2014 a Year in Review

Posted on January 2, 2015January 2, 2015 by Dusty Roads

I’m not going to talk about missing airplanes, radical insurgents or riots that are a throw-back to the 60’s. Nope this is just going to be a nice easy summary of my year. Simple and mundane.

The theme for my 2014 should have been “Be Careful What you Wish For”. I spent almost half the year being bored and restless. Then around April several co-workers and friends started wooing me to a new position. I admit I was resistant. I had my eye on a non-existent position on the “buy” side. I was being teased and pushed toward the “listing” side of the business, sometimes referred to as the “dark side” by the “buy side” folks.

Taking a shaking breathe and questioning my sanity I accepted the new challenge on May 18.

I’d just come back from my vacation in Tennessee and my mind was clear and relaxed. Good thing too because I found myself thrown in at the deep end of the pool. It was time to Swim like mad or sink. I am happy to say that I did not sink, maybe floundered a few times but eventually I helped my team close over 50 deals between May 18 and December 31! Several were over $1,000,000.00!

I expect to do even more in 2015 because I’ll have the whole year and we have added another team member.

I like the fast pace and the bonuses I can earn. I love feeling like a part of a team rather than being spread over many agents and areas. Here’s to a rocking 2015.

Because of the activity in the job that pays the bills, my blog and my photography definitely took a back seat last year. My “photo a day” goal died a rapid death once I was thrown into my new job and regular blog posts followed closely behind. I don’t like to write about work. It either sounds like complaining or bragging and there’s always a chance of giving away something that I shouldn’t so with long hours during the busy season my topics really were limited. I don’t see that changing this year either but I’ll do the best I can. Better to post less often and be interesting than just to post drivel in order to have a post…at least that’s my feeling.

I am finally feeling better. 2014 was a really rough year for health issues.

I’m not 100% but certainly much , much better than I was for most of 2014. Maybe I’ll be able to make a dent on the 2014 goal of losing some weight. Start small. Lets see if I can lose 25 lbs and then go from there.

And that about sums it up. I hope you reach all of your goals for 2015!

All I want for Christmas

Posted on December 12, 2014December 12, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Sigh! I’m beginning to understand a bit about the aging process.

All I want right now is to get my home back in order and cleaned up. It seems like forever that I’ve been living in boxes. First the kitchen and now the furniture that I need moved.

And it’s mainly because I can’t do this by myself. I used to be able to move this furniture alone but now I can’t get it to budge! So I am at the mercy of other people’s schedules.

I can see how someone, particularly the elderly, could become hoarders! No strength or energy to throw stuff out!

The kitchen still isn’t finished.

I’m still waiting for the electrician to install the microwave range hood. That would get one big box out of the way. Then I’m waiting for my neighbor to help me move the sideboard and hutch.

I emptied that out to make it easier and lighter to move but I haven’t connected with him since he said he’d help. So that means I have all those boxes sitting here.

There’s an armoire on it’s way. It’s a Saunders so I know that means it will have to be put together. I hate putting together furniture. My knees and back hurt so much it makes it very hard but the ones that were already assembled were terribly expensive. To make room for the armoire I need to clean out the book case and move it to another corner. I used to be able to move this book case by myself. Now I don’t know if I still can or not. I sure hope so!

Then there’s an old rickety book case in that corner that needs to be cleaned off and thrown out. It’s sitting where I want to put the book case that’s where the armoire is going to go.

It’s like a puzzle.

It makes me tired just thinking about it but everything is at a standstill until either my electrician gets here or my neighbor. Until one of them makes me some room I am stuck and I hate being dependent on someone else. I hope one of them gets here before the armoire otherwise I have no idea where that box will go!

In the meantime I am living surrounded by boxes, dust and cat hair. I may not be the best housekeeper but I’ve never lived this long surrounded by such chaos, not even when I’ve just moved.

I mean it when I say all I want for Christmas is a clean and organized home.

Let The Long Weekend Begin

Posted on November 26, 2014November 26, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Good evening folks! I don’t have new tile in my kitchen but I do have a new electrical panel…in my living room. It’s the law. You can no longer put that ugly box out of sight in a closet and because of where the old panel is located there was only one place they could legally put the new one. I haven’t quite figured out how to hide it yet. I’m thinking on it.

My own electrician came in and got me all set up for the Microwave range hood. The new hood will arrive sometime next Thursday, December 4.

