Raking Leaves......

The area where I live has both loose leaf and bagged leaves pickups.  Thankfully this isn't something that we have to pay for which is a good thing because I have a big tree in the front of the house and boy does it shed!  I don't mind raking them as long as I'm in a good mood and I do like the way it looks in the fall.  So I managed to have the leaves ready to be picked up - which is saying a lot because last year I just was not in the mood to do it but more importantly I had other things on my mind.  So this may be a good sign of good things to come - I certainly hope so!

I guess I should include the car as well

I think having a car (or not having one - as the case may be) is important enough to include with all that having a house involves.

I was going over a past list of repairs (and repairs needed) and was just frustrated over the number of them.  Replacing the battery, engine repairs - not to mention the "regular" things like paying for gas, the yearly inspection and the like - that is a LOT of things!

But I have come to the conclusion that having a car is necessary and all those things that go with having one have to be tolerated - even expected.  It would be nice though if I had a car emergency fund!

My 2nd choice of residence.....

Confessions Of A Homeowner!

Don't get me wrong I love where I live but if I had a choice for a second home it would be near the ocean. Here is a link to a blog from a guy that lives near the ocean and I am so jealous.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/seasidelife

He hasn't posted for a while but the pictures are gorgeous!

The furnace? It ain't!

Oh well the furnace is not working.  Actually just to make sure that there was no gas leaking I called the utility company to check it out.  He did detect a small leak and shut off the system.  (Now this was a few days ago).  Now it's in the 50's and I have on a tee shirt under a long sleeve shirt under a sweater.

Repairing the furnace isn't going to be cheap in fact I have a call pending just to see if I can get a grant to have the furnace repaired.  Cross your fingers for me!

Heating Woes!

Besides the fact that the price of heating is going up I have a "little" problem with the furnace!  It seems that the relief valve is leaking (again?) and I now have to get a hose so that I can connect the hose to the valve so that the water can drain directly to the sink.

There is the problem of getting a new furnace - I shudder to think about how much THAT will cost but as for now I'm going to solve one problem at a time.

Repairs! Keep A List!

As I mentioned before the TV in the livingroom wasn't working.  I thought it would be a good idea to call the guy who did some electrical work on the house before.  Unfortunately it was a while ago since I last used him and when I finally found his card (Thank goodness I saved it but it took me a while to find the card!) his contact numbers were no longer good.  I couldn't find him in the phone book but I did find him after doing a little Internet investigating.  I'm going to call him tomorrow to see if he still does electrical work.

Although it might seem like something that's obvious you really should keep a current list of the work that's been done on your house because you never know when you may need more and/or similar work done.  I know its a hassle and its just one more thing to do but in the long run it will save you some hassle.  It's also a good idea to know whether or not they are still in business so that in the event that they are not you can start to look around (or better yet ask friends and family) for another repair related repairman.

We used to have a man that did all the repairs - just a general handyman - but he died and as often happens you don't think about having another repairman until an emergency comes up.  So its better to be prepared BEFORE something goes wrong!  Believe me its a lesson that I have learned!

Jealous Of My Neighbor's Garden?

Of course I am.  From one of the upstairs bedroom I can look right down on it and see the tomatoes that he (and his wife) are growing.  Am I jealous?  Of course I am!  Goodness knows that I have enough room for an outside garden but I have been busy with work and more specifically making my quota.

I have decided that I am NOT going to get upset but what I am going to do is work in my garden even if its just clearing the overgrowth away while I plan for next season.

Is there anything that can be planted so late in the year?

The Bees Are Back!

I thought that hopefully I wouldn't have to get rid of the rest of the cushions on the porch but now I know that I have to because the bees are back!  I going to have to take care of this problem the exact same way that I took care of it before and that is to wait until the weather is cooler so that I can get rid of the cushions.  This time I am just going to get rid of the rest of the cushions and get porch furniture that - I hope - is bee-proof!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! - Where are they coming from!

Of course it must have something to do with the warmer weather but they are just driving me crazy!  It seems to be more worse inside the house than outside of the house!

Unsolicited Solicitations - Not!

I don't know about you but I plan to stay in my house for a very long time.  I have put so much work and effort into my home that I am not about to give it up without a fight!

Because of the work I do and the experiences that I have had I have specific plans as to the "financial" aspects of my home.  I want to pay off the mortgage - especially since I don't like the mortgage company that I have (the mortgage note has changed hands at least 5 times!).  Of course when I do pay it off there will be the matter of the property taxes that have to be paid annually but my plan for that is using the money that I used to pay for the mortgage.

I have no intention of taking out another mortgage on my home.  That's why I became rattled when I got an email from some place in Texas (I'm in PA) that wants me to sign up and get a lower interest rate on my mortgage.  What especially angers me is that their email to me included my exact name and address!  How did they get that?  Probably from some mailing list or something.

This is all fine and well for those that want to partake in such a service but for me I have my own definite plan!

Living Room - Big Screen TV Problems! Yikes!

So I'm watching tv in the livingroom last night and for no reason it just clicks off! Ok no problem I'm thinking. I have to get up and turn it back on but it will be worth it. So I click it on and it just goes right back off again! So now I'm thinking "Great! Now I need a new big screen!" I'm hoping the problem will go away because I just cannot afford another big screen TV.

