December is here before it’s June

Just to give credit where credit is due….

“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” – Dr. Seuss

Wow, December already. Good thing I have a scheduled plan that constantly reminds just how far behind I really am. Seems like every time I finish a project and check it off the plan, I notice that I should have completed it 2 or 3 weeks ago. Oh well, it’s only time….

The House (Renovation)

The renovation is moving along albeit slowly. Simple things that I originally thought would cost the least and get done really quickly seem to take the most time and cost far more than I thought.

For instance, I thought the bathroom vanity top would just be a simple Home Depot(HD) off the shelf purchase and installed in an afternoon. Well, yes, I COULD have done that. However, the stuff they had in stock was just plain butt-ugly. I could have special ordered a top and the selections were much better. The problem was that I would have to pick one based on a tiny little picture in a brochure or the incredibly stupid name they came up with for it. If it looked totally different from the picture when it arrived, too bad, you own it.

So feeling very frustrated about the whole thing, I stopped into a marble/granite place on the way home from work one day just to look at something other than HD crap. Well now, let me just say that I should have done that WAY earlier. I spent an hour or so and finally decided on one and about a week later (last Wednesday) they installed it! They even let me pick out the exact piece from a HUGE slab of the material! Turned out that it cost almost exactly what the special order at HD would have cost. Huh… Imagine that. Of course the whole process took about 2 weeks longer than I thought it would have.

That’s kind of the way everything with this whole renovation has been going. Countless phone calls, choices to make on all sorts of things, scheduling delays, budgeting, installation, endless problems, Aaagh!

I did break down and buy a new airless paint sprayer, a nail gun (that thing is FUN!), and a power miter saw. I really hated to spend the money but they have already made my life MUCH easier. Plus I can sell them later on and get at least some of my money back out of them.

I purposely have not posted any pictures yet as I wanted to do a grand reveal (such as it is) when it’s a little closer. I’ll probably do that in the next week or two.

The House (Un-Stuffing)

It’s steadily getting whittled down. The attic is completely empty (that was a pain in the posterior) and I’ve made a second and third pass at all the junk in the garage.

I’ve had two garage sales so far and both went really well. Almost all of the nick-nack stuff is pretty much gone. I think the remaining larger items will just have to get advertised (Craig’s List, etc.) to sell or get donated.

I can’t wait until the first of January so I can take another big load down to Goodwill. I think I reached my limit for this year’s donation tax write-offs.

The RV Search and Getting Ready

There haven’t been any RV shows since the Tampa one a month or so ago. The next one is the big one in January in Tampa. I have spent a lot of time on 3 or 4 of the bigger RV dealership websites looking over numerous units.

I’ve also spent a great deal of time perusing web boards and blogs to glean information on all sorts of things. The list of issues is really long and each must be thought about and taken care of. Such as having a real street address but not actually living there, what state to have your driver’s license issued in, roadside assistance, truck/RV insurance, banking, health care, taxes, mail, etc.  I never knew it was SO difficult to go off-grid, but not totally off-grid.

In future posts I’ll break down most of these as I wade through them. Stay tuned, the journey is getting interesting and picking up speed.