There are less than a handful of hours left to February. So that means coming up tomorrow... March!
March is the month when Spring officially arrives, days get longer, and warmer and more things blossom, grow and green up! I can't wait for it to get like that! I am looking forward to planting seeds again on my balcony garden to see what will sprout and grow and even give me good things to eat. The winds kicked upwards of 50-60 mph a few nights ago and we heard some loud bangs coming from the roof? Who knows. It looked fine the next morning. All the plants that were on the back balcony were on their side by the next morning. Not only that a glider chair and rug it was on got picked up or pushed by the wind to the far side of the balcony! Wow! Even though the plants had fallen over, they appear to be hardy enough that they will be coming back! Some dark green new leaves have been pushing up and that is great!
March is also when my dad turns 87! He still is going strong, playing and directing bridge and working on the lathe turn his lamps. I hope I have the stamina that he does when I am his age! Go Dad!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Cleaning and Finances
So yesterday I updated my spreadsheet of household expenses. Yes I keep a monthly income and expenses record, which I consider my personal profit and loss statement. I don't keep every nickle and dime accounted for but the monthly bills and grocery costs are kept track of. The misc withdrawals have a category of their own which includes the nickel and dime stuff (occasional fast food run, milk run, stuff like that). While I was extremely happy that my youngest helped us out by finding a lower cell phone plan with our existing cell phone company, and I was able to lower our cable Internet bill, and our auto insurance premium went down a little..I got a notice that our mortgage payment is going up by over $100/month. There goes any decrease in the monthly outlay!
I was not surprised that the mortgage payment was going up as I knew they were using 2011's taxes for the monthly escrow amount and it was higher in 2012 and so now they need to increase the payment and make up for the loss they didn't collect last year. Mortgage companies do that all the time and being in the business, again I was not surprised. But it does feel like one step forward and two steps back these days.
As much as I appreciate my hubby saying he'll pitch in and do most of the cleaning, I think the spirit of it has petered out! Let's face it, cleaning is a thankless job. The dust is back by the next day and grimy floor (with the help of 5 dogs) is back within a day or two as well. After exercising, I spent this morning cleaning and vacuuming in the living room and scrubbing the kitchen floor. And after looking at the expenses as they sit now, just when I thought I could justify getting a cleaning person, poof, it is gone! I still want to save for the new metal roof and know that we will need a new water heater at some point (and a bathroom remodel in a few years), it is hard for me to 'waste' money on housecleaning. When I work on the weekends I don't have time to clean and when I don't work on a weekend I don't want to spend it cleaning, :-)
I think what I may do is talk to hub about getting someone to clean once a month, a good thorough cleaning, Then the rest of the time we both can clean at least lightly. That may work. Then when I do have a free weekend I can have it to relax, refuel, unwind and just enjoy LIFE for once!
Okay, off to walk the dogs, then shower, then no more cleaning for today. I am baking a crumb apple pie as I've been having a hankering for that! So it will be a fun afternoon! Can't wait for the smell of apple pie to waft throughout the house. Later!
I was not surprised that the mortgage payment was going up as I knew they were using 2011's taxes for the monthly escrow amount and it was higher in 2012 and so now they need to increase the payment and make up for the loss they didn't collect last year. Mortgage companies do that all the time and being in the business, again I was not surprised. But it does feel like one step forward and two steps back these days.
As much as I appreciate my hubby saying he'll pitch in and do most of the cleaning, I think the spirit of it has petered out! Let's face it, cleaning is a thankless job. The dust is back by the next day and grimy floor (with the help of 5 dogs) is back within a day or two as well. After exercising, I spent this morning cleaning and vacuuming in the living room and scrubbing the kitchen floor. And after looking at the expenses as they sit now, just when I thought I could justify getting a cleaning person, poof, it is gone! I still want to save for the new metal roof and know that we will need a new water heater at some point (and a bathroom remodel in a few years), it is hard for me to 'waste' money on housecleaning. When I work on the weekends I don't have time to clean and when I don't work on a weekend I don't want to spend it cleaning, :-)
I think what I may do is talk to hub about getting someone to clean once a month, a good thorough cleaning, Then the rest of the time we both can clean at least lightly. That may work. Then when I do have a free weekend I can have it to relax, refuel, unwind and just enjoy LIFE for once!
