It's Not A Holiday Without Hollendaise

I slept in until 8:30. Susan got up about 9. We had late night at the fire pit. Perhaps I covered it in the previous post.

We made a fabulous breakfast of Eggs Benedict since we still had Hollendaise Sauce left over from last night. A great start to a great day.

Since we have been sooooo awesome over the last two days with respect to the bathroom project, we are using today to work in the yard. Specifically, we have to get our front yard flower beds into better shape.

When we built the retaining walls for the garden beds a few years ago, we used dirt from a local landscaping company (Whitkoph) to fill them up. We used what they called Garden Blend. From that name, I concluded that this was the ideal dirt to use in a garden.

I was wrong! They could have told me that it would be prudent to add some sort of mulch or compost or peet moss to make the garden blend less like concrete, which is what it turned out to be...but they didn't!

So now, we are adding peet moss. I am up to $70.00 worth of peet moss and I think that will be enough. I have a little roto-tiller and I have already completed work on the western expanse of front yard garden. Now I have to do the eastern expanse.

The only minor complication is the weather. I woke up to thunder about 4AM and when I went to the bathroom, I saw a cascade of rain raining rain down upon the place where I reign. Well, where Susan reigns and allows me to help.

Anyway, the rain barrels are again full and the ground is mushy. The grass didn't need any additional water but it looks like more rain is coming today so they need to be drained. I solved the problem by letting the barrels empty onto the yard.

I called it a complication but that is not really the word. It would be nice if the weather was a sunny and warm as the last two days when we were working indoors. And yet, a cool day in the yard without getting rained on is okay as well.

Timing is not our...uh...ya'know...um...thing.

I am going forth to the yard now and will report back as rest breaks require my presence and participation.

4:50PM: We have not only completed our gardening chores, but we have already been to and returned from the Hub.

Everything went well with the roto-tilling and the planting.

There really is not much more to add than these pictures.

Completing the Gut

Wow! What a day!!

It started off in the morning when we woke up. Then we dressed ourselves in raiment's of gold and worshiped at the alter of our former synigoggery. Really! Our church used to be a Jewish Temple.

After we were cleansed of our sins, we went forth unto the world to sin s'more. WE missspelllled words and spoke unkindly to squirrels and ate of pig meat in the form of bacon and chicken in the form of eggs and stimulants in the form of coffee. With Bailey's Irish Cream.

So we were really hitting our stride.

Then we got to work. Today's goal was to finish the gut. That required getting the east side wall down to the studs and removing the linoleum down to the sub floor.

It took us less than a hour to get this point shown above. 

Next was the floor. We had no idea if this was going to go well or not.

It went well. I broke out my worm drive saw and cut the floor into sections and then we just pried the sections up. It was a breeze.

We decided we are going to replace the entire sub floor as we had some issues with former mold and possibly rotting wood surfaces.

It all went remarkably well and even with our late start, we were done by four and on our way to the Hub.

From there, we called Mark, whom we had invited to dinner. He joined us at the Hub as we finished of a pitcher or three. Don't worry, they were small pitchers.

After a fabulous dinner of Barbecued Filet Mignon and grilled Asparagus with Hollendaise Sauce, we lit up the first pit fire of the summer. 

It was at that point in the evening, as the stinky pee started to trickle, that we decided you cannot have a holiday without hollendaise.

A Galore of Pictures

Be prepared for Pictures Galore today .

The project of the Memorial Day weekend was to get busy on the bathroom remodel. And that's what we did.

Here are pictures from the four corners of the newly enlarged space.

Southeast Corner

Southwest Corner

Northwest Corner

The Other Corner

The goal today was to remove the tub, toilet and sink and get the north wall down to the studs.

Removing the stuff was not too bad of an ordeal although I had to make three trips to the General StoreTM to complete capping off water lines and a sewer.

I had a little difficulty with the toilet and the bathtub. The water lines for the tub are so close to the wall it was difficult to remove the crusty old valves.

