Slow service

While we will start moving in, I won't be able to set up my work computer inside the house until next Thursday. Our telephone/internet company is so slow at getting things done. I called a few weeks ago to get the phone and internet hooked up at the house. They told me about 1-2 weeks. A guy showed up last week (I think it was last week, might have been the week before) just to look at what needs to be done. It's really an easy job. All the wiring is in the house, done by our electricians. The wires are sticking out at the end of the house, next to a piece of conduit that already runs under the ground 10 feet over to the shop, to their box. That's all they have to do, pull the wire to their box and plug it in and whatever they need to do to make the phone jacks in the house work.  He says it might be 3 more weeks (for what he says is maybe an hour job). I called this morning and they said they left me a voice mail yesterday to schedule a time to come out. No voice mail is on my phone. Anyhow, the earliest they can come out is next Thursday morning.

We want the mover guys to carry my desk (2 parts) upstairs, since it's heavy, but our modem (that is currently in the shop) won't signal that far to my office in the house. So, until it gets hooked up in the house, I'll have to just set up a table (we have several folding tables) in the shop and still work out here. Oh well. So much for trying to plan ahead a few weeks so it was ready.

The receptionist at my office sent an email yesterday to everyone that there were several different Brother printer cartridges in the supply closet, and if anyone has Brother printers at home, feel free to take them (I guess the office isn't using that brand now). She sent a photo of the available ones. I still have a Brother printer and there was a printer cartridge and a printer drum for my model, so I quickly sent and email that I would take the ones for my printer! She is UPS'ing them over to me. I was just thinking the other day I'd better get a printer cartridge ordered, because I don't have a spare and the one I have is probably getting about ready to run out. Glad I don't have to spend the money now on a cartridge. They aren't cheap.

I'm taking tomorrow off work. The mover helper guys are supposed to come around noon. Last evening we moved out our 2 guest bedroom bedframes into the bedrooms and got the log bed put together. We still need a mattress set for one of the queen beds.

It's my lunch break, so I'm going to take my new bath mats and put in the upstairs guest bathroom. These were a Kohl's clearance that I got for almost nothing with a Kohl's reward. They are thick and plush.

Movin' in/Movin' up

Ok, is this weird? it's like we are scared to move in! haha! It doesn't seem real. I know there are no permits or inspections required by our county, but I wasn't sure if we needed some "final" approval by the bank to move in or what. They said nope - go ahead and move in. We are going to need help with the heaviest stuff, though. My back will go out, if I do anything too heavy and DH can't lift some things by himself. I called the moving company who moved us here last August to see if they could help move stuff from the shop over to the house (no truck needed). They do have a 2 hour minimum (which I thought they did) but that is probably about what we'd need them for for just the big/heavy stuff. And if there is time left we still have in the 2 hours, well, then we'll have them move some light stuff too.

It's not something I've verbalized much, but throughout this whole build, even when the stuff I picked out went in, and I see what we designed, I feel like I'm in someone else's house! It has never felt like my house. I don't know how to describe it. Part of me feels like "this is too nice. I don't deserve to have something like this".  Pretty much my whole life I've never felt like I should have anything really nice. I wonder why that is? Twenty years ago when we had our really nice RV motorhome (for about 8 years we owned it), I never felt like I should have something that nice. Part of me feels like all these people that have been in and out, working on the house, it hasn't really felt like it was mine. We didn't have a lot when I was growing up, but we weren't poor. My mom has always been a cheapskate about everything, so I'm sure that is part of it. But, when I go into other people's nice homes (or nice cars) I never think to myself that they don't deserve it. I think wow, they are lucky/blessed/smart/work hard, etc.

Maybe once I've lived in the house awhile, I'll get used to it! Sometimes the whole thing is just too much. The beautiful house and big shop.....the beautiful property........the view of the river!  

Just this and that

DD will be coming over for a weekend visit next weekend. Yay! It will be wonderful to see her. Haven't seen her since they came over last November - eek! Once we get past this build and all the money suck with it, and I can get on a regular monthly budget, I'm going to get back to setting aside some money each month for "travel" - to either drive or fly back to see her and my mom at least a couple times a year. If planned ahead enough, I can get a RT flight for around $200. I figure about $33 a month set aside gets me about $400 saved a year to put toward a couple of trips. That's doable.

The mason did the sealant on our fireplace and breakfast bar stone. Really changes it. Just gives it a more shiny finished look. Now DH is doing the outside of the shop stone with it. It just gets sprayed on with a garden pump type sprayer and a little brushing on.  Trying to save a little by doing it himself, rather than paying the mason to do it. It's still a big job and his arms are already worn out.

My neighbor emailed that someone in town is starting up one of those "bountiful baskets" type of produce purchases. I had heard of these before. She was placing an order and going to town on Saturday morning to pick it up and wanted to know if I was interested. I said I might be - but not until after we get settled in our house and I can start making real meals again. I'll keep it in mind. Sounds like it will be every other Saturday.

While I've managed to do over $40 a week (my goal is $25) in M-Turk income the past 3 weeks in a row, I feel like it's been a total struggle on some days to find any hits. I constantly refresh, but it's all the same stuff I've either done/tried or looked at already. Or it literally just came up in the few seconds I just refreshed and already not available any longer. Oh well, I just keep plugging away at it and am managing to exceed my goal, so guess I shouldn't complain. I also watch my emails, as occasionally I will get emailed about a hit I qualify for or it's a follow up survey. And just as I was typing that out, I received an email for a Part 2 of a survey that took me about 15 minutes and is supposed to pay me $4. Some days are like that, haha.

The end of next week Fri or Sat would be my normal grocery shopping trip, but with DD going to be here I don't want to be spending time grocery shopping. With the success of the Target order pick up, I've decided to give the Walmart online grocery shopping/pick up at store a try. We will be in the city Saturday morning (shopping for dresses), so I see you can schedule for what day/hour you'd like to pick up and you can apparently buy everything - steaks, produce, etc. I also see you can refer a friend and earn $10. I'm going to text my friend, who told me she uses it, and see if she wants to refer me, so she can earn $10. I'm pretty sure I'll really like just pulling up and having my order loaded in my car, LOL. Plus, if I start shopping at Walmart, again, I'll probably save some money compared to the grocery store we have been shopping at.

It's really gotten nice weather the past 2 days. Sunny and 70's. I was sure getting tired of the gray skies every day the past couple of weeks.

Updates on this and that

I still follow a Facebook page from our old druggie/homeless infested town. I think because I keep hoping those people dealing with it will get some change/relief at some point. It's gotten worse, from the posts, though last year one new council person was voted in, who wants to get rid of the problems. (though still outnumbered by the liberal council members who want to allow it). They have tied the police's hands. There is currently an election going on for one of the council positions, where one of the local business owners/residents, who has gotten so fed up with the town turning to crap (literally and figuratively) he is running. It will be interesting to see if he wins. If he doesn't, then I honestly think there is no hope for that town. The town was always such a nice little town (we lived about 6 miles out, in the unincorporated part). Nice shops and restaurants, lots of parks, a river to walk along or fish. Now there is comment after comment about how no one feels safe to take their kids to the parks, no one feels safe to walk along the river, because of all the drug/homeless activity going on. Kids have to walk by all this to get to schools. It's just sad. My DD's future in-laws still live there. They will be retiring in a few years and sounds like they will be selling and moving.

