Brrrr…

Although not as cold as last winter (so far), neither Harry nor I are enjoying the start of the colder weather which has gradually started to drift in over the past week. The high today was in the 30s, and tonight’s lows are supposed to be in the high teens. Both of us are looking at blogs with pictures of people hanging out in their shorts and t-shirts and Christmas decorations on palm trees, and dreaming of that day when we will be able to experience the same.

In the meantime, here we are working on the upstairs bathroom. That vanity will be going out tomorrow. The floor will be replaced, and the wall is going to be painted a soft bluish gray.

Today Harry was working on priming the areas before the first coat starts going on tomorrow.

 

 

We have also been enjoying our Wii this week. I am happy about the fact that it gives us something inside the house to do that gets us up off the couch. Plus, it’s fun! A win/win situation.

 

 

More pictures to come of the bathroom tomorrow!

This and That

As you can see from the picture, it is a rainy, dreary day today. But, at least it’s not snowing. Living up here in the north country, believe it or not, many people like the winter cold and snows. So I am starting to encounter people at work who are saying, I’m sick of this weather. I want it to snow. Not me – I will take this warmer weather as long as we can get it.

The past week has been busy. Harry is still working to build up the walls in the bathroom, to prepare them for a coat of paint. He has been adding a new layer of spackle for the past couple of days.

Yesterday, a new item arrived which I am hoping will help us both stay a little more active over the coming winter months. We bought a Wii! We enjoyed several hours of friendly competition last night. We are still waiting for the second remote to come, when it will be easier to play some of the games. It doesn’t take up much space either, which will be convenient, as we can take it with us in the fiver.

And probably the most exciting recent event, this morning Harry and I met with a person from the state Retirement Office for a retirement planning session. Once an employee is within 18 months of their eligibility for retirement, they can schedule this meeting. Harry has now passed that magic date! Yay! He can submit his application for retirement when he is within 90 days, which is next December! So now we have some real figures for our budget planning which will be very helpful, and we know what the process entails. It was definitely worthwhile to attend the meeting – and I feel like we have taken one more step in the right direction.

Lovin’ Sunday

I love Sundays – and today has been a really nice one! We started out bright and early this morning with a trip into Albany for some Christmas shopping. My sister Denise and I hoped to beat the holiday shopping crowd by going early. Harry took this picture of us before we left the house around 7:30 am.

What a great morning! The stores had a few shoppers, but they weren’t packed by any means. We had a really fun morning, and a lot of laughs, and by 11:30 we were heading home after a very successful outing. I am all done with my shopping – woohoo!! That’s a great feeling. I sure don’t know why I’m so on top of stuff this Christmas season, but I’ll take it!

Harry spent some time putting another layer of spackle in the bathroom. We hope to be to the painting stage by next weekend. Then we will be ready for the new floor and vanity. We will probably be working on that into the new year, but we’re going to have a good start on it anyway.

Well, another weekend almost in the books. Dinner is in the oven, the Giants are playing (although they are losing at the moment ) and Amazing Race will be on in a few hours. Another great Sunday!

…And Back to Work

We’ve taken a few weeks off from “housework” with family visits and holidays. But today we were getting back to it!

Harry started while I was at work this morning. He began the prep work in the upstairs bathroom, spackling holes and taking down the old medicine cabinet and towel bars.

By the time I got home from work, he was finished with the first round of spackling, and almost ready to put up the new mirrored cabinet we purchased, oh, about two years ago.

 

 

It seems so great to see this last room being worked on. I was beginning to think we wouldn’t be getting started in here until after the holidays.

The hardest part was getting the lights up and leveling them.

 

 

And here is the finished product…

Ta-da!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t wait to see it all finished, but it will be a couple weeks before we get to that point.

Been a Busy Week

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already Thursday! This week has flown by.

It’s official – I read a news article that the Northeast has had its warmest November in 10 years. It’s been great for our pellet situation – our heat has not come on since Sunday morning! We used 6 bags of pellets for the month of November, for a grand total of 9 so far this winter. By this time last year, we had probably used three times that amount. So far so good – I really don’t want to buy more pellets next summer. Every year we have about a ton, ton and half left over and then we buy another ton. Next winter, I would like to be able to use up what we have, since hopefully we will be getting out of Dodge. So the weather this year so far is cooperating with my plan.

We emptied out three more boxes of clothes into the garbage bin last night for today’s garbage pick up. The boxes were labeled “off season - Harry” but given the styles, size, and condition of the clothes, I think their season came and went quite a few years ago. The goal is to have the storage area over the garage cleared out by spring.

This weekend we are going to start the prep work for the upstairs bathroom. I’m not sure that we will meet the goal of finishing it before the end of the year,  but hopefully we will get a good start on it anyway.

 

PS in answer to a comment

Here are some of the many bags of clothes that have made their way from our house to the local clothing collection area over the past couple of years, and I’m sure there will be more over the coming months. Believe me, no place wants to take in what we threw out last night.

And One More!

What a beautiful weekend! This is a picture I took a few weeks ago, but this is what our day looked like today. (There just aren’t any more leaves on the trees.)

Harry and I actually walked this afternoon in sweatshirts, and I warmed up enough to take mine off for our last two laps. I think our high this afternoon was in the low 60s. All around the neighborhood, people were out decorating their houses and working around their yards. Everyone was remarking on the weather, and saying, “we’ll take a few more weeks of this.” Well, I don’t know if that will happen, but I certainly won’t be complaining about it if it does!

We had another great weekend for getting things accomplished around here. Yesterday we did some more cleaning out, some more pitching. Harry’s sister and brother-in-law stopped by, and we gave them a tour of the fiver. I meant to take pictures, but in the busy-ness of chatting and catching up, I forgot!

I love Sundays, especially when football is on! While we were watching some football, Harry and I enjoyed a nice little afternoon snack, some cream cheese and red pepper jelly on crackers.

While I was listening to the football game, I was working on Christmas cards!! We only send about 40 of them, but still, I am usually sending them out around, oh…the third week of December. I usually consider it a great year if I get them out before Christmas. This year they will be going out – tomorrow! Yes, they are DONE!

Now I am done for the day, and ready to relax with my kindle. Supper is cooking in the roaster oven. It’s time to hang out and enjoy the rest of the day.

Celebrating Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving holiday. Ours was very nice. It started out with sleeping a little later than usual. That was only a little after 7 am, but still, compared to our normal 5:30, it was a great start to the day!

Of course, the little guy was going strong, so on top of conversation, we also had “playtime” breaks.

It was great to be able to relax, and sit around just chatting and spending time with family.

 

 

 

Schaun provided the entertainment.

As usual, there was a lot of good food, and we all ate a bit too much.

 

 

All too soon, it was time to think about heading home. Unfortunately, both of us have to go to work today. No black Friday shopping excursions for us.

 

It was just starting to get dark as we were getting on the road for home, but you can still see what a beautiful day we had!

And for much of our trip home, we were able to watch an all-natural light show.

It was just an all-around great day!