I couldn't even turn the valve on the toilet so I just removed the whole thing. It was a tight space and tough to get started. Since the toilet is moving anyway, I would have had to remove that valve eventually.

Then it was time to get to work on the plaster and lath that was partly hidden by draw wall.

Finally, our long national nightmare of this pink and burgundy bathroom is over.

We have one wall remaining to get to studs and then we will be moving on to pulling up the linoleum.

An interesting difficulty crossed our path. Now that we are down to one bathroom, the toilet upstairs has developed a problem. For no other reason than it is now our only toilet, the water turn off valve attached to the float in the tank stopped working. The toilet just runs. So now we have to turn off the water from the valve in the wall after we flush.

Echo Betsy is messing with me.

We Ache therefore, We Are Productive

We got a late start at our endeavors today but started them we did and even finished them, we did. Sounding like Yoda, I am.

I really wanted to start tearing into the bathroom some more but we decided that the front garden, and the condition of our Arbor Vitae's was more pressing. Besides, I was able to do a little work in the bathroom yesterday. Plus, I got the lawn mowed...a much needed chore since we had been gone for over a week.

So I broke out the many hand tools of gardening destruction and a few power tools as well.

Susan worked on the walled garden at the front of the house while I concentrated on cleaning out under the shrubbery. I'm guessing we haven't done it in five years. I base that on my feeble memory and the amount of fibrous detritus that my leaf blower hurdled skyward.

We were out there for about four hours and did a pretty good job. The front gardens are ready for some roto-tilling where I will be adding a great deal of peet moss to the ground dirt in order to try and change its consistency from something resembling cement.

I should add that it rained yesterday which means it was the second opportunity I had to see how the new rain barrels worked. From the storm we had on Wednesday, we filled both barrels, 80 gallons total. Same story for the rain storm we had yesterday. Both barrels were right up to the top. I currently have them attached to soaker hoses that are watering the shrubs.

It's pretty amazing to me that we got 80 gallons out of those storms. That's FREE WATER! I really should try filtering it and sterilizing it and using it for my Kool-Aid.

The day is now coming to a close and we are sore, which means we did something today. I can sleep on that!

Vacation Report

I am writing from Rancho Mirage, California.

We are on Vacation and having a wonderful time.

We left Spokane on Monday morning and drove as far as Klamath Falls, Oregon. That was our goal for the first day.

On Tuesday, we drove about six hours to my sister's place near Sacramento. We spent the night there and had a nice, but quick visit.

On Wednesday, we set our GPS on Palm Springs and drove for nine hour...about 45 minutes of that consisted of sitting in traffic in L.A.

So here we are in the desert visiting Mom and Margie Stanton. They are quartered in a place that looks like a movie set. It is perfect and ideal. There is not a leaf out of place.

The weather so far has been very temperate, very comfortable. There was a wind storm that came up yesterday afternoon and lasted well into the evening.

It looks like today will be cloudy and cooler, but not by much, I'm guessing. 

I am of course, not publishing these posts until we return home. There is no need to advertise that the house is empty. Especially when that is not really the case. 

My neighbors are watching the house and Phil is there working on the bathroom. We should have an almost clean slate to start work on when we return.

In the meantime, the order of the day is to lay about and be quiescent, sluggish and languorous.

Yup! I brought my thesaurus!

Big Decision Day

First, let me remove the item that is heavy on your mind right now. Susan ran Bloomsday and completed the course in 1:33:something.

It was a beautiful day for a road race in Spokane. The totals are coming in and I can say for sure that over 47 people ran the race. 

According to the Bloomsday website, 45,000 ran. I'm sticking with my number.

But enough about Bloomsday! Let's talk about something important.

An important decision was made today that will effect the bathroom remodel. We have decided to remove the exterior door that is currently in place. 

