As we ring in 2023 I found it hard to believe that I did not have a single thing to say in 2022. Of course that is not true, quite a bit happened, but it was more a question of time, and not feeling motivated to write last year. A new year, and maybe, just maybe, I will write more share my thoughts with the world.
Twenty Twenty Two was a year of transition for our family. Our oldest son moved out and is now living with his friend and going to University. Our middle child graduated this year and is now working and looking to train as an Electrician this year. Our youngest is in High School and it won’t be long until he has graduated as well. In addition to that, we also did some transitioning in our home.
After many, many years of talking about it. We finally did some renovations to the house that we have wanted to do for a long time, and even added a few other changes that we did not plan for.
First, we completely renovated the Kitchen and Living room. It was completely gutted and we replace almost everything. The old cabinets were replaced, the old tile flooring in the kitchen was removed and replaced with brilliant maple hardwood floors, and we even added some new windows and doors. Hats off to my wife for designing the kitchen (with help), and for managing the entire operation this year. It was a major inconvenience for a few months, but we lived through it and we are very happy with the results. Is it perfect? No, but it is a 150% improvement from what we had, and it was long overdue.
In addition to the kitchen, we also decided that it was time to take care of a lingering problem in our front entryway by removing a very large structure from the front of the house that caused nothing but water problems for us. If you look at the before picture below, you can see what we affectionately called the “turret” that really added nothing to our house. Instead, what it would do is create a perfect breeding ground for ice and snow in the winter, which would collect by our front entryway and cause damage to the structure. You can also see that the garage had a very weird design on it, that would cause major problems with ice and water, and also prevented us from putting any kind of gutters on it. Overall, very fancy, and very useless. Anyway, we removed the problems and we now have a very clean roofline on the garage, and a new Porch to replace our old entryway. The only thing I wish I could change is that I wish I had done this when we first bought the house. It would have saved us a lot of headaches. I am really looking forward to finishing the porch this spring.
If that was not enough, we also bit the bullet and replaced the tired old vinyl siding on our house with this awesome cement siding. It looks awesome, and really makes the house look brand new. I still have to install the electical outlets around the house, but I should be done with that soon. As long as the weather gets warmer.
The driveway was also long overdue for a resurfacing, or in this case, completely replaced. My youngest son really appreciates the nice new smooth driveway when he shovels the snow in the winter now. It was my favorite part of the whole renovation.
Last, we refinished the garage floor and it turned out really great. I love the new look and it is something I wanted to do since we got the house? It was really one of those, you don’t miss what you don’t have situations. The garage really feels like a part of the house now with the floor done and I cannot believe what a difference it makes.
Our family had a pretty safe and uneventful year, none of us got really sick, although we did catch Covid at one point. Here is hoping to another healthy year.
Speaking of health, I started doing Keto at the start of the year, and it has so far helped me lose almost 70 pounds. Of course, the holidays and it’s many tasy treats has put a dent in that. But I am very confident that I will be able to pick it up again and add some excercise into the mix to get back on track. I am actually really starting to miss being on Keto, the added carbs I have been consuming with Cookies and sweet treats is really taking its toll. At any rate, I am hoping to get back on track and bring my weight down at least another 20-30 pounds. We will see.
For the new year, I have a number of projects that I want to continue working and improving on, in addition to maybe publishing another game. I just hope I have enough time to work on these projects, and I hope to post more about them.
I am sure there are many other things I can write about, but I think I will leave it here and start working on some of those other things.
Here is hoping that everyone has a safe and properous new year, and I hope you will be reading more from me soon.