Hey Mikey, they like it

Today was a big day. My in-laws drove in from California and spent the night with us. They are on their way to St. Louis and then down to Branson for a family reunion next week.

While it was good to see them, the big event was taking them to see the house that we are buying.

Our house in the teeny, little city of Grandview. It is nestled between Overland Park, KS (one of the wealthiest areas in the country) and Lee’s Summit, MO.

While Bunch’s parents wish that we were buying in Overand Park (but that would take at least another $100K!), they liked the house!

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The shin bone is connected to the knee bone!

Since I work with a bunch of machinists that live in the country, I have a fertile field to learn about wood stoves.

I am sorry that I asked. One guy said that he used to burn wood but he stopped years ago.

“Why?”

“Because that became my whole life!”

“What do you mean?”

“I was either cutting it or hauling it or splitting it or stacking it or carrying it or cleaning up…”

As I listened, an image emerged from the recesses of my memory of a long haired biker dude that I worked with in California who was always “going to cut wood” as soon as he got home from work.

I don’t think that I want to do that.

I talked with another guy…

He doesn’t cut any wood. He has a pellet stove. He burns corn…

???

Let’s see…

I was just going to put carpet in…

then I got the idea for radiant heat (which is now out because carpet acts like a sweater to radiant floor heat)…

which led to wood boilers (which are out because I will be living in the suburbs)…

which led to wood stoves turning me into an indentured servant…

which led to burning corn???

HELP!!!

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It wasn’t a waste of time

I won!!!

I won!!!

I won!!!

About four months ago, my oldest daughter started her own blog. I pretended that I was interested and actually went to it and read what she had written. I told you about that I was hit with an  unexpected wave of insecurity when I saw how hip, how modern her blog was.

That forced me to start making changes to update this blog to what I originally envisioned when this was just a gleam in my mind’s eye 10 years ago.

I am sure you have noticed some changes over the past few months but they have been so slow in coming.

Then, this past weekend, I “wasted” nearly 12 hours trying to figure out the code to create a drop-down menu of the various pages that I have been constructing. Well, today, I FINALLY figured out how to do it and you can see the results! It’s not perfect but it is what I have been picturing for some time.

When I shared my excitement and showed a co-worker, he responded, “I could have told you how to do that a long time ago.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“They don’t pay me to do that.”

razza…frazza…grumble…

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Why am I in a bad mood?

Last week, before the mid-week church service began, the pastor walked up to me while I was typing on my computer.

“What are you doing?”

“Writing a post for my blog.”

“Can you e-mail me the link. I’d like to read it.”

“Sure.”

Well, that little conversation has been haunting me ever since…

“I can’t send him the link yet. I have to finish the major update first. I have to figure out the code to make the menu do what I want, then re-categorize all of the posts so they work with the new configuration.”

So, yesterday I decided to tackle that.

My wife came in while I was working on it. Oh, my attitude was sour!

Then, a few hours later, my chipper little daughter, Cakes, came in. By that time, I was growling like a bear.

“Dad, why are you so mad?”

I had to think about that for awhile. I didn’t really have a readily apparent reason. Then it dawned on me,

“Why am I mad?…I’ll tell you. Because whenever I try to figure out HTML/CSS code, I feel really stupid.”

Then she added, “And then, on top of that, you are probably upset that you are using all of this time…”

Anyway, TWELVE hours later and all that I have essentially learned is what doesn’t work! Growl!

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The ankle bone is connected to the shin bone…

The more I look into wood boilers, the less I think that they are appropriate for our new place. I read of people complaining about smoke, the constant need for wood…

Maybe if we were buying a place out in the country, but we are buying a house in a suburban development.

But, while I was learning about that, I was re-introduced to a wood stove…

They have units that actually replace the zero clearance (non-masonry, metal) fireplaces. Several of the guys at work either have one or have a relative that heats their home that way…

Stay tuned.

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The foot bone is connected to the ankle bone

I recognize this feeling…

It has happened before…

One thing leads to another which leads to another and pretty soon, I am hip dip into something.

Yesterday, I told you about the possibility of installing radiant floor heat. Since then, I have learned that there are two primary heat sources: webbed panels that carry electricity or small tubes carrying hot water.

Then I learned that you can heat the water by burning wood in an outdoor boiler…

This is starting to get complicated!

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This might turn out to be cool…err warm

I woke up this morning and realized something…well, we have to put in the flooring after we take possession of the house.

That means that the floors will be bare…

That means that we could install radiant heating in the floor…

It is all the rage in Europe and we all know how much more advanced they are over there! (JK!)

