Date Day

 We used to go on day dates almost weekly. There is so much that we used to do. I thought that once the kids were grown and on their own, it would be about us again. But I take what I can get. I had brought up recently about a comedian who was going to be in Fort Wayne in November that I might like to see. When Woodchuck looked at the site, he saw a comedian that he likes was going to be there in October. I knew we weren't going to be able to do both, so I opted for us to see his. Tickets were purchased, plans were made, we considered this an early retirement hurrah and waited for the day to come.

Of course something always get tweaked, some little jab along the way of nearly each day, but especially when we plan something special. If you are one those people, as many of my friends are, who gets to travel consistently or do fun things.....don't take that for granted! Most of my relationship with Woodchuck has been about letting all of the adult niceties go, the traveling, the fun. It always happened for the kids when we made plans, but as a couple it hasn't worked out as well. A movie, a dinner, a trip to Bailey's, that's about all that we can make happen anymore, and even that last trip to Bailey's ended up costing us several hundreds of dollars and lots of stress because my car broke down and had to be towed. You get to the point where disappointment is all you expect anymore and there's nothing left in you to keep exposing yourself to that.

But we tried again. The snafu this time was having to drive to the land first thing in the morning to meet with the NIPSCO guy, and he wasn't as personable this time as he was the first time. I hate not knowing what to expect from people. We got through the meeting though, and I back tracked home so we could get ready, only to backtrack again out the way we just came. Fort Wayne is roughly two hours from us, and an hour ahead. I had planned to do all of the driving since between the daylight and Google Maps and having Woodchuck as my co-navigator (that didn't happen), I felt confident about the drive in. I had a panic attack and started second-guessing myself right as I was coming up to the parking garage because it didn't have a name on the sign that I could see, and even though I put in the address and was taken to that address, I still doubted myself. It worked out though and we were in the right spot. Long story short, we made our way over to the Botanical Conservatory.

I had never been to a botanical conservatory before and was really looking forward to this one! It cost $7 per adult to get in, and it was SO worth it! I think that closer to where I live, it probably would have cost $10-$15 per person to get in, so I felt like the cost was super reasonable for the size of the place. For those who live closer and want to go more often, they do offer memberships options as well. 

When I get nervous, I have to go to the bathroom a lot, so Woodchuck paid for our entry while I hit the restroom and then in we went! It looks pretty non-descript at the beginning. There's a hallway with bathrooms and offices and meetings rooms, walls lined with local artwork. Off to the side of the hallway is a kids area, with a talking tree, benches along the wall and a screen to show about plants, etc.

Then, as you keep walking down the hallway, you come to double doors like what we have in schools.....you know, those push bars!!! And then you literally walk into another place in the world. This first one was the Pueblo Garden and was so cool! The only thing that wasn't cool was a couple of different parents just letting their kids run wild in here. This is not a park, and there were a lot of plants, and rocks and display items, as well as different tiers and elevations. Not only could the plants be damaged but the kids could be hurt. One mother was letting her son climb up into the displays and then jump down like it was playground equipment. Other mothers were so busy drinking their cafe' to-go coffees and talking that they just let their young children also run free. Way too little to let your eyes off of them, but I grew up in a completely different era of parenting and am referred to as a "helicopter parent" because I wanted to know where my kids were and that they weren't wrecking a place like this (I didn't have to worry about that actually, they weren't kids who touched what wasn't theirs).

 

These chairs were fantastic!!! It would be fun to try and make them from trees on the land, but we don't have anything thick enough. There was also a little water fountain set up in front of the chairs and one of the little boys that was being allowed to run without any eyes on him, stuck his finger down in the tube that the water was coming out of. I was just waiting to hear him scream that he couldn't get his finger out! But he didn't get it stuck.

Then once you have walked through this whole garden, you come to set of the same kinds of doors and a little hallway that put you into the Tropical Garden. It smelled so good in these first two gardens!!!! I even caught smells in this one that reminded me of Louisiana.

You know those vegetable chips? Yeah, don't eat this by accident!

This one reminds me of the Cosmos!

Yummy! Do you know what these are?

Then it was time for another set of doors and little hallway and then we were in the Desert Garden!

Then there was a side door to go outside and see the pumpkins and fall decor!

I absolutely LOVE pumpkins and squash of any kind! The feel, the look, the smell.....I was in heaven!

I just can't believe how much they have managed to fit, both inside and out, into what I think equates to half a city block! 

That tree was made up of dozens of mums in their containers

And I LOVE this idea for the land! I can totally see squirrels, raccoons, etc. coming up to something like this for a treat. My luck though is it would barely last a day, lol.

What a cute idea! A little girl walked right up to it and picked a pumpkin right off while her parents backs were turned for a moment, lol.

I really enjoyed that place!!! But now it's time to get some dinner and head across the street for the comedy show.