The problem is several years ago the town let this homeless "resource center" open up right in downtown, next to small local businesses, homes, an elementary and jr. high school. It is basically run (if you dig down into it far enough) by an activist attorney, who profits off (follow the money trail) of getting these people SSI and disability. The place is just a hang out for all the druggies, inside and outside. A majority are not even from that town, they were told "free stuff" so they came and stay camped all around. Not to mention all the crime it has brought. City council meetings, for several years now, have been a constant source of the community complaining and trying to get something done about it, but anything the city has tried to do, this attorney and his group file law suits against the city, in addition to a majority of the council doesn't want to solve it. Over the past 5 years the activity from this place has spread out from a small radius around the place to all over the town. Needles, feces, public urination, etc all over the town. The main grocery store area is so bad now that the police opened up a satellite office in the shopping complex! I'm also glad my DD doesn't live in that town anymore. While her area she lives in isn't perfect, it's much better than the town she grew up in. Her town doesn't allow (and enforces the laws) loitering and camping.

DD might come over for a quick weekend visit weekend after next. She looked into flights, coming over the weekend after 4th of July (and other weekends) but the cost is back up at $335.  She starts work at 6:30am, so she's thinking she could work half day that Friday, leave straight from her office at 10:30am and be over here in about 6:30pm. I had been thinking to myself I wish she could come over and we could go dress shopping for something for me (summer dress) to wear to her outdoor wedding. I know she's swamped with the remaining weekends, so I didn't even say anything. I just asked what she thought I should wear. Then she said she should come over for a quick weekend so we can go shopping :). She's going to double check with her DF and make sure he's got nothing planned for that weekend and she'll just drive over by herself. I found a couple of cute summer dresses online with Target, that they have in store. Since I rarely/never wear dresses, and in keeping with her low budget wedding (haha), I figure a $30 is a good deal :).  We can start there and if I can't find anything try Kohl's or Ross. I always find dresses look totally different on the hanger than they do once I get them on. Last time I wore a dress was to her college graduation, 3 years ago, LOL.

I guess DH has a $400 check on it's way from a life insurance policy his dad had through his union. SIL couldn't even get the policy amount right in her communications - she told him and his brothers it was a $1000 policy, so he'd get $200, but it was a $2000 policy. They've still got about 2 1/2 months to wait on the will with the creditors notification.

Window treatments

Last day of the 3 day weekend. Boo! The weather has been crap, but oh well. The mason is here today working, so that is good. A friend stopped by and he picked up some scrap wood DH wants to get rid of, so that is good, too.  DH is building some wood "frames" (I don't know what you would call them) around the base of our back patio and front porch posts, so they can have stone put around the base of them, too.

I got some bedroom and bathroom window treatments ordered. The only reason I haven't done it before is because I could not decide what look I wanted! And this weekend seems to be the weekend all the blinds/window treatment stores are having big sales. For now I am getting some cheap tier curtains for the two bathroom windows. They are pretty big windows (34x46 and 46x46). I'm just going to do tier curtains that are 24" in height and leave the top of the windows uncovered. It should give us privacy (if someone was outside, LOL) but still have the light and be able to see outside. I will put them on bronze tension rods, inside the window casing. Total cost, after my $10 in Target gift cards I have is $52.

For the bedroom I'm just getting treatments for the windows that face side of house. I'm not going to do anything yet with the one's facing the river, but most likely I will end up getting something for that too. We have windows on each side of where our bed will be (28x54) that are tall and narrow and a horizontal window (70x16) across above the bed up near ceiling. For the two windows on each side of the bed I'm going with roman shades. I've never had those before. For the long horizontal window I'm doing a cellular shade (like I did with the long horizontal window in my office room and our previous house.

First I priced out at Lowes (because when I was in there the other day I noticed a sign that said custom blinds and shades were 40% off). Then I priced at blinds.com. Blinds.com won. They were on sale there, plus I got a coupon code for $20 off my order, plus 3.5% Ebates cash back.

Once I decided on what styles I wanted, then I had to decide on color....so that was another hour of trying to decide, LOL. For the roman shades I went with "Chenille Flagstone" and for the cellular shade I went with "Sandy Beige".  Both said about 9 days to make, so I'm guessing they will be here in about 2 weeks.  Total for those 3 shades/blinds was $224.

I will also need something for my office and 2 guest bedrooms. Again, I haven't decided what I want. Probably will just go with wood blinds in those rooms. We will also probably put up something in the dining room on the two windows that face the end of the house and look to our neighbors house. Nothing urgent and I will figure it out later.

Our neighbors we had in town are supposed to stop by today, but we haven't seen them yet. I'm ready for a nap, but I know if I lay down, they will come, haha. I've gotten a bunch of laundry done today. My clothes and washed all the bedding.

Carpet is in

The carpeting is done. They didn't get finished until after 7pm last night. DH said they busted their butts all day, not the slower pace as they had done the first 2 days. I know if we had not made a stink yesterday morning, they would not have gotten it done and would have said "oh, we'll just have to come back "first thing" Tuesday morning.

carpeting in the upstairs sitting loft. Above the fireplace is the ledge (and wood window wraps) where they just set their soda and water bottles. DH and I were in our bathrooms this morning and I brought him in a bottle of water and set it on the granite countertop. I told DH I LIVE here and I wouldn't even set something with a drink in it on my wood surfaces....why would they think it's ok?!

We are having a disagreement about the setting of furniture up here, LOL. We have that new little wood table. I plan to set it in front of the fireplace with the long side facing the sides of room. A small love seat will go on one side of it and a chair (maybe 2)  will go across from it, so the table will be in the middle between the chair and loveseat, facing each other. That way you can look over at the fireplace and those windows OR you can look over the other direction into the greatroom/those big windows. DH thinks the loveseat should be facing the fireplace with the table in front of it. I told him to stay out of the interior design part, haha.  When sitting up there I want to sit in either the chair or loveseat and see both the fireplace and look out over the greatroom/river view. Those windows above look out the front of our house, the greatroom windows look out the back.

I tried the Target order online/pick up in store. It's the bees knees! I walked up to the (no line) customer service desk. She scanned my bar code for my order on my phone. Brought out my order. I put it in a cart, took it out to my car and done. I will definitely be using that service again. Why not have someone shop for me, for the same price (or less)? haha!


We  spent part of today installing our bathroom stuff: towels rods, towel ring, toilet paper holders. They seem decent and the price for 4 piece sets couldn't be beat at $21 each set. Now DH is making himself a new set of saw horses out of some leftover lumber. The ones he has are ages old and so rickety. I think they used to belong to his dad and we got them years ago.

TGIF and other headaches

I am completely exhausted this morning. Oh hey, it's almost 10am and the carpet guys still aren't here....when the guy left yesterday around 5:30 he said (again, LOL) we'll be here first thing tomorrow, so we can get this done. Ya, pretty sure it's not even going to get finished today, by the looks of it. It was supposed to be a 2 day job. And since Monday is a holiday, they won't be here until Tuesday, then.



By now it's almost 10:30. Still no carpet guys. We have someone scheduled on Tuesday (hvac finish up) that can't do their work until all the carpet is done (part of what they are doing is setting all the furnace vent covers). At 10:15 DH called the carpet store owner to ask him if he knew if they are coming today or not, because we need this finished today, so we don't have to push our next guy out. At 10:35 he calls back and says they should be pulling in any minute and the head installer assures him that it will get finished today.  I'll bet money, if we just hadn't raised a stink, it wouldn't be getting finished today. The mason guy that has been working here every day, is also having a house built. I guess he was commenting to his contractor how long our carpet is taking to get installed in our house and the guy is like what are they doing? it's a one day job! It's not like there is tons of carpet - just our master bedroom and the upstairs rooms, about 1600 sq ft total carpet. Plus, only 2 of the 3 guys are here today, he already said he had to send his other guy on another job.

We went up into the house last night to look around. Pop cans and water bottles left on our wood window ledges and on this nicely finished wood ledge we have up in our sitting loft. We threw the pop can away and set their water bottles on a piece of cardboard. Do you think they'll get the hint?

