the car hunt continues...

It's been a very long week!  After the car situation on Monday, I feel like it's put my entire life on hold!  I've spent the majority of the week searching for a new vehicle, but we just can't seam to find what we're looking for.  Probably has something to do with how picky I'm being!  We'd really like to get another Burban that's going to last us... ideally four years.  So I think we've decided to go with a used 2007... being that they're still producing them, the used ones aren't that easy to find. 

I've spent about seven hours at dealerships searching for the non-existent vehicle... I've decided to take my hunt strictly online since I really don't have that much time to spare.  I'm hoping that something comes up soon - I don't know how much longer the current Burban can hold out for!  We got him fixed, but he's still making some nasty noises!  I think he's said with all the talk about ditching him... that makes me sad!

Anyway, on the other side of things - our yard remodeling project has turned into a nightmare!  We're on our third dumpster after Kevin estimated that it shouldn't take much more than one.  The neighbors have apparently been complaining (even after we let them dispose all their trees, branches, and what ever other junk they pulled out of their yard).  So, Kevin got a call from the Town of Castle Rock on Tuesday informing him that the dumpster and all the dirt needs to be gone by this weekend.  They also informed him that we weren't allowed to bring in another dumpster unless we put it in the yard or the driveway.  Bad news was that Haul Away (awful company - bad service - don't recommend them) tried to pick up the last dumpster and it was too heavy, so the only other way to get rid of that dumpster was to bring in another one and move the dirt from one dumpster to another.  So... Haul Away came and was supposed to put the dumpster into the yard, but they put it in the street (just like the Town of Castle Rock forbid us to do), and we've spent the entire weekend moving dirt.  What a fun weekend it was!!! :-)  We even had to miss church on Sunday due to our tight time frame - Haul Away is supposed to do the big pick up on Monday - hopefully before we get anymore hassle from Castle Rock! 

We're probably about four weeks behind schedule on the yard project.  Kevin has lost all ambition to work on it so besides this weekend, not much has gotten done.  I've been busy trying to work full time, run one business, start up another and run the house!  Not much time left for yard work!  I was out there on Saturday though - shoveling dirt just to make sure that Kevin didn't stop working! 

Think that's it for now - back to work tomorrow and into another full week.  I do have Friday off, so that should give me some time to work on the other companies... I hope!  We did find one truck we like, but it happens to be in Nebraska.  I'm up in the air if I really want to make that trip or not... it could end up wasting my full day off!  Good thing about it is that it has everything we wanted in a car and way more!  I sent an email to the dealership on Saturday, but I haven't heard back... I kind of hope it's still available and that they're willing to give us what we're looking for on our trade in.  We'll see - I'm sure that something will come up in the right time.

 

Think that's all for now - very tired and need some sleep!

Night!

I hate cars!

So, this morning started out with me driving to work, pulling up the drive  and realizing that my car was making a very bad noise.  I stopped, got out, checked all my tires to make sure they all had air (it felt like each one of them was flat) realized that they all did, so I got back in and tried to drive... not much luck.  Lots of scary noises and the car jumping up and down!  I pull into the parking lot next to my building and call Kevin to come check it out and then I go to work.  Kevin gets there about a half hour later, calls me to inform me that I just have a flat tire... boy did I feel smart.  Since we have AAA, he goes back to work and we call AAA to change the tire.  I meet the guy out at the car, he changes the tire (and pollutes my entire day with his horrendous plumbers crack that you can see when he's not even bending over!), and drives away.  So I'm thinking... problem solved - this was much easier than I had anticipated!

Not so much... I get in my car to move it over to my parking lot... same problem - lots of scary noises and it starts to dance again! 

I park it one parking lot closer to my building and call Kevin... we decide to leave it for the day and have him come look at it early afternoon. 

I go back to work... nothing too exciting there.  3pm rolls around and Kevin shows up.  We determine that the back left break is catching for some reason, and making the wheel catch while the others are trying to move.  After a few laps around the parking lot and a call to the repair shop, we decide to drive it back down to Castle Rock... things went great... till I got off the highway.  Some jerk in a red van cuts me off causing me to put too much pressure on the breaks and they lock up.  I put the peddle to the metal and the car doesn't move!  Kevin parks at King Soopers, runs over to the truck, throws it into 4 low and the thing dances and squeals all the way to the car shop.  (Kudos to Goodyear, by the way... they've been great!) 

So... the Burban is now spending the night at the shop (we drove by earlier and he looked deserted and sad) and hopefully we'll find out what on earth happened tomorrow. 

 

After this adventure, we decide it's time to go get a new car... the warranty is going to be up on the Burban pretty soon, so with my luck with cars, it's just a better idea to find a new one now!

We spent two and a half hours talking to the salesman, the finance manager, and the floor manager... it completely wore me out!  (so much to the point that I can't really talk about it). 

Nothing was figured in the time we were there, but we'll see how things unfold in the next few days. 

I wasn't a big fan of the new burbans, but after checking out the insides... I think I could handle one. 

 

Think that about does it for tonight... I'm very sleepy and need to go to bed!

Our House in Michigan - Rented!

We actually got some good news today!  After sitting on our house for the past year after our move out to Colorado, we've finally found a renter that is going to pay full price!  After one bad experience with a renter paying not even a third of market rent, and then having another friend in the house for the past six months at a very discounted rate, it will be nice to not have to worry about covering the mortgage payment!  The greatest thing is that she's even willing to pay 6 months up front and sign a year lease.  I'm so happy that we don't have to worry about the house for a year. 

We did consider placing the home up for sale for the summer, but after realizing that the market has only gotten worse since we've left, it would have cost us about $20k to list it at a competitive price.  We decided that renting was the way to go for a few years and that hopefully the market will pick up at some point in time. 

The girl that is renting it seams very nice and I'm hoping that everything works out well.  I guess that only time will tell, but at least I have a good feeling about it. 

the new blog(s)!

So, hopefully this is the start of a new thing... I have such a hard time keeping in touch with people considering how busy we are with me working full time, runing the landscaping company, trying to start my own event planning company, and running the youth group!
On top of everything else, we're in the process of re-doing our entire yard - it's currently a big pile of mud!!! With all the yard work on the weekend, it leaves us pretty much no time for any of the outdoor adventures that we love to have.

Anyway - this is my blog, and I hope to write in it often... I'll come back and fill in more deatil of the above sometime soon!

Kevin also has a blog - it's located at: www.comstockpages.com/comstockpages.com/kevin-blog/blog.html