Well…after spending an hour looking at every big box store to try to find the blinds I want for the bedroom with no luck, on a whim I tried amazon and they had the one size I needed on sale for only 19 bucks so I ordered it but needed another 6 bucks to get free shipping so I bought another pair of riding gloves for 7 bucks since I’ll need them later in the summer…so I spent another 28 bucks today even though I wanted to not spend anything for a while…and I’ll spend another 30 tomorrow getting the paint, trim pad, manure, and garden soil at depot so I can start on getting the garden planted downstairs so the plants can go out as soon as they sprout….and I did find my seeds from last year that I think I have enough for another garden but I may need some cukes since I only have a few of those seeds left…and I may buy some onion seeds just for the heck of it to see if they’ll grow…maybe some lettuce and cabbage, too? Had too many tomatoes last year and could free up some room for them….still feel like I didn’t accomplish anything today and I think this will be my last day of taking Sunday off since I have so much work to do….

Well…just finished up getting the bedroom prepped for painting tomorrow and I am just darn tired from not getting any sleep last night…had to clear out the sawhorses and other stuff that I needed to paint the shelving for the closet and then dump the last of the paint, wallpaper, and glue that was in the trash can outside and put the drop cloth down to catch any paint drips that may happen tomorrow….and I have been fighting problems with my laptop that appear to be fixed and I think it was from not shutting it off for a month or so…it just froze up and I had to pull the battery out of it to get it to do a complete restart…and that took about a half hour for it to figure out if it wanted to work or not…luckily it did and I’m back at this…and now they are playing the Doctor Who episode that never showed up on Plex that will lead into the new season that starts right after it so my afternoon is planned…so I need to finish this and get ready….more later….maybe….

Well…okay, feeling better this morning about the rentals across the street but didn’t sleep for crap and part of that is that damn Lowes sent me a text at 2:14 in the damn morning and it took me an hour or better to get back to sleep…but it’s my day off so I can cope with that pretty well…and I had a memory flash last night where I remembered a tool that I can use to edge the trim in the bedroom I’m working on…it’s a little pad with rollers on it that you slide along the top of the baseboards and the ceiling corners to get a nice straight line for the grey paint so I can paint the bedroom without masking the whole thing off…and the cool thing is that the tool is only 4 bucks and that is half what a roll of tape would cost…and that means I can paint the bedroom and finish it up tomorrow and start moving in by the end of the week….need to find an area rug to put in there with how crappy the floor is but I can live with the small one I have for now…have been living without one in the small bedroom so I’m used to it…and I can even start on doing the small bedroom but I’m not sure how much I want to do in there before summer…certainly get rid of the dropped ceiling and work on the baseboards but I need it for a work room to do the doors so I don’t have to drag them downstairs…but that is work and I don’t want to talk about that right now….I am looking forward to resting my body some since the skin on my hands is so dried out from all of the washing I do when working on this place…I do still want to buy a kayak but I’m not sure how much I’d use it and I really hate buying things I won’t use a lot…like a grill…my brother said he had one he’d let me have but I haven’t heard from him since last fall so I guess that’s not going to happen and I don’t want to spend 200 bucks on one….I do want to buy a couple more plastic Adirondek chairs for outside just in case anyone ever comes out to visit so I’ll have to look for those here in a while….I am looking forward to getting on the yard this week and doing the cleanup and prepping the garden for planting…I want to get some crabgrass preventer/food and get it on the lawn this week, too, and work on the mower to get it ready but those are fooling around jobs that can be fun…not much to do today…there is a new football league starting today and there is a Michigan team in it so I may take a look at that at noon and I need to clear everything out of the bedroom so I can paint tomorrow along with ordering the blinds…so an easy day…and I need one of those….more later….

Well…feel like I was sucker punched today when I saw that the two new houses across the street are going to be frickin rentals and I am so damn pissed that I can’t see straight…in the whole damn neighborhood, they put up rentals across from me and with all of the bullshit that comes with rentals up here…after all, every damn noise complaint I’ve had to make, over 80 and counting, was for people in the tons of rental housing up here already…the one thing we don’t need is more rentals and the noise and bullshit that comes with them…I mean renters don’t give a crap about the neighborhood they live in and have no “skin in the game” as we owners do….and just the act of them putting up a “for rent” sign cost me 15K on the price of my house since rental housing always lowers home values in any neighborhood they are in…and yes, I’ve read the studies that support this fact and I am going to go to the city commission meeting next week to let them have it about them costing me money and them not caring since they don’t live up here. I am just stewing about this and am about ready to stop working on this place since I’ll never get my money back for what I’m putting into it or rewarded for making this a better neighborhood with all of my damn work cleaning up after the pigs that live up here…I will say that I’m done taking care of the vacant lots up here since all of my work has been nullified by the act of putting up a for rent sign across the street…so, I guess I’ll start looking for other houses but I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to afford anything as nice as this place…so, it looks like I’m stuck here for now…and really, really depressed…crap…

