hot hot hot

its been a few weeks since the last update. nothing much new to report, the weather has been exceptionally hot & i've put off most work on the house for the time being.

dad came out to the house in mid-june for overnight stay. he was the official "first" house guest. he was returning from helping my cousin chris move to missouri for a new job & passing through the area so he was able to stop by on his way back to michigan. his impending visit was the kick in the pants i needed to get the house tidy & in order. while its still a construction site, its now a little cleaner & more orderly (in most areas).

my father is one person who doesn't benefit from the use of GPS whilst driving. he was scheduled to arrive at the house around 10pm saturday night but didn't arrive until 12.20pm (my sister monica & i had bet he wouldn't arrive until 1am, so we were just slightly off). i ordered a pizza around 10pm thinking he'd be there by 11ish (thinking incorrectly that he'd finally be on-time for once since he adopted the use of GPS). dad wasn't hungry when he got in, but we ended up spending the night sitting around the table in the dining room talking, it was probably the best time i've had with my father ever. a truly memorable night (well what can be recalled after drinking 2-3 bottles of wine).

4th of july weekend. tom, troy & mitch came out to the house with me to see the progress on saturday (3-july). tom & troy had been there in march, but it was mitch's first visit. we loaded up tom's car with my grill (though we didn't use it) & after a short stop @ the house we headed out for an afternoon of shopping in the area. i rode back with them the same day afer i mowed the lawn, didn't feel like sleeping in the hot house that night.

bought a roll of embossed/paintable wallpaper for the bathroom to cover up the crumbling plaster. will install that above the new wood wainscoting being installed on the lower portion of the walls.

since it's too hot to work @ the house, i've decided for the time being to make bi-weekly trips. just need to be there to mow the lawn every 2-weeks (doesn't really look bad after 2 weeks & doesn't really look that good after mowing anyway).

went to house on sat afternoon of 17-july. did my lawn work & checked out the local dollar stores for the latest finds (got a simple stainless-steel cookware set for $22!), returned early sunday afternoon & hit big chick's after dropping bags off at home.

23-july. heavy rain in chicago / michigan city ... flash flooding ...

24-july. had talked to rich about coming out to the house for afternoon earlier in week. we had decided on 9am departure from my place saturday morning. rich called @ 8.30 to say his house in oak park (which he JUST purchased & moved into a month ago) had some water in the basement (luckily not much), after some back & forth between the service pro / clean-up people, he finally was able to get to my place around 11am. they wont be able to get to his house until monday and he & scott moved everything out of basement that was on floor before he left.

unfortunately, the eisenhower expressway was shut down due to the rain. so rich had to take local streets to get to my place, luckily its really not that far (9-10 miles), but that is a HUGE distance in chicago. we loaded up his car with some old paintings of mine & hit the road. we took lake shore drive all the way (north LSD to south LSD) to get on the skyway @ stoney island. quicker route that tom/troy decided to take on 4th of july (i had only taken once before in the 90s when the route was a lot more sketch than it is today).

we stopped first @ lowe's and i bought a new refrigerator for the house, being delivered on saturday the 31st. we headed to the house after that. after a quick tour of the house, we headed to the shoreline brewery for a bite to eat & then stopped @ the outlet mall for a quick spin through (the temps still being in low 90s, but cooler than the mid/upper 90s of the day before).

next weekend will be full weekend @ the house, need to be there sat for the fridge delivery & also work on finishing the eaves troughs. no train service the following weekend due to upgrades so will be staying in chicago then.

mum & step-father will be visiting on weekend of 14-aug, so that is next big weekend!