Let me just check back to the last few posts as it’s been a while… garden garden garden, dead friend dead friend dead friend. Got it, I’m all caught up.

There has in fact been more going on, including the potential home refinance I mentioned a few posts ago. Instead of using it for an addition, we’ll be doing some more home repair (more you say? I’ll get there in a sec), adding a vehicle, pay off credit cards, and new bedroom furniture for the children and maybe us. And some other stuff I’m blanking on right now. But whatever- that’s moving ahead, so it’s good to have made a decision on it finally and be moving a direction- that was the hard part in the whole thing.

But also hard was/is all the damn paperwork and finding out I had 2 things on one credit report (but not the others?) that had to be resolved… so weird that one report showed my credit as a HUNDRED points lower than the other two and my credit card’s credit tracking service. Guess which one the refinance company was going to use? GUESS. So I wouldn’t accept that and got those 2 things cleared off and my credit shows the same level on all reports now and our interest rate went down a full percent because of it. Nice. Also nice is proving my mother-in-law wrong, yet again, on her stance that medical expenses don’t affect your credit. Buuuuuuuulllllllshiiiiit, I say to that- because those two charges were medical. Whatever, we’re all resolved on that front now.

In the meantime I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a needed house repair before our appraisal for the refinance, but also because we literally could not wait any longer. Due to some issues with the gutters on the back of the house we’d had water spilling down a couple of sections around our back door. We live in a wooden house. This is not a good thing. We’d had some really large sections start to soften and rot thanks to ALL the rain last spring- but it really became an issue needing addressing this year. So, we hired a contractor who replaced everything that needed it and fixed the gutters.

One of the hardest parts was finding a contractor who would return calls, honestly. I finally got the contact information for the one we used from a neighbor, and that contractor was top tier on everything including cost. Oh well- it needed to be done and now is. And the work is so seamless you can’t even tell where the repair was done.

We also reset a fence post that was jacking up our fence and pulling it out of plumb. Another thing that’s been needing to be done for a long time and feels awesome to be resolved.

Additionally last Saturday I finally hit on how to block the bottom of our gate so Birdie can’t fit under it but in a way the gate can easily be opened and shut. This is a lightweight panel that flips up when the fence needs to be moved and down when the fence is in place and is made from some lightweight but stiff garden fencing I had lying around. Has it been an annoyance and worry as to how to do this? Yes, yes it has. Check it off the list.

And the weekend before I finally figured out how to clean the mildew that was settling in around all the window, making our house look nebulously run down. It was creating a black smudge around any area the painter (a few years ago) had used caulk. So windows, front posts, door frames, etc. This leads me to believe he didn’t use a mildew resistant caulk, but he’s long gone by this point so it’s my problem and I was worried I’d have to repaint all of those sections. But instead I used this product that fixed it in MINUTES:

It is one of those things where asking the experts does help- as I called and spoke to the folks at Sherwin Williams and this was their recommendation. It’s landscape safe too, and that was important to me what with all the plants we have under various windows. It’s basically just a very strong bleach- which from my experience from aquariums (back when I gave a shit about tropical fish) I know is surprising safe to use around fish and live plants. You pump stay it on, let is sit for 3 minutes (WHY it’s called 30 second cleaner when it takes 3 minutes is baffling and annoying) and then rinse it off with a shot from the hose. It broke the surface adhesion of dirt and cobwebs and killed the mildew… the stuff is awesome and it was so satisfying of a job. And the house looks WAY better, even if no one else could really see the issue before nor pick out exactly why it looks better now.

So it’s been credit reports, getting a new debit and credit card as the current ones are expiring, refinancing documents, student loan documents, taxes, home repair, home maintenance, health insurance annoyances requiring multiple calls, calls to the pharmacy, calling and paying an exterminator, shots and trips to the vet for the puppy and cat with allergies, fence repair, gate repair, new tires, etc.

Still up on the list of adulting things I don’t want to do but must: Detail clean the mini-spilt ac unit in our bedroom, decide on new flooring for our room, decide which one and either repaint or restain the front and back doors, get a haircut and color, inspect my car and do that whole registration thing… on and on with this shit till we die. Adulting sucks sometimes. I feel like I’m almost through the worst of it for the spring though.

I don’t mean it to sound like life has just been one long string of annoyances because it hasn’t, but then this happened in the midst of all of it so… it wasn’t NOT a long string of annoyances, either.

But! It is rose season, so beauty abounds in the garden!

And in other great news, I finally found the rock my daughter had painted for a school project- I love it so, so much and it just disappeared from it’s spot in the garden one day. And then poof- it’s back! I sometimes wonder if we have fae folk we have to deal with here- so I kinda sent a call out, nebulously, to the universe that I’d like it back… and there it is a few weeks later. Is it just calling them on their mischief or am I now indebted to the fae? I’d rather not think too hard on that, honestly.

In the reselling project: that also is progressing. Unexpectedly clothes are selling better than anything else; which is annoying because I don’t CARE about buying and reselling clothes. Some of the clothes I picked up as a trial have resold, but the majority are out of my own closet. And while satisfying, that isn’t really what I was going for on this project.

And then the things I pick up to resell sometimes are things I then fall in love with and keep… which is also not what I was going for either as I feel I already have enough stuff.

Case in point: this carved gourd.

The other side of the above gourd has some parrots and a toucan that I’d like to think the tree boa has eyes on… I just really love it and so now it lives here instead of earning $25 to $80 on Ebay. It was $4, but it’s more the principle of the thing.

This has happened with a number of things. So the plan has morphed from: “Buy stuff to sell” to “buy stuff and sell some of it, while trying not to turn into a hoarder.”

And then Birdie, our corgi puppy keeps on growing and being cute.

Till next time!