Nice

Lowes dropped off my new mower this morning. It actually arrived a half hour earlier than their earliest estimate, freeing up most of my day. Forty two inch cut beats the heck out of the twenty of my self propelled mower. Started right up and ran smooth. Very happy with the handling and shifting. Can't beat it for being as cheap as it was. I have had good luck out of Troybilt, so I am hoping it lasts a long time. My self propelled is nine years old and still starts at the first pull. Got the edger out and knocked back all the weeds and overgrowth. The trees in back and front yard were severely in need of trimming. The fence had the weight of years of growth on them as well as power lines. Knocked everything back and weed whacked everything. Don't think anything but a pass with a lawnmower has been done to the yard in many years. It definitely looks a lot better.

I installed the closet doors in the main bedroom today. Still need to pull the trim on the bottom so door will close all the way. Have to find my pry bar. Tools are not organized yet. Going to be a while. Refrigerator has seen better days. Doesn't seem to be keeping up very well. Checked them out at Lowes while I was there. Picked one out that is actually quite inexpensive. Massive sale going on. I can't see spending thousands on a refrigerator for weird trinkets. I have a chest freezer, so I don't really need a massive drawer freezer. Will be nice having water and ice in the door again. Rest of appliances are fine. Nice to just stick around the house and work on stuff instead of moving things. I can actually see myself gaining.

I got my drivers license and gun permit in the mail today. That was quick. Especially for being government. Didn't go to Indy for the gun show. Figured I better try and get some stuff done.

Finally done

The storage lockers are now empty and closed out. I need to bring the Mustang home before the first of the month, but my buddy said he would pick it up and tow it early next week. Tomorrow is the Frog Follies, so that is where I will be all day. Suppose to be eighty degrees with no humidity. Should be a perfect day. I will start organizing the house better Saturday. Main rooms have been set up for a while now, but the office and basement are still in boxes and disassembled furniture. I bought some LED lights for down there to brighten it up quite a bit.

 I bought my mower. It will be delivered Saturday. I wanted the Husqvarna, but after doing research, I found that all the mowers at the big box stores are knock offs. Meaning, Husqvarna and John Deere make a subpar machine with their name on it to sell at a cheaper price. The mowers at Lowes had horrible reviews. The common problem was the transmission. My buddy bought his John Deere at the John Deere dealer. They have the 100 series, which is what they sell at the box stores. Salesman told him they have floor models on display, but won't sell them because they are junk. The reviews at Lowes said people took their machines in to dealers to get fixed, and were refused service. My yard is small enough where I was borderline on buying a rider anyway. It is only about .6 acre, so push mow isn't too bad. I bought a Troybilt Pony at Lowes. It is the lowest priced one, but it has a 7 speed manual transmission instead of the hydostatic transmission. All the knockoffs seem to have issues with the hydostatic transmissions. It would definitely be nicer, while it worked. Only wound up spending $900 on it with the coupon I had for ten percent off. Troybilt is also a whore, as it sells it's name as well. I almost bought the pony model at Rural King, a local farm store, but I noticed they used a different motor, and probably a different trans as well. The Lowes model uses Briggs and Stratton, the same model at Rural king had a motor that, after I researched the name, was a cheap Chinese motor. I would have bought a name brand one at a dealer, but the price jumps to about three grand. Not worth it to me. If I had acreage, I would do it in a heart beat. My lawn is just too small to make it worth while.

Rain

Rain today, so I figured I could take a day off of moving stuff and just sit and relax. Wrong. I get an email from my storage unit. My unit was found unlocked and I need to come check it out, again. This nonsense happened last month and it wound up being that the unit, which has two doors, but only  one operable as the other one is bolted shut, only had a lock on the operable door and not the one that is bolted shut. The people who inspect the units noticed it and notified all people with double door units. IDIOTS. This time around, I got the message minutes after getting home. I let Spike out, get him back inside and head over to unit. My unit is fine, unit next to mine is missing lock and has a cut off lock laying on the ground. I go to the office. They are out to lunch. I head to Lowes and come back a bit later. I tell the office guy that he notified the wrong unit and that I found the one next to mine tampered with. He informs me their system glitched and notified everyone that their units had been left unlocked. Brilliant. He also lacked interest in the fact that the unit next to mine had a cut lock. Says people cut the locks off their units often, that it isn't a concern. I am so glad I will be out of there by the weekend. It is a pathetic way to run a business. I only have a few items left in each unit, but they are big. Two workbenches, two console stereos, and a treadmill base. I also have my two lathes in there, but they are table tops. Heavy, but somewhat manageable. Picked up some deli for dinner and now relaxing a bit. Tomorrow is the last workday for the week. Thursday I will finish emptying units, get my new riding mower, hopefully mow yard, and do some stuff around the house. Friday is the Frog Follies. Saturday will be the Follies or the Indy 1500 gunshow.

Ready for some time off.

