Category Archives: Our ICF Home

Where I will occasionally mention the new ICF Home we were trying to build.

Feb 26

What The Hell Have I Been Doing?

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Nothing. Really. I’ve had this damned cold that’s kicking my butt! If I don’t have a headache from congestion I’m blowing snot all day. (Pretty picture, that.) Cough Cough.
Really. Last Sunday I missed Church cause I didn’t want to spread this around. Didn’t get out to the property or anything. And it’s been pretty much the same thing all week. Damn! Except Tuesday SWMBO and I went to the Goodwill in Gig Harbor. Looking for an old cassette player to convert our cassettes to digital format. Didn’t find a player but did find a couple of books: Active Server Pages 2.0 & Mastering Autocad Release 11. Got them both for $4. Yeah, they’re old but they’ll still cover the basics. IF I ever take the time to sit down and go through them!
I hate getting old.
Did mention to SWMBO last Sunday that we’d be having snow by Wednesday. Guess what. It started snowing at 2300 last night. By 2320 we had probably a quarter inch of snow on the truck. And it kept coming down too! Hard (thick?). Heavy, I guess. Only accumulated an inch so SWMBO didn’t have any problems getting home from her work in Renton.

Believe it or not: Things seem to be moving forward at the Bank and with the County on getting our house built. Double Damn! We got a big envelope of papers to sign for the loan and our Contractor stopped by yesterday to pick up the signed contract (and a check for $1000) and a check for $1000 for the Tress Engineers. Cool! Now I just gotta keep getting up there to finish that crawl space and get the dirt moved out of the way.

Didn’t win the Mega Lotto. Again. I kind of like that machine we can use to check the numbers; it doesn’t flash “You’re A Loser” when you don’t have a winning ticket. It very politely notifies you that “Sorry, Not A Winner.” Sure would like to find out how it reacts to a winning ticket! So I spent another buck for another ticket.

Found that KOMO 4 netcasts it’s news in the mornings (and other times I suppose). Got to watch all the chaos our little bit of snow caused this morning. I’m getting to know Yahoo Video real good too!

Gotta go blow my nose.

Feb 10

Snowed Most Of The Day!

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Went outside at 0530 this morning and it was dark but dry. Went back outside about 0630 and SWMBO’s car was covered by a light dusting of snow. Snowed most of the day. Started out that light icy snow but turned into those big wet flakes for most of the day. Started raining after dark and most of the snow is mushy. Will probably be gone by tomorrow. Cool! Wanted to get out to the property to video some snow in the clearing but it would have taken me a couple of hours to get out there. Then a couple of hours back. No Way!

Did take Phillip up Peacock Hill to the bus stop. Was snowing like crazy and sticking to the road uphill from us. It’s amazing what a hundred feet in elevation will produce in weather around here!

Just not much else going on.

Me in 1962. 10 years old.

Put our Magic Jack on it’s own computer in the back room. Got tired of it hanging up for a few seconds when someone would call while we were watching something on the MediaServer. Seems to be working okay.

Feb 09

To Say I Don’t Like…

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The Mason County Planning Department is an understatement: Money Grubbing Scammers that they are.

Sunday, I went to the first session of church as I usually do. SWMBO said she’d be glad to go out to the property so I could show her what I’ve been doing out there so I got home, changed clothes and headed out. After a few hours she showed up and spent awhile looking around. She left and I closed up shop and followed her out.

I’d no sooner gotten home than our EcoTech called and said our Eco Report was ready to be picked up. He wanted me to drive to his place (about 2.5 hours away in Aberdeen) but I said there wasn’t any way I was going to leave my house at 1830 to drive to Aberdeen. So he said he’d meet me at Jimmy D’s in Belfair about 1930. Ok. I’ll do that even though I just got home from there. So I took off about 1915 and got to Jimmy D’s about a half hour later and, of course, our EcoTech wasn’t there (I expect him to be late) so I waited around awhile. Jimmy D’s closed at 2000 so I sat in the truck in the parking lot and our EcoTech showed up around 2010. We went to McDonalds and looked over the plans for awhile and I had to write another check for $500. Damn! Said he was sorry for not telling me the total price when we first met; I thought the $995 I paid earlier was the total cost. And I still owe him $395! Double Damn! Got home around 2200.

