New shed

Last week I had a $600 generator stolen from inside my home. I bought this generator from here. I had used it for about 12 hours. I was so depressed when I found out it was stolen, I didn’t bother trying to work on my home the next couple days. I’ve now decided I didn’t need that kind of a generator anyway and will buy cordless tools now. BUT now I need a shed to protect my other valuables.

I found a guy online who delivers new and used sheds. As it turns out, this shed

a green shed resting on a trailer towed by a truck

Is the floor model from a Lowes somewhere. It cost me $1700 including delivery and leveling. I’ve already started putting things in it. And had to Dremel out the lock hole to fit my giant lock on the shed.

Learning happiness from my kids

I took the littles to Lowes to pick up all my PVC. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the 1.25” schedule 40 PVC I needed. But I did end up buying all my fittings there. What really impressed me, is that Thea took the time to make a “castle on a cloud” out of all the fittings.

2 little girls with PVC pipe fittings built to look like a castle

It was great fun to have them there. Also, I’ve learned that I have an issue of rushing too much and I need to slow down. I had a lot more fun with my 4 and 2 yr old when I didn’t “have” somewhere I needed to be. Sure it took 3 hours to go to 2 hardware stores and Wendy’s

two little girls with fast food in front of them

But I got to teach my girls the proper way to eat Wendy’s fries. Spoiler alert, it’s with a frosty. And I learned that with price here
Home Depot > Lowes > Ace

I now go to Ace whenever possible.

Divine intervention on impact fees

A miracle also happened this week! A certifiable $28000 miracle. I’ve been attempting to talk with the people at Public works to see what amount of their fee could be mitigated because I will be building a farm stand on my land. Currently my wife will be the sole worker, but I will be assisting (either with money or labor) to see how viable a business it is.

I referenced this idea in my post about 3” PVC conduit and traffic fees. Here again is the link to the fees. The short story is I talked to a very nice and knowledgeable man at the county (those are hard to find) and we talked a few times on the phone and then he sent me this.

a document showing that Contra Costa County is waiving traffic fees

Short story is that the most expensive fees, about $28000 I do not need to pay. And I incorporated them into my loan. My loan will be 28000 less! And if there are expenses out of their budgets, I could use this money to pay for them. However… most everything is done on the home so hopefully nothing more can be out of budget…

My favorite part in there is that there is no final inspection. I will build a farm stand, but I’m surprised my word means enough to them.

Perhaps God really did want us to move out here and build!