The rental

Last night I drove to the old house. I was expecting to show the house to three different potential parties.  I figured with three showings I should be there. I had arranged everyone for one night as my tenant had to get the house clean for the showings.

The house looked fantastic. He had hired his old girlfriend to come in and clean. She was just leaving when I arrived. The yard had been weeded and the house looked wonderfully staged. I had no complaints other than my plants could have used a little more watering. My fruit trees in the back were full of luscious apples. I heard the friend leave and say she was coming back to pick some and make apple pie and fresh apple sauce. Made my mouth water. I really need to get my fruit trees in my new yard this winter.

An agent had called last week asking to show the house to a couple that she had not been able to find anything for on the MLS. That couple did a drive by over the weekend and the agent notified me belatedly that they hadn't gotten back to her, but I didn't receive the notice until I was already at the old house.


 Flag lots sometimes turn people off. It took some getting used to when we bought the house ourselves initially, but I found the extra privacy surprisingly comfortable. You could forget to close the garage door all night and no one would know.

The next expected visitor was a man who had found a foreclosure they liked but didn't necessarily want to wait five months. He wanted to see our house. He turned out to also be a no show.

The last visitors expected were a couple with small children. They came and looked for potentially renting the house. They had a three month old with them and Grandma. Grandpa was watching the other children at home. They were quiet. I think they had been hoping for more yard. They live on acreage now, but a house too small for all the children.

 I called afterward asking what their thoughts were, because with all the activity my tenant offered to renew his lease for another year. He wanted the same rate though and Tom wants to go up $50 a month. The family said they were going to pass. I e mailed later asking for feedback to find out what made them decline the opportunity. Haven't heard back yet.

Meanwhile Tom said there was no rush with renewing the tenant if he wouldn't go up $50 a month. I checked the competition and we are priced fairly. Only big house in this range. The other big houses are priced  a lot more.  Just have to find the right renter or buyer.I think that those potential buyers missed out by not coming inside.

 Who knows, perhaps next March my Tenant will agree to our rental price. Rents in general go up in the spring. My tenant asked that I wait until January for any more showings. He wants to get through the holidays without worrying about moving. That is fine with me.

Tom pointed out that the extra $50 would help cover the insurance on the house which we are not covering with the rent.  I will be cranky if we end up with an empty house for a month or two because it doesn't rent right away. Though I think our tenant is in no hurry to move. He is dreading moving as much as I am finding someone honest to replace him.

Looking back at 2006, there was nothing we could have rented at the time we moved that would have been suitable. People were selling homes. The market was frothy. Hind sight being twenty twenty, I wish we had offered to  rent that house from the previous owner, rather than buy it. We all knew the housing market was a bubble. But it would have been hard paying that kind of rent and not buy a house. Who pays over $2000 in rent and doesn't buy. People that expect ot move again shortly. We are just not renters.

 No use looking back. This is what it is. Tom still wants to walk away from the house. We could still do a short sale, but that would tie up our credit for years. Ask yourself how much is your good credit worth. We eventually want new cars. We will be paying cash for them. The house we live in needs some love, new siding on the south side and new windows.

 I like my perfect credit score. I am still being offered new credit cards in the mail that I rip up.

It was a relief to see the house in good condition. That in itself was worth the time. I like the tenant. We have not burned any bridges. March is six months away.



     

Family

I know people want to hear how things are going with Mom and Big. I can't say much. It is their story. Doctor visits are lined up. Last doctor can't get them in until October 31. We are just, waiting. If they still can and want to go to Tucson, after that last appointment in October, Tom and I will help Big and Mom get there. I'll fly down with Big. Mom can drive down with Tom and Hoover. I think she doesn't trust Tom to bring Hoover down alive, after three days in the car.

Meanwhile, we just hang out and wait. Graham came to town for a tournament with Logan. I watched Logan play a tough match. It was quite exiting, exceptional tennis. Graham is now coaching Logan as Graham is probably the best coach in their area. Logan is beyond good. Graham and Logan played a doubles tournament and made it into the semi finals recently before they lost to two 21 year old college students. Tom said you could have added Graham and Logan's ages together divided by two and got to the age of their competition. Dang close.

