I admit it, I really did goof off a little this month. I couldn't stand it, the weather finally started to cooperate and it was killing me to only be able to see it through a window as I painted a wall or ceiling. So while I didn't get as much stuff done as I wanted, my sanity is at least intact.
House (the renovation)
As promised in the last post, I did take a couple of pictures to put in here. This is my room. You'll notice a theme throughout that there are no pictures or any other wall hanging type stuff. I'll let the new owner make all the new holes in the walls. I'm sick of patching holes.
You'll also notice a certain, shall we say, spartan feel to the rooms. That also is on purpose. I am not buying all sorts of 'stuff' to clutter up the rooms just so I can get rid of it all in the near future. Believe it or not, I'm starting to like it this way.
Here's the room in the other direction.
All of my things are on the bakers rack and yes, it's on wheels. Makes for really easy cleaning underneath.
Here's the room I just finished. In fact, I haven't even installed the closet door handles yet. Oops.
The only thing in this room is a very small table and a lamp. Even the closet is empty.
In this shot you can get an idea as to the 'edge' of the progress. Once I get Jess's room torn apart, I'll take a picture to show just how torn apart it gets. Bare walls, bare concrete floors, no baseboards or other trim, and no door. Pretty bleak.
So anyway, that's how far I've gotten. The doors and casings are all new except for the bathroom door on the left in the above shot. You can see that I had to cut the casings to make room for the floors. That door will get replaced when I do the bathroom.
House (Un-Stuffing)
Coming along slowly, mainly because it's getting down to the last of it. As you can see from above it's getting pretty empty, but there's still more to go. The kitchen will be the next really big hurdle. I may have to have a garage sale just for kitchen stuff. There's that much of it.
RV Search
I stopped thinking about the big fifth wheel I saw up in Jacksonville. Although it was really nice it was just too big and it would have been ridiculous to even entertain the idea. It would have been bigger rig ($$$), bigger truck($$$), more fuel ($$$). Sense a theme here?
The smaller one with the rear kitchen that I saw in Tampa is still top of my list. It just fits pretty much everything exactly. Lazy Days RV just east of Tampa is supposed to be getting a new one on site in a few days. I may have to go over and go through it again. This time in much more detail and without the RV show crowds constantly in my way.
In other news,
I've been using Quicken to track money and expenses for some time now. Well, I get an email telling me that I HAVE to upgrade the software or they will cut off the ability to download transactions from my bank. Hmmm.. Is that so?
I'm not going to call it extortion, but if it quacks like a duck, well, you know the rest. So needless to say it is, 'So long Quicken, don't let the door hit you on the way out!'.
But that leaves a problem. What to change over to? Just by chance I was on an RV bulletin board and the question was, what financial software do you use? Several people mentioned the Quicken thing, but a couple answered with Ynab. Sorry, is that a typo? What's a Ynab?
Long story short, Ynab stands for 'You Need A Budget' and of course I researched it. It is pretty cool! I took the basics class online (for free),and did the free trial. Pretty trick! So I took the setting it up class (again free). So now I'm hooked on it and it works pretty neat. I'm still in my first month of using it but so far I'm able to really track where my money is going (scary stuff!).
I've since taken a couple more classes (all free) and learned how to really open up it's potential. I ended up buying the software (for less than the Quicken upgrade) and am both feet into it. I'll run it for a few months and wait to see if it works out for me or not.
One other little tidbit, I've now had two people ask if I would be willing to sell the house as-is, right now. I answered yes to both with the understanding that the interior renovation is less than halfway to completion. They both said that it was fine that they would rather finish it out themselves with the colors, kitchen, etc. the way they want.
It's an interesting development and would open up a whole plethora of new problems, the biggest being where to live until I can retire.
Other than that, it's go-go-go. I'm right on my schedule which is a little scary as I would like to have at least a little cushion but oh well.
More to come!
