I am painting my home's exterior myself. First home. First exterior paint job. Eep...

Jun 15, 2009

Today marks the beginning of Operation: Exterior Paint Job. My neighbors are helping me with my house, and I'm helping with theirs. I'm doing this myself, rather than hiring it out, for a few reasons:

1. the "winning bidder" painter who's doing several other cottages in the complex is doing a single-coat paint job with a sprayer (when using a sprayer to apply paint, the paint is thinned with water so that it will go through the nozzle. This means that 1 coat with a brush = 3 coats with a sprayer. More sprayed-on coats, when it's truly a quality paint.)
2. this same winning bidder is doing zero prep work. No scraping, no sanding, just covering the windows with plastic, covering the nearby cars to catch any overspray (though not too well), and hasn't powerwashed all of the units they've done thus far.
3. for this bid, people are paying nearly $1000. I can buy the paint, primer, caulking, brushes, sanding blocks, painter's tape, and dust masks for half that...which just leaves the labor costs.
4. by doing it myself, I get to learn about how to take care of my house (and learn where any potential weak spots are, et cetera et cetera)

The paint I'm using is very thick, has excellent UV-fade protection, is guaranteed against warping/bubbling/cracking/peeling when applied according to the manufacturer's instructions (another reason not to use Winning Bidder), and is in a color I like. My house will no longer be a candy-colored / bright pastel monstrosity.

Prep work will probably take until the end of June. I'm going to have some help from the neighbors; but for the most part I think I'll do as much of the lower-story and porch prep work as possible. (They're also lending me their great big tall ladder to paint the upper story, their homeowner expertise, and their son who has graciously said that he'll help paint the upper story. Which means I get to be a big ol' baby and keep my feet firmly planted on the ground :D ) Today I'm going to countersink some nails, which the builder didn't bother to hammer in completely. Then I'll need to smooth caulking over the nail holes to make the surface even. I should be able to get that done before I fly to my parents' place on Thursday, for a little visit.

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Long trip. Strange trip. Exhausting trip.

Jun 03, 2009

Many changes in the past several months. Many, many, many. I bought a house. I’ve acquired a mortgage. I’ve joined the homeowners’ association. I’ve had two people I know and one I knew of, commit suicide. I’ve had to deal with an increase in costs and a decrease in both “fun money” and a decrease in income. I’ve madly searched for other jobs, but now with summer coming on AND students out of school AND the economy in a general funk, there’s nothing on Craigslist but MLM schemes and “office work / accounting” deals to facilitate money transfers from foreign countries.

The Home Front: I’m on the HOA board, and this year almost every one of the residents has to paint their exterior (detached cottage homes…the owners have to take care of the structures, not the association. On the flip side, if ever I get utterly fed up with these people I can buy a tract of land and just have my cottage moved over there, so taking good care of my home’s structure is not pouring water into the ocean.) I’ve found the paint and the color I want to use, I have a general idea of what I’ll need to do for prepwork (powerwash, light sanding, priming), and I’m signed up to help two of my neighbors paint their lower stories so that I can get their assistance painting my own house…but I don’t have the money to purchase the paint. (Damn!!!)

The Money Front: I still have a job, even though there’s been both a rate cut and an hours reduction since the beginning of the year. That’s making me a wee bit edgy. I’ve looked into mortgage adjustment, I’ve looked into lower-costing healthcare, and I’ve tried to find ways to get rid of cable TV while still keeping my highspeed internet and unlimited long distance phone plan. It doesn’t look doable, sadly (and irritatingly) enough. Though I may just pitch the cable TV entirely, get only internet through my current provider, and go with Vonage for the phone. That will more easily let me have separate-charge records for the high-speed internet, which is a) necessary for work and b) tax-deductable because it’s a work expense.

