A red letter day!

Today was another day with more chores to check off.  Jim started the day by redoing the one area in the floor that now looked worse.  He put two coats on it and let it dry.  Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick and that spot looks nice now.  Whew...I felt bad since we probably should have just left it alone in the first place!

Jim got the rest of the scaffolding down, the back porch all power washed and the table back in place. Looks beautiful!

Backyard oasis

We washed the rest of the driveway and Jim even cleaned the roofs of the pole barn.  I washed the basement slate again after Jim had taken all his tools out - things are looking awfully spiffy!

Check out the before and after!

Cleaning the driveway
 

Does anyone else clean their roof like this?

 

Which leads us to the big news...the sign went in the yard this afternoon right before we got cleaned up for church!  Again it's a lot of mixed emotions, but this was a big step!  We decided to bury St. Joseph tomorrow on Sunday and that will help for sure!

When we walked out of church, I jokingly pulled out my phone and said...wonder if anyone called - and someone had!  I was nervous but I called her back when we got home. Unfortunately, she said she lived on our same street so no doubt she was just curious about price.  Oh well, it's a start!

It's official!!

 

 

 

One of those days...

Okay, so yesterday was one of those days where everything was either hard or didn't work out.  It didn't help that both Jim and I must have gotten up on the wrong sides of the bed either.

When I got up, the floors looked absolutely gorgeous!  They looked brand new.  Of course, I happened to notice one spot in the shadows that Jim had missed.  Later in the day, he tried taping that area off and putting another coat on.  But when it dried, it looked worse - very dull in that area.  Great.

Then Jim was looking for some specific type of caulk - he had a tube of if and wanted more. He got on the company website and they named a few local companies.  One if which I had already been to and they looked at me like I was crazy.  After way too long on the phone, we found a place in Cleveland that said their Canton office had it - she even read me the info on the tube.  When we called the Canton office, we again got the"never heard of it" line.  They finally checked with the Cleveland office and called Jim back...they had found it, but it expired so he threw it away.  Jim said he would still take it but the guy said no, it was already in the trash.  They could order it for us but we wold have to order a case and they didn't know when it would be in.  So after all that time - back to square one and still no caulk.

We needed just a tad of touch up paint in the library...I even found the paint card from way back when. So off to Sherwin Williams I went.  I just told the lady I wanted a sample - she gave me a quart and said that was their sample. But when I got home, I saw it was satin finish and we needed flat.  She never asked and I didn't think about it.  So back I went.  She told me that their samples only come in satin.  I told her that I needed a quart of it in flat...then she said that instead of $5.00 for the sample, I would have to pay $21.00 for a quart!  And she couldn't take my sample back because it was custom tinted.  Grrr...  Then it was off to Home Depot who said their little samples only came in flat - and it was their same top quality paint where Sherwin Williams said it was a cheap quality just to test color.  Note to self... No more Sherwin Williams!

Jim wanted to get the scaffolding down in the back yard but then noticed that he never fastened the gutters back after painting so instead had to do that.

So while it was certainly nothing earth-shattering, it seemed like a day of nothing being easy.

But we did work on power spraying the driveway. Jim hated the way it looked - the trees we have here are gorgeous, but  they are messy.

However - what a difference it makes!!!  We still have more to do tomorrow but it looks great!

Wow - quite a difference!

Happy 4th of July - in many ways!

This has been a busy, busy week leading up to this nation's holiday.  Last weekend, we did our "walk through" to update Jim's giant to do list in order to get the house listed for sale.  We have decided to try and sell it ourselves...so - drumroll, please - we put it on Zillow this morning!!!  We'll put signs with our brochures in the yard soon.  Then we'll sit back and wait for the phone calls to come in!  We hope to be able to do it by appointment and still let Jim have time to continue working on that to do list in between.  So we'll see how it goes.

It's crazy - so many mixed emotions.  We have moved on in our minds to New York and that can't be done until this house sells.  But I can't focus on selling it in my mind because this house is just every square inch US.

But fingers crossed for a quick sale!  Now it's back to that to do list!!

Jim has been working like crazy around here - totally cleaned out the attic and even scrubbed the chimney brick!  He repainted his bathroom (needed it after an unfortunate Oust experience a couple years ago!), did touch-up in a few other rooms, got his tools out of the basement, started loading up the truck again, installed my stovetop fan (so cool!) - the list just goes on and on.

A couple of big items got checked off today.  Jim wanted to repaint the ceiling in the kitchen as well as the attic door.  I kind of like the pink - I told Jim he was getting jn touch with his feminine side!



Pink ceilings, anyone?

I also wanted him to refinish the kitchen floors with a coat of Fresh Finish - recommended by Bruce Flooring but we had kind of been scared to do it and risk messing them up. But they just looked tired after all these years.  So he did it as his last job today...then we had to leave for a few hours to let it dry. We decided to use that excuse for a date night and headed to Texas Roadhouse.  It was a well-needed break and gave us a few minutes to sit and strategize too.


