Actual update for 7/20/14

guess what this is!

I have to admit the entire week of the 4th revolved around the 3-day weekend. All week we were focused on cleaning things up and trying to do even more spring cleaning. I know it is no longer spring but there is so much cleaning and organizing that needs to be done. Merging two households into one house is one thing but, we have been merging two shops into one as well on top of trying to finish construction work on it. I am happy to say much of the “online yard sale” has been going relatively quickly. Not for the amount that we had hoped but at this stage of the game I feel it is more important to just get it out of the way for my mother in law and simplify our lives. I do have to say, having so much cleaned out, we are gaining usable space in both the house and the garage and I really look forward to being able to start seriously working on some projects that are wants and not so much needs. In fact one of the wants and needs has already begun, an old swamp cooler from our rental house had begun the process of being refurbished and will be installed on the shop making the shop functional in the heat of the day whereas up until now, we have been “hibernating” from about 8:00 am to 8:00 pm to avoid the heat and, the garage is one of the worst places because it collects the heat. There is a lot going into this where I plan on leaving it for a long time. The pictures below are the progress so far.  That has been our main goal this whole last week, trying to beat the heat and get the cooling on the house and shop resolved.

 

Our new renter has started moving in, I visited for the first time recently so that I could finish a repair on the dryer and see how everything is going. From what I could see there was a lot of stuff everywhere still (to be expected) but there was already indications that they were making an effort to take care of things. It is still early but at this point I am excited to see that we might just have a good renter. I do know that there is still a ton that needs to be done to the house to get it where I really want it to be but, there is only so much time and so many funds to complete it all available.

As for the 4th. that is a big topic this time of year for a lot of people but I do not know why. This will be a topic for another day but just to get you thinking, what are we celebrating our independence from? And are we still independent from this? Not necessarily speaking about the country but the idea? . I did find that having a small party with some close family and friends was more fun than a big “Traditional get together”. Maybe it is just me but, I do not enjoy the family politics caused when the large family groups are together in crowds. I have found it to be much more enjoyable when  I am with a smaller group. The Night of the 4th, we had a my in-laws and some neighbors over to do fireworks. I will admit, I felt at home that night than I have in a long time which, I enjoyed very much (Thank you to those that we shared that time with).

The  week of the 6th there was a lot of camping and more family time. Although my work schedule would not permit me to take much time off. I was able to go up Saturday with my family and go for a hike. We hiked 3.5 miles round trip from Maple lake to Red lake up the canyon from Payson UT. I have to say, I have known for some time I was not in the shape I would have liked to have been in but that was RIDICULOUS! Granted there was several steep ups and downs on this hike but my legs burned for 3 days after.. them there muscles had not been worked like that in a long time and it was apparent! It was fun though because Chug was able to go with us and did really well with her new training leash (I will do a review on this soon because I have found it to be a very humane way to train a dog to not pull on the leash)

in closing, my hat is off to the owner of this creation for their creativity. I know this is massively redneck but that is what I love. If this is yours be sure to comment and let me know.. thanks!

cool car of the ??

“Trust the professionals”?

trust

 

(first off, sorry there has not been any updates for a while- we had no internet for a while I will get a basic update in next week but for now:)

It has been heard by millions the famous phrase “trust the professionals” but the question stands, can you really trust the professionals? As a person that likes to work on pretty much everything I love to know and understand a little of everything so when I am “trusting the professionals” I will watch them and see want they are doing and I tend to notice things that are done right as well as wrong. I have a few examples to share with you to give you the understanding on how I came to this point of view.

