Lining things up.

Posted on by David Maxwell

I spent the last night at the condo again. I pretty much did all the packing that I could do for the time being. This morning I saw Luke and was on standby while he slept and Liz had a meeting, just in case he woke up. He didn’t and I left to go to the bank and Home Depot in Franklin before heading to Columbia. There I bought some exterior trim and also paint for the outside of the house. At the farm I checked out my dad’s tile work and then got to work myself. I cleared all around the outside of the house in preparation for painting tomorrow. Then I got on the tractor and moved a bunch of dirt that was in the way of where the deck will go. That was lots of fun. I also dug up a lot more nice limestone rocks. After dark I went to Big Box and TSC. Now I’m back at the house and it’s freezing. Tomorrow is supposed to be reasonably warm, but I know the morning will start cold. Hopefully I can get a lot of painting done.

Packing up.

Posted on by David Maxwell

I started the day with a 6am trip to Home Depot. I wanted to get some heavy duty plastic tubs, but despite the app saying that they had 392 of the size that I wanted in stock, I couldn’t find any. So I bought more cardboard boxes in all three sizes at a much cheaper price. Fortunately I was out early enough to beat traffic. I spent most of the day putting things in boxes. It turns out that we (and by that I mean Liz and Luke) have a lot more stuff than I realized. The kitchen items in particular took a while of tedious wrapping and boxing. I made good progress though. I think I am done packing until Sunday, when I hope to come up with a trailer and haul a lot of stuff down to the farm. Tonight I’m staying at the condo again as I need to go by the bank in the morning, and will also watch Luke while Liz has a meeting.

The Little Man did pretty well today. He napped great and didn’t fuss much. My mother came over to watch him for a few hours while I packed and he behaved well for her too. He ate peas and peaches as well as oatmeal. I read to him a bit and he played on the floor a lot.

Buried by paperwork.

Posted on by David Maxwell

Well today was pretty much the opposite of a lazy Sunday. I spent most of the day updating my accounting for the house project. By that I mean sorting through seven months of receipts. I hadn’t input any into my spreadsheet since April. Needless to say I had quite a mess on my hands. I think that everything is pretty well organized now though. I just wish that I hadn’t spent so much money on all this house stuff! We are a bit over budget. After finishing that I started packing a little bit. Fortunately I don’t have a ton of stuff here. I went out to Lowe’s for more cardboard boxes but they were out of medium and large. Tomorrow I will try to go to Home Depot and get some plastic bins. I will be babysitting Luke for most of the day at the condo. Hopefully I can do some packing while he naps. He was in a pretty good mood today. I played with him just a little, but was primarily focused on working.

More ladder time.

Posted on by David Maxwell

It was another cold morning and so I started the day with a trip to Home Depot in Spring Hill to pick up finish nails and some driver bits. When I returned we continued work on the fascia boards. We made good progress, finishing four of the five gables. The day warmed up very nicely, and we were also able to get most of the remaining 1×4 trim done on the exterior. My dad also did a lot of caulking. It looks like the nice weather should continue through next week. Hopefully that will allow me to make progress on the exterior painting while my dad does some tile work on the inside. I also need to start preparing the back of the house for the deck.

A long and not fun day, but things got done.

Posted on by David Maxwell

I left the condo at 5:30 this morning and drive to Huntsville. The journey was uneventful. At Southeastern Salvage they easily swapped my countertops and actually gave me back $190. So that was pretty nice. It seemed even colder down there than in Nashville though. I got gas on the way back for $2.29. I saw it for $2.21, but that place looked like they were the types to water it down, so I passed. Back at the farm my dad was waiting and we unloaded the countertops, which were extremely heavy. They look good though. Then we took advantage of the warming temperatures and started working outside. We put up fascia boards around much of the house, and added soffit to the front porch. It was not very enjoyable, but we did make great progress. Hopefully tomorrow we will finish up. This evening we went to Lowe’s and bought a few things. Now it is just seven but feels like ten. It’s supposed to be cold tonight but rather warm tomorrow. Below are pictures of the countertops, fascia, and yesterday’s trim work.