Home Progress / Goodbye Favorite Shirt

Although it may not really seem like it, as I look around, the project of turning my house into a home that someone would actually purchase is nearing its completion. My bathroom is done. I'm typing this as I take a break from cleaning the master bedroom. Tomorrow evening, I plan to finish the last bit of work on the guest bathroom and then I'll be cleaning it, the guest room filled with tools and the living room. The kitchen will likely get a good scrub down on Wednesday and then I'll be finished.

Some pictures:

I feel a bit weird. Some how I equate this home to my independence, and as I complete each step, I feel as though I add a layer of responsibility and commitment. It's something I'm doing willingly, b/c I know the good things that are ahead of me, but there's a part of me that is holding on. My inner child just wants to be selfish and carefree forever and this home is it's last fortress. I originally bought this house b/c I thought it was a sign of adulthood, but buildings don't make you an adult. They make you broke... at all times. I could say "lesson learned", but I'm sure there will be another house in the not too distant future. Not everything in life is learning from your mistakes.

I decided about an hour ago, after I somehow dipped into a "I'm worthless b/c I haven't accomplished anything today" depression, that I would jump on cleaning my room and doing an additional round of "discard what you don't absolutely need". I guess it is Spring; so Spring Cleaning. I owe my pack rat mentality to my mother and have a difficult time letting go of anything meaningful so I'm going to start posting pictures of the things I discard. Perhaps that way I'll be able to hold onto them forever without having them taking up space in my living quarters.

The following item is my favorite long sleeve shirt. Being 'Roundtree & Yorke', it is of the "highest quality" (of things I owned in college... or maybe before college). By my estimate, I believe it has been washed over 1500 times; which is most likely why you can see through it. I'm not sure why it's my favorite. I can't seem to remember any fond memories of me in it, but I know there are some. There are probably bad ones too. We're like old alcoholic friends. We've been through a lot, we just can't remember what. If anything, It was a great shirt to wear in my old Jeep, top down, on those hot summer days. But, like with this house, it's the end of an era and the shirt needs to be retired. So long buddy... I will likely forget you until I read this again in 6 months.

House Work

As I've probably mentioned, I've been working on the house to sell it. Tonight I spent the majority of my time replacing the faucet in the master bath and prep'ing the guest bath for shower wall re-installation. This was my first faucet installation so there was a bit of a learning curve. It took about 4 hours to figure everything out but I finished it... and it works. Pictures of the adventure below.
I've also decided to post a few pictures of the guest bath remodel and exterior painting. I don' think I had posted anything previously, but if I have, sorry for the duplicates. I happened to find some kind of animal skull behind the shower walls when I ripped them out. 5 points if you can accurately guess what the animal used to be. I wont really be able to say whether you're wrong or right b/c I have no idea.
Enjoy:

Garage Sale

Jillian and I had a garage sale this past weekend to help pay for the honeymoon. Things went pretty well. We ended up selling her old Corolla, a utility trailer, a ton of clothes and kitchen supplies and half the "toys" that were in my house.
We decided that this year we would start Thursday evening and end Saturday afternoon instead of the Friday through Sunday routine. I think it would have worked out really well if there hadn't been a monsoon Thursday evening at the EXACT time we were having our early bird sale hours. Surprisingly we still had about five groups of people show up, and we would open up the garage, let them in and then close the door behind them. It looked like a very shady operation at the time.
Friday was much better. Sunny and dry with a nice cool breeze. I was a bit confused by the number of people we had show up Friday morning. You expect the unemployed and retired to show up, but there seemed to be a large number of young, well dressed individuals show up and buy large quantities of our crap. I think Friday was probably our best day of sales.
Saturday wasn't bad; although it happened to be the same day the Strawberry Festival was going on so that seemed to cut into our business.On top of the things we pulled from our homes, we also managed to sell a number of things we had pulled from the recycling center down the road. Free Money!
We plan on having another garage sale once we get married and I move to Daphne. I think it's very likely that we will continue the Thur-Sat sale dates. It worked out pretty well this last time.

Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar Review Extravaganza

Good Lord. It has been a "hot minute" ,as the kids likely have never said, since I last posted somethin'. So here's what's been a'happenin'

November:
Jillian and I had Thanksgiving in Birmingham. It was nice but always a long drive. We either had a late lunch or early dinner with her aunt and uncle but I'm not entirely sure b/c I started drinking almost immediately. I didn't get to the point where I became an ass... but I was feelin' gooood. The meal was excellent and we were able to pick up some old milk jugs (to use in the wedding reception) that her Aunt had been saving. 

In November Jillian and I also made a trip to Auburn to see them play a team they could actually beat; Alabama A&M. The game was lackluster, but a win and the AL A&M's halftime show could best be described as an embarrassment to African Americans that have any self respect... and also lacking in choreography. After the game we drove over to Opelika to pick out a wedding band that matched her ring. A successful trip all around.

December:
 I think December was part of Redfish season. I hope so b/c I'm about to tell you how I went fishing for redfish in December. Dad and I took out the kayaks a couple times in mobile bay and while he was fishing, I did a little casting... and paddling. The redfish didn't like my lures, attitude or text messaging conversations so they stayed well clear of me. I believe my dad ended up catching two or three before I left him there.

My dad enjoyed fishing alone so much that he ended up buying some used boat with his work friend Charlie. I guess a $500 split isn't too bad for happiness. I, on the other hand, enjoyed fishing in December so much that I bought a power washer.

The power washer was probably the start of the following story for January through March; cleaning my house.

Jan/Feb/Mar:
 Oh the fun you can have when faced with the prospect of selling your house in a buyers market. To make an attempt at getting out of this place with no loss, Jillian and I have made the effort to make this place look immaculate. We've failed for the most part to reach that standard, but the house is looking really good. We started by clearing mountains of brush out of the backyard (which took three weeks for the city to pick up) then cleaned and repaired the back deck. Next we cleaned and painted all the rooms and Jillian scrubbed the hell out of my kitchen floor (like a boss). I might post pictures when it's all said and done. I'm still working on renovating the spare bathroom. Found an animal skull behind the wall so that was an adventure.

Apart from the cleaning and repairing, we've been slowly moving all my belongings over to her pad. It's amazing how much crap accumulates in your house. That can be taken negatively, but it's a good thing in this case b/c we're selling all my trash (and some of my treasures) in a giant yard sale this weekend to pay for some of our honeymoon in South Africa. She's even trying to sell her old car so we're shooting for several grand. Fingers crossed.

In other unrelated news, that I should post to remember in the future:
*Jonathan and Kelly should have their baby pretty soon... and have still not told anyone her name.
*Jillian's younger brother Jarred got engaged not too long ago. They'll be getting married some time soon.
*We plan to hit up the A-Day game next weekend in Auburn and attend the final rolling of Toomer's Corner so that should be interesting. We're hoping, at some point, to get one of the memorabilia items made from the trees. I know the money will go toward the general scholarship fund, I just hope they don't cost an arm and a leg.