What gives? The national average is $2.42, but the Valero on the corner is still $2.79. That’s about the same as L.A., and Hawaii isn’t much more at $3.03 a gallon. Shawna has confirmed in all her travels for StreetDelivery that Ithaca indeed has some of the highest prices in the region. Sounds like price gouging in Ithaca…
I love thinking about home improvements we could do, but alas, money. Plus there’s the issue of investing more in our cheap little house in an okay neighborhood, or just buying new and bigger elsewhere. In spite of the fact that we have recently acquired new neighbors who have chosen to live in the great outdoors (complete with a foyer completely constructed of tarps and “No Trespassing” signs and a broken down camper in the front yard), I actually like our location. We are not on a main highway, but close enough (4 houses in) that our road gets plowed early, and cars haven’t quite sped up to exceed the 40 mph limit. Although our neighbors aren’t are best friends, they are a known factor and except for the recent additions, all seem to care about their property. Our yard is just big enough with flat lawn area for games, but small enough to minimize maintenance.
But I still would like more space. I’ve already drawn up plans for the kitchen addition. Shawna’s approved the first phase, a deck off our kitchen, which would at least expand our dining area during the summer. The plans call for an easily deconstructed deck, so if/when we expand the kitchen, the deck can be removed and reinstalled off the new kitchen. We’ve already upgraded our appliances (out of necessity), but would love to replace the cabinets and countertops. Granite would be great, but we’d probably opt more for some composite solid surface.
I’m still trying to figure out whether the kitchen would have a second story over it–this space would be just north of our master bedroom. The initial plan is to doghouse-dormer the roof on the north side of our bedroom, which would gain about 8 more feet of depth–I haven’t calculated out the headroom based on the new roof pitch, but it’s a good thing we’re short! I was hoping that with this additional square footage, we could carve out a master bath. I was even thinking that we could live with putting doors on both sides of this bathroom so it could be shared.
The big idea for the renovations is to build an attached two-story garage–the second floor would match with the existing floor. This room would be our family room/office. I think it would be cool to semi-partition the office with a partial wall comprised of dual-facing cubby shelves.
That way we could use the computer/pay bills, but still hear and see screaming children in the family room. We would obviously have to replace the glass/breakable objects with soft and fuzzy items.
I was thinking it might be cool to add solar panels to the east-facing roof, but would have to look into cost and whether that roof would get the most sun. Our south-facing roof is already blocked by two mature trees.
I am thinking that the cost for a 24×26 addition, at $100/SF, would come to about $63,000. The catch is, $100/SF assumes that the addition is bare to stud walls–we could insulate and drywall ourselves and possibly do the wiring as well. It would of course mean that it would extend construction substantially, given our free time–but this might be acceptable since it wouldn’t be our primary living space. The kitchen and bedroom remodels would be harder to deal with.
Coming up with the money or accepting that we would have to take on a home equity load is the big pill to swallow, so we won’t even discuss at this point.
Today was errand day with Grammy for me. Shawna had to put in a few hours of work, and I did mine at 7 am. I received a To Do list at the breakfast table, and only accomplished about half of it!
First, we went to the pharmacy to refill some scripts. This was an easy task, as all I had to do was reinstall Grammy’s left shoe, which she had removed during the 6-minute drive to Palmer’s. While we waited, Grammy inspected the medicine aisles, pulling several bottles of Pepto-Bismol, Senokot, and baby suppositories from the shelf. It only took minimal dragging to get her back into the car.
The remaining errands were all Meadow Street tasks, which meant a short reprieve from chasing Grammy down aisles. We listened to Old McDonald Had a Farm, How Much is that Doggy in the Window, and You Are My Sunshine repeatedly during the drive. Shoes remained on her feet.
Next stop was Win Li, our local Asian grocery, for coconut milk and other bizarre foods to eat for breakfast. Grammy first insisted on sitting in the cart–although not in the seat. Somehow I managed to pick the most dysfunctional cart that was unbalanced, and rode as if it had oval wheels. As I pushed her through the vegetable section, she bounced up and down, occasionally standing up to pull noodles from the shelves. Finally I said that if she couldn’t sit down, she’d have to get out. That was the last time she was in a cart today.
Luckily for me, she found a piece of pricing tape on the floor that entertained her while I shopped. I was a sucker and got her a few items I wanted her to try: wasabi peas (a bust, too hot); mochi (kept her quiet during checkout); yogurt drinks (kept her somewhat compliant during our trip to Tops); and some grape candy that she threw into the cart.
Next stop was Tops, where all we had to get was a few vegetables and fruit, alcoholic beverages (the only cure for being the parent of a toddler), and coffee (the antidote to the above). We got distracted by the Happy Birthday balloons in the produce section, and I caved and gave her one thinking it would keep her quiet through the store. Mind you, she is out of the cart the entire trip…. I was attempting to get some apples when she found the free cider samples. I gave her a small cup, which she drank about half of. She then grabbed some used, half-drunk cups which I quickly confiscated–only to find her going after the stack of clean cups. I retrieved the cups and deemed them “clean,” and stacked them on top of the cider carafe.
It took us about half an hour to make it down to the booze and coffee aisles, mainly because Grammy insisted on pulling some bottles of Mike’s Hard Lemonade out of the case.
At the checkout aisle, I cornered Grammy between the cart, the next person, the candy display and myself while I unloaded. I had put everything on the conveyor belt when I looked down to see Graem opening and eating a candy bar! I added the purchase to the belt and told her we couldn’t eat it until she had some lunch. She threw a bit of a fit–but it didn’t compare to the full-blown domestic in the next aisle between a grandmother and her 4- or 5-year-old granddaughter. I prayed to myself that Graem would behave just til we made it to the car–I could practically hear the eyeballs rolling around me as everyone watched the beating in the next aisle.
After we paid, I threw Grammy up on my shoulders so I could push the cart to the car and unload without her getting run over in the parking lot. As we pulled out of the parking space, I looked at my unfinished To-Do list and crumpled it up.
Somehow the blog defaults to not allow comments on new posts, so all my posts have the comment forum closed. I suppose this is a means of preventing bogus posts for online gaming sites and the like, but I was concerned that I’ve been posting to a nonexistent audience. Now I suspect that the comments will come flooding in!
Marcos, that is. Graem has more shoes than both of us combined. She LOVES to go out into the mudroom and try on all the shoes, including ours. She’ll put on one shoe of a couple of pairs and stomp around the house, or she’ll cry if we don’t let her put on her boots. Shawna will occasionally find a pair or two at a resale shop, but Ithaca being what it is, styles are limited. I can only imagine what our market share in Birkenstock is.
Shawna frequently shops for Graem’s shoes online, including ToeCovers.com. They’ve got the best prices on kids’ shoes, and have free shipping both ways. A plus when Graem outgrows the shoe size before they get here! Plus, info on foot health, although rumor has it that all kids have flat feet until a certain age.
The ongoing antics of two thirty-something *gasp* mamas raising our three-year-old daughter and adding another baby girl to the mix.