Logan is now 12, and has not hit his full growth yet as a teen. He is not short for his age, he  looks his age. I would have loved to see that match also. I bet there was a big audience to see the father son team beat out the competition. What a hoot to watch, let alone play. Graham said they had a blast. I can see he is an unconventional coach and fantastic teacher. Calm and patient, just making sure that learning tennis is fun and rewarding.

Graham and Logan stayed with Mom and Big so we all invited ourselves over for an impromptu family party. Football was on the TV. The men all watched TV upstairs with Big. A  friend had delivered a delightful antipasti platter and later sandwiches so there was plenty of food. Big didn't have much as his stomach might act up, but we all dived in to the delicious spread. Riley hung with Logan and watched The Walking Dead, a really gory zombie show Logan liked. Riley ended up on the computer with his back to the TV. Tory sat in with the boys. I stayed in the kitchen and hung with Mom.

This weekend I am off to my class reunion with Riley and my old roommate. Riley is really looking forward to seeing Whitman. I told him he needs a 4 point for the next two years if he has any inclination at all of going to Whitman.

I remember my first day at Whitman. There was an orientation meeting for all Freshmen in the auditorium. Whitman only has 1200 to 1400  students total.The auditorium easily held everyone.   The President asked everyone to stand up who had received any sort of honor for academics, listing National Merit Finalist and Presidential Award winners first. Three quarters of the audience stood up.   Whitman is pretty intimidating intellectually.

So, we putter on in our lives  and try to stay cheerful, while we wait for news, another somber cloud hanging over the family. We wait.  We have our children to keep us occupied with fun activities.

Updates

For a few days I got worried when it started to be overcast and misty. I need sunny between 50 and 85 degrees, not too much to ask for in order to finish staining the decks. The backside all had to be reached by ladder. I have been up on a ladder every day this week. All but the two story deck is finished front and back. I want someone home if I am going up two stories. Besides my hand and arm are getting sore after a week of using a paint brush. I do want to use up all the stain.

It amazes me how the treated support beams suck up the stain. They are so deprived of moisture you can see the boards renew themselves before your eyes. I don't go in for the weathered look, the boards look too distressed. I figure I am buying ten years of stress free deck by doing all this work. According to the can that is how long the guarantee is for the stain on the deck surface, 25 years for the posts.

Tom asked me why I was doing it by hand and not using the sprayer. The sprayer is so messy and doesn't get the thick  coverage I want, plus the thing leaks. Hand painting is therapy. It is a nice soothing activity. At least it was until I had to climb the ladder for the back side. Ladders are stressful and having to go up, do three feet and come down, and move the ladder to the next section is more work than therapy.

It is keeping me busy though as I wait for news from my parents. They are dealing with a health issue that has us all worried. We wait for news and doctor updates. Keeping active with a big project that I can drop easily is good for me.

Tomorrow is a  big day. I am showing the old house to some prospects. Two potential buyers and one potential tenant family. I decided to go down to be there myself as there are so many people coming through. I can also check on the status of the house since I heard the dogs our current tenant have are causing some damage.

 I thought that my coming down might get my tenant to make an effort to clean up a bit more. What it did do was get him to ask me if he could sign another year. I thought he wanted to move. That is what he told me two months ago. I told him we could discuss it. I want to see the condition of the house and hear what the people coming through say about the house. We would rather sell.

Meanwhile I am the popcorn coordinator for Trevor's scouts. I have a garage full of popcorn if anyone wants to buy some to support the scouting program. 30% goes to the scout himself and 30% goes to the troop for equipment and costs. That is 70%  return. The popcorn is delightful, especially the chocolate covered popcorn.

I sat at Fred Meyers for three hours on Saturday morning keeping a young scout company as he sold popcorn at the door. I have arranged for several other days, but this time the parents are sitting with their own children.