Tire shops – we have all had to or will have to take our cars in to have our tires replaced or fixed. Simply it is part of owning a car. I have always enjoyed watching as the techs use the impact guns to zip the lugs off and on until one day a when the front wheel on my mom’s suv sheared all 5 lugs off going down the road. As I did more digging, I found that this is caused by the lug nuts being over torqued upon wheel installation. Since that time I have watched to see the process that most all shops use and realize that many of them are doing things all wrong. I am not going to say that using an impact to install the wheel is wrong, it is just how they do it. Watch them, when they pull out the torque wrench (a long handled ratchet looking device that clicks when a specified tightness is achieved) if they put it on the lugs and it clicks without them turning the bolt at all, odds are, it is too tight and runs the risk of snapping the lug stud. All this is checking is that the lug nuts are at least as tight as they are supposed to be, it does not chech to see if it has been over tightened.   The proper use is to get the lugs just snug with the air tools and then do the final tightening with the torque wrench. This does take more time but it is also the correct way to do this. In my view, if you see the procedure is being done correctly, complement the service tech or their manager on that so they know you are paying attention to that. If it is being done incorrectly, the shop should be called out on it and they should replace all of the lug studs (once the damage is done, the damage is done, you cannot UN-stretch a lug stud).

Big-o tires in St. George – This review is already up on google maps so, it is already public but this gives you an idea of why I watch the services being done at shops. I was traveling though ST George and was having some bad wheel shake and was concerned about a smell from the transfer case so I went to this shop and had them do a “Balance and Rotation” as well as “please check the fluids while it is on the lift” after being a mechanic for several years I have a habit of watching the work done, which was a good idea in this case… first I caught them not balancing the rear tires and was told “we only balance the tires going on the front” I then instructed them to balance ALL! my tires! Then I caught them draining the oil…??? “are they changing my oil?” I asked the floor manager and, his reply was “uhh yea. my bad” I only run a specific type of oil in my car which they were not able to locate (even though Auto zone and Wal-mart stock it) so they put some of their oil in, so I could get back on the road (now I will have to pay for another oil change to get their stuff out). shortly after that they pulled it out with the appearance of being done. When I asked about the fluids they indicated “we could not check them because of a skid plate” I do not have a skid plate so really they did not look. After indicating that there was not a skid plate on this vehicle, they proceeded to pull it back in and lift it back up. They did check the rear differential but in checking the transfer case said that they did not have the correct socket. (really!!?? go buy one! they are 5 dollars from ANYWHERE! How have they been in business this long and how many of these were not checked when they said they would because of a $5 socket) and then they never did check the front differential. By this time all of the other shops were closing (I was there for over 2 hours) and was unable to get the remainder of what I needed done, done by a real shop, for the rest of my trip I had to worry about what was about to break due to wrong or missing fluids… oh yea, by the way the wheels now shake more after the balance. I did call and the Store Manager indicated that he “will resolve the situation and compensate me back for the “Service”” I really should have demanded my money back along with the cost to change the oil back to the right one.  Looking at the other reviews on Google maps, I see that the same crooked practices continue to this day.

HVAC – This is one that I am dealing with currently so I will have to keep you up to date as more happens but here it is. The house we currently live in was purchased from family and so I know what was done. They paid a company “The Professionals” to install a new HVAC unit in the house (heat and A/C) about 6 years ago and to this day it still has not worked properly. It runs constantly and in the summer is barely able to keep the house around 78° and that is when it is set at 74-76°. At this point, we are looking at the cost of having all of the duct work, heater, and A/C units replaced. From a visual standpoint it does not look like a professional and attractive installation. The  facts are the facts, my next action will be calling several companies to come and look at the unit and determine how to better fix the situation.

So, the question again. How much are we really able to “Trust the professionals”, in my opinion, we cannot unless we have tons of money to throw at every problem. What? That is not the case, then you need to educate ourselves so that we know what is going on and we just use the professionals based on our knowledgeable understanding of the task and just having a lack of time or tools with the research on which professional “seems” to have the most integrity.

