A day of accomplishments

 

I should probably add some pictures, so I'll see what's on the computer. Today was just a good day, full of accomplishments. These days haven't been frequent enough because of a number of things: moving, preparing the condo for sale, doing showings at the condo, selling another condo that's about 45 minutes away and helping someone buy a condo about an hour away from me. So all of those trips take roughly 3 hour chunks out of my day if I stay for an hour. That's a lot of time.

 

Today was not like that though. Today was "productive". Those other days are productive, but this is better productive. Things were done around the house that made it better to live in....THAT kind of productive. A gate I installed at the top of the stairs to keep Thomas from falling down them had come loose. Doesn't seem possible since I used toggle bolts (3 of them), but there it was...loose. So yesterday I realized the toggles never deployed! They were just sitting inside the hole in the drywall, unopened and provided some support initially. Eventually they worked themselves loose though. When I saw the toggles not deployed, I knew what happened. User error, which is usually the case in DIY projects. This time I did it right though and that gate is definitely secure now!

 

We bought two toilet seats with inserts that come down so Marissa can start using the "big girl" potty. I installed two of them today and she immediately said "I am NOT going to use them!" Fortunately, that was incorrect and she even used it before the night was out. Very happy. Laura is REALLY happy.

 

Downstairs we have many boxes left to unpack and put away. The thing with moving every 24 years is that you accumulate a LOT of crap. Or maybe just stuff. Some crap, but lots of stuff. So there's about 18 boxes of stuff that we have NOT unpacked at this point. Today I decided I would unpack one box a week until they were all unpacked. That was before I realized there were 18 boxes so maybe I'll do two a week. Today I did two or three, so that's a great start. I also put some carpet samples up in the attic storage in the garage, which made the garage a little easier to move around in. I moved some other stuff around and it was even easier. Then I pitched some things and it was even better! Progress!!

 

Due to some problems with our movers, we blew them up on different websites and got them to settle with us at a number 10x what they initially offered (a laughable amount). Today we got the release document signed and the last of the websites to take down the review I wrote. That paves the way for payment.

 

For work, I followed up on a real estate lead and dug for information from a website that paved the way for me to help them out in the spring. Good stuff!

 

Every day has lots of interaction with my kids and Laura, so that's always good. Today we took a nature hike after dinner along a paved trail across the street that winds through some woods and a few ponds. I try to point out nature things and animals. We saw three deer, some yellow finches and we found a few acorns, which I was able to secure a good shell and made a super loud whistle out of it the first time I tried! It was awesome.

 

This Saturday is our 5th wedding anniversary and also a Bears home game (preseason) so I listed the tickets on Stubhub. But I also emailed two buddies to see if they could use them in the event that they don't sell.

 

And now I've written a blog post. That's a good day!!

 

 

  

Before pictures of the playset in the back yard. I have some blue painters tape around some things I couldn't remove or wanted to protect. I didn't remember to take "before" pictures right away. 

 

 

 

The rusty rungs.

 

 

Now they are spray painted forest green!

 

 

 

Look how rich and nice it looks now! My neighbors had one that looked like my "before" picture and after I was done with mine, they just tore theirs down. Already improving the neighborhood!