Garage Sale update
Well the sale didn't go that bad. At first we were kind of disappointed with the slow pace. But then we started to find out from neighbors that they made less and had the same traffic problem. Today at church I mentioned to the pastor's wife that we had a garage sale this weekend and she said they had one too. She only did slightly better than us, and she has older kids and had more items out. We figured that we were both in sub sales....and there were so many going on all over, people were just driving by and thinking "oh maybe I will go back to that one" but never coming back for whatever reason (spent to much already
lol). So while participating in a sub sale we help get more traffic, it must also overwhelm buyers...plus the people who shop at them...may have been holding there own.
At any rate....we kind of caught the garage sale bug. The "good" stuff that didn't sell....we are just going to put back in the basement (we have enough room) and try again next time. We feel kind of challenged and want to figure out what to do different. I know there is still a lot of things we can put out there.
Having cold drinks, chips, and cookies seemed to help. It especially helps to have a cute little boy trying to sell them. We bought things that we could eat or drink after so the cost isn't really additional.
We did get a lot of yard work and other things accomplished while holding the sale. We did so much yard work on Saturday we never noticed the lulls to much.
I am so happy that we finally tackled the front flower bed. It is almost done it just needs some more annuals and mulch. Of course while doing that I decided on another project so the front isn't quite done. But it feels so much better to look at flowers instead of nasty hard ugly dry clay. I will post pictures soon (
ok I won't say promise...but I am honestly so happy with how it turned out I can't imagine I would forget.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. Today is the last day of our vacation, and I know it is going to be a long day tomorrow.....if you know where I work and watch the news you should know....a really really really long day.....what a way to time a return from a vacation.
Garage Sale
We had decided a while back to take this week off. Mostly to officially "move in"....there were still some odd boxes laying in various places and just some general
disorganization that was driving us nuts. After making that decision some people in our neighborhood message group had decided to have a garage sale this weekend. So we decided to join in, and just make that our motivation to get some other stuff done. Some things I have learned
- Yes we do have enough "stuff" to hold a garage sale
- Yes people actually do show up on Thursday at 8 am
- The people who show up on Thursday at 8 am, can be a little quirky
- The thing you figure won't sell....will be one of the first things to go
- I have the urge to explain why I am selling everything. But I am sure the lady buying the "our cat" brag book doesn't need to know that I bought that years ago and the cat just died and I feel awful for never using it...she was such a good cat....blah blah blah....hey at least I didn't tell her just silently told myself in my head....I'm not crazy.
- Daniel is a good salesman, he got 3 ladies to buy the snacks and cold drinks we bought.....he promptly turned around and tried to buy some himself with his earnings.
It is muggy and raining right now (
whoo hoo the air is being installed as I type)......it is supposed to be nice the rest of the week. So hopefully we will sell out.
Maybe I should do a live blog on Saturday
lol.
Adventures with a new home
So, I am very very VERY grateful to be out of the old house and here in the new house. You can't imagine the number of times I stop and thank God for my home. Especially considering where we live and the economic times, we are well aware of how lucky we are. However.....that doesn't mean we still have our own aggravations.
I mentioned a
couple of posts ago about getting our porch fixed. Well after telling us nothing can be done until July, some guys just showed up and started to tear it up. While there was no warning and not any time to discuss it, I was happy. My porch was getting fixed.
Of course while they were taking out cement, digging, and pouring....the boys eagerly watched. Imagine the excitement when the loader pulled up into the driveway to take away the debris. Well as they watched, I also watched. I thought it was kind of funny that they didn't really prepare the ground as I expected. I watch my share of home improvement shows and well don't you put gravel down? I thought it was different that they just piled more dirt up in a mound.....but heck what do I know right....when they pour they will do all that....right? Well um no.
So last night while out walking we started chatting with another neighbor who has the same style house with the same issue. He wasn't to happy either. All of the things that bothered me bothered him as well. At that point he had already started to make calls and complain.