I only have to work a half day. I also have to go into the city and do grocery shopping and pick up misc stuff at hardware store for DH. Just thinking about it, exhausts me right now. The carpet guys are supposed to be here all day, so DH doesn't want to leave in case they have questions (which they do every so often) so I'm going to have to go do it myself. I tried to suggest we go tomorrow morning, but he said he's got stuff he wants to get working on in the morning (with the stuff I pick up today).

I cannot stand shopping online with Walmart anymore. They have so many 3rd party vendors now, that it's so hard to find stuff. I just want to buy what Walmart sells, at their pricing, that's the reason I've always shopped there. Plus, half the stuff isn't eligible for shipping any more. I can't even have a roll of Great Value aluminum foil shipped. So, back to Target online. I was adding to my cart and saw some discounts for picking up the order in the store. Well, since I'm heading into the city this afternoon, I'm going to give it a try! Says the order will be ready in 2 hours. And it will save time shopping around in the store. Might be my new thing to use :)

For a less complaining post, I watched the finale of The Voice yesterday. I have to watch on demand, so don't see it live. I skipped through some of the finale that I didn't care to watch, but was glad to see Maelyn won. She has a beautiful voice.

Anyone watch The Kids Are Alright? That show is great and makes me laugh and smile. It is so reminiscent of growing up in the era (even though I was an only child). Growing up then, parents seemed much more distant from their kids than I was as a parent. I can remember going out to play all day, coming home for dinner. My parents had no idea where I was around the neighborhood. But, maybe my kids will look back and think we were distant parents, I don't know. haha.

I'm currently reading a book called Earnest, by Kristin von Kreisler. An ok book, about a couple and their labrador dog. An easy read, but nothing spectacular.

I'll probably spend some of the long weekend getting back to watching Blacklist. I'm on the second season, mid way through. I keep checking to see if season 11 of Heartland is on Netflix or Amazon yet, but nothing yet.

The past several months we've had signs on the front door and the door to the mudroom in front of house that say "Please use garage door". No need to have those doors continually used, scuffed up (because they'll just push whatever they are carrying against the doors) and dirt/mud tracked in those entrances. So, DH took them down last week, though it would be ok. For the carpet guys one of the big garage doors is rolled up anyway, as they have their supplies/carpet/padding set in the garage, so the logical spot to go in and out. No, no. I think they have used every single exterior door we have, LOL. The signs went back up this morning.

The HVAC guy is here installing our heat pump. Apparently it is a super efficient unit. He said that for temps like today (60's and kind of cool) where we would need some heat on, it will operate at 350% efficiency - meaning for ever dollar spent we are saving $3.50, or something like that. The gist of it is at this temperature/climate it's saving us from spending that on using our furnace/electricity. Our furnace won't even hardly have to run, it will just heat the house using the heat pump air and a bit of electricity to run the fan. The HVAC guy has a house a bit bigger than ours, with same system. He said his electricity bill is less than $100/mo. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed this is what we experience. I can't imagine only having a $100 electricity bill in the winter! We'll see. I'll believe it when I see it! It will also be very nice to have a/c in the summer. DH is a crab when he gets too hot, so it will be awesome not listening to him complain any more summers, haha.

more of the same

and while I'm complaining, why do all these people think it's ok to bring their dog(s) with them? Our neighbor likes to let his dogs out of their kennel area a couple times a day - a walk to the mailbox, or some ball throwing out in their front yard, etc. But, of course these dogs that workers bring are stranger dogs, so barking and tussles ensue.

Yesterday afternoon, when the head carpet installer showed up with the carpet, he had 2 big dogs with him and lets them out of his truck. Our dogs were outside, neighbor had just let his dogs out....fighting started. We and neighbor ended up putting OUR dogs inside....Good grief. I guess I could see it, if we lived where no neighbors were, but you don't bring your dog to hang around outside all day where other dogs are. Or at least ASK if it's ok!

Now the carpet guy is saying they won't finish up until Friday.

We had contacted a lady recommended to us who does cleaning - to see what she'd charge to clean all the construction dust, windows, etc, before we move in. We don't have the ladders (yet) to get up to the upper great room windows and frankly, we are both just completely worn out and exhausted. She came last Mon or Tues and said she'd have the quote to me in a couple of days. We told her carpet was going in this week, Wed and Thurs and would be ready to clean after that. She emails me a couple days later saying she's still working on quote (busy with her son's graduation) but would get it to me in another couple days and was carpet still scheduled for 22/23rd? I replied yet is it. Finally, on Tuesday morning she emails he her quote. So I email back, ok, when can you do it? Eventually she emails back yesterday and says "when are going planning to move in?" ...Um....as soon as it's cleaned! LOL, but I said carpet is going in today and tomorrow, so as soon as possible after that. Then she replies back that she had penciled us in for next week (she is booked this week) and I said that is fine, what day can you schedule us?.  No reply. ARGH! I'm really tired of begging people to take my money. How hard is it to just say, yes, I can come on such and such day, if that works for you.

DH ran into town to get some more caulk. I guess the carpet installers (head guy didn't get here until just now, 11am, even though he told dh he'd be here "first thing in the morning") thought he was gone and not back. DH goes to do some caulking at the back patio area and there they are...just sitting there enjoying our patio (they've only been here like an hour so far this morning).

and after yesterdays good $13 M-Turk day, I can't find anything to earn on today. Glad I took advantage of what I could find yesterday, I guess.

I'm tired, boss.

Dumb people and millipedes

So, the carpet installers are here. Our furnace floor vents are not covered, as the HVAC guy is waiting until all the flooring is in, to put them in. One of them dropped his water bottle down one of the vents! So, now DH is trying to figure out how to get that out. Not to mention they just set their water bottles down on top of our finished wood. Sure, let's just get water rings on our wood. Are people really that dumb? or is it that they don't have anything nice, so they have no idea how to treat stuff?

And millipedes...........just EEEEWWWWW!!!We've found a few in the shop. Now they are invading the house. DH can't even figure out  how they are getting in. Yesterday evening he spayed our pesticide stuff we have always used for those kitchen ants, around the outside of the house. Found more in the house today. I looked up the stuff we use to see all what creepy crawlies it works on and millipedes are one of them. Hopefully, it was just the spraying that cause them to run and we are just seeing them in the house because of that and no more will get inside. We've never had those anywhere we've lived before. The neighbor down the street said they were getting them too. Hopefully it's just a quick seasonal thing and they aren't around long.

I called the telephone company at least 2 weeks ago to get us on the schedule to get the internet and phone hooked up to the house. She said 1-2 weeks, but shouldn't be more than 2 weeks. A guy finally shows up today, but he's just here to see what the technicians need to do...then he says 2-3 more weeks!  We are like that's not what they told us when I called over 2 weeks ago. Then he said since everything is basically done (by the electricians) it's just about an hours worth of work to hook up and they have another job to do soon, near us, so maybe they can do both on same day. He'll have to check. Plus, we don't really understand how the electricians did the wiring, so couldn't really 100% answer his questions. They have a cat wire coming into our central entryway closet, where he said to put the modem and then it was my understanding that he somehow ran wiring from both my office and dh's den that will go to the modem, so we can be hardwired into the modem, and not wi-fi, with our computers. But, there is only one wire sticking out where the modem is supposed to go. Wouldn't you think there needs to be 2...one from each office? He said when the technician comes he can figure it out and where the wiring and phone/internet jacks go to. Basically, they have the wiring from the house all done, it's sitting rolled up on the wall outside the end of the garage, waiting to be ran thru the conduit that is there, over to the shop, and hooked up to their phone box that is on that shop outside wall.

The the head carpet installer shows up with the rolls of carpet. They rolled the biggest roll out on the front driveway concrete, so they can cut it........and just walk all over it in their shoes! OMG. I just don't get people.

Early is mid morning

The carpet install guy showed up yesterday afternoon, as he wanted to drop off the padding and do measurements himself, just to make sure. He said his guys would be here early morning.....well, we all know what that means around here, LOL. It's 9:30 and they aren't here yet. What does "early morning" or "first thing in the morning" mean in your neck of the woods? For me, that is 7, 8am at the latest.

