PEBCAC

Well, we found an electric range today at Best Buy and bought it. It’s an ‘open box’ special and is being delivered on Tuesday morning-we hope. It will be nice to have a functioning kitchen, and with the addition of the butcher blocks, a little more counter space. However, I’m still nervous about the cost for everything. As I mentioned before, we were getting bids for the repairs…and we decided on someone today. It will be at least a couple of weeks before he’s probably available. Home ownership is a full-time investment and, again, there are other improvements I’d rather be spending money on. I hope it pays off. The mess of construction is going to stress me out.

Day 5. No e-mail after hours. Symptoms of anxiety seem to ebb and flow…but generally appear to be decreasing. This is reassuring. I need to get back to the stasis I once had. Day 6 is a whole new battle.

We setup a skype video call this morning with South Carolina and celebrated Xmas using video conferencing. It was a little surreal, but effective in connecting us. It’s a bummer that my brother in AZ couldn’t join. Nonetheless, it was still nice and reminded me of something a bit too futuristic. Now we’re going to visit some people. We might see a movie, but I’m definitely playing video games. I got three new games for Christmas. I’m going to force myself to stay inside on Satuday and Sunday and log some serious game hours (which is anything over 2). Steph is working Saturday morning, so I’m going to get some quality time then. That’s my holiday summary. Pretty low key, but a good time…and the video conferencing was kind of a nice new thing. I hope everyone else has a good day! Merry Christmas!

I haven’t been able to blog in about a week. I spent the last week in Harrisburg and tending to related business issues. I spent this weekend and Monday/Tuesday with my little sister, brother-in-law and niece visiting. There just hasn’t been time.

It was wonderful to get to see my niece–Grace. However, babies are tiring and demanding. So darn cute though…

Work was exhausting today, both physically and mentally. Today was actually one of the more difficult days I’ve had in awhile. I don’t care to rehash it though. Let’s just say it wasn’t the most pleasant of days.

Our Christmas shopping is finally done, even though we didn’t have much to do (we imposed a tight budget). I’m hoping to wrap some this weekend. We have several holiday related parties to attend to as well.

I’ll do a full update before the New Year, but in the interim…I’ll probably just be posting stuff from digg.

Be well. Be evil. Happy Holidays.

I spent the majority of today looking up financial records at work and reconciling expenses–and I’m not done. Truly glamorous stuff. I don’t envy accountants/bookkeepers by any stretch of the imagination. Some days I would much rather be on the streets and working with people. On the other hand, I revel in and enjoy my position and the work that comes along with it. It’s just, sometimes, it’s a bit overwhelming. Today was one of the those days. However, I love a challenge and wouldn’t change a thing.

I can’t imagine doing any other job.

We’re still looking for solutions for the cook top/oven fiasco. I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do yet. Hopefully we can get some estimates before the holidays. We really don’t want to rebuild the kitchen. I’d rather spend the money on accessibility upgrades, but that does not look promising at this point. If anyone knows any good contractors, please let us know.

The general fiscal stress level of the holidays, coupled with new home ownership, is starting to get to both Steph and I. It’s making us a little ’short’ with the world.  My family continues to be a bastion of support and this is comforting. However, it’s not changing the reality of the situation. Further, it’s not helping that my health issues are exacerbated by the cold. Grrrr! I despise the winter and most things that are cold (ice cream is exempt).

Once again, enough whining…back to work.

I’m not going to blog, except maybe post digg links, until after the Thanksgiving break. I need to unwind, spend time with my wife, fix some things around the house, decorate for Xmas and generally ‘veg’ out. However, this is my place to note a few of the things I’m thankful for:

My Wife

My family (I don’t know what I’d do without them)

An Obama Presidency

Life (simple and obvious, but often overlooked)

My Job/TRIPIL

My friends (they’re few, but highly prized)

The amazing staff I work with

Our pack of dogs

ADAPT

Grace

Our new home

My wife (she merits mentioning twice)

There’s so much more, this has been a pretty good year, but I’m not going to get in to much more detail as it would appear hokey.

