The To-Do List....the June Edition

Let's take a look at what got accomplished(or didn't)in June.......

To-Do List for June

* Pay Bills  DONE  Everything got paid on time or early including credit cards so no interest charged or paid.

* Read 1, 2 Books  DONE
I read this.............

"To Kill A Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee

I hadn't read this since high school so it was worth picking it up again and reading it for "fun" this time.
I got a lot more of the subtext this go around.  Comparing  it to the 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck that was in my head was a challenge.  The book is so much more nuanced and delves deeper into characters other than the few leads.
If you know anything about Nelle Harper Lee's life you know that much of what is in this novel is autobiographical.
A classic novel is always worth a leisurely read.

And this one......

"Muskets and Applejack: Spirits, Soldiers and the Civil War" by Mark Will-Weber

This is a strange little book which explores a small corner of American history from a whisky soaked perspective.  As one reviewer on Amazon wrote, "....Spoiler Alert-nearly everyone drank and behaved badly."  I think that summed up this book perfectly! lolz
Spirits fueled the men who fought this war from the Generals on down to the lowly foot soldier.  It on one hand helped and on the other hand hindered each sides campaign against the enemy.  
There are many first hand accounts written by folks who lived through(or not)and saw the effects of alcohol on the war years about beyond.  After reading these journal entries how anybody stayed upright enough to wage war is beyond me.   Maybe applejack(and the sobering up time it took)is why it went 5 long years to finish this bloody shoot fest?
And another Spoiler Alert--troops from Louisiana were obviously the champion Wallpaperers and best friends of John Barleycorn!

An interesting, light read.....easy to pick up and put down, reading in fits and starts, which is how my June went. ;-)


* Get Chester's Shot  DONE  Chester needed a shot for Bordetella(Kennel Cough)before he could go to the doggie spa.

* Change out Clothes for Summer  DONE  I finally got all my clothes gone through and changed over for the hot weather.  Some clothing got thrown out, some packed off to Salvation Army and a pile was made of items that needed to be hemmed/fixed/taken in.  Of course I haven't gotten to any of the mending/fixing pile as the house is still in chaos with the bedroom redo.

* Have Trees Taken Down  DONE  Another item on our home projects was having 4 trees removed.  The bank account is very sad but I am glad to mark this project off the list.

We had 4 trees total cut down-2 on the side yard by the road and 2 in the backyard.  3 of them were to open up the yard, to get more light.  The monster tree above was a worry to me.  So tall and massive and not very deep roots.  With all the excessive rain and windstorms we'd gotten the last few years I'm amazed it hasn't fallen yet and taken out half our house(because it's so tall it could if it fell just right).  This was something that we needed to do in order to sell the house eventually(and for my peace of mind). 
It was interesting to watch(free entertainment! lol)the whole process and the massive combination saw and crane gizmo they used on the monster tree was way cool!
I can post some more photos and video if anyone is interested.....

* Repair Bedroom Walls/Ceiling  DONE  
Ex-College Boy and I got the bedroom repaired and painted early on in the month.  It has been sitting since then awaiting new carpeting being put in by the carpet folks.  Hurry up and wait.........sigh.

* Paint 1, 2 Bedrooms  PARTIALLY DONE  We got 1 of the Bedrooms painted, ceiling and walls.  Can't really do the second bedroom until we can empty it and we can't do that until the carpet gets replaced in the first bedroom(and it's STILL not in at the store yet, let alone on the schedule for installing ugh!). 
Here's a piece of what Dan's room looks like until we can move all my crap out of there........

* Take Chester to Doggie Resort  DONE  Chester went to stay HERE while we were away.  I think he had a better time than us! lolz  


* Clean Out Closets  DONE 
 I had a burst of energy one day and got lots of closets cleaned out and organized, my bedroom closet, the foyer closet and the linen closet.

*  Clean Out Fridges/Pantry  DONE

The fridges still need a good washing down inside but I got them cleaned out/organized.  I also got the pantry in the kitchen cleared out.

I found TWELVE open boxes of crackers in there!  TWELVE and many were duplicates of the same crackers.  Heck, I didn't even know we had TWELVE boxes of crackers!!  
After consolidating, and repurposing some(crumbs for breading)we have a more manageable amount(and certain people here have been warned under penalty of death NOT to open another box of crackers until the open boxes are gone).

* Hold Giveaway  DONE

* Mail Giveaway  DONE  And it was received and enjoyed by the winner. 8-)

* Pack for Trip  DONE  I got to break out my new fancy shmancy lime green suitcase.

