I've made the leap from wagon lurker to wagon owner

Geez, hard to believe that I haven't had anything to share since February. It's been a whirlwind with moving and then starting a new company all within a couple of months. What a joy though. If I would have known how happy I'd be, I would have quit my job years ago!

We replaced the jumbo window in the living room. We knew that the wood at the bottom was soggy, and so did the local ants. They filed through there by the dozens and we kept finding them everywhere. They had even worked their way into a box of cookies by my chair. When they started biting me furiously I realized that it was in retaliation for however many of their number I had already eaten by reaching into the cookie box without looking. That was the final stroke and we called a contractor. Pulling the window out involved taking out most of the wall, on a bloody cold day, and rebuilding. Not too big a deal really and the bulk of the work was done in just a few hours.




Mere days after finishing up the window we discovered a roof leak around our chimney. The roofing company I called has considerable experience with shallow roofing and showed up the next day to seal up the very poorly installed chimney flashing. He assured me that all of the shingles were very new and in good shape, just as our home inspector had done. When I called him back the next day to explain that the leak had moved he took a closer look. With some help from a neighbour I've learned that the previous owners had a lot of problems with the roof and had been patching it over and over for some time. Apparently they re-did the whole roof just before listing, but the work was done by the homeowner's son. The work would have probably been fine if the roof slope wasn't so shallow. Because they didn't know how to properly shingle a shallow roof, we're dealing with this now. The roofing company put some rubber sheets and tarps on the roof to get us through the winter but we found some other small leaks and now they're coming on Monday to do the whole thing. Turns out that the shingle warranty is based upon them being installed on top of plywood so we're having to pony up about 40% more to have the slat roof covered in plywood before the shingles go on. At this point I just want to get a good nights' sleep during the rainy nights and not worry about what is getting wet that shouldn't.

I haven't really even touched the wagon this summer. I drove it on service calls for a few weeks after I started my new business but it felt like it might need some front-end work that I chose not to afford. It's bedded down in the garage for winter now in the hopes that I'll have some more time to spend with it in the warmer months. At the rate things are going, having more time isn't likely to be in my future. Business has been growing steadily. People say that they are astonished to find a computer guy who is "logical and communicative" and they keep telling their friends about me. I guess I'm more of an oddity than I realized. I took out some advertisements in some local golf course programs but apart from that all work has been obtained from shaking hands and getting to know folks via networking groups and Chamber of Commerce events. My intent was to offer people a different kind of IT support that doesn't cut corners, takes the time to explain work both before and after, and focus on solving problems in a way that helps the customer rather than "by the book". It seems to be working.

 

Sorry to hear about the house but happy work is going well for you.

 

Sounds like you're keeping a postive outlook even though the ants and Mother Nature have been against you. Not sure but seems lke we bought our small house about the same time you moved. For us, the house seems just fine, altho we are still 1000 miles from it. Possibly when we do get moved in and I put my junk food out the ants will find me. At least they won't be Fire Ants.
Good luck and remember a new year is coming.

 

Not a lot has gone on with the wagon lately. I've had it out a couple of times for a quick drive but haven't done any work on it yet. I've spent most of my time with this whole self-employed thing. Thankfully that's gone really well.

I managed to take the wagon to the grocery store this afternoon, having folks watch the wagon drive by always makes me feel good. With everyone having a smartphone these days I notice fewer and fewer people actually looking up at anything. Of course that's precisely the sort of thing that justifies dual exhaust.
I managed to snap a quick pick today before I went back in the house. My camera was on the surprisingly large list of items that decided to mysteriously die after we moved to the new house so all I have are crappy cell phone pics.


The Mrs. and I are still absolutely in love with the new house. Replacing that rear window and roof so close together made it hard to love for a while, but we're over it now. We see a lot of rabbits in the back so that make us forget a lot of our troubles. We even had a deer wander past one morning and a clutch,herd,pod,gaggle of baby mink playing in the backyard. The Mrs got swarmed by those curious little fellers so she's a little more cautious about going outside now.

Having some extra space, and my business meaning we can't take vacations, got The Mrs jonesing for a pet of some sort again. It's been two years since we lost our Cleo so she lasted longer than I expected. After a fair amount of browsing around we brought home these two little knuckleheads after they turned up at the local animal shelter. Say hello to Bert and Ernie.

After a failed trial with them living in an enclosure off of the kitchen, The Mrs gave up her sewing room and these guys moved into it. It's amazing how much happier they are. In the old they were very uncomfortable Ernie had even developed a nervous tic that he displayed whenever I was preparing dinner. Now they love roaming around the house leaping and playing. We're both much happier when they're running around acting like idiots.

 

OMG, I haven't had pet wabbits since I was a kid! There's a guy on Fullsizebronco with a Flemish Somethingorother, the European ones that look like a cross between a stuffed rabbit and Harvey, Jimmy Stewart's drinking pal from the movie of the same name. Apparently, Harvey is so much a member of the family, he'll lay on his stomach with his haunches and feet straight out behind him and watch TV! I cannot remember who it was, but if I find the pics, I'll put up a linky.

 

How can you cross a stuffed rabbit with one that's invisible/non-existent/Harvey???
My wife had a rabbit, then it bit me.

 

Be careful...animals have been known to be good judges of character.... As for crossing wabbits, my description was just for visual purposes only.

 

Our Cleo used to flop on the floor like that all the time! A rabbit usually has to be really comfortable with their surroundings before they do that. Bert and Ernie only do it when they think no one is looking. I quite often see them flopping out like that when they are in their room but the try not to do it when we're around.