I ordered the bathroom hardware yesterday. I discovered they make sets of towel bar, toilet paper holder, hand towel ring and hook. It was cheaper than ordering individually, too.  I ordered 3 sets, for 3 bathrooms, but was at first thinking I would need 4 rings for hand towel, as we need 2 in our master bathroom. Then I remembered I have a standing hand towel holder (also in bronze) that I can use to set on the counter in the upstairs guest bathroom, so do not need a ring for that bathroom. At first I was looking at the set on Home Depot, but then the shopping app on my computer said it was a bit cheaper at Walmart, so I ordered it from there, plus that was 2 day shipping, so it should be here by Friday. That will give DH something to do this weekend.

Now I need to figure out window treatments for our bedroom and master bathroom. I'll worry about the upstairs bedrooms later. I like to see a room furnished to decide what window treatments. I think in the master bathroom, where we have two big windows, I am just going to do cafe/tier style on the bottom half. It's not like anyone will be able to see in them, but need some privacy, of course. I can't decide what to do in our bedroom. Blinds or shades. Which is why I haven't bought any yet, because I can't decide what I want. I know I don't want curtains, as I want the wood trim around the windows to show. I need to go out and measure the windows, to start.

Our neighbor from down at the end of the street stopped by yesterday to see if DH had a tool he could borrow. He did. He had his little one with him. Such a cutie. He turns 2 next week. He's very afraid of dogs. One of our dogs was out when they pulled in and got out. At least this time he didn't cry, he just looked at him and said "dog", so that is better. One time the other neighbors dogs were barking (from their kennel) and he started crying, just hearing them. I always feel bad that he's so scared of dogs.

Well, that's all I know so far, for today.  I'll get back to earning  money to pay for all this..LOL       

A little of this and that

Another niece is pregnant. She is only 21, unmarried and living with her BF of about a year or so. Kind of surprised at this one. She's a go-getter. Did the first 2 years of college while in high school. Got her Bachelors degree at 20. Is now doing her master's (and she moved states to do this program). How hard is it to not get pregnant? It will be interesting to see if she finishes her masters, plus she was supposed to commit teaching where she is at for 5 years.

Economics was never my strong subject. Can someone explain to me how the 25% tariff is hurting China? From what I understand, all they are doing is passing the cost back to the American manufacturer and then on to the consumer. I'm seeing email after email from our manufacturer's where I work, of price increases due to the tariff. What am I missing in the big picture of all of this?

We finished sealing the the last part of concrete yesterday evening. This was a second coat of our back patio, which we had done last summer, the first time. I think it needs to be done every year or so. DH bought a longer sized roller while he was in town yesterday and that made the job much quicker. And much easier than re-staining a wood deck patio, I think.

I recently just finished reading A Discovery of Witches. And then yesterday I found out it's a tv series, too. So, I got hooked on watching that last night. I've only read the first of the 3 books. I'm on wait list with library for the second ebook. The library has the first and 3 book individually to borrow, but to read the 2nd ebook they have all 3 books in one. That works too. When it's eventually my turn, then I can read the 3rd book right away. The only problem with watching a tv version, right after reading the book, is the characters are so fresh in my mind, that when they don't quite match up to how they are written, or I imagined them, it's annoying. LOL. It's still a good show, though.

As far as I know (I haven't  heard otherwise) we are still on schedule for carpeting getting installed tomorrow and Thursday. That's about the last of the inside work, other than closets finished and things like towel rods and toilet paper holders. The mason is still working outside on the stonework. Hopefully DH will just want to send the sanican back after carpet guys are done working and just let the mason use our shop bathroom. That will save $95 for June and going forward. I'm so tired of paying for it.

I'm looking forward to weekend and not looking forward to weekend. DH can never just sit and relax very often, which means I don't get much sitting and relaxing. I can't wait until he can have his shop to himself, go out and putter with whatever he wants to do to keep busy and I don't have to help him. Most of his stuff he does, is just because he needs to be busy or he sits there and the pain catches up to his brain. I've worked all week and would just like to relax. I don't mind doing stuff part of the day, but when he starts in on something it ends up being an all day thing. One thing leads to another thing.

Weekend update

It was a tiring weekend. DH was a crab and still is. Every. Little. Thing. Saturday he spent most of the day starting to do the inside of closets. We decided to do ourselves, rather than pay the contractor, not to mention, who knows when they would ever get finished.

Yesterday we spent almost all day sealing the concrete. It was kind of cold outside, too, so not too enjoyable to be out. The concrete they poured in front of our garage looks like old crappy concrete (even sealed), while the pads in front of the shop look great. They were both supposed to be same color (a tan color premixed in) but the color in front of the shop is barely there. We're guessing a result of they didn't have enough help and it started drying too fast? Or the plant didn't put enough color in it. Sealing it made it a bit darker, but still looks like crap.

DH ran to town this morning to get a form notarized. To claim his portion of the small life insurance policy his dad had through his union. DH stresses over every little thing. Will the bank charge to notarize. I said, not usually, since you are a customer. Then he says he only has $6 cash. I said, well then if you are worried about it, take your checkbook and write a check to the bank for the fee, if they charge you! Geez. Or make a withdrawal while you are there, so you have some cash in your wallet. First, because of his crabby mood, he wasn't even going to get it notarized and sent in to the insurance company. I'm like you know what....parents age and then they die. And then there is paperwork and stuff to deal with. It's a fact of life. Just take care of it, so you aren't holding up possibly paying out the others, thinking you are just slow in getting it in.

A week or so ago DH had gone over to that woodworking guy's place again. He had a neat little coffee type table (or could probably be used as a bench) he had finished. Log style with an eagle scene burned into the top. DH was like, oh I'd like to buy that or one like it from you, but we're outta cash right now. Maybe once we get the dining table and bar countertop done, we can have you make one of these or buy this one if you still have it. The guy called yesterday and said he needs room in his little workshop, he's just going to bring it over and we can pay him for it when we pay him for the other stuff (down the road). Ok. haha.

I'm thinking either a little coffee table up in my upstairs sitting loft or it would be cute as a little bench for suitcase in guest bedroom with the log bed. When DH showed me pics of it before I asked if he knew how much it cost. He didn't. I guessed $300. He said he thought more like $400. So, I asked the guy how much is it, so I know how much I need to save for? He himhawed and said $150....both DH and I at same time said NO! that's too cheap! That's a lot of work he puts into the burning.

My boss is thinking of switching payroll/HR companies. We've been with the same one for many many years. Mostly staying because of our HR person there, but the company was bought out a couple of years ago and the service just isn't as good anymore. She had a prelim meeting with potential nationwide company last week and just sent me some links to look at and see what I think. I used this company for payroll many years ago at a different company I worked for (with 600 employees) so have a little familiarity with them. It was an easy system to use, I do remember that.

Thursday tid bits

The dogs and I are kind of locked in the shop for the day. More concrete is being poured (because it hasn't rained). They are pouring the part right in front of the shop door, so no way out at the moment. And concrete is being replaced. Why? Because the border around our front entrance slab was crap, because they poured it at the beginning of last winter, it was 18 degrees that night and they didn't put blankets over it to protect it, while it cured. They also had to tear out a strip at the edge of our garage pad, that they just poured Tuesday, because it (I guess) dried too fast, before they could get it prepped and it cracked a bunch. (that was mostly a result of them not having enough crew for what they poured). So, the 3 of them spent yesterday afternoon until like 8pm last night cutting and digging out the bad concrete.

