An uneventful week

Thank goodness. It's been super-busy for us both at work, so there's not been a lot of time to get things done at the house, and the heat is still problematic, in that it makes me pretty sleepy. Good thing we have the bed there now, though, as if I'm that tired, I do a quick walkaround to make sure things are okay, and then lock the door and take a short nap. I can honestly say that the bed is really comfortable!

There's been some things done, though, just not a lot. The little end tables got reinforced, by nailing them back together, so if the cats go slamming into them while playing Kittydega or World Wrestling Kitties (ie, racing through the house or play-fighting), they won't knock them apart. The screen for both living room windows have been found, but one has to be retrieved from outside the back of the house and checked for damage since it's been on the ground for goodness knows how long, and the other is laying in the bottom of the trash pile outside the front door and needs repair. The frame's bent and the screen is slashed, but I think it's repairable or cheaply replaced. That leaves ONE window with no screen we can find or fix.

The diagram was measured out for the underside of the kitchen sink, so that Quentin can use his jigsaw later to cut that piece of paneling he found to size, and get it installed. Since there's no actual floor under the sink except for the trailer, and that is in rough shape, even a bit of paneling or plywood will help to keep things from going through the floor to the ground when they're supposed to be in the house and accessible. I got all the little tools down into the cupboards in the "laundry area," which we're going to use for household tool storage. Q wants to build a small enclosure in that area as well, to keep the cats out of things like the chainsaw, shovels, etc. Eventually, we'll have a regular tool shed, but in the meantime, it helps to have someplace to store things that the cats won't be bashing around and hurting themselves in.

All the smaller bits and pieces of things like nails and screws and such went into the kitchen drawer closest to the office. This is also known as "The Thing Drawer." We all have a Thing Drawer somewhere in our house, usually in the kitchen. It's that place where you put all the little things that don't really belong in the house, but you don't really have anywhere else for them, and you keep them because you really can use them. Extension cords, extra screws/nails/nuts/bolts, company ashtrays (especially if you're a non-smoking household), and so on. So our Thing Drawer is established. The etagere thing got moved to the bathroom and put up against the wall behind the old toilet that is going to get ripped out one of these days. The closet got measured for a clothes rod.

And I had to put the woodpile back together a bit. Part of the middle got knocked forward into the driveway, and from the looks of the damage, I'd say a deer tried to jump it and missed. The section knocked over looked like it'd been pushed pretty good from behind, but only in one narrow spot. It was easy enough to pick up and put back together. But boy, was it not fun to come "home" from work one day and find my nice woodpile strewn across the driveway!

Every hole I can find in the floors and baseboards is now blocked somehow, other than a bit of stuff in the bathroom around the existing pipes to the tub/shower. I need to get another thing of spray insulation and finish that up well before cold weather hits. I know it'll get done, it's on my personal to-do list, it's just a matter of getting the stuff and making the time to finish it up. There's so many other things that HAVE to get done ASAP that our to-do lists are ridiculous.

We did decide to go with the beech for the laminate floors after all, though. In doing some pricing out, it would cost about $1000 more to use the maple Q liked better, because of the smaller amount of flooring in each box, necessitating buying more boxes. He is a bit of a skinflint when it comes to fixing things. He'll do it well, and as right as he can, but he won't spend more than he has to, to get the job done. Thus, we get beech floors like I wanted originally, haha. The money that we would have spent extra on the floors to get the maple he liked better will instead go to replacing the deck.

He wants to rip out the old one (can't blame him there) and after Bobcatting the pile of crap from the house to a small hill out by the easement, he wants to reuse some of the lumber in the current deck if he can for other projects. All new lumber will be bought for the replacement deck, to be sure it's not warped and is cut to the right lengths and all. We're going to build it 8' x 16' instead of the current 8' x 8', and put railings on it, and a roof for shade, and screen the whole thing in. Then a cat tree will likely go out there or some kind of kitty playplace, so that during good weather, we can leave the house doors open and just latch the screen door on the porch, and let the cats "outside" without them roaming around and getting hurt. Too many hawks and turkey vultures and coyotes and who knows what that could carry the boys off. We're going to have to be super careful with the chickens and such, too, we know, because of that, but that's for later.

There are so many projects to do, so much to get done, to make it a real homestead, more than it is now. But it's still a big improvement over what it was when we started. And it will be so much nicer to be there than it is to be in this tiny apartment. We like that here, we have all the utilities included, even the internet, a laundry room and the pool (which we never use). We don't like the commutes for us, fighting to get use of the laundry room (three washers and four dryers aren't enough), the noisy neighbors who are usually drunk and arguing, and the fighting for a place to park. We're not too happy with the small space either, as there's really no room to move around. Shoot, at the house, my whole office is as big as this whole apartment! Yeesh!

I've been busy here, though. I've been making a lot of jewelry again from the stuff I found last week, and between that and the doll clothes I've had made already, I've been moving stuff from Yardsellr to Etsy. I would have gone with eBay, but things only stay there a week unless you pay extra, and Etsy they stay listed for four months for a mere twenty cents. I still have a lot of things to get listed that I need to move from Yardsellr, and a bunch more things I need to photograph and list once we're moved, but it's a big start. We already figured that I can quit my job and work from home if I can make an average of $200 a week profit from various income streams that we have in the works. Between Etsy, flea marketing, farmer's markets (a next year thing), seeds/seedlings sales, Watkins (I need to get that going again), etc., I should be able to do decently enough to work from that stuff and anything else I can come up with for "farm income" streams to make a living. That's important if we're going to get the homestead going to be what we want. I've also been knitting a pair of socks for myself, and I've got the one done barring the bindoff and the toe done on the second one.

We are a bit traditional in income earning things, for those that have asked. The husband, if possible, we feel is supposed to be the main breadwinner, and the wife stays home and keeps up the house and so forth, taking an outside job only if there is a need for the extra money. Q is more than capable of supporting us on his own income, but we both know that I don't want to be just sitting around and doing nothing but housework, either. So me keeping busy with "farm income" stuff is important. It gives me something to do for "butter and egg money," and it needs to be something that I enjoy. Hence, all the various income streams to help me make some farm income and keep me busy other than the house and garden and critters, lol.

So we can hardly wait for what Q keeps calling "the final descent," since we'll be moving south by about 45 miles or so. This place is just a roof over our heads for now, and the moving date has been set. We're planning for Labor Day (here in the States) weekend. Plans are that Q will take a vacation day that Friday before and get the trailer, then bring it here and load it up. By that Thursday, I'll have loaded all the stuff left here yet all packed up in boxes (he's getting a bunch of them from work), so all he has to do while I'm at work is load the van and trailer and shift things. I'm in charge of the packing and unpacking, he's in charge of loading and unloading. (Not so sure I want to trust him with moving my lappy, though, lol. It's my BABY!!!!!). That means that by the time I get off work that Friday before Labor Day, he'll have everything shifted, and likely be started setting up his electronic gadgetry that he "has" to have - tv, DVD/VCR, stereo, PS2. I'm just a geek with little bit of gagdetry, he likes his. I like non-electric gadgets better.

And this weekend, we are taking off. We've been working so hard on things and there's not a lot left we CAN do before we move, and we feel we need a bit of time to just sit and do nothing this time. So until next weekend, my Gentle Readers, adieu. I'm going back to bed for a bit, just because I CAN.