Trevor hasn't been available to sell. He is doing football five nights a week. Last night he played the whole JV game. He was so excited when I picked him up from school after the game. It was an away game. He didn't get home until after 10:00pm. I had driven down to wait for him in the parking lot to save some time. I waited fifteen minutes before the bus pulled in. It will be a long week for that boy.He has a lot more energy than I do. He was so excited to play that much as it is an indicator that he may play on the Varsity team with more play time.

Last week he played all four quarters on the Freshman squad game, so he didn't get any Varsity play time the next night. We will see what happens this week. four quarters in 48 hours is all that is allowed in this league.

We had a home game pot luck dinner last Wednesday at the school. I was assigned to bring drinks. The apple juice was a success the iced tea was not. I also brought a case of water which will be saved for another sport like soccer or tennis since the boys have a water horse and the other sports don't use one.

A water horse looks something like a long saw horse with perforated pipes so a dozen boys  can drink at once. It runs constantly throughout practice. At games there are big water coolers and a water boy who brings refillable  bottles to the players while in the huddle or on the side lines. Trevor had to be water boy last year while he waited for his grades to improve.

I have been researching colleges with Riley. He wants to be an Engineer and go to a medium to small college. I had to snort when the only school that came up with all his criteria was Whitman. He would love it but at over $50,000 a year and they only look at grades 3.7 or better. After last year's report card, he is kind of screwed.

The other college that caught my eye was Southern Oregon U, in Ashland. It doesn't have a full engineering program but a pre engineering program transferring to OSU after two years. They work with OSU throughout the preprogram and have a NASA project with scholarships. Riley wants to do rockets with NASA. It might be a good fit.

University of Montana in Bozeman also came up when I widened the distances. They have an Engineering program, but it is dang cold in Montana. Riley might like Ashland's more milder weather better. It was nice to see the options though and start whittling down the list. I asked him to find a half a dozen schools of interest so we can proceed.

PSAT's are coming up on October 17. Get your college bound high schooler registered this week.

Deck stain

The Gray deck made of faded composite is as old as the house, installed poorly, without staggered boards. Adequate for a while, but eventually will need to be relaid properly. Meanwhile Tom hates the gray and does not want a gray deck. The other half of the deck is newer and made of cedar boards, a recent install or rebuild from the looks of  the newish boards. I didn't want a two tone deck with half gray and half natural cedar stain. I suggested staining the cedar a gray to match the gray composite.  Tom wanted to just stain the cedar natural cedar again. We were kind of having a "discussion" on the topic.

I headed to home depot for stain samples. Tom had asked for cedar semi transparent, though there was enough markings on the deck and discolorations that I also picked up a solid stain to try. I had power washed the neglected deck weeks earlier, so the deck was prepped and ready to stain.
The cedar color once painted on the sample board was not the color Tom wanted. I headed back to Home Depot for more sample colors. Now we were to try Redwood color.

While at Home Depot, I discovered a new solid stain that has recently come on the market for composite decks that have faded with time. Targeted at our specific problem.  This new stain can be put on the unpaintable surfaces of composite decking to change the color. I was giddy. I texted Tom that I had found a perfect solution to our problem of his not liking a gray deck and my not liking a deck with two colors on it. We could put the color of his choice over the whole deck, it would need to be solid colored though. That was a compromise, as he did love the semi transparent, but having seen the semi transparent with all the blemishes showing he agreed to the solid stain.

That agreement on painting the whole deck one color, was only the beginning of our Odyssey. Now we had to find the perfect color we both liked. Supposedly this solid stain will last 10 years without needing to be repainted. We needed to get the color right the first time. Each sample was $4 including tax. I had already bought two samples in the cedar, one solid and one semi transparent. The little squares of color samples did not match at all the final color in the can. Cedar was more of a light vomit color, a little yellow beige. Four trips to Home Depot and nine sample cans later, we  found our color. I had also found a good match to the house cedar siding, for when we finish power washing the beat up Southern exposure.

That in itself was another conversation. Tom is thinking about replacing all the windows that need replacing and at the same time re siding the Southern side of the house with , perhaps, Hardie plank siding. Windows and siding should be done at the same time , I was told. I could see money pouring out, but it does need to be done.

