Seven of Spades week Begins
Monday, January 30th, 2023 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioTim drove Dad's car to a dealership today to sell it. They're gonna give him five grand!
While he was doing that, I was at the mortuary signing Dad's life insurance claim. Four grand from that will pay for the cremation and everything, but I should still get a check for six grand, when it's all over.
I picked Tim up from the dealership and brought him back to the house... which means Dad's car will never be seen again in the driveway next to mine... which makes me sad.
The sun came out, just as I left for work at 2:25PM. So it was nice to see sun coming in through the windows of the school... for a couple hours, at least, before it set.
We've entered another cold snap. It was only about 10F today, and will be 10F tomorrow, with lows below zero. It'll get a bit better after tomorrow... at least during the day.
--<>--
As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's entry, here at months end, a lot of things are piling up to take care of... the utility bills, cancelling Dad's car insurance, switching the Wifi over to me, and cancelling the land line and TV...
Getting a legal death notice to the county, to complete the transition of ownership of the house to me...
Getting Snoop & Prowly fixed!..
I've got car emissions and registration coming up!..
And that kitchen paint job is only half done!
I'm feeling a bit weary, here at the end of January... of this never ending list of things to take care of... in the aftermath of Dad's death.
It feels like there will never be a day to just relax.
--<>--
Yet at the same time, I'm looking ahead, to a future when it's just gonna be me here, with two dogs and a cat... and a 150 year old house that needs so much done!
I did get in touch with an old friend from my old job tonight, about getting a breaker panel installed down in the basement.
After texting him a few photos of the current fuse panels, and schematics inside the doors of the fuse panels, he was able to recommend a 20 breaker panel for me to buy, and said that he and his business associate could install it for me in a day... for $500.00.
We agreed to do it in March or April... when it's warm enough that the house can go without power for most of the day and not get too cold inside.
I worked with this guy for ten years, and trust that he can and will do this right!
--<>--
The house currently has only eight circuits total... all on old fashioned fuses.
Having this new breaker panel installed is the critical first step to doing any kind of renovation, because I'll be needing to run new electric to each room... inside the walls... when they're stripped down to studs!
The downstairs bathroom is first on my list... to be expanded, and completely redone, but it's gonna need an exhaust fan, better lighting, and an actual outlet in there.
Dad's bedroom downstairs is the other room I want to do at the same time, but it too needs it's own dedicated circuits, because right now it's sharing with the kitchen and the living room, and only has two outlets.
At any rate... that's how the 2023 plan is taking shape...
Breaker box first, then downstairs bathroom, and one bedroom... new walls, ceilings, floors, electric, etcetera.
Assuming I can afford the materials, and disposal of the demo waste, the only issue is time. But a lot can get done in a weekend, and I've got eight months until anybody's gonna need to use either of those rooms.
Or so it would seem.
--<>--
There's always the remote possibility that fate could send somebody to occupy the downstairs after Tim goes back to Nevada.
So, I'm already thinking about how to renovate the bathroom... yet keep it borderline useable the whole time.
The bathroom would be a little sketchy through the transition, but... if there was a concrete plan ahead of time, and every stage was timed right... it would be doable.
For now, it's just a thought experiment... but, that's how the other projects around here all began!
------------{=0=}------------
So... my head's kinda all over the place tonight... mourning the days of Dad downstairs, which lasted so long... and ended so recently and so abruptly.
But also grappling with the present, and trying to envision the uncharted future.
This moment echoes others from my past... like when Patti left me with the apartment on the west side to myself, with four cats, and no clue how to hold it all down by myself. But I figured it out.
Also, when Mom was dying and I moved back here... unsure of how things were gonna work, or how long Dad had left. But I figured that out too.
Those big transitions... in 2007, and 2014, have both prepared me to deal with this one, in 2023, so... presumably I'll handle things even more smoothly, this third go around?
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
While he was doing that, I was at the mortuary signing Dad's life insurance claim. Four grand from that will pay for the cremation and everything, but I should still get a check for six grand, when it's all over.
I picked Tim up from the dealership and brought him back to the house... which means Dad's car will never be seen again in the driveway next to mine... which makes me sad.
The sun came out, just as I left for work at 2:25PM. So it was nice to see sun coming in through the windows of the school... for a couple hours, at least, before it set.
We've entered another cold snap. It was only about 10F today, and will be 10F tomorrow, with lows below zero. It'll get a bit better after tomorrow... at least during the day.
As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's entry, here at months end, a lot of things are piling up to take care of... the utility bills, cancelling Dad's car insurance, switching the Wifi over to me, and cancelling the land line and TV...
Getting a legal death notice to the county, to complete the transition of ownership of the house to me...
Getting Snoop & Prowly fixed!..
I've got car emissions and registration coming up!..
And that kitchen paint job is only half done!
I'm feeling a bit weary, here at the end of January... of this never ending list of things to take care of... in the aftermath of Dad's death.
It feels like there will never be a day to just relax.
Yet at the same time, I'm looking ahead, to a future when it's just gonna be me here, with two dogs and a cat... and a 150 year old house that needs so much done!
I did get in touch with an old friend from my old job tonight, about getting a breaker panel installed down in the basement.
After texting him a few photos of the current fuse panels, and schematics inside the doors of the fuse panels, he was able to recommend a 20 breaker panel for me to buy, and said that he and his business associate could install it for me in a day... for $500.00.
We agreed to do it in March or April... when it's warm enough that the house can go without power for most of the day and not get too cold inside.
I worked with this guy for ten years, and trust that he can and will do this right!
The house currently has only eight circuits total... all on old fashioned fuses.
Having this new breaker panel installed is the critical first step to doing any kind of renovation, because I'll be needing to run new electric to each room... inside the walls... when they're stripped down to studs!
The downstairs bathroom is first on my list... to be expanded, and completely redone, but it's gonna need an exhaust fan, better lighting, and an actual outlet in there.
Dad's bedroom downstairs is the other room I want to do at the same time, but it too needs it's own dedicated circuits, because right now it's sharing with the kitchen and the living room, and only has two outlets.
At any rate... that's how the 2023 plan is taking shape...
Breaker box first, then downstairs bathroom, and one bedroom... new walls, ceilings, floors, electric, etcetera.
Assuming I can afford the materials, and disposal of the demo waste, the only issue is time. But a lot can get done in a weekend, and I've got eight months until anybody's gonna need to use either of those rooms.
Or so it would seem.
There's always the remote possibility that fate could send somebody to occupy the downstairs after Tim goes back to Nevada.
So, I'm already thinking about how to renovate the bathroom... yet keep it borderline useable the whole time.
The bathroom would be a little sketchy through the transition, but... if there was a concrete plan ahead of time, and every stage was timed right... it would be doable.
For now, it's just a thought experiment... but, that's how the other projects around here all began!
So... my head's kinda all over the place tonight... mourning the days of Dad downstairs, which lasted so long... and ended so recently and so abruptly.
But also grappling with the present, and trying to envision the uncharted future.
This moment echoes others from my past... like when Patti left me with the apartment on the west side to myself, with four cats, and no clue how to hold it all down by myself. But I figured it out.
Also, when Mom was dying and I moved back here... unsure of how things were gonna work, or how long Dad had left. But I figured that out too.
Those big transitions... in 2007, and 2014, have both prepared me to deal with this one, in 2023, so... presumably I'll handle things even more smoothly, this third go around?
°¦}
