Month: August 2015

I’d been planning to get a better cabinet for the left of the stove – possibly bigger and moving the hutch out, so it is nicer for when we rent it out.

We were driving out to the property and there, beside someone’s driveway, was a 6 foot cabinet with a top that matches our island. So we stopped on the way home, decided it was worth salvaging, and brought it home. It was quite dirty and still needs new pulls, but it actually cleaned up nice and is a good quality cabinet. So here are some pictures of the kitchen now. We also added the two shelves above the cabinet, for some of the glasses that were in the hutch. The hutch is now in the t.v. room with dvds and videos in it.

Then there is a picture of our apple trees – the Winesaps are full of apples this year! 

You just can’t get pictures like these if you don’t go up!

Here are some pictures from my trip with the seniors to Chicago.

Tomorrow through Friday I am off on the first of the two senior citizens’ trips. We will be enjoying the sights in Chicago, where the weather promises to be splendid (although probably windy!). I’m just finishing my laundry and packing and double-checking that I’m not forgetting anything.

We worked on decks yesterday. Here is the 1208 Sexton deck, with the stain on. I love the color and how it (sort of) matches the shutters. The next picture is Bumpa with the latest addition to his collection. And a  gladiola picture.

I know you guys never believe what we say we are going to do, because we change our minds so much, but that doesn’t stop me from believing I mean what I say.

We almost had a big upset in the plans, but we think it will be okay. Tyler was not approved for his loan to buy the Toccoa house, because they assessed the house at less than we were asking. No big surprise for us, which is why we were not actually trying to sell it. We figured we’d just keep it until its value increased to more than we owe on it.

But he still wants it. He doesn’t agree with their appraisal and thinks what we are asking ($47,000) is a fair price. So we are back to having the lawyer draw up a lease to purchase agreement, whereby Tyler pays rent to cover our costs (like he is now), then extra to buy the house. He thinks he can pay between $800 and $1200 total a month, which would buy the place  in between 4 and 7 1/2 years. We won’t be charging him interest aside from our interest that he pays when he pays the rent. So he will be putting between $400 and $800 towards the purchase each month. We will still pay the taxes and carry the insurance but, again, he will be paying most of those costs in his monthly rent, like he is now. I think we owe about $42,000 on it, so we are not going to end up with a lot of profit, but at least we won’t lose money on it and we’d much rather have him in there than have to find other renters!

So we are still planning to move to Johnson City. We are thinking more like the spring, though. We plan to take a couple weeks down there in January, once Dad gets his next year’s vacation time. Then, if we can find a place to rent and a job for Dad (any job with insurance at that point), he will move down in early February and I’ll finish up the contests and college and Roselawn concerts and follow him down the end of April. I’m planning my student piano recitals for April this year and I don’t feel like I have to be here for the spring concerts with John Dutmer, because he always plays keyboards for those, anyway. So we can be in Tennessee just in time for the hot summer!

So, yeah. One more winter in Wisconsin.  Hopefully, it will be mild, like last year.

Gary and Dad and I worked all day yesterday replacing a deck on one of our rentals, the one over in the subdivision here in Chetek (we call it 1208). It is that little manufactured home on a large lot, with a detached garage. Anyway, it had a deck at the front door, which was totally overgrown with trumpet vine and was really rotted, and the posts had heaved with the frost, so was sort-of cockeyed in the ground. We ripped it totally down, removed all the vines, sunk new posts, were able to use the framework of the deck again, since that wood was still fine, replaced all the deck planks, and put on new steps and new railings.  With all the hauling and everything, it was done by 5:45. Whew! I’m going to try to get some pictures and get them posted later. It has been raining, but I think it may be clearing up enough now to take pictures. Anyway, that is three big projects checked off the list!!

Last night we worked on the siding on the east end of 117 in New Auburn. We put in a new window last year before we rented it, and that involved removing some siding. Then the bees made their home in the open wall, which took about all season to get rid of. So it still wasn’t sided.

But that has been remedied. It was only 4 runs of siding, but the first piece took a long time, because it had to go under the window, so there was a lot of measuring and such. We thought we were going to have to come back and redo the peak, because we didn’t think the new stuff would match up with the old siding in the peak, but it did. Dad gave it a slap and it all clicked together and it is finished. Awesome!!

I’ll post pictures after we get Saturday’s job done, which is a new deck on the front of 1208 Sexton. We have the lumber all piled up and ready to go, so we hope to get that done in the one day, too. We are just churning through these jobs!!

Nothing is going to happen soon. We had to let that particular opportunity pass, knowing that something will come up when we are actually ready. When I wrote down everything Dad has to do before he can leave, it came to a complete month of work, all day, every day. Oh, but he has a job…Hmmmm….

So we are going to keep plugging away at all the projects. We hope to get them done before snow flies, but there is really a lot to do. Much of it is stuff that should have been done long ago, but we just didn’t get to it. And about 8 day’s worth is finishing up with The Garage – preparing a place for all our stuff, moving all our stuff, selling the rest, etc.

On the good side, a project that has needed doing for years was completed yesterday. We had put new roof on the garage at 123 Stout (where we lived before this) quite a while back, then sided three sides, but not the end that faced the alley. That was because they hadn’t put the new garage door in yet. So this weekend, Gary and Dad put the garage door in and yesterday Gary sided it and now IT LOOKS LIKE A COMPLETELY NEW GARAGE!!! So excited that is done!