#2 Catastrophe: A crazy guy set my office building on fire last Monday night. Thank god our offices are in back - they sustained no damage. But due to the arson investigation and then lack of electrical power, we were unable to get into the building until late Thursday afternoon.
#3 Catastrophe: Crazy mad deadline rush at work Thurs-Fri!!!
And #4 - #1 million Catastrophe were of course, smaller in nature, but all directly related to the first three major catastrophes.
All in all, a week that most certainly took some years off my life. But, amidst all the stress, I have good news to report.
Firstly, Mike and I found ourselves together on Tuesday.... yes! Together on a weekday during normal business hours! (Imagine that?) So after Mike finished his lengthy phone calls to U-Haul, we high tailed it over to Morse Lumber to pick out railings for the farmer's porch. Azek was the composite brand recommended to us - good quality, a best seller, and no-maintenance. (You have to think to yourself - do you really want to re-paint railings year after year? Square poles and trim are one thing - one easy thing. A whole buncha railings and balusters?! A whole buncha pain-in-the-butt.)
We selected a basic white model - no frills, but complete with the bracket-hiding kit or whatever they call it. We'd need 8 sections, not including the stairways. (The figuring for those will come at a later date, as we haven't spoken to Timmy about them yet.) Total cost, approx. $1400.
That probably sounds outrageous.... and, admittedly, we could probably purchase wood for 1/3 of that... but I just don't want to go wood. Wood posts - fine. Wood trim - fine. Wood railings?! Not so much, in my opinion. We saved a boatload going wood on the rest of the porch, so I feel like we can spluurge a little bit where it's going to count.
We didn't order, since we want to check in with Timmy and make sure it's cool. Luckily, what we want is in stock, can be delivered next day, and likely be installed by Mike in one weekend. Each section comes in a box. You just put the pieces together and then attach to the poles. Hopefully, it will be easy.
(Pole wrap hasn't been completed yet, as the guys took this Sunday off, which worked out for us as you'll see in a moment.)
Secondly, 4Runner #1 has been sold! Though I didn't get quite as much as I was hoping, it's gone and the buyer was very happy with it and understood all its problems and quirks. Sweet. Two vehicles down, one to go.
Third, I return you to this past Sunday. As I said, the guys took a break from the porch, so Mike jumped on the opportunity to get Dodge #2 put together. (You know, the one in pieces in the back yard?) He devoted near to the entire day on it and stopped just short of 100% completion. He'll need a little more time, but when it's as tidy as can be for $0, it can be put up for sale as is. And with the sale of Dodge #2, we'll have no more extra vehicles!!!! (Amazing to think.)
Monday, Columbus Day, I took it upon myself to paint the garage and garage addition. I painted the garage white about two years ago.... then we picked out a grey siding for the house. So that white was in need of an update, plus the addition needed a coat of SOMETHING before winter. And what better time then a random Monday off?
Back two years ago, I did the job with a roller and a brush... and it took me hours upon laborious hours. Days, in fact. Yes, I'm pretty sure it took me days. This time around, however, I had a new painting weapon. A super duper power painter. This thing painted one side of the garage is less then 5 minutes. It took longer to clear away all the mechanical misc from either side then it did to paint! I was blown away! A little bit of touching up on the trim from over-spray and the job was done.
Of course the job still took all day.... Why? Well, the clearing and cleaning up of all the mechanic misc of course! (I took the initiative and loaded up that garage addition. I mean, come on. It was empty and all this junk was outside, next to the garage. Ridiculous!)
Just check out the awesome results:
Look, Ma, no junk!
Complete With Matching Addition
And the Other Side - One Hood and One Wheelbarrow Left, not too shabby
We survived the Week of a Million Catastrophes and somehow managed to come out.... well, not on top, but pretty high in elevation nonetheless. At this point, no expectations for this week. My brain is no longer processing information.
