I think dh mentioned it, but I remembered my LONG put off optometrist appointment was today. I decided to postpone it, with the pink eye and everything. BM also stayed home from school today - because he looked terrible. LM and I look like we can *fit in* with normal looking eyes. Though we shouldn't be contagious; just kept BM home to be safe. He has been really difficult to give drops too - not sure how much is making it into the eye!

I was relieved that his eyes looked a little less red, at lunch.

I suppose this is another reason I am glad I just went with my HMO for the appointment. It was simple to reschedule, online on a Sunday. I just put off to next week.

----------------------------------------------------

Painting has started on the house. How exciting!

I have heard that the first 8 (or 10?) years is when a new house really settles. There are lots of little cracks to fill in and such - it is more than just about the paint. Though we didn't wait for the paint job to look "horrible," I still look forward to the facelift.

Oh - I believe there will be some "hidden costs" to the paint job. I presume they will use our electricity and water, which we tend to be quite frugal with. So, will expect a big bill, for May!

Also, we have a LOT of natural light in our house - it is so open and has so many windows. Anyway, with the windows all taped up, it was eery how dark the house was. We will be using way more lights than usual, I am sure. They should finish up Wednesday.

---------------------------------------------------

Here's something I had never heard of before. A friend told me that her neighbor paints one side of his house, every year.

May be a little overkill, but it is definitely an interesting approach, to just bite off a little at a time. I suppose the every year thing keeps it looking fresh. One wall every 2-3 years might start to look a little more weird?

Maybe part of me is glad to have a very tall house so I don't have to do the math and feel guilty for not doing it myself. Paying a $1500-ish premium (over cost) to not break my neck, sounds good to me. If I had a single story, I would consider the once a year/frugal strategy.

----------------------------------------------------

Had the funniest exchange with dh over the weekend.

I am probably guilty of not vocalizing all my plans - I keep a lot of things up in my head. IF it's "hell no we can't justify that right now," I just file it away (in my head) for later.

Anyway, I saw some decent patio set on sale, in the paper, for $300, and I just said aloud how maybe we should buy something like that, next year.

My dh flipped out a bit. To which I took great offense. Thing is, he rarely wants to buy anything for less than $1k-$2k. It's always big things, with him. So of course I told him to give me a break - it was flipping $300. Since when do I get to buy anything?

Anyway, we both calmed down, eventually. I told him that we had treated our patio furniture really bad, and I just wanted to start over. To which he replied, we never use it. To which I replied, because it's repulsive.

So anyway, AGES AGO, I bought a cover for the table, and dh hemmed and hawed about how ridiculous it was and how hard it was to remove the umbrella. To which I pointed out that I didn't really have issues with the table, or all of the chairs. Maybe we just needed an easier to remove, umbrella. IT really should be brought in every winter, with the chairs, and the table covered. The cover still sits unopened in the garage. I swear I bought it before we had kids.

NEedless to say, at some point dh went outside, and hosed off the umbrella. He opened it to dry off. IT was a bit windy and I saw it spinning around and suggested he put it down (I just meant close it). I would open it later when it settled down. It gets wasp nests when it is closed, and so then we can never use it!

SO, dh misunderstood and put the thing in the garage!

So I Ask him - if he left some of the pole sticking out or if I could actually put a cover on it. HE said the table was ready for a cover.

Oy vey! All that hemming and hawing, and he was able to remove the entire umbrella twice in one day.

So, all I had to do was threaten to spend $300??? Give me a break.

The whole thing is still not resolved. We have 3 white chairs that have turned a dark rust color. They are disgusting. The other 3 are fine. I will commit to bring them inside during winter. The other three can go in the trash as far as I am concerned. I told dh I may still buy some chairs - they don't have to match 100%. He doesn't agree. Sometimes he drives me nuts. Lord forbid I Want a chair that doesn't look disgusting.

In other home imrovement news, I am so tempted to get a screen door. With the house all spruced up, and a little cash, I think it would be a nice touch. I have wanted one forever - like a storm door so we can open up the front door in the summer and get a cool breeze through the house. Maybe it will save us some electricty (AC) costs in summer.

But, I may put that one off. We need a custom door, is the problem.

Anyway, I can identify with ceejay. Having some money to get some stuff done around the house - and I have some long put-off projects in mind. I'd just like to get it taken care of so we can jump into super savings mode, for next year.

For whatever reason, dh was not opposed to the door. Maybe because I mentioned it multiple times over the years. Seriously, I am sure that's all it is.

Well, glad I mentioned it. I am going to scrub the patio table, and get out the nice chairs, and enjoy the backyard a bit this spring. Hallelujah for shade (from the umbrella).