It is now 13 degrees outside, covered in white stuff and the dog has had me out so he could potty and play. I did start shoveling, and will work on it here, and across for Alberta and Chuck during the day today. But wish the dog would drag out other humans, I seem to be his designated human for cold, snow, winds ,rain trips out to potty.
My lot in MO is sold and the money in my bank account, and I hit the Springfield Home and Garden show Friday after work. I have 2 concrete companies that will come look at my patio job and hope to get at least 2 more to come look, put in a bid, 1 is here in town so want to give the very local company a chance for the job.
The bike patio will have to get some changing first, I have survey planned and fencing so need the bike parking entirely behind the house, not with a 16" paver row hanging off that line. I added those pavers for my longer Rebel and it was just so much easier to add them there than unstack the retaining wall and dig out another 16" by 14 feet long area. I will be doing it now, before the patio is done, and then have that so the patio will be able to tie in somewhat on the south side.
The fence will be gated across the bike parking space, and I need a human gate, and I will probably have more gates than I am happy paying for, but in the long run, they will be worth having, it will be just the initial cry and whine as I buy each one.
Today I will work on the snow shoveling and the laundry, have a load in the dryer to pull out and fold, have work jeans yet to spray and wash the bottom 6" of the legs and then get washed, dried and put away and will knit, work on finishing the 2nd doll dress, plans for a quiet day. Jake and I will work on getting his taxes done too, and he will be doing part of the work, or all of it with Mom's help.
Handed my current case to Ben, with the new Nexus tablet he does not know I bought for him. He will owe me help with mine for years to come, LOL, but it think he can handle that.
The Home and Garden Show in Springfield was smaller than I had expected but I had fun, found plenty to look at, came home with information on stuff I am interested in, and a place to order that platform with drawers for my bed when I am ready to move back downstairs. I looked at specialty baths, with plans for going very handicapped accessible when I move/replace the tub downstairs in the future.
The tub moves to the north wall and the door between the bathroom and laundry area moves east a few feet to make less problems with my much loved, used and needed spiral stairs.
But, alas, until I get a bathroom upstairs or the funds to pay a bath company to come in and do the job while I have some vacation days, the tub will not get moved and I will duck under the metal stairs and occasionally nail my head or shoulder on metal stairs.
The end of this month will make my 11th anniversary at Cargill here, and I am glad to be back on the kill floor, like working days, the end of March also marks my living in this house 9 years. When I look at that time frame I feel like the work on this house has gone very slowly, but it have less than $5000 left to pay on the 2nd mortgage, the one that paid for replacing 1/2 of the foundation, at a higher cost than I paid for the place. And the metal roof is done, paid for with no refinancing to pay for that. Most of the windows are replaced, with the addition of 4 new ones, south attic retreat, 2 in the north attic studio area and the last new window is my east dormer window.
Part of the attic has drywall up, all is insulated, the 2 baseboard heaters work great and allow me to adjust the upstairs temps to suit my needs/wants. The portable air conditioner was a good decision and will be even more effecient as I get more drywall work done up here in the attic. All the wiring is done except what will be needed in the future bathroom and it is framed in and had drywall on the outside walls.
I will have to do a lot of reading on bathrooms before starting work there as it will get a custom tiled shower, to fit the space and sealing for moisture in the entire bathroom area is very important and the place to start. I have plans for a single unit for heat, light and exhaust in the ceiling, and then there will need to be at least 1 outlet, possibly 2, and a light over the sink. I am planning a corner sink unit, might go custom with base and splurge on a cool vessel type sink.
Well, now it is almost the end of the week, Ben likes his Nexus 7, will help me with mine and I am going to order the case with keyboard as soon as I can to replace the case I gave Ben. And I will do some tweaking with my Nexus also.
The weather has gotten a bit better so I need to start cleaning up the dog poo that Shadow has dropped all over the place. And call contractors about the patio job so I can end up with several estimates/bids for the job.
I get discouraged at the credit debt I have, the lack of progress on this old house, my personal relationships, my poor choices in life, the past mistakes, you name it, I manage to find plenty of reasons to mentally beat myself up some days.
I need to work on the reasons I waste money and add to my debt load when I really do want to pay off credit cards and get some of those accounts closed. I know at times I am my own worse enemy, but that does have some advantages over the days when I was letting some man screw up my head and my finances.
The winter seems to have been so long this year and cold. The house seems to have stayed a mess, no matter how much work I put into picking up, sweeping, cleaning, you name it, I keep loosing that battle everywhere in the house and the dog does the outside mess for me to clean up again and again.
But I do know it is not a terrible life, I am ok with my place of work, like my old house and know the problems and the costs and the years of work ahead that might never end. It is my house and my life now, not in the hands of someone else and me having little or no choice in the direction I am going.
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