Tuesday, Coming to a halt, maybe?

    

     We are back from southern Idaho, where we had a lovely time and I am sure the folks, especially mom were thrilled to be able to go somewhere and be entertained.

     The wedding was beautiful, we were able to see many relatives and people we had not seen in a few years.  The drive was very long over 24 hours spent in cars over a 4 day period.  We have another wedding in the same place on June 8th, but I will not go.  Hub's may but I need to be here and concentrate on what I have to do.

     Of course we came in when all the farmers were sorting the seed spuds and picked up 100 lbs of taters, for nothing.  These are too large for the spud machine and boy are they good. You have to scrub them as they come right out of the cellar.  But free spuds, I am all over that.

     It was a profitable trip as I found .50 in my favorite soda machine in Riggens on the way down.  Also found a dime at a convenience store.  On the way back I stopped and looked in the coin return in Riggens and nothing but there were two free bottles of diet pepsi left in the machine. I think that machine is possessed.  Or it knows I am coming and it always has some kind of gift. :)

     Before I left, I had to run to Wal-mart for a few things and I picked up proven tulip bulbs in pots for .44 cents per pot.  I have those to plant sometime today along with other seedlings I did not get planted before we left.  We also picked up a few things at a nursery in Nampa that we could not get here.  After those plants are in the garden I can call it done.  Then I just have to finish up the beds and the pots around the house.

     We have had a major halt here and I am trying not to be too upset about it.  I was done running around the house last Thursday waiting for Hub's to get home from the school.  I had the car packed and the list done and set down to watch a program on TV, something I never do during the day unless there is lots of tedious hand work.  I get a phone call from our Homeowners insurance and they are cancelling our policy June 3rd if we don't remove all the ivy from our house and clean the moss off our roof.

       Now I had planned on getting that roof cleaned off.  It is just a portion of the front that gets a lot of shade.  The rest of the roof is in full sun and has no moss.  Hubs and I can easily crawl up there with a ladder off the deck.  It is not a steep roof and we will sweep and scrape it off and then treat it with Moss out. We will due this once a year and that should take care of it.  But the ivy is a different story.I have spent 20 years growing this wonderful ivy and I love it.  We have to keep it cut back from the windows.  It is beautiful.  But it has to come down.....

     Now my Sissie who runs a roofing company in the DC area has been griping to me about our roof and the ivy for the last year.  I have ignored her and she is right.  Insurance companies are getting much stricter about anything growing on or close to your house.  Even though we don't live in a forest fire area we are in a larger area that gets horrible wild fires so we are affected by the ruling and my ivy must go.

     The problem is that ivy does damage paint. If it is left undisturbed it is fine.  We have a real mess on our hands.  We have started taking the ivy down and will now have to have the house painted.  It looks horrible where the ivy has come off.  Hub's and I will have to be on ladders sanding the little leftovers off the wood.  Hubs does not have good balance any more and I am not sure how all of this is to be done.  The house was painted over 20 years ago and will need to be painted again especially if we sell. We also need to have several windows that have been surrounded by ivy replaced.  We also knew this was an upcoming job.

     We have 30 days to get this done but actually it is about 2 weeks.  Now removing the moss and the ivy can be done by us in the next week or so, but we are left with a terrible looking mess of a house.  All the ivy damage to the paint and all the flower beds ripped up around the foundation. So the work of paint and windows that was to be put off until after the house was paid for will commence now.

     Hubs and I had several discussions while we drove.  How were we going to do this?  Were we going to hire professionals?  Were we going to do this ourselves?  Can we paint the house ourselves?  I don't think so.  Now I can replant the beds no problem and we can do the removal, but I want to rent a scaffolding for the sanding that we will do ourselves before we have the house painted.

     The big questions was how do we finance this?   We could use my inheritance account, but I know it will never get replaced.  We can stop paying extra on the house, but the thought of this really depresses me.  The house payment is large and over 1/2 of Hubs retirement income.  If I am ever to get to slow down this payment must be gotten rid of asap. Both of these options really depress me.  We could also live with the horrible looking house.  That is not really an option with my business.

     We decided to borrow the money from our Credit union to do the improvements and pay the money back.  The payment will be low and the interest at 3.7%.  If I can get the house paid for by Christmas or a little after we can pay this loan off in full within a few months without our huge house payment.  I just can't stand the thought of going backwards on my plans.

     So far we have done nothing but pull ivy and destroy the yard and grumble.  What are your thoughts?

Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.

Kim