That’s what Marvin Gaye wants to know too. Well, I’ll tell you (and show you).  One of the first orders of business was to get the storage shed built. I was counting on a tenant to move in to my place by May 1 so we needed somewhere at the new location to place tools and extra stuff from my  other house. Here is the end result:

click here for an extended gallery

I’d say it turned out pretty nice! Remember that I was able to use all of the lumber from the wedding benches and tables to construct this humble edifice. For those of you who didn’t make the wedding, here is what the shed used to look like:

So, shed got built, I gradually moved stuff from Prospect over to Munson St., the next task was to settle in and organize/beautify. Being the biking fools that we are, we needed some serious bike and gear storage, So the bike room got an extensive makeover and we now have lots of room for bikes and clothing, helmets, shoes, parts, etc.:

Colleen had long wanted hardwood floors in the house, well, because carpet just sucks. The dog peeing in the living room carpet was just about the last stand. We finally broke down and settled on some nice laminate flooring. I’ve never been a fan of laminate due to it’s “fakeness” and cheap feeling compared to real wood, but when you examine all your options, it’s a pretty good deal. Laminate technologies have come a long way, not only in improving the look, but the durability of the product. You can get laminates with a lifetime warranties these days. We settled for 15 years since we don’t plan on staying here forever and just needed something that would install quickly and look nice and that’s exactly what we got:

Concurrently, I was still moving in and getting my office setup. Cousin Christie had moved to Farmville, VA about two weeks after we got back from Costa Rica and that freed up her room for the office. It’s nice having a fully dedicated office:

All this taken care of, it was time to move onto the bedroom closet project. Our bedroom had a good sized 2’x 7′-3″ closet, but it was only accessible via a 32″ door centered in the wall. It was difficult to get to edges of the closet and there was a lot of wasted space. In a house with 800 sq ft. with a person moving in from a whole other house, wasted space is not an option. We decided to rip the wall out and put in an Ikea system, much like a Californian closet. Here is progress so far:

and here is what it’ll kind of look like when done:

I have not had much time to get the business running but that all stops this weekend as I travel to Dallas for a 2 day investing seminar. I’m going to come back and hit the ground running! It’s nice to have a tenant in Prospect already and not have to worry about those expenses any more, but I’m ready to start earning some good income again. There are people to help, places to travel, and maybe some bike upgrades here and there, none of which are free.

Racing is still postponed indefinitely, and in fact, I have seen little to null physical activity since returning to Austin, other than all the work on the house. I did make it out to Glen Rose this past weekend to watch Colleen race the 1st annual Cat Claw classic, but didn’t feel racing would be in my best interest. I was able, however, to pre-ride and volunteer as a sweep rider for the 10-12 year old boys and girls. It was very interesting being in a race, but not racing, and I really enjoyed the change of perspective. My job was to just to cruise along behind these kiddos and assist in any way that needed assistance, whether it be untangle a crash, put a dropped chain back on, help a 40 lb kid push a 20 lb bike up a muddy incline, or keep a 10 year old girl from falling off a bridge 10 feet above the ground, all of which I ended up doing.  These kids are the future of racing, and I highly recommend volunteering as a sweep rider if you ever get the chance.

Thanks for checking in, and keep doing so every now and then as I’m getting more time to keep up with the blog.

Cheers,
Greg