Thank you everyone.

Steph just came home and informed me that while I’m in Harrisburg next month, she’s going to reupholster the couch. She’s been reading about it on some eco-friendly DIY websites.

I hope it goes well, but the news is a little disconcerting. She has a lot of skill with these things, so if anyone can pull it off, it’s her.

On the other hand, our stovetop/range just broke and this is going to be an expensive undertaking.

If it works, we have a seemingly new couch, if it doesn’t…well… Ikea has some good deals I guess.

I really do admire her for attempting this project.

Today is my first day back online doing any kind of real blogging. Although, this will be my only post for today–most likely.

I’m going to spend the rest of the day with my wife. I’ll post the general updates this week, for sure. I also hope to get back to digg’ing.

To the left is a photo of our living room. The large butterfly painting was done by my great grandmother. We have two other pieces of her work in the house.

Everything is organized, more or less. The storage room is fixed up as well. My only mission left is to put the carpet out in the rec room downstairs.

The rest of the pictures of the house can be seen here.

Special thanks to my wonderful wife, who was the driving force behind this endeavor.

I can’t blog and keep up the momentum necessary for moving. I can’t even keep track of the days until we move.

We started at 5pm and are just finishing for the evening (it’s after 10)….5 hours non-stop–after working all day. I’ll update folks when the net connection is up and functioning at the new place. I might still be going to ADAPT too. It depends on how physically taxing the move and trip to Harrisburg are.

Enough whining. See you all next week!

It’s actually day 9, because it’s 12:30am, but I’m blogging day 10.

Checked some accessibility issues at the house today…all clear, for the most part.

Steph packed a bunch of clothes, almost all of hers, and loaded up totes.

Went and picked out some furniture we needed. We got a good deal and it’s being delivered and assembled. I’m hoping our current fridge keeps working, so we don’t need to buy another. Same thing for the existing range and oven. If not, this furniture is going to be a ’splurge’ item. Nonetheless, it was pretty cool to buy new furniture. We’ve been using my parents ‘hand-me-downs’. We only bought two pieces, but we’ll save for more.

Major packing and cleaning up tomorrow. Cleaning the attic, basement and laundry room.

And moving more furniture.

Just getting back form work, had a rather pleasant day. I spent the morning toiling on my GIANT  to-do list. Despite my large list, I traveled to a neighboring CIL to look at donated furniture with coworkers, in the afternoon. Nothing special, but it was a good day. Different confines lend themselves to different modes/types of conversation, so that was a positive. I need to network more and attend some more conferences to increase my perspective. Working at a great CIL is a start, but it’s not the complete picture. I haven’t been having as many big ideas as I’m accustomed to.

No major packing tonight, Steph is working late and I’m just finishing walking the dogs.

We start again tomorrow.

I’m going to keep a simple moving log. There are 10 days, counting today, until we close and 12 days until we move. I’ll probably be able to blog until day 2, but no further. I’m expecting to lose internet connectivity on the 29th. We’ll see when it comes back up. I’ll only have the iPhone. I don’t have my blog linked to the iPhone…except twitter and facebook.

Moved the first of the furniture tonight. The dressers are pretty heavy, more to move tomorrow. Bought totes, easier to pack clothes.

Looked at lawnmowers.

Steph called and booked a U-Haul.

moved a metal bookshelf.

We’re going to tackle the attic tomorrow evening. This will not be pleasant. The basement after that…

I’m obsessing over the concrete pad and width of the driveway, where people can drop their wheelchair lifts (at the new place)… if all goes well. The driveway isn’t in mint condition, to say the least. If a lift can’t be dropped, I’m going to need to save to widen the driveway (more money!) or otherwise modify. I’m really REALLY hoping that it’s going to work out for a van/lift. This has been such an hassle!! This single issue, accessibility, has caused a tremendous amount of grief.

