Wednesday, February 11, 2009
My Pretty Rocks
My Christmas present was a 65 pound bucket of mining rough from the gemstone mines of Gem Mountain, in North Carolina. In another life, I would have been a geologist/archaeologist, so I am quite the rock hound. The girls and I had a great time sifting through the dirt on the dining room floor, picking out all of the “pretty rocks”. I sent my finds back to them to be identified, and I had a free facet ticket to use as well. I’ve received my identified stones back, and I hope to find a lapidary service that will cut some of them for me. I’d love to get them faceted, but will consider other cuts as well, just as long as I can find someone in the Northeast Ohio area that will do it…inexpensively! Gem Mountain kept a Tourmaline for my free facet, and I can’t wait to see it, so I’m anxiously waiting by the mail everyday. I also have emeralds, aquamarines, amethysts, quartz, and lots of others. Here is a group picture of the finds! I want to get pictures of the groups that were identified, but that will come later.
Dude! It's Not My Truck!
Do you see the white truck? It’s not mine, or Luke’s, or Chris’. It’s Josh’s, as in Josh “The Samurai” Knode that rented part of the upstairs with Chris for a little over 3 years before moving out a year ago. Apparently the transmission if going out, and the mechanic he talked with wants at least $600 in labor to fix the thing. Seeing as we have every tool to open our own garage, Chris volunteered to help him out and swap it. It’s been sitting in the driveway for at least a week now, and Chris just got to start on it. It’s warmer than it has been outside, but it’s soaking wet, and getting ready to turn cold again in another day or two. I haven’t even seen the replacement tranny yet, so who knows when this project will be done. Luke doesn’t have the time to help out. He is busy with work and photo shoots, and we still need to start on the bathroom! I guess I needed another lawn ornament in my backyard…
At least, as I type this, Chris is working on it, so with any luck, it won't be here much longer!
At least, as I type this, Chris is working on it, so with any luck, it won't be here much longer!
Declutter/Organize Project 2: Dining Room
Here is the dining room. A mess eh? It’s not even being used as a dining room. It’s a downstairs office/photography studio. We have clutter on the shelves, coats and shoes and misc. scattered all over the place, and tons of bigger ticket items waiting to be sold on e-Bay. We have e-Bay auctions on this week, so hopefully by this weekend a lot of that stuff will be cleared out. So, in any event, my dining room adventure is slowly beginning now, and my due date will be Saturday, February 21st. Hopefully it will look a little more organized, although the computer and photography equipment will stay.
We are looking to have Lexi’s birthday party here on Sunday, March 8th, so it will certainly be as organized as possible before then, since it’s the main room to do things in.
Oh...and notice the hole in the ceiling above Luke's head in the last picture. That's because the upstairs sink has a leak, and it made a hole in the ceiling, so we cut an even bigger hole to see how to fix it. Problem is...it hasn't been fixed yet, so now I have this awesomely huge hole in my dining room ceiling. I'm sure that is just what clients want to see when they will be here for a photo shoot.
We are looking to have Lexi’s birthday party here on Sunday, March 8th, so it will certainly be as organized as possible before then, since it’s the main room to do things in.
Oh...and notice the hole in the ceiling above Luke's head in the last picture. That's because the upstairs sink has a leak, and it made a hole in the ceiling, so we cut an even bigger hole to see how to fix it. Problem is...it hasn't been fixed yet, so now I have this awesomely huge hole in my dining room ceiling. I'm sure that is just what clients want to see when they will be here for a photo shoot.
Anne's Birthday and some misc...