We ate at Conners, which was off of the lobby of the hotel who's parking garage we parked in. It was a more high-end place, nice and clean. The hostess left a lot to be desired in personality, but the waitress was great! The menu was small, and unfortunately, I had to pick something that I knew had ingredients in it that I shouldn't eat, but was likely less of those than some of their other dishes. Once we ate, we went across the street and stood in line outside, waiting for the theatre to open. It was a comfortable day as far as the temps, and the rain held off other than just a few drops when we were walking around the pumpkin area at the conservatory. We have really been so lucky in so many ways concerning the weather! The outside of the theater was gorgeous!

And then when we got inside? WOAH.

I made a bee-line for the bathroom, which you had to go to the end of the main hall, take a left and go down the stairs. I think my jaw hit the floor when I got down there! To the left is the women's, straight ahead is the men's. There are chairs and lighted "windows" down the length of the hallway.

The lighting inside of the performance/seating area was just awe-inspiring!

The ends of each row of the seats

Would I got back for another show? Most likely not. I don't do well with driving at night, and most shows start at 7:00 p.m. I had a HECK of a time getting us out of Fort Wayne. Dark, wet roads, people riding my ass so close that I didn't even know there was a car behind me unless the overhead lights reflected off of their windshield (I was doing the speed limit). But I did it, and we got home around 11:00 p.m. It was time right away to hit the hey because we had an early morning meeting at the land. Though there were some rough patches along the way, it sure was nice going out on a date. I do miss some times though being able to relax, being driven around, and not having to plan everything, think of everything, do everything. Girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! I will say though that it made me feel better to know that my sister had romped in all of those places when she lived in FW, and it helped me feel closer to her and a bit less alone.

Not playing the game right

 Man, this weather is fantastic! It is great for land work and for building and for the soul. Note to self though, I need to water the flowers, and fill the water dish for the birds and squirrel. The skies have been clear, though the air has not since the dry fields are being taken down right now.

And each trip out there brings new frustrations and is keeping me on my toes. We haven't gotten past the foundation part yet. Problems were found once, and fixed, and then new problems were found. We now have the walls! But this where I started to question things. Look, I am not saying that I know squat about this kind of stuff, but I can look at something, think that it doesn't look right, and question it. If it turns out it was correct, no harm done! If it turns out that I was correct, the issues gets corrected and a bigger issue down the line is averted. At least that's how it should be. Looks great from a distance, but let's get closer.

I know these aren't finished yet because the wood forms are still on, but man, I hope they clean up those edges. I know, I know, I made the mistake of thinking new construction was going to be clean.

Looking good, right? 👇

Even got the opening to get down in the crawl space done. But let's not get excited. 👇

As I was walking around, I questioned the gaps in the wood (it was only myself and Woodchuck there at that time). That didn't seem right. Some of the gaps were small, some were big, but I didn't think that there should be any gaps at all? Woodchuck told me that it was fine, that it passed inspection and he would just fill them with expanding foam. Let me tell you about expending foam and Woodchuck. No. He is not allowed to use it anymore. That is just another form of duct tape to him and my current home is full of expanding foam. More evidence as to why he is not allowed to touch the next place.

This is the largest of all the gaps, and in the stairway to the crawl space. 👇Again, he said he would just use expanding foam. No, you will not.

Then I found that one of the vinyl frames on a vent was cracked. 👇

Hmmmm, this doesn't seem right...or stable....or professional. 🤔 👇

Looking at it from farther away.

So as you can see, there are several gaps, and what I didn't know at this point was there was supposed to be a thin foam layer placed between the concrete and wood.....and that is missing. Makes sense to help keep moisture away from the wood that would cause rot, but I don't know about this stuff and didn't recognize that that was supposed to be there. I told Woodchuck to please send the photos to the contractor, and once it was fixed, that is when we saw the foam padding and realized that they had left it off the first time.

A fun still-shot caught on the trail cam! 👇

This also doesn't look right to me. Water can penetrate through that rock into the crawl space, and while there are safe guards in place--like a perimeter drain and sump pump--why would we leave this like it is and just invite moisture in?

No way, man. I am not paying you $26,000 for my new foundation to look like this! Fix it.

This one goes right through! 👇

So Woodchuck did as I asked (pushed) for, and sent the pictures. We were told that the crew he used didn't do as good of a job as the crew that poured the concrete, and that he would have that concrete crew back to fix this stuff. And also had to mention that the mix was rockier than usual and they struggled with it. Not my problem, that sounds like a problem a professional contractor should be handling. I mean, we hired an Amish contractor for a reason, and I will tell you that it was not the Amish that built all of this. He used various crews, which is fine, but then I expect that contractor to either be on site during the work or show up after and get his eyes on the work that is attached to his name. But here I go again being an irrational girl. I need to go to the school to do all of the things so that I don't have to rely on a single male anymore, and when I find something they did wrong before I learned to do all of the things, then I will have the knowledge to stand off with them.

So we at least walked around and picked up any garbage and metal scraps that were left behind. I also made a mental note to get the magnet out incase there are things that can puncture the tractor or car tires.

It's time to work on a quick project before we leave. I have a million thoughts and feelings running through me and Woodchuck has been chomping at the bit to mow down the vegetation along the back ditch. So while he gets everything ready, I take a quick detour into the front woods.

