T Minus Seven Days & Counting...

In just seven short days I will have a house full of refugees (or house guests if you will). It's my youngest brother & his family (wife & son). They will be flying up from Florida next Friday to stay with me for a week, and I am so excited. I've not seen them in almost five years. It will be so great.

I think this is a first, people from Florida, where it's now in the 80s temp-wise, taking a vacation in March to Seattle, where it's barely breaking the 50s. I've told them to all bring coats, and it will be chilly, and it could be rainy. But I think we'll have lots of fun anyway. :)

Actually, this will probably work out really well. Being that it's the off-season, we shouldn't encounter many crowds at the main tourist spots around town. Therefore, we shouldn't have to wait in many, if any, lines. My main hope is that we have a few days of sunny skys, because the views will be awesome, and I want them to experience the scenery.

That's about all I can think of about this topic, so I'll just sign-off. :)

Light at the end of the tunnel???

I don't think I've mentioned this before (and I'm too lazy to check my previous posts), but my apartment building is undergoing renovation. It's been in that state since I moved in back in September. I moved in anyway because the rent was less than my previous place by about $500, and I really like this neighborhood. Because of the renovation, the landlady is knocking another $250 off the rent while it's ongoing. How cool is that? :)

When I moved in, the landlady, a lovely older woman named Mrs. Anderson, said that she had been told the renovation would be completed by mid-December. That didn't happen of course. It's nice to keep the lower rent going, but I will admit that it's been a bit of a pain seeing all the cracks in the walls and the bare drywall ceiling for the past 6 months. But the charm of the neighborhood, & closeness of the busstop really does outweigh the 'under construction' condition of my digs.

Well, this week the workers have finally come back to finish up the inside of my place. The work has been good quality, though the pace has been slow. They came in on a Thursday in the 1st week of December, worked that day, and didn't return until 2 weeks ago. When they came back, I was assured that they would finish everything by 3-6. They worked on Monday & Tuesday of that week, and didn't come back any other days. I called the site boss on Monday (of this week) and asked if they were ever going to finish. This time he assured me that all would be completed this week. Each day I saw small signs that people had been in the apartment, but didn't see any real signs of work being done; until today. A note on my door said, "We'll be back Monday to finish up, hang the blinds, & clean up." After Monday, I may actually be able to put things where I want them, and not have people come in a couple weeks later & move them all around. What a concept that will be. :)

I'll have to discuss this with Mrs. Anderson, but there's still work to be done on the exterior. Therefore, I won't be able to access my parking space until that's completed. I believe our agreement about the lower rent was, 'when the scaffolding comes down, the rent goes up.' So my lower rent should continue for a bit longer. However, I doubt that will be the case when I pay May's rent. But it's looking like there's some light coming in at the end of the tunnel.