Last weekend was Anne's 3rd birthday. She is 1 month older than Lexi. The girls had a lot of fun hanging out with their cousins. We didn't stay too long, since it seemed the girls were a bit grumpy, and Aunt Angie left with Anne to take her to the Build-A-Bear Workshop for her birthday. Here are some pictures from the event, along with a picture of Lilly being bad. She is such a stinker, and no matter how much we tell her to not climb on things, she does it at least 20 times a day. It's either the couch, the stand, or those plastic kitchens. She is the one I will end up buying a leash for!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Our Land
A few months before we made the mistake of buying this house, we bought 4.65 acres of land on Funk Road, outside of Reedsburg (close to the Ashland border, but with a Wooster address). It’s very pretty…and overgrown now. It has a natural spring, that we want a pond dug out around, and a gas well. According to the previous owners, Colombia Gas owns the well, and Gatherco Inc. owns the lines. Both pay $100 a year for leasing. We received a check from Gatherco the first year, and Colombia received our mailing address from the old owner’s, and sent a letter requesting documentation that we had actually purchased the land. We had written down that we sent that information in October of 2004. Well, after buying a house and starting a family, we kind of forgot about the leases. Fast forward to now, we get out the land documents and call up the companies. We haven’t received any check in a few years. Gatherco says oops, has no idea why we haven’t been getting checks, and tells us they will send out a check for $300 for the past years (going straight to the E-Fund). Colombia wants documentation of the deed. Apparently, they never received what we sent in 2004. No big deal, we make copies to resend. They call back and say they don’t have an active lease on our land. They had a lease that was sold back in 1997 to Gatherco. Well then, why were the previous owner’s still receiving checks from Colombia? They even sent the check back to Colombia in 2004 with our mailing address, since we had bought the property. Colombia says they will look into it, in the meantime, talk with Gatherco and see when the lease they have was purchased. Well the guy at Gatherco is only in on Mondays and Fridays. Do you know how much of a pain it is to try to get a hold of someone that is in the office 2 days a week. We left a message last week, and have yet to hear back from him, so I guess we will be harassing his phone this coming Friday. I hope something turns up, because it would be nice to get more money from these companies. It would really boost the Emergency Fund right now.
Speaking of the land, we are hoping to start clearing it off this year. It starts off bearable in the Spring, but by Fall, it’s nothing but prickers and thorns, and it gets really thick. Our hope is to clear off enough space to camp out on, and have little fires, and cut some trees for wood. We want to get the girls used to camping, and this is the cheapest way to do it. Last Fourth of July we set up the tent in Dad’s backyard, but Lilly just wouldn’t stay asleep. She was a bit young, and it was noisy with cars and drunk people, so we ended up leaving at like, 1AM and coming home to sleep. We can’t do that if we go to a campground, but if we camp at the land, we can leave our stuff if something doesn’t work out, and since it’s out in the country, it will be a lot quieter. Once the weather breaks, we will head out there and start working. We will have to get babysitting arrangements figured out, because right now it is no place for little ones, and it will be really wet.
Speaking of the land, we are hoping to start clearing it off this year. It starts off bearable in the Spring, but by Fall, it’s nothing but prickers and thorns, and it gets really thick. Our hope is to clear off enough space to camp out on, and have little fires, and cut some trees for wood. We want to get the girls used to camping, and this is the cheapest way to do it. Last Fourth of July we set up the tent in Dad’s backyard, but Lilly just wouldn’t stay asleep. She was a bit young, and it was noisy with cars and drunk people, so we ended up leaving at like, 1AM and coming home to sleep. We can’t do that if we go to a campground, but if we camp at the land, we can leave our stuff if something doesn’t work out, and since it’s out in the country, it will be a lot quieter. Once the weather breaks, we will head out there and start working. We will have to get babysitting arrangements figured out, because right now it is no place for little ones, and it will be really wet.
The Budget...UGH!
Our budget for January is trashed! Between the busted washer pipe and wire problems, to buying a bunch of photo props for Claire’s shoot, to just impulsively buying way to much fast food and junk, we really screwed up this month. February will have to be the new January, and we will either sink or swim, so let’s hope we get it right this time. We didn’t get to put anything into the Emergency Fund, except for my last paycheck from K-Mart, which was about $76. Our home improvement fund was emptied, and we stole from the thrift and medical savings to help with the cost of the wiring. We went up to the outlet mall in Lodi and spent money we didn’t really have on a few shirts and Christmas dresses for the girls, since they were having a huge clearance sale. This month was just a mess. Luke also spent some money, getting a Maxxum 9, the best film camera Minolta ever made. It's a professional grade camera, and it came with 2 lenses Luke can use on his digital camera as well. So, on we are into February. Hopefully by the end of February, we will have something rock solid in place.
