Even guys have to clean house sometimes. Mine is in desperate need of it, so I have kicked on a little blues and am cleaning the house from top to bottom. I am not one of those guys that likes for someone else to come in and clean. Then I can’t find anything. That is okay though, because my mom gave me really good home training as she says. My place isn’t a wreck or anything, it just needs dusting, vacuuming and such. The kind of cleaning I only get around to once in awhile. It will be done by the end of the day though. I am determined.
Mowing the lawn
The weather is very hot but I had to break down and mow the lawn. I have been avoiding it as long as possible but there was no excuse to delay it any longer. The grass was high and needed a trim. I knew what I had to do.
I was only a few minutes into it before I was sweating profusely. I waited until it was almost dark but it was still hot. I got the job done and was happy to get inside where the air conditioner was running. I am a little cooler now and am happy that the job is done.
Looking good
Since my brother and I recently purchased a small apartment building, we have been going through a lot trying to get it ready for renters. The building was in shambles when we got it and we have been working to fix it up. We have had our ups and downs but we are nearly complete. It has been a trial for the both of us but we seem to be on the right track.
The building has four units and that means four times the trouble. For example we have bought four water heaters as well as four heating units. Everything is compounded by four and that has added up to a lot of work. There was one bright side though. We were able to find a great cluster mailbox at ApprovedClusterMailboxes.com. It has saved us a lot of time and trouble and it looks great in front of the building. It has been one of the bright spots.
I am glad that some of the little things went right during this endeavor. It has been a struggle but with help from great companies like the one above, we have come through alright. I am sure that our venture will produce the results we are looking for. After all we have gone through I surely hope it does.
Divorced
The article written by Alonso Kramer
When I got divorced three months ago, I had no idea how much of our finances were handled by my ex husband. He paid the bills from the day we got married to the day we got divorced. I asked him to help me get things set up financially before our divorce was final, and thank goodness he did. He told me that he had just set us up for fixed-rate energy. You can click here to see what he set up. I even had to learn how to do online bill pay when we got separate bank accounts because I had never paid a bill online. I guess I was pretty dependent on my husband for handling our finances. I never really had to be solely financially responsible. When I had a roommate in college, she paid all of our bills for our apartment and told me how much I owed her each month. I would write her a lump check and be done with it. When I married my husband, he insisted on handling all of the finances and I was relieved not to have to handle them. I guess I will have to get used to handling all of the finances now that I am on my own.
Kitchens and guests
Our house does many things for us. We never seem to notice all the things we do at home. Of course it’s where we sleep, but it is also where we entertain ourselves and others. You never know who may drop in for a visit. We had an unexpected visitor the other day. John was a former employee of mine and he brought his wife Mary Beth. They were back in town and I was glad to see them as John and I were very good friends for a long time.
Anyway, it was up to us to whip up some dinner. As we didn’t know what our guests would like, we hinted around as to what they wanted. It was then that I wished I had bought a spice rack to see what kind of meal would be best to prepare. There is nothing better than a large selection of choices when it comes to cooking. I had seen some nice kitchen spice racks for sale on the internet and I wish I had them now. They are great kitchen utensils.
The moral of the story is that we now have some wonderful spice racks in our home. The next time we have guests, we will be prepared for them. I wish everything was this easy.
Leaking sink
As I arrived home the other day, my wife informed me that the slow leak in the sink had turned into a major gusher. Even though I was very tired, I knew I had to take a look. After removing all the items from under the sink, (which is something my wife should have done) I took a look at the problem.
The problem was that one of the nuts had come loose. I ran to the garage and found the proper tool. I fixed the problem in no time and called it a day.
P.S. I had my wife put the items back under the sink
Planting a dream
Since the weather has been cooperating lately, we have been taking advantage of the time to fix up the house. We have managed to do a lot of work outside of the home and have gotten the yard in tip-top shape. I have weeded the gardens while my wife has been planning the overall effect of the house from the street. She has become an artist in a sense.
One thing she did was to add some window boxes to our home. We planted some small flowers under the windows to make our home more attractive. There is something about a windowbox that makes a house into a home. It looks good from the street and it makes me glad to come home to such an uplifting sight after a long days work.
She also did some work in the back of the house. She added flower boxes to enhance the overall look of the garden area. While we have many plants already, there can never be enough. I think it looks great and I am glad that I have a wife who knows how to dress up a house. She has a special talent for that sort of thing. I know that everyone will enjoy the flowers when springtime comes. I know I will.
Address visibility
Driving at night is one thing that I have trouble with. My eyes are not what they used to be and it can be difficult to see. This is especially true when bright lights shine in my eyes. Luckily, I am familiar with most of the roads in my neighborhood, but there are times when I really need to read road signs or other markings such as residential address plaques. It is fortunate that there is a way to negate this situation.
A friend of mine invited us over to his house for dinner. We were running a little late and so night had fallen. Since I was driving, I found myself in the same old situation where I was having trouble seeing. Fortunately for us, my friend had the foresight to have custom address plaques made for his home. This made his house stand out from the crowd and I was able to find it easily.
I believe that everyone should do the same as my smart friend and take advantage of personalized address plaques to make their properties stand out. It will help others find your place when visibility is poor. It is little things like this that life easier for everyone and I say that is a good thing for all.
Dream Home
Guest post written by Joseph Finch
There are only a couple things left to do before we can move into our new home. We started construction two years ago and the house is still not finished. We ran into problems when we started. Our environmental approval (because our lot is on a “wild” river) took a lot longer than we expected. Get attained our first approval and had to wait a whole three months before we got our final approval. We also went through two site/project managers. We caught the first one heavily drinking on the job. When we realized what was going on, the slow pace of the project finally made sense. Our second project manager got hurt at another site and could not complete the project. We are so happy that our house is almost done. We had to live in a furnished apartment for the last six months because we had to be out of our old home. We stored all of our furniture. All that is left is laying the sod and finding home security providers. We can’t wait!
Summer is almost over
This summer has been long and hard. The weather was pretty hot and heavy. That’s not to mention the hurricane Irene that came storming through. The damage was slight, but I consider us very lucky. Anyway, we are getting ready to prepare for winter. There is much to be done before we are ready.
We are done with all the things we had out for summer. I have put away my son’s baseball net as well as my daughters swing set. We are sitting pretty right now and I am just checking things out around the house. I guess I’ll start having to prepare for winter.