We let the dogs out a whole bunch this morning, before the mixer truck got here, so hopefully they can manage to stay in until this afternoon. By then we should also be able to open one of the front shop big doors to get out of (I mean squeeze out of. as there is all our stuff stored up to the doors). Right now, if DH needs something out of the shop, he's coming to a window in the back and I'm handing it out to him. LOL. He's been joking that this is just like the walk up drug window we lived next door to for so many years. I told him he hasn't been giving me anything good in trade for what I'm handing out the window, haha.

My mom and her BF made it home to her house. Sounds like kind of a long drive. I'm not sure where they stayed past our place (I think about 25 or 30 miles, is all) but should have been about a 6 hour drive from there, but took them like 9 hours. She said they hit some traffic areas. I'm sure they stopped for lunch, too.

My M-Turks earning is going well. I've been beating my $5 Mon-Fri goal most days. Usually I can get to $5 by lunch time and then anything I can get after that I keep trying for. Some days $7, some days up to $12. If I have time on weekends, I see what I can do, but it's usually very minimal, like .50 to a $1. I transfer to my bank account when I hit $25 and the past couple of weeks I've been hitting $25 every 3-4 work days.  Today, I am at $5.35 (before noon) and supposedly I also will be getting a $2 bonus from one of the hits.

The guy from the bank just stopped in for a progress check. Asked DH how's it going? while DH is being one of the concrete guys.....DH says "I'm tired of paying people for work I'M doing!". He asked what is left and DH told him. Then he said "should I have bank lady call for an appraisal?" DH was like I don't know, you guys know how all that works. Apparently, we have to know their job, too.

I've been reading a good book (e book borrowed from library) called A Discovery of Witches. Basically, a more adult version of Twighlight series (which I enjoyed). I'm just about done with the first book (3 books in series) and why isn't the 2nd book available as an e-book? how dumb. They also have the 3rd book. I did just find that they offer the whole trilogy as an e-book, so I have reserved that on my waiting list. I see someone offers a "pdf e-book" version of all 3 books for .99 on ebay. Wonder how that would be to read on my ipad? According to my library the wait time is estimated at 20 weeks. Ugh. I do have quite a few other books that just released out of my "holds", so maybe those can keep me busy, but only for a few weeks.          

Dish sent me a box to send back my equipment in. It showed up yesterday. This morning I got a recorded call that I have 2 days to get it sent back. Well, it's going to have to wait until tomorrow, as I can't even get myself out of here today, let alone my car.

Can we just get a break....or do your job right?

Geez Louise! This place is never going to get done. They poured the pad in front of (3 car garage). DH says it turned out like crap in one section, it was hot yesterday, they didn't have enough crew to keep up with it, based on the size they poured at one time. They say the concrete plant sent "old mix" meaning they had 2-3 yards left in the mixer when they got back to the plant and instead of dumping that out to mix our fresh load, they leave it and add it to the new stuff, so it's not as good. Who knows. And now since it "might" rain tomorrow, they want to leave tonight and not finish it, until "another day".

It was nice seeing my mom yesterday, even if it was just for a quick hour and a half or so. They totally got lost! Honestly, I don't know how they could have missed the exit. It's a highway with very little traffic and exits are like 5-10 miles apart, so it's not like a bunch close together to miss. The only thing in between the exits is trees, LOL. Our place couldn't be much more easier to get to. They missed the exit...and the next one....ended up taking the town exit (which I told her was 10 miles too far), so then they had to come back 10 miles. They finally made it. They were both pretty worn out. They've been gone a week. I don't know if the treatments her BF got have helped yet or not. Didn't appear so. He needs a walker and even then doesn't want to walk very far. He just got his walker inside the house and sat down on the seat. Dh talked to him while I gave my mom a tour of the house. She's walking very slow herself.  Part of it is all the weight she is carrying for her small frame and short legs. Makes her steps short. I know she was very tired, too, but I can tell she's not near the energizer bunny she's always been. I always figured she'd be one of those ladies in her early to mid 80's still getting around pretty good, but she just turned 78. My aunt (dads sis) was in her 80's and still worked part time at a Hallmark store, until she got cancer.

I'd say 90% of the reason they got lost is her, LOL. She's so ditzy. I told her to call me when they got past the city and I'd give directions. So, you'd think she'd have a pen and paper? nope. So, I tell her the exit number and start to give directions after that (just two turns after that) and she says I'll call you back when we get off the exit. Then she calls back and says they stopped at a rest stop. I'm like well then you went past our exit! I said call me at the next exit, which they missed and ended up taking the exit for our town, itself. They were sitting at the restaurant parking lot. I'm trying to tell her how to get from there to head back to our place. She puts her BF on the phone. He gets confused. Finally, I said put my mom on the phone and I'll stay on the phone with her while I give directions, until you get here. So, that is working well, they are on the main road out to our place. She's telling me what they are passing. I say yep, next you will pass a meat packing place. For some reason she thought I meant she had turn there or something (even though I had already said you will stay on this road for 10 miles) so she tells her BF "oh, slow down here". I said no...just keep going. You have 6 more miles to go. LOL  After they left, they decided to drive a bit farther and then stop and get a motel for the night. Then they will have about 6 more hours today to drive until they get home.

Right now they are pouring the pad in front of the shop garage doors.But before we can move stuff (easily and with a hard cart or pallet jack) we need the piece poured in between the shop and garage! That way Dh can put the stuff on the cart or pallet jack in the shop and roll it over into the house garage. Can't roll it across dirt and rocks :/

Lions, tigers and bears

Ok, not tigers, but lions and bears! Over the winter we had the hunter catch a mountain lion right across the road. Yesterday the guys that are camping here this week, while they do the concrete work, went bear hunting nearby after they got done working. Ya, they got one. By the time they got it back to their truck and then back here, it was midnight when they were taking care of skinning it in our driveway, LOL. DH went out and watched. I stayed asleep.

The electricians and the fireplace guy didn't really figure out the problem with the electrical yesterday. There was a screw for the fireplace near wiring that they said could have been the culprit, but they aren't sure. They can't get the power to go out again, so hopefully it's fixed.  The head electrician (who was out here to first look at the problem last week) messaged DH  yesterday and asked if he could come back sometime and take pictures of our house lighting to use in his advertising brochure. DH told him sure!

The concrete is being poured for our garage parking slabs right as I type this. Quite the comical scene. It's a warm day, so they are in shorts...no shirts, and these tall mud boots, LOL

My mom and her boyfriend are supposed to be here sometime early afternoon. Will be so nice to see her. Her BF got some type of new treatment for pain in his legs. I'll have to get more info from her. I think she said it was some kind of stem cell thing. I hope it helps him. I know he's been in a lot of pain the past couple of years, but he doesn't want to have surgery. It sounds like they might just stay in the motel in town, (they'll have driven 5 or 6 hours) and head home tomorrow morning. Then I'll get more time with them. We can go eat dinner at the restaurant in town or something. I'm just going to work until noon and take a half day off. I want to go out and mop the laminate (again!) so it doesn't look so dirty and dusty.

I'm tired. I didn't sleep very well. Kept getting woken up. First it was DH's phone ringing like 11pm (or later) and him talking to a friend. Then he went outside to watch the bear happenings and of course when he came back in woke me up to tell me about it. Then about 4am one of the dogs woke up and wanted outside. I need a nap!

Another week in the works

I've been trying to finish and post this all morning and keep getting distracted.

I hope all you mom's had a nice Mother's Day. I got a call from DD in the morning and a nice chat. Later I talked to my mom. I get to see her tomorrow, it sounds like! She and her BF are supposed to be coming through our way on their way home and are going to stop in for a quick visit and see the house. It will be really nice to see her, even if it's only a super quick visit.

The weekend weather was beautiful and warm. Saturday the local guy who does our gutters came to finish up the last of it. He's been telling DH he's going to show him how to fly fish (waiting for better weather), so he came back around 6pm. We ran into town earlier in the afternoon, so DH could get a fishing permit at the hardware store. We bbq'd some burgers (and they were edible this time! ha!) and then he and DH took the trail down to the river and spent a couple hours learning to fly fish. DH said he really enjoyed it. They didn't catch a thing, LOL. It was nice to sit on our back patio and have the little bbq.

