Multitasking

 I have been attempting to:

*get rid of a desk
*get rid of some unwanted cat food and a cat tower
*get a new prescription filled
*pay a few bills
*do IT security training for work
*clear up a speeding ticket I got earlier this year
*coordinate with a handyman to install more shelving in this house
*pre-plan a train trip to NC
*get folks interested in a day trip to St Pete
*make a loaf of sourdough bread
*coordinate an investment with Sean
*start a new jigsaw puzzle because I am insane that way

Hoo doggie, yes, that is a LOT when I see it all written down! No wonder I have not been successful at some of these. Today. I have not been successful at them today. But a few are done, and a few are started. and that is good enough.

Tonight is trivia night!

A good weekend

​Really pleased with this delightful little cabinet in our tiny laundry room. It holds all that needs to be held and does so attractively. 

It’s been a good weekend of little chores slowly pulling the house together: hung up a TV, put up some small hooks, 2 smoke detectors, organized the pantry and the baking area — still so excited the kitchen is so big it has a dedicated baking area!! — unpacked a half dozen boxes, update address with a few more places, biked around our neighborhood again. Nothing rushed, plenty of downtime too. Busy couple weeks ahead so nice to toddle around the house, making slight improvements, in between naps, laundry, visiting with Nora, and dog walks. 

Diary for today

Texted to Sean:

​The apartment was so cold… it took all day for the starter to rise. So bread got started last night…. Had to go in fridge after two stretch & folds.  We should have bread tonight. Maybe I’ll start another starter now, so I can make more bread by Thursday.

I’d had ambitions to be at my desk by 8… but a warm bed and NYT puzzles distracted me.

Peter doesn’t seem super keen on coming home on weekends. I suspect he wants to stay in college mode, might be easier to study and focus here. Also… if he goes back and forth, he’ll need to remember to bring books or laptop back and forth. That’ll be more stress. 

So I’m hoping I can come home with him in Honda this Thursday, then you drive up in Honda on Sunday with him. Then the following Thursday, I may need to fetch you in the Subaru so he has the Honda here. 

And in future, when we come up for one day, one of us will drive up and back in Subaru. It’s fine — the person at home will survive overnight without a car.  Yes, eventually we’ll get a third car.

It’s not the end of the world if we go for awhile with only two cars. Between bikes, Nora, uber, and just being patient… it’ll be fine.

Between gas, insurance, repairs and purchasing a 3rd car… we will save more than $1000 a month — yes even with a hybrid. For it mostly to be sitting around since we both work from home. We should practice riding our bikes to Publix. And check out grocery delivery for the hot months.  If we spend less than $1000 a month on Ubers and grocery delivery — we’d be ahead of the game.

Also I can’t have tea… I took the tea kettle to Lakeland. Must bring back. But I have a car full of stuff to bring to Lakeland on Thursday. 

Posted on BlueSky:

I’d get more work done if I wasn’t doing laundry and helping the boy buy his school books.

Then again… my employers aren’t sending me enough work so I might as well do laundry, drive the boy around, bake bread, and post nonsense on BlueSky. It doesn’t pay well, but it keeps life interesting. 

Workmen as RPG characters

​I’ve had so many workmen in the house, I need to start classifying them as D&D characters. 

• Our electrician? Totally a dwarf (the Tolkien kind — he wasn’t an actual dwarf) wizard 
  
• Electrician assistant? a half elf wizard’s assistant 
  
• Dishwasher repair? a barbarian rogue 
  
• Handyman? Human Paladin
  
• Locksmith? Ought to be a rogue with that profession, but he was charming and did more than expected:  so maybe human warlock
  
• Cleaning lady? Halfling fighter 
  
• Fence installer? Half-orc fighter
  
• Fence salesman: human bard 
  
• Garage door inspector? Human ranger
  

 

Home improvements

​mirrors hung 

Light hung by front door, next to Nora’s faux stain glass window 

Fans hung in LR and DR (plus my office and Sean’s office)

Today — selling a house, keeping busy

​Short version: Imma sit outside and read and sip wine for a little while. Wine is Coopers Hawk Riesling. The book is a regift from my son from his Literature of the Occult class. Outside is 74°. 

