Hi Everyone! I’m finally back after a very long hiatus. Before I start doing my regular posts again I wanted to do a personal update and summarize my year.
I started going to school again to study web design/development. It’s a two-year program that I am mostly doing for my own personal growth. Somehow I am managing to get all A’s – this is not typical of me if you look at my track record. I’m learning a ton of new stuff that I can’t wait to put into real practice. Most of my classes are online which is my favorite format. I enjoy the flexibility of working online because life still happens even if you are going to school. Sometimes I have a bad day, bad week, or even a bad month and I have to work at odd hours or pull all-nighters to get stuff done. Online is perfect for me.
As was recommended a few years ago by a home inspector, we finally put in a french drain on the side of the house and tied it in with our rain gutter runoff. With the intent of doing it ourselves, we started digging the ditch and almost got to the end, or so we thought. Then we discovered that there was already an existing french drain dug down 8 feet that wasn’t done correctly so it was trapping water against our house instead of allowing it to flow away. So we had to hire someone to dig that out with an excavator because we just don’t have that kind of time or energy to do by hand. By this time, the rainy season had already started so the excavator pretty much tore up our whole yard. In the spring, we are going to have to work on putting in some new landscaping – some plants and mulch at the very least. Right now, it’s nothing but mud and gravel.
We also got a new heating and cooling system put in because the temperature was so unbalanced in this house. We got quotes from over 10 companies before we finally found one we felt comfortable with. Unfortunately, when we started taking apart the ductwork in the utility room, we found that there was mold in the crawlspace. Our house is odd. We have a big main crawlspace which is clean and mold-free. But we learned that we also have a small, narrow crawlspace right next to it and the gas line goes through it. It really had no access other than by removing the ductwork. I wonder whose brilliant idea that was. So we had the mold remediated and had a contractor create an entrance to this crawlspace for future access.
Now, I have a little story to top off the house stuff. We had a wind storm last week and we have lots of trees around our house. Typically, I get kind of anxious when it’s windy and I try to avoid being upstairs in case a tree falls on the house. My fiancé always thinks I am overreacting but this time I was right! I went downstairs and I heard a loud crash at the front of our house – it turned out to be a big branch that had fallen and taken out our cable line but nothing too bad. While I was looking outside with the front door open I started hearing something.
crack
Crack
CRACKKKKK
I knew a tree was falling but I couldn’t see where and I didn’t know what to do so I just stayed where I was. A moment later my fiance was yelling at me from upstairs to come up and look at the garage. I looked outside the window and there is this cedar tree perched on the corner of our garage!
!!!!!!
I was in utter shock and I think I made this out to be a much bigger emergency in my head than it really was. We got incredibly lucky that the tree hit the corner and not the middle of the garage or the siding. I think if it had fallen a foot to either side it would have done much more damage. From what is visible at the moment, all I can see is damage to the roof, some plywood and a bit of cracking in the cement. It doesn’t look too horrendous and I hope that as we get people out to inspect that it won’t require too much repair. This is what we are going to be busy with in early 2015… ugh. Oh well, it needs to be done.
The Good of 2014
- My friend Erica and her boyfriend came to visit 🙂
- French drain is done!
- New heating and cooling system is done!
- Getting good grades!
- Scored some great deals on new beauty stuff to review in 2015.
The Not So Good of 2014
- All the stress.
- Lack of healthy eating and exercise.
- Not back to working yet.
- The Tree Incident.
- Some decluttering is needed.
Even with the garage needing some fixing, I am looking forward to a fresh start in 2015. I’m hoping I can be more productive and work on myself. Between going to school and working on my house, I’ve neglected my diet and fitness and my work.
New Year’s Resolutions
I don’t usually like doing resolutions because they almost invite failure. These resolutions are mostly just things that I want to remain conscious of and make a greater effort to do in the coming year.
- Take a lighter load of classes to free up some more time.
- Make more of an effort to maintain a normal sleep schedule.
- Cook more healthy meals and track what I eat.
- Exercise more and track my activity.
- Get out of my beauty rut and try more new products.
- Put more time and effort into work related stuff.
How has your year been? Do you have any new year’s resolutions? I’m wishing all of you a happy, healthy, prosperous 2015!