Snow....

This is beginning to get repetitious......more snow!! This time, though, we only got around 6 inches....no big deal.

As I said last time - businesswise, things have finally slowed down around here.....but......sheesh. The last week or two, Ed's only worked 10 or 12 hours each week (compared to 50 to 60 a week for the last few months), but I have to work nearly as much in the office as I did when he was busy.......NO FAIR!!! (I'm beginning to hate this job)

We shouldn't complain, though....if it weren't for the fact that the business is usually steady, we'd not have the money to remodel the guest room! We've been in business a year and a half and, thanks to our savings account, we have not gone in the red at all. Oh, we've had times when we've been close and that black has been nearly .......what DO red & black together make......burgundy?.....purple? We've never advertised, either, except for flyers on local bulletin boards and passing out business cards. Last week I placed an order for a bunch of pens and notepads with our business name on them - the pens came today and the notepads should be here next week.

So....speaking of guest room remodel.....it really is necessary. The floor (particle board type stuff on top of cement slab, covered with vinyl flooring) had buckled most of the way across it, so nothing for furniture would sit correctly. I'm talkin 'BUCKLED", folks....at one spot it was about 4 inches off the cement!! (since it was the office until last month....trying to sit at a desk and work was really interesting....rolling chair!!!)

It also has always smelled musty, which I thought was the floor. Come to find out, it was the sheetrock and insulation.....the room had wood paneling over sheetrock....and 3 layers of wallpaper on top of the paneling. We knew when we bought it (nearly 9 years ago) that the two windows had leaked...and they were broken, so we replaced them within a month of buying the house. What we didn't know was that they must have been leaking for a long time, coz when Ed took down the paneling last week, the sheetrock was BLACK and CRUMBLING and the insulation was too! Thank heavens that's the last room for now that needs doing (the kitchen/dining/livingroom will be next, but not for a while). It only took Ed a day and a half last week to gut the room. Then he strapped the floor and got the subfloor laid over the weekend and on Monday. The sheetrock came yesterday (and it is in the hall, so he MUST NOT dawdle....the hall is only 3 feet wide and my washer is there!!!), but he had wiring to do. Of course, he got right in the middle of that and the phone rang....and didn't get back to it.

Today we both had Dr. appts and then he got two service calls, so more delays on the guest room. Sigh...tis the way of things! Ed hurt his elbow a long while back and it's still bothering him. He's not a complainer, so when he did complain about it, I made him call the doctor for an appointment. Fortunately, she thinks it's "tennis elbow"...bad enough, but you never know, it could have been something worse! Me...it was just my regular protime check. Oh....and since the Dr put me on Lyrica, I've been able to cut down from 4 pain pills a day to 3....and occasionally even just 2!!! Woo hoo!!

I FINALLY picked up a crochet hook last night and finished the little ladybug purse I was making for my grandniece's second birthday gift. Um....she turned two in OCTOBER! I got it nearly done and then discovered that I didn't have the black eyelash yarn required to finish it....so figured I'd give it to her for Christmas. I hurt my finger just before Christmas, so that was out! Then I just got busy and lazy.

So....my sister talked me into taking a table at a craft fair....in early June I think she said....and now I HAVE TO do some crocheting, coz I donated most of my extra stuff to charity a while ago and now haven't enough to fill a table - EEP! Knowing my sister, however....I already told her to bring ALL her stuff - if I can't fill my table, SHE can!! I also then realized that that date is the weekend we MIGHT just be coming home from WY, if we go....could be interesting! (aw heck....if it is, I'll just take everything to her house before we go and make her get it ready...hee hee hee). I've got to remember to ask my sis if she knows what usually sells well at that craft sale (this is a yearly one, in her town, not mine), so I know what to concentrate on making.

Now that I've tired everyone's eyes to the crossing point......

Done Ramblin

More snow!!

ANOTHER snowstorm! We got about 16 inches from this storm (so far...it's still snowing, but we aren't supposed to get more than an inch more).

