D.I.Y.

I love the internet. You can find anything, well almost anything, you want to know. If I had the money I would buy books on the subjects I wanted to know about, but I can't. So I turn to the internet. There is always someone, or some group of folks that have a site specializing on the topic in question. Collect rare hats worn by dogs that appeared on T.V.? Looking for hard to find cereal boxes from the sixties? There is a site for everything. I have been forced to learn a new profession, or group of professions. All of them revolving around house construction, or remodeling, or anything for that matter having to do with owning and improving a home. I have only the quick, "cliff note" version to work with. Home improvement for DUMMIES I guess. I have worked in many fields, most of them pertaining to construction, but I have never worked on houses. Until now. I would love to hire out the jobs, and watch as the tasks are completed one by one, but we can't. One day, just not today. It is just as well. If I want to know about a specific field I do a quick web search and find what I need to know. Well most of it. There are certain things that no matter what you are told and how long you study there is no way to understand it fully until one has the "on the job training". My point is that I really enjoy learning these fields, but to say it is frustrating to take a crash course would be an understatement. I have become a proficient painter, an apprentice HVAC guy, a proficient plumber, and part time carpenter. There is so much to do, and it seems to be that when one task is completed there is two more that pop up as a consequence of the previous act. I like it, but I need two more days a week, and two thousand more dollars a week. Oh well, I will keep plugging away at the small stuff, and work up (and save up) to complete the larger tasks. I just cant wait to have the time to do the task that I actually DO, landscaping. It will be spring soon, and I have a list of things to do outside. Outside. Thats where I belong.....

Settling in

To say it has been a busy couple of weeks would be an understatement. We have been moving nonstop. We have managed to accomplish a lot, but a lot remains to be done. Moving is done, and we were out of the apartment on the first of January. We have lots left sitting in the garage waiting for a place. It will take some time. I have just finished painting the whole upstairs, with the exception of one bathroom. That was a process. Lots of work for sure. We have cleaned, painted, and moved furniture to pretty much the entire upstairs. The basement is a different story. I will have to save those rooms for another day. I need a break. I am happy at what we have accomplished, but I am overwhelmed by the amount of work left. It is nice owning a house though. We need time to settle in. I had to go back to work after 16 days off, and that was rough. I enjoyed my vacation. I had problems with my wisdom tooth for a couple of days, but it has subsided. It did however convince me to finally have my wisdom teeth removed, which will happen next Friday. I am not looking forward to that, but I will be glad to have them removed. I am going to have them removed surgically, and I will have to go under for the surgery. Oh well. I have so many other things to talk about, but I am ready to relax. I go back for a full week of work tomorrow, and I also start the winter quarter at school tomorrow. Four nights a week this quarter. Cathrine and Anna went to a friends birthday party this afternoon and I have included a picture of them with their hardhats on. It was a Bob the Builder party. It is really pouring here and I just heard some thunder. Nice April storm, in January. This weather has been crazy. All of the bulbs I planted are popping-up, and a lot of the early flowering trees are in partial bloom. Very weird.

Overwhelmed

Christmas was good. The girls had a lot of fun. They got so many presents it was ridiculous. It didn't seem like Christmas, with all the things going on, but after getting together with the family it felt right. We are so lucky to have a family as close as this. Everyone shows up for Christmas, and it is very comfortable. Good day....There has been a fair amount of drama recently. Cathrine fell out of my truck while playing yesterday, and damn near earned a trip to the emergency room. It was not good, a nice big knot on the head. It scared me, bad. She ended up being fine, it looked horrible though. She is pretty banged up, or "racked up" as she said. Tough little girl....The house work is going slower than anticipated. We have been painting and cleaning for four days now, and we are ready for the carpet tomorrow. It is a lot. We have to start moving tomorrow or Wednesday and that will be fun, always is. No not really. I hope we will be able to make some progress then, although I might have to take a day to get my wisdom tooth removed. It has been annoying me for a couple of days now. I am hoping to make a quick recovery as time is running out. It will be time to go back to work and school soon. Oh boy.... I posted a picture of the family. Good looking folks.

Waiting.............

I am so eager to sit down and write some good news about the house. But I refuse to until we know for sure. Fortunately, we should know something this week. I am ready for a celebration. For now, however, it is sit and wait. Let the lawyers and bankers and mortgage brokers work it out.....Not much else going on either. The temperatures were cold enough to do some real damage at the greenhouse, seriously damaging my lemon tree, lime tree, avocado tree, and pineapple plant. I hate that it damaged the lemon, as I have had it for about 5 years now. Oh well. I put down some ground fabric, put in a new louver, and have a heater at hand. Work work. It is very boring there now. I am ready for spring now.......This will be the last week of school for the quarter. Finals and final projects due. I am almost done, I have been procrastinating for a while now. I finally finished a project that is due. I worked for about three hours on it. It is a scale model of a garden center. It is rare to see that quality of work. Yeah. I was going to post a picture of it, and then realized that I did not want to make anyone suffer. Oh well It will get me a grade.....Yeah it must be winter. Cold and boring. If we get the house there will be plenty of things to do. I am ready. Fingers crossed.............

Homeowners?

We are in the process of buying a house. We put in an offer, have the loan squared away, and have until the 20th of December to close. Whew, that happened quick. The process is not entirely sealed, but chances are we will be the owners soon. The bank is doing the appraisal this week, and that will be the last major hurdle. There are some issues, there is no carpet in the bedrooms (who knows why), and the door jamb is rotting. I am hopping the appraisal goes well. It should not be a problems, as comparable houses in that area go up to the mid 130's. We got a great deal on it as it was going to enter into foreclosure soon. It is a lot of house with three bedrooms, two baths and one finished room and another partially finished room in the basement. Two car garage also. It is a large lot at almost one acre, and it is flat with hardly any landscaping. That is great, a clean slate. We are very excited, but reserved......I jumped a major hurdle with the greenhouse today. Two actually. I put in another louver, allowing us to close the door, and keep it closed throughout the year. Doesn't sound like much, but it is to me. I have a fan and louvers that combined with a shade cloth should allow me to keep the temperatures down in the summer. I also received, for free a used heater that I believe will work in our greenhouse. That was major. I hope to have it up and running by February. It is a natural gas heater and I will need to have it converted to LP. It also has some 'miles' on it. I am optimistic. I don't have any picture this week. I hope to have a lot of picture of a new house soon though..........