 Between the leaking windows last winter,  and the carpenter ants, we will eventually have to open that can of worms, that Southern wall. I was just hoping to paint that wall and wait on it for a while. We had killed the bugs and caulked the leaks. But, like the kitchen island bothered me to the point of ripping it out, those windows with the bad seals and the warped boards on the exterior wall bother Tom in the same way. We both agree something needs to be done with the siding.  I just would love to give it a new coat of paint. Even though it is probably on its last legs. Tom is ready for the complete replacement.

Back to the deck, I wanted the boys to help but Tom said he wanted a good paint job, so it was just the two of us, starting on the railings first. I wanted to do the back side as far as we could reach, but Tom wanted us to do the front and come back to the back side from below the deck with a roller. I mentioned the crevasses and tight corners, but there was so much to paint I could always get that later. Tom wanted to get the main deck done as quickly as possible so we could use it again soon. We spent hours staining the deck a beautiful Russet color, we both liked, which was more what we would call traditional Redwood but the can calls the color Russet.

After Tom painted the top rail, he turns to me and tells me to go ahead and paint the back side from above. I don't say a word as I lean over the damp top rail, getting Russet stain on my paint shirt while reaching for the back side which I had suggested we do in  the beginning. We found a lot of missed cleaning spots, but that didn't slow us down.

We now have to wait 72 hours for full curing. Tom was the impatient one to get the furniture back on the deck in order to do the rest of the deck. He does want to re scrub everything, but then we have to wait for it all to dry again. I don't want to ruin all our hard work so I am playing the wait time by the book. The composite deck is off limits until Tuesday. Once cured I will move all the furniture over to the fresh side and we will tackle the cedar side of the deck. There is still lots to do, but the gray is gone. I just hope this product lives up to our expectations.

On Friday I went and had my nails done. I treated myself to a French Mani. What was I thinking? I looked at my hands after a day of staining the deck. I was careful and wore surgical gloves all day, but my beautiful paint job on my nails was not so beautiful anymore. Oh, well, the deck is looking good.

This project of deck staining will take weeks. Thank goodness for Indian Summers.

Before

 Before

 After

 

clothes shopping

My class reunion for college is quickly approaching. I am excited to be taking Riley and meeting up with my old college roommate and her son of similar age. Riley told the career councilor that he wanted to work with space and rocketry. Nice that he has a plan. There is a future in that area with all the private rocket companies opening up to service NASA and selling seats to bring anyone  into space. he gets that he has to have the science grades also, to go with his ambitions.

 I made an appointment for a color and cut. I am planning on having a pedicure and a manicure as the date gets closer. Yesterday I went clothes shopping. I used the reunion as my excuse to hit some of the end of summer sales.

I was heavy with guilt over spending any money. but at the end of the day I realized I had spent less on my wardrobe than I had on the boys' back to school clothes. Tom was at the Beaver Wisconsin game sitting in very expensive seats in the club house. One of his seats was about what I spent on the clothes today.

I  came home with seven tops and four sweaters costing me around $150  plus a pair of sandals on sale. Had to buy the sandals at Macy's as the other stores had already taken out their summer stock and brought in the winter boots. I probably spent $200 total today. I still need to get some pants or skirts, but I may have stuff in my closet that will work.

This closet in the basement doesn't work very efficiently. I forget about things I have in my wardrobe,  since I have to leave much of my clothes in the basement. It really makes me want to put up a wall in Riley's room and swipe his nice big huge closet for me. Perhaps another trip to Home Depot is in my near future. 

We stopped at home Depot to buy more shelf brackets for the office. Slowly we will make that small space work for everyone. Tom just needs to tell me his ideas so I can start making them a reality. I am kind of excited about the over stimulation of being able to watch multiple shows at once. I am being only half facetious.

New computer

Tom gave me the task of buying him a new business computer. A task neither of us really wants to do. Tom's dream would be to come home and find the new computer up and running with no effort on his part. I went on line to Dell and got in a chat session with a technician. she built a dream computer for me that would have been sweet, but my top budget was $1000 and the one she designed was $1500. She did not respond to my needs for one less expensive.