We have always thought how nice it would be after hot tubbing to be able to walk right into the bathroom. Well, now that the wall is down, we are starting to see some space issues in the reality of actual space. We have come to the conclusion that we would rather move the toilet over by the door than have a door.

We've done fine over the last several years walking into the kitchen after hot tubbing and then moving on from there. There is really no need to have a door there. I can make arguments for both sides of the issue. But when it comes down to it, removing the door totally changes our design features for the better.

Main Floor Bathroom Remodel - Day One

It is official! Our summer remodeling project is underway.

The main floor bath is about to be transformed from a hideous, cramped tomb of pink tile and burgundy walls into an capacious oasis of luxury, tranquility and soothing earth tones.

I am hoping to be done with this in two months. I think that is a fair time table. So, by July Fourth, this project will be complete. 

There's no way!

Adjustments to follow.

The Boiler Game - 2015

I shut down the gas last night and drained the radiators. I still can't get over how much water that system holds. It took a good solid 45 minutes before the water stopped draining.

So, we are now officially without heat. I think it will be okay as we do have portable space heaters that we can use as needed.

I drained everything because we are going to start on the main floor bathroom remodel. We will be exposing the wall tomorrow. That means knocking off all the plaster and lath and taking out the studs. It is a weight bearing wall so we will need a beam put in place. That's what I use Phil for.

Pictures to follow!

Barrels

My rain barrels arrived today. I got them into place and ready to go. So let's have some rain!

Preppin' for Summer

I have been waiting for a nice warm day so I could hose down the front porch. It was dusty and dirty and stained with paint from when I decorated our front windows for Christmas. Saturday was that day. The weather was gorgeous and I was available...two items that have not been able to align. So I broke out the hose, the super fireman strength spray nozzle, and a scrub brush.

The windows were a mess. I was scrubbing and scratching and rubbing and wiping and finally ordering Susan to never allow me to paint the windows again. Fortunately, she agreed with me.

Anyway, it took some doing, just like everything does with us, but the porch is ready for Summer.

Sunday's Project: We have needed to get paint on our deck railing for two years. We missed our opportunity to paint last year because the hops and grape vines had gotten to big and lush.

So last Fall, after the hops and grape harvest, we got out there on a fairly nice day and primed the deck. Not the whole think, but the areas that needed attention.

Time is running out to paint because the hops have already taken off. You can actually watch them grow. I guarantee that the vine you see below will be to the top of the railing by tomorrow.

The great weather carried through from yesterday so it was perfect for us to get out there.

The work went surprisingly fast and it really made a difference. There are a couple of spots that will probably need additional attention by Autumn but we are ready for Summer on the deck as well.

We concluded the day with a short walk to a local restaurant for some spaghetti and wine and all the bread we could eat.

Celebrate Spring

We've been decorating sky walks for the last several nights. The Downtown Spokane Partnership, which organizes this kind of stuff, is running a "Celebrate Spring in Spokane" promotion.

Susan is painting the large letters for Celebrate Spring and I'm lettering out the various events that are happening.

Here are some pictures.

When we are finished, we will have made enough to pay for the slipper tub that will be centerpiece of the main floor bathroom remodel.

That remodel is scheduled to begin in May-ish sometime.

Vapor Lock Video

About a month ago, I detailed the parade of birthday presents I got from Susan prior to my birthday. One of the gifts was a wine kit.

We finally got around to getting that brewed up last Tuesday and it is sputtering along now as it ferments.

Here's a nice video of our groovily scientific looking Vapor Lock chugging away.

Vernal Cometh...and Siteth Awhilst

It is Spring!

That means it is time to change the water in the Hot Tub. I haven't paid the hot tub much attention in the last few weeks so replacing the water seems even more urgent than it might otherwise.

I hauled out my hoses from the winter storage bunkers and connected up to the hot tub drain. Then I ran the hose out to the curb and got the flow started. After a few minutes, I checked the water flow. It was fine but it was still coming out cold. Surely by now enough time had elapsed to warm up the hose. I went to the tub and it was 50 degrees. Icy cold! In fact, the power had been cut off.

