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Finally, besides making it through the holiday's we have completed the tile and carpet installation.
Sad to say the house was dusted again. The professional cleaners were hired to come back and they have finished re-cleaning hopefully for the last time. You cannot protect your home or belongings enough. We actually hung plastic to shield off the entire living room area and shut all the bedroom doors, and put all our stuff in those rooms. Even taking the precautions they managed to dust the hall, dining, and kitchen areas again. They were instructed to build containments for the rework areas but their idea of containment is LACKING. Actually without making this a bitch session and harping on this item, what was really lacking was supervision from the contractor. The end results are good and that is what matters at this time.
Future pictures will show when we finish installing the new counter tops and staining the cabinets darker.
We are still aggressively looking for a living room set. Remember those older people with short legs. Well not only do we want comfort we want a good fit so after looking at a zillion pieces of furniture we may be getting close on a couple sets. Oh ya, I forgot to mention that stuff again, pop, flows, looks good, etc..
We made it through the weekend. We finally located a couple comfortable chairs, coffee/end tables at the World Market store. We got them at a great price since they are having a big clearance sale going on. You would not think since this is a big clearance sale that the only items left would be the the floor models. Fortunately we have a rain check to go get ours when they come in. At least we have some coming.
Craigslist down in the Sacramento area is great. Lets see over 1 mil people selling stuff in probably a 50 sq mile radius so the site is saturated with great buys. Yesterday I bought a couple of all wood night stands cheap, and the guy had a older wooden rocking chair (not the leather one) he could not seem to get rid of. So I offered him $20 and took it home. Wow! I just may go into the import export business (small scale for some extra fun money). I got the refrigerator installed and the ice maker works. What a relief. Like I said the dishwasher will wait for a while because I am going to shift my priorities to the wall board trim installation so I can stay ahead of the painter who will be coming back within the week to finish up all the touch up work from tile and rug installation.
Living room and dining room
- Helped my neighbor move into their new home. These were the people that took care of my yard for the past year or so, sad to see them move but they were renting and home prices being low now was in their favor.
- World market lost out on selling us their furniture, to long for the order to come in. Since craigslist came through again we ended up getting some fabulous deals on a couple chairs & ottoman, coffee table, couch table, two end tables and a couple lamps, all in like new condition.
- Trimming trees, one big oak in backyard is taking some of my climbing and agility skills. Wow all that weight lose and working out has had its rewards. I could not have done this job a couple years ago.
- Yup we are still eating right and working out.
- The weather, lets say during the day very nice. Temp's have been in the upper 60's, perfect for working indoors or out.
- Finished putting up all the floor board trim (lots of miter cuts.... measure twice/cut 3 times) and I will caulk today so the painter can finish up tomorrow.
Why do I keep starting off on Monday with saying we got through another weekend? Maybe I need some more time off!
When I woke up this morning it was eerie quiet (no traffic) then I realized it is a holiday. It is something that doesn't hit you, like when you are working. At least at work everyone is commenting about the day off. I guess I will just have to accept change and live with it. he he retirement is great.
The end of last week the painter finished up all the trim work and touch up painting. You can see the trim in some of the pictures above. This place really looks great now. It is hard to believe how much paint can improve a place. We were very fortunate that we managed to hire a very good professional painter that is 4.0. Her customer satisfaction was number 1. Also got to meet a wonderful person who will be our painter for life.
My my my my, did we ever get another great deal on craigslist. Sorry to say a lot of people are loosing jobs and having to relocate so stuff is just flowing out their doors down here. We managed to purchase a new Sealy pillow top mattress, box spring, and frame for $150 for our quest room. On the way home we stopped at a couple garage sales and picked up a couple pictures cheap and I got a couple really nice fancy bar lights for each of the bathrooms for $10 total. Now did he just say garage sales? If the sun comes out the garage sales come out. It is like a law of something. Did he say sun? Ya, with heat added. Ok had to rub it in a little since I know you all up in Washington are freezing your tussahs off.
I am still whittling down that oak tree. It
doesn't look that big until you realize you are up about 25 feet and
only a third of the way up the tree. I am down to the difficult
parts of the tree now. You know, the limbs that are bigger and
that lean over the house and fence. So I tied a long rope to the
branch and I will get one of my neighbors older sons to help me pull in
the direction I want limbs to fall as I cut them. Lets see I only
cut my finger once so I am not doing to bad. It is scary going
from a work control manager to a logger.
