Busy, Busy, Busy,...
Well...we'll be moving in next Thursday. We purchased flights for AJ and Adam to come up and help with the moving of the big stuff - beds, couches, etc.
Monday after work I went and picked up a utility trailer that Lisa found on Craigslist. It's pretty new and in great condition. I've been wanting something to haul stuff in for awhile...ever since I got rid of my pickup... So, I get over to the house to pick up the trailer and i find it has a 1-7/8 hitch. So I drive to the auto store and pick one up. I hook it to the Explorer and find that the wiring harness doesn't fit my connector...back to the auto store. So, now, it's 8:30 and dark. I hook up the wiring harness and the running lights work but everything goes out when I press the brake. Both sides flash when I use the turn signal.
Tuesday, I work on the lights for the trailer for a little bit. Mitch and Aly are with me and want my attention so I didn't get much done. I decided that I'd replace the whole lighting kit.
Wednesday, I stop by the auto store on the way home from work and pick up a lighting kid for the trailer. The harness is in good shape so I replace the lights only. SAME ISSUE!!! So, I'm checking fuses, connections, everything... Finally, I decide to move the ground. It was connected using a "U" connector to a bolt. I drilled a hole in the frame and connected it there. WORKS!! Probably could have saved $40 if I'd have thought of that a day earlier...
Thursday Lisa planned to head over to the house and work on a few things but Mitch was very sick - throwing up even - so she had to stay home and take care of him. He was a little better after his nap but by the time I got home from work, he was bundled up on the couch keeping to himself. I headed over to the house and finished the master bedroom closet (i'll take/post pics this weekend), sealed the tile in the laundry room, and replaced the toilet seats (yuck! i'm not going to elaborate - just YUCK!). I also filled the utility trailer with garage stuff to start the move...
Mitch woke up still a little feverish so Lisa is going to take him to the doc at 9:45...
Agenda for this weekend:
Friday: take another load of garage stuff to the house, install laundry room cabinet and shelf, work a little on garage organization (it's a mess! I'll post a pic...), then head over to Home Depot to pick up some room darkening shades for the kids' room.
Saturday: The goal is five loads from the old house to the new. Two of the loads should be garage shelving so I can start cleaning up. At night, I'll install the kids' shades and valance rods.
Sunday: The goal is five more loads from the old house to the new.
We'll see....
BTW. If you're wondering why a bunch of the pics are rotated sideways, it apparently has something to do with the service that I use to host them (
Flickr)... The pic that I upload is upright... I'll have to look into this....
S-L-O-W...
We went over to the new house early yesterday. Lisa and I immediately started on our list. Everytime Lisa started doing anything, the kids went crazy or started whining or got really clingy or.... By 10:30, she had enough - time to pack up the kids and get going...not going to accomplish anything here... Lisa and the kids left shortly after 11:00 (the tile guy talked her ear off). Lisa is very frustrated that the kids won't allow her to work when she gets over there...
I was moving along at a pretty good clip installing ceiling fans in the upstairs rooms. Then, I went down to shut off the breaker for one of the rooms when I got cornered by the tile guy. I got the whole story of how he left Italy, moved to Canada, moved to LA, ... Not sure how he got to Seattle... Heard about a lot of his big projects that he worked on too... If I wasn't busy trying to get the house ready, I'd probably enjoy listening to the stories and learning from him... After a l-o-n-g time, I managed to slip away and complete the fans.
After the fans, the plumber came to look at some of the hose bibs, the washer hookup, and some other things we need done around the house. It turns out that he was able to control the leaking of the hose bibs by replacing the washers inside. And the washer hookup was just a wrong part installed by the previous owner. Looks like they found a 1/2-inch gas shutoff and used it for the cold water. The plumber replaced it with a standard valve that we picked up at Home Depot. I'm not sure that I like the way he did it though and may replace it myself now that I know where the water shutoff is. As a matter of fact, I may try to do some of the other work myself rather than pay someone else to do it...unless it gets too close to move-in time...
So... The only other things that I got done were: put a deadbolt on the garage door, replaced the hinges on the back door (they had standard hinges that faced outward - which meant that anyone could pull the pins and remove the door...), and mapped the master closet for shelving...
I got to eat lunch at 4:00 in the afternoon. I really need to get more done today.
We planned to take a short break to take Mitch and Aly over to see the cows (pictured in an earlier post that I'm too lazy to link to...) and take some pics. That didn't happen. Looks like it might rain today but if it doesn't, we'll give it a shot this morning...
Friday!!!!....zzzzzzzzzz
Bus rides in the morning are fun because the bus from Renton is usually packed. By the time we hit the freeway, there are usually several people standing up for the ride into Seattle. Luckily, my stop is one of the first ones so I not only get a seat but usually the same one (in the accordian). The funny thing is that there are usually a number of people who put their belongings on the seat next to them and go to sleep (or pretend) which makes things interesting as the bus gets packed - usually around the South Renton Park & Ride.