Yesterday we did a little yard work behind our house. Just raked up all the pinecones and twigs, etc. DH threw them in the burn pile, but will have to go get a burn permit now.

Today is a busy day here, lots of subs. The mason is here. The concrete guys will be here for 4 days. The electricians are coming for their final day of work, as well as the fireplace guy is supposed to come, too, so they can figure out the electrical issue. So far, they haven't figured out the problem. GRRR.... The finish guy is here, too. The electricians usually come at 8:30, so that's when the fireplace guy got here...then electricians texted DH that wouldn't be here until 9:30, so the poor guy had to sit here an hour. He did tell DH that he thinks our home is one of the most beautiful he's seen. Then the mason guy (who was working on another job part of last week) told DH he was working on a house that used to be owned by Hank Williams Jr. I guess the story is he thought he was getting a divorce so he sold it, below market value. Then he didn't get a divorce and wanted the house back and offered the guy double what he just paid him for it. The guy turned him down. Now the guy is remodeling it. Mason said just the fireplace stone was like $46,000. He put in a $40,000 hot tub! But mason told DH that the house is really isn't that nice and he thinks ours is nicer than that. haha. When he showed us a picture of the fireplace (it's huge and looks like marble or something) I thought to myself I'm glad I don't have that kind of money to spend, that's ugly, LOL.

DD spent a bundle and got her hair cut and colored. It turned out amazing. She looked like a movie star :).  She has very curly hair, so it's always been a struggle for her to style. Most of the time she just puts it in a messy bun and calls it good, LOL. The funny part is I guess looking at the picture she shared, her fiance kept saying to her, man you look like your mom. We do look a lot alike, everyone has always said so. My niece posted a picture of her little baby (now about 7 months old). oh my - what crazy curly hair. It so much reminded me of DD when she was a baby, too. So cute.

It's almost noon and the concrete guys still haven't shown up. I'm sure we got pushed out for them to do another job (that came after contracting with us). I sent our  neighbor an email that concrete is going to be poured for a few days starting tomorrow, so unless they want concrete paws.....LOL.

Friday is finally here

Not much going on yet today. The finish guy is supposed to be here. He was supposed to be here yesterday too...but well, you know how that goes.....

The concrete guy (another one of our contractor's sons) is coming Monday and says it will take 4 days to do the concrete work. Couple days of setting forms, a couple days of pouring. He says he's bringing his camper to just stay while he's working here..but well, you know how that goes.....

DH hardly goes anywhere, but the two times he has someone came by, haha. When we were at our friends BBQ on Sunday he was chatting with her parents, who have some property nearby. Told them to stop by some time. So, 10 minutes after he left yesterday afternoon, they pulled in. So, I showed them the house and visited with them. DH had gone over to visit with the guy who will be building our table and bar countertop.

Today is my half workday Friday, so I guess I'm going in to do grocery shopping by myself again. I also, apparently, have to stop and pick up some kind of concrete sealant we will need. Expensive stuff, of course.

Finish guy just showed up. He had to rent a lift thing, so he can get up and finish the trim paint and caulking on the outside that is way up top...I'm sure we're paying for that too....even though we had one here for months last Fall...but the painter lady wanted to "do it later", rather than when the equipment was here and already paid for.

I think my check for the sale of the stock is coming in today's mail. Looks to be what it is from my USPS informed delivery email I got this morning.

Our neighbors took their oldest sweet dog to the vet yesterday. She's getting so old, but still hanging in there. Her back legs don't want to work as good as they used to. Neighbor (because he has that kind of sense of humor) says "we're taking her in to be put down!" His wife says "NO we ARE NOT!". We were outside when they pulled in their driveway yesterday and I said she better be in that car! She was, haha. But, she has gained like 16 pounds over the winter, so now she is on a diet. DH told them he's probably to blame for some of it because he gives them treats too. I'm sure the majority of it is caused by her legs and she's not getting the activity she used to be able to get.

When the electrician came out the other day to see what caused our power to go out in the great room and crawlspace (where our furnace is) he thinks it's something caused by the gas fireplace wiring. The electricians are scheduled to come back next Monday anyway to finish up, so they got it working for now and the fireplace guy is going to come Monday while they are here and take a look at his work. The electrician said he's pretty sure it's the fireplace causing the breaker to go out (and not reset) but if it turns out it's not he said the fireplace guy can send him a bill for his time. DH had turned on the fireplace that evening I went into the house to take my bath and we let it run for a few hours - then later that night the power went out.


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Budget tweaks

I continue to whittle away at the monthly budget.

$27/mo - DH's cell phone, through Verizon, is now paid off.  The only reason I opted for the monthly payments was they were interest free. We are on the lowest cell phone plan with Verizon ($82/mo for 2 phones) and I'm not changing from them to a cheaper provider. We get good service here at our house (and just about anywhere we go) whereas those who come here with other providers often can't get very good service. We are on the midrange internet plan through our telephone company and I can't go any lower because I need this internet speed to be able to work from home (plus I get reimbursed $30 a month from my employer towards it).

$85/mo - cancelled Dish. I also do not think, at least for the time being we will be paying for any tv subscription service. We'll see how it goes. At the most we'd do $45 a month for one.

$6/mo - reduced one dog's dental treats. I decided to go with the smaller size. Honestly, he crunches them up so fast, I really don't think they probably even do any good, LOL. But now I'll get twice as many for same price.

Until we get settled in, I really won't know if my budget estimate on electricity and propane is going to be accurate. I'm hoping I've over estimated, given how much we ended up having to insulate our house. Starting tomorrow the temps are supposed to be in the 70's every day, so I'm hoping the heat won't even need to be coming on much at all during the night or early mornings. While not living in the house yet, we have just had it set at 62, since it got turned on a few weeks ago. We also do not have our heat pump installed yet, so I'm assuming that will make a difference when it does. We can't install it until the stupid concrete pad is poured for it (which isn't scheduled until next week). Our propane use will go down once we are in the house. We won't need to keep the shop heated, like we have been living in it, though we will still be using propane to heat water for our showers, as the water heater for our master bath is propane. The water heater for the rest of the house hot water is electric. I'm anxious to know what exactly our costs will be

Awhile back I did change DH's health insurance from Obamacare to short term plans, saving $470/mo. I also tweaked our auto insurance a bit, saving another $10 a month.

Other than keeping a closer eye on groceries and sales prices, there isn't much room left to cut back on. I think once we get settled, have room to stock up on sales prices and I have more free time to watch for sales, I might be able to save a bit on my budget there.

The only good thing about the delay in this build is that interest rates continue to creep down a bit, which will help that monthly budget line, when we finally get closed on a mortgage. I'm just praying it continues to come down some more in the meantime.

The plumber has recommended flushing our tankless water heaters twice a year. He said just buy the submersible pump and do it ourselves (you run vinegar through it to clean) and that the cost was $50-$100, one time, rather than $200 or more, each water heater, to have a professional do it. DH looked it up online and they sell kits, but the are $135-$150. DH said well, I have the hoses and bucket, really just need the pump. I looked up online and found a pump for $48, so I ordered it. It's been over 6 months since we've been using the tankless water heater in our shop, so it is due for a cleaning. Even if we only cleaned our 2 tankless water heaters once a year, that's a big savings in maintenance costs over time, just buying the pump to do it ourselves. I read the reviews on the pump and it had 4.7 stars out of 5 and many specifically commented that they purchased it for cleaning a tankless water heater. Others use it for cleaning ponds or pools. We just also have to buy several gallons of distilled white vinegar, which is cheap.