Okay, off to walk the dogs, then shower, then no more cleaning for today. I am baking a crumb apple pie as I've been having a hankering for that! So it will be a fun afternoon! Can't wait for the smell of apple pie to waft throughout the house. Later!
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Saturday (not) in the Park
Okay so it is not Saturday in the Park weather quite yet (if you don't know that song by Chicago you won't understand). Still getting down to the 30's at night here in Central Texas and maybe low 60's during the day. Yes, relative to everywhere else that has it a lot worse including snow/ice, this IS Spring but not quite warm enough for me. After nearly 8 years my blood is getting thin!
I finished up a little work this morning and today I am meeting my sister for an early lunch (I think, still waiting for where we are meeting). It will be nice to have lunch and catch up on things. She lives only in the next town over but we just don't get together very much.
I have to share pics of how my office often looks like on the floor as four of the five furkids were in here the other day and I happened to have the camera handy.
Merlin's fine...if you look real closely you can see him smiling :)
They just love to be near me I guess. My office is tiny, only 11 1/2 ft by 5 ft (2 ft of that 11 1/2 feet is taken up with shelf space). I actually didn't think it was even 11 feet wide.
Anyway, looking forward to relaxing the rest of the weekend!
I finished up a little work this morning and today I am meeting my sister for an early lunch (I think, still waiting for where we are meeting). It will be nice to have lunch and catch up on things. She lives only in the next town over but we just don't get together very much.
I have to share pics of how my office often looks like on the floor as four of the five furkids were in here the other day and I happened to have the camera handy.
They just love to be near me I guess. My office is tiny, only 11 1/2 ft by 5 ft (2 ft of that 11 1/2 feet is taken up with shelf space). I actually didn't think it was even 11 feet wide.
Anyway, looking forward to relaxing the rest of the weekend!
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Been a bit
I haven't posted for a while but that is because I was in Dallas in training from Tuesday to yesterday. I am so glad to be home again!!! I hate traveling for work. Sometimes it is just necessary, but doesn't mean I like it. I was lucky in that I just had to drive 3 hours to get there. Others had to fly in from other states.
Besides the drive, the hotel stay was a big challenge. Between the heater in the room that sounded like I was inside a commercial dryer, the airport being practically right next to the hotel, so I could hear all the flights that started sometime around 5:30AM, and the toilet that flushed with such force, if my butt had been on it, I think it would have sucked my butt down into it, it was not a 'relaxing' stay. :-)
And just like the last time I went for training, I ended up one night sick to my stomach tossing my 'cookies', well rather I think it was greasy onion rings but I'm not sure. That happened in the wee hours yesterday morning (Friday), so it was a long drive coming home yesterday afternoon and I could not be happier when I pulled into the driveway.
This weekend is turning out to be great though! My stomach (and headache that followed) are gone after a good night's rest at home and my youngest is home visiting which is always nice! We all went out to dinner for a nice treat and are relaxing chatting and watching Pit Bulls and Parolees. There is not much else on TV on Saturday nights and besides I like that program). Ahhh there's no place like home.
Besides the drive, the hotel stay was a big challenge. Between the heater in the room that sounded like I was inside a commercial dryer, the airport being practically right next to the hotel, so I could hear all the flights that started sometime around 5:30AM, and the toilet that flushed with such force, if my butt had been on it, I think it would have sucked my butt down into it, it was not a 'relaxing' stay. :-)
And just like the last time I went for training, I ended up one night sick to my stomach tossing my 'cookies', well rather I think it was greasy onion rings but I'm not sure. That happened in the wee hours yesterday morning (Friday), so it was a long drive coming home yesterday afternoon and I could not be happier when I pulled into the driveway.
This weekend is turning out to be great though! My stomach (and headache that followed) are gone after a good night's rest at home and my youngest is home visiting which is always nice! We all went out to dinner for a nice treat and are relaxing chatting and watching Pit Bulls and Parolees. There is not much else on TV on Saturday nights and besides I like that program). Ahhh there's no place like home.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Too many opinions..
We had another plumber come out and asked about getting a tankless water heater. The cost to get one of those was $4000. Ouch! Then he suggested we find out about rebates that there may be for getting this type of water heater. He got my hopes up that there may be upwards of $1500 rebate which made it sound a little more possible. Well there were no rebates locally. The only thing I could find was an energy credit for $300 come tax time next year. This plumber had really talked up the tankless so I thought why not get a few more quotes?
