff from our shop here at the house, as he can, then pull the tarp over and just store it at the property for now (ie less stuff we will need to find room for in our new shop). He's also got a flatbed type car trailer that he is going to do the same with. Hopefully with a nice tarp over it (temporarily) it won't look like a pile of junk sitting at our property.
Monday, August 13, 2018
Monday update
The weekend was a busy blur. Saturday morning we went to the property. Always something to do. DH wanted the floor in the loft area above the bathroom and utilities closet painted. I just used the leftover white wall paint. It didn't take me too long to do. I think sweeping it before took longer. It'll just be an extra storage area up there. While I did that DH moved (again) the big stack of our lumber from cut down trees, as well as extra siding, roofing, etc, that has been sitting on our house garage floor. The big forklift was still there, so he figured he'd get use out of it to move the stuff. A few hours later I put a second coat of paint down and called it good. I think we got home fairly early - like 2pm or so. We did some more packing of house stuff. DH did all the outside yard stuff. I did two boxes of dishes. Why oh why in the world did I unpack my 12 place setting of good china after we moved here?! I don't even use it anyway! Now I just had to pack it all up good again.
Saturday evening we just relaxed. DH watched some racing on his computer and I watched some Netflix on the tv.
Sunday morning we got up to do it all again. I dropped DH off at the property. Now that the floor in the loft was dry he moved up boxes of lighting (for the house) to store. I dropped him off and went to the city for a little grocery shopping and misc stuff. I didn't want to get too much food, don't want to just have to move it all, so basically got enough for this week. I also stopped at Lowes and picked up a shower curtain rod, toilet paper holder and light bulbs. Except the 3 pack of bulbs I bought for the vanity light has one broken. I decided to grocery shop at Walmart, since I stopped there to get some towels we could put over the windows. It took me forever to get out of there. They had 1 checker for those with more than 15 items. I was in line at least 20 minutes. While I was waiting DH texted me to stop back at Lowes or Home Depot to see if they had a certain cement glue he texted me a picture of. While waiting to check out, I looked it up online at both stores to see if they even carried it. They didn't, so at least I didn't waste a trip there looking.
I went home and unloaded my groceries (mostly pop and water) and then went back out to the property to pick DH up. Our neighbor lady was there talking to him and showing her inside of the shop. We got home around 12:30 and spent the afternoon more packing. I helped DH pack up all his clothes he won't need and he actually put some in a goodwill pile. Our weight scale was in the closet. The last time I tried to use it a couple months ago it wouldn't work and had an error display. It's not a kind you can replace the battery, but I didn't throw it out. I told DH it doesn't work anymore so was taking it to the garbage can and decided to try it one more time. It worked! Ok, I've lost almost 10 pounds (that's good) and DH weighed himself (he hasn't weighed in probably a year, haha) and he was down like 25-30 pounds! We know he's been loosing weight from all this work at the property he's been doing (as well as the stress) and he was 202 pounds. He hasn't been down that low in years and years. He was pretty happy and I'm sure it will help his cholesterol too. He almost fit into his old Levi's he found in his drawer, LOL. I bought a take home pizza at the grocery store and we had that for dinner. It was really good. Much better than the Walmart take home pizza we've had a couple of times.
Our older dog hurt his leg somehow on Saturday. After we got home he was limping. DH thinks he may have accidentally stepped on his paw, but he was so busy he can't remember how/when for sure. Then Sunday morning he puked on the carpet. So then I was really worried about him. Today he is doing better and putting more weight on it, thank goodness.
We're just trying to pack and still in waiting mode on the appraisal for this house. Supposed to be turned in Friday. I hate waiting on those. I always think the worst is going to happen. Won't appraise enough, etc. I'm tentatively taking this Friday and all next week off. We'll see what happens, I guess. If closing got delayed a couple/few days that would be great.
My dear friend is still dealing with her estranged hubby. He came back for a few weeks, was awful to her and then told her he doesn't want to work through it (though had the nerve to make it HER fault!). It sounds like friend just keeps trying to get him to come back. They each just spent this past week on separate vacations. She to be miserable (she went and visited a friend) he to have fun. She messaged me last night that he told her again he doesn't want to work it out. She says she doesn't know what to do. I don't know what to say to her anymore. Over the weekend I told her if it was me I'd be telling him to take a hike. Right now he's got her and his girlfriend both wanting him to stay. He's got all the attention. I said maybe if she's not trying to get him to come back, I imagine then of course he'll want to, right? So this girlfriend...he's 58. She's 34....with 3 kids, from 3 different dads, ages 4-12! Why in the world would he want to deal with all that crap at his age is beyond me.