DH's sister texted the brothers something about their dad having a $1000 life insurance policy that money is coming from. $1000? LOL. How does one even get a $1000 life insurance policy? We did find out that SIL got about $45,000 as the beneficiary of MIL's policy. Which is great. She deserved getting that extra money. Just don't understand why she has to be such a turd about splitting the rest of the money. She's probably going to get another $50k from the estate being split up 4 ways. And honestly, it's just a miracle there was even any money to inherit! If either of them had had to end up using that money from the sale of house for long term care, it would have been gone fast and there would have been nothing to inherit. We certainly were never expecting there to be any money left to inherit from them.

Major points

Well, DH was very sweet and thoughtful!! He "dressed" up the bathtub like a little spa (courtesy of a trip to the town flower/gift shop). Flowers, candle, gift basket of bath goodies. I had told him I'd probably wait until we were moved in to take a bath, but he figured I should do it now, LOL. It's been over 8 months since I had a bathtub to use.

This is what he surprised me with

I went out after dinner and took a nice long bath. It was pretty much heaven :)  He scored lots of points for this one.

And then sometime last night we lost power to part of the house. The great room and the crawl space, where the furnace is, so that isn't working. The breaker won't reset. No one has worked in the house since Monday, so not sure what could have caused it. One of the electricians will be coming out later today to take a look at it.

I received an email that my 4 shares of stock were received and the sell order executed, so I should have my payment of about $275 soon. It was just good to get the email, at least I know my stock certificates didn't get lost in the mail!

Carpeting is now scheduled to go in the week after next. That is pretty much the last thing to do on the inside (other than a few smaller things). The end is near!

Cabinet pulls installed

it was a productive day yesterday. I didn't realize the mason was still coming part of this week, so he's almost done with the shop now. The plumber guys came and other than one part in our master shower we are all done with plumbing! They forgot the diverter that turns on the overhead shower. The two water heaters work, all plumbing works now.They are just going to mail us the diverter and DH can just screw it on the fitting.

DH got all the 67 drawer/door pulls on all the cabinets. That little template I bought sure made the job easier for him. They look really nice, I think. He was really nervous at first to drill holes in the nice wood.

I bought these pulls (and the longer screws we needed) from Amazon. They were only like $1.89 each, compared to $3-4 each at Lowes or Home Depot. I got a box of 100 screws for $16. The pulls came with two sizes of screws, 1" and 1 1/2" but for these drawers we needed 1 3/4".

The master bathroom feels so spacious. It will be nice each having our own sink again. It will be really nice having more than one bathroom, LOL. Mornings can get a bit scary around here, haha - DH takes way too long sitting on the toilet (is that just a guy thing?!) and sometimes I really gotta go. And I'm not running across the property, in the cold mornings, to the sanican.  Speaking of that thing, we should be able to finally send it back at the end of this month. $95 a month for over a year now. And it hardly ever gets used much, really. But we had to have it....cuz all those construction workers weren't coming inside our shop to use the bathroom, that's for sure.

I'm also really liking the kitchen faucet I picked out. It's got a pull down sprayer and a soap dispenser.

I'm glad the plumber guy told me how to fill the soap dispenser. He said most people think they have to unscrew it from underneath. Nope. Just pull out the pump on top and fill it up. He also suggested we just buy the kit that is used to maintenance our two tankless water heaters (one in house and one in shop). He recommends doing it twice a year. It's a pump thing that puts the solution through the valves to clean it out. He said they charge like $200 (each) to do it and the kit costs like $100-$150 and you can reuse it every time.

I had a good M-Turks day yesterday. Over $12. I'm at $3.20 of my daily $5 goal so far this morning. Today I recieved my Ebates (now Ratuken) quarterly payment of $76. I don't like waiting 3 months between payments, but I think I'm doing better getting rebates through that platform rather than Swagbucks. Part of that $75 was $25 from referring DD. Next quarter, so far, I will have almost $50 coming. I earned a nice $47 cash back from purchasing my refrigerator online.  I also will get some money from Adsense around the 20th, as I went over $100 from the blog. It usually takes me 4 months to earn that, haha. I anticipate getting that money from selling those 4 shares of stock in about 10 days or so. They should have them by now (I mailed last Wednesday) and then they said it takes them 5 days to sell and then they will send a check 2 days after that. If price of the stock doesn't change much, I should end up with about $275, after their fee of $15.

Weekend update and I canceled Dish

We had a good time at our friends BBQ yesterday afternoon. The weather wasn't great, a bit rainy, so they just set up some tables in their garage, as well as all the food inside the house. It wasn't really a BBQ. She had a big crockpot full of pulled pork for sandwiches, as well as other sides to eat. It was all yummy (and a nice break from our food we've been having to eat). Plus a really yummy cake she made. And we got to take some leftovers and cake home :)  And she made me a dish towel and dish cloth (crocheted) for my new kitchen. So sweet.

The weather is supposed to start getting nice later in the week. Sunny and up in the high 70's. Should be good for the concrete pouring. Having the concrete pads in front of our garage and shop and a connection in between is going to make getting our stuff moved from the shop to the house so much easier when the time comes. DH can put bins and stuff on either his pallet jack or hand cart and wheel over. We may have to call that moving company who moved us here to help for the heavy furniture. They have like a minimum 4 hours I think and that would probably cover it if that's all we have them help with. Hopefully we'll be moving in the next few weeks.

The plumbers just showed up to finish up. We'll have water to the house fixtures today! DH is working on installing all the cabinet drawer pulls. He says it's nerve-racking! I think drilling into the nice wood is making him nervous. Only 65 more to go, haha!

The neighbor dog (one of their son's dogs they are taking care of until July) is having a fit today. He won't stop barking. Neighbor left (must have had a work meeting to go to). I think they are going to have to put that bark collar on him. They were gone Saturday night for several hours and around 9:30, right as I was going to bed, he barked non stop for the next 45 minutes, until they got home. I don't think he's going to be gone too long, this morning, because he let his old dog stay outside the kennel. She just usually comes over and watches whatever is going on at our house and she never wanders off at all.

I guess one good thing of all this delay so far this year is mortgage interest rates keep coming down.

DD is happy. For her business trips she can now fly out of a new regional airport that opened up near her home. It will save her several hours of time each trip.

I received a letter from Dish that my 8 months "hold" service is expiring. I decided to call and cancel. I had thought we had 2 months left in my contract, so would need to pay $40 early termination fee. But apparently I actually had 6 months left on my contract, because I had upgraded equipment at one point during our service. So, I had to pay $120 to cancel. I'm ok with that. That is basically equivalent to a month and half of what I had been paying for Dish service monthly ($83). Now, when we get into the house, we will either just use Amazon Prime and Netflix or maybe get Hulu or You Tube Tv for a monthly feel that is half what I was paying Dish. We'll see how it goes! With all these new live tv streaming services I'm really surprised Amazon doesn't offer that, too.

Broken record

My friend is still dealing with her cheating husband. I kind of backed off messaging her for awhile. I was just too exhausted to listen to it and try to respond to her. Nothing has changed whatsoever and it's the same conversation every time. It's been almost a year she's been dealing with this. I did message her a couple weeks ago to say I'm sorry I haven't checked in on her, but I've been exhausted with this house build and especially during the time we were dealing with Painter Lady.

She still wants him back, blames the lady he's cheating/living with. I told her he's responsible for all this, not her. She said she knows that, but....I just said I can only imagine what you are going through, but I would have to have some resolution to it all, one way or another. Honestly, she can't be any more miserable if she divorced him, compared to what she is dealing with this way. She thinks the other woman is giving him drugs and he doesn't know it, which is why he has changed so much. I said I'm sure he probably is on drugs of some kind, but I have a hard time believing she is giving him drugs without him knowing it. I'd certainly know if I was being given drugs, you know? I'm starting to think friend just wants to be the victim in all this, rather than just divorcing his cheating ass and moving on with her life. He's barely helping her with their house payment and bills.