Rest from the Rental – That’s about it though

20140628_122439
This is has been a very annoyingly busy last couple of weeks. Every time I turned a corner there was something else that needed to be done. I knew that this would happen but it always seems to creep in the need to get everything done. On the other side with the tenant that had signed a lease backing out, it felt like we had a bit more time and could take what was needing to be done a little slower, and not with such a push on our time. Well, all until about Wednesday when we found out someone was intent on signing a lease and wanted to move in on Friday.. not Friday a week or so later, no, this Friday,.. “Oh POO!” we had to get things done especially since we were going to be out of town Friday and Saturday. So, Thursday Night we were at the rental house trying our darndest to get things wrapped up. We did alright on the interior stuff, the new blinds were up, the curtain rods were up, shower curtains and rods were in place. My wife even started cleaning up some stuff right up until the down pour of rain. I was working on the Dryer only to find out that it was a thermal fuse and a thermistor that had gone out and I would not be able to finish the fix until the following Monday or Tuesday. Here are the pics for the apparent reason it went out.

Fortunately they were OK with that and we’ll be able to get it done. There are still several things that I believe need to get done sooner rather than later but most all of it is on the outside of the house and can be done as time goes on.
It is a good thing I only said I was getting rest from the rental house though because Friday and Saturday we went up to the air show at Hill Air Force Base.. it was fun to see so many different planes as well as all the other fun stuff they had on display. I was a bit disappointed as they really did not have anywhere for people to enjoy the air show its self.. there was only as small set of bleachers that were for VIPs and the rest was concrete pad only.. not too big of a deal if they were to keep the show up in the air buy there was a lot of the show on the runway as well. I cannot say I did not enjoy the show though. From just about anywhere at the base you could frequently see the planes and jets doing all sorts of insane maneuvers that 50+ years ago or to most modern pilots would have caused the plane to go down.

 

The grand finally was the thunderbirds. It was the big Synchronized jet performance that everyone was waiting for. Unfortunately we missed most of it.. as we waited we let the kids walk around with the toys they had pretending that they were flying when, all of a sudden we heard a blood curdling scream. Yup, it was Kyle, he had apparently tripped and fell on a grate causing a huge (3cm) gash to his knee. The medics on base were only able to wrap it up so they took us on carts to the bus stop and told us to get him to somewhere that he could get stitches. The funny thing is, our van was only a few blocks from where they were dropping us off. It seems that because we were Civilians, they did not want to go that little extra distance so we could get him fixed up, instead we waited on a bus for the airshow to complete, went to the van and then proceeded to fight traffic for 30 to 45 min just to get off base. Upon arriving at the insta-care, they had apparently closed at 5PM (to give you a time line, the accident happened at 3PM) “CRAP!” so to the ER.

“ how much is this going to cost us?”
“well according to our insurance, our out of pocket would be about $1700.00”
Fortunately the ER nurses were nice enough that they found us another insta-care that was open later and we were able to get the 4 stitches needed to hold my son together. Below are the pics from that whole incident. I will be posting more details and thoughts on the insta-care and ER in a later post..

Also not to distract from my sons pain but I also tried to put my kickstand on my big motorcycle through my foot. When I got to work, I was thinking I needed to lube my chain. I got off, unloaded all my work stuff, then put it from the side stand up onto the center stand. When I went for the chain lube I realized that I did not have it on my bike like I usually do so, I went to put it back onto the side stand and get to work. Not realizing, I had not put up the side stand, I pushed the bike off the center stand and as the bike came down, the side stand penetrated my shoe (if it had only hit the steel toed part I would have been fine) then my sock and left a whopper on my foot.. “ well that was fun!”

The Roof

2014-06-21 15.20.57     I am starting to think it is time to start doing something other than just an update… unless you enjoy doing nothing more that reading a one sentence post. All that happened this week was a roof. Upon the inspection of our rental house it was determined that the back half of the roof was gone, there were several asphalt shingles that no longer had asphalt. All that remained was a small bit of fiberglass. Needless to say, it needed to be re-shingled desperately. every spare moment this last week was spent doing just that. re-shingling the back half of our roof. Fortunately we had some neighbors that saw the need and joined in  the fun. I have to say I have been blessed with some awesome friends over the years although I am not much of a friend. I will post more about what mean with that later.

I have been wanting start posting random thoughts more often and I guess they are just going to have to come as they come. I’ll try and get the ones about friends up as soon as I can.. just something that I have been thinking about recently.

