What is On Jeffs' Mind

I have been on Vacation for the past week, with one more to go. So far it has been good and reasonably productive.

The main thing I wanted to accomplish with my time off was to make some progress on my basement. This week I think I was able to do that, as I made more progress on painting the basement. First I had to remove some ceiling stipple from some areas, that was a dirty job, so I am glad that I am finished with that. I will do some more painting today, and hopefully I can make some good progress on that. I think that I am a few days away from being completed with all the walls. After I was finished with my painting yesterday, I stood there and visualized where things would go. I am getting excited to be getting close on on having the basement done.

Yesterday Morning I went to Costco to pickup a few things for my wife. Well I was there, I picked up a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, the price looked reasonable. I had been planning on buying this for sometime, as I need it to edit pictures for my collecting podcast, Whats in Jeff’s Basement. Now that the basement is nearly finished, I can get back to that. I really hate the breaks, but I am hoping 3rd time is a charm.

Tags: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, Basement renovations, Vacation, What's in Jeffs Basement

The contractors came today to finish up on some work in the Basement. The laid the carpet, and finished a few other things as well, such as attaching a light in my display area, and putting down some shelving. I had a redder color wood for the shelving area, but decided to go with a black colour, as it will match the Shelves I have more closely. Now back to me to do some more painting, and to purchase some baseboards, and paint them up. I also have to scrape some ceiling stucco off some of the walls and get those primed and painted also. It was so messy down there, so it was nice to get all the garbage out of there, and clean the basement up a bit. Will make it easier to move some things around, and I will not be trailing dust and dirt around the house after making a trip to the basement.

Carpet looks very close, probably as close as I was going to get, and over time it might fade a bit and match closer to what is already in the basement. I will continue painting the walls, I am painting them a cloud gray and quite happy with the colour so far. I think with White baseboards, should look very sharp.

So I am hoping over the next month I can get my painting finished, and then once the Baseboards are done, I can start moving things down there, and getting things setup. Really looking forward to the day, when I can have my collection setup, and can show to people who come over.

Tags: Basement renovations

Happy New Year

Hard to believe that the first decade of the 2000′s are done, it sure went by fast. It just seems like yesterday that I was working New Years eve 2000 due to the Y2K bug/scare. I guess time can really fly.

Reflecting back on last year, not really sure what to make of it. Work as always was a real challenge, and probably accounted for the low points of the year for me, as it was hectic and high stress the whole year through. In the summer Tao Tao and I moved into house, so that was the biggest thing to happen to us. I am happy to be in the house, and very grateful for the experience to be behind us. For the most part it went alright, but moving really is never fun, so we are planning to stay here for a long time. Tao Tao’s mom also came to visit in the summer, so it was nice for her mom to see where she lives. At the end of summer was big for the family as well, and fortunately it all worked out very well.

Looking at my resolutions for last year, I did not have many, some I kept, others I did not. Like most say, making resolutions seem to be futile, as more often then not, they are never kept and dropped rather early. My friend Rick has a great Podcast on the subject, and some great ideas about making small corrections over big changes.

In looking forward to next year, I have a lot I would like to get done, primarily in that I would like to get to a point in my life where I am happy and content. Presently, I don’t feel that way, and it all has to do with how I deal with life. Like many have said, you really can’t change things around you, but you can change yourself, so I am going to set upon that journey and see where it takes me. I guess some could say that is a resolution, but with the ending of the year, it has given me a chance to reflect on my life.

I guess another goal I have is to finish my basement. I started painting the walls, and so far very happy with the colour. I have some carpet on order, but have not heard from the Carpet store since the order was placed. Hoping that the carpet arrived and they had forgot to call me. I am really excited for the basement to get done, as I want to be able to setup my collectibles, and display them the way I had always wanted. Once that is done, hopefully I will be able to get working on my collecting podcast again and model building. With the home renovations, I have sort of learned to just do it, I had been planning on painting for awhile now, but things always came up. I went, bought the paint, and started, and finished about half the basement. As part of my personal journey, need to learn to do, and not stand on the sideline thinking about doing things. This basement will be a great exercise in doing that.

All the best in 2010 to everyone

Tags: Basement renovations, Happy New Year, Moving, Rick Moyer, Take Him With You