A Test Of Wills: Michael Against The Mountain

And the mountain won. :o( Kind of.

Today I went out to the property to meet someone and walk through the house. This trip was different than any other up to this point. You see, Wednesday it sleeted for hours. We had an inch of sleet. Yesterday it sleeted more and snowed. It made for tricky driving on the hilly and windy roads going out to the property. Tricky but doable if you go slow.

So, I’m on the way to the property …

Hope You Are Not Color Blind

I got to thinking recently that I do not recall giving you all pictures of our floor plans. If I did not, that was an oversight I plan to rectify now. To kill two birds with one stone I am posting pictures that include the paint colors Melanie and I (mainly Melanie) have picked out for each room.

Unsolicited Credit Card Offers (Junk Mail)

I hate getting junk mail. I will call companies and ask to be removed from their mailing lists just so I don’t get it. I just can’t stand seeing companies waste money and paper on what most people will throw in the trash.

I heard somewhere that if it is an offer for something and they include a paid return envelope, mail it back to them because they have to pay the postage. I did that for a while, writing “remove me from your mailing lists” on the front. Based on what junk mail I keep getting I am not so sure it worked.

What has been really irking me lately are all the credit card offers. I was about to do my usual routine when I notice a phone number you can call to opt out of getting their unsolicited mail. Turns out to be an opt-out service for financial related mail. The companies will check with credit rating firms like Equifax, Expiran and TansUnion to find people with the credit rating they are looking for and blast out unsolicited junk mail.

If you are interested in utilizing their opt-out service, just call 1-888-567-8688 or go to www.optoutprescree.com. They give you three options for opting back in, opting out for 5 years, or opting out forever. I chose forever! If you use the website, make sure you print the confirmation page. It will print a page you have to sign, date and mail in to complete your request.

A Little Of This, A Little Of That, And A Dash Of Something Else (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from previous blog…

I noticed the blog was getting long so I broke it up into two parts.

A Little Of This, A Little Of That, And A Dash Of Something Else (Part 1 of 2)

There are lots of things over the past few weeks I have thought to myself, “I need to blog about that”. I usually do not get around to it. I will attempt to rectify that here.

~ House Decisions and Finances ~

Decisons:
We tried to make as many decisions as we could well before we needed to. Some even well before construction started. We figured it would reduce the stress of making the decisions later and avoid delays due to last-minute decisions. Guess what, we were wrong! Maybe not completely wrong, but wronger than expected.

Smell Of Smoke

This is in some sense a soapbox blog, but in other ways not. We have been in this apartment about six months. Before Melanie arrived, I had the TV, chair and other “living room” items in the large main room. It had an imaginary divider between the dining and living room areas. It quickly became apparent that the living room space was not going to work where it was. This was for two reasons. First was that in the same area was the blower for the HVAC. It was loud and forced you to have to turn up the volume of the TV quite a bit ever time it came on and down when it went off. I feared having the TV too loud for the apartment above us. The second is that cigarette smoke was coming in from what I assumed to be upstairs. It would drift over from where I assumed it was coming in at the HVAC closet. For these two reasons, I moved the entertainment are into what was to be the office. But we still have a problem with the smoke smell… any advice?

Crazy Weather Revisited AND House Progress

Weather:

Can you say Deja-Vu? This week’s weather is very reminiscent of last weeks. Let’s recap. We had a couple of really windy days, which ushered in 60+ degree weather. This was quickly followed by snow. We had a few days break THEN, is snowed again. This time 4 inches. It was only a day or two later that the temperature was predicted to be 68 degrees.When that day came, as I sat at my computer and looked out window while working, every hour or so I would check the temperature. At breakfast it was already 65. Later 68. Later 70. Later 72. Later 74. That was when I said enough is enough and headed out to the property to cut up more wood! I never heard the high for the day, but I am willing to bet it went up another degree or two.Now, today, two days later, we are to get snow again and the high is 1/2 of what it was Monday.

House:

I am afraid to say it, but from this point forward, for the next month or so, there will be little we will be able to show you in the way of progress on the house. (Read more to see lots of pics)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cabinets, house, weather | 4 Comments »