• goodbadi

    The Power of Priorities

    November 20, 2009

    I’m a big fan of Lynn Miller’s Power of Enough book and thoughts. They’re relevant.

    Just the other week I walked a friend through our house, describing the many grandiose dreams I have for the place: a balcony in front that wraps around to patio doors on the east side of our second-story guest room, a second-story hallway spanning a breezeway between the house and a two-car garage with a bedroom or studio above, a relocated kitchen, a compacted downstairs bathroom to make way for a coat closet…and I suppose there was more, too, like painted walls and nice floors.

    But I’m not so sure those things will be done in the near-sighted future. See, while the depressed housing market made it possible for us to purchase this house, it also very unfortunately caused our previous townhouse investment to turn into spongy, cash-absorbing nothingness that is now–thanks to the goodness of note holders willing to take it all back–not ours to worry about anymore. We may be cashlessened, but at least we’re not stressed.

    So I’ve realized something over the past months of projects dreaming: maybe not having cash to make home improvements can be more freeing than frustrating. Many times this summer I relaxed and enjoyed the free projects I could scrounge up–there was no need for my panties getting all in a ball over too little time and too much to do, since I couldn’t do more than freebies.

    And besides, isn’t a small house and simple lifestyle my ideal? Do I really want a huge garage? (Well, okay, yes, I do.) But a garage with an additional bedroom above it? (It would be nice…maybe I should rethink this post.)

    What I’ll do for now is bump the garage and balcony ideas a few more notches down the priorities list, and focus on making more necessary improvements (that’s where the moved kitchen will come into play, eventually).

    After all, tweaking lists doesn’t cost a dime.

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  • goodbadi

    As God Intended

    November 14, 2009

    Back in December, in a meeting with the previous owners to discuss buying our new house, one of them made an approving comment about our goal of one-income living so that M could stay home with N: “That’s the way God intended it to be.”

    I’ve added two other intentions to God’s list: owning just one car (with a hitch and access to a trailer, in lieu of a having a truck, too), and now owning just one home.

    Indeed, I am relishing our new-found freedom from owning our old townhouse. Our owner-financing lenders did agree to take it back and call it even, in spite of our being under water in what was essentially an act of debt forgiveness, and yesterday was the official day when we could cancel the property insurance and would have thrown away the keys if we hadn’t already mailed them off.

    Now we hope to start saving for remodeling projects around our One and Only Home Sweet Home–a hope not too dampened by a friend’s remark last evening: “We’ve started saving lots of times, but something always comes up!”

    Like a much-needed celebratory trip to my favorite restaurant, where the burgers and fries are as God intended.

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  • goodbadi

    Bumper Stickers

    October 24, 2009

    This morning I realized why I was surprised when yesterday a friend associated our bumper sticker (“War is terrorism on a bigger budget”) with me–I’d forgotten that M and I had used that sticker to cover up what was there previously: “Sassy Girl.”

    Another piece of bumper sticker news: I’ve often thought it’d be great to have a bumper sticker on my bike that says “My other car is a car.” I just googled the phrase and found that such stickers exist–but my bike fender’s not wide enough. Oh shucks, guess I’ll have to save a couple dollars.

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  • goodbadi

    Environmental Philosophy Major

    October 21, 2009

    After making my legs burn on my second bike ride home this week (I completed my 483rd 2009-2010 commuting mile this evening), I decided for the second day in a row to heap physical insult on injury by splitting firewood.

    I nearly finished up the pile of easy-to-split pieces–I won’t think about that other pile right now; even though it’s not terribly big, it’ll be more work than all the rest busted apart, probably–and had but one large piece to finish up in order to feel accomplished, when I realized I had a problem on my hands: I know it won’t be the end of the world (for crying out loud, she could want to study art or English), but apparently N is planning to be an environmental philosophy major when she grows up and flits the coop.

    You simply can’t argue with a convinced tree hugger.

    I was tired and couldn’t think right off the top of my head how to creatively get her agreeably out of the way, so we went inside for her bath and then her snack, during which I helped with some of the yolks but none of the rest of the five (or was it six?) whole hard boiled eggs she put away.

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  • goodbadi

    “Nicest Birthday Movie Ever”

    October 16, 2009

    We took this video to send to a colleague of mine who is out of school for some twelve weeks after the branch her swing was attached to broke and she majorly fractured her ankle. She wrote back that it “was absolutely the cutest and NICEST birthday movie ever!”

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  • goodbadi

    Useful Shameless Commerce

    October 16, 2009

    Nobody really wanted the monkey costume, apparently, so now I’m going to practice advertising for that online store that sells wine racks, but this time in a very practical and unburdensome-to-my-readers way: I’m going to review a product that we quite frankly want as we anticipate heating our home with firewood.

    (We’ve had a fire once so far, and it was great. We’re using the oil furnace some, too, just to try it out.)

    This is what I will review, in just a few weeks, after it arrives:

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  • goodbadi

    Firewood: Satisfaction

    October 12, 2009

    Not only did my dad come as planned yesterday with his two chainsaws (and my mom), but not long after we’d buckled down to cutting up the pile of logs M and I had ordered for our winter heat, my brother-in-law and his son showed up to help out.

    Several hours later, it was all sawed and only a couple logs’ worth of the rest remained to be split and stacked.

    Doing this kind of work on our own place and for our own heat has been a long-time goal of mine–and having such dedicated and skilled help made it even more satisfying.

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