Coasting with Hope / Fireplace Siding Replacement / The Mall
May was a good month. The weather is beginning to really transition into summer-like weather and all the trees have their leaves. The sun stays up past 9 PM now and the sunny days are that much more comforting. It's really lifted my mood concerning my job.
Shortly after I wrote my last journal entry for April, I reached out to a manager elsewhere in the company to say I was interested in joining his team. I was surprised to get a nearly-immediate response. He told me that he indeed was preparing to hire and he'd keep me posted. Even though that was four weeks ago (I know these things take time) it's been such an amazing thing to look forward to that I coasted through the whole month in higher spirits. The job I'm currently doing has gotten easier, too. Maybe I'm finally getting good at it; who knows. There's still some folks that I don't think respect me all that much but maybe that's just my perception. Perhaps I won't be their problem much longer? I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high but it's possible I'll have great news in my next entry. We'll see.
For the first time since early March, I took a day off. I tacked it onto the Memorial Day holiday to make it a four-day weekend. For weeks leading up to it, Nicole and I discussed what we should be accomplishing with four whole free days. This was our opportunity to try to get a big home improvement project done. One year ago at the tail-end of my first chunk of paternity leave, I spent two weeks completely renovating one of the side-yards by taking out dirt and filling it all in with rock and paver stones. I included a 8-foot-by-4-foot collection of stones with the intention of eventually putting a simple storage shed there. It's taken a whole year to finally find the time to do it and that was the plan for the weekend but the closer it got, the more Nicole and I realized that we should instead do something more vitally important. We decided that the shed project can continue to wait.
On the other side of the house, there's a fireplace where the siding on the outside of the house is totally rotted away from the previous owners having an RV shed up against it. Decades of rainwater rolling directly against the siding has ruined it and it's been something we've been meaning to replace ever since we removed the RV shelter soon after we bought the place. We've had contractors out and everyone quoted tens of thousands of dollars to do it but I knew it was far simpler a project than they made it out to be. I've never replaced siding before but it seemed easy enough. So starting on the Friday before the holiday, I was at the local Lowes home improvement warehouse buying everything I'd need. Somehow, I stuffed it all into our Toyota Highlander.
As is typically the deal, home improvement falls to me to perform while Nicole watches Scarlett. So this project was mine alone to fail at. Taking off the old siding was easy but the frame below was also rotted so it took me a while to replace the wood there and get it all back together. After that, throwing up the new siding itself was slick and the trim around the corners really completed the look. Overall, it took three of the four days of the weekend which was a bummer but it's done and it turned out better than I expected. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to paint it but that can wait for another weekend. I did use special caulking to seal a bunch of it so it looks kind of messy right now but the paint will cover it all. Overall, it cost only $600 in materials. No injuries, either! I'm rather proud of the whole project and it really does add to the stability and value of the house. It really did need to happen more than the construction of a storage shed. Here's a before and after photo:
In Scarlett news, we got her out to a major Portland-area shopping mall, Washington Square, on the forth day of the long holiday weekend. We haven't been to this mall since before Scarlett was born, so this was a treat. We only really go there to window shop and people-watch so we managed to get through the place without spending much money. It's just a different scene these days; I think we feel we're too old to enjoy the mall. Everyone who shops there is so young and the stores are all different. It's just not the hangout I remember from my teenage years. Which is fine, really, but it's just kind of sad. Scarlett seemed to enjoy most of it and the kid's play area was nice. We met one woman who was the nanny for two little toddlers and they spent hours in that little play area. What an interesting life that must be: To be paid to watch other people's kids at the mall for hours on end. Wild. But yea, the mall was somewhat quiet especially the larger department stores. Endlessly circling the many aisles of Macy's put Scarlett to sleep. One day, that mall might be her jam (even though it's a whole hour's drive away) but for now, she must think it's a weird place.
Shortly after I wrote my last journal entry for April, I reached out to a manager elsewhere in the company to say I was interested in joining his team. I was surprised to get a nearly-immediate response. He told me that he indeed was preparing to hire and he'd keep me posted. Even though that was four weeks ago (I know these things take time) it's been such an amazing thing to look forward to that I coasted through the whole month in higher spirits. The job I'm currently doing has gotten easier, too. Maybe I'm finally getting good at it; who knows. There's still some folks that I don't think respect me all that much but maybe that's just my perception. Perhaps I won't be their problem much longer? I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high but it's possible I'll have great news in my next entry. We'll see.
For the first time since early March, I took a day off. I tacked it onto the Memorial Day holiday to make it a four-day weekend. For weeks leading up to it, Nicole and I discussed what we should be accomplishing with four whole free days. This was our opportunity to try to get a big home improvement project done. One year ago at the tail-end of my first chunk of paternity leave, I spent two weeks completely renovating one of the side-yards by taking out dirt and filling it all in with rock and paver stones. I included a 8-foot-by-4-foot collection of stones with the intention of eventually putting a simple storage shed there. It's taken a whole year to finally find the time to do it and that was the plan for the weekend but the closer it got, the more Nicole and I realized that we should instead do something more vitally important. We decided that the shed project can continue to wait.
On the other side of the house, there's a fireplace where the siding on the outside of the house is totally rotted away from the previous owners having an RV shed up against it. Decades of rainwater rolling directly against the siding has ruined it and it's been something we've been meaning to replace ever since we removed the RV shelter soon after we bought the place. We've had contractors out and everyone quoted tens of thousands of dollars to do it but I knew it was far simpler a project than they made it out to be. I've never replaced siding before but it seemed easy enough. So starting on the Friday before the holiday, I was at the local Lowes home improvement warehouse buying everything I'd need. Somehow, I stuffed it all into our Toyota Highlander.
As is typically the deal, home improvement falls to me to perform while Nicole watches Scarlett. So this project was mine alone to fail at. Taking off the old siding was easy but the frame below was also rotted so it took me a while to replace the wood there and get it all back together. After that, throwing up the new siding itself was slick and the trim around the corners really completed the look. Overall, it took three of the four days of the weekend which was a bummer but it's done and it turned out better than I expected. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to paint it but that can wait for another weekend. I did use special caulking to seal a bunch of it so it looks kind of messy right now but the paint will cover it all. Overall, it cost only $600 in materials. No injuries, either! I'm rather proud of the whole project and it really does add to the stability and value of the house. It really did need to happen more than the construction of a storage shed. Here's a before and after photo:
In Scarlett news, we got her out to a major Portland-area shopping mall, Washington Square, on the forth day of the long holiday weekend. We haven't been to this mall since before Scarlett was born, so this was a treat. We only really go there to window shop and people-watch so we managed to get through the place without spending much money. It's just a different scene these days; I think we feel we're too old to enjoy the mall. Everyone who shops there is so young and the stores are all different. It's just not the hangout I remember from my teenage years. Which is fine, really, but it's just kind of sad. Scarlett seemed to enjoy most of it and the kid's play area was nice. We met one woman who was the nanny for two little toddlers and they spent hours in that little play area. What an interesting life that must be: To be paid to watch other people's kids at the mall for hours on end. Wild. But yea, the mall was somewhat quiet especially the larger department stores. Endlessly circling the many aisles of Macy's put Scarlett to sleep. One day, that mall might be her jam (even though it's a whole hour's drive away) but for now, she must think it's a weird place.