The “new” BMV

I’ve decided I like the “new” BMV. Gov. Daniels’ work to make it more efficient has worked, and it’s not just the AP proclaiming this (in a news analysis last week).

I renewed the regstrations for both our vehicles online last week. As promised, it was fast and easy, and the registrations came in the mail only a few days later. AND I saved $10 for renewing online. That’s an extra 2.7 gallons of gas in my car!

Anyone who is familiar with online shopping at all can use the site, and it saves you from having to make the trip in to the BMV office to sit and wait. That’s another 1/2 quart of gas in my car, 1/2 hour of extra time and 1.3 fewer gray hairs on my head.

Calculating for rebate, gas, time and hair, renewing online saved me $15 to $20. And I can drive for almost a week on $20 of gas, if I plan right. So I’d like to take a moment right now and thank the gov for a work week’s worth of gas. My debit card thanks you, too.

—Sally Petty

 

We’re going to Tennessee!!!

Yesterday, Shane and I booked a hotel for a trip to Tennessee this fall for our fifth anniversary. A whole five years of marriage!!! We figured we should actually go somewhere to celebrate this year instead of staying at home. Last year, we spent our anniversary fixing up the outside of the house we had just bought.

That’s another “wow” thought. We’ve lived in our new house almost a full year now. This year’s project, the bathroom, is nearing completion. We’ve been able to use the tub and sink now for a couple weeks (just in time since the basement bathroom sump pump just went out!) I even tore out all the shelves from the closet, painted, and put in a new shelving unit this week. (As those of you who have seen me with blue paint on both elbows know…) Really, all we have left to do is touch up some nicks in the paint, hang the towel hooks and put in the baseboards. I guess I owe ya’ll some finished bathroom pictures, huh? I’ll see what I can do.

—Sally Petty

 

New pictures

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. My Mac at the paper office has decided it hates this blog and freezes whenever I try to open it, so I have to find a PC to blog on. Anyway, I’ve had my new horse, Ellie for about a month now. If you recall, she was thin when I got her. Well, now she’s fat and sassy and whinnies when she sees me coming. Here is Fat Ellie:

How could you not feed this sweet face?

And just so he doesn’t feel left out (he gets very jealous of Ellie), here’s the horse I’ve owned now for 13 years, Flame:

Sorry he’s so dirty. He had just rolled.

Also… we are almost done with our bathroom remodeling project. (Finally!!!) Tub, shower, toilet and floor are in… only the sink and wood trim are left (and some painting where we scraped up the walls getting the tub in and had to redo them). Here’s a sneak peek:

Good luck to Nate, who has been moving this week!!!

—Sally Petty

 

And the tub saga continues…

We are now on our third bathtub. Yes, THIRD! Let me explain.

I told you the first one was bigger than the manufacturer labelled it. We took it back to Home Depot and got another at Lowes. (ALL the tubs at Home Depot were an inch bigger at the bottom than the top — and an inch bigger than it said on the box.) Got the second tub home, and it was cracked. Took it back for a third tub, which actually fit in the space we had for it, but now our problem is how to deal with the un-square walls in our old house so the edges around the tub look decent.

I think we’ve got that figured out, but this part is definitely not as easy as Shane led me to believe it would be. I believed we’d be hanging towel bars by now, and here we are still trying to intsall the tub/shower. The sink’s not even in yet!!! And we have to patch all the gouges in my freshly-painted walls from trying to get the tub in!!!

I think I’m not going to get to take a bath until my fifth anniversary in November, or even my 27th birthday in December.

—Sally Petty

 

My bathroom

is almost done. We still have work to do on the moulding and a cabinet, but it is 95% done. I am working on other stuff in the house while Dad finishes up.

There’s a lesson in Sally’s story for all you renovators, always measure your bathtub. If I were Home Depot, I would be shaking in my boots right now for the wrath of Sally.

— Nate Smith

 

Almost done … but not

After almost three weeks of drywalling, we finally took a big step forward on our bathroom project this past weekend. We got everything painted, the vinyl flooring laid and the new toilet installed.

Tonight, Shane and his dad were going to install the tub. Only problem was, it was an inch bigger than what the manufacturer stated on the box — and an inch too big to fit in the space we had for it. Not only will we have to exchange the tub, we’ll have to patch up our freshly-painted walls.

Maybe sometime before Christmas, we’ll get this project done…

—Sally Petty

 

Pit bulls

A kid in Odon was attacked by a pit bull last week. I frequently see reports of loose dogs or near-attacks in the Odon area. People have told me they are afraid to walk down the street in Odon because of the loose dogs. Please, people, keep your dogs tied up for their safety and the safety of the general public. I’m looking into the issue with the sheriff’s department.

—Sally Petty

 

The other Nate Smith

….is beating me. I don’t think I can get 1,000 people to his site. I just might have to grow that moustache.

He e-mailed me during the flood, asking if I was getting people involved. They were all out there, filling up sandbags.

Oh, a note on the house. We are almost to completion and should be ready to move in a couple weeks. Maybe… I might have to enlist all the members of my wife’s family to help.

— Nate Smith

 

I got a new horse!

This past weekend, I adopted a new horse, a 25-year-old registered Morgan that I named Ellie. (Not intentionally for the Elnora flood, but it works…) She’s retired but sweet and spunky and will spend the rest of her life with me being spoiled rotten. She’s a little thin, and I’m working on getting her fat and sleek. Here she is:

(Thanks to my sister-in-law, Krystle, for taking these pictures of me and Ellie.)

—Sally Petty

 

It was a mess!

The Grissom family really has a mess; they had 20 inches of water flood their house, coming up from their septic system and from the river. Yesterday when I went out there, they had all their furniture and most of their belongings out in the yard to dry, and all the carpet had been pulled up. Thanks to some bleach, the house didn’t smell too bad, but the water still standing in the low spots outside smelled like sewage.

All their doors, low window frames and cabinets are warped from the water. Everything in the bottom two drawers of the cabinets and dressers is ruined, as well as the drywall and insulation. And they never thought the river would get up that high because their house sits up on a ridge at least as high as all the surrounding ridges. FEMA was supposed to come out and evaluate today, hopefully to give them some financial help since they didn’t have flood insurance. They certainly deserve it after working for years to get that place. I can’t imagine losing such a beautiful homestead (that has never been threatened by floods before) virtually overnight.

I’m trying to get ahold of a few more people who had their homes destroyed by the floodwater, and I will put their stories together for an article towards the end of the week.

—Sally Petty