* Go on Trip  DONE

This trip was so out of my comfort zone and Hubs and I didn't know a soul going in.  But we had a good time.  I'll blog about this trip soon.

* Use Ollie's & CVS Chits  DONE

All this was free from CVS and I earned $5 more in Extra Care Bucks before going on our trip.

I rolled some Bonus Cash before we left and again while on the trip as we passed by some Rite-Aids in Maine and New Hampshire.

I also used my 15% Ollie's discount before we went away.  I hit some 50%, 60% and 75% off food stuffs and used the 15% off on other things like bird suet for Hubs' feeders and potting soil.

* Continue to Clean Out Garage  PARTIALLY DONE

After 3 weeks worth of crap from Daughter moving out leaving the porch and garage we again had a clear passage through the garage on both sides of my food storage shelves.  
I wish I could say that I've made more headway in there but it's been too hot since getting back from NH to spend much time out there.  Maybe I'll take this item off the To-Do List until September when it cools off.

* Move More $ Into a CD  MAYBE DONE  I didn't get this goal finished in May before the month ended so it straddled both months.  The money is now moved.

* Sell More Locally  PARTIALLY DONE  Well I listed some things when we got back from NH but I didn't actually sell them yet. lolz  I tried.....  I am putting this item on hold until after garage sale season and it's pointless to try now.

* List Items on eBay  FAIL  I didn't even get one thing listed on eBay as there is just too much still going on here to concentrate on that.  Fall is the high season for eBay so I'll wait until September to list there.

* Gardening  I know I didn't put this as an item on the To-Do List for June but we did have some growth even with our wet/cool month...........

Other than the broccoli and cauliflower the plants didn't seem to visibly grow much in June.

But the lettuce seeds I sowed mid month in June popped up quicker than they usually do and are making strides.
We should be in salad material by mid July.

That's about it for my June report.
Did you accomplish anything in June?


Sluggy

Home Improvements.....Progress Report #1

Well we started the long slow slog of the home repairs/improvements by first cleaning and clearing out Daughter's old room.

Before what Daughter left........

After, cleaning(walls/window frame/ceiling fan, molding),vacuuming and shampooing the carpet and moving furniture and exercise equipment out.............

Daughter "supposedly" vacuumed in here thoroughly before she left, filling the vacuum canister SIX TIMES with dog hair/dirt.
I filled said vacuum cleaner another SIX AND ONE HALF TIMES before shampooing the carpeting. ugh.

After the carpet dried Ex-College Boy moved his stuff in.............

We also replaced the broken blinds on the window in there.  Ex-CB hasn't gotten around to putting anything on the walls yet but as far as I am concerned this bedroom is done.
Once he moves out, the room will get some more love(new paint and maybe new carpeting)but I am not spending time, energy and MONEY in here until he's moved out for good because well, Ex-College Boy is a slob when it comes to taking care of his room.  Like most 20 something males he is fastidious about his personal grooming but you'd never know it from looking at his room.  It looks not so bad here because he hadn't had time to pigsty-ify it yet.

Here's my new sewing room aka Ex-College Boy's old bedroom after he moved his furniture and most of his crap into his new room.......

Lots of "droppings".

And here's the closet before he emptied that.........

I swear I hauled three shopping bags of partially emptied water bottles as well as cans of unopened soda and nutrition drinks as well as some full water bottles.

Here are what is left of the partially used water bottle collection from his room.  Ex-College Boy has orders NOT to take another water bottle to drink until they are all used up.

Here's my new room after cleaning/clearing all Ex-CB's stuff out and vacuuming it...........

This was also hanging in Ex-CB's old room.

It's a sword belonging to Eldest son.  He got this for a birthday when he was about 16?  I called him and he doesn't want it and Ex-CB doesn't want it in his new bedroom.
Anyone want a dragon headed Game of Thrones type display sword? lol

I doubt Salvation Army will take this so I guess I'll be offering it up on the local FB selling site.
I can just imagine now the sketchy folks I'll be dealing with when I offer this beauty up on the site.
Fun time people, fun times........

Here is some of what we hauled out of the closet in Daughter's old room(not the things on the coffee table but in front of it)that were either going to Salvation Army or will be sold.

I found my long lost pullover sweaters that I got for free at K-Mart about 4 years ago.  I forgot they got stored in the back of her closet(which I didn't have access to while she was living here)and now they are too big. ugh.  I guess I'll try to sell them locally come Fall since they all still have tags on them and haven't been worn.