This is ridiculous. Back to working  six day weeks. I normally don't mind overtime, I would love to have some extra time off to get everything in order. I did manage to get the smaller rental unit just about empty. Only three items left in it. Big items, but doable. I will have it emptied tomorrow and start on the big unit. I am going to empty it into the big storage shed out back. Lowes just cut the price on the mower I want, so I will be hitting them up tomorrow to pick one up. I have a ten percent off coupon, so that will help as well. Want to pick up the bagger unit for it as well as I have several huge trees that will soon be shedding their leaves. Next week is only a three day week for me. Friday starts the Frog Follies, which I never miss. I took Thursday off so I am guaranteed Saturday off. Figure I can finish off clearing the last storage shed out Thursday. I am looking forward to being completely done. I got my license changed over. Changed my gun permit and sent in my FFL change of address as well. Still have to call a few credit cards. Mail is actually coming regular now. I took this evening off. I have been working all day everyday and moving things out of storage at night. I worked this morning and decided I would just take the evening and relax a bit. Pretty much crashed on the couch for a few hours. Spike liked that. He took a nap along side me after I let him out in the yard for his romp.

Gaining, a bit

I emptied half of the small storage unit so far. Most of what is left in it is furniture, which means, bring it home and set it down. No unpacking. I am gaining ground. Hope to have it completely vacated by weekend. I am hoping on getting the Mustang home as well so I don't have to pay another months rent.. I will start emptying the big one next week. I am going to go ahead and empty it into the big yard barn I have so I don't have to pay rent on a unit. I hate the thought of moving into back yard and then into garage, but I plan on putting a back big door on garage, so access should be easy.

I keep trying to get some free time, but work doesn't permit much. I get to work Saturday again. It's easy money, and I enjoy what I do, I just wish I had time to get some stuff done. I want to call out people to quote garage and get it going, as well as price windows. I am back to cooking at home again, and that is great. I hate eating out, especially all the time. I have managed to lose some weight. Between all the moving, and not eating all the meals when I get busy, I lost twenty pounds. That just puts me at fat instead of morbidly obese :) Now if I can keep it off. Don't see myself being able to sit for long periods of time for the foreseeable future as there is way too much to do. I am gaining ground though. Love the house. It is starting to look more and more like home. Having Spike back home helps. He is great company. Don't have to worry about him getting hurt on the stairs to the basement. He is terrified of them. He shook when I carried him down them the first day. I now take him out the side door and through the gate down into the back yard. He likes that better. I am going to try and get the gate put up this weekend so I can just open the side door and let him go to the back yard on his own. Just not enough time in a day to get it all done. Next week is Frog Follies. I have to make some free time for it.

Making some progress

Picked up the new closet doors for the bedroom. Ripped up carpet in breezeway and treated with cat urine remover. I am going to be soaking the heck out of it. It is already better than it was. Tomorrow is heavy trash pick up day, so I had to rip the carpet out so I could get rid of it. Came up with a way to put a gate in so I can let Spike out from either level. Tomorrow I hope to install gate and mop up breezeway, and retreat. May try and get grass cut as well. Want one day to sit and do absolutely nothing. Hopefully one day next weekend. I do have lots to do, but I would love a day of nothing.

I had hoped to get the doors cut to the proper height, but we live in the millennial generation. The guy behind the desk said the saw would not be able to cut the length, but they could special order a door. A panel saw that can cut 4x8 panels of wood can't reach the end of a 6 foot door. OK. Guess he has better things to do. I will have to set up my table saw. I have it in the shed, just figured they could cut it to size and save me the bother. I even have a new blade installed on it. I do so hate the new generation. It is very difficult to get good help anymore. The kids they are hiring at work are about worthless. No work ethic anymore.

I figure if I hit the storage unit every day after work, I should be able to empty the one out before the end of the month, saving another months rent. Hope to get the Mustang hauled home Wednesday when my buddy works for the towing place. I need to cut down bush that is where I plan on parking the car for the time being.

Spike is home

He likes the back yard. He also loves the house layout. He loves to run laps, and the house has a pretty nice loop through it. He raced through the kitchen, dining room, hallway living room, and back into the kitchen, over and over again. He is a cool dog. I hate having him boarded. They take great care of him, but I love having him around. He doesn't like me carrying him down the stairs to let him out back. I have three choices. Down stairs and out the basement. Out the front and walk around to the back. Or, through the nasty cat pee breezeway. I don't want him going in there until I disinfect it completely. I will cut the carpet up and dispose of tomorrow. Then, disinfect concrete. I am going to put tile down in there. I need to clean it very good first. Once done, I am going to install a gate off of the front yard blocking entry to breezeway, so I can remove a segment of the fence to let me access back yard directly from upstairs breezeway. It will give Spike easy access to yard from either level, and it will also help me when I have my bad knee days. I can then go down slope in yard as opposed to the stairs. This is going to be the high priority project, but it should be fairly easy. I have tiled before and have the tools. I will seal it before Spike has access. Should prevent any future urine smells, although I have been extremely fortunate with spike as he was extremely easy to potty train, and doesn't mess anywhere. But, that room may be a bit out of the ordinary. It looks and feels outdoors enough, he may mistake it for an OK area to mess in. I love my new house. Hardwood throughout upstairs. Woodburning fireplace. The dining room, kitchen and office have nice high views of the backyard. Both back and front yard have very mature trees in them. It is really pleasant. May break out the mower tomorrow and get the lawn done. A bit big for a push mower, but it is self propelled, so it should count for some of my exercise. Want to set up a burn pit as well. Lots of dropped branches laying about. Lowes has all their lawn stuff on clearance and I have a coupon for ten percent off, so, timing is perfect.