Long version:

Today we signed papers virtually to sell our old house. The virtual notary process was *not* smooth, but at least our part is now done. I also worked more than 3 hours for the first time in a couple months (don’t be jealous, the paychecks have been atrociously small). 

I managed to also:

• *bake bread
  
• *supervise a handyman putting up 4 fans, 4 mirrors, one ceiling light and other things
  
• *take all the ornaments off the Christmas tree
  
• *schedule an appliance repairman and a birthday dinner
  
• *pay the pool guy for THE LAST TIME
  
• *pay new lawn guy for the first time
  
• *and tidy up enough to find 3 Hershey nuggets with toffee and almonds 

It’s now wine and chocolate and sitting down time.

LONGER version of the virtual closing as told to my friend Stacy:

Oh it happened. It took 2 1/2 hours because we had to fill things out three times, the third time on a phone screen because their software could not work on our computer. WTF

And the lady was a dingbat. Gold star to me because I only yelled at her once for continually talking over us as we struggled to fill out forms on a phone screen. WTAF

We did this virtually because their office is in Broward. But OH OH OH guess what I discovered between attempts 2 and 3? They HAVE AN OFFICE IN LAKELAND where we could’ve done this in person.

The lady on the phone, in Broward, was not aware there was an office in Lakeland and suggested maybe it had been closed and merged with another office. So I called the Lakeland office in front of her (via camera) and proved they had an office here and it was open. But by then the software finally worked by phone and we decided to grit our teeth and finish.

Biggest real estate transaction of my life and I’m PISSED OFF.

Also we don’t get our money until buyers do their part which is … Weds, so they say this time.

I wandered off a couple times for stretch & fold the sourdough because she kept having to do things on her end and find witnesses on her end (why were there no witnesses planned for a scheduled meeting?)

And she got annoyed I wasn’t on camera during those parts. Whatevs. My sourdough is not waiting 2 1/2 hours, lady.

And there were so many debacles, i forgot the first one: she scheduled the meeting for noon. So she set the timer for the zoom-like software for 11:59 pm. Which is… MIDNIGHT. Had to cancel and start over.

House to do list

still to do:

1. finish unpacking
2. Hang 5 new fan/lights
3. Count, buy, install remaining outlet and lightswitch covers
4. Rehang linen closet door
5. Get 3 cabinet doors and 2 drawers in kitchen repaired/replaced
6. Reinstall smoke detectors
7. Regrout tubs
8. Paint backside of master bathroom door
9. Fix latch on office bathroom door
10. Replace 3 sets of blinds
11. fix trim at top of one set of kitchen cabinets
12. install new doorbell
13. Hang up ladders in garage
14. Replace master bathroom medicine cabinet
15. Install water filtration system under kitchen sink
16. new window for Sean's office
17. Hang two new lights
18. Hang up curtains master bedroom

After all that:

1. Install pull-down ladder access to attic
2. Look into additional shelving in closets
3. Get bids on expanding patio/screen porch
4. new exterior lights for garage
5. Repainting 2 dressers
6. Have electrician install one more recessed light and a fridge-worthy plug in garage
7. Buy new fridge

Home improvements day 6/7

Internet installed on Thursday.

Meanwhile the painter delayed again. I got upset at two weeks of delays. They finally admitted they couldn’t do the job. But thankfully, they were kind enough to give me names of painters with bigger teams that could get the job done in time. Had a couple of options, but I also reached out to the Handyman who I met on Monday, Warren, Who was willing to take on the job At the same price, I’d already agreed to pay, and I feel I know him and trust him now. So he started on Friday morning, with prepping and taping things off and filling in holes and taking down doors.

Nora also came by on Friday and we tightened knobs on cabinets in the kitchen and she cleaned out the interior of all the cabinets and drawers. Which was amazing. We also discovered all sorts of little oddities like a piece of trim that had been hammered very poorly back in place and a random nail just sticking out of a cabinet. I showed the Painter where the accent walls would be, one wall of the laundry room, one wall of my office, one wall of my master bedroom, closet, and the toilet room.