I called two local plumbers from the phone book. By the time I got off the phone with the first one, he had talked me out of tankless. There have been lots of problems with them around here building up with lime. If we got one it would have to be serviced once a year at least to get rid of the lime. No thank you. Way more expensive and then more maintenance? Forget it.
The second one I talked to was actually the first one who asked why we were even replacing ours? He asked if it was leaking. I told him no but it is 20 years old and I was worried we were playing Russian roulette with it. He said he has seen some that last upwards of 40 years and usually when they go, they start with a leak that goes to the drip pan and then out the house via the pipe connected to the drip pan. So it is unlikely it will go to the extend of flooding the closet it is in. Well that was actually nice to hear. We may just keep it then and know that it is something that will need replacing sooner than later.
It is just so interesting how we get so many different opinions and quotes!
Got the taxes done yesterday, just need to wait on ours to see if there is/was some change to the education credit which is fine with me. At least for the most part it is done. One great reason for living in TX is no state or local tax return, so it is just the one tax return.
Now to relax in front of the TV, with a cup of hot chocolate.
I called two local plumbers from the phone book. By the time I got off the phone with the first one, he had talked me out of tankless. There have been lots of problems with them around here building up with lime. If we got one it would have to be serviced once a year at least to get rid of the lime. No thank you. Way more expensive and then more maintenance? Forget it.
The second one I talked to was actually the first one who asked why we were even replacing ours? He asked if it was leaking. I told him no but it is 20 years old and I was worried we were playing Russian roulette with it. He said he has seen some that last upwards of 40 years and usually when they go, they start with a leak that goes to the drip pan and then out the house via the pipe connected to the drip pan. So it is unlikely it will go to the extend of flooding the closet it is in. Well that was actually nice to hear. We may just keep it then and know that it is something that will need replacing sooner than later.
It is just so interesting how we get so many different opinions and quotes!
Got the taxes done yesterday, just need to wait on ours to see if there is/was some change to the education credit which is fine with me. At least for the most part it is done. One great reason for living in TX is no state or local tax return, so it is just the one tax return.
Now to relax in front of the TV, with a cup of hot chocolate.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Did it again!
My hubby did it again! I swore that I would notice this time when he shaved his winter beard that he grows every year for a few months. But yesterday he had to tell me I didn't notice something and bam! I had not noticed! He had done it the night before. He said that now I can't get annoyed when he doesn't notice when I am wearing 'make up'. Pffft :)
Tomorrow we are having another plumber out to give us an estimate. Havent' really bothered with it this week much. I'm going to get in idea of tankless vs the old fashioned kind. The good thing about the fact that our current one still works fine is that we aren't pressured to hurry up and make a decision.
Since I haven't had to work weekends lately, I will likely work on taxes this weekend. Have both the girls to do and our own. This year I am thrilled that we will have fairly easy returns, no schedule C's. Yeah!! Hope we can still get the education credit for the oldest. I think we can. I'll find out.
Tomorrow is Friday! Yeah!!! Pizza and beer night!
Tomorrow we are having another plumber out to give us an estimate. Havent' really bothered with it this week much. I'm going to get in idea of tankless vs the old fashioned kind. The good thing about the fact that our current one still works fine is that we aren't pressured to hurry up and make a decision.
Since I haven't had to work weekends lately, I will likely work on taxes this weekend. Have both the girls to do and our own. This year I am thrilled that we will have fairly easy returns, no schedule C's. Yeah!! Hope we can still get the education credit for the oldest. I think we can. I'll find out.
Tomorrow is Friday! Yeah!!! Pizza and beer night!
Saturday, February 2, 2013
The search is on..
Since my focus has changed from a bathroom remodel to more practical things that are needed around here, I decided it was time to look into a hot water heater replacement. Hubby found a receipt next to the old one and it was from 1993, so it is 20 years old. Yikes. Yes, it is probably time to replace it before it has a melt down or springs a leak!