The living room has become the staging area around here.  I gained 2 Rubbermaid tubs from Ex-CB as now he can fit all his clothes in the 2 dressers in his new room.  I also uncovered 2 shopping bags full of  plastic clothes hangers.

A mysterious shopping bag of food appeared in the garage shortly after he moved his belongings/furniture into the new room.  It was full of boxed/canned/bottled food!  This was stuff he was given when he moved into the friend's apartment almost 2 years ago at the beginning of his Senior year of college.  He hauled it all home and shoved it under his bed and apparently it stayed their for the last 1.5 years when he moved everything home to do his internship his last semester of school.
When Daughter took his bed frame(her grandmother gave it to her and she took it to Louisiana)Ex-CB no longer had space under his bed/box spring since it now sits on the floor instead of the bed frame, hence the sudden appearance of the bag of food.
Mystery solved! lolz

Here's the first load we took to Salvation Army(everything in front/to the side of the green chair on the floor.(Except that lamp, it will be re-purposed.)

We uncovered two boxes of electronics that belonged to Daughter's fiancé-one in the bowels of her closet and one in Hubs' room's closet.  Some of it got saved and will find it's way to Louisiana in due time, Ex-CB scavenged  some screws and cables for his use and the rest got dumped in the trash or taken in for recycling at Best Buy and Staples.

New blinds were bought and hung in my new room, Ex-CB's new bedroom and the hallway main bathroom.  All these windows sorely needed them.

Then I set to repairing the walls in my new room before painting could commence........

Two walls done.  I couldn't believe the extent of the wall damage in there!
Well, really, I shouldn't have been surprised since two different adolescent to early twenties aged sons had lived in there.

Under the window was torn up good with what looked like stab wounds. lolz
Ex-CB told me that during a phase in high school he and his one friend had played with throwing stars up there.  Yah, now I know where their targets were...........

Hubs went and bought enough paint to do this room and his spare room.  We used another free Lowe's gift card to buy the paint plus we already had 2 cans of ceiling paint leftover from when we had the downstairs painted so no money was spent on that either.

Not being able to find a competent painter who didn't change an obscene among of money to paint this smallish room I contracted with Ex-College Boy to help me paint the room.  He is only working part time right now and can use the money and I can't climb ladders and do some of this sort of work anymore so this was a good arrangement.  I let him do most of the actual painting(I did the cutting in work that I could reach)and I supervised and reloaded the paint tray, moved step ladders for him, etc.
We got the ceiling done and the first coat of paint/primer on the walls on Tuesday...............

It was determined(by me)that the room would need a second coat(plus the dark blue accent wall needed a third coat)and that the carpeting was too far gone with stains to be saved.  So on Wednesday since I was out at a doctor's appointment down the valley I went to Lowe's to arrange for carpet measuring and picked out which carpeting to get.  They are coming next week to measure and I am hopeful I'll have new carpeting in there by the end of June after we get back from our trip.  So for now it's a lot of hurry up and wait going on. I can't move anything in here until the floor is finished. 8-(

Hubs still has to touch-up the crown molding paint as I can't do it(the ladder thing)and Ex-CB is not careful enough to "stay in the lines". lolz  Hubs has been having to rest his shoulder/neck for a few days as he overdid something earlier this week so he is attempting the molding painting later today.

So the only cost associated with getting this room done will be the cost of the carpeting and what I paid Ex-CB for his work.

In other news......
I have taken all my clothes out of the dresser and the walk-in closet and the pile over by the étagère holding a load of fabric yard goods on a coffee table we have stored in our bedroom plus clothes I dug out of Daughter's huge closet.
And I have gone through it all.
Two bags of worn out stuff got tossed, another 3 bags got taken to Salvation Army and some dresses(4 I think?)as well as previously talked about sweaters will be sold on the FB local site or eBay.

Everything is now back where it needs to be in the dresser or closet...........except this pile of pants on my ironing board.

All these are a size too large now but I need to try them all on to double check if they still fit and/or if they need to be kept for wearing around the house/yard for work, trashed or taken to Sallie's.
This trying on of everything will happen today and the pile will be dispensed with.

Progress Report #2 will probably happen the end of June or early July.
It is killing me that I can't get anything finished yet and it's taking waaaaay too long to complete stuff.
Since I've been in a holding pattern for THREE YEARS on most of this stuff I am chomping at the bit to get it all done!!!


Impatient Sluggy