April 30, 2013

Day Two and looking forward to having the time to enjoy some projects around the house in Millsburg. We built the house in 1997. It will 15 years ago, on my birthday in the middle of May, we moved in. Speaking of birthdays, today is Willie Nelson's 80th.

 

In 1997 LKD and I were still looking at half of our professional careers ahead of us......not really thinking about finishing work. Then in a blink of an eye  .... Did Someone Say Retire?  

We are ready to pursue some golf, travel around some and maybe move out of Millsburg in a few years.

Being the general contractor on the Millsburg house got us a comfy house, a mortgage payment and lots of things to do. From landscaping to finishing the interior the progress has been a decade of fits and starts. Between working and goofing off most weekends for the last 10 years does not get all the stuff done that clogs up the honey dew list. The best part is that the mortgage is paid off. Now the focus shifts to having and spending time.

 There is no shortage of finishing touches remaining on our house in Millsburg. Every project I can finish up will add value to the house. So today after an early rise the windows in the kitchen and laundry room are complete.

 I put some Minwax on the stained woodwork and finally installed the shelf that I made more than a few years ago. The shelf is in the laundry room window. The bottles have a new perch.

 

 We think that he real estate market has room to heat up and become a seller's market over the next couple of years. We hope to find a new spot that has homes for half the cost of an average home in and around Millsburg. Lower purchase cost and less property taxes. We seek somewhere with more amenities with shorter winters when we decide to leave Millsburg.

This summer we will head out on the road to discover some possibilities. We will make a loop that takes us south to Bristol, Tennessee and down along the Smokey Mountains. While in Tennessee we will head west to check out some towns on the Cumberland Plateau  There are some college  towns  that we will visit. From there we will head east to the Atlantic coastline. We will look at some locales and see if there is a coastal location that is something we want to consider. Personally, I am more inclined to be in the mountains but LKD loves the beach!  Possibly a big lake in the foothills would appeal to both our senses.

Looking forward to perfect Spring weather for the next few days. Lots of stuff to do outside.

The Road to Millsburg

Today is April 29 2013.
This is my first attempt to create a blog.
Why? .... I have just started down a new road and will have more time doing things that are fun, stimulating to the mind and body.

Last Friday I left the corporate world behind after 34 years of going to work every day (add a few years of part time jobs while in high school)!

I got up this morning knowing that I would not be driving to work, that my day would not involve sorting out other peoples wants and rants.  This felt pretty good. Good enough that I decided to start recording my day (and days to follow perhaps) into a blog.

I went on You Tube and watched a couple of random videos about Blogger. Blogger is a Google app that is bundled with Google+.

I received an email from LKD about some mustache guy that retired at 30. He spends his time being frugal and writing about it. So after a few hours of intermittent attempts to set up a blogspot on Google I am ready to upload my first post ever. And the mustache guy is the first blog site (hmmm..... is blog site 2 words or 1) that I added to follow. The mustache man has a blogsite at http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

The Blogger site is pretty easy to use and the YouTube videos are plenty good to get anyone started!

Inspired, this blog will be about what retirement feels like. An opportunity to create some posts to share about things we enjoy (me and LKD). Looking forward to when LKD retires in about a year!

At 10:16 am I thought about what may be happening at "work".  I checked my iPad where my 'work' email is still alive! I am sure it will shut down very soon! Just a couple of random emails, some urgent messages from payroll department about approving time card task was not yet completed [Deleted].

Pretty good first day. I was up early (as usual) and had started one of many projects around the house. Staining the kitchen window trim. It occurred to me that after 15 years since we built our house I have many projects that will be mostly fun and satisfying.
I will figure out how to make a video of some of my projects using my iPad.
Good blog stuff coming!!

The window project is progressing and the stain should be dry. Just need to clean the glass and install the finish hardware and screens. Looks great so far.