Leap Of Faith

 This has been a work in progress - buying this house, renovating, having it reassessed and securing a higher line of credit. David did a great job - after one year our house in PA is now worth $50,000 more then we spent - Hooray for David. So - we are older and wiser and as of Friday, owners of two homes. David is going to renovate and we're going to be landlords again, but this time armed with knowledge. After the experience with the Freeloader in Lake Ariel we swore never again  but we all know never to say never, don't we? We did get past the Freeloader, although I hope her cardboard box is leaking on her head when it rains stupid useless bitch - OK, maybe I'm not all the way over it. But David knows the eviction laws now and we will no longer be doing any Pity Rentals - no more trusting everyone to behave either!  Anyhoo, the house is ours and David is happily employing the Art Of Destruction and then will reassemble. I'm sure Ron will make a few more visits and he thinks he has someone that wants to rent it already - he also has mentioned a couple of other houses but I told him to wait until we're through this one. I really had to laugh at the bar in the back - apparently it's legal to sell beer out of your house and this guy had a forty foot bar! David is pulling out the bar but will be saving the Men's and Women's bathroom, too funny not to. The rest of the house needs work of course, new septic, new heat, plenty of elbow grease and a new fridge maybe. I will be going over tomorrow after walking in Cooper's Rock with Reuben unless it rains, then we'll go straight over. I have decided to use Pearl's harness - I was in Petco today and couldn't find a blaze orange one, then realized it was silly to buy one that looks exactly like the one I have. And I know it's not the harness that will be difficult, it will be that first hike without my hiking partner of six years. They're talking rain tomorrow so we'll see. In other news the budgeting is going OK. We spent a lot of money this week, well buying a house and all (which David carefully noted in our budget book right between Oil Change and Cleaning Supplies) hopefully we can decrease it over the next few weeks. The Dish TV is helping - we're actually saving $100 a month! We got the basic - 120 channels and there's only a couple they don't have that I like so I suppose I'll live. We're still debating between Hulu and Netflix but it's not high on the Things To Do List. I did go to Bloomin Yarns and blew not only this week's allowance but next week's too - how ten years old is that! And I have to stick to it even though I personally feel yarn is a necessity, not a luxury. But I have been good, I did the grocery shopping today by myself, I think for the time being we will be taking turns, we seem to spend way more when we're together as I've mentioned before. If I'm by myself I'm not tempted to go out to lunch, I went right by the bookstore and  Old Navy. Before I stop anywhere I ask myself if I really need anything there or I'm just stopping to see if I want to buy something. I did buy a pair of black pants today but that was all I bought - no funky shoes, no pocketbook, nothing else. Pants, in and out - back on the road.