Painting, Satellites and Washers

Dining is painted. Thx Ally, much gracias. And you too Cindi for priming and you Christine for cleaning.

Ally painted the whole room today all by herself - even the ceiling. Bet she has tired arms.

Satellite got put n at 8am this morning. Awesome looking at HD channels. And the tv makes them look pretty good too.

Best Buy delivered the washer this afternoon as well. Now I have to learn how to wash and dry clothes. I suppose I can be taught.

Any way, projects for the house. Getting the rest of my stuff brought over. Making plans for the kitchen - it really has to be redone some day. Bedrooms finished - floors, trim, paint. Sealing up the basement door now that basement deliveries are done. And just for you bro' - running cable out the the MAN CAVE!!! And a hundred other things to do.

Have spent a few nights out there and maybe a few more in the near future.

Grime, Grit and Ugly colors

Friday night, FIRST night, after clearing up the washer saga, was wonderful!

Saturday morning, up early, get moving, donuts bought to sugar up the help. The younger the help, the more appreciated the donuts were. Got back to the house just missing the guys off to pick up the load from Sullivan. Got groceries so had to have somewhere to put them that didn't totally gross us out. Cleaned the refrigerator....oh my so gross!! Groceries put away! Yippee. Help arrives with bucket in hand and kids in tow. Christine and I started from opposite sides of the kitchen, kids loaded up with bucket and sponges to clean the woodwork! Even kids were getting grossed out by the grime they were finding. After all it is an old house. Oops, have to get lunch started! Realizing I forgot a couple of things, Mike's mom graciously went to my house with Jake to get a few things so I could keep cooking and preparing for the guys to return. Cold day, Chili to warm the bones. Back to finishing the kitchen after taking a short break. Christine was like the energizer bunny.

Back to a short break but then decide to start cleaning the woodwork in the dining room to prepare for painting the next day. Michael's mom had already swept the room once, but I kept creating more mess as I was cleaning old painters tape off the woodwork and years of Uck and disinigrating sponges. She swept again. Soon Christine joined in to clean the walls when it was discovered how dirty they were when I hit a spiderweb on the mustard yellow by one of the windows. I cleaned hi and Christine and Joan cleaned low. Finally, lemony fresh, the room was ready to be painted.

As people adjurned their day and well wishes and thanks were made we had a couple hours to chill before joining up with some of our crowd for a leisurely dinner and a few drinks to calm the nerves. Kids had a great time, especially Matt, collecting tickets for "valuable prizes" at some later date.

Back at the farm...head to bed for a well deserved rest. Boys downstairs playing games until who knows when, but they had a great time.

6:00 a.m. Sunday morning... I roll over to see a jet taxi out and then take off. How cool is that?!?! Back to sleep until a bit later. ; )

Up we go...start moving in the right direction. Painting day has arrived! The blood red and mustard yellow are soon to be out the door! Between 12ish and 4:30ish two coats of primer later, the room is ready for new color. That will happen on Tuesday. God love friends that give up family time to help. My friend Cindi is a terror with the paint stick!

Rest of stuff that was dumped into the kitchen now put in a place and the house is back in order for the next round of what ever is to come. One day at a time.

Closed and Almost Moved

Friday - 1/25 - 10am
Signing my name and making initials over and over and over and over...
you get the point. But now -

the FARM is mine. House, morton building, quanset hut and acreage.

Spent Friday nite with Ally and had it felt really good. Saturday was cleaning out the Sullivan shed. It is empty and everything is at the farm. Moved some stuff from my mom's garage and tried to put make some sense of it in the new house.

Thanks to Bill Melby, Elliots (Tom, Christine, Jenna and Matt), Mike Henley, Cindy Raimer, Chris Dunlap, Jake Astrosky and especially Ally. Without all that help the place would be what it is now. And some of them will help in the future to make it what it will be become.

The Hookers came up to visit on Sunday and they seemed excited. The kids really loved playing around in the horse barn. I am sure I will see more of them in the summertime. Partying with Hookers. Awesome, baby.

And my thoughts are with you in your time of need.

So now, we have to come up with a short list of things to do. Strip this, paint that, build something. What to do? Ok, here goes and the order will channge.

1) Paint dining room - Toasted almond walls and fossil stone on the ceiling.
2) Strip wall paper
3) Refinsh hardwood floors - Bedroom 1 and maser bedroom
4) Add half bath
5) Add master suite
6) Add laundry room
7) Strip trim and refinish
8) Organize stuff already moved there
9) Get stuff out of mom's basement
10)Sleep

Stresses of decorating

Well, I do have to say it was a bit of a trial to get some things put together as "the necessities" needed immediately. All was going good with getting cleaning supplies and easy stuff like that but when it came to realizing the need of sheets...the stress level began to rise. We will need to keep the lists short to lessen the overwhelming capacities that are sure to come. Luckily found something on clearance to get us going. I'm going to keep it a secret that we still need a blanket and matress pad...don't want the cork to blow!

Friday and Saturday will be full and productive days. Thanks to the friends that are providing the muscle to help move things in and others that will be helping me clean. FYI...Painting parties are yet to be scheduled.

Holy Cow!!!

Man is it expensive trying to get ready for a new house. Over $100 just for cleaning supplies. Sheesh. And I have to open the bottles, they don't open themselves.

And bedding stuff. It is like gold thread. Anyways, bought a bed
bought bedsheets
bought soap
bought cashews
...hey can't clean on an empty stomach.

So I am going to keep a small running total on the cash outlay to go with the site.
So I know how much to ask when I flip it.

Settlin In

Suppose I should define what that means so the progress bar makes some sense. Since one can never be fully moved in - or can you?

anyway... settlin' in was going to mean in the house and beer in hand. But that is way to easy. So here goes -

- Sullivan storage shed empty
- Bathroom clean enough to use (this really means the shower since men can piss anywhere)
- At least a lawn chair to sit in (means I have furniture)
- Some grub and beer in the fridge
- TV (preferably satellite over rabbit ears)
- mattress to lay on (or be laid)

is there anything else that is really needed....

Clean clothes

I never knew it cost so damn much to have clean clothes.
$1500 for a washer and another $1300 for the dryer. Of course, that is probably top end for the CU area, but come on. I expect them to be on hangars and back in the closet for that price.

Still I need a pair.

So I bought a pair.

Hold on, I think I got a good deal. The dryer I bought was in the clearance area. Couple of scratches, one dent in the back and I get it for almost half the original price. But still that's alot of money for clean clothes.

Don't worry VGFatboy I am having them delivered.

A New Chapter

This is the start of a new beginning. I owned a house once long, long ago. Soon I will be owning one again. This will be the saga of that house. There will be many challenges ahead and probably a few headaches as well. But they will all be overcome. It will take time, but time I have until the end. There is no hurry, there is no deadline. There is only now.

I hope to have lots of help along the way. I hope to have lots of fun along the way. Jake said it best last weekend, "If you buy it, then we can have bonfires again." Bonfires - how long has it been since I have had one. Those bonfires sure heard and saw alot. Soon they will see and hear again.

The country and outbuildings, something I have wanted for a very long time. It is not the perfect place, but it is my place. No river, no mountain, no forest, but a few fenced acres and a few outbuildings and lots of opportunity.

There is a lot to do and the progress bars on the left will show how far I have to go to finish each one. As projects are finished new ones will be created. It will be fun. Just looking, offering and buying were alot. But there will be more on that later.

So kick back, blog if you you want and enjoy my trials and tribulations as I become a homeowner once again. There will be lots of pictures and probably some video as well. Tell one, tell all, this is the place to be.