I flipped the breaker next to the tub and got nothing. I ran down to the main breaker and got nothing. I finally remembered that there is an internal breaker and I flipped that on. Ker-Chunk! I got power. I also discovered a rather sizable leak in one of the jet pumps.

I had a little trouble getting this shot because the leak sealed itself shortly after the pump started up. In fact, now it seems to be okay.

I have refilled the tub and the water has come up to temperature. There may be a small leak when I first turn on the pump, but it seems to seal itself.

I'll keep an eye on it. I want to find out why the internal breaker tripped. That's the most troubling part of this.

We are coming to the time of year when the tub doesn't get much use. So I have time to try and figure this issue out.

The Ides of a Leaky Balcony

Greetings to all on this Ides of March.

We have discovered an issue that I think we need to deal with concerning the house. 

It is a wet and rainy day today. I've heard that over an inch of rain fell today. When I retrieved the morning newspaper it was damp. At first I thought it had just arrived and maybe had been exposed to some rain. But then I noticed water on the porch and a little stream heading for the front steps.

It seems that water is leaking through the balcony area and then dripping through that upper porch ceiling and onto the porch. I could easily see a couple of spots where the water was dripping. There is a whole section of paint I removed that wasn't even sticking to the wood. The water had built up a little reservoir between the wood and the paint and then looked for or created cracks in the paint to run out. 

Water goes where it wants to go.

One idea is to tear into the tongue and groove ceiling and try to see where the water is coming from. Another less invasive option might be to just reseal the whole balcony area and see what happens next.

That idea appeals to me much more.

The Birthday!

This is the scene that greeted us high atop Lookout Pass at 4,700 feet. It was a great big giant sunny day at 50 degrees and more the whole time we were there. The snow looks good in this picture, and for the most part it was. But we also saw a lot of this.

This was shot at the very bottom of Chair Two, on the Montana side of Lookout.

Susan and I slept in a bit an then went to breakfast at our favorite breakfast place in Wallace. We got up to the mountain right about 10:30.

When we got to the top, we ran into a co-worker of mine, Don. He was skiing the morning at Lookout on his way to visit his Mom in Hamilton, Mt for the weekend.

I would say it was an excellent day of skiing. It was Spring skiing at its best and you had to keep an eye out, especially towards the bottom. It was made even better considering my health issues of late. I did fine. I had to pause walking from the car to the lodge and when the day was over and we had 7 runs in the bag, I was tired.

Then it was back down the mountain for a nap, followed by a nice dinner at the Fainting Goat Wine Bar and then a couple of beers at the 1313 club to watch the Bulldogs of Gonzaga defeat the University of San Francisco GayBoyz in the WCC Tourney.

An excellent day!

I almost forgot to mention my last birthday gift. Again, something I mentioned ages ago and Susan took note of.

I wanted a water pick that I could use in the shower. I had been told by my Dentist or one of his Hygienists that there was one you could take into the shower.

Susan looked a round but was only able to find this.

I have not installed it yet so I cannot give it a review. However, it looks like it should work. The trick is going to be adding an extension to a shower that already has an extension.

The Sexth Day of my Birthday Week

I had mentioned a while back that I wish I had a St Patrick's tie. I bought a bowtie a few years ago but I would like to have a nice shamrockin' tie.

Once again, Susan paid attention and went out a purchased one. Except she didn't. She bought material and made one.

So now I have a kick ass St Paddy's Tie custom made by Corbin Park Designer Su-San.

Fifth Day of my Birthday Week

Now that I have a really high quality mortar and a matching pestle (at no extra charge), I wish I had a kit wine so I could pulverize some camden crush tablets into a fine powdery dust to purify it.

Oh wait! I DO have a kit wine...a Petit Verdot, which is one of the smaller verdots.