Home again

Home again - what a crazy, busy trip but quite the feeling of accomplishment.

Yesterday dawned bright and early again but it was good because we were at church at 8:00.  I liked this church - Holy Mother and Child.  It's small - they only have a Saturday 4:00 service, the 8:00 Sunday morning, and then there's a 10:30 in a nearby town.  But I kind of liked it.  I told Jim that we will have to take our time finding a parish we like before we join.  However, while we are living in Corinth, it will be hard to beat the convenience of this church.

After church, we went to Mollie's Mason Jar for breakfast.  This is the place where Jim had the cranberry nut pancakes on one of his trips.  It's situated on a golf course and the scenery is just beautiful.  I had banana nut pancakes which were amazing - much better than Jim's - ha!

After breakfast, it was back to the apartment to unload the last tubs that were on the truck and to load up some empty ones and boxes that were in the apartment.  I packed some sandwiches, made sure all was well to leave the apartment, and we headed to the lot.  We wanted to cover up the building supplies we left there.

All covered up and awaiting Jim's return!

Unfortunately, this trip didn't afford much time to spend at the lot.  But it's so gorgeous and really helps us focus on the goal of living here. 

 

After some last looks, we went to Saratoga Springs.  We swept out the storage unit there to make sure it was nice and pretty and that we would get our deposit back.  In fact, I called the manager while we were there to take care of that, so hopefully we'll get our deposit and partial month payment back.

Then we headed to the barn to unload a few things there that Jim decided he wanted at the barn instead of in Corinth.  I hadn't seen all the work Jim & Kyle had done there - everything looks organized and in place.  Still can't believe they got all that done in one day!

 

Then we set off towards home.  We encountered a few areas of rain, but for the most part it was a nice trip home.  Truck did amazing - we are getting between 11 and 12 mpg, which I think is great for a huge, loaded truck!

 

Today, of course, it's back to the reality of trying to get everything done here.  One of the big tasks of the day for Jim was trying to get the gas tank off of the 4Runner so he could see for sure where it was leaking and then fix it.  He finally got it off and the rust doesn't look pretty.

More of the same

The day dawned early...5:00 early.  Will definitely be looking into some kind of room darkening shades for the bedroom.  I'm an early riser, but 6:00 or 6:30 early not 5:00 early.  But it was nice having the mattress last night.  It's warm today but actually hasn't been too bad in here.  We have one fan and may want a couple more when we are here for good.

After breakfast (complete with slightly frozen milk...frig needs adjustment apparently!), Jim went to the Corinth storage unit to drop off the things we loaded up last night.  I stayed at the apartment to start organizing.  I took everything out of the one bedroom where Kyle and Jim had just dropped off all the boxes.  So things were stacked awkwardly and in no order.  I got everything back in neat piles of organized chaos.  So at this point all the boxes we had brought here are either organized where they will stay or unpacked.  Progress.

Organized chaos

Then it was on to cleaning.  Each room has plastic mini-blindsand they were filthy.  They really need to be taken down and soaked but I did the next best thing and scrubbed them all.  So I'm taking a break after all that.  I washed the floors of the rooms we are using for storage - although it's cheap linoleum so you really can't tell.  At this point, I have bathroom and kitchen floors to do.  At least it's a first pass and makes me feel better.

Jim just called and they had just gotten to the barn with a truckload.   Once they get that unloaded, it's back to the Saratoga unit to pick up the rest and get that taken to Corinth.  If all that can happen before Kyle had to go back, that would be amazing.

Sitting in the living room writing this sure emphasizes yet another sign that we aren't at home.  Corinth is a little city and our apartment is right in the heart of it.  With no air, windows are open so you hear lots and lots of noise...car traffic, motorcycles, sirens, music...quite the difference from the quiet country life that we're used to.

Okay, rested long enough...it's back to work, Cinderella!

Jim got to the apartment about 5:00 - they had taken the load to the barn, for back to the Saratoga unit and got everything emptied out and back on the truck.  They stopped to get water refills and then headed to the Corinth unit.  They got the truck totally emptied out and even got some furniture that we had put in that storage earlier back on the truck and moved upstairs into the apartment!

Unloading in Corinth

Putting the bookshelf back on the truck ready for the apartment

So after yesterday's "what are we doing" overwhelming day, we are so happy with everything today.  Jim and Kyle were totally able to accomplish all the moving goals and the apartment is clean and organized.  We were able to run Kyle through McDonald's and got him to the bus with about 5 minutes to spare.  Jim and I celebrated with a Hawaiian pizza at Pope's.  Life in Corinth is good.