I had picked out and picked up mirrors for the master bathroom, and now I’m questioning myself. But I can always return them. It’s the mixture of gold edge of the mirrors and the silver/pewter color of the faucets. So it doesn’t bother me at our old home. It’s the mixture of gold edge of the mirrors and the silver/pewter color of the faucets. So it doesn’t bother me at our old home, so it’s probably not a Problem. . And I have mirrors picked out for the office bathroom, which I still need to order. I picked out a new light for the foyer and a new light for the breakfast, which are arriving on December 26

I keep adding to my list for the Handyman with more stuff to keep or busy in late December!

Home improvements — part 5

Met and confirmed plans with Mo the fence guy. Very happy about that. Very happy we have an extra wide yard in back, based on survey. We had no idea.

Waiting on lawn guy. Waiting on deliver of bed frame.

Decided to be here Friday 12/12 to meet with painters. Gonna try to move internet install to that day.

Gonna stop at Lowe’s for lights and mirror shopping.

Home improvements — part 3&4

Saturday: Nora and I took down some vents and talked and took down some alarm things from windows and talked, and figured out all the screens in the house are sideways!?

Monday: electricians, lights, fuse box, security box removal

handyman, mirrors, patch walls

me: remove tape around tub

lawn: getting price quote from Uppercut

So far… texts to Nora to summarize:

I called mover and he was very reassuring that he will be there on December 16. I admitted to him that I was a wee bit nervous that everything‘s going well on our end and then if the movers didn’t show up, it would be all for not. But he promised that unless he get hit by an asteroid, that he’d be there.

I like the new Handyman. He’s a little bit like Chris but maybe better prepared. Certainly has more tools and a better truck. He has already fixed several things and got himself a shopping list to go to the hardware store and get stuff.

And we got the approval from the HOA to get the architectural form, so the fence is back on track! 

And the electricians took down all the weird security crap, and replaced some lights and fixed the fuse box! The house is already better than when you last saw it! 

It’s been a very productive day. Now, I have two lawn companies are gonna give me quotes for mowing the lawn. And I am waiting for a phone call from the painters to tell me when they’re gonna start. Whew!!!

Dixieland Handyman, Warren, cost $485. A bargain to take care of so many little tasks. He put blank plates over all 3 new holes created by taking down security crap, plus covering phone outlets.

Electrician: we put another LED recessed light and added a dimmer switch in kitchen. Total cost was about $1250. Possibly going to add another LED recessed light near DR, maybe above shower in front bathroom, plus new proper plug for fridge in garage.

Loved the Uppercut guy and hired him. $125 per month. But also keeping appointment with Myerscape on Tuesday for comparison.

Home improvements -- part 2

 Locksmith arrived on time, installed new lock on one door, and re-keyed the other. And a spare moment, he tightened a hinge and the door now longer rubs the door jam, causing it to stick when opening. Based on the wear and tear on that corner of the door, the previous owners put up with this problem for years. Charged me $80 for all of it, and the lock had cost $105. We now have keypads at two doors.

Electrician arrived on time, and confirmed my suspicion about a problem with the fuse box. Again with an easy solution. Which means the previous owners just put up with an issue (minor) with the fuse box for 15 years instead of fixing it.

Anyway, the electrician answered my questions and agreed to do more work than I had planned on, like removing all the wacky security stuff from prior owners. And promises me much better light in the kitchen, and is charging a reasonable amount -- $1075. And they'll get it all done on Monday.

Then I went around and counted all the cracked or paint-dripped outlet covers and light-switch covers. i was going to buy replacements, but holy cow there are choices. And maybe we want dimmer switch or USB plus in the plug. And I got overwhelmed with choices, so I will wait for Sean in 2 weeks. We don't need to replace these until after the painting.

Home improvements — part 1

So far I’ve committed to painters, Chuck & Lou — $7250

And committed to fence installers, My Fence Co — $6,985, plus $750 survey.

I’ve had garage doors serviced, and he helped program keypad outside of house. $150 by Prestige Garage Door Services.

Having new lock installed from kitchen to garage, and front door lock re-keyed. By Ace Lock. Install = $80 plus $20 tip. Lock cost $105. And the dude fixed hinge in front door so it closes properly.

Lewman Electric is coming at 8 to fix fuse box issue and give price quote on new lights and light switches. EDITED TO ADD: getting 5 new LED lights in kitchen and 4 in giant closet. On Monday, they’re fixing fuse box, adding a light switch, and taking down various security sensors off wall for me. $1075.

