Homeowner: Day 20

With my own house, I can laugh as loud as I want whenever I want. Thanks to Everybody Loves Raymond for helping me realize this fact!

I also want to put in a plug for Lowe's Home Improvement. I'm sure not all stores are the same, but I have received amazing service and advice since buying my house. I simply walk in, start asking questions, and they quickly figure out my deep level of ignorance and talk me through it--including walking all over the store picking up parts and showing me how stuff works.

I don't think there's much to report tonight. So far, I put a 7" section of foam insulation around one very small pipe that froze and re-constructed my "fort" around the water pump to be safe. I also bought some insulating material for the garage door and will install that sometime soon. Tonight's plan is to get non-garage stuff out of the garage, move tools/workbench stuff into one spot, and clear a spot for the washer and dryer (although the washer might stay in the house until spring--undecided). This will also include getting books placed (but not ordered) on the bookshelves.

Burgers are thawing for dinner. Not to crossover blog topics, but I purchased 4.5 lbs of 90% lean ground beef at Sam's last week. I made 8 1/4-lb burgers to freeze, and froze the rest in 1/2-lb blocks. We'll see how it works out--I was very surprised to find myself buying bulk meat at Sam's.

Now that I think about it, today was a busy homeowner day on the phone. I contacted a local trash hauler and setup garbage pickup (yes, I live in a township)--that's about $18/month. I also scheduled the delivery of the guest bed (purchased through Sam's). At some point over the weekend, I cleared out the guest room for the bed, so that is a good thing. The big puzzle piece, however, is that I received quotes from the contractor for both the kitchen floor (to be paid by Lowe's insurance) and to fix the foundation/footer problem. I'm not going to speak of finances on this one right now--suffice it to say that it is an expensive fix, but it is less than I was fearing.

Well, I should get back to work. I logged in thinking I would just post the laughing observation, but here we are. Back to work...