These pics are for those of you who laugh in doubt when I say the snow drifts so high on our kitchen window that DH has to shovel it out several times a winter. Enjoy....or shiver, depending on your opinion on winter!

These first couple, of Ed shoveling, were taken Saturday. The bottom of this window is more than 4 feet from the ground, and he'd already shoveled 3 feet of snow away from it before I got out the camera.



These next three are of the view out my kitchen window today - at 11:45 am there was very little view between the snow on the ground and the snow hanging from the roof - maybe 18 inches. Then the gap gets smaller (about 10 inches) at 3:30 pm.....at 5:50 pm there was only about a 5 inch gap. If I weren't so lazy, I'd have gotten myself bundled up and gone up the road to take a picture from the outside....too bad!




Ed and I are taking bets on when/if roof meets ground!

Things have been fairly quiet here, workwise. Ed has spent a lot of time moving stock from the other shed, the storage unit and the cellar to the new shed, while I have been trying to get our tax stuff together and sort and straighten out the hobby/stock room. UGH!! I've not had time/inclination/health enough to even try to crochet for several weeks...boy do I miss it.

Today was a really lazy day for me - couldn't get out of my own way without dropping something/tripping over something/knocking something down, so I did nearly nothing all day. Yick.

Done ramblin

It's Official

We are officially moved into our new office! It's actually finished! Well, as much as we can finish this time of year, anyway. We do still have one door that needs to be trimmed out, but the door itself needs to be taken off, sanded & urethaned, which we can't do until spring, so that will wait. And, I need to order a blind for the window - couldn't do that before the trim was up. Neither of those two were something to keep us from moving in.......it's been a looooong five months!!

We spent last Sunday and Monday moving furniture....some of it more than once! Because of necessary changes in construction (and a couple of small changes that I didn't approve but were done in my absence and couldn't be undone), we couldn't set the furniture as I'd originally planned. So.....I'm not happy with the furniture arrangement - it's not exactly efficient for me. I need to find/make time to sit down and see if I can find a better one, which may not be possible - in which case, I'll just have to deal with the existing one. It's still a whole lot better than what I had!!

Now that the office is done, we've been able to make great advances getting the new stock shed set up and moving stock into it from other areas. If we can get the hobby room sort of back to normal within the next couple of weeks, we can bring the guest room furniture home and store it in there and not have to rent the storage unit downtown - freeing up a little bit of cash each month....only, I'm sure, to be spent elsewhere!! Ahh...such is life!

Ok......just ran out of steam for the day, too tired for more.

Done ramblin

We have heat!!!

After months with no heat in the new office area and future guest room (which is the current office), we finally got enough done on the new office area to get the heat back in there - am I ever glad!! I've been heating the office with a little ceramic heater which I only used when I was in there. And, with half the house not having heat and the outside temps between 10 below and 30 above, no matter that we've got sheets/blankets blocking openings and doors shut between room.....that cold air filters through to the heated part, so the whole house feels cold. Aargh!

So....we're all set to get the trim up around the ceiling, doors, closet and window, then the floor can go down. Once the floor is down, the mopboard can be put down and then we can MOVE IN! WOO HOO!

While Ed was getting the heat in I was doing the quarterly sales tax reports and figuring the tax due. OUCH! Sigh...ahh, well...the price of doing business. It's all done and there was enough money in the check book to pay for it, so that's a good thing, right?

One of our new cellular window shades broke yesterday. Bought them at Lowe's - they've got a 90 day return policy, so I dug out the receipt and will take it back for a replacement when I go that way on Thursday - which will be day 89 - PHEW!

We had 6 or 8 inches of snow last week, so I'm betting the snowmobile trails are good - unfortunately it doesn't look like we're going to see that for ourselves any time soon. Sigh. We were supposed to get 1 to 3 more inches overnight and thru this morning - we got just a dusting midmorning - guess the weatherman was wrong!

My finger is feeling much better, so I may actually get some crocheting done this week. We'll see!

Done Ramblin