I need to inventory, then shop for coordinating lights, mirrors, fans that I like. I also need to inventory and buy new outlet covers.

And while waiting on locksmith, I started prepping kitchen wall for painters.

New house juggling day

Today I committed to painters. And a fence installer. And had the garage doors serviced. And thought about paint colors and tile and placement of light fixtures. And wished Erin Schrump Silver was here to help me with picking colors. Maybe I’ll consult with her by phone.

And waited for a handyman who never came.

And reached out to an electrician and locksmith. Who responded while i wrote this. Ordered a lock and scheduled appointments already. This post took a very long time to write!

And showed Nora the new house for the first time.

What I didn’t do today: eat. No wonder my brain is mush. Waiting now for sushi order before driving to Peter’s condo, as i call it now.

Anyway… here’s photos of various odd shit attached to the walls that i want to remove.

Things I did today instead of Doom Scrolling

Things I did today instead of Doom Scrolling

1. Finished NYT crossword
2. Took cat to the vet
3. Read more Anne of Green Gables
4. Napped two and a half hours!
5. Retrieved the cat from vet and gave her medicine
6. Baked chocolate chip cookies
7. Started sourdough bread
8. Listen to Peter read the HP Lovecraft story “The Music of Eric Zahnn”
9. Changed the beds, cleaned bathrooms, started laundry, tidied up wine bottle empties
10. Prepped second sour dough starter jar to take to West Palm Beach house
11. Finished (re)watching Survivor season 14
12. Started packing
13. Started job hunting
14. Joined a Sea Shanty group

Sunday plans

Sunday plans:

1. NYT Sunday crossword, ✔️ 7:05 am
2. more episodes of Survivor Guatemala, ✔️ started 10:10 am
3. an afternoon of crafting and Texas music, ✔️
4. and baking a big ol’ chicken pesto lasagna. PUT OFF TO MONDAY

#LifeIsGood

Also planned: social media sabbatical day. Hope I remember that part tomorrow! 😆😆😆

Also done today:

1. reserved U-Haul
2. Coordinated move in with Nora
3. made cheese biscuits
4. Put shelf liners in pantry finally
5. Ordered books from Audible, using up 5 credits
6. stretched
7. wrote a letter to Nora
8. mousturized
9. Inventoried pantry
10. found recipes to use up already purchased food
11. braided my hair
12. planned yet more things to pack and move
13. fallen in love with Rebecca Loebe, and Anna Vogelzang, and Matt the Electrician and Ellis Paul and Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin.
14. embroidery
15. other NYT puzzles
16. Won, lost, played a few online board games
17. meditated
18. coordinated plans for Kingshead Pub in sunrise for sticky toffee pudding

Small Joys — knock things out

Day 198

Random number 308

Finish a lingering home task

When we moved into this house 23 years ago, the prior owner had installed some “rope” lighting under the cabinets and on top of the cabinets. The ones on top still work. We actually forget about them occasionally for a couple years at a time, but i plugged them in today and they lit up!

The under-cabinet lighting burned out about two years in and we took it down. Except most of the clips. Which I finally took out today. It’d been on my To Do list for showings. We may not be on the market still, but I will keep doing some projects toward re-listing in 2026.

Recap of past few months and a big decision

…Aka walking away from more money than I ever imagined…

I am moving to Tampa in August… but … not really. And Sean and I are splitting up. The cat & dog are splitting up too! Don’t get excited!!! Read the whole story!

Full story:

We put our house on the market. Painted, cleaned, scrubbed, put stuff in storage, all the things!

2 1/2 months, we didn’t get any offers.

Came up with a plan B for supporting Peter going back to college, weighing options and expenses.

Then we got a nice offer on the house this week (tho’ under asking). OMG!!!! Time to sell or get off the pot!

We got off the pot. We are not selling the house (yet). Plan B is more flexible, financially sound plan.

So! Son Peter and I and the cat are moving. short term, to a condo we already own near his college.

It’s so obvious, why didn’t we think of this 4 months ago? Oh yeah, we had tenants 4 months ago. Plan B wasn’t an option originally.

I have a little whiplash from all this, but it’s nice to not make a full move yet.