 

6/15/14 A week of divided attention

multitasking_roundedWhat a week it has been. The week before Last we found out that our tenant in our rental house was finally moving out.. they were supposed to be completely moved out by the end of day Saturday. Come Monday evening we were scheduled to do a final inspection with the property manager and get a game plan put together since we have a tenant that wanted to move in as soon as possible. When we showed up for the inspection the tenants were still there. The house was empty but they were still cleaning (not well either). With the inspection we found that there is a lot that needed to be done from paint touch ups, trim replacements due to damage, carpet repairs, yard care, and so on.. Tuesday we had plans were to get a ton done but ended up waiting for someone who was 3 hours late – nothing got done. Wednesday, we felt good about what got done.. we re-wired the sprinkler system (someone else had been messing with it), and we evaluated materials and tools needed to complete the jobs that were required. The more we got done the more we realized we would not be able to do it all. We had to start looking for someone to do certain more time consuming projects, such as roofing and carpet repair, so that we could focus elsewhere. Thursday, we were able to complete the sprinkler system.. it is now working like a dream.  The down side is it was not until then that the new tenant who had already signed the lease decided that they were not going to move it.. well good and bad since it did give us a little more time. We also started working on the drier.. it turns out it was not the heating element that had died so we are going to have to tear into it more.. my next guess is the fan.. after looking at the vent, it became very apparent that the lint was not being cleaned out properly and so the fan is likely jammed full of the stuff. Friday, well obviously this is date night so we did not do anything but.. there was some thought put into the status and we decided to do the roof ourselves so, we stopped and got shingles and a few little things. Saturday morning first thing, we got up and got to it. We removed the old swamp cooler because we knew no renter would use it when they have central air.. that took most of the morning so laying the new shingles did not start until almost noon.. at noon we took a break to avoid the heat of the day and didn’t start again until after 5pm.. we did not get as much done as we had hoped but I felt good about the amount I was able to get done. Oh yea and somewhere in there Mac Flooring came in and did the patching on the carpets to that is done as well!10348373_10203564473899949_7878795825535983249_n

The point of all this is, at home, we have so much that needs to be done this year to prevent weathering damage this next winter. So much that needs to be done in both location at the same time. Once again our projects are overpowering the amount of time that we have. Our attention is being divided so many ways that you can no longer taste the peanut butter. The more I seek balance, the more it seems to escape me. The more we look at all the things we need to do, the more I realize that I just want/need  to have fun, unwind and recharge, something we do not get to do all that often. Somehow though, it always turns out that to have said fun, requires a large expense or… other projects to be finished so that the resources we have, can be used.. Either way it seems to be a catch22.. I have gotten to the point where everything I do, I do as if it were a business, analyzing opportunity costs.. what projects will free up the most time for other projects to go faster. What projects will free up the most resources or finances to allow for others, always  with the goal of having a little R&R in mind. As I do all these analytics, the one thing I see in front of me is a dynamic labyrinth. A ever changing maze that appears to have no end.

            

New project – Online yard sale

yardsales2

With the loss of my father in law, I have been working with my Mother in law to reconcile his belongings.  There are several Items that she and the family no longer have a need for and so… we started a online yard sale.. please read ALL of the details. we do not have a ton of time and are not really up for being bombarded by a ton of unexpected visitors..

On the menu bar at the top there is a new button “online yard sale” that will take you there or just follow the link below..  Please spread the word on Facebook or any other method as we would like to clean house quickly and move on.. anything not sold within about a month will be DISPOSED OF in other methods so ACT QUICK!

http://dillysadv.com/online-yard-sale/

June 1, 2014 Just pay someone already!

concrete_recycling

 

Someday I will get a head of the timing.  After working such long hours for a little over a month I realize that it is no longer an option for me to do that anymore. Just imagine not balancing your check book for over a month.. putting off the “Honey Do’s” for over a month and letting all of the things you are supposed to do pile up for that long as well.. needless to say, I have no idea where we are financially and have a mountain of things that I need to do with the regular daily additions being piled on top of it every day.