Saturday evening we just relaxed. DH watched some racing on his computer and I watched some Netflix on the tv.
Sunday morning we got up to do it all again. I dropped DH off at the property. Now that the floor in the loft was dry he moved up boxes of lighting (for the house) to store. I dropped him off and went to the city for a little grocery shopping and misc stuff. I didn't want to get too much food, don't want to just have to move it all, so basically got enough for this week. I also stopped at Lowes and picked up a shower curtain rod, toilet paper holder and light bulbs. Except the 3 pack of bulbs I bought for the vanity light has one broken. I decided to grocery shop at Walmart, since I stopped there to get some towels we could put over the windows. It took me forever to get out of there. They had 1 checker for those with more than 15 items. I was in line at least 20 minutes. While I was waiting DH texted me to stop back at Lowes or Home Depot to see if they had a certain cement glue he texted me a picture of. While waiting to check out, I looked it up online at both stores to see if they even carried it. They didn't, so at least I didn't waste a trip there looking.
I went home and unloaded my groceries (mostly pop and water) and then went back out to the property to pick DH up. Our neighbor lady was there talking to him and showing her inside of the shop. We got home around 12:30 and spent the afternoon more packing. I helped DH pack up all his clothes he won't need and he actually put some in a goodwill pile. Our weight scale was in the closet. The last time I tried to use it a couple months ago it wouldn't work and had an error display. It's not a kind you can replace the battery, but I didn't throw it out. I told DH it doesn't work anymore so was taking it to the garbage can and decided to try it one more time. It worked! Ok, I've lost almost 10 pounds (that's good) and DH weighed himself (he hasn't weighed in probably a year, haha) and he was down like 25-30 pounds! We know he's been loosing weight from all this work at the property he's been doing (as well as the stress) and he was 202 pounds. He hasn't been down that low in years and years. He was pretty happy and I'm sure it will help his cholesterol too. He almost fit into his old Levi's he found in his drawer, LOL. I bought a take home pizza at the grocery store and we had that for dinner. It was really good. Much better than the Walmart take home pizza we've had a couple of times.
Our older dog hurt his leg somehow on Saturday. After we got home he was limping. DH thinks he may have accidentally stepped on his paw, but he was so busy he can't remember how/when for sure. Then Sunday morning he puked on the carpet. So then I was really worried about him. Today he is doing better and putting more weight on it, thank goodness.
We're just trying to pack and still in waiting mode on the appraisal for this house. Supposed to be turned in Friday. I hate waiting on those. I always think the worst is going to happen. Won't appraise enough, etc. I'm tentatively taking this Friday and all next week off. We'll see what happens, I guess. If closing got delayed a couple/few days that would be great.
My dear friend is still dealing with her estranged hubby. He came back for a few weeks, was awful to her and then told her he doesn't want to work through it (though had the nerve to make it HER fault!). It sounds like friend just keeps trying to get him to come back. They each just spent this past week on separate vacations. She to be miserable (she went and visited a friend) he to have fun. She messaged me last night that he told her again he doesn't want to work it out. She says she doesn't know what to do. I don't know what to say to her anymore. Over the weekend I told her if it was me I'd be telling him to take a hike. Right now he's got her and his girlfriend both wanting him to stay. He's got all the attention. I said maybe if she's not trying to get him to come back, I imagine then of course he'll want to, right? So this girlfriend...he's 58. She's 34....with 3 kids, from 3 different dads, ages 4-12! Why in the world would he want to deal with all that crap at his age is beyond me.
Friday, August 10, 2018
Crash landing
DH crashed his drone good yesterday. He's crashed it a few times already, but it's a tough little thing and nothing broke. This time, not so lucky. But, the drone mfg apparently deals with this a lot and has a whole system set up for returning a drone for repair. I logged into his drone account, requested a repair ticket and they sent a shipping label. Send it in, they will assess, give you a quote to fix and when you pay online, they will fix and return.
Except they won't return to a PO Box. We'll probably be at our new place by the time it is ready to be returned, so I texted DH that they won't ship to PO Box and so we'll need our mailbox set up by then at our new address. He replies back "I really don't have time to set up a mailbox right now, I was hoping we could just keep the PO Box for awhile". I replied back "yes, I plan to keep the PO Box for awhile, but they won't ship the drone back to a PO Box, so what do you want to do?!" Apparently he didn't read my first text too well. He'll have to get the mailbox installed if he wants his drone back asap. Plus he boxed and taped it all up last night (I didn't realize what he was doing). I figured to send it back will need some printed out form, or other source of identification put inside the box.......of course it does. Shaking my head.....