Yesterday was no different - well...a little different. As people were piling on at the Park & Ride, one gentleman (a regular rider) in a business suit sits down next to a lady in one of the front seats. The lady immediately yells out for the bus driver. I can't hear exactly what she's saying but it caused the bus driver to pull over. The man says a few things and we're off again. There's some banter going on and next thing I know, we're back at the P&R. There's some yelling going back and forth so I take off my earphones to try to listen in. By this time, several of the other passengers are yelling because they're going to be late for work. Three-fourths of the bus hops off and get's on another bus right away. I stay to catch the action....of course.
The police came a couple of minutes later. The gist of it was that the lady was hogging both seats, the man asked if he could sit there, she made half an attempt to move some of her stuff so that she's only taking up 1-1/2 seats, he sits down, and starts nudging her and her stuff - which, apparently, she didn't appreciate. I thought the man was perfectly in the right but apparently some of the other passengers who were sitting nearby didn't think so and stayed around to let the police know.... interesting start for a Friday.
When I got to work it was non-stop. My phones were ringing off the hook, I was getting twice as many emails as usual, and people were escalating issues on instant messenger. At one point, I was on a meeting call, Lisa was calling to get some information from me, and I had 15 - FIFTEEN - instant messenger conversations going on. It was nuts. And...I started my rotation as manager on-call. The afternoon was pretty quiet allowing me to return some phone calls and emails and get on top of a few issues. I was just about to leave a little early when another escalation came in. I had to round up a few engineers and get right on the issue. We stayed on a conference bridge until 5:25. So not only did I miss the early bus but the next 3. The bus was pulling up just as I reached the bus stop. I continued my calls on the bus. After all that, turns out the issue wasn't as hot an item as was originally reported either...
I crashed before 9:00...
Rough Neighborhood...
These tough and ruthless guys live 2 blocks away.
It's been a long time...
...since I blogged.
So...quickly...I'm on the bus today sitting in my normal spot which is right where the front and the back meet. They call it the accordian because it's where the buses flex to make turns. The seats in the accordian are more like double chairs that are bolted to the floor. They face inward. Today, a rather large woman sits next to me. At first, I'm thinking great another uncomfortable ride. Luckily, she kept mostly to her side (not sure how she did - she was very big).
Then, when we got to Seattle, we make a right turn. My feet leave the floor. I think this woman's weight actually pulled the front bolts out. I leaned forward to balance the weight - a weak attempt anyway. She sat there as if nothing was wrong. Luckily, I made it to my bus stop without incident (we only had one more right turn and the bus was moving slower so the force wasn't as strong). I'll be keeping my eye out for that lady though....
Burning the candle at both ends...
Wow! What a week. Spent the weekend working on the house. Got into work on Monday and found that I had reviews to do...and I added 13 people to my team (total of 19 now). So, I worked late all week and worked on the house Tuesday thru Thursday (actually, Tuesday I just went to Home Depot and got the paint and supplies for Wed. and Thurs.). So... It's non-stop from 6am to 10pm-ish. The only rest is the bus ride to and from work... Almost done with the garage painting... Next is the ramp for the dogs (there are about 6 or 7 steps from the garage floor to the door into the laundry room - Rocky wouldn't make it halfway...). Then the dog door. Then more painting.
Lisa has been busy too. When she's not watching the kids while I'm at work or at the house, she's been painting and meeting landscapers and contractors (we want a little work done in the backyard...). If I had to guess, I'd say we are on target for a move in at the end of the month.
I wish I took pics of the work...maybe I'll take some from here on....I'm going to bed now......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Who has time to blog?
So...we took possession of the house last weekend. When we bought our first house, it was less than 3 years old. When we bought our second house, it was 1 year old and had never been lived in. So, the only work that we had to do on our previous houses was some minor painting or some landscaping and improvements (much of which we outsourced...). When we left the houses, they were in better condition than when we moved in (in my opinion - of course).
This house is 10-years old. It's starting to show the wear-n-tear of a 10-year old house. We're not used to that so, naturally, we want to get it back to like-new, which means we have our work cut out for us. So... Lisa's been going over in the mornings for a couple of hours to do what she can. I went over last night and will start going over a couple nights each week to do some work. We'll also spend as much time as we can on the weekends.
The GoalWe would like to move in by the end of March. This means that we have to paint the garage, the laundry room, the kids' rooms, the guest room, and the master bedroom. The garage, laundry room, and master bedroom need to be primed first, which adds time. We also need to hire a landscaper to redo the back yard and I have a few ourdoor projects to do. I'd like to get the garage and the yard stuff done by the end of next weekend (3/12) so I can help with the inside stuff. If I can stay on that schedule, we'll be fine. If I can get ahead of that schedule, I'll start moving boxes and shelves into the garage. I don't feel like building a workbench this time so I'll need to go out sometime and buy one and put it together....
That's our story... too busy for quotes of the day or songs I'm listening to....
