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My new portable air conditioner

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I’m finally using my portable air conditioner / dehumidifier. I think I mentioned back in May or maybe early June that when I was shopping in Costco I noticed they had them on sale for a fantastic price and I decided to get one.

We don’t have central air conditioning in our house so we use window air conditioners in the summer to cool our home. These are cumbersome to install and remove each year. So naturally when I saw the portable air conditioner on sale I thought it might be easier to use. Of course it’s still pretty heavy, but it’s on wheels and if I keep it on the same floor that I’m using it on I won’t ever have to lift it – at least not in to a window!

Anyway .. we finally managed to get it out the box. It took a while to remove all the strapping tape and then read the directions and put the pieces together. The worse part was cutting the window opening part for the exhaust tubes. It’s working now though.

I can’t say that it’s cooler or better than our window units. In fact I’d say it might be noisier than our window units because of the floor vibrations, but it works and thankfully if one of our window units dies (hopefully not) we have a spare air conditioner now!

New houses going up fast

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There’s a lot of construction going on in my neighborhood. It seems that any house that used to be a bungalow is being purchased and turned into a two or three story home.

The house down the street, one that used to have very undesirable renters in it for several years, has been torn down and in it’s place two three story houses are going up in it’s place. Apparently the man who owned the former home has been trying to get permission from the city to rebuild there for years – and probably trying to get his renters out for that long too.

Anyway once he finally got permission and got his renters out it seemed the houses went up in no time at all. I think they tore down the old house in March or April and the new houses are up and just about finished already. There’s even signs on the property trying to sell the houses – I’m assuming at some future date when they expect them to be finished. Man that was fast.

Of course there’s still lots of work going. From my house I can see everything from Cement trucks going back and forth to back hoes and a used skid steer and several other pieces of heavy machinery.  I’m just glad that it’s way down the street so I don’t have to hear all the noise!

Spring is definitely here

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It looks like the weather is starting to get warm again. I couldn’t believe it in March when for over a week we had almost early summer like weather. It was amazing! Of course, it cooled off again to almost winter like temperatures, doesn’t that figure.

Spring is definitely here and it’s way ahead of itself this year. My garden is weeks ahead of itself. If I didn’t know it was the beginning of April I’d think it was early May when I look at how big the plants are in my backyard and how many leaves are already on the roses and so on.

One of my friends is so ready for summer to get here that he’s already getting his cottage prepared. He’s been up there getting it set up already and he normally doesn’t open up his cottage until the end of April! Oh and he’s already looking for a pwc battery for his Jet Ski. The water in the lake is still too cold to use a Jet Ski but if the weather keeps up the way it has I’m sure people will be in the water by May.

How’s the weather in your area? Has spring sort of jumped into early summer or at least into late spring due to a warmer than normal winter in your area too?

Back to the old grind

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Another weekend, another day cleaning up the basement. Sigh … I guess I can’t complain, I’ve escaped cleaning and sorting out the mess in the basement all week and even last weekend. I know I should be working on it a little bit each day, but my husband made a good portion of the mess down there and he hasn’t been around to help so I don’t feel like I should have to do all the work on my own. However, if it’s ever going to get done I think I’m going to have to do most of it.

We were supposed to work on the basement together today and as I just explained in my last post my husband made a mistake with his work schedule and he ended up getting called in to work since he really was supposed to be working this evening. So … I went downstairs to do a bit of work on my own.

I’m just sorting through small stuff and deciding what to keep or throw out. I’m finding all kinds of things down there – birthday cards that we bought as extras and didn’t use, little collector toys from restaurants like McDonalds, even some testors paint from a model project Chris did with his nephew a few years ago. There’s so much to sort through! I think I’m going to have a headache soon! LOL

Ok back to work.

A womans work is never done – more cleaning in the basement for me!

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It looks like I’m going to be spending yet another weekend cleaning up and organizing the house. Oh and when I say house I mainly mean basement because that is where the MESS is.

Honestly … I don’t know how or why the basement became the mess that it is, but it needs major work. I know when we first moved into the house 10.5 years ago we stored several boxes downstairs – boxes that contained items that we meant to pull out once all of the renovations were finished. Trouble is, those renovations were never completely finished and those boxes are still down there along with multiple other things. It also doesn’t help that this is an old 1927 house with only four small closets – all on the uppermost floor. Storage space is at a premium.

On top of all this … my soon to be ex – oh yes, I said that – ex – is going away this weekend and he won’t be helping me clean up the basement. He hasn’t really done much in the way of cleaning or sorting out stuff down there anyway so far so I guess I didn’t expect much help, but there’s a lot of heavy stuff to lift so I guess if you guys don’t hear from me call for a search party because I might be buried under a mountain of stuff in the basement. Yes it’s that bad down there. Semi hoarders delight.

There’s even a half decent sectional couch with a pull out bed buried under all those boxes, coats, Christmas decorations and renovation supplies. I hope that by the end of the weekend I might be able to see it!

Speaking of sectionals … I might be moving in a few months because of the situation I alluded to above – although I really don’t want to move. This is MY house. If I do have to move that old sectional is staying in the basement and it can be the new owners problem because it’s huge. However, I’ve been looking at this site – sectional sofa los angeles and they have a nice selection. Perhaps if I do end up in an apartment or condo I’ll get a small sectional – with a pull out bed if possible, as those are always handy for guests!

Ok .. I’m going to relax because tomorrow I have a lot of work to do. If anyone wants to come and lend me a hand you are more than welcome. I could use the help and the company.

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