Rome wasn't built in a day

  

You, lucky reader, are in for a treat today.   The post was actually written before the Easter Holiday and varied in length, detail and focus.   While not a Christian, I felt that going into the pagan origins of tthe Holiday would upset some people for example.  

However at the end of day you have to post something, even if your nat happy with it.  This post deals mainly with my disappointment in not getting to power the house with my generator even once so far since buying the damn thing.  That post is below.

Although we did starts remodeling the bathroom over the Easter weekend by ripping out the ugly blue carpet that was in it.   We discovered mostly neutral linoleum under that which, surprise, is in good shape.

It’s still ugly and will still get replaced, but it will work for now. 

 Happy belated Easter, and you can read a bit more about my holiday here.  

 

"Oh Bother" said Sue, looking outside.  "I'm afraid my Easter decorations will blow all over the yard."  I could not help but think of Pooh and his friends as they faced a storm in the 100 acre woods.  I have seen many days like this, where a light rain stung your skin and leaves made little tornado's across the drive way and yard.  Sadly the whole weekend was rainy and windy.  It made doing some of the yard work I had planned for the weekend "unpleasant" to say the least.

    "It is a blustery day." I told Sue as I went to fetch a blow mold of Peter Rabbit before he crossed the road and the freedom of the open fields beyond. 

    What concerned me however was the fact that I could hear branches breaking from the wind in our woods behind the house, and that we were suffering intermittent power outages.  I secured Peter Rabbit and family, and went to the barn to fetch our generator.

   

Since I've bought it, other than a few short test runs, I've not used it.  The winter I found was not that bad and simply had not needed to use it.  I wondered if today might be the day.  I prepped it, doubling checking the instructions on how to run the house with it as needed.  What switches would have to be off, what switches would have to be on.

    And then I waited.

    The day remained rainy and cold but the winds slowly died down and the power never went off, I was able to work without incident or accident.

    To be honest, I was a bit disappointed.  

    We still did a test run, to make sure that it could power what I wanted and needed it to do.  Both the kitchen and downstairs freezer had power.  My work computer had power.   Our wood pellet stove had power.   So if and when that time comes, we know it will work.  

    Since Susan is working again, we have found that we simply don't have the time to do what we would like to do.   Well, that's not true.   We have to work smarter and a bit harder than we did before to make things happen.

    For example, this weekend I managed to put the grill together.  Which as anyone that has spent any time in Florida will tell you; is an absolute must if you are ever without power for days during hurricane season.   Although we decided to go with the basic grill...I would have not minded having a smoker.  Growing up, I remember my father grilling steaks and burgers in the rain and snow. 

   

Our Japanese Maple in bloom

The long term plan is to enclose the back porch, making it a screened in dining area with a small patio area where we can put a fire pit and have the grill off to one side.  We may have to replace the porch however, while I believe is in good shape I really can't be sure without having a proper inspection.  I don't know when it was built or by whom.

    Screening in the porch may be a project that I could do myself for under $1000.  Luckily I got some friends that may be willing to help if I can count of them.  I asked one of them about putting together a cheese press for me, even offering to buy the materials and pay him for labor, and it is still not been completed two months later.  

    The more I think about though, the more I'm thinking that this is something that I can do.  With our large garden now being a container garden and maybe 2 small raised beds, we should be able to knock off screening in three sides of the porch pretty easily (1 side is already completed) and might even be able to get it down by the end of summer, if I actually get off my ass and do it.  

    We had planned to do three things during the winter months.  We wanted to repaint the bedrooms and hallways.   We wanted to white wash the fireplace downstairs and finally, I wanted to catch up on my reading since I’ve several novels taking up space on my nightstand.  None of these things were accomplished.

    We did get a few things done, but no major work.  The painting for example, could take a weekend.  Other projects like the bathroom are simply going to have to wait till we find ourselves in a little better financial situation.   Plus that will require professional plumbers and tile folk.  

    We are not quite at that stage yet.  Same with the kitchen, which just needs an update with tile to replace the god awful linoleum and appliances.  I think an island for storage and counter space is not a bad idea, Susan thinks otherwise.  

    The point of all this, I have to remind myself, is that Rome wasn't built in a day.   However after six months of living in this house, we are finally getting to a point where we are happy with what we do have, and have the last of the boxes put away.   

    Now comes the fun part, making our house into our home.  

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