A Trying Day

Well...we got into town late last night. It was too late to even grab the mattress off the truck so we just crashed on the sleeping bags.

The morning starts early here - by 5:00 the room is bright. There are only cheap plastic mini-blinds on the windows so we may need to do something about that. 

After breakfast, we started on our storage adventures. First, Jim had to meet Mike to get the keys to the barn where we are going to rent space. I stayed here and did a little cleaning. It's going to take a lot of work to make this home!  It will be good for us but when I was cleaning years of gunk from blinds in the bathroom, I sorely missed my nice clean home!  I also spent way too much time on the phone with Time Warner again.  A bill was waiting for us here and of course it was more than it was supposed to be.  After probably a half hour I was able to get them to reduce it a bit so I guess that's a victory. 

This is the view from the street in front of the apartment...check out that mountain!

After Jim got back, we first went and rented the storage unit in Corinth. It's a nice space...Browns colors!  We took a few things off the truck that will need to be moved to the barn. Then we came and unloaded some stuff into the apartment.

Then it was off to the barn. It's probably close to a half hour away in the truck. We had a little trouble getting in...Mike gave  Jim a janitor-like ring of keys and wasn't sure which one it was. Plus he said the locking mechanism on the overhead door didn't work well. He ended up having to go through a side door - again after trying scores of keys - and navigating in the pitch dark to get to the door and open it from inside.

A quick pb&j and then it was on to unpacking. I felt bad because a lot of this was heavy stuff and I couldn't be much help.  

Pictures of the first barn unloading trip!

Jim was getting a little frustrated because we spent a lot of time moving things again and again in the truck.  Then to make matters worse, he had put the big pattern cabinets in the truck first that are filled with hundreds of pounds of hardware.  He was going to make something to keep the drawers from opening while the truck was moving. Well, the truck got loaded without that happening. It didn't matter when the truck was full and everything was held in place. But once we got things emptied out, it became an issue. So he was trying ropes and boards which did an okay job but added to the stress.

Then it was back to Angel. A sorely needed reinforcement of why we are doing this.  Everything looked beautiful. Even though things had grown up since Jim had done some clearing, you could still see all he had gotten accomplished. 

And our well is gorgeous too!

Then it was back to unloading...Jim had brought some wood and steel that he's just keeping there so we got all that stacked up. But again...it's moving things out of the way to get to other things over and over. And more stuff off so redoing the pattern drawer fix again. 

It was warm and we were pretty beat and debated about going to the Saratoga storage unit to load up some of that stuff.  We finally decided to press on.

As we were leaving, you could see the markings on the road from the utility company where the pole will go!  

Probably not the best decision to keep going. When we got to storage unit and opened the back of the truck, we saw we had failed to strap down Jim's tool cart...so it had fallen and spilled ratchets, sockets and misc all over. We got that cleaned up and then opened up the unit. It was a big overwhelming to see all the STUFF we have and that needs to be moved. Jim was frustrated because he is so uber-organized at home and knows where every tool and part is. We just stuff things in cabinets now and everything is spread out over 3 places.   So it's going to be hard. Plus it was just a look at the shear volume of all we gave - plus there's still tons at home. 

So in that frame of mind we started moving a few things into the truck to be moved into the Corinth unit but things weren't going well do we finally called it quits. 

We just came back to the apartment and then walked up to the store to get a couple things I needed. We ate our first meal together here and had our first enchilada night!

Whew...a busy day and we were beat.  At least we had the mattress so we didn't have to sleep on the floor - although it wouldn't have mattered at that point!

A Whirlwind Week...

This was my first official week of summer - my last day of work was Friday the 14th.  Of course, I'm hoping that was my last day there ever!  That will just depend on how fast the house sells.  Which leads me to the whirlwind of this week...

Jim has worked like crazy around here.  He got the roof jacks down and holes fixed, finished drywalling, sanding and even painted in the basement, worked on the truck lift, packed up the truck, and on and on.  And we're leaving today for New York!

Finished chimney caps - they look amazing!

Wow - all completed and looks great!

Drywall done and primed

Bryan and Cindy came over last night and Bryan helped Jim move some furniture from upstairs out to the truck.  So things are starting to empty out a bit.

Bryan has the gate basically done - and it looks amazing!  Jim has some pictures which I will get from him and attach.  It's ready to be sent off to be powder coated.

So...we will be off to NY later this morning!  I'm so excited because I haven't been back since the end of April.  Our mission this trip is to switch storage units and move and rearrange all the stuff in the units so that Jim has easy access to the things that he needs.  Kyle is hopefully coming up Saturday to provide his muscles into all that moving.

My mission for this trip is to try and organize the apartment.   I'm so anxious to tackle the mountain of boxes and organize them so we know where things are.  And then start putting things away and making it into our home for the next year or whatever time frame it will be.

Bon Voyage!