Almost like new…

Prior to settling on the idea of buying a house, I looked at building a house. The problem was that I didn’t have the necessary amount of money needed as a down payment (40% of the cost) to obtain a building loan. At that time though, whatever the house ended up being, I had the idea of wanting the house to be green with white trim. When I finally settled on the idea of buying a house, especially one with painted siding, I knew at some point I was going to be replacing it…and I still wanted to go with the original idea I had for colors.

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Summer Project

Summer is upon us (well, ok, really we still have a few more days) and the housing projects are getting underway (to be fair, they haven’t really stopped)! Last summer the house got a new roof, and this summer it’s getting new siding.

I left work early on Friday to meet the delivery guy. Good thing I got home sooner than the time-frame I gave them for delivery, because they were actually there about 10 minutes early. With the stabilizers in place, it was time to unload my order.

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Back in the groove

It’s been a while, but I’m finally getting back into the workout groove. Little backstory…

Since about the end of January, I’ve been battling issues with my left shoulder. I don’t recall a specific time when it started hurting. There was never a moment when I felt a tear or a pop. One night I simply tried scratching my back, and I simply couldn’t get my arm in the position I needed to…it simply wouldn’t go that far, and certainly not without a lot of pain. I’ve narrowed the cause down to either overworking it in the gym, shoveling the heavy wet snow this past winter (I have a significant length of sidewalk in my front yard), or a combination of the two. As anyone would do in 2018, I went to the internet to self-diagnose. Everything I found pointed to a rotator cuff injury, so I started doing some exercises for that. After a few months, I was still in pain, so I finally went to the doctors to discuss it. His impression was the same,  and diagnosed it as a rotator cuff injury and prescribed physical therapy for it.

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More home improvement…

The home improvement projects continue…

When I purchased this house back at the end of Winter in March 2016, I knew I was going to have to (well, really I wanted to) make some improvements to this house. It’s a fantastic starter home, and since I ended up being single as I transitioned from renter to home owner, I’m glad I went with a house I could afford while still having money left to make the improvements that I wanted.

Early into owning the home, the first thing that got upgraded was the furnace. It was original to the house, and the house was built in 1967…not at all efficient. While the new furnace was great, the insulation in the attic was poor…even the home inspector told me that. At some point I knew it was going to have to be updated too (only after I had ran all of the new wiring and light boxes I wanted), and well, no time like the present! On Saturday, Meghan and I went to rent a U-Haul. Neither of us have a vehicle big enough to haul 50 bags of insulation and the blower required for the install, so it was a safe way to go. Here are all 50 bags (on 4 carts) ready to load up).

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Goodbye Wilmington…Hello Dulles and Chicago?

Saturday morning/afternoon was our last day in Wilmington. We slept in a bit, no gym that day, and then got up and headed to our favorite breakfast place, the Dixie Grill.

With food in our bellies, we headed back to the Airbnb to shower and pack up, since we had to be out of there by 11am. With the Airbnb in order, and our stuff all packed up, we headed to the parking garage to dump off our bags and then set off to explore some more of downtown. There was a farmers market going on along the cape, so we decided to check that out. There was one thing we noticed however, the heat was far more extreme than it had been the entire time we were there. It was almost 90, and the humidity felt like we were underwater. Not wanting to walk around in the heat, and not wanting to drive around in the gas hog that is the Expedition, we decided we were just going to go to the airport and hangout there for the rest of the day. In hindsight, not the best of ideas, but it seemed like a good one at the time.

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Wilmington Day 4

Day 4 was already upon us…man, the days were going fast. Being a big proponent of education, and having worked at two universities now, I always enjoy taking a tour of a campus if I’m in the area, and well, UNCW was right in our backyard. Oh and who could pass up getting a look at “Capeside High” from Dawson’s Creek?

When we got to campus, we were greeted with this fountain.

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