Category Archives: goals

Bathroom Remodels: What We are Working For

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I think these monthly reflections on why we continue to stay in Colorado working are especially helpful this month. Britton’s work load has dramatically increased as his team has decreased from five people to two. At the same time, we have realized that really we have enough resources to move to Puerto Rico now, if we want to.

That’s a great feeling, after all, who can argue with having too many choices?! But sometimes it makes the choices a little harder than when your hand is forced. So, even with the added stress, we continue on day by day, week by week, month by month, and hopefully within about one year, we will be there. But I told Britton that if we need to adjust the time table for any reason, I am completely flexible. After all, it’s just us! We can create our lives however we want! Isn’t that awesome (and a little scary)!?


This isn’t our bathroom, but it’s kind of cool in a strange jungly way

So this month we are focusing on working and saving for the bathroom remodels that desperately need completed in all three of the bathrooms at the property in Puerto Rico.

The first bathroom we will finish up is in the concrete cabana. Really, this bathroom is not too bad. It needs a new toilet because it is cracked and leaks a little water.  I would also like to tile the shower area and add a better hot water solution rather than just the Duromatic electric water heater.  Maybe we could even add shelving or a vanity stand for the sink. I don’t know if I have any pictures of the bathroom the way it is now, but you can see it a little in this video we took of the cabana.


If you’ve already seen this video, you can skip to 2:35 to see the cabana bathroom again

Those changes shouldn’t take too long or be too costly and will be some of the first things we do when we arrive. The bathroom in the upstairs bedroom of the wooden house and the bathroom that is located on the northern deck are much bigger projects. For one thing, the upstairs bathroom will need to be completely remodeled. The toilet is disgusting and the sink is tiny. But the biggest thing about a “master bathroom” that would be nice would be to have a shower of some sort. The bathroom on the deck will either need to also be completely dismantled and/or remodeled.

Here is the video of the wood house and the bathroom on the deck as it is now as well as a video that shows the upstairs bedroom immediately after the bee removal:


Wooden house main level with deck outdoor bathroom @ about 2:00


Upstairs after bee removal including tearing into the bathroom wall -bathroom at about :50

Suffice it to say it is a big mess and a big project. But it is not impossible. Britton and I have done many a bathroom remodel in our rentals. Houses are not magical things. They are just a sum of their parts. It’s just for the purpose of saving up of the sum -of money- that we continue to work in Colorado. But as this weather continues to get chillier and the saving gap closes, we are getting really close to leaving!

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What We’ve Been Up To

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Not a whole lot to talk about right now, but I thought I could at least give a little update. Britton and I continue to work and work, saving up and planning our escape. It’s also fall, so we’ve felt the transition in our bodies. And we wonder if we will get that seasonal mood change in Puerto Rico? Or maybe just ever so slightly? Hmm. Here we definitely have been getting the pull to move less, and eat more which is exactly the opposite of what we love to do in the summer. We did take part in our first 5K that was sponsored by my work. You can read about it here at  The Rad Dish. And speaking of…I continue to write health education tips and recipes for that site which has been a lot of fun.


At the 5K race

Britton has had to work some pretty crazy hours with his on-call schedule and its really burning him out. Some days he’s been putting in 15 hour days and having to wake up at 2am for some upgrade or another. And then Schnoodle wakes him up just as he’s falling asleep at 3am. Brutal schedule. I am enjoying my work and like that I can get out of the office about half the time to do my inspections. My other position coordinating the health disparities grant working with the health promotoras is going well. And we are hiring for our division director and two new health educators as well. So lots of change and movement in my office.


I recently gave a presentation to the Colorado Minority Health Commission

I’m working on another  personal project with a group of women to interview inspiring women. That should be interesting. I’m also hoping to attend a seminar series with Britton that my friend recommended. Britton, Kelly, Todd and I have also signed up for a basic yoga class at the Greeley Fun Plex. It should be worth the laugh if nothing more! 🙂

We are loving our choice to move to a property management company for our rentals. We will still need to move one more as well as our personal house when we move, but so far, it has been great. Worry-free! The first of the month comes around and we don’t fret like we used to.

We are trying to decide if we want to go down to Puerto Rico this November or January. I think Britton at least wants to go down there and fix things up a little. I’m not sure if I want to go or instead save up my energy and anticipation for the big move. The 12 hours worth of red-eye traveling there and 12 hours back just drains me. I’d much rather wait for the one-way ticket. But we’ll see. The sleepless, insomniac traveling doesn’t seem to bother Britton as much as me.

