{ 2010 Retrospective }

Last year at this time MDH and I BOTH lost our jobs. He worked for a solar energy company. He made good money. I was Administrative Assistant to the Academic Director at a private girls school. I made good money. We both went on unemployment to the tune of 1/3 of our former wage. Things didn't look good. We had lived in our house for 13 years. Had great landlords, loved the place, so never got around to buying a home. Just stayed put. The next hammer fell. Just when we were at our lowest in a very long time, our landlords gave us 30 days to move. The economy hit them hard and they needed to dump their home and move into ours. I nearly lost it. But fortune smiled on us and we were able to find a sweet little house that was $200 per month LESS than what we had been paying. No first and last, just a modest cleaning deposit and NO PET DEPOSITS!!! Whew! No way I would give up my babies, but most wanted 200-250 PER PET.

So now MDH delivers newspapers and I work part-time at Rite-Aid. We make it, but it's not easy. There's a lot of month left and the end of the money!!! We have down-sized considerably, and make a little extra on Ebay, but we have realized that we don't need much, so we don't need much money. We buy everything at thrift stores and yard sales.

We are enjoying our little cottage, but there's still so much to do to make it 'ours'!!! I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, but I did make a list of what I need to accomplish this year.

INSIDE

Paint master bedroom white and make new curtains and duvet

Paint guest room pale pink and make new curtains

Paint both bathrooms white

(guest bath is lavender and yellow..ugh, and master is dark, ugly pink..good grief!)

New coat of paint in laundry room

New coat of paint on baseboards of entire house

(yes, it pretty much ALL needs painted)

OUTSIDE

Stain the back deck

Put up lattice privacy wall on the street-facing side of deck

Lay sod in back yard

Build a small potting shed

Re-do planting beds in front yard

Re-seed entire front lawn

I'm sure this list will be added to as time goes on, but right now this is about all I can wrap my head around! LOL!

 

Hope you all are having happy times so far this year. This is my first day off since last Thursday. Worked straight through the holiday...9 hour days. I am beat. Don't go back til Friday afternoon. WOO HOO! Maybe I can, oh, I don't know.. maybe read a book??? I forgot what that's like! LOL!!!

Happy days to all!!!