I cleared around tree sapling and then he wanted to push mow as much as he could. Some trees were doing really well! When we first planted them, the Elderberry did better, but then the Serviceberry bounced back. Could be the time of year too. I do have tags to mark everything with once they are bigger, so that they don't get cut or mowed down.

We only worked on one section on this evening, so we still have about 2/3 more to go.

We gained about 3-5 feet of ground up to the ditch.

And I found some feathers along the way!

And got to see some beautiful ruffles

And this acorn is absolute perfection 

Time to hit the road back to our house, and I managed to talk him into a quick walk around town before locking ourselves up in the house for the night. I always love being out in the open at sunset and will need to figure out how to make that happen once we move so that I can see them!

The next projects will be at the current house. Interest has dropped off and we were thinking about more things that we could get done that wouldn't break the bank before dropping the price again. So we went ahead with Woodchuck's desire of painting the storage room. He had the great idea of combining a few gallons of leftover paint that were all nearly identical in color! That way it gave us enough to do this space! I did all of the brush work and he did the rolling. I think it turned out great and am glad that he feels like he got something done that he wanted! It was just white primer before this.

More recently, as in at the beginning of the week that I am typing this up, I woke up with a blister on my arm. I can tell that I am in flare-up of some sort. Blisters, tender scalp, rashes, feeling like I am coming down with something and then all of a sudden I feel fine, etc. So I started myself on Allegra and started researching MCAS and what to do about it.

I took some time to go through trail cam footage and this photo of me hit me hard. This is what an unsupported woman looks like. The struggle is real. The burden is heavy. And I keep on trudging through.

I also made the time to completely finish the picket corral and painted the inside of it as well.

Woodchuck and I also started a rock border around two sides of the house where grass doesn't grow. The feral cats are shitting up again the house, I can't get grass to grow there and didn't plant flowers because I thought things were going to move faster with the selling of the house, and I figured something to help with drainage wouldn't be bad since there isn't any vegetation right there. Ideal distance to come off the house would have been 18 inches, but we couldn't afford the rock for that, so I did what I had to do and just made a thin border. At least it's not just dusty dirt up against the house, and this makes it look a bit more finished. If the next owner wants to extend it out farther, well then we got them started.

Before 

Along the way

 

I ended up having to finish the back by myself a couple of days later. I couldn't lift the bags of rocks, so I opened it, scooped out what I could with my hands and then picked it up once it was light enough for me. There was also a lot of shoveling dirt in to level things out as best as I could.

After, and looking from the opposite direction. I also put a little edging trim at the end of this by the door to keep all of the rock in.

The done side. This part I did completely alone 👇

 

The done back looking from the original direction

Woodchuck worked on digging out the inside of the fire pit again and he took the wood he had stored under his grill and placed it inside to not only show what it's for but to also prevent the feral cats from using it as a litter box. I don't know why he didn't level it back out though (you can't tell from this picture that the back part closest to the yard as sunk into the sandy soil). Always one thing in every project left undone. 

I finally finished painting the deck! All that was left was the spindles and railings and I knocked those OUT all by myself!

It was a beautiful day to enjoy the view!

I also did something different for myself and went to a library program where we decorated real pumpkins with dried flowers from a local flower farm! This was FREE for us to do, don't forget to check out the events at your local library!

We also received pictures of the house a couple of weeks ago. I had to double-check that the right flooring and cabinets were used because they seemed too dark! This is the front. The far left windows are the master bedroom, then the front entrance door, then the living room windows, and the other two bedrooms. We saw this and were like. "UM, it looks so small compared to what we remember from walking through in the model" 😂 But honestly, that's ok. I'm tired of spending all day every day cleaning.

This shows a bit of the back. Closest is the master bathroom and that little Transom window is above where the toilet is. The window is above the kitchen sink, then the sliding patio doors. There are some issues about vents and where they fall on the house with the Bilko doors, but the housing factory is aware of the issue.

Looking into the kitchen. This was before the appliances and range hood were installed.

And back at the land after work was done on the foundation. They pulled dirt in nearly the whole way around.

They patched around the vents. Not as well as I would have liked, but the most important thing is that no moisture gets in.

They patched all of the area that were exposed rock.

They also took all of the boards off, put the thin foam layer, put the boards back down and re-cut any boards that were not originally cut the right length and had left gaps.

What we didn't know in this moment is that more issues would be found yet.

I need a break from all of the pressures and disappointments and I just need to spend a few moments in the trees.

I am girl who is very easy to make happy. Take these leaves, for instance! The size of a dinner plate and my one of my favorites to find each season.

And turkey prints around the new home. That makes me happy.

Inkcap mushroom

I don't know what these are and Woodchuck actually found them! From a distance they just looked like a pile of leaves.

Woodchuck and I are really stressed out, and it's time for a day date! Let us step away, even just for half a day, from all of this building a house, selling a house, fixing stuff, etc. It's looking like very soon I will have to go back to work, so I want just a few hours of not having to deal with all of this.