I hope everyone stayed safe but still had a great, if not different, Thanksgiving this year! This year was really weird for us. We usually host family and friends so our house is packed. This year it was just me, my wife, and our two kids. My folks stayed home and my sister just had her kids at her house. I don't know how to cook Thanksgiving for just four, so I didn't. We're still eating turkey and left overs.
It's amazing what can happen in less than 3 weeks since my last post...
I won't have to be killing time here for much longer! We're going to be putting the house on the market in late spring or early summer of 2021. A year to 3 years sooner than we had originally been planning. So now I have about 5 months to get all the projects done that we have to do before listing the house. For me, that's probably a good thing, and work extended our travel ban and WFH until at least June 1. At least I'll be home to get stuff done during the week.
The pending move does mean that the possible purchase of a new travel trailer or motorcycle is off the table for at least a year. I also passed on the purchase of that CNC mill. That one really stung; however, I don't know if I would have room for it at the new place and it weighs so much it would be very difficult to move (or more specific - unload at the new place). Short term loss/pain for long term family gain.
I need to talk to my realtor down in TN to see how much she thinks we can get for our land down there and how fast she thinks it will sell. If it's a nice amount and she thinks it will sell quickly, I need to have that discussion with my wife. I'd prefer to harvest the trees, clear the entire acreage, sell it now and roll those funds into the next house, but I'm not sure how my wife would feel about it.
SWMBO and I will be traveling to NW Indiana over spring break in 2021 to check out the areas we're considering for the relocation to decide which towns are our top choices. Then my wife will have to have to start applying for a new teaching job once they start being posted in March. Where she gets a job will be a big factor on where we end up, so I can't really say we're set on any certain town or city. We want to make sure my son ends up at a very good high school so we will move to one of those districts even if my wife ends up working in a school corp. outside of his high school, but location to her job while staying in the high school district we pick for my son will factor in to that. That has narrowed our interests to Schererville, Dyer, Munster, Valparaiso, and Chesterton.
Me leaving SW Indiana once the time comes:
Notice he doesn't look back either.
My wife's requirement for the next house is that it must have an attached 2-car garage and no projects will be in the garage, only running vehicles. I'm ok with that, but that means I have to do my due diligence research on any towns, small cities, and neighborhoods to make sure there aren't any unreasonable restrictions on detached buildings. For me, that means the ability to have a 120 square foot shed at an absolute minimum. Hopefully we'll find areas or neighborhoods that are more reasonable where I can have 360 square feet or more. I don't need a detached "garage", a large shed or barn will be fine with me as long as I have enough room to get a vehicle and trailer back to it. No plans or desire to have an actual driveway to it but I will plan ahead and make sure the main doors can be opened enough to accommodate parking a 21'-25' travel trailer inside.
There are too many variables out of our control right now, but that's the way it goes sometimes. All I can do right now is focus getting projects done and purging stuff.
I've been working on purging stuff for the last year in earnest, but now that I know we're going to be moving soon, I'm taking it up to eleven. I hauled a bunch of motorcycle parts over to my buddy's salvage yard and hoped he was ready to trade me for that vintage C-man tool chest. Unfortunately, he's not ready to part with it so he's giving me cash for the stuff and a bike I hauled over there a while ago. I'm a little disappointed, but cash is good.
He also had a gift for me:
Yes, I hauled something else home when I was supposed to be purging, but that is the front wheel from a Honda CBR600 F3. The style happens to match the rear wheel I have from a CBR600 F2 that fits the swing arm I have from an old Interceptor. Those F3 front wheels are really hard to find now and are stupid expensive on eBay if they're not damaged. And the rotors are worth as much as the wheel. A great score for my future KZ440 build. I now have a matching style set of wheels for that project.
I probably have another two trunk loads of parts I can haul over to his place and a few parts for another buddy that has a project DOHC CB750 bike. I'm probably going to put a few of the gas tanks I've acquired over the years on eBay as well. I only need to keep 3 or 4 of the tanks. I think I have 7 in total right now.
On to the first major project. Renovating and replacing the picket fence in the back yard so we can
Last weekend and up to Monday last week I dug the post holes and bought the materials. I had to dig out and remove the old fence post up against the garage that was cut off and buried to make room for the new post. Got it set before I had to drive up to Purdue to get my daughter for Thanksgiving:
The contractor who will be doing the driveway also strongly recommended adding a "kick" board at the bottom to the fence to keep the new gravel from migrating into the backyard inside the fence. That meant trenching between the posts and buying some 2x6 for the bottom of the fence.
I got the rest of the fence posts set in concrete on Saturday. Sunday I started installing all of the stringers. I got all but one stringer installed before I ran out of daylight. We're on the front edge of the Central time zone, so sunset is now around 4:30p. Yet another advantage of moving north... I'll get the last stringer cut and installed on Monday over lunch. Then I have to put the stringers up that will become the gate at the garage. I found it's easier to build the gate rigidly attached to the posts, then cut the 2x4s right at the end after the hinges are installed.
My driveway contractor asked me to wait on installing the pickets until after he was done excavating and putting in the driveway so he can run the compactor right up along the kick boards. I'll be replacing all the pickets on the original part of the fence sections so everything will match. I found these at Menards and SWMBO likes them and they're cheaper than other options from any other stores around here. Plus they have a matching 6' version so I can run a section of privacy fence from the garage to our back property line fence to enclose that area tying everything together while looking better. Plus I already have the posts and stringers for that section of fence from the chicken run. I knew the run was going to be temporary so those posts are only set in compacted, course gravel. Easy to pull out.
After the driveway is in, I'll need to move my ceiling chain hoist in the garage and install a garage door opener again. It was always on the project list, but if I get that done soon, my wife could theoretically park in the garage this winter. At least after a month or so of more purging and moving stuff around to make room for an actual 4-wheeled vehicle in the garage. I figure she might as well get to park in the garage for a short time before we move, right?
Actually, I'll spare you guys that rant. She turned 18 in December of 2016, so this was going to be her first big election. That Friday was my birthday so that was enough motivation I needed. I took Friday off on vacation and got up early to head north, pick her up, and drove home with the intent of getting back in time for her to vote on Friday. We got home around 3pm and the polls were open until 5pm, but the lines were so long we said forget and decided to get up at 7am on Saturday morning to be in line before 8am when the polls opened again. Glad we did. We were in and out in less than an hour. 