We haven't made a kit wine in a while...probably a few years. I can tell you Susan spent some money on this gift. I should take her to a movie or something.

Day Four of my Birthday Week

How often do you wish you had a good Mortar and Pestle with which to pulverize something into a fine dust? Well I have wondered that wish many times. But no more!

I have received a damn fine mortar and it actually came with a lovely pestle. This is actually something I mentioned a while back when we were making wine. Susan took note and now I've got one.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a really good wife. I married much better than she did.

Day Three of my Birthday Week

A dirty car says that I just don't care about myself very much. Well, that problem will be no more with this unlimited pass to Mister Car Wash. I can go every day. I can go in the morning and again at night.

Okay, an update on that. I can go until I use up 20 bucks worth of car washes.

Yea!

Second Day of my Birthday Week

For Day Two I got a pair of movie passes. This is a great gift because Susan and I do not attend enough movies and we would like to fix that.

The only question now is what movie to see and who am I going to take?

First Day of my Birthday Week

Susan and I have developed this odd little tradition where we celebrate the whole week before one of our birthdays. Every day for the week leading up to our birthday, we get a gift. Here was my first one.

Just in case the picture is not quite clear enough, those are Susan made Chocolate Dipped Strawberries. Yum!

Nothing Happening Here

There's nothing going on here right now as we are taking a time out to address some of my (Stan's) health issues.  The health issue of the day is breathing and how much I enjoy doing it. My enjoyment of it comes to light due to my inability to do it. Breath, that is.

More details are available at www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com.

Mr. & Mrs. Shitload

We bottled 27 bottles of Cabernet on Monday night. We had filtered it the night before and noticed how faded it was. Just two months ago, I took a sample into Jim's Home Brew to see if I should oak it. They all thought it was fine as is. And it was dark and rich looking. You know, like a Cabernet.

We ended up letting it sit another two months simply because we couldn't remember to get to it. When I checked it on Saturday, it had faded in color quite a bit. Not quite a blush, but definitely not a Cab.

It still tasted okay so we elected to bottle it and call it Pink Cab.

I bring this up only because I finally got around to moving the bottles to the basement, only to find I have nowhere in my wine racks to store it.

That means we have a SHITLOAD of wine.

It is time to stop acquire wine and start drinking it. 

So tonight I have opened a cheeky little Syrah that we purchased the grapes for in 2012 and bottled in 2013 We entered it in the fair in 2013 and it placed remarkably unremarkable in the competition. That is to say, I don't remember. Another way to say that is, it didn't win.

It's very fruit forward in aroma and disappointing in taste. It's drinkable...don't get me wrong. But it tastes coarse to me for a Syrah. It's very bitter at the start, which kind of squashes any flavor that comes after. And it's parsimonious!

However, I have several bottles of this and it's growing on me.

Compulsory Sunday Post

Look at me and how special I am!!!

It's Sunday and I'm posting. Even though I have nothing of interest to put here. And yet, I've sucked you in to my vortex of disinterest.

Welcome!

It is almost 60 degrees out on a beautiful sunny Sunday in February. The spring thaw is on as the river is running at 28,000 c.f.u.'s. The newspaper says that's the equivalent of 166,000 gallons of water going over the falls every second. It's really quite spectacular and a good reason to see the Falls in the Spring rather than the middle of August.

We tried to go to a movie last night (American Sniper) and it was sold out. So we went for a drink and then back to the house to binge on Breaking Bad. We only got through one episode before falling asleep.

So we are going to try again this afternoon. And then, with any luck, we will visit the Falls.

We went to the Falls after the movie. Wow! What a story! It's a good thing to see to remember the kind of people we're fighting against, but it's a tough thing to see for the people who go over there. I don't know how you could go through something like that and not be changed for the darker.

I don't think we have any idea how good we have it.

Excuse for not Posting

Well. I clearly punted on the promise I made in the last post. You know, to try and post at least every Sunday.