Yesterday the painter lady painted the inside doors - same light tan as the trim on the outside of shop. She still has to paint the outside of the man door dark brown. The shakes all got put up on the gable ends. The cabinet lady finally got me a new quote and layout done. It wasn't as lower as I expected, but then I remembered when we went in to give her our revised kitchen layout, we also decided to add a bit to the laundry room. But overall, it came in $1664 lower. She sent these layouts to granite places and that number should come down some too.
The propane tank got put in yesterday. Today I think they are finishing hooking it up to everything. I don't know how any of them are going to be able to stand 106 degrees out there today! There is still lots of backfilling and driveway prep work to do. The other day, even the electrician guy commented on how slow the excavator guy (he's the guy that works for the excavator owner, not the owner, he is really good on a machine) is. Hinted "boy, he sure like to move the dirt around doesn't he?" LOL. Half the reason all the site work is taking forever. If it was the owner doing it, it would have been all done in a matter of days.
On Monday some guys are coming to do a nice epoxy coating on the concrete floor (fancy!). That is supposed to take 4 days and then next Friday we can start moving in. I also asked the carpet flooring guy if he had a cheap remnant I could get approx 11x14ft that we could use to put under/around our sleeping area when we have to live in the shop. Don't care what color. Just cheap! He found a 12x15 he can sell me for $69, so that is pretty darn good. Now we just gotta find time to get in there and pick it up with our truck, because it won't fit in my car.
So glad it's Friday. Work is so busy too.
Except they won't return to a PO Box. We'll probably be at our new place by the time it is ready to be returned, so I texted DH that they won't ship to PO Box and so we'll need our mailbox set up by then at our new address. He replies back "I really don't have time to set up a mailbox right now, I was hoping we could just keep the PO Box for awhile". I replied back "yes, I plan to keep the PO Box for awhile, but they won't ship the drone back to a PO Box, so what do you want to do?!" Apparently he didn't read my first text too well. He'll have to get the mailbox installed if he wants his drone back asap. Plus he boxed and taped it all up last night (I didn't realize what he was doing). I figured to send it back will need some printed out form, or other source of identification put inside the box.......of course it does. Shaking my head.....
Yesterday the painter lady painted the inside doors - same light tan as the trim on the outside of shop. She still has to paint the outside of the man door dark brown. The shakes all got put up on the gable ends. The cabinet lady finally got me a new quote and layout done. It wasn't as lower as I expected, but then I remembered when we went in to give her our revised kitchen layout, we also decided to add a bit to the laundry room. But overall, it came in $1664 lower. She sent these layouts to granite places and that number should come down some too.
The propane tank got put in yesterday. Today I think they are finishing hooking it up to everything. I don't know how any of them are going to be able to stand 106 degrees out there today! There is still lots of backfilling and driveway prep work to do. The other day, even the electrician guy commented on how slow the excavator guy (he's the guy that works for the excavator owner, not the owner, he is really good on a machine) is. Hinted "boy, he sure like to move the dirt around doesn't he?" LOL. Half the reason all the site work is taking forever. If it was the owner doing it, it would have been all done in a matter of days.
On Monday some guys are coming to do a nice epoxy coating on the concrete floor (fancy!). That is supposed to take 4 days and then next Friday we can start moving in. I also asked the carpet flooring guy if he had a cheap remnant I could get approx 11x14ft that we could use to put under/around our sleeping area when we have to live in the shop. Don't care what color. Just cheap! He found a 12x15 he can sell me for $69, so that is pretty darn good. Now we just gotta find time to get in there and pick it up with our truck, because it won't fit in my car.
So glad it's Friday. Work is so busy too.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
A little of this and a little of that
One of the things I love about living in a really small town is how close and easy places are to get to. Need to run to the county courthouse? (like for our septic permit) Just pull right up front and park. In and out in minutes. Run and pick up the used microwave? Just a quick drive over to the business (that is closing doors, where my property neighbor has worked) and run in and pick it up. Need to get the electrical breaker that the electrician's wife found?. Ok, she dropped it off at her sister's place - where the old motel used to be that she's fixing up into little studio apartments. I think it took me 5 whole minutes to get there and back. LOL. Need a plunger for the shop bathroom? just run downstairs in the grocery store to the hardware store and grab one.
When I was picking up the microwave from where our property neighbor lady works, she said DH mentioned I was thinking of getting a toaster oven. Well, she said she has one at home, just sitting in a closet that she doesn't use anymore, so I'm welcome to use it. Yay. Now, I've got both those covered and it didn't cost me anything. She brought it over to the shop after she got home from work yesterday. It's pretty tiny, but I'll give it a try.