So we are planning to get several estimates. I don't like just getting one price and being pressured to decide that day to chose that plumber. Well yesterday we had our first estimate by a company that advertises in our local yellow pages, but turns out is actually based in Austin. I hate when companies do that. I try to use local businesses only. Anyway, this guy came out and was basically shaking his head and indicating all sorts of issues with our heater situation. The hot water heater is in a closet all by itself with the exception of some wall shelves. It is on the second floor, where our washer and dryer also are (likely why it was installed there). There is plastic piping going into the side wall which this guy had no clue where that went to. We looked all around outside and in the garage and he asked us if we weren't sure there was a pipe or sink in the garage. Hello! We all just looked there. He was talking about having to bring it up to code, get it inspected, get an alarm system on it, possibly going through walls, and I could not believe how anxious he made me feel! I looked at my hub and he looked at me. It was not suppose to be that big of a deal. We are talking about a water heater...not a new central air conditioner/heating unit.
All we want is a new gas tank hot water heater. I wasn't even looking to go tankless although now I'd like to get a few estimates for that too. When it was all said and done I did not like, nor trust this guy's ability to even do the job and he gave us a quote to the tune of $2000...possibly more if complications. I can only guess that he didn't want the job so he made it sound as horrible as possible.
On to more quotes then. I did get a call back from one place last night after giving the lady a few specifics as to where our current hot water heater was located, whether gas, propane or electric and what size we wanted. She said she was calling the owner and would call me back with a quote. I did get a call back and the quote is $750. Well, that is very nice, but getting a quote without looking at the job? Should I take that one seriously? What if they came and then said they didn't realize there was this problem or the other. Perhaps there would be no problems, but the first guy we had out did a number on my head. Hubby was angry with the first guy and said he could just do it himself, but I don't want him to. He is not a plumber.
There is someone coming out Monday to give us a quote and we also got a phone quote from a plumber we have used (but depending on who comes out we may or may not like). Their quote was around $900, again site unseen though. So we'll see what happens. I am trying to save for a new metal roof, so I am not about to shell out $2000 on a new hot water heater. If it is going to cost that much I want to look into tankless anyway. Going tankless against the inside wall would give us the option of making the small bathroom that is next to that closet longer by at least 2 feet if we took some of that closet space and made it longer bathroom instead. We could eliminate the shelves that aren't used to store much, and just bring that wall in. We'll see.
Since we are not doing our bathroom any time soon I have been exploring ways to spruce it up a little at least. I want to strip the wallpaper that is also 30 years old (found online can use water and liquid fabric softener to strip old), and paint it a nice light color maybe a light mint green. Not sure on that yet. And I have looked around the Internet for some tile stickers and found a place that I can buy solid colored stickers (they had patterns too but I just want to brighten up the bathroom). So I am going to get some cream colored ones and make a pattern (large triangle skipping spaces between) in the shower area to lighten that up. Our wall tile is a puke brown with yellow/green undertones. Hard to describe really and does not match the bathtub, never has. But I'll deal with that. Then hubby has enough laminates laying around to do the tiny tub/toilet area floor to go over the ugly vinyl that is there. The area is really small. It is only 58 inches by 33 inches and that includes where the toilet is. That should freshen it up some and make it easier to live with for a few more years until we can get it remodeled.
By the way, back to the water heater... it was bothering me as to where that pipe into the wall was going and I was talking with hub about it. I asked him if that plumber (and I use that term loosely at this point) considered the attic. We have a full attic up there and apparently that wasn't considered so I pulled down the stairs to it this morning and sure enough there is a larger pipe that comes up from the 2nd floor leading outside that is over in that area of the hot water heater. That is probably it so there is no pipe to nowhere situation!
This morning I went out to our cable company office because when we were having tons of Internet troubles a few weeks ago, the tech on the phone told me we could save $30/mo on our bill if we just got a Direct TV box for our TV. I don't know much about it but saving on the bill is worth it! We don't even have to install it, just had to pick up the box for the rate drop. When I went in and was getting the box,cable and instructions I asked the gal how much this was going to save me. She said about $10, and I told her the guy told me $33/mo (and I actually wrote that down on a billing statement when I spoke to him). It was conveyed that if I increase my Internet speed with another 'box' it would lower my payment more. Turns out though I already am using a splitter so that won't work. They were extremely nice to me though and gave me another special they had and bottom line is, it knocked $37/mo off our monthly bill! That was a chore on my to do list, well worth it!
Off to do the dishes and some laundry.
