Talk Till Dawn – 15

I’m excited to share with you a new series I’m starting called, “Talk Till Dawn”, I want this to be about my everyday life, the things I’m reading, eating, my everyday ups and down, along with photos that I’ve taken over the week.

I haven’t decided yet how often this will be, right now I’m just going to get it going and see what comes of it. I encourage you to share with me similar situations and we can all support one another.

My life and home is far from perfect even though I always share with you pretty home decor picture. Now from time to time I’ll give you a look at how things can get out of control like everyone else’s life.

UPDATE: MY SERVER HAS BEEN DOWN FOR 4 DAYS BUT THINGS ARE FINALLY WORKING AGAIN. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REACHED OUT TO ME AND LET ME KNOW MY SITE WAS DOWN.

It’s time for another episode of “Talk Till Dawn”. Let me see it seems like it hasn’t been a very interesting month but I did stay busy. I moved the guest room around, I like the bed placed like a day bed against the wall it gives me more room for my office and right after I did it I got a call from my Step Dad asking if he could come and stay. I had to laugh, I told him certainly he could come and stay; it looks like the room will need to be moved around again. Oh well it’s always a good excuse to give it a thorough cleaning. He’s driving by himself all the way from Florida to Michigan and it makes me nervous. This will be the first time he’s made the trip without my Mom to do half the driving and read the map. I noticed when I was in Florida in October his GPS isn’t always accurate so they would use a map to verify. I think it’s going to be a hard trip for him and it will be the first year my Mom won’t be coming along with him to stay at the cabin for the summer.

On a brighter note the weather’s been a little warmer and we’ve been able to work on my oldest sons house a little more. For those of you who don’t remember he and his fiancé purchased a barn on 10 acres and they’ve been doing a barn to home conversion. It was started last fall and he got as far as new siding, framing, windows, doors, electrical, plumbing, tub and toilet install. Next will be a new roof and drywall then the Amish can measure for the custom kitchen. I’ve take photos along the way and I’ll share them here once the process is more complete. They hope to move in at the end of summer and are planning a wedding on their property.

Remember I told you last month about all the roof damage we had due to high winds? Well our roof man will be home from Florida this week and come over to give us an estimate, and start work as soon as he sees fit. I also have the exterminator lined up for next week (it’s a must when you live in a log home), and the window washer for the week after that. Ya know what all this means? It’s looking like spring in my neck of the woods. The grass is just starting to green up and I’m seeing a few small buds on some of the flowering trees. Soon I’ll be making a trip to the nursery to get a few large bags of compost for my garden. I planted yellow peonies last year at the end of the season and I’m anxious to see if they’ll flower this year.

Every other year I have to purchase new cushions for our outdoor furniture and this was the year. I went with gray this time, and once I get the porch decorated I’ll share a few pics with you. Every time I make the purchase I think to myself it’s almost as cheap to buy new furniture as a well. The new cushions were $240 and I think I only paid $250 for the furniture with cushions. Seems crazy to keep buying new, but I still like the furniture I just don’t like needing new cushions every other year. They still look like new but I spend a lot of time outside sitting on them during the summer months and they get broke down over time.

Do you remember last month me saying our electric bill would be through the roof because of our furnace going down? Well my cost prediction was right; the bill was $680, I about choked. Our furnace is a GEO Thermal unit and it runs off our pond but with the part off we had to use the backup furnace, which is electric. I’m glad we have a backup but there’s no way we could use this on a regular basis with the cost.

I’ve been toying with the idea of selling both our homes and moving. Slowly I’ve been talking about it and easing hubby into the idea. I love where we live, I love the view, I love that we built it with our own hands, and I love we were able to see our dream come true but I feel it’s time to move on. I think we need less to maintain as we get older and I’d like hubby to retire soon. With selling both home sand downsizing we’d be able to add more money to our retirement fund and he could hand the business over to our oldest son.

I check Zillow almost every day and in my heart I know something will become available when the time is right. I learned long ago not to force it, when it’s meant to be it will all fall into place. Until next time take care and thank you for spending the time talking till dawn with me today!