The electricians finished up yesterday. DH had to have me bring out another one of our outdoor lights, as one wasn't working (though they think it can be fixed). There were two guys working on the electrical and one smiled and said something about Amazon.....I said "hey, are you making fun of my lights from Amazon?!" They (including DH) laughed and said yep. haha. Then I said, well all the recessed shop lights didn't come from Amazon (they are commercial quality) - does that count for something?! They were really nice and funny guys.
The builder's guy got one end of the shakes put up. He'll do the other end today. His wife is the painter and she painted some trim around the shakes and also painted trim around the two inside doors (a utility closet and bathroom doors) and is going to paint the doors today.
The excavator got our drainfield all filled back in and looks so much nicer area now. It will all be planted grass.
The propane tank hole is being dug today. Not sure if they are setting it in and hooking up today or tomorrow. While I was out at the property after work, I guess our neighbors discovered their septic pump wasn't working. They had a septic guy come out and he came over and asked if our electrician could come over for a few minutes and just test the pump. I guess it turns out it died on them, after 9 years of use. I asked DH how come we never had to replace that at our old house septic system and he said we didn't have a pump system there, it was a gravity fed system.
The toilet is awful - it barely flushes and clogs, so somehow that's going to have to get fixed. It's certainly not our water pressure, we have more than enough, even with multiple hoses/faucets running.
I picked DH up a knee support thing at the pharmacy yesterday. Do you think he put it on this morning? nope.
It's going to be 103 today and 107 tomorrow. No thank you.
When I was picking up the microwave from where our property neighbor lady works, she said DH mentioned I was thinking of getting a toaster oven. Well, she said she has one at home, just sitting in a closet that she doesn't use anymore, so I'm welcome to use it. Yay. Now, I've got both those covered and it didn't cost me anything. She brought it over to the shop after she got home from work yesterday. It's pretty tiny, but I'll give it a try.
The electricians finished up yesterday. DH had to have me bring out another one of our outdoor lights, as one wasn't working (though they think it can be fixed). There were two guys working on the electrical and one smiled and said something about Amazon.....I said "hey, are you making fun of my lights from Amazon?!" They (including DH) laughed and said yep. haha. Then I said, well all the recessed shop lights didn't come from Amazon (they are commercial quality) - does that count for something?! They were really nice and funny guys.
The builder's guy got one end of the shakes put up. He'll do the other end today. His wife is the painter and she painted some trim around the shakes and also painted trim around the two inside doors (a utility closet and bathroom doors) and is going to paint the doors today.
The excavator got our drainfield all filled back in and looks so much nicer area now. It will all be planted grass.
The propane tank hole is being dug today. Not sure if they are setting it in and hooking up today or tomorrow. While I was out at the property after work, I guess our neighbors discovered their septic pump wasn't working. They had a septic guy come out and he came over and asked if our electrician could come over for a few minutes and just test the pump. I guess it turns out it died on them, after 9 years of use. I asked DH how come we never had to replace that at our old house septic system and he said we didn't have a pump system there, it was a gravity fed system.
The toilet is awful - it barely flushes and clogs, so somehow that's going to have to get fixed. It's certainly not our water pressure, we have more than enough, even with multiple hoses/faucets running.
I picked DH up a knee support thing at the pharmacy yesterday. Do you think he put it on this morning? nope.
It's going to be 103 today and 107 tomorrow. No thank you.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Let there be light!
My property neighbor offered me a free used microwave, so I am going to take that :) I'll give it a try for awhile and see if we still feel the need for a toaster oven. I also got to meet the other new neighbor lady, the ones building down on the last lot. She has a cute little 14 month old boy. She seems ok, but I can tell what DH was talking about. She seems kind of opinionated. She did say she really liked our shop colors and that we have good taste, LOL.
Our garage door openers got installed yesterday. Fancy things that we probably won't be able to figure out, haha. They have wi-fi even. Apparently you can just open them with your phone. All the shop lights got installed. DH is very happy with them and it was just what he was wanting, with the recessed lights
The septic system got the final approval and the county guy said it was the best system he's seen done. Gold star. The toilet and stuff works, though DH isn't too sure about the toilet as it doesn't flush very strong and he texted me he already clogged it up this morning (eek!) so that will have to be worked on.
Today the builder and his other guy are supposed to come and install the shakes on the gable ends of the shop. The electrician is finishing up today or tomorrow.
I got the new quote on the flooring (I went to a different place last week, per builders recommendation) and this guy was $2000 cheaper than the other place. I am STILL waiting on the damn cabinet lady! You know, if you lost your files in your computer, then start over! Last week she told me she'd should have it by end of the week. Now it's Wednesday and still nothing. I emailed her again yesterday afternoon.
