One year ago today something amazing happened. A very beautiful, caring, and loving woman chose to spend the rest of her life with me as my wife. Surrounded by a very small group of our closest family, Melissa and I were married. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by already, but considering how busy we have been with becoming first time home owners it’s easy to see where the time went. If the fast pace of this past year is an indication to how quickly the years are going to go and the adventure that we are in for, than I cannot wait to see what the years together will bring. We have many things to work on, together, but that is the key. We will continue to work on them, together; to aid, support, and love one another, and through our combined efforts I know we will continue to be happy and capable of handling whatever comes our way. Happy first anniversary to my beautiful wife Melissa, thank you for loving me and allowing me to love you in return. I look forward to what the next years of our lives will bring us.
Category Archives: Melissa
An Evening with the Orchestra
Melissa and I had a unique opportunity tonight to listen to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a small intimate setting in Southfield at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. I have seen this building from the road almost daily for the past 2 years now and while my thoughts were that it was a very attractive building that clearly had a religious affiliation, I did not know what it was until this event. It is as beautiful inside as it from the outside, and now that I know what it is, you can see images of it on Google. For their part, the DSO, was amazing! This is the first time that I can remember hearing a professional orchestra play as a standalone event, having heard that before with plays and musicals, and I have to admit that it is a completely different experience when what you are focusing on is the music and the players and not what it is accompanying. The acoustics within the building were a lot better than I had thought they were going to be as well. This experience has made me more aware of how enjoyable going to an orchestra event can be, and as such I am going to try to keep an eye on what performances they are doing, perhaps next time we will go see them at Orchestra Hall.
New Year’s Eve
Melissa and I decided to try a new restaurant tonight for our New Year’s Eve Dinner, and there is no shortage of those to choose from now that we live in a new area! For tonight we choose Hayden’s, which is only a few short miles from the house. It’s technically a bar and grill but it feels more like an upscale restaurant when you are there, though we may have been slightly over dressed. The atmosphere was very nice and relaxed, the staff was attentive and polite. The food was just ok in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, it was just ok. Considering the price of the entree’s I thought it would be a little more than it was. I will most likely give them another chance sometime down the road, once we explore all the other new places as well. Afterwards came home to enjoy a relaxing evening and our first New Year’s Eve in our new home.
S24 Parties at The Fillmore
Last night was the annual Secure-24 Holiday party. This marks the third year that we got to attend this amazing event. Once again the company rented out The Fillmore so, naturally, we got a room at The Westin Book Cadillac. The Killer Flamingos once again graced the stage and provided the evening’s entertainment, and once again they did a fantastic job! As usual the food and beverages were outstanding and they did a great job with the raffles and prizes. Though we kicked around the idea last year, the guys never did get our act together to wear bow ties! It was another fun night though. I really appreciate that the company has these parties for us, it really does show that they appreciate everything we do all year-long. It’s a high stress, fast paced environment and the ability to just let loose for the night is great. Already looking forward to next year’s party!
And We’re Out
We are officially finished with apartment living! We turned the keys over to the Roundtree office this morning and said our goodbyes to the place we have called home for the last 8 years. The only thing I think I am going to miss is the availability of a pool in the summer. I didn’t use it very often, but I spent many days down there watching Kylie swim and have fun. Otherwise, I am very much done with this place. The neighbors have been going downhill and the repeated damage to the motorcycle will most certainly not be missed! Though in all fairness the property staff have been great throughout the years, very responsive and always on top of things. We had until the end of the month, but we finished the cleaning and have gotten everything moved to the house, so we were more than happy to turn the keys over early. Goodbye apartment living, hopefully we never go back!
Large Items Moved
We are now one step closer to being fully moved into our new home! Today we had professional movers move the larger items that we could not, or did not want to, move ourselves. This was mainly the furniture items that would not fit into our vehicles; king sized bed and box spring, couches, kitchen table, etc. Everything got placed into the truck surprisingly fast, especially considering there were only two guys. They also unpacked the truck and moved everything into the new house fairly quickly as well. Though moving the king sized mattress upstairs caused some havoc and ripped the underside of the mattress. The company is going to send someone out to repair it in the next couple of days. Thankfully it shouldn’t impact us sleeping on it at all because it is the bottom of the mattress and not the pillow top. In any event we are now capable of staying in the house overnight for the first time and that much closer to turning in the keys to the apartment. We have a few small things to gather from their and some light cleaning to finish and then we are done!