Rocky has finally begun to get used to all the door bell ringing and men coming and going. He isn’t cowering behind the furniture. In fact this afternoon he was snoozing under his heat lamp when the Electrician came back with the bill for the panel. I don’t think Rocky even opened an eye. Tim (that’s the electrician) laughed and laughed over him. I explained how the heat lamp had come about and he thought that was interesting but the thing that really got him was the way Rocky was sprawled under it and paid no attention to a stranger in the house.

All of the people who have worked on the kitchen have asked about the heat lamp. Most thought I was nuts or that I was taking spoiling over the top. Once I explained I got the lamp in hope of correcting Rocky’s habit of over grooming and how it worked, they all changed their tune.

This evening I was channel surfing (I should have been putting more stuff away but…) and they had something called “Ballroom Blitz” on. I’d never heard of it before so I checked it out. OMG I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It captured that world so perfectly from the expense of lessons and costumes and travel to the addictive nature of the sport. It made me miss it. As much as I wanted to turn it off because of the emotions it was pulling out of me, I was glued to the set. If I ever win the lottery I know I’d be right back at it. Its been long enough that I could be an amateur again. I could dance for exercise and the fun of it.

Just not at Arthur Murray’s. Nope they will never get another dime from me but that’s a story for another day.

Slowly but Surely

Posted on November 25, 2014November 25, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Sorry there was no update last night. I got caught up in the sorting, cleaning process. Yes I now have water in my kitchen sink. The plumber set up my facet and spray and the other gadgets completely backward to what I am used to but it works. Maybe he is left handed or maybe I’m the backward one. 🙂

The plumber said he had never seen cabinets and counters like these. He kept checking them out. He said most places he’s been have had wood grain or white cabinets. He thought my off-green (the color name is “Ocean Floor”) was a nice change of pace.

The cabinet guys came back too and made custom shelves so my new cabinets are ready for stuff! They were impressed with the counter tops too.

I went a little nuts at Bed, Bath and Beyond for expandable drawer inserts and a holder for cookie sheets and other baking pans. Then I discovered that I can order them through Ebates.com and get back some $$$. So I finished my order there and earned $5.00 back! It gets paid quarterly so I may do more ordering through that web site. We’ll have to see.

I ran some of my decorative dishes through the dishwasher . They seemed to have a thin coat of grime. I guess the cooking oils had coated them and then the fine sanding grains all stuck to them. They didn’t come clean so I did an internet search and found out that a light scrubbing with baking soda , of all things, should cut the grease and clean them up. And it worked! Cleaning the Kitty Kat Teapot now.

Who new that baking soda would become my new go-to cleaning product. This old dog just learned a new trick!

My electrician is coming tonight to put in an outlet box so the tile people will leave a space for a new outlet. Then tomorrow the condo association is sending their electrician to upgrade my electrical panel.

The tile people are due sometime tomorrow too. Is the end in sight?

Renovations Continue

Posted on November 21, 2014November 21, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Oh Oh! After the cabinet guys left I discovered that shelves in the new cabinets (not the refaced ones) were unstable. My observation … they are too narrow but I am not a cabinet maker.

Even so they need to be stabilized so they don’t fall down all the time. I called the 800 customer care line and explained my problem. They said they would let the project manager know and have him call me. That was yesterday morning.

7 am my phone rang. The counter folks were early! They were out front and ready to start the installation. I told them give me 5 minutes to get dressed and I’ll let you in. By 9 am the big pieces were in. It took another 2 hours for the back splashes, holes for the facet etc on the sink and the caulk. I don’t know how anyone else will feel about the counters but I absolutely love them!

Such an improvement over the old white counters. The greens in the pattern match the soft green of the cabinets perfectly too. You never know if that tiny sample will really look as good in real life as it did in your imagination.

Everything has to set and dry so the plumber won’t be out until Monday. 🙁

About 9:30 the phone rang again. It was the project manager. I explained the problem with the shelves to him and he said he’d send the cabinet guys back…if not today he’d send them Saturday. I told him I could wait til Monday because I needed to go shopping Saturday for new shelf liners and a few other things to organize the cabinets. I want to start putting stuff away.

I scheduled the tile install with him for Wednesday and Friday. I guess they do all the tile first then come back the next day to caulk. Since Thursday is Thanksgiving we’re going to do Wednesday and Friday. The kitchen will be functional to cook even if its not 100% done.

This is dragging out longer than they told me but it’s partly my fault. I couldn’t go Monday – Friday because of work commitments on Thursday. That made the job spill over to Monday.

The tile people could have come Monday but I want to add another outlet near the stove so my electrician needs to get here to put in the box for the outlet before they tile. I need to give him time to come in first. I am scheduled to work in the Foxboro office on Tuesday so can’t have anyone here then so Wednesday was the only logical choice. But we are making progress!