I'm feeling much better (still plan to get some vitamins though) but slept terrible last night as DH was snoring. He's hardly been snoring at all lately, which is good. I think it's because he's lost weight during all this the past few months. That's a good thing, though.
Our garage door openers got installed yesterday. Fancy things that we probably won't be able to figure out, haha. They have wi-fi even. Apparently you can just open them with your phone. All the shop lights got installed. DH is very happy with them and it was just what he was wanting, with the recessed lights
The septic system got the final approval and the county guy said it was the best system he's seen done. Gold star. The toilet and stuff works, though DH isn't too sure about the toilet as it doesn't flush very strong and he texted me he already clogged it up this morning (eek!) so that will have to be worked on.
Today the builder and his other guy are supposed to come and install the shakes on the gable ends of the shop. The electrician is finishing up today or tomorrow.
I got the new quote on the flooring (I went to a different place last week, per builders recommendation) and this guy was $2000 cheaper than the other place. I am STILL waiting on the damn cabinet lady! You know, if you lost your files in your computer, then start over! Last week she told me she'd should have it by end of the week. Now it's Wednesday and still nothing. I emailed her again yesterday afternoon.
I'm feeling much better (still plan to get some vitamins though) but slept terrible last night as DH was snoring. He's hardly been snoring at all lately, which is good. I think it's because he's lost weight during all this the past few months. That's a good thing, though.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Plugging along
Sunday and Monday were pretty much sick days for me. A sore throat and coughing, especially on Sunday. Yesterday was mostly just the throat. I ended using a sick day and just resting up again, as I did on Sunday. I am feeling better this morning, but still just so tired. I'm sure it's just from all the stress. I'm thinking maybe I should try taking some vitamins. Probably couldn't hurt anyway.
Yesterday's work at the property was the septic tank got set and hooked up. DH has been trying to get our old electrician's widow to get him all the parts that our still in the van, for our job, but that doesn't seem like it might happen. He had a good phone conversation with her last week where he offered, if she could get him all the parts, then we'll just pay the rest of her husbands bid in full (he had billed us for 80% so far). We also emailed her a list of the parts. But he told her he needed the parts by Sunday. Then Sunday she's texting him, maybe Monday evening? DH told her that's too late. The electrician is coming Tuesday morning and we need to know what we have and don't have. So, it sounds like our new electrician will show up today, get the list from DH, do all the work he can and bring the parts Wednesday, himself.
The guy doing the garage doors didn't show up yesterday to finish installing the door openers.
Yesterday afternoon, I started packing some of our house stuff. Packed away any and all clothes that I do not wear on a regular basis (or at all). Since we'll only have our big dresser, and no closet to hang our clothes, I also cleaned our my drawers to down to the minimum, so I'd have room to put all my t-shirt and shirts that I wear regularly in one of the drawers. I think I got it all in there now. I also packed a box of all the dvds and some books underneath our tv cabinet, as well as a box of all my fake greenery stuff. My hangers in my closet are basically empty and this will give me a couple of weeks to see how it works, with all my clothes in the dresser. (not that I really have a choice in the matter, LOL). This afternoon I will work on packing linens. We will be using our queen guest bed to sleep on, so I'll just pack our king sized stuff. I'm still going to use our king sized blankets and duvet - I know we're going to need our king sized electric blanket! I'll just make it fit.
Yesterday's work at the property was the septic tank got set and hooked up. DH has been trying to get our old electrician's widow to get him all the parts that our still in the van, for our job, but that doesn't seem like it might happen. He had a good phone conversation with her last week where he offered, if she could get him all the parts, then we'll just pay the rest of her husbands bid in full (he had billed us for 80% so far). We also emailed her a list of the parts. But he told her he needed the parts by Sunday. Then Sunday she's texting him, maybe Monday evening? DH told her that's too late. The electrician is coming Tuesday morning and we need to know what we have and don't have. So, it sounds like our new electrician will show up today, get the list from DH, do all the work he can and bring the parts Wednesday, himself.
The guy doing the garage doors didn't show up yesterday to finish installing the door openers.
Yesterday afternoon, I started packing some of our house stuff. Packed away any and all clothes that I do not wear on a regular basis (or at all). Since we'll only have our big dresser, and no closet to hang our clothes, I also cleaned our my drawers to down to the minimum, so I'd have room to put all my t-shirt and shirts that I wear regularly in one of the drawers. I think I got it all in there now. I also packed a box of all the dvds and some books underneath our tv cabinet, as well as a box of all my fake greenery stuff. My hangers in my closet are basically empty and this will give me a couple of weeks to see how it works, with all my clothes in the dresser. (not that I really have a choice in the matter, LOL). This afternoon I will work on packing linens. We will be using our queen guest bed to sleep on, so I'll just pack our king sized stuff. I'm still going to use our king sized blankets and duvet - I know we're going to need our king sized electric blanket! I'll just make it fit.
