Val's SS journal- Fair food! Yea!

[TTs Chicks]

I'm sorry - I've been in that situation before and it sucks! I once had chest pains everyday when I turned on to the road where I worked because I knew I had to deal with this 1 supervisor who was seriously nuts. I stuck it out and she ended up getting fired. There were others and I had no choice but to deal with it or find another job - that isn't as easy as it used to be . . . anyway just trying to say I understand what it's like. Keep your chin up something will work out.

 

[Wifezilla]

I think somebody has a new candidate for "Undercover Boss"

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/

 

[valmom]

Well, I took this week off to figure out if I hate my job enough to leave it, especially in these hard economic times, the instability of my SO's job, and our lifestyle goals (SS isn't cheap to set up!). We have been thinking hard, both of us. SO says putting any of the elderly or unrideable horses to sleep is a non-starter. They are technically (except for 2) my horses, but, as long as we can, we will support them. They are all at home and eat hay from round bales, so not too horribly bad expense. If we didn't have 8 (!) horses, our finances would be better off, and our at-home workload would be way better off. But, they are staying.

Anywhere else I work would be more of a commute, adding at least an hour onto each end of my day.

We could move back to Massachusetts to nearer her family, but we can't afford to buy a house for what this one would sell for, and besides, there are all these horses. But, thinking about selling this house got us kick started on how to market it. And renovating things we have put off for 7 years is at the top of our list. Now, while we are both employed, we have decided to renovate things we have kicked around for awhile. And do it now so we can enjoy them! We are starting our 2 year plan!

Why 2 years? Well, we both think that with a see-able goal we will be able to move ahead and not get bogged down in our jobs. We can plan to move for 2 years, renovate, house shop, save money for moving/down payment expenses. And, if our jobs or lives change, we can stay here after 2 years and enjoy the house and barn and land we have sunk so much into.

We are starting with floors. Many of the floors when we moved in were painted plywood or cheap carpet. The carpet got ripped up and we put down maple hardwood from a local mill ourselves in the living room and bedroom. We are quite comfortable with that process now, and eventuallly we will do the upstairs plywood floors over with hardwood. The entry/mud/laundry room (13x15) is on the block! We went out and bought tile from Home Depo yesterday to do the floors. YEAH! I have tiled a bit - 20 years ago in my last house- and I am fairly confident that we can do this. And it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be- $1.50 per sq ft, I think, we got the tile for.

It won't happen this weekend- in-laws are visiting. But soon!

Before pictures need to be taken!

 

[valmom]

Ok, here are before pics:





And this is the tile. We bought a few accent tiles to put in randomly to add interest to the floor.

 

[valmom]

Well, the floor is going pretty well. We're now down to cutting and shaping the edges and around floor registers. By the way- anyone have any tips for getting rid of a 5 gallon bucket half-full of hardened cement?

And- I ordered seeds! It is a long way around here to actually starting anything- we still haven't melted all our snow- but it is 65 degrees today! I couldn't resist starting. I got curly kale, russett potatoes, Jacob's cattle beans, yellow squash, and butternut squash seeds. If I decide to do onions again this year, I'll get the starts locally, but it was such a pain to weed in between onions without pulling them up or disturbing them that I may not bother. Unless anyone has any tips for weeding onions?

I am going to really keep on top of a potato patch this year- I've tried the bury them every time they come up tall and make them grow vertically, but only with sprouted store bought potatoes, not good seed potatoes. We'll see.

We are also planning on moving the garden (again) this year so we can add a gate into the horse pasture for moving the round bales in where it isn't so muddy. So, as soon as the snowmelts I better have decided where to put a garden!

 

[valmom]

Here are the in process pictures of the mud room floor.



Close up of the design tiles we put in. You can't see the tiles as well as I wanted, but the 4 corner ones are embossed designs:



And one of a helper- keeping the mice from invading up the heater vent!

 

[justusnak]

Wow, that tile looks GREAT! I want to tile the kitchen and bath...but hubby feels its over our heads. Of course I had to throw in " No dear, the CEILING is over our heads" Nope, he didnt laugh. :/

 

[meriruka]

The floor looks really nice! Great job!

 

[hwillm1977]

The floor looks fantastic! I really like the subtlety of the design in the accent tiles... it's really nice. (and what a great helper you have too! )

 

[valmom]

Tiles are relatively easy to do, as long as you rent the equipment to cut the tiles. The results are spectacular compared to how easy it is. Mix up the cement, put the tiles down with spacers so the grout is even, cut the edges to fit, grout, clean, seal and you are done! Well it does take a long time, but not difficult. Oh, it does take some swearing, too, when things just won't line up.