So we are planning to get several estimates. I don't like just getting one price and being pressured to decide that day to chose that plumber. Well yesterday we had our first estimate by a company that advertises in our local yellow pages, but turns out is actually based in Austin. I hate when companies do that. I try to use local businesses only. Anyway, this guy came out and was basically shaking his head and indicating all sorts of issues with our heater situation. The hot water heater is in a closet all by itself with the exception of some wall shelves. It is on the second floor, where our washer and dryer also are (likely why it was installed there). There is plastic piping going into the side wall which this guy had no clue where that went to. We looked all around outside and in the garage and he asked us if we weren't sure there was a pipe or sink in the garage. Hello! We all just looked there. He was talking about having to bring it up to code, get it inspected, get an alarm system on it, possibly going through walls, and I could not believe how anxious he made me feel! I looked at my hub and he looked at me. It was not suppose to be that big of a deal. We are talking about a water heater...not a new central air conditioner/heating unit.
All we want is a new gas tank hot water heater. I wasn't even looking to go tankless although now I'd like to get a few estimates for that too. When it was all said and done I did not like, nor trust this guy's ability to even do the job and he gave us a quote to the tune of $2000...possibly more if complications. I can only guess that he didn't want the job so he made it sound as horrible as possible.
On to more quotes then. I did get a call back from one place last night after giving the lady a few specifics as to where our current hot water heater was located, whether gas, propane or electric and what size we wanted. She said she was calling the owner and would call me back with a quote. I did get a call back and the quote is $750. Well, that is very nice, but getting a quote without looking at the job? Should I take that one seriously? What if they came and then said they didn't realize there was this problem or the other. Perhaps there would be no problems, but the first guy we had out did a number on my head. Hubby was angry with the first guy and said he could just do it himself, but I don't want him to. He is not a plumber.
There is someone coming out Monday to give us a quote and we also got a phone quote from a plumber we have used (but depending on who comes out we may or may not like). Their quote was around $900, again site unseen though. So we'll see what happens. I am trying to save for a new metal roof, so I am not about to shell out $2000 on a new hot water heater. If it is going to cost that much I want to look into tankless anyway. Going tankless against the inside wall would give us the option of making the small bathroom that is next to that closet longer by at least 2 feet if we took some of that closet space and made it longer bathroom instead. We could eliminate the shelves that aren't used to store much, and just bring that wall in. We'll see.
Since we are not doing our bathroom any time soon I have been exploring ways to spruce it up a little at least. I want to strip the wallpaper that is also 30 years old (found online can use water and liquid fabric softener to strip old), and paint it a nice light color maybe a light mint green. Not sure on that yet. And I have looked around the Internet for some tile stickers and found a place that I can buy solid colored stickers (they had patterns too but I just want to brighten up the bathroom). So I am going to get some cream colored ones and make a pattern (large triangle skipping spaces between) in the shower area to lighten that up. Our wall tile is a puke brown with yellow/green undertones. Hard to describe really and does not match the bathtub, never has. But I'll deal with that. Then hubby has enough laminates laying around to do the tiny tub/toilet area floor to go over the ugly vinyl that is there. The area is really small. It is only 58 inches by 33 inches and that includes where the toilet is. That should freshen it up some and make it easier to live with for a few more years until we can get it remodeled.
By the way, back to the water heater... it was bothering me as to where that pipe into the wall was going and I was talking with hub about it. I asked him if that plumber (and I use that term loosely at this point) considered the attic. We have a full attic up there and apparently that wasn't considered so I pulled down the stairs to it this morning and sure enough there is a larger pipe that comes up from the 2nd floor leading outside that is over in that area of the hot water heater. That is probably it so there is no pipe to nowhere situation!
This morning I went out to our cable company office because when we were having tons of Internet troubles a few weeks ago, the tech on the phone told me we could save $30/mo on our bill if we just got a Direct TV box for our TV. I don't know much about it but saving on the bill is worth it! We don't even have to install it, just had to pick up the box for the rate drop. When I went in and was getting the box,cable and instructions I asked the gal how much this was going to save me. She said about $10, and I told her the guy told me $33/mo (and I actually wrote that down on a billing statement when I spoke to him). It was conveyed that if I increase my Internet speed with another 'box' it would lower my payment more. Turns out though I already am using a splitter so that won't work. They were extremely nice to me though and gave me another special they had and bottom line is, it knocked $37/mo off our monthly bill! That was a chore on my to do list, well worth it!
Off to do the dishes and some laundry.
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