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Saturday this and that
I have $20 in Target gift cards. I think I'm going to use to order a hot plate for when I have to try to cook living in the shop. I found one on Target for $18. Our BBQ grill has a side hot plate, but I'm not going to want to go outside in the morning and fire that thing up to cook DH an egg sandwich, LOL. I thought we still had our microwave from our old house (it wasn't built in) but DH doesn't think so. Maybe I left it for the lady that bought it. I can't remember now. If we don't find it in our move, then I'm trying to decide between a small microwave or a toaster oven - which do you think I might use more trying to cook in a shop? I'm kind of leaning toward a toaster oven. I really don't use my microwave much and I'm thinking with a toaster oven I can cook a small casserole dish or something. Even a small pizza.
DH took his pick up out to the property first thing this morning (6:30am) because he needed to hook up to his dump trailer and move it out of the way for some excavating. He said he was just going to move that and do another quick thing and be back. So, I said - I can go back to bed then? (because we were going back out there in our car later this morning, I thought) and he's like, well, I'll be right back.....so that was almost 2 hours ago LOL. I should have stayed in bed longer.
I gave our long haired dog a good brushing yesterday. Goodness, he's been shedding awful and that sure helped. I also trimmed his feet - they get shaggy looking around his paws.
I found a new show to watch on Netflix - 193 episodes so that should keep me busy for a long time...or at least for the month or so I have left on my Netflix gift card. It's called Heartland. There's like 10 seasons, so I figured it has to be a decent show to last that long. I've watched about 5 episodes so far and am enjoying it.
Not sure what DH is doing when we go back out to the property today. I know the water well guy told him to run some bleach through and let water run for awhile. We've got some boxes from the bathroom stuff and he wants me to break down flat and put in our dump trailer. It will be so nice to be out there with the dogs and have water to give them, rather than bringing a jug with me.
I found something new I like to eat. I like yogurt ok - as long as there is some flavor in it, but I recently tried Yoplait yogurt whips and really liked them. They had them here at our little town grocery store. I was going to get more at the big grocery store in the city and they didn't have them. You'd think it would be the other way around. I don't like yogurt with fruit chunks in it.....it's a texture thing I have with food, LOL.
Well, off I go. I'm sure DH will be home soon
DH took his pick up out to the property first thing this morning (6:30am) because he needed to hook up to his dump trailer and move it out of the way for some excavating. He said he was just going to move that and do another quick thing and be back. So, I said - I can go back to bed then? (because we were going back out there in our car later this morning, I thought) and he's like, well, I'll be right back.....so that was almost 2 hours ago LOL. I should have stayed in bed longer.
I gave our long haired dog a good brushing yesterday. Goodness, he's been shedding awful and that sure helped. I also trimmed his feet - they get shaggy looking around his paws.
I found a new show to watch on Netflix - 193 episodes so that should keep me busy for a long time...or at least for the month or so I have left on my Netflix gift card. It's called Heartland. There's like 10 seasons, so I figured it has to be a decent show to last that long. I've watched about 5 episodes so far and am enjoying it.
Not sure what DH is doing when we go back out to the property today. I know the water well guy told him to run some bleach through and let water run for awhile. We've got some boxes from the bathroom stuff and he wants me to break down flat and put in our dump trailer. It will be so nice to be out there with the dogs and have water to give them, rather than bringing a jug with me.
I found something new I like to eat. I like yogurt ok - as long as there is some flavor in it, but I recently tried Yoplait yogurt whips and really liked them. They had them here at our little town grocery store. I was going to get more at the big grocery store in the city and they didn't have them. You'd think it would be the other way around. I don't like yogurt with fruit chunks in it.....it's a texture thing I have with food, LOL.
Well, off I go. I'm sure DH will be home soon
Friday, August 3, 2018
How to help a friend and building update
I have a dear friend going through a very hard time. A few weeks ago she found out her husband of over 30 years has been cheating on her. With a woman 24 years his junior (he's 58). She was just devastated. He left for a few days but came back and told her he wanted to work things out, which she wanted too. He agreed to go to counseling. But this whole time he's been back home he's been mean and angry with her. I asked her what in the world is he angry at YOU about?!! HE's the one that cheated!! He wouldn't go to counseling, so she went to a session by herself, which made him mad. She texted me last night that he has moved out for good and going back to his mistress.