So yeah, my husband and I are splitting up short term, for the kiddo. It is the best plan for our son which is our goal as a team. Parenting is hard. Parenting special needs is harder. Luckily, the three of us make a good team.

So I get to support Peter in his new college adventure, as well as explore a new city, shake things up a bit in my life, and fix up the condo in Tampa. Sean gets a lot of time for his writing. But also, we still have the same home to come home to. No matter how Peter fares at college, we’ll have his back, one way or another.

And not making big financial moves (yet?) means more travel! We already have plans for winter break!

Sean and I still intend to move out of Palm Beach County some day … maybe in the next year. We first have to make serious decisions about *where* we want to be for the next stage of our lives.

ANOTHER VERSION: I wrote this to Kamas:

Peter’s classes start Aug 25. 

We got an offer in the house… and then turned it down!!!! Because we realized it’d be easier, cheaper, less stressful to keep this house, and Peter and I go live semester to semester in the condo that we already own in Tampa. Nora was living in it until a couple months ago, so this wasn’t an option when we started this drama. 

Key: This plan will be less pressure for all of us if Peter doesn’t finish college. 

But also… Sean and I weren’t/aren’t real sure what we were doing the *following* year. The plan had been: sell & rent in Tampa, then… buy … somewhere? Maybe Tampa? Maybe Winter Haven? Maybe Canada?! We don’t really know! Probably it’ll be near Nora (ergo, Winter Haven-ish area), but there’s a lot could change in her life still… she’s job hunting still and her father in law is dying. 

We hope we don’t regret not selling now. The offer we got was pretty nice (though below asking price). The economy still has potential to become even more chaotic… Sean and I have said all along:,worst case scenario we stay in a house we know and near people we like and trust!

So Peter and I are moving temporarily to Tampa on Sat Aug 16. Just decided the date today. Skitty is moving with us. Luna stays here with Sean. It’ll be interesting to see how the animals cope. 

And we’ll all see each other about every two weeks, we’ve figured out.

Meanwhile our house looks AMAZING which is nice. And we’re getting a few more things fixed that would’ve come up in inspection — like a broken window. So we plan to re-visit whether to sell in January and in May… a lot depends on how Peter is doing in college and where Nora is settling. 

And we put the brakes on

We’re taking our house off the market. Yes, we just got an offer.

But we had already decided on me and Peter moving to the condo. And that’s what we’re sticking with.

And we’ve run the numbers and it’d be cheaper to maintain two households (house here and the condo) than to rent — mostly ‘cause our house has no mortgage. Renting would also be more expensive with all the costs of a full move and repairs needed due to an inspection. Of course those expenses will come whenever we do sell.

So really … it’s because if we did all this effort and spent all this money, and then Peter melts down or fails out, … it’d be so much pressure on him that we’d done all that. Even if we reassured him that we meant to do all this anyway.

In addition, we didn’t have a concrete plan for what happens next year: buy in Tampa? Move elsewhere? We could end up renting and spending more money without a clear plan. We need more time to figure out the next stage.

Four months ago, Sean was sure the economy was about to collapse and wanted to sell while we could. But the economy is mostly doing okay. And interest rates will drop in a couple months so housing market may actually improve. And maybe we will sell it for more money (that’s a gamble).

In the meantime, we can get Peter through a semester or two before we commit to moving.

Whooo wheeee…. It’s chaos! And yet, we’re doing the less chaotic thing.

As soon as Sean said that this could further devestate Peter, I was like, ohhhh yeah. That’s smart. Then I was like WHY we were gung-ho to do this? And he reminded we (HE and many experts) thought the economy was about to collapse. And it still might. But now that maybe it’s not collapsing as fast as we thought … this gives us more flexibility.

Small Joys — focused tidying

Day 160

Random number: 196

Tidy a linen closet

I pulled everything out of two linen closets — got rid of loads of excess towels and threw out trash, refolded towels and put them back neatly. If any visitors open the linen closets, our mess won’t overwhelm them or distract them.

I also tidied the storage shelves over the toilet in the master bathroom. I’ll get to under the sinks some day…

Life is good — deep clean edition

Deep deep cleaned the kitchen, a nap, then organized 2 out of 3 linen closets.

I’m beat!

But there’s Andor season 2, cheese, and hard cider in my future. So #lifeisgood as usual!