Catching Up . . .

Just thought I'd post a bit about everything that's been going on over the last 2 - 4 weeks. It's been a busy time as I'm sure you can imagine. My dad was kind enough to come BACK up from California last week and help me work on the trim at my old house. I've JUST ABOUT got that ready to go on the market. Teri and I will basically get it finished tomorrow. About all I'll have to do after tomorrow is a quick remodel of the 1/2 bath. I'm hoping to be able to put it on the market by Thursday of next week. I think it'll sell fairly quickly.

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a video camera. I bought a Sony HDR-HC1 High definition video camera. It's pretty cool, it shoots in 1080i ... of course to actually watch it in 1080i, you either have to view it on your PC (assuming your video card supports that resolution) OR connect the camera directly to your HDTV to view it. BUT eventually that problem will be solved with some manner of High Def DVD or the like. As you capture the video, you can downsample it to standard definition for making DVD's, distributing via the web, etc. The second day I had it, I composited this video:

http://johnhurlbut.com/comforthomes.wmv

I basically just shot some footage out here in Yelm, captured it on my laptop using Premiere Elements and arranged the final piece you see there. Nothing fancy, just getting used to the camera. And I know Van Halen is a bit cheesy, but hey, you use what you got right?

Here's a picture of the camera so you can get an idea of what it is.

It's very compact and fits in my hand rather nicely. I will need to buy a few accessories for it to do what I really want to with it, but that will come in time. I bought this one because Sony released the HC3, the successor and I was worried that the HC1 would start to disappear. The HC1 has more options for external mics, etc. My goal is to start shooting scenes around the sound for incorporation on my website. Maybe a tour through point defiance, the Seattle Center, Tacoma Glass museum, that sort of thing. Trying to expand my community information. Although I can't wait to get my copy of Premiere Pro so I can capture and edit in HD. That will be COOL!

Work has been busy. It's really just that time of year. My assistant has been picking up more and more responsibilities too, so that's helped a lot. I think between June and July I have 5 or 6 closings. Perfect timing now that I have to make my larger mortgage payments. :-) I've been lax about going to the gym and I've been back in the drive-thru and Coke is coursing through my veins once again. I've got a goal to get back on the bandwagon though. As soon as my house is on the market, it'll free up a bunch of time. (I hope?)

John's Top 10 . . .

I've been kicking around the idea of posting my "Top 10" lists for awhile. I'd like to post them here for archival purposes to see how they change over time. Most of them I don't even have formulated yet. But I'd like to start with this one:



10. Summit Mount Rainier
09. Weigh Less than 250 Pounds
08. Obtain Private Pilot's License
07. Enter and Complete a Triathalon
06. Have a net worth somewhere north of $1,000,000
05. Visit Australia for more than 2 weeks
04. Ride across the United States and back on a Motorcycle
03. Write a Novel
02. Get aforementioned Novel Published
01. Shoot Under 90 in Golf (I guess I should try for under 100 first?)

OK, so they are not really profound goals like solve the tension in the Middle East or find a cure for cancer, but they ARE my goals. Other lists I'm thinking of include: Top 10 all time favorite songs. Favorite Restaurants, etc. Nothing really amazing, but hey, writing them down makes them more real . . . to me anyway.

Enjoy the sun!
John

Update . . . Finally

Well, I'm finally at a place where I feel like I can breathe a bit and give you an update. It's been a crazy crazy crazy month or so. We're finally into the new home. Everything came together rather nicely. My parents were a HUGE help getting everything moved and getting my other house all cleaned up. They were here for about 15 days and it would have been nearly impossible to get done everything we got done without them. Big Kudos to my pal Chad for helping with the move. Props out to Marcus for helping us install sod. And of course big thanks to Teri for not killing me over the last 5 months while we were getting everything finalized for the house and being a real trooper during the move and more than pulling her own weight.

So on Thursday the 25th of May, we actually closed on the home and had our walkthrough. Our bedroom furniture was also delivered. There were a number of issues that needed to be corrected, but we'll have the guys come in over the next few weeks to do the final touch ups inside. It was pouring that day, so the builder and I never even walked the outside of the house. We'll get to that soon too. We moved everything on Friday the 26th. Or damn near everything. The POD was delivered to the new house and Teri and my Mom worked on getting that emptied whilst my Dad, Chad and I tried to get all the big, heavy stuff loaded onto the U-Haul. As expected, the stuff that gave us the most trouble was the entertainment center, the washing machine and the refrigerator. It took us darn near 2 hours to get the fridge outta the kitchen. We had to nearly completely disassemble it to get it through the door. Getting it into the new house was pretty easy as the opening to the kitchen is HUGE comparatively speaking. The washing machine came close to killing Chad and I as we brought it up the stairs. When we sell, the washer and dryer go with the house. Chad and I had to "man up" to carry the center section of the entertainment center around the house. It wasn't that it was overly heavy . . probably around 200 pounds or so . . . but it was BIG and awkward. It took us from about 9AM - 6PM to get everything moved and over. Again, big thanks to the parents and Chad for the move.

Saturday was spent making trips in various pickup trucks to get the rest of the stuff moved over that had been left behind and getting most everything else unpacked. I also put together our entire new dining room set. Sunday was more of the same. Monday the hot tub was scheduled to be delivered, so I cleared out a space for it and Teri's step-dad, Fred, delivered a yard of pea gravel. We took turns wheel barrowing it to the back yard and got a nice little pad set up for the hot tub. It finally arrived around 3PM. The Rich's guys were none to happy to have to bring it around the house through all the soft dirt, etc. but they got it setup in about an hour. Tuesday the sod was delivered and Marcus came by to help us get it laid. We knocked out two of the 3.5 palletts of Sod in about 2 hours. Teri and my mom finished it up while my neighbor Mike and I wired the new hot tub. By Tuesday at 8PM, the Hot Tub was up to 100 degrees and it was used for the first time. Wednesday we had Comcast Phone, Cable and Internet installed. I won't mention the subsequent cluster f's with that, but needless to say it's all set up and humming now. The rest of the week was spent at the other house cleaning, weeding, and painting. Finally on Saturday we had a garage sale at the old house to get rid of a BUNCH of stuff we were leaving behind. We got rid of nearly everything and came away with nearly $800.00 to show for it.

I'll get some pics posted of the new home complete as soon as we're done unpacking and getting settled. It really is nice. I'm excited to be able to finish up some projects at the other house and get that on the market ASAP. I don't want to make double mortgage payements for too very long. :-)

I'm back at work full time too. I've had 3 listing appts. this week and a new buyer. So it's go go go again! I've got another listing appt. next week and of course I've got to get the work done on my other home. WHEEEEEEEE!