Got up to take the report to the Mason County Planning Dept this morning (after watching a CSI or two). Tedious drive. Got there and went inside to drop the report off but, of course, they have a NEW system to enter me into and that took some time. Then the lady says that I owe her $255. What?! "Yeah," She says. "We charge $255 to review the EcoTech report."

"Excuse me?" Says I. "You’re going to charge ME $255 to review a report that Y’all REQUIRED I hire an Eco Engineer to get?"

"Yep." Says she.

"Well," Says I. "You’re going to have to wait for it because I just spent $1800 on the Engineer and I just don’t have it."

"No problem." Says she. "We’ll attach a note that you’ll pay it when you come in to pick up your Building Permit."

Damn! Damn! Damn! I believe the MCBD has one of the worst (legal) SCAMS going that I’ve ever seen. I mean, they can require damn near ANYTHING then charge you to review the reports/results. I wonder why they don’t require that we wear shoes, then charge us for the "inspection" to see that we are? Not only do I hate (I mean HATE) the Mason County Building Department; I’m beginning to hate the people that work there. Assholes! Scammers!

And there is nothing we can do to fix the problem. As individuals, I mean. And if you don’t do everything they say you can kiss any building permit goodbye. They literally could tell you to drop to your knees and kiss their pale asses and you’d have to or not get your permit. And they will "nickel & dime" you to death. Except that I wish it were only nickels or dimes. Lowest thing I’ve paid for so far is this $255.

I don’t think I can deal with these people, or Mason County, anymore. I’m sick of their rules & regs and their reaching as deep into my pocket as they can get their grubby little hands. Most of their "Codes" are stupid and costly and designed to scam as much money out of us as they can possibly get and go way beyond Federal Codes. All in the name of "Our" safety, of course. Used to be you could go out and build yourself a house until the fuckin’ treehuggers got involved. But don’t get me started!

Sep 03

Catch Up Time? Again?

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Which would be great if I could remember what the hell I’ve been doing. It all kind of runs together…
Saturday: SWMBO took me to dinner at Taco Bell and to see “The Mummy: Emperor’s Tomb”. Movie was about an hour too long… The Gig Harbor theater is SO much better than the theater in Port Orchard. “The Mummy: Emperor’s Tomb” almost sucked. I thought that if they couldn’t use Rachel for her part then they should have killed her off or said she was busy somewhere else.
Sunday: First session of church. Stayed home as it was kind of cool. Finally cleaned my truck out. There had to be a half inch of dust in the thing. I can see the speedometer again! And there’s this little green light thingie that comes on when I press the cruise control button. Cool!
Monday: Labor Day. Mostly stayed home. Did get by Staples to see what they had “on sale.” Came home with a couple of 100 packs of blank DVD’s. Wasted a lot of the day watching/listening to the Dirty Job’s Marathon. You Go For It, Mike!
Tuesday: Spent a large part of the day out at the property cutting wood. I think I cut almost a couple of cords. Brought a load of it back home.
Today: SWMBO is off to her office as usual for a Wednesday. Architect dropped by to review the plans and we drove out to the property for a look-around. I stayed and moved dirt. Brought home a truck full of wood. Hurt my left leg somehow. Probably just getting old…
And that’s it. I think I’m caught up. Damn! It’s bedtime…

I don’t know who’s in charge of the programming at the Sci Fi Channel; but they suck. I volunteer to do a better job for them for half the bucks. They’ve canceled several good shows to put on some more of those terrible ’made for sci-fi channel’ movies. And how in the hell can they give us half a season of Battlestar Galactica and make us wait until sometime in 2009 for the rest? Think I’ll wait for the DVD.

ONLY 14 MORE DAYS UNTIL SEASON 8 OF SMALLVILLE! Y’all (All Y’all actually) need to update your calendars!