I then called a local company and they were going to hold one for me, but I didn't get into see it. I decided to go to Oregon where there is no sales tax and save myself $80. I was going into town anyway to visit Big. He had food poisoning  last weekend and had ended up at the Doctor's. Though the vomiting illness could have been caused by  some new meds, he is in recovery mode. I wanted to see how he was doing and maybe run a few errands for him. Get him some foods he might like to eat on his sensitive stomach.

After visiting with Big, I headed to the computer store. I ended up at Staples. I picked a model out, a Lenova on sale. The floor model turned out to be the last in the store so they discounted it further for me. I also picked out a monitor that they were out of so they sold me an upgrade High Def for the price of the one I wanted. I compromised on the Windows program, picking Home Office over Professional. The difference is no publisher and no access programs. Tom told me he felt he didn't need those two programs and that saved us $200 in price difference. With that $200 I bought a second matching monitor for the dual screen experience. I did have to buy the graphics upgrade and have the store install it while I waited in order to do the dual screens. Tom was salivating on the other end of the phone when I described his new computer with the dual screens.

The screens are now out of the box and sitting on my dining room table, which is as far as he got last night. I laughed that it wasn't the computer he got out first but the TV screens. Today the Beavers play Wisconsin so he had to prioritize. Not enough time to disconnect my computer and move it and set up his new one and make sure it runs well before heading to the game. I told him he could not leave me computer less. Unplugging mine without getting the new one up and running was not an option.

Trevor is salivating also with dreams of finally getting his own computer in his room. He is hard selling me that his teachers are all demanding that everyone have access to a computer. We have been having scheduling issues having to share mine. I like to use my computer also.

We will be rearranging the office to accommodate two stations. Haven't quite figured it out yet. I am off to Home depot for closet shelf brackets to help with the organizing issues. Maybe check out my old favorite Habitat for the Humanities.  Seize the day!!!         

Thats my boy

Trev had a test in his final class of the day on Thursday. The teachers are doing assessments on what students know, to find out what needs to be reviewed and where to start the year. He was supposed to leave class fifteen minutes early to catch the bus to an away game football game. He missed the bus.
He called me "What are you doing right now Mom? Can you drive me to the game?" I was close to the school. I could drive. Since it was a test and I hate that Trevor has to miss accedemic classes for sports, I did not hastle him about missing the bus. He needs to learn how to make arrangements with his teacher's like the other boys.

I waited out front. School was just getting out so there were hundreds of cars trying to get into and out of the parking lot. I was stuck. Trevor calls me to tell me to pick him up out back. I am stuck out front in the lot. I park and walk round the school to the back to get him as he has now put his phone in his locker, as the players can't have phones at the game. He is not answering my calls to let him know there is no way I am moving my car to the back of the building with all these student drivers en mass trying to leave the parking lot.

We finally connect and hustle back to the car. Trev asks me to drive fast in hopes of catching up to the bus. I make good time once we reach the freeway. We don't quite make it to beat the bus as the bus has at least a 15 minute head start. We might have if Trevor had come out front right away but we lost time in the parking lot trying to connect. I am told, as I sit down in the bleachers, that the team has only just arrived five minutes before. The bus driver was very slow, which bought us more make up time. I did drive fast on the freeway and we found the team right away on the field they were playing.

Coach told Trevor next time to just go to practice and not try to get to the game, if he misses the bus again. Hopefully he wont miss the bus again. Last year he missed team pictures because he forgot he was supposed to come hours early on picture day. This year another boy missed that detail but Trevor was in the team photo on time and where he was supposed to be. He just has to learn things the hard way.

Trevor seems to be a second half player. He says there is a rule that players can only play four quarters in a 48 hour window. With C squad on Thursdays and Varsity on Fridays, Trev has to sit out two quarters of either game, not knowing if he will even play at the varsity game. Monday's, on JV he can play as much as the coach allows.

