aka Intro to the Patio Punch Out OR Whoa! Hey Fall! Maybe It’s Time for a Check In

(Date Line: September 27, 2014) Memorial Day … Labor Day. And that was my Summer. Ha!

And really, it was exactly Memorial Day weekend when I finally started my patio punch out. The patio itself a project we did last Fall. Practically, pavers, and except, that is, for the periphery.

JB … Please!

This space under converted porch space was exposed underneath.

Ha! Okay, yeah. Was my project done in just that one weekend? Good question, but no. Summer happened, and it (again – the patio punch out) ended up being kinda a complex task. Old house projects usually are and especially if you want to do something a little more custom.

Salvaged cedar fence boards as custom lattice.

The pool, gymnastics, in-house & travel softball and Mrs. Moxie was a coach. By extension this made me, well I guess, a Softball Dad for the Summer. Okay, more like Softball Dad on Steroids *cough* … for the Summer.

But that was all good fun, and then, there was my day job.

Yes, of course, you know I do have a day job. Ha! Yep!

Well …

A Promotion, Really, Can Change Everything

My company got bought by another company, who is merging us with another company, then the original company + the new company, still owned by that third other company, bought yet another company, and, well lots of people got laid off, I landed a new promotion (and maybe, soon, a demotion). I’m making a little more money, doing a lot more work, am even more stressed, and I’m finding a lot less time to work both on my house and on this little (side) thing I call my ‘blog.

The Internet Can Be a Constant Reminder of Your Own Inadequacies

Okay all that is true, but I’ll add just one more thing. I’ll admit it – I have also been becoming growingly disenchanted with the whole house blog thing, and mainly because of the blogs I follow, and a general feeling like I am just not fitting in. More and more, they seem to offer not much else other than (and I do feel guilty saying this) a constant reminder of what I should be doing (but can’t always) … both as a homeowner and as a digital publisher too.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love blogs, they are simply more honest, more true, more authentic, more real than any other type of media. But it seems more and more, most of the content being churned out, by the biggest lot, is, well, over-simplified or over-hyperbolized, over-staged, over-hyped, aka overly awesome, and definitely over-formularized (I think that’s a word) and mainly because of, and for, yes, thank you Google … and you too – Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube – the end result maybe of a sorta catering to an ever more short-attentioned  consumer culture.

But wait! That really wasn’t the point of this post, and honestly, I have been on the fence about whether I wanted to strike through that bit above or not. I mean – you know as sure as hell as I typed that up there Google pushed me further down the ranks of whatever they’ve picked up as the key point of this post. (Ha! as if … it even had a chance.)

Key Point? and yes, I do know you’re waiting … maybe I’m just writing today to say, “I’m sorry I haven’t written.” *sad face*

And I want to say that I really don’t think we’re done here, and I do know that it is still fundamentally about fostering our community, BUT with all my energies channeled elsewhere – I really haven’t had the time, and again – I’m sorry.

It is true, okay, I have been working on a new site – what I am calling an “un-blog site.” For reals, on its current pace, we may (not) have it up until sometime in 2015. Ha! … so look for it. Ha!

Insulating Drain Pipes. I mean – Ha! Who has to do that?

And I know I sorta promised the story of my patio punch out, and maybe still this is the lead in. Trust me, all old house stuff – insulating drain pipes, building skirt walls, flooring and electrical in the “crawl space”, a concrete pond redo, landscape around the hardscape … posts, pics and vids queued (kinda) and maybe I leave myself space next time.

Landscape helper

Be well my friends. Be well. ~jb

*******

Oh and, yeah, my personal laptop crashed this Summer. Don’t worry I had things backed up and I did have to embark on the (relatively painless) process of re-installing Windows 7. What that meant though, I still haven’t fully downloaded all the pics or vids that I shot this Summer (and tease about above) … so I still have to go through them, and as you can see I am doing that, well, right now. Ha!