Thursday, October 13, 2016

Life experience

Last night I went and looked at a house my son was thinking about buying. My life experience of buying three houses, working on those houses, and 20+ years of This Old House shows is what I had to bring to the table. This is the house

What I pointed out was: the top 3 feet of the chimney was leaning, it needs rebuilt and a cap; the nails holding the gutter on one side were coming out; the replacement window were cheap and need replaced. We went in to the house and I tried to open a window and couldn't get the window unlocked fully and it would lock fully so I couldn't open it; the house had no A/C and the panel would have to be changed as it was too small to add breakers for A/C; the furnace had rust on it; there was knob and tube gerryrigged into more modern wiring; the upstairs was finished , but not very well and was very warm for such a cool day it was yesterday. There was no way of know how the roof was insulated and the workmanship of the finishes was amateur. We were able to look in the attic crawl space and there wasn't much insulation so my guess there wasn't much between the drywall and the roof; the kitchen was extremely outdated and tiny. You could not fully open the back door to go down to the basement because it would hit the refrigerator; the only full bathroom was also tiny; the front porch was closed in years ago, but there is no heat so the people living there put a drape up between the living room and the porch that we assumed to keep the cold draft from the porch at bay; there is no garage door opener and no man door for the garage. We couldn't even go into the garage because it was full of there stuff; the concrete driveway and the concrete at front entry to the house was crack and both are going to need to be replaced; there looked like there were electrical issues as they were using extension cords and those plug in units so you can plug more stuff in.

For the money they were asking, there was just too much stuff that was done half-assed that would need to be fixed. There was no way to make the kitchen or bathroom any bigger without some major renovation. The backyard was small and with a dog there would just not be enough room for her. My son works long hours and does not have any home improvement skills yet. I think he will keep looking. He thanked me for my help and pointing out stuff he didn't even think of. So all the mistakes I made and my life experience of owning three houses are helping him. That makes me happy.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Slow but progress

I was stitching again on that motif last night. I think one more evening and it will be done. There is just a lot of detail in this motif. I still have some lettering to backstitch outline and stitch the border.

I also watched a DVD last night called MATCH. It has to go back to the library today. Patrick Stewart was very good and the movie had several twists and turns that were surprising.

I managed to get my 15,000 steps in yesterday. That is three days in a row I have been over 15,000 steps and I am a bit tired.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Money from walking

I have had my fitbit for 19 months and in that time I have picked up some loose change. I keep it in a plastic wine tumbler that sits by the door I use all the time. So after walking 1,869 miles or 5,536,480 steps, I have found $5.98 in change. This includes $2.50 in quarters, $2.50 in dimes, $.15 in nickels, and 83 pennies.

I also found these items

and a coin that says 5 piso

Once the weather gets nasty I will be interested if I find more change in the high school parking lot. This morning I didn't find anything.

I watched the Cleveland Indians sweep the Red Socks in a nail biter! I just could not stay up until the end of the game and went to bed in the 7th inning. I taped the rest of the game and watched the bottom of the 9th. I had already checked to see if the Tribe had won. I just wanted to see what happened in the bottom of the 9th.

Monday, October 10, 2016

The weekend got away from me

Saturday I ended up going to a birthday party. I left the house around 3 and did not get back until 9. Not a lot of stitching happened.

Sunday I went for a walk to try and get my steps in. I walked down to the school and found this in the parking lot.

I did work on the secret project, but it is taking me longer than I thought. There is a motif I worked on that there is a lot of detail to it. Here is the back side Not very pretty but I need to go thru the batting and backing to hold the three layers together. The motif does look good with all the stitching though.

I was all ready to stitch and watch the Indians and Red Socks play at 4, but they got rained out - Hurricane Matthew's leftovers. So since it was nice outside I decided I had better mow since the grass was pretty long. That took an hour and a half to do the front and back yards. I got a bit more stitching done before I finally went to bed. I ended up with 16,000+ steps yesterday.

Friday, October 7, 2016

October goal

I ran across a post about OMG - one monthly goal - on Fret Not Yourself's blog so I have decided to jump over to Red Letter Quilts and link up to the party! My goal will be to finish the flannel quilt that is hanging on the design wall. I know now who I would like to give it to, so I need to get 'er done!

I will still be finishing the secret project too hopefully this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Down to the end

I finished up the stitching on shirt number 5 last night. I have one shirt to go! While was stitching I watched a DVD I had borrowed from the library and needed to be taken back last night. The movie was A hologram for the king. It was ok. I thought it moved slow.

I walked to the library to take back the DVD. I needed a few more steps. It is 1 1/4 miles to the library and I was getting tired on the way back especially as warm as it was last evening. The temp got in the mid 80's yesterday and that just takes the life out of me. I ended up with 15,081 steps for the day. I am tired today.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Secret project, zinnias, and sunrise

I worked hard last night to get the grass tuff border done. It took about 3 hours to finish it but it looks so good. The shirt I did this stitching on had to be stitched on three sides. Here is a little drawing of what the top looks like with the different borders I have stitched. Only one more to go!

Here are the zinnias that have come up on their own. If I have this many this year without even trying, I wonder how many I will have next year! I had seeded this bed last year with Green Envy zinnias and candy cane zinnias, but all I have are solid pink ones! Too funny!

I have this pot of cone flowers that I bough a month ago and it is doing well. I have a watering can full of water just inside the garage so it makes it easy to give it a drink everyday. I have to get it in the ground soon.

Here is what the sky looked like at 6:45 am this morning

and by 7:10 this is what it looked like. I was out taking a walk before work, looked up, and had to take a picture of the sky.