Accounts as of 1/31/09
Emergency Fund: $229.53/$1000
Thrift Savings: $0.00
Medical Savings: $0.00
Home Improvement Savings: $0.00
The minimum on the WAMU card dropped this month, so the new minimum will be $35. We needed that little extra, we had too many runs to Drug Mart this pay period. The price of convenience I guess. I didn’t pay any extra to any of the cards. I decided the best place to put extra cash for now is in the Emergency Fund, until we get to that $1000.
On another note, our snowball has been re-ordered. I'll need to redo the chart and post it, but we got a good promotion on one of Luke's empty credit cards, so we are doing a balance transfer, to get rid of my Bank of America card. It looks like one of the highest interest cards we have a balance on is Luke's WAMU, and it is also one of the cards with the smallest balance. That will now be the first credit card we pay off.
Luke has a bunch of e-Bay auctions going on this week. He is trying to raise money to buy a 100-400 APO lense for his camera, along with a 2x teleconverter. He is hoping to hit a few more air shows this year, and these 2 items will really help him achieve the close-up shots he wants to pull off.
We should be filing our taxes shortly, but all money we get back will go into savings for our upcoming shuttle vacation. I will post lots of details about that vacation plan at another time. Right now I need to get the motivation and make Luke sit down and help with pictures so I can update this blog with all the other life happenings that have been going on. He is working from his brother's today, but hopefully late tonight we can get some things posted.
There are also some new pictures on the photo blog. Claire's newborn photo shoot, and some of Lexi for her upcoming 3rd birthday next month!!
Accounts as of 1/31/09
Emergency Fund: $229.53/$1000
Thrift Savings: $0.00
Medical Savings: $0.00
Home Improvement Savings: $0.00
The minimum on the WAMU card dropped this month, so the new minimum will be $35. We needed that little extra, we had too many runs to Drug Mart this pay period. The price of convenience I guess. I didn’t pay any extra to any of the cards. I decided the best place to put extra cash for now is in the Emergency Fund, until we get to that $1000.
On another note, our snowball has been re-ordered. I'll need to redo the chart and post it, but we got a good promotion on one of Luke's empty credit cards, so we are doing a balance transfer, to get rid of my Bank of America card. It looks like one of the highest interest cards we have a balance on is Luke's WAMU, and it is also one of the cards with the smallest balance. That will now be the first credit card we pay off.
Luke has a bunch of e-Bay auctions going on this week. He is trying to raise money to buy a 100-400 APO lense for his camera, along with a 2x teleconverter. He is hoping to hit a few more air shows this year, and these 2 items will really help him achieve the close-up shots he wants to pull off.
We should be filing our taxes shortly, but all money we get back will go into savings for our upcoming shuttle vacation. I will post lots of details about that vacation plan at another time. Right now I need to get the motivation and make Luke sit down and help with pictures so I can update this blog with all the other life happenings that have been going on. He is working from his brother's today, but hopefully late tonight we can get some things posted.
There are also some new pictures on the photo blog. Claire's newborn photo shoot, and some of Lexi for her upcoming 3rd birthday next month!!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Our Washer Nightmare
So, after the Lowe’s trip last week on Monday, we decided to just bust out a piece of drywall behind the washer so we can easily run the new pipe, and Luke would build an access panel to cover the hole, so we can get to the pipes if necessary. After busting out that piece, we find the wires to the 220 dryer outlet and the normal outlet on that wall have gashes in the sheathing. The 220 actually has bare wire showing!!! Needless to say, it’s a BIG fire hazard. Obviously both of the wires need replaced, so we shut the breakers off, and proceeded to knock out another huge chunk of drywall, so we didn’t have to fish for the new wires nearly as much. We didn’t have the wire we needed, so we hung it up early Monday evening, and Luke asked for Tuesday off.