I am now at my new home

Finally, sort of unpacked and getting settled into my new home. Was able to get the internet connected today, so I can now catch up a bit. I have to work tomorrow, so I will pick Spike up from the kennel after work tomorrow so he can check out the new house. I want to be home with him to get him acclimated to the new surroundings. I was hoping on a whole weekend, but no such luck. I have most of the boxes unpacked that weren't in the storage lockers. I will try and empty the small unit and bring the Mustang home as the week progresses. I will probably keep the big unit for a bit until I get the garage built so I don't have to move things twice. I could really use some more time off. I took Monday through Wednesday for closing and moving, but it was not enough. Out of personal days, but I get another one at the end of this month if I don't miss any time, which I never do.

House looks great with my belongings in place. I need to hang two closet doors in the master bedroom. They had curtains, which looked tacky. I bought the track kits. If it isn't raining tomorrow, I will pick up the doors for it. Need to get rid of a tv mount he left on the wall as well. Nastiest thing I have to do is clean the breezeway. The area between the garage and house, which is enclosed with glass panels and screens, was used for their cats. It smells of cat urine. I am going to cut up the carpet and then treat the cement underneath to try and kill the odor. I want to lay tile in there anyway, but it would have been nice not to have to disinfect the area first. It is overpowering. I will hit the pet store to see what products they have. I am looking forward to getting off tomorrow. I did a mini grocery stop, so Spike and I can have some breakfast Sunday, as well as cook on the patio.

Finally

I finally got the houses taken care of. Signed the sale of the old one in the morning and signed the papers of the new one in the afternoon. Movers are coming in the morning. I have the pistols all stored in a locker. Put it in the truck in the morning. I still need to get the rifles wrapped up and stored so the safes can be moved. Busy, busy, busy. May be a few days until I can get the internet hooked up. Hope to get it tomorrow, but not sure. The provider I use now can make it. I talked to the owners of the house and they said their service is just as lousy as I have where I am at. I guess I will go with the other provider. Just have to see if they can make it out tomorrow. If not, I may have to wait a few days. I paid all my bills up to date so I won't be hurting bad if the net goes away for a while. I pay just about everything online, so I don't want to be without for long. Should be somewhat back to normal very soon. Be nice to be able to cook again. Spike is at the kennel. He is going to go nuts when he sees his new back yard. It is huge. Nice cement patio to cook out on. I am already ready for the weekend. The owner said the guy across the street from my new house has a couple vettes and a couple mustangs. I will have to play catch up :)

An actual relaxing day

Simply had breakfast, hit a gun show and shopped today. Fun shopping. Hit up the local home improvement and lawn care joints to price out lawnmowers. Found a couple of decent deals. Hoping Sunday brings clearance sales. One place has a clearance going, but I have a coupon for Lowes for 10 percent off of purchase which would put a similar mower quite a bit cheaper, and with zero percent financing. Be great if Lowes puts theirs on clearance tomorrow. Should be hitting that time of year. They are clearing their lawn furniture out now. Gun show had a few cool guns. One Garand I really liked, but I have a really nice one and with the house and moving, I just don't have the money to spare at present. I did make the mistake of passing up on some ammo on the way in figuring I could get it on the way out. It was gone when I came back. I already have enough ammo to make a liberal weep uncontrollably for a great deal of time. But I can always use more. Tomorrow is suppose to rain, so I will do my cleaning and laundry. I have to disconnect and move the washer and dryer when I am done as I am taking them with. I hope to be able to move them into the garage. Moving most of stuff I can move to garage for staging. Movers are $150 an hour. My time is cheaper. I plan on cutting their time to minimal. There are three of them, so if I have everything staged, it should go quick. I disconnected the big safe and rocked it out several inches from wall so they can get a dolly under it. One in living room is lighter, but I will let them dolly it out. I will bust down beds and drag out to garage as well. Hope to have them down to a couple hours work. As soon as I get keys Monday, I plan on hauling all the boxes over and unpacking most of them into cabinets and closets so as to get the pain out of the way. I cleared a lot of stuff out to goodwill and garbage. The storage units will get emptied in the evenings after work. The rental units I got are only a few minutes away from the new house, so the trips will be very quick.

Finally

Everything is scheduled. I close on the sale of my old house Monday morning and close on the one I am buying in the early afternoon. Movers are going to be here Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, I should be settled my new house, clean up a bit on the old house, and chill out. May take Wednesday as a breather before heading back to work. Sit in the backyard, have a few cold ones and grill some meat for me and the dog. I am so ready to get back to some type of a normal existence. I plan on getting quotes on pole barns and garages as well as see where the best location is for it. Want it built and settled into before winter time. I have several recommendations for builders. See what they have to offer. Tomorrow, off to a gun show and enjoy the spring like weather. Seventies in august. Freaking awesome.