Week in Review: Labor Day

Good grief!  I haven't blogged in a whole week!!  Well, it has been a very busy week!  Rather than try to break it down by day, I'll just say what we have been up to.

In the studio:

• Covered the last address book I had in my stash
• Covered the last four journals from my stash
• Used all the scraps from those projects and made 16 note cards
• Ordered and assimilated into the stash several new colors of Twinkling H2O's, Silks and some Primary Elements mineral powders. 
• Updated my color chart for Twinks, made color charts for Silks and Glimmer/Pearl mists.
• Pinned LOTS of cool ideas on my Pinterest art inspiration board for next week!

For the investment project:

• looked at about six more houses
• made and offer on  one then withdrew once Ornery figured out it would not make any money for us.
• Contacted three potential property managers
• made arrangements to switch agents for house hunting to one who is more in line with what we are wanting to do -- namely make money in real estate not lose it!
• Ornery read a bit more in some of the books he has been collecting on the subject.

For Michael's house:  (As of Monday morning)

• The bookcases in the living room are painted
• The mirror above the fireplace has a new frame on it
• There is white chair-rail around the dining room and paint for both colors on either side of it, but the walls are not fully painted yet
• The closet bars have been relocated making two heights in both Master bedroom closets
• The master bedroom has some paint on the walls
• The "patches" previous owner made have been made less obvious (we hope)
• The kitchen has been set up
• Pot/pan rack installed under oven
• Tiles around fireplace are about 60% painted
• Ornery started on the bench that will go between the two closets in the master bedroom

Today we plan to go back and finish painting in the master bedroom and the dining room, as well as paint over all the patches in the living room.  Ornery will also work on a couple of doors that are not fitting correctly, and possibly make some covers for a few places that need them.  I imagine there will also be some touch up around the trim, and maybe paint in the closets, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not.  The goal is to be done there before it gets too hot--which has been happening around noon or 1:00.  It has really heated back up again this weekend, and the house isn't really well insulated.  Plus, with four bodies in the smallish space heated up from working, it is hard for the air conditioner to keep up.

Elizabeth has started back to school and has been working feverishly to keep up with all the assignments.  She has already had to write three programs, read four chapters and do four quizzes--and school just started a week ago!  Ornery has been almost as busy with it, since she has been asking a lot of questions and having him go over her programs before she turns them in.  She has also been adjusting to her new job which she likes, but is keeping her very busy.  The combination of all the things she has going on have kept her very busy and tired for the last two weeks.  Hopefully things will slow down a bit once the house is finished and Michael gets moved in.  That should at least take some of the work burden off...

We were glad to know our son made it home from Afghanistan last week and have enjoyed seeing pictures of his family all together again.  We even had a short visit on the phone with him one day.

This week I hope to get back in the studio and work on some art. I am pretty sure we will be out house hunting again this week.  There are a few "trouble spots" around the house that need my attention, but I have to be honest, housework has not been high on my priority list lately!  Maybe I'll even get a blog post or two posted this week!