Yesterday was a No Spend Day.
I spent about two hours in the basement yesterday looking for Hubster's Honorable Discharge paper, and realizing that I've a ton of work needing done down there - out of sight, out of mind.
Photo caption: Fortunately NOT my basement!
Ours is bad, but not THAT bad.
The biggest part was moving boxes out of the way of our long-term filing cabinets. Ninety-nine percent of those boxes came from MIL & FIL's estate. I am going through the boxes and selling stuff in my booth, it just takes time. Gaa! They were major hoarders though - not her maybe, but my FIL definitely was.
Tomorrow morning we have our appointment with Social Security to begin Hubster's SS payments. Wish us luck. Hopefully I have gathered all the necessary papers.
Hubster spent yesterday working on making some very nice vent & water connection covers for the outside of our house. The construction of our house is a wild mixture of cement block, rock and siding. There's a weird little arched recess where the water hose connects out front and he's decided this year (we've lived here since '99) that it needs covering. Whatever. It'll be nice. The man does good work.
Last week while I was out running around - museum presentation, breast cancer awareness party, and a funeral - he got the dining room trim up and painted. I'll get pics later.
The ceiling trim there & in the living room looks fabulous and makes the rooms look completed to my eye. He could care less, but it drove me batty from the day we arrived, the rooms just didn't look finished. Now we still have all three bedrooms, the utility room, the bathroom and the strange pass thru area between kitchen and dining room that need the same treatment. But they'll wait till later (hopefully spring).
I've yet to get the bed drug out and veneer filled & painted, but it's been piled with 'stuff' out of the dining room all week. Hope to get it all unloaded and then tear the bed down and get onto fixing it. I'll need to buy more paint so thinking that'll run about $20.
On Friday I rode along with parental units to a funeral (it was my nephew-in-laws mother who passed) about two hours from home and we stopped beforehand for lunch $5ish at fast food place, and then we went to a nearby town for a few hours in an antique mall. I spent nothing there which was a real feat as I had a long time in there as my Mom picks up every single item (or so it seems)! My Stepdad and I each made about six laps around the mall in there and Mom only got half-way thru before we drug her out! Then we ate supper on the way home and I spent $6.00 for a burger basket & fries and drink and $2.00 on the tip.
I balanced two checkbooks yesterday.
Need to take Ms. Carmel to the puppy groomer and have her nails clipped - $5.
Need to send money to the plumber for that hot water repair earlier this month - $300.
It's bill paying time and most everything is automated these days so it'll be interesting to see how my little routine differs now that there is no house payment to be made. I am planning on setting up an autodraft for the old mtg. payment amount out to savings for a future roof, HVAC, carpet, etc. fund.
October 25th, 2009 at 03:53 pm 1256486007
Good luck with the SS office. We will be doing this in ~two years for my dh. I did not know you needed military papers.
October 25th, 2009 at 03:58 pm 1256486315
October 25th, 2009 at 06:45 pm 1256496338
October 25th, 2009 at 08:10 pm 1256501409
October 25th, 2009 at 10:39 pm 1256510365
This time he's doing better and has actually taken to doing a lot of work on the outside of the house. Yard, barns, sheds, etc. It's all good and needs doing. The boys and I did all that stuff when he worked and it was always the afternoon portion of our homeschool day. I'm personally glad that's over and he's welcome to the great outdoors.
We actually get along quite well, and very rarely argue. Like maybe once or twice ever other year. We're seemingly well suited to each other, as strange as it sometimes has seemed to my birth family.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:46 pm 1256514394
My mom was telling me today that she thinks my step-dad has some hoarding tendencies. He's at least keeping it upstairs and in the 4 car garage ... If it starts invading "her" space (i.e. the downstairs) then she nips it in the bud quickly.