I took the weekend mostly away from the computer in celebration of Father’s day weekend. Now I’m still trying to catch up. Over the weekend, it occurred to me that I had not blogged in a while. I checked on Monday night and I felt somewhat amiss. So, tonight I thought I would try to cover the last couple weeks in review:
Yesterday, we bought a desk and chair for an official home office. In our current situation the furniture is mostly for Andrea. We have tried an office in a couple rooms in the house. Over the last few months we realized we needed a room that was strictly an office rather than an office and… So, this weekend we will be moving some furniture around and setting up an office in one of the smalll bedrooms upstairs.
After I had the infection this winter I expected that I might need a few days for doctors’ visits and tests. So, except Andrea’s birthday I held onto over a third of my annual vacation. Said vacation has to be used up by the end of this month. due to significant short staffing at work, I wasn’t able to take much until mid May. Add to that that I have a first year co-op student working with me for the summer who started at the first of May. So, as much as I might like to take 1 or 2 weeks off, I’m not going to be able to do that until September. As an alternative to that, what I have be doing is working 8 days every 2 weeks. In 3 weeks, I will settle into 4 day weeks for the remainder of the summer.
Last week, I ordered 7 window for upstairs. There are 12 windows up there altogether. All are the same size. The 5 remaining windows are the ones away from the winter prevailing winds and will wait for next year. I’m expecting the 7 windows will keep me busy for 2 or 3 of those long weekends in July. If all goes well, I’m looking to renovate the front sunporch in August & September, insulating and replacing windows while at it. The main objective for this year is to reduce heat loss. In a century old home, generally lack of insulation and original windows are the big cuplrits.
Over the last couple weeks, when it hasn’t been raining, Andrea & I have been redoing the side garden. It was in desperate need of work. It’s not finished. I haven’t been out there at it in a few days because it’s either been raining or occasional showers most of the time. Even though it’s not finished, it looks alot better than it did. Hopefully, Andrea will upload some pics of the work to date and leave a link in the comments ;)
They’re up on Flickr, baby. :)
— AndreaR · Jun 19, 08:38 AM · #
I am a big fan of the 4 day week. I’m sure you’ll love it. The window plan sounds like a good one. Everyone should use that sort of criterion when renovating.
— JoVE · Jun 19, 09:40 PM · #
JoVE – Meaghan was born about a year after they brought in the 10 week paternity leave. Since I was working contract I couldn’t apply for the government benefit, but I could still put in a request for leave and my contract employer was obligated to allow me to take 10 weeks within 1 year of her birth.
What I proposed to them was that since they would rather not lose me for 10 weeks straight, I would take the 50 days at 1 day per week. They agreed to that. I really enjoyed it and I’ve never really been interested in full time 5 day work weeks since.
— Ron · Jun 19, 10:52 PM · #