Good day

There are days when I feel like we're drowning and there are days when I feel like we're just surviving and it's like we're just doing enough to get by. My/Our todo-list has a backlog a mile long and there just aren't enough (free) days for all of them.

However, I am pleased to note that I had a good day today and got some of the big ones done.

(1) Solar panels were installed on our roof 2 weekends ago but they didn't finish the electrical work. I tried to get them to schedule the work on a weekend again but the next available weekend date is not till late July. I decided to just schedule it for today and work from home to get it over with. Even though we're allowed to, I try not to abuse the "work from home" privilege.

The electrical work is now done, it took 6 men in 3 trucks 5 hours to complete the work. Ang dameh! 

The next step is to get the city inspector to come over and approve their work, will have to work from home again on that day too.

(2) Check out the hedges in front of our window in the picture above and see how overgrown they are. That picture was taken 2 weeks ago and today, the hedges are even taller. Parang jungle na! The landscaper we called for spring cleaning last March was a no-show and is not returning calls (now that I think about it, baka undocumented alien sila tapos na-deport ???).

Then we have these trees in the side yard that we want to remove, I just found out today that they're fig trees. They go dormant in the winter and become active again when spring rolls around. Unfortunately, leaves and other debris collect near the roots and it's hard to clean. Last season, we didn't dare try to touch it because some animal made its nest near the roots - we hope it was a rabbit but it could've also been a raccoon. Scary!

We also have hedges in the backyard that need to be pruned and vines from our neighbor's yards are growing into our yard too. I've called 6 other landscapers to date and none have called me back. They're probably all booked up and busy these days.

This morning, since I was home, I saw our neighbor's landscaper mowing the neighbor's yard (it was their weekly maintenance) so I went over and ambushed the guy. We now have an agreement and he's coming over next Monday to remove the trees, prune hedges and will do the clean up. He'll just bill me for the work afterwards. Ayos! We may ask him to set up a plant bed in the side yard, but we'll think about it after the trees have been removed.

I also got a quote for regular weekly or bi-weekly lawn care, we'll think about this in the meantime kasi regular expense na ito if we go for it. I'm sure that once hubby gets a taste of having professional lawn care, it'll be hard to convince him to mow the lawn again. I don't think we're ready for this at this stage since hubby also wants to get a new car this year.

(3) There's this balikbayan box that I've been meaning to pack up & send out. The stuff I needed to pack have been sitting in our library for weeks, we look like a warehouse already. My goal was to get this picked up by the forwarder on or before the weekend of June 12 but I wasn't able to do it because I've been swamped.

So this afternoon, during my lunch break, work was relatively light so I figured I'd pack it already so I can have it picked up this weekend. It didn't take long because I've already prepared the stuff I'm sending long ago. When done, I called the forwarder - whose owner, by the way, happens to live nearby - to set up a pickup schedule. Since they live in the area, they've been very accommodating and oftentimes would even come by at 7p/8p on a Saturday. So while the guy on the phone was checking their calendar to see if they can squeeze me in for Saturday, the owner comes by and hears my name and asks "is she home now ?". When I said yes, he offered to come pick up the box right away.

Again, ayos!

Work-wise, I've had to deal with a few reported defects today and all issues turned out to be non-issues for us (well, they are still defects, but they weren't caused by our side). How great is that ?

At this point, our to-do list is still substantial.

We are still behind on laundry but our pile of clean clothes waiting to be folded/hung/or ironed is bigger than the dirty pile so I will chalk this as a win.

The magnetic board that we bought more than 3 months ago is still waiting to be hung (it needs special mounting hardware/techniques) but since we got the power (reciprocating) saw last week, we're one step closer to getting it done so I will chalk this as a half-win.

We still have not painted our MBR, this admittedly fell off our radar so am targeting the 4th of July weekend for this. How I wish I was still young enough again to feel okay luring friends over with a bbq/painting party.

There's still a lot on our plate so you can see how I really needed today's victories. Thank you, Lord, for this amazing day and as always, You have great timing.

Father's Day!

Q: What do the most macho fathers do on father's day ?

A: They use the newly-bought power tool (whoohoo!), a reciprocating saw, to cut down dead tree branches.

The dead tree was cut down last week by the crew who were installing the solar panels but they left it for us to clean up. The branches had to be cut down into shorter lengths and bundled up so they can be picked up by the city on Wednesday (our day for yard-waste collection).

My initial thought was to buy a hand-axe or a hatchet so we can just use the palakol to cut the tree down into smaller pieces. Hubby, always on the lookout for an easier way, suggested we get a reciprocating saw instead.

We had fun shopping at Harbor freight tools. We got this and a hedge trimmer for such a great price. Don't really know if they'll stand up to heavy-duty use, but for ocassional DIYers like us, having access to affordable tools is great.

For ~$24 (and it also came with a free LED light), the saw is already sulit as getting someone to come in to do it will surely cost much more.

Note that we've been trying to get someone to come over to prune our hedges and to cut down these undesireable & dead trees, the first landscaper never showed up (the ones who did our spring cleanup last year). We have called 5 more landscapers to date and none have called us back. I think it's probably because our job is too small and this is their peak season

... as I finish typing this post, I hear our garage door opening, hubby is taking out the lawn mower pala and plan to trim the grass too. (Yay!).