The Fitness Front: I’ve been walking more, which is good. It doesn’t boost the cardio too much, but it does tone the muscles. I’ve also noticed my knees clicking a bit less since they have a few (yes, only a few) less pounds to carry about. I’m also thinking of starting the Power 90 workout, partially for my own fitness benefit, partially as a way to get ready for the AIDS Lifecycle next year. After supporting two of my friends as riders for the past several years, I’m going to try becoming one myself. (I have no idea if I’ll succeed. Fundraising has always and ever been my weak point; and there’s a floor of $3,000 in pledges for a rider to be allowed to participate. I also have never ridden long distances before, and don’t currently even own a bike. So, yeah, a few obstacles to overcome there…)

The Day-to-Day Front: It’s been very warm the past few days - low 80s - and will be that warm today and tomorrow. Then there will be a local cooling-off period, and temps will drop back down to the high 60s and we’ll have some cloud cover. Still, I don’t have event staffing this weekend, so I’m painting my nails with an utterly outrageous color. I have several bottles of Sally Hansen’s Nail Prisms, and I think it’s time to use them :D

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Even panic needs a vacation

Apr 26, 2009

Today is my last day of furlough before heading back to work.

I should be weeding. The yard needs it. I should be sitting with my little baggies of eyeshadow samples, testing each one and making my list of eventual full-size-purchases. (I know that I won’t want all of the colors in three of the sample collections I’ve got.) I should be going over this paperwork again, making sure I filled out everything correctly and to the best of my ability. I should be cleaning the house - vacuuming and dusting, particularly dusting.

But my head hurts. And I’m tired from working at the soccer game last night. And this past week I did my laundry, did my work for the HOA board, ran the dishwasher twice, applied for a lower-costing health-and-dental insurance, determined that I really don’t need my cable TV for the next four months, and applied for several more part time jobs. I also sorted through one set of MMU samples and figured out that while I did want many of the colors in fullsize, there were just as many that I didn’t want. So yay for that much. And I did get the paperwork filled out “first-draft”. (And one of the jobs that I’d previously interviewed for, gotten on well with the developer, and then was notified that the position was being offered to someone else…called me back and said, “I think we might need another person. Are you still available or interested?”)

So I think that today I will just sit, and relax, and sip tea, and read.

After I take an aspirin. (And post in response to an email that just came in.)

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How...Reseunesque

Apr 25, 2009

US Army trying to keep its soldiers younger and more highly functional for longer periods of time. One of the writeups specifically notes that this mitochondrial serum (which I'm calling rejuv, a term used by C J Cherryh in her Alliance-Union novels) would be sold to "warfighters", and that significant civilian interest in the product is also expected.

Since I'm a big fan of C J Cherryh and Robert J. Sawyer and others who have written stories about societies dealing with artificial life prolongation, I would have a few questions about any such drug:

• Would warfighters (translation: soldiers actively engaged in combat operations) have to pay for rejuv out of their military paychecks, or would this drug be provided to them like their vehicles, their ammunition and weaponry, their uniforms, and to a large extent their food?
• What medical support would be provided to soldiers who suddenly go off of this drug? One assumes that with the sudden cessation of rejuv, the body would essentially "crash". Whether this crash would be a hard crash or a softer crash has to be seen; but the aging process, which had been held off, would suddenly be turned back on. Depending on how long one was on rejuv, the adjustments could be quite severe - especially if one went from the mental and physical acuity of a 30-year-old to that of a 60-year-old with the beginnings of dementia. That's rough on anyone when it happens over a period of decades, let alone if it happens over a period of years.
• Once soldiers began taking rejuv, would they be entitled to purchase the drug at a discount once they left the service (assuming that they were honorably discharged)?
• If the cost of the drug was such that the civilian population was indeed split into the well-off with longer active lifespans - and thus increased attractiveness/productivity in the workforce/earning power - and the less moneyed who only had the typical productive "workforce" lifespan of 50-60 years, would there be an increasing divide of wealth distribution in society in general? Or, flip that, would workers who were on rejuv be paid less since they would effectively be expected to be gainfully employable for longer periods of time?
• I can already see enterprising legal folks drooling over the prospects of all those age- and inheritance-related wrinkles that would crop up.

No conclusions drawn, just questions asked. Hey, the weather's kind of nice, I'm going out and enjoying it while I can.

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