Well…dang, the moon was so bright last night it looked like a spotlight was shining into my bedroom from about 2 am on and that was not good for trying to sleep…after tossing and turning for a few hours, I gave up and got up at 5:37 but still feel okay so I can live with that…my hands are pretty puffy this morning from all of the abuse I’ve been heaping on them and that won’t stop today since I want to paint the closet in the bedroom after doing the trim yesterday for some reason…but covering the dark blue in there is going to take two coats…and I need to get that done before Man U plays at 10…why, I don’t know since they have been stinking up the place for months now and will probably do it again today…I was going to take the weekend off and clean but that can wait til this afternoon….and I am going to take the entire day off tomorrow to get ready for the big push to finish the bedroom next week…and I am wavering on taking the summer off since I could get the painting done in the dining room and living room in a couple of weeks….but I may take a few weeks off anyway…with the bedroom going better than I thought, I still may be able to get those rooms done before the end of May which was my goal anyway….not sure if my body will hold up, though, and the yard is going to take about a week of prep work to get it ready for summer…damn, all I do is talk about work anymore…I wonder what happened to science, astronomy, and sports? I will make an effort to broaden the topics out in the future…it seems I have tunnel vision right now but working on the house has become my life and I know I’m getting tired of it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a few minutes and the straight into the closet painting and I know I’ll have paint all over me from the tight space…but it will be worth it….still have dust patrol to do later since I am so tired of having everything coated….more later….

Well…you know, I was going to take the day off today after painting the bathroom yesterday but, you know me, I just can’t do it…so after the bike ride today, I headed out to run errands and try to get parts to rebuild my front gate and got the corners I needed but they only sell the rail I need in 10 ft lengths and I only need about 30 inches…and it was too cold to put the top down on the car and stick it in the seat and up in the air, so I couldn’t buy that part of it…the rail costs 20 bucks so the repair now is about 32 bucks but still cheaper than the 120 bucks they want for a new gate so I guess I can live with it…so, I’m going to have over 7 feet of rail left and I need to figure out what to do with it…maybe use it for the hummingbird feeder hanger that I wanted to make? I decided against the blocks for the garden border since menards is such a pain to deal with when you need construction materials…and once I measured the garden, it was going to take 50 bricks and I just don’t feel like setting that many of them right now…and can always do that later if I get bored this summer and have some extra cash…but I did work on the closet in the bedroom…cleaned it up and painted the baseboards and trim in there and will need to paint it grey in the next couple of days…but I’m not going to paint the ladder right now…just going to clean it and leave it for another time since it needs so much detail work…oh, and I hung the new blinds in the bathroom, getting one step closer to finishing it…just need to do the register next week when it’s warmer and I can paint it outside….so I did work today…maybe I’ll take the weekend off…yeah, right….

Well…darn, I wonder why I don’t sleep well on the days where I work my butt off? Tossed and turned all night last night and feel worn out today but part of that may be only having a square of lasagna to eat all day….when I don’t get to eat til after 2 in the afternoon, it is too hard to try to force a second meal in before the end of the day so I normally don’t…and I didn’t ride the bike in or out yesterday so I shouldn’t have eaten more anyway…will do better today with the big ham in the fridge and not a lot do today…probably should clean the closet in the bedroom I’m working on since it is still full of dust from the repairs in there and I need to paint it to get rid of the ugly blue…going to paint it the same color as the kitchen and bathroom since I have 2/3rds of  a gallon of that paint left and have no plans to use that color again….I wonder if my hands feel like they would from a bare knuckle fight? They are so stiff, cut up, and sore that I know they should be rested today but I still have work to do so that probably won’t happen….thinking of going out to Menards to get my gate repair parts so I can do that next week and check out the bricks I need to make a border around the garden this morning….I need 42 of them and I think I’ll make it red with some grey accents like I did with the trash bin landing pad….and that will be about 150 pounds in the back of the Miata and that is about the load limit for it….not much to do today…need to get on the bike here in a minute to get a ride in and I do have the blinds for the bathroom I can install today….and I need to order blinds for the bedroom window so I can install them as soon as I get that painted and take the newspaper down….damn, this became another house one and I didn’t want to do that…oh, well….more later….