 

So I do have a question, many people that have known me for, well, really any time at all, realize that I am tight. By tight I mean: “penny pincher”, Cheap, or as I like to consider it, Frugal, innovative.. really it has always come down to the fact that I really don’t like spending all my money in one place because I like to spend it in many places. I don’t like to believe that just because it is expensive or name brand that it is better than things that aren’t. As you follow this post, you will get a better idea as to what I mean because I will be reviewing these things that I consider cheap.  Now, getting to the point, as you know I recently had a new driveway put in and replaced my old sidewalk with a new curb, gutter and sidewalk. Initially the thought was to do as much as I could while still having the professionals do the critical installation of the concrete its self. The more we got into it the more I realized that it was not worth it to me to be “Frugal” This last Saturday made that even more evident as I tried to unload the trailer that contained the waste from the old sidewalk. When this project was in process, I had told them to load the waste on my heavy duty trailer (to save on the cost of getting a waste container) in the end my contractor went ahead and got one any way to haul off most all of it. By Most all of it, I mean that the stuff that was already in the trailer remained there. Saturday morning, I hooked up the trusty S10 Blazer to the trailer loaded to the heap and headed out. (now, Yes, I was fully aware that this was heavy and I needed to take it slow since it had no trailer brakes ) so That is exactly what I did. I took it slow and went on as many back roads as possible.. as I approached the dump the blazer was struggling.. there is a long steep hill that leads to the dump. As the engine bogged down I would manually shift it down to keep as much momentum up as possible, really I just ended up going to first and hoping that it would make it at all. At the weigh in, (after I received many odd looks) the gentleman there told me that I was within weight so I could use my pass. ( the limit was 1-TON)  but the look on his face indicated that he was really letting it slide since I was really over the limit. Keep in mind that this is a ¼-TON vehicle I was pulling it with. That is not the point though. As I pulled into place to unload and began working to get it off, it became evident that this was not going to be as easy as I thought I used a high lift jack to lift the first piece to near vertical, doing everything I could do to stay out of the “danger zone” if it were to fall.. once at near Vertical, I assumed  that I would be able to push it the remaining way over and thus off the trailer.. nope, it did not even move. This one piece of concrete had to weigh 500-1000lbs by its self. (I’m leaning more toward the 1000lbs as I can usually leg press over 400lbs and all I was trying to do was push it over.. .. to keep it short, after destroying every tie-down in my arsenal and with the great assistance of a front loader, the trailer was emptied.

(point? – sometimes it is worth a little extra to pay someone to do things that you “think” you can do yourself)

May 5, 2014 The passing of a friend

20140523_124426

As mentioned before, it is hard to see a friend and family member pass. This last Tuesday my father in law passed from this life to the next.. leading up to the funeral we took time to make the arrangements but, we also spent time working in the garage and yard. Our goal was to feel productive and try getting our lives back in order from the last 6 months of irregular life. (the garage is getting that much closer to being productive in fact I started working on two smaller projects ( I will touch on those in a later post)

I will admit, the Funeral was harder than I expected. For the viewings, there was so many people that it was easy to avoid thinking about it as I could occupy my mind with “what are the kids doing”, “do I know ANY of these people?”,”where am I suppose to be and what am I suppose to be doing?” and so on. but as we wen to the funeral service we were, of coarse, sat on the front row with the casket smack in front of us.. I could still kinda hold it in and only let a little out.  At the grave side service however, my Brother in law was performing the military honors and watching him struggle to hold it in, I could no longer..  the day after the funeral, we went back to the grave site and it went back to the surreal feeling like none of it had happened. below are some of the pictures taken at the event

May 24, 2014 Family Matters

Family_MattersFor those of you who have not been following long enough to know. There has been a lot of things going on with my family.. I try not to talk about it much here but in light of some things this week. I wanted to say thanks offer an update.

