It's been awhile

I've been busy shoveling away the obligations of this year, wanting to make 2012 a "fresh" start as if it were. Property taxes will all be paid by next week. After repairing that corner of the roof in October, it was best just to place the house on hold.

I definitely need to make more money. Roofs are spendy here. And if there is one thing I really need, it's one of those. The car has some original parts. Wheel bearings being some of them. By themselves, wheel bearings are cheap. Getting them in where they should be is the expensive part. Especially up front. At the very least, I need a twelve ton hydraulic press (harbor freight, hundred bucks plus) and then the struts have to come out, the brakes get dissembled, the front drive axles, et al. A nightmare by any account.

Other things on my plate. Sick cat for one. Make that an elderly sick cat. 14 years might be all she can do. Gonna have to be a vet visit soon. Need to go east sometime this year. Every time I get close to thinking about it, the TSA makes life more "interesting" for air travelers. Or the airlines come up with new ways of torture, making Greyhound look like a desirable alternative. So ground travel it's gonna have to be.

The house, yes the house. Things I want to do. Finish the kitchen for one. The old insulation in some of the walls must have an R value in the single digits. Finished floors. Yards......want to go to a dry-scape. When the water meter shows up, the last place money needs is to be sprayed on the outdoors in a liquid form. Did I mention the roof? Two bedrooms do need work on the closets. I might just frame the door openings down to four feet, or make two walk in closets, which would involve subtracting and adding walls. Pretty easy actually as there is no electrical in those walls. Also want a hatchway into the crawl space so I can add more...surprise...insulation. Also do some seismic reinforcing down there.

On the bright side, Petch House is back. I was kinda worried. He makes my life look easy actually. But he keeps going on. I'll let y'all Google it. I won't even do a link without a say so, these days.