We have a few other things going on with friends and family such as the transformation of the tree stump at my mom’s house that should be pretty cool. Britton and I are also continuing with our weight loss goals through Weigh and Win (check that link to see my then and now -in August- weight loss). We’ve both lost 10 lbs so far and should be receiving our $15 incentive card any day now.

The house is currently empty (besides us) as our last medical student left at the end of August, but we usually get a new student about every other month or so. It’s a nice balance.

All in all everything is still chugging away. Keeping busy, seeing friends and family, starting and finishing new projects at work and home. Now that I’ve written it all down, I guess we have been up to quite a bit! 🙂


And King Kitty and the other animals are doing just fine! 🙂

 

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Senioritis -Our Elective Year

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The beyond

Do you remember your senior year in high school or college? How you were so ready to start your new life? How you felt on top of the world as a senior, but also ready to make the jump into the unknown world beyond? Well, that’s what it’s beginning to feel like this year here in Colorado. We are nearing our one year countdown and the weather today is cold, rainy and cloudy.

While I can get carried away in the feelings of autumn: cooking chili, drinking hot tea (instead of cold tea), changing the sheets to flannel and lighting up the fireplace once more, I am also getting those senioritis pulls of wanting to just GO!

We are pretty much ready to move to Puerto Rico. Like completing most -but not quite all- of your credits in school, we have enough money saved up to move, but we are just saving up a bit more each month to pay for various projects (like our deck) and hopefully get a little more in rental income. All these extra and elective “credits” will better prepare us for the world that’s to come. But it’s still so hard to keep making the trek to “school” every day. What’s the point in getting invested in the outcome of something you won’t be around for in years to come?

In addition to senioritis, this “senior year” also makes for some interesting conversations in our house. For example:

“Should we start thinking about getting a new car? The Honda has almost 300,000 miles…Oh wait, Puerto Rico…On second thought, I think we can make it one more year.”

“What if Schnoodle lives another year? What are we going to do with her when we move?”

“I don’t want to get any socks ( or coats, or sweaters, or blankets) because I won’t need any in the tropics.”

“Should we take SCUBA lessons now so that we are ready when we get there?”

“How much do you know about boats?”

“I wonder if I should get my commercial pilot’s license or just a check-in with a flight instructor…I should talk with them about flying over water!”

“We should probably get together with _____, because we may never see him or her again after we move.”

For every item in the house: “Do you think we should sell our _____, give it away, bring it, or leave it as part of the rental of the house?”

“How much do you think we can rent out our house for?”

“Are we missing anything on our Colorado Bucket list?”

Et cetera, et cetera.

It’s kind of a strange feeling knowing you are going to leave. A little unsettling. A little exciting. A little  “devil-may-care” attitude. In a way it sort of reminds me of talking with my dad when he knew he was going to die. Of course, we don’t know -at all!- what he was going through…but certainly he was preparing to leave the known and that made sweating all the other small stuff seem silly. And that is about as close a comparison as I can come. We are preparing to leave the known, the routine, the comfortable in exchange for an adventure in the beyond!

And like preparing to leave this world, as you can tell by our conversations, we have begun to think of all the other electives we want or need to do here before we leave. To get our affairs in order, so to speak. I remember the seniors when I was just a freshman in high school who had a “will” written up and they bequeathed their witty, ironic knowledge and funny items to the lower classmen. And in a similar way I have been thinking about all that I want to “will” to my friends and family. It’s going to be hard to leave this all, and yet, I am so excited about what’s to come!

This senior year will be fun in its own way as well. For you never really see your world until you are just about to leave it. And you never forget your senior year, senioritis and all.

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New Deck: What We Are Working For

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We have completed another month and as such we are coming up with another goal that we are working for.  In previous months we’ve worked for a new  roof and to pay our taxes.  This month we decided that we would work for the funds to replace the deck on the house in Rincon.  The wood deck is original (built around 1990) and has been exposed to the elements since the place was fresh.  The wood has gotten pretty bad and is rotting out.   It is getting to the point where you really don’t want to even walk on it.


Under Deck


On Deck

You can see the condition of the deck (click to enlarge)


Cassie

The deck will be a fairly major part of living in the house and our day to day activities so it will be important to replace it.  I think I may be able to do a lot of the work myself if I can aquire the right tools (a really tall ladder).  It will be a matter of just cutting boards, and screwing them back into place.  I imagine I would simply replace what is there piece for piece. 

This is what it looked like when it was first built:


Fresh Deck

 It would be good to have a nice deck to cook food, entertain and watch sunsets from.  This is a worthy goal to work towards this month!

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