My almost birthday

A BIG Birthday present to me is right around the corner. I LOVE MOAB!!!

Changes in the Air

I can feel it. Changes are in the air. 

Every time I go through a major change in my life, I change my hair style. This time I changed my kids hair styles though and they LOVED it!

I'm getting the calling to move on past this relationship with Shanon. Every time I try to stay I get physically sick and I can't. I keep feeling my mission calling my name. People need me to step in to my power, into my role here on Earth. I'm looking at moving on once Bailey starts kindergarten in August. That will allow me to have the funds I am currently paying towards her Montessori education to pay for rent. I don't know how, I don't know when but I am walking through a huge new doorway. Whew!

Musselmans Arch Moab

Moving On ~ Karma complete

Boy-o-boy have things changed...

After a ton of work, Shanon and I did get the house refinanced in the fall.

That winter our whole family, including Colton and his girlfriend Nikki, got to go on our first vacation ever. We went to Mexico. Shanon, Alex and Bailey got to see the ocean for the first time. We went with my best friend Liz and her husband David and their awesome kids.

We Spent Christmas and New Years on the Sea of Cortez in a beach house that I had rented back in May - before the refinance. Christmas presents were left on the deck in a hammock overlooking the ocean. It was amazing. My favorite spot that we stopped was Puertecitos. A little cove of hot pots that are only cool enough to enter when the tide comes in. The black lava rocks against the deep blue ocean were eye candy.

During this trip however, it became painfully apparent that I would not be able to continue in the relationship and be who I knew myself to be at the soul level. There was too much struggle. Not enough laughter. Too much negativity, rudeness. Things simply were not as easy as I knew they could be. Quite frankly, I was tired of clearing blocks just for them to be filled up with clutter and junk within moments of doing the work. This was something I could see not only etherically, emotionally and mentally, this was obvious in the physical plane as well. By the time we returned home I knew, as much as I didn't want to, that I had to start making plans to move on. I had done all that I could to resolve the karma between Shanon and I. Looking back, I can now see this karmic contract he and I had and I am super grateful for the experience. There are so many things that I have learned from that experience that will assist in this lifetime, and future lifetimes should I choose to do this crazy earth experience again

In August 2015 after Bailey had graduated from Montessori and entered kindergarten I moved out of the beautiful house created with Shanon on Westwood Avenue in Moab, Utah.

Here's to the beginning of a new day.

Soffit

Got up Saturday morning and it was dumping rain. I thought for sure that it would delay or stop us from making any progress but it actually really helped that it wasn't 110 degrees out in the afternoon like it was last weekend.

We got finished at 5:30 pm. Here is the finished product.

 Isn't it pretty?

This was probably the first time ever that we got up and moving on a project without too much restriction or arguing. I think that we are both super excited to get that siding on - we cannot wait - our house is going to be The Most BEAUTIFUL house.

See that red metal that wraps around the cedar under the eaves? We had to climb up on the roof at the end of the day and screw that back on. It was lightly raining at that point and the metal was wet, I was scared that I was going to slip right off the roof. I was freaked!

When I looked up, the Moab sky was overcast and dark with a little sun peaking through the storm clouds. All I could think was how Gorgeous our world is, and what a gift!

Sorry, no pictures of Shanon nailing or me cutting but that's okay...I did get these photos!

 Is he even serious right now? I went to the store with him like this. Crazy enough, neither one of us realized he was wearing this shirt until we got home. That's sad, really. I'm just used to it I suppose. 

Here is my reaction to the realization that this is my life. 

Captured so well. 

Wood!!

All week I'd been looking forward to meeting my dad or brother in Price with a load of 1,000 linear feet of cedar tongue and groove. Then at the last minute the guy I was buying the lumber from told me that there was a potential return from a customer of 1,100 linear feet in Grand Junction which would be deeply discounted because they would charge the customer a restocking fee.

It seemed like I waited forever for him to work out the details. Finally, late Thursday night he texted me that the wood was back from the customer and sitting in Grand Junction if I wanted to come pick it up. I borrowed Ted's trailer and drove out first thing Friday morning.