Last year I lost my job of over 7 years. My father in law offered for me to work with him.. He could not offer a big paycheck but, he also offered to open his home for my wife and our 2 kids to move it with them. In July I was able to get a better paying job and about mid November we were ready to move back out. We started looking for a place to move to (with debates on moving back to the house that we owned for some time). A house near where I worked came available for about what we were willing to rent for. The day that my wife and I were scheduled to go and sigh the papers and make it official, I got a call from my wife saying her dad was in the hospital. (he had not been feeling well but nothing gave us a clue to what was really in store) we canceled the apt. and went to see what what going on. After some testing we found out that he had stage 4  Gleoblastoma (a really aggressive and terminal brain cancer). Because we knew that he would not be returning to work, we bought their house so that there would be no risk of them loosing it. Needless to say we stayed right where we were.

Since then we have watched as his body functions slowly stopped working from motor skills, ability to speak, the ability to move, until today (Sunday the 18th of May) we went to give him a Priesthood Blessing. The realization that his time here is short, is apparent. His ability to eat is almost gone and we are told, once he is no longer able to eat, it is only a matter of a few days.  As much as a part of us wish he would get better and he would return home, we all know that it is not going to happen. In reality we all hope that he will pass quickly since we all know he was never the type to handle staying in bed very well. He was always very fit and unable to slow down.  Now he mostly sleeps.

It is interesting going through this though, it has shown me a lot about myself, and how I feel about people. I have always been introverted so my outlook on social aspects of life has always been a little off. Without getting too sidetrack, you see a lot of “mean wells” and then there are the ones that understand. Although loosing a loved one is hard, being constantly asked about feelings or to do something for a mourning person does not help. It is all a person can do to put things like this aside and continue to live.  Being a friend and doing fun things and distracting from the negative is the key. A realization is that unless there was already a friendship there, there is not much that can be done.  We have a neighbor (who I am sure reads these posts) who has always been there with the understanding that times are tough, sure, but that life still moves on so they have had the kids doing sidewalk chalk, slip-n-slides, role playing and so many more activities with the kids while offering real adult conversation about interests real adults have and being there even when it is not so convenient.

In this case, it has gone on for some time, we cannot sit around all day weeping and whaling. Life is still moving, there are still bills to pay, jobs to keep there are still things that can allow a mourning person to be happy. On a cold winter day, there is still warmth from the sun if you can just focus your energy on the warmth over the cold. The same applies here. My upbringing has taught me that there is so much more than this life. Yes it is sad to see a loved on pass from this life to the next but in the eternal perspective, there is so much more, not just more but better.

 

(My Father in Law passed away this week. The funeral was held 5/23/2014 thought on that will be posted soon)

May 21, 2014 A day of rest

KcjeXMkBiAs this last week progressed and the pressure to complete the project became greater I told my boss that I would be taking time off to get a grasp on my personal and family time since there has not been a break at all for the last 3-4 weeks. Come Thursday Night, I had had enough! We spent all day Friday running errands with the wife, and trying to get things that had been put off for over a month wrapped up.

Saturday we rented a mini front loader to re-distribute the dirt that was displaced by the new drive way..  we started at 7am and did not stop until after I was violently thrown off the machine while going over a bump (at about 3:30pm). It was time to stop. I was tired and dealing with heat exhaustion. Don’t worry though, only minor scrapes and bruises. We took the front loaded back (a $200 well spent by the way) I will say this.. that is an awkward machine to operate  since you stand on the back and there is nothing to hold you to the machine. One hand controls the direction and movement while the other controls the bucket leaving nothing to hold on with. Every bump would act like a catapult because of the balance point of it. I cheated and used a tie down to secure my waist to it so that I would not randomly fall off.. what did me in was going down a lip, it decided to rock forward more than I was expecting me throwing me forward. The instincts kicked in and I somehow managed to force myself off the side so that in the case it went all the way over, I would not be caught under it.. ( gotta love reflexes). once I got cleaned up and had a chance to cool down. I went to work cleaning all of the dirt back off the driveway. It only took several hours and was worth every moment to relax as the sun was beginning to set and a cool breeze was coming through.

(only one more post this week – don’t miss it)

Because Life is an Adventure!