Tom didn't go to the Varsity game. He figured Trev was just dressing down for show. Tom didn't expect the coach to play Trevor. Trevor is a classic solid line man. Not fast but does his job, he has even made a few tackles of note.

I sat in the bleachers reading the program the first half of the game as Trev was standing on the sideline. The first quarter ended with our team up 42 to 0. By half time the score was 63 to 0. If coach was ever going to play his second string players, this would be the game. Trev went in third quarter. I texted Tom. Trev played with his heart in the game. He was hustling and trying to run as fast as he could. He knew this was his window of opportunity. He worked it. He played defense, busting through the offensive line after the opponents' quarterback.

Trevor went for the  receiver holding the ball, plowing through the offensive guards. the receiver paused to change direction away from Trevor giving one of  Trevor's  team mates time to slap the ball, which fell to the ground. Trevor threw his full weight on top of that loose ball. After the whistle was blown, Trevor rose from the ground with the ball in his hands. The announcer in the stands called out his number and name as having recovered the loose ball, causing a turn over.

I was in the stands shrieking "That's my boy. That is Trevor!!". With all the cheering around us for the turn over, only my friend sitting next to me heard the pride in my voice and chuckled, as I spent the first half of the game with my nose in the magazine not even paying attention

. Fourth quarter Trevor got some more time on the field but coach was putting in the little guys by fourth quarter. The visiting team could not hold onto the ball. With the score 63 to 0, even the home team parents were rooting for the underdogs. Big groans went up every time the ball was dropped or the visitors made a mistake. We were all hoping that the painfully embarrassing game would soon come to an end. I would have loved to see them score, just not while Trevor was on the field defending. But the opponents couldn't even score against the third string freshman players. They had worn themselves out in the long game struggle.

I was so proud of Trevor and his ability to make a big play. He will get a sticker on his helmet even with the acknowledgement  they were playing  a far inferior team. He did not blow his opportunity on the field and he played in his first Varsity game and he made a big play. This does mean that I may have to go to three games a week, even the away games.

I put out an e mail to the team parents offering to car pool. One other mom got back to me, so at least I will have company for the long drives. I just have to go prepared, knowing that Trevor will only be playing half the game in order to have the opportunity to play half the game in Varsity. But if he gets enough quarters in he could get a Varsity letter.

Trevor was so wound up after the game, he said the team sang and cheered all the way back to the school locker room. When we got home he made himself a grilled cheese and ham sandwich, we looked at the program together. It was late but we were both so excited about the evening it took a long time to get calm enough to go to sleep. Trev had to be up in the morning and at the school by 8:30 to watch the game tapes with the Varsity team. He glowed with well deserved pride.
                 

Party on

The party was fun. Here I had thought I had bought plenty of food with twenty brots, two family packs of chicken, thighs and drumsticks, about 24 or more pieces, and two racks of ribs singly cut, 25 ribs. There was no meat left over at all. People ate and ate and came back for more. One couple arrived late, I had to scrounge off the platter the children had in their game room, to find one last piece of chicken.

 I loved again how easy this house flows for a party. We had three glasses of wine spilled at least, and one broken glass. I announced how much I loved having the carpets gone, each time I quickly wiped up each of the spills, with a paper towel,  until people started saying how they got it, that I love my new floors and how easy they clean up a spill.

Some one asked what I had done to the house since we moved in, someone else responded with "What has she not done". It has been a busy year. In one year, our first year, we did new hardwood floors in the man cave with new furniture, our first project. Ripped out the carpet in Riley's room, even before the man cave.

Tom did a dump run with a friend with all the carpet, the beat up pool table that came with the house, and some items left by the previous owner, including the demolished hot tub with carpenter ants from the deck. I steadily plugged away at the blackberries for two months. Hand clipping them down to the ground then spraying crossbow with sticker solution to suppress. Now I need a weed eater to keep the grass down.

 The kitchen island was my summer  project this summer. The carpet gone in the family room came next, which lead to the hall upstairs, ripping out carpet, and the completion of finally putting a floor down over the sub floor in Riley's room.   The laminate in Trevor's room and the replacement of the laminate in the hall that I didn't like after all, with the same flooring as Riley's room came right after. I was on a roll that week having come upon some great flooring.

