Post by shabbychick on Dec 19, 2015 19:43:20 GMT -8
Hi Everyone!
I thought I'd pop in and see how you all are. I see it continues to be quiet around here. That's such a shame. I miss talking about decorating and life in general with you all.
I'm finally off for two weeks, during which I can catch up on grading papers and finally finishing the installation on that flooring upstairs that I've been trying to get to since I bought the flooring last November! One bedroom and the hallway have been finished, so it's time to finish laying the flooring in my bedroom. Then I'll be done!! I can't wait. I've lived in a construction zone for a year now.
I'm hoping that I can sell this place and move in the spring or summer. Our home values have finally gone up. A unit just like mine just sold for $235K, which is more than I paid for mine 8 years ago. That means I can finally sell for a profit and get a real house somewhere! I might change jobs, too. I'd miss the kids I've grown close to and the programs I've built up for the last 27 years, but the in-fighting and politics are just ridiculous where I am right now, and the district I actually live in pays thousands more dollars a year than the one I work in. It's just so nice, though, to know I can finally sell my place without losing my shirt in the process. There are things I really do like about my condo, and if I could just disconnect it from the units on either side, add some windows, build a porch, and plunk it down on a sunny lot, I'd be happy as a clam.
I've just completed the fourth of 9 required classes for my master's degree. I love the classes, though it's a lot of work and a lot of stress when you're teaching as well. But it's temporary agony and will be worth it in the long run. I turn 60 in about five weeks, but I'm nowhere near ready to retire and leave my career. A Master's will make the next 10 or 15 years easier for me because it'll open more doors if I choose to change districts and will at the very least give me a great enough income that I can actually do something like buy a new couch. I've never had a new couch. I found one I really liked at Pier One today. I can see it in the living room of a little bungalow somewhere!
Are you all done with your holiday shopping yet? Do you do the usual Christmas baking? My sister is the baker in our family; I don't really enjoy it. I'm better with things like hors d'oeuvres. It's hard to ruin an olive.
I've done a lot of my holiday shopping online, though I did go out with my sister today and will venture out again tomorrow to the local mall. I've been in physical therapy for the last three or four months trying, after six years, to solve the problem with my debilitating foot pain. The physical therapist decided the origin of the pain was in my neck, and he's been working on that. I feel so much better. I have whole days and sometimes whole weeks without pain, and I feel like a new person. I hadn't realized how much I had avoided doing and how much energy the constant pain was sucking out of me. I'm not entirely pain free, but it's a heck of an improvement.
I didn't put up a tree this year because my 1 year old cats still destroy pretty much everything. I bought one of those lighted spiral trees for outdoors and put it up right outside my living room window. I have my desk in front of that window, and I sit there pretty much all the time, so I see it every time I look up. I don't feel deprived. I've done a simplified mantel this year which just added a few holiday elements to my usual display. It'll be so much easier to undecorate in January when I go back to school and my new class starts. The house is festive enough for now.
I've actually gotten pretty good at troubleshooting the flooring installation process even though numbers and angles still stump me. I have virtually no visual-spatial skills, and if there is a way to do a cut wrong on a floor board, I'll find it, but I persevere as time permits, and it doesn't look too bad. Part of me wishes I had just hired someone to do it for me so it would have been done in a weekend instead of in a year, but there is some satisfaction in looking at a floor and knowing you installed it yourself. I probably won't do it again in my next place, though.
Has anyone got snow? We've got warmish temperatures (in the 40s) with rain and some wind. I don't know that we'll get any snow this year. Certainly not for Christmas. But I like rain, so I don't mind. And it makes getting out to Starbuck's so much easier!
I'd love to hear from some of you. I hope you're well and that the holidays bring you good times with family and friends! Merry Christmas!
ShabbyChick
I thought I'd pop in and see how you all are. I see it continues to be quiet around here. That's such a shame. I miss talking about decorating and life in general with you all.
I'm finally off for two weeks, during which I can catch up on grading papers and finally finishing the installation on that flooring upstairs that I've been trying to get to since I bought the flooring last November! One bedroom and the hallway have been finished, so it's time to finish laying the flooring in my bedroom. Then I'll be done!! I can't wait. I've lived in a construction zone for a year now.
I'm hoping that I can sell this place and move in the spring or summer. Our home values have finally gone up. A unit just like mine just sold for $235K, which is more than I paid for mine 8 years ago. That means I can finally sell for a profit and get a real house somewhere! I might change jobs, too. I'd miss the kids I've grown close to and the programs I've built up for the last 27 years, but the in-fighting and politics are just ridiculous where I am right now, and the district I actually live in pays thousands more dollars a year than the one I work in. It's just so nice, though, to know I can finally sell my place without losing my shirt in the process. There are things I really do like about my condo, and if I could just disconnect it from the units on either side, add some windows, build a porch, and plunk it down on a sunny lot, I'd be happy as a clam.
I've just completed the fourth of 9 required classes for my master's degree. I love the classes, though it's a lot of work and a lot of stress when you're teaching as well. But it's temporary agony and will be worth it in the long run. I turn 60 in about five weeks, but I'm nowhere near ready to retire and leave my career. A Master's will make the next 10 or 15 years easier for me because it'll open more doors if I choose to change districts and will at the very least give me a great enough income that I can actually do something like buy a new couch. I've never had a new couch. I found one I really liked at Pier One today. I can see it in the living room of a little bungalow somewhere!
Are you all done with your holiday shopping yet? Do you do the usual Christmas baking? My sister is the baker in our family; I don't really enjoy it. I'm better with things like hors d'oeuvres. It's hard to ruin an olive.
I've done a lot of my holiday shopping online, though I did go out with my sister today and will venture out again tomorrow to the local mall. I've been in physical therapy for the last three or four months trying, after six years, to solve the problem with my debilitating foot pain. The physical therapist decided the origin of the pain was in my neck, and he's been working on that. I feel so much better. I have whole days and sometimes whole weeks without pain, and I feel like a new person. I hadn't realized how much I had avoided doing and how much energy the constant pain was sucking out of me. I'm not entirely pain free, but it's a heck of an improvement.
I didn't put up a tree this year because my 1 year old cats still destroy pretty much everything. I bought one of those lighted spiral trees for outdoors and put it up right outside my living room window. I have my desk in front of that window, and I sit there pretty much all the time, so I see it every time I look up. I don't feel deprived. I've done a simplified mantel this year which just added a few holiday elements to my usual display. It'll be so much easier to undecorate in January when I go back to school and my new class starts. The house is festive enough for now.
I've actually gotten pretty good at troubleshooting the flooring installation process even though numbers and angles still stump me. I have virtually no visual-spatial skills, and if there is a way to do a cut wrong on a floor board, I'll find it, but I persevere as time permits, and it doesn't look too bad. Part of me wishes I had just hired someone to do it for me so it would have been done in a weekend instead of in a year, but there is some satisfaction in looking at a floor and knowing you installed it yourself. I probably won't do it again in my next place, though.
Has anyone got snow? We've got warmish temperatures (in the 40s) with rain and some wind. I don't know that we'll get any snow this year. Certainly not for Christmas. But I like rain, so I don't mind. And it makes getting out to Starbuck's so much easier!
I'd love to hear from some of you. I hope you're well and that the holidays bring you good times with family and friends! Merry Christmas!
ShabbyChick