Over half vacation gone

Past the half way point of my vacation, but, I have gotten a ton of things done. Windows were last week, and are awesome. Window treatments are all up and look great. I headed up north to visit family and friends for the holidays. Stayed with my brother and his girlfriend. Met up with Og and did some running about. Hit up the gun stores and grabbed some food. It was nice to see him again. Missed getting to see the Og family this time around. Spent quite a bit of time seeing the grandson. He is walking very well now and has lots of new toys to play with. It was nice seeing everyone again. I hate the drive, but love the people. Head back up in June for the grandbabies birthday. Shouldn't have to worry about snow at that time at least.

Got back and hit up Lowes on Tuesday. Ordered my refrigerator and dishwasher. Should be here in a few weeks. I have yet to get an appliance the next day as they advertise. Always out of stock on whatever you want. It works out though. I want to run gas line for the range and reroute the water line for the refrigerator. Need to run a couple electrical outlets for the range and microwave as well. I was going to go with a 36 inch stove to keep from having to rearrange the cabinets. I am putting the range where the refrigerator is now. I found some 3 inch filler panel that matches my cabinets though, so, I will be putting a strip on each side of the opening and ordering my new countertops to make up the difference. They sell filler strips for the microwave so I will use that kit to mount a 30 inch microwave in the 36 inch opening. I know which oven I want. Hopefully I can find one of the illusive sales people in the appliance department at lowes tomorrow. I tried today and had no luck. I swear if you want one, you have to tackle them and drag them to the department. If you don't need one and you are trying to look, you have to beat them off with a club. Want to price and order the counter top as it too will take a couple weeks. It is going to be sweet when done. I will have an extra breaker as well as I am getting rid of the electric range top freeing up a 220 breaker. It will be used to power the garage. Looking forward to cooking with gas again. I hate electric.

Today, I felt like torturing myself. I painted the office. I loathe painting. I put a coat on the ceiling a few weeks back, but it needed another coat. The previous owner was a minister. That was his office. Not sure if it was a satanic church or what. The walls and ceiling were painted DARK blue. Who paints a ceiling in a room with no ceiling light DARK blue. I had two torch lamps in there and it was still dark. Painting the ceiling helped, but didn't solve the issue. I liked the color of the main bedroom. Naturally, it was the only room they didn't have a paint can for. I removed a piece of trim and had the paint department scan it and mix a gallon. I had to patch where they took a tv down as well as some other holes in the wall. I didn't want to paint that room. I lucked out and the paint matched perfectly. After patching spots in main bedroom, I put another coat of paint on office ceiling and painted the walls with the bedroom paint. MUCH better. A single torch light and the room is bright. I will let the paint dry for a couple weeks so I can tape the walls at the ceiling and retouch the ceiling in a few spots that I hit with a dap of wall paint or otherwise marked up the ceiling. Shouldn't take long to touch up, but with everything drying, need to let it all cure to finish it up. Tomorrow I will get the furniture back in place and unpack stuff I never unpacked because I needed to paint. Get the shades put up. Then, it will be down to the basement to run the electric for the new kitchen appliances. Have to get stuff ready while I am off. Want to get a new gas water heater installed and have the plumber run the new gas line for the stove while he has the gas line disconnected. Water heater works and doesn't leak, but it is old and making noise. Feel better getting a new one in as opposed to waiting for it to fail.

Busy day

Window guys showed up and finished the outside trim. It looks absolutely gorgeous. Nothing left to paint. Looks like a new house. Nice clean lines and a huge difference in the view. No more aluminum bar running through the middle of each pane. No idea why they were designed that way. Did nothing more than obscure the view. New windows tilt in for easy cleaning. No grid, just clean glass.  Guys did a great job cleaning up the mess before they left. Even closed all the gates and latched them. Quite impressed with the job they did all the way around.

I spent most of the day putting blinds back up that I took down, as well as putting new ones up. They are the cellular shades. Hit them on sale again. Two of the bigger ones are very expensive, but they are unbelievably easy to open and close. Just lift up or pull down on the center and it goes up or down easily. I expected them to be clumsy as they are about 100 inches across. No cords to mess with, and being cellular, no gaps. I have light filtering in the house, so it lets in daylight, and light blocking in the bedroom, which blocks light out extremely well. Plus, with no gaps like the slats have, it is totally dark, not stripes of light. 

I was busy inside and it turned out to be wet out, so I didn't get to cut the tree or flagpole. They will still be there in the spring. Picked Spike up after they left. He was glad to be home and I was glad to have him back home again. I hate dropping him off anywhere. He is great to have around, but it was safer to have him out from under foot during construction. Tomorrow I will try and force myself to get back to work on the office. Ceiling needs another coat, then I can start the walls. I bought blinds for that room as well. Put them up when all is painted cleaned and dry. I hate painting with a passion. No kids around, so once it is painted, I should be done. Last house still looked like new after nine years of the same paint. Dog doesn't drag the wall to much, and he is low enough to the ground, it doesn't show. Just need to bite the bullet and push through.

New windows are in

The new windows are in, and they are beautiful. Huge difference, in appearance and function. They put a special panel, window combo in the basement for the dryer vent. It looks way better than the cobbled mess they had before. Everything is white instead of the original aluminum single pane windows of before. Everything inside is done. They will be back in the morning to seal and trim the outside. Big difference on temperature and sound. Street in front is busy. Before, it was loud. Not so much anymore. The temperature of the interior glass isn't cold to the touch either. See how the utility bills do. It is going to be great in the spring to be able to open the windows and get some fresh air.

 Spike had to spend some time at the dog sitter so he isn't under foot. Pick him up tomorrow. Doesn't feel right eating without my little mooch next to me giving me the big cow eyes with the tongue hanging out.. I will pick him up tomorrow when they are done. I want to pull part of the fence down to cut a tree trapped between it and a thorn bush anyway. I can do that and get it put back up while the guys are finishing the outside of the house. The thorn bush is also grown around a dilapidated rusty flag pole that needs to come down as it is an eyesore and also about to lean on the power and cable lines coming to the house. Was going to wait for spring, but with Spike at the sitters and a sunny day in the 50s tomorrow, may as well get it done. Need to get the oil changed and a haircut sometime this week as well. May try and get another quote on the garage.

That was a lot of work

Spent most of the day Cleaning gutters, again, and clearing leaves, again. Having several mature trees is great. Having neighbors with mature trees is great. It is a nice country feel when you get home, yet I am barely in the city, so everything is convenient. But, in the fall, the yard maintenance is brutal. This is the third heavy yard day in a few weeks. I have been cleaning them up weekly so I didn't have an unbelievable amount of leaves to try and get rid of. Trees are bare. Gutters are empty. Yard is cleared. We are done. My new Stihl leafblower was a huge help. Being gas, no extension cord to fight with. I used the gutter attachment to clean gutters out. It was extremely awkward, but beats lugging a ladder around. Not to mention I don't have a tall enough ladder to reach the back, and I lack the stones to walk over from the front, single story side, and bend over and empty gutters on two story side. Just can't stand heights, therefore, I don't deal with it. I will be looking for new gutters and gutter guards in the spring. Meant to have the window guy quote gutters while he was here, but it slipped my mind. I will have the remodeler I used at the old house to quote new gutters. I hope to have him do the garage, as well as some other repairs. I am gaining around the house. Did a lot of rearranging of things in kitchen and living room again and think I have it the way I want if finally. Two weeks away from vacation and having windows done.