I can reconcile my shame with the fact that nothing remodeling like is going on right now. We have a couple of things planned but no actual work.

My only excuse comes down to health issues.

I had my very first root canal procedure today. It did not live up to the hype. You know, it's a horrible, painful procedure to be avoided at all costs. Instead, it was very much like having a cavity filled but it takes twice as long. 

I have to go back to my dentist in a week and get a cap. After that, I'm going in for an Angiogram. I'm feeling crappy and have very little stamina. My cardiologist said it's been six years since I was scoped so I'm due for a little look around.

Then a couple of weeks after that, I'm scheduled for a Colonoscopy. Long overdue at 57.

In the meantime, we are having one of our worst ski seasons in years. Mt Spokane announced yesterday that they were shutting down during the week and trying to compile enough snow for the weekend.

The only place with any amount of snow is Lookout Pass, our favorite place, and even they are hurting. 

With all this mild weather, I probably should be working on something. Maybe once my mouth feels good again.

Proof of Global Warming, or Climate Change, or Just a Warm Day

Perhaps I can maintain some semblance of a routine if I can manage to post every Sunday-ish. I'll try that.

It is January 25th and nearly sixty degrees outside. It's been a very nice day for goofing around in the yard and accomplishing some minor accomplishments.

My main reason for posting today is to announce my entrance into the Grandfather of the Year Competition. My reason for my entry is because I have finally started to establish a relationship with my grandson, Alex...who is thirteen.

I have no excuse for not being a part of his life up until now. One might suggest that one is a scumbag for neglecting one's grandson for so long. I, for one, could not offer a good rebuttal. 

Nonetheless, a relationship has been established and we move on from there.

I picked up Alex yesterday and spent the day with him. He helped me with some clean up in the yard and the subsequent trip to the dump to relieve ourselves of the clean up. Then we had a nice lunch at Domini's. 

After a quiet afternoon of hanging out at the house, we went to the Spokane Chiefs Hockey game. They lost to the Tri-City Americans, one to nuthin!

My future plans include teaching Alex to ski. I am hoping that will happen in about two weeks.

On the other hand of the Grandfather thang, we had planned to attend a birthday party for my step son Rob's son, Lucas. He turns one today but is suffering from the flu, so the gathering got canceled.

Since no trip to the valley was required, that allowed me to hang about the house today and do some jobs in the out of doors, as I mentioned earlier. It was uncharacteristically warm, which empirically proves Global Climate Change is true.

Skiing and Football

It has been a loooooong and eventful day!

The plan was that our friend Mark had $10 vouchers to ski at Schweitzer Mountain. A regular weekend pass is $75. The vouchers had to be used by January 28th and with all our varied, mixed up schedules, today seemed to be the best day to use them.

The only hitch in the plan was that the Seattle Seahawks Football Club was playing the divisional championship contest again the Green Bay Packages. The winner would be going to the Super Thing. Mark wanted to see the game. 

I said that since we are only paying $10.00 for our lift tickets, who cares if we get there, ski until noon and then hit the bar and watch the game.

Another hitch in the plan was that Susan worked the rodeo the previous night and was not terribly excited about getting up at 6 AM on a Sunday. But she is a trooper and didn't want to watch the game all by herself, so she agreed to the plan.

We arrived at the mountain at about 9:30, a little off my planned schedule but no big deal. We had to park in the parking lot at the bottom of the resort. That means you either get on a shuttle bus to the lodge, or put on your skis and ride the Bunny Lift up. We chose the Bunny Lift.

We got in line to purchase our tickets, only to discover that our $10 vouchers were no good on Martin Luther King Weekend. It was in the fine print which nobody bothered to read. 

I neither get a day off for MLK nor am I black, so it is not a holiday that has ever really effected me. Therefore, it didn't occur to me or any of us that there was going to be a problem.

Mark was really apologetic and upset he didn't see the fine print. It was no big deal to Susan and I. Besides, the conditions did not appear to be all that ideal for skiing that day.

