Praise the Lord! I saw the steps!

I was definitely not prepared for the whole dealing with house construction projects part of home ownership. We have successfully completed 3 major home projects this summer with others on the horizon for future years. This year's accomplishment: 1 painted upstairs closet, 1 new Water softener and a set of new front steps. It's awesome having soft water again. I thought I could handle not having it, but now that it's back, I know I'm spoiled and I'm never giving it up again!

The steps. Ugh. The steps. The best I can say right now is they are done and we don't have a gaping hole covered by a blue tarp in the front of our house. Now if the dudes would only come back and get their portable concrete mixer out of my driveway!!! If they aren't back in a week, I'm hiding it behind our house and Ken and I will have fun doing our own home renovation concrete projects. We still want to get the steps sealed and painted brown to match the trim, but I can wait for that as long as we're able to walk up to our front door again. I am a terribly impatient person, and I have decided that any house project that takes over 2 weeks (let alone a month) is 1 week too long.

As for the painted closet -- to anyone who thinks painting a closet is easy...you're wrong! Dang nab it! That was a lot of work. Pull everything out, sand down the rough walls where hanger-type things used to be (70 year old house has seen a lot a changes in terms of closet hanging fixtures), clean sanded closet, cover wood floors, paint walls coats 1 & 2, paint trim coats 1 & 2, touch up areas where painter got sloppy, clean up, rehang wall things, and put stuff away. I managed to accomplish this task for the upstairs hall closet (aka Marcy's sewing/cardmaking supplies closet) in about a week's time. When I began the project, I was all gung ho because there are at least 2, and maybe even 3 or 4, more closets that need painting something fierce. After finishing that one closet, forget it. Maybe Christmas break or next summer.

Still on the horizon: a new roof, new driveway, and new concrete around the pond in the back yard (hey...wouldn't a portable concrete mixer come in handy for that???). We are thinking roof next year and then we'll see about the others. Heck, we've got time, right? We've got time, and I'm tired of house projects (and tired of spending money on house projects).

Always Tired...why?

Why am I always tired? I get plenty of sleep each night, and I sleep soundly too! But every day, at least for the past week or so, I am exhausted by 2 p.m. and seriously just crash on the couch. We're not talking "taking a little nap." No, we're talking lay down, eyes heavy, headachy, and down for the count. Two or three hours later, I open my eyes but feel like I've been drugged. I can hardly get up from the couch. I continue to feel druggy the rest of the evening, so I go to bed, and start the whole process again the next day. I'm baffled.

The bad thing is that I'm supposed to start the AP Reading this week. That means 8 hours a day sitting in hard chair at a big folding table scoring student essays. How am I supposed to stay awake for that?!?!?!

First Day of Summer Class 2011

Twelve students are registered for my summer Writing 1 class. Today was the first day of class, and 7 showed up. Sigh. At least I can say that those 7 were awesome and we had one of the best discussions I've ever had in a writing 1 class (especially considering it was the very first day)! I'm hopeful that this group of students becomes a solid core group and we don't lose anyone. So far, so good!

After a quick trip to Lowes for some paint samples (I need to paint the upstairs hall closet before rehanging shelves from the "great clothing fall" last week) and a few more plants, I made it to my appointment with my financial advisor so as to get all set up for my Roth 403 b account. I know it's all good to set money aside for retirement, but ouch! My paycheck is going to start looking pretty weak pretty fast.

I came home to find the concrete guys working on the front steps. Big Yay!! (finally!). Still not done, but the whole area is starting to look better. The guys got the steps framed but not the concrete poured. One additional hiccup in the process (what is that now? 3?): we had to tear up the walkway leading up to the steps. The reason for this is that there are 2 small steps leading to two short landings on the way to the steps. Apparently, when the builders constructed these in 1940, there was no code for step height, but now there is. Our steps there were significantly shorter, one only measuring only 3 inches! So, after considering the risks of what would happen if someone fell and sued us, etc. etc., we decided to go ahead and replace those too. The cost of replacing them will be significantly less than any other cost possibly incurred. While our old steps would be technically "grandfathered" into meeting code, the fact that we replaced part of the walkway and the steps would make one question why we didn't just correct the other hazards at that time. Now we will only have 1 step up to a landing before the main steps to the door. And so, more breaking up of concrete, more dirt everywhere, more time, and of course, more money.