So this afternoon when they cam to finish the job. I was all ready to fight and ask my questions. "Why isn't there gravel down" "How do I know this isn't going to happen again".....Well the first question he couldn't answer, the second question he said "well you get it fixed again" (gee thanks)...and then he proceeded to tell me "my boss told me to do this house, that house...so I got to put these down"
....(
ok and trying to remain PC....but English was not this man's first language, while I don't have a problem with that.....it kind of stalled my smack down)......
So after a few minutes of back and forth (
lol I think at one point I said something like "yes you say it's dry, I agree it's dry, God and the whole heaven agrees it's dry....but is it fixed?") he finally said "
ok well I can call my boss, you don't want me to put these in"
and I said "No, sorry you got stuck in the middle of this"
After that I watched him go to the neighbor. That conversation looked more interesting. Bonus, he got on the guy's cellphone at some point (probably to speak to the "boss")...he was sent away from there....and the same thing happened at the third house. I laughed to myself thinking "ha, yes, I stood up to THE man....strength in numbers.....who
hoo aren't I a toughie"
That is when I remembered my arm..........
Hey it may be temporary.....but it sure makes mommy a bad @
ss;-)
Mommy Day
Weird....I thought I posted this yesterday, guess I never did.
Happy Mothers' day to all the ladies out there. Especially to my mom Chet and My Mother-in-Law Joni.
Right now I am enjoying the end of a nice weekend at my mom's house. Daniel had left on Thursday with my sister to have a mini vacation at Grandma's. He was a good boy and charmed everyone he met.
Yesterday it rained all morning, we had planned on going on a hike as soon as possible. We were really hoping to try out the !phone$ with
Geocaching....but it was looking like we were going to be out of luck. BUT after dinner it cleared up enough that we were able to make it to the state park and go on a hike. There was a ranger there and she gave the boys junior ranger badges and had Daniel take an oath to protect the animals, it was really cute.
We found to caches and even found a
travel bug. Daniel was a little upset, because he didn't see any "animals" he swore to protect. It was a really nice hike, and on the drive back we saw a beautiful sunset.
This mother's day so far is just right, no crazy running around, no worrying about if the house is clean enough for a showing. I am just thankful for everything and everyone I have in my life. I am also grateful for all the wonderful woman in my life who continue to show me how to be a mom.
Schedules are filling up
My oh my, is it getting busy lately. But a good kind of busy. It's weird how your schedule fills up between may and September, then again between November and January. I prefer the spring/summer busy to the winter one. There is just more daylight to fill the hours. Plus I can spend a lot of time outdoors.
A couple of weeks ago I posted about a garden design I saw at S@m's club that I wanted. Well, I happen to marry a very handy guy who loves a good challenge. The garden is almost complete. Mostly we just need to finish filling it with soil and Chad needs to put up a trellis (which I have a redesign for;-) I am doing a
square foot garden since we don't have as much room, and it just seems more efficient for us. My in-laws have been doing it for a few years now and have great success. The hard part is finding all the soil components. When it's all planted I will post pictures.
The other thing we have been working on is getting our porch fixed. The steps are just dangerous and not to code. I also want to just redesign it so it's more useful. Because we are still under a builders warranty, the builder should have to fix it (we would pay for the extra cost of the redesign). BUT the warranty company doesn't want to fix it until our 11th month. That way they can do all fixes at once. It's all starting to become a big hassle, and we may have to wait until July.
Also, we want to put up a fence in the backyard. There is already a fence in the back of the yard and on one side. So we just need to finish it off. The problem is we need to get approval from our association. You think that would be easy,
"hey how do I go about getting this approved"
"here fill out this from"
oh no no no.....it took about 6 e-mails back and forth to get that. Although now that we have the from, it should be easier from here on out....should.
We had meeting to go to last night so my sister came down and watched the kids. This morning, she is going to take Daniel with her back to my mom's house. We are heading up there on Friday to spend the weekend. So Daniel gets to spend extra time with Grandma G:-) I don't know what Manu is going to do when he realizes his buddy is gone. I don't know what I am going to do with Manu while I work lol. I somehow used to do this with Daniel, so I should be fine. I think we will all be missing our crazy little guy until Friday.
Well I plan on posting a "Mother's Day" post...but if not, happy Mother's Day to all the ladies!