This was the returned cedar. 

I picked up this load for $300 = $0.30 a linear foot!! I was stoked.

Then, I saw this.....

 

Beetle Kill Pine - right out of our very own Colorado Mountain

I scored on the 1500 linear feet (top stack) getting it for $0.50 a linear foot = $700 for the pile

Could not take enough pictures of this beautiful wood.

My entire paycheck + most of Shanon's is now gone for the next two weeks. Woops! But you know what, we know how to be hungry for a minute and we have stocked food. I just need to get really creative.

I did not realize how much wood 1,000 linear feet was and super glad I didn't make my dad or brother meet me in Price only to unload their trailer and reload mine. That would have taken forever. Also, I would not have been able to pick up the future face of our garage, house, and ceilings in the living room and kitchen - YES!! I am almost positive that this blue pine will finish out all of those things.

Needless to say, the trailer was packed and weighed down. Glad I made it the 2 hours from GJ to Moab. I drove 55 miles an hour all the way home and was super nervous about it especially when the wind started blowing with that much weight on the end. I have been buzzing ever since. Telling everyone on my street to come and look at my wood. Probably the only time I will ever be able to say that and not be inappropriate. 

Progress

I SOO appreciate and enjoy my personality (let me be cocky for a minute, okay?). Even though I was devastated about the no go for the refinance, I made sure that this happened this last weekend. We wrapped the new addition. Getting ready for cedar tongue and groove siding!

Front of the house

 Front, with the side of garage

Up top

And.....the backyard + up top.

T & G Cedar for 1,000 linear feet (= to 500 square feet) will cost $400 (which is a steal at .40 a linear foot from the Rustic Lumber Company) + $60 for Brandon to deliver to Price. I am meeting him, or my dad, hopefully on Friday morning. If I wait until Saturday to pick up from Price, we will have to wait until Sunday to install. By 1:30 pm in Moab, Utah its hot as hell and we can't even touch the tools without burning the crap out of our fingers. So I hope and pray someone will either meet me in Price Friday morning, or that the rusticlumbercompany.com will have something in stock in Grand Junction, CO for me to pick up Friday morning before I have to go into work at 3:30 p.m.

No loan :( = Savings of $100,000 over the course of the next 30 years :)

Alright, so the appraiser gave us a value of $218,000 if the house was done, but wouldn't give us an "as-is" appraisal because we need to finish the stucco, base boards, soffit, electrical, drywall, and kitchen cabinet doors....which is why we needed the loan in the first place.

This means, we have to keep doing what we are doing as we can do it.

Here we are painting the east wall.

They were GREAT little helpers....seriously kept me motivated - painting like this is my least favorite thing to do on the planet. I would rather take pictures of them painting than to do the task myself.

And, the current condition of the outside of the house.

Unfinished Garage....

 Front Door...

West wall - started to chip the paint off to repaint.

Looking towards the east to the front door.

Another front door shot.

I did cry for two days straight after I found out we were not getting the house refinanced, but I got over myself and bought tar paper to wrap the house this weekend. These are the next steps that need to happen. One step at a time.

1. Wrap the house in a water vapor barrier (2-ply tar paper)

2. Staple 1" foam onto the tar paper 

(This can apparently stay like this until spring)

3. Wrap the foam with 17 gauge mesh for the cement to stick

4. Brown coat

5. Color coat

6. Drink a dark beer.

Alright so a couple things that came out of this situation that are good were - Shanon completed the following tasks.

1. Finished the garage metal roof.

2. Finished framing out the windows we installed 3 years ago

3. Finished the WINDOW BOX that we started 2 years ago I might be holding the tool here, but he did it.

ALSO~~~ and this is a big one~ we will have an overall savings of approximately $98,000 dollars over the course of the potential, would be, loan that we just asked for. So I might have to buy a yacht with that money and travel around the world instead. BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Like I said before, I might be a bitch but I know how to get some shit done. Plus, I love my husband and he knows it. So glad I found a handy man on this planet. 

Let's get er' done!! (Maybe by the time our kids are grown???MayBE!!)