Celebrated Helen birthday Thursday and went out to dinner at Cattleman's
restaurant. Great steak. Also went to dinner at some new
friends home on Sunday. Wow! Going out and socializing.
Felt great to meet up with some new people and visit.
Installed dining room light.
Spent almost the whole day in Bank of America since they managed to misplace all the funds we had wire transferred down to the bank in our town. Evidently they have a risk assessment division that has the power to freeze all your accounts if they think something is wrong without any notification to you or the banks. So when we went to do some bank business our funds were on hold. It took most of the day, many calls, and a face to face sit down with bank MANAGERS. Long story short the bank here managed to hit a 0 instead of a nine in the figures and they wired $3000 more than what was available in Washington. They were so upset when they found out one of their people made the mistake (egg on face), should I say any more? I told them that their meet and greet at the door was great but customer satisfaction doesn't exist. This was the 4th booboo since last November so I say, DON'T BANK WITH BOA, they suck.
We are getting bids on installing 9 new windows now. It is amazing how lazy some of the companies can be. They actually want to leave our existing aluminum frame in and break out the glass. Then they retrofit new vinyl windows into the frame. You lose a good 2 inches of window by the enlarged frame they use. All windows are made at the factory so I told the guy if his people were not capable of removing the old windows with frames I would do it. The challenge is on with my bids now. They want to charge me $25 a window to remove the actual frame. So far I have one company that will split the cost with me. Remember this is a cement block home so it takes a little more effort to remove the existing windows. Nice thing about Sacramento area they have lots of companies for us to choose from. So far even with the window replacement the total removal is only coming up to $3150. 2nd bidder coming tomorrow morning.
Here it is again Monday, but I'm not mentioning getting through another weekend because there really are no days in the week when retired. Believe that one and I have some land to sell you real cheap. The windows now took on a bit more realistic thoughts since we had other contractors visiting us over the past couple days. We did settle on a company and wrote up the bid. They were a bit more expensive but the windows had a better look and were better quality. This company had more experience working on cement block structure homes and did not buckle down to my lack of experience by saying, we can charge you more and mess up your homes integrity seal if that is what you want. The original frame is integrated into the cement block which helps form the original window seal from weather. Fortunately the windows they use have a somewhat thinner frame around the edges so you don't have the fat frame look of the other window companies. So, as I cockily boosted before, I will not be removing the existing frames as stated.
Wow where is the time going. Decided to replace the old french doors myself that were installed years ago since they are not energy efficient at all. Looks good but they are not very functional. This will be a challenge and the planning efforts will start soon.
Finally.....found a fabulous pristine (word for the day) deal on a dark green couch for $200. We were just about ready to give up and pop goes craigslist again in our favor. Couldn't believe this one as it came out of a fancy home in a fancy development. You would think that the spending freaks were done with the way the worlds financial situation is but this couch was no longer needed since they bought a new leather set. Heck, this couch wasn't even a year old, they never put the legs on it, or used it.
We bought a couple of black Collezione Europa club chairs the other day. They are like brand new and are expensive....not. We picked these up for $125 for both. Again fancy expensive home disposable items no longer needed because they are taking up room. Lets see, we are now up to 6 living room chairs if you have been counting. Time to take a shot at craigslist myself as soon as we arrange the living room and settle on which ones we will keep. Profit to be made here.
Brother will be coming over on Monday and will help me finish topping the tree in the backyard. Should be interesting. Hopefully no more on this one except success.
I am getting excited as the weather is warming up. Walked at least 9 miles yesterday. Started walking mid day for now and am meeting some interesting people. One older gentleman (Bud) stands outside the Senior Living facility just down the road from us and waves at all the cars going by. I stopped and talked with him only to find an individual that has some serious medical issues due to age. He loves to talk and is now remembering my name which I believe is quite difficult for him to remember in his capacity. I hopefully will be able to plant a garden within the next 3 weeks.
Other than this stuff I have mainly been puttering around the yard and garage and fixing things up in the home. You will love this one. Remember me saying how (BOA) Bank of America sucks. Hold that thought.......................... because they just sent me a statement saying that I over drafted my account so they are penalizing me $25.00. I am not going to beat a dead horse on this one. That was resolved and I will be leaving BOA as soon as my paycheck get routed to our other bank.
You can now move onto Feb's link...............
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