I don't even know what to say to her. My poor friend is so heartbroken and doesn't even know what to do and right now is feeling like she doesn't even know if she can make it through this. What do you say to help someone? I'm a 1000 miles away. She does have an adult daughter nearby, who I'm sure will be there for her. I told her she is grieving right now and just has to take it one day at a time. And I told her to please keep seeing that counselor.
We have garage doors all in, except for the top panel, as they still need to come back today and finish putting in the tracks. The bathroom vanity got put in. We just told the builder and his main guy to just pick something out that will fit the deep sink. I can't find DH's picture of it right now (he's now got thousands of pictures on his computer) but it looks good. Just something from Home Depot.
We got two bids on the propane tank and propane heaters (one for main part of shop and a small one for the bathroom). There has only been one propane company for this area, but recently one of the long time employees of the company quit and started up his own company. Well, his bid is quite a bit higher than the other propane company, so we are going with the original company. Even his price per gallon for the 400 gallons to fill the tank was .36/gallon higher. That adds up. Plus, I felt more secure going with the first company. Who knows if this guy will be able to stay in business? They are coming out next Friday to install the heaters and set propane tank.
Today, they are backfilling all the holes and ditches, so hopefully it won't look like a bomb went off. The county inspection guy said the septic system looked awesome and was done very well. I think plumber is coming to install and hook up everything today. This morning my neighbor out there called me on her way to work. She said she's worried about my DH doing so much. I said I am worried too. It was sweet of her to call and be concerned.
My soon to be new "home". Oh, and I woke up with a sore throat this morning. Yay......
I don't even know what to say to her. My poor friend is so heartbroken and doesn't even know what to do and right now is feeling like she doesn't even know if she can make it through this. What do you say to help someone? I'm a 1000 miles away. She does have an adult daughter nearby, who I'm sure will be there for her. I told her she is grieving right now and just has to take it one day at a time. And I told her to please keep seeing that counselor.
We have garage doors all in, except for the top panel, as they still need to come back today and finish putting in the tracks. The bathroom vanity got put in. We just told the builder and his main guy to just pick something out that will fit the deep sink. I can't find DH's picture of it right now (he's now got thousands of pictures on his computer) but it looks good. Just something from Home Depot.
We got two bids on the propane tank and propane heaters (one for main part of shop and a small one for the bathroom). There has only been one propane company for this area, but recently one of the long time employees of the company quit and started up his own company. Well, his bid is quite a bit higher than the other propane company, so we are going with the original company. Even his price per gallon for the 400 gallons to fill the tank was .36/gallon higher. That adds up. Plus, I felt more secure going with the first company. Who knows if this guy will be able to stay in business? They are coming out next Friday to install the heaters and set propane tank.
Today, they are backfilling all the holes and ditches, so hopefully it won't look like a bomb went off. The county inspection guy said the septic system looked awesome and was done very well. I think plumber is coming to install and hook up everything today. This morning my neighbor out there called me on her way to work. She said she's worried about my DH doing so much. I said I am worried too. It was sweet of her to call and be concerned.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
The final stretch
The remaining things left to complete the shop are getting done little by little each day. This week it looks like a bomb went off again - with all the piles of dirt, due to digging the drain field/septic system. Just a big mess.
The water pump got turned on yesterday and water flowed. Yay! DH said it was so nice to walk over to one of his hydrants and wash all the dust and dirt off his hands and face (and cool down since it was like 100 degrees yesterday). The well guy wants one hydrant to just be left open most of the day today to flush it all out. Rather than just create a muddy mess, we asked our neighbors if they wanted to pull over one of their sprinkler hoses and DH would attach and water their side lawn. They thought that was a good idea too. No sense in wasting all that good water.
Today the smaller roll up garage doors were supposed to get installed. The big roll up door for the front opening was supposed to come Monday. I guess they switched the schedule, as they needed two guys to install this big one and one guy will come and install the other doors tomorrow. The drainfield just got inspected and all looks great. Now they can fill it all back up. Also, one of the builders guys is supposed to install the bathroom vanity and cut the sink hole, as well as finish getting the shakes on the sides of shop. I'm guessing the plumber is today or tomorrow, too, now that the water is working. The new electrician we hired is supposed to come Tuesday. He said he's bringing a helper and will try to get it done in one day, but might take part of Wednesday too.
I slept really good last night, but am still feeling totally wiped out. I long for the day I can feel normal again, but I know it's going to be many months away.
Today the smaller roll up garage doors were supposed to get installed. The big roll up door for the front opening was supposed to come Monday. I guess they switched the schedule, as they needed two guys to install this big one and one guy will come and install the other doors tomorrow. The drainfield just got inspected and all looks great. Now they can fill it all back up. Also, one of the builders guys is supposed to install the bathroom vanity and cut the sink hole, as well as finish getting the shakes on the sides of shop. I'm guessing the plumber is today or tomorrow, too, now that the water is working. The new electrician we hired is supposed to come Tuesday. He said he's bringing a helper and will try to get it done in one day, but might take part of Wednesday too.