I have long been interested in radiant floor heat…perhaps this is my chance!

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Now that I think about it…

I am prone to over analyze things…

I mean I evaluate everything…frontwards and backwards…from both sides…then the top view…etc., etc.

It doesn’t really matter what it is…decisions I have to make, decisions I have made…etc., etc.

I have been reviewing how we lost in the bidding for this house that we are buying back when it was a foreclosure. The straw that is stirring my emotions is that I am buying the same house except that I now have to pay the current owners a profit!

“If only I had offered cash…but I didn’t have all cash…what if…”

Then it dawned on me…

If we had won the auction, I would have had to find people to work on the house, attempt to manage them while working a full-time job, fight with them over the inevitable adjustments, etc., etc. That is not a very appealing proposition.

Instead, the current owners are essentially acting like my general contractor. They are fixing everything that we wanted to fix. They have hired the sub-contractors, arranged the schedule, etc. All that we have to do is to move in!

When I put it that way, it doesn’t sound all that bad! In fact, it couldn’t have turned out better!

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I “gumped” into something today…

That is my term for discovering something significant that I wasn’t even looking for. It comes from the move “Forest Gump.”

I wanted to look at our new house during lunch today. My first thought was to go back to the hyperlink to the actual listing…

It no longer works…

Hmmm…what to do…

Got it…let’s try “Google Street”! I typed in the address and sure enough, up came the picture.

There was the little yellow house…

with the two car garage…

and the three big windows in that beautiful master bedroom with the 13′ ceiling. Yes! I am going to like this house. Then I noticed something…

“That looks like a room air conditioner in the center window  of the master bedroom…

That is a room air conditioner in the center window of the master bedroom!…

I wonder why that is there? The house has central air…”

Gradually, it dawned on me…

“That master bedroom must get REALLY hot!”

That ain’t gonna work! I might as well just sit on the back deck and light $10 bills on fire.

I had Tank activate the house remodeling program in my brain (think of the movie, “The Matrix”).

Although my wife might not be very happy initially, I have a sneaky suspicion that the 13′ ceiling is going “bye, bye”!

I’m sure I’ll take heat initially (pun intended) but I think she will eventually agree with me that a wonderfully insulated 10′ ceiling that you can actually see is much prettier to look at than a 13′ ceiling that you cannot see!

What do you mean, you don’t understand???

Have you ever tried to look at something when your eyes are filled with sweat dripping off of your forehead?

I rest my case!

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Let’s just see what will happen!

You just never what might happen if you try…

My wife and I were in Home Depot looking at hardwood floors, carpet and interior paint. No matter what I looked at, I kept remembering the most beautiful cabinets and floors that I have ever seen.

About this time last year, after we had finished our official recruiting visit with the wrestling coach at Baker University, we stopped and peeked inside a beautiful, vacant house that was for sale.

“Do you remember that house out in Baldwin, KS?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to take a drive out there and see if it is still for sale. Maybe we can get another peek!”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. What is the worst that could happen…we spend an hour and a half together driving through beautiful countryside. I can think of worse things…”

She agreed to go for it…

45 minutes later, as we pulled up, we saw a bicycle in the driveway.

“I guess someone lives here now.”

Then a barking dog with its fur up came out and greeted us.

“I think that makes it official.”

My wife started to groan that she had actually gone along with this hair brained idea…

I quickly became convinced that the dog was bluffing so I got out of the car. As soon as I had won him over and had just started to pet him when a car with a woman and two children started driving up the long driveway. I stopped petting the dog and stood near our car. She stopped directly across from us about 15 feet away.

“Can I help you?”

“Hi…we looked at your house before you bought it.”

The slightly insecure, quizzical look that crossed her face told me that I had not really increased her comfort level.

“We just got here right before you did.”

“Ooohh, really? That’s good.”

The confused, plastic smile of concern continued clinging to her face so I proceeded to tell her about our first visit to her house…

She looked a little less uneasy but it was clear that she was still not sure why these two complete strangers were standing in her driveway…

“So, we drove 45 minutes to see if we could get another look at your floors and cabinets.”

Something I said pressed the right button. What it was, I don’t really know. But…she let us in!!! We took pictures and talked. Both the cabinets and the floors are made of walnut and they are gorgeous! The wood looked like flowing liquid!

The woman kept saying, “None of my friends are going to believe that I let perfect strangers into my house…especially with it being such a mess.” (O.K., the floors weren’t polished! Give me a break!)

I wonder what her husband is going to say when he hears about this?

Oh well, just another day at the castle…

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