Tuesday comes and Luke and Chris go back to Lowe’s to buy wire. $80 worth of it! Wire gets expensive. The wire gets up through the wall flawlessly; it just takes a little time. Chris had to start getting ready for work at 3pm, so after he left, Luke finished with that wiring and decided since he has all the wiring stuff out, he would go ahead and redo the girls’ bedroom outlet, since it’s needed done for a few months. Check one thing off the list anyways eh? After that he got the pipe assembled, and took a break so we could get the kids bathed and put to bed. I went upstairs with him and watched the new pipe go in while I vacuumed up the mess on the floor, along with 4 years of lint since Mr. Bachelor Chris decides not to ever borrow the vacuum and sweep! Grrr. (That’s OK though, because I brought up my recycling trash bags and took a whole bunch of his glass bottles and cardboard he just has piled in his kitchen and bagged them up for trash…hahaha. He growled at me when he got home.) Anyways, the pipe works, the outlets work, the washer and dryer are hooked up and they work. We mounted an extra fluorescent light we had laying around, so now we actually have a light up there.
That little laundry room still needs some work. We need to borrow a truck and get a piece of drywall, but we also need a big ladder to make it to the second floor, so we can actually vent the dryer outside through a hole, and not through Chris’ living room window. The old light wire is connected to the rest of the old wiring and is still hot, so we just put some wire nuts on it. It needs shoved into the ceiling and we need to patch the ceiling. We also need to install baseboard and then paint everything and we will be good to go. The hardest part is getting a ladder for the dryer vent, and we need to do that before putting up the new piece of drywall. Our home improvement budget is completely drained now, and we even had to tap into the medical savings and use it since wire was so expensive. We also still need to buy some tile for the bathroom, since the local Lowe’s didn’t have enough edge tiles for the shower. I don’t know when we will start that project now.
Here are a few pictures:
Tuesday comes and Luke and Chris go back to Lowe’s to buy wire. $80 worth of it! Wire gets expensive. The wire gets up through the wall flawlessly; it just takes a little time. Chris had to start getting ready for work at 3pm, so after he left, Luke finished with that wiring and decided since he has all the wiring stuff out, he would go ahead and redo the girls’ bedroom outlet, since it’s needed done for a few months. Check one thing off the list anyways eh? After that he got the pipe assembled, and took a break so we could get the kids bathed and put to bed. I went upstairs with him and watched the new pipe go in while I vacuumed up the mess on the floor, along with 4 years of lint since Mr. Bachelor Chris decides not to ever borrow the vacuum and sweep! Grrr. (That’s OK though, because I brought up my recycling trash bags and took a whole bunch of his glass bottles and cardboard he just has piled in his kitchen and bagged them up for trash…hahaha. He growled at me when he got home.) Anyways, the pipe works, the outlets work, the washer and dryer are hooked up and they work. We mounted an extra fluorescent light we had laying around, so now we actually have a light up there.
That little laundry room still needs some work. We need to borrow a truck and get a piece of drywall, but we also need a big ladder to make it to the second floor, so we can actually vent the dryer outside through a hole, and not through Chris’ living room window. The old light wire is connected to the rest of the old wiring and is still hot, so we just put some wire nuts on it. It needs shoved into the ceiling and we need to patch the ceiling. We also need to install baseboard and then paint everything and we will be good to go. The hardest part is getting a ladder for the dryer vent, and we need to do that before putting up the new piece of drywall. Our home improvement budget is completely drained now, and we even had to tap into the medical savings and use it since wire was so expensive. We also still need to buy some tile for the bathroom, since the local Lowe’s didn’t have enough edge tiles for the shower. I don’t know when we will start that project now.
Here are a few pictures:
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