Currently, I can’t park my truck in the garage, nor can I even open the main garage door to bring stuff in and out.  You can imagine how tough it’s been getting the lawn mower in and out of the garage through a door about the width of typical front door.  It’s been awesome – trust me.

And to make matters worse, the previous owners decided that on the outside of the house they would put up hardy plank to cover the old garage door rather than leave it exposed.  They painted the entire house a different color at one point – from blue to tan – and as I am removing the hardy plank, I see the lovely baby blue on navy blue color scheme they chose before.

I’ll post a few pictures once I get the rest of the hardy plank and wall down.

While away, I plan to post pics along the way here on the blog and on my Facebook account.  So if your one of the few people that still come around these parts, you’ll be able to check out the pics here and on facebook.  I’m excited about seeing some mountains and just get away from the heat.

Now, I just have to get packed and wake up for a 5am flight!

I’ll have to post some picutres of all the stuff that I have been doing the past few weeks.  It’s been quite a change around the house for sure.   But until then, I’m headed back outside to get some work done.

And a word to those of you that do have a pool and end up in a situation like myself, call your city water department and tell them that you are filling your pool.  They will wave the waste water charge on your water bill.  If you don’t do this, you will find yourself with one amazing high water bill.  So be sure to call the city and let them know how many gallons that your pool holds to allow for this waiver.

I haven’t seen the pool water this clear since I took ownership of the house.  It’s been amazing to see the difference in the water.  I even bought a few replacement parts to the pool pump like a new cover and gasket to help seal the pump and increase flow through the pipes.  I had no idea how this pump was supposed to function.  It’s like I have a completely different pool now.  And the best part of all of this is that this hasn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

Anyone that wasn’t to come for a dip, let me know!

Most of the comments that I have read about people that have done it, love the look afterswards.  Everyone that hasn’t done it is saying no.  Any feedback?

I have finally gotten around to posting photos from the house remodel work that I have been doing. If you can’t tell, I bought a major fixer-upper. I finally broke down and paid for a subscription to flickr so that I could upload more photos and organize photosets.  I have avoided it for so long since I pay for server space for the blog.  But the features and other fun stuff that flikr provides, just can’t be beat.  So here are some photos of the remodel work I have been doing over the past two years and months.

The kitchen was a big undertaking.  After a few coats of paint, replacing the light fixtures and painting the cabinets and back-splash, I really like the way everything turned out.

Here is my kitchen with a before and after.

The front yard had a huge deck the previous owner decided to build. I couldn’t believe it was something that they put in – and it wasn’t done well. The flower beds were also in pretty bad shape. After a lot of sweat taking the deck down and redoing the the flower beds, it has all turned out nicely. I also fertilized and watered the front yard to get the grass in better shape.  There was no grass under the deck so I had to bring in about 50 squares of sod to help that area get started. Here are the before, during and afters.

My backyard has a pool and little room for much else. When I purchased the home, there was little to no landscaping in the back yard. The entire yard was full of weeds and a deck that needed some tender love and care. I decided that I needed a place to plant some plants and add some additional color to the back yard. Since most pools have a concrete border around the pool, much of the back border isn’t really used for walking or standing and hanging out on. So I decided to put in a rock retaining wall and back fill it with soil. I cleaned up the deck, power washed it, tore down the privacy fence that was sitting on top of the deck rather than at the fence line, and added a guard rail to the deck to help open up the back yard.  I then installed deck lights in the poles around the guard rail to create a nice area to be used at night for get togethers. I also installed landscape lighting in the new flower bed at the ends and a spotlight in the middle pointing up through the Mountain Laural.

So needless to say, I have been a little busy around the house. I still have a long way to go with a lot of other projects. Some of them I have already completed, but just need to gather and post those pictures. More to come soon.

All the pictures from these projects can be found here.

His post really got me thinking about what all I do to stay busy!  What kind of things do I fill my day with in order to stay busy, to feel successful and feel some since of self-worth?  Tim talks about doing things to the point of either not being successful or only semi-successful and that just sent my mind running.

I consider myself to be successful, there is no question about that.  Granted, I haven’t won any kind of public reward, scored an Oscar, been featured in the news, or even had a news article written about me.  But I do believe that the changes I have been able to make in people’s lives make everything worth it.  If that involves volunteering my time, working to make something better and more efficient at work, helping someone with a website or design, being an ear just to listen, or even something as simple as giving advice.

I know that Tim’s article was not about reflecting on your self-worth nor do I think it suggested that we should all sit back and have self-pity or try and justify the things that we do.  But I believe his article made me STOP and think about where I spend my “free” time and even what I spend my “work” or “normal” time focusing on. I agree with a lot of what Tim talks about in many of his posts.  Tim has written a few articles about not multitasking, closing your email, and even being mindful of your time.  He has some great ideas but frankly I have taken little time to head any of his advice.

I’m thinking I just might try a few of these ideas and see how life changes for me.

What kind of things are you doing that make you busy that you might be able to change?

I can never get CNN or FOX News in HD and many of the stations cut out 50% of the time.  And Time Warner’s rates are nothing to really write home about.  So I finally made the decision to switch to DirectTV.  After looking through much of their online FAQs and watching some of their videos about what features they offer their customers, I placed an order online.  It’s being set up this coming Saturday afternoon.  I’m pretty excited about the ability to control the DVR from work should I forget to record a show or even want to have a movie downloaded to the DVR so that I can watch it when I get home that evening.

I have also discovered quite a bit of information that many of the sales people don’t know about the DVR boxes.  I called DirectTV a few times to ask questions about the DVR boxes and I got many contradictary answers between sales people.  After digging around and finding a few videos and documentation, I was able to get the answers I needed in order to make sure that I would be capable of doing everything I wanted once the system was installed.

I’ll keep you posted about how everything turns out after the install.

Something that I thought was a thing of the past was to run cable and phone lines on the outside of the house and then drill into the wall from the outside where you want the lines inside.  As much as I thought this was a thing of the past, phone and cable companies still practice this today.

So to clean up the eye sore of these lines on the outside of my house, I have been installing cable, phone and internet lines throughout the house in hope of helping the resale value and conveince of my own life while still there.  It’s been a big job to say the least.

What is ironic about this whole thing is that I called a tree trimming company a few days before to get an estimate to get the tree limbs off my house and clean up what the previous owner “tried” to do. This site is currently sitting in my driveway until Friday morning.