I slept really good last night, but am still feeling totally wiped out. I long for the day I can feel normal again, but I know it's going to be many months away.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
A Wednesday that feels like a Monday
The appraiser just came to look at our house, so that is now done. DH found an electrician who can come next week. He said it would take 2 days. DH talked to several. Of course, all of them, including the one who will be doing it, is gouging us because they know we don't have a choice now. One guy was DOUBLE what our original electrician bid for the WHOLE job (of which he was 75% done and paid for that part!).
The first electrician's widow is being very helpful. She also told DH today that her husbands business insurance company said something about being insured for the jobs he was in process with, so it sounds like, at some point, she/we may get some money back, which would help tremendously, since we are having to pay so much now.
The interior painting of the shop was completed yesterday, so now ready for electrician. The septic/drain field got started yesterday, should be done today. They put the well pump in Monday and are testing for leaks today.
DH keeps waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me what time he needs the alarm set (because he won't do it himself). He woke me up at 3am (because he got up to go to the bathroom) to say he was getting up at 5am. well, then I tossed and turned for 2 hours. I said either tell me when I'm going to bed or at least tell me when you come to bed (like 10:30pm). Geez. Now, it's 11am and I am sooo tired.
This cabinet lady is ridiculous. Her story on Monday is she's having computer problems and can't get to her files. She emailed me this morning that she's now waiting on Geek Squad to come help her so it probably won't be until next week she can get me the new layout drawn up. I emailed back and said at this point I'm mostly concerned with the cost, can she at least give me an estimate now, even if she can't do the layout design yet? I would think she could at least manually figure out a close estimate.
I called the propane company. Tank is getting low and we are on a fill as needed service and probably due for a fill up soon. I told them to hold off, as the new home owner can fill and pay for it after he moves in.
I think for starting in October I am going to switch DH to just a catastrophic type health insurance. The penalty is supposed to be going off after this year, plus I read if you have Obamacare insurance for at least 9 months you don't have to pay the penalty. I understand these other "non-Obamacare" plans are short term (3-12 months) but it looks like you can renew (or find a different company plan?). At least maybe I can do it for a year and if I don't like it can switch back to Obamacare for the following year, during sign ups. I guess I really thought this President and Republican controlled house and senate would fix this, but obviously they aren't. I'm tired of paying this much for crap insurance. I'll be doing some more checking into these plans in the next couple of months (ya...with all my free time...). If any reader has experience with these types of plans, comment your thoughts.
The first electrician's widow is being very helpful. She also told DH today that her husbands business insurance company said something about being insured for the jobs he was in process with, so it sounds like, at some point, she/we may get some money back, which would help tremendously, since we are having to pay so much now.
The interior painting of the shop was completed yesterday, so now ready for electrician. The septic/drain field got started yesterday, should be done today. They put the well pump in Monday and are testing for leaks today.
DH keeps waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me what time he needs the alarm set (because he won't do it himself). He woke me up at 3am (because he got up to go to the bathroom) to say he was getting up at 5am. well, then I tossed and turned for 2 hours. I said either tell me when I'm going to bed or at least tell me when you come to bed (like 10:30pm). Geez. Now, it's 11am and I am sooo tired.
This cabinet lady is ridiculous. Her story on Monday is she's having computer problems and can't get to her files. She emailed me this morning that she's now waiting on Geek Squad to come help her so it probably won't be until next week she can get me the new layout drawn up. I emailed back and said at this point I'm mostly concerned with the cost, can she at least give me an estimate now, even if she can't do the layout design yet? I would think she could at least manually figure out a close estimate.
I called the propane company. Tank is getting low and we are on a fill as needed service and probably due for a fill up soon. I told them to hold off, as the new home owner can fill and pay for it after he moves in.
I think for starting in October I am going to switch DH to just a catastrophic type health insurance. The penalty is supposed to be going off after this year, plus I read if you have Obamacare insurance for at least 9 months you don't have to pay the penalty. I understand these other "non-Obamacare" plans are short term (3-12 months) but it looks like you can renew (or find a different company plan?). At least maybe I can do it for a year and if I don't like it can switch back to Obamacare for the following year, during sign ups. I guess I really thought this President and Republican controlled house and senate would fix this, but obviously they aren't. I'm tired of paying this much for crap insurance. I'll be doing some more checking into these plans in the next couple of months (ya...with all my free time...). If any reader has experience with these types of plans, comment your thoughts.
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