Since I'm such a pack rat I found the original receipt and found out that it was purchased back in 1997. So I'm begging everyone that has a big screen older than this to let me know that this is just a temporary problem and that all will be well again!

The Air Conditioner - Another emergency problem solved - thank goodness!

As hot as it has been in the area all week the air conditioner blowing out hot air was NOT a welcomed thing. Come to find out that the filters needed cleaning out - which I did myself - and now I have another "thing to do" line to put on my maintenence schedule. But at least the problem is solved. Cold air is blowing again!

Getting around to the garden - FINALLY!

Well I finally got around to "digging" out the garden!  I'm determined to have one even though I'm starting late - which is better than not starting at all.  I started yesterday while the weather was still so hot but like I said I was determined!  I haven't figured out what I'm going to plant and the weather forecast is for rain all this week so I want to get something in the ground now.

Since I just started to clear out the garden I still have a ways to go and I'm going to need plenty of those heavy duty trash bags and the heavy duty gloves but at least I can watch my garden grow as I'm clearing out the rest of it.

Dreamhouse?

How close am I to living in my dream house?  Well I'm kind of close.  About the most difficult is not being near the ocean and having an ocean view - oh well, guess that will be my 2nd house.

There is the point of having a fireplace but with enough money I can have that built in.  I love the area where I live and don't even mind all the fix-up and maintenance that I have to do.

The only thing that is really bugging me right now is working on having enough money to satisfy me!

Cable Channels

I get basic cable and one of the channels I don't get is SoapNet.  Now if you have to ask just go to my webpage about Loving-The Soap Opera at:

http://members.aol.com/MartinM377/loving.htm

and you'll see that I have a big interest in soap operas.  But its just not worth it to pay the extra cost for this.

See my previous post about my cable bill going up.

Oh to be fishing..........

Just visiting some posts and someone mentioned being able to go fishing now that the weather is getting warmer.  Oh how I envy them.  I LOVE going fishing.  Since I'm in the Philadelphia area I'm going to have to start getting everybody's recommendations for good fishing holes!

Along with spring comes......

the insects!  Mostly I'm talking about BEES!

I just saw a HUGE one flying around the inside of the window!  It was gigantic - bigger than a quarter!  When I was down in the basement yesterday one was flying around!  They are so huge!

Another tax?

Just got this little newsletter for my area and they are talking about a new tax that started this past February.  It sounds a lot like a local tax that is already levied in this area and I'm wondering if its an additional tax!  Like I need to have to pay another tax!

The Cable bill has gone up!

Just got my cable bill for the month and it has gone up to just over $50.  I had always allotted $50 per month for the cable bill which now means I will have to adjust my budget or just make more money!

Since I live in the Philadelphia area my cable company is Comcast of course the very BIG conglomerate I like to call them.  I have the choice of staying with Comcast, getting a different cable company or getting a dish.  I was without cable for awhile and that whole trouble I went thru with having to get an antenna and getting it adjusted right really turned me off of the idea of going without cable.  Now I may have to think about it more.

"House Hunters" is going international!

This is one of my favorite shows!

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hnt

Am I Ready for The Snowstorm?

Well I'm about as ready as I'll ever be! We're expected to get over 8 inches of snow tomorrow morning! There's still snow on the ground from the last snow fall and I can hear the cars sliding against the ice. I'm glad I don't have to go out in it tomorrow but the days after that are another story.

I get the feeling that no kind of weather is going to stop the Eagle fans from getting to the game. Me? I'm gonna watch it on TV!

I'm always saying how I want to be prepared for the weather in case I get trapped in because of a snowstorm. Actually with the exception of having a fireplace (which I'm working on getting) I pretty much have what I want. Got food and coffee and hot chocolate and the snow shovel is near in case I need it. I should have some rock salt though although I was meaning to get some.

Oh well, there's always something!

Time To Take Down the Christmas Decor!

Ok, I am alloting the weekend for this! I haven't started yet and I'm hoping I won't let staying on the computer distract me!

"Starship Troopers" is coming on tonight so maybe I can watch that as I take the stuff down - can you see I'm trying to convince myself to do it (-:
Taking down the decorations consist of taking the ornaments and trimmings off the tree and putting them back in some organized sort of way to make the whole process of putting them back up easier. One good thing this year was that I managed to be able to hook up the lights on the tree so that the star on top would light up. For the past 2 years I wasn't able to do that - don't know why but I hope I remember how I did it this year so that I can do it again.

Alas it is a hated chore but one that has to be done!

If I lived by myself I think that I would just leave it up! (Well at least for a few months until I got tired of looking at it)

Saturday was housework day

Actually everyday there's housework but this particular day while I was doing laundry (and changing the cat litter) I did some other stuff as well.

The cellar definitely qualifies as one of the rooms that need more than a little work done!  This particular day besides doing the above I also opened the relief valve on the furnace so that the water (which I think is the overflow amount) could drain into a bucket.  What I really need is a hose to connect from the relief valve to the drain in the sink.  (Don't worry its on my list of things to do - which by the way is a long list and forever growing!)  Besides that I also water blasted the gunk from the cover/lid that covers the drain hole in the basement.

Before I never knew of such things but I'm learning now.