Chim chiminey Chim chiminey
We had the chimney cleaned today in the new house, mainly because we didn’t know when the previous owners last had it cleaned, if ever, and wanted to have it inspected before we used it. I am glad we did because we discovered that we are going to need to replace the bottom damper because it doesn’t close properly. Additionally we will most likely have a top damper installed to help reduce the stack effect. On top of that we need a cover for the ash shoot, as that is missing as well. When we do all that we will also need to have some other repairs done to the chimney such as having some bricks replaced and even having the top cement reformed so it drips away from the opening. Currently this is going to run around $3000, and seeing as we don’t have that now, it will have to get put off until a later date. I just hope the delay doesn’t cause the price to go up too much do to further deterioration. I’m starting to see why being a homeowner can be so stressful!
First New Appliance
The first major purchase we have had to make for the new house arrived today. We purchased this LG refrigerator and even though we verified all of the measurements before hand, it didn’t fit into the space between the counter and the cabinets, at first. The delivery guys brought it in and when we tried to push it into place we found that the space was about 1/16 of an inch to narrow. So we had them hook up the water and power and leave it in the middle of the kitchen, we told them we would figure out how to get it in place, somehow. Melissa was extremely determined to get this refrigerator to fit, she liked this one and wanted it, and in the end she got to keep it. Melissa removed some of the floor molding which allowed the cabinets to shift ever so slightly, but it was enough. Once we had that little bit of play in the cabinet we were able to slide the refrigerator back into place, now it is pushing the cabinet ever so slightly to the left and it is nice and happy in its new home. Melissa is even more happy that she gets to keep the refrigerator she picked out, and I have to agree with her, I really like it too. Now to continue with the cleaning and moving in of the items we can move on our own.
Fully Insulated
We finished up the attic insulation project today, and I learned two extremely valuable pieces of information:
- Even in October it gets incredibly warm in an attic crawl space
- I never want to go back into my attic ever again, or probably any other one for that matter
By the time we were nearing the end of the project the amount of space in the attic was simply not enough for two grown men to be in there. Or perhaps we just didn’t have the skill and maneuverability for both of us to be in there? Either way, I was thankful when my brother told me to get out that he could finish it up without me. He does have the advantage of being slightly smaller than me though, which aids in his maneuverability in the close quarters the attic provides. In addition to adding insulation while we were up there we also added some more baffles above the front soffit vents (we have no rear soffit vents, just front and about 5 can vents in the roof) in an attempt to help the circulation which will also improve the insulation effectiveness. The only downside is that I have no historic information in relation to a heating bill in order to compare the effectiveness of this project, however, I have to think it will be an improvement. Regardless, at least we now know that attic has sufficient insulation, even if we are unsure about the walls. One project down, I am sure there will be many others though.
Water Woes Ended, Insulation Project Begins
The vampire taps have both been replaced and the line that will be connected for the ice maker on the new refrigerator has been run up to it’s location, so it will be ready and in place for the delivery in a few days. With any luck this will be the last time we need to call out a plumber for a long time.
Moving on to the next pre-move in project… Chris and I started adding insulation in the attic today. I had noticed during the inspection that, while there was some insulation in the attic, the amount of insulation for the R value was not going to be adequate. Considering the house was built in 1967 when energy costs were lower, and we bought it from the original owner, I am not too surprised by the need for more insulation. I wanted to make sure this was one of the first projects we did before moving in because the attic access is inside what will be Kylie’s closet. As such we didn’t want to have to cover everything in her room in plastic and take everything out of her closet in order to move the insulation into the attic crawl space. Based on the estimation of the R value of what was already up there and combining that with what we added, we estimate that the attic should now have an R value of around 42. The suggested value for this area is between 38 and 49, so this should be good moving forward. Unfortunately we were not able to complete this project today though, and will need to finish it up another time.