Vacation – It was a good rest.

Well I didn’t get anything really accomplished over my vacation but I’m ok with that. Originally I had planned on cleaning the garage out and re-organizing it so I could start work on the pantry shelves and get my motorcycle running. Granted it was really hot during my vacation and yes, I probably used it as an excuse but we also got a new air conditioner which made it so comfortable in the house. Instead, I spent the majority of it relaxing and spending time with my wife. The kids are off on their annual Texas trip so that left us alone.

It was nice as we got to spend some good time together reconnecting and it also opened up some good lines of communication. I think that time spent made up for the fact I didn’t get the pantry shelves done. I took her to Ft. Collins on her birthday and she really enjoyed that. I did too. I think we learned a little more about each other over that week which is always a good thing.

This week is supposed to be cooler so I’m going to start on cleaning up the garage and getting things back to normal in there so I can start on the shelves. I have to look but I don’t think I have enough materials so I’ll have to make a budget sheet and give it to the wife as she holds all the money.

My design for the pantry shelves is pretty simple, just 4 shelves but on the first one I’ll have specific storage slots for the cutting boards and pull out drawers for the spices. Nothing fancy but I’ve acquired a few good tools over the past year that will make this a lot easier. I’ve never done shelves before so this will be a new skill for me to learn.

My garage is my shop, or “man cave” if you will. I have great plans for it as I really enjoy wood working. I’ve got the idea of making it a combo wood shop, hobby center and bike barn provided my bike is fixable. I’ve got a 1993 Suzuki VX800 that I bought from a guy who was moving for dirt cheap. He said he laid it down on the highway and ever since there was a knocking sound. He had a buddy look at it and was told that it would cost more to fix it than what its worth to sell it, I’m thinking not, but we’ll just have to see.

As for my shop, some of my first projects this fall will be to run electrical,  build a new workbench and maybe get the attic finished so we can take advantage of that storage space. Heck, if I’m lucky, I might even be able to get the insulation and drywall up but we’ll see. I’m trying to finish it on a strict budget. I do want to add a couple of windows, AC and heat which I’m hoping will be the most expensive parts. It already has electricity but its segregated to one section, I want to expand that all around the shop and since it’s a skeleton inside, that should make running it a lot easier.

As I add things I’ll post the progress here (with pictures even!) Hopefully it won’t take to long.

What to do on vacation

I took a few days off because our vacation benefits are being restructured. I’ll actually benefit from this change as my vacation time will refresh next month and I have 5 moths to use that before it refreshes again. Yea, sucks huh?

Anyway all that my wife and I really have planned is to go to Ft. Collins for her birthday. I was going to try and clean up and organize my shop and try to see what’s up with the motorcycle.

However today, Carol proposes that we go to the lake and swim. Now I’m much into swimming anyway and the lake just kind of gives me the creepy crawlies for some reason. Carol was bummed out by this, and I’ll admit I do feel bad for not wanting to go.

So that leaves me thinking what can we do over these next few days that’s relatively cheap. I’ve always wanted to go explore this great state we live in. Did you know that I’ve lived in Colorado all my life and have never seen the sand dunes or several of the ghost towns in the mountains?

I do have the pantry shelves to finish so that may hold up the road trip but it’s not very romantic or fun for my wife.

So what do I do over these next few days? I saw a story on the news about bats and I know both the wife and I find them fascinating so we may check that out. Although I think if I can get most of the pantry shelves done, that will mean alot.

It’s good to be home

I love the aspect of owning a home. The fact that it’s your’s and you can pretty much do whatever you want to make it “your” living space is really cool. Recently we’ve been doing some home improvement projects to help spruce up our dwelling, for example, we redid the bathroom, the front porch, repainted the living room and most recently, added carpet to three bedrooms and removed the wallpaper and repainted our bedroom. We’re very pleased with the results and also realize there are some things we still need to do in some of the rooms. Unfortunately we couldn’t do all the stuff we wanted to due to budget constraints and time. For example, in our bedroom we would love to remove the lathe and plaster and put up drywall and redesign the room but thats a project for another day.

I’ve started compiling a list of other projects that need to be done around the house such as repaint the house, build new screens for the windows, get the kitchen windows unstuck, (50 years of paint on those babies!) remodel the kitchen and living room and thats just the start! One of our biggest eyesores is our backyard. That area is in just sad, sad shape. I’ll watch these landscape shows on the DIY channel and get so jealous at these people getting a complete yard makeover. But then again, they have a crew of at least 100 people there working and a lot of the stuff is given to them. I would love to create a beautiful backyard sanctuary for my wife and take advantage of a few features of our existing yard like the grape vine. The one thing that I’m really torn on is the big pine tree back there. I really like the shade it provides but it’s right in the middle of the yard and just gets in the way of everything. I would like to tear it down and reclaim that space but my wife has sentimental attachment to it.

I would really like to put in a deck or patio area with a fountain/pond off to the side. Make it a nice place where we can all hang out and enjoy the summer evenings or cool fall evenings. Out by the garage would be a sweet gardening area with a workbench area. I also want to add a pergola and bench in the smaller triangular area by the garage that the grape vine could spread out over.

I’m sure within time we’ll be able to achieve these dreams, not to mention getting the garage transformed into my wood and motorcycle shop. Having this list of things has also led me to the realization that owning a home is a special thing. It’s yours and something to show for all the hard work you’ve done not just a temporary thing you just buy and then sell and hope to make a profit. A house is a home, a safe place, a place where at the end of the day you can go to and you know everything will be all right and the worries and issues of the day can be left out in the street.

Welcome to my blog!

After a long dry spell, I have decided to get back to blogging. Some of you may remember my old domain of noxbox.net, unfortunatley I never did anything with it and was just paying money for nothing. Plus the provider was starting to get a little flakey with their billing. They would be consistant for a few months then nothing, then I would get hit with a large bill. So in this time of cutting back I’ve decided to just go with our ISP and the page along with it.

My blog will be my main page and I’ll add a wiki and weather pages later. But for now this is it. I’m trying to work out some issues with the templates Thingamablog uses as some of them don’t really want to display properly. It’s been a while since I played with CSS so I have to relearn it a little. For now, I’m just going to use the plain template as that seems to be working ok.

“So what are you going to be blogging about? In the past you’ve had a few focusing on specific things.” Yea, and that was just to much. Maybe if i was a professional blogger I could focus on that but honestly, I can’t blog every single day. I decided to simplify things as much as I can. Focus on the things I know I can keep up with and not try to over do it. So here we have it, one blog for everything.

I’ve set up catagories and tags to help keep things organized so if there is anything specific you are looking for you can just search by those tags.

Well, thats about it for now. I hope you enjoy my blog.