   That flooring looked so good a party goer mistook the floor for real Oak until I told her to reach down and touch it. I may never do laminate again when the vinyl is so much easier to install and a similar price. It can be laid directly on concrete also. I will probably do the basement with vinyl eventually.

While shopping , i.e. browsing Home Depot, I had a conversation with an employee who showed me the next generation of flooring  products. There is now a vinyl that mimics  12 x 12 tile squares that you can grout the seams for an even more authentic look of real tile. Soft edges on the vinyl squares give the illusion of depth. No heavy tile, the squares stick down without mortar, just grout the edges for the look of a tile floor. Though why you would want grout to clean is a consideration. You can also lay these squares close together without the grout seams. No worry about the weight of tile on a structure when using the light vinyl tiles. No reinforcement,  no.special sub floor, easy easy install. But I am all about the deal so I will wait as the price is still in the new product range. Just thinking if I could use one square to cover a broken tile, it would make for an easy fix. Hm.

I can tell my next ambition will be to get the plumber in to move the laundry, with an electrician for the wiring. Just waiting for a complete drain clog so I have an excuse.

Meanwhile, don't stress any spills, they wipe up easily. Even the last dog sit was easy. First day I had a friend's dog for the weekend, her dog that was not house broken, left me a liquid present, or maybe she was marking her territory.  I just wiped it up, no smell no spot, no  bother, no crankiness. Love not dealing with carpet.

For Tom's birthday this year we had the pool table we brought with us completely rebuilt with new rubber bumpers and new felt. It was great success for the man cave durring the party. That room has turned out to be just lovely. Tom has some things he would still like to do to the space, but it works beautifully now. I am told it definately adds value to the house.

Trevor carried the slate from the old table into the back yard where I used it as patio pavers for the basement doors. Recycle, reuse where we can.  Slowly we are making the neglected huge monster of a house loved again.





 

BBQing today

Labor day weekend. Tom has the long weekend. He went golfing with friends and came home to let me know that we were going to BBQ on Sunday. We love our big BBQ's. Inviting everyone we know and usually have a pretty decent turn out. I cook with the expectation of thirty people or so showing up. Same meal every time.

Pork ribs, chicken, and brots, with home made potato salad and Caesar salad are served every time. I also picked up a water melon and some fresh corn on the cob. The price of corn has yet to really rise at the stores around here due to the drought in the mid west. It is probably local corn and we had a lovely summer.

I went to the store early on Sunday so I wouldn't have to worry about refrigerating a lot of food. I ended up doing a big shop and spending close to $500. Not just on the BBQ, but we needed everything from toilet paper to shaving cream. Riley wanted a new raiser blade and since school is starting I stocked up on soap and shampoos. Want to make sure my boys smell clean. It all just added up.

It was a lot of groceries. I had to use two shopping carts. I did one round then bought all those groceries loaded them into the car and went back for the pop and booze: Bud light and cheap wine for the party. I have been doing so well with my grocery bills recently. But what I find is I go through the existing stored supplies until I have to restock big. I doubt that I have really been doing that well then on my grocery bills.

Everyone has been wanting lots of frozen foods which are both cheap and expensive. Cheap to buy yet we eat so much of it, it is expensive in bulk  to replace. The boys eat frozen pizzas for snacks. Frozen lasagna and pot pies are also snack food. With school starting next week I wanted to have some easy after school treats in the house. Also, things they can put in their backpacks for snacks at school. Anyway, the bill was $350 for the first heaping cart, and $90 for the second cart of food.

Later, after we had unpacked and put everything away and got set up for the party I realized I forgot charcoal briquettes so I will be heading back to the store shortly to get a big bag.

 I have to say again what a pleasure it is to work in my kitchen with a working island. As the boys brought in the groceries, there was somewhere to put the bags and unpack. As we prepared food there was room for everyone to work . Unpacking while peeling potatoes while washing dirty dishes in the sink, room for everyone to spread out and operate.