So we skied two runs on the Bunny Hill, got in the car and headed for Sandpoint.

We ended up in a wonderful spot called Sweet Lou's. We walked in and got a table. There were about 27 thousand TV's in the place, so watching the game was not going to be a problem. The added bonus was that the place was full and pretty evenly divided between Seahawks and Packers fans.

The Seahawks played perhaps one of their worst games ever for about 56 minutes. They played their luckiest game ever for the last four minutes. AND they played well enough in overtime to walk away with a win. It's the first time in about eight years that a defending Super Bowl Champ returns to the big game.

We ate, drank, yelled at the Hawks, and cheered our faces off until it was over. It was a great day!

The only really bad thing that happened was that there was a prize give away going on during the game and Susan won a Taylor Hicks CD.

Remodeling 2105 Style

I think it is about time to start talking about a remodeling project. That is the alleged point of this so called Blog after all. Additionally, in order to maintain the stringent requirements of (H.I.B.A.A.) the Home Improvement Blogging Association of America as well as the strict guidelines of M.W.C.B. (Men Who Can't Build), I must occasionally talk about remodeling here.

I went skiing yesterday. It was fabulous and I think I did well for my first day up for this season. That is, until I got home. By then my body had realized what I had been doing all day and started to complain. Most specifically, it complained in my legs, my butt, and my ability to stay awake. I was in bed by 9.

Fortunately, sleep is the great healer and I awoke this morning with nary an ache or complaint.

That allowed me to concentrate on the next remodeling project which will be........drum roll........the new upstairs closet.

The next part of this project will be to put in a door. Doors are good because they help facilitate access to spaces that are between walls.

The plan is to slightly move the existing wall, perhaps a foot, to create more room in the closet.

My jobs to accomplish today are simple.
1) Discover if the existing wall is a weight bearing sort of structure.
2) Shop for pocket doors.

Update-7:48 PM: It's a quiet night around the estate. I'm watching the Seahawks in their playoff game with Carolina. It's into the third quarter and Seattle is up by four.

Susan and I took a trip to Home-A-Rama to check out the cost and availability of pocket doors. They are available and it looks like it will cost us about $35.00 for a door and $85.00 for the pocket door assembly and frame.

I checked to see if the wall is a load bearing wall and my uneducated guesstimate is that it is. I will be assembling my team of experts to confirm and verify in the weeks to come.

Now we have to start figuring out logistics. We've been sleeping in the back bedroom because it has the Sleep Number bed, which we really like. We are going to have to move most of the furniture and stuff out of the room for this remodel as we'll be doing a few other remodeling things in the room.

I hope to be getting this underway in the next couple of weeks.

WELCOME TO TWENTY FIFTEEN

Happy New Year!

We are enjoying the day by doing nothing. At least, that is what we have accomplished as I write at 12:43 PM. We are heading for the hot tub, which will test our mettle with the temperature at 24 degrees.

Later we are off on a journey of discovery for our friend Mike of Arabia. He found a listing for a house for sale on Craigslist and wants us to check it out. They are supposedly having an open house today starting at 3. 

So that's our big adventurous plans for the day.

6:00 PM: Well, that was bust! As far as trying to find this place, it's a ghost property. The main problem I had was the CraigsList posting did not offer an address, and when I went back to it today to try and nail that down, the post had been removed by the author. 

I knew the general area of the property as they had shown a map. So we drove out, possibly hoping they would put out an "Open House" sign that would help us to locate it.

That was just simply not to be. Perhaps they found a buyer already. I don't know. I just know that Mike will not be buying this place.

To be fair to Mike, he told me he wasn't in a position to be buying a place yet. But, I thought it would be a nice outing for us and if nothing else, it would get us out of the house.

As it is in most situations, we ended up at the Hub and had a couple of pitchers and watched Oregon decimate Floriduh State in the Rose Bowl.