Friday, August 31

WooHoo!!

It seems if you have enough spare time to just sit and contemplate the next event to take place in the house all sorts of things come to mind. We had forgotten about wiring to TV's and Heaven's to Betsy I do not want wires hanging all over the place when they can be hidden in the walls. Butch did have the forethought to put the electrical boxes in the vicinity of where the TV's will be mounted. The TV's, as many of you know are much more important to one of us.
Yesterday I did get out my tape measure and tape to mark out the footprint of the kitchen cupboards and appliances. This aided Butch in knowing that we were going to have a plug-in hidden behind an exhaust fan so that needed changed and so done.
This afternoon we were sitting in the house and both of us had left our phones in the the other house, otherwise known as the MoHo. Butch came out to get them and had a message from Chad the dry wall installer  that he plans to be here next Tuesday. And that is what the WooHoo!! is all about.

Thursday, August 30

Roadtrip

We decided to venture into the big city (Des Moines) on a fact finding mission. And we did indeed find some facts. Fact number one. We spend too much time in Lowes. One of the funny things that happened is the guy who sold us our shower called us from Lowes while were in Lowes. He called to tell us it should be here next week. This Lowes was in Ames so we ate lunch at Hickory Park...again and then headed south to the big city. We needed a new air filter for the motorhome so we made our way to Freightliner where the air filters are $30 cheaper than the Freightliner in Sunny South Texas. Prairie Meadows Casino is near Freightliner so of course we had to stop by there. I made $.51. Butch would not mention what happened to him. Fact number two. Casinos take your money and very quickly too. Then we passed by a Menards and they have vinyl plank flooring on sale so we stopped to check it out and see how it compared to Armstrong at Lowes. It is $.50 cheaper per square foot and the quality seemed to be comparable. The sale goes through Labor Day and it would take a week to get it so we decided to come home and order it online and then perhaps the timing would be better. The space to put things is at a premium and 40 boxes of flooring is going to take up some space. Our next stop was the Habitat for Humanity ReStore found at I-235 and Euclid. I have long been a fan and receive their email regularly. We found our pocket doors for $10 a piece! They are not an expensive item costing in the neighborhood of $30 each but still that is a savings of $80 since we need 4 of them. Paint is dirt cheap too ( $5 a gal) and the color choices are on the lids. Butch found a couple of parts that were $15 at Lowes and we paid 25 cents. That is right folks. 25 cents! And I purchased all our paint tool supplies for less than $10. Fact number three. It pays big to shop at the ReStore. Very cool store.
By this time we were late in the day and fighting the going home traffic to get out of town. Did a fast Wal-Mart stop in Grimes and then came back to Jefferson stopping at a local restaurant for supper. It is a restaurant we do not usually patronize but I was hungry for chicken and Butch was liking pizza. They had soup which I decided to taste and I liked it. I did not eat much of it because there were so many other things to eat that I liked better. I noticed it wasn't very hot but for me it was hot enough. Little did I know that 4 hours later I was going to wish I had never seen the soup. How do I know it was the soup? I really do not know but it was the only thing I ate that Butch did not so that narrows it down. It was a violent bathroom experience of the upper variety. I have not yet graced my tummy with any type of sustenance this morning although I am feeling a bit hungry. May try some toast. Fact number four. There is a restaurant in Jefferson I am not going to be anxious to patronize again.
So you can see it was indeed a fact finding day.
PS: I will tell you privately the name of the restaurant if you have a desire to know and have not already figured it out.

Wednesday, August 29

Trim job

Yesterday we managed to get our place trimmed up, mowed and weeded. It was easy to let it go most of the summer because it did not grow much. But now that we have done it, it looks so much better.
Today we are going on a shopping run. Notice I said shopping and not buying. Best to do it that way. Life has taught me it never hurts to mull over potential purchases for a few days or even weeks . We have a long list of things to look at today. We may not get through all of them. As we add up the years it also adds up the time it takes us to do things.
If I have the energy I will check in later about our shopping trip. No post will equal no energy.

Monday, August 27

Drywall Delay

We are ready for the drywall installer but he is not ready for us. Current job is taking longer than expected. I suspect ours will as well. He might be able to make it next week. So we find us once again in a hurry up and wait situation. The hurry up part is done.
We could go buy things we will need next but we have no place to put it till the drywall is installed. hmmm Catch 22.
I do have a list of things we can get finished in the meantime. So that is what we will be working on. The motorhome needs a good cleaning. A trip to the landfill is on the agenda and that should give us a little extra room and various other odds and ends.
We may even work in a bike ride.

Click to make it bigger...