The hassle for someone using a wheelchair has got to make the house hunt seem impossible.  I know some folks who are modifying an existing home for accessibility now. Good luck to them. They’re braver and more skilled than I. Builders need to concentrate on making accessible homes from the ground up. All new housing should have to be accessible. I don’t usually advocate strong government intervention, but this just makes sense.  The government should realize it’s for everyone’s own good.Someone should freaking realize it.

god, I hope the downstairs entrance works out at the new place.

Whew, I feel a bit better.

Another rant tomorrow.

It looks as though we’re moving on the 31st. Thanks to everyone who has offered help (a complete list to follow). I hope people don’t flake out. If everyone comes through, I’m going to owe a lot of people (both favors and money). I can handle that and repay favors in-kind. When I’m done with some research online, I’m going to call U-Haul. I’ve packed some more boxes. This weekend we’re going to move a good deal of the furniture into the living room/1st floor.  It’s starting to become very real.

Offgrid until Monday. Working on packing. Might have to move our moving day till the 31st. Will find out tomorrow. I still hope we can find enough help. The 31st is a Sunday and a holiday weekend. We thank those of you that have already committed to helping.

The dreaded packing is beginning. My house is full of boxes. I think I have more boxes than I have possessions. A special thanks to “pretty Mike”, TRIPIL, the Gabby Inn and Steph’s employer, for donating boxes. Now the fun begins. The endless cataloging, packing, moving and discarding of our lives.

I haven’t moved in several years. At one point in my life I was moving every 6-9 months. I guess I’m overdue. We’ve lived in this house about 4 years. Still, moving is unpleasant, stressful and hard work.

I suppose it will all be worth it once we’re settled in. The new place is cute. I’m still a little upset that we have no yard and that the neighbors are so close. We were really hoping for something more isolated (that was a big draw of the two acre property we looked at). The new place, however, is much more updated and ‘visitable’. I feel we were picky enough and made a good choice.

Here we go.

We’re hoping to get a closing date soon and a date we can start to move things in. In a previous blog posting (since deleted), I mentioned that we are ‘under contract’ on a house in Washington. Finally!

The house is a small ranch with a basement we can make ‘visitable’/accessible. We can possibly even ‘mod’ the upper floor too. It has beautiful hardwood floors, cool retro appliances (that we hope work) and new wiring. It’s a great starter home and should prove to be a reasonably wise investment. It’s in a good neighborhood too. We’ll probably save money and do the access mods in the spring. We do need to buy a fridge for sure, but that’s not too bad…again, assuming the retro stove top and oven work.

So, we’re involved in the minutiae of that…inspections/insurance/appraisals, etc. Then, there’s the dread of moving. I hope to be able to hire some friends, and friends of friends. We have a lot of stuff for such a small home and my family still has stuff in our rental. Thankfully friends and work are collecting boxes, so at least we have that.

Well, I’ll post pics as soon as I can. Probably after the 10th and hopefully this weekend I can do proper updates to the site.

I was recently considering the possibility of having to move South. I was even confronted with some interesting opportunities. But, once again, work and Washington seem to have won out. This time it’s permanent. I received a promotion at work and I consider it pretty important. We want to find and close on a house, within a month. We’re not going anywhere…we’re here, for the long haul. My only regret is not being closer to the rest of my family. Now, if we can just find a house. Maybe we need to lower our standards…we just keep getting stuck on “accessibility/visitibility. There are some promising prospects we’re seeing this week. I’m hopeful.

Looked at another house today. However, I’m not sure how to make the driveway accessible. There is a dearth of single, level entry homes in Washington and the surrounding area. It’s really starting to bum out Steph and I. The more we look, the more I think that accessibility might need to move down the requirement list. I’d be happy with something that could be modified in the first couple of years. This is a major compromise and I’m not sure I’m willing to make it, but it’s getting ridiculous. Hopefully something will develop soon.

Today is my niece’s 1st birthday. Happy Birthday Grace and congratulations to her parents, Samantha and Cliff. It’s hard to believe it has been a year! We miss you and love you all!