The granite installers left this spray bottle of cleaner to use on the granite. It's called Easy Oxy. As I'm using it (to wipe off some grout haze left from backsplash) I notice it smells exactly like this cleaner I used to have years and years ago. Years ago (like almost 20 years now - geez! time flies), when we bought our motorhome it came with a little bottle of carpet cleaner. That stuff was AMAZING! it would get out any stain in my carpets. Grease was a common stain - due to DH having construction equipment and grease would get on boots/shoes. It as a small bottle and I managed to find it online and ordered a second bottle. Then the company went out of business. I have missed that carpet cleaner all these years. I have never found anything that worked like that. And it smells good. A citrus smell.

I'm pretty sure this is the same stuff I had all those years ago. It says it also works on carpet stains (and cleans just about any surface type). I sprayed it on the tile in the shower. It took up a whole bunch of grout haze still on there. It's kind of expensive, but I know it's going to be my go to cleaner. It's on Amazon for $22 (including shipping) for a 32 oz bottle. Other websites sell it for like $14, but shipping is $8. I did find a 2 pack on Ebay that works out to $16 a bottle.

Still having trouble getting up the grout haze on the shower pebble floor. The tile guy that just did our backsplash said he uses white wine vinegar, so I am going to try that.

Granite love

It sure was a quick job to install all the countertops. They brought them pre-cut and then just had to cut out holes for the faucets and also attach/install sinks to them, since they were undermount.

After the long long wait........here they are! The kitchen and master bath is same granite slab. I used remnants (to save money) on the upstairs bathroom and laundry room. They are pretty similar to each other.

one side of master bathroom

 upstairs bath

 kitchen

laundry

We found a guy (recommended by our mason) who could do the backsplash tile, rather than having finish guy (Painter Lady's husband) do it. DH called the guy yesterday and he said he can do it in one day, for a reasonable price and he's here this morning working on it.

I'm not feeling too well this morning. Hopefully it passes soon. It's such a nice pretty day to feel crummy.

Finally!

Whew - the 3rd replacement cabinet was good! Shortly after the cabinet guys showed up, the granite guys showed up. They are starting on the bathrooms and laundry room and then can move into the kitchen, once the cabinet guys are done. It looks like the cabinet guys are almost done.

The granite is set in the master bathroom. It looks really nice. I'll post pictures in my next post.

The mason should finish up the shop stonework today. He has another job to do/finish next week, so he won't be back for a week and then he thinks it will take 2-3 weeks to do the house outside stonework.

Pecan cabinet stain vs pecan door/trim stain sure is different, LOL. So, our cabinets are a lot darker then the pantry door and trim. It doesn't look terrible, but I think it will be ok. When we get our wood bar countertop that stain will end up looking a bit different, too, I'm sure. I'm not one where everything has to match exactly, anyway. Like my DD said, when she saw a picture, it kind of breaks it up, rather than all same exact stain color.

So, we ended up with all the bad cabinets, since there's nothing anyone else can do with them. We have two lower corner cabinets (those are the cracked ones), 1 upper cabinet (was wrong size) and 1 upper corner shelf unit (was also done wrong). We think we'll just use them up in our bonus room, someday when we can get to doing a little bar area up there.

We hung up our wind chimes on the back patio a few days ago. These were some chimes our old "good neighbor" had sent us a year or more ago. For our new house. Really big and nice wind chimes. They sound so pretty. Almost like church bells. They are called "Corinthian Bells".

That's all the update I have for today.

Cholesterol and meeting more new folks

I received my cholesterol results back and all good there, so I will be keeping on the Simvastatin dose I've been on for several years now. My overall cholesterol was 144. It will take a few days on the mammogram results.

The mason is progressing with the stonework every day. It looks so much better than tyvek! ha! Our neighbor sent me an email this morning that said our stonework looks absolutely beautiful.

We received the billing for the rockery backhoe work yesterday, but it didn't appear to have the charge for the helper guy that came with them on one of the days. DH called the guy who owns the backhoe and he said they forgot to add it on and then said if we just wanted to give the guy payment direct, that's fine too. The guy that did the helping is a guy (few years older than us) that actually lives up on the mountain right above us. DH called him and he said he'd stop by and pick up the check. He seems like a really nice guy - quite a talker, too. haha. We ended up standing outside talking to him for like 2 hours. He's originally from our old area, too. They built a house wayyy up - gravel road, and tons of snow in the winter (compared to what we even get). Sounds like a big house, too. He invited us to come up and visit/meet wife, etc this weekend. Said he'd call DH when he got back Saturday morning from turkey hunting, so maybe we can do that Saturday afternoon. Will be nice to get to know some other new people, too. I can't wait to see their view from their house. I know it's going to be incredible. We haven't specifically been up their road, but other logging roads up on these surrounding mountains and the views are amazing.

No word back from the countertop people on when they are coming. She said she had to check with her husband to see his schedule (since the replacement cabinet isn't coming until tomorrow morning) and I asked her to please call me back and let us know what the plan is.

Well, I am swamped with work. My side job is requiring some extra time this week. Their banking situation is cluster. In the past month they have opened accounts with 2 new banks and a 3rd is in the works. Plus I haven't received all the info so I can get the statements so I can record all the transactions and figure out what money went where. They got their original checking account compromised, so it got closed and and a new checking opened at same bank. She wasn't happy with them, so opened one with another bank. Then decided to use another bank, but keep that second one, too. It's all giving me a headache.

Wednesday goings on

I have these 4 shares of stock of a company I worked for years and years ago (before DD was born). Every quarter I get a stupid little dividend check of like $1.50. LOL. I should just figure out how to sell these 4 shares. They are worth almost $300 total. Might as well get something out of them. I don't even recall how I got them in the first place. Some employee stock deal. I called the shareholder services number on my dividend check and was instructed how to download a sale form and I have to fill out and mail my 4 shares in with the form. He said it takes like 5 days for them to sell, then another 2 days for a check to be sent out to me, less a $15 fee. Might as well sell them. I certainly have no real need to hang on to these 4 shares. It's not like some big investment LOL and I highly doubt these will ever be worth much more than they ever have been.

Amazing how much more this mason guy gets done per day compared to the guy we had who started it last summer. He actually works full days. Imagine that. That first guy worked 3-4 hours a day.

This morning I had my blood draw and mammogram done. I had to fast for the blood draw (cholesterol check) but the earliest mammogram appointment they have is 9:30. So, I got there about a half hour early to get the blood drawn. I was starving. I had a few crackers before bed, but that's it since like 10pm. I drank lots of water when I got up this morning. The mammogram wasn't nearly as painful as it was last year. Probably just different technician. Plus I did take some advil before I went, so maybe that helped a bit.

Since it only takes 10 minutes to do the mammogram, I was on my way shortly after. Stopped into Lowes and picked up a template ($8) for installing cabinet pulls. Then I remembered there was a post office on the street behind it, so I ran in there and mailed my stock certificates off. Then to Target for some laundry supplies and picked up a few food items that I knew were cheaper than the grocery store. I also got a Mother's Day card and a graduation card, along with 2 Subway gift cards. My mom likes Subway, so I'll put that in her card. We were invited to some friends for their son's graduation surprise party on Sunday afternoon. We went to a trade school for being a lineman, so they are having a little party for him. Figured I'd better get him a card and a little gift too, so got him a Subway card, too.

Grocery shopping was nice. No DH making me feel rushed, plus the store wasn't busy at that time of morning. The bagging guy offered to take my stuff out to my car, so I let him load it all in. Much better than me having to lug cases of water and soda off the cart.

I was back home at noon and back to work. Just have too much to do right now to take time off this week. I think I'll try to take a couple extra days around Memorial Day weekend.