Quite the long move, eh?

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p>Question: what does one do when one person isn't working and the other only has a contract?</p?

Answer: Buy a house!

Assuming we get what we want for our house, we will be moving in Oct/Nov into our new house!

This house has an amazing suite and a decent backyard. The inside is circa 1987, but we can fix that gradually as it is in great shape!

The best part is that it is about a 2 minute walk from our current house!

We must be nuts, eh?

The other day Christine commented that she feels like our place is finally coming together and I have to say I agree. Most of the interior issues are resolved with only either really minor things (light fixtures, etc) or some major ones that need some fiscal planning (W/D, new flooring, etc). And we recently made some major improvements to the back garden; we removed some ugly paving stones, shaped in a garden, moved some plants and put in some sod. The only thing left to do is weed and put bark mulch in and our garden will look great!

We are contemplating fixing up the back patio as well; it looks like the most cost effective solution will be to replace the crappy, ugly, broken, uneven paving stones with matching 10mm aggregate, remove the rotting wood spacers, acid washing the other two aggregate slabs, then sealing the whole lot of them. That will give us a nice, nearly new surface to work on and we plan on getting rid of the ugly awning and replacing it with something nicer and moving the awning to be over our sliding door. Then once we get rid of our patio set (we don't use it and it is hard to store) and get our new fancy, schmancy BBQ, we will have a calming place to admire our pretty garden and some space for the kids to play.

On the work front, both Christine and I are really enjoying me working at home. I am going to try to start work early and then take a break in the afternoon to spend time with the family (so Christine can take a break), then pick up work again in the evening once the girls go to sleep. I have also started working out again and plan on doing that two times a week. Working from home feels "right" to me and I really hope I can continue it when I become gainfully employed again. Regarding that, the contract I am on can be full time if I so choose, so we have no financial worries. It also gives me the ability to really find the perfect job (again), although I don't expect anything to happen until the fall as summer is slow and the American economy is lousy.

On top of all that, Christine's fitness business is starting to gain some traction and the girls are doing great, so life couldn't be much better!

So, how did I do with my overly optimistic vacation plan?

Not too bad actually. Here's what's been done:

• installed bathroom light
• installed shower door
• caulked shower so that it is ready to go (finally!!!!!)
• removed caulk from counter
• caulked counter
• patched, sanded and painted bathroom walls
• fixed shed door
• emptied shed
• re-filled shed with garden stuff, painting stuff and miscellaneous shed-like items
• patched, cleaned, sanded, primed and painted garage walls
• put up two lights, one garage and one entrance (I broke it on Monday)
• planned shelves and storage units (going to make/purchase them tomorrow)
• got curtain rod installed (to separate the 'quiet room' from the garage)

On the agenda tomorrow:

• make/buy shelving units
• clean floor
• lay rug
• hang curtain
• organize garage-side

Whew...

I am taking next week off of work. However, we aren’t going anywhere; instead I will be doing work around the house. Here is my schedule so far:

Sunday:

• install light
• paint trim
• remove caulk from shower
• install shower faucets and sink faucets
• install shower door
• caulk
• fix hole in wall
• install trim

Monday (mostly play time with family):

• sand bathroom wall
• touch up wall repair

Tuesday:

• fix shed door
• empty shed
• put paint, garden stuff, camping stuff, snowboard gear in shed
• move EVERYTHING out of garage
• sand, patch, clean walls
• paint walls
• clean floor
• bring containers to Fetterly's

That’s all I have so far. Wednesday will be garage organizing day. We think we are going to use MAXIT products for our